Chapter 1038 - Wine In Hand

Chapter 1038 Wine In Hand

Lin Ruoxi’s eyes gleamed with excitement. This would be her first time celebrating festivals with her in-laws after her wedding. It was obviously a big thing for her, given how much she valued her family.

“How about this?” Yang Gongming said, “We didn’t use to celebrate the festival so we haven’t prepared for it. But now that everyone’s around, we should buy some mooncakes. Xuehua, why don’t you go out with Pojun after lunch? We should buy the stuff ourselves since we’re the ones celebrating it. It wouldn’t feel festive to have the servants get it for us.”

“Alright, got it.” Guo Xuehua responded cheerfully.

Yang Pojun was astonished to hear this. “Dad, why do I need to follow along?”

Yang Gongming raised one of his eyebrows. “Aren’t you unemployed now? It’s not like you’re busy when the classes in the military school haven’t started. Why can’t you do such a small thing?”

“I don’t mean it that way…”

Guo Xuehua wasn’t pleased with his question. “Why? Is it a waste of time for you to accompany me?”

Yang Pojun waved his hands while laughing awkwardly. “I don’t mean it that way, I was just asking.”

“That’s much better.” Guo Xuehua sounded kind of proud and she blinked her eyes at Lin Ruoxi.

Lin Ruoxi understood her hidden message. She found it amusing to watch Yang Pojun cower in front of Guo Xuehua.

Back when Yang Pojun was still the commander for the Jiangnan military base, he was so authoritative and frightening but now that he had retired from his job, he had become much softer.

It mostly had to do with the change of his mental state. After having suffered continuous blows and experienced plenty of life-changing events, Yang Pojun had given up much of his convictions. As a result, Yang Pojun reverted back to his original personality.

Being brought up by Yang Gongming itself, obviously, Yang Pojun wouldn’t be too bad of a person.

“Oh yeah.” Yang Gongming turned to look at Yang Chen who was still devouring his food. “Yang Chen, bring Ruoxi along and follow them. It’s nice to have a company while shopping. You can be their driver and carry the bags for them.”

Yang Chen caught on immediately. <i> He basically wants me to go out with Yang Pojun, isn’t it? </i>

It was evident that he planned this on purpose!

“Say, old man…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Lin Ruoxi kicked him under the table and smiled at Yang Gongming. “Grandpa, don’t worry. He’s more than happy to join us.”

Having said so, she turned to look at Yang Chen with a fake smile. “Am I right, Hubby?”

Yang Chen gulped before nodding his head while smiling stiffly. “Of course, I’d be glad to do so…”

At the same time, he felt dispirited when something popped up in his mind. He must have inherited Yang Pojun’s genes else why would he fear his wife?

After lunch, Yang Chen ran off to the garage and he chose to drive a Chevrolet family car. The car was spacious and they could also put down a lot of things in the boot.

As a matter of fact, even though the Yang clan was loaded, they valued practicality over luxury. Most of their cars were large, practical cars.

Guo Xuehua and Lin Ruoxi sat in the middle row, chatting to one another excitedly throughout the trip.

Yang Pojun sat in the last row with his eyes closed. It was an obvious choice, given his past history with Yang Chen.

Yang Chen drove to a hypermarket near the 4th Ring Road which seemed rather lively with the heavy traffic.

After all, the Mid-Autumn Festival was tomorrow, so most of the companies had closed for the holiday.

After parking the car, Yang Chen got off the car with Guo Xuehua who had her arms linked with Lin Ruoxi. Yang Pojun remained on his seat with his furrowed brows, silently refusing to get out of the car.

“What is it this time? Get down.” Guo Xuehua called him.

“You guys can go ahead without me. I’ll wait in the car.” Yang Pojun sounded uncomfortable.

Guo Xuehua wasn’t pleased to hear that. “Yo, Commander Yang is acting up huh? Is the marketplace too dirty for you? Or do you think it’s humiliating to shop with women like us?”

Lin Ruoxi almost cracked up. Her mother-in-law was truly amazing.

Just as expected, Yang Pojun felt extremely awkward and he got out of the car, afraid that a passerby would hear her.

“Hey, what’re you talking about? I wasn’t thinking about that.”

“Hmph, that better be true.” Guo Xuehua gave him the side-eye before tugging on Lin Ruoxi’s hand. “Ruoxi, let’s go. Men are always like this. Just ignore him.”

Lin Ruoxi was about to nod her head in understanding but her smile dropped when she saw Yang Chen standing next to a vendor’s stand with a fried glutinous rice cake in one hand and a sausage in the other hand.

“Not all men…”

Guo Xuehua was confused. She followed Lin Ruoxi’s gaze and she finally spotted her son who had somehow slipped away to a vendor’s stand.

Her head throbbed when she noticed the silly look on his face while he was paying.

“Didn’t he just have lunch? How big is his stomach?”

Guo Xuehua was muttering to herself when Yang Chen waved at them. “Dear, do you want some? It’s spicy but it’s good!”

His loud voice drew the attention of the people around them.

Guo Xuehua pulled Lin Ruoxi to the hypermarket with her head turned away from Yang Chen. “Let’s go, pretend that we don’t know him.”

Lin Ruoxi nodded hard in agreement.

Yang Pojun furrowed his brows but he had no choice but to follow after them.

Yang Chen wasn’t disheartened at all. He paid for his food while grinning before moving to the hypermarket with a bunch of fried skewers in his hands.

They wanted to experience the lively atmosphere so they chose to shop here instead of some high-end mall.

Once they had entered the hypermarket, Guo Xuehua and Lin Ruoxi led the way by walking to any store that seemed interesting to them. On the other hand, Yang Chen stopped by any of the stores that were either selling food or interesting stuff. Yang Pojun was the only one trailing behind them with a serious expression on his face.

They were originally here to buy some stuff for the Mid-Autumn Festival but Guo Xuehua and Lin Ruoxi couldn’t stop themselves from buying cute items and pretty clothes.

In the beginning, Yang Chen could still hold snacks in his hands but as time passed, his arms were filled with all sorts of bags.

Yang Pojun couldn’t escape from it either but because the wounds on his hands hadn’t fully recovered, he carried much fewer bags than Yang Chen.

Even so, Yang Pojun had never done anything like this. His face was burning but he forced himself to hold it in, afraid to anger Guo Xuehua.

It took them great difficulty to reconcile, so Yang Pojun became more tolerable since he was afraid of losing her again.

“Ruoxi, I’m sure you know more than me since you work in the fashion industry but I really don’t think the clothes and handbags from LV and Prada are any better than the hypermarket ones.”

Guo Xuehua stroked an off-brand leather handbag while saying that with a cheerful voice.

Even though Lin Ruoxi knew it wasn’t as easy as it sounded since luxurious brands weren’t defined by their designs, she had to go along with her mother-in-law’s words. “Actually, the materials that they use aren’t any different since they are actually selling their brand. Besides, there are a lot of designers in the world and they could refine top designers’ designs.”

“Yeah, I really despise those madams and young ladies who like to show off their branded handbags. They always wear luxurious brands and their clothes can go up to tens of thousands. I’ve never attended their gatherings because of this. They must be crazy for being happy about spending loads of money on useless stuff, am I right?”

“Yes, you’re right…” Lin Ruoxi agreed with a faint smile but deep down she felt slightly wronged since she was the kind of woman who only used luxurious brands.

But she wasn’t trying to show off! Everything came from her own department stores!

The two women truly enjoyed the shopping experience, probably because they hardly got the chance to shop together.

Unfortunately, daylight in the north side was rather short since it was already autumn. The sky in Beijing had started to darken after shopping for three full hours.

Once they realized that there wasn’t a lot of time left, the two women started to make their way towards the mooncake store.

Guo Xuehua shook her head when she saw the extravagant packaging of the mooncakes.

“These boxes are a waste of money. Why not save some money to improve the mooncake’s quality instead? We can’t even look at the mooncakes with the packaging in the way.”

Lin Ruoxi pointed at the individually wrapped mooncakes. “Mom, let’s buy this. I bought these before. It tastes pretty good and it’s not greasy.”

“You bought these before?” Guo Xuehua was startled at first but it dawned on her immediately,

“You bought them for the orphans?”

Lin Ruoxi nodded, “I’ve been buying them mooncakes every year but I can’t make it this year since I’m in Beijing.”

Guo Xuehua was content to hear that. She smiled and said, “They say mothers-in-law and their daughters-in-law are fated to meet each other and it’s really true. I founded an orphanage and you did volunteer work for it.”

Lin Ruoxi blushed and she pulled Guo Xuehua with her to choose different flavored mooncakes. She was actually delighted to hear the compliment but she was too abashed to say anything about it.