She truly didn’t have much feeling about it… It was like having an extra guest in the house who would leave in a few days. As the host, she naturally had to be polite and courteous. Elder sister had grown up at their mother’s knee, so naturally she couldn’t accept Li Shi as easily… From this perspective, elder sister seemed more like Mother’s biological daughter…
Zhou Shaojin felt both happy for their mother and somewhat heartbroken.
She didn’t remember what Mother looked like at all.
To her, Mother was nothing more than a name, not as dear as her sister!
She tightly hugged Zhou Chujin and wheedled: “Didn’t I just think she seemed rather pitiful? I definitely won’t pay any attention to her anymore!” She was afraid her sister would be angry.
Zhou Chujin sighed helplessly.
In the afternoon, she took Zhou Shaojin to the greenhouse that their mother Zhuang Shi had managed during her lifetime. Unexpectedly, they encountered Nanny Yu.
Nanny Yu was very happy. She brewed them a fruit tea, saying it was their mother’s favorite while alive. She told them which flowers their mother had left behind, which flowers had been repotted later, which flowers had been grafted from the trees their mother left behind, and which had been added later… Zhou Shaojin, who already loved tending flowers and plants, found it not only interesting to listen to but also asked Nanny Yu whenever she encountered something she didn’t understand.
Seeing that Zhou Shaojin asked such knowledgeable questions, Nanny Yu felt that Zhou Shaojin was truly worthy of being Zhuang Shi’s biological daughter—even their temperaments were the same. She spoke even more enthusiastically, leading her to select several pots of orchids and saying: “…These are all rare varieties. Once the autumn winds arrive, they’ll bloom one after another.” Worried she wouldn’t know, she also instructed the gardener, over sixty years old, to find some red paper strips. “I’ll write one, two, three, four on them, and First Miss and Second Miss can arrange them accordingly. These pots of flowers will bloom continuously from mid-autumn all the way to the beginning of spring. Once they’ve finished blooming, if there’s no one to care for them over there, Second Miss can send the flowers back here. After the beginning of spring, I’ll send Second Miss another batch.”
Zhou Shaojin nodded repeatedly.
When the old gardener brought the red paper strips, the Zhou sisters helped write the labels.
Nanny Yu sighed and said: “Madam Zhuang taught me these characters back then. She was afraid I’d mix up her flowers, so she stuck these characters on the flowerpots to teach me to recognize them. I’ve never made a mistake since then.”
After hearing this, Zhou Chujin and Zhou Shaojin felt melancholy for a while before they began writing the labels.
Once the labels were written, Zhou Shaojin, seeing that Nanny Yu was getting on in years, wanted to have Shi Xiang find a servant boy to help Nanny Yu move these pots of flowers onto the flower stands. But when she turned around, she saw her father Zhou Zhen.
He was leaning against the greenhouse doorframe, quietly watching them. His gaze held some sadness, as if through them he was seeing some scene that made him sorrowful.
When had Father arrived?
Zhou Shaojin cautiously called out: “Father!”
Zhou Chujin also noticed Zhou Zhen.
Quite surprised, she too called out “Father.”
Zhou Zhen seemed to awaken from a dream, uttering an “Oh.” He straightened up, the sadness in his eyes completely gone, replaced by a warm smile and an expression as cheerful as summer sunlight.
“How did you end up here?” As he spoke, he walked in and affectionately touched the leaves of the Huixin orchid that their mother had left behind, saying: “I didn’t expect this flower would still be growing so well?”
Zhou Chujin and Zhou Shaojin didn’t know what to say for a moment.
Nanny Yu quickly curtsied in greeting, finally breaking the awkward silence.
Zhou Zhen asked Zhou Shaojin: “Do you like growing flowers?”
Zhou Shaojin smiled and said: “I just grow them casually when I have nothing to do. I don’t grow them as well as Mother did.”
“That’s because you’re living at the Cheng family’s place,” Zhou Zhen smiled and said. “When your mother first married me, she said the same thing. Later, when this place became her home, her flowers grew better and better.”
Did Mother not consider this place her home at first?
And didn’t consider the Zhuang family her home either?
Zhou Shaojin looked at her father with suspicion.
But Zhou Zhen had already cast that remark aside, saying: “Shaojin, you play here for a while. I have something to say to your sister.”
Both Zhou Chujin and Zhou Shaojin were very surprised, but they still obediently assented. One followed Zhou Zhen to the study, while the other waited in the greenhouse.
Zhou Shaojin sat with her elbow propped up in the greenhouse, watching the sun gradually set, yet she didn’t feel lonely.
This was her own home.
No matter how she looked at it, she never tired of it.
Elder sister was already eighteen years old. If only she could persuade Father to let her and her sister move back here to live!
She sat there letting her imagination run wild. Zhou Chujin walked over with a face like the morning clouds, shyly saying to her: “Father wants you to go to the study!”
What had Father said to elder sister?
She curiously linked arms with Zhou Chujin.
But Zhou Chujin absolutely refused to say. She only urged her: “Hurry and go to the study—Father is still waiting for you there!”
Zhou Shaojin laughed heartily and decided to ask her sister when they went to bed that evening.