Chapter 119 Put away that trash
Lu Chong paused for a moment, then quickly glanced into the bag.
Neither the document bag nor the gift box showed any signs of being opened, so Mu Yan probably hadn't had a chance to look at them yet.
"Inside the document folder are the property transfer documents for all the properties under my name, and the beneficiaries of the insurance policies... all listed with Yan Yan's name..."
Mu Yan looked at him quietly. In fact, sometimes he almost forgot what Lu Chong looked like. The Lu Chong who brought him to Country A, the Lu Chong who lived with him in the rented house, three faces that seemed different were mixed in his memory, making his memory somewhat chaotic.
"I didn't break up with you because you wouldn't give me that 100,000 yuan..."
Mu Yan looked at him without looking away.
"I'm sorry, I know..."
This dialogue seemed to have been rehearsed countless times in Lu Chong's mind, but now, all he could do was stammer and repeat, "I'm sorry, I know."
"You said sorry, you said it before," Mu Yan said softly.
He had already mentioned it in the underground parking lot later, but Mu Yan didn't answer him then; she just followed Shang Qiyue.
"Actually, I have already forgiven you, but I was a little emotional that day in the parking lot and didn't say it."
“My brother was indeed foolish, and I was indeed incompetent to be driven to such a desperate situation by 150,000 yuan. You were wrong, and I was wrong too. If I were more capable, and could become a senior executive in my second year after graduation like others, earning 300,000 to 400,000 yuan a year, I wouldn't have ended up in that situation…”
Lu Chong didn't speak, he just kept shaking his head. Mu Yan's words were words of self-reproach, but each one pierced his heart.
Is Mu Yan the one who lacks ability?
He's the one who's incompetent.
What Lu Chong never dared to admit was that he felt inferior to Mu Yan in the two years after graduation.
Because of her inferiority complex, she repeatedly threw tantrums and used Mu Yan's gentleness and tolerance to prove that he did love her and that he would not leave her.
Because of his inferiority complex, he kept telling himself that he didn't want to marry him at all, that he was just a lover and a plaything to him. That way, even if Mu Yan didn't want him anymore one day, it would just be a bitter breakup with a lover.
Mu Yan still didn't open the bag. Instead, Xie Chen, who was next to him, pushed the bag towards Lu Chong across from him.
The waiter had already poured the champagne; the half-full glass of amber liquid shimmered under the overhead light of the chandelier.
It is etiquette to pour champagne only halfway, which is something that anyone with a little sense knows. However, Xie Chen picked up the champagne that had been decanted and poured it to the brim, almost to the point where it was only a centimeter from the rim.
Anyone with unsteady hands is likely to spill champagne on their clothes when they pick it up.
"Stand up and drink. Didn't you come here to apologize? You should at least be more polite." Xie Chen glanced indifferently at the handbag, then at Lu Chong.
"Put away your trash. Yan Yan doesn't need this little bit of stuff."
This was blatant hostility and provocation, yet Lu Chong simply remained silent and avoided eye contact.
"Sorry, I'm not a big drinker."
“People in business,” Xie Chen scoffed, “Mr. Lu, you told me you don’t drink? Are you treating me like a fool?”
“I… I told you last time when I had dinner with Mr. Xie and your father in City A that I’m not very good at drinking.”
“It’s normal not to like drinking. I don’t like it either. I’ll avoid drinking if I can avoid it. But if Mr. Lu is sincerely apologizing, he shouldn’t be so unwilling to even offer a toast.”
Lu Chong seemed to have made a difficult decision, reaching out to grip the wine glass tightly.
"Stop drinking," Mu Yan suddenly said.
Lu Chong has always had a bad stomach, and he would feel unwell for a long time every time he came back from drinking.
"There's no need for you to torture yourself like this just to make me feel bad. If any stranger were injured or sick in front of me, I would feel bad too."
“If… can make you feel better,” Lu Chong said.
"I'm not angry anymore," Mu Yan said softly.
I'm really not angry anymore. Living with resentment will never bring happiness.
He's doing well now. His mother's illness is cured, and she's about to go to graduate school. His biological mother, whom he had no memory of... Mu Yan now knows that she has only lived a comfortable life all these years and hasn't suffered any great hardships.
That life-altering event, which he thought would ruin his entire life, ultimately left him with only a minor illness and a false pregnancy that would resolve itself in a few months.
It's like you just tripped and fell. Even though it hurt a lot at the time, you can get up, dust yourself off, and keep going.
I've never felt so hopeful before.
He got rid of Shang Qiyue thanks to Lu Chong. The accounts were too complicated to keep track of, so it was better to wipe them clean and start a new life.
He could hardly recall the anger he felt at the engagement party when he learned that Lu Chong had lied to him for two years, just as he couldn't remember how devastated he was when he learned that his mother was sick, or how excited he was when he received his acceptance letter from University A.
He remembered the morning Lu Chong called him and he went to pick Lu Chong up to take him to his rented apartment. It seemed that he was the one who asked Lu Chong first if his family had gone bankrupt, and Lu Chong followed up with what he said.
Actually, Shang Qiyue was also stirring up his emotions that day; he really is someone who can easily manipulate people's emotions with just a few words.
Regardless of the cause and effect, Lu Chong did indeed deceive himself, and he was not wronged.
There's really no point in dwelling on the past. Letting Lu Chong do things that harm his own body now would be detrimental to both himself and others, and Mu Yan wouldn't feel any satisfaction from that.
Once he recovers, he will go to graduate school. He may meet other suitable people at school. Whether it's love or hate, he needs to clear his mind so he can like new people.
A blonde, blue-eyed beta girl from France whom I met in the language class confessed her feelings to Mu Yan a few days ago. Actually, during this time, she had been actively trying to sit with Mu Yan.
The girl smiled and called him cute in English, which was even worse than Mu Yan's, and asked him if he could try dating her. Mu Yan actually hesitated for a moment at that time.
But after thinking about it for a while, he felt that he wasn't ready to start another relationship. He was afraid of being deceived, and he was also afraid of insincerity and inequality, things that his future partner shouldn't have to endure.
Mu Yan no longer wants to blame Lu Chong.
Just like those villagers who teased him for not having a mother when he was young, but later held a banquet to raise money for his tuition, when Mu Yan looks at Lu Chong now, he can only think of the scarf Lu Chong wore around his neck when they first met, and the hot oden they ate together when Lu Chong picked him up from get off work.
Mu Yan reached out and pressed down on Lu Chong's hand, which was holding a wine glass.
"No need to drink anymore. My brother just wanted to stand up for me, but I'm not angry anymore."
The title "my brother" seemed to make Xie Chen, who was standing next to him, pause slightly, but Mu Yan did not notice.
He looked at Lu Chong across from him and recalled their second meeting.
At that time, he saw a message in the school's part-time job group saying that a club was organizing a team building activity at a party venue and needed to recruit people to help with the barbecue. The salary was 200 yuan per night, or about 60 yuan per hour.
Mu Yan himself studied this field and wrote a script that automatically grabs jobs with an hourly wage of more than fifty on weekdays.
But he didn't expect to run into Lu Chong here.
After leaving his area of expertise, Mu Yan seemed unable to stand tall and look him in the eye again. Lu Chong arrived neither early nor late, before mealtime. The other members of the club were playing mahjong, board games, karaoke, and billiards.
Barbecue tastes best when it's freshly grilled. The person in charge repeatedly instructed that it couldn't be grilled in advance. Mu Yan sat alone in the kitchen, skewering mushrooms one by one.
"Mu Yan," when Alpha walked into the kitchen, Mu Yan thought he was just there to get a drink and continued skewering mushrooms until a familiar, pleasant voice called his name. Only then did he look up. "What a coincidence, are you also in the skateboarding club?"
Today, Lu Chong wore a simple white chunky knit sweater with a casual jacket over it. His style was different from the days he wore during the competition, but it was a different kind of good-looking style.
They hadn't exchanged contact information yet at that time. Mu Yan was taken aback, not expecting that he still remembered her.
Mu Yan didn't even know that the club organizing team building today was the skateboarding club. Even though he was already used to poverty, at this moment, the twenty-year-old Mu Yan still felt embarrassed for no reason.
"No, no. I'm just here part-time..."
The sound of running water from a tap came from beside him; Lu Chong was washing his hands.
After Mu Yan explained that he was working part-time, Lu Chong didn't say anything more. As a casual acquaintance, such small talk seemed sufficient. Mu Yan didn't know which side of the dining table Lu Chong was going to go around to the refrigerator, so he consciously moved his chair closer to the table to make way for him.
Then, as Lu Chong passed by him, he pulled out the chair next to him and sat down.
Mu Yan was stunned.
"Should we string them all together?" He imitated Mu Yan, taking three mushrooms in his left palm and then stringing them together with a skewer.
He wasn't particularly skilled; two of the three mushrooms weren't skewered through their stems with bamboo skewers, but rather through their caps. That would easily cause them to fall off while grilling.
Mu Yan only strung three together after he had become proficient. The first time he strung three together, he naturally failed very easily.
Lu Chong picked the mushrooms again and strung them up one by one.
"With so many holes, won't it be easy to burn?" Lu Chong smiled and didn't put the string of mushrooms into the iron basin where Mu Yan had already put the mushrooms. "Then I'll eat this string."
[Author's Note]
Lu Chong got tired of being humiliated by every love rival.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
