I'm afraid you'll overhear me.
"I'm afraid you'll overhear me."
11.
With Chongming joining the game, everyone became exceptionally eager to play.
Ming Zijuan even staked her jade bracelet on her wrist, just to get Lan Jian (Chongming) to play a few more rounds with her.
When the two returned to their room, Lan Jian was so sleepy that she could barely keep her eyes open.
Chongming had to coax people to take a bath and even borrow makeup remover from his mother.
Ming Zijuan opened the door angrily, handing the phone she was holding directly to Chongming, "You tell your dad!"
It seems his father was so busy he was practically scrambling to sleep at the military base.
Chongming listened to his father's rambling, which mainly concerned the unstable situation in the North and South war zones, requiring him to be on standby at any time. He knew that even after his marriage to Lanjian, the successful renewal of the nuclear peace treaty was not a sure thing. His father cared about the people of Nanlu, and as a son, he naturally understood. However, his mother had initially forced him to come home every Friday for the weekend, thanks to his father's leading role. Now that he was married, his father didn't come back to stay, making his coming home with his wife seem even more pointless.
“Dad,” Chongming’s negotiation skills were just like his businesswoman mother’s, “Since you’re not coming back, then Lanjian and I, who are newlyweds, probably don’t need to come back either, right?”
"What do you mean by that? Even you're not here, are you going to leave your mother to put on a one-woman show at home?"
"You don't spend time with your wife, but you expect me and my wife to spend time with your wife? Does that sound reasonable?"
"Rebellious son!"
Lu Jie cursed and hung up the phone. Chongming received his mother's makeup remover and respectfully returned the phone, asking, "Are you satisfied?"
"It's alright."
Despite her words, Ming Zijuan's eyebrows had already turned up towards her temples.
My son was worth raising.
"I had someone put the cotton pads for Lan Jian in the cabinet where you used to keep your towels. Oh, by the way, I've also prepared some supplies for you in the bedside table and bedside drawer. Your father put them in your room himself, without asking anyone else to do it, so don't worry."
Gear.
His mother really knows how to coin words.
Chongming caught his breath, then gave his mother a forced smile and said, "Mom, you're not in such a hurry to become a grandma, are you?"
Ming Zijuan was taken aback by her son's use of the word "grandma," but she still had to nod in agreement, "I prepared this for you so that you two could have more time alone together, right?"
"Then I won't be coming back next week."
"Why?"
Chongming cleared his throat, "I'm afraid you'll overhear me."
Chongming went back to his room and placed the makeup remover on the bedside table. While Lanjian was still showering, he went downstairs and finished watching the movie. When he returned to his room, it was already 2 a.m. He passed by his parents' room and saw the light was on, guessing that his father had just come back. He took a shower in the bathroom of the guest room on the third floor before returning to his own room.
Lan Jian left a bedside lamp on for him, and he was fast asleep, wrapped in a blanket. On her other side was his usual pillow and his own blanket.
Lan Jian had told him that she liked to steal the blankets when she slept.
Chongming knew she was pretending to be asleep. After lying down and turning over three times, he made a sound, breaking the tranquil atmosphere.
"Menglanjian".
"Um."
The person with their eyes closed responded.
The person who spoke first fell silent.
Lan Jian kept her eyes closed. "Senior brother, can we make a deal?"
Chongming didn't respond, and Lanjian continued on his own, "For some people, being called by someone's name is a blessing. But for others, being called by someone one less time is an act of merit."
They started talking about Buddhism in the middle of the night.
Chongming spoke up at the opportune moment, "So?"
"So could you please call me by my full name less often in the future?" Lan Jian muttered. "When you call me Meng Lan Jian, it always makes me feel like I'm writing some kind of messed-up program and you're going to scold me or give me extra homework."
When did I ever insult you?
"..."
After a while, Chongming agreed, "Okay, I'll be more careful next time. But what did you call me just now?"
Lan Jian was half awake from her nap. Calling Chongming "senior brother" was a way she addressed him in her heart, following the northern custom. In the south, regardless of whether they were from the same sect, they would generally call him "senior brother." She had been in Nanlu for a long time and usually followed local customs. However, perhaps because she was pursuing a doctorate and they were from the same sect, she felt a closer connection to Chongming. Therefore, Lan Jian had been silently calling Chongming "senior brother" in her heart for a long time.
Just as I was getting sleepy, I couldn't stop the voice deep inside my heart.
But she felt there was no point in arguing, so she forced herself to repeat, "Senior, brother?"
"This title sounds nice, I'll accept it."
Chongming closed his eyes as well, and the spacious room instantly fell into a vast silence.
The next morning, Ming Zijuan took Lan Jian and a group of relatives to the back garden for brunch and to admire the flowers. Chongming woke up late and strolled to the garden, only to find that Ming Zijuan had already taken Lan Jian to the greenhouse to look at the flowers.
Lan Jian seemed to get along particularly well with his mother.
Chongming glanced at the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, whose body language revealed their intimacy, and then turned and went home.
After staying at Chongming's house for two days, on Sunday afternoon, while Ming Zijuan was getting a spa treatment at the beauty salon, Chongming took Lan Jian and ran away back to his duplex apartment in Senjing No. 1.
When Ming Zijuan called to yell at him, Chongming and Lanjian were already eating pizza and playing several rounds of Mario Kart in the game room. After Lanjian had been coaxing Chongming's mother for about ten minutes, she looked at the time on his phone screen and suddenly slapped the back of her head.
"oops!"
The shot was taken too many times.
Chongming looks painful.
He reached out to rub her sore skin, and only when he got closer did he hear Lan Jian mutter to herself, "I forgot to tell my parents about my wedding!"
Chongming's movements and expression both froze.
"Your parents don't know?"
"They should know, right..." Lan Jian was also a little confused. "My uncle knows about the arranged marriage, and with all the news a few days ago, my parents should be able to guess it was me, right?"
If the parents are unaware of an arranged marriage, there's only one possibility—
Were you adopted by your parents?
"What are you saying?!" Lan Jian pouted unhappily. She rarely made this expression; she only showed a sour face when she was truly annoyed. "I'm my parents' only child! Their biological daughter!"
"Then why didn't you even tell your parents about the wedding? And if your uncle already informed your parents, it seems like they didn't even ask you about it?"
Lan Jian was stumped by the question and tried to cover it up by explaining, "I tell Xiuyun everything. If Xiuyun knows, it's the same as my parents knowing."
Seeing Chongming's confused expression, Lanjian added, "Xiuyun is my maternal grandmother."
Lan Jian went to call her parents
She now makes video calls to her parents every Sunday afternoon at 6 PM. If she's going out with friends, she'll let them know in advance. This time coincides with their respective dinner time, and they'll share their dinner and what happened during the week.
Lan Jian tried her best to tell her parents in a calm tone that she had married the son of a major general in the Southern Army in Nanlu. Her parents' reaction was exactly as she had imagined: calm and accepting.
After all, she only informed her parents after everything was settled when she decided to go to Nanlu to pursue her undergraduate studies.
Meng's parents had a very open approach to education. They almost never interfered with any of Lan Jian's choices and respected all her decisions as much as possible.
Even when Meng Lanjian was fifteen, she suddenly had a whimsical idea to tear down and renovate her bedroom to satisfy her desire to try laying cement and painting walls. When her parents found out, they helped her take half a month off work and spent a week at home with her, transforming the room into a futuristic, dark space station. During the week the room was airing out, the whole family went on a trip and climbed five mountains.
There are many similar cases. In short, Lanjian's habit of "acting first and reporting later" has a long history.
As long as she's alright, her parents let her do whatever she wants.
As usual, after twenty minutes of video chatting, the three of them ran out of things to say.
"Would you like to video chat with the person on my marriage certificate?"
Lan Jian Mama objected, "Won't he be nervous about something so sudden?"
“That makes sense. Do you think I can let him see Xiuyun first?”
"I think that's fine, then let's stop talking for now."
After hanging up with her parents, Lan Jian went from the living room to the game room. Chong Ming was sitting on the floor looking at his phone, seemingly in a state of readiness.
"Chongming, my parents are worried that it might be too sudden for you to meet them for the first time. If you're mentally prepared, could you video chat with them next week?"
"no problem."
Chongming was somewhat surprised by the calm during Lanjian's video call with his parents, but since the marriage was arranged through Lanjian's uncle's connections, the elders should have already been aware of it.
"Would you like to see Xiuyun? She can video chat anytime."
"Okay, if we don't want to bother her."
"It won't bother you." Lan Jian opened an app, and the interface opened to a dark room that looked like the universe, decorated with planet-shaped lamps that seemed to be simulations of the eight planets. Lan Jian pressed a button, "Xiuyun, could you come over for a moment? I'd like to introduce you to my...husband."
A figure slowly appeared in the frame. No matter how kind and benevolent the old face looked, the gleaming eyes were somewhat unsettling.
"Hello, you are Lan Jian's husband, Chongming."
Chongming exerted all his strength to maintain a calm and composed demeanor on the surface.
Lan Jian, standing to the side, saw his tightly clenched jawline and the greeting that came out one word at a time through his teeth, and laughed so hard that her shoulders twitched.
"Hello, are you Xiulan, Grandma Lanjian's android?"
"Yes, good evening."
-Today, the author is also being obediently spoiler-filled:
The idea of bionic robots is actually quite touching. I wonder if anyone has seen the official music video for "Mercury"? It was the inspiration for this storyline.
Lanjian's mama is a bionic robot expert.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
