The Road Home

Chapter 32

Lu Yanchen had originally thought they could go directly to register their marriage.

However, his profile was still tied to Erenhot and the transfer procedures were not completed yet. He still needed to wait another week.

With regard to Lu Yanchen's side of things, he had already fully resolved the issue of work and career, and his current situation was quite good.

Now, all he needed to do was, as a mere formality, bring Gui Xiao back to his home and then hold a wedding ceremony and banquet in town. That would be considered as giving his dad enough due respect. Otherwise, his dad would undoubtedly take out all of his anger on Lu Yanchen's mom and sister.

In all honesty, though, Lu Yanchen did not want Gui Xiao to go.

In order to mentally prepare Gui Xiao, Lu Yanchen had briefly explained his family situation to her.

He had a younger brother who was in university so was not living at home. He also had younger sister who had served in the military as well. She, however, was not as capable as Lu Yanchen, and after being a prison guard in Qinling for two years, she had come back here. Lu Yanchen had actually asked Hai Dong to help her find a job in the town government office. Unfortunately, his younger sister was not one who did well in studies and for several years had tried but failed to pass the civil service examination, so she could not be considered to have a true, proper occupation yet.

"Didn't your dad refuse to allow you to go into the military? Why'd he let your little sister go, then?" When she finished listening to him explain all this, Gui Xiao had felt something was odd.

At the time, Lu Yanchen had been checking Qin Xiaonan's homework, sitting astride the chair in the study, his body leaning forward and bent over slightly as he listened to this question. After looking through the very last bit of the homework assignment, he closed the notebook.

"When I was a kid, my mom got a divorce. My younger sister was born from her second marriage. Lu Qing is not my dad's daughter by birth. Later on, my dad and mom remarried one another, and Lu Qing was brought back here and her surname was officially changed. That's why everyone in the family didn't really want to spend the money to put her into university at the time and just sent her off to join the military instead."

Gui Xiao gave an "oh" and then did not probe further into this.

The following day, Gui Xiao talked on the phone with Meng Xiaoshan, and after that she basically understood the entire situation.

In earlier years, Lu Chen's mother, after giving birth to Lu Yanchen, had not been able to handle the domestic violence and her husband's infidelity and consequently had divorced. Later, her family had arranged for her a marriage to a military officer, and she had given birth to Lu Yanchen's younger sister. Meng Xiaoshan was not clear what that military officer did in terms of work, but at any rate, when life was going pretty good, he died. Lu Yanchen's mother, bringing her one son and one daughter with her, had come back and married Lu Yanchen's father again.

"I've always disliked the whole situation and environment in their family. It's not because his mom divorced and then remarried his dad. It's because, from beginning to end, his dad has always had two wives. Lu Chen's younger brother was born from the affair between his dad and that outside woman." Meng Xiaoshan sighed pensively. "Lu Chen's mom remarried his dad roughly around the time when Lu Chen was in middle school. Hai Dong told me, the reason Lu Chen hasn't lived at home since his dad and mom remarried, and will only stay in the auto shop is because that woman still frequently goes to his home."