Chapter 28
Lu Jiyu wore a pure black polo-neck sweatshirt, the zipper halfway down, revealing his cool, pale collarbone. One elbow rested on the concrete fence in front of the door, holding the drone remote. The other held a phone to his ear. His untidy bangs nearly buried his face, making it hard to discern his emotions beneath his half-closed eyelids.
As dusk falls, flocks of birds returning to their nests fly south across the setting sun.
As he stood there, looking down at people, there was a strange and distant look in his eyes.
"Lu Jiyu?" Jiang Wan looked at the person standing at the door on the second floor and subconsciously said something to the phone.
"You can also fly drones?" She was a little surprised. This person's hobbies are quite expensive.
What's so surprising about Lu Jiyu wanting to play with a drone? It's nothing compared to you chatting up a handsome mixed-race guy after not seeing him for a few days. He said "hmm" indifferently, feeling that he was really boring, and then hung up the phone.
Li Mu, who had been silent for a long time, finally reached out and waved at Jiang Wan. Compared with Lu's extremely cold face, he seemed much more amiable.
In the end, Jiang Wan did not accept Tiffany from the handsome mixed-race guy. After all, she almost never accepts gifts from others.
But Li Mu found this quite incredible. He dragged a chair over and sat across from Jiang Wan, shaking his head and asking, "You've never received a gift in your life? Why?"
Jiang Wan sat on the sofa in Lu Jiyu's house, looking through the photos in her camera again, deleting a few that were too disgusting to look at. She casually replied, "It's too much trouble. Instead of carefully selecting a gift that the other person won't like, don't you think it would be more efficient and practical to just give them money?"
Jiang Wan's awareness of this was thanks to Ms. Li Wan. As a child, she struggled with academics, so every birthday present she received was a collection of exercise books carefully selected by her mother. This directly led to Jiang Wan developing a physical aversion to the word "gift." Later, anyone who knew her well wouldn't give her a gift. If they truly wanted to express their affection, they'd send a red envelope or transfer money.
"Then you're the complete opposite of Lu Jiyu." Li Mu bit into a strawberry Lu Jiyu had just washed: "He's a total gift maniac."
"What do you mean?" Jiang Wan looked up at him curiously.
Lu Jiyu just emerged from the bedroom, carrying a computer and the data cable and card reader he had just unpacked. He silently sat down next to Jiang Wan, leaving a space about the length of Li Mu between them. Without a word, he took Jiang Wan's camera, removed the memory card, and began transferring the photos to his computer.
Everyone was silent for several seconds.
Jiang Wan didn't say anything because she felt that Lu Jiyu looked a little out of shape, and she didn't know who had offended him again.
Li Mu was busy eating strawberries. When he ate the third one, Lu Jiyu finally raised his eyes and glanced at him unfriendlyly. His meaning was very clear: I washed it for you, so let me eat it. Li Mu smiled and pushed the strawberry in front of him towards Jiang Wan: "Eat some strawberries, they are very sweet. These are washed by Lu Jiyu himself."
Jiang Wan tasted one and found it was indeed delicious: "But what does 'gift maniac' mean?" She was still very curious about it.
Before Li Mu spoke, he glanced at Lu Jiyu's expression and continued fearlessly, "Other people receive gifts on their birthdays, but Lu Jiyu gives gifts every year on his birthday."
Is there such a good thing?
Lu Jiyu glanced at Li Mu impatiently. Why did he behave like Zhou Zifang every day, telling everything to others?
He tilted his head to glance at Jiang Wan: "I'll make a rough cut of the video and send it to you when the time comes. You can revise it if there are any issues."
Jiang Wan was not a fool, she could tell that he was trying to drive her away.
"Can't I watch you cut it?" Jiang Wan asked him.
No.
Of course not.
You watch me cut, and I cut a ghost, you think everyone is like you, calm and composed, and can remain calm even when the sky is falling. You watch me cut, and I am afraid that I will cut the data cable.
"Are you in a hurry?" Lu Jiyu straightened up a little and asked her coldly.
"It's okay." Jiang Wan didn't know how he could tell she was anxious, so she just asked Lu Jiyu again: "When is your birthday? Can I go then?"
"What are you doing?" He rolled his Adam's apple and stopped pressing the mouse.
"Didn't you say you would receive gifts when you go there?" Jiang Wan was a little curious about what kind of gifts a romantic person like Lu Jiyu would give.
Lu Jiyu was watching a video Jiang Wan had filmed in the classroom, showing his classmates acting funny in front of the camera. He didn't look at her, his fingers casually dragging the progress bar, the beautiful, sexy veins on the back of his hand bulging slightly. After a moment, he said coldly, "Didn't you say you don't like receiving gifts?"
But when it comes to him, he has to be treated specially, right?
“People change.”
Chen Meiyu said that Jiang Wan's adaptability meant she was destined to be good at anything.
"Then why did you confiscate it just now?" He said indifferently. Li Mu, who was sitting opposite him, couldn't help laughing. He knew that Lu Jiyu would definitely not be able to hold back.
"Did you see it?"
Jiang Wan knew he was asking about the blond man. When he'd arrived earlier, she'd been stunned by his stunning looks, marveling at how incredibly beautiful noses and faces could truly be as perfect as those of ancient Greek statues. But when Lu Jiyu showed up, Jiang Wan suddenly felt he wasn't as good-looking. While Lu Jiyu might not be as perfect as the other man on his own, the combination of his features was quite different.
Blond guys are handsome, but you’ll get tired of them if you see them too much.
Lu Jiyu is different, fresh and sharp, like a bamboo forest standing in the morning mist in the mountains, facing the first rays of sunrise in the mountains, with a sense of vigor and coolness in its prosperity.
Simply put, she has an outstanding temperament, and the more you look at her, the more attractive she becomes.
"He's my mom's boyfriend. If my dad knew I accepted his gift, I'd be kicked out of the house."
Li Mu was a little unconvinced: "Your mother's boyfriend? Is that true?"
Even Lu Jiyu looked over and said the same thing, "Your mom is quite fashionable."
Jiang Wan didn't plan to say much about her mother's views on choosing a partner, so she took the compliment and said, "I'm pretty trendy too. What are you going to give me when the time comes?"
Lu Jiyu tapped the mouse pad twice with two fingers, and the fluorescent light from the screen was reflected on the lenses of his black-framed glasses.
He picked up the mug beside him and spoke lazily, with a sense of relaxation in his tone that he himself didn't even notice: "Beginner's Guide to Photography?"
Jiang Wan could tell that he was talking about her cooking.
But she was not angry and took it seriously.
"Okay, then I'll wait until your birthday. Don't forget it."
Jiang Wan's confident tone made Lu Jiyu uneasy. His birthday was in mid-October, and there was still half a year to go. He didn't know what the situation would be like for him and her by then. He told himself, Lu Jiyu is so heartless, don't take her words too seriously.
He replied nonchalantly, "Just don't forget it yourself."
Lu Jiyu looked at the photos for a while and found that although Jiang Wan's photography skills were poor, she was good at quantity. He imported the photos into the computer and took a quick look. He was sure that forty or fifty of the five hundred photos were usable. If the rest were added to the videos she took, they could be edited into a video.
but.
"You took more than eighty photos of this cat?" Lu Jiyu finally looked at the person next to him speechlessly.
Jiang Wan leaned over to look at Lu Jiyu's screen. As she leaned in, the faint fragrance of her body became stronger. Lu Jiyu calmly closed her open legs and pushed the computer towards Jiang Wan.
Li Mu had already found an excuse to slip away, and now only the two of them were left.
"This cat is our school's mascot. We all call her Senior Sister." Jiang Wan finished reading and pushed the computer back. "I was thinking of making a rough cut and then asking you to revise it, but on second thought, I decided not to waste this little bit of electricity."
"But I won't let you cut it for free." Jiang Wan looked at Lu Jiyu seriously: "I will pay you according to the market price."
Lu Jiyu had long been accustomed to her routine of paying for goods in return and was too lazy to pay any attention to her.
But Jiang Wan suddenly opened his round, dark eyes and stared at Lu Jiyu.
"What happened again?"
He frowned, unable to guess what this young lady was going to do.
Jiang Wan pointed to the standing air conditioner in the corner and said, "You know, a friend of mine told me before that she went to her boyfriend's house. It was late summer, and the air conditioner in her boyfriend's house was set to 30 degrees, and it was still on hot air."
"My friend asked him why he was using the heat, and he said the air conditioner was broken. She half believed him, and the two of them watched a movie together in the 30-degree heat, sweating profusely. Later, her boyfriend couldn't stand it anymore and went to take a shower, but ended up leaving his phone on the sofa."
"Then my friend accidentally saw the chat history between her boyfriend and someone else."
"Guess what they said?"
Jiang Wan talked for a while, leaned back on the sofa, and looked at the other person with some anticipation.
Lu Jiyu only felt that the story was somewhat familiar, and had a vague impression of the ending of the story, but he could not quite understand what she meant by saying this now.
Jiang Wan continued speaking.
"——The air conditioner is set to 30 degrees. I'm almost getting heatstroke, but she's still wearing nothing!" She laughed to herself and pretended to be serious: "So if your air conditioner is not just for decoration, could you please turn it on?" Jiang Wan pointed to her forehead: "It's really hot and sweaty."
Lu Jiyu: ...He was really convinced.
＊
In the evening, Cheng Xiang asked Lu Jiyu to have dinner with her. She was not familiar with Nanyuan and was not interested in those so-called Black Pearl restaurants. In the end, Lu Jiyu found a restaurant in a small alley in the city center.
The restaurant is excellent at serving local cuisine, and Lu Jiyu only knew about this place after Zhou Zifang took him there to eat once.
Cheng Xiang has lived in the north for a long time, but his taste is actually more southern.
The two of them arrived early, so the restaurant wasn't empty yet. The proprietress recognized Lu Jiyu and led them into the only private room in the restaurant. While it was called a private room, it was actually just a small corner partitioned off with composite panels.
The two of them ordered four dishes and a soup: Dongpo pork, shredded eel with fried oil, four-happiness roasted gluten, kale and shrimp, and finally a dish of pickled pork with preserved vegetables.
Cheng Xiang had been busy dining and chatting with old friends back in Nanyuan these past few days, so he hadn't seen Lu Jiyu in a few days. He looked sleep-deprived today, wearing a baggy sweatshirt, and his hair looked like it had been casually tousled before going out; it wasn't messy, but it wasn't very stylish either.
"Are you so unkempt when having dinner with me?"
Lu Jiyu was using hot water to heat the dishes for the old lady. Hearing her say this, he laughed in anger: "You called me at six o'clock to tell me to eat, and you were already at the entrance of the alley at six o'clock. I'm not a miracle Yu Yu, and you still expect me to change my appearance with just one click?"
Cheng Xiang drank the tea that Lu Jiyu poured, and a look of relaxation appeared on his face. "Who told you to sleep at home in the afternoon?"
"I just lay down for ten minutes and the quilt is not even warm yet." After Jiang Wan was called away, Lu Jiyu edited the video for a while. He originally planned to do it for only an hour, but he is the kind of person who can easily get caught up in it once he focuses. It was not until after five o'clock that he turned off the computer because he felt a little hungry.
Hungry and tired, he had originally planned to catch up on some sleep before going out to find food, but ended up here.
Cheng Xiang's itinerary for coming to Nanyuan was not very tight. The most important activity was a symposium to be held at No. 3 Middle School in a few days.
"You come with me then." This was Cheng Xiang's first time going to Lu Jiyu's school. Although they did not live in the same place, she did not miss anything about Lu Jiyu's school.
The waiter came in and served the food.
Lu Jiyu smiled, half leaning against the carved chair back, his hands in his sweatshirt pockets, his head slightly tilted, looking rebellious.
"What should I go there for? To support me? To let everyone know that the world-renowned writer Cheng Xiang is my grandmother?"
Perhaps it was because of his youthful vigor and the fact that he had not yet experienced the harshness of society. Lu Jiyu did not like the feeling of being "the one in the yellow robe" at all. After what happened in junior high school, he hoped that others would like him because he was really awesome or a good person, not because of his background or something.
Even if everyone knows he's quite wealthy, there's still a huge difference between being quite wealthy and actually being wealthy. Leaving a little ambiguity between people may allow for more room for development.
"What do you mean by support?"
“That’s just the truth.”
"Lu Jiyu, I know you resent your grandfather for not wanting you back then, but he also had his reasons."
There are some things that I couldn't say at the beginning, and now after so long, it seems that I can never explain them clearly.
Lu Jiyu poured a bowl of soup for Cheng Xiang and brought it to him. He still looked nonchalant, but his voice was serious: "I know everything, grandma."
Cheng Xiang had been here for so long, and this was the first time she'd heard Lu Jiyu address her with such formality. A cascade of emotions washed over her. No matter how much he joked around, when his true feelings came out, no one could resist. Especially Lu Jiyu. Cheng wanted to know that while he might seem casual and unfocused, he was actually the most sincere person, never complaining about being wronged, and always the most patient.
"You don't have to keep thinking about this." After Lu Jiyu drank a cup of hot soup, his complexion looked much better than when he first arrived.
"Okay." Cheng Xiang put down his chopsticks and sat up straighter. "Then tell me about your plans for college."
"Although your aunt wasn't very reliable in her early years, she's really made her business flourish in recent years. She's also told us that she wants to hand the company over to you. I've discussed it with your grandfather, and it's indeed a good choice."
"But you have other ideas, right, Lu Jiyu."
Cheng Xiang had come all the way to Nanyuan to hold a symposium, but his real purpose was to ask Lu Jiyu in person. Some tones are engraved in the blood, even if they are not expressed, they always exist.
"That's right." He opened his legs wide, his brows were deep, and his eyes were clear yet firm.
"I won't inherit Lu Lin's company. I don't have any big ambitions. If I were to run the company, it would go bankrupt sooner or later."
"So what do you want to do?"
Lu Jiyu was silent for a while, then smiled and said, "Don't you know everything?"
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