Chapter 103

Lu Yu said, "I'm not picky, anything is fine."

His attitude was still distant and cold, no longer the little boy who clung to her, called her mom, and asked her what she had for dinner eighteen years ago.

Not only were there eighteen years between her and Xiao Yu, but there was also the knot of her abandoning him, a pain that could not be washed away by time.

"Then I'll do it."

Shen Ai turned around and walked into the kitchen. Du Jiang followed in, and asked Lu Yu and Jiang Nian to sit down. He poured them hot milk tea from Xinjiang. Jiang Nian liked to drink this. Du Jiang saw that she finished a cup and refilled her cup. He smiled and said, "I'll go to the kitchen to cook some more. You two sit down first."

After Du Jiang entered the kitchen, Jiang Nian looked around the house. It was similar to the family building in the original city. It had a living room, two bedrooms and a small kitchen. It was a mud house. It was very clean inside. There was a small stove outside, and the chimney was inserted into the opposite wall. There were two rooms on both sides of the stove.

The house was very warm, and it was two different temperatures from the biting cold outside.

Jiang Nian pinched Lu Yu's fingers. Lu Yu hadn't smiled since he met Du Jiang. She knew that Lu Yu was hiding something in his heart. Lu Yu held her hand with his backhand and clasped it in her palm. His voice was low and a little hoarse: "I'm fine."

Jiang Nian didn't say anything else and accompanied him silently.

The kitchen had no door, but a curtain. A rich aroma of meat wafted out from inside. Du Jiang stood by the stove, watching Shen Ai wiping her tears in front of the stove. He squatted down and patted the back of her hand, whispering, "Don't cry, the children are here. It's not good if they see you."

Shen Ai pinched her sleeves and wiped her tears vigorously. She said to Du Jiang, "Xiao Yu has grown so big. If I saw him on the street, I wouldn't recognize him."

Du Jiang smiled and said, "Shouldn't you be happy?"

"Yes, I'm happy."

Shen Ai couldn't help it all of a sudden. She lowered her head and buried it in her arms, crying softly. The gurgling sound of rolling water covered the low cry. Du Jiang patted Shen Ai on the back, "You should have told me about Xiao Yu earlier."

"Dad, Mom, is the meat ready?"

Du Liang came in from outside, nodded to Lu Yu and Jiang Nian, then opened the curtain and went into the kitchen. When he saw Shen Ai crying, his steps stopped for a moment. Du Jiang waved to him to come over. Du Liang walked up to her and whispered to his father, "Are you crying because of that man outside?"

Du Jiang patted him on the back of his head, "What man? That's your own brother!"

Du Liang: ...

He touched the wound that had been beaten and felt the pain. The back of the head, with a little more resentment towards his father in his tone: "Can't you talk nicely? You have to hit me on the back of the head. If you hit me so hard that I become stupid, I won't be able to get married."

Du Jiang: ...

Shen Ai burst into laughter. Seeing this, Du Liang stuck to Shen Ai

and acted coquettishly: "Mom, you finally laughed." Shen Ai pushed Du Liang's head in annoyance. The action was very light and the tone was very doting: "You little brat, you dare to laugh at your mother."

Du Liang chuckled.

The room was so small, and there was only a curtain between the outer room and the kitchen. Even if the sound inside was very small, it could be heard outside.

Jiang Nian listened to the happy laughter of the family of three, and subconsciously looked at Lu Yu with worry. She happened to meet Lu Yu's gaze. The man asked: "Are you tired?"

She hesitated and nodded softly: "Tired."

Then she moved the bench closer to Lu Yu, leaned her head against his arm, patted his palm coquettishly, and then clasped his fingers tightly: "Lu Yu, I will always be with you, forever."

Lu Yu smiled and said: "Then You have to keep your word."

Jiang Nian smiled: "Of course, I always keep my word."

As he spoke, footsteps were heard from the kitchen, followed by Du Jiang carrying a large pot of meat soup with piles of meat in it. Shen Ai and Du Liang carried cold vegetables and naan bread with chopsticks in their hands. Du Jiang put the bowl on the table and moved the table to a place near the stove. Du Liang put down the steamed buns and chopsticks and went in to get a bowl.

Du Jiang said, "Come and sit down and have your meal. The stew just made smells so good."

It was mutton soup with large lamb bones and lamb meat, a plate of cold onions and peppers, and a plate of chopped onions and cilantro. When Du Liang brought the bowl over, Shen Ai first filled a large bowl for Lu Yu, which was full of meat and sprinkled with cilantro and onions. Just as she was about to give it to Lu Yu, Lu Yu stood up and said, "Give it to Uncle Du first."

Shen Ai's hand froze for a moment. Du Jiang stood up, took the bowl from Shen Ai's hand and placed it in front of Lu Yu, patted his shoulder, and said with a smile, "Your mother served it to you, you eat first."

Lu Yu lowered his eyes and said nothing more, nor did he refute Du Jiang's repeated calls to his face.

Du Liang broke off a piece of sac and chewed it in his mouth. Occasionally he raised his head to look at Lu Yu sitting across the table. There was meat soup between them. The thick steam rising from the meat soup blurred Lu Yu's sharp features. He had heard from his father that Lu Yu was a soldier and a regiment commander. He didn't know how powerful the regiment commander was. He only knew that the most powerful person in the brigade was the secretary. He didn't know

who was more powerful, the secretary or the regiment commander?

With a bowl of meat soup in front of him, Du Jiang said, "Eat well."

Du Liang: ...

He found that since Lu Yu came over, his father always spoke to him in a threatening manner, as if he was afraid that he would do something bad.

It was warm in the room. Jiang Nian felt a little hot, so she took off her coat and Lu Yu took it over and put it together with his. Shen Ai saw that Lu Yu took good care of Jiang Nian. He took care of her in every possible way. When eating meat, he asked her to blow on it to prevent it from getting too hot, and he broke the steamed buns into small pieces for her and put them in the bowl. Shen Ai couldn't tell how she felt when she saw the little boy grow up into a man who knew how to care for others.

Du Jiang talked more, bringing up the topic from time to time, Lu Yu joined in a few words, Lu Liang quickly took over, and soon the family of three started chatting. Lu Yu and Jiang Nian ate quietly. Jiang Nian glanced at Shen Ai's maternal love when she looked at Du Liang, which was completely different from when she looked at Lu Yu.

She looked at Lu Yu with guilt and caution, and Jiang Nian could hardly see the maternal love in her pupils.

Maybe it was because they had not seen each other for more than ten years, and both sides were strangers, right?

Du Jiang then turned the conversation to Lu Yu, and asked, "When did you two get married?"

Lu Yu said, "Last February."

Du Jiang smiled and said, "It's been almost a year since you got married, and you still don't have a child?"

Jiang Nian lowered her head to eat, and Lu Yu continued, "Let's focus on work for now. We can talk about having children in two years, when we are both stable."

The speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it to heart. Shen Ai subconsciously looked up at Lu Yu, feeling that Lu Yu's words were blaming her for being irresponsible and abandoning him. Her eyes turned red and she was about to cry. Lu Yu noticed Shen Ai's gaze, pursed his thin lips slightly, and raised his head to meet Shen Ai's gaze.

Their eyes met, and the expression on Shen Ai's face froze. When she looked at Lu Yu's familiar facial features, she seemed to see Lu Tianxiao sitting opposite her. She had been married to Lu Tianxiao for eleven years. During the years he was alive, he had always been very good to her. He never let her work in the fields or do heavy work at home. When she gave birth to Xiaoyu, he saw that she was in excruciating pain, and told her that he would never have another child and that having Xiaoyu was enough for her.

She was very well off in the Lu family during those years. Lu Tian's family members died early, and he was the only son left. He raised the family of three well by himself, and the family's food could last for several years after his death. He also saved 300 yuan. That year, she left Lu Yu at the Xu family. When she left, she gave Brother Xu 100 yuan and asked him to take good care of Lu Yu. She didn't tell Brother Xu how long she would be back. When

she was leaving home, Lu Yu caught up with her and wouldn't let her go. Shen Ai saw that little hand tightly grasping the corner of her clothes and refused to let go. She endured for a long time before she let go of his hand and told him that she would come back to pick him up after a while.

Memories rushed into her heart like a torrent. Shen Ai seemed to see Lu Tianxiao's face, still looking at her so tenderly, and telling her to eat more meat, you look so thin.

"Xiao Ai."

Du Jiang's voice came to her ears. Shen Ai was stunned for a moment and came to her senses. She saw that Lu Yu opposite her had lowered his eyes, so she turned to look at Du Jiang: "What's wrong?"

Du Jiang said: "Eat a piece of meat and drink some soup."

She had just been staring at Lu Yu in a daze, and she would cry again if she continued to look at him like this.

Shen Ai lowered her head and said, "I'm eating."

After dinner, it was already late. Shen Ai cleaned up the room next door early in the morning, spread out clean bedding, and set up a wooden bed for Du Liang to sleep on in the outer room. There was a fireplace in the room, so it was very warm. Jiang Nian and Lu Yu washed up and lay on the bed. Neither of them felt sleepy.

Jiang Nian turned around, put her arm on Lu Yu, looked at the man's sliding Adam's apple and dark eyebrows, and whispered, "Lu Yu, what do you think?"

He had been silent all the way, and he was also silent at the dinner table just now. She really couldn't guess what Lu Yu was thinking.

In fact, when Jiang Nian saw the warmth of the three of them in the kitchen and at the dining table, she couldn't sit still. She felt sorry for Lu Yu and was afraid that Lu Yu was upset.

Lu Yu hugged Jiang Nian, stroking her weak arms, looking at the dark ceiling, and said in a hoarse voice: "Niannian."

Jiang Nian clearly heard the loneliness in Lu Yu's voice.

He turned around and hugged Jiang Nian tightly in his arms, with his chin on her head: "I don't want to ask that question anymore, it's meaningless."

He more or less remembered the time when his father was with her. The way she looked at his father was different from the way she looked at Du Jiang.

Today, after comparing them, he realized that when she looked at his father, there was more gratitude and affection in her eyes.

Jiang Nian listened to the strong heartbeat shaking in her ears, put her arms around his waist, and whispered, "If you don't want to ask, don't ask. Let's just come here for fun."

This time, there was no family reunion scene, no family sentiment, but instead alienated indifference and the most ordinary meal. Jiang Nian slept uneasily. She once again dreamed that she returned to her home in the new century, and the family was still sitting at the same table to eat. She had dreamed twice before that her door was locked, so this time she simply didn't go upstairs and thought of sitting next to her parents and waiting for her to wake up.

After a while, the door of the living room was opened, and Jiang Nian opened the door and said with a smile: "Mom and Dad, look who I brought back."

This was the first time she heard Jiang Nian's voice. It was the same as her original voice, but the feeling was very different. It was a little more gentle that she had never had before. Jiang Nian also saw her and his face suddenly changed. At this moment, Jiang Nian saw shock and fear in his own eyes.