By the time Jiang Ji headed back, it was already past four in the afternoon. On weekends there was hardly any distinction between morning and evening rush hour; the roads were congested all day. While waiting at a red light, he messaged Lu Xingyan: “My mom accepted us. How did things go on your end?”
Jiang Wanyi had done far more than simply “accept” them—she had even offered to help persuade Lu Yong.
The moment Jiang Ji heard that, he knew there probably would not be much of a problem. What he had not expected was for things to go smoothly on Lu Xingyan’s side too, without Jiang Wanyi needing to step in and mediate.
“Basically settled,” Lu Xingyan typed back. “Dad and I had an argument at first.”
Jiang Ji: “Didn’t I tell you to keep your temper under control?”
Lu Xingyan: “I did. He was the one who insisted on arguing with me.”
Lu Xingyan: “The moment I walked through the door, he grabbed a teacup and threw it at me. Brand-new too, and it looked pretty expensive. Dad didn’t even care. He was like he’d gone berserk—only after he’d smashed his fill did he let me sit down.”
Jiang Ji: “…”
For a moment, Jiang Ji could not tell which of the father and son had the bigger problem.
He crawled along the congested road, stopping and starting, checking his messages whenever he had the chance.
Lu Xingyan said, “My dad hasn’t been idle these past few days. He was probably busy digging up all my embarrassing history. I said, ‘Please calm down. Let’s talk this through properly.’ Guess what he said?”
Jiang Ji reluctantly supplied the cue. “What?”
Lu Xingyan: “He gave this cold laugh and said, ‘What is there for me to talk about with you? You’re twenty-two this year. I bet when you’re thirty-two, forty-two, or fifty-two, you’ll still be exactly like this—unfit for anything important and never amounting to anything! The Lu family is completely finished in your hands! The family line ends with you!’”
Jiang Ji: “…”
Lu Xingyan: “Then he started dredging up every old grievance he could think of, from me wetting the bed when I was one to running away from home in sixth grade. Then there was me trying to stop him from remarrying, fighting with you and affecting his relationship with your mom, getting into fights at school and causing him trouble—all kinds of stuff… Listening to him go on gave me a headache.”
Lu Xingyan could never chat without sending stickers. Probably because everything had basically been settled and his mood had improved, the stickers were especially chaotic today: one little animal after another, enough to turn Jiang Ji’s WeChat into a cyber zoo.
“I listened to you and didn’t talk back,” Lu Xingyan said. “I gritted my teeth and sat through his lecture. I never expected him to scold me for an entire hour. After going through all my old offenses, he started complaining that I’d made him lose face in front of Uncle Wang, Uncle Li, Uncle Zhao, whoever. Other people’s sons are already married with three kids, while I’m still playing video games.”
Lu Xingyan: “[despair.jpg]”
Lu Xingyan: “[Master, please stop chanting.jpg]”
Lu Xingyan: “[covering ears.jpg]”
Jiang Ji had not intended to laugh, but he caught the curve of his own lips reflected faintly on the phone screen. “And then? You finally couldn’t take it anymore and started arguing with him?”
“At a time like that, how could I lose my temper?” Lu Xingyan said. “I argued with him on purpose. I pretended to have a breakdown and even put on a show of shedding a few tears.”
Jiang Ji: “…”
Jiang Ji: “Are you sure he couldn’t tell you were acting?”
Lu Xingyan: “With acting skills as good as mine, how could he tell?”
Jiang Ji: “…”
Lu Xingyan was abnormally confident. Jiang Ji did not burst his bubble, but suddenly remembered that Lu Xingyan still had no idea his previous scheme had been seen through long ago. Even inviting Sun Cheng out for dinner and having Lu Xingyan’s cover blown at the table had been deliberately arranged by Jiang Ji.
If Lu Xingyan ever learned the truth, what would he do? Jump up and down from embarrassment, or get so angry he cried?
Jiang Ji had no intention of telling him. He could continue living in the fantasy that he had had everything perfectly under control, only to be sabotaged by his own friend.
Jiang Ji finally made it out of the congested stretch, and the last few minutes of his drive were smooth. After parking, he checked his phone again. Lu Xingyan had already sent a string of new messages.
“Actually, it wasn’t all an act. I could tell Dad wasn’t saying all that just because he wanted to scold me.”
Lu Xingyan sent a “sad” sticker.
“If he didn’t scold me, it was like he had nothing else to say. That day, you told me I needed to pay attention to what he really wanted, and I realized that he was actually more panicked than I was.
“He was genuinely worked up. His hands kept shaking, and the way he looked at me was like… I wasn’t the one who had done something wrong. He was. Like he thought he’d failed.
“But he doesn’t know how to say anything heartfelt to me, so the only way he could reminisce was by dredging up all those old grievances. Maybe he wanted me to understand that raising me all these years hadn’t been easy, and wanted me to appreciate how much he’d gone through.
“So later… I wasn’t persuading him anymore. I was comforting him.”
Jiang Ji typed a reply as he walked upstairs.
Another message from Lu Xingyan came in at the same time. “Later on, I started feeling pretty awful too. I asked him, ‘Dad, what exactly do you want? What exactly bothers you? What would it take to overcome these problems?’ After all, we were there to solve the problem.”
Jiang Ji: “What did he say?”
Lu Xingyan: “He wouldn’t answer, but I figured it out. First, his traditional ideas are hard to change. Second, he cares about his reputation. Third, he wants descendants.”
Jiang Ji: “Most elders care about those things.”
Lu Xingyan: “The first two are easy enough. Dad has lived this long without surviving on other people’s praise. He’s been envied and slandered before too, so that’s nothing serious. The main thing is that he wants a grandson.”
Jiang Ji: “Mm. How did you persuade him?”
Lu Xingyan: “I only said one thing.”
Jiang Ji: “?”
Lu Xingyan: “‘What if your grandson grows up gay too?’”
Jiang Ji: “…”
Sure enough, nothing decent ever came out of that dog’s mouth.
“Don’t laugh.” Lu Xingyan seemed capable of seeing Jiang Ji’s expression through the phone. “I was making a serious argument. Think about it. If you have a son but won’t let him freely choose whom he loves, why insist on having a grandson? What exactly does he expect from that grandson? And what if the grandson doesn’t live up to those expectations either? Wouldn’t he regret it? Better not to have one in the first place.”
“Not bad.”
“Dad went silent for ages after hearing that. I told him he should just live the life in front of him. The meaning of life lies in the present. Why pin all these unreasonable expectations on some other person in the future? Sure, our family has some money, but the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties all fell. Whose throne can last forever? If the line ends, then it ends.”
“…”
Jiang Ji genuinely laughed. “Lu Xingyan, where did you learn to spout grand principles like that?”
“I’m smart. I figured it out myself.”
Give Lu Xingyan a little sunshine and he immediately beamed, sending several “I’m super smart” stickers in a row. “Anyway, after that I played the emotional card, reminisced with him, got sentimental, and said a few more heartfelt things. Dad finally relented.”
Jiang Ji arrived back at their rented apartment and opened the door.
He was still not used to this new home, but the unfamiliar rooms brought with them a fresh mood, as though his entire life had been renewed along with them. Everything felt lighter again, and the road ahead seemed wide open.
New messages continued arriving on his phone. Lu Xingyan said, “He has one condition.”
“What condition?”
“When he eventually wants to retire, I have to take responsibility for the company. I’m not allowed to run away from it.”
“That’s only right,” Jiang Ji said. “But that’s still a long way off. Your dad probably won’t retire for at least another fifteen years.”
Lu Xingyan said, “I told him, ‘You don’t need to worry about that at all. We have the business genius Jiang Ji. Your son has already locked him down. Worst case, we merge the two companies and give them both to him.’”
Jiang Ji had just lifted a glass of water to his mouth and promptly spat it back out. “You really are filial.”
“Thanks for the compliment. Dad said the same thing,” Lu Xingyan said. “He also said the Lu family’s ancestors must really be smiling on us. I said, ‘Exactly. You finally realize how great Jiang Ji is.’ Then he kicked me.”
“…”
Why didn’t he slap you?
Jiang Ji suddenly decided plain water did not taste very appealing. On a whim, he ordered himself a milk tea—with full sugar.
He asked when Lu Xingyan would be back. Lu Xingyan said he was keeping Lu Yong company over drinks. “Dad’s drowning his sorrows in alcohol and he’s a little drunk. I’ll stay with him a while longer.”
Lu Xingyan then asked for the details of how things had gone with Jiang Wanyi, and Jiang Ji told him everything. He had brought Jiang Wanyi flowers and accompanied her shopping. Later, they had eaten at the little restaurant they used to visit years ago. Everything had gone well.
In fact, Lu Yong had tested the waters with Jiang Ji before, asking whether he wanted to gain some experience at his company. Between the lines, he had hinted that part of the Lu family business could eventually be left to Jiang Ji.
That was extraordinarily generous of a stepfather, but Jiang Ji did not want it. Even blood brothers kept clear accounts, much less Jiang Ji and Lu Xingyan, who were not biological brothers. Dividing family assets was one of the easiest ways to create conflict, and Jiang Ji did not care about someone else’s family fortune anyway.
So afterward, they simply carried on as before, and neither side ever mentioned it again.
Taking a step back, if Jiang Ji had accepted Lu Yong’s arrangement back then and joined the Lu family company, then no matter how high he eventually rose, his career would still have been held in someone else’s hands. How could he possibly have stood up straight and come out the way he had today?
The same was true for Lu Xingyan. Lu Yong disapproved of him being a streamer, but at least Lu Xingyan could stand on his own. If he had not even had his streaming career and had simply joined the family company to coast along after graduation, would he have had the confidence to say everything he had said today?
But now, they had already fought the battles that needed fighting. From here on, they no longer needed to think in terms of keeping accounts with one another. Instead, they needed to support “their family” together and make sure their parents could enjoy a peaceful retirement.
Though perhaps it was a little early to be thinking that far ahead.
For some reason, Jiang Ji finally understood what ordinary couples meant by discussing marriage and a future together. Apparently, this was what all that “talking” and “discussing” amounted to.
Jiang Ji collected his milk tea delivery, switched on the air conditioner, and sat down at Lu Xingyan’s computer desk to drink it.
It had been a long time since he had felt this relaxed. The instant the cold, sugary milk tea touched his tongue, happiness seemed to travel from his taste buds straight to his brain, wonderful as a deep kiss.
He sent Lu Xingyan a message: “Come home early. I miss you.”
Leave a Reply