Su Xiangcheng and Lu Xun's First Formal Date is the first occasion on which their marriage is treated not merely as an arrangement or a source of conflict, but as an intimate relationship that can be actively enjoyed. Lu Xun's decision to appear personally at the Su Clan residence, drive himself, plan their meal, and continue the evening with a riverside walk gives the relationship a new rhythm. The date does not erase their possessiveness or the dangers surrounding them, but it creates a rare interval in which affection becomes deliberate, reciprocal, and unexpectedly unfamiliar to both of them.

Causes and Background

The date emerges against a background of accumulated insecurity. Su Xiangcheng has been unsettled by the question of Lu Xun's other female relatives and acquaintances, while Lu Xun remains intensely protective and easily provoked by any perceived rival. Shen Yiyun's presence has already required explanation: Lu Xun identifies her as his cousin, the adopted child of his uncle, and says that he arranged nearby accommodation because she had come to Cloud City to perform. Su Xiangcheng's suspicion is therefore not an abstract fear but part of a recurring pattern in which family labels, old friendships, and romantic boundaries overlap.

Their emotional histories also make ordinary intimacy difficult. Su Xiangcheng carries the trauma of her mother's suicide, remembering that her mother had a terminal illness and believed withdrawal would spare the family; the memory is linked to a childhood drawing of her parents holding her hand. Lu Xun, meanwhile, recalls being kidnapped at twelve, drugged by his captors, and nearly losing his life before developing resistance to medication. These histories help explain why fear, control, and protection repeatedly enter their marriage before tenderness can settle into it.

The immediate relationship has likewise been shaped by physical vulnerability and coercive tension. Su Xiangcheng has previously collapsed from fever before reaching an elevator, while Lu Xun has responded to her fear by holding her and assuring her that he has been there all along. The date thus follows not a calm courtship but a cycle of alarm, caretaking, jealousy, and reconciliation. Its significance lies in the fact that Lu Xun chooses to create closeness rather than merely enforce it.

What Happens

At ten in the evening, Lu Xun personally appears at the gate of the Su Clan residence. He does not send Butler Wu to drive him; instead, he drives over himself, a small but concrete departure from the distance and delegation associated with his position. When Su Xiangcheng comes out wearing a white dress, his expression is serious rather than casually relaxed, suggesting that the meeting matters to him even before the evening has begun.

Lu Xun has selected the dining hall in advance and arranged for them to eat in a private room. The enclosed setting makes Su Xiangcheng feel more at ease, and that easing changes the tone of the meal. Their intimacy is playful and physically close: Lu Xun is unusually attached to her, and she feeds him mouthful by mouthful when he does not eat properly. Her obedience is not presented only as submission; it becomes part of a reciprocal performance in which she also takes an active role in caring for him, even as he eventually holds her so closely that she cannot escape.

After dinner, the couple walks hand in hand along the riverbank and chats casually. The walk gives Su Xiangcheng access to stories about Lu Xun's past, including the contrast between his early steadiness and the occasional playfulness he allowed himself. The setting is late autumn, and the growing cold gives the scene a restrained physical atmosphere: the date moves away from the private box into open space, yet the couple remains connected by their joined hands and sustained conversation.

The evening also contains a playful affirmation of marital identity. When Lu Xun asks what their relationship is, Su Xiangcheng answers through flirtatious action that he is her husband. His uncertainty is telling: although he is married to her, he is not fully confident that she recognizes him emotionally rather than simply occupying a role that could be assigned to any handsome, powerful man. Her answer reassures him by making the marital bond personal and specific.

Lu Xun's Discovery of Courtship

The date is transformative most clearly for Lu Xun. After Su Xiangcheng returns inside, he does not immediately leave. He leans against the car and smokes several cigarettes before preparing to go back, reflecting on the evening rather than treating it as another completed obligation. He admits, in effect, that he has little experience of an actual relationship: his earlier overseas association with Song Yun'er existed on the surface, but the two had never truly spent time getting along.

That contrast makes the date a first experience rather than a repetition. Lu Xun realizes that the evening has been new to him and that he likes it. Although he and Su Xiangcheng are already married, the date reveals a difference between possessing a legal or private bond and learning how to inhabit it through shared time. Afterward, the image of Su Xiangcheng continues to intrude on his concentration, even while he is driving. The woman who has been part of his household and emotional life becomes, through the date, someone he can actively miss and think about as a romantic companion.

The change is especially striking beside Lu Xun's established possessiveness. He has confronted Chu Fei over Su Xiangcheng and objected to the idea that a non-blood relative can be treated as harmless merely because the relationship is called familial. Chu Fei openly describes Su Xiangcheng as someone he likes and says that he prefers the process of pursuit. Lu Xun's response is shaped by jealousy, but the date offers a different mode of attachment: instead of only guarding Su Xiangcheng from another man's pursuit, he begins to understand the value of pursuing her himself.

Intimacy, Boundaries, and Conflict

The date does not remove the boundary disputes that surround the couple. Lu Xun insists that Shen Yiyun is his cousin, while Su Xiangcheng challenges the assumption that a named but non-blood relative should be treated as outside the field of romantic suspicion. She later argues that if every relationship like Yi Yun's were considered harmless, there would be no end to the difficulty of managing such situations. Her challenge exposes the instability of kinship language within the story: titles such as cousin or relative can protect a relationship, conceal desire, or intensify distrust depending on who invokes them.

Lu Xun's own account of the date sits between tenderness and control. He plans the private room, drives himself, and walks hand in hand with Su Xiangcheng, yet he also remains physically possessive and accustomed to deciding the conditions of their encounters. The evening therefore represents not a complete liberation from the marriage's controlling structure but a temporary transformation of that structure into courtship. His care becomes persuasive because it is accompanied by attention, conversation, and genuine pleasure rather than only command.

Su Xiangcheng's responses are equally layered. She can be frightened enough to cry that she is scared, yet she can also tease Lu Xun, feed him, hold to the claim that he is her husband, and accept the walk that allows him to speak about his past. Her participation gives the date its mutual quality. The scene's emotional movement is not simply Lu Xun taking her out; it is Su Xiangcheng becoming more at ease inside an encounter that he has arranged, then helping sustain its intimacy through play and care.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

The immediate consequence is that Lu Xun returns home carrying the date with him. He has already been married to Su Xiangcheng, but the evening supplies an experience their marriage had lacked: time deliberately set aside for companionship. His lingering beside the car, smoking before leaving, signals that the event has not ended psychologically when the walk ends. He has discovered that he enjoys being with her in a context not governed solely by crisis, jealousy, or physical urgency.

The date also establishes a romantic midpoint in the couple's broader trajectory. Earlier scenes emphasize trauma, illness, suspicion, and the need for reassurance; this one converts those pressures into a quieter form of attachment. The meal, the hand-in-hand walk, the late-autumn cold, and Lu Xun's private reflection create a sequence in which proximity becomes chosen rather than merely imposed. The relationship remains volatile, but its emotional vocabulary expands.

Its lasting importance is therefore structural as well as romantic. Su Xiangcheng and Lu Xun's First Formal Date shows that the couple's marriage can contain more than obligation and possession. Lu Xun's guarded, experienced public identity gives way to the unfamiliar position of a man discovering that courtship itself can be pleasurable. Su Xiangcheng, meanwhile, is not reduced to the object of his protection or jealousy; through her humor, care, and recognition of him as her husband, she helps turn a powerful man's arrangement into a shared evening. The event does not promise that conflict has ended, but it makes reconciliation and continued intimacy imaginable on new terms.