Chapter 236 Those who plant trees will enjoy the shade

In the private room specially reserved for the boss of Yandu Hotel, Duan Jingyao held the tablet used for ordering food and selected seven or eight dishes, all of which were the hotel's signature dishes.

"Would you like some wine?" He turned his head and asked Meng Anran, who was sitting more than a meter away from him.

The other party waved his hand and smiled faintly, "I don't drink."

Duan Jingyao raised his eyebrows, didn't ask any more questions, lowered his head and tapped the tablet to place the order, then poured a cup of tea for Meng Anran.

As the tea soup falls into the cup, white mist floats out and the fragrance of Maojian tea buds spreads in the air.

He said with a hint of dissatisfaction: "Sitting so far away from me, it's not convenient to talk, right?"

"The guy at home is a jealous person. I have to consciously keep my distance from the opposite sex." Meng Anran curled her red lips. After finishing the business negotiation, her smile became less polite. "This is my private room. The soundproofing is very good. It's suitable for discussing important matters."

Duan Jingyao pursed her lips, not wanting to continue to hold on to the topic, and asked casually, "Are you and Qin Mu really suitable for each other, or are you just accommodating each other because you've known each other for so many years and can't bear to give up?"

Unexpectedly, they suddenly talked about relationship issues. Meng Anran didn't want to answer, but she knew Duan Jingyao's feelings for her. After thinking for half a second, she said, "I don't know. I only know that for more than 20 years, I have only been moved by him."

What the heart decides cannot be expressed with the mouth.

Just like Duan Jingyao couldn't tell when he started to be obsessed with Meng Anran.

Maybe it started when she persuaded me to stay in Beijing five years ago, or maybe it started when I learned the truth from her six years ago that I had been deceived.

Or perhaps even earlier, when he had used conspiracy and trickery against her but received her calm and transparent response, he felt that she was particularly different.

Meng Anran took a sip of tea and looked over indifferently, "Are you not going to change your surname?"

Since he has returned to the Lu family and publicly acknowledged that he is Lu Heng and Lu Yi's biological brother, and is now the president of Hengyi Group, it seems inappropriate for him to continue to use the surname Duan.

"There's nothing good about being named Lu." Duan Jingyao chuckled, "That's what my eldest brother said."

Meng Anran raised her eyebrows slightly in disapproval. It was true that the surname Lu was not a good one, but Lu Heng and Lu Yi were so obsessed with her changing her surname at the beginning. Now she didn't care about her brother's surname anymore.

Anyone who hears this will find it ridiculous.

The dishes at Yandu Hotel were served very quickly. Duan Jingyao picked up his chopsticks, but Meng Anran didn't have much of an appetite and drank her tea slowly.

She said indifferently, "It's time to talk about business, right?"

Duan Jingyao put a piece of sweet and sour pork into his mouth and smiled, "Don't you and I have anything else to talk about besides business?"

Meng Anran slowly put down the teacup, picked up her phone, flipped through it, and put it down again. "What can we talk about? At best, we're high school alumni, and now we're just Party A and Party B. We're not very close, so we can only talk about topics we're not very familiar with."

Duan Jingyao lost his appetite after hearing these words. He put down his chopsticks, drank a sip of tea, and sat there in silence for nearly two minutes.

He suddenly asked, "Am I not even qualified to be your friend?"

"I'm not short of friends," Meng Anran replied quickly, rejecting the offer decisively. "You and I are business partners, and you have value as a connection, but ultimately, it's just about mutual benefit."

She raised her eyes, the expression in them as calm as an ancient well, "You should know that if you didn't have information about Ke Ling, I wouldn't have come to this meal with you."

Duan Jingyao's pupils froze for a moment, he lowered his eyes and put down his teacup, then said in a calm voice, "Before I tell you the news, please answer a few questions for me."

"You say." Meng Anran leaned back in the chair, crossed his legs contentedly, and didn't mind staying with him for a while longer.

Duan Jingyao's fingertips tapped rhythmically on the table. "Back then, you told me that Lu Heng and Lu Yi were cunning and devious, so you didn't hate them, did you?"

Meng Anran chuckled, "Does it matter whether I hate or not?"

"I just think they care about you more than I thought."

What Duan Jingyao didn't say was that after he took over all the affairs of Hengyi Group, Lu Heng, as the chairman, never came to the group again.

Every day he wandered around the various companies invested by Meng Anran, but he never went in to take a look. Instead, he sat in the car and stared at the company entrance from afar.

Watch people coming and going, stay for an hour or so and then leave.

All this information was told to him by Lu Heng's driver, Lao Chen.

Lu Heng's love for Meng Anran seemed to be bound by something, hidden in the abyss, unable to speak out and unable to see the light of day.

He quietly hid in the dark and spied on every detail of her life, but he didn't dare to find out the whole picture.

Letting him be the president of Hengyi Group and in charge of all affairs of the group does not seem to be to compensate him as his younger brother, but to get rid of all the things and leave free time to pay attention to Meng Anran.

So Duan Jingyao sometimes thought that the reason why Lu Heng disliked Lu Qingcheng back then was probably not because he knew that Lu Qingcheng was just an illegitimate daughter, but because blood relationship was really not that important.

What Lu Heng cares about is only Meng Anran herself.

The outside world has seen the three of them fighting to the death for so many years, but in fact, the relationship between them may be incomparable to that between many siblings.

"Care?" Meng Anran's eyes moved slightly, as if she was thinking about whether the word was used accurately. Then she smiled and said, "What they think has nothing to do with me. I can only feel my own feelings."

Duan Jingyao noticed that her hand holding the teacup gradually tightened, and her fingertips gradually turned white, as if she was restraining some surging emotions.

He never understood why Lu Heng and Lu Yi cared so much about Meng Anran, but in return they received her hatred.

"Do you think they are normal?" Meng Anran understood his thoughts from his eyes and chuckled with a hint of sarcasm.

Duan Jingyao retracted his gaze, "At least in the past few years, they have never shown any strange characteristics."

Although Lu Yi's appearance is quite unique, everyone who knows him knows that it is albinism, which does not mean that Lu Yi's thinking is different from that of ordinary people.

After Meng Anran finished listening, the sarcasm in her smile became more obvious. If you look closely, you will find that there is also a bit of self-mockery in it.

How did she grow up with difficulty in the hands of Lu Heng and Lu Yi until she was seventeen years old, and why did she suffer from mental illness.

After suffering so much, the person who was finally used to test love was Duan Jingyao, and the person who was treated well was Duan Jingyao.

Those who plant trees will enjoy the shade. Her departure made Lu Heng and Lu Yi reflect on themselves, and they probably compensated their guilt towards her on Duan Jingyao.

"It's not important anymore." She finally gathered all her emotions and returned to her calm state. "Now that we've asked the questions, let's talk about Ke Ling."

Duan Jingyao saw that she didn't want to talk about the past, so he didn't continue the topic. He followed her lead and talked about Ke Ling: "I once met Ke Ling at an event organized by the Qinghe Club."