Volume 1, Chapter 12: The Brother Next Door, Five Years Your Senior
Tonight, the Lu family’s old residence was unusually lively.
Upon learning that Lu Yanshu would be returning tonight, Mother Lu was beaming with joy. She had the kitchen prepare Lu Yanshu’s favorite dishes early on.
“Zhang Sao, has the pigeon soup that’s been simmering since noon been ladled out and set aside to cool?”
“In about ten more minutes, Yanshu should be home.”
A few days earlier, Mother Lu had bribed one of Lu Yanshu’s assistants to keep tabs on his daily movements.
Before long, Zhang Sao came over from the kitchen carrying a white covered bowl on a wooden tray, her face wreathed in smiles. “By the time the young master arrives, the soup will be at just the right temperature.”
After lifting the lid for a glance, Mother Lu nodded with satisfaction. “When the time comes, have Lingyi bring the soup to Yanshu personally.”
Father Lu, standing nearby, felt rather uneasy.
He was fully aware of everything his wife had been doing over the years.
From the very beginning, he had never approved of this scheme, but his wife insisted on going her own way.
Father Lu had tried to dissuade her, but whenever he voiced his opposition, his usually gentle wife would get into a big fight with him.
He could only hope tonight wouldn’t turn into an ugly scene.
Father Lu let out a sigh.
Unable to sit still, Mother Lu went upstairs to find Su Lingyi, intending to give her a few more words of instruction.
.
A black luxury car, concealed in the darkness, drove into the courtyard before slowly coming to a stop. The silver emblem gleamed with a cold light in the night.
The rear door was soon opened from the outside.
Lu Yanshu bent down and stepped out, striding toward the small Western-style building glowing with warm, bright lights.
Inside, hearing the commotion at the door, Mother Lu quickly set down what she was doing and hurried out to greet him.
“Yanshu.”
Mother Lu, who rarely had the chance to face Lu Yanshu in person, had red-rimmed eyes every time she saw him.
Lu Yanshu’s expression was cold. “Mother.”
Mother Lu tried her best to ignore his coldness toward her and said in an almost pleading tone, “Dinner in the kitchen is almost ready. Why don’t you sit here for a while and keep your mother company?”
In truth, dinner had been ready for a long time. Her words were simply a pretext to bring Su Lingyi before Lu Yanshu.
Lu Yanshu fixed her with a steady gaze, one that stirred an inexplicable fear in Mother Lu’s heart.
Fortunately, Lu Yanshu soon walked in the direction she had indicated.
Once Lu Yanshu sat down, Mother Lu took the seat beside him.
“Mother knows the burden on your shoulders is heavy, but when you live alone, you need to make sure you rest more.”
“Eat well, drink plenty of water, and don’t push yourself too hard…”
“Even if you don’t manage the Lu Corporation perfectly, Lu Tingxiao can’t crawl out of his grave to scold you.”
Mother Lu advised him earnestly, the worry and heartache on her face unmistakably genuine.
After all, a child is a piece of flesh cut from their mother’s body.
Lu Yanshu lowered his gaze, showing little reaction, his tone utterly flat. “Rest assured, Mother. I know what I’m doing.”
Mother Lu was clearly getting anxious. Her voice grew choked, and she abandoned further preamble, revealing her true purpose for the night.
“You live alone now, without a single companion who knows to warm you when you’re cold or comfort you when you’re weary. How can I rest easy?”
As she spoke, Mother Lu didn’t forget to signal Su Lingyi, who was waiting in the corner not far away.
Soon, Su Lingyi emerged from the corner carrying a covered bowl of pigeon soup and approached Lu Yanshu.
“Young master, please have some soup first.”
Mother Lu’s tone grew urgent. “Yanshu, you’re at the age for marriage now. If you don’t have anyone in mind, your mother has—”
Before she could finish the words she had been mulling over for so long, she was cut off by the cold, sharp look in Lu Yanshu’s eyes.
“Mother, I hope you understand that you have no right to interfere in my life.”
“Put away your little schemes, or you and Father can go retire abroad.”
Mother Lu stared at him in disbelief, her face turning pale. Her hands trembled as she reached for Lu Yanshu’s arm.
But before she could touch him, the warning in his gaze froze her in place.
Silence fell, dead and absolute.
This was the first time he had warned her to her face—and the last.
Lu Yanshu rose and walked out with a grim expression.
Mother Lu chased after him a few steps but couldn’t find the words to stop him.
News traveled fast.
The moment Lu Yanshu left the old residence, the butler already knew that he had been angered today.
Lu Yanshu, though perpetually expressionless and hard to get along with, rarely lost his temper—let alone flown into such a rage and spoken such harsh words as he had today.
The butler paced back and forth anxiously, his face tight with worry. After several turns, he looked at the person beside him and asked, “Did Miss Jiang say what time she’d be back tonight?”
Knowing that Lu Yanshu wouldn’t be home for dinner, Jiang Zhiwan had also requested a few hours off from the butler.
The other party shook his head. “Miss Jiang only said she would be back before nine o’clock in the evening.”
The contract also mentioned that from nine-thirty to eleven-thirty was the working hours during which Jiang Zhiwan was required to be on standby.
But it was only seven-thirty now, and from the old residence to here, it would take at most forty minutes.
The butler’s expression was complicated as he let out a heavy sigh. It seemed that the reminders he had given Father Lu and Mother Lu last time had not been taken to heart at all.
Now that things had escalated to this point, there was no way to even smooth things over.
And at this very moment, the one person who could possibly extinguish Lu Yanshu’s anger—Jiang Zhiwan—happened to be absent.
On the other side, Jiang Zhiwan, completely unaware of what had happened, was still at the hospital.
On the cabinet beside the hospital bed sat a small white jade vase with a wide mouth and slender neck, in which a single branch of glossy yellow wintersweet blossoms was inserted.
A faint fragrance stood out strikingly in the ward, which was otherwise filled with the smell of disinfectant.
Mother Jiang was in quite good spirits today. She held Jiang Zhiwan’s hand and talked with her at length.
She looked once more at the wintersweet blossoms by the head of the bed, and suddenly recalled a memory from long ago, a faint smile curving at the corners of her lips.
Jiang Zhiwan looked up and saw Mother Jiang’s smile, and asked curiously, “What are you thinking about, Mom, that makes you smile so happily?”
“In the winter when you were seven years old, you also brought me back a branch of wintersweet blossoms.”
Jiang Zhiwan furrowed her brows slightly, trying hard to recall, but no matter how she searched her memory, she couldn’t find even a trace of anything related to wintersweet blossoms. “Did I?”
Mother Jiang smiled and said, “It’s normal that you can’t remember. Later, you had a little accident and hit your head, and you forgot everything from before the age of seven.”
Jiang Zhiwan became even more curious. “Then where did the wintersweet blossoms I gave you when I was seven come from?”
“I’m not too sure about the details.” Mother Jiang shook her head. “I only heard you say that the older brother next door, who was five years older than you, had personally broken off a branch and given it to you.”
An older brother five years older than her?
Jiang Zhiwan tried very hard to recall, and it seemed that she actually managed to remember something.
But that something quickly slipped away in an instant.
She seemed to have forgotten something very important.