At this moment, the three people who were still eating turned to look in that direction.
Gu Zhijing glared at a boy holding a phone at the next table.
"Open your photo album."
"I really didn't take any pictures."
Oh, still denying it... Gu Zhijing thought about how school bullies talked in campus TV dramas, trying to make himself sound more intimidating. He said in a deep voice to the person in front of him, "Don't make me say it twice."
"I'll delete it, I'm deleting it right now," the boy trembled as he deleted the photo, apologizing to Gu Zhijing, "I'm sorry, Gu Zhijing. My classmates said they wanted to see what your stepmother looks like."
Since that TV show, Gu Zhijing had become somewhat famous at school, and people were curious about Nian Suian as well.
Today, this boy saw Gu Zhijing's family eating together in the cafeteria and casually mentioned it in the class group chat. As a result, his classmates all said they wanted to see how they interacted in private and asked him to secretly take a couple of photos.
But he had only taken one photo when Gu Zhijing caught him.
Because of the incident with Wang Jiayao before, Gu Zhijing's status at school was now not much different from that of a school bully. So when he acted fierce now, it was quite intimidating.
"I've also emptied the recently deleted folder."
"It's... emptied, emptied. Look if you don't believe me." The boy held up his phone for Gu Zhijing to see.
To maintain his school bully persona, Gu Zhijing kept a blank expression and said, "Hmm, don't let me catch you doing this again."
"No, no, definitely not."
Of course, the school bully act couldn't last more than ten seconds. As soon as he sat back down, he immediately transformed into a sweet little darling.
"Little Mama Sis, he was secretly taking your photo, but I made him delete it!"
Nian Suian gave him a piece of spareribs as encouragement, but she still asked, "You looked quite fierce just now. Who did you learn that from?" They had all seen Gu Zhijing's expression earlier, and he really did have the air of a school bully, scaring the other boy badly.
Gu Zhijing casually replied, "I learned it from my dad, of course."
"When have I ever been that fierce?... Except when you make mistakes."
Gu Zhijing pouted and exposed his dad: "Still won't admit it? You were much fiercer than that when you used to whip my mouth with a bamboo stick."
Mentioning this, Gu Junxing put down his chopsticks, "In middle school, whistling at girls, don't you think you deserved that whipping?"
"I didn't say I didn't deserve it! I'm just saying that's where I learned that fierce expression from!" That time he was really scared by how fierce his dad was. He whistled all night, almost to the point of crying. After that incident, Gu Zhijing never whistled again, no matter the occasion.
Gu Zhijing didn't know that Nian Suian had already heard about this from Nanny Zhang, and now that Gu Junxing brought it up, he felt embarrassed.
He really was quite annoying in middle school. After watching a few movies, he thought whistling at girls was cool, but he didn't expect to get caught by his dad on his first attempt. There were other incidents too, like spending crazy amounts of money on game skins, going to illegal internet cafes, secretly riding his friend's brother's motorcycle - not a single beating was undeserved.
"As long as you understand."
After lunch, the family returned to the sports field. It was only then that Qu Zizhou and his mother finally arrived.
Qu Zizhou's grandfather had a stomachache and was taken to the hospital. Qu Zizhou and his mother rushed to the hospital early in the morning, but after examination, it turned out to be a false alarm. The old man had gone fishing, got too excited, and ate all the fish he caught at once, making himself sick from overeating.
After the examination showed nothing was wrong, he and his mother set off for the school.
Gu Zhijing boasted, "You came too late, you missed seeing how handsome I looked."
"Pfft, it's already been posted in the class group chat, didn't you know? It was just so-so, still not as good as me."
"Class group chat? Who took the pictures?" From noon until now, Gu Zhijing hadn't checked his phone and didn't know there were photos of him in the class group chat.
"Teacher Cen took them, of course. The teacher took a lot of photos."
"Then I have to see if they captured how handsome I am."
As soon as they met, the two huddled together whispering. Nian Suian could see that among the three friends, Qu Zizhou was probably the closest to Gu Zhijing, especially since they were desk mates.
"Teacher Cen is even more awesome, the photos are great!" As soon as Gu Zhijing saw the photos, he brought them over to show off to Nian Suian and Gu Junxing, "Little Mama Sis, Dad, look at me!"
These photos taken by Cen Xi were probably shot with a camera, and the composition and colors looked quite professional. Nian Suian had to admit they were indeed better than the ones she took.
"Uncle Su! Look, what do you think?"
Butler Su had always been indulgent, and now he praised Gu Zhijing to the skies, so much that even Gu Junxing couldn't bear to listen anymore. He felt that his son's confidence was largely due to Butler Su and Nanny Zhang - they were both indispensable.
Qu Zizhou's mother, Jiang Yun, had been watching their family for a while and sighed to Nian Suian, "Zhijing's father is really great, even taking time off work to attend school activities. Unlike our family..."
Qu Zizhou overheard and immediately chimed in, "My dad is working on a project in Guinea, he couldn't come even if he wanted to. Mom, why don't you find someone local?"
Qu Zizhou's father was an engineer working on an aid project in Guinea, and his sister Qu Ziyao was studying in England. A family of four spread across three continents, they could barely manage a video call together. Seeing the lively family of three, Jiang Yun couldn't help but sigh. But her moment of emotion was immediately interrupted by her son.
Jiang Yun angrily said, "Get lost, you're as annoying as your father."
Then she turned back and sat down affectionately with Nian Suian.
Qu Zizhou whispered to Gu Zhijing, "See that? I actually envy you. At least your dad is emotionally stable, and now you have an even better mom. How do you always get so lucky?"
"I recorded that. Transfer me 500, or I'll send the recording to your mom."
"Get lost!"
Jiang Yun didn't come today for nothing. She had a belly full of gossip she wanted to share, but no one to tell.
When her daughter was home, she was her gossip partner, but recently her daughter had been too busy to listen to her mother's chatter about neighborhood affairs. As for her son, well, he was only slightly better than an idiot who didn't know to come in out of the rain - she really couldn't talk to him.
But at the last parent-teacher conference, in those few short minutes outside the classroom, she knew Nian Suian was a kindred spirit!
Jiang Yun didn't bother with pleasantries today and went straight for the big news.
"I didn't know who to tell this to, I was about to burst! The single mother living across from us, her kid's father has shown up recently!"
Nian Suian heard this and thought, could this be the legendary "running away with the baby" (child already born version)...
She immediately took out the sunflower seeds Gu Zhijing had bought in the morning.
"Please, do tell more."