The old lady sat on the other side of the bed, gently touching the surface of the iron box, and sighed softly. “Inside here are all the letters I exchanged with your mother, as well as photos. I thought I would have to rely on these to get through the rest of my life… I never expected you to appear…”
As she spoke, she opened the iron box. Inside were scattered letters and several black-and-white photographs.
Lu Mingjue directly handed them to Su Yueheng, a gentle smile on her face.
Su Yueheng first found the photo of her mother during pregnancy and studied it carefully. In the photo, her “mother” had permed curly hair, one hand resting on her belly, her eyes full of tenderness and affection, radiating maternal warmth.
She looked almost ninety percent like her.
Of course, if not for the suddenly growing mole under her eye in this life, she would have looked even more alike.
Su Yueheng’s eyes turned slightly red. She looked gratefully at Lu Mingjue beside her. “Auntie, thank you. I’ve finally seen my mother. She… she must have been looking forward to my birth.”
Eyes don’t lie!
Lu Mingjue’s voice was a little choked. “Silly girl.”
She pulled Su Yueheng into her arms and softly comforted her, “Now you have me. From now on, I am your family. With me here, Lu Xingzhou will definitely not dare to bully you.”
She said it with certainty.
Su Yueheng smiled lightly and didn’t take the promise to heart.
Life is lived by oneself; there is no such thing as being bullied or not.
If possible, before meeting Lu Xingzhou, she hoped to get to know his future mother-in-law and the two nephews and nieces first.
This thought quickly passed through her mind. She smiled gratefully and said to the old lady, “Thank you, Auntie.”
Lu Mingjue raised her chin slightly. “Good child, learn more about your mother. Reading these letters and looking at the photos makes it more real.”
Su Yueheng nodded slightly.
Over the next two hours, Su Yueheng read through all the letters exchanged between her mother and Lu Mingjue, as well as all the photographs.
She took a deep breath in admiration. “My mother really was a legendary person…”
In her heart, she once again cursed scum like Su Chengguang. She truly couldn’t understand how her mother had ever fallen for such a disgusting man!
She pursed her lips. “If possible, I want to try finding my maternal grandparents…”
There should still be a chance. In a few years, after the reform and opening-up, it would be much easier to find people.
Does Bai Tingxin have any connection with the maternal family?
Lu Mingjue nodded in nostalgia. “Yes.”
After a pause, she looked at Su Yueheng. “There will always be a chance. Life is still long.”
Whether or not they could find the Bai family, she would still try to find and take care of the child left behind by Bai Shuo’s sister.
Lu Mingjue took a deep breath and then asked, “Yueheng, what do you think of the house? Is there anything you want to add?”
The topic changed too quickly, and Su Yueheng didn’t react at first.
After a few seconds of daze, she pointed at herself. “Me? Auntie, isn’t that inappropriate?”
Lu Mingjue waved her hand indifferently. “No matter how you look at it, you should call me Mom. This is your home—you can arrange it however you like.”
As for Lu Xingzhou’s opinion? It didn’t matter.
Now that her goddaughter had arrived, her godson might as well become the son-in-law.
If it weren’t for the unstable situation, that brat wouldn’t even be worthy of her precious girl.
Far away in Beijing, Lu Xingzhou suddenly sneezed heavily: Huh? Someone talking about me?
……
Seeing Lu Mingjue’s enthusiastic gaze, Su Yueheng felt slightly uncomfortable but still smiled. “Auntie, I think everything here is already very good. You’ve made the courtyard very lively, and the house is well arranged.”
Hearing her sincere praise, Lu Mingjue smiled with narrowed eyes, proudly nodding. “Your aunt doesn’t have many skills—just knows how to farm.”
Her form of address changed again.
The girl hadn’t even married Lu Xingzhou yet, so calling her “mom” felt awkward and might cause gossip in the compound.
Su Yueheng naturally followed the change. “Auntie is someone who has seen great storms. I’ll still need you to guide me in the future.”
Lu Mingjue nodded and pulled her upstairs, heading straight to the master bedroom. “This room has an open balcony. If you don’t want to go downstairs, you can sit here and enjoy the view. You can even see the sea from here.”
She pushed the door open.
The room layout was simple and very tidy, clearly lived in.
Curious, Su Yueheng asked, “Auntie, who lives here?”
“My son lives here. Don’t worry, when he comes back, I’ll make him move to the dormitory first.”
He can move back after marriage.
Su Yueheng felt a little apologetic. “Isn’t that not very appropriate?”
“That brat? Anything is fine.”
Lu Mingjue didn’t think there was any problem. There was another guest room in the house, but it didn’t have as good a view. That would be unfair to Su Yueheng.
Besides, after Su Yueheng and Lu Xingzhou got married, they would move anyway—too much trouble.
Better to settle everything in one step.
As she spoke, she opened the wardrobe and pointed to a row of drawers. “He doesn’t have many clothes. They’re all here. You can hang your things anywhere you like.”
Then she opened a side door. “This place is empty. I’ll have someone come to check it later. Hopefully, you can take a bath here tonight.”
After warmly introducing everything, the old lady added, “I heard that girls from wealthy families like to grow flowers. Tomorrow, come with me to the market and we’ll buy some flowers to plant.”
“Oh right, the courtyard is too plain. It needs flowers too. Yueheng, you know more about this—help me pick some.”
Lu Mingjue felt heartbroken for Su Yueheng, wanting to make up for all the maternal love she had missed.
She had no children of her own, and she never expected that at this point in her life she would gain such a beautiful, sensible, and intelligent daughter.
Ah, it was just a pity that Xingzhou had an injury and couldn’t have children.
Otherwise, the children of Yueheng and him would surely be beautiful and smart. Her life would truly be complete.
Su Yueheng listened to the old lady’s enthusiastic arrangements and didn’t know how to refuse, so she simply smiled and nodded. “Alright, Auntie. Let’s go together tomorrow.”
When she went downstairs to get her luggage, she handed over all the ration tickets she had brought to Lu Mingjue.
Seeing the old lady’s serious expression, she coaxed her a little, “Auntie, I know you don’t like to be polite with me, but I can’t just eat for free—that would be too impolite.”
After thinking for a moment, Lu Mingjue did not refuse.
Anyway, once Lu Xingzhou returned from his mission, they would already be a family.
That afternoon, the old lady acted quickly and found people to install drainage in the master bedroom.
That night, Su Yueheng took a comfortable bath and slept soundly.
The next morning, Su Yueheng and Lu Mingjue went to the market with the two children.
Even though she tried to stay low-key, her beauty immediately attracted the attention of the neighbors.
For the next five days, whenever she went out, people would look at her with scrutiny but no one approached her.
When Su Yueheng felt nervous, she actually enjoyed the peace and quiet.
Everything changed on the sixth night.
Lu Mingjue went out visiting friends, and the two children went out to play.
With nothing to do, Su Yueheng decided to take a bath.
When she came out, she discovered that there was an extra man in the house.