Gu Shunyin glanced at me from across Lu Jiao. She said with a smile, "Oh, my dad, he's preparing to go abroad. There's a heart surgery overseas, and they've specifically requested him to be the lead surgeon. He was originally going to take me with him, but I've just been too busy to get away lately."
They started talking about hospital matters, and since Auntie Wei is also a doctor, the few of them clearly had much more to talk about. I ate quietly, feeling quite calm inside.
Lu Jiao noticed my soup bowl was empty. He very naturally took it, stood up, and refilled it for me. The soup tureen was on his right, so as he was serving the soup, he happened to block Gu Shunyin's view of the others she was talking to.
Gu Shunyin stared at his arm where the sleeve was rolled up, watching the lines of his muscles and the veins on the back of his hand as he ladled the soup. Her expression wavered slightly when her peripheral vision caught sight of me beside him. She bit her lip.
Suddenly, she shot me a brilliant smile from across Lu Jiao. "Oh, you must be Comrade Lin Yao, right? I completely forgot to say hello. Hello there, Comrade Lin."
At the head of the table, Uncle Wang Zhen and Auntie Wei both felt their hearts sink. Back when they were trying to introduce Lu Jiao to potential partners, it was Auntie Wei who had set him up with her. But as it turned out, Lu Jiao wasn't interested in Gu Shunyin. Instead, Gu Shunyin pursued him for a long time. She only gave up after we got married.
It was only after seeing me today that Auntie Wei understood why Lu Jiao wasn't interested in Gu Shunyin. My looks lean towards the gentle and alluring side, and I just stand there quietly, especially with these glistening, watery eyes. No one could bring themselves to say anything harsh to me, let alone men. Gu Shunyin's features, on the other hand, are a bit harsher. To be fair, she could only be considered average-looking. You can't really blame men for being realistic. I mean, who doesn't like someone who's good-looking?
Auntie Wei was worried we'd start a fight. Seeing how forward Gu Shunyin was being, she was breaking out in a cold sweat. Uncle Wang Zhen, on the other hand, was quite calm. He figured that no matter what their history was, now that Lu Jiao had a wife and child, he and Gu Shunyin could only be regular friends. Asking her to stay for dinner was also a way to make her face reality.
Gu Shunyin took the initiative to say hello. I set down my chopsticks and calmly replied to her, "Hello, Comrade Gu."
Lu Jiao ladled some soup and conveniently placed it by my hand. He even thoughtfully cleared away the small plate for bones in front of me.
Gu Shunyin was burning with jealousy, but she had to force herself to hide it. She forced a concerned-looking smile and said, "Comrade Lin, I heard you've enrolled in a literacy class. How are you finding it? Are you adjusting okay? If there's anything you don't understand, remember to come ask me. My office is just opposite Su Jiayi's, although I work at the hospital. I only go there occasionally on weekends to mentor students, so make sure you don't make a trip for nothing."
The moment she said that, everyone at the table froze except for Uncle Wang Zhen. Auntie Wei was especially stunned.
She hadn't known about my background before. When she asked Uncle Wang Zhen what Lu Jiao's wife was like, Uncle Wang Zhen, who hadn't met me either, had only seen the basic information on the marriage application. So he just told Auntie Wei, "I think she's a young woman from his village."
At the time, Auntie Wei didn't think much of it, figuring that even if she was from a village, she could be the daughter of a cadre. She certainly never considered the question of education. After all, with Lu Jiao's standing, his partner would have to be a high school graduate at the very least, right?
But from the way Gu Shunyin put it, it sounded like I was completely uneducated. In an instant, her good impression of me vanished. The way she looked at me turned critical, as if I were just a pretty face with nothing inside.
Even Auntie Chen's gaze was filled with surprise. Having been with the Wang family for so long, she knew all too well how much the ladies in the compound valued culture and the arts. Being pretty was absolutely not enough. She couldn't understand why Lu Jiao would marry an uneducated woman, because of what Gu Shunyin had just said.
The atmosphere at the dinner table suddenly became incredibly awkward. I saw her secretly curve the corner of her lip into a smirk.
Only Wang Yuan was especially excited. "Second sister-in-law, is your literacy class hard?"
Lu Jiao's brow furrowed and he was about to speak, but I gently patted the back of his hand.
I answered Wang Yuan openly. "The literacy class isn't too hard right now. It's just the beginning, so I expect it'll get harder later."
Then I turned to Gu Shunyin and said, "Thank you for being so thoughtful, Comrade Gu. If I run into any difficult problems in the future, I'll be sure to ask for your help."
Wang Yuan got even more excited. "Second sister-in-law, second sister-in-law, does that mean I can be your teacher too? I'm in middle school now. Have you gotten to the middle school level yet?"
I thought about it seriously. "Not yet. I'm just getting started. Your level is definitely high enough to be my teacher. How's your English?"
Wang Yuan was so excited she even stopped eating. She stood up, puffed out her chest, and said, "You can say I'm bad at other things. But as luck would have it, English is my best subject."
After saying that, she launched into a fluent self-introduction in English right then and there. She even finished with an elegant bow.
I started a round of applause and asked Lu Jiao with a smile, "What did all that mean?"
Lu Jiao looked at Wang Yuan's excited expression and translated for me, a smile in his voice. "She said her name is Wang Yuan and she's fifteen years old. Her favorite class is English, and she also mentioned her favorite foods."
Auntie Wei hadn't expected me to be so open about my situation. Seeing her daughter's fluent English, she felt a surge of pride, though she complained out loud. "Oh, you. That's the only subject you're any good at."
Uncle Wang Zhen also had a gentle look on his face.
I said to Wang Yuan, "Looks like Teacher Yuan's English is really good. From now on, I'll be counting on you for my English lessons."
Wang Yuan puffed out her chest and promised, "You got it, Comrade Lin. I promise I'll make you a brilliant student."
With our back and forth, the tense, subtle atmosphere at the dinner table eased up quite a bit.
Gu Shunyin didn't expect me to admit it so frankly, so she could only offer a polite smile and say, "Then it's settled. If you don't understand anything, you must come find me."