Chapter 101: The Republican-Era Young Lady Stops Making a Fuss 12 – Of All the Flavors in Life, Only Love¹

In the end, Lu Zhu still went along to Changzhou. She racked her brains and came up with a reason He Dusheng could not refuse.

“My skills, my understanding of machinery, and my ideas for improving machines might just be able to lend the boss a hand.”

He Dusheng silently agreed.

They could not leave for Changzhou that very day, so Song Xuange arranged for Lu Zhu to stay in a guest room at home. She also sent someone to buy her a ticket for the same ship as He Dusheng and the others.

After moving in, Lu Zhu was not idle for even a moment. She was always doing things that left people baffled.

At lunch that day, at the dining table.

Lu Zhu herself did not eat much and rarely picked up her chopsticks. Instead, she kept looking at Song Xuange.

Song Xuange checked herself over and found nothing amiss.

“Did you bite the inside of your mouth?”

She scooped Lu Zhu a spoonful of steamed egg custard.

“Eat this. You don’t need your teeth for it. It was one of my favorite dishes when I was little. I practically had to have it every meal.”

Lu Zhu’s eyes widened. “Wow, that serious?”

She held the bowl and finished it in a few mouthfuls, nodding again and again. “Delicious, delicious.”

Seeing that, Song Xuange added another spoonful of almond tofu to her bowl.

Lu Zhu obediently ate it, and Song Xuange served her another portion of Eight-Treasure Duck² with a smile. “I loved this when I was little too, but it was hard to digest, so my parents wouldn’t let me eat it. I was always craving it. I used to look forward to either having guests at home or going to banquets at other people’s houses, since this dish was a must at any banquet.”

Lu Zhu said, “Really? Then I have to give it a proper try.”

Only after seeing her finally start eating properly did Song Xuange begin eating herself.

Then she noticed that whatever dish Song Xuange chose, Lu Zhu followed suit.

Could it be that she was afraid Song Xuange might poison her?

Then again, probably not. After several encounters, Lu Zhu’s way of thinking had always seemed different from ordinary people’s, so instead of guessing, she asked directly.

And Lu Zhu really did give an answer she had not expected. “Hehe, I’m eating the socialite³ version. Sister Song is a genuine socialite, after all. I was just curious how you usually eat, so I wanted to try it for myself.”

Song Xuange did not know whether to laugh or cry.

The socialite version?

The phrase was new. She had never heard it before, but it was not hard to understand.

Lu Zhu’s eyes were bright and clear, and her tone was utterly sincere. When she said something like that, it was not annoying at all. If anything, it only made her seem delightfully interesting.

She really knew how to amuse people.

Meals at home now were all prepared to suit Song Xuange’s tastes, so there was nothing on the table that she disliked. Taking the opportunity, she introduced the dishes to Lu Zhu one by one.

Only then did Lu Zhu begin eating heartily instead of copying Song Xuange bite by bite.

Song Xuange quietly let out a breath.

It felt like raising a child.

Lu Zhu asked curiously again, “Sister Song, what does Mr. He like to eat?”

Song Xuange froze.

She did not know.

She actually did not know.

Whether in her previous life or now, He Dusheng had always arranged every trivial detail of her life perfectly. In all kinds of matters, he adapted to her and indulged her, making her utterly comfortable.

But what about himself?

What dishes did he like?

What colors did he like?

What fabrics did he like?

What books did he like?

Her mind was blank.

If Lu Zhu had not suddenly asked, she would never even have realized there was such a question.

Try as she might to remember, the only thing she could think of was that he had once said he liked osmanthus candy.

“Sister Song?”

Song Xuange came back to herself and asked with a smile, “You want to try the same thing too? So when you eat, you don’t go by your own tastes, but by all these different ‘same versions’?”

Lu Zhu said, “Not exactly. I don’t usually eat like this either, but I finally made it to the Song Mansion. Besides, it’s not just anyone’s version that catches my eye.”

“Oh?”

Lu Zhu said, “Mr. He worked his way up with his own effort and a tiny bit of luck, rising from the very bottom of Shanghai to become a well-known entrepreneur. How many people see someone like that as a role model? Mr. He is a man of extraordinary talent. His achievements definitely won’t stop here. People like you two are so far beyond me that I couldn’t catch up even if I whipped my horse. So all I can do is eat the same things and bask in a little reflected glory.”

No matter how strange Lu Zhu’s ideas might be, at least she had a sweet tongue. Listening to her speak was pleasing.

Song Xuange said with some regret, “When it comes to food, he mostly accommodates me. He doesn’t seem to have any particular favorites, so I can’t answer that question.”

Lu Zhu lowered her head and murmured, “No wonder…”

“No wonder what?”

“Nothing. I was just reading… I heard from an acquaintance that what Mr. He likes best is the Gorgon Fruit Cake you make, Sister Song. Your cooking must be amazing!”

Song Xuange laughed. “The Gorgon Fruit Cake I make?”

From the day she was born until now, she had never once touched a spatula, so how could she possibly know how to make pastries? Yet Lu Zhu was saying it so convincingly.

She said, “That must be a false rumor. Where did you hear it?”

“Really? But my bo… my acquaintance said Mr. He said it himself: ‘Of all the flavors in life, there is only one I love, and that is Gorgon Fruit Cake cooked by the hand of the one I love. Whenever I come across it, I won’t even bother with a meal. I have to happily eat several pieces of cake before I stop.'”

Song Xuange laughed.

The one he loved?

So it was not specifically referring to a wife?

Lu Zhu was not entirely bad at reading expressions.

“So it really is fake?” She scratched her head and muttered, “Could that old gentleman have just been bragging?”

“That old gentleman is the acquaintance you mentioned?”

Lu Zhu gave a vague sort of assent.

After the meal, Lu Zhu happily ran off to play in the courtyard again.

She held a notebook of her own and scribbled and sketched in it.

When Song Xuange went over to look, she saw that every page was filled with objects and scenes from the courtyard.

“What’s there to draw here?”

Cheerfully, Lu Zhu said, “When I’m old and writing my memoirs, I can say that in my youth I was fortunate enough to be invited by Mr. He and Ms. Song to visit the private residence where they lived at the time. Then these drawings can be used as illustrations, proof that I really came here.”

Song Xuange: “…”

Forget it. Children having some strange ideas was perfectly normal.

After finishing one spot, Lu Zhu flitted off like a bird, merrily running toward the next.

“Wow, wow, wow, a swing.” Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Song Xuange. “Can I sit on it?”

“You can. Be careful.” Song Xuange herself took several steps back.

“Really? Won’t Mr. He mind? I know about this swing. Mr. He tied it up specially for you.”

“It’s fine, have a seat.”

Lu Zhu climbed onto the swing, gave a push with her feet, and swung far out.

Watching her enjoy herself on the swing, Song Xuange found herself thinking about where it had come from.

Had He Dusheng put it up?

She couldn’t remember. The swing had been there for several years already. No matter how hard she tried to think back, all she could recall was that at the time she had read a French romance novel in which the hero and heroine pledged themselves to each other on a swing. She had wanted one too, so she told her father about it.

The very next day, the swing was there.

When it had first been put up, she had loved it dearly. Every day after school, she would come sit here for a while. Even on summer nights when the mosquitoes were bad, she would light mosquito coils and still come out for a swing…

Lu Zhu seemed to have endless energy. Even by the time He Dusheng returned in the afternoon, she was still playing in the courtyard.

Song Xuange, meanwhile, had long since retreated indoors.

He Dusheng leaned by the window and watched for a while, only to see Lu Zhu sitting on the swing with a notebook in hand, sketching and scribbling.

He was less than pleased. “Why is she drawing design plans over there? There’s not even a proper table. What if the lines come out crooked?”

Before long, he talked himself out of it. “Forget it. As long as she’s willing to work hard and draw, it doesn’t matter where she does it. Let her be.”

Song Xuange took a strategic sip of tea.

She was too embarrassed to tell him what exactly was on Lu Zhu’s notebook pages.

He Dusheng drew back from the window.

A-Xiang came in through the gate, spotted Lu Zhu in the courtyard, and handed her a slip of paper directly.

It was probably the boat ticket Song Xuange had sent him to buy.

Lu Zhu was overjoyed the moment she got the ticket. That expression on her face, how should one put it?

There was an odd sense of fulfillment to it, as if she had accomplished some great objective.

She tucked the boat ticket into her notebook and even muttered to herself that once she got back, she was going to find a small frame and mount it.

As soon as A-Xiang had left her line of sight, she even kissed the ticket and pumped her arm with a hushed cry, “I’m in love, I’m in love. This is proof that I witnessed a corner of great history!”

He Dusheng: “…”

He turned to Song Xuange. “I knew it. All that talk about winning over the Chief Manager with her technical skills, but really she just wants to go have fun! And with how excitable she is… I’m worried that not only will she fail to persuade the Chief Manager, she might even leave a bad impression.”

After spending a whole day with Lu Zhu at home, Song Xuange had already gained a bit of experience with her.

“Not necessarily. The boat ticket’s already been bought.” She tried to reassure He Dusheng. “I’ve heard that people who work in technical fields all have their own quirks to some extent. Lu Zhu is just… a little too cheerful sometimes. But she does know how to judge the occasion.”

He Dusheng sighed. “Let’s hope so.”

Song Xuange gave him a sidelong look and asked, “That swing in the courtyard, was it you who put it up?”

He Dusheng refilled her tea. “Did Father-in-law ever mention it to you before?”

Song Xuange said, “So it really was you?”

He Dusheng smiled, as though recalling the past.

“That day, when you went to Father-in-law and said you wanted a swing set up in the courtyard, I was in his study too.”

He was there? Song Xuange had absolutely no impression of that.

He Dusheng said, “After I finished speaking with Father-in-law, he was about to send someone to handle it, but the servants said they’d never done anything like that before and would have to find someone in town who knew how. I figured it wasn’t all that difficult, so I said I could do it. Father-in-law then assigned the task to me.”

Song Xuange asked him, “Had you built one before?”

He Dusheng shook his head. “At the time…” He smiled again, as if it were a little hard to say aloud.

He put a bit of strength into it, drew Song Xuange toward him, settled her onto his lap, and wrapped his arms around her before continuing, “At the time, I never dared imagine there would still come a day in this life when Father-in-law would think highly of me and entrust you to me. I only thought that if I could stay in my place and do a little more for you while keeping to my duty, that would be enough.”

“So what if I didn’t know how to build a swing? Everything has a first time. That very night, I went to ask someone experienced, and I personally bought the rope and wooden plank. It was summer then, and I was thinking that most of your clothes were silk, gauze, and lace, things that snag easily. So I sanded the plank over and over with fine sandpaper until it was smooth and even before hanging it up. I also chose rope that was sturdy and didn’t shed fibers, and I tested it myself at home to make sure it would stay perfectly secure even bearing a thousand jin.”

Looking at the swing in the courtyard, he smiled. “Seems this rope really was good. After all these years of wind and sun, it’s still solid and steady.”

“You never told me any of this,” Song Xuange said.

“What’s there to tell? They’re just trivial little things. If you hadn’t asked about it today, I’d have forgotten all about it.”

Song Xuange gave a soft huff.

Since what Lu Zhu had said about the swing turned out to be true, then did that mean the matter of the Gorgon Fruit Cake was also…

At that moment, she was sitting on He Dusheng’s lap, a little higher than him.

Even though she knew perfectly well that the man before her could not possibly like any other woman but her, she still felt deeply uncomfortable.

She cupped He Dusheng’s face in both hands and turned him toward her. Looking into his eyes, she asked sternly, “You like Gorgon Fruit Cake?”

He Dusheng froze, not understanding how the topic had suddenly taken such a turn.

So he said, “Gorgon Fruit Cake? It’s all right, I guess.”

“You actually do like it?” Song Xuange’s face fell at once.

No matter how quick-witted He Dusheng usually was, this abrupt question and his wife’s reaction left him utterly bewildered.

He was extraordinarily sensitive to Song Xuange’s emotions, so even though he had no idea what was going on, he reacted as fast as he could.

“Am I not supposed to eat Gorgon Fruit Cake?” he asked cautiously. “Is there some issue with it?”

By now, Song Xuange was biting her lip, her eyes shimmering as if she were on the verge of tears.

He Dusheng immediately and decisively declared, “Whatever issue it has, from now on I’ll never eat Gorgon Fruit Cake again! I won’t even eat gorgon fruit itself! I-I-I… not only will I not eat it, I won’t even look at it. If anyone brings up gorgon fruit in front of me, I’ll leave and not listen at all. How about that?”

Song Xuange shook him off and got up from his lap.

Standing over He Dusheng and looking down at him, she let out a cold laugh. “Oh? I haven’t even said a single thing, and you’re already in such a hurry to distance yourself from Gorgon Fruit Cake? He Dusheng, what are you feeling guilty about?”

The moment Song Xuange called him by his full name, He Dusheng’s scalp practically exploded, and every hair on his body stood on end.

He racked his brains, yet he was still completely at a loss.

“No, Xiange, calm down first and listen to me. There has to be some kind of misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding? Fine. Then tell me the truth, who is the woman who made Gorgon Fruit Cake for you?”

He Dusheng: “…”

He was even more confused now, okay?

Translator’s Notes