Christmas Eve was three days after Song Shuang getting discharged from the hospital.
In order to make it more festive, Gu Baisheng bought some apples and dessert for Hu Hui.
Hu Hui made some dumplings for their dinner, but she asked her to go back to Jinshayuan early.
Gu Baisheng was asked to go home before the night came.
Gu Baisheng thought that Hu Hui was her biological mother.
But Xia Juan was the mother of Bai Shengsheng, and she needed to be taken care of too.
And Bai Dahai was still in jail.
Xia Juan must've felt really lost.
It was a tough time for Xia Juan, so she bought some gifts and dessert to visit Xia Juan.
Xia Juan just came home from work. She couldn't stop crying when she saw her daughter came to visit with lots of gifts. She rushed to her daughter and held her hand, "You finally come to visit me!"
Gu Baisheng patted her back softly and asked, "Is my dad doing well in jail?"
Xia Juan suddenly looked sullen.
When they returned home, Xia Juan asked inevitably, "Why did you call the police? No matter how bad he is, he's still your father."
"Mom, modern women shouldn't be trapped by the tradition. People should get punished for what they do. So does my dad. He's so addicted to gambling. What if he sells us for his gambling debt? Don't you know that gamblers in the past could sell their wives and children to others?"
"Your dad won't do it..."
Although Xia Juan said so, Gu Baisheng could tell that she didn't really believe in her words.
"Let the government give him a lesson. I'll still take care of him if he changes."
Gu Baisheng handed the dessert to Xia Juan while talking.
Xia Juan forgot about Bai Dahai for a while when she saw the beautiful and delicious dessert.
Gu Baisheng talked with Xia Juan about some family affairs. When she saw the day getting dark, she planned to leave.
Xia Juan asked awkwardly, "I heard that people from that casino tried to hurt you?"
"Yeah."
Gu Baisheng looked serious.
"Did you get hurt?
Xia Juan looked at her daughter's face worriedly.
"I'm fine. Song Shuang protected me." Gu Baisheng said.
Xia Juan felt relieved.
Gu Baisheng thought it was time to give Xia Juan and Bai Dahai more pressure and let them know the trouble caused by gambling.
So she added sadly, "Song Shuang almost got killed."
When she said that to Xia Juan, Xia Juan's face became pale, "What? Is it so serious?"
Gu Baisheng nodded and said sadly, "If Song Shuang died, my marriage would be nothing. My dad would lose his son-in-law too. Our whole family couldn't benefit from him anymore."
Xia Juan was really scared, and she hurried to say, "I won't let your dad gamble anymore. He always causes you trouble."
Gu Baisheng felt happy, but she still repeated, "You have to talk to him."
"I will. Trust me."
Xia Juan agreed.
She wouldn't agree to it so quickly if it had nothing to do with the future of the Bai Family.
Bai Dahai tried so hard to make her marry a rich guy. If his son-in-law died, his effort was in vain.
He wouldn't dig his own grave.
Gu Baisheng deliberately frightened Xia Juan before she returned home happily.
But when she got home, she saw Song Shuang putting on his black cashmere jacket and walking out with his car key.
"Are you going out?"
She carried one kilo of apple in her hand.
The apples looked so red and tantalizing.
She planned to celebrate Christmas Eve with Song Shuang.
It seemed that she couldn't do so because Song Shuang planned to go out.
"Yeah."
Song Shuang thought that it was no need to explain to her, so he just replied simply.
He didn't say where he would go, how long he would stay or what he would do.
He just pushed open the door and walked away.
Gu Baisheng stood a while with the bag, then she put the apples into the fridge and went to cook in the kitchen.
She didn't feel unhappy when she was chopping the vegetable, but she couldn't explain her disappointment.
She could vaguely guess something.
Song Shuang went out because of Lin Fengya's call the day before yesterday.
Lin Fengya wasn't happy with her daughter-in-law.
So it was possible that she would make another arrangement with the excuse of Christmas Eve.
Lin Fengya had the ability to do so. As her former daughter-in-law, Gu Baisheng understood what she wanted to do.
Although Song Shuang married her, he didn't like her, and the Song Family didn't accept her either.
Kicking her out of the Song Family was only a matter of time, and Song Shuang wouldn't be on her side like he used to do to Gu Baisheng.
So she should've made plans for herself now.
She got over it now. She took a bite of her freshly made fruit salad and searched for her computer and phone in her bedroom with a plate of tomatoes in her hand. Then she started to send her resume to those companies she marked before.
At the same time, she googled the companies that responded to her application.
And she found that one company invited her to an interview at 8 a.m. tomorrow.
Gu Baisheng suddenly felt better when she saw the reply.
...
After parking his car at the western restaurant, Song Shuang was led upstairs by a waiter.
When he entered the restaurant, he found that the whole floor was booked.
On the platform, a young man was playing beautiful and soothing piano songs.
The restaurant was filled with the joy of the Christmas holiday.
At the window table,
Lin Fengya whispered to the woman in white after seeing her son coming. Then she called her son softly, "Shuang, here!"
Song Shuang looked over there, showing displeasure with his deep eyes.
But he stayed polite and walked toward the table.
His body was outstanding.
And he was very good-looking.
He was from an honorable family. No girl in Beicheng could say no to such a perfect man.
The same applied to Bai Qiong, the second daughter of the Bai Family.
Bai Qiong had heard of the only son of the Song Family, but she hadn't met him after she returned from abroad.
She fell in love with him at first sight.
Bai Qiong had an oval face. She was slim, and her beautiful body was wrapped nicely in a white satin dress.
Her beautiful collarbones were so attractive.
She looked distant and delicate. Lin Fengya knew that she was her son's type.
Just like her name indicated, she was pure and elegant.
Most importantly, Bai Qiong and Gu Baisheng looked alike and were the same type of women.
Zhuo Wenqing, Bai Qiong's mother, was here too.
As a rich lady from the upper class, Zhuo Wenqing had met Song Shuang before.
Now she was happy that Song Shuang's mother would like to bring the two together.
When she saw Song Shuang, she smiled, "Long time no see, Shuang. Do you still remember me?"
In fact, Song Shuang knew her, but at this moment, he was unpleasant about his mother's arrangement. So he asked politely and embarrassingly, "You are?"
Naturally, Zhuo Wenqing showed a sign of embarrassment.
Lin Fengya gave him a glance of reproof because she knew her son well. She then said, "You have such a bad memory! This is Auntie Zhuo. She held you when you visited them."
Song Shuang nodded and said, "Auntie."
He said it in a polite but aloof way.
Bai Qiong's finger softly rubbed the glass. She looked at Song Shuang with her shrewd eyes and smiled, "It's completely normal that Song Shuang can't recall his childhood memory. But now he knows us."
Lin Fengya agreed, "Exactly! He'll recognize you next time you meet."
"Didn't you say that we would have a family gathering here? Where's my dad?"
Song Shuang asked Lin Fengya.
Lin Fengya indeed used the family gathering as an excuse to trick her son here, but it was still very awkward when she was revealed in public. She smiled and answered calmly, "Your dad and Mr. Bai are having an important discussion. They now talk it in another place, so I invited them to join us."
Song Shuang knew his mother's intention really well.
She wanted to let him meet Bai Qiong and see if he liked her.
He didn't want to get involved in this situation, and he soon lost his patience, so he said intuitively, "Shengsheng is waiting for me at home."
"Shengsheng?"
Bai Qiong froze for a short while after hearing it, but she smiled, "Is she your new wife? Why didn't you bring her here?"
Bai Qiong appeared to be naive, but she was in fact sophisticated.
This casual sentence put Song Shuang in a dilemma.
Gu Baisheng seldom joined the family after her child died. And he used to accompany her after shortly showing up at the gatherings.
Although Gu Baisheng didn't ask him to do so,
he was used to it. Now he said the same thing and used the same reason to leave.
But he forgot that the old Shengsheng was dead and this one, Bai Shengsheng, was his new wife.
He didn't like her, and the Song Family didn't accept her.
As her husband, he didn't recognize her either.
So when Lin Fengya invited him to the family gathering, he didn't even think about bringing her here as a member of his family.
Bai Qiong's words revealed the fact that he didn't recognize Bai Shengsheng as his wife.
Song Shuang then suddenly realized that he didn't treat Bai Shengsheng as his wife.
"If she doesn't want to come, you shouldn't enable her. Enjoy the food here."
Zhuo Wenqing echoed with Lin Fengya.
Song Shuang stood up, "No, thank you."
He was about to leave after finishing his words.
Zhuo Wenqing and Lin Fengya felt embarrassed to be rejected like that.
Bai Qiong's face got cold, but she reacted quickly after she clenched her hands, "It's understandable that Song Shuang wants to go back to accompany his wife. It's fine if he doesn't eat with us on Christmas Eve. But if he refuses to drink a cup of wine, it'll be so cold-hearted."
Bai Qiong said in such an aggrieved way.
Lin Fengya was in a dilemma after hearing it, "Shuang, perhaps you can leave after drinking a cup of wine. It won't take long."
Song Shuang turned around and held up the wine glass irritably. He drank up the wine and put down the glass. Then he strode out quickly.
Bai Qiong smiled faintly and told Lin Fengya, "I have to use the bathroom, auntie."