Yan Beicheng then took out a set of CDs and said to Old Lady Yan, "These are CDs of the drama that you"ve always liked to watch, so that you don"t have to watch it on the TV channels. The channels not only insert advertis.e.m.e.nts in the middle, but they also censored a great deal of content. This is the uncut version with behind-the-scenes footage at the end of the drama too. They also come with a set of merch and action figures."
Old Lady Yan took a look. The ceramic figures of the emperor and his queen, the other concubines and eunuchs were all adorable, and she liked them a lot.
There was also a notebook which was exquisitely made to imitate an imperial memorial.
Old Lady Yan loved all of them and kept them well. Her happiness had still not dissipated by then. "I… I now have a granddaughter-in-law!"
Old Lady Yan took her phone out and made a call. "Old Han!"
"Haha, there"s nothing much, just that Beicheng has brought his girlfriend home today. Do you want to come over? Have a meal together happily while I introduce my granddaughter-in-law to you."
"I"m going to call Old Wei and Old Chu among others. I"m not going to bother calling Old Lady Qi, she"s at home caring for her great-grandson. The three of you are surely bored anyway because you don"t have a granddaughter-in-law or great-grandchildren. Come over!"
"You don"t have time? That"s impossible — you don"t have a granddaughter-in-law to visit you."
"Fine. Do you have time tomorrow? I"m taking my granddaughter-in-law to your house for cards."
"You"re busy tomorrow too? You must visit me the day after that. We can watch the drama CDs that my granddaughter-in-law has bought for me!"
Lin Chu"s face convulsed when she struggled to hold in her mirth. Even she had found the old woman"s words quite infuriating; it was hard to imagine just how furious Old Lady Han on the other end of the phone was.
Old Lady Yan looked at her phone and said to Old Master Yan, "Say, why did this Old Han hang up on me?"
Old Master Yan thought, "I would have hung up the phone too if he was Old Lady Han. How infuriating!"
Old Lady Yan called her friends one after another to gloat. Of course, aside from Old Lady Qi who had sent her wishes with a smile, the others all hung up on her with an annoyed expression.
Old Lady Yan did not care. She looked out from the window. "Why are the neighbors not coming yet?"
Old Master Yan tweaked his beard. He said, "Don"t mind her. She has notified people that she"ll only be visiting her neighbors on the second day of the New Year because many will visit on the day before. After she"d said so, the neighbors can only visit her today. She"s waiting for you to come so that she can show you off to the neighbors."
"And you"re not showing off, too? If you don"t have the intention, you won"t go fis.h.i.+ng and return with a tiny fish in your bucket every day, telling everyone that you"re catching this to make a dish for your granddaughter-in-law!" Old Lady Yan aired Old Master Yan"s dirty laundry without reserve. "This went on for a week until you"ve finally bought a larger fish stealthily from the market. When you came back, you were yelling so loud that everyone in the area knows that the fish is for your granddaughter-in-law. When I went out today, our neighbor Xiao Lin pulled me aside and told me that your voice nearly shocked their old lady into hospitalization and that she had to stay home for a while before she recovered."
Old Master Yan: "..."
Before Old Master Yan could attempt to regain his dignity, the doorbell rang. Aunt Chen opened the door to welcome in neighbors who came to visit.
Old Lady Yan was overjoyed. She clutched Lin Chu"s hand in hers tightly while she went around and introduced Lin Chu as her granddaughter-in-law. A few groups came and went, and Old Lady Yan was grinning so happy that she showed her teeth.
Lin Chu requested to help out in the kitchen when she saw Yu Zi enter to help Aunt Chen with dinner.
Old Lady Yan saw Yu Zi go in and agreed out of fear that Yu Zi would think that she was playing favorites.
"Look, it"s only your first day here, and I…" Old Lady Yan said sheepishly.
"I"m happy that you are not treating me as an outsider," Lin Chu said with a smile as she put on the ap.r.o.n that Aunt Chen handed to her.
Shortly after she entered the kitchen, she heard the voice of Old Lady Yan outside saying, "My granddaughter-in-law is in there cooking dinner for us! Yes, with my sister-in-law."
Vaguely, she also heard someone reply, "You"re really lucky."
Old Lady Yan was over the moon.
When they left for Ding City that night, Old Lady Yan held her hand in front of the door, "Come visit tomorrow. I"ll take you to Old Han"s to play cards!"
"..." Lin Chu was pitying Old Lady Han.
Lin Chu sat on the pa.s.senger seat, her heart warmed. The boot was still full of nutritional foodstuffs that Old Lady Yan insisted they bring home.
Yan Beicheng saw her mouth turn up with a warm smile, her side profile gentle and warm. His dry and warm hand reached over to hold her hand, his thumb pressing and kneading lightly on her palm.
"Are you relieved now?" Yan Beicheng"s low, rich voice was suffused with mirth.
Lin Chu was initially shy, but then she clasped her hand and replied softly, "Mm."
"I didn"t expect the Old Master and Old Lady to be this adorable," Lin Chu said with a smile.
Yan Beicheng pinched her face, "What should you call them?"
"..." Lin Chu"s face heated up.
When they were having dinner in the family home, she called them Old Master and Old Lady, but they insisted she called them Grandfather and Grandmother.
They also said that Yan Beicheng had never brought a girl home although he was already in his thirties. They would not be so anxious about the topic of Yan Beicheng"s marriage otherwise.
Him taking Lin Chu home meant that he was sure that she was the girl for him. They had the same thought too, and so they clamored for Lin Chu to change it.
Many gazes were on her, and so she could only call them Grandfather and Grandmother with reluctance.
Old Master Yan was overjoyed, and Old Lady Yan asked her to repeat the words again and again.
There was no one aside from her and Yan Beicheng in the limited s.p.a.ce of the car. She could not do it again in front of Yan Beicheng no matter what.
"You were calling them so naturally in the house. Why can"t you do it now?" Yan Beicheng gave her a look as the car turned into the gates of Ding City.
"I"m still not used to it." Lin Chu said, her heart beating fast.
"You"ll have to get used to it soon. When you"re talking to me, remember to call them Grandfather and Grandmother too, so that you don"t address them wrongly and disappoint them." Yan Beicheng said while he parked the car in the garage.
After he turned off the engine, Lin Chu unfastened her seatbelt and moved to open the door before Yan Beicheng pressed close to her.
She was facing the door, her back completely exposed in front of him. She felt the burning heat on her back, the hot breath of the man blowing on her neck.
Lin Chu had tied her long hair up to make her work more convenient and did not untie it. Her pale, delicate neck was exposed, the pearly expanse of skin even more arresting in the unlit interior of the car.
Yan Beicheng turned Lin Chu to face him and saw that her face was flushed a pretty red and her eyelashes fluttering. He said hoa.r.s.ely, "Are you going to say it?"
Lin Chu glanced at him quickly before she chuckled lightly and said, "If I"m saying it now, it"ll sound like I"m calling you my grandfather."
The last day he was already p.i.s.sed when she said that he was near his forties. How would he let her slip when she called him her grandfather?
Yan Beicheng pinched her on the waist, wanting to laugh and annoyed at the same time, "What should you call me?"
Lin Chu tried for a long time, her eyes glittering with mirth, but she still did not manage to call him that. Her gaze fell on his thin lips. They formed a beautiful curve and radiated warmth.
Lin Chu"s ears were blood red, and her scalp tingled. She whispered softly, "Beicheng."
Yan Beicheng was taken aback for a second before his eyes brightened up scarily.
She had called him Young Master Yan in the beginning. When they got together and knew each other more, she stopped treating him as a stranger and called him by his full name.
Yan Beicheng. Those familiar three syllables sounded like music when she uttered them. It meant that he was no longer an acquaintance. She called him that intimately without any qualms.
But now she called him Beicheng. Yan Beicheng felt himself harden, his abdomen flushed with heat.
Lin Chu felt that his gaze was going to set her on fire.
With that thought, Yan Beicheng approached her and kissed fiercely, his tongue navigating her lips and teeth and igniting tendrils of fire on every inch of her body, the kiss feeling like he was trying to suck all of her in with his lips.
"What did you call me just now? Say it again." Yan Beicheng"s arms enveloped her waist and pulled her against his chest, his lips fastening themselves on Lin Chu"s throughout.
Lin Chu"s lips tingled and burned hot, on the brink of losing feeling from his ministrations, yet impossibly hot and quivering against Yan Beicheng"s lips. She felt Yan Beicheng"s mouth trailing underneath from the corner of her mouth to her chin, and they stopped on her earlobe. His teeth fastened themselves on the side of her ear, and fleeting words trailed into her ear, "Be good and call me that again. I like hearing it."
Lin Chu felt like she was pliant and floating. Her brain could not function well, and so she could only comply with his demand obediently, "Beicheng."
This was spoken so softly it seemed like most of it stayed in the inside of her vocal cords, but it sounded delicate to Yan Beicheng"s ears.
"This is the first time we"re returning to the same place that we"ve set out from together." Yan Beicheng said, and he kissed her soundly, "I"m happy."
"Me too." Lin Chu could not help laughing. "It feels like we"re coming home together."
"It"s not a feeling, it"s what really happened." Yan Beicheng reminded her.
They visited the family home again on the third day of the New Year, and Old Lady Yan brought them over to Old Lady Han"s to annoy the other woman. They had nothing else to do for the rest of the day.
On the New Year, Lin Chu had done some research online on how she should care for a puppy and purchased some things. The imported organic dog food arrived at home along with the canine calcium tablets, teething stick, and sheep"s milk powder four days later.
Xu Moyan was only returning on the sixth day. Lin Chu asked for her arrival time and went to the train station for her. Yan Beicheng had wanted to take her there, but Lin Chu declined.
"You being there will put stress on Moyan. I have yet to talk to her about me moving out. If you"re there, it"ll seem like we"re pressuring her to agree," Lin Chu said.
Despite that, Yan Beicheng could not possibly allow her to take a taxi, so he called Shao Huai to escort her to the station.
The train station was crowded. It was the peak time of transportation as people were returning to their jobs. Lin Chu spotted Xu Moyan in the crowd, eye-catching with a huge suitcase and her red coat.
Lin Chu waved to her hurriedly while Shao Huai took Xu Moyan"s luggage from her voluntarily.
The two of them entered the front door of their house. Xu Moyan put her bags aside without unpacking them. She said, "Say it. What"s wrong? You were struggling to keep silent all the way back as if you"ve done something that wronged me."
Lin Chu glanced at her luggage bags. "Aren"t you going to unpack them?"
"I"ve only returned for a few days, so I didn"t bring much." Xu Moyan waved nonchalantly. She squinted her eyes and focused her gaze on Lin Chu. "Look at you, all guilty? What"s up?"
Lin Chu could only tell her Yan Beicheng"s idea with reluctance.
Xu Moyan tsked and poked Lin Chu"s forehead. "All those furtive looks and stuttering, and it"s only for this insignificant matter? I know you"re thinking of me not being to afford to rent a house alone, but you do have to marry one day, don"t you? No matter which one of us is leaving, or when you"re leaving, the day when we have to go our separate ways will eventually come. You can"t possibly be a spinster just for me, can you? I won"t do that for you at least, I"m telling you. That said, I can have this double-roomed apartment to myself while only paying half of the rent now; it"s me who profited from this arrangement."
Lin Chu knew that Xu Moyan was only trying to placate her, but it did work.
"Despite that, I think that it"ll be more adequate if you could look for someone who has a good personality, is trustworthy, and is compatible with me to replace you. No matter what, you"ve already paid your rent. Although Yan Beicheng is wealthy, it"s you who"d paid the rent, and you can"t waste it like this. It still can"t do even if Yan Beicheng will reimburse you. Now, you go live at Yan Beicheng"s without complicated thoughts while the two of us keep a lookout for suitable tenants. We can return the rent to you in this way. About two or three months" worth of rent will be wasted, but it"s still better than wasting seven or eight months" worth of it."
Lin Chu nodded and said, "He said that you won"t need to look for a new apartment after the lease has expired. You can choose from any of Yan Hui"s properties and see which one"s more convenient for you, and he"ll give you a reasonable price. With that, you don"t have to look everywhere for a house that has both qualities."
Xu Moyan agreed decisively without affecting modesty; she knew that Lin Chu would feel bad if she did not agree.
Xu Moyan had wanted to ask Lin Chu to stay the night, as this was the last time they would be in the same house as roommates. She was going to be unaccustomed to this when Lin Chu left.
Before she could get the words out, Yan Beicheng called Lin Chu.
Lin Chu picked up the phone, and she heard the low, rich baritone telling her, "I"m downstairs."
Xu Moyan raised her brows at Lin Chu"s speechless expression, and then Lin Chu hung up the phone, saying, "He"s here to take me home."
"Tsk!" Xu Moyan did not know what to say on the topic of Yan Beicheng. When they did not know each other, she had a.s.sumed him to be an aloof and cold presence. He turned out to be a clingy guy that was incapable of being apart from his girlfriend even for a second.
"Right. Go, I won"t detain you for long. Remember to come and visit me sometimes." Xu Moyan said. She got up and paused for a while before muttering, "I sound like I"m sending my daughter off to the in-laws."
Lin Chu could not help giggling at that.
Xu Moyan called her that night.
Yan Beicheng was working in the study. He was due to return to work the next day, and he needed to prepare for a big deal of affairs in advance. When they were returning home from Xu Moyan"s that afternoon, Zuo Qiu had even called to discuss something with him.
Lin Chu finished her shower and retreated to the bedroom, intending to browse the Web for a while. She sat on the bed, and she was suddenly filled with a sense of warm contentment, as if she and Yan Beicheng were a couple married for years.
She had only moved into the house for less than three days, but she already felt settled, as if she was destined to live the domestic life with Yan Beicheng. She thought of Yan Beicheng working in the study not far away, and of her waiting for him to come back to her after work, and she felt content.
That afternoon Yan Beicheng had helped her move all her belongings here. The small ornaments and plus.h.i.+es in her old room were all moved into the bedroom, filling Yan Beicheng"s cold, modern-esque bedroom with a sense of warmth and coziness.