Just as Jiang Cheng was earnestly savoring the food, his wechat suddenly chimed again.
He saw several messages pop up on the phone lying on the table.
"darling?"
"I miss you so much—what are you doing?"
Reading the screen, Jiang Cheng instinctively glanced at Yu Xiaoxiao beside him.
Luckily, although Xiaoxiao had looked at the phone on the table, she didn't lean over to peek.
She made no move to pry into his privacy and simply kept enjoying the food in front of her.
Jiang Cheng was slightly startled by the messages—An Xin actually called him "darling." Had she gotten drunk again?
A few seconds later he realized that extra-cute emojis had been tacked onto the lines.
It had to be that naughty child Annie; with An Xin's personality, she would never take the initiative like this.
Jiang Cheng opened the chat, gave a helpless shake of his head, and simply closed the app.
Typical naughty child—swiping Mom's phone to send texts.
He could already picture how flustered An Xin would be once she saw these messages.
He had no intention of replying to Annie; after the meal he still had more important things to do than indulge a mischievous kid.
When no reply came, Annie pouted, lifted the phone again, and dictated: "Brother Jiang Cheng, why aren't you answering?? It's me~"
"Didn't you say next time you'd take my mom out to play? I've waited so long—when are we going?"
Still getting no response, Annie refused to give up and messaged again.
"Brother Jiang Cheng, answer me~ If you do, I'll send you gorgeous photos of my mom!"
"..."
Jiang Cheng's brow lifted in interest at the message.
A windfall like this?
He took a sip of red wine and replied: "Big brother's busy with Military Training since school just started. Once it's over I'll take you out to play, okay?"
"Sure, sure~~ You promised, big brother—hurry up! If I head back to Chengdu before then, we won't get to hang out."
"Once Mom finishes her business here, Grandpa will probably rush her back to Chengdu again."
Reading Annie's rambling, Jiang Cheng frowned slightly.
Weren't you supposed to send photos? A flood of emojis is useless.
After a moment's thought he decided to remind her directly.
So what if An Xin sees the chat history?
Everyone appreciates beauty; Jiang Cheng swore he had no improper thoughts—he simply wanted to admire the photos.
To feast his eyes on something beautiful, nothing more.
"Photos?"
Annie sent a string of grinning emojis and then promptly delivered several pictures of An Xin.
Jiang Cheng's eyebrow arched as he looked at the shots.
They had been taken at the beach: An Xin sat on a wooden hut, smiling at the camera.
The afterglow of the sunset bathed her; her Venus-like figure and delicate skin seemed to glow in the light.
What really made the blood race was the weight of the upper curves.
Annie the mom-betrayer—for the first time Jiang Cheng wanted to give her a thumbs-up!
"Big brother, I took this for Mom on a foreign beach—doesn't it look amazing?"
"Mom hardly ever takes selfies, so there aren't many photos; the rest are group shots of her and me."