Lu Cheng and Shen Hui's Marriage

Lu Cheng and Shen Hui's Marriage is presented less through private history than through the warmth of their shared family life. Their teasing, mutual indulgence, and joint concern for their son make them a settled parental pair; their welcome of Su Xiangwan extends that intimacy into the next generation. For Su Xiangwan, who longs for the parental love she missed, the couple's ordinary closeness carries particular force.

Identity and Shared Family Role

Lu Cheng and Shen Hui appear as the parents of Lu Xun and as an older married couple whose affection is visible in the way they speak to and about one another. Their relationship is not explained through a courtship or a history of marriage. Instead, the narrative lets it emerge in family gatherings: Shen Hui scolds her grown son for being disobedient, while Lu Cheng laughs and defends him, praising him as outstanding and crediting him with bringing home such a good daughter-in-law. The exchange makes their shared role as parents part of their marital rapport, with each responding to the other's view of their son.

That defense is affectionate rather than solemn. Lu Cheng's remark amuses Shen Hui, who turns her annoyance on him for spoiling their son. The small reversal—from her chiding Lu Xun to teasing her husband—makes the scene a portrait of familiar ease. The marriage is defined here by responsiveness: Lu Cheng knows how to soften Shen Hui's irritation, and Shen Hui can rebuke him without disrupting the warmth between them.

Affection in Family Gatherings

At Shen Hui's birthday celebration, Su Xiangwan offers her a gift with both hands and wishes her a happy birthday. Shen Hui receives it with visible delight, then passes it to Lu Cheng, who is standing nearby. Her attention is not only on the present but on the young woman's thoughtfulness: she wonders whether Su Xiangwan has spent her own money, having heard from Lu Xun that she keeps the household accounts in good order. The moment places Lu Cheng and Shen Hui together at the center of a family occasion while showing how their shared welcome extends to their daughter-in-law.

Later, Shen Hui and Su Xiangwan talk upstairs for so long that Lu Cheng comes to find them. He calls his wife back to the waiting guests and asks whether she has chosen an instrument. His concern is practical: the Lu family is hosting, and he does not want Su Xiangwan to make a mistake and become a laughingstock during the evening's musical performance. The scene does not make him the center of Shen Hui's conversation; rather, his entrance gently interrupts it, revealing the couple's coordination as hosts and his attention to the young woman's comfort and standing.

Marriage, Parenting, and Welcome

Lu Cheng's defense of Lu Xun and Shen Hui's response show a shared family life that allows disagreement and teasing to coexist. He openly admits that he spoils their son, while she chides him for it. The exchange does not erase Shen Hui's frustration with Lu Xun's disobedience; instead, it places that frustration within a household where Lu Cheng can ease the mood without dismissing her place as a parent. Their closeness is conveyed through this quick, familiar rhythm rather than through declarations about their marriage.

Their welcome of Su Xiangwan also gives the marriage a broader emotional significance. Shen Hui consoles her after Song Yun'er treats her dismissively, advises her not to take the slight to heart, and tells her that she and Lu Cheng regard her as a precious gift to the family. Su Xiangwan answers that, having grown up with her grandfather and sister, she had longed for parental affection, and that Shen Hui and Lu Cheng have made her life feel complete. Shen Hui's care is voiced directly; Lu Cheng's role in this exchange is less prominent, but his earlier praise of the daughter-in-law and his shared place in the family make the welcome a household bond, not merely a private exchange between two women.

Emotional Contrast and Narrative Significance

The story sets this domestic warmth against Su Xiangwan's memory of her own mother's suicide. Seeing Lu Cheng and Shen Hui close to one another, she envies what their family seems to possess: a mother who remains present and a son raised with care. The contrast is not evidence that the Lu marriage is without difficulty; it shows how Su Xiangwan reads its visible tenderness through her own experience of loss. Ordinary gestures—Lu Cheng defending his son, Shen Hui laughing at her husband's indulgence, the two of them receiving a daughter-in-law—therefore signify more to her than polite family harmony.

The marriage functions as a model of belonging within the story's family scenes. Shen Hui's affection and Lu Cheng's easy support create a welcoming environment in which Su Xiangwan can speak of the parental love she missed, while their affectionate teasing gives that welcome a recognizable domestic texture. The relationship's significance rests not on a dramatic turning point but on repetition: they appear together as parents, hosts, and elders who make room for the next generation.