Chapter 147 147 Brother, do you have other thoughts about her?
Yes, it was his own arrogance. Thinking of this, Lu Jiaze's tone was a little bitter. Qiu Shaoli had clearly reminded him before, but he never took Ji Mingyue seriously and felt that he could control everything. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh. His arrogance finally made him pay the price.
"What on earth happened?" Lu Hongzhe couldn't help but frown at him.
Having already been humiliated in the hospital, Lu Jiaze felt there was nothing left to hide, so he told him directly everything that had happened over the past year. Finally, he looked up at the person sitting across from him and said in a low voice, "Brother, am I stupid?"
"Your most urgent task is to cut off ties with the people around you. Their behavior is not worthy of the word friend." Lu Hongzhe said in a serious tone. What kind of friends did he make in this year? Or, are his roommates his friends or Ji Mingyue's friends?
"I know," Lu Jiaze said seriously. He had already expressed his displeasure when they'd informed Ji Mingyue of his whereabouts. Though they'd apologized, they'd later jokingly told him they were doing it for his own good, saying he'd definitely regret it if he missed Ji Mingyue. Back then, he hadn't grasped the gravity of the situation. Now, thinking back, they hadn't listened. Or perhaps, knowing he wasn't happy about it, they'd still done it anyway, figuring he'd forgive them anyway. And it seemed he'd given them this swagger.
"You should also explain things clearly to Ji Mingyue." Lu Hongzhe looked at him with some disapproval. He knew nothing had happened but he still took the blame on himself. Isn't that crazy?
"Brother, you don't understand Ji Mingyue. Even if we make it clear this time, she will continue to think of other ways. Since this is what she wants, I will grant her wish. I want to spend the remaining three years in peace." Thinking of Zhu Bin's out-of-control motorcycle, Lu Jiaze lowered his eyes. He didn't want to become the second Zhu Bin. Ji Mingyue had such thoughts, and he had to keep her under his nose to feel at ease.
"What happens next?" Lu Hongzhe somewhat disagreed with his approach, but he also knew his temper.
"We'll find a chance to make it clear later. Anyway, there won't be many opportunities to meet when I return to school." Lu Jiaze let out a long sigh. He has been a favored child since he was a child. This time, he was plotted against by Ji Mingyue. In addition to being angry at her plotting and the betrayal of his roommate, he could not accept that this incident was entirely caused by his own fault.
"Since you have made up your mind, then do as you think." Seeing that he had made up his mind, Lu Hongzhe didn't say anything else.
"I'm sorry to bother you for the next period of time." Lu Jiaze said apologetically.
"It's not a big deal. Grandpa is here too. You can just go out and play with him and the others every day. By the way, have you got your driver's license?" Lu Hongzhe asked.
"Yes, I got it last year." Lu Jiaze nodded.
"Then just drive them out to play when the time comes. As for Tongtong, Aunt Jiang and the others all have to go to work, so they probably won't have time to accompany them." Lu Hongzhe calculated and it was just right to drive his car.
"Okay, I'm free anyway." Lu Jiaze agreed happily.
"Just take this opportunity to think carefully about what to do next. Take this as a lesson. No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Don't put so much pressure on yourself. This will give others the opportunity to take advantage of you." Lu Hongzhe actually did not agree with his decision. He suffered a loss at the hands of Ji Mingyue before, who can guarantee that he won't suffer the same loss again?
Lu Jiaze didn't say anything. He understood what he meant, but he didn't want to tell him that Ji Mingyue was different from ordinary people. He didn't make this decision completely out of desperate measures, but also to stabilize Ji Mingyue. He was afraid that she would do something more extreme.
"Go to bed early. You've been tired all day." He took him to the guest room, where everything had been prepared before they arrived.
*
That night, Jiang Qitong insisted on sleeping with Jiang Lili. Glancing at the person lying on her like an octopus, Jiang Lili couldn't help but sigh, then reached out to push the person away. It was a hot day and she felt really hot. Fortunately, she just hummed twice and continued to fall asleep. She also slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep.
By the time they got up, everyone who needed to go to work had already gone. When she yawned and went out, she realized that not only was her grandfather sitting in the living room, but also Mr. Lu and Lu Jiaze. A flash of embarrassment passed through her eyes, and then she scratched her messy hair: "Grandpa Lu, when did you come?"
"We just got here too. Yesterday, Hongzhe said that he would let Jiaze drive us two old guys around. And just now, your grandpa said that you would take him and Tongtong to the store today?" Old Master Lu just found out that the mother and daughter had opened a store in Jing City.
"Yes, if you and Jiaze don't mind, why not go together?" Jiang Lili asked tentatively.
"Of course I don't mind. Let's go join in the fun." Mr. Lu said, patting Lu Jiaze on the shoulder. "Look at Lili, she's balancing her studies and career."
"I should go and learn." Lu Jiaze nodded with a smile. He had previously refused to know any news related to them because of his inferiority complex. Now it seems that such an action is undoubtedly an attempt to cover up the truth.
"Then please wait for me and Tongtong." Jiang Lili said as she returned to the room and patted Jiang Qitong: "Lazy boy, is it time to get up?"
"I want to sleep a little longer." Jiang Qitong said in a low voice.
"Aren't we going to the store? If you don't get up, we'll go there by ourselves." Jiang Lili pretended to be "threatening".
"Get up right away." Jiang Qitong quickly sat up from the bed. Jiang Lili couldn't help laughing. It turned out that toys were the most tempting to children.
*
Ji Mingyue in the hospital still hadn't contacted her family. Fortunately, Wu Juyue came directly the next day after hearing about her plight. Compared to her simple high school days, a year of college life had changed Wu Juyue a lot. She stood by the bed and looked at the patient: "Mingyue, how are you feeling? Where are your family members?"
"They are all busy, so I can only ask you to help me pack some clothes at home." After saying this, Ji Mingyue glanced at the number above her head, but unfortunately there was no fluctuation.
"Aren't they going too far?" Wu Juyue's surprise was half real and half fake.
"They are all busy. There is nothing I can do. Juyue, will you help me?" Ji Mingyue looked up at her.
"Of course, we are best friends, right? By the way, Mingyue, I heard that the street where you live is finally going to be demolished?" Wu Juyue inquired.
Ji Mingyue let out a wry smile. She hadn't expected that the dilapidated compound Ye Qiuju had so confidently chosen hadn't been demolished yet. All the old houses around it had been demolished, and everyone on their street was saying it would be demolished within two years. But Ji Yushu hadn't expected him to sell it to someone else after getting drunk. Who knew that not long after the sale, news of the demolition would come? Facing Wu Juyue's confusion, she shook her head, "My dad sold it six months ago."
"Ah, what a shame." Wu Juyue really felt it was a pity, but she also thought that after all, she wasn't the one who benefited from the sulfuric acid demolition. Thinking of this, she stood up from the hospital bed and said, "So you still live at the iron factory? I'll go there and help you pack a change of clothes?"
"Thank you, Juyue. I'm lucky to have you." Ji Mingyue looked touched.
After Wu Juyue left, Ji Mingyue stared down at the sheets on the bed. The smell of disinfectant in the ward was unbearable. She hadn't expected Lu Jiaze to abandon her like this. She had always tried this tactic of retreating to advance, but this time it didn't work. She couldn't help but wonder, was he acting like this because of Qiu Shaoli? Unfortunately, no one could give her an answer.
After Lu Jiaze went to Beijing, Qiu Shaoli paid more attention to Ji Mingyue in the ward. She learned that her family had not come to the hospital for two days. She seemed to have paid for the family of the patient in the next bed to help her. Today, her high school classmates came to visit her. Although Qiu Shaoli did not like Ji Mingyue, she hated the Ji family even more. You know, they were the ones who took the initiative to recognize Ji Mingyue, but now they treat her like this, so Jiaze must not have anything to do with such a family.
Ji Mingyue was in a daze in the ward. She glanced at the message sent from her mobile phone. There was no reply from Zheng Gaoyang. Although Wu Juyue came, her strategy value did not increase. Her current situation could not be changed. The pain from her calf made her a little irritable. She was irritable because everything was beyond her control. No, she had to increase her strategy value on other people, otherwise she would continue to be unlucky.
*
"I also saw this thing in Yuncheng. I even asked your uncle at that time, who would buy this? I didn't expect you to have so many!" Jiang Jianyi pointed at the ornaments at the door of the store, with some confusion in his tone.
"The kids love this one, and not only the kids like it, my mom has one in her room too. Grandpa, you're not keeping up with the trends." Jiang Lili's tone was full of sarcasm.
"That's right. Hongzhe has one at home too. I think it looks pretty good. This was designed by you, Lili, right?" Grandpa Lu said as he touched the gold ingot held by Miaowu. It was really cute.
"Yes, if Grandpa Lu likes it, I'll have someone bring you a few pendants tomorrow." Jiang Lili said with a smile.
"I like it, I like it very much." After saying this, Mr. Lu looked at Jiang Jianyi with some pride.
Jiang Jianyi snorted lightly: "We have a lot of these at home, look at what's on Tongtong's head." Today, when Jiang Qitong went out, she changed all the hair ties and hairpins into ones related to the three little ones.
No one expected that two people who were almost a hundred years old in total would argue over such a trivial matter. Jiang Lili smiled and stepped forward: "The store has some soda that I brought back from Quan City. Would you like to try some?"
She then looked at Mr. Lu and said, "Speaking of which, we have to thank Uncle Lu for opening the freight line from Beijing to Quan City. Otherwise, it wouldn't be so convenient." A flash of surprise crossed Mr. Lu's eyes. He usually didn't ask about his two sons' affairs, but he hadn't expected the eldest son's business to expand to Beijing, and perhaps even beyond. Lu Jiaze's eyes also flashed with surprise. His uncle's business was developing even better than he had imagined.
There were a lot of people in the store during the summer vacation, and there were also a lot of people in the parent waiting area. As soon as they came in, they filled up all the empty seats. Jiang Qitong had grown a lot taller than last year. Now if she was asked to go in and play again, she would shake her head and refuse firmly.
"What's wrong? Didn't you want to go when you got up?" Jiang Lili asked.
"Then you didn't tell me that all the children were so young." Jiang Qitong said with tears in her eyes. Compared with last year, there are many more children this year.
"I was not thoughtful enough. I'll take you to the amusement park when I have time." Jiang Lili quickly made amends.
Jiang Qitong was always easy to coax, so she was quickly coaxed into submission. Then, she followed them to try the soda from Quan City. She took a sip and continued drinking. It was much better than the soda she had had in Yun City before.
The room was full of children playing, so the noise was naturally loud. Jiang Jianyi and Mr. Lu found it noisy. Soon, a group of people came out of the store again. Jiang Lili stood next to Jiang Jianyi and pointed to the cram school next to it: "My aunt's cram school is over there. They ask for silence inside. Let's not go in and make trouble."
"This place is indeed very close to you." Jiang Jianyi's gaze stayed on the cram school next to him, but what he was thinking about was what Jiang Aiguo asked him to do. Where should he go to inquire?
They had been to Beijing so many times that they had already visited all the places they needed to go in the surrounding area, so when Lu Jiaze suggested that they go out and play in the afternoon, they directly rejected it. The two of them quickly made a decision and decided to play chess at home that afternoon. As for Jiang Qitong, she went to the amusement park with Jiang Lili.
"I won't go to the amusement park. I'll visit my brother's company in the afternoon. Grandpa, is it okay for you and Grandpa Jiang to stay at home?" Lu Jiaze asked.
"Of course, you can go visit your brother." Old Master Lu nodded in agreement. The two brothers chose completely different paths, and they would have less and less time to meet in the future. Now that he still has vacation time, they should get closer to each other.
So the group split up into three groups. Jiang Qitong was a little excited: "Sister Lili, are you taking me to the amusement park now?"
"Yes, or do you have other suggestions?" Jiang Lili discussed with her.
"Will we be able to finish all the activities in one afternoon?" This is what Jiang Qitong is worried about.
"It doesn't matter if you can't finish playing. You will stay in Beijing to study in the future. There will be many opportunities in the future." Jiang Lili said as she rubbed her head.
"Sister Lili, you make sense. Let's go quickly then?" Jiang Qitong's eyes lit up when she heard that. Yes, she will go to school in Beijing in the future, and she will have many opportunities to go to the amusement park. Then she won't have to worry about whether she can finish having fun today.
Jiang Lili had no interest in the amusement park, but there were some projects that Jiang Qitong wanted to play but didn't dare to go alone, so she had to accompany her. She also experienced what it meant to be more tired than going to work.
It gets dark much later in July. Jiang Lili looked down at the time and saw it was already five o'clock, so she urged the person next to her, "Tongtong, we should go back."
"Sister Lili, can't we play a little longer? It's not dark yet." While Jiang Qitong was speaking, her eyes were still fixed on the activities over there that had never been played.
"It will take us more than half an hour to get back. Next time I'll listen to you and come early so you can have fun all day long." Jiang Lili discussed with her.
"Okay then." Jiang Qitong knew when to stop, withdrew her reluctant gaze and left the amusement park with her.
The two sisters took a taxi home from the amusement park. When they returned to Huajianlouji, they happened to run into the Lu brothers. Jiang Qitong greeted them: "Brother Lu, Brother Hongzhe."
"Is the amusement park fun?" Lu Jiaze asked her with a smile.
"It's fun, but we're running out of time. Brother Lu, do you want to go with us next time?" Jiang Qitong's eyes were full of anticipation. She wanted to try something today, but Lili didn't dare. If he was willing to go, she could let him accompany her.
"I don't think so. I have to start working tomorrow." Lu Jiaze said with regret in his tone.
"Go to work?" A hint of curiosity flashed in Jiang Lili's eyes. In the plot, he did not become a pilot in the end, but chose to go into business. So is he starting to waver now?
"The company just happened to need someone recently, and I thought it would be okay for him." Lu Hongzhe explained, but in fact he was worried that he would be idle at home every day and think too much.
"That's great. It's time to let Grandpa and Grandpa Lu become independent." Before, they always treated others as guests and had to accompany them in everything they did. This was actually not conducive to their familiarity with the surrounding environment.
Jiang Qitong didn't understand what they were saying and kept following Jiang Lili. After they returned home, she said, "Sister Lili, are you going to work too?"
"Not for now, what's wrong?" Jiang Lili lowered her eyes and looked at her.
"It's okay, I just asked." Jiang Qitong shook her head.
The rhythm that had been disrupted by their arrival was quickly restored. For the past two weeks, Jiang Lili's main focus has been comparing data from the two stores. Cheng Yuntian, on the other hand, has been quite busy. Besides returning to Yuncheng for inspections, he's also been heading to Quan City for spot checks. Now that Yan Wenyu's designs are in the factory, she's feeling much more relaxed.
As Baby Paradise's customer base grew, similar stores opened elsewhere starting in August. Compared to Jiang Yulan's concerns, Jiang Lili was more composed: "There will be more and more stores like this in the future, but whether they can retain customers depends on their business model. I probably won't be opening new stores myself for the time being."
"Wouldn't that be giving the market to other people?" Jiang Yulan was puzzled.
"Next is the early childhood education center. Indoor playgrounds are very replaceable. As long as the early childhood education center has a good reputation, it will never have to worry about lack of students." Jiang Lili said in a firm tone. From the very beginning, the indoor playground was to pave the way for early childhood education.
"It's good that you have a plan in mind." Seeing that she had a plan, Jiang Yulan didn't say anything more.
"Mom, do you think I'm too much trouble?" Jiang Lili asked.
"Of course not. No matter what you want to do, I support you." Jiang Yulan expressed her attitude again.
"Mom, you are so nice to me." Jiang Lili took her arm and acted coquettishly.
"Okay, you're already old and still acting like a spoiled brat. Now that you have a plan, start early. You're almost your sophomore year. I still say the same thing, no matter what you do, don't neglect your studies." Jiang Yulan reminded.
"I understand." Jiang Lili had recently decided not to open new indoor amusement parks. As she'd said, indoor playgrounds are easily replaced, but early childhood education centers are different. As long as they build a reputation, they'll have no shortage of students. The following summer, Jiang Lili spent almost all of her time conducting market research. At that time, there were only a handful of early childhood education centers on the market, and the information and data she had available was limited, so she mostly looked to foreign sources for reference.
She made such a decision, so naturally she would not hide it from Cheng Yuntian, and asked directly: "Is Sister Cheng interested in this?"
"It sounds good. My dad's friend's grandson has to go to some early education class every day, and the tuition is not cheap. Can this really develop the child's intelligence?" Cheng Yuntian was skeptical about this.
"These are all supported by data, and are certainly not made up." Jiang Lili thought that once the early childhood education center was established, it would still need publicity from Mei Huixiu. After all, the people around her were either rich or noble, so they naturally wouldn't care about the tuition.
"You know, I always believe in you. Let's just follow the model of the indoor amusement park." Cheng Yuntian looked at her after he said that. To be honest, the indoor amusement park hasn't really started to make a profit yet.
"What does Sister Cheng want to say?"
"The indoor amusement park has just stabilized. Isn't your proposal of an early childhood education center a bit too hasty?" Cheng Yuntian asked.
"This is much more difficult to prepare than an indoor amusement park. If everything goes well, it will take at least half a year to a year, so there is no rush," Jiang Lili explained.
"You're right. There are a lot of paperwork to go through. If you need any help with anything, just come to me directly. Should we register our names in advance?"
"Youbei Early Education Center, or Sister Cheng, do you have any good suggestions?" Jiang Lili felt that she had no talent for naming.
"Youbei, excellent baby? Okay, this is it." Cheng Yuntian nodded.
"Or should we ask someone else?" Jiang Lili felt that they seemed too hasty?
"Ask again. If there's no better option within a week, just register first. Yan Wenyu and other people in the design department can take over the Tongqu Players side. You can focus more on your studies and this." Cheng Yuntian said.
"Indeed, we will try to decide on the name before school starts." At most, there is only a week left before school starts.
Jiang Jianyi and Jiang Qitong will continue to stay in Jing City. Mr. Lu and Lu Jiaze are preparing to return to Yuncheng. It is time for Lu Jiaze to return to school. In the past month, he has learned a lot from Lu Hongzhe. He thinks that his biggest gain this month is probably that he can finally face the fact that he and Jiang Lili are better than himself, but some things are too late.
When old friends return home, drinking together is a natural thing. Jiang Jianyi and Mr. Lu held their glasses and talked about the past, while the others were loyal listeners. Perhaps it was because in the past two years, everyone had gradually become accustomed to parting, so at this moment, they all accepted it well.
Old Master Lu was helped back by the two Lu brothers. Jiang Jianyi wasn't in much better condition either. Even after everyone had left, he was still shouting and drinking.
Fortunately, Mr. Lu was very quiet when he was drunk, and let them help him back to bed. After they settled him down, Lu Jiaze took out a beer from the refrigerator and looked at Lu Hongzhe: "Want to drink together?"
Lu Hongzhe did not refuse, and the two continued in the living room. After a long while, Lu Jiaze asked softly: "Brother, do you have other thoughts about her?"
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