Taking advantage of the summer holiday, Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng brought Lu Siyan back to Xi Shi.

Two years ago, when Lu Siyan had vanished and left, Grandma and Grandpa had been low-spirited for a long time afterward. When news came that Siyan had returned, the two elders had been urging them to visit from the very day he came back. They had worried it might be awkward after two years apart — but as it turned out, no amount of time or distance could compete with the power of that bond between grandparent and grandchild. Lu Siyan, with his naturally easy, warm manner, was at seven years old a little more sensible than at five — his wit was sharp, his words charming, and he had the grandparents laughing heartily.

This trip also had important business to attend to.

After more than two years of diligent saving, Jiang Ruoqiao had rebuilt her personal reserves and moved upgrading the family home up on her agenda. The old apartment was only on the third floor, but for elderly people, even that was inconvenient. Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng had come back the previous year to look at several developments, and after careful evaluation from all angles, they settled on one. The community had reasonable pricing; directly across the street was a park; nearby were a hospital and a senior citizens’ university.

It was ideally suited for elderly residents like her grandparents. With limited savings, and after selling the old apartment, Jiang Ruoqiao chose a three-bedroom unit of around ninety square meters.

The keys had been handed over in March.

Grandma and Grandpa then demonstrated the full power of the “say one thing, do another” principle.

At first, both elders had been reluctant to move — on one hand, they had grown attached to the home they had lived in for so many years and didn’t want to uproot; on the other hand, they felt guilty about the burden on their granddaughter, who had to scrape together a down payment and take on a mortgage, all at twenty-two or twenty-three years old. How could they be easy about it?

But Jiang Ruoqiao was utterly firm. She insisted on the move no matter what.

Once the purchase was complete and the keys were in hand, the two elders began making cheerful little visits to the new apartment every few days.

The more they saw of it, the more they liked it. The floor was high, the natural light was excellent — from the living room, you could see the lake in the park. One step out the door and across the street, and you were at the park; early mornings you could go for a walk, evenings you could head to the plaza for dancing.

The rooms were spacious too — bright and open, the kind of space that made your heart feel lighter just to be in.

By mid-to-late August, they were ready to move in.

On moving day, neighbors who could help all showed up. It was the way of Xi Shi — the more festive the first day in a new home, the better, and of course the first day meant cooking on the new stove. Grandma and Grandpa, being warm and sociable, had invited several neighbors over to celebrate at the new place. Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng were run off their feet — Lu Yicheng especially, as he was in charge of all the cooking, while Jiang Ruoqiao served the guests with plates of fruit and snacks.

These were all neighbors who had watched her grow up. The warmth between them ran deep.

“Old Qiao, you really struck it lucky!” one grandfather said. “Xiao Qiao — sharp as a tack, capable as they come, gets you a brand-new apartment while she’s still young. You were talking about not wanting to leave the old place — leave what? We’re just down the road from the park, we see each other every day! I’m telling you, this elevator building really is a pleasure. Look how bright this apartment is! One of these days I’ll get my son to find me something like this too, and we’ll still be neighbors!”

Jiang Ruoqiao listened and smiled to herself.

She knew it. No one can resist the law of “I actually love it.”

Another grandmother chimed in: “And Xiao Qiao really knows how to pick, too — look at young Lu. I can’t say a word against him. Every time he comes back he’s running around helping, cleaning the apartment, fixing this and that. Even a real grandson couldn’t do better.”

Over these two years, Lu Yicheng had built up an excellent reputation among the neighbors.

Jiang Ruoqiao regularly received “complaints” from the girls in the neighborhood —

“Qiaoqiao, your boyfriend is trying to do people in! I brought my guy back and my grandparents spent the whole visit criticizing him — said he was lazy and useless, said he couldn’t even be bothered to make a decent impression before the wedding, so what would he be like after. I’ve actually been thinking about breaking up with him lately…”

“Qiao-jie, you’ve set the bar so high for my future partner in my parents’ and grandparents’ eyes… It’s not like I can compete with you… Where on earth would I find an A University honors student who’s handsome, hardworking, and filial all at once?! I’m crying!”

“My grandparents said from now on they want me to find someone just like your boyfriend. Knowing my luck, no one will understand my suffering — did I not go to A University because I didn’t want to? Did I not find a boyfriend like that because I didn’t want to?”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “?”

Fine, Lu Yicheng really was very, very good.

The day passed in a flurry, and the simple but lively housewarming feast came to an end. That night, Jiang Ruoqiao and her grandmother lay in bed chatting — grandmother and granddaughter always had endless things to say to each other, and Grandma, perhaps feeling her age, was determined to pass along every lesson life had taught her before it was too late.

“Have you made up your mind?” Grandma asked.

She meant: had she decided to marry Lu Yicheng?

Jiang Ruoqiao could not deny to herself how impulsive it felt.

In her original life plan, marriage — even if it was ever going to happen — wouldn’t have been penciled in until she was at least twenty-eight or twenty-nine.

Twenty-two, twenty-three — so young. Who thought about marriage at that age?

And yet, when Lu Yicheng truly reached nine hundred and ninety-nine roses, she realized she was completely done for.

From the very beginning, she had known what nine hundred and ninety-nine roses meant. Throughout these two or three years, she had always known he was still folding them.

She knew it all, and yet the moment she saw them, the wave of emotion that rose in her chest was not diminished by even a fraction.

She could hear her own heart speaking: *It’s him. It has to be him.*

Jiang Ruoqiao nodded gently. “Grandma, I’ll explain it with just a few things, and you’ll understand. Last summer, we went traveling, and the UV rays there were brutal — little bumps started appearing all over my face, almost like heat rash but not quite. My whole face was covered in them; even I was frightened when I saw myself in the mirror. He didn’t get any. He helped me apply the medication every day, endlessly patient. And during that trip I had some trouble with the food, my stomach was upset. One night the pain was unbearable — I was sweating through everything. He carried me on his back to the hospital, because it was very late and we couldn’t get a car…”

“You know what I’m like — my temper isn’t the best, and I grew up being well looked-after, so sometimes I took it for granted. Sometimes I upset him too, and we’d argue and I’d head back to the dorm on my own. No matter how angry he was, he always followed me and watched until I was safely inside the building.” Jiang Ruoqiao paused here and smiled. “Just think about it — even someone like him could get upset with me. I must have been quite awful sometimes. He grew up with only his grandmother, lives frugally by nature, keeps his spending on himself to an absolute minimum outside the essentials. But when it comes to me and Siyan, he is extraordinarily generous. I’ve seen people argue online about whether it’s better to be with someone who earns a hundred and gives you ninety, or someone who earns a million and only gives you ten thousand — there are arguments for both…”

“But I feel like he is the kind of person who, if he earns a hundred, gives me ninety — and if he earns a million, gives me nine hundred and ninety thousand.” Jiang Ruoqiao nestled against her grandmother. “And I believe he has the ability to earn a million. So if you ask me why I made this decision — that’s why.”

His love for her was what had first made her see him, what had drawn her to him.

Her love for him was what made her say yes.

And so… she chose early marriage after all.

Grandma patted her gently, the way she used to soothe her to sleep as a child. “I have no objections — not because of how wonderful young Lu is, but because I trust my granddaughter. Whether she marries at twenty-three, or thirty-three, or forty-three, she will live well. Who she marries has little to do with it.”

…

Xi Shi was growing and thriving.

Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng both made a point of carving out time to spend with Grandma and Grandpa, and with Lu Siyan. One afternoon, after everyone had woken from their naps, Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng took Lu Siyan out shopping — the main errand being a diamond ring. Jiang Ruoqiao called it a wedding diamond ring; Lu Yicheng insisted it was an engagement ring… Jiang Ruoqiao muttered under her breath: “Rich person energy without the rich person funds.”

She was grumbling, but inwardly she was pleased. She awarded Lu Yicheng a bonus point.

Lu Yicheng was a frugal man, but toward Jiang Ruoqiao, he applied every ounce of his generosity. The engagement ring had to be bought, and the wedding diamond ring had to be there too.

Though Jiang Ruoqiao had accepted the proposal, getting married was a complicated undertaking.

At the earliest, a wedding would have to wait until the beginning of next year.

Lu Yicheng had already resolved: for the next six months, he was going to work himself to the bone, earn the highest bonus he could, and use it to buy her a bigger wedding diamond ring.

To which Jiang Ruoqiao responded: Please, Lu, take it easy…

The family of three arrived at the mall and was browsing the various jewelry counters when they unexpectedly ran into someone they hadn’t seen in over two years.

Lin Kexing.

Lin Kexing was completely different from before — her hair was now short, she was alone, and seemed to be browsing while waiting for someone. The two women’s eyes met only briefly before both quickly looked away. Lu Yicheng didn’t even notice Lin Kexing. Lin Kexing moved off quickly, but couldn’t help glancing back — she saw Jiang Ruoqiao with her hand in the crook of Lu Yicheng’s arm, her head resting against his shoulder, the three of them — two adults and one child — leaning over a jewelry counter examining rings.

Two-plus years had passed since Jiang Ruoqiao had last seen Lin Kexing. And two-plus years had passed since Lin Kexing had last seen Jiang Yan.

Jiang Yan seemed to have vanished entirely from her world. She couldn’t hear a single thing about him.

Sometimes she thought perhaps they might meet again someday when they were both old — he with his grandchildren, she with hers. For the past two years she had been abroad; her mother had arranged for her to see a therapist. She had suffered from serious psychological issues, and had been on medication throughout this period. Gradually she had become more settled. Under her mother’s hopeful gaze, she had started seeing someone. The boyfriend treated her well, but she genuinely didn’t know whether she liked him or not.

After loving Jiang Yan the way she had, she seemed to have gone numb in that regard — as though the feeling had been switched off.

She couldn’t tell anymore whether she liked anyone or not.

They simply spent their days together, day after day. From the outside she appeared happy — on the surface she was a woman in her early twenties, full of youth. But only she knew that inside, her heart and soul had been slowly growing old.

She had lost the capacity to love. She had lost the courage for it too.

Her boyfriend called, and she went to the parking lot, spotted his car, and though her heart felt nothing, her face was already arranged into a smile. She walked over quickly, the way a young woman in her early twenties might — as though carrying love and vitality within her. Just as she reached the car and pulled open the door, she found a girl sitting in the passenger seat.

Her boyfriend sat in the driver’s seat and smiled at her. “Kexing, this is my little sister — Tong Siying. We grew up in the same compound, close as real siblings.”

The girl in the passenger seat, seatbelt already buckled, said sweetly: “Kexing-jie, I didn’t know Youlin-ge was coming to find you — I hope I’m not being a third wheel?”

Lin Kexing stared at her boyfriend, then at this so-called little sister, and suddenly started laughing. She took two steps back, laughing louder and louder, the sound turning more and more bitter. The other two exchanged bewildered looks, not understanding what had come over her.

So. So this was what it felt like.

…

Jiang Ruoqiao didn’t mention this little episode to Lu Yicheng.

They didn’t find a suitable engagement ring this trip; both decided they would look again back in Jing Shi. Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Siyan both loved being in Xi Shi — for good reason: here, they could shamelessly be idle and useless… being with Grandma and Grandpa was simply the greatest comfort in the world! That evening Jiang Ruoqiao even told Lu Yicheng: “I wouldn’t trade this for a large-apartment school district property within the third ring road in Jing Shi, or a hundred million in lottery winnings!”

Being with Grandma and Grandpa meant you could be a child forever.

Lu Siyan felt the same way.

He was convinced that the two people who spoiled him most in all the world were Great-grandma and Great-grandpa — even young Papa and Mama, even older Papa and Mama, both had to step aside.

Because they were always pushing him to do this and do that.

Great-grandma and Great-grandpa would never do that. He could do whatever he pleased, as long as he was happy.

Lu Siyan complained to Great-grandpa: “I only got one problem wrong twice in a row, and Papa told me off, and then Mama told me off too. Great-grandpa and Great-grandma are so much nicer!”

Grandpa was browsing through his *Reference Notes for Qiaoqiao* and looked up, consoling Lu Siyan at some length before saying: “You know why Great-grandma and I don’t push you? Because it’s not really any of our business. By the time you grow up and amount to nothing and cause trouble all day long, we’ll already be cremated and buried in the ground.”

At seventy-some years old, he had made his peace with death, could speak of it plainly. He and his wife would sometimes bring it up themselves, say it to their granddaughter, say it to the people they loved — death was not the ending. When that day truly came, they hoped no one would grieve too deeply; they would be watching over them in another form.

Lu Siyan: “…”

“But your papa and mama are a different matter,” Great-grandpa continued, stroking his chin. “If you cause trouble for them every other day, they’ll lose twenty years off their lives! The old saying goes: grandparents and grandchildren are dear precisely because grandparents have no stakes in the outcome~”

Lu Siyan: “…Great-grandpa…”

“Come, come.” Grandpa flipped through his two thick notebooks with great relish. “I’m almost ready to start a third volume. I’ll pass these down as a family heirloom — no wait, as an important mission — to you. My eyes are going and my handwriting is getting shaky. Or perhaps one day when I’m gone, it’ll be up to you to carry on!”

Lu Siyan asked curiously, “What is that?”

“These are the reference notes for your mama — a record of your papa’s words and conduct,” Grandpa said. “So your mama can use them to judge whether he’s a good husband or not.”

Lu Siyan: “They’re already married, and you still need to write it?”

Grandpa looked gravely serious. “Of course. Listen to me, boy — when I pass this down to you someday, don’t go taking your papa’s side and polishing up what he’s done. As for married or not married — a man, until he’s been hung up on the wall in a portrait, can never be fully vouched for. You have to keep watching. Watch closely. Always.”

Lu Siyan: “?”

*I’m still just a baby!!*

—