Chapter 212: The Shattering of the Maternal Filter

An Nan curled her lips into a smile, thinking she was being clever, wanting the best of both worlds.

“Sure,” she replied.

Her main goal was to get Chu Peipei to notice Chu Xiaoguai’s odd behavior. Now that she’d achieved that, she didn’t press the topic further.

She let Chu Xiaoguai keep chatting away, egged on by Gu Zhiyu, while Chu Peipei watched thoughtfully.

An Nan chimed in a few times, but aside from the moment she mentioned adopting Chu Xiaoguai—which got a response—everything else she said was completely ignored by the little girl.

Leaning in close to Chu Peipei’s ear, An Nan said, her tone dripping with tea:

“Peipei-jie, does it seem like Xiaoguai doesn’t really like me?”

Chu Peipei wanted to deny it, but looking at Chu Xiaoguai’s bright, animated face, she just couldn’t say the words.

She frowned, lowering her voice. “Nannan, is it just me, or is there something off about this kid?”

An Nan glanced at her. “What do you think is off?”

Chu Peipei hesitated. “I can’t quite put my finger on it…”

Just then, a girlish giggle floated over.

“Hehehe, Gu-gege, you’re amazing!”

Suddenly, Chu Peipei had an epiphany. “She’s acting like a little green tea bitch!”

An Nan burst out laughing. “That’s the first time I’ve heard someone use that term for a kid.”

Chu Peipei frowned. “She’s never like this when she’s with me.”

An Nan guided her, “Can a child really have two faces?”

“A child…”

Finally, a crack appeared in Chu Peipei’s maternal filter. “Nannan, why do I suddenly feel a chill down my spine?”

Meanwhile, after chatting away for ages, Chu Xiaoguai finally snapped out of her daze over Gu Zhiyu’s good looks.

“Mama, what are you talking about?”

An Nan smiled and answered, “We were saying you’re more mature than most kids.”

Chu Xiaoguai’s expression instantly turned wary.

She paused for two seconds, then tilted her head. “No way! Xiaoguai will always be Mama’s baby.”

This kid sure likes to tilt her head, An Nan thought to herself, but she’s not half as cute as Fugui when he does it.

For once, Chu Peipei didn’t reply. Chu Xiaoguai fidgeted with her fingers, about to say something else, when she suddenly caught sight of something green peeking out from An Nan’s neckline.

“Auntie Nannan, what’s that?”

An Nan looked down in the direction she pointed and realized her jade necklace had slipped out from under her shirt.

Her eyes flashed as she pulled the necklace out for everyone to see.

“This is Auntie’s necklace.”

She turned to Chu Peipei. “Peipei-jie, guess how much this necklace cost?”

Chu Peipei replied, “I don’t know anything about jade…”

Then, as if something occurred to her, she asked with a gossipy grin, “Did President Gu give it to you?”

An Nan put on the look of a blissful little woman. “He did! I kept saying no, but he insisted!”

She shot a sidelong glance at Chu Xiaoguai.

Sure enough, a flash of jealousy appeared in the girl’s eyes, and her cute, innocent expression almost slipped.

Gu Zhiyu, meanwhile, was struggling not to laugh at An Nan’s over-the-top performance.

Chu Peipei didn’t notice the undercurrents, too busy shipping her favorite couple.

“I knew it! He even asked me what you liked before. And now, look, he gave you such a beautiful jade necklace!”

An Nan was momentarily stunned. She turned to Gu Zhiyu, her tone suddenly more sincere. “You asked her specially?”

Gu Zhiyu met her gaze, lips curving up, but said nothing.

Chu Peipei, excited, chimed in, “Yes! You two weren’t even together back then!”

An Nan absentmindedly rubbed the necklace around her neck, lost in thought for a moment.

Then Chu Peipei remembered her earlier question. “Oh right, how much did you say this necklace cost?”

An Nan snapped back to her senses, remembering her original purpose.

She winked at Chu Peipei. “Take a guess.”

Chu Peipei thought about it. President Gu is so rich and he really cares about Nannan, so guessing high can’t be wrong.

“One million?”

A million-yuan necklace—she couldn’t even imagine it, but the man was a CEO, so he could definitely afford it.

But An Nan shook her head. “Nope.”

Chu Peipei asked, “Was I far off?”

An Nan replied, “Way off.”

Chu Peipei thought, Well, no matter how rich he is, there’s no need to hang half a house’s worth of money around her neck.

She glanced at Gu Zhiyu, feeling a little regretful for guessing so high and possibly embarrassing him.

So she lowered her guess. “A hundred thousand?”

An Nan glanced at Chu Xiaoguai, who had been listening intently the whole time, and said, “You’ve got it backwards—it’s much more than three million.”

Chu Peipei’s eyes widened. “What??”

The world of the rich was beyond her imagination!

“Nannan, stop making me guess. I have no concept of these things.”

Seeing she’d built up enough suspense, An Nan finally revealed the answer: “Eighty million.”

Before Chu Peipei could react, Chu Xiaoguai shrieked:

“Eighty million?!”

All three pairs of eyes immediately turned to her.

Only then did Chu Xiaoguai realize she’d lost her composure. She cleared her throat.

“I didn’t get that, was it eighty thousand or eight hundred thousand?”

An Nan snickered inwardly.

Just now she was chatting away about history, and now she can’t even tell the difference between eighty million and eighty thousand?

That fox tail is impossible to hide.

If it weren’t for her cute looks, Chu Xiaoguai would actually seem pretty dumb.

An Nan sneaked a glance at Chu Peipei. As expected, her expression was clearly not looking good.

An Nan explained to Chu Xiaoguai, “Eighty million means eighty times one million. That’s enough to buy twenty-six of the houses I live in now.”

She made it as concrete as possible, and sure enough, Chu Xiaoguai’s innocent, adorable mask started to crack.

An Nan added fuel to the fire: “Wow, now that I think about it, my neck does feel a little heavy.”

Chu Peipei was amused by her expression. “Right? Who wouldn’t feel heavy with twenty-something houses hanging around their neck?”

An Nan smiled.

At times like this, it’s hard for people to hide their true feelings.

Peipei-jie, as always, was genuinely happy for her, while Xiaoguai looked like she wanted to eat her alive.

Not even bothering to keep up appearances?

An Nan immediately drew Chu Peipei’s attention to her. “Xiaoguai, what’s wrong?”

Chu Peipei turned her head and caught the expression on Chu Xiaoguai’s face before she could hide it.

Jealousy, malice, resentment… none of which belonged on a child’s face.

Chu Peipei’s heart skipped a beat.

Hearing An Nan’s question, Chu Xiaoguai snapped back into character, putting on her innocent act:

“Nothing! I was just thinking, Gu-gege is really good to Auntie.”

An Nan raised an eyebrow. “I won’t argue with you there.”

Chu Xiaoguai: …

The girl rolled her eyes, then suddenly pointed at the necklace around An Nan’s neck.

“But that necklace makes you look old.”

An Nan arched her brows.

Starting to attack her age now?

She didn’t reply, just looked at her with a half-smile.

Chu Xiaoguai felt a little intimidated, glanced at Gu Zhiyu, and saw that his face was even darker than An Nan’s.

Awkwardly, she turned to Chu Peipei, hoping her mother would come to her rescue with a “kids say the darndest things.”

But to her surprise, Chu Peipei was angrier than anyone. “How can you talk like that?!”"