Marriage First, True Love Later

The dinner was not as ceremonious as Anran imagined. As if sensing her nervousness, Su Yijiao’s mouth never stopped talking, and the atmosphere was light and relaxing. Qin Yun kept putting vegetables on her plate as if she were afraid that she wouldn’t have enough to eat or she would hold back from eating. Su Wenqing and Su Hannian also asked about Anran’s family background. When Su Wenqing found out that Gu Hengwen was a high school teacher that had a passion for calligraphy, Su Wenqing was itching to discuss calligraphy with Gu Hengwen. Su Hannian was usually stern and serious due to his military upbringing but appeared much more easy-going today, perhaps out of concern that his seriousness would scare off his granddaughter-in-law.

In the evening, the entire family was in high spirits and started to drink some wine. Although Anran wasn’t a heavy drinker, she also drank a little to mark the occasion. Then, under Qin Yun’s insistence, Su Yicheng and Anran decided to stay in the compound for the night.

After finishing dinner, Grandpa Su called Su Yicheng over for a round of chess, while Father Su went into the study and started practicing calligraphy as part of his routine. Meanwhile, Qin Yun was busy in the kitchen helping the maid clean up. Su Yijiao had initially planned on giving Anran a more thorough tour of the compound, but before she had the chance, she received a phone call from Youran Cuisine, saying that someone was causing trouble there, so she had to rush back to deal with it. In the end, Anran was left alone standing in Su Yicheng’s former bedroom.

Su Yicheng’s room had a simple layout and practically had the same layout as his apartment in the city, except for the fact that there was a bookshelf in the room here in the compound. It was an old bamboo bookshelf that wasn’t particularly large, yet it was full of books. The books he read seemed to be diversified and ranged from literary novels to autobiographies, ancient Chinese classics to foreign best-selling novels, and from mundane military magazines to trendy fashion magazines. They were basically all forms and all genres of reading material.

Anran randomly picked up a collection of poems and flipped through it. It was Xu Zhimo’s “The Night of Jadeite Cold Jade”. After flipping through it randomly, she reached out to put the book back in place, but as she did so, a note unexpectedly fell from the book. Anran stooped to pick it up, and discovered that it was a small poem: Bian Zhilin’s “Broken Chapter”.

You stand on the bridge and watch the scenery,

The person watching the scenery looks down at you from above,

The bright moon decorates your window,

You decorated someone else’s dream.

The handwriting was neat, and the words were tiny, so it was probably the handwriting of a woman.

“Anran.”

As Anran was reading it, the door was pushed open, and Qin Yun entered the room with a smile.

She put down what was in her hand and greeted her with a smile. “Mom.” Anran was actually still feeling quite nervous as she made eye contact with her, but compared to when she had first arrived, her anxiety had subsided considerably.

“Come. The two of us should sit down and talk.” Qin Yun pulled Anran over toward her so they sat side by side on Su Yicheng’s bed.

As she patted Anran’s hand, Qin Yun asked, “Talk to your mother. How did you and our Ah-Cheng meet?”

“Er…” Anran froze and found herself at a loss for words. There was no way Anran could confess to her that they met on a blind date, and then the two of them mindlessly headed to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get married.

Qin Yun misinterpreted the expression on her face as bashfulness, so she simply smiled and said, “I’m sorry.”

Anran simply blushed and smiled.

Qin Yun did not force it out of her since she was only asking casually anyway. After all, today was her first official meeting with her daughter-in-law, so she couldn’t scare her off by probing intrusively. She smiled good-naturedly as she took out a delicate brocade box from her pocket and handed it to Anran. “Here, open it and take a look.”

Anran received it with a blank expression, then obediently opened the brocade box, which contained an exquisite jade bracelet. It was iridescent and lustrous, and she could instantly tell that it was of the highest quality.

“Mom, what do you mean by this?” Anran looked at her hesitantly and was not quite sure of her intention.

Qin Yun smiled, reached out to take out the jade bracelet, then put it on Anran’s hand and said, “This jade bracelet was given to me by my mother-in-law—who is Ah-Cheng’s grandma—when I married into this family. Now that Ah-Cheng is married, this bracelet should be passed on to you.” Frankly, her fair and delicate little hand really did look well with the emerald jade bracelet on.

Upon hearing this, Anran immediately wanted to take off the jade bracelet. “Mom, this is too heavy a gift. I-I can’t ask for it.” This bracelet was passed down from generation to generation, just like a family heirloom; how could she afford the burden of something like this?!

“Wear it,” Qin Yun said solemnly yet earnestly. “Why not? This is for the Su family’s bride. Aren’t you the Su family’s bride?”

“I…” Anran was speechless. Technically, she was indeed the Su family’s bride at the moment. But in the future? She couldn’t be sure. After all, her marriage with Su Yicheng wasn’t the byproduct of a typical romantic relationship.

Anran’s speechlessness greatly amused Qin Yun, who took her hand and said with a small smile, “You two live in the city, so you will have to take care of Ah-Cheng in the future. Of course, if Ah-Cheng doesn’t treat you well, with whatever grievances you have, you can come to me and I will sort it out for you.”

Anran listened and nodded.

Although it was a conversation between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, Qin Yun did most of the speaking while Anran simply smiled and nodded. In order to “please” her new daughter-in-law, Qin Yun told her a lot of Su Yicheng’s embarrassing childhood stories, and Anran was surprised to find out that Su Yicheng, who appeared like such a gentleman now, had such a naughty childhood. Apparently, he climbed trees and fences when he was little and was frequently punished by his father for disobedience as well.

As the two of them chatted away animatedly, the door opened. Su Yicheng glanced at his mother and wife with a smile and said, “What are you talking about? I could hear you two from outside the door.”

“Private conversation between mother and daughter-in-law. I won’t tell you,” Qin Yun said as she stood up and was ready to leave. “All right then, the time is getting late, and since you two have to go to work again tomorrow morning, get some early rest.” After she said this, she turned around and left.

Su Yicheng closed the door, then turned around to see Anran grabbing her right hand with her left hand and standing there with an anxious look on her face.

Su Yicheng raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Anran looked at him, shook her head, then said, “I-I’m going to take a shower.” Now that there were only the two of them, Anran suddenly remembered the last night’s event, and all the self-consciousness and awkwardness returned to her, making her feel too anxious to face him.

Su Yicheng was still staring at her with a smile plastered on his face, only for Anran to stop dead in her tracks when she had already reached the bathroom door, then suddenly turn around and say, “I changed my mind. You take a shower first i-instead.”

Su Yicheng raised his eyebrows, then approached her and asked, “Why?”

Averting her gaze to avoid eye contact, Anran simply said, “I-I don’t feel like taking a shower today.” Then she headed toward the not-so-large bed. There was no way she was actually going to tell him that the reason was that she didn’t have any pajamas. At this point, she was practically phobic about pajamas.

Su Yicheng looked at her in amusement and instantly saw through her worries. He turned around and took a white shirt out of the closet in the room. He always came back and stayed for a few nights every month, so he kept a few sets of clothing in the room.

He turned around and handed the white shirt to Anran, then said, “Go now.”

Anran stared at him blankly, then looked down at the shirt in his hand. It took her a while to take the shirt from his hands as she blushed profusely, then she headed straight into the bathroom without looking back.

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