Chapter 68 Sorry

"Tell me something?" Lin Qiao paused and looked up at the man. "What are you hiding from me?"

Ji Duo said "hmm".

“Is it related to Ozawa?”

Ji Duo said "hmm" again.

"No, he avoided my gaze at first. You told me it was not the right time. Is it also about this matter?"

This time Ji Duo didn't say "hmm", so Lin Qiao leaned back in his chair and said, "That's a long time, half a year."

It was only the Mid-Autumn Festival half a year ago, and it was related to Ji Ze, so she couldn't think of what it could be.

Ji Duo didn't respond to her words, and glanced out the window again, "Tomorrow the weather will be bad, so we won't go to the cafeteria to eat. I'll buy it back."

"That's not necessary." Lin Qiao unexpectedly said.

Ji Duo paused as he sat back at the table. Just as he was about to look at her expression, Lin Qiao said, "I have a social practice class tomorrow."

She has been taking this course consistently, once a month, and only stopped last semester during the final month. This semester, because of the college entrance examination, she will probably have to stop for the next two months, so she will only have the opportunity this month and next month. She has already booked it in advance, and she can't miss it because of bad weather.

Ji Duo also knew, "Then I'll buy it back at night."

Not sure if it was an illusion, but Lin Qiao somehow read some meaning from his calm expression.

What you are about to say is not very serious, are you trying to get leniency?

This idea was confirmed the next morning. The man did not ask her to go to the cafeteria for breakfast, but bought noodles, buns, pickled vegetables and boiled eggs for her.

Some of it was for breakfast, and some was packed in an aluminum lunch box for her to take home for lunch.

Lin Qiao took it and glanced at the man with a half-smile, "How thoughtful. It's a pity that it wasn't made by their mistress herself."

Mrs. Ji Duo didn't say anything. She just asked Xiao Fang to send her to the school gate. She watched her open her umbrella and go in before she left.

Fortunately, it rained heavily in the morning, and the sky cleared up when we came back in the afternoon. There were only puddles on the ground that reflected light like mirrors.

Lin Qiao held a long-handled umbrella in one hand and a bag in the other, and walked out around the puddles while discussing the answers to the chemistry competition with several students in the class.

As soon as I walked out of the school gate, I saw a familiar jeep waiting on the roadside.

Probably because he saw her, the back door of the car was opened, revealing half of the man's handsome profile.

Lin Qiao walked over and asked, "Is there anything else going on this time?"

"It's okay, I'm just stopping by after buying food." Ji Duo took the long-handled umbrella from her hand, raised his eyes, but his gaze paused behind her.

Lin Qiao noticed it and just as he sat down in the car, he turned around to look.

It was Song Jing, who was still interning in junior high school. She was carrying a small bag and had obviously just come out of school. As soon as she appeared, a young man came to greet her not far away.

The man was of medium height, well-dressed and well-mannered, but his appearance was a little ordinary. When he stood in front of the young and beautiful Song Jing, he immediately became a foil.

Lin Qiao watched him hand over the things in his hand to Song Jing, a bag of fruits and a hot water bottle. The two whispered a few words and then walked to the other side side by side, looking very close.

Who are you talking about?

Didn't Ye Minshu want to match Song Jing with Xiao Ze? She kept talking about her all day long, as if she was her daughter-in-law. Song Jing used to be quite positive...

Lin Qiao couldn't help but look at Ji Duo, and found that the man had withdrawn his gaze, "That's Yu Jin from the Yu family."

"Yu Jin?" Lin Qiao really didn't expect it. "Xiao Ze's childhood friend?"

"Yeah." It was hard to tell the emotion in Ji Duo's words, but this one word was enough to shock people.

Regardless of whether Ji Ze had that intention or not, Ye Minshu had already expressed it very obviously. Isn’t this development a bit bloody?

I don’t know whether Ye Minshu knows about this, and what her reaction would be if she knew.

Lin Qiao ate a melon before dinner. When she got home and entered the kitchen, she found that today's dinner was particularly rich.

There were steamed fish, stir-fried meat, and her favorite, braised prawns. The size and color of the dishes were different from usual.

"Isn't this made in the cafeteria?" she turned and asked the man.

Ji Duo was picking up the bowl and chopsticks from the chopstick rack. Hearing this, he said, "A new private restaurant has opened in Yandu."

This is really far enough. Yandu is at least an hour's drive from here.

If it was just for the sake of performing well and seeking lenient treatment, this matter would be too big. Lin Qiao always felt that something was not right.

She thought about the man's recent behavior again. Just as she was about to react, Ji Duo had already taken out a box from under the coffee table in the living room and handed it to her, "Happy birthday."

As expected, it was her birthday. She said that she usually had one boiled egg at most in the morning, but why did we buy her two today?

When that man said no yesterday, was it because of this?

After all, in the past, when someone in the family had a birthday, they would return to the old house to celebrate with the old man Xu Li. But this time, because of Ji Jun, the old couple had to avoid it.

Lin Qiao didn't really care about it. She had been in boarding school before, and she didn't live with her teachers and classmates at school. At most, she could receive calls from home and express gifts.

She shook the box gently. "What's in it?"

"Camera." Ji Duo came over and helped her open it. It was a very old-fashioned film camera, a brand imported from Sakura Country.

However, Lin Qiao really didn't have the habit or hobby of taking photos, so he took it in his hand and looked at it, "Why did you think of giving me this?"

"I'll take a photo of you on your birthday, New Year's Day, and when you take the college entrance exam." Ji Duo took out a few batteries from his pocket.

When the wedding photos were developed and put into the album, he found that compared with Ji Ze, Ji Ling and even himself, there were very few photos of Lin Qiao. There were only three left in 18 years.

At that time he just felt that this girl had a hard life. He felt pity for her, a little, but he admired her optimistic spirit and strong character even more.

Before the Chinese New Year, he cleaned the house and sorted out things at home. He took out the photo album and looked at the three photos. Suddenly, he felt a little regretful.

Perhaps when you fall in love with someone, you will want to know about their past and what they were like, as if you were involved in their past life.

Lin Qiao had too few photos left in the past, and he didn't want it to be like this in the future. When they were old, they would sit down and recall the past without any evidence to evoke their memories. He bought a camera to record all her important moments and make up for what she had missed before.

Ji Duo installed the battery, recalled what he had learned before, picked up the camera, and took a picture of Lin Qiao.

The flash went off, leaving Lin Qiao's face completely unresponsive on the film.

The pose and expression did not change, and it was still the death angle from top to bottom...

Lin Qiao almost jumped up and quickly took the camera from the man's hand, "Don't take pictures randomly. If you want to leave some black history, it's better not to take pictures."

She is not obsessed with taking beautiful photos and won’t take photos of herself all day long, but she doesn’t want to leave ugly photos, okay?

Ji Duo obviously didn't expect her to react like this. He thought about what she meant by the dark history and looked directly at her face. "Not ugly."

Even without dressing up, the young girl still looks bright and charming.

The ends of her hair were curled. Xu Li had asked her to have it curled during the Chinese New Year. It made her face look snow-white, and the upturned corners of her eyes exuded a sense of liveliness.

Ji Duo lowered his eyes and looked at her. He couldn't help but reach out his hand and stroke the small mole at the corner of her eye with his thumb.

The movements were very gentle. If the skin there wasn't so sensitive and the man's fingertips weren't so rough, Lin Qiao might not even have felt it.

She raised her head unconsciously, and the man's fingertips slid along the corner of her eye all the way to her cheek.

Ji Duo didn't move his hands. He just half stroked her face and repeated in a low voice while meeting her gaze, "Not ugly."

His eyes were focused, and the places he touched felt slightly itchy.

Lin Qiao fluttered her long eyelashes.

However, from this little physical contact, I could read more intimacy than during the passionate entanglement at night.

But she still put the camera against the man's chest and said, "You can't take random photos."

No matter how ugly or intimate it is, it cannot change the fact that he is a straight man taking photos, not to mention that he has something to explain.

Feeling a bump on his chest, Ji Duo retracted his hand, looked down at the camera against his body, and frowned, "How can this not be called random filming?"

Lin Qiao was not very good at it either. "Why don't you wait for Xiaoze to come and ask him?"

Ji Duo: “…”

Of course, this man is not completely clueless. When Lin Qiao received another birthday present in the evening, she almost cried.

This man used a lot of patience to negotiate with her, which made her feel that he was sometimes too slow and sometimes too hasty. When she woke up in the morning, she found that two of the curtain clips had fallen off.

"You did it, change it yourself." Lin Qiao turned around and glanced at the man while pulling the curtain.

Ji Duo was buttoning his cuffs. Thinking about the slight pain on his chest, he rationally did not say that it was not him who pulled it, but just said "hmm".

Maybe it was because I ate too much on my birthday, and I received good news for several days afterwards.

First, the preliminary results of the physics competition came out, and Li Xiaoqiu successfully entered the finals, and his score was not low.

Vice Principal Qi, who teaches physics, privately told Lin Qiao that with her score, as long as she did not perform poorly in the final, she would have a chance of winning the prize.

Next was chemistry. This time, the school even had two students admitted, Qi Huaiwen from Lin Qiao's class and a boy from Class 2 led by Team Leader Gao.

"This year is good. In previous years, no one got in, but this year we got three." Team leader Gao knocked on the desk and crossed his legs.

"Didn't you give us a chance in previous years?"

The school's performance was indeed good this year, and two students from her class made it to the finals. Lin Qiao was very happy, especially Qi Huaiwen, who gave her a real surprise.

At the end of last year, the boys were in the top 20 in the grade. In this year's first monthly exam, their grades have improved again. It can be said that they were more troublesome before, but now they work harder.

The sun was particularly bright on Sunday, so the couple didn't have to go back to their old house. They got up in the morning and washed the sheets and quilt covers in the washing machine. When they were dried in the afternoon, they rinsed them and hung them out to dry again.

Just as it was being hung on the steel rope in the yard, Ji Ze came, with a bottle of Moutai in each hand and a bag on his back, but he didn't look very energetic.

To say he looked listless would be an understatement. He had lost a lot of weight since the last time he was in Ye Minshu's ward. His eye sockets were sunken and his chin was sharp, but his eyes were steady. Because of this weight loss, the little flesh on his face that was young had completely disappeared, revealing a clear outline. He looked more mature than when Lin Qiao first saw him in the hospital.

"Uncle, aunt." He greeted the two people as soon as he entered the yard. Seeing Ji Duo hanging things up, he quickly put down the bottle of wine and said, "I'll do it."

He took it and placed his hand on the steel rope. When he was about to ask if there was anything else, he found that his uncle was looking at him with a gloomy look.

Only then did he notice that Lin Qiao was standing aside with the pulp in his hand. In his attempt to show off, he squeezed in between the two of them and stood together with Lin Qiao.

This was a bit embarrassing. Ji Ze still had a strong desire to survive and immediately seemed to remember something. "Oh, there's still food."

He was about to run inside as soon as he picked up the bag, but turned back halfway and picked up the two bottles of Moutai on the ground.

Just when I thought he was a little mature, he became irritable again. Lin Qiao found it a little funny, "Your nephew is quite filial."

Ji Duo didn't say anything. He continued to hang up the things in the basin before taking the empty basin from Lin Qiao and going back to the house to wash his hands.

Ji Ze had already put the Maotai away and took out a lunch box from his bag. "I remember that you like to eat this, auntie. See if it suits your taste."

This guy is also good at expressing himself. Just as Lin Qiao was about to reach out, Ji Duo took it. When he opened it, he saw another serving of braised prawns.

Ji Duo couldn't help but glance at his nephew. Lin Qiao, on the other hand, felt that the braised prawns looked strangely familiar. "Where did you buy this?"

"The P&G Hotel," Ji Ze said, "the new one in Cuihua Hutong, the first privately-owned restaurant in Yandu."

Perhaps he really wanted to show off, as he was very detailed, "This restaurant only has four tables, and many foreigners come here to eat. There are also reporters who go there to take photos and interview. The number is booked for two months later. I didn't get a seat, so I spent ten yuan to find a table that did and ordered a portion for me. I just don't know how it's cooked."

A serving of braised prawns only costs two dollars, which is a very expensive dish in that era. He spent ten dollars to buy it, which meant that the other party had a free meal and still had a lot left over.

Lin Qiao couldn't help but turn around and look at Ji Duo, "Did you buy it from this store that day as well?"

"My uncle also bought it from this store?" Ji Ze was also surprised, "Did he also pay someone to buy it from him?"

"No, I arranged it in advance." Ji Duo did not deny and put the opened lunch box on the dining table.

This is even more unexpected. One needs to queue up two months in advance. Didn’t he have already booked it before the Chinese New Year?

Not to mention Lin Qiao, even Ji Ze widened his eyes, looking at Lin Qiao and then at his uncle, feeling unbelievable.

Ji Duo, however, looked calm and said, "You guys chat, I'll go to the cafeteria to buy two more dishes."

"No, no." Ji Ze quickly came back to his senses and took out a few lunch boxes from his bag, "I've bought them all, just sit down and eat."

Lin Qiao rinsed a wine glass for each of them. Ji Ze opened a bottle, poured it for himself and Ji Duo, and asked Lin Qiao again.

"I don't like this." Lin Qiao went to get himself a bottle of soda, and the three of them sat alone at a dining table again.

Compared to last time, Ji Ze was much more comfortable this time. However, he thought of what he was going to say next and picked up the wine glass, "This glass is for my aunt to make amends."

Before Lin Qiao could even ask what crime he was responsible for, he had already done it all and took out a notebook from his bag and handed it to Lin Qiao.

Lin Qiao took it doubtfully, "What is this?"

"The entire account of liquid soap from the beginning to now."

Ji Ze came here today to give instructions. He took out a few more wads of money from his bag and said, "This is this month's share."

There were three whole stacks of ten-yuan bills, all tied up with brown paper strips, and one stack had only half of it, and the rest was Mao Zedong's banknotes.

He would naturally not say all these for no reason, and he would not spend more than 3,000 yuan. Thinking about the purpose of his visit today, Lin Qiao looked at Ji Duo beside him.

Being stared at by those dark and bright phoenix eyes, Ji Duo tightened his glass for some reason and took a sip subconsciously, "The friend I told you about before..."

"It was me." Ji Ze took over the conversation, "I didn't want to do it for a long time at first, and I was embarrassed to tell you, so I asked my uncle to keep it a secret for you."

He had already failed to take responsibility once. If he had been more responsible at the time, he would have chosen to accept this child marriage, or directly talked to Lin Qiao about it, and the marriage would not have been pushed to his uncle.

What was he thinking at the time?

Although he was reluctant to admit it, he was indeed prepared to keep dragging it out, using silent resistance to make the elders understand and then help him postpone the marriage.

Just like what my uncle said, he is selfish, arrogant, and self-righteous. He clearly doesn't want to do something, but he still wants his elders to speak up for him.

Ji Ze picked up the bottle and poured himself another glass. "I'm not afraid of you laughing at me. At first, I thought of borrowing tens of millions of dollars to buy a production line from abroad to make electrical appliances." He glanced at Lin Qiao, raised his head and took another sip. "My uncle and grandfather disagreed and asked me to make my first pot of gold on my own. That's when I thought of your liquid soap."

He didn't realize it at the time, but now that his business has grown and he has experienced more, he realized how whimsical he was at the time.

"I just want everything, but I don't dare to face my mother, so I hide this and that all day long and drag you and my uncle into this."

This was also the case when his mother first found out about this. He felt that he would not compromise and would confront his mother. After his mother had had enough of the fuss, she could no longer do anything to him.

What was the result? Her uncle told her that her aunt was reported to the school, saying that she opened the liquid soap factory.

He then made up his mind. While trying to reassure his mother, he applied for transfer to the army. By the time his mother found out, it was already a done deal.

Ji Ze showed some self-mockery, "If I had taken some responsibility, things wouldn't have gotten to this point. I asked my uncle to keep this a secret for me, so don't blame him."

"I didn't think it through properly at first." Ji Duo didn't intend to let his nephew carry the burden alone. "I'm sorry for keeping it a secret from you for so long."

He raised his glass towards Lin Qiao, but Lin Qiao did not move. He looked here and there, feeling that some information was rushing through his mind.

"So it was Ozawa who wanted to cooperate with me to sell liquid soap in the first place?"

The uncle and nephew both said "hmm".

"Is it Ozawa who has always wanted to go into business?"

This question was a bit strange, but Ji Duo and Ji Ze still said "hmm" again.

What about the one who was engaged to the original body?

Lin Qiao wanted to blurt it out, but she hadn't drunk any alcohol and she was still rational.

It was hard to say what answer she would get from asking this question. She would first have to explain how she came up with the idea of ​​child marriage from her business.

But Ji Ze's words were like a bomb in her heart, shattering her previous cognition.

Lin Qiao subconsciously touched a cup at hand.

, just as he was about to drink, someone grabbed the edge of the cup.

Only then did she realize that she was holding Ji Duo's wine glass. The man's big, bony hand was hanging above the glass, and under the light, it seemed to completely cover her small hand.

Lin Qiao's eyes moved from the man's hand to his handsome profile. "What about you? Have you ever thought about doing business?"

"Why are you asking this suddenly?" Ji Duo glanced at her and took the cup from her hand.

Lin Qiao didn't take it again, but his eyes were still on his face, "Just asking casually, I think you seem to know a lot about these."

It was because he showed no ignorance that she had not entertained any suspicions.

"I just know a little bit." Seeing that she was really curious, Ji Duo picked up a shrimp and peeled it for her. "I haven't thought about doing business."

He had never thought about doing business, so she had mistaken him from the beginning...

In an instant, Ye Minshu's hostility when they first met, Ji Ze's evasion, and Ji Jun's embarrassment seemed to all be explained.

But since it was Ji Ze who was engaged to the original body, why was it changed to Ji Duo, and why did Ji Duo actually agree?

Even when his direct superior's wife introduced him to a girl, he wouldn't even look at her. This man is not one to compromise easily, and he is even less likely to be threatened if he is caught with evidence.

The only person who could make him make concessions is his closest person, and there may be some other reasons.

As for Grandpa Ji and Xu Li, it is impossible for them to change their engagement partner to their son just because their grandson is unwilling. So for all this time, she has never thought about it in this way.

The closer it got to this point, the calmer Lin Qiao became. He stood up, rinsed a cup, took the bottle and poured himself half a glass.

"That's understandable." She touched Ji Duo's glass first. "After all, we had just gotten married at that time. Compared to my wife, my nephew is more important."

It was understandable, but he hit the nail on the head and pointed out the fundamental reason why Ji Duo agreed to Ji Ze at that time.

They were not in a relationship of affection, and there was no emotional foundation. Ji Duo took care of her because he had a strong sense of responsibility. But he and Ji Ze had been together for more than 20 years, and even though he was angry at Ji Ze for not fighting for his life, when his nephew came to him and he didn't plan to be the eldest, he still agreed.

But I didn't expect that Ji Ze would change his mind later, and his attitude towards Lin Qiao also changed. Some things were easy to agree to at the beginning, but it was difficult to solve them later.

Ji Duo was speechless after hearing this. Ji Ze, who was listening on the other side, also showed some anxiety on his face, "No, my uncle..."

"This is none of your business." Lin Qiao interrupted him with a smile and added some more wine to his glass. "It was him who got engaged to me and it was him who married me. If he didn't want to, he could just tell me directly. Why did he help his family to keep it a secret from me and treat me as an outsider after we were already married?"

There is truth hidden in her smile, a sharpness that she rarely reveals.

Ji Duo couldn't help but look at her and called out softly, "Qiao Qiao..."

Before he could finish his words, Ji Ze couldn't hold back any more, "How can you blame your uncle for this? It's obviously me!"

As soon as he entered the room, he punished himself with a drink. He was already a little drunk. Then he apologized to Lin Qiao. The pressure, guilt and regret he had experienced in the past few days came flooding back at him, making him completely lose his mind. "It's obviously me who has let my uncle down. I pushed the childhood marriage to him, and now I have to implicate him..."

Ji Duo stopped peeling shrimps and glanced over with coldness in his eyes.

Ji Ze was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized that he was drunk and had let slip something that he shouldn't have said.

He hurried to see Lin Qiao, hoping that he had drunk too much and that Lin Qiao hadn't heard him clearly.

Lin Qiao had already put down his glass, and said in a cold voice, "Let him speak! Why not let him speak?"