Chapter 69

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Translator: Cheese

Mates

Su Tian’s declaration frightened the old couple.

In their minds, men work outside, women work inside–men are responsible for making money to support their families, while women stay home to raise the children and handle the housekeeping. How… how could there be a man who knew feminine arts and cooked all day?

What prospects did such a man have? His ambitions would have been worn away by household trifles.

Su Tian didn’t like her grandparents, but she knew that He Qingwan still had affection for the old couple. After all, the two were not like Liu Chaoyang and Lin Xiuping–they truly cherished He Qingwan and her. It was just that their traditional outlook was too suffocating, and they were astoundingly stubborn.

Sure enough, the old woman was so anxious she began to tear up.

“Tiantian, child, how can you think this way? In the future, Grandma will find you a good boy and tell him to treasure you for a lifetime. Isn’t that the best? Why do you insist on fighting and snatching from those men? How exhausting it must be…”

Su Tian cocked her head. She reigned in her sharp edges and became their sensible and obedient granddaughter.

She said, “But Grandma, the good man you found for Mom wasn’t good to her for a lifetime. He had an affair when I was three, and now he’s married that woman and brought my little brother back into the family…”

These soft words were like lethal blades to the old couple.

The old woman was stunned and unable to retort.

The old man’s expression was also twisted. He coaxed, “But Tiantian, if your mother hadn’t insisted on getting a divorce, how could that woman enter the Su family now?”

The old woman wiped her eyes. “Qingwan, I’ve told you before, which woman hasn’t gone through this? As long as you are the genuine and proper Mrs. Su…”

“Mom, did my dad have an affair when he was young?” He Qingwan suddenly interrupted the old woman’s words.

The old woman instantly ran into another wall and was left tongue-tied.

The old man’s face flushed red, but he still answered truthfully. “I made some mistakes when I was young, but I understood when I got older–in the end, outside women are outside women. Your mother is the only one I will spend my whole life with. Su Yuhe is acting disgraceful now, but he will see clearly later.”

He Qingwan: “Why should I wait for him to understand? Even if he understands one day, do I have to forgive him? I feel sick every time I think about it. It’s like a thorn in my heart, endlessly piercing me…

“He let that woman bully me and Tiantian like that because he thought that I had nothing else but him. No job, no family on my side, no ability to make a living…

“He thought that I couldn’t leave him, that no matter how uncomfortable I was, I couldn’t leave him…”

Su Tian silently pulled out a tissue and helped wipe away He Qingwan’s tears.

Perhaps it was indeed as the old man said, that when Su Yuhe was old, he would know just who was worth cherishing, but so what? Why must women use their youth and suffering, their scarred heart and exhausted body, to tolerate a man’s immaturity and mistakes?

Some paths could not be walked. Once walked, one could never turn back.

The old woman turned her head, sniffling.

He Qingwan asked her, “Mom, haven’t you been uncomfortable all these years? Don’t you hate it? While you were doing housework, tutoring me on my homework, and cooking for the whole family, my dad could have been courting other women. You endured it, but why must I? It’s not enough to have me put up with it; you also want Tiantian to continue our tragedy.”

The old woman sat there silently, but the sounds of her sobs grew louder and louder.

The old man’s face was completely red, though whether it was out of shame or anger couldn’t be determined.

The absurdities of his youth had been pointed out by his own daughter; it was simply akin to a slap to his face.

For a while, the only sound in the shop was the woman’s weeping.

Su Tian heaved a sigh in her heart. She pulled out another tissue and dried the old woman’s tears.

“Grandma, I don’t want to go to bridal school, I want to go to university. After the college entrance exams, Mom will come back to the capital with me. You may not know, but the desserts my mom makes are very delicious. People all over the town come to snatch a slice…”

The old woman hugged Su Tian and said in a wavering voice, “How exhausting it is to run a store. Always greeting guests1, sending people off with a smile…”

Su Tian: “It’s not exhausting. If you don’t believe me, ask Mom and see if she thinks it’s hard work?”

The old woman looked up at her daughter.

He Qingwan turned her face aside, answering, “It’s alright. It’s better than drifting along in the Su family like a flower vase2.”

Su Tian: “And the people here are very nice. Everyone really likes Mom and me.”

The old woman: “Don’t lie to me, I heard it all. That Liu Kaiyan’s mother came to bully you several times.”

Su Tian: “But we didn’t suffer a loss. If you don’t believe me, ask other people. Every time she came, she would end up miserable.”

The old woman curled up the corners of her lips but remained silent.

Su Tian knew that people’s views couldn’t be changed overnight, and she wasn’t in a hurry. She tugged the old woman and asked, “Grandma, have you eaten? I have to go to school soon, and I still haven’t eaten.”

When the old woman heard that her granddaughter hadn’t eaten yet, she completely forgot about the quarrel and quickly said, “Look at you, only focused on talking. What does Tiantian want to eat? Grandma will cook it for you.”

Su Tian: “There’s no time to cook, so let’s just go out to eat? Although Luocheng is small, there are many delicious things to eat.”

He Qingwan wiped her tears. “Haven’t you been talking about that malatang3 place by the river? Let’s go, bring Xiao Yun with us to eat.”

Xi Yun had left school earlier than Su Tian and had already gone home.

The old woman: “Malatang? That kind of thing is so dirty, how could we let Tiantian eat that…”

He Qingwan’s expression was cold. “Tiantian loves it, so I let her eat.”

She spoke as she pulled Su Tian to leave.

Su Tian quickly grabbed the old woman. “Grandma, hurry up, that restaurant’s malatang is delicious…”

After a moment of hesitation, the old woman gritted her teeth and followed.

She had to go see. She wasn’t being soft hearted; it was to see if that place was sanitary!

As for the old man, everyone forgot about him.

He watched helplessly as his daughter, and granddaughter went out, leaving him behind in the store. Even his wife ignored him.

He wanted to follow along, but he couldn’t lose face and could only sit and angrily wait there.

After a while, someone knocked on the door and asked if the boss was there and why the store was closed again.

At first, the old man hadn’t relieved his anger, and he replied waspishly, “Temporarily closed, the lady boss went out to eat.”

After more people came to ask, the old man’s anger had almost completely settled. He grabbed a young man who had come over and asked, “Has anyone ever come to bully the mother and daughter here?”

Although he had already thoroughly investigated all of He Qingwan and Su Tian’s experiences during this time before coming here, he still couldn’t rest assured and asked the locals again.

The person he caught was a young man. Upon hearing this, he gave an exaggerated snort. “Who dares to bully the lady boss and Tiantian? Do they not want their life? Let alone Officer Liu, just Tiantian alone can a person cry for their mommy and daddy.”

The man was very talkative and simply walked in and seated himself across from the old man. “You’re the boss lady’s…?”

The old man answered, “They are my daughter and granddaughter.”

The man: “So you’re Tiantian’s grandpa! Aiya, how do you raise your children at home? I’ve never seen a little girl as amazing as Tiantian. Say, how can she be so awesome? The one in my family is timid and gets bullied at school. If she were half as good as Tiantian, I wouldn’t be so worried…”

The old man was bored sitting alone in the store, so he simply chatted leisurely with the man.

He poured out a bellyful of bitterness to this stranger.

“Tiantian has always been a clever child, but she’s too stubborn. Her grandmother and I just want her to marry into a good family in the future. No need to be too smart or too successful. Girls, you know, they just need to marry well.”

“Ai, old man, I don’t think that’s right!”

The man tilted his head, refuting loudly, “Of course it’s important to marry well, but your Tiantian isn’t an ordinary person. She’s going to do big things.”

“What big things, that’s a man’s job. She just needs to take care of the house, let the man work hard outside…”

“I say, old man, your thinking is so terrible, seriously, too terrible. Can’t a woman hold up half the sky? A great man said…”

So the old man who wanted to pour out his complaints was given a sound lecture by the other man. In the end, he gaped with round eyes.

The old man was a highly respected person in business, and few people dared to educate him in this tone, but today, he was given a series of slaps to his face, so when He Qingwan brought the old woman back, his expression was even worse.

The worst thing was that Su Tian had gone back to school, so there was no one present to lighten the atmosphere. When He Qingwan returned, she asked Xi Yun to go home and finish his homework, while she went to the store by herself. Ignoring their presence, she flipped over the “Closed” sign and opened for business.

The elderly couple sat on the side, ignoring everyone else, and watched He Qingwan work busily.

Business was good in the afternoon. He Qingwan never stopped being busy, but she always had a smile on her face.

The old couple hadn’t seen this kind of smile on their daughter’s face in many, many years.

Although the atmosphere was strange, the two stayed in Luocheng like this and didn’t leave.

They had met Xi Yun, but they never spoke to him. On the contrary, after hearing about Xi Zhiqiang, the old couple felt distressed for the child.

The problem was that the house He Qingwan had bought wasn’t big–only two bedrooms and a living room. Xi Yun slept in the living room and couldn’t stay with the old couple.

The two elderlies were extremely stubborn and refused to leave. In the end, Xi Yun weakly suggested letting them live in his home.

Xi Yun’s home also had two bedrooms and one living room, and ever since Xi Zhiqiang had been arrested, the house had remained empty.

Although it was on the top floor, He Qingwan’s house was on the fifth floor; there wasn’t much difference between the fifth and sixth floor.

The old couple were quite physically robust, and they really did live in Xi Yun’s home.

But when Su Tian passed by, she found that the two slept in separate rooms–the old lady lived in the master bedroom, while the old man lived in the second bedroom.

Su Tian snickered in her heart but said nothing.

Actually, Su Tian felt that it was a good thing that her grandparents stayed. After 《Legal Hotline》 was broadcast, the old couple were able to track them down. And if they could, the Su family certainly could, too.

Although the two elderlies were conservative, and the former Mrs. He had divorced Su Yuhe, their attitude towards Su Yuhe was definitely not the same as before. Once Su Yuhe came to find them…

Hehe.

Luocheng was a small town. Although it was in the north, there was no central heating. They were, after all, her biological parents; He Qingwan bought a small fan heater for them, which solved the issue of low temperature.

Similarly, Su Tian’s clownfish and sea anemone did not do well with the cold. Under the guidance of the little gege, Su Tian added a heater and a temperature control switch to the small fish tank so that the three were living comfortably.

One day, Su Tian suddenly discovered that the two clownfish had suddenly become extremely close–always swimming together, rubbing against each other’s bodies, and sometimes kissing each other with their lips.

She sent a text to the little gege and told him about the situation. When she received the other’s reply, even the always-calm Su Tian nearly jumped out of bed.

【Congratulations, they’ve successfully mated. Soon, they’ll start having baby fish.】

Su Tian read and reread the message several times and hurriedly ran to the computer to confirm the information. Finally, she determined that her clownfish really had mated successfully and were about to start reproducing.

!

Ding!–it was another text message.

【Tiantian, we’re going to be grandparents.】

[1] 迎来送往: to meet those arriving, to send off those departing; busy entertaining guests

[2] 花瓶: literally a flower vase, but also slang for someone who’s pretty but has no other noteworthy talents or characteristics

[3] 麻辣烫: a spicy hot pot dish that originated from Sichuan

Cheese: cat and dog parents, but with fish

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