Chapter 38 Grandpa's Achilles' heel, my origins!

Chapter 38 Grandpa's Achilles' heel, my origins!

The Lu family's family meeting was like a precise surgical operation, removing the rotten flesh and straightening the bones.

The air throughout the entire Lu family compound seemed to become crisp and clear as a result.

The east wing has replaced the main courtyard, becoming the new heart of this large family.

Every morning when Su Wanqing wakes up, she can clearly perceive this transfer of power.

The servants' greetings, which had initially been perfunctory, later became respectful, and now carry an added layer of heartfelt trust.

Butler Li moved all the household accounts and property documents to a small study that had been specially partitioned off in the east wing.

Su Wanqing spent an afternoon roughly flipping through it.

The Lu family's foundation was far deeper than she had imagined.

In addition to their extensive connections in both the military and political spheres, they also own a large number of properties and real estate businesses in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and other cities.

Transport fleets, freight companies operating between the north and south... these industries may seem insignificant, but they generate astonishing profits.

Previously, these businesses were mostly managed by Lu Zhanyun and Liu Yuzhen's relatives, resulting in chaotic accounts and serious losses.

Now, this heavy family fortune has fallen entirely on Su Wanqing's shoulders.

Lu Yao knew nothing about business, but was full of enthusiasm and volunteered to be Su Wanqing's secretary.

Her lively chatter made the otherwise tedious bookkeeping work come alive.

"Sister-in-law, look at this textile factory! It lost 50,000 yuan last year!"

Lu Yao pointed to a shocking deficit in the ledger and exclaimed with heartache, "Fifty thousand yuan! That could buy so many Versailles silk dresses!"

Su Wanqing glanced at it, a cold smile curving her lips.

The textile factory was managed by Liu Yuzhen's younger brother, so there was no need to ask where the 50,000 yuan went.

"Don't worry." She comforted Lu Yao, lightly tapping the ledger with her fingertip, "No matter how much you eat, you'll spit it out twice as much."

She was preparing to separate the textile factory's documents when Lu Zhenguo's bodyguard walked in.

He stood straight and gave a standard military salute to Su Wanqing and Lu Zhanting, who had just returned from training covered in sweat.

"Young Master, Young Madam, the Chief invites you to dinner at Songhe Hall tonight."

This was completely different from any of the previous summonses.

This time, the guard's tone was full of equal respect.

Lu Zhanting and Su Wanqing exchanged glances, instantly understanding each other.

This meal was neither a trap nor a family trial.

It was a true family dinner.

Dinner was held in the small flower hall next to Songhe Hall.

There was no long dining table or strict rules, just a small eight-immortal table.

The table was set with four dishes and a soup, all stir-fries made by the old lady herself, light and delicious.

There were only four people at the dinner table.

Lu Zhenguo, the old lady, Lu Zhanting, Su Wanqing.

The atmosphere was unusually warm and relaxed.

Lu Zhenguo took off his military uniform, which symbolized his authority, and wore only a gray Zhongshan suit. The sharpness in his eyes and brows was much less pronounced.

He even took the initiative to put a piece of bamboo shoot tip on Su Wanqing's plate, which was her favorite dish.

"Eat more, you've lost weight these past few days."

His tone was that of an ordinary grandfather who dotes on his granddaughter-in-law.

"Thank you, Grandpa." Su Wanqing was a little surprised and quickly thanked him.

The old lady looked on with a smile, her eyes full of satisfaction: "Your grandfather is just stubborn, but he knows better than anyone how good you are to him."

After dinner, Lu Yao ran over and pulled the old lady to listen to the newly bought radio.

Lu Zhenguo called out to Lu Zhanting and Su Wanqing, who were about to leave.

"You two, come with me to the study for a while."

It was the same study, but tonight it lacked the usual oppressive and somber atmosphere.

The lights were bright, the windows were open, and the evening breeze carried the scent of night-blooming jasmine from the courtyard.

Lu Zhenguo did not sit behind the desk that symbolized power, but instead sat on the sofa for guests and personally made tea for them.

The fragrant aroma of tea enveloped the faces of the three people.

"Zhan Ting, your appointment has been made." Lu Zhenguo pushed a cup of tea in front of Lu Zhan Ting.

"Report to the 'Sharp Sword' Brigade tomorrow. This is the first special forces unit in our military region. It's been built from scratch, with countless tasks and a heavy responsibility."

"Yes! I guarantee the mission will be completed!" Lu Zhanting replied in a deep voice, his eyes burning with excitement and fighting spirit.

Lu Zhenguo nodded with satisfaction, then turned to Su Wanqing, his gaze becoming deep and complex.

"Wanqing," he said slowly, "the last time you were here, I asked you what you wanted. You said you just wanted a home."

Su Wanqing listened quietly without making a sound.

“I’ve been thinking a lot these past few days.” Lu Zhenguo’s voice carried a hint of melancholy he had never felt before. “I’ve spent my life in the military and I’m used to managing everything with orders and discipline, including this family.”

“I thought that giving them the best material things and the highest status was all that a father and a grandfather could do.”

"Until you appear."

"I just realized that this house has long lost its vitality, and is just a cold, empty shell."

He looked at Su Wanqing with a solemn and sincere gaze: "So, I should thank you. It was you who brought the soul of this family back."

After speaking, he picked up his teacup, using tea instead of wine, and nodded slightly to Su Wanqing.

This gesture signifies that the iron-willed veteran commander has completely set aside all his pride and doubts, giving Su Wanqing the highest level of recognition.

“Grandpa, you’re too kind.” Su Wanqing quickly bowed. “I just did what I was supposed to do.”

“No.” Lu Zhenguo put down his teacup, his voice steady. “What you’ve done is far more than you can imagine.”

He stood up, walked to his desk, and took out a locked, dark brown pear wood box from the bottom drawer.

The box is very old, with mottled green rust on the brass lock.

He placed the box on the coffee table, then took a key from around his neck that he always wore close to his body, inserted it into the lock, and turned it gently.

“Clatter.”

With a soft click, the lock opened.

He didn't open it immediately, but looked at the two of them, his voice becoming very low and distant.

"My life was bought with someone else's life."

Lu Zhanting and Su Wanqing were both shocked.

“More than forty years ago, I was just a regimental commander. During a breakout battle, I was seriously wounded and on the verge of death, and I was separated from my unit. It was my bodyguard, a young man named Lin Huai’an, who carried me and hid in the mountains for seven days and seven nights.”

"He gave me the last bit of food he had, and ate tree bark and drank snow water himself."

"In the end, to draw away the enemy searching the mountain, he detonated his last grenade, perishing together with the enemy."

Lu Zhenguo's voice was calm, but his aged eyes were filled with decades of suppressed sorrow and guilt.

“I survived. I found his family and took his five-year-old brother, Lin Huaisheng, into my care as my own.”

“I sent him to school and to the army. He was very talented and worked his way up to become a confidential staff officer in the General Staff Operations Department.”

"But then...that storm began."

“Huaisheng was impacted because of his family background. I was on a secret mission in another city at the time. When I returned, he had been labeled a ‘spy’ and committed suicide in despair.”

"His wife and two children also disappeared without a trace overnight."

At this point, Lu Zhenguo clenched his fists tightly, the veins on the back of his hands bulging, and his knuckles turning white from the force.

“I’ve been looking for them for decades.” His voice was hoarse, as if it had been ground by sand and gravel. “I used all my strength, but they’ve vanished into thin air, without a trace.”

"This is the biggest regret of my life. I have failed Huai'an, and even more so, Huaisheng..."

He slowly pushed open the lid of the pear wood box.

There was no gold or silver jewelry inside.

There was only a stack of yellowed letters, a worn and curled black-and-white family photo, and a small item wrapped in red cloth.

"Here are all the records of Huaisheng's family. The photos show his wife and two children, a boy and a girl. When they went missing, the boy was eight years old and the girl was six."

Lu Zhenguo's gaze shifted from the box to Su Wanqing's face.

His eyes held an almost pleading look of entrustment.

"Wanqing, I know this request is very heavy. Over the years, I have used all the methods I can, but my identity, if I let my people investigate, will only arouse unnecessary suspicion."

But you are different.

“You come from humble beginnings and are about to build your own business network. Your reach will extend to many places we cannot. You are meticulous and thoughtful; perhaps… you can find them.”

He pushed the box in front of Su Wanqing.

“I don’t know if they are dead or alive. If they are alive, I want to make it up to them. If… they are gone, at least let me know where their graves are, so I can go and offer incense, and have some closure with Huai’an and Huaisheng.”

This is what Lu Zhenguo entrusted to him.

A life-saving grace and a bloody regret weighed on his mind for decades, keeping him awake at night.

This is far more burdensome than entrusting one's property or power.

Because what he entrusted was a void in his soul that he could never let go of in his entire life.

Su Wanqing did not touch the box immediately.

She could sense that beneath that thin layer of pear wood lay a weight heavy enough to crush a person.

She looked at Lu Zhanting beside her.

Lu Zhanting nodded heavily to her, his eyes showing no hesitation, only complete support and trust.

Su Wanqing took a deep breath, stretched out her hands, and solemnly took the box.

"Grandpa, don't worry."

Her voice was clear and firm.

"I promise you. As long as they are still in this world, I will definitely find them for you."

“Good…good child…” Lu Zhenguo looked at her, his eyes uncontrollably welling up with tears.

He took the small item wrapped in red cloth from the box and handed it to Su Wanqing.

Su Wanqing opened the red cloth.

Inside is a private seal made of mutton-fat white jade, engraved with the characters "Wan Jun".

With its warm and lustrous texture and thick patina, it is an item that is worn close to the body year-round.

“This is your grandmother’s personal seal,” Lu Zhenguo explained. “Before she passed away, she used this seal to handle some private family matters, and it also represented some promises I made to myself. Now, I’m handing it over to you.”

"From now on, seeing this seal will be as if I am here in person."

"You can freely use all of the Lu family's connections and resources without reporting to me."

"If you encounter resistance within the system in anything you do, use it to clear all obstacles for you."

This small seal represents the transfer of the Lu family's supreme personal authority.

Together with that pear wood box, it constituted Lu Zhenguo's most complete recognition and entrustment of Su Wanqing.

One is the weakness of the past.

One is the armor of the future.

He entrusted his soul's wounds and his sharpest weapons to this granddaughter-in-law.

When I came out of the study, it was already late at night.

The moonlight, like mercury spilling onto the ground, stretched the two people's shadows long.

Lu Zhanting held Su Wanqing's hand tightly; her palm was a little cold.

He could feel the invisible weight on her shoulders.

The two returned to the east wing in silence.

After closing the door, Lu Zhanting hugged her from behind, burying his face in the crook of her neck, his voice muffled.

"Thank you."

Thank you for sharing all of this with me.

Thank you for carrying the weight of my grandfather's life.

"Fool." Su Wanqing turned around, her fingertips tracing his angular face. "We are husband and wife. Your family is my family. Your responsibilities are my responsibilities."

She held the pear wood box, walked to the lamp, and gently opened it.

In that black and white family photo, the man is refined, the woman is gentle, and the two children are laughing innocently.

An ordinary, happy family was torn apart by the tides of the times.

Su Wanqing picked up the photo and looked at it carefully.

As she looked, her gaze suddenly froze.

The six-year-old girl in the photo has two braids and two shallow dimples at the corners of her mouth when she smiles.

Su Wanqing subconsciously raised her hand and touched the corner of her mouth.

The same location, the same shape of dimples.

That's not all.

The girl's eyebrows, eyes, and the curve of her nose bore a striking resemblance to her reflection in the mirror, bearing a three- or four-point resemblance.

A thought suddenly popped into my mind, absurd yet fatally attractive.

This body is also called Su Wanqing.

The original owner's memories of her parents were extremely vague; she only knew that they were intellectuals who had been sent to the countryside and died young.

Could it be...?

The thought made her heart clench and pound wildly.

She put down the photograph, her hands trembling, and reached for the stack of yellowed letters.

When she pulled out the top envelope and saw the familiar name "Lin Huaisheng" in the recipient's section, her breath caught in her throat.

The three words from the sender's address exploded in her mind like a thunderclap.

Su Xinzhe.

The original owner's memory includes his father's name!

Everything is connected.

Lin Huaisheng's wife... was surnamed Su.

Therefore, his son took his father's surname, Lin. His daughter, however, took her mother's surname and was named Su Wanqing.

No, that's not right.

Su Wanqing forced herself to calm down, remembering Lu Zhenguo's words.

Lin Huaisheng's wife and two children disappeared without a trace overnight.

To evade detection, they are very likely to change their names and go into hiding.

So, Lin Huaisheng changed his name to Su Xinzhe and took his two children to hide in various places.

It turns out that the person she was looking for had always been herself.

She is the descendant of the benefactor whom Lu Zhenguo has been searching for for decades.

This astonishing discovery drained all of Su Wanqing's strength, and she slumped into a chair, unable to calm down for a long time.

Is this a coincidence of fate, or guidance from the unseen world?

Looking at Lu Zhanting beside her with a concerned expression, she decided to bury this secret deep in her heart for the time being.

Before finding her lost "brother" and uncovering the full truth behind her parents' "suicide" years ago, she couldn't let Lu Zhenguo's hopes be dashed.

More importantly, she couldn't let the mastermind behind the scenes become aware of her existence.

She closed the box, and a cold, resolute light flashed in her beautiful eyes—a light she had never seen before.

From this day forward, she has an even more important goal in her life.

It wasn't just about fulfilling a promise to Lu Zhenguo.

It is also to seek justice for the parents who died unjustly and the grandfather who committed suicide in vain!