Chapter 43 (1/2)

Chapter 43: A Piece of Broken Chapter

The dinner was not as ceremonious as Anran imagined. As if sensing her nervousness, Su Yijiao’s mouth never stopped talking, and the atmosphere was light and relaxing. Qin Yun kept putting vegetables on her plate as if she were afraid that she wouldn’t have enough to eat or she would hold back from eating. Su Wenqing and Su Hannian also asked about Anran’s family background. When Su Wenqing found out that Gu Hengwen was a high school teacher that had a passion for calligraphy, Su Wenqing was itching to discuss calligraphy with Gu Hengwen. Su Hannian was usually stern and serious due to his military upbringing but appeared much more easy-going today, perhaps out of concern that his seriousness would scare off his granddaughter-in-law.

In the evening, the entire family was in high spirits and started to drink some wine. Although Anran wasn’t a heavy drinker, she also drank a little to mark the occasion. Then, under Qin Yun’s insistence, Su Yicheng and Anran decided to stay in the compound for the night.

After finishing dinner, Grandpa Su called Su Yicheng over for a round of chess, while Father Su went into the study and started practicing calligraphy as part of his routine. Meanwhile, Qin Yun was busy in the kitchen helping the maid clean up. Su Yijiao had initially planned on giving Anran a more thorough tour of the compound, but before she had the chance, she received a phone call from Youran Cuisine, saying that someone was causing trouble there, so she had to rush back to deal with it. In the end, Anran was left alone standing in Su Yicheng’s former bedroom.

Su Yicheng’s room had a simple layout and practically had the same layout as his apartment in the city, except for the fact that there was a bookshelf in the room here in the compound. It was an old bamboo bookshelf that wasn’t particularly large, yet it was full of books. The books he read seemed to be diversified and ranged from literary novels to autobiographies, ancient Chinese classics to foreign best-selling novels, and from mundane military magazines to trendy fashion magazines. They were basically all forms and all genres of reading material.

Anran randomly picked up a collection of poems and flipped through it. It was Xu Zhimo’s “The Night of Jadeite Cold Jade”. After flipping through it randomly, she reached out to put the book back in place, but as she did so, a note unexpectedly fell from the book. Anran stooped to pick it up, and discovered that it was a small poem: Bian Zhilin’s “Broken Chapter”.

You stand on the bridge and watch the scenery,

The person watching the scenery looks down at you from above,

The bright moon decorates your window,

You decorated someone else’s dream.

The handwriting was neat, and the words were tiny, so it was probably the handwriting of a woman.

“Anran.”

As Anran was reading it, the door was pushed open, and Qin Yun entered the room with a smile.

She put down what was in her hand and greeted her with a smile. “Mom.” Anran was actually still feeling quite nervous as she made eye contact with her, but compared to when she had first arrived, her anxiety had subsided considerably.

“Come. The two of us should sit down and talk.” Qin Yun pulled Anran over toward her so they sat side by side on Su Yicheng’s bed.

As she patted Anran’s hand, Qin Yun asked, “Talk to your mother. How did you and our Ah-Cheng meet?”

“Er…” Anran froze and found herself at a loss for words. There was no way Anran could confess to her that they met on a blind date, and then the two of them mindlessly headed to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get married.

Qin Yun misinterpreted the expression on her face as bashfulness, so she simply smiled and said, “I’m sorry.”

Anran simply blushed and smiled.

Qin Yun did not force it out of her since she was only asking casually anyway. After all, today was her first official meeting with her daughter-in-law, so she couldn’t scare her off by probing intrusively. She smiled good-naturedly as she took out a delicate brocade box from her pocket and handed it to Anran. “Here, open it and take a look.”