Su Yuanshan laughed heartily and picked up the unfinished thread right away.
“I was just asking this young man why he still hasn’t settled down all these years. He says he’s been too busy. You as his sister don’t do enough worrying for him?”
Huo Mingyue rolled her eyes before she even spoke.
“Worry? I’ve worried myself nearly to pieces over him!”
She didn’t bother waiting for Huo Chenzhou to step aside and just started airing her grievances.
“Uncle Su you have no idea. Him? Busy? Busy about nothing at all!”
Huo Mingyue pointed at Huo Chenzhou’s cool composed face utterly frustrated.
“So many women in the army so many pretty girls in the art troupe and all those we grew up with in the compound which one wouldn’t want to exchange a few more words with him?”
“And what happens? He’s just a block of wood!”
“A girl offers him water he says it’s public property not for personal use; someone gives him gloves he says the army issues enough already; last time a girl pretended to twist her ankle hoping he’d help her guess what he did?”
Su Yuanshan listened thoroughly entertained. “What did he do then?”
Su Xingci also listened closely.
Huo Mingyue huffed. “He called the stretcher team! Had four soldiers carry that girl all around the parade ground saying she needed the medical station the whole regiment knew about it afterwards! Who would dare show interest in him now?”
Su Xingci couldn’t help letting out a little laugh. He really was hopelessly unromantic. Huo Chenzhou stood there expressionless hands tucked in his pockets unaffected by it all.
“Sister finished?” he asked evenly sounding indifferent.
“Not finished!” Huo Mingyue shot him a glare and turned back to Su Yuanshan.
“Uncle Su don’t believe that busy talk. He just hasn’t woken up to it! Not even a female mosquito can get close to him. Mother was so worried a couple years back she’d mutter at home wondering if he doesn’t like women.”
“He’s the only son in the family if it were really so Mother would be heartbroken to death!”
The onlooking women giggled behind their hands. Su Xingci glanced over too wondering if it could be true. Impossible. Just the way he looked at her earlier that quiet intensity was pure unmistakeable man.
Yet a thought crossed her mind. Compared to Gu Yuanhang with his honeyed words and wandering affections someone like Huo Chenzhou seemed remarkably clean. A man his age with such an unblemished romantic life who kept himself so truly uncommonly seen.
Su Yuanshan laughed aloud stepping in to smooth things over.
“It’s just that the right time hasn’t come yet! When fate arrives it will all fall into place!”
He spoke glancing toward Su Xingci almost imperceptibly.
Huo Mingyue was sharp as anyone raised in the compound. She caught the look then took in the quiet pretty girl beside him and her mind was already working.
Su’s daughter was truly lovely dressed simply yes but her figure her skin and those eyes put all those made up girls in the art troupe to shame. Most importantly she had seen her brother staring intently at the girl’s face just now. That was no ordinary look. Huo Mingyue’s eyes twinkled and she shifted her tone.
“Uncle Su is exactly right fate cannot be rushed.”
She beamed leaning closer to Su Xingci. “Xingci isn’t it? Even prettier up close. Do you have someone special?”
So direct. Su Xingci hesitated glancing at Su Yuanshan then at Huo Chenzhou. He said nothing but turned his head waiting for her answer. Her chest tightened. Someone special? The late Gu Yuanhang? She bit her lip before she could speak Su Yuanshan answered for her.
“Ah don’t even mention it! There was someone before but it’s over! She’s single now perfectly free!”
Spoken without a trace of hesitation completely forgetting her former partner had only just passed away.
“Better that way!” Huo Mingyue clapped delighted. “Out with the old in with the new! Xingci do come visit me often I’ve all sorts of nice things at home and Tangtang already adores you don’t you darling?”
Tangtang not fully understanding the grown ups scheming nodded enthusiastically at hearing her name.
“Love pretty sister! Sister smells so nice!”
Huo Mingyue lifted her chin toward Huo Chenzhou triumphantly as if to say see I’m making it happen for you.
Huo Chenzhou ignored her gesture his gaze resting on Su Xingci’s flushed ears. He took a step forward closing the distance his tall figure casting her in shadow.
Su Xingci’s breathing quickened unaccountably nervous.
Su Yuanshan looked him over more pleased by the minute ready to claim him as a son in law right there. Then the joy faded something felt off.
His smile softened looking at his young daughter then at the steady imposing Huo Chenzhou and he grew thoughtful.
“Mingyue…” he said scratching his head. “Chenzhou is outstanding truly hard to match but something just struck me. My Xingci is only twenty still very much a girl. Chenzhou if I’m not mistaken must be close to thirty?”
Su Xingci lifted her head. Ten years older.
When she was eight he was already a young man preparing for military academy; now barely twenty herself he commanded a regiment. They were from different worlds.
Su Yuanshan sighed. “Quite an age gap ten whole years two generations apart. If she were with him she’d be like being with an elder. Not right needs careful thinking.”
Huo Chenzhou’s expression remained unchanged but his fingers shifted inside his pockets. He lifted his eyes met Su Yuanshan’s gaze about to speak when Huo Mingyue burst out.
“What’s too big? Uncle Su that’s old fashioned thinking!”
She slapped her bag onto the counter.
“As the saying goes a wife three years younger brings prosperity so a husband ten years older is even better! Ten years? That’s more than three portions of good fortune! That’s a blessed match solid as can be!”
Su Xingci stared could anyone really calculate it like that?