Chapter 69

The words "let him speak" were said very calmly, but because it was too calm, Ji Zehun's body stiffened.

He was somewhat afraid to look at his uncle's expression, and Ji Duo's tall figure froze there.

But now that things have come to this, Ji Duo has never been one to evade. He put the peeled shrimp into Lin Qiao's bowl and stared at her, "Let me tell you."

The truth had been forced out, and it didn't matter who said it. Lin Qiao nodded to indicate that he didn't care.

Ji Duo lowered his eyes and wiped his hands, "There were some rumors outside at the beginning, saying that you were destined for me and lived in our house because you and I were about to get married. You know our father, he is a man of his word. He promised your grandfather that he would take care of you for the rest of your life, and he would never break his promise."

Lin Qiao believed this. If it was anyone else, after Lin Shouyi's letter, she might not be willing to fulfill the engagement even if she came to him.

However, Master Ji did not hesitate at all. Before knowing the truth, he asked Ji Duo to accompany her back to solve the problem and also wrote a letter of introduction.

"Now that things have gotten to this point, it's impossible for Xiaoze to marry you. With this rumor, you'll be embarrassed at home. My parents didn't want you to be without a place to stay in Yandu in the future, so they asked me to marry you. I agreed."

Ji Duo still spoke in his usual concise style, stating only facts without any emotional color.

Lin Qiao could understand why the old man would make such a choice, but...

"Why didn't you tell me directly at the beginning? Whether it was Ozawa's disapproval, rumors, or the child marriage had to be changed, why didn't you tell me?"

Getting married was indeed the best choice for Lin Qiao at that time, but the Ji family told her directly that they were not willing, and she could not force him to marry.

But neither her husband Xu Li nor Ji Duo, who finally decided to marry her, said that she always thought that this marriage was a voluntary agreement reached by both parties.

Ji Duo remained silent after being asked this question.

He couldn't say that he was afraid that Lin Qiao would feel awkward when interacting with his eldest brother's family in the future, because he knew that the old man had another consideration that he hadn't said, which was that he wanted to help his eldest son's family cover up the shame.

Although the ten fingers are of different lengths, they all hurt if you bite them.

Elderly people always hope that their family will be harmonious, and they will avoid quarrels if possible. If Lin Qiao knew about this, she and the eldest family would be enemies from the moment she entered the family, and the family would be broken up, and there would never be a day of harmony.

But no matter how much the old man considered, he could not resist Ye Minshu's staring at Lin Qiao, and she even went too far, so that in the end he had to send his eldest son away personally.

Finally, he just looked at Lin Qiao and said, "Our family did something unjust and you have been wronged." He didn't say that he wanted to hide it from Lin Qiao. Whose idea was it?

But even if he didn't say it, Lin Qiao could guess that if it was his own idea and didn't involve others, he would have just said that he was not doing the right thing.

After spending nearly a year together, she has gotten to know this man's temperament. He is very responsible, keeps his promises and values ​​love, otherwise he would not still be taking care of Gu Lao, helping Gu Lao find people and helping Gu Shaoping find the truth even after Gu Shaoping passed away for so many years.

But as the one whose promise he kept, Lin Qiao felt relieved. However, as the one who was kept in the dark, it was hard for him not to feel unhappy.

Since she had already asked some questions, she might as well ask them all at once, "Was that rumor spread intentionally by someone?"

Ji Ze blushed when he heard this, but he did not choose to evade this time, "My mother spread it. She wanted to ruin this marriage. But it's not all her fault. It's my own attitude that was wrong. If I had agreed directly or come to you to make it clear, maybe all these things wouldn't have happened later."

The same goes for doing business. If he had been as decisive as his uncle, by the time his mother found out, it would have been too late to change the situation. She wouldn't have struggled for so long, to the point where his father had to be transferred far away.

He filled his glass, raised it and looked at Lin Qiao, "I'm sorry, our whole family owes you an apology for this."

"So this is the explanation?" Lin Qiao looked at his uncle, then at his nephew, and stood up. "Then you guys eat first. I'll go to the cafeteria."

"Qiaoqiao." Ji Duo stood up immediately afterwards.

Then it was Ji Ze who was at a loss, "Auntie, I..."

"You threw such a big bomb at me, you have to give me some time to digest it, right?" Lin Qiao interrupted him and went to the sink to wash his hands first.

After washing, she wiped herself with a towel, took her coat from the hanger at the door of the living room and went out.

Looking at the graceful figure going away, the uncle and nephew stood at the door for a long time without moving.

"I'm sorry, I seem to have messed up again." After a long while, Ji Ze lowered his head first, his tone filled with regret and frustration.

Ji Duo kept his eyes on the direction of the courtyard gate. "She was not angry with you, but with me for keeping it a secret from her."

Lin Qiao was still angry

This is true. After all, whether Ji Ze was willing or not, she married Ji Duo and Ji Duo was her partner.

She could understand why Ji Duo did this. If there was a scandal in someone's family, no one would want to let a new daughter-in-law who was not very familiar with them know about it. The old man wanted to smooth things over, and Ji Duo agreed. Naturally, he would not agree to his parents and secretly tell her, putting his biological parents in an unfair position.

Just because she may understand doesn’t mean she won’t be angry.

The whole Ji family knew about the bride-swap arrangement, but they kept it a secret from her, as if they were working together to treat her as a fool.

It would have been fine if Ji Duo only wanted to be her partner before, but since he wanted to step out of her comfort zone and kept it a secret from her, did he really think she was the kind of woman who felt that being deceived all her life was a kind of happiness?

Lin Qiao was not born with the romantic and innocent genes from her parents. If she only had innocence and romance, her mentality would have collapsed when she most longed to be loved in her childhood.

Fortunately, she is not prone to falling in love or having a love brain. Otherwise, if she really fell in love and knew all this, she would definitely not just be angry. Of course, the love brain might also automatically find good excuses for the other party.

The wind in the early spring evening was still a little chilly. Not long after Lin Qiao walked out into the twilight, he felt completely calm.

Isn't it just a case of mistaking someone for someone else?

Isn't it just that we have been kept in the dark?

She came to the Ji family to fulfill the engagement, not to find a partner that suits her taste. Anyway, the Ji family helped her, and she should appreciate it.

As for gratitude, since some things have already been talked about, it is better to make them clearer.

When Lin Qiao returned, Ji Ze had already left. Under the dim light of the kitchen, only Ji Duo was still sitting there, as if he had been waiting for her.

Sensing her footsteps, the man turned his head and said, "You're back."

Lin Qiao nodded, walked over and sat down, and found that in addition to money and accounts on the table, there was also a paper contract.

"That was drafted by Ozawa." Ji Duo followed her line of sight and glanced, "He has already applied for a business license and officially built the factory."

Lin Qiao picked it up and took a look. Perhaps she felt guilty. Ji Ze gave her 40% of the share this time. After deducting the 10% he gave to the old employees, he only had 50% left.

"Have some hot water." Ji Duo handed her a cup, and when she didn't take it, he put it on the table in front of her.

This was actually a signal of seeking peace. He wanted to have a good talk with Lin Qiao about what had just happened.

Lin Qiao didn't touch the glass of water and put down the contract in his hand. "Is this marriage a burden to you?"

The question was asked suddenly, and Ji Duo was silent for a moment, but soon he raised his eyes under Lin Qiao's gaze, his eyes dark and direct, "Do you want to hear the truth?"

"Of course it's true." Lin Qiao looked back without hesitation, "Isn't it enough that I've heard so many lies in the past year?"

Ji Duo looked at her and said, "A little bit, but that's not directed at you, it's directed at marriage itself. After all, this was not originally in my plan."

He is not a person with strong emotional needs, nor is he obsessed with marriage and family. He would rather spend more time and energy on work. Pushing the engagement to him is equivalent to breaking his original plan and disrupting the rhythm of his life. From then on, he has an extra layer of responsibility and a layer of constraints on his shoulders.

It's just that it was their family that let Lin Qiao down, not Lin Qiao who let them down, so he couldn't possibly blame Lin Qiao.

And after almost a year of living together, he no longer feels that this marriage is a burden.

But Lin Qiao asked him: "Since it is not in your life plan, do you want to return to your original track?"

This was like a bucket of cold water, even colder than Lin Qiao's words "Let him tell it" when he discovered the truth. For the first time, Ji Duo asked a nonsense question: "What do you mean?"

Lin Qiao spoke calmly, "I have thought about it carefully. In fact, I want to fulfill this engagement for more than just a purpose. I have no right to ask you or the Ji family for anything. If you think this marriage is a burden, we can both take a step back. This formula will be my thank-you gift to you."

If Ji Duo was the male protagonist of the original book and was destined to divorce her in the future, their cooperation would just be a win-win for both sides and it wouldn't be a big deal.

But he was not, so Lin Qiao was forced upon him against his will, no matter if the person who forced it upon him was Lin Qiao or Master Ji.

Since it was a mistake from the beginning, why should we continue with this mistake and make both of us unhappy?

Lin Qiao looked at Ji Duo, waiting to hear his answer, but she didn't expect the man to stare at her for a long time, then suddenly smiled, angry, "Do you really not understand or are you pretending not to understand?"

The man scanned the contract with cold eyes, and stared at her while leaning over the table. "Let's not talk about the fact that since I agreed to this marriage, I have never thought about divorce. If I really felt that you were a burden, I could just keep you at home as a decoration. Why would I care about your feelings?"

"When you hid so many things from me, you didn't seem to care about my feelings."

Although Lin Qiao had to look up at him, her aura was not weak at all, which made Ji Duo's expression freeze and speechless.

"And you said that marriage is serious and you can't just file for divorce easily, but this serious marriage started in secrecy."

She said another sentence in a calm tone. This time, Ji Duo lost all his momentum. He lowered his eyes to look at her for a long time, and his voice became lower. "This is all my fault. How can you calm down?"

This sentence was not even a request for peace, but rather a coaxing. If his soldiers heard it, they would probably think that their Captain Ji had traveled through time.

Lin Qiao's expression was unmoved. She raised her eyebrows and asked back, "What do you want in exchange for a divorce?"

"No, it's impossible."

Lin Qiao had known the man for such a long time, but she had never seen him speak so quickly, and he denied it twice in a row.

It seems that he is really not ready for a divorce, and he does not gamble, commit domestic violence, or cheat on his wife, and has not committed any major faults. As long as he does not agree, their military marriage cannot be divorced.

Lin Qiao looked at the man, and the man looked at him. Neither of them avoided his gaze and showed any intention of compromising.

"That's it." Lin Qiao didn't want to argue with him today. "No matter what, I am grateful that the Ji family is willing to rescue me."

After saying that, she stood up, picked up the contract, account and money on the table, leaned sideways, slipped out from under the man's arm, and went straight upstairs.

After everyone left, Ji Duo's kitchen was left completely deserted, and even the cup of hot water he had just poured for Lin Qiao gradually lost its heat.

Just a few days ago, in the same place, Lin Qiao jumped up and snatched the camera from him to prevent him from taking ugly photos of her, but now she is here to discuss divorce with him.

Ji Duo looked at the place on his chest where the camera had touched him and wanted to smoke a cigarette, but he felt his pockets and found nothing.

Only then did he remember that his nephew had taken the last two, so he simply sat down at the dining table, picked up the prawns he had peeled for Lin Qiao, and took a bite with an expressionless face.

The cold seafood tasted even more fishy, ​​and his brows wrinkled at the time, but he still finished all the seafood in Lin Qiao's bowl bite by bite.

I was washing the dishes after dinner when I heard footsteps on the stairs outside. Lin Qiao came down again.

Ji Duo looked away almost instantly, but Lin Qiao asked him, "Do you have Xiaoze's phone number?"

"Why ask him?" Ji Duo's voice turned cold.

Lin Qiao pretended not to hear, "Isn't Chen Zhaonan working for him? Ask him to lend Chen Zhaonan to me for a few days, and I'll pay him."

"Do you have something to say?" Ji Duo asked immediately, and was responded to by Lin Qiao with a "hmm", which showed that he didn't really want to pay attention to him.

He could only say, "I'll call for you." He wiped the water off his hands and helped to make a call to Ji Ze.

Ji Zegang had just made a big move, so he naturally agreed, "You don't have to pay the salary, Auntie, you can use it as you like."

"That's not the way it works. You should do things for the people who pay you." Lin Qiao insisted.

Ji Ze asked her when she would need it and where she would send the person. After everything was explained, the microphone returned to Ji Duo, and he asked carefully: "Are you satisfied with the contract, aunt?"

Satisfied.

Very satisfied!

I wanted to give him that as a thank-you gift and divorce him.

Ji Duo hung up the phone with a bang.

Lin Qiao needed to hire people, mainly because the exhibition was about to open and she had to set up her part of the venue in advance, and she couldn't leave.

It has been less than a year since she came to Yandu, and almost everyone she knows has a job. The only ones who can spare a hand to help her are Liu Cuiying from next door and Chen Zhaonan.

She had asked Liu Cuiying during the day, and she agreed immediately, and even notified Brigade Commander Liang and the soldiers to go to eat during those days.

canteen.

With the help of Chen Zhaonan, the two of them were able to set up the venue.

That night, two quilts appeared on Lin Qiao and Ji Duo's beds for the first time. Ji Duo covered himself with the larger quilt, and Lin Qiao took the smaller one to cover himself.

Ji Duo stood beside the bed and watched for a long time. Just as he was about to speak, Lin Qiao had already closed his eyes.

The same thing happened in the following days. During the day, they were normal, but at night, they slept separately with their own quilts. Lin Qiao's attitude also returned to when they just got married, or even when they just met. He was polite, generous, and measured, and never embarrassed others when he spoke or did things.

He asked her if she needed the car, and she said thank you but no.

He said he was free on Sunday and asked if she needed his help. She said they already had enough people, thank you.

Ji Duo then realized that in the past six months of marriage, not only he, but also Lin Qiao had changed a lot. Especially after the two of them started to open up to each other through the Gu family's affairs, she gradually realized what he meant.

Unfortunately, some things are hard to build but too easy to destroy.

Compared to Ji Duo, Lin Qiao is much busier and has no time to pay attention to the man's mood.

This exhibition lasted for three days. As it was just launched, the scale was not very large and basically only provinces participated.

Below the province are the recommended units. Because Lin Qiao chose the school route, she was arranged together with the major universities in Yandu. The universities in front of her were all Tsinghua University, Peking University, University of Science and Technology, but in her place, it became XX Children's Middle School. Although the exhibition area is not large, anyone who comes here and sees it can't help but take a few more glances.

Liu Cuiying, who came to help, had never seen such a scene before. She usually had a loud voice at home, but now she started to speak in a pinched tone, "There are so many people here, I won't mess it up, right?"

Of course, the exhibition not only displays the finished products, but also the methods of use and the effects. She and Chen Zhaonan are in charge of this and have been demonstrating the different uses of several exhibits.

Lin Qiao smiled and comforted her: "The jury hasn't arrived yet. Now everyone is here for free and hasn't bought tickets. There's no need to be nervous."

Liu Cuiying thought the same thing, "They don't give you ticket money, and they don't give you any awards, so why should I be nervous?"

She felt relieved, and then she noticed that Chen Zhaonan beside her had been working silently. "You are such a down-to-earth girl."

Chen Zhaonan just laughed. Liu Cuiying couldn't help but say to Lin Qiao, "Where did you find Xiao Chen? He's really capable. Even more capable than I was when I was young."

While we were busy, someone passed by the booth, then walked back and asked a few people: "Who invented this oil remover?"

He was a fat man in his thirties or forties with a bald head.

Liu Cuiying and Chen Zhaonan both looked at Lin Qiao. The fat man was obviously surprised when he saw her. "You invented it?"

Not to mention him, Liu Cuiying and Chen Zhaonan were both shocked when they first found out. Especially Chen Zhaonan, who worked in a liquid soap factory and knew exactly how big the factory was and how much it sold every day, but he never thought that the formula behind it actually came from Lin Qiao.

But they were just surprised. When the fat man saw that Lin Qiao was so young, his small eyes, which were almost squeezed out by the flesh, rolled around and he had another idea.

He approached Lin Qiao, held up three fingers, and lowered his voice, "I'll offer this price, how about you sell me the formula?"

These three fingers are obviously not Ji Ze's 30% profit. Lin Qiao smiled and said, "I won't sell this formula."

"These, no more." The other person added a five with his other hand, "You only make a few dollars a month as a teacher, this is as much as your salary for several years. I just want to invest and take a gamble. I'm not sure whether it will be useful. If you don't want to, I'll buy it from someone else."

Apparently, they come to this kind of exhibition to try their luck and see if there are any inventions that have great potential in the future but the inventors themselves are not sure about the value of the invention.

Lin Qiao is neither an engineer or technician from a large organization nor a student from a prestigious school. He is just a primary school teacher, so it is normal that he is targeted.

She didn't want to waste her time talking to him anymore and was about to look away when someone next to her suddenly said, "Don't sell it. Your invention is very useful."

They all looked over, including Liu Cuiying and Chen Zhaonan who were busy at the other end, and found that it was a little old man in his fifties.

The reason why he was called an old man even though he was only in his fifties was mainly because he was not very good-looking and was dressed very simply. At first glance, one would have thought he was an old farmer from the suburbs of Yandu.

The fat man was obviously unhappy about being suddenly exposed, "Where did you come from to say this thing is useful? Do you understand?"

The old man ignored him and just looked at Lin Qiao, "Are you studying chemistry?"

Lin Qiao nodded, and he looked at the degreasing process being demonstrated next to him. "Your product emulsifies very quickly and will not destroy the original structure of the product. It can be used in many fields. Don't sell it casually."

As if she was afraid that Lin Qiao was too young to understand these things, "If you're really unsure, I'll introduce you to a reliable one later..."

Before she could finish her words, she was interrupted by the fat man, "I was wondering why you didn't let her sell it. It turns out that you also have your eyes on it and are here to steal her business."

The fat man sneered, "Don't you know the rules of the underworld? How dare you mess things up when others are negotiating a price?"

The old rule for bargaining in Yandu is that you cannot interrupt when others are negotiating, let alone deliberately disrupt it, but Lin Qiao doesn't think that the other party is also here to do business.

She smiled and asked the old man, "You are engaged in this field, right?"

This made the old man look at her again, with a hint of smile in his eyes.

At this moment, a familiar voice sounded not far away, "Xiao Yan?"

Lin Qiao was stunned for a moment, but the old man had already turned around and greeted the visitor with a smile, "Teacher Xu, you are here to see the exhibition too."

It was Xu Li who came, but she and her husband had not been in Yandu for a while, and Lin Qiao had no chance to tell her that he was going to attend the exhibition, so why did she appear here?

Lin Qiao subconsciously scanned the crowd and saw a familiar tall figure not far behind her.