Chapter 9: One Family, All Named Lu

The autumn afternoon was bright without being hot. Sunlight caught in Lu Xiangnan’s hair, turning the strands a scattered gold.

Qiao Ran watched him approach, her mood as sunny as the day.

There had been plenty of handsome men at university, tall fellows over 180 centimeters who looked so good in uniform they could make a woman drool.

Qiao Ran had plenty of admirers too, but none interested her. She didn’t like men who could take on three opponents at once, as she could. Deep down, she preferred the delicate type, like Sister Lin, who would get breathless after a few words and might even cough up blood now and then.

Xiangnan stopped three meters from her. “Why are you here?”

Seeing him address the woman she thought was as fat as a pig, Chen Xiaomei couldn’t keep the delight from showing at the corners of her mouth. If she’d had an eighty-percent chance of winning him over when she saw Xiaoqi, now she had a hundred percent—no, two hundred.

She was confident she could make Xiangnan divorce his wife and marry her instead.

“I missed you.” Qiao Ran tilted her head and smiled. Her dark eyes were like black pearls washed in water, reflecting Xiangnan’s faintly reddening face.

“What nonsense,” he said in a low voice. His tone wasn’t particularly fierce; at least, Qiao Ran wasn’t frightened in the slightest.

Her handsome young man was so cute when he was shy. Hee-hee!

“Mr. Lu, is this your wife?” Chen Xiaomei looked Qiao Ran up and down with something close to contempt. “What a pity for you.”

Damn! Where had this scheming little flirt come from? No more hee-hee.

Qiao Ran’s smile dropped at once.

Xiaomei stepped forward, deliberately extending her slender arm and fair, clean hand. “Hello. I’m Mr. Lu’s colleague, Chen Xiaomei.”

She expected the plump village woman to feel inferior and flustered in her presence, to show the timidity of a country bumpkin.

Instead, Qiao Ran smiled and took her hand. “Hello. I’m Qiao Ni, Xiangnan’s wife.”

Her easy composure caught Xiaomei off guard. A village woman shouldn’t have manners like that.

Suddenly pain shot through her hand. She cried out and jerked it away.

“I’m sorry. I’ve done farm work for years, so my hands are strong. Did I hurt you? I’m terribly sorry.” Qiao Ran was all smiles, with no sign of remorse despite her apology.

“You did that on purpose!” Xiaomei shouted angrily.

Qiao Ran immediately put on a wounded expression and pressed close to Xiangnan. “Hubby, your colleague is so fierce. I’m scared.”

Xiangnan wanted to cover her mouth to stop her saying such things.

Strangely, she used to be so quiet she barely spoke two sentences a day. Facing her had been like facing empty air; he could almost ignore her entirely.

Now her nonsense irritated him, yet every time she spoke, his face grew hot and his heart raced.

Not far away, Xia Xiaoqi rolled her eyes so hard they nearly reached the sky.

Her best friend, a National Defense University graduate with the acting skills of a Beijing Film Academy alumna, could wring a rat’s neck bare-handed and shoot a criminal in the head, yet here she was clutching her chest and saying she was scared.

“What did you come for?” Xiangnan asked quietly. “And you brought my sister-in-law too. When did you two get so close?”

“To borrow money.” Qiao Ran held out a plump hand. “I need to buy two hens for the family, and while we’re at it, I’ll treat you to a meal.”

“Why buy hens? Is it because the rooster went missing? You and my sister-in-law ate it, didn’t you?”

Faced with his three questions, Qiao Ran put on a flattering smile. “Wow! My hubby is amazing. No wonder you studied science. Your mind works so fast.”

This time Xiangnan actually covered her mouth. “This is a school,” he warned under his breath. “Mind how you behave.”

Qiao Ran nodded obediently.

The moment he let go, she whispered, “Then can I call you that when we get home? Hubby.”

“I’ll ask the director for leave now. Let’s go out.”

It wasn’t that he wanted a meal. He was desperate to understand why his wife seemed to have become a different person.

After Xiangnan turned away, Chen Xiaomei tried to follow, but Qiao Ran caught her by the wrist.

“What are you doing?” Xiaomei asked uneasily. “Let go.”

“Stay away from my husband,” Qiao Ran warned. “Don’t get any improper ideas about my man.”

Her thoughts exposed, Xiaomei grew furious. “You’re crazy. How can you say something so shameless? Illiterate people really are crude.”

“Me? Illiterate?” Qiao Ran snorted. “I could talk so elegantly I’d scare you to death.”

“Talk elegantly?” Xiaomei looked at her with disdain. “Do you know Li Bai? Have you heard of Du Fu?”

“You know them? What, did you and Du Fu become sworn brothers?”

Xiaoqi laughed so hard she could barely breathe. Her best friend had maxed-out fighting power and maxed-out taunting skills. People should stop challenging her head-on; they’d be half-dead before she even got hurt.

Two blocks east of the school gate stood a state-run restaurant.

The three chose a table by the window. Reading the situation perfectly, Xiaoqi plopped into the outer chair, forcing Qiao Ran and Xiangnan to sit close together across from her.

“What do you want? My treat,” Qiao Ran said generously.

Xiangnan grew suspicious. “You have money? Where did it come from?”

“Our mother gave it to us.”

He didn’t believe her at first. He knew all too well how stingy his mother was. But Qiao Ran spoke so firmly, without a hint of guilt, that he began to doubt his own judgment.

Xiaoqi helped spin the story. “Mom said we’re one family, all named Lu, and we should help and love one another.”

“Right,” Qiao Ran said, nodding.

Something was wrong. Very wrong. It wasn’t just the two of them; what had happened to his mother too?

His long fingers tapped the table unconsciously. Perhaps he should write to his younger brother, Lu Yanbei, and discuss whether to bring a spirit medium home to drive out whatever had possessed them.

A server came over with a menu and asked warmly what they’d like.

“Red-braised pork,” Xiaoqi said.

“Crucian carp soup,” Qiao Ran added.

“Oil-braised shrimp.”

“Steamed donkey-meat dumplings.”

“None of those,” Xiangnan said.

The two spendthrifts had chosen nothing but expensive dishes. A single meal like that would cost more than his monthly salary.

What were they thinking? Did they intend to live on air afterward?

In the end, under Qiao Ran and Xiaoqi’s longing gazes, he ordered stir-fried pork, braised chicken feet, and pan-fried yellow croaker.

Xiangnan picked up a piece of lean pork and placed it in Qiao Ran’s bowl.

Her face lit up. “Thank you, hubby.”

His expression remained impassive. “Tell me. Who are you?”