Chapter 99
Chapter 99: Can You Even Say This?
Poor Fourth Aunt had no idea what trendy slang young people used these days. She could only look to Mother Du for help.
Mother Du was also stunned by this shocking news and for a moment didn’t know how to explain it to Ruan Xiu Ru.
The worst part was, she could feel that all those relatives who had reacted to Du An Rao’s inner voice just now had also stopped what they were doing and were secretly pricking up their ears to eavesdrop on their gossip here!
Du An Rao was always quick when it came to eating melons, that is, watching drama. As soon as she learned who Ruan Xiu Ru’s two children were, she immediately pulled up that sweet?and?angsty romance novel that had fake?sibling, pregnant?and?runs?away, and cute?baby elements all rolled into one.
The reason it was called a sweet?angsty?pampering novel was because when it was sweet it was super sweet, when it was sad it was really sad, and when it was pampering it was very pampering. The main style was just doing whatever it wanted, all kinds of split tones.
[So that’s how it was. When Fourth Aunt’s grandfather was young, he had a crush on the madam of that old family friend. He confessed and got rejected, lost face, and then cut off contact with their family. Many years later, he found out that family had met with disaster, leaving behind only a son and a daughter. His guilt toward his good brother, and those unspeakable feelings he had for his good brother’s wife, all got shifted onto those two children. He took extra care of them and even thought about marrying them to his own children.]
Everyone in the Du family: “!!!” Was this kind of thing really okay to say out loud?
The crowd of onlookers: Wow!
Ruan Xiu Ru’s face also turned green. She wanted to argue, but in her heart a small voice quietly told her that these things might not actually be false.
Those two children from the family friend had once come by to visit. Back then she had been young, but she could still feel that when that aunt was alone with her dad, she had deliberately kept her distance, cold and distant. Her dad wasn’t very warm to her either, as if he were purposely avoiding her.
Now that Du An Rao had reminded her, thinking back on the scene, Ruan Xiu Ru suddenly understood.
Most likely when they were young, the old man had tried to match them up and done some shady things, but it had completely backfired.
Sure enough, the next second she heard Du An Rao complaining in her head.
[Fourth Aunt’s grandfather was really one of a kind. To try to tie together two people who already didn’t like each other, he actually pulled the stunt of locking them in the same room on purpose. Luckily Fourth Aunt’s dad was a proper gentleman, and the girl also respected herself. Nothing happened the whole time. After she came out, she immediately moved away from Fourth Aunt’s family, putting distance between herself and that wolf den.]
When Ruan Xiu Ru heard this, she also let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. Her dad really was a good shoot from bad bamboo; he had at least saved a bit of face for her. Otherwise, when she went home today she really would have been too ashamed to see anyone.
[Once his plan to marry off the children fell through and even the grandchildren slipped out of his control, the old guy still didn’t give up. Before he died, he heard that his old friend’s grandson had sadly passed away, leaving behind a daughter who wasn’t even six yet. His mind started working again, and he left a will telling his own granddaughter to adopt this child.]
Ruan Xiu Ru: “!!!”
That shameless old man!! No wonder he had insisted she adopt that child for no reason. So this was what he had in mind!
[But at that time, he was also limited in what he could do. He only wanted that man’s descendant to become part of their family, to fulfill his obsession. He never thought that the flowers he tried to plant wouldn’t bloom, while the willows he stuck in the ground by chance would grow into shade. He just wanted that girl and Fourth Aunt’s son to be siblings, but they actually ended up falling for each other.]
“What?!” Ruan Xiu Ru couldn’t help but cry out, instantly drawing Du An Rao’s attention. The melon she had been eating was put on pause.
In an instant, Ruan Xiu Ru felt like eyes from all directions were stabbing into her, almost turning her into a hedgehog.
Ruan Xiu Ru: “…”
Excuse me, you people are eating my family’s melon and you still dare act annoyed at me, the person involved? How was that fair!
But she herself was also dying of curiosity. With her face red, she could only grab Mother Du’s hand and force the conversation back to what they had been talking about before Du An Rao started spilling secrets: “You said your daughter grew up in a Daoist temple.”
Mother Du understood in an instant and agreed: “Yes. When she was a few years old, her Master picked her up and took her back. She lived at the temple all this time and only came down the mountain not long ago.”
[Oh, they were talking about this. They scared me for a second.]
Ruan Xiu Ru also let out a breath of relief, thinking, you were the one who really scared me!
Unlike cannon fodder characters like Du Jun Yan and Du He Xuan, Du Hong Yun and Du Zi Xuan were the male and female leads of the whole book. The author had naturally used a lot of words to describe their daily life together, their emotional changes, and all their push?and?pull of feelings and misunderstandings.
Du An Rao skimmed through the whole book quickly, and in the end only summed it up with one sentence.
[It’s just two stubborn ducks who don’t know how to talk trying to be in love again.]
Ruan Xiu Ru: “???”
The story of Du Hong Yun and Du Zi Xuan was actually very simple. When Du Zi Xuan was six, her father died in an accident. None of the relatives in the family wanted to take on another burden, and they all avoided her like the plague.
Just when she was about to be sent to an orphanage, Ruan Xiu Ru’s grandfather found her and brought her back to the Ruan family. After she lived there for a while, he sent her to Ruan Xiu Ru and had her adopt the girl.
Because she was old enough to remember things when she was adopted, both of them were very clear that they had no blood relationship and the other person was not really their biological brother or sister. So after living so closely together for more than ten years, they naturally developed romantic feelings for each other.
But at this point, neither of them dared to poke through that thin layer of paper. One of them thought the other only treated her as his real sister. If he found out about her feelings, she might not be able to stay with the Du family anymore.
The other also thought she only treated him as her real brother. For a brother to have this kind of feeling toward his sister felt too dirty. If he said it out loud, he might scare her and even make her hate him, so he didn’t dare act rashly either.
The two little cowards in love stayed stuck like that. The turning point came after Du Zi Xuan went to college, when the real vicious female side character entered the scene.
This vicious female side character was named Qiu Lu Dan. She was a junior in the same club as Du Hong Yun. On the surface she was gentle, caring, and understanding, but in truth she was a scheming witch.
She used a department dinner as a chance to get Du Hong Yun drunk, and to be safe she even drugged his drink, trying to get him into bed so she could force him to take responsibility for her.
But Du Hong Yun only had his sister from home in his heart. His self?control was strong, and he forced himself free from Qiu Lu Dan’s clutches, called a car by himself, and ran home.
That night, by chance, Ruan Xiu Ru and her husband had gone back to the Ruan family for something and hadn’t come home, so only Du Zi Xuan was at the house. The feelings the two of them had suppressed for years burst out under the effect of the drug, and it was only natural that they ended up sleeping together.
But because of the drug, when Du Hong Yun woke up the next day, he had no memory of what had happened that night.
He thought that after escaping from Qiu Lu Dan’s pestering, he had just taken a cab home, slept by himself, and had a strange dream, and then he completely put the matter out of his mind.
When Ruan Xiu Ru heard this, she almost crushed her wine glass in her hand. How could her stupid son forget something this important? Was there any saving him?