Chapter 64
After getting in the car, Jiang Wan started thinking about the photo Gao Zhuo sent him.
But unfortunately, she had deleted the chat history between the two of them, otherwise she could use the photo to let Chen Wulin next to her directly identify whether the woman in the floral dress was his mother.
Jiang Wan remained silent the entire way, causing the other two people in the car to not dare speak either. The atmosphere in the car was very depressing for a while. Jiang Huainan, who was driving in the front seat, repeatedly glanced at Jiang Wan in the rearview mirror, but the words on his lips remained unspoken.
He was feeling a little uncomfortable and had to turn on the audio and listen to some radio to ease the awkward atmosphere.
"Why did you dye your hair again?"
Jiang Huainan paused with his finger on the volume button. The traffic light at the intersection turned red, so he stopped the car and turned to look at Jiang Wan who suddenly spoke. There was some uncertainty in his tone: "How did you know?"
Jiang Wan was a little skeptical at first whether the woman in the photo was Chen Hong, but when she saw Jiang Huainan looking so guilty that he wanted to crawl under the wheel, she was immediately certain.
She is Chen Hong.
Jiang Wan smiled slightly, and said half-jokingly and half-seriously: "Do you think no one will watch you when I go out traveling?"
"My informants are everywhere in Nanyuan."
Jiang Huainan's heart skipped a beat, and he started the car only after hearing an impatient horn honk from behind.
"And why are you here?"
After asking the person in front, Jiang Wan did not forget the one sitting on her left.
"Wulin is because..." Jiang Huainan was anxious to answer for others while driving.
"I went to your house to find you, and happened to meet Uncle Jiang coming to pick you up at the airport, so I followed him." Chen Wulin did not appreciate Jiang Huainan's kindness and explained it himself.
"What do you want to talk to me about?" Jiang Wan calculated that Lu Jiyu's plane was about to take off. She sent a WeChat message: "Let me know when you get to the capital."
gazer: OK.
gazer: Have you arrived yet? Is anyone here to pick you up?
Jiang Wan replied: "Yes, my dad came to pick me up." She did not mention Chen Wulin, because she knew that Chen Wulin and Lu Jiyu did not get along.
Lu Jiyu didn’t ask any more questions and replied, “Let’s chat later.”
Chen Wulin, who was standing next to him, waited until Jiang Wan put down her phone before speaking again: "I want to ask you when you are going to register at the university, and whether we should go together."
At that moment, Jiang Wan and her friends were driving past her alma mater. The school gates were as drab as ever, and the flowers and plants in front of the stone tablet with the school name were still wilted. The small shops at the gate were still the same ones, the only difference being that the security guard's hair was completely white.
"The admission results haven't come out yet. Don't you think this is a bit too early?"
Chen Wulin also noticed his junior high school alma mater outside the window and changed the subject: "I went to see Teacher Lin before, and she said that your junior high school teacher, Teacher Chen, got married this year."
"real?"
Chen Yan had been teaching Jiang Wan's class since her junior year. She was a prominent teacher at the school, and rumors abounded about her. She was in her early thirties, very beautiful, but unmarried. Rumors circulated that she had been abandoned by her fiancé due to a broken heart, or that she had some underlying illness. That was the constant rumor. There were also rumors that her parents were so worried they couldn't eat. However, this didn't stop her from dressing elegantly for work each day, and her teaching performance was consistently top-notch.
The students also like her very much.
After Jiang Wan graduated, Chen Yan changed schools and went to another better junior high school in the city.
Jiang Wan always remembered her.
When Chen Yan first took over their class, she had a talk with Jiang Wan one day. At that time, rumors about her were still circulating in the school from time to time.
"Do you think rumors are scary? Of course they are. In ancient times, rumors could cost lives, especially women's lives."
"Thousands of years later, rumors still exist, but what is our luck? We live in an era where rumors can no longer kill people. If the outside world is too noisy, we should not look outward, but look inward."
“Try to find the lighthouse in your heart.”
"With your intelligence, you will understand."
It was March, a chilly spring day, and the office's air conditioner was set high. Jiang Wan shuddered as she stepped outside. The long, dark corridor was so quiet that not a soul could be seen. Looking up at the gray sky overhead, Jiang Wan felt something sprout within her.
"Really." Chen Wulin clearly sensed Jiang Wan's interest in this topic and continued, "Teacher Lin said her husband is a doctor who has returned from overseas and works at an aerospace research institute. He's also quite good-looking."
Jiang Wan was not surprised by this, because she knew that people like Chen Yan could live a good life no matter what.
But she was still very happy for them. When Jiang Wan was a middle school student, she always had the feeling that she was fighting alone, imagining herself as a peerless master against the injustice of the entire martial arts world. But now looking back, she realized that at every important point in her life, there were always a few people who stood by her silently, giving her the strength to move forward.
How to describe it with a more fashionable word?
Maybe it is what is called a "noble person".
As he spoke, Jiang Huainan had already driven the car to the gate of their residential complex. Chen Wulin suddenly patted the driver's seat and said, "Uncle Jiang, just let me get off here."
Jiang Huainan was waiting for the car in front to pass. After hearing what Chen Wulin said, he turned around and looked at him with a smile: "Don't worry, since you are here, it has been a long time since you visited your uncle. Jiang Wan is back today, let's have dinner together."
"I won't bother you today."
"Next time." Chen Wulin answered appropriately.
Jiang Huainan wanted to say something to persuade him to stay, but Jiang Wan pointed at the security guard who was watching them from the front of the car and said, "He already said he'll do it next time. Just let him get off the car."
She said this without much emotion, but it might not sound that way to the other two.
But Jiang Wan couldn't care less what others thought.
She was so tired that she really didn't want to watch them act out this scene. Finally, Chen Wulin got out of the car. When Jiang Huainan drove the car to the underground parking garage and turned off the engine, he couldn't help but ask, "Jiang Wan, are you unhappy?"
Jiang Wan unbuckled his seat belt, his eyes expressionless: "Neither happy nor unhappy."
"Are we going out for dinner tonight, or ordering takeout?"
A hint of embarrassment flashed across Jiang Huainan's face: "Your aunt and her family came today, and she cooked for us herself."
"Yeah." Jiang Wan opened the door and got out of the car: "I'm in for a treat today."
After the incident with Jiang Huainan and Chen Hong, Chen Wulin's family had moved to another campus. However, that place wasn't far from Lijin Garden; it was only three bus stops away.
But Chen Wulin didn't take the bus, he chose to walk.
It is afternoon now, the sun is scorching, the hottest time of the day.
When Chen Wulin arrived home, he was drenched in sweat, looking like he'd just been pulled out of the water. Chen Hong, who had just returned from the supermarket, heard some noise and came out of the kitchen to see a man dripping wet standing at the dining table, drinking from a kettle on the table.
"Why is it so hot? Where have you been?"
Chen Hong turned around and went to the bathroom to get a towel to wipe his sweat.
"I went to Teacher Jiang's house today." Chen Wulin put down the kettle and took a deep breath. As if the air conditioning in the room wasn't cool enough, he walked over, picked up the remote control on the coffee table, and turned it down a few degrees. After a series of ding-ding-ding sounds, Chen Wulin felt his body, which was about to explode with heat, finally get a moment of respite. Chen Hong didn't say anything, so he continued, "I stopped by the airport to pick up Jiang Wan and brought them back together."
"I think she already knows about you and Teacher Jiang."
Chen Hong paused as she was about to take the towel and asked, "Did you tell her?"
"I wish I was the one who told her." That way Jiang Wan wouldn't look at him with such defensive eyes. He felt weak all over and fell directly on the sofa.
He looked at Chen Hong with some confusion: "Why does it have to be Jiang Wan's father?"
The mung bean soup that Chen Hong had just cooked on the kitchen stove was now boiling, bubbling with hot steam, and a faint fragrance drifted in the cold air.
She went into the kitchen, turned down the heat, and came out to sit on the sofa next to Chen Wulin.
"Do you think that even if I'm not with Jiang Huainan, Jiang Wan will look at you more?" Chen Hong always thought that Chen Wulin was a smart person, but she didn't expect that he would be so obsessed with this.
Her voice was cold.
It has been like this for many years.
"I've devoted most of my life to you, Chen Wulin. You have no reason to stop me from being happy."
Chen Wulin snorted lightly: "Then do you think you can really be happy?"
"What do you mean by that?"
Chen Wulin sat up from the sofa, staring at the black TV screen in front of him: "You keep saying that you broke up with Jiang Huainan because of me? Is that true? Even if I agreed at the beginning, do you think you can really be with him? Have you asked Jiang Wan's opinion?"
"You know everything, actually."
"That's why you chose this opportunity to find Jiang Huainan again."
"After the college entrance exam, Jiang Wan will be going to the capital to attend university. When she comes back, maybe Jiang Huainan will have been completely taken care of by you. Then you can marry him smoothly."
Chen Wulin recounted everything as if he were telling someone else's story. He then turned his head to look at Chen Hong, the expected slap still before it landed: "Am I right?"
Chen Hong saw a familiar person on his extremely cold face.
It's not someone else, it's herself.
"It's good that you know." Chen Hong turned her head and stood up: "As for why I chose Jiang Huainan, you will know later."
"Not later."
"I know now." Chen Wulin continued, "Because Teacher Jiang is soft-hearted, if you keep asking him, he might be willing to give you a house."
"House, house! You know about houses too!" These two words seemed to hit Chen Hong's lifeline, and she suddenly became crazy: "If your father hadn't been a hands-off boss, would I have been clinging to others so hard? Do you know how much it costs to buy a house in the center of Nanyuan City? I can't make that much money in my entire life! Do I want a house for myself? I want it for you! If you don't have a house, you will be inferior to others when you go out to work and live in the future! You will never be able to hold your head up! Do you understand? You understand shit! All you do is follow Jiang Wan around and think about useless love affairs all day long!"
Ever since Chen Wulin's college entrance examination results came out, Chen Hong pretended to be a calm mother for a while, but at this moment, everything disappeared.
So how can people change their destiny?
She was engraved in your genes from the day you were born.
Chen Wulin lay on the sofa, not looking at his hysterical mother, but just closed his eyes tiredly.
Jiang Ying and his wife were busy in the kitchen, while Jiang Huainan and Lin Jun were chatting awkwardly in the living room. Only Jiang Wan was left alone in his room, catching up on some sleep.
She was awakened by the smell coming from the kitchen.
Without waiting for Jiang Huainan to knock on the door, Jiang Wan packed up and went to the living room.
Jiang Ying was just bringing the soup to the table. Seeing Jiang Wan, who was still drowsy in her pajamas, she smiled and said, "Wan Wan, wake up. Come and have dinner."
I was a bit too enthusiastic today.
Are you here to borrow money?
Jiang Wan replied "Okay" but walked towards the sofa. She sat down next to Lin Jun, picked up the remote control on the coffee table and aimlessly changed the channels: "What's wrong with your mother today?"
"What do you mean?" Lin Jun took a piece of apple and put it in his mouth.
"Seeing me today is like seeing the God of Wealth."
"Hey." Lin Jun said understandingly, "Women in menopause are all like that. Their attitude changes every day. You'll understand when you get older."
Jiang Wan: "Thank you."
"What are the brother and sister talking about? Come over and have dinner." Jiang Huainan smiled and called them over.
Jiang Ying showed off her skills today. She worked in the kitchen for two hours and served five dishes, all of which were delicious.
"Come on, Jiang Wan. Eat some sweet and sour pork with pineapple. Your dad said you like it." Jiang Ying finished helping her with the food and asked casually, "How was it? Was Xinjiang fun?"
Jiang Wan nodded: "It's quite fun. Auntie can take Lin Jun to see it sometime."
"I want to, but I don't have the time."
Jiang Ying finished speaking and poured Jiang Wan another bowl of soup. Then she casually said, "Did you know that the father of our downstairs sister Su is getting married soon?"
"Um?"
"Little Sister Su likes you very much and said she hopes you can attend her father's wedding when you are free."
Jiang Wan took a sip of soup and asked curiously, "Really? Congratulations! How long has Uncle Chen's ex-wife been dead? Two or three years?"
"Yes, it's been so long. I think Xiao Su should have found a mother for her daughter long ago. Jiang Wan, don't you think so?"
Jiang Wan didn't answer this. Instead, she picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork with pineapple and gave it to Jiang Huainan, who was sitting next to her and eating silently. She asked in a very casual tone, "Dad, are you going to remarry too?"
Lao Jiang's chopsticks shook.
"No, no, why are you talking about me? Hahaha." Jiang Huainan put down his chopsticks and laughed heartily: "Jiang Ying, stop talking about these nonsense and eat."
"Brother, how can this be called nonsense?" Jiang Ying looked at him disapprovingly. "You and Jiang Wan's mother have been divorced for such a long time. Now that Jiang Wan has made a name for himself and is about to go to university in the capital, you'll be left alone here. If he gets sick or has a fever, there's no one to take care of him. It's time you found someone."
"Besides," Jiang Ying muttered softly, "Li Wan has been looking for her many times, so why can't she find her with you?"
"Tsk, why involve people who have nothing to do with it!" Jiang Huainan's face frowned slightly.
The uncle-in-law also pulled Jiang Ying's sleeve, asking her not to say too much.
Jiang Wan finished her bowl of soup and put down her chopsticks. She wondered why Jiang Ying was so kind to him today. It turned out that she was here to fight for Jiang Huainan's "wife rights."
"Aunt, don't get excited. I never objected to my father remarrying."
"If you have a good match, please help keep it for him. But as my father's only daughter, I only have one request."
Seeing that this was a promising situation, Jiang Ying quickly asked, "What's the request?"
"You can't find a lady with a son."
She smiled and said, "I can't help it. I'm afraid people will divide my property with me."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
