In the winter of 1983, a cold northern wind swept through Qingyi Alley.
Su Manman lifted her chin and looked at the number 88 plaque on the wall.
The slightly worn vermilion wooden door looked understated yet dignified.
Half a month ago, her grandmother passed away. On her deathbed, she told Su Manman that she had a fiancé in Yanjing, surnamed Qin.
The two families had originally lived in Yanjing, but later both grandparents moved away due to work, and contact gradually faded.
Knock, knock, knock!
Su Manman grasped the brass ring on the door and knocked three times, neither too light nor too heavy.
After a moment, a middle-aged woman opened the door and sized her up.
She wore a patched cotton jacket and pants, oversized and worn, a pair of fashionable frog-eye glasses, and a Lei Feng hat with a scarf wrapped tightly around her face. Her appearance was so covered it was impossible to tell gender, and she carried a worn sack.
A beggar?
The woman glanced at her with disdain and said coldly, “It’s not mealtime at my house yet. Go somewhere else.”
She was about to close the door.
Su Manman: “……”
How outrageous! She was being dismissed as a beggar.
If not for her promise to her grandmother to be polite to the Qin family, she would not have held back her temper.
Suppressing her anger, she took out a letter from Old Master Qin as proof: “I am not a beggar. I’m looking for Qin Jianye.”
The middle-aged woman glanced at it. The envelope read: Sender—Qin Jianye.
A country relative coming to freeload?
Her Mandarin was even shaky.
But since the master valued rural relatives, she didn’t dare be too rude. She opened the door wider and asked, “May I ask who you are to our family?”
“Your family? So you’re just hired help by the Qin family? I thought you were the head of the house.” Su Manman mocked her, then said confidently, “I am his fiancée!”
The woman froze. “…Fiancée of what?”
“Talking to you is too exhausting,” Su Manman muttered, observing the layout of the house.
From the outside it looked small, but inside it was spacious.
Two courtyards front and back, paved with clean blue bricks.
Her fiancé’s family seemed quite well off.
The woman went ahead into the main hall and reported to Old Master Qin, who was reading a newspaper, “Master, someone is here holding your letter.”
“Let them in.”
“They’re already here.”
Old Master Qin, over seventy years old with half-white hair, slowly lowered the newspaper in his hands.
The person standing there was tall and broad, face completely covered, impossible to see clearly.
“Who are you?”
Su Manman cleared her throat and handed over the envelope. “Hello Grandpa Qin. My grandfather is Su An, my grandmother is Shen Lanxin, and I am Su Manman. My grandmother should have written to you.”
Old Master Qin frowned.
Su An had been famously handsome in his youth. Wherever he went, women would turn to look.
Shen Lanxin was like a fairy.
Their son had also been delicate and beautiful as a child.
But the woman in front of him was bulky, wrapped tightly, her voice rough and hoarse. Without her introduction, he would have thought she was a man.
How did fine bamboo produce such crooked shoots?
“Why is your voice like that? It’s warm inside—why are you still wearing a coat and scarf? Why not take off the glasses too?”
Su Manman instinctively touched her scarf and hat.
Her grandmother had been a gu doctor, well known in the area.
She had inherited her grandmother’s skills, but three days ago she was bitten by her own gu insect.
She swelled up immediately like a pig’s head, her voice turning hoarse and rough, and even her appearance changed drastically.
Today was already an improvement.
Originally, she had planned to recover fully before coming, but the village head had already bought her a train ticket.
Refunding or changing tickets was not worth it, and there was no way to treat her on the train.
So she had no choice but to come to the capital looking like this.
To avoid frightening others, she covered herself tightly.
“I caught a cold, I’m afraid I might infect you,” she said.
Old Master Qin did not press further and looked at the letters in silence for a long while. “Why didn’t you families keep in contact all these years?”
“Mailing letters back and forth was too expensive,” Su Manman replied, a faint sadness in her eyes.
When she was five, her parents went visiting relatives and died in a landslide on the way back.
Her grandfather was overwhelmed and soon passed away from illness.
Her grandmother became mentally disoriented. To save money, they moved from the county town to the countryside and lived very frugally. Even the travel money to the capital had been pooled together by the villagers. There was no spare money for anything else.
Old Master Qin fell silent.
He had once sent people to bring them to the capital, but Shen Lanxin refused.
Contact gradually decreased until it stopped entirely. Last month, he suddenly received a letter from her saying she did not have long to live, and her greatest worry was her granddaughter. After her death, the girl would come to seek refuge with him, and he was to help find her a husband—preferably someone from his own family so she would know their character.
Now that the child had arrived…
He needed a moment.
After a pause, he said calmly, “You will live here from now on. Xiao Zhao, prepare a guest room for Manman and buy her a couple of decent outfits. Let her wash up and rest.”
Xiao Zhao was the middle-aged woman who opened the door.
Su Manman immediately said, “Grandpa Qin, I’m not tired. I don’t need new clothes. Where is your grandson? Call him back so we can get the marriage certificate.”
Old Master Qin: “……Now? Isn’t that too rushed?”
“If it wasn’t urgent, I wouldn’t have come all this way,” Su Manman said, shifting her swollen body.
She had lived in dark, damp places raising gu insects, and was prone to severe allergies. She urgently needed a man to improve her constitution.
In fact, several unmarried young men in her village had shown interest in her. She had once liked one of them, but her grandmother disapproved.
Old Master Qin hesitated, then picked up the phone and started calling his grandsons.
“Hello, Xingzhi? Busy? Not busy? Come home.”
“Hello, Xingjian? Not busy? Then come back…”
“Hello, Xingyuan…”
“Hello, Xingyun…”
Su Manman was stunned. Why didn’t he tell them the truth?
And he actually had four grandsons.
How many sons did he even have?
Her grandmother had left too quickly and never explained the Qin family situation clearly.
If she had known, she would have come after recovering—maybe with her original appearance, she could have let them compete for her?
She might have chosen the most considerate one.
Old Master Qin hung up the phone. “Xiao Zhao, quickly find suitable clothes for Manman.”
Su Manman insisted again, “Grandpa Qin, I really have clothes.”
Old Master Qin: “Then why aren’t you wearing them?”
Su Manman: “I’m allergic. My body is swollen. My original clothes don’t fit. This outfit was hastily sewn by a neighbor in the village.”
Old Master Qin: “……”
Allergic can make someone swell like this?
He said seriously, “Manman, being fat is just being fat. No need to call it an allergy. From now on, come exercise with me more, walk more, eat less, and you’ll slim down soon. Now go change clothes.”
Su Manman suddenly stood up, took a deep breath, and shouted, “How many times do I have to say it? It’s an allergy, not fat! I am not changing clothes!”
Sister Zhao flinched.
Good heavens!
This girl had such a temper—like a firecracker.
And bold too, daring to shout at the master of the house.
Old Master Qin also twitched slightly. “…No manners.”
“Don’t change then!”