1257 Huge Wardrobe
After dinner, a few of Deng Fan’s long-time neighbors stayed for a chat at the house. Jiang Shu took the opportunity to bring Xia He to Deng Fan’s bedroom. Even if Deng Fan caught up with them to stop her, it would be useless. In this house, Jiang Shu was the boss.

“Xiao He, come and take a look. These are all Deng Fan’s treasures! He usually doesn’t let us touch them!” Jiang Shu said mysteriously.

Xia He looked at the huge wardrobe in front of her and felt a little shocked. She always had the impression that boys had very few possessions, like Xia Wen and Xia Zhe. Their rooms were very simply furnished, with only a table, bookcase and single bed. Their wardrobe only had one compartment and they could not even fill it up. It was rare to see someone like Deng Fan, who had a four-compartment wardrobe in his bedroom.

“Is this big wardrobe full of his clothes?” Xia He asked curiously.

“Why don’t you open it and take a look?” Jiang Shu said with a smile.

Xia He was curious enough to want to reach out and take a look, but she felt that it was not right to do so. This was Deng Fan’s personal item and she had no reason to look at it. Unless Deng Fan gave his permission, she should not touch it.

“No, no! I can’t do this. What if Deng Fan gets angry?” Xia He said cautiously.

“He will never bear to flare up at you. If you want to wait for that kid to take the initiative to show it to you, you’ll only be able to see it when it’s a cold day in hell! He only wishes that you never find out about this!” Jiang Shu said angrily. After that, she opened the compartment nearest to the wall.

As soon as the compartment door was opened, Xia He covered her mouth in surprise. The entire compartment was filled with things related to her and many of them were items that she used to have. However, the things Deng Fan kept here were brand new and completely unused. It seemed that Deng Fan had been silently observing Xia He all this while.

There was a board filled with photos of Xia He. These were photos taken at school and even stills of Xia He’s dance performances. It was not an easy task to collect all these photos. Deng Fan had actually bought tickets to watch every stage performance which Xia He starred in. All the ticket stubs were pasted in a booklet in chronological order and he even wrote down his feelings for each day.

The sentences reflected his fondness for Xia He. After flipping through two pages, Xia He did not have the courage to continue reading.

“He…” Xia He blushed and did not know what to say.

“I just want to show you how my son feels. I don’t have any other intentions. If I don’t help him, he won’t ever be able to find a wife! My silly son is exactly like his father! He has kept his feelings inside for so many years and refused to say it out. He’s totally unlike me!” Jiang Shu said, as if she expected better from him.

“Was it Auntie who wooed Uncle back then?” Xia He asked as she looked at Jiang Shu curiously.
Jiang Shu said confidently, “Of course! Your Uncle Deng was so handsome and he was tall and cultured too. He was a university student and there were so many girls who liked him! If I didn’t take the initiative, your Uncle Deng would have been snatched away by another girl! I have never told anyone else about this except you. What I tell everyone is that he’s the one who wooed me!”

In this era, although people were generally a little more open-minded about relationships, couples were still not allowed to do anything too intimate in public, not even holding hands. A couple must keep a distance of two fists between them, otherwise they would be criticized using posters!

One could only imagine what it was like more than 20 years ago. Jiang Shu was very brave to dare to take the initiative to pursue Deng Rui. If she was discovered, she would be labeled as a “slut” and people would say that she was a “shameless” woman!

Many women would simply choose to go along with their parents’ wishes and marry a man whom their parents found acceptable. At that time, there was a saying, “Marry a man and be fed and clothed”. A woman would marry any man as long as he could provide her with food to eat and warm clothes to wear. The children of poor families did not have the right to choose how to live their lives.

If one did not even have enough food and was about to starve to death, why would one even have glorious ideals and great ambitions?

“Auntie, weren’t you afraid that Uncle would reject you back then?” Xia He asked.

“Of course not. He also had a crush on me and had liked me for a long time. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have worked so hard. He’s indeed a good man who is really hard to come by,” Jiang Shu said blissfully.