The missing seventh uncle

"Here, Nuannuan, have a shrimp."

In the dining room of the Su Family Compound, Lin Wanyi picked up a plump, white shrimp with her chopsticks and placed it in Nuannuan's little bowl.

After these days of care and nourishment, Nuannuan's cheeks had finally filled out a little, and her complexion was much rosier.

Dinner was especially lavish that evening, because the men of the Su Family had, for once, all gathered together.

Her eldest uncle, Su Mingfeng, second uncle, Su Mingguo, third uncle, Su Mingzhe, and fourth uncle, Su Mingyuan, were all seated at the dining table.

The atmosphere around the table was warm.

Everyone chatted about amusing things at work or neighborhood gossip from the compound. No one brought up those heavy topics again.

Nuannuan took small bites of her food, her ears pricked as she listened.

She really liked this feeling.

The family sat around the table together, talking and eating, with the room warm and full of the aroma of food and the laughter of her family. Back in Li Family Village, she would never have dared to imagine such a scene, even in her dreams.

As they chatted, Su Mingguo suddenly remembered something and said to Su Mingfeng, "Brother, Fifth sent a telegram a couple of days ago, asking how things were at home. When he heard Nuannuan had been found, he was so happy he kept shouting over the phone. He said that if his assignment hadn't kept him away, he would have flown straight back."

"Fifth is as impatient as ever." Su Mingfeng smiled. "Tell him everything's fine at home, and to stay focused on his duties with the South Sea Fleet. He shouldn't let himself get distracted."

Nuannuan looked up curiously, half a shrimp still in her mouth, and asked indistinctly, "Fifth Uncle?"

She knew she had four uncles, but this was the first time she had heard of a "Fifth Uncle."

"That's right." Lin Wanyi smiled and stroked her head. "You don't just have four uncles, Nuannuan. You have seven whole uncles."

"Seven?" Nuannuan's eyes widened. She held out her little hands, trying hard to show the number seven, but she couldn't work out how.

Seeing this, Su Mingyuan smiled and took her little hands, helping her spread all five fingers on one hand, then borrowing two from the other.

"Look, this many."

"Wow..." Nuannuan let out a gasp of wonder.

"Your fifth uncle is called Su Minghui. He's a ship captain in the South Sea Fleet now, a navy uncle," Su Mingguo explained. "When he comes home for New Year, we'll have him take you to see the ocean and the big warships."

"What about Sixth Uncle?" Nuannuan asked.

At the mention of her sixth uncle, the atmosphere around the table faltered slightly.

Su Mingfeng's expression grew somewhat solemn. "Your sixth uncle... he's somewhere very, very far away, carrying out a very important secret mission. It may be a very, very long time before he can come home."

Nuannuan nodded, only half understanding. She caught a trace of worry in her eldest uncle's voice.

"Then... what about Seventh Uncle?" she asked quietly, asking about the last one.

Unexpectedly, the moment she asked, the expressions of the uncles at the table turned strange.

It was a complicated look, mixing distaste and helplessness with a hint of not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Su Mingguo snorted and curled his lip. "Don't mention that brat."

"Exactly," Su Mingyuan chimed in. "Out of the entire Su Family, he's the only one who won't follow the proper path."

"What kind of talk is that?" Lin Wanyi glared at her two sons, though there was a trace of reproach in her own voice too. "That boy Minglang is just too set on his own ideas."

Su Zhenbang had remained silent, quietly drinking his soup. At the mention of his youngest son's name, he set his soup bowl down hard with a clang.

"He reeks of money! He's all but disgraced our Su Family!" the old man said, his mustache bristling and his eyes glaring.

Startled by this reaction, Nuannuan drew her head into her shoulders and didn't dare ask any more questions.

It was her third uncle, Su Mingzhe, who noticed her confusion and explained to her with a smile, his voice low.

"Nuannuan, your seventh uncle is called Su Minglang. He's the youngest of your uncles. He's our family's 'rebel.'"

"Rebel?" Nuannuan didn't understand the word.

"It means... he doesn't listen." Su Mingzhe thought of a simple way to put it. "Grandpa wanted him to be like us-to join the military or do scientific research and serve the country. But he refused. As soon as he graduated from university, he ran off to Shanghai, saying he wanted to try his luck in that bustling foreign metropolis."

"Shanghai?" Nuannuan had heard that place name before. It was on Third Uncle's map.

"Yes. He does business in Shanghai now, buying and selling some... well, strange and unusual things." Su Mingzhe chose his words carefully. "Everyone in the family says he's picked up quite a few 'bad capitalist habits.' Instead of thinking about contributing to the country, all he thinks about every day is how to make money."

Although her uncles and grandpa were all "bad-mouthing" Seventh Uncle, Nuannuan heard something different in their voices.

It wasn't genuine dislike. It was more like... helpless frustration that he wasn't living up to their expectations, and... concern buried deep down.

An uncle who hadn't joined the military or become an official, but had instead gone somewhere far away to "do business."

This mysterious seventh uncle, whom the whole family "disdained," instead aroused Nuannuan's greatest curiosity.

What would he be like?

Would he be tall and handsome, just like her other uncles?

And what sort of business did he do?

Nuannuan's little head was filled with all sorts of questions.

She felt that when she had the chance someday, she simply had to visit that place called "Shanghai" and meet this legendary seventh uncle in person.