Chapter 97 Strict Defense

The child in the photo is about three or four years old, wearing a goose yellow knitted sweater on the upper body.

The lower body is a pair of blue denim overalls.

The overalls are a bit loose, sliding down from the child's shoulders and hanging loosely on the elbows.

The most eye-catching thing is the child's eyes.

The dark eyes look up at the camera like a well-behaved puppy.

It makes people feel pity.

If... ignore the earthworms held in the child's two black hands.

Ji Min was a little surprised and stared at the photo in his hand for a long time.

He looked up at the boy sitting on the bed.

At this time, Lu Ran had jumped off the bed barefoot and was bending over to pick up the photo on the ground.

Seeing that Ji Min got it, he was no longer in a hurry.

He just scratched his cheek uncomfortably and complained, "Why did you come in suddenly?"

"Who told you not to close the door?"

Ji Min replied casually, his eyes still on the photo in his hand, and he was reluctant to let it go.

Lu Ran waited for a while, and stretched out his hand to urge him, "Why haven't you finished looking at it yet?"

Ji Min's eyes wandered over the photo and the boy's face.

Especially, he stayed on those eyes for a long time.

"How did you find the photo of your childhood?" he asked.

Lu Ran stretched out his hand to grab the photo from his hand, and turned around and jumped back on the bed.

There was a bit of discomfort on his face that is unique to teenagers when they see their childhood photos.

But there was also some confusion and bewilderment.

He picked and chose from the stack of photos on the bed and picked out another one.

He looked at the soft and white child in the photo.

He took the photo again, put it next to his face, and asked Ji Min in disbelief:

"Boss, is this really me when I was a child?"

Ji Min couldn't help laughing.

He controlled the wheelchair remotely to come to the boy's bed and asked back: "Who else could it be if not you?"

Lu Ran took back the photo, lowered his head and took another look, and said in a muffled voice: "I thought it was Shen Xingran."

After Lu Ran grew up, he saw his childhood photos in an orphanage.

He was in poor health when he was a child, and every photo that was left showed him pale and thin.

No matter how attentive the teachers in the orphanage were, it was impossible to take care of so many children.

Therefore, Lu Ran never thought that he would look like this when he was a child.

Ji Min raised his eyebrows.

Like Shen Xingran? This kid might be face-blind.

Lu Ran carefully flipped through the photos in the box again.

Then he pretended not to care and pushed it onto the bed.

He held the empty box and complained, "Shen Hongyuan hid it so well, I thought it would be something good, why are there just some photos?"

"What do you think it is?" Ji Min asked.

Lu Ran held the box and pondered for a while, then said frankly, "A large check."

Ji Min: "..."

He covered his forehead and laughed for a long time before reaching out to take the photos on the bed.

There were not many photos, only a dozen or so.

But Ji Min felt that these were much more valuable than any large check.

Ji Min sat in a wheelchair, flipping through the photos one by one.

Lu Ran, who was dissatisfied, also came over.

The boy lay horizontally on the bed and put his head next to the man's hand.

Da Huang seemed to be curious about what they were looking at, so he came over as well.

The two people and the dog were all looking at the child in the photo intently.

Ji Min flipped through the photos for a while and found that most of them were candid photos of the child alone.

But at the edge of the camera, an old hand or a cane would occasionally appear in the shot.

Turning to the back, Ji Min saw group photos of the child with other people.

In the photo, was an old man in his sixties or seventies, with a serious expression.

Even to the point of being serious.

There were only two group photos.

In one, the old man and the child were standing on the left and right, looking at the camera with stern faces.

The child stood next to the old man, as obedient as if he was standing at military posture.

In the other photo, the old man was sitting on a rosewood armchair with his arms and legs spread out.

The child sat on the old man's right knee, but did not snuggle into the old man's arms. He just tried to sit up straight and look at the camera.

Neither of these two photos can be considered close.

The child does not look as lively as in the other photos.

Lu Ran looked over and couldn't help but pointed at the old man in the photo and asked:

"Who is this? Gu Ningqi's grandfather?"

Ji Min looked at him in surprise, then lowered his head to look at the old man's face in the photo.

After a moment of hesitation, he said: "This should be Old Master Shen."

Ji Min was only fourteen or fifteen years old when Old Master Shen died.

The Ji family and the Shen family have no relationship and are not close, so Ji Min does not have much impression of Old Master Shen.

Lu Ran looked at it carefully for a while, nodded and said: "It should be, Shen Xingyu will probably look like this when he gets old."

"So many photos, no impression at all?" Ji Min asked.

Lu Ran shook his head: "Absolutely not!"

"Your head..." Ji Min shook his head and sighed.

But on second thought, for Lu Ran, not remembering it might be a good thing.

Ji Min pointed to some backgrounds in the photos, trying to search his memory from more than ten years ago:

"Are these photos sent by the Gu family? These seem to be taken in the Gu family garden."

Hearing this, Lu Ran stared at Ji Min for a while.

Suddenly he said, "Boss, can you give me Uncle Gu's WeChat?"

Ji Min was stunned.

He looked at the photos in his hand again, and suddenly felt something was wrong.

These photos did not look like they were taken by professional photographers, but more like they were taken casually by relatives and friends.

And in the Gu family... it seemed that only Gu Zhi had a hobby of photography.

So...

he could only glimpse the child's cute appearance through the photos.

But Gu Zhi had seen it more than ten years ago.

Not only had he seen it, but he also played with it and took pictures of it?

Ji Min slowly stroked the child's cheek in the photo.

He said nonchalantly, "Which Uncle Gu? What about Grandpa Gu's three sons?"

"The one who came on your birthday!" Lu Ran said.

Ji Min put down the photo slowly.

"Did anyone come to Gu's house that day? I don't remember." He said.

Lu Ran looked at him strangely, thinking that this was some kind of goldfish memory.

"That's the one..."

After racking his brains for a long time, Lu Ran managed to remember the name, "Gu Zhi or Gu?"

Seeing that he didn't even remember the name, Ji Min finally gave in and said, "Gu Zhi is Gu Zhi, why call him Uncle Gu."

"Yes, yes, that's it!"

Lu Ran urged him.

Seeing that he was so anxious, Ji Min suddenly became reluctant again.

"It's too late today, and I don't think I brought my mobile phone when I came."

He had just finished speaking.

The boy lying on the bed in front of him crawled two steps towards him and reached out to pat his trouser pocket.

"You brought it!"

"..." Ji Min was startled by the slap.

He took out his phone silently.

He thought that some kids don't keep their words. They clearly said that day that they would not add other people on WeChat casually.

Ji Min took out his phone, unlocked it, called up the contact page, and slid his fingers down one by one.

This is his work phone, and he has a lot of contacts.

After searching for a long time, he couldn't find the shadow of Gu Zhi.

The more he hesitated, the more anxious Lu Ran became. He

danced and directed at the side: "You search, click on that search!"

After hesitating for a long time, he finally found Gu Zhi's contact information.

Lu Ran continued to direct: "Send his business card to me."

The boy leaned half of his body on the wheelchair.

His anxiety was beyond words.

Ji Min raised his eyebrows and said bluntly, "What business card? I can't push it."

Lu Ran: "???"

He was stunned for a moment: "You can't?"

"Yes." Ji Min said slowly, "I'm old and don't know how to play."

"Then..."

Lu Ran blinked twice, and he noticed something was wrong.

He frowned and thought for a while: "It's not right, but you clearly said you would push it to me that day, but I refused."

"...You heard it wrong." Ji Min said.

Lu Ran slowly sat back on the bed.

Staring at Ji Min silently.

After being stared at for a while, Ji Min finally sighed.

He said in a high-sounding manner: "It's just Gu Zhi's work WeChat. I'm not sure if he is willing to give it to you. If you want to ask something, use my phone to chat." He

didn't forget to secretly slander behind her back: "His private life is quite messy, and I'm worried about you adding him on WeChat."

"But what does his messy private life have to do with me?" Lu Ran asked blankly.

Ji Min didn't say anything, just handed the phone over.

But in his heart, he was thinking, how can it have nothing to do with me.

Lu Ran called Gu Zhi "Uncle Gu", and he was not wrong.

Unlike him, who was a "elder" who squeezed in halfway, the Shen family and the Gu family were real family friends.

In terms of seniority, Gu Zhi can indeed justifiably call himself Lu Ran's elder.

If we don't take into account the age difference...

with Gu Zhi's age, there would be no problem in fulfilling the engagement between the Gu family and the Shen family on behalf of Gu Ningqi.

Lu Ran took the phone and laid on the pillow to send a message to Gu Zhi. His calves

swayed .

Ji Min glanced at the boy's movements from the corner of his eyes, but his fingers stroked the metal puppy on the remote control.

After glancing for a while, the man couldn't help but reached out to grab the boy's dangling ankle.

He restrained himself, and his fingertips did not slip. He

just grabbed it steadily and stuffed it into the thin quilt that the boy was pressing under him.

Lu Ran was startled by him, turned his head to look at him, and subconsciously kicked the quilt again: "I'm not cold."

"Then don't move around." Ji Min whispered.

Lu Ran turned his head and stared at him for a while.

Suddenly he put down his phone and sat up.

"What are you looking at? Why don't you continue your chat?" Ji Min said.

Lu Ran said "Oh" and slowly lay down again.

Ji Min stayed quietly by the boy's window, pricked up his ears and listened for a while, but didn't hear any message alert sound.

Coming back to his senses, he remembered that he had muted his phone after work.

He didn't know what the two were talking about.

Ji Min lowered his head and glanced at Da Huang who was lying obediently on the carpet. He suddenly raised his finger and made a "bark" command.

Da Huang came to life, sat up immediately and "woofed".

Lu Ran heard the barking, immediately put down his phone, turned his head to look at Da Huang.

"What's wrong, Da Huang?" he asked the puppy.

Puppies can't talk.

Ji is the general agent.

He said, "I don't know why it's barking. Does it want to go out for a walk?"

"It shouldn't be."

Lu Ran climbed up and picked up Da Huang and looked at him. "Usually at this time, Da Huang should be asleep."

"Maybe he wants to go to the bathroom." Ji Min said.

"But he just went to the bathroom not long ago." Lu Ran rubbed Da Huang's head in confusion.

Da Huang didn't bark again, but just looked at Ji Min silently.

Ji Min coughed lightly, and finally asked, "What do you want to ask Mr. Gu?"

"Oh, I gave him my WeChat and asked him to add me." Lu Ran said.

Ji Min, who was on guard, said: "..."

"Then you can add each other and chat."

Ji Min squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth, picked up his mobile phone and was about to go out.

But when he looked down, he found that the chat box on his phone was empty. There was nothing.

Ji Min paused and turned to look at Lu Ran.

The boy was holding the puppy and smiling cunningly.

He asked him: "Boss, were you jealous just now?"

Ji Min didn't expect that he was tricked.

He was silent for a long time, and suddenly turned his head and stared at the boy and said: "What if I say yes?"

Lu Ran: "...Huh?"