Chapter 9
"Come on, Xiao Bao! Let's just have something light for supper, don't be shy." Li Qing came out of the kitchen carrying a pot of stewed pork ribs and chicken feet until they were tender, and greeted Jiang Huaiyu with a smile: "You are what you eat, eat more chicken feet, and your feet will heal faster!"
Jiang Huaiyu, her hair still wet: "...Thank you."
Lu Mingxiao brought over a towel and covered Jiang Huaiyu's head. "Mom, he eats like a cat. You're making this so late at night, he can't eat it, it's too greasy."
"Not greasy at all! If you don't want ribs, chicken feet are fine too, come on!"
Jiang Huaiyu sat at the table, wanting to help get the bowls and chopsticks, but Lu Mingxiao pressed him down again: "You still have an injury on your foot, just wait to eat."
The mother and son went to the kitchen to get busy, leaving Lu Chuan and Jiang Huaiyu looking at each other in bewilderment.
Because of his chronic illness, Lu Chuan was very thin with prominent cheekbones. Logically, such a face would appear somewhat gloomy, but his eyes and brows were gentle, not lifeless like someone who has been ill for a long time. Instead, they were like a clear spring, flowing gently and silently with a calm strength.
Jiang Huaiyu looks more like Li Qing, but his eyes are somewhat similar to Lu Chuan's.
Lu Chuan smiled gently: "Are you getting used to living here? We haven't been home these past few days, and Da Bao can't cook, so he's probably just dragging you around to make do with whatever he can."
"No, the food was very good." Jiang Huaiyu looked towards the kitchen: "Lu Mingxiao was also very good... His nickname is 'Dabao'?"
“Yes.” Lu Chuan smiled. “We heard from your mother, Jiang Lan, that your name is Xiao Bao. We think it’s really fate. Are you planning to stay for a few days? It’s convenient for you to stay here as long as you want. Don’t be shy. Let Da Bao show you around. When do high schools in Shen City start?”
“Like Lu Mingxiao, there’s still more than a month before school starts…” Looking into those eyes, Jiang Huaiyu gradually relaxed: “How are you feeling? I’ve seen your medical records. Actually… I still hope you can go to Shen City for treatment.”
Lu Chuan fell ill due to an accident: a toxic gas leak at a chemical plant caused a group of workers to contract lung disease, and Lu Chuan was one of them. After the factory went bankrupt, the workers won the lawsuit, but the corresponding compensation has not yet been paid. The subsequent treatment and care require a large amount of money, which has caused the Lu family, who were originally well-off, to suffer a sharp decline in their situation.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Huaiyu had seen his medical records. Lu Chuan was stunned for a moment, then shook his head: "Thank you, child, but once you've seen the records, you should know that this disease cannot be cured. Even if you go to Shenhai, it will only cause trouble for Brother Song and the others."
Jiang Huaiyu opened her mouth, but didn't know how to persuade him. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is indeed incurable, and one cannot engage in heavy physical labor. In fact, one needs to inhale oxygen every day and has high requirements for the surrounding air quality.
Lu Chuan now makes small handicrafts at home. Although he and Li Qing live a difficult life, they are self-reliant, which is admirable.
Seeing his low spirits, Lu Chuan smiled and said, "Now the family is all supported by your mother. I'm a kept man, and being a kept man is a good job. I wouldn't trade it for any amount of money..."
"Don't teach the child bad habits!" Li Qing came out with a bowl and chopsticks and put them on the table. "Xiao Bao, don't listen to your dad's nonsense. He can support himself, but he is indeed very delicate now. His room needs to be kept very clean. Changing the environment suddenly is not good for his condition, so don't worry about him."
Lu Mingxiao picked up a chicken foot and put it in Jiang Huaiyu's bowl, then suddenly clicked his tongue and said, "Mom, something's not right..."
Li Qing: "What's wrong?"
"You cut off all the chicken feet's nails. Jiang Xiaoyu injured her toenail, and your repair wasn't done properly..."
Li Qing laughed and scolded him, "Why don't you eat your toenails! Xiao Bao, ignore him and eat more."
They ate their late-night snack until almost 11 p.m. Li Qing wouldn't let them wash the dishes, sent them back to their room to sleep, and warned Lu Mingxiao that he should start doing his homework tomorrow, lest he start scribbling on his workbook again just two days before school starts.
Unfortunately, they were a bit too full to sleep, so they chatted through the wooden board.
"You mean you can take equestrianism and golf as electives in your PE class?" Lu Mingxiao clicked his tongue in amazement: "That's high-tech and impressive, but our PE class is also an elective."
Jiang Huaiyu asked curiously, "What kinds are there?"
"Usually it's Chinese, math, English, physics, chemistry, and biology. Whoever grabs it first comes to beat us up."
Jiang Huaiyu: ...
What a great elective!
As they were talking, Li Qing knocked twice on the door.
Lu Mingxiao went to open the door, and Jiang Huaiyu also sat up, but his view was blocked by Lu Mingxiao, and he could only vaguely see Li Qing holding two pieces of cloth.
"Huh? My curtain is so nice! I specially ordered it from Pinduoduo! Why won't you let me hang it up?!"
Lu Mingxiao tried to stop her: "Mom, we're both over thirty combined, this curtain isn't suitable! It's better not to hang it up!"
Li Qing: "Don't be shameless! Do you think Xiao Bao wants to see you walking around shirtless? It's an eyesore!"
"I've been dressing properly these past two days! I don't want him to see my sexy body!"
"Stop kidding me! I saw you shirtless giving Xiaobao a bath as soon as I got home today!" Li Qing shoved the 1.83-meter-tall Lu Mingxiao aside: "Get out of my way!"
Jiang Huaiyu: ...
It's so lively, but could we please not mention taking a bath?
Li Qing smiled and, with a flourish, opened the two curtains: "Xiao Bao, our family's conditions are limited, and partitioning this room isn't very convenient. Mom bought you two curtains. Do you like them?"
Left: A chibi-style figure riding a horse, with Lu Mingxiao's head cut out and pasted on top, and the words "May wealth and treasures come to you" written next to it.
On the right: a chibi-style figure holding a large carp, with Jiang Huaiyu's head cut out and pasted on top, and the words "precious as a pearl" written next to it.
Jiang Huaiyu's lips twitched: "...Thank you, I like it very much."
Lu Mingxiao wailed, "Jiang Xiaobao! You're such a hypocrite!"
...
After a 48-hour water tightness test, the small bathroom finally started to be tiled. Lu Mingxiao had been stuck at home doing his homework for the past two days, and his eyes lit up when he saw the renovation team: "Aunt Gao! I'll help you with the tiling!"
Li Qing wasn't visible, but her voice drifted over from afar: "Lu Mingxiao, get your homework done!"
Sitting opposite Lu Mingxiao, Jiang Huaiyu looked at him amusedly: "Do you have ADHD? You're so uncomfortable just sitting for a short while?"
"It's been two days already, and you call this a short while?" Lu Mingxiao lay on the table, his ballpoint pen flying smoothly around his slender fingers. "Never mind, Teacher Jiang, please continue."
Jiang Huaiyu is explaining a chemistry problem to Lu Mingxiao.
He discovered that Lu Mingxiao actually had a decent foundation, and that Lu Mingxiao was very smart, the type who could grasp things quickly, had a good memory and flexible thinking, and could apply what he learned to other situations.
With such learning ability, he really shouldn't be a poor student. The reason is that he forgets many of the knowledge points he should memorize. If he calms down and memorizes them, his grades will improve a lot.
Jiang Huaiyu glanced at Lu Mingxiao, who looked like he was sitting on a branding iron, and pointed to the last question: "If you can solve this, I'll find a way to let you go out and play."
Lu Mingxiao's eyes lit up, and he buried himself in thought.
His train of thought went astray for a moment, but Jiang Huaiyu corrected him. Twenty minutes later, Lu Mingxiao's arrogant laughter echoed from the small house.
Jiang Huaiyu told Li Qing that she wanted Lu Mingxiao to take her out for a walk. Li Qing readily agreed and even transferred 500 yuan to Lu Mingxiao. Lu Mingxiao refused to accept it, saying that he still had money to spend, and then took Jiang Huaiyu out.
The main road in the small town only has four lanes. When Jiang Huaiyu first arrived, she took a taxi through the main street and thought it was a side road. The main street was lined with shops, but the two of them didn't plan to buy anything, so there wasn't much to see. Lu Mingxiao took Jiang Huaiyu to a dessert shop. The shop had small private rooms, and the minimum charge was sixty yuan. However, Lu Mingxiao knew the owner, so after saying hello, he only ordered two drinks.
"You came out just to find a different place to sit?" Jiang Huaiyu found it a little funny: "And you even spent the money for two cups of food coloring?"
Lu Mingxiao took a big gulp of grape-flavored food coloring: "At home, my mom makes me do my homework whenever she catches me. Please have mercy on me... Come on, Mr. Jiang, open the game and let's play a couple of rounds in the arena."
Both of them hadn't logged into the game for a while, and the update would take some time. While waiting, Jiang Huaiyu asked curiously, "How do you know the owner of this shop?"
"We met while playing basketball." Lu Mingxiao said casually, crossing his long legs. "He's four years older than us. His family has some money. They opened this shop for him. He doesn't even earn enough each month to buy a pair of sneakers. I worked here for him, and we got along pretty well."
After arriving at the Lu family, everyone he met seemed to get along well with Lu Mingxiao.
Jiang Huaiyu took a sip of orange juice: "Your social skills are really strong..."
After the game update was complete, the two players logged in, were matched with a random player, and entered the 3v3 arena.
As the countdown began, Lu Mingxiao suddenly laughed: "Boss Jiang, did you see the nickname I gave you that day?"
Jiang Huaiyu looked up at him: "I saw it. I'm a little curious about the nicknames for 'Sugar Daddy No. 1' and 'Sugar Daddy No. 2'."
His eyes were beautiful, especially when he looked over casually, they carried a natural air of aloofness and superiority, without any deliberate attempt to distance himself from anyone, yet they exuded a sense of distance.
When Lu Mingxiao first met Jiang Huaiyu, he didn't really like the aloof and detached air about him. But after living and eating together for the past few days, he knew that the young master didn't mean it. After all, he had seen many other emotions in those eyes before. But this one look still stunned him...
His parents really know how to give birth to children; Jiang Xiaoyu is so adorable.
He hadn't even heard what Jiang Huaiyu had just asked, and blurted out as if possessed, "Are there a lot of girls chasing after you at your school?"
Jiang Huaiyu: ? ? ?
He was a little helpless about Lu Mingxiao's past erratic thinking: "There were one or two people who, it wasn't really a pursuit, they just expressed their feelings for me. After I rejected them, they didn't persist."
“Oh…” Lu Mingxiao didn’t know why he asked this. Just then, the arena opened, and he remembered the question Jiang Huaiyu had asked him earlier: “Are you asking me about the nicknames of the other two bosses? One of them is Big Ears Howling Donkey, and the other is Husky Who Can’t Be Handled.”
Jiang Huaiyu: ...
Suddenly I realized that his "good boy" persona wasn't so bad after all.
He just couldn't understand why he had saved his boss's contact as "Big-eared, squealing donkey," which, as far as he knew, was a type of dog called a beagle.
In the second game, the boss applied to join the team, and throughout the entire game, he made wer~wer~wer~ sounds when he was being attacked.
Jiang Huaiyu: "Is the person we're teaming up with even a human? What do we do if our teammates keep ringing?"
Lu Mingxiao laughed out loud, his hand trembled, and his game character missed a damage reduction skill. Big Boss's "Biohazard Maniac" was hit by the opponent's critical strike and fell to the ground with a thud.
(Biohazard Maniac) [Cold Abyss]: Werewolf~ Bro, is this right? Is this your skill level? Is it because I didn't pay you this round that you have no sense of service and are so disrespectful to your dad?
(Elemental Apostle) [AAA Boosting Xiaoming]: Sorry, boss, I didn't notice.
(Biohazard Maniac) [Hanyuan]: What are you paying attention to? You've been circling around that sniper the whole time. Tell me honestly, are you carrying a girl to rank up?
(Elemental Apostle) [AAA Boosting Xiaoming]: Not a younger sister, but a younger brother.
(Biohazard Maniac) [Han Yuan]: I didn't expect you to be on that path, brother. Sorry to bother you.
Lu Mingxiao was completely bewildered: "What is he talking about? Which road is this?"
Jiang Huaiyu: "How can I understand Bigger's speech? The enemy Mech Vanguard was slowed down by my speed reduction..."
Lu Mingxiao: "Okay, received it, Boss Jiang~"
The Elemental Apostle used Flash to perfectly coordinate and take down the opponent's head, while also blocking a few basic attacks for the Ghost Sniper.
Biggs, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke up again.
(Biohazard Maniac) [Han Yuan]: Look at your worthless appearance.
Lu Mingxiao: ? ? ?
...
After playing for an afternoon and ranking up several ranks, Lu Mingxiao glanced at the time, said it was time to go home, and the two logged off the game and walked home together.
The dessert shop had air conditioning, but as soon as you stepped outside, a wave of heat hit you, and the air you breathed into your nostrils was hot. Jiang Huaiyu felt a little uncomfortable and subconsciously rubbed her nose.
Lu Mingxiao glanced at him and pointed to the shade of the trees at the street corner: "Wait here for me for a while. I'll walk a bit further ahead; it's easier to get a taxi there."
Jiang Huaiyu rubbed her nose again: "Call Didi..."
"No Didi, young master. We only have a WeChat mini-program for hailing a ride. There aren't many drivers accepting fares on it yet. Wait a moment, I'll go call a taxi for you."
Jiang Huaiyu waited in the shade of a tree, glancing at the class group on her phone. A female classmate was having a birthday party at a six-star hotel in Shanghai, and the class was invited to attend. She had even asked Jiang Huaiyu about it.
"Class monitor, are you back from your trip yet? How much longer?"
Jiang Huaiyu first typed "one week", then deleted it. Before she could decide how long she wanted to stay, she suddenly saw out of the corner of her eye a thin, dark figure being pushed and shoved into a narrow alley by three or five people at the right side of the road.
It's Li Rui.
...
In the alley, three or five young men who looked like gangsters were surrounding Li Rui. The one in the lead, with green hair, patted Li Rui's face with a grin: "Hey Rui, you said you were quitting gangsters and you really are? What? You don't even greet your brothers when we meet?"
Li Rui lowered his head and said in a muffled voice, "Last year, I stayed up all night at the arcade, and my grandma almost had an accident. It was my neighbor who took her to the hospital. I promised him that I would never mess around like that again, and that I would finish high school properly and then learn a trade..."
"Hey! You've turned over a new leaf!" The group burst into laughter. Green Hair then asked, "Alright, we brothers wish you all the best in turning to the right path and making a fortune! But you still owe us money, don't you have to pay it back?"
Li Rui suddenly looked up: "When did I owe you money? When we went out, didn't I always buy you cigarettes?"
Green Hair sneered: "Look at you, your memory is still not good..."
He reached out and ruffled Li Rui's hair: "Want me to help you think of something? Hmm?"
What are you trying to do?
A clear, youthful voice interrupted the chaotic dance of the crowd. Jiang Huaiyu stood at the alley entrance, having jogged over. He was breathing heavily and frowned as he looked at Li Rui, who was surrounded by the crowd.
"Li Rui." He slowly calmed his breathing. "Why did you leave halfway through your meal? There are eight people waiting for you to pay the bill."
He casually mentioned "eight people," and Green Hair and the others hesitated for a moment upon hearing this, however...
Li Rui stammered, "Huh? Jiang Huaiyu, I didn't eat with you guys."
Jiang Huaiyu: "...Li Huaixiao, where's your brain?"
Green Hair immediately flew into a rage: "Where did this pretty boy come from? You fucking mess with me!"
He looked Jiang Huaiyu up and down, then his squinted eyes suddenly lit up: "Wow, are these shoes real or fake? They cost several thousand!"
Li Rui snapped out of her daze, feeling both ashamed and anxious. Her face turned a deep purplish-red. She reached out to stop them, saying, "What are you doing? This is our business. Don't involve unrelated people!"
Green Hair gave Li Rui a casual shove, sending him tumbling, and continued walking towards Jiang Huaiyu, grinning slyly as he went: "Little brother, it's fate that we met. Can you lend me your shoes?"
Jiang Huaiyu recalled the self-defense techniques taught by the martial arts coach her family had hired, and subtly shifted her feet.
Green Hair stopped, his eyes widening in surprise: "You..."
Jiang Huaiyu felt a heat in her nose, followed by a coolness on her chin...
A stream of blood gushed down her nose, staining her snow-white short-sleeved shirt red.
Meanwhile, Lu Mingxiao, who had been searching for someone, finally found the alley based on Jiang Huaiyu's information. He ran over and saw Li Rui lying on the ground, and Jiang Huaiyu...
He stared at the glaring red for a long while, then turned to the green-haired creature and asked, word by word:
"You touched him?"
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