If Song Zhiqiu didn’t count, Lin Su could be the only genuine girlfriend that Qin Sheng had officially acknowledged, apart from his first true love, Su Qin. As a young lady, with extreme beauty and wealth that could be coveted by any men for the past years, she allowed herself to undergo so much pain and loss for Qin Sheng’s sake. No wonder Yan Chaozong was in desperate pursuit for her. She gave up everything, fell out with her family, and chose to live the most ordinary life with Qin Sheng. How many good and proud women would sacrifice so much for their beloved men?
Especially during those six months when Qin Sheng was sick in bed, how would he have ended up without Lin Su’s good care? In a sense, Qin Sheng’s feelings towards Lin Su were beyond all doubt. He hadn’t meant to avoid Lin Su. The reasons were complicated. One was that he himself was in chaos; he had a mind full of things that he couldn’t even figure out himself, leaving no extra time for him to reach Lin Su at the moment, let alone explaining them to her. Another was that it might be better for Lin Su to live her life without him, after she had gone back to her own family. Otherwise, Lin Su might have been in a tougher situation, if her family found out she was still involved with him.
The only thing he could do then was to show up at the front door of the Lin Family, take their daughter away, and slap the family in the face.
Otherwise, nothing else would matter more to her at present. At present, Qin Sheng was planning to set out for Ningbo after the Spring Festival. He contacted Lin Su so that she would be prepared, only to find that her phone was turned off.
Qin Sheng became upset. He had always trusted Lin Su and didn’t worry about her loyalty to him; as a matter of fact, he was sure she wouldn’t have a change of heart. Lin Su had been going through all those ups and downs with him, and she wouldn’t have backed him up with no strings attached if she had been truly disappointed in him.
What actually worried him was her current situation in her family, in which she undertook great pressures that couldn’t be shared with anyone else. And that hurt Qin Sheng deeply. At the moment he could only hope that her family would be nice to her and didn’t do anything out of bounds, or else, he would skip all the formalities and do something horrible.
Thinking back and forth for quite a while, Qin Sheng was still anxious about Lin Su. He called her again and found that her phone was still off. He heaved a sigh and texted to her, “Dear my love, happy new year. I’m completely fine and will get you back after the Spring Festival.”
Whether she could read it or not, it was out of his control.
The new year was about to arrive in a few minutes. Qin Ran didn’t see his brother around in the living room after her phone calls, so she went upstairs while curious to find him, and the latter was just stepping out of his room.
“Anything wrong? Why the unhappy face?” Qin Sheng seemed obviously preoccupied in his thoughts, and that upset Qin Ran a little bit.
Qin Sheng sighed after deliberation. “Sis, Lin Su’s cell phone was turned off. I couldn’t get in touch with her and I’m worried that her family might be treating her badly.”
Qin Sheng never held back anything from his sister. He was really worried about Lin Su and was planning to fight his way through the front door of the Lin Family.
“Yo. Now that you feel sorry for your love, I’m getting jealous.” Qin Ran didn’t take it seriously and teased him as usual.
Qin Sheng couldn’t understand and asked, “Are you really joking with me when I’m worried like hell?”
“All right. I’m done teasing you at this time of the day. Loosen up a little bit. How is it possible that we’ll just sit and watch the future daughter-in-law suffer alone? Uncle Gongsun already made plans. Lin Su is fine. It’s just that her family rearranged her marriage. She has been under pressure, and almost could have suffered if it weren’t for her grandma’s partiality,” Qin Ran explained. For one thing, the Qin Family had never done anything sloppy before, and secondly, they wouldn’t allow anything bad happen to Lin Su, a rich fair young lady who had the guts to choose to be with a poor guy of an undistinguished family. What’s more, there had to be someone to take care of such things when Qin Sheng couldn’t be distracted.
Qin Sheng was surprised and asked, “Is it true, sis? Nan Gong is on the mission, isn’t she?”
What her family did to Lin Su was as he had expected. Qin Sheng had buried that deep in his heart and would definitely pay them back when it came to that moment.
“It’s not her. Uncle Gongsun assigned this to someone else,” Qin Ran smiled and told him.
Qin Sheng felt puzzled. “Then why isn’t Nan Gong back for Spring Festival this year?”
“Well, she went on vacation in Palau. She’s enjoying herself right at the moment and won’t be back in Beijing until the fifth day of the month,” Qin Ran laughed and said, “Now it’s almost twelve o’clock. Everybody is waiting for you to see the countdown for the year. Hurry up. We just finished video chatting with grandma, and were so close to slipping that you were here, since you are the New Year’s surprise for grandma.”
Qin Sheng felt warm inside at those words and became quite excited at the thought of meeting with that nice old lady who had always been there for him.
People began asking where he was when Qin Sheng was on his way back to the living room, and some were teasing, wondering whether he was bonding with his girlfriend over the telephone. Qin Sheng downplayed it without explanations.
“Ten, nine, eight, seven… three, two, one.”
When the bell finally tolled for the New Year, youngsters were cheering with great joy, offering their best wishes to each other. They had never been so thrilled before, since it was the first year that the two families celebrated New Year’s Eve together. Kids were all the more excited, because it was time for them to receive lucky money from their seniorities.
The old, on the other hand, seemed obviously calmer than the youngsters. After all, they have spent half their lives and were quite accustomed to those occasions. And besides, they were powerful people who had been under both good and bad weather.
At that point, kids began to bend knees to their grandparents and other elderly to pay their new year’s respects. Gongsun had prepared the gift money respectively, according to the family rituals beforehand, and gave them to Qing Changan, Qin Sheng and Qin Ran earlier that day. He kept it simple, with a small sum of several thousand yuan; after all, it was just a Chinese tradition.
The two elder kids were good and clever to thank the elderly with appreciation and best wishes, while Nao Nao, the youngest, ran to the courtyard soon after she received the lucky money, lest her parents might take it away from her.
Both Qin Sheng and Qin Ran received the lucky money from their uncle and aunt. Qin Ran felt a bit ashamed because she had been accepting their favors for years. In the beginning, Qin Ran was reluctant because she thought she was too old to take money from them. But they told her that she would always be their child as long as she stayed unmarried. Knowing that it was a new way of urging her to get married, Qin Ran finally took the money; anyway, it was meant for her.
A brand new year had just begun. The entire Zhu Family had to leave for home after an unforgettable reunion at the siheyuan of the Qin Family, since they would have quite a lot of things to do the next day, and were not able to stay the night there at the Qin Family place, though the host had enough guest rooms for each of them.
Qing Changan, together with Qin Sheng and Qin Ran, had a little chat with the guests, telling them to be careful, and then went back to the siheyuan after seeing them leave.
On the way back to the house, Qin Ran talked with a funny tone, “Dad, what did you do to invite my uncle over to our place? Does that mean your relationship is less intense?”
Qin Changan was not that stupid and would not play games with the general, for there might be a good chance that he would lose both ends. Therefore, he just told his daughter honestly, “It wasn’t me. Your uncle called me first, and I was surprised, too. However, it’s obvious that your uncle was doing this for you two kids, not me.”
Qin Ran finally had her facts straight, and said thoughtfully, “Well, I got it. Uncle Zhu was really working hard on this.”
Qin Sheng certainly didn’t figure out the ins and outs, but at some point he would figure out that he was the key to make things right for the two families.
Back in the living room, the servants, as Gongsun arranged, were cleaning up the mess from the dinner table since the real busy days wouldn’t start until the next day and would end when the Lantern Festival was over. During the next two weeks, their siheyuan would be crowded with people. Important people, of course.
“Uncle Gongsun, happy new year. You must be tired.” Qin Ran walked towards him and smiled. She had never treated Gongsun as someone else, so did her father, who had been receiving him as his own brother. And Uncle Gongsun had done so much for the family all those years.
Qin Sheng had been back for quite a while, knowing clearly about the man’s special place at home, so he said with a smile, “Happy new year, Uncle Gongsun.”
Gongsun took out the lucky money prepared beforehand and said, “It’s my job. Don’t say that. Here are your shares. Merely my best wishes for you.”
“Thanks, Uncle Gongsun.” Qin Ran took it without hesitation as she did in any other year, for she knew it was a token of his love.
Qin Sheng somehow found it inappropriate to take the money, but Gongsun just stuffed it into his hands. He was supposed to give the money to them earlier after dinner, yet still waited until then when the others had left.
Qin Sheng looked at his sister, and the latter nodded with a yes. He then took it in and thanked him with a smile, “Thank you, Uncle Gongsun.”
The night wasn’t young, and Qin Changan said to them, “Go and have some rest now. You two will have things to do tomorrow morning.”
There were things that Qin Ran knew for sure while Qin Sheng didn’t, yet he didn’t ask. Then they went upstairs for bed after a short conversation with the servants.
Lying on the bed, Qin Sheng couldn’t find peace. Things were swarming in his brain. It was definitely one special Spring Festival that he would never forget, with so much joy, as it had never happened before. The same time last year, by contrast, he was sick in bed; the only luck he had was Lin Su’s care and company that lessened his loneliness. The moment her name flashed across his mind, Qin Sheng began wondering whether Lin Su was thinking about him as he did for her. Being away from her for so long, he missed the girl even more and couldn’t help waiting to get her back sooner.
With all those thoughts in mind, Qin Sheng gradually fell asleep.
The next day came soon as the first day of the new year. When Qin Sheng finally got up and went downstairs, everybody was already waiting for him. Dumplings had been prepared all night and were served on the table that day, according to Qin Family’s ritual, while people in northern China would have that food the day before, on New Year’s Eve.
After breakfast, Qin Changan asked Gongsun to take out what had been prepared and then told Qin Ran, “Ran Ran, these are gifts for the Song Family. Take Qin Sheng to pay your Grandpa Song a new year’s visit this year. I’ll pass.”
Qin Ran listened and quickly figured out the purpose of that movement. The New year’s visit had always begun with the Song Family each and every year; only it was her turn to take the lead while their father did it in person in former years. For one thing, the Song Family had been an old family friend to the Qin Family, and aside from that, their house was located in an alley just a few blocks away from the other. Moreover, her father wouldn’t have reached so far without their help.
The main task for the day was the one thing that mattered to both families. Knowing that she wasn’t in a place to judge, Qin Ran just did as she was told by her father and left Qin Sheng worrying about the rest.
Qin Sheng didn’t refuse the arrangement. So long as he had accepted his identity as the only son of Qin Changan, he knew clearly that he would inherit everything from his family, including all those resources. And that day was just a beginning.
The moment Qin Ran set out to visit the Song Family with his brother, an independent young woman was sitting at the table with her chin resting in her hands, wondering about the man she was going to meet soon.
