After greeting Bai Liu, Fang Dian looked toward Du Sanying, who was hiding far behind him. A curious, warm smile appeared on her face as she walked over and extended her hand to shake his. "Hello, are you Bai Liu's friend?"
Scared that his misfortune would affect other people, Du Sanying retreated back. He flusteredly waved his hands in a nervous and awkward manner, not wanting Fang Dian to grab him, and looked toward Bai Liu for help.
But Fang Dian reacted quickly. With one big step, she grabbed Du Sanying's hand and firmly shook it twice under his dazed gaze, smiling brightly and generously. "Welcome, welcome!"
After speaking, she waved to Du Sanying and Bai Liu, then turned to head down the stairs with the trash bag in hand. But the moment she stepped forward, her foot got caught on a shoelace that had come undone at some point, and she stumbled, about to tumble down the stairs!
Du Sanying's pupils contracted. "Hey—!!"
Right after that, he saw Fang Dian effortlessly leap down two big steps, landing steadily across six or seven stairs. She turned around and gave them an OK hand gesture, grinning widely and flashing a mouth of white teeth. "Safe landing~."
Du Sanying was stunned.
This sister held his hand, was infected with misfortune, but was fine…
Fang Dian squatted down to tie her shoelaces before standing back up and waving at them nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened. "You both go in ahead. Old Lu is already back—he's in the kitchen preparing food. I'm going to throw away the trash first."
After Fang Dian left, next to Du Sanying, who was frozen in fear, Bai Liu indifferently said, "I can bring you here with me, so you don't need to be anxious; nothing will happen."
Du Sanying lowered his head, pinched his fingertips hard twice, and whispered, "But just now, she almost fell…"
"She won't fall." Bai Liu looked at the stairwell corner where Fang Dian had left. "Fang Dian is a national volleyball athlete, ranked second tier. In high school, she won the provincial team championship twice. She can jump straight down from here to the first floor and still land steadily."
Du Sanying raised his head in shock. "Eh?!"
Bai Liu turned his head to look at Du Sanying. "Her stamina, coordination, and grades are all the best I've seen."
"Your misfortune probably still infects the people around you." Bai Liu's expression was calm. "But the people here are my friends."
"They could become my friends, which shows they have the ability to deal with my 0 luck value."
Bai Liu looked straight at Du Sanying. "So they can also properly handle your misfortune."
"Come in and eat."
Bai Liu carried the things and turned around, heading in.
Du Sanying was silent at the door for a moment before taking a deep breath. He trembled as he clenched his fist and let out a sound of agreement, raising his hand to wipe his eyes forcefully. He lowered his head and followed Bai Liu inside.
"Thank you, Mr. Bai Liu."
"You're welcome—each takes what he needs," Bai Liu said.
Du Sanying carefully sat down on the sofa in the living room. Bai Liu put the things he brought up in the kitchen.
The living room sofa was soft, probably bought not long ago, with a layer of fur on top. The apartment looked like it had just been renovated; from the peeling walls to the furniture, everything gleamed like new. Only a few large pieces were still old-fashioned, completely out of place with the aged atmosphere of the neighborhood outside.
The living room sofa faced an LCD TV, which was on the anime channel, playing the opening theme of a cartoon.
"I command the oceans to wake, the mountains to wake.
…
even if there are billions of kilometres to go
and we're blocked along the way
we will not be discouraged
moving forward requires courage…"
Under the coffee table was a handwoven yarn rug, scattered messily with all kinds of children's toys and unfinished crafts, several incomplete puzzles, and a couple of children's drawings.
Du Sanying picked up one of the children's drawings. At the top, written in crooked crayon letters, were the words [Family Photo], likely the theme the drawing was meant to follow.
The drawing depicted a dad, mom, and child. Beside them was what was probably a woman, squatting.
The child had drawn the woman with an especially bright smile, showing eight big teeth, and written next to it [my favorite Teacher Fang!].
Below, Fang Dian had added a comment with a red pen: [Drawn very well! I know you like Teacher so much that you want me to join your family, but if I join, I'll destroy this family, haha! (smiley face)]
[Teacher can't join my family? (child's handwriting, big crying face)]
[I can't, Teacher has her own family (drawn dog head holding a rose in its mouth.jpg)]
Du Sanying couldn't help but laugh as he looked at it. He began picking up the scattered drawings on the floor one by one.
These drawings were probably marked as unsatisfactory assignments that had been sent back to be redone, which was why Fang Dian had brought them home. In most of these [Family Photo] drawings, the children had drawn Fang Dian in them too many times.
Watching Fang Dian interact and go back and forth with these children was truly an amusing thing.
Du Sanying scolded himself for rudely looking at other people's drawings without permission, yet he couldn't help but keep looking.
Perhaps because the earlier child had spread the word that Teacher Fang couldn't just join anyone's family, everyone afterward racked their brains and let their imaginations run wild in hopes of having Teacher Fang join their own family.
Some children gave Fang Dian a new role, drawing her as a dog holding a bone, sitting beside them.
Fang Dian commented: [Teacher still prefers being a person! Jojo! (drawn dog holding a bone in its mouth and winking.jpg)]
Some children directly drew two families, including Fang Dian and her entire family, in their own family portraits. But because the space was too narrow, Fang Dian and her family were all crouching in front of the child's own family.
Fang Dian commented: [Reporting to Young Master Shao! When taking in someone else's family, it's better to discuss it with your own mom and dad first! (servant kneeling on ground and clasping fists.jpg)]
There was another child, perhaps inspired by Picasso, who, in order to include Fang Dian, actually split their own parents down the middle. One half looked like their real mom and dad, while the other half was drawn to look like Fang Dian.
Fang Dian commented: [A broken me, how can I join a broken family? (Half a little figure covering their face and crying.jpg)]
The more Du Sanying looked, the more he wanted to laugh. He picked another up, flipped it over, and was stunned.
This wasn't a drawing. It was a hand-drawn draft of a wedding invitation design. Next to it was a long, neatly categorized list of prospective guests of colleagues, friends, family, and so on.
Bai Liu's name was located first under [family] with (main table seat of honor) written in parentheses beside it.
The kitchen door was pushed open. Startled, Du Sanying hastily tried to put the invitation back in order, but Bai Liu, coming out of the kitchen, saw it. He leaned over and asked, "What are you looking at?"
Du Sanying hung his head in shame, as if he had committed some unforgivable grave mistake: "I wanted to help tidy these, but I ended up seeing an invitation…"
Bai Liu casually flipped over the invitation and glanced at it. He froze for a moment, then turned towards the kitchen. "Lu Yizhan, I'm the best man?"
Lu Yizhan stretched out half a head from the kitchen, his tone surprisingly more confused than Bai Liu's: "Yeah, if not you, then who?"
"Who's the maid of honor?" Bai Liu asked.
Lu Yizhan frowned as he recalled for a moment. "Fang Dian seemed to be preparing to invite her friend from high school, but things haven't been decided yet."
After speaking, Lu Yizhan pulled his head back in. After a moment, as if recalling something, his slightly raised voice came faintly through the kitchen door: "Hey! Bai Liu, write a list of everyone you've brought this time! Don't forget!"
"We've invited mine, invited Fang Dian's, but we still haven't invited your friends."
Lu Yizhan's tone was so natural, as if it were absolutely normal and expected that Bai Liu and Bai Liu's friends would be present at Fang Dian and Lu Yizhan's wedding.
The door was opened, and people came in.
Tang Erda, carrying a bottle of alcohol, was dressed formally with a serious expression. Mu Sicheng, hands full of packages, had shining eyes. Behind Mu Ke followed four butlers and seven large black cases with unknown contents, each labeled with Michelin three-star ingredients.
Fang Dian stood in front of them, smiling at Bai Liu and said, "I saw them when I was throwing away the trash downstairs and brought them up together."
"No need to change shoes, just head in." Fang Dian told them.
Tang Erda's jaw was clenched tight. This was his first time visiting the home of Bai Liu's so-called friend, and he felt… a strange kind of nervousness. He solemnly handed the bottle of alcohol to Fang Dian: "Sorry to trouble you."
Fang Dian took the bottle, glanced at it casually, and, without much scrutiny, set it directly on the shoe cabinet.
"How polite, bringing wine too! Come on in and have a seat first!"
Worth over sixty thousand dollars a bottle, the just-awakened wine was quietly left to dissolve its perlage on the shoe cabinet. Even Tang Erda, who had carefully handled the bottle, didn't pay it any attention after entering the house.
He and Du Sanying sat stiffly together, backs straight, minds dazed, their expressions solemn as they watched [Happy Heroes] playing on the TV.
Mu Sicheng was much more at ease. He barged in carrying two large bags and immediately started grilling Bai Liu. "You actually told me you couldn't get brain and duck intestines! How can we have hot pot without those two?!"
Bai Liu's gaze dropped as he looked at the plastic bags in Mu Sicheng's hands. "Send what you bought in the kitchen to be dealt with."
Mu Ke walked in, asking the butlers to stay outside the door. With a slight look of apology and dissatisfaction with himself, he frowned and said to Bai Liu, "It was too late to buy the best ingredients, so I intercepted a batch from some restaurants. I don't know about the quality. If anyone doesn't like it later, just don't eat it."
Bai Liu, who had bought 167 yuan worth of frozen goods and two jin of discounted oranges, calmly agreed. "En, you too."