In An Zi Ran's point of view, An Yuan Ju's style of funeral had been really different.
After the parents pass away, Chinese has a tradition called Shou Ling where the eldest son has to sit by the parents' bier, and keep vigil beside the coffin for a certain amount of time, but in An Yuan Ju, the one who does this job isn’t the eldest son, but the daughter instead.
For the past three days where An Zi Ran had been lying sick in his bed, An Yu Zhi had been doing the Shou Ling, until today morning when she finally went back to her room. As her brother, An Zi Ran felt that he had to pay her a visit.
'Brother……"
Weakly, An Yu Zhi stood up and stare at her brother as he gets closer. Within her beautiful eyes, signs of her being scared can be felt, it feels distanced, it feels like her sister isn't close with him. An Zi Ran can easily guess that his sister and him didn't have a good relationship.
An Zi Ran stared at her, amazed by her beauty, her beautiful brows and eyes, and cute little lips, she's the best definition of beautiful in those ancient times. She's fifteen, the legal age to marry in those days. Rumour says lots of people had tried to invite her on a date, but they were all rejected by her parents as her parents wanted her to marry someone better, someone with more power.
An Zi Ran spoke to her for a few moments, he spoke with care, warmth and patience.
An Yu Zhi seemed to be in shock, she felt weird that her brother who usually doesn't care about her now cares about her suddenly. Her tears rolled down her cheeks as she couldn't hold back the emotion anymore, she hadn't felt cared, loved in a long time.
An Zi Ran left a few moments later when her sister finally settled down.
An Yu Zhi let out a sigh secretly. She was still not used to her brother caring so much about her, but now since their parents passed away, An Zi Ran and their baby brother will be the people that are the closest to her. Therefore, no matter what, she has to try to get used to being with her brother.
7 days later
According to An Yuan Ju's tradition, today is the day An Chang Fu and Liu Mei Xiang get buried.
An Family is a huge family, therefore, the funeral was grand, it was really formal. However, An Zi Ran doesn't know much about these, so he told Mr Su, the butler to deal with it. Mr Su tried his best to not disappoint An Zi Ran too, he took care of every single detail, and prevented any unnecessary trouble.
An Family finally felt relieved when all these funeral were done.
Just like this, Chinese New Year passed, but no one felt the joyfulness and excitement of the festival.
After a few days, An Zi Ran's body had almost fully recovered, it's only the cold of the winter that's causing a problem. With Ciu Lan's and the three other maids constantly taking care of him, his body recovered fast, now, he only has to deal with his overweight problem, and their family assets, even though they have Mr Su the butler, An Zi Ran still has to deal with some stuff personally as the leader of the family.
An Zi Ran then created a losing weight program for himself.
The first step is to wake up for a morning jog every morning. This move surprised the An Family as in their eyes, An Zi Ran always had been a really lazy person, especially during the winters.
During the freezing winter, An Zi Ran used to only wake up when it's noon, this bad habit of his lasted for a full sixteen years. An Chang Fu knew his son was afraid of the cold, so he allowed it, he didn't force his son to wake up for breakfast. This is why everyone was so shocked when they saw him on the breakfast table that morning.
At the beginning, everyone thought he's doing this because of what happened to his parents, they thought it wouldn't last past two days. Surprisingly for them, An Zi Ran continued showing up for breakfast every other morning.
Besides that, An Zi Ran started visiting the study room a lot. He used to have no interest in accounting, he studied, but he had no talent at all, all he knew was a few words. His dad wanted his son to do well in exams, but soon he realised his son didn't have what it takes to so, therefore, he gave up and gave all his hopes to the newborn An Zi Ming.
Wang Qin Lan and the other wives felt shocked and displeased. They did not want An Zi Ran to be so hardworking.
They knew that once An Zi Ran gets smarter, it'll be hard for them to get any assets or benefits. At the same time, they also knew that if no one stood up for An Family, it will surely go down in ruins, furthermore, there's An Chang De who wanted the family's assets badly. Rather than the family assets falling into An Chang De's hands, they were more willing to let it be in the hands of An Zi Ran.
At least, they knew An Zi Ran would take care of them as they're his aunts, but An Chang De probably won't do the same.
At this moment, the main character of their heart was studying in the study room.
An Zi Ran's writing skills were really bad, his words looked like worms crawling on the book, he had never written anything before, but he's determined, he wanted to be able to deal with the accountings of the family.
When Mr Su realised his determination, he went out and bought book for An Zi Ran, he bought books that taught him how to write different Chinese characters.
An Zi Ran knew that he had to be patient, he had to practise every day in order to have the ability to write well.
Someone else did not agree with this. They didn't want his life to be boring and peaceful, they wanted Zi Ran's life to be more complicated, which is why An Chang De and his wife showed up three days after An Chang Fu and Liu Mei Xiang were buried.