When Zhou Chu reached middle age, he had completely lost his face.

He Jinxing stayed at Gou's house until after two in the morning last night, until Jiang Yuan asked him and Gou Yu how long they planned to guard the door of my house. If she forced her way out, it seemed that neither of you could stop her.

Gou An's indulgence has always been private, and Mr. He has never been pointed out to have symptoms of being a henpecked man in person... He doesn't know how to deal with it, so he can only pretend to look at the plan of Jinshan Wharf in his hand. The second before, he was arguing with Gou Yu about whether to put a casino or an aquarium on the coastal coastline.

Gou Yu was used to the fact that he couldn't control his daughter, and said to Jiang Yuan with a smile, "So you are here too, do you want another cup of Tieguanyin? After all, I don't know what time she is going to stay up until before going to bed?"

Jiang Yuan rolled his eyes and went upstairs to sleep. Fortunately, at this time, the restless footsteps on the second floor stopped, and the lights in the room were finally turned off.

He Jinxing finally stopped pretending to look at the planning map he had been looking at all night. He put the map down and emphasized to Gou Yu that he still felt that the most profitable part should be placed in the best location to give back to the customer experience.

Gou Yu almost died of laughter, mocking him: "The casino is close to the sea just to make it convenient for some people who have lost all their money to jump in. Gamblers don't want customers to experience the sightseeing scenery, they just want to win money."

What he said actually makes some sense.

He Jinxing grabbed a pen and temporarily wrote Gou Yu's name on the land, drew a circle and wrote the word "temporarily" behind it, then slapped the planning map back to his father-in-law's chest with an expressionless face.

"Be nicer," Gou Yu reminded him, "I can still say a few good words for you in front of my daughter tomorrow morning."

He Jinxing just felt that it was really funny that Gou Yu's empty promises had come back to haunt him.

Facts proved that his guess was correct, there was no such thing as a few nice words. Starting from the next morning, Gou An didn't reply to his messages. He Jinxing comforted himself while attending a meeting, saying that it might be because she was too busy studying.

During lunch, he took out his cell phone and started searching on the search engine for “Do Aquarius people like cold violence?”

In the afternoon, Mr. He, who never came late or left early, left early for the first time today, as if he was going to pick up his daughter from kindergarten. He was afraid of being late for even a minute, so when the time came, he threw down his pen and hurried to the elevator to the garage.

Then there was the scene at the school gate.

As he stepped out of the car, He Jinxing saw Gou An and Lu Wan standing together not far away, becoming the focus of everyone's attention. It was obvious that he had caught up with some incredible Shura field -

Thinking of Gou An's gnashing of teeth last night when he mentioned Lu Wan and his series of unreasonable anger towards him, he wanted to just pull back his feet and drive away, pretending that he had never been there...

But Gou An's noisy ex-girlfriend, the eldest daughter of the Zhou family, had already seen him.

He Jinxing had no choice but to walk to Gou An, reach out, and pull the hoodie string of her sweatshirt in full view of everyone, "Are you hungry? Let's go eat."

The voice is calm.

Gou An turned around to look at He Jinxing with a murderous look, wanting to ask him who he had come to save after suddenly appearing.

But when I turned around, I found that the person behind me was only looking at me.

When she was engulfed in those dark eyes, she miraculously discovered that if some questions had obvious answers and were asked just for the sake of quarreling, then the question was not necessary to ask.

Zhou Yutong next to her answered for her: "She eats."

Gou An turned to her, and the latter winked at her: "You go on your way, Li Du and I have nothing to do with it."

When the name of the third party was mentioned, He Jinxing couldn't help but take a look, and saw a young man standing behind Zhou Yutong with his hands in his pockets, like a door panel, wearing Bluetooth headphones and standing there with indifference.

Feeling He Jinxing's gaze, he paused and looked back. Perhaps because he was a newborn calf that was not afraid of a tiger, he smiled at him, not in a friendly way.

As if being provoked by an underage beast pulling its beard, Mr. He looked away indifferently.

I'm hungry.

He pulled Gou An's hat string again as if to urge her. This time she finally reacted and snatched her hat string back. Before leaving, she did not forget to turn around and glare at Lu Wan: "You wait."

Then he grabbed He Jinxing's arm and dragged him away.

She was sure she heard the man chuckle above her.

But he endured it until he got in the car and then asked with a sullen face, "What are you laughing at?"

"I thought you were going to ask me if I showed up so suddenly to stop you from bullying your classmates." He Jinxing said, "but you didn't ask."

Is it that obvious? Facing his ridicule, Gou An thought for a moment and had to tell the truth: "You said you didn't want to be jealous and suspicious all day long."

He Jinxing was silent.

The little girl said in a confused manner that she was following the rules of love, and her awkward tone was full of the fact that she didn't quite understand but was trying hard to explore...

But Mr. He always felt that this alone sounded more beautiful than all the more romantic or loyal declarations of love he had heard in the past.

He sighed, reached out and pulled the person sitting next to him over to put her on his lap, touched her hair, and announced, "Truce."

Gou An really curled up in his arms like a cat, with one hand on his shoulder and one finger drawing meaningless circles on the suit fabric...

When she felt the man lower his head and half kissed and half sniffed her forehead, she slowly said, "Chen Jinli's research institute has a trainee assistant position reserved for Lu Wan."

He Jinxing: “…”

Gou An hugged the man's neck and said, "Tell him not to be so anxious about the temporary worker contract and take a look at the resumes of those who applied later."

He Jinxing: "For example?"

Gou An: "Me."

Gou An's legs rubbed up and wrapped around his waist, and the edge of her skirt slid down to a dangerous place. The man looked up at the rearview mirror. The driver was driving seriously without looking away. He still reached out and held down the fabric that was about to slide down for her.

But the big hand just touched the cold skin and never moved away.

After a small quarrel, the two who had just reconciled sat close together. When the warm breath sprayed on his neck, He Jinxing thought: This thing called pillow talk does exist.

He Jinxing: "Through the back door?"

Gou An sneered disdainfully: "Why do you have to be so harsh? She just got there first, and I'm just cutting in - if we submitted our resumes at the same time, anyone with eyes would choose me."

He Jinxing: "That's not necessarily true."

The soft face that was rubbing his neck immediately raised up: "He Jinxing."

He Jinxing pressed her head back.

He Jinxing: “Just kidding.”

He Jinxing: "I'll say hello to him, you finish your resume first."

The cat's head, which had been struggling non-stop, finally put itself back on his neck. His hand, which was on the cat's butt, gently rubbed it, and then moved up along the spine. It had nothing to do with desire. It was only at this moment that he felt that his mood, which had been irritable for the whole day, was suddenly soothed.

My mind was full of random thoughts, and finally, I suddenly had some ideas about the messy work progress today -

After dinner, I can go back to He’s and work overtime.

He Jinxing thought.

"Can you stop arguing?"

"Um?"

Holding Gou An, He Jinxing felt like he had just put his heart back into his chest.

Stop arguing.

He could give her anything.

the next day.

Lu Wan woke up from the cold in her small house of less than 40 square meters. She never kept her electric blanket on all night for fear of it drying out, so the blanket seemed to have no effect in keeping her warm.

He sneezed and shivered as he washed himself with the icy cold water.

Because the weather was so bad, there seemed to be no breakfast stall downstairs. The whole building was silent, as if it was immersed in the shadow of death before the end of the world.

Before Lu Wan went out, she immediately saw a new text message on her mobile phone. It was sent by Chen Jinli's assistant, confirming with her the start time for the temporary workers during the winter vacation.

There was nothing wrong with this. Lu Wan tied a scarf around herself and quickly sent her final exam schedule to the other party. Just as she was about to press send, she suddenly realized that something seemed wrong.

The position she applied for was Chen Jinli's second assistant, which meant an assistant to an assistant. She could help organize research materials, input information, and participate in some simple projects...

Now the message sent by the other party confirmed that the position has become the constant temperature room management...

The constant temperature room is filled with marine tanks, which contain various living marine organisms that are being cultivated or studied.

——In a normal company, it means that you applied for a secretary job, but after receiving the offer, you became a non-staff member, just walking the boss's dog and cleaning up dog poop.

Lu Wan's eyes turned red in an instant, and he could guess who did it with his toes.

She gritted her teeth and didn't have the nerve to confirm the matter with them. When she reached the entrance of the alley, she saw a familiar Audi A6 parked there with the window lowered. Zhou Chu waved at her and asked her if she was cold.

Lu Wan forced herself not to cry and got into the car. She didn't change her words to call Zhou Chu "Dad", but just called him "Mr. Zhou" in a low voice. It was hard not to hear the grievance in that fragile deer-like voice.

Zhou Chu asked about the whole story, and Lu Wan only told him that he had applied for an internship position but was suddenly squeezed out by someone with connections.

Zhou Chu wanted to sigh——

Forget about the connections. This small internship position at the Ocean Research Institute can be settled with just a phone call. After all, Chen Jinli can't possibly not give his brother-in-law this face...

But recently, the situation in the Zhou family has become complicated.

After Zhou Yutong ran away that day, Xu Hui moved back to her parents' home that same night, and Zhou Yanji also lived in a friend's house for several days.

Zhou Chu still went to work and socialized as usual every day, but when he returned home every day, only the cold servants were waiting for him. He no longer had the sickly sweet sweet potato soup when he returned home on a snowy day, and his daughter no longer pestered him to ask if his work was hard...

Zhou Chu felt very wronged, he just wanted to recognize his own flesh and blood. He didn't know why these people were so harsh on him.

Looking at Lu Wan's situation now, he knew that in order to make everything less bad, he should refuse, but when he turned around and looked at his daughter who was lowering her head with a lost look on her face -

He owed her too much, and he couldn't say "no" no matter what. He could only say that he would try his best to help her, and maybe Chen Jinli would be willing to give her some face.

It was visibly that Lu Wan's eyes brightened, and the corners of his lips rose like his mother's. Zhou Chu's sense of loss was filled, and he touched the child's head in what he thought was a very loving manner.

At this moment, the car braked suddenly and stopped at the exit of the alley.

The driver looked back and said that an obstacle suddenly appeared ahead.

Zhou Chu looked down puzzled, and discovered that the weather-beaten buildings at the outermost side of the alley had finally collapsed under the weight, and huge walls and fallen rocks had blocked the way.

It's a blessing that no one was hit.

Zhou Chu comforted Lu Wan, and immediately asked the driver to call someone to clean up. While the driver was on the phone, a nanny car slowly drove in from the alley and stopped. After a while, the door opened and several men in suits and sunglasses got out.

Zhou Chu didn't recognize the clothes these people were wearing. Besides, Zhou Chu wasn't rich enough to hire so many bodyguards. It was as if a group of uninvited guests suddenly appeared.

Standing in front of her daughter cautiously, Zhou Chu saw an Audi A8 parked behind the nanny car the next second. The D-class commercial vehicle was longer and wider than the next-level A6, and its spotless black paint made it even more conspicuous on a cloudy day.

The car door opened, and a tall young man got out of the car. He had slightly curly hair, a different eye color from ordinary people, and a very familiar facial feature, which stunned everyone in the alley.

Lu Wan looked at the young man falling from the sky and recognized him at the first moment. He had never spoken to the person in front of him before. He only met him once at the coming-of-age ceremony and during the campus visit that day.

Zhou Chu was confused as to what the He family were doing here.

Although it didn't snow today, the temperature was close to minus five degrees Celsius. Wearing only a white shirt and a dark purple down jacket, the young man came to the entrance of the alley, stretched his head to look at the big rock blocking the roadside and the way of vehicles in the alley, then looked up at the dark sky and the damaged buildings.

He made a soft "tsk" sound.

"Accidents will happen when things fall into disrepair over time... Do you think these buildings have developed their own minds because they are so old, and they are throwing a tantrum because they know they are about to be demolished?"

His voice was light and even though he was joking, it always sounded like he was not being sincere.

As he sighed, the bodyguards behind him rushed forward to help clear the roadblocks.

Zhou Chu also asked the driver to go and help.

Although they were not of the same generation, there was no reason for Zhou Chu to act arrogantly when receiving help from others. He smiled and praised this younger member of the He family, whose name he could hardly remember.

He Yuan glanced at Zhou Chu's face with a playful smile and said lightly, "It's okay."

His eyes fell on Lu Wan.

"If there are obstacles, just clear them away. It's not a big deal." He Yuan said, "After all, there's not much time left for Miss Lu, right?"

After getting in the car, Zhou Chu looked at the time and found that Lu Wan was indeed about to be late.

But seeing that the obstacle was about to be cleared, he breathed a sigh of relief and patted Lu Wan on the shoulder, "This kid from the He family is quite close to you, do you know him?"

Lu Wan was staring at the moss in a corner in a daze. He nodded, then shook his head, lost in thought and no one knew what he was thinking about.

At lunch time, Lu Wan received a call from Zhou Chu.

For the first time in the past few days, the middle-aged man who had been so friendly to her complained in his tone——

This is the current situation of most middle-aged people. When something goes wrong, they first think of shifting the blame to others.

Perhaps trying to hide his embarrassment, he asked Lu Wan quickly, "Why didn't you say that the relative was Gou An?"

Holding the phone, Lu Wan stared at the food in front of him that he had just taken a bite of. The moment he heard the name, he suddenly lost all appetite.

"When I called Chen Jinli, he was still laughing and asked me why I thought of calling him. At first I thought he was talking about Xu Hui. Although I felt a little embarrassed, there was room for negotiation on this matter..."

"Then what?"

"And then? Then Chen Jinli told me that the format, writing style, narrative order, and even the logo on the lower right corner of the resume that Gou An sent to him were all written by He Jinxing."

Zhou Chu paused and said, "Even the email address from which it was sent is He Jinxing's private email address."

Lu Wan didn't say anything.

Zhou Chu hesitated for a moment, and finally said, "Why don't you just give up? This is not going to be easy."

In fact, what Chen Jinli said to Zhou Chu was: You judge for yourself what the situation is.

At that moment, Zhou Chu's old face almost burned.

Now in middle age and with all his face lost, he really regretted getting involved in this inexplicable mess.

(End of this chapter)