Lin Wan truly couldn’t clear herself even if she jumped into the Yellow River.
But at this moment, she also couldn’t say she had deliberately made up lies in front of Lin Guofu just to brush off his desire for money.
Of course, the man before her didn’t seem to need Lin Wan’s explanation either. He only said in a low voice: “Don’t worry.”
Lin Wan didn’t know what he was telling her to be at ease about, but thinking of how many times Lin Guofu’s family might have privately approached Fu Xiuhuai, she couldn’t help but worry: “In the future, if Lin Guofu’s family comes to you, just ignore them. Especially if they ask you for money…”
“It’s not a problem, actually.” Fu Xiuhuai clearly didn’t treat these matters as anything significant.
Lin Wan deeply suspected whether Lin Guofu had used the status of her biological father to ask Fu Xiuhuai for money. She immediately became alert: “Did they really ask you for money?”
Fu Xiuhuai turned to look at Lin Wan, calm and steady: “They did, but I didn’t give any.”
“That’s good.” Lin Wan was unwilling for that family to go around asking for money in her name, especially from Fu Xiuhuai, whose identity and relationship with her were extremely bizarre.
“I know you don’t want that, so naturally I wouldn’t give.” Fu Xiuhuai added faintly.
Lin Wan stared at him blankly for a moment, seeming to read something from the man’s deep-sea-like eyes, but only turned her head to look out the window.
The Santana drove all the way along the road back to Cuihu Villa. Layers of tree shade, light and shadow on the road crushed to pieces by tires. In Lin Wan’s ears echoed the man’s last words. She wasn’t clear whether Fu Xiuhuai knew the true relationship between her and Lin Guofu’s family.
If he knew, had her former self told him personally, or had it come from his investigation of his marriage partner?
The Fu family dinner was neat and complete. The long dining table was set with seven or eight sumptuous dishes, several of which were Lin Wan’s favorites. The old madam had specifically instructed that for the next few months, the menu would remove the fish and meat that Lin Wan recently found uncomfortable and nauseating to smell.
Zhang Meiying hastily scanned the menu, twisted the corner of her mouth, and in the end could only obediently eat.
After dinner, Zhang Meiying returned from visiting a neighbor in the villa district with her husband and couldn’t help complaining: “Mom is really good to Lin Wan. No wonder he’s the late-life child—even the late-life child’s wife is a treasure.”
Fu Xiutong glanced at his wife: “What got into you?”
“Look at the table—every dish is what Lin Wan likes to eat. Anything she finds even slightly uncomfortable to smell is removed and not allowed on the table afterward. When I was pregnant with Mingjun back then, I didn’t get this treatment…” The more she spoke, the more she felt her mother-in-law was biased. Zhang Meiying’s grievances were like floodwater released, impossible to stop.
“That’s nonsense. What year was it when you were pregnant with Mingjun? The family was poor. Who dared to be picky about what could and couldn’t be eaten? Having anything to eat was already good. Besides, at that time the family’s only eggs and brown sugar were saved for you. Mom gave the word—no one else could touch them.”
Zhang Meiying curled her lips. Clearly only after her husband’s reminder did she recall this.
People always like to selectively weaken certain memories. She muttered a couple of times, and when she saw Fu Xiuhuai and Lin Wan standing in the villa courtyard, she immediately fell silent.
The brothers Fu Xiutong and Fu Xiuhuai talked at the side. The two brothers were thirteen years apart, but because Fu Xiuhuai had always been steady, they could still chat together.
Now one was director of the city’s Second Steel Factory, the other the boss of a well-known city construction company—both successful in their careers. Their conversation mostly concerned Jiangcheng’s development and the current changes in the situation.
On the other side, Zhang Meiying felt a headache as soon as she saw Lin Wan. Gritting her teeth and accepting this sister-in-law, seeing this face reminded her of her own son—annoying. After greeting her, she was about to leave.
But just after taking a few steps, she was caught up by Lin Wan, and the two went toward the living room together.
“Auntie, where is Fu Mingjun now?” Lin Wan had thought it over. Everything still had to be clarified by asking Fu Mingjun.
Between Fu Xiuhuai and Fu Mingjun, she naturally still trusted her boyfriend of half a year more.
“Why are you looking for Mingjun?” Zhang Meiying was instantly like a cat with bristling fur, her words agitated. “Haven’t you harmed Mingjun enough? Don’t ask about him!”
Lin Wan was baffled. When had she harmed Fu Mingjun?
But Zhang Meiying was unwilling to say more, leaving Lin Wan only with the back of her merciless departure and a reminder: “Also, you’ve already married Xiuhuai now. You should call me elder sister-in-law.”
Lin Wan: “…”
Fu Mingjun’s mother had adapted to her identity change quite naturally, slipping into the role.
Watching Zhang Meiying’s back as she went upstairs, Lin Wan, taking advantage of no one being around, asked the nanny Auntie Wang, only to see Auntie Wang’s face full of difficulty.
“Young Master Mingjun seems to have gone out of town and hasn’t come back.”
“Out of town? Where exactly?” Lin Wan was curious. What was Fu Mingjun doing out of town? She had never heard of him having relatives or friends out of town before.
Auntie Wang shook her head: “That I don’t know.”
Lin Wan wanted to ask a couple more questions, but heard Auntie Wang sigh: “Madam, take my advice—don’t ask about Young Master Mingjun. With your current identity… how can an aunt keep asking about her nephew?”
Lin Wan: “…”
Auntie Wang returned to the kitchen, washing dishes while silently lamenting that rich families were truly messy. Lin Wan used to clearly be Young Master Mingjun’s girlfriend, and now she had become Mr. Fu’s wife.
Oh my, too messy!
After getting pregnant, Lin Wan basically didn’t suffer, only unable to stand certain smells. For instance, fish and meat she used to love could no longer come to the table—to her nose, there was only a fishy smell.
Fu Xiuhuai’s mother, Jiang Yuehua, doted on her daughter-in-law. Not only did she instruct the family nanny to change the menu, she also began early to prepare things for the baby’s birth.
Lin Wan currently couldn’t feel the child’s existence much. Looking at the many lists, she didn’t have much feeling, but Fu Xiuhuai beside her listened earnestly.
“Mom, I’ll have someone prepare the things. Don’t worry about it.” Fu Xiuhuai remembered his mother had suffered much in her youth. Just past sixty, she was already full of chronic ailments. He worried her body couldn’t take it.
But the old madam insisted: “How long has it been since our family had so many happy events? I’m happy. Don’t concern yourself.”
Turning her head, she said to Lin Wan again: “This man isn’t meticulous. Mom will arrange everything for you.”
Facing the enthusiastic mother-in-law, what could Lin Wan say? She could only nod and agree.
Once the bedroom door closed, the expression on Lin Wan’s face—the one that said she could barely handle it—was not concealed at all, and Fu Xiuhuai took it all in.
The man had sharp brows and bright eyes, yet didn’t appear fierce—only faintly composed: “Mom is just like this. The last time she held a grandchild was over twenty years ago. It’s hard for her not to be a bit excited.”
Lin Wan’s eyelashes trembled slightly. She was clear about who the grandchild Fu Xiuhuai mentioned was, but didn’t feel it appropriate to ask more.
After all, Fu Mingjun was nowhere to be seen in the Fu family. The nanny Auntie Wang only said Fu Mingjun had gone out of town on business and hadn’t returned. Zhang Meiying, meanwhile, said she had harmed Fu Mingjun. It was truly strange.
“I’m just not used to it.” Lin Wan felt the warmth of Fu Xiuhuai’s mother from the bottom of her heart, without any aversion.
Because of the pregnancy, Lin Wan indeed felt sleepier than usual. At night, before eight o’clock, drowsiness struck, and she lay in bed gradually falling asleep.
Also because of the pregnancy, Lin Wan was woken by hunger. Opening her eyes, she saw pitch darkness outside the window, the moonlight bright and clear—probably deep into the night.
She hadn’t been woken by hunger in the middle of the night like this since becoming an adult. Lin Wan raised a hand to her belly, seeming to faintly feel a slightly bulging contour, and couldn’t help complaining inwardly.
The hunger at night was truly unbearable, as if a fire burned in her chest, making it hard to fall back asleep. Lin Wan controlled her sounds and got up, tiptoeing, preparing to go downstairs to the kitchen to find something to eat.
In the inky darkness, the rustling sounds were kept very light. Just as Lin Wan’s feet touched her slippers, she heard the man’s low, hoarse voice drift from behind her.
“You didn’t eat much at dinner. Are you hungry?”
Lin Wan was surprised that this man, accustomed to business, could guess at once that she was hungry.
Then, watching the man skillfully take out a tin of biscuits and a bag of corn soft candy from the second drawer of the chest of drawers, Lin Wan’s almond eyes widened even more.
“I never keep food in my room. Last time you were hungry in the middle of the night and couldn’t find anything, so you had to go down to the kitchen to look. That’s why I prepared some emergency supplies.” As he spoke, the man unscrewed the red biscuit tin, took out a chocolate chip cookie, and fed it to Lin Wan’s lips.
Lin Wan’s gaze swept over the word “Garden” printed on the tin. She vaguely recalled seeing the name in newspaper advertisements—a biscuit brand from Hong Kong, sold at a high price, said to be very delicious.
The rich chocolate aroma was tempting, but no matter how tempting, Lin Wan still felt awkward about Fu Xiuhuai personally feeding her a biscuit.
In her heart, this person was always an elder.
Her slender fingertips took the Garden biscuit. She bit lightly into it. The chocolate filling wrapped in crisp biscuit seemed to melt between her lips and teeth, perfectly soothing the late-night hunger.
The corn soft candy in Fu Xiuhuai’s hand was Lin Wan’s favorite. As a child in the countryside, she rarely had the chance to eat candy. Later, when she tested into Jiangcheng University and finally entered the city, the first city candy she tasted was the soft, sweet, fragrant corn soft candy.
In her university dormitory, she always kept a few corn soft candies to accompany her.
Looking at the corn soft candy appearing here now, Lin Wan savored the sweet taste in her mouth and finally had the concrete feeling that the woman who had married Fu Xiuhuai and moved into the Fu family was really herself.
++++
For several consecutive days, Lin Wan gradually found more and more traces of her former life in the Fu family—the small, specific details of her own living habits.
Similarly, the work at the city garment factory was also in Lin Wan’s familiar territory, and she grew more and more proficient.
Two-thirds of the batch of clothing produced by the garment factory last month had sold, with one-third still piled up in the warehouse. These past few days, it could finally be shipped out.
Lin Wan, as a newcomer in the factory office, was responsible for following up and recording. Watching the blue pickup truck haul away five tons of clothing in various styles and colors, she lowered her head and recorded the time, the pickup truck’s license plate number, the weight and number of garments, and the destination. Finally, she needed the workshop director’s signature for confirmation.
Director Huang of Workshop Two had just helped load the goods, so busy that the dark blue work clothes on him were wrinkled, his sweaty hands wiped hard on the work clothes a few times before taking the registration book Lin Wan handed over, hastily scanning the information, and signing in the last column.
“Little Lin, here.” Director Huang hadn’t had much schooling. After entering the factory, he attended a few years of literacy classes before learning to write. Now, in front of a university student, he deliberately wrote each stroke neatly, proudly returning the registration book.
Lin Wan glanced down at it. As she was leaving, she casually inquired: “Director Huang, why did the clothes sell a bit late this time? It doesn’t seem like it was like this before.”
Director Huang sighed, fished a crumpled pack of Yunyan cigarettes from his pants pocket, and shook one out. Just as he put it in his mouth, he heard Yang Guifen, an old-timer from the factory office passing by, remind him.
“Old Huang, what are you smoking for? Little Lin just got pregnant. She can’t stand the smell of smoke.”
Lin Wan had also discovered a few days ago that after getting pregnant, she couldn’t stand the smell of fish, and second, couldn’t stand the smell of smoke—smelling it made her nauseous and uncomfortable.
“Oh, then good thing I haven’t lit it yet.” Director Huang blew out the match, tucked the cigarette behind his ear, and continued the previous topic: “It’s just that those supply and marketing cooperatives and department stores aren’t buying goods readily anymore. How many years have we been delivering goods to them, and last month they started nitpicking.”
Lin Wan watched Director Huang casually complain a couple of times, then carry his cigarette elsewhere to light it. She also turned and headed back to the factory office.
From these words, the city garment factory’s old customers really were showing some different movements.
The older veteran workers in the factory didn’t understand, but Lin Wan—a university student receiving fresh information, often reading newspapers and magazines—naturally understood. Especially since many of her classmates no longer loved going to supply and marketing cooperatives and department stores to buy clothes.
The clothing styles in department stores were fashionable, basically goods from Hong Kong, stylish enough to rival the beautiful stars on movie posters. Even if people couldn’t afford the mall’s goods, they could still buy street stall goods, likewise goods scouted from the south. The workmanship was a bit worse, but cheaper, and still good-looking.
Thinking of this, Lin Wan planned to go to Jiangcheng’s two department stores on Sunday, her rest day, to look at the situation.
Like other jobs, Jiangcheng Garment Factory worked six days a week, and Sunday was the rest day everyone looked forward to.
Lin Wan had originally planned to invite her good friend He Qiumei to go shopping at the department store, and incidentally inquire about more news from the past year. But He Qiumei had something going on at home and couldn’t make it.
On Sunday, Lin Wan slept until she woke naturally. When she woke, Fu Xiuhuai was not to be seen. Last night she had heard Fu Xiuhuai mention he still had business to discuss on Sunday, so she hadn’t taken it to heart. The busier he was, the better—she would rather he not be home every day.
She went out and hailed a taxi. Lin Wan arrived smoothly at Jiangcheng’s largest department store. Unexpectedly, just as she got out of the car, she heard someone call her name.