But shrewd thinking was one thing — it was a crooked heart that would be the real problem. If he ever did anything underhanded, her daughter, given her nature, would definitely be no match for him.

Su Ma’s thoughts turned over a thousand times. She chatted with Lu Yuwen a while longer, working through most of the questions she’d wanted to ask.

She couldn’t say she was completely satisfied, but she finally felt she had a clearer picture. Just then, Su Ba called, so she left Su Man and Lu Yuwen alone and headed off to the hospital.

The moment Su Ma left, Su Man let out a long, relieved breath.

Lu Yuwen’s family history going back eight generations had practically been excavated — she was embarrassed on her mother’s behalf!

“I’m so sorry……” Su Man said, helping him rinse the vegetables, a sheepish look on her face. “My mom isn’t usually like this. I really don’t know what got into her today. Maybe……”

She paused and murmured under her breath, “Maybe she’s hitting menopause.”

Lu Yuwen couldn’t help laughing. “Is that any way to talk about your mom?”

“It’s fine, I say it all the time.” Su Man said lightly. “She says it herself — every time she loses her temper at my dad, she says it’s her menopause and tells him to be more understanding.”

Lu Yuwen this time couldn’t hold back and laughed out loud. At the same time, a quiet feeling of wonder came over him. “Your parents really have such a wonderful relationship.”

“I suppose……” Su Man smiled, and thinking of Lu Yuwen’s own family situation, she didn’t continue. She felt as though talking further would be like showing off, no different from rubbing salt in a wound.

She bent her head over the vegetables, running them under fresh water, then washing them a second time. A few carrots came out glistening and fresh under her hands.

From the cutting board came the steady, even sound of a knife at work — a clean, rhythmic slicing sound that made her glance over involuntarily. Under his hands, the ingredients were being processed into various shapes and sizes in an orderly, methodical way, producing a strangely satisfying sense of comfort.

Deeply calming.

“Actually, I quite liked being questioned like that by your mother.” Lu Yuwen sliced a piece of meat into even, uniform strips, unhurried and composed as he spoke.

Su Man blinked, lifting her eyes to look at him.

Lu Yuwen glanced at her with a smile, placed the sliced meat into a glass bowl, and set it to marinate in seasoning.

“The more she asks, the happier I am.” he said.

“Why?” Su Man stared at him, genuinely baffled. How could anyone enjoy being interrogated like that?

He took the carrot from her hands, the corners of his mouth slightly lifted as though he was quite pleased about something. “If she’s asking a lot, it at least means she doesn’t dislike me, doesn’t it?”

Su Man furrowed her brow and thought it over. That did seem to make sense.

Lu Yuwen pressed two potatoes into her hands and sent her back to washing.

There was actually one more thing he hadn’t said aloud: the more she asked, the more satisfied Su Ma was with him.

This was especially apparent in the world of courtship — if someone found a particular thing unacceptable, they would immediately rule out the other party and not bother spending the energy to find out anything further about them.

The way some men considered any woman over twenty-five too old and ruled them out without a second thought.

Or the way some women considered any man under one-hundred-eighty centimeters half-invalid and refused to entertain them at all.

But Su Man’s mother had kept pressing him with questions, each one more detailed than the last — which meant that his various qualities and circumstances fell within the range Su Ma was willing to consider.

Even though, in the course of their conversation, he had cautiously revealed certain imperfections about himself — his single-parent upbringing, his once-poor health in childhood, a father whose whereabouts were unknown……

Su Ma had shown not the slightest sign of minding or pulling away.

Lu Yuwen found himself thinking: Su Man is wonderful. And so are Su Man’s parents……

In the face of this family’s generosity and warmth, all his small calculations and careful maneuvering felt laughable. Pathetic, even.

Yes — pathetic.

A person like him had a baseline of insignificance that was simply part of who he was. He tried to manage it, to conceal it, even to disguise it — but he knew he had to face this truth about himself:

In the presence of anything truly beautiful, he would always feel small.

—