Chasing My Husband! The "Crown Prince" of the Beijing Circle Is Wildly Unruly! - Chapter 99

After finishing the painting, Wang Xinghe chose not to sign it this time. When he looked up, he met the Old Master’s smiling eyes.

“It’s a wonderful painting. May I have it as a gift?” Old Master Lu found himself growing fonder of Wang Xinghe with every passing moment.

Having this child by Lu Jingze’s side was a blessing. With the shifting tides of power, the fickleness of the human heart, and the heavy burden of responsibility, Lu Jingze’s path was destined to be neither smooth nor comfortable. There would inevitably be times of exhaustion, irritability, and even moments of utter collapse.

If the person by his side was Wang Xinghe, the Old Master felt certain that Lu Jingze would remain steadfast in advancing the nation’s economy and fulfilling his other vital duties. He would surely live up to the trust placed in him and honor the destiny of the entire Lu clan.

“Of course, Grandfather. It truly makes me happy that you like it.” Wang Xinghe wasn’t one for flowery words, but his sincerity was unmistakable.

Old Master Lu pointed toward the garden. “These flowers were all planted and tended to by your Grandmother when she was still with us.” He smiled warmly. “Would you like to see what she looked like?”

Flattered and a bit nervous, Wang Xinghe nodded quickly. “I would love to.”

“Come, let’s go to the study. Collect the painting for me and place it in my bedroom,” the Old Master instructed his assistant.

“Yes, Sir,” the special assistant replied, handling the canvas with newfound reverence.

In the study, Old Master Lu pulled out a heavy photo album. Wang Xinghe hurried forward to help him lift it, placing it carefully onto the golden phoebe wood desk.

The Old Master opened the album. The first thing that caught Xinghe’s eye was a faded old photograph of a handsome man in a suit standing beside a woman in a pure white wedding gown. The man had sharp, commanding features and a refined, upright posture. The woman, draped in a trailing white veil, was as beautiful as a painting with a gentle expression, holding a bouquet of colorful flowers.

“Your Grandmother and I were an arranged marriage,” the Old Master reminisced. “Back then, it was an era where the new ideas of those who had studied abroad coexisted with the arranged marriages of the old world.”

“As a revolutionary with new thoughts and modern ideals, I was determined not to submit or cooperate. But then I saw how beautiful your Grandmother was, and I gave up all resistance.”

Old Master Lu’s withered hand gently traced the photo. Wang Xinghe could feel the radiating love the Old Master still held for his late wife.

“Grandmother was very beautiful and gentle,” Wang Xinghe remarked from the heart.

“She was. And she was a more passionate revolutionary than even I was. Before the founding of the nation, when resources were scarce and many great clans were hesitating to see which way the wind blew, it was your Grandmother and her fellow idealists who gave speeches on modern thought. They explained the pros and cons of the old versus the new and painted a vision for the future. It was their impassioned speeches, time and again, that moved those great families to action.”

“I only knew how to fight wars; in those matters, I couldn’t compare to your Grandmother.”

Wang Xinghe gazed at the beautiful woman in the photo, his expression softening. It was because of these pioneers and their advanced consciousness that they now had a better nation, a stronger people, and a brighter future.

The following photos showed Grandmother in various lights: giving a passionate speech on a high platform in her youth, wearing a cheongsam while tending to the garden, and smiling tenderly while holding Lu Jingze’s father. The photos of her stopped when Lu Jingze’s father was in his mid-teens.

Wang Xinghe’s throat tightened, and a look of sorrow clouded his face. His eyes grew red.

“Matters of life and death are not for us to decide,” Old Master Lu said softly. “No amount of money can keep someone here.” He looked away wistfully. “I wonder if she would blame me for not raising our son well. He’s become so ‘mad’ now that he hardly seems like a member of the Lu family.”

Wang Xinghe didn’t know how to answer, so he simply picked up a teacup from the side. “Grandfather, have some tea to moisten your throat.”

The Old Master took it with a smile, had a sip, and set it down. He continued flipping through the album. There were photos of Lu Lixing from his teens to his twenties. He was handsome and overbearing, looking a bit like the Old Master but inheriting more of the Grandmother’s features. While the Old Master had phoenix eyes, Lu Lixing had “auspicious phoenix” eyes.

Further back, the pages were filled with Lu Jingze.

The young Lu Jingze never seemed particularly happy. His eyes were bright and beautiful, but they lacked the carefree joy of other children.

“When A-Ze was little, he always asked me why everyone else had a father and a mother while he only had a grandfather. He asked where they were.”

“Once he grew older and understood the truth of his parents’ situation from others, he stopped asking.”

“Lixing… he was the only child your Grandmother and I had. I couldn’t bring myself to strike him down… Sigh… It was that boy A-Ze who suffered for it.” The Old Master had lived through storms, fought on battlefields, and faced enemies of the state, yet he had faltered when it came to his own child. He didn’t want to admit he had failed with Lixing, but he had to face the facts.

“Grandfather, I will take good care of A-Ze from now on.” Without realizing it, Wang Xinghe was already in tears.

He thought of the young Lu Jingze, longing for his parents, and wondered how many nights he had spent crying in secret. How did he endure watching his own parents pour their hearts out to Ji Yuheng instead of him?

Wang Xinghe put himself in those shoes—if his parents had rejected him from birth only to give everything to a stranger with no blood relation, he felt he would have gone mad from the sheer suffocation of it.

Old Master Lu handed him a handkerchief and sighed. “I hope your ending is better than mine and your Grandmother’s. I hope you can grow old together and spend your whole lives as companions.”

Wang Xinghe composed himself, wiped his tears, and nodded solemnly. “We definitely will. Thank you, Grandfather.”

The Old Master pushed the album toward him. “I know how things started between you and A-Ze. He was indeed in the wrong. I thought you would never forgive him. After all, you aren’t the type of child who likes to look back; you’re very much like your Grandmother—gentle but stubborn. Once you’ve set your mind on something, you never turn back.”

“Can you tell me, Grandfather… why did you finally choose to forgive A-Ze? Why were you willing to make an exception and turn back for him?”

The Old Master wasn’t being a gossip; it was simply that Wang Xinghe’s personality reminded him so much of his late wife. He had spent most of his youth serving the country and had neglected her. Looking back in his old age, he realized his lover had also “turned back” for him once. He wanted to hear Xinghe’s reason.

Wang Xinghe let out a sigh. “He’s just too thick-skinned… I couldn’t hold out against him.”

The Old Master froze for a second before bursting into a hearty, bright laugh. “That’s good. That’s very good.”

It was an unexpected answer. It reminded him of his own younger days—whenever he had made his wife angry, he would also pester her relentlessly, shamelessly begging for her forgiveness. So, that was it?

“I once tried to walk away in eight different directions, determined to abandon everything,” Wang Xinghe said, his voice carrying a trace of mock annoyance that couldn’t hide his tenderness. “But Lu Jingze was at the end of every single path. Whether I turned back or not, the result was always the same.”

Finally, Wang Xinghe’s gaze settled on a photo of Lu Jingze in his graduation gown from Tsinghua/Peking University.

His eyes curved into a smile: Actually, the most important reason was simply that I loved him.

Wasn’t that it? From the very first glance, Lu Jingze had been his Venus.