Chapter 3

Lu Jiancheng apparently thought that was not enough. He added, "I was drunk that night, so... the baby is over two months along now."

Bai Rui lowered her eyes and covered her belly, looking meek and obedient. Beneath her lowered eyelids, though, she looked certain of victory.

"What!" Apart from Lu Tinglan, who already knew the story, Father Lu and Mother Lu nearly fainted with rage at this thunderbolt.

"You, you, you..." Father Lu had never imagined there was another twist to this. Now they were in trouble. Bai Rui would have to marry into the family, or his son would spend the rest of his life in prison.

"What a disgrace to the family..."

All strength drained from Father Lu, and he collapsed into a chair, looking ten years older. An eerie silence filled the room. Bai Rui secretly curled her lips, then turned tear-filled eyes on Lu Jiancheng to pressure him.

"Jiancheng, I shouldn't have come so suddenly. Maybe I should leave..."

Before Lu Jiancheng could say anything, Lu Tinglan was already applauding the heroine in her heart.

[Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Look at that: two parts stubbornness, three parts grievance, five parts heartbreak. She's got every expression and angle just right. Forget my brother—even I can barely resist. The stage isn't even set, and she's already brought the house down. The theater world has lost a great talent in you!]

There she went, slandering Bai Rui again!

Lu Jiancheng's expression twisted for an instant. He hurriedly checked his beloved's face, but Bai Rui seemed to have noticed nothing. She still looked on the verge of tears. Only then did he relax. Apparently, only his family could hear his sister's thoughts. That counted as rare good news tonight.

His gaze slowly passed over the three people closest to him. Lu Jiancheng discovered, to his sorrow, that neither parent showed the slightest joy at the coming of this new life. Their faces held only deep disgust.

Was it the child they despised, or him?

In an instant, Lu Jiancheng lost all hope for this family. He let out a long breath. "So be it."

He staggered to his feet and took Bai Rui's hand. "If you won't accept Bai Rui and the baby, there's no reason for me to stay in this house. Father, Mother, forgive me for being unfilial. But you're the ones driving me away!"

Lu Jiancheng tried to leave, but Bai Rui did not move. "Xiao Rui..." he called.

"Jiancheng, I don't want you to fall out with your family because of me." Bai Rui wiped her tears, sounding as though she were swallowing every grievance for his sake.

Before Lu Jiancheng could be moved, he heard his sister's thoughts again.

[Oh, Brother. Bai Rui understands this better than you do. If you walk out now, that university place won't have a thing to do with her. She's not about to let her plans come to nothing.]

Mother Lu followed up with another blow. "Lu Jiancheng, don't forget I got you that job. Tomorrow I'll have you sent back to the fields."

"Do whatever you want." Lu Jiancheng had made up his mind. They were his closest family, yet all his parents talked about was money and benefits. They made him sick.

Well, here it was: a real-life fool for love, and the novel's pivotal scene unfolding right before her eyes. Lu Tinglan watched with shining eyes. All she needed was a handful of sunflower seeds to munch on.

Lu Jiancheng gripped his beloved's hand and strode away. Watching their intimate figures from behind, Lu Tinglan suddenly realized something crucial. She screamed silently, [I have a question. Will the baby take my brother's surname, or will my brother take the baby's?]

Lu Jiancheng stopped short. Bai Rui winced and said softly, "Jiancheng, you're hurting my hand."

Lu Tinglan's words made everything click for Mother Lu. Bai Rui's affair with He Wei was common knowledge in the village. There was no telling whose child she was carrying.

She gave a cold laugh behind them. "Lu Jiancheng, you're a first-rate sucker. You're so eager to father another man's child that you'll take her word for it? Well, I say Bai Rui's a whore. Do you believe your own mother?"

Lu Tinglan ran through the original novel's plot again and confirmed that Bai Rui had, openly at least, given birth after seven months of pregnancy.

She looked at her brother with pity. [What a fool. You said yourself you were too drunk to know what was happening. How could you have touched her? She handed you the blame, and you took it right off her hands. Truly, a sucker chosen by heaven.]

Father Lu and Mother Lu exchanged a look as understanding dawned. They had lived long enough to know that a man blind drunk could not do a thing. How could he get a woman pregnant?

Mother Lu took another look at Bai Rui. She wore a drab, patch-covered cotton coat, so big and baggy another person could have fit beneath its hem.

That was nothing like Bai Rui. Even through the coldest winters of the past two years, she had insisted on wearing a little floral cotton jacket cinched at the waist. Anyone who claimed pregnancy had changed her habits was dreaming!

Their second son had definitely been caught in a honey trap.

Mother Lu suddenly called after them. "Bai Rui and He Wei have always been tangled up together. I won't believe the child belongs to the Lu Family just because you say so. Let me see your belly. Once we confirm the baby is Jiancheng's, we'll accept you as our daughter-in-law."

Mother Lu had done the calculations. He Wei had left four months ago, and a woman's belly looked entirely different at four months than at two. One glance would tell her.

"Jiancheng." Frightened by Mother Lu's aggressive stance, Bai Rui looked to him for help.

But Lu Jiancheng's eyes lit up. He did not truly want to sever ties with his parents. A chance to reconcile was more than he could have hoped for.

Bai Rui's heart lurched. Sure enough, Lu Jiancheng said, "Xiao Rui, just let Mother have a look. Once she's reassured, we can..."

Before he could finish, Bai Rui slapped his head to one side. Smack! The sharp blow struck more than his face. It struck his heart.

"Lu Jiancheng!" Bai Rui went on the attack first. Her rounded nails dug deep into her palms, and several tears slid from her large, expressive eyes.

She stared straight at him, her voice anguished and resolute. "Is that what you think I am? A woman who'll sleep with anyone? Is that really how you see me? Fine. Fine! I must have been blind all this time."

"Oh, my poor baby. Your own father doesn't believe you or want you. Even after you're born, he'll suspect you every other day. I might as well dash my head against this wall. Your mother and you can't enter the Lu Family while we're alive, but we'll haunt their house when we're dead!"

Bai Rui wiped her tears fiercely and sprang up, charging straight at the wall.

Lu Tinglan almost wanted to clap her hands raw for the heroine. [Muddy the waters, turn black into white, retreat to advance—no wonder she gets the last laugh. She's studied the art of war!]

Lu Jiancheng's outstretched hand froze. Fortunately, Bai Rui had never really intended to hit the wall. She stopped as soon as he reached out.

Now the two stood there awkwardly, staring at each other.

Lu Jiancheng: You weren't really going to hit the wall?

Bai Rui: You weren't really going to stop me?

"..."

Bai Rui's prepared lines stuck in her throat. Lu Jiancheng was the first to pull his hand back.

"Forget it..." He leaned against the wall, dejected, as though seeing his beloved clearly for the first time. He scrubbed a hand hard over his face before saying those two words.

"It's late. Go back, Xiao Rui. Whatever else there is, we'll talk tomorrow."

"Jiancheng..."

Nothing that had happened tonight had gone according to Bai Rui's plan. A strange panic rose in her. She hurriedly grabbed Lu Jiancheng's arm, wanting to explain, but when she opened her mouth, no words came out.

Lu Jiancheng avoided her gaze. Bracing himself against the wall, he stumbled back to his room and shut himself in. Everything tonight had been too much. He needed quiet to think it through. To really think.

Bai Rui returned to the Educated Youth Compound seething. It was late, and her roommates had long since burrowed under their quilts and fallen sound asleep.

As soon as she came in, she clattered about, boiling water and washing her face. She woke the entire room.

Wang Xue finally threw off her quilt and shouted, "Can you keep it down in the middle of the night? Even if you're not sleeping, the rest of us are!"

Bai Rui had been holding back her anger, and now she had found an outlet. She looked her disheveled roommate up and down, her sense of superiority swelling. "Wang Xue, you've had it in for me all along, haven't you? Well, no matter how much you hate me, He Wei only has eyes for me. He won't even give you a proper look."

"You're insane!" Wang Xue could not reason with this love-struck woman who saw rivals everywhere. She had only asked He Wei to bring something back for her once. When Bai Rui found out, she went around calling Wang Xue a homewrecker. As if He Wei treasured Bai Rui so much. The moment he returned to the city, he dumped her.

Wang Xue snorted heavily beneath her quilt and hurried back to sleep. She was not as fortunate as Bai Rui, with Lu Jiancheng falling over himself to do her work for her.

But early the next morning, as Wang Xue headed out with her hoe, she found a haggard Lu Jiancheng standing outside the Educated Youth Compound.

"Are you waiting for Bai Rui? Want me to call her?" He was the village chief's son, after all. Under ordinary circumstances, Wang Xue was willing to do him that favor.

"No. I'm here to see you." Lu Jiancheng had not slept all night. He looked awful, with dark circles under his eyes and stubble on his chin. Wang Xue barely recognized him.

They walked to a secluded bamboo grove near the Educated Youth Compound. After a long silence, Lu Jiancheng spoke in a defeated voice. "You know Bai Rui's pregnant, don't you?"

Wang Xue had no idea what he was getting at. She simply nodded.

The next question was hard to ask. Lu Jiancheng rubbed his face fiercely. The bloodshot look in his eyes startled Wang Xue.

"You share a room with Bai Rui. Have you... seen her belly? About how many months along does she look?"

So that was it. Wang Xue had thought Lu Jiancheng would spend his whole life pretending not to see what was in front of him. She had not expected him to wake up. She looked at him with pity. "I can't say how many months, but her belly's definitely showing."

Even Lu Jiancheng knew that the young wives in the village did not start showing until their third month. There was no doubt about it: the child in Bai Rui's belly was not his.

"So that's it. I've been kept in the dark all this time..." Lu Jiancheng's lips trembled. His strength gave out, and he sank to the ground, covered his face, and wept soundlessly.

Thanks to her excellent performance the night before, Lu Tinglan received another bowl of steamed egg custard that morning. Mother Lu even said she could have it every day if she wanted.

If her second son had money but refused to spend it on his own family, she might as well feed his little sister with it. Without Lu Tinglan, she and her husband might never have talked sense into that mule-stubborn boy. If Bai Rui had brought another man's child into their home, Mother Lu would not have been able to rest easy even in her grave.

Lu Tinglan did not understand why her second brother's fate had taken a turn for the better last night when she, a person transported into a novel, had done nothing at all. Somehow she had gained a daily serving of egg custard, too. But she could not be bothered to dig for answers. After all, muddling through was the essence of life.

Lu Tinglan made today's egg custard with Mother Lu. At the stove, her muttering nearly made Mother Lu want to flick her forehead twice.

It was just a bowl of egg custard. She had cooked for years. Did her daughter think she could not manage this? Beat the eggs, add water and salt, then steam them. That was all.

Why did it have to be as complicated as Lu Tinglan said, skimming off the foam and then straining everything through gauze? Even a landlord's daughter would not eat anything prepared with such fuss. Mother Lu took off her apron and tossed it onto the table. The sight of this little tyrant only irritated her more.

"Mother, try some first." As usual, Lu Tinglan offered Mother Lu the first bite of the finished custard.

"It's meant to build you up. What would I eat it for?" Mother Lu pressed her lips tight, but her daughter tickled her under the arm and found an opening.

"How does it taste?" Lu Tinglan took a bite herself as she asked.

"Well, I'll be..." Mother Lu's eyes lit up. The egg custard that had just entered her mouth overturned everything she thought she knew after half a lifetime. It was tender, silky, and fragrant. If she had not been thinking of her daughter, she would have wanted several more bites.

Lu Tinglan was her mother's warm little quilted jacket. She fetched a small bowl and gave Mother Lu half. The custard was so delicious that, this time, Mother Lu did not refuse. She picked up a spoon and happily tucked in.

Once again, a noise came from the doorway while they were eating. Most people had gone to work in the fields by now. Who could it be?

Lu Tinglan peered out. It was her unfortunate second brother. Lu Jiancheng wandered home in a daze, saw his bed, and fell straight onto it without even closing the door.

Mother Lu quickly set down her bowl and went over. "Jiancheng, weren't you going to work? Why are you back already? Did something happen at your job?"

Lu Tinglan held her bowl, eating as she watched and commented to herself.

[What could have happened? He's obviously heartsick. There's no cure for a fool in love. I advise the family to give up treatment!]

Ordinarily, Lu Jiancheng would have sat up and snapped back at her. Now he merely turned over slowly and gave no other response.

[Wait. It's not just that his goddess fell off her pedestal yesterday. Did he go out early this morning and find out the baby in Bai Rui's belly really isn't his? Someone give him a hug. My poor brother looks ready to shatter.]

When Mother Lu saw her son quietly clench his fists on the bed, she knew her daughter's guess was almost certainly right. Her son was pitiful, but Lu Tinglan's oddball thoughts made her burst out laughing.

"Mother, you..." Lu Tinglan could hardly bear to look at her expression.

[Wipe that gloating look off your face! My brother really will shatter into pieces too small to put back together.]

Keeping a straight face while listening to her daughter's thoughts was no easy task. Mother Lu decided to show this wayward son a mother's love one last time: she would let her daughter fight poison with poison and cure him of his lovesickness.

"Jiaojiao, I'm going to work in the fields. Stay here and watch your brother. Don't let him do anything foolish!"

"Mission accepted!"

Lu Tinglan dragged over a stool, grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds, and settled in beside her brother's bed.

[Being there for someone is the deepest confession of love. With such a caring sister, you should be secretly thanking your lucky stars.]

Lu Jiancheng was miserable enough already. Now a mouthful of bitter blood seemed to lodge in his chest, and he nearly died of rage.