Chapter 299  : 18th Birthday

They probably had not eaten.

In truth, Wei Zhiqian had arrived much earlier than Xu Mingzhen imagined.

He always had men keeping an eye on the Yuan family.

When he was notified that the Yuan family had set off to come to the Tan Mansion, he had also left home with his men by his side.

He had arrived at the Tan Mansion’s entrance at almost the same time that the Yuan family had entered.

Then he had heard the contents of their entire conversation.

So because he had set off so early, naturally he hadn’t yet had dinner.

“I really haven’t eaten yet.” In the eyes of the Tan family’s father and sons, Wei Zhiqian’s current polite manner of explaining himself resembled a large wolf.

“As I had Zhou Jingan blocking Yuan Keqing’s way on the first day of the examinations, I had expected that this shameless family would harass you, and I arranged for my people to keep an eye on them. Today, when the men watching them informed me that they had come here, then I also hurried here.

“I had expected them to at least wait for after dinner to come here and was surprised that they couldn’t even wait for this small amount of time,” Wei Zhiqian explained in passing why he had come over and with such good timing.

However, he still arrived later than the Yuan family by a bit of time, because the Yuan family had already arrived when he had heard the news.

His explanation was seamless.

After he finished his explanation, Zhou Jingan rubbed his stomach.

How empty it was…

They had specially rushed over to help, and the Tans naturally would not let them leave on empty stomachs.

“The cold dishes should be fine, but the warm dishes are now cold,” Xu Mingzhen said. She asked Auntie Guo, “Auntie Guo, do you have time to cook some more dishes?”

“There is no need for such trouble,” Wei Zhiqian said. “Just reheat the dishes. Otherwise it would be a waste and troublesome for Auntie Guo to cook new dishes.”

Even if he had to eat reheated food, it was impossible for him to leave without eating.

“I don’t know about that. Although we did not eat much, we had already started on them,” Xu Mingzhen quickly instructed Auntie Guo to cook new dishes.

“It will be done soon,” Auntie Guo said.

Wei Zhiqian then said, “Even if there are new dishes, we will still eat from the same plates. Auntie Guo, don’t bother yourself and just reheat the dishes. We will eat them as is.”

The Tan family of course did not mind.

If not for Wei Zhiqian being here, they would also only have reheated the dishes and not disposed of them and cooked new dishes.

However, they had been interrupted by the Yuan family and lost their appetites.

The taste of reheated dishes would be different from new dishes and would be not quite as good.

Auntie Guo then simply put the dishes back into the saucepan and heated them again.

This would be faster than washing the vegetables, cutting them, and then cooking them.

After ten minutes, Auntie Guo asked everyone to return to the dining room for their meal.

“Right, in May next year, it will be Mo Mo’s 18th birthday,” Wei Zhiqian mentioned at the table.

This birthday would be different from past birthdays.

In the past, the Tan family had celebrated among themselves.

Wei Zhiqian didn’t want to compete with the Tan family to celebrate her birthday, but once midnight had passed, he would send Mo Mo birthday wishes punctually.

At noon, he would celebrate with Tan Mo one on one and give her a birthday present.

Then Tan Mo would have an official celebration with her family at night.

While the Tan family doted on Tan Mo, they usually did not have an extravagant celebration for Tan Mo on her birthday.

There is nothing happier than celebrating birthdays with family.

However, 18th birthdays are different.

“Mo Mo will be officially of age on her birthday next year. Is there going to be a large celebration?” Wei Zhiqian asked.

“We had thought about it. We thought we could invite the people we are close with for a celebration, but we don’t want to make it a large event,” Xu Mingzhen said.

“We will invite only friends and family who truly wish Mo Mo happiness,” Tan Jinqi explained. “If we made it a large celebration and invited many people, not all of them would be close with Mo Mo, and that defeats the purpose. This birthday is very important, and it is enough to celebrate with people who are truly on close terms with Mo Mo.”

“Uncle, you must attend,” Tan Mo said to Wei Zhiqian.

Wei Zhiqian was waiting for her to say that. “Okay.”

“I wonder what Yuan Keqing’s score will be.” Tan Mo was curious.

“It doesn’t matter how much she scores if she is not able to attend Beijing University and is unable to annoy you.” This was also one of the reasons why Wei Zhiqian had Zhou Jingan blocking Yuan Keqing’s path.

Other than to seek revenge for Tan Mo, it was also to guarantee Yuan Keqing would not be able to enter Beijing University.

Based on Yuan Keqing’s grades, even if her examinations went smoothly, Yuan Zhengwen would still need to call in favors for Yuan Keqing to scrape by to enter the university.

Now that Yuan Keqing did not have the score for one entire subject, she would have to give up on entering Beijing University.

But if Yuan Keqing was willing to repeat a year. she might be able to.

Wei Zhiqian had observed how Yuan Keqing hated studying, so repeating a year would be a torture for her.

It was not likely that Yuan Keqing would repeat a year.

…

Soon, the day when the results of the high school leaving examinations were revealed had arrived.

Other students who took the examinations were nervous, while Yuan Keqing did not dare to face reality.

She did not have to see them to know that she had a bad score.

Yuan Keqing inhaled deeply. With Xu Mingjing by her side, they loaded the website to check her results.

Then the results appeared in front of their eyes…

marks…

Yuan Keqing was devastated.

“With these grades, even if we call in favors, I will still not be able to enter Beijing University,” Yuan Keqing dejectedly said. “Mom, I do not want to repeat a year. I have had enough of it. I do not want to repeat my third year of high school again.”

Those had been such terrible days!

“Then you will not be able to study at Beijing University.” Xu Mingjing knew how much Yuan Keqing wanted to enter Beijing University. “Do you want to give it up?”

“I…” Yuan Keqing did want to be with Wei Keli at Beijing University.

She considered the situation. Even if she did not attend Beijing University, with her plotting, she would still be able to meet Wei Keli frequently.

Moreover, her workload would be less compared to during her third year in high school, and she would have more time to find Wei Keli at Beijing University.

“I was thinking, why don’t we get your grandmother to talk to your aunt? Your aunt did not listen to us, but she surely would have to listen to your grandmother?” Xu Mingjing said.

“Then…let’s have Grandma talk to Aunt.” Yuan Keqing was hopeful again.

If she could, attending Beijing University was naturally a better choice.

Thus, Xu Mingjing immediately approached Old Madame Xu.

Old Madame Xu had always favored Xu Mingjing.

Moreover, in her eyes, this was not a big issue.

Old Madame Xu immediately called Xu Mingzhen.

At this time, Tan Mo was at home on her holidays.

When Xu Mingzhen received the call from Old Madame Xu, Tan Mo happened to be by her side.

“Your grandmother is calling,” Xu Mingzhen was holding onto the phone and had yet to answer it.

“I guess it is regarding Yuan Keqing.” Tan Mo drank a mouthful of soda. The air-conditioning was switched on, but summer was of course better with a cold drink.

“Today happens to be the day the results of the college entrance examinations were revealed. I guess that Auntie wants Grandma to talk to you, to have me talk to President Mu,” Tan Mo mentally prepared Xu Mingzhen.