“That must be Ah Cheng and An Ran.”
Qin Yun was smiling as she emerges from the courtyard, her eyes immediately fixing on An Ran, continuously nodding her head. The more she sees her the more she likes her.
An Ran takes a glance at Su Yi Cheng, turning around, and with a hint of awkwardness she calls out to Qin Yun, “Mother.”
Hearing An Ran call her mother, Qin Yun naturally bursts with joy. She has been longing for a daughter-in-law for so many years, now, at last the longing has finally ended. Her face could not conceal her smile, she immediately nods and says, “Good*, very good*.”
*t/n: guai – kind of like, good girl/boy.. when you’re praising a child. Literally means obedient.
An Ran was a bit embarrassed. After finishing elementary school it seems like her parents and teachers stopped using guai in their speech.
Now being praised this way by someone, her heart couldn’t name this kind of feeling. Awkward and not knowing what to do, what to say, she can only keep a stiff smile on her face.
Qin Yun, delighted, holds onto her [An Ran’s] hands. She helps her push aside a stray hair dangling down on her forehead, and asks with worry, “Being in a car for that long, are you tired?”
“No, not tired.” An Ran shakes her head, her expression earnest.
Qin Yun observes her, thinking to herself that this girl is simple and honest, very much to her taste. This son of her’s, although had tied the knot too suddenly, but the person he choose was not bad.
Su Yi Cheng takes the health products sitting in the back seat and An Ran’s gifts. He sees An Ran standing in front of him and his mother, putting a smile to his face.
“Mom, is that brother and sister-in-law?” Su Yi Jiao wears a ponytail, her fair face wearing light makeup. A youthful face appears out from behind that red wood door. She’s wearing a simple T-shirt and jeans, looking completely different from the glamorous and mature beauty of that day. Upon seeing An Ran and her mother at the door, she laughs as she says, “Mom, what are you doing keeping sister-in-law at the door? Hurry and come in.”
“Right right right.” It was then that Qin Yun responds. “Look at me, all muddled from happiness. Come come come, An Ran, hurry in with mom. Your dad and grandfather are all waiting for you.” As she speaks she pulls on An Ran into the courtyard.
Su Yi Cheng carries the stuff and follows from behind. When he passes the gate, he was patted on the shoulder by Su Yi Jiao who was standing by the gate, her eyes following An Ran and her mother who were in front. She closes in by Su Yi Cheng’s ear and says, “Ge, you have good eyes.”
Su Yi Cheng laughs heartily and pats her back, “Impudent.”
Su Yi Jiao sticks her tongue out mischievously, trotting forward, following after mother and An Ran.
The courtyard was reminiscent of historical Beijing’s courtyard house (siheyuan), a small garden at the center, all kinds of flowers and plants being grown. An Ran hasn’t done research on these stuff before, so she doesn’t know much of the different varieties of floriculture. A couple of rooms surround the garden. Studios, guest rooms, kitchen, bedrooms, etc.
Directly facing the garden is the guest room, and at this moment Su Wen Qing and Su Han Nian were sitting upright on the sofa in the living room. Upon seeing Su Yi Cheng and An Ran coming in, a smile was brought to their face as soon as they saw them.
An Ran felt uneasy. She has no experience in this area, so at this moment she doesn’t even know what she should do. She hopelessly turns to look at Su Yi Cheng, the expression in her eyes looking like they’re crying for help.
Su Yi Cheng chuckles as he looks at her, stepping forward as he leads her by the hand, holding her hand tightly.
Hand being held by him, An Ran’s franticly helpless heart was settled down at once. She squeezes his hand tightly.
Su Yi Cheng glances at her, his eyes full of tenderness. He turns to look at Su Han Nian and Su Wen Qing, and starts to say, “Grandpa (yeye), dad, this is my wife, Gu An Ran.” He turns back to An Ran and says, “An Ran, greet them.”
An Ran quickly nods her head, calling out earnestly, “Grandpa, dad, mom, Yi Jiao, h-hi everybody.” Because her hand was tensing up, Su Yi Cheng squeezes her hand even more.
Su Yi Cheng looks at her smiling, his thumb rubbing against her hand, as if telling her he’s there with her, and that there’s no need to worry.
Grandpa Su and Su Han Nian look at An Ran, smiles and nods, but their expressions were a little strange. Coming from a military background, usually they are accustomed to the tough style. Acting gentle was a bit unnatural.
Although Su Han Nian was already 70 sum years old, but he is a soldier, and even though he has already retired from his position, he still insists on joining everyone with morning drills, so his whole person appears to still be in high energy.
The Su Wen Qing standing beside him wears scholarly spectacles, faintly smiling at An Ran and nods. Su Yi Cheng really resembles Su Wen Qing, his gentleness and scholarly-ness is also like his.
Su Yi Cheng passes the stuff in his hands for An Ran to carry, hinting her to take it and hand it out to everyone.
An Ran reacts, quickly taking it, and takes out the products that Su Yi Cheng had said to help lower blood sugar and gives it to the grandfather. “My father’s blood sugar is also on the high side. He takes this one and says it’s not too bad, you should give this a try. If it’s good I can get you two of these next time.”
Hearing that, a simple and honest smile creeps up on Su Han Nian’s serious face, thinking to himself, the wife of this grandson is quite to his liking. Ah Cheng this fellow’s eyes are really quite good. At the very least she is much better than the others that his mother had mentioned.
He fishes out the hongbao that he had prepared earlier, handing it over to An Ran. “Guai, from now on get along well with Ah Cheng.”
An Ran blanks, not really getting the situation. She turns to look at Su Yi Cheng.
Su Yi Cheng laughs, and nods at her. “This is from grandpa. Just accept it.”
“Thank you grandpa.” An Ran then accepts it with both hands.
After properly accepting grandpa Su’s hongbao, An Ran gives the lowering blood pressure product to Su baba, saying, “Dad, I heard from Yi Cheng that your blood pressure is a bit high. I asked about this and they said that this product is effective in lowering blood pressure. This is for you to try.”
“An Ran is really considerate,” Su Han Nian smiles warmly, and nods, accepting the health product in An Ran’s hand, then passes on his hongbao that he had prepared earlier. “From now on we’re all one family, no need to be so polite.”
An Ran nods and accepts it, saying, “Yes. Thank you dad.” Then she takes the scarves she bought yesterday and this noon and presents it to Qin Yun and Su Yi Jiao, “I’m not too sure what I should get, so I asked some friends and they all said that it’s the season to wear nice scarves, so I wanted to give mother and Yi Jiao separate ones and bought two pieces, but I’m not sure if you guys will like it or not.”
“Haha, I like it, I like it, of course I like it. Aiya, I told you my daughter-in-law was great, see how she thinks of me, unlike my Yi Jiao, just not pissing me off makes her good.” Qin Yun says as she giddily grasps An Ran’s hands. This daughter-in-law of her’s, she truly likes her the more she sees her.
“Mom, clearly now that you have a daughter-in-law you don’t need a daughter anymore. I won’t come back anymore then,” Su Yi Jiao pretends to be peeved.
Qin Yun jokingly scolds her, “You ah, if the next time you don’t find a partner and present him to me then really don’t come back. To me you coming back will just cause me annoyance."
“Aiya, dad, look at mom, is there ever a day that she doesn’t think of setting me up.” Su Yi Jiao hugs Su Wen Qing’s arm like a spoiled child, and turns to Su Han Nian and says, “Grandpa, you need to give me justice. Everyone wants to be by your side, see how my mom is trying to drive me away.”
“You devil girl.” Su Han Nian pampers her and pats his granddaughter’s forehead. On his solemn face a rare smile hangs on to it, and could only tease this treasured granddaughter in this way.
Su Wen Qing glances at his daughter, and turns to face Qin Yun, “Alright, we’re all present, let’s start serving the food.”
---END OF CHAPTER---
Sweet 😊
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How I wish my first encounter with my Mother in law is like this. It was too awkward. Lol.
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