Su Yueheng smiled faintly and, without hesitation, pulled Lu Shengli’s hand over. Following Lu Sangning’s instructions, she carefully washed his hands, her voice soft and gentle. “If you wash your hands like this, you won’t have to worry about dirt getting into your stomach when you eat.”
Ever since his father died and his mother remarried, Lu Shengli had rarely been spoken to so gently by an adult.
He was a little dazed. His palms and the backs of his hands were wrapped in soft, delicate hands, being washed carefully and thoroughly. She even smiled at him, and there was no forced closeness in her eyes. This feeling was unfamiliar to him—something he had never experienced before.
Lu Sangning raised her paw. “Sister Yueheng, I want it too.”
Su Yueheng smiled and agreed. After washing their hands, just as she was about to take the two siblings away, she felt a hostile gaze from the house next door.
Curious, she looked over and met a pair of resentful, wide-staring eyes. The whites of the eyes were very visible, which startled her.
Su Yueheng quickly looked away and sat down at the dining table. While eating, she casually asked Lu Mingjue, “Auntie, who lives next door?”
As she spoke, her eyes drifted toward the right.
Lu Mingjue paused slightly, then said calmly, “Next door is Battalion Commander Yao. His wife is the daughter of a landlord family, and now she is the stepmother to the two sons of the Yao family. Why do you ask?”
Su Yueheng shook her head. “After washing my hands, I turned around and saw her. The neighbor’s wife looked at me in a very scary way, like…”
A madwoman.
The words were not pleasant, so she didn’t say them out loud.
Lu Mingjue frowned. “It’s not your fault. That woman from the Yao family treats everyone the same way. She thinks she is educated and refuses to bow to hardship, so she looks down on everyone.”
Su Yueheng found this contradictory and asked curiously, “Auntie, I don’t understand.”
Her bright eyes were pure and slightly confused, full of innocence.
The old lady was momentarily dazed.
“I heard,” she said, “that the woman next door, Zhao Ziling, had a fiancé. Her fiancé, in order to improve his social status, married a rural poor girl instead. Zhao Ziling’s father, wanting his daughter to live better, arranged for her to marry Battalion Commander Yao from the neighboring village. Zhao Ziling felt she was forced into it, and after following him to the military, she always acted superior and looked down on everyone.”
While Lu Mingjue was serving food to Su Yueheng, she said with some regret, “Because of a wife like this, Battalion Commander Yao’s career has never advanced.”
Su Yueheng choked slightly and said, confused, “I’ve never met her. Why does she have so much hostility toward me?”
Lu Sangning raised her hand. “I think it must be because sister is too beautiful. The lady next door feels inferior, so she tries to scare you.”
The old lady deliberately scolded her with a straight face. “Eat your food.”
Lu Mingjue also scolded her granddaughter verbally, but in her heart she somewhat agreed. Su Yueheng was more beautiful than any female performer in the cultural troupe; she simply didn’t have the words to describe it.
Moreover, her upbringing and manners clearly showed she came from a wealthy family.
Given Zhao Ziling’s personality, jealousy was likely.
Lu Mingjue changed the subject. “Yueheng, what did you graduate from?”
Su Yueheng smiled lightly. “High school. But when my grandfather was still alive, he hired Russian and English tutors for me. He originally wanted me to go to a normal school, but later… things happened.”
Her voice lowered at the end.
If it weren’t for the relationship between the old lady and her mother, she would never have talked about her family matters.
Still, it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be said.
Lu Mingjue said excitedly, “A normal school? After you and Xingzhou settle things, I’ll ask the principal whether you can become a teacher. The island’s elementary and middle schools have just been built and are in need of teachers.”
After speaking, she pointed at her grandchildren, who were eating with their heads down. “Shengli is eight years old, Sangning is seven. They can both start first grade. Yueheng, before school starts, you can help them with basic lessons so they don’t just play all day.”
She looked somewhat disgusted as she glanced at the two mischievous children.
Lu Sangning immediately shook her head after swallowing her food. “No, no studying! Grandma, I don’t want to become like the lady next door!”
Lu Shengli nodded. “Little Black Egg’s mom said the neighbor’s wife went to school and got silly—she’s not a good person.”
Lu Mingjue’s head started to ache. “It’s settled.”
Zhao Ziling is truly harmful.
If it were before, she would have given these two a good spanking until they obediently went to school.
But now Su Yueheng was here.
She looked smart—she would definitely have a way to deal with these two little troublemakers.
Seeing the tense atmosphere, Su Yueheng deliberately spoke up at the right time, pretending to be troubled. “Oh, I was planning to give you each a children’s storybook as a meeting gift. If you don’t want to study, you won’t be able to understand the stories.”
She gave them each some food. “Also, if you don’t read, when others insult you, you won’t even understand.”
Lu Shengli immediately became interested. “Sister, why do people insult others in such a scholarly way?”
Su Yueheng thought for a moment. “’Er wu yan, wu nai er he?’”
She asked, “Can you guess what it means?”
Lu Shengli blinked and looked at his sister, who was thinking hard. “Sister, do you know?”
Lu Sangning shook her head. “Brother, I can’t remember it.”
Both children looked at Su Yueheng with curiosity and said in unison, “Sister, what does it mean?”
Su Yueheng said, “You have no shame; what can I do about it?”
Then she continued gently, “And ‘He bu yi ni zhao mian’ means: go splash yourself with urine and look at your reflection.”
“‘Qiao yan ru huang, yan zhi hou yi’ means: I have never seen someone so shameless.”
After finishing, she blinked. “If you don’t study, you won’t understand these meanings when others say them.”
Lu Sangning coughed. “Sister, if you teach me, I’m willing to learn.”
Even insults can sound so elegant—hm, learning well and becoming someone like future aunt-in-law seems good too.
Lu Shengli muttered, “I didn’t expect insulting people to have so many techniques. I’ll learn too.”
Su Yueheng easily solved the children’s refusal to study. Lu Mingjue was both surprised and proud.
Her eyes sparkled. “As expected of Bai Shuo’s sister’s child—you’re just as smart as she was.”
After dinner, the old lady sent the children back to sleep.
She then took Su Yueheng back to her room on the first floor, a faint smile on her face. “Yueheng, I still have photos of your mother when she was pregnant. I’ll get them for you.”
Su Yueheng’s eyes widened in delight, full of longing. “Auntie, I’ve never seen my mother before.”
She sat by the bed, eagerly watching as Lu Mingjue took out an iron box…