After dinner, the men lingered at the dining table chatting and drinking, while the women moved to the living room.

When the men had almost finished eating, Jiaojiao stood up with a smile and coughed slightly to draw everyone’s attention, then walked to the center of the living room with a grin.

All eyes in the room turned to her.

Jiaojiao, unphased by the attention, took hold of the microphone temporarily set up with the TV recorder, and led today’s little birthday star to the center of the living room, saying in a crisp voice: "Today is Little Potato’s birthday. As Little Potato’s only sister, I’d like to thank you all for coming to celebrate my Little Potato’s birthday. Thank you all. Come on, Little Potato, you say thank you too."

As she spoke, she handed the microphone to Little Potato.

Little Potato didn’t quite understand what was happening, but he knew that whenever his sister asked him to do something, it was usually right, so he said in a sweet voice into the microphone: "Thank you, thank you."

"Come on, everyone, give a round of applause, a little encouragement," Jiaojiao added, addressing the crowd in the living room.

But Little Potato thought she was speaking to him, so he mimicked: "Come on, everyone give a round of applause, chirp chirp a little bit." Fumbling over the last two words, he spoke indistinctly while enthusiastically clapping his small chubby hands, pat-a-pat-a.

The sibling duo’s little act seemed quite convincing, and although the crowd didn’t know what they were up to, they couldn’t help but laugh, even the men drinking came over to join.

Seeing everyone laughing, Jiaojiao, without skipping a beat, said: "Clap your hands, why are you just standing there?"

"Pat-a-pat-a..." Waves of applause filled the room, and Jiaojiao’s eyes squinted with delight.

Beside her, the slightly tipsy Ruan Jianguo was very supportive, shouting, "Good job, sweetheart! Great!" and even whistled in accompaniment.

"..." Jiaojiao nearly lost her composure.

Luckily, Shu Jiao next to Ruan Jianguo gave him a pinch on the waist, causing him to quiet down immediately.

Only then did Jiaojiao continue, "Today, since everyone is here, I’d like to discuss something serious with you. Look, I’ve worked so hard to entertain you all, could you kindly extend your helping hands and assist my brother-in-law and me through a rough patch?"

"It’s like this, my brother-in-law and I plan to start a business after graduating from university, but we need a bit more funding. Dear elders, could you please support us with a little bit? Rest assured, it’s not just free aid; once we make big money, we’ll definitely pay it back, borrow ten thousand and repay twenty thousand, borrow twenty thousand and repay forty thousand!"

"Hahaha... Jiaojiao, are you talking about illegal fundraising?" Shu Lang laughed.

"Exactly, and Jiaojiao, this borrowing ten thousand and repaying twenty thousand, borrowing twenty thousand and repaying forty thousand—leaving aside whether you’ll lose money, just assuming you make it, are you sure the money will be under your control? Haha, don’t boast too much, otherwise you’ll make a big joke when you don’t have control over it." Qin Qiong.

Jiaojiao, hearing this, didn’t rush to respond but instead gave Qin Qiong a faint look and said coolly, "Uncle, you talk as if you’re the one controlling the money in your household."

Everyone was taken aback by this comment, then burst into laughter.

"Pfft..."

"Hahaha..."