My husband, whom I married into the family, has spoiled me rotten.
"The man I married into the family spoiled me rotten."
74.
After the plane landed, Lan Jian pulled her carry-on suitcase out of the security gate. As soon as the automatic door opened, the people waiting anxiously outside the barrier all turned their gazes to her. After glancing around, Lan Jian exited through a side exit. Just as she was about to lower her head to read the message, she saw a woman with a laptop on her lap, typing away rapidly on the keyboard, sitting in the first row of seats closest to the door. The woman had her hair in a ponytail.
"Mama!" Lan Jian's face lit up with a bright smile as she ran towards her mother, whom she hadn't seen in a long time. Last summer, her mother had stayed in Nanlu because she was busy with experiments, and the three of them had met at a resort in Southeast Asia. Lan Jian threw herself into her mother's arms and said sweetly, "I didn't see you at the door just now, I thought you broke your promise!"
During the Spring Festival holiday before last, Lan Jian had a long-term cold war with her mother because her mother prevented her uncle from picking her up. This time, in order to "make amends," her mother promised Lan Jian well in advance that she would come to pick her up from the airport earlier.
Kovandai gently stroked her daughter's long hair. She was wearing a white, blue-trimmed, navy-collar sleeveless dress. The dress was not something her daughter had taken from home; it was obviously prepared for her by someone when she was in the south. Kovandai knew her daughter well; getting her to put effort into her clothes was more of a headache than getting her to write code.
The mother and daughter walked arm in arm affectionately to the front gate, where their family car pulled up smoothly in front of them. The refined-looking middle-aged man who got out and opened the car door for them was Meng Lanjian's busy director father, Meng Zhihe. This time, Lanjian, knowing her mother was coming to pick her up, refused to use the VIP lane, insisting on enjoying the happiness of being greeted by her parents in public. Meng Zhihe's status was well-known, making it inconvenient for him to hug his daughter in public.
It wasn't until the car slowly drove into the gate of the Meng family's manor that the butler stood by the golf cart waiting. Meng Zhihe got out of the car and handed the car keys to the butler. Lan Jian saw that her mother was focused on revising a student's paper without moving, and she understood and got out of the car with her father to transfer to the golf cart.
After the car drove away, Meng Zhihe reached out and touched the top of his daughter's head. Lan Jian leaned over and hugged him for a long time before the father and daughter got into the car with smiles.
Meng Zhihe drove a sightseeing car with his daughter to see the changes in the plants and flowers in the manor since she left home more than a year ago. The landscape plants were all taken care of by the gardeners, and he couldn't explain them in a short time. When they passed the orchard, he pointed to the grapevines laden with fruit and said, "Those were transported from his vineyard by your second uncle last year. You can eat fresh ones when we get back."
Last Spring Festival, she spent the holiday at her second uncle's house in a huff, casually complaining to him that she hadn't been there at the right time of year and hadn't been able to eat the grapes in front of his red-brick house. Her second uncle never mentioned the grapevine again, but now that her father had specifically brought her to see it, Lan Jian understood his unspoken meaning—
Her father wanted her to remember and be grateful for her second uncle's care and guidance.
Lan Jian looked at her father thoughtfully, but Meng Zhihe ignored his daughter's gaze. He turned the steering wheel and drove towards some taller fruit trees. "That bayberry tree bore fruit this May. On the day of your doctoral qualification exam, your mother personally picked the fullest basket of fruit. Half of it was frozen for you to make desserts, and the other half was soaked in wine to entertain guests when you return home."
The bayberry tree was planted by Lan Jian after he went to study in Nanlu. He ate a particularly good variety of bayberry at a classmate's house and casually mentioned it to his family. When he returned home for summer vacation, he was able to eat the fruit that his family had grown.
Thinking about it this way, everything Meng Lanjian wanted in her life so far seemed difficult to achieve, even if it could be described as readily available. Growing up in such a large and materially wealthy family as the Meng family, she was pampered as her parents' only child and was always surrounded by kind and warm friends. Even the "political marriage" that happened somewhat unexpectedly was an option that she couldn't refuse.
A life that is too smooth sailing, like a happy ending in a fairy tale, makes others feel that happiness is unreal just by passing by.
Meng Lanjian deliberately ignored her father's implied meaning and calmly changed the subject.
Meng Zhihe, who hadn't yet "exerted his strength," felt like he'd punched cotton. He had tried his best to avoid lecturing Meng Lanjian, reminding her that her success in everything was due to her prominent family background and her parents' endless pampering. Meng Lanjian had a strong personality and rarely backed down or suffered losses, except when it came to her mother, where she would occasionally suffer some grievances.
Meng Zhihe, caught in the middle, tried to mediate between the two, but they were like a big lion and a little lion locked in a power struggle. Every time they talked deeper into the conversation, they would get angry, and if they had manes, they would probably stand up.
Even with her father's cautious warnings, Meng Lanjian didn't feel completely relaxed upon returning to her grand and magnificent home, which resembled an ancient castle.
The sixth floor was her private space. The maid changed the carpet for her at the elevator entrance and then took the elevator downstairs. Meng Lanjian made a voice call to Chongming as she entered the dressing room. Chongming didn't answer. The moment she put down her phone and opened the wardrobe, she saw a series of lotus-purple silk dresses prominently displayed in the summer collection. None of these dresses had tags; they were...
The clothing company under the Meng family exclusively designed and tailored the clothes for her, and the fabrics used were all carefully selected by the designers. Meng Lanjian had no knowledge of these things and would forget them as soon as she heard about them.
She is not picky about her everyday clothes, and always adheres to the principle of "not making mistakes and being conventional".
Although she felt inexplicably uncomfortable when she saw this series of colors today, Meng Lanjian was used to dressing without thinking and could not quickly pick out a suitable or favorite style, but she was quick to eliminate options.
She pondered for a moment, then finally raised her hand and pressed the electronic screen in the entryway. After less than three rings, a gentle, humble, and smiling female voice sounded, "Lanjian, is there anything I can do for you?"
"Please come to my walk-in closet and get rid of all the mauve-colored clothes in it."
After a few seconds of silence, "Okay."
Meng Lanjian picked out a navy blue strapless dress with a crossover neckline and left the dressing room without looking back. Back inside, the spacious room had a new, strong, and alluring scent from the aromatherapy diffuser. Meng Lanjian's keen nose immediately detected three different floral notes. She pinched her nose and went into the bathroom, increasingly uneasy—
In this home, her unique style of clothing and the scent of fragrance seem to have vanished.
At the welcoming banquet in Lanjian that evening, Zhou Yu, the eldest cousin from my aunt's family, and Meng Qi and Meng Yang, the cousins from my uncle's family, also came with the elders. The whole family was chatting and fussing over Lanjian when my aunt suddenly exclaimed "Eh!" towards the door. Immediately afterward, a cheerful male voice came gracefully.
"Miss Meng!"
Meng Lanjian's gaze passed over Meng Yang's shoulder and landed on Qi Feiou, who was carrying a bouquet of cut lilies of the valley and wearing a light-colored suit. Amidst the teasing chatter of her brothers and elders, Meng Lanjian gracefully smiled and stood up, calling out "Brother Qi." As she took the flowers, she noticed a corner of the pocket square peeking out from Qi Feiou's suit jacket. Not only was the color the same as the dress she had had disposed of, but the fabric also seemed to be the same.
"Perhaps it's the same piece of fabric," Meng Lanjian thought to herself, glancing thoughtfully towards the kitchen. Qi Fei'ou observed her every move, politely greeting everyone present before heading straight to the kitchen.
"Hey!" Meng Yang nudged Lan Jian's shoulder. Among their siblings, the two were the closest in age and the most unrestrained in their conversations. "Did you talk to Aunt Pei?"
"Aunt Pei" is the housekeeper of the entire Meng family and also Qi Fei'ou's biological mother.
Grandpa Meng Lanjian had five children when he was alive. His eldest daughter, Meng Zhixing, and son, Meng Zhihe, were born to his first wife. The three adopted children were Meng Lanjian's second uncle, Meng Zhiyu; his youngest uncle, Meng Zhiwei; and his deceased aunt, Meng Zhishuang. His aunt married Qi Li, a comrade-in-arms of his uncle, Zhou Puzhao. Before marrying him, Qi Li had been married once before; Qi Fei'ou was Qi Li's child from his previous marriage. His aunt was gentle and kind-hearted, never having children of her own, but treating Qi Fei'ou like her own son. Perhaps due to family tradition, the Meng family treated adopted children the same as their biological children, and the younger generation never had the concept of "you are my biological child" versus "I am not." Occasionally, they would act impulsively and fight each other when they were young, but when something truly important happened, the whole family was incredibly united. However, the once harmonious Meng family fell apart shortly after Grandpa Meng's death.
That year, Meng Zhishuang was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer. At that time, relations between the North and South were fluctuating, and Qi Li was constantly preparing for war in the military camp. Meng Lanjian, who had been living with Qi Fei'ou at the Meng family manor for many years, had moved three times since childhood. The last time was after her aunt became seriously ill, when she moved to the manor with her parents to take care of her. After her grandfather passed away, the old housekeeper retired and returned to his hometown. The new housekeeper of the manor was hired by her aunt. Seeing that she took good care of Meng Zhishuang, the Meng family felt at ease and delegated the responsibility to this housekeeper named Yang Pei. At that time, Qi Fei'ou was studying abroad. Following his aunt's wishes, his family did not inform her of her illness during his studies. It was not until his aunt was on her deathbed that Qi Fei'ou returned to the Meng family and saw his "adoptive mother" lying on the sickbed and his "biological mother" taking care of him. He was struck dumb.
Only then did the Meng family learn that Yang Pei had gone to great lengths to come to the Meng family to repay Meng Zhishuang's kindness in treating her son as her own. At that time, she had remarried for many years and, besides her son Qi Fei'ou, had a daughter. After her second husband died in a car accident, she had been traveling around with her daughter and hadn't seen Qi Fei'ou for many years. Qi Li, serving in the army, was unable to attend to his duties and rarely returned to the manor to visit the sick; his trip was always rushed, and he didn't even have a chance to meet Yang Pei.
Meng Zhixing, the eldest sister of the Meng family, manages all affairs of the family. She made the final decision to allow Yang Pei to stay and take care of Meng Zhishuang, but Meng Zhiyu was the first to object. Among the family members, Meng Zhiyu and Meng Zhishuang were the closest. After Meng Zhishuang fell ill, Meng Zhiyu put aside her business and traveled the world to contact top cancer centers for targeted cell therapy, proton therapy, and so on, just so that she could stay in the Meng family longer. Meng Zhiyu's reason for objecting was that entrusting Meng Zhishuang to someone whose background she didn't know was already dangerous, let alone the biological mother of her adopted son.
However, once the eldest sister of the Meng family made a statement, she never took it back. Yang Pei stayed behind.
Under Yang Pei's care, Meng Zhishuang's condition seemed to have improved somewhat. After becoming the housekeeper, Yang Pei took meticulous care of everyone in the Meng family. Even when Meng Lanjian carelessly left her hairpin in the stable, Yang Pei would carefully take it to be cared for and then return it to her.
The Meng family's estate is very large; when it snows, the golf course and horse farm turn into an endless expanse of snow.
On the day when the snow fell the heaviest, Meng Zhishuang held Yang Pei's hand and slowly closed her eyes.
Before she died, she called Yang Pei "jiejie".
Meng Zhixing had known for a long time that Yang Pei was Meng Zhishuang's biological sister, but no one in the family knew this except for her.
Meng Zhiyu was angry that she hadn't made the matter public sooner, and in a fit of pique, she never attended a family banquet where Meng Zhixing was present again.
Two years ago, when Meng Lanjian was spending the Spring Festival with her second uncle in a sparsely populated small European country, she asked him why he was angry with her eldest aunt.
Meng Zhiyu said, "Because Zhishuang is our family, my eldest sister knew that she had found her family, but she didn't let anyone else know. Was she afraid that we would stop her from recognizing Yang Pei? Or was she worried that we would pursue the matter from forty years ago? Or was she even worried that we would hold a grudge because Zhishuang helped her raise her son for twenty years? My eldest sister condemned everyone and imagined us to be so bad. Maybe she never really considered us family."
"But Dad and Uncle probably don't know either."
"No, your father must know."
Meng Lanjian was stunned by Meng Zhiyu's firm tone. After a long pause, she struggled to find her voice, "Why, he must know?"
"If he didn't know, he would definitely be on my side. He would have resolutely opposed someone of unknown origin taking care of our Meimei. But he tacitly allowed Yang Pei to take care of Zhishuang, and even moved your mother and your whole family into the manor to monitor Yang Pei. After Zhishuang died, he followed her last wish and kept Yang Pei. In those six months, he had already weighed whether Yang Pei was capable of fulfilling the duties of the Meng family's steward, and as it turns out, he won his gamble. He used his Meimei's smiling face in the afterlife to prove that Yang Pei was not only not a bad person, but also a useful one."
Lan Jian remained silent for a long time amidst her second uncle's cold and stern tone, and that very night she decided to leave the small building where even the grapevines had withered.
...
"He spoke."
Meng Lanjian snapped out of her long reverie. Ever since she learned that Yang Pei was her aunt's biological sister, and that her aunt had been abandoned on the border between the north and south because she was the second girl in the family, Meng Lanjian had barely spoken to Yang Pei. In those difficult times, it was common for parents to abandon their children and for siblings to abandon each other. What was most hateful about Yang Pei was that she knew her aunt had raised her son for twenty years, yet she could still bring her daughter, whom she depended on for survival, to live in the Meng family home, claiming it was to repay a debt of gratitude.
She wasn't trying to repay a debt of gratitude. She wanted to wait until her aunt died, then return to the kind-hearted Qi Fei'ou and use her status as her "birth mother" and "dear aunt" to attach herself to the powerful Meng family.
She even encouraged her two children to marry into wealth and power.
Qi Fei'ou's purplish-red pocket square tucked into his chest is the best proof of this.
Meng Yang glanced at Meng Lanjian with some surprise, "Didn't you say you never wanted to talk to her again in your life?"
Meng Lanjian rolled her eyes at him. "I also said that I wouldn't go home until my mom apologized to me."
"So what? Professor Ke brought you home in a grand procession, and now you expect me to be your daughter and act like a servant?"
Meng Lanjian was speechless at Meng Yang's nonchalant words and couldn't help but frown and give him a sour look. "Meng Yang, if you say another word, I guarantee that you will be the next person I ignore."
Meng Yang raised his hands in surrender, "Ceasefire!"
"I hate this kind of attitude from you men the most. You talk a lot, and when you can't win the argument, you won't let the other person finish speaking before calling a 'truce'. Truce my foot!"
"No, Meng Lanjian, I've noticed you've become more and more spoiled since your marriage in Nanlu! Didn't you tell me not to say another word? How come it's now that you're telling me not to finish what I'm saying?"
Meng Lanjian was simply annoyed and wanted to have a good fight with someone. She and Meng Yang had been arguing since they were little, and Meng Yang never acted like a proper older brother, never giving in to her. She was used to competing with him, and now he had found a loophole, instantly making her furious. She muttered something, but Meng Yang didn't hear her clearly. He cheekily leaned in and pressed his ear against her mouth, urging her, "What are your instructions, Miss Meng? I'm all ears."
“I’m telling you,” Meng Lanjian grabbed Meng Yang’s ear without any hesitation and shouted, “you’re really tired of living!”
The two cousins started playfully fighting, and the elders, already used to it, gradually came to the table. Only Meng Lanjian knew what she had just said.
She said, "The man I married into the family spoiled me so much that I started to miss him after he didn't answer my phone once."
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