Chapter 50.2

Meng Zhengrong pulled Xu Yuan to sit on the bed, then took out a key from the desk drawer. He used the key to open another locked drawer, which revealed a tin box that looked like an old cookie tin.

“What’s this?” Xu Yuan asked curiously, noticing the rust on the cookie tin.

Meng Zhengrong proudly said, “Evidence of my charm as a child.”

Xu Yuan: “…”

After some effort, Meng Zhengrong finally opened the tin box, which contained several envelopes—some pink, some blue. “These are love letters people wrote to me. Of course, there are also some that were sent via text or delivered in person. There was no way to keep those.”

Xu Yuan was at a loss for how to respond.

She felt it was important to respect Meng Zhengrong, so she picked up the love letters and began to read. The handwriting was slightly juvenile, but each word was heartfelt, expressing admiration for Meng Zhengrong. In the end, the girls shyly stated that being his girlfriend would be the greatest luck.

Meng Zhengrong wasn’t lying; he truly had many love letters, at least a few dozen in total. She selected a few of the more attractive envelopes to look at.

The innocent feelings of the girls were cute, but the question remained: why did Meng Zhengrong still keep these?

Xu Yuan put down the letters and asked calmly, “Do you have a habit of collecting love letters?”

Meng Zhengrong set the tin box aside and placed his hand on Xu Yuan’s. “Of course not.”

“Then why do you still keep these?”

His serious demeanor as a child, carefully storing the girls’ love letters, felt utterly out of place.

One would expect someone who did such a thing to be a gentle and kind-hearted warm guy.

Meng Zhengrong glanced at Xu Yuan. “Why not keep them? Even though I didn’t like them and never thought of dating them, these were still other people’s feelings.”

No matter how sweetly he said it, Meng Zhengrong was lying. He had always been a member of the pretentious club; every time he received a love letter, he would act impatiently, giving the impression that he would toss the letters aside immediately. However, when he got home, he would read each letter and then put it in the box. Why did he do this?

It had little to do with how much he valued others’ feelings; he simply wanted to keep them to look back on when he grew up and remember how many people had liked him and confessed to him. Ah, what a burden that was.

What about his current thoughts? He wanted to pull these out when he was fifty or sixty and not as handsome anymore to show off to his kids, and maybe even boast about it.

Ultimately, being liked was always something that made one feel proud.

Whether at ten or eighty, it was a joyful thing.

See, he was so foresighted. Luckily he kept these things; otherwise, how could Xu Yuan know he had always been so popular?

Xu Yuan was not particularly happy—at least not as happy as Meng Zhengrong.

It wasn’t jealousy; she wasn’t that petty. In fact, she didn’t look bad in her past life either. Even the palace maids she had a good relationship with had said she was pretty. They even said that if she were a woman, she would definitely be more beautiful than the ones in the palace. Whether they said that to cheer her up was uncertain, but even if it were true, no one had confessed to her in her past life.

She didn’t have anything to show off to Meng Zhengrong.

“There were plenty of people who wrote love letters to me too.” Xu Yuan said nonchalantly, “But unlike some people, I didn’t keep them.”

Meng Zhengrong glanced at Xu Yuan, believing her words. After all, he had seen what Xu Yuan looked like as a child. He was several years older than her and had a good relationship with Xu Nuo. One time, a few friends went to play with Xu Nuo and ran into Xu Yuan, who was about fifteen or sixteen years old at the time.

She was indeed very beautiful. One of his friends had even remarked how surprising it was that the little girl from before had grown into such a beauty. Xu Nuo had proudly said that Xu Yuan was the school beauty.

There were plenty of little boys vying for her attention.

“It’s good you didn’t keep them.” Meng Zhengrong muttered.

Xu Yuan replied, “I should have kept them; they would definitely be better than yours.”

Two people in their fifties were actually comparing this; it was quite childish.

Meng Zhengrong smiled but didn’t respond. He put the tin box back in the drawer and locked it.

As Xu Yuan watched him do this, his back was to her, so he couldn’t see her envious expression.

She envied his past when adorable little girls had liked him. More so, she envied him for having a carefree childhood and youth.

She had experienced the feudal era, where even peace and the luxury of simply living were a privilege, let alone these kinds of past memories.

Meng Zhengrong was lucky; everyone alive in this era was fortunate.

He had a naive past, while she had to grow up quickly at a time when she was still naive. How could she not envy him?

==

When it was time for dinner, Father Meng and Meng Pingting returned home, and the dishes were all prepared.

In the dining room, the servants brought in the dishes one by one, all still steaming.

After the incident with Shen Xin, the relationship between Meng Pingting and Xu Yuan had become much closer. They often chatted on WeChat and sometimes went shopping together. Sitting next to Xu Yuan, Meng Pingting looked at her enviously and said, “Sister-in-law, I really envy you.”

Xu Yuan paused while eating and asked, “Envy me for what?”

“I envy you for being so thin,” Meng Pingting replied, pinching her own waist with a sigh. “They say you lose weight in summer, but how come I’ve gained weight? It’s all because the crayfish hot pot is too delicious.”

Mother Meng couldn’t stand hearing this and interjected, “You’re almost as thin as a skeleton! You need to eat more; with this typhoon weather, you’ll get blown away!” She then glanced at Xu Yuan, initially intending to encourage her to eat more, but when she saw her face, she paused, surprised. “Is Xu Yuan a bit chubby now?”

Xu Yuan instinctively touched her face and asked, “Really?”

Meng Zhengrong looked over, appearing quite happy. “You’ve just gained a bit of meat on your face. You’re too thin; a little extra looks good on you.”

Thinking about it, Xu Yuan realized she had actually eaten quite a bit recently. Every day at lunch, she and Meng Zhengrong shared three meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, a soup, and then dessert and fruit. They finished everything every day, so how could she not gain weight?

The kitchen staff made her delicious food every day; it would be unnatural if she didn’t gain weight.

It was true that Xu Yuan would look better with a little more weight. Although she was still quite slim, her face had rounded out a bit, giving her a lively appearance with a healthy glow. She looked quite lovely.

However, women often want to look their best for others. Unless someone is genuinely very thin and wishes to gain weight, it’s likely that no woman would feel good hearing such comments and could lose her appetite.

Mother Meng served Xu Yuan a bowl of soup, signaling her to drink. “Drink more; it’ll help nourish your body. Xu Yuan, you’re too thin; you need to gain some weight.”

The soup was a bit oily, and although Xu Yuan usually could drink a bowl, today her appetite wasn’t great. After all, the late summer heat was here, and she could only force herself to eat some of the dishes and a bit of vegetables. The soup was hard to swallow.

Xu Yuan felt somewhat resistant, but since this was the soup made by Mother Meng herself, she had to drink it slowly, taking a few sips despite her discomfort. Unfortunately, influenced by the earlier comments, her stomach began to feel uneasy, and she had to excuse herself, saying sorry to everyone as she headed toward the bathroom.

After rinsing her mouth, Xu Yuan felt much better.

What Xu Yuan didn’t know was that after she went to the bathroom, Father Meng and Mother Meng exchanged glances, both of them thinking the same thing.

Father Meng was contemplating the signs of pregnancy he had observed in his wife. He remembered how she used to feel nauseous after drinking oily soup and often didn’t eat well. The only difference was that she had lost a lot of weight early in her pregnancy because she felt sick from everything she ate.

Calculating the timeline, it had been a few months since his son married Xu Yuan. Could it be that she was really pregnant?

He wondered how big the red envelope should be.