"Granny Lin, I’m back." Carrying two baskets of peaches to the kitchen, Granny Lin saw her and put down her work, pushing Lan Tian out, "The house is smoky, go sit in the hall."
Lan Tian was pushed outside, yet remembered to turn her head to shout to Lin’s eldest daughter-in-law, who was picking vegetables behind, "Auntie."
Lin’s eldest daughter-in-law looked at Lan Tian’s funny manner and laughed, waving her to hurry out. Granny Lin returned to the kitchen and brought out a bowl of sour plum soup for Lan Tian to drink. Lan Tian, squinting with a smile, drank from the bowl and sweetly praised, "Delicious, absolutely delicious, Granny Lin, how are you so skillful? Sadly, I won’t be able to drink Granny Lin’s soup this summer vacation, I will miss it."
This made it sound like she wouldn’t be in Shanghai.
The hand holding the bowl paused, Granny Lin turned back and looked at Lan Tian, "Where are you going?"
"Chun Mei is going back," guessing that Granny Lin wouldn’t know from this, Lan Tian rephrased, "Junhua’s sister, the one who visited our home."
Granny Lin indeed did not know the name Chun Mei, but with Lan Tian’s explanation, she understood, "What about her going back?" What does that have to do with drinking her sour plum soup.
"She is taking her three kids back, she’s worried about leaving her family home since they moved to Shanghai. None of them have been back since moving here, and finally, they decided that the entire family should go take a look. I came to tell you so that you won’t find us absent if you visit."
"The whole family is going back?" Granny Lin obviously found it hard to let go of Lan Tian, but didn’t say much. Lan Tian nodded, not mentioning that she wasn’t going back with Grandma and the others, but it meant the same as she too would be leaving Shanghai.
Seeing Lan Tian alone, she asked about Mo Junhua, "Where’s your husband? Why didn’t he come back with you?"
"He’s still busy with stuff at the military base, he’ll come over after he’s done to see you," Lan Tian said.
Granny Lin sighed, "Military life is tough."
Lan Tian just smiled.
Lin Guohao, having finished pruning the plants, washed his hands and came over, Granny Lin asked him to accompany Lan Tian and went back to the kitchen. The two went up to the tea room upstairs, Lin Guohao skillfully made tea, flowing smoothly through the motions. Lan Tian watched for a moment, then slowly sipped the tea he brewed.
"Something big happened recently in Shanghai, do you know?" Lin Guohao suddenly spoke while the tea was being enjoyed.
Lan Tian knew what he was talking about but pretended not to, "I know, it was in the newspapers," the story about an unidentified female corpse, abused and found in an abandoned building, it was such a big headline, she wasn’t blind, how could she not see? It was Zhao Li who showed it to her.
Lin Guohao’s mouth twitched, he wasn’t talking about that scandalous news!
"You know Chu Yang, right?"
Lan Tian nodded, her tone as cold as ever, "I know him."
Lin Guohao glanced at the silent girl across, drinking her tea quietly, he didn’t know why, but he directly linked her to the incident trying to probe her, "A few days ago, reporters caught Chu Yang in a hotel room with a woman at Fengyun Hotel..." He didn’t finish his sentence, but they both understood the implication, "Interestingly, there was another man in the room, even more interestingly, all three are active-duty servicemembers. Do you know what the woman taken away said?"
"What did she say?" Lan Tian followed his query, she was there, of course, she knew what Zhou Yuwei said.
"She said that you orchestrated everything." Lin Guohao finished, looking at the girl opposite.
Lan Tian tugged at her lip, sipped her tea, "Did she? She really goes to lengths for Mo Junhua, doesn’t she?"
Her reaction was far too indifferent, other women were coveting her man, yet she was acting as if it didn’t matter, was she really unflappable? For some reason, Lin Guohao felt a bit of sympathy for Mo Junhua, only someone as enduring as him could handle such a capricious wife...
"Are you not curious why the press didn’t report this?"
Lan Tian looked up, curious indeed, but curiosity was futile, she had no sources to pry into the matter, she guessed it might be related to the local tyrant of Shanghai.
"Mr. Chu wants to suppress the matter, his arch-enemy, headed by Mayor Qian, would definitely disagree. The upper echelons of Shanghai, spearheaded by the mayor, are grasping this leverage, spare no effort to strike at him. Chu Family isn’t native to Shanghai, they parachuted here from Beijing ten years ago, making a lot of noise and had pulled down a batch of people to intimidate Shanghai’s local tyrant."
Lin Guohao knew these things; old veterans often came to find him, speaking with the head of the household, and it so happened he was also beside.