Chapter 29: Barbecue, Shi Chen

 

Su Fu didn't ask for leave because of his injury. He returned to Teng Yuan's office after the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. A sharp-eyed student and colleague saw the injury on Su Fu's forehead. Su Fu smiled and said that he had recently moved to a new home. He was so happy that he accidentally fell.

After that day, He Shaoqi didn't disturb Su Fu, who resumed his life between the Tang family's villa, Teng Yuan and Jinghe.

Because of his pinky swear with Juan Juan, he took Juan Juan back to Jinghe to live together two days later. Since he was teaching at the Tang family's villa every night, the Tang father and his son asked them to directly eat at their place at night. Su Fu was still kind enough to do all the dinner work. Tang Sibo didn't object, but he would help him.

After leaving the He family, his parents' attitude softened, there's a way to reconcile with them, and he got along well with the Tang father and his son. Generally speaking, Su Fu had a relatively comfortable life recently. The only thing that worried him was Su Jing.

Su Fu called Su Jing several times, but Su Jing didn't answer. He sent her a text message asking her about the latest situation, but she didn't return it, which made Su Fu uneasy.

On this day, when Su Fu and Juan Juan arrived at the Tang family's villa, Tang Sibo and Tang Luoke were fiddling with the barbecue grill by the small pond inside their courtyard. The foldable long table at the edge was filled with plates of meat skewers and some other barbecue ingredients.

Su Fu was a little surprised and led Juan Juan to them. "Barbecue tonight?"

Tang Sibo straightened up and smiled, "Yes, let's relax tonight, no more tutoring."

Feeling that the temperature was about right, Tang Sibo put a bunch of big meat slices. Sizzling sounds accompanied a bunch of white smoke rings. The large but thin meat slices sizzled beautifully. Appetizing fragrance wafted up immediately.

Su Fu took Juan Juan's hand. He involuntarily tightened it while secretly swallowing saliva.

"What's the special day today?" While making an effort to ignore his greedy belly, Su Fu asked.

Tang Sibo shook his head. He turned over the meat slices and grinned again.

"Didn't I say that I want to take you to meet someone before? He's the attorney of our head office. He's very busy recently and couldn't find time to meet. He can only do a video chat tonight. But I don't know when he'll be on. Let's have fun first."

"Good."

The thought of being able to ask about a way to fight for Juan Juan's custody made Su Fu feel better. Looking at the pieces of meat grilled by Tang Sibo, he felt that they seemed even more delicious.

After a while, these large pieces of meat were cooked, and they smelled delicious. Tang Sibo took a bowl and dipped the meat slices in some barbecue sauce.

"Would you and Juan Juan like to try some first?"

He took a fork and put the meat onto a plate. Tang Sibo then went over to Juan Juan. He saw Su Fu swallowing saliva, staring at the big piece of barbecue in the plate. It was like…obsession.

Su Fu saw Tang Sibo passing the plate over and subconsciously reached for it, but Tang Sibo tightened his hands and didn't let him get it, which caused Su Fu to stare blankly.

Tang Sibo couldn't help laughing when he saw him like this. The hand that wasn't holding anything gently patted Su Fu's hand that was about to take the bowl. "How can such a big person rob a child of food?"

Su Fu immediately felt a little embarrassed. He took his hand back while his brain churned very fast. Then he replied, "I'm just taking it for Juan Juan, for fear that he might let it fall."

"You eat." Tang Sibo still smiled, with some helpless indulgence as he handed the bowl to Su Fu.

Because of this, how could Su Fu be so bashful to eat? He took the bowl and squatted down to feed Juan Juan. He used a fork to pick up the meat and blew on it, "It's not hot. Juan Juan can eat."

Juan Juan looked up at Su Fu, then at Tang Sibo. He obediently said: "Little dad is hungry. Little dad eat."

Tang Sibo laughed again.

Su Fu felt extremely embarrassed and coaxed, "Little Dad will eat later. You should eat it, or it'll be cold."

Juan Juan opened his mouth after hearing this. He was slowly fed a large roasted meat by Su Fu. He then started babbling about how delicious it was.

While they were eating here, there was another loud sizzling noise. Tang Luoke learned from his father and roasted the meat together. Once Juan Juan finished, Tang Luoke would add another piece for him. Tang Sibo finally gave his piece to Su Fu.

Su Fu smiled helplessly. He took the food and looked satisfied.

After frolicking for a while, Su Fu joined the barbecue procession. Juan Juan were too small to eat a lot. Tang Luoke lost his interest and stopped roasting. He sat on a small stool with Juan Juan and waited for the two adults to eat.

Before long, a car drove in and pulled up to the edge of the garage.

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"Wow! I work so hard to buy grilled fish, but you didn't wait for me!" Fan Yao looked disgruntled as he took out the purchased fish and ingredients from the trunk.

Before, Tang Sibo felt that there's something missing from eating meat, so he asked Fan Yao to go buy grilled fish.

Tang Sibo got used to Fan Yao's exaggeration and ignored him.

Su Fu thought that he was quite interesting. Because he rented his apartment to him at a low price, Su Fu liked him very much and smiled, "Just starting, come and join us."

Hearing this, Fan Yao was satisfied and walked over with the grilled fish. "Teacher Su is still the most humane and deserves to be everyone's teacher."

After joining the barbecue, Fan Yao began to twitter, asking when Su Fu got married, when he gave birth to Juan Juan, and when he ate fish with the children.

Tang Sibo put up with him for a while. Seeing that he was trying to grab the latest grilled fish again, he finally said lightly but coldly, "Talk less, there's not enough food, do more cooking."

Then he gave the grilled fish to Su Fu. Su Fu smiled and carefully picked out the bones from the fish and distributed it to Juan Juan and Tang Luoke.

Fan Yao, with a bitter face and a flat mouth, dared not argue but settled for second best. He ate a piece of roasted eggplant and roared in his heart: "Why?!" It was clearly the fish that I had worked so hard to buy! Do I deserve to be squeezed this much as an employee? Is everyone here the only family? Am I just an extra outsider?!

Su Fu found it very interesting to see him like this. He now believed why other people said that Tang Sibo was a smiling tiger. He looked polite and modest, but bullied his employee so much!

Fan Yao was pitiful. He really stopped talking and eating much. He cooked for them obediently. Su Fu suppressed a smile in his heart and felt that he was really poor. He gave him the next grilled fish.

"Teacher Su, you are really a good man! What a good heart to be everyone's teacher! Now there're really too few people like you who are so kind-hearted, too few people like you who are kind to a small employee, and too few people like you who consider the dedication and hard work of a small employee…"

Fan Yao looked at Su Fu with bright eyes and gave a burst of praises. He seemed to praise Su Fu, but in fact he was accusing Tang Sibo of doing these unfair things.

Tang Sibo stared at him helplessly but was too lazy to deal with him. So, he ignored him. After all, he knew very well what kind of dog sh*t his assistant's mouth carried. Although he was a bit noisy and annoying, his ability to handle affairs was there and he was meticulous in his work. This little noisy complaint, Tang Sibo wouldn't really dispute with him.

After their few people ate eighth part full, Tang Sibo's phone call came. Tang Sibo answered the call and told everyone that today's barbecue was over.

Once the electricity was cut off from the barbecue grill, the dishes that weren't finished were loaded and taken back inside the villa so that the two children could continue to play and eat later. Tang Sibo turned on the laptop that had been prepared in the living room and connected the video call with Shi Chen.

As soon as the connection was made, Fan Yao cried out in a strange tone: "Hey, isn't this the sh*t eating lawyer! What is this decadent look? Has the essence been absorbed by goblins?"

The video showed a gentle young man in suit and tie. He was very handsome, but he didn't look well. One could see dark circles under his eyes across the screen.

"Oh, it turns out to be a beggar. Staying at Mr. Tang's house so late, did you know that I was going to video call Mr. Tang and wait for me specifically?" This gentle young man with a good mouth deserved to be a lawyer.

Fan Yao immediately fried` and fluffed up. He pointed to the screen and scolded: "Who wants to see you? I'm here for barbecue. Do you know?!"

At this point, he grabbed the bowl that Juan Juan was eating and showed Shi Chen the roasted meat inside.

Juan Juan, who had just eaten half and got his bowl robbed looked stunned. Then his mouth pursed unhappily.

Tang Luoke who sat at the edge immediately sank down his face. He said solemnly, "Fan Yao, you don't want your job, do you?"

With Tang Luoke's favor in the Tang family, if he wanted to fire an employee, he just needed to directly report to Grandpa Tang. Grandpa Tang definitely had the power to do it. After all, although the (corporate) head office had been handed over to Tang Sihuan and Tang Sibo now, the position of Tang Patriarch was still held by Grandpa Tang. Nobody could say anything.

Fan Yao looked at the bowl in his hand and thought, is it because of what I'm holding? Then with a tingle, he hurriedly returned it to Juan Juan.

On the other side of the video, Shi Chen saw this clearly and immediately laughed, "You really look like a beggar begging for foods."

So, the two men exchanged tit for tat for a while. Su Fu listened and felt amused. He also felt that there's some ambiguity between them. He looked doubtfully at Tang Sibo.

Support the translator. Read for free. at .idleturtle. translations . for full notes and pictures

Tang Sibo smiled and told him secretly that Shi Chen and Fan Yao had been together before. Later, they had different personalities and split up. Now they seemed to abandon each other to death every time they met. In fact, they were just pretending in their hearts.

Su Fu listened with interest. Suddenly he heard Fan Yao shouted, "Who wants to see you? I'm leaving now! You can let those goblins suck out your essence!"

After scolding, Fan Yao really left. However, he didn't actually leave, but went out of the video. He could still see Shi Chen in the video, but Shi Chen couldn't see him.

Su Fu carefully looked at Fan Yao, whose his eyes still stared at the laptop video. His heart felt slightly funny and astringent. Fan Yao clearly liked the other. He was pure, lovely and enviable.

Shi Chen in the video didn't know what he was thinking, but he didn't have much else to say and got straight to the point.

"Mr. Su, please elaborate on the process of adoption by the He family." The serious Shi Chen was no longer playing around like he did just now. He became very focused.

Su Fu looked at Fan Yao, whose eyes were filled with infatuation.

"Well, they adopted him from Ciren Orphanage in City A in June of last year. He Shaoqi was only 26 years old at that time. The orphanage said that it wasn't very easy to do so. He family's parents knew the dean and seemed to be relatives. They asked the dean to let him be adopted first. The rest of the procedure could be done once He Shaoqi reached the age of 30. They said that it's better to raise him while he's still young, instead of waiting till he's older. The dean hesitated then agreed."

Having finished saying that, Su Fu looked at Shi Chen with some uneasiness.

Shi Chen smiled and replied, "Mr. Su, this is a very easy matter. According to the law, people under the age of 30 cannot adopt a child. The adoption procedure done by their family isn't legal. They can only cheat people who don't understand the law. In such a case, they would fail on our appeal, but the appeal process is complicated and slow. If you only want custody, I do not recommend appealing. Besides, you're also under 30 years old. We won't know where the court will send the child. I still recommend private settlement."

"Private settlement? What if they don't release him?"

If they refused to release Juan Juan, they could follow the law. But if they follow the law, they definitely had to appeal. As Shi Chen said, then maybe the He family and the orphanage would be punished by the law. But he was under the age of 30, who would be awarded Juan Juan? Whether he would be sent to another orphanage or adopted by other kind-hearted people, Juan Juan would have to leave them. Su Fu felt uneasy.

"If it's private settlement, I'll go directly to the director of the orphanage. When it comes to the law, he would certainly be afraid." At this point, Shi Chen looked through some books and said, "I'm a little busy these days. I'll go to City A in a few days to help you deal with this matter."

With Shi Chen as a lawyer, Su Fu's heart sank back into his stomach. He repeatedly said, "Thank you! I'm really troublesome!"

Shi Chen smiled and shook his head: "I dare not neglect Mr. Tang's friend!"

Tang Sibo, who had been with him all along, smiled and said to Shi Chen, "All right, rest, don't work too hard."

"People die for money!" Shi Chen smiled as he sighed and cut off the video.

Su Fu finally felt relieved, but Tang Sibo wasn't.

Even if the adoption of the He family had no legal effect, Su Fu was still young and couldn't adopt Juan Juan. He still needed to find a reliable volunteer to make the transition.

After a little thought, Tang Sibo came up with a suitable volunteer.

Chapter 29: Barbecue, Shi Chen

 

Su Fu didn't ask for leave because of his injury. He returned to Teng Yuan's office after the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. A sharp-eyed student and colleague saw the injury on Su Fu's forehead. Su Fu smiled and said that he had recently moved to a new home. He was so happy that he accidentally fell.

After that day, He Shaoqi didn't disturb Su Fu, who resumed his life between the Tang family's villa, Teng Yuan and Jinghe.

Because of his pinky swear with Juan Juan, he took Juan Juan back to Jinghe to live together two days later. Since he was teaching at the Tang family's villa every night, the Tang father and his son asked them to directly eat at their place at night. Su Fu was still kind enough to do all the dinner work. Tang Sibo didn't object, but he would help him.

After leaving the He family, his parents' attitude softened, there's a way to reconcile with them, and he got along well with the Tang father and his son. Generally speaking, Su Fu had a relatively comfortable life recently. The only thing that worried him was Su Jing.

Su Fu called Su Jing several times, but Su Jing didn't answer. He sent her a text message asking her about the latest situation, but she didn't return it, which made Su Fu uneasy.

On this day, when Su Fu and Juan Juan arrived at the Tang family's villa, Tang Sibo and Tang Luoke were fiddling with the barbecue grill by the small pond inside their courtyard. The foldable long table at the edge was filled with plates of meat skewers and some other barbecue ingredients.

Su Fu was a little surprised and led Juan Juan to them. "Barbecue tonight?"

Tang Sibo straightened up and smiled, "Yes, let's relax tonight, no more tutoring."

Feeling that the temperature was about right, Tang Sibo put a bunch of big meat slices. Sizzling sounds accompanied a bunch of white smoke rings. The large but thin meat slices sizzled beautifully. Appetizing fragrance wafted up immediately.

Su Fu took Juan Juan's hand. He involuntarily tightened it while secretly swallowing saliva.

"What's the special day today?" While making an effort to ignore his greedy belly, Su Fu asked.

Tang Sibo shook his head. He turned over the meat slices and grinned again.

"Didn't I say that I want to take you to meet someone before? He's the attorney of our head office. He's very busy recently and couldn't find time to meet. He can only do a video chat tonight. But I don't know when he'll be on. Let's have fun first."

"Good."

The thought of being able to ask about a way to fight for Juan Juan's custody made Su Fu feel better. Looking at the pieces of meat grilled by Tang Sibo, he felt that they seemed even more delicious.

After a while, these large pieces of meat were cooked, and they smelled delicious. Tang Sibo took a bowl and dipped the meat slices in some barbecue sauce.

"Would you and Juan Juan like to try some first?"

He took a fork and put the meat onto a plate. Tang Sibo then went over to Juan Juan. He saw Su Fu swallowing saliva, staring at the big piece of barbecue in the plate. It was like…obsession.

Su Fu saw Tang Sibo passing the plate over and subconsciously reached for it, but Tang Sibo tightened his hands and didn't let him get it, which caused Su Fu to stare blankly.

Tang Sibo couldn't help laughing when he saw him like this. The hand that wasn't holding anything gently patted Su Fu's hand that was about to take the bowl. "How can such a big person rob a child of food?"

Su Fu immediately felt a little embarrassed. He took his hand back while his brain churned very fast. Then he replied, "I'm just taking it for Juan Juan, for fear that he might let it fall."

"You eat." Tang Sibo still smiled, with some helpless indulgence as he handed the bowl to Su Fu.

Because of this, how could Su Fu be so bashful to eat? He took the bowl and squatted down to feed Juan Juan. He used a fork to pick up the meat and blew on it, "It's not hot. Juan Juan can eat."

Juan Juan looked up at Su Fu, then at Tang Sibo. He obediently said: "Little dad is hungry. Little dad eat."

Tang Sibo laughed again.

Su Fu felt extremely embarrassed and coaxed, "Little Dad will eat later. You should eat it, or it'll be cold."

Juan Juan opened his mouth after hearing this. He was slowly fed a large roasted meat by Su Fu. He then started babbling about how delicious it was.

While they were eating here, there was another loud sizzling noise. Tang Luoke learned from his father and roasted the meat together. Once Juan Juan finished, Tang Luoke would add another piece for him. Tang Sibo finally gave his piece to Su Fu.

Su Fu smiled helplessly. He took the food and looked satisfied.

After frolicking for a while, Su Fu joined the barbecue procession. Juan Juan were too small to eat a lot. Tang Luoke lost his interest and stopped roasting. He sat on a small stool with Juan Juan and waited for the two adults to eat.

Before long, a car drove in and pulled up to the edge of the garage.

Support the translator. Read for free. at .idleturtle. translations . for full notes and pictures

"Wow! I work so hard to buy grilled fish, but you didn't wait for me!" Fan Yao looked disgruntled as he took out the purchased fish and ingredients from the trunk.

Before, Tang Sibo felt that there's something missing from eating meat, so he asked Fan Yao to go buy grilled fish.

Tang Sibo got used to Fan Yao's exaggeration and ignored him.

Su Fu thought that he was quite interesting. Because he rented his apartment to him at a low price, Su Fu liked him very much and smiled, "Just starting, come and join us."

Hearing this, Fan Yao was satisfied and walked over with the grilled fish. "Teacher Su is still the most humane and deserves to be everyone's teacher."

After joining the barbecue, Fan Yao began to twitter, asking when Su Fu got married, when he gave birth to Juan Juan, and when he ate fish with the children.

Tang Sibo put up with him for a while. Seeing that he was trying to grab the latest grilled fish again, he finally said lightly but coldly, "Talk less, there's not enough food, do more cooking."

Then he gave the grilled fish to Su Fu. Su Fu smiled and carefully picked out the bones from the fish and distributed it to Juan Juan and Tang Luoke.

Fan Yao, with a bitter face and a flat mouth, dared not argue but settled for second best. He ate a piece of roasted eggplant and roared in his heart: "Why?!" It was clearly the fish that I had worked so hard to buy! Do I deserve to be squeezed this much as an employee? Is everyone here the only family? Am I just an extra outsider?!

Su Fu found it very interesting to see him like this. He now believed why other people said that Tang Sibo was a smiling tiger. He looked polite and modest, but bullied his employee so much!

Fan Yao was pitiful. He really stopped talking and eating much. He cooked for them obediently. Su Fu suppressed a smile in his heart and felt that he was really poor. He gave him the next grilled fish.

"Teacher Su, you are really a good man! What a good heart to be everyone's teacher! Now there're really too few people like you who are so kind-hearted, too few people like you who are kind to a small employee, and too few people like you who consider the dedication and hard work of a small employee…"

Fan Yao looked at Su Fu with bright eyes and gave a burst of praises. He seemed to praise Su Fu, but in fact he was accusing Tang Sibo of doing these unfair things.

Tang Sibo stared at him helplessly but was too lazy to deal with him. So, he ignored him. After all, he knew very well what kind of dog sh*t his assistant's mouth carried. Although he was a bit noisy and annoying, his ability to handle affairs was there and he was meticulous in his work. This little noisy complaint, Tang Sibo wouldn't really dispute with him.

After their few people ate eighth part full, Tang Sibo's phone call came. Tang Sibo answered the call and told everyone that today's barbecue was over.

Once the electricity was cut off from the barbecue grill, the dishes that weren't finished were loaded and taken back inside the villa so that the two children could continue to play and eat later. Tang Sibo turned on the laptop that had been prepared in the living room and connected the video call with Shi Chen.

As soon as the connection was made, Fan Yao cried out in a strange tone: "Hey, isn't this the sh*t eating lawyer! What is this decadent look? Has the essence been absorbed by goblins?"

The video showed a gentle young man in suit and tie. He was very handsome, but he didn't look well. One could see dark circles under his eyes across the screen.

"Oh, it turns out to be a beggar. Staying at Mr. Tang's house so late, did you know that I was going to video call Mr. Tang and wait for me specifically?" This gentle young man with a good mouth deserved to be a lawyer.

Fan Yao immediately fried` and fluffed up. He pointed to the screen and scolded: "Who wants to see you? I'm here for barbecue. Do you know?!"

At this point, he grabbed the bowl that Juan Juan was eating and showed Shi Chen the roasted meat inside.

Juan Juan, who had just eaten half and got his bowl robbed looked stunned. Then his mouth pursed unhappily.

Tang Luoke who sat at the edge immediately sank down his face. He said solemnly, "Fan Yao, you don't want your job, do you?"

With Tang Luoke's favor in the Tang family, if he wanted to fire an employee, he just needed to directly report to Grandpa Tang. Grandpa Tang definitely had the power to do it. After all, although the (corporate) head office had been handed over to Tang Sihuan and Tang Sibo now, the position of Tang Patriarch was still held by Grandpa Tang. Nobody could say anything.

Fan Yao looked at the bowl in his hand and thought, is it because of what I'm holding? Then with a tingle, he hurriedly returned it to Juan Juan.

On the other side of the video, Shi Chen saw this clearly and immediately laughed, "You really look like a beggar begging for foods."

So, the two men exchanged tit for tat for a while. Su Fu listened and felt amused. He also felt that there's some ambiguity between them. He looked doubtfully at Tang Sibo.

Support the translator. Read for free. at .idleturtle. translations . for full notes and pictures

Tang Sibo smiled and told him secretly that Shi Chen and Fan Yao had been together before. Later, they had different personalities and split up. Now they seemed to abandon each other to death every time they met. In fact, they were just pretending in their hearts.

Su Fu listened with interest. Suddenly he heard Fan Yao shouted, "Who wants to see you? I'm leaving now! You can let those goblins suck out your essence!"

After scolding, Fan Yao really left. However, he didn't actually leave, but went out of the video. He could still see Shi Chen in the video, but Shi Chen couldn't see him.

Su Fu carefully looked at Fan Yao, whose his eyes still stared at the laptop video. His heart felt slightly funny and astringent. Fan Yao clearly liked the other. He was pure, lovely and enviable.

Shi Chen in the video didn't know what he was thinking, but he didn't have much else to say and got straight to the point.

"Mr. Su, please elaborate on the process of adoption by the He family." The serious Shi Chen was no longer playing around like he did just now. He became very focused.

Su Fu looked at Fan Yao, whose eyes were filled with infatuation.

"Well, they adopted him from Ciren Orphanage in City A in June of last year. He Shaoqi was only 26 years old at that time. The orphanage said that it wasn't very easy to do so. He family's parents knew the dean and seemed to be relatives. They asked the dean to let him be adopted first. The rest of the procedure could be done once He Shaoqi reached the age of 30. They said that it's better to raise him while he's still young, instead of waiting till he's older. The dean hesitated then agreed."

Having finished saying that, Su Fu looked at Shi Chen with some uneasiness.

Shi Chen smiled and replied, "Mr. Su, this is a very easy matter. According to the law, people under the age of 30 cannot adopt a child. The adoption procedure done by their family isn't legal. They can only cheat people who don't understand the law. In such a case, they would fail on our appeal, but the appeal process is complicated and slow. If you only want custody, I do not recommend appealing. Besides, you're also under 30 years old. We won't know where the court will send the child. I still recommend private settlement."

"Private settlement? What if they don't release him?"

If they refused to release Juan Juan, they could follow the law. But if they follow the law, they definitely had to appeal. As Shi Chen said, then maybe the He family and the orphanage would be punished by the law. But he was under the age of 30, who would be awarded Juan Juan? Whether he would be sent to another orphanage or adopted by other kind-hearted people, Juan Juan would have to leave them. Su Fu felt uneasy.

"If it's private settlement, I'll go directly to the director of the orphanage. When it comes to the law, he would certainly be afraid." At this point, Shi Chen looked through some books and said, "I'm a little busy these days. I'll go to City A in a few days to help you deal with this matter."

With Shi Chen as a lawyer, Su Fu's heart sank back into his stomach. He repeatedly said, "Thank you! I'm really troublesome!"

Shi Chen smiled and shook his head: "I dare not neglect Mr. Tang's friend!"

Tang Sibo, who had been with him all along, smiled and said to Shi Chen, "All right, rest, don't work too hard."

"People die for money!" Shi Chen smiled as he sighed and cut off the video.

Su Fu finally felt relieved, but Tang Sibo wasn't.

Even if the adoption of the He family had no legal effect, Su Fu was still young and couldn't adopt Juan Juan. He still needed to find a reliable volunteer to make the transition.

After a little thought, Tang Sibo came up with a suitable volunteer.