Chapter 24: Record of Moving to the City in the 90s 24

The moment Miss Zhao saw Yu Zexiu, she stiffened. Then she quickly put on a smile and greeted him.

“Zexiu, you’re back? How come I didn’t hear anything about it? Did something happen at home? What a coincidence, we’re even going to America together this time. With you over there, my family will feel a lot more at ease about me studying abroad. You have to look after me more, okay?” Miss Zhao had a gentle, delicate sort of beauty, pretty enough in a demure way. The only flaw was that she was short, not even five feet tall, taking after her mother.

Yu Zexiu had worked out regularly in his sophomore year and had grown a little more. Now, at six foot two, he towered over her. Sitting side by side, they looked like a father taking his daughter on a flight.

Sweeping a cold glance over Miss Zhao, Yu Zexiu spoke slowly and evenly. “You told me girls like corresponding through letters, and I believed you, so I wrote one to my girlfriend. You also said you’d help me deliver it, that my brothers were all men and it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to suddenly show up in front of her. I believed that too, because we grew up together. Even if we weren’t especially close, I thought your character was at least trustworthy, right? What a pity. You’ve got no credibility at all, and your character’s rotten too. Zhao, getting burned by you once is enough. What else are you trying to scheme out of me? I’m telling you, stay far away from me. Otherwise, hmph!”

Yu Zexiu had grown this old without ever really suffering a loss at the hands of anyone his own age. This time, he had truly learned his lesson.

Miss Zhao’s face turned deathly pale at once. She lowered her head and didn’t dare utter a word.

After getting off the plane, Yu Zexiu slung his bag over his shoulder and hailed a cab away on his own, not sparing Miss Zhao even a glance.

Watching the car disappear into the distance, the young woman felt utterly miserable.

It was her first time doing something like this. Sure enough, her methods had been far too crude. But no matter how much she thought about it, she had never imagined Yu Zexiu would actually go back.

Her parents’ plan to use the Yu family as a stepping stone was clearly not going to work.

So was there even any point in staying in school?

After turning it over again and again in her mind, she figured that if she went back, her marriage would definitely be arranged for her. She might as well stay here instead.

As for the future, she’d deal with it when it came.

Miss Zhao called home and said she had already met up with Yu Zexiu. She spoke in vague half-truths, feeding her parents nothing but evasive nonsense.

She thought only of herself, only of how to fool her parents so they would not call her back to the country for a political marriage. What she failed to realize was that this lie of hers would soon be exposed.

In less than half a year abroad, what Zhao’s parents heard from their daughter was that things between her and Yu Zexiu were very stable.

And Father Zhao’s work had indeed reached a critical juncture. It was not a major matter, but not a minor one either. All it would take was a word from the Yu family, and he could keep his current position. Only while still in active service did one truly hold power. Once retired, the Zhao family would not have many solid connections left to rely on, and the family was bound to decline.

So Father Zhao took this false information and went to the Yu family.

The Yu family was large. Yu Zexiu’s grandfather was still alive, and among his four sons, only Yu Zexiu’s parents, the ones who had neither joined the military nor entered politics, lived with the old master. Yu Zexiu’s eldest uncle was in the army, his two younger uncles were both in politics, and the two aunts born to his Step-grandmother had gone into business.

Yu Zexiu’s biological grandmother now lived in the outskirts of Shanghai. She had divorced his grandfather years ago.

The reason for the divorce was that Step-grandmother, who had once been a nurse.

The Yu family was not actually all that harmonious. If his Step-grandmother had given birth to a son, things at home would have been even livelier.

Father Zhao had come at an unfortunate time. Yu Zexiu’s Step-grandmother was in the middle of making a scene with Old Master Yu because her eldest daughter’s business had run into some trouble and she wanted the old master to help, but the old master was unwilling.

Connections and influence had to be saved for his sons. What was the point of spending them on a married-off daughter?

Yes, deep down, Old Master Yu favored sons over daughters.

The moment Father Zhao entered, he addressed Yu Zexiu’s father as “in-law,” leaving Father Yu thoroughly bewildered.

Old Master Yu and Step-grandmother both stared at Father Zhao in surprise.

What was he talking about?

Hadn’t they said that Zexiu was dating a girl from an ordinary family? He had even wanted to take her abroad with him. Although that girl ultimately hadn’t gone, Zexiu certainly didn’t look like he was planning to break up with her.

So how had he gone to America for half a year and gotten together with the Zhao family’s girl instead?

At those words, Ms. Meng, Yu Zexiu’s biological mother, let out a cold laugh. “Old Zhao, I think you’ve got the wrong in-law. My son already has a girlfriend. He has nothing to do with your daughter. Just look at the packages on the coffee table. My son mailed those back and asked me, his mother, to deliver them to his girlfriend. Cosmetics, clothes, all sorts of gifts, every last one of them is for her. Have you been tricked by your own daughter?”

He had raised a liar and failed to teach her properly. She was dishonest, careless in what she did, and not even very skilled at deception. Yet when it came to fooling her own parents and playing mind games with them, she was quite capable.

Father Zhao was stunned, completely stunned. Could it really be that his own daughter had deceived him?

“Go back and call her again to ask. In any case, my son has absolutely no relationship with your daughter. I like my future daughter-in-law very much, so I don’t want to hear any gossip that could damage my son’s reputation.” Ms. Meng spoke with unmistakable force.

Ms. Meng was also in business. She ran a media company and had a whole stable of actors and directors earning money for her.

The Meng family and the Yu family were truly well matched. The Yu family was powerful in Beijing, and the Meng family was powerful in Yue Province¹. That was the situation.

And Ms. Meng was the only daughter in her family, the sort who could ask for the stars and never be handed the moon instead. After all these years married into the Yu family, other than her real mother-in-law, that old lady living on the outskirts of Shanghai who dared say anything to her, if you asked her stepmother-in-law, Yu Zexiu’s Step-grandmother, would she dare raise her voice at Ms. Meng?

With just a few sharp remarks from Ms. Meng, Father Zhao was driven off in embarrassment.

Yu Zexiu’s Step-grandmother muttered with a regretful look on her face, “That girl Zexiu found can’t compare to Miss Zhao.”

Ms. Meng was instantly enraged and turned on her at once. “Ms. Xu, if you feel so uncomfortable living in this house, then move to your daughter’s place. We have no objection. Don’t forget whose rice bowl you’re eating from². What business of yours is my son’s life?”

That verbal blast left not only Ms. Xu, the Step-grandmother, looking ugly, but even Old Master Yu’s face turned stiff.

After all this uproar, Miss Zhao was dragged back from America by her parents. Before long, she was married off to a widower even older than her father, and soon afterward, the Zhao family moved out of the Military Compound.

What Ms. Meng told Dad Zhao wasn’t exactly a lie. Right now, she really was the go-between for her son and Su Huandan.

Su Huandan’s junior year of college was especially bizarre.

There was no need to say much about her studies. Her grades were steady, and by junior year, she was already at the level where she could take the graduate school entrance exam.

What really mattered was her love life.

Yu Zexiu had gone abroad to study, and word had spread all over campus. Everyone assumed Su Huandan and Yu Zexiu had broken up, so all the boys who had been interested in Su Huandan started pursuing her like crazy.

Su Huandan was the campus belle³, and there were already tons of people pining after her. That alone annoyed her to no end. Even if she were going to date again, it would at least have to be someone on Yu Zexiu’s level. There was no way she was going to settle for someone worse and worse.

That was Su Huandan’s current mindset. She had no plans to find anyone else at school.

No matter how many times she turned them down, those boys still kept swarming toward her. Every one of them wanted to be the winner who soothed Su Huandan’s “heartbreak” and finally won her over.

Besides that, every week, Ms. Meng would come to the school to see her…

Translator’s Notes