Chapter 34 Li Li was completely exasperated...
Li Li was now like a cat with its fur standing on end.
Tan Su remained calm, as if he hadn't caused the trouble. His expression showed no fear whatsoever; instead, he nodded gently, as if teasing a child: "Then it seems a little scary."
Seeing Li Li's pale face, he took a step back, withdrew his hand, put it in his pocket, and went into the house.
That place was dazzling with light and warm, with fine wine and delicacies.
"Come in soon after you've had some fresh air."
——
It's the end of the year, and I've already missed the current graduate school application season. I'll have to wait until next year for the next cohort.
Grandma naturally wanted to keep the kitten by her side, but Li Li had attended an international school since she was a child. If she really wanted to take the postgraduate entrance exam, she would have to start from scratch in terms of political ideology. In comparison, it would be easier to apply for postgraduate programs outside of China.
Li Zhoudu's idea was that either the family should steel themselves and send him to Europe or America for two years before he came back.
He instructed Li Fujin and Ling Wei to keep an eye on her, since he could visit her anytime.
However, these are not matters for the present moment.
In the twelfth lunar month, everyone in the family was busy preparing for the Spring Festival.
Seeing that Li Li had been listless lately, Li Zhoudu brought the little mongrel dog from Jixi, saying it would keep her company and help her pass the time.
The dog has been vaccinated and has a microchip. Every day, it wears a thick down jacket and is taken out for a morning run of several kilometers by Li Zhoudu. When it comes back, it eats in its dog bowl, licking the bottom of the bowl clean until it shines.
Wenxi exclaimed, "Little mongrel dogs are so easy to raise; they can run and jump all the time."
Li Zhoudu sat on the sofa, leaning back against a cushion, scrolling through his phone while stroking the dog's head that had been forcibly shoved between his legs, and said, "Now we have both a cat and a dog at home."
Wenxi patted him on the shoulder: "How can you put your sister and the dog together?"
She recalled what happened at the mahjong table a few days ago and said to him, "A few days ago, Mr. Su's wife from Pengguang asked me about the kitten."
Li Zhoudu frowned and turned his head to look: "What are you asking about?"
“It’s just those things,” Wenxi counted, “whether he’s dating anyone, whether he has someone he likes, and whether Xiao Mao’er has any requirements of her own…”
Li Zhoudu directly mocked, "What kind of person is her son? Is he even 1.75 meters tall with shoes on? Don't even dream about it."
Wenxi said, "Whether it's okay or not, can't people even ask? Do you expect me to be like you and tell people directly that your family isn't good enough?"
A few days ago, Li Zhoudu took Li Li, who was lying at home, to a friend's newly opened restaurant for a meal. In the middle of the meal, the owner came in and said that a friend from next door had come over and asked if he wanted to go over and say hello.
Li Zhoudu told Li Li to eat first, and then went off on his own.
Before long, they heard some playful noises outside, and someone joked, "Who's hiding in Zhoudu? Is he on a blind date? Let's go take a look."
Suddenly, the bamboo curtain of the cubicle was lifted. Li Li looked up, but before she could see the people on the other side clearly, Li Zhoudu pulled the curtain down and drove away the onlookers.
One of the people who came to watch the spectacle was Su Cong, the son of Peng Guang, the boss of a non-ferrous metal export trading company.
His personal qualities are not bad; his education and appearance are acceptable. In recent years, the non-ferrous metals market has been good, and his family is also very wealthy. However, he is indeed not tall and is rather thin. To use Li Zhoudu's sarcastic description, he looks like a shrimp.
But he probably really liked Li Li's type—fair-skinned and intelligent-looking—and the hazy glimpse through the bamboo curtain added to the mystery and made her even more stunning.
Su Cong got a little carried away.
He finally managed to find out Li Li's identity through subtle inquiries from others, and then relentlessly pestered Li Zhoudu for her contact information. Of course, Li Zhoudu refused to give it to him.
Now they're still up to their old tricks, coming right up to Wenxi to ask her questions. How shameless!
Wenxi was both amused and exasperated to see Li Zhoudu protecting Li Li like a possessive mother, while being picky about others: "If one family raises a daughter, a hundred families will want her. When the little kitten gets older, more and more people will definitely ask about her."
"How can you silence everyone?"
——
After attending the banquet that day, Li Li relayed the news that Tan Yi and the others could return to the mainland.
On the other end of the phone, Tan Yi didn't seem particularly happy to hear this. He said he still had classes at school and wasn't sure when he would be able to go back for winter break.
I did greet her and told her that Tan Congxu's old villa had been uninhabited for a long time and had been handed over to an agent for sale. I asked her to help me take a look if there was a reliable buyer.
Li Li agreed.
She left Yanqi and never went back to the company. In the end, Xie Zongfang delivered her personal belongings that she left there.
Xie Zongfang was politely invited to stay by his family. They chatted, expressed their gratitude, drank tea, and had a meal. Thus ended their more than one-year-long friendship.
Li Li had made a big fuss about having a farewell dinner with You Chang, but when she finally left the company, she didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to her.
One morning, Li Li was asleep when she received a call from Tan Su, who asked where she was.
She opened her eyes, saw the time on her phone, and immediately felt a surge of anger. Taking advantage of her morning grumpiness, she yelled at him, "At seven or eight in the morning, where else would I be if I wasn't sleeping?"
Tan Su said, "Come out."
"I have something for you."
Li Zhoudu jogged five kilometers along the lake with his dog on a leash. After turning at an intersection and looking at the data on his fitness watch, he glanced up and saw a familiar car about twenty or thirty meters in front of the villa.
He took the dog by the leash, went over, knocked on the window, and waited for the window to roll down.
He asked Tan Su, "What are you doing here so early in the morning?"
Tan Su smiled and said, "Just passing by."
Li Zhoudu sneered inwardly, having believed his nonsense. Since the carriage wouldn't move, he chatted idly with Tan Su while carrying the dog.
"I heard that Tan Yi encountered some problems with its Hong Kong listing. What's the situation now?"
Tan Su politely replied, "I'm not entirely sure either."
Li Zhoudu said knowingly, "We're family, we should help each other out. After all, it's the family fortune accumulated by the elders, and we shouldn't waste it like this."
“Of course,” Tan Su said.
At this moment, Li Li came out of the small door of the villa and saw Li Zhoudu in sportswear and the dog panting at his feet. She paused for a moment, but still walked over.
She had a bare face, wore a nightgown with a coat over her shoulders, and her bare ankles were exposed in her slippers without socks. Li Zhoudu's face immediately darkened: "It's so cold, what are you wearing when you go out like this?"
Li Li ignored him and went straight to Tan Su, asking, "What do you want with me?"
Tan Su handed over the item in the passenger seat: "Invitation."
Li Zhoudu took it, glanced at it, and read aloud the gleaming gold-embossed name: "S City Stock Exchange Charity Foundation... Tan Su, are you raising funds for someone?"
Tan Su said, "Ms. Wan from the foundation asked me to ask Li Li to commission a painting for a charity sale."
"Do you have time?" Li Zhoudu pretended to turn around and look at Li Li, and before she could speak, he immediately took it upon himself to reply, "Oh, no."
He tossed the invitation back to Tan Su: "Thank you for your kindness, we'll go in first."
Before the two could speak, he grabbed Li Li's arm and dragged her back.
Li Zhoudu's face darkened as soon as he entered the house. The dog was led away by his aunt to have its paws wiped, and the brother and sister sat down at the table to eat breakfast together.
Li Zhoudu asked Li Li, "Why did Tan Su come to you?"
Li Li took a slice of toast and said in a bad mood, "Didn't you hear everything?"
Li Zhoudu genuinely disapproved of the Tan family's family values.
They mocked that in three generations of their family, not a single spouse had a stable and faithful relationship. The brothers were at odds, the uncles and nephews were fighting, and their infighting was so public knowledge that they didn't seem to care about being laughed at by outsiders.
He said that, ultimately, the root of the problem lies with Tan Huiming.
Either completely extinguish one side's hopes, or treat them equally.
He wanted both: to elevate Tan Yi's status to match with the kitten, and to uphold the legitimacy of Tan Su's lineage. As a result, he failed to climb up to the Li family, and the internal strife within the family was already like a breeding ground for poison, with each side killing the other to the death.
The Li family's two generations of husbands and wives had harmonious and stable relationships, and the brothers had clear divisions of responsibilities, which saved them from many troubles.
Li Li argued, "It's not like Tan Yi chose this background of his own volition!"
Li Zhoudu glared at him: "You're still taking his side?"
Li Li lowered her head, angrily picking at the porridge in her bowl.
"Not only Tan Yi, but you should never see Tan Su again either."
Li Zhoudu was very annoyed by Tan Su's inexplicable act of blocking his door today. He said, "He's not a leader, why should he come to your house and order you around? He's kidding me."
——
Not long after Tan Congxu's villa was put up for sale, Li Li and Fang Xuan went to visit it together.
Tan Yi had just hired a professional team to clean the house thoroughly. It looked bright and tidy, but since no one had lived there for a long time, the underfloor heating hadn't been turned on, and the house was cold everywhere inside.
Li Li reached for the remote control and turned on the air conditioner.
Fang Xuan approached, looked at the wine cabinets filled with wine, and asked her, "These wines must be quite old, right? Are they still drinkable? They're all good stuff."
Li Li picked up a bottle and looked at it; it was over ten years old. She sighed and said, "Let's not."
"I don't know if the power went out in between. Some thieves will take the liquor out and sell it when the owner is away for a long time, and bring back fake liquor to sell. Don't get sick from drinking it."
Fang Xuan said regretfully, "This must have cost a lot of money."
Li Li left her downstairs and went upstairs to Tan Yi's room. She opened the closet and saw that the room had been basically emptied a few years ago, and there was nothing related to Li Li that had been left behind.
The sunlight streaming in fell on the floor, and she felt quite dejected. Although she knew the house would just sit empty, the thought of all the youthful memories it held made her reluctant to leave.
Li Li waited for about ten minutes, then stood up and saw Fang Xuan downstairs wearing a baseball cap and gloves, throwing and catching a ball in the yard.
She found these things from somewhere, adjusted her hat brim in the sunlight, and smiled at Li Li, who was standing on the balcony after pushing open the door, saying, "This set looks brand new and hasn't been opened yet. Is it okay if I take it?"
Li Li leaned against the sun-warmed railing, a cool breeze ruffling her short hair. She said, "Take whatever you like. We'll have to get rid of the rest later."
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Author's Note: Updated! [Sprinkling flowers]
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