Beg Me to Remarry
Chapter 637 - 638: What Have You Been up to These Days

Chapter 637: Chapter 638: What Have You Been up to These Days

She finally managed to return to the living room with a calm demeanor and began brewing tea for Xia Guoxiong.

She had also studied the art of tea, for two reasons. First, she wanted to appear more noble and elegant, more like a lady of stature; secondly, it was because Fu Han had mastered this craft and had even been the star of the show at a He Family soirée. Xia Ning felt she couldn’t fall behind, so she learned it as well.

Unfortunately, Xia Ning’s approach to learning about tea was sporadic at best, engaging in it whenever she remembered or found time.

By the end of a training course, she was far from proficient; she hadn’t even mastered the basics. In the end, it was Xia Guoxiong who used his money and connections to buy her a certificate.

Later, when the Xia Family hosted an evening party, Xia Guoxiong was keen for Xia Ning to show off and bring honor to the family, but instead of gaining prestige, she managed to embarrass both herself and Xia Guoxiong.

The blame lay entirely with Fu Han. On that day, despite Xia Ning’s preparations, she messed up the sequence from the beginning, yet no one pointed it out.

There just happened to be Fu Han, who couldn’t get along with Xia Ning, present at the event. She mercilessly pointed out Xia Ning’s basic mistake, triggering a roar of laughter from the crowd.

To make matters worse, He Xing was there as well. To this day, Xia Ning couldn’t forget the look he gave her, a mix of disappointment and disdain.

From then on, neither Xia Ning nor Xia Guoxiong ever mentioned her tea ceremony skills in public, and Xia Ning never showed off her tea brewing in public again.

But whenever Xia Ning wanted to please Xia Guoxiong, she would brew tea for him with the family’s best tea set, each time boasting of her improvement.

However, for someone like Xia Guoxiong, who preferred to drink heavily and eat heartily, the quality of tea artistry was lost on him, so fooling him was no issue for Xia Ning.

The water had boiled, and Xia Ning used a tan wood tongs to place a small piece of Pu’er Tea into the bowl, then she poured in the hot water directly, covered the bowl, and mentally counted to herself for about ten seconds before pouring out the tea.

Yes, her way of brewing tea was as simple and crude as you could get, skipping all the steps like waking the tea and rinsing it.

Xia Guoxiong came over in less than two minutes with a toothpick in hand, picking his teeth—a habit Xia Ning couldn’t accept. Every time Xia Guoxiong finished a meal, he had to pick his teeth, spitting out bits and pieces from between his teeth, which was quite disgusting.

Xia Ning instinctively felt uncomfortable and busied herself with her phone to divert her attention. She often wondered why she couldn’t have been born into a truly upper-class society and couldn’t understand why she had such a vulgar father and such a disappointing brother.

While she complained about her father and brother and felt dissatisfied with her family, she never considered whether she was the daughter they had hoped for. Nor did she think about whether her father and brother felt uncomfortable every time she acted coy and cutesy.

Finally, Xia Guoxiong finished picking his teeth. He pointed at the large-lid bowl on the tea table and asked, "Is this the tea you brewed for me?"

"Yes, I brewed it especially for you," Xia Ning said, promptly stuffing her phone under the sofa cushion and smiling broadly at Xia Guoxiong, her intention to please clear as day.

Xia Guoxiong chuckled and opened the bowl, drinking it all in just a few gulps, his loud gulping noises as if he wanted everyone to know he was drinking.

Xia Ning felt a deep-seated repulsion yet managed to overcome her discomfort and immediately put on a smiling face and said, "Dad, would you like some more? I’ll brew it for you again."

"Yes, I’ve been driving for hours and am about to die of thirst," Xia Guoxiong said excitedly, his spittle flying everywhere.

If Xia Ning had been any slower in taking the bowl, Xia Guoxiong’s saliva might have sprayed all over the back of her hand.

In less than two minutes, Xia Ning returned with the large-lid bowl in her hands and placed it in front of Xia Guoxiong with a radiant smile, "Dad, please have some tea."

After gulping down three cups of tea, Xia Guoxiong finally stopped and leaned back, looking completely sated.

"Dad..." Xia Ning looked at Xia Guoxiong and cautiously began, "Dad, I haven’t seen you for several days. Where have you been?"

What Xia Ning genuinely cared about was not where Xia Guoxiong had been, but whether he had dealt with the issues between her and Xia Cheng. However, she couldn’t just blurt out the question and had to employ a roundabout strategy.

Unexpectedly, Xia Guoxiong’s temper flared at her question, his face immediately turning cold. Using a voice devoid of any warmth, he said to Xia Ning, "Where do you think I went? Use your brain, where do you think I could have gone?"

An immense pressure radiated outward from Xia Guoxiong, surging towards Xia Ning like a geyser, nearly suffocating her.

Of course, the pressure exerted by Xia Guoxiong paled in comparison to that of He Xing’s, but given Xia Ning’s weak resilience, she was easily overwhelmed by her father.

If there had been a crack in the ground, Xia Ning would have dived into it without hesitation; sadly, there was none.

So, she had no choice but to steel herself and follow Xia Guoxiong’s lead, "So... Dad, you went to deal with the issues between my brother and me? How did it go?"

Xia Guoxiong glared at her again and said impatiently, "If I accomplished nothing in the past three days, why would I even come back?"

A smile slowly appeared on Xia Ning’s face; she didn’t even mind the cigarette clamped between Xia Guoxiong’s fingers anymore. She eagerly leaned in and asked, "Dad, did you really succeed? You’re so amazing. Please tell me how you did it?"

Xia Guoxiong took a deep drag of his cigarette, blowing out the smoke through his nostrils, looking like a pig snout with a crooked scallion sticking out of it.

Xia Ning was curious why she still had such thoughts and suppressed her urge to laugh, striving to look admiringly at Xia Guoxiong.

Finally, having finished his cigarette, Xia Guoxiong flicked the butt into the ashtray and then began detailing his actions over the past few days.

It turned out that once Xia Guoxiong knew Yi Lixing and Qin Nuan were at a dead end, Mr. Ji came up with an idea—to target the failed assassin who tried to kill Fu Han.

After investing a massive amount of resources, Xia Guoxiong painstakingly traced the roots to the assassin’s remote home village.

To describe just how out-of-the-way it was, one had to take a bus after getting off the train, then hire a car, and finally a motorcycle. The place lacked even a paved road, it was so wind-blown in winter that dust filled the air.

Hyperbolically speaking, on his way to that forsaken backwater, Xia Guoxiong repeatedly thought that if he had another son, he would not care about the fate of the anakputih children, Xia Cheng and Xia Ning.