Engagement Annulled? Now The Husbands Kneel and Beg for Her Favor

Xie Qizhen made breakfast this morning.

It looked quite good—vibrant in color and very appetizing.

When Jiang Qingli sat down, a familiar sense of dread washed over her as her father pushed a bowl of congee toward her.

Xie Qizhen was a classic kitchen assassin.

A military genius, Xie Qizhen hadn’t set foot in a kitchen for the first thirty-odd years of his life.

But after getting married, he heard someone say, ”The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach.” So, he had been trying his best to become the ideal husband—one who could hold his own in the parlor and in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, in Jiang Qingli’s memory, nothing Xie Qizhen cooked had ever turned out normal.

Xie Qizhen was very diligent and took it very seriously, but his creations always seemed to come with a natural-born determination to poison whoever ate them.

Fortunately, Xie Qizhen always had Xiao Jin and Zhou Yanli taste-test everything first. Only if they were fine did he serve it to his wife and daughter.

As she recalled, however, there had been very few times when the food was actually edible.

He was just like Qin Muye...

Jiang Qingli finally understood why she wasn’t hung up on her Beast Husbands cooking for her and why she was so accepting of Qin Muye’s tendency to blow up the kitchen.

Having witnessed her own father’s genius-level talent for culinary disasters, her tolerance had been set way too high.

The thought of Qin Muye made Jiang Qingli’s spirits sink a little.

Her little puppy was going to the Lower District to meet up with Qin Shu after the Moon Festival.

He would be busy with preparations for the next few days; his schedule was packed.

Although she said things like, ”It’s okay,” and, ”I’ll wait for you to get a break...” she was actually very reluctant to see him go.

She just didn’t want to show it too much, lest her little puppy worry.

”Why the long face? You don’t want to eat?”

Seeing his daughter just staring at the congee, Xie Qizhen wrung his hands nervously.

His daughter was finally home, and Xie Qizhen wanted to do something for her.

He had thought about making a huge feast, but given his severely limited skills, he had settled on making a pot of not-too-difficult seafood congee under the guidance and supervision of a team of chefs.

’The three of us fathers have all tasted it and we’re still alive, so it should be... fine, right?’

Just as he was feeling anxious, Jiang Qingli took a large spoonful of the congee, ate it, and then gave him a thumbs-up. ”Such a huuuuge improvement! You’re the best dad in the whole world!”

The girl’s eyes curved into crescents, and her smile was as sweet as when she was a child.

Xie Qizhen let out a sigh of relief and gently stroked his daughter’s hair. ”Good. If you like it, Dad will cook for you all the time from now on. I’ll make all sorts of different things.”

Jiang Qingli’s smile froze.

Xie Qizhen didn’t notice. He turned to the other two Beast Husbands, shooting them a smug, boastful look. ’See? I’m the best dad.’

Zhou Yanli dabbed his lips with a handkerchief and said with a smile, ”Xiao Li’s words are getting sweeter and sweeter. All that candy we gave her wasn’t for nothing.”

Xiao Jin was even more direct. ”Xiao Li. Social obligation. Tact.”

Xie Qizhen flew into a rage. ”Shut up! Don’t you dare corrupt my daughter with your cynical worldviews!”

Seeing that they were about to start arguing, Jiang Yi, who was watching her daughter eat with her chin in her hand, calmly intervened as if this was a common occurrence. ”Compose yourselves in front of our daughter. Don’t disturb her while she’s eating.”

As she spoke, she placed a fried egg on Jiang Qingli’s plate.

Jiang Qingli ate heartily, glancing at Jiang Yi a few times midway through the meal, looking like she wanted to say something but was hesitating.

As she was about to finish, she finally spoke up hesitantly in a low voice, ”Mom, are you busy today?”

Taking in all her daughter’s little fidgets, Jiang Yi asked gently, ”What is it? Do you need Mom for something?”

”N-nothing really, I just want to spend more time with you.” Jiang Qingli was a little embarrassed but mustered up her courage to ask, ”Could you... could you take me to the academy?”

Jiang Qingli knew that Jiang Yi held a high-ranking position and was so busy she even had to review documents during breakfast.

But mother and daughter hadn’t seen each other in a long time, and she wanted to be closer to her mom.

Jiang Yi stroked her hair, a hint of apology in her eyes. ”I’m sorry, Xiao Li. Mom is very busy handing off work recently. I have a cross-district video conference in a little while... How about I pick you up from the academy this evening?”

”Okay!” Jiang Qingli’s eyes lit up. She then caught the key point. ”Mom, are you transferring back to the First District?”

”Mhm.” Jiang Yi’s gaze was gentle. ”Our Xiao Li is becoming more and more amazing. Mom doesn’t want to miss you growing up.”

Xie Qizhen quickly jumped in to make his presence known. ”Xiao Li, me too! How about Dad helps you with your physical training this weekend?”

After Jiang Qingli nodded, Zhou Yanli said with a smile, ”Big Brother, Xiao Li is already very tired on a normal basis. Over-exerting her physically isn’t a good thing. Why not learn how to manage subordinates with me and our female master instead? That should be more practical.”

Xie Qizhen tutted. ”...You think you know everything.”

The less-articulate Xiao Jin looked at Jiang Yi and said drily, ”I can... do either.”

Jiang Qingli’s heart melted, and her eyes began to sting.

Being surrounded by her family’s love felt like basking in warm, comfortable sunlight. It was pure bliss.

[BING~]

[Child of Fortune’s happiness level has increased. HE value is rising.]

[Current World HE Value: 45%]

-

After breakfast, Jiang Qingli turned down Old Qin’s enthusiastic offer to drive and had Yi Nuo accompany her instead.

Yi Nuo got into the driver’s seat, his gaze landing on the girl in the back seat through the rearview mirror.

She was frowning, as if pondering some profound matter.

Her serious, focused expression was also very attractive.

The car started moving slowly.

From an angle Yi Nuo couldn’t see, Jiang Qingli stared at her system and asked, [Does it go up just from being with family?]

whispered, [It’s a combination of many factors. It also went up by two percentage points last night when you were... you know. But you were busy then, so I didn’t interrupt.]

[This is also very reasonable. Yuan Shimo’s affection for you is very high, and you were especially happy last night. Your mood was consistently elevated.]

Jiang Qingli: ”...”

’There’s no need to mention things like that, thank you very much.’

Jiang Qingli changed the subject. [You said I could check affection levels... so among my Beast Husbands, who has the highest affection for me?]

seemed to find her question strange. [Huh? They’re all the same.]

Jiang Qingli: [?]

Seeing her confusion, 030 simply popped up the system data for her to see.

On the digital screen, a long list of identical data points appeared—

[Ye Linyuan: 100%]

[Baili Jing: 100%]

[Qin Muye: 100%]

[Yuan Shimo: 100%]

[Gu Nian: 100%]

The corner of Jiang Qingli’s mouth twitched. [Is your system... broken?]

’Baili Jing and Gu Nian have known me since we were kids, so it’s reasonable for their affection levels to be maxed out. But how are the other Beast Husbands also at one hundred percent? Something’s not right, is it?’

’This system isn’t a scam, is it...?’

[I’m not a scam!] 030 was so angered by the accusation that it stopped kneeling and shot to its feet, shouting, [Our system is cutting-edge technology!]

puffed out its chest proudly. [You’re the female lead! It’s only natural for the male leads to love the female lead!]

[Besides, it’s not just your Beast Husbands, there’s also—]

Before it could finish, someone suddenly knocked twice on the car door.

Only then did Jiang Qingli realize the car had already stopped in the garage.

Yi Nuo watched the scene in the back seat from the rearview mirror, his expression complex.

The screen flickered. A message arrived from Que Feiling, who had a red avatar.

Outside the car door, a black-haired young man was bent over, meeting her gaze. His eyes curved in a delighted arc as he called out to her in a low voice,

”Sister-in-law.”