It's not that she disliked him for being poor, she could tell that he was joking all along. She didn't have the time or the emotional capacity to play games with a man.
"Manman." Seeing her stand up, he stretched out his hand to pull at her slender wrist, his grip tight as a vice.
She turned, looking at him through her large glasses, "Let go."
"I won't." He said decisively.
Do People's Liberation Army comrades also play dirty?
Manman spoke slowly, as if educating a child, "Why won't you let go?"
"You must have misunderstood me again." He said with the same decisiveness.
Chun Xia and Du Yu looked on anxiously. Before anything had even started between these two, how had it come to a falling-out?
"Manman," Chun Xia tried to mediate, "don't rush, listen to what he has to say first."
"What do I have to hear him say?" Manman was such a person, clear about everything, "He's full of lies. Can you spend a lifetime with a man who's good at lying?"
Chun Xia was defeated, completely and utterly.
Manman either didn't speak or when she did, her words were sharp enough to make someone feel utterly ashamed.
Du Yu signaled to Jiang Yan with a blink of his eyes.
Yet, what Jiang Yan did next still took him by surprise.
He stood before her, a whole head taller, his tall figure like a sturdy pine tree shadowing her delicate face. His proud lips leveled, his eyebrows bold as if painted on, his eyes as bright as stars dropped lower, almost to her clean white forehead. His deep breath fell near her ear, as if to whisper, then he spoke with brevity and force:
"Let's get married."
People and things around her became hazy, as if in smoke, drifting far away. Manman couldn't see Du Yu or Chun Xia anymore, her eyes widened, only his long, striking brow and his eyes shining like stars remained, igniting the cold heart in her chest like resurrection from dead ashes, it throbbed anew.
His rough palm followed down along her soft fingertips, then up again to clasp one of her fingers, in a gesture like a pledge, "Wait for me. I'm a soldier, and marriage requires a report, but don't rush, it should be approved in about two months. I know you don't believe me now, but my feelings for you are real, truly wanting to be with you."
The gentle murmurings of a man in love.
In a public setting, if Manman didn't blush, Chun Xia and Du Yu were blushing for her as they listened.
Her heart, as though held in his reaching palm, beating too fast, wanting to flee from the unreality of it all.
If he wasn't destitute, why on earth would she, Manman, catch the eye of someone like him?
Manman was always realistic, and while everyone around her was blushing and their hearts racing, she maintained a calm voice tinged with desolation, "I need to think about it."
"What do you need to think about?" Chun Xia, in front of Jiang Yan, couldn't help but blurt out the question for him. That impatience, the Emperor isn't anxious but the eunuch is to death.
No matter how good he was, could marriage be taken so lightly? In China, marriage is not like in foreign countries, it's the union of two families. Mutual affection isn't enough, it requires the consent of both the man and woman's families.
"Let's wait for him to discuss it with his parents and get their agreement before we talk further," Manman wanted to minimize the hurt between them.
When it came to the hurdle of family, the flame of passion for Jiang Yan's proposal that had ignited in Chun Xia and Du Yu also extinguished.
"No problem," Jiang Yan promised confidently, "I'll call my parents today to come over."
His face lifted, the corners of his proud mouth filled with confidence and buoyancy, leaving her once again in a state of confusion.
"Come on, it's time for lunch," Chun Xia hurriedly beckoned everyone to gather around for food. After all, Manman's engagement proposal was a cause for celebration.
As the picnic basket opened, slices of neatly cut and washed fruits and vegetables, rice balls wrapped in seaweed and stuffed with meat, all contained in food storage containers, spread their enticing aroma. Jiang Yan thought, with such delicious food on offer, he must convince this bride to come home with him.
Once home, he immediately called his parents and told them he had found the perfect daughter-in-law who would certainly please them. A person of good character with even better cooking skills.
Speaking of the Jiang Family, Jiang Yan, though the youngest, had already crossed the age of thirty. As the youngest son, he had been the apple of his mother's eye since childhood, indulged in every way. When the son wanted to join the army during college, then ventured into business and wanted to study abroad, romance and marriage kept being delayed. Jiang's mother was eager to address this, planning to introduce her son to some war comrades' daughters during his vacation to push forward the marriage arrangements. But as soon as her son went on leave, he joined Mo Wenyang on a trip to the south. Jiang's mother thought the marriage would be delayed indefinitely, but then she received an urgent call from her son. That night, she agreed and discussed with her husband, and the next day, they hurriedly took a flight to meet their future daughter-in-law.
Manman had no idea that her future in-laws would arrive so swiftly. She saw the childish streak in Jiang Yan and only believed a third of his words. Regardless of what his parents were like, she already considered the hurdle of her own mother to be troublesome enough.
Xu Yu'e's disdain for Jiang Yan on the first day was common knowledge to the family.
That day after the picnic, the Wen Family of four sat down for dinner, with Manman's cooking on the table.
Wen Yuan glanced over the four dishes and one soup on the table, frowning, "Sister, when did you buy these vegetables? They were bought yesterday, weren't they? They're not fresh."
"I bought them at the market around five or six in the morning," Manman replied, her voice steady and calm as she used her chopsticks to pick at the rice in her bowl, maintaining her composure in the face of provocation.
Every time she heard her sister's soft yet untouchable voice, Wen Yuan felt annoyed inside and slammed down her chopsticks, "Sister, Sister Haoxue told me she saw you on the mountain today. If you went to buy vegetables at five or six, how did you have time to go up the mountain to play?"
"I finished shopping and got back by eight or nine. We left at that time and borrowed a car, so it was quick," said Manman.
"You went out to have fun?" Xu Yu'e understood exactly what her youngest daughter was upset about. It was about not being taken along by her sister. And, more to the point, even her parents had been kept in the dark; something felt fishy about the whole thing.
"Mom, I'm an adult. I don't need to report where I want to go," Manman, sensing that her mother was siding with her sister, chose to speak only of the sensible side of the matter.
"But Yuanyuan is in a critical period now. You, as her older sister, should be considerate of your younger sister," Xu Yu'e's mind was currently filled with thoughts of Yuanyuan who could potentially 'turn into a phoenix,' not Manman, who was 'rotting away' in their warehouse.
"Alright. Let's eat," Wen Shixuan, who was always diligent and quiet, especially in front of his wife and younger daughter, couldn't voice support for his elder daughter even though he felt she had done nothing wrong.
Noticing that their father seemed to be defending her sister, Wen Yuan grew discontented, "Dad, you don't know, the man who lost face for you and Mom before, she was out with that very same man today."
"What?" Both Mr. and Mrs. Wen dropped their chopsticks in unison.
"Sister Haoxue saw it with her own eyes. That man said outright he wanted Sister Manman to support him. Sister Haoxue was humiliated in front of a group of friends, really embarrassed. If I had been there, I would have wanted to bang my head against a tree from the shame. How can we have such a spineless sister?" After Wen Yuan finished her self-righteous proclamation, she felt relieved and stuffed her mouth full of food, forgetting that the dish had been made by her sister to suit her tastes.
Manman chewed her rice little by little.
"You can still eat?" Xu Yu'e angrily swept her hand, causing Manman's bowl in her hand to drop to the floor and shatter into pieces.