Chapter 20: Start to deceive my brother
Back in the classroom, Liu Zhi took out a certificate of honor with a blue cover from her schoolbag and placed it on Meng Anran's desk. "Anran, I did as you instructed. See if it works. If not, I'll call someone to redo it and send it to you at noon."
Meng Anran opened it and took a look. The wording was standard and the printing design was exquisite. Except for the lack of the school seal, it was almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
"Very good, thanks."
Ming Jing came over curiously and took a look. "What are you doing with this?"
"Lie to my brother."
Meng Anran put the certificate of honor into her schoolbag and found it funny to think about it.
At the age of seventeen, he actually finds ways to deceive children.
Recalling the question Meng Anran asked yesterday, Liu Zhi suddenly realized, "You want to tell your brother that you entered his calligraphy and painting into a competition and won a prize, and then you paid him some money out of your own pocket as a bonus?"
"Yeah." Meng Anran admitted it readily.
I have already decided to give five thousand. I will use five thousand dollars to buy my own reputation. This deal is a sure win.
Ming Jing's lips twitched. "So, you're not going to tell the Meng family the real reward for winning?"
"There's no need to hide this. I just lied to them about the bonus. Once I gave the money away, the story shifted from me using my brother to gain fame to me not wanting to bury his talent and wanting more people to see his excellence. Even though I was the one who got the certificate in the end, giving him the bonus showed that I had no intention of stealing his credit."
Meng Anran seemed to be telling a story calmly, not thinking there was anything wrong with doing so.
Now even Liu Zhi was silent. As expected of someone trained by the Lu family, he only cared about commercial interests and had no warmth or conscience at all.
But it's normal. An Ran gets along well with them because they are of similar age and have known each other for many years. The trust between them has been built up over time.
The Meng family had only reunited with An Ran for a few days, and to An Ran, they were just a few strangers with a blood relationship.
…
After school in the evening, Meng Anran waited at the school gate for a while before she saw Meng Yushu riding a bicycle towards her.
"Anran, I'm sorry, I'm late." He was panting, and the first thing he did was to reach out and take his sister's schoolbag.
Meng Anran held onto her schoolbag tightly, and looked at Meng Yushu's slightly regretful expression, "Brother."
"Hmm?" Meng Yushu raised his eyes and when he met his sister's inquiring gaze, his pupils trembled suddenly, as if he had nowhere to hide and all his emotions were seen through by those bright eyes.
She could see through his habitual guilt and thought he shouldn't have such an emotion.
He forgot that the sister standing in front of him was no longer Lu Qingcheng.
It was not until she saw the guilt in Meng Yushu's eyes disappear and he smiled again that Meng Anran withdrew her gaze and curled her lips.
Meng Anran sat in the back seat, holding her schoolbag in one hand and her other arm around her brother's waist, "I'm ready, let's go."
Maybe it was because when I was in the Lu family, I fought with my two brothers every day, and it was a fight between us.
Now that she has met such a good brother like Meng Yushu, she especially wants to get closer to him.
…
Mengrong didn't park the car until seven o'clock, and Su Wanman spent another day outside looking for raw materials to prepare for opening the store.
The couple had no time to buy groceries and cook, so they took the children out for a nice meal tonight.
"Anran, do you like hot pot?" Su Wanman pulled Meng Anran's hand and held it in her palm, asking softly.
Meng Anran was not used to physical contact with people she didn't know well. After thinking about it, she didn't pull her hand away. She answered Su Wanman's question: "I haven't eaten much."
The only time I ate hotpot was on Liuzhi’s birthday two years ago. We went to a hotpot restaurant she opened for dinner. The food tasted pretty good, but maybe the price was not very affordable, and rich people rarely go out to eat hotpot.
So it closed down after one month of operation.
After that, Meng Anran never ate hot pot again.
"Then let's go eat hotpot. The beef hotpot at the intersection is pretty good, and the ingredients are fresh." Meng Yushu suggested that his sister invest in their mother to open a store, and just treat it as a treat for the sponsor.
After making a quick decision, everyone made some preparations and went out together.
The family of five walked to the hot pot restaurant. Su Wanman held Meng Anran's hand and was reluctant to let go. Meng Anran always felt that her attitude today was more intimate than usual.
Maybe this is how it is between mothers and daughters, so she didn't care and let Su Wanman hold her hand.
They got a big table in the hot pot restaurant. After they sat down, Meng Rong handed the menu directly to Meng Anran and told her to order whatever she liked.
Meng Anran handed the menu to Meng Yushu again, "Brother, you take charge of ordering the dishes. I'll just eat."
When these words were spoken, everyone laughed.
Meng Yushu watched over it, and Meng Anran rummaged through his backpack, pulled out a certificate of honor and a thick envelope, and gave them to Meng Chenghong.
Started to deceive his brother.
"Xiaohong, I took the calligraphy you gave me the day before yesterday back to school and entered it into a competition. I won first place."
Meng Chenghong opened the certificate and was stunned by the exquisite printing on it. "Wow, what a beautiful certificate!"
"Well, it's my name, though. So the certificate is in my name too. The prize money belongs to you, so keep it for yourself."
"Is the first place so impressive? Let me see." Meng Rong became interested and took the certificate from his youngest son. The envelope also fell into Su Wanman's hands.
"Wow, Shenghua's certificate is really different, the workmanship is very good!" Meng Rong looked at the certificate carefully. Both the outer cover and the certificate inside revealed a high-end quality. Even the stamp was written in cursive English.
But it didn't seem to be English, so he couldn't understand it.
Meng Anran held her chin with her hand, not feeling guilty at all.
Of course they couldn’t understand it, it was Hindi, and I was just afraid they would understand it.
After all, it’s not the school seal.
Even the word "Shenghua" could not be found on the entire certificate, but they just didn't notice this detail.
Su Wanman suddenly exclaimed, "So many?"
She opened the envelope and saw a thick stack of cash inside, which was not fake at all.
I remember that Meng Yushu participated in a city-level speech contest and won a prize of 500 yuan, but when she received it, she found out that it was a 500 yuan book voucher.
How can you give money so tangibly?
Meng Anran took a sip of tea and said, "The prize money is 5,000. Shenghua is full of children from wealthy families. This little bonus from the school is just a token of appreciation."
Well, since no one cares about money, Shenghua doesn’t give out any money at all, so she has a good excuse to pay out of her own pocket.
Meng Chenghong's eyes widened. "Second sister, are you going to give me all the bonuses?"
"Yes, you won it in the first place." Meng Anran said calmly, lying was not a difficult thing for her.
After all, those two crazy people from the Lu family had cheated a lot before.
"Second sister, you should keep the prize money." Meng Chenghong said sensibly, "If you hadn't used your quota to participate in the competition, my calligraphy and painting wouldn't have had a chance to win a prize. If we win the competition, the prize money should be yours."
Meng Anran was a little dazed and looked at Meng Chenghong for a long time, not knowing what to say.
There were so many interpersonal relationships around her that were based on exchanging interests, and the sudden arrival of a few sincere family members made her feel at a loss.
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