After leaving the zoo, Tongtong and Yaoyao were both in Liu Yifeng's car. Xia Qianqian was about to get into the passenger seat of Liu Yifeng's car when Xu Muqing called out to her, "Miss Xia, please ride with me. My car is empty."
"Okay!" Xia Qianqian smiled and closed the passenger door of Liu Yifeng's car, then got into Xu Muqing's car.
"I'll lead the way, you follow behind me!" Liu Yifeng didn't stop Xia Qianqian from getting into Xu Muqing's car. They were both women, and it would be good for them to chat and get to know each other!
In the car, Tongtong and Yaoyao were chatting and laughing with Liu Yifeng, while Xu Muqing and Xia Qianqian's atmosphere was a bit awkward. Neither of them spoke, or rather, they didn't know what to say.
Finally, Xu Muqing spoke first, "Miss Xia, you and Yifeng seem to have a good relationship. How far have things progressed between you two?"
"Progressed? What do you mean?" Xia Qianqian asked, confused.
"Aren't you two boyfriend and girlfriend?" Xu Muqing asked, pretending to be nonchalant.
She had always felt that Xia Qianqian and Liu Yifeng's relationship was unusual, even though she had been told that Xia Qianqian was a special guest invited by Tongtong.
But if she were just a special guest, she wouldn't have appeared at the zoo together. She had interacted with people in the entertainment industry before. During work, they might seem like close friends, but once work was over, they would act like strangers, not even knowing each other, let alone going out together. And they were of opposite genders. If there wasn't mutual interest, or at least interest from one side, they wouldn't be seen together. She was now very curious whether Xia Qianqian liked Liu Yifeng, or Liu Yifeng liked Xia Qianqian, and if they had crossed that line.
After hearing Xu Muqing's question, Xia Qianqian was stunned for a moment. "Sister Xu, have you misunderstood something? Didn't I tell you I was Tongtong's special guest? Besides, I'm in the entertainment industry, and dating is strictly prohibited." Although she didn't want to admit it, she had to tell the truth.
"Is that so? Then perhaps I really misunderstood. I'm so sorry!" Xu Muqing secretly rejoiced. As long as they weren't that kind of couple, she felt much more at ease.
Xia Qianqian, seeing that Xu Muqing's expression hadn't changed, couldn't help but ask curiously, "Sister Xu, you drove all this way. Do you have feelings for Yifeng? I actually think you two are quite a good match. If you have any intentions, I can help you connect." She said this intentionally to try and get Xu Muqing to reveal the truth.
"Have you misunderstood something too? Didn't I say my daughter wanted to play with Tongtong, so I came here? It's not what you think!" Xu Muqing was telling the truth, but she kept her own feelings hidden.
The two of them continued to play the guessing game like this, neither of them revealing their true thoughts. They just wanted to elicit the truth from the other person and didn't want to reveal their own feelings.
At 12:20 PM, Liu Yifeng's car stopped at a Hunan cuisine restaurant. He had searched for it on his phone while at the zoo, and it had excellent reviews, so he wanted to try authentic Hunan dishes. Hunan cuisine, like their own local dishes, was predominantly spicy, and it was one of the Eight Great Cuisines! Fortunately, everyone could eat spicy food. Tongtong and Yaoyao were still young and couldn't eat very spicy things, so Liu Yifeng ordered two non-spicy dishes for them separately.
"Muqing, when are you leaving? Are you staying here tonight?" Before the food arrived, Liu Yifeng initiated a conversation to prevent an awkward silence.
Xu Muqing smiled and stroked Tongtong's head. "Since we're here, we should definitely go and see Tongtong's performance. I wonder if you can get us two tickets. If not, I'll find a friend of mine who knows people at the TV station!"
Liu Yifeng couldn't guarantee this. "Audience tickets are sold in advance, and the seats for the first few days are already full. I don't know if there will be any available seats tomorrow. I'll call the director at the TV station later and see if he can help me get two tickets!"
Xu Muqing nodded. "Okay, if there really are no tickets, it's fine. Yaoyao and I can just watch it on TV. It's supposed to premiere tonight, right?"
"Yes, the first episode will be broadcast tonight!" Liu Yifeng replied. This program would air one episode every Saturday from this week onwards, for a total of twelve episodes. So far, five episodes had been filmed, with seven more to go. Everyone was very excited about tonight's premiere. Although Liu Yifeng and Xia Qianqian were watching Tongtong's performance live, they were still curious to see how it would look when edited for television.
"Then we must watch it carefully tonight. You said Tongtong's performance was excellent on the phone, so we definitely can't miss it," Xu Muqing said.
Soon, all the dishes were served. The group chatted while they ate. After the meal, Liu Yifeng asked Tongtong if he wanted to go back to the zoo.
Tongtong shook his head. "No, I want to go shopping!" He remembered that he needed to buy a gift for Aunt Xia.
Liu Yifeng seemed to understand Tongtong's intention, so the five of them went to a shopping mall.
"Is there anything you guys need to buy?" Xia Qianqian asked curiously.
To her surprise, Tongtong took her hand and quickly walked into a women's clothing store. "Aunt Xia, I want to give you a set of clothes. See if there's anything you like!"
Xia Qianqian was stunned. "Why do you want to give me clothes all of a sudden?"
Liu Yifeng smiled and explained, "This child has always remembered that you took care of her a few days ago. He said this morning that he wanted to give you a gift! It's a gesture from the child, so don't refuse it. Go and see if there's anything you like!"
Hearing this, Xia Qianqian was deeply moved. "Tongtong, your kind intention is enough to move me, but there's really no need to buy clothes. I have clothes to wear, and taking care of you wasn't tiring at all. You're so well-behaved and sensible, it's more like you were accompanying me!" Xia Qianqian didn't have children, but she had many relatives' children, none of whom were as well-behaved as Tongtong. They were either noisy or prone to crying. Only Tongtong overturned all her previous perceptions of children. She realized that there could be such sensible children in the world. She felt that raising ten children like Tongtong would be more comfortable than raising one child outside.
Tongtong shook his head. "Hmm... no, that won't do. I promised to give Aunt Xia a gift. If you don't accept it, it means you don't like the gift Tongtong is giving, and I'll be sad."
Hearing this, how could Xia Qianqian bear to refuse him? She smiled and patted his head. "Since Tongtong is so wonderful, then Auntie will gratefully accept!" With that, she went into the women's clothing store with Tongtong.
Xu Muqing watched this scene and suddenly felt that she and Yaoyao might have come at the wrong time. At the same time, she felt a bit ashamed. She realized she had never taken care of Tongtong alone, whereas Liu Yifeng had helped her take care of Yaoyao. Although she often bought food and clothes for Tongtong, for a child, companionship was the most important thing. Otherwise, he wouldn't want to give Xia Qianqian a gift just because she had looked after him for a few days. It seemed that if she wanted to be with Liu Yifeng in the future and not be prevented by Tongtong, she would need to spend more time with the child.
"What are you thinking about? Aren't you coming in to take a look? Since you're a woman, you can help us decide if things look good!" Liu Yifeng was a straightforward man and couldn't sense what Xu Muqing was thinking, which was why he said something like that.
"Okay!" Xu Muqing finally followed them in.
"Does this outfit look good?" Liu Yifeng picked up an outfit and asked. He thought that as long as a person was good-looking, they would look good in anything! However, his choice was rejected by everyone, who thought the outfit he was holding was unattractive! Xia Qianqian tried on three or four outfits and finally, in the last one, she achieved a refreshing new look.