Chapter 31: An'an's Schooling Plan

"Yes," Lu Zhan nodded. "I had a huge fight with him. I told him I would walk my own path and choose my own wife. Then, I submitted a transfer request and came straight here—the harshest, most remote post in the entire military region."

"I wanted to prove to him that without his help, I, Lu Zhan, could still make a name for myself through my own abilities!"

His tone carried the reckless bravado of a young man.

Zhou Susu listened quietly, a wave of melancholy washing over her. She finally understood. She understood why this man always carried an air of detachment that kept people at arm’s length. She understood why, despite his prominent family background, he lived more "roughly" than anyone else. It turned out that all of this stemmed from his rebellion against his family and his pride as a soldier.

"Then marrying me..." Zhou Susu hesitated, finally asking the question she had long wanted to ask but dared not. "Was that also to rebel against them?"

In the original owner's memories, her union with Lu Zhan was not honorable. The original owner had used underhanded tactics to trap him into marriage, and Lu Zhan had simply agreed with half-hearted resignation. Looking back now, he probably had the mindset of "just finding any woman to marry to put an end to his family's nagging." And a "village girl" like the original owner, who had nothing but her looks, was undoubtedly the best candidate to spite a father who was obsessed with social status.

Upon hearing this question, Lu Zhan’s body visibly stiffened. He fell silent. After a long while, he turned to look at Zhou Susu, his eyes filled with sincerity and guilt.

"Not entirely," he said in a low voice. "There was certainly an element of that at the time," he admitted, "but more importantly, it was because of An'an."

When he mentioned An'an, his voice softened instantly.

"After my old comrade-in-arms sacrificed his life, I took his only daughter, An'an, out of the wolf's den that was the Zhang family. I wanted to give her a home and make her my daughter in the eyes of the law."

"But in the military, a bachelor raising a little girl he isn't related to by blood is bound to attract gossip. To register her as my dependent and give her a complete family, I needed to find her a 'mother.'"

His eyes dimmed. "I had considered asking my family for help, but then I thought of my mother. If she couldn't even accept me marrying a girl from an ordinary family, how could she ever accept An'an, who shares not a drop of blood with the Lu family? I was afraid they would look down on her, that they would see her as a burden. I was afraid that by taking her back, I wouldn't be giving her a home, but rather trapping her in another cage where she would have to walk on eggshells."

"So..." his voice was barely a whisper, "I didn't dare. I didn't dare to gamble."

Zhou Susu’s heart felt as if it had been tightly squeezed.

It hurt. A deep, pervasive ache. She finally understood completely. This man was neither unloving toward his family nor irresponsible.

Zhou Susu’s eyes welled up involuntarily. She looked at the man before her, who seemed so vulnerable in the moonlight, and a surge of intense sympathy and impulse rose within her. She reached out and covered his large hand, which was resting on his knee, tightly clenched and white-knuckled.

Her hand was soft and warm, like a gentle current instantly soothing his cold, tense heart. Lu Zhan jolted and looked up at her abruptly.

Zhou Susu looked back at him, her clear eyes devoid of pity or condescension, filled only with pure, heartfelt understanding and determination. Her voice was soft, yet carried the power to heal all wounds.

"Lu Zhan," she said his name, "you’ve been carrying everything on your own until now."

"But it’s different now."

She squeezed his hand and said with measured, solemn focus: "We are a family. Your family is my family, and we will share your burdens together."

She watched his eyes, which were filled with shock and disbelief, and offered him a proposal he couldn't refuse. "Let's bring An'an back with us for the New Year this year, shall we?"

Her words touched Lu Zhan's heart. Go back? With her and An'an, together? He had thought about it, but every time, he had ruthlessly extinguished the thought. He was afraid. Afraid of his family's lack of understanding, afraid of the cold stares in those high-walled compounds, and even more afraid that An'an would be hurt again.

But now, this woman—his wife in name—was telling him with such natural certainty: *We.*

The word was like a warm current, instantly shattering all his defenses and his facade of strength.

Lu Zhan looked at this woman, whose expression was gentle yet her gaze firm under the moonlight, and felt his heart racing. He opened his mouth to speak, but his throat felt constricted, as if blocked by something, and not a single word came out.

Eventually, he could only give a heavy, ragged nod.

"Okay."

It was just one word, but it seemed to exhaust all his strength.

Zhou Susu smiled. She knew that this man had finally begun to learn how to accept her.

...

The plan to return to the capital for the New Year was set. Lu Zhan began to busy himself with submitting his leave application to the regiment.

Meanwhile, Zhou Susu began working on another matter, which she considered a hundred times more important than meeting her in-laws: An'an’s education.

An'an was nearly four years old. A child of her age in the future would have long been in kindergarten. But due to her traumatic past, An'an's cognitive and emotional development lagged behind her peers. Although she could speak, her vocabulary was limited, and her logical thinking and social skills were almost non-existent.

Send her to the compound's daycare, where dozens of children were crammed together and teachers just "watched" them? Zhou Susu rejected that idea immediately. That wasn't schooling; that was suffering.

What An'an needed now was not a noisy environment, but an loving, foundational space where she could slowly build a sense of security and learn social rules step by step. The capital was undoubtedly the best choice. It had the best educational resources in the country and a more open, diverse cultural atmosphere. Most importantly, getting away from the place that had caused her psychological trauma was crucial for her recovery.

"Mommy, what are you drawing?"

An'an trotted over on her short legs and looked curiously at Zhou Susu, who was busy writing and drawing on a piece of paper.

Zhou Susu put down her pen and scooped her daughter up to sit on her lap.

"Mommy is making a 'super plan' to help our An'an become even smarter," she teased, gently booping An'an’s little nose with a smile.