Chapter 812 - 390: Woman, Seeking Marriage (Part 1)

As expected, Dad effortlessly crushed his two young sons, though he paid the price of having his sleeve torn off.

Afterward, the virtuous eldest son silently glanced at him, flicked his hand, and draped a dry towel over his shoulder. His skin was sweaty from the intense battle, and his breathing was a bit unstable. He said to Gu Ningxuan, "Bring the clothes to my room after you change them..."

Gu Ningxuan was momentarily puzzled, not understanding what his eldest son’s words meant. However, he quickly figured it out.

"Mend it a bit, the tear isn’t big, it can still be worn after sewing." Truly the traits of a [good husband and father], so practical.

For a moment, Gu Ningxuan didn’t know what to feel—should he appreciate his son’s skills in sewing clothes, or feel sorry that his son has had a hard life, wearing mended clothes all these years? He tends to lean towards the latter.

However, his sympathy was likely misplaced, because Huaifeng, understanding his inner thoughts early on, sympathetically patted his father’s shoulder, saying, "Things aren’t as dramatic as you think. My brother and I have a good quality of life, we neither lack food nor warmth. As for mending clothes, it’s purely my brother’s hobby; life hasn’t been deprived."

"Actually, now he’s a master of restoring ancient cultural embroidery. Recently, some of his embroidered works were displayed online. Also, don’t worry about my brother’s skills; clothes he’s mended are flawless, you can’t even see where they’re torn..."

Their eldest son, skilled in cooking, also a master of embroidery, capable of mending clothes flawlessly, adept at cleaning and tidying up to ensure everything gleams... Gu Ningxuan suddenly felt a strange stomach ache, such an excellent son, all packed up and ready to be married off.

Seeing his father obviously hit by this revelation, Huaifeng added, "But you shouldn’t be too pleased; although my brother is indeed more competent than average people, God may have opened all the windows for him but closed a door—he’s not so good at certain things... like aesthetics..."

Although Changxi diligently guided the elder young master to perfection and shielded him from any negative influences, he forgot to guard against family. Aunt Su Mo’s god-like aesthetic sense is beyond description, and she used her absolute advantage to skew his brother’s sense of aesthetics.

Huaifeng couldn’t help but recall over a year ago when Qianhe had a birthday, and his brother made that cake with a thousand "convenient" shapes, causing his mouth to twitch almost uncontrollably. Indeed, nobody’s perfect. Even as flawless as his brother is, he has a warped aesthetic sense.

All night, Gu Ningxuan pondered the matters between Qianhe and Huaixi, even feeling quite troubled and consulting his great-grandfather, the shrewd old Gu Molin. The old man, having lived a long life and seen much, surely would find these minor troubles trivial.

And the result? Gu Molin offered him four words in evaluation—"worrying over nothing"! He didn’t even sketch a single stroke of their eight-character names; what was he worrying about here? No matter how precocious Huaixi might be, he’s still a twelve-year-old boy, twenty years away from being an adult! Is it too early to be concerned about his son’s feelings at this point? Additionally, it’s clear the two little ones don’t feel anything special about each other...

"The childhood friendship of playmates, the warming goodwill as they grow older, the youthful, awkward thrills... how wonderful these experiences are, what do you know?" Having hit a wall with his great-grandfather, Gu Ningxuan also came up empty with his mom.

Gu Ningxuan thought carefully; perhaps the two kids indeed felt nothing, was he just overthinking? The involved party, Gu Huaixi, clearly told his dad that he was indeed overthinking! Who said slightly close friendships between boys and girls necessarily mean something? Just good friends, can’t it be?

This mistaken speculation thus came to an end, with the father and his two sons spending five cozy days together. The online discussions about them had already significantly diminished. After all, after so many days, the netizens’ enthusiasm should wane.

"Time’s tight, Dad’s leaving first." Gu Ningxuan looked a bit wistfully at Huaifeng; Huaixi had a class today and couldn’t come to see him off.

"Yeah, hurry and board, travel safely." Huaifeng cast his eyes down and didn’t dare meet his father’s gaze, though they’re father and son, their relationship barely mending yet now needing to part again due to duty relocation, "This... is from brother."

A bit shy, Huaifeng took out a palm-sized gift box with a colorful bow from behind him. Seeing the packaging, Gu Ningxuan’s joy was slightly dampened, as he realized... correcting his eldest son’s distorted aesthetic sense couldn’t be postponed! The pattern on the gift box’s wrapping—nipple shaped like poop... _(:з)∠)_