Chapter 76 Low-key, luxurious and profound
Wu Suowei was wearing a safety helmet and squatting in the corner of the construction site. He was holding a stainless steel lunch box and was busy eating the food inside.
His dusty overalls were stained with cement and paint, and his face was also a little dusty.
He ate very quickly, his cheeks bulging, and from time to time he glanced at the workers who were painting the wall, calculating the progress and material consumption in his mind.
He brought this lunch box himself.
The fast food near the construction site is too expensive and he can't afford it.
The rice was covered with a few wilted vegetables and a few slices of meat so thin that it was translucent.
Wu Suowei chewed and said to himself: Every penny saved is a penny earned. The paint cost, labor cost... every penny must be calculated carefully.
He swallowed a mouthful of the lightly-cooked meal, but still felt his stomach was empty.
At this moment, a familiar thermal bag, just like the previous few days, fell precisely on the empty paint bucket at his feet.
Wu Suowei paused in eating.
He knew who it was without even looking up.
These days, every time it’s mealtime, this bag appears like a time bomb.
Chi Cheng...his ghost is still lingering.
He clenched his chopsticks, feeling a little annoyed and a little...unsettled in some inexplicable way.
I told him not to interfere, so why is this guy so overbearing?
He raised his head and saw that Chi Cheng had been standing in front of him without him noticing.
The tall figure blocked some of the light, casting a shadow.
Chi Cheng was wearing a dark casual jacket today, with his hands in his pockets, looking casual, but his compelling aura made the noisy construction noise around him seem a little weaker.
He lowered his eyes and looked at the pitiful amount of food in Wu Suowei's lunch box, and his brows frowned almost imperceptibly.
"Eat this?" Chi Cheng's voice was not loud, but it was unusually clear amid the noise of the construction site.
Wu Suowei pushed the lunch box lid toward the middle a little embarrassedly, trying to hide the shabby look.
He stiffened his neck and tried to make his voice sound reasonable: "What's wrong? It's great! It saves money!"
Chi Cheng didn't respond. He kicked the paint bucket containing the thermos bag with his toes and said, "Yours."
Wu Suowei stared at the bag. The aroma of Lao Zhangji's fried dough sticks wafted out, making the glutton in his stomach growl.
I feel torn between my conscience and my desires.
Chi Cheng's money? No way!
Guo Chengyu's money? Boss Guo doesn't seem to owe Chi Cheng anything, right?
This excuse is fine to use once, but if you use it every day...are you kidding me?
But that aroma… it was damn delicious! He had only eaten a steamed bun last night, and now he was starving.
"Again...it's Guo Chengyu's money again?" Wu Suowei raised his head and looked at Chi Cheng with a bit of suspicion and temptation.
Chi Cheng had a blank expression on his face, his eyes calm and composed: "Well, he's happy to do so."
Wu Suowei rolled his eyes inwardly.
What the hell! Is Guo Chengyu being taken advantage of?
But he was too lazy to expose Chi Cheng's poor excuse.
I'm hungry. Really hungry.
The stingy instinct and desire for food eventually prevailed.
He quickly closed his lunch box and put it aside, then reached out to grab the plastic bag.
He did it in one go, muttering, "Alright, alright, Boss Guo is so generous... I won't be polite then."
He opened the bag, took out the still warm meat bun, took a contented breath, and took a big bite.
Chi Cheng looked at him wolfing down the food, a barely perceptible hint of satisfaction flashing across his eyes.
He didn't leave. Instead, he found a relatively clean brick pile nearby and sat down, casually resting his long legs.
His eyes swept across the busy construction site, as if he was supervising, or as if he was... protecting something.
Wu Suowei ate the hot buns, and his stomach felt warm. Chi Cheng didn't seem so annoying anymore.
While eating, he vaguely instructed the workers: "Hey, Lao Wang! Paint that wall on the left more evenly! That's right! On the top! Don't miss the top corner!"
Following his instructions, Chi Cheng's gaze fell on the wall that had just been primed and was waiting to be painted.
The gray primer looks ordinary.
But Chi Cheng's eyes swept sharply over the several barrels of paint waiting to be used that were piled up nearby.
All… gray? Dark gray, medium gray, light gray… The only warm color was a nearly untouched bucket of off-white used as a decorative accent.
Chi Cheng's brows slowly furrowed.
A palace-themed bathroom? Royal style?
Even if you want to be low-key and luxurious, it shouldn't be this...lifeless gray tone.
This was completely contrary to the idea of "vermilion columns" and "gold lacquer carvings" marked on Wu Suowei's drawings that he had seen before!
What's this money-grubber up to? Is he going crazy over saving money? Or... is his taste so unique?
Wu Suowei was completely unaware and was still confirming the location of the pipeline with a worker.
Chi Cheng stood up, walked to the pile of paint cans, and picked up a bucket of topcoat labeled "Palace Wall Red".
He unscrewed the lid, and the paint inside... was a deep gray-blue!
Chi Cheng's eyes darkened instantly.
He put down the bucket and picked up another bucket of "Jinzhan Huang" next to it. When he opened it, he saw that it was another gray tone.
The colors in all the "colored" paint buckets are completely different from those marked on his drawings and shown on the color card of the bucket!
An extremely absurd yet extremely reasonable idea suddenly popped into Chi Cheng's mind.
He recalled the strange names Wu Suowei had occasionally given to certain colors in his previous life, and that time in the mall when he looked at a pink dress and said, "This gray one is quite bright"... Could it be...
Chi Cheng calmly closed the paint bucket and walked back to Wu Suowei.
Wu Suowei had just finished his last bun and was drinking soy milk with satisfaction, with some oil stains on the corners of his mouth.
"This wall color," Chi Cheng's voice was emotionless, but his eyes were fixed on Wu Suwei's. "Did you choose this?"
Wu Suowei felt a little uneasy when he was looked at by him, and subconsciously licked the oil from the corner of his mouth: "Ah? Yes! What's wrong? High-end red! The low-key luxury and connotation that the client requested!"
He spoke with confidence, even a little pride, and felt that he had found the best solution within the limited budget.
"Look at this combination of colors, how elegant and steady it is! Much better than those flashy ones!"
Chi Cheng looked into his bright and confident eyes, and the guess in his heart was almost confirmed.
This little thing... really can't tell the difference between red and green.
What he calls "high-end color" is probably just plain cement gray in the eyes of others, right?
If Party A sees the finished product...
An indescribable emotion surged in Chi Cheng's heart.
It's a little funny, a little helpless, and more of it is... a strong desire to protect.
This money-grubber almost got himself killed.
"Yeah." Chi Cheng responded lightly without exposing the truth.
He took out his cell phone, walked aside and made a call.
His voice was low, but his tone was undeniable: "...Yes, construction site... replace the paint you ordered earlier... Use the colors marked on the original drawings, and get the best... Yes, now... swipe Guozi's card, okay."
Wu Suowei vaguely heard the words "change" and "color" and his heart skipped a beat.
He put down the soy milk and nervously leaned over: "Hey! Chi Cheng! What are you doing? Don't mess around! I had a hard time bargaining for that paint! I also carefully matched the color! You can't change it!"
Chi Cheng hung up the phone and turned around.
Seeing Wu Suowei's anxious and somewhat protective expression, he reached out his hand, not to touch him, but to wipe away the oil stains at the corner of his mouth with his fingertips very naturally.
The action was so fast that Wu Suowei couldn't react.
Wu Suowei took a step back as if he had been scalded, covered his mouth, and his face turned red: "You...!"
"Do you believe me?" Chi Cheng interrupted him, his eyes deep, with a strange power that could calm people down.
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