Lu Shouyan’s gaze fell on Chu Wan’s face, but he saw pure curiosity in her clear eyes.

He moved his thin lips slightly and said in a very light tone. “Not necessarily, let’s talk about it later.”

Chu Wan listened to his answer and knew that he was just trying to fool her and didn’t want to talk more. In fact, judging from the time, he should be getting married soon.

Chu Wan stopped talking about it. “Seventh Uncle, let’s go to Grandpa Lu first.”

Lu Shouyan nodded. “You go first, I have something else to do, I’ll head over later.”

… …

After saying goodbye to Lu Shouyan, Chu Wan went straight to Old Master Lu’s yard, but she was thinking about Sun Xueya, the girl Lu Shouyan was going to marry in the future.

In fact, in Lu Shouyan’s previous life, his career was very smooth, and he rose rapidly. When he was less than 40 years old—which was still the prime of life for a man—he had already reached a high position and accumulated power that ordinary people could not reach. It was inconceivable what position such a person as him could reach in time.

But alas, his marriage was so unfortunate that all men couldn’t help but sympathize with him.

As far as Chu Wan remembered, Sun Xueya was introduced to him by a friend of Old Master Lu. She was two years younger than him and should be 25 years old this year. Her family had some background, and she herself was an actor at the National Theatre. She was also very beautiful.

According to Lu Jianshi, they got married in a hurry; everything was done in a rush. At that time, several from the younger generation discussed it privately among themselves, suspecting that Seventh Aunt was pregnant and the couple was afraid of this being exposed, so they had to get married quickly.

Who knew that nothing happened after the marriage; Lu Shouyan was transferred out, and the couple was separated.

Lu Shouyan himself probably had a rather cold personality, and coupled with the fact that he had been away from home for a long time and the couple were rarely together, so Sun Xueya fell in love with someone else.

This was discovered by her family, and by then Sun Xueya’s belly had already grown big.

Lu Shouyan hurried back from his posting to deal with the matter. Only then did everyone know that Sun Xueya and her lover had been engaged before, but the Sun family disliked the other party’s poor conditions and broke up the couple. Afterwards, Sun Xueya was introduced to Lu Shouyan for a blind date, and her family forced her to agree.

Lu Shouyan was cuckolded; naturally he was ashamed, and the Lu family also lost face. However, Sun Xueya knelt and begged, and Lu Shouyan, after reflection, admitted that he was also in the wrong. The prime minister’s belly could hold a boat¹; Lu Shouyan let them off the hook and went through the process of divorce. It was said that Lu Shouyan even generously gave Sun Xueya some money after the divorce, allowing her to marry that man and live a good life after.

Lu Shouyan handled the matter brilliantly. People sympathized with him, but also felt that he was magnanimous, so everyone praised him. As for the Sun family, they lost all face and were so angry that they broke off relations with their daughter.

Sun Xueya took Lu Shouyan’s money and found a way to go to the United States with her lover.

Originally, the matter had been a happy story up to this point, but who would have known that after a few years, Sun Xueya and her lover began to have a hard time. It was said that their daughter had some congenital disease and needed money for treatment, but they simply didn’t have that much money. They had been living a hard, displaced life in the United States.

When her lover saw that the child could not be cured, he felt that the child was a burden, so he dumped Sun Xueya and got together with an older American woman.

Sun Xueya didn’t expect that the man she loved would be so irresponsible. She was heartbroken and cried bitterly. She worked abroad alone to earn money for her daughter’s medical treatment and suffered a lot.

At this time, when she and Lu Shouyan had been divorced for 11 years, she received news that Lu Shouyan had never remarried.

She then had an idea and returned to China with her daughter to beg Lu Shouyan for help, hoping to reconcile with him. She was willing to atone for her past actions.

According to Sun Xueya, Lu Shouyan rejected her, saying that what had happened could not be reversed and there was no turning back between them. He also gave her 1,000 yuan as a sign of sympathy for her child’s nutrition and asked her not to come find him again in the future.

Sun Xueya was unwilling to accept this. After all, her life had reached a dead end and there were no other possibilities left. So she started to pester Lu Shouyan. Lu Shouyan was furious and asked the guards around him to drive Sun Xueya out and bar her to harass him again.

Unfortunately, Lu Shouyan was already Sun Xueya’s last hope in life. She hoped that Lu Shouyan would remember their old relationship and wanted to see him one last time to attempt a reconciliation. It was at this time that she had the idea of finding Lu Shouyan’s family. After searching for a long time, she could find no one else but Lu Jianshi and Chu Wan.

Then the heartbreaking incident involving the Nine Dragon Jade Cup happened.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

After arriving at Old Master Lu’s house and chatting with him for a while, Lu Jianshi came. Seeing this, Chu Wan said she was going out for a walk and buy some things.

When Lu Jianshi heard this, he hurriedly followed her out.

Walking on the street, Lu Jianshi spoke very warmly.

Chu Wan didn’t pay much attention to him at all and was lukewarm in her attitude.

However, Lu Jianshi still asked shamelessly, “Wanwan, there’s a performance tonight. Do you want to go? Let’s watch it together?”

“I’m not really interested. I just want to wander around by myself. You don’t have to follow me. Go and do your own thing.”

Lu Jianshi said, “I happen to have some free time. I’ll accompany you. You’ve been living in the countryside for a long time and haven’t been around Beijing much, so you’re not familiar with it.”

Chu Wan looked at him calmly, “Whether I’m familiar or not, you really don’t need to worry about it. I’m too lazy to say anything in front of Grandpa Lu. But now it’s just the two of us, so let’s make it clear. I hope you stay away from me.”

Lu Jianshi was a little surprised. “Wanwan, why are you talking like that? Didn’t we have a good relationship before? Did I offend you?”

“It was good before, but not so good now. I hope you can stay away from me, okay? I came to visit Grandpa Lu, don’t get close to me.”

Lu Jianshi had his own suspicions, “Have you taken a liking to Jianzhao?”

Chu Wan laughed. “Maybe I like him, maybe I don’t. I don’t really know, but who I like has nothing to do with you.”

Lu Jianshi was helpless, “No matter how angry you are, I can’t just leave you.”

As he was saying this, he happened to see some roasted sweet potatoes over there, so he said, “Didn’t you like roasted sweet potatoes before? I’ll go buy some for you, okay? Don’t be angry anymore.”

Chu Wan took a look and saw that the line over there was very long, so she said, “It’s up to you to buy or not, but let me make this clear, I have something to do and can’t delay any longer. If you stay here, I’ll leave first. If you can’t find me, you can go back by yourself.”

Lu Jianshi nodded repeatedly, “Why are you so impatient! It’s just a moment, just wait, I’ll buy you some roasted sweet potatoes, you’ll know how good  they are after you eat them!”

Then he went off to buy some.

Chu Wan saw him queuing; so she took advantage of a gap in the crowd, turned around, and left.

She didn’t go back to the Lu family’s house either. She just wandered around outside, looking here and there, bought herself some delicious food, and played to her heart’s content. It wasn’t until after six in the evening that she returned to the Lu family’s house.

As soon as she walked into the alley, she ran into Lu Jianzhao. When Lu Jianzhao saw Chu Wan, he didn’t care about anything else and stepped forward to grab Chu Wan’s arm and said, “You’re finally back. Where have you been? You just arrived in the city and you don’t know anyone here. What if you get lost? The whole family is so worried! I was just going to go out and look for you. If I couldn’t find you, we’d have to report you to the police!”

Chu Wan was surprised, “What’s going on?”

Lu Jianzhao quickly pulled Chu Wan back home.

As soon as she got home, she saw Old Master Lu interrogating Lu Jianshi. Eldest Uncle and Eldest Aunt were at home, and Lu Jianshi’s parents were also there. Everyone looked very anxious. It turned out that the guards and the nanny had already gone out to look for her, and they had also called the National Theatre to inquire.

When Lu Jianshi saw Chu Wan, he almost cried, “My ancestor, where have you been? I was so anxious looking for you!”

When Chu Wan saw Lu Jianshi, she said, “Didn’t I tell you that I might not wait for you? That if you can’t find me, just go back first? What did you even tell them?”

Lu Jianshi was helpless. “I just went to buy sweet potatoes, and in the blink of an eye you were gone!”

Old Master Lu’s expression had already turned cold. He pointed at Lu Jianshi and said, “You kid, I’ve noticed you’re so unreliable and impulsive. You went out with Wanwan and ended up losing her. Tell me, your company sent you on a business trip a few days ago, didn’t you also mess it up? Is this how you usually do things?”

In fact, Old Master Lu had been feeling dissatisfied for the past few days, and now he exploded in one breath.

Lu Jianshi’s father was Lu Shouxin, the third child in the family. He was also here. When he saw this, he hurriedly asked what was going on and all the mistakes Lu Jianshi had made at work were brought up. Lu Shouxin felt ashamed after hearing this. 

Lu Jianshi never expected that such a small matter would be brought up in public and he would be severely punished by Old Master Lu.

Amidst the commotion, the door was pushed open and Lu Shouyan came in.

He had obviously returned from outside in a hurry, and when he came in, he still carried the cold air from outside with him.

As soon as he came in, his eyes fell on Chu Wan, “You’re back.”

Feng Luxi beside him said hurriedly, “She came back by herself. She must have gotten lost in front of the theater. You were both outside looking but couldn’t find each other. Wanwan took the tram back by herself and missed her stop.”

Lu Shouyan nodded, “As long as you’re fine.”

Old Master Lu was still scolding Lu Jianshi. 

After scolding Lu Jianshi, he scolded Lu Shouxin and Qiao Xiujun. “How did you teach this child? He is getting more and more unreasonable. I don’t ask him to be as capable as his cousins, but at least don’t embarrass me outside. But he embarrassed me at work, and he can’t even handle a single thing at home. He almost lost Wanwan!”

His voice grew louder and louder, almost shouting at the end.

Everyone stood there, their heads bowed respectfully, not daring to breathe.

Chu Wan sat beside him, silent.

Her eyes accidentally swept over Lu Shouxin and Qiao Xiujun, her parents-in-law in her previous life.

At that time, Lu Jianshi cheated on her, and she wanted to divorce him. However, Qiao Xiujun scolded her and said that if she divorced Jianshi, she would never find another good man. She also said that Jianshi only looked for someone else because Chu Wan was not gentle enough.

Her mother-in-law told her, “What’s the point of you making money outside? If you don’t serve your man well at home, it will all be in vain!”

In fact, she provided them with delicious food and drinks, gave her parents-in-law plenty of money to spend as they pleased every year, and sent them out regularly for travel and fun. In short, she never let them down.

But she was somehow supposed to earn money outside while still serving her husband at home?

Chu Wan looked at Qiao Xiujun’s pale face and thought, You two, mother and son, should live your lives well without me.

Pearls and Jade Beside Me in the ’80s translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: Grandpa Lu’s 7 children have the generation name ‘Shou’ and his 8 grandchildren use ‘Jian’. Are you able to keep track of the names? Should I pin a name list? 😅

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FOOTNOTE:

1. The Prime Minister’s belly could hold a boat—a Chinese proverb that means the person is very broad-minded, generous, and capable of great tolerance. It is meant as a positive attribute, something praise-worthy. ↩︎