The family of four was eating lunch. For a moment, the living room was filled only with the gentle clinking of bowls and chopsticks, and the sound of Lu Xiaoshuang slurping her corn porridge.
Lu Weihua glanced at his two children chowing down. Though his expression remained unchanged, he felt deeply comforted inside.
They were just ordinary, hardworking folk making a living. His son's academic performance was consistently stable, and after estimating his scores following the college entrance examination, getting into a first-tier university was more than guaranteed. He would be the first college student in the old Lu family. Their daughter had a slightly outgoing personality, a bit like a tomboy, but she had nothing to do with rebellious, wayward habits.
Having children who gave their parents peace of mind was the greatest fortune a parent could ask for.
Lu Weihua wanted to talk to his son. He was just about to open his mouth to ask the routine questions about studying, only to remember that the college entrance exam was already over, so that universal excuse for conversation was temporarily out of commission.
After a moment of thought, Lu Weihua searched for another topic and asked, "I heard someone knocking on the door at six o'clock. By the sound of it, was it Gu Yan's girl? Which of his daughters was it?"
"It was Jiashuo," Liu Jing replied. "She came over at the break of dawn to drop off the college application reference books for your son."
Hearing this, Lu Weihua chuckled, "A bond built since childhood is different. That girl is so considerate; she's definitely going to make a good daughter-in-law in the future."
Liu Jing nudged him with her elbow. "You have no filter. In four years of college, who knows where they'll end up going their separate ways? Don't waste your breath meddling."
The subtext was: it's not going to happen.
As a mother, she saw things crystal clear.
Although her son tried to keep it from his parents, anyone with eyes could tell how Lu Man felt about Gu Jiashuo.
Whenever Lu Man tossed and turned, unable to sleep, anxious and dejected, Liu Jing knew it must be because Gu Jiashuo was ignoring him. And when he was bouncing off the walls with joy, humming songs as he walked, it was certain that Gu Jiashuo had been in close contact with him again.
Liu Jing recalled that when her son was little, he hadn't been like this—trailing behind Gu Jiashuo, inquiring after her every need only to be met with cold indifference.
When boys were little, they were mischievous and easily mingled with the little girls, leading them everywhere to stir up trouble.
Climbing high to gaze into the distance and scrambling over walls, leaving the family refrigerator completely bare. Clothes and toys scattered all over the floor, the three of them barely writing two lines of homework...
As they grew older, girls matured faster than boys psychologically, and so it had turned into Gu Jiashuo easily seeing right through Lu Man's little tricks, while Lu Man could never figure out what was on her mind, reduced to a humble and passive state of bitter pursuit.
From start to finish, the girl could take or leave him, completely unhurried, while her own foolish boy was kept firmly in the palm of her hand.
Not to mention that Gu Jiashuo's family background was too wealthy—you couldn't find anyone richer than Gu Yan in the entire county. He was the industrial oil tycoon of all of He City, starting from scratch to build a billionaire fortune, someone their own family could never hope to match.
Even if they were of equal social standing, Liu Jing felt she wouldn't know how to handle a daughter-in-law like that.
Lu Xiaoshuang took a sip of her corn porridge and asked gossipvingly, "I'm curious about one thing: on what grounds is Older Sister Jiashuo so close to Xiaoman anyway?"
In her mind, she knew her brother's nature better than anyone. He was a good guy, an honest kid, and boys like that had the hardest time making friends with the opposite sex.
He and the Gu family twins should have belonged to two completely different worlds.
She genuinely couldn't fathom why Gu Jiashuo, who came from a wealthy and pampered background, would be childhood sweethearts with Lu Man.
Liu Jing puckered her lips. "You'll have to ask your brother. Your brother's had designs on her since he was a kid."
Lu Man was busy devouring his meal with gusto. With his bowl frozen mid-air, he instantly launched a triple denial: "Mom, don't talk nonsense. It wasn't me, I didn't do it."
"Don't you remember?"
Liu Jing reminisced, "Back in the early years, your dad used to run a logistics business with President Gu, and they had some friendly ties. One year, we took you along to visit President Gu's home. You were about four years old then, already in kindergarten, so you should have been old enough to remember."
"Mom, I honestly don't remember any of it," Lu Man laughed bitterly.
"Then what, then what!" Lu Xiaoshuang wore the curious expression of someone listening to a play.
"Listen to me. As soon as we stepped through the door, your brother spotted the twin sisters, and his little eyes went wide as saucers. While the adults were still exchanging pleasantries, your brother wormed his way right in front of the sisters, refusing to sit on the side—he insisted on wedging himself right between them."
Lu Xiaoshuang let out a snort of laughter. "Hahaha, oh mom, was my brother really that slick when he was a kid?"
Lu Man was helpless. Parents always loved bringing up a child's dark history, and the worst part was you couldn't even refute it because you genuinely had no memory of it.
"Your brother had one on his left and one on his right, looking as happy as if he'd eaten honey. It was probably the first time the sisters had ever seen such a thick-skinned little kid. One of them got shy first and ran back to the bedroom."
"Was it Older Sister Lingyi or Older Sister Jiashuo?"
"I don't know. They looked so much alike when they were little that outsiders couldn't tell them apart at all."
"As for the one who stayed, your brother racked his brain to find ways to amuse her."
Lu Xiaoshuang continued slurping her corn porridge, listening to her own older brother's embarrassing past—it made the porridge taste even better. "Hmm, the one who stayed must have been Older Sister Jiashuo."
Liu Jing continued, "Your brother coaxed her, saying, 'Little sister, whose hands are bigger, let's press our palms together and compare.'"
"'Whose feet are bigger, let's press our shoes together and compare.'"
"Seeing that they were getting along quite happily, the adults didn't interfere."
"Later on, we heard your brother say..."
"'Little sister, let's compare our lips next...'"
"Pfft—"
Lu Xiaoshuang spat a mouthful of porridge straight at Lu Man. Lu Man quickly distanced himself, nearly turning into a drowned rat.
"Cough, cough—Hahahahaha!"
While coughing, she couldn't stop laughing. "You really had it in you, Xiaoman! Hahaha! Oh man, I surrender!"
Liu Jing cast a reproachful glance at her daughter. If it had been her son, she would have hit him long ago. She continued, "After that incident, your father never took your brother to visit President Gu's house again."
Lu Weihua laughed as well. "It was still fate, though. The house Gu Yan bought for his father-in-law happens to be in the building right next to ours. That pair of twins often ate and slept over at their grandparents' place when they were little."
Lu Xiaoshuang chuckled secretly. "I remember that. Back in elementary school, Xiaoman loved running over to the next building. During the holidays, he'd linger at their place and refuse to come back, telling them, 'Grandma, I can just sleep on your couch,' uh—"
Lu Man shoved a piece of braised beef into her mouth. "Eating isn't even enough to shut your trap."
She swallowed the piece of meat, and before it was even all the way down, still eager to stir up trouble, she shook Lu Man's arm and said, "Xiaoman, if you could just pull out the moves you had when you were a kid, you wouldn't be struggling to handle Older Sister Jiashuo!"
Lu Weihua had a very good impression of his old friend's daughter. He asked, "That pair of twins from your Uncle Gu's family—they seem so gentle and refined to me. Do they really lose their temper at your brother often?"
"Hehe, I'm not saying. I have to keep my brother's secrets."
"It's normal for young girls to have a bit of a temper, as long as they aren't being unreasonable. What you'd fear is marrying a regular tigress."
Anyone who had been through it could guess a thing or two about the affairs of young couples. Lu Weihua leaned back against the sofa and said to Lu Man, "Son, how come you ended up liking that kind of—"
Smack—
Before he could finish his sentence, Lu Weihua took a heavy hit on the shoulder.
Liu Jing was standing right beside him, hands on her hips. "You better make this clear: what did you mean by 'also'?"
"Sigh, no, Jing, listen to my explanation—"
"Whose temper are you complaining about? Who's a tigress? I'm running around busy from morning till night, cooking and waiting on the three of you men, and what else do you want? Want to fly to the sky?"
Lu Weihua hurriedly picked up his chopsticks to change the subject. "This food you made is really good. Let's eat."
"Don't eat."
Liu Jing shoved all the dishes in front of the brother and sister. "Even a dog wouldn't give you the time of day!"
Lu Man: ......
Lu Xiaoshuang: ......