The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

As soon as she finished speaking, Mrs. Wang walked in happily, saying with a smile, "Miss, Miss Lili is here."

Ji Fu was overjoyed to hear that her friend had arrived, and even the hairpin in her hair trembled with excitement.

She first said happily to Ji Lingfeng, "Big brother, look, here I am."

She then got up and went with Wang's mother to greet Zhou Zhou.

Just as they reached the door, Lili and her maid lifted the curtain and came in.

The two sisters, who hadn't seen each other in a long time, were very excited. They held each other's hands and looked each other over.

"Why are your hands so cold? Go and warm them by the fire."

Lili rubbed her hands together with a smile, "I left in a hurry and forgot to bring a hand warmer."

"Look, I put a lot of effort into preparing this birthday gift for you."

Upon hearing her mistress's words, the maidservant immediately stepped forward and presented the box containing the birthday gift.

Ji Fu carefully took the box; it was quite heavy, showing that it was made with care.

She opened the box, and when she saw the words on the top, her face flushed red.

Startled, she quickly closed the box, glared at her friend, and whispered in her ear, "My older brother is here."

Lili didn't hear clearly. She had gone to great lengths to buy all the most fashionable books on the market.

Seeing Ji Fu's expression, she assumed Ji Fu didn't like it and asked, "What's wrong? Didn't you want to see them? I searched for these for a long time before I found them."

"You have no idea, when I went to ask those girls, they all tried to hide it and wouldn't say anything. I had to play with them for several days before I finally got the information out of them."

Fearing that she might say something even more outrageous, Ji Fu quickly covered her mouth.

He raised his voice and pulled her into the inner room, saying, "My older brother is home celebrating my birthday with me today!"

Looking inside, she saw that the person sitting at the table was none other than Ji Fu's cold-faced older brother, which startled her so much that she quickly covered her mouth.

He communicated with Jifu through eye contact.

Why didn't you say so sooner? Your older brother is here.

I didn't say anything I shouldn't have, did I?

I told you, but you didn't hear me.

Ji Fu shook her head. "Luckily, I stopped it in time."

She quickly gave her maid a look, signaling her to take the birthday gift that Lili had prepared to her room first.

Upon receiving the order, the little girl quickly grabbed the box and ran towards the door, afraid of being discovered if she was even a moment too late.

Ji Fu led Lili into the inner room. Lili first greeted Ji's mother very affectionately, and then greeted Ji Lingfeng somewhat cautiously.

"Brother Ji, hello!" The voice was a little flustered and somewhat shocked.

Indeed, Zhou Zhou was somewhat afraid of Ji Fu, mainly because his reputation was simply too formidable.

Also, her good friend Ji Fu always looks scared when she talks about her older brother. How could she not be scared?

Ji Lingfeng replied calmly, "Mm."

Ji Fu pulled Zhou Zhou to sit next to her, and whispered in Zhou Zhou's ear, "Lili, are you afraid of my older brother?"

Zhou Zhou replied with a wry smile, "Aren't you afraid?"

"I'm not afraid anymore."

"My older brother is a very good person."

Zhou Zhou, [Really?]

After the two girls whispered in each other's ears for a while, the room became quiet, so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Noticing everyone's awkwardness, Ji Fu smiled and suggested, "Big brother, didn't you just say you were going to play Pai Gow with me? Now that everyone's here, why don't we start playing now?"

Ji Lingfeng nodded. His main purpose this afternoon was to spend time with his sister, and since she wanted to play, he would certainly accompany her.

Zhou Zhou never expected that she would not only have to greet Ji Fu's older brother and sit at the same table, but also play Pai Gow together.

She coughed lightly, just about to make an excuse to slip away.

Unexpectedly, Ji Fu acted even faster, gently pinching her mouth shut a second before she could speak, and then half-threateningly said, "We had an agreement before."

"Whoever's birthday it is, we'll listen to them. You have to stay here today."

At the card table, Zhou Zhou looked bitter, Ji Lingfeng looked bewildered, only Ji Fu and Ji's mother showed genuine smiles.

Ji Fu: [This is wonderful. I never even dared to dream of such a scene before.]

She didn't care at all about her friend's resentful look; she was in a good mood today and wouldn't stoop to her level.

Just after they finished shuffling and arranging the cards, Ji Lingfeng looked at the cards in front of him and asked, "Um, how do you play this?"

Oh no, she hadn't expected her older brother wouldn't do that.

So Ji Fu spent half an incense stick's time teaching Ji Lingfeng how to play Pai Gow.

Zhou Zhou was surprised that Ji Lingfeng was bad at cards. She had a plan in mind: since she couldn't beat Ji's eldest brother in a fight, if she could beat him at cards, wouldn't that mean she was better than him?

How can that not count?

"I won!!!" Zhou Zhou smiled as he looked at the cards in front of him, happily calculating the money he had won.

"Give me the money, give me the money!" she urged the others with a smile.

All the initial resentment and embarrassment had vanished.

Ji Fu knew that her friend would change her personality once she started playing cards. She glanced cautiously at her older brother next to her, but to her surprise, he didn't seem to care.

Instead, he looked at his cards, lost in thought.

After thinking it over, he gave the money he had lost to Zhou Zhou.

"I win again!"

Half an hour later...

"Oh, bad luck this time, but I'm sure I can win next time."

"This game was really unlucky."

"Keep going! Keep going! Keep going!"

"Keep going!"

"continue……"

"How about we call it a day? I've lost all my allowance for this month."

"Brother Ji, are you sure you don't know how to play?"

Zhou Zhou looked at the mountain of silver coins piled up in front of Ji Lingfeng and asked suspiciously.

Aside from winning a few games at the beginning, she kept losing afterwards, quickly losing all her previous winnings and even losing all her initial capital.

Ji Lingfeng smiled slightly, "Today is indeed my first time playing this game, but it's quite interesting."

Ji Fu laughed and chimed in, "Big brother, you're amazing! You won against all three on your first try."

"Just good luck."

After saying that, Ji Lingfeng pushed all the money he had won to Ji Fu, saying, "Take it and spend it yourself."

Ji Fu glanced happily at Ji Lingfeng, then moved a little shyly closer to herself, pushing the object he had pushed towards her.

Zhou Zhou: [She felt like she'd lost to her own family.]

Ji Fu happily put all the money into her purse.

That's great, all of this was given to me by my older brother. It's the first time I've ever received money from him.

Just then, Butler Ji walked in, greeted everyone respectfully, and bowed before speaking to Ji Lingfeng, "General, everything is ready."

Ji Lingfeng nodded, then turned to the others and said, "Let's go to the back garden."