Chapter 18
She had never been in love, let alone kissed, in her previous life. Now she was kissed, but without any preparation or hint. Jiang Yao was stunned for a moment until someone bit her tongue with a dog-like kissing technique. She came to her senses after feeling the pain.
He had been aloof and ignored her since he came back in the evening, and now he forcefully kissed her without notifying her. Jiang Yao was immediately angry and aggrieved, and raised her hand to push him away, staring at Lu Che with red eyes, "What are you doing?"
Lu Che reached out and pulled her into his arms again, hugged her tightly, and said, "Yaoyao, let's be together."
"..." Jiang Yao was stunned, and Lu Che said again: "I like you."
"You like me? You haven't even looked at me since you came back." Jiang Yao said angrily.
"I can't help it." Lu Che said helplessly, "I haven't showered for a few days. I stink. I don't dare to get close to you. Besides, grandma and the others are here. I can't hug you like this."
"You can't hug me like this now even if there's no one around?" Jiang Yao said, trying to push him away again, but her strength was just like tickling to Lu Che, so he wasn't afraid of her. He hugged her tighter and said, "I really like you, would you like to date me?"
His voice was low and gentle, coaxing her like a child. Jiang Yao's heart melted when she heard it. She pouted and said, "Just because you like me, do I have to date you?"
"That's because you like me too. We are in love with each other." Lu Che smiled very confidently.
"...Who said I like you?" Jiang Yao turned away guiltily.
Lu Che let her go a little, lowered his eyes and stared into her eyes and said, "You don't like me, why did you cry when I was arrested? If you don't like me, why are you willing to tell me what happened that night as a witness? If you don't like me, why do you go to so much trouble to clear my name?"
Faced with three consecutive soul-searching questions, Lawyer Jiang was choked for a moment, and said after a while: "Didn't you also refuse to tell me what happened that night for my sake?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Che's smile became even wider, like a child who had won a competition.
"..." It was a disgrace in her career that Lawyer Jiang was actually tricked into revealing something one day. It must be that love made people less intelligent.
She had been here for so long, but she seemed to have never seen him smile. It turned out that he looked so good when he smiled, a little naughty, but it made people's heart beat faster.
Faced with the straight man's reasoning logic, Jiang Yao had no way to refute it, but she just refused to accept it. She couldn't struggle free, so she just puffed up her face and said nothing.
Lu Che looked at her rosy lips and couldn't help but kiss her again. Jiang Yao was about to explode when she realized what was happening, but she heard him say, "You don't accept me because you mind my background?"
"Of course not." Jiang Yao blurted out, and just after she finished speaking, she found herself being fooled by him again. She finally understood why he could become a big boss in the business world in the future, and he was completely black.
"Since you like me and don't mind my background, why don't you agree to be with me? Can you tell me the reason?"
Someone looked like he was "humbly asking for advice", but in fact he blocked all of Jiang Yao's escape routes.
At this point, what else can she do? She can only surrender. But if she thinks about it carefully, it won't hurt. If they can really go to the end in the future, she will marry into a wealthy family. She is not a money-conscious person, but she is not so noble that she regards money as dirt.
And according to the original book, he was very self-disciplined after becoming a big boss, but it was a bit excessive. At the end of the story, he was still the only one owning a business empire, but no one spent his money on him.
After getting her approval, he kissed her for a long time. She complained that his kissing skills were not good, so he took the opportunity to play tricks, saying that he would get better if he kissed more and practiced more.
After staying in Jiang Yao's room for a long time, Lu Che reluctantly left. Jiang Yao lay back on the bed, still feeling the burning sensation on her lips. When she closed her eyes, she could still see the kiss and embrace that they had just had.
Her heart was like a battery that had just been fully charged, and the throbbing force of it made Jiang Yao feel like it was about to jump out.
Jiang Yao tossed and turned, and finally fell asleep in the second half of the night due to exhaustion.
At 6:30 the next day, her powerful biological clock woke her up.
She hadn't been to work for several days. Even if she looked down on centimeters, she couldn't let the attendance record look bad. What's more, she didn't have a golden finger and was someone who needed centimeters.
She got up, changed her clothes, and just as she went out to wash up, she saw Lu Che coming in carrying water.
Thinking of the kiss last night, her face suddenly became hot and she didn't dare to look him in the eye.
She was embarrassed, but Lu Che was very generous, his eyes glued to her.
"Come in for a moment." Lu Che poured the two buckets of water on his shoulders into the water tank in the kitchen and called to Jiang Yao who was standing outside the door.
"What for?" Jiang Yao walked in hesitantly.
"Here you go." Lu Che took out three cents from his trouser pocket and handed it to her.
Jiang Yao looked at the three cents, confused, "What is this?"
She didn't take it, so Lu Che stuffed it into her hand and said, "This is what I earned when I went to collect firewood this morning."
"How can I take the money you earn?" Jiang Yao was about to return it to him, but she heard him say, "You are my partner, and all the money I earn in the future will be given to you for safekeeping."
"..." Jiang Yao was flattered that he handed over the financial power to her on the second day of their relationship. "This is not good. You should keep it for yourself or give it to Grandma Lu."
"No, it's not bad. My grandma said that if you have a wife, you should give your money to her for safekeeping."
"But I'm not your wife now?"
"It will happen sooner or later." Lu Che's tone couldn't be more certain.
“…”
"Okay, hurry up and wash up, then have breakfast. I've already prepared it and it's warming in the pot," said Lu Che.
Jiang Yao listened and couldn't help asking, "You went to the county town to make money and fetch water for breakfast. Did you sleep last night?"
"Do you think I can sleep?" He raised his lips slightly and looked at her leisurely.
Jiang Yao's face became red when he looked at her, so he stopped teasing her and said seriously, "From now on, unless it is the busy farming season and all members are working in the fields, you can do handicrafts. Other work is too tiring, so don't do it. I will work hard to support you."
"Who wants you to raise me?" Lawyer Jiang, who had handled countless divorce cases in her previous life, knew that women should be self-reliant. She said, "Don't think that I'm growing six centimeters a day now. When the seeds my brother sends arrive, I'll have a side job."
“Yes, yes, my Yaoyao can support herself, but that doesn’t stop me from working hard to make money to support you.” After Lu Che said this, he kissed her lips and went to work.
Jiang Yao glared at his back angrily, but as she stared, she couldn't help laughing.
Lu Che was very happy like this, and of course, she was also very happy.
After washing up, Jiang Yao opened the rice cooker and found a sweet potato and an egg warming inside. Others might not be able to eat an egg in a month, but she had one for breakfast. The boss really didn't treat his partner badly.
After a happy breakfast, Jiang Yao and Lu Qing went to the paper mill to get raw materials.
Along the way, they met villagers who were all discussing Lu Zhisen. When they arrived at the paper mill where there were the most women, the conversation was even more heated.
Normally, the women in the village would disdain to talk to Lu Qing, but as a family member of the person wrongly accused in this case, everyone was particularly enthusiastic towards her today. Some even expressed their sympathy, "This matter really wronged your Lu Che."
"That's right. He was treated so badly. Why don't you go to Lu Qianyuan's house and make trouble?"
"Are you afraid to go? If so, we will back you up together. Chen Shuanglian is usually so arrogant, let her have a taste of her own medicine this time."
“…”
The women swarmed around Lu Qing and said that she couldn't handle it.
Jiang Yao could see that these women were just looking for fun, so she said coldly, "Lu Zhisen broke the law, the law will naturally punish him, why do you need to do it yourself? If you really do it yourself, wouldn't that mean you're getting yourself into trouble? Who would do such a stupid thing?"
The women who were implied shut up immediately.
The scene was quiet for a while, and then someone couldn't help but wanted to speak, but this time the focus was on guiding Jiang Yao.
"If you ask me, Lu Che should also thank Jiang Zhiqing this time. She was really good when she was trying to trick Chen Shuanglian yesterday."
It was unclear whether this woman's flattery was genuine or fake, but after she started, the flattery became more and more colorful. Jiang Yao was not modest and just listened to it until the end, "It's nothing, actually. The Lu family took me in, they are good people, and I should repay them."
After gaining some goodwill with the Lu family, it was their turn to collect the materials, and after collecting them they would return to the Lu family.
When they got back to the Lu family, Lu Qing said, "Yaoyao, you don't have to cook for lunch. Lu Che got some pork this morning, and grandma said she wants to treat you to a meal."
"Didn't we invite you last night?"
"Last night's meal only had a few scrambled eggs. It doesn't count. Grandma said you helped so much, so you must have meat."
"Okay." Jiang Yao was not polite, but Lu Qing said with some embarrassment, "Even you know that my cooking skills are very average. I finally got a piece of meat, and I don't want to waste it."
Jiang Yao understood what she meant, and patted his chest and promised: "Then leave it to me."
"That's the best!" Lu Qing said with a smile, "You go get the meat, and I'll do the handicrafts."
"OK."
Jiang Yao went to the Lu family's big kitchen and saw a piece of pork belly hanging there, shiny and greasy.
It is indeed an era when oil and water are scarce, and everyone loves to buy extremely fatty pork belly.
Jiang Yao thought about it and decided to make taro braised pork, which is both delicious and large in size.
Taro braised pork belly is not complicated, but frying the pork belly is a bit oily. It is impossible to fry it with a lot of oil these days, so she fried it instead. Although the effect is not as good, you can't ask for too much.
She went to the vegetable garden to pick a taro, then came back to peel it and cut it into one-centimeter-thick pieces. She then fried the pork belly in oil, and when both sides were golden brown, she took it out and cut it into thin slices.
In fact, thick slices taste better, but the piece of pork belly Lu Che bought was only about half a pound, so if he cut it into thick slices, the amount would not be the same as that of the taro.
Of course, she also knew that it was not easy to prepare half a pound of pork belly.
Marinate the pork belly and taro with five-spice powder and other seasonings for an hour. Then place a piece of taro and a piece of pork belly neatly in a large bowl. Finally, steam them in a steamer for an hour and they are ready to be served.
For a family to have dinner together, just this bowl of braised pork with taro is definitely not enough, so Jiang Yao also made a dish of cold kelp and two stir-fried vegetables to make up the number.
Every time this happened, she would think of Jiang Zhen, wondering if he had sent her any seeds. The vegetables here were leafy, either stir-fried or blanched, and they didn't taste very good, especially when there was not enough oil.
After finishing her work in the kitchen, it was time for lunch, but Lu Che hadn't come back yet. She couldn't help but walk out the door to take a look.
But when he opened the door, he saw a man in his thirties standing outside looking around.
"Who are you? What are you doing outside?" Jiang Yao stared at him warily.
The man knew he had misunderstood, and waved his hands to explain: "Don't be afraid, I'm not a bad person, I'm here to find Lu Che, may I ask if he lives here?"
"Why are you looking for him?" Jiang Yao asked.
"I want him to help fix the tractor." The man said, "I'm from the Qianjin Production Team in the neighboring commune. Our team, like your Qingyuan Team, applied to the commune for an old tractor, but it broke down a few days ago. We asked someone from the agricultural machinery factory to come over, but they said it couldn't be fixed."
"But recently, when we harvested sugarcane, we had to wait for the tractors to pull the sugarcane and hand it over to the collective. I heard that Lu Che is very good at repairing tractors, so I wanted to ask him for help to see if there was really no other way."
Jiang Yao didn't expect that Lu Che's reputation as a tractor repairman had spread to the neighboring commune. She was of course happy to have a broken tractor for Lu Che to practice his repair skills, so she said, "He hasn't finished work yet..."
Halfway through her words, she caught a glimpse of his figure appearing at the end of the alley, and she immediately said, "He's back."
As soon as Lu Che turned into the alley, he saw Jiang Yao standing at the door. He was so excited that he really had a partner now. But the next moment, when he saw the strange man opposite her, his mood suddenly fell to the bottom.
When the man heard that Lu Che was coming back, he was quite happy thinking that the trip was not in vain. However, when he got closer and closer to him, the aura emanating from his body made his heart tremble.
Not to mention that although Lu Che is a troublemaker, he really likes to repair tractors. Even when Qingshui's most arrogant gangster asked him for help, he didn't refuse.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Lu Che walked up to the man fiercely, frightening him so much that he trembled as he spoke, "Um... I..."
Jiang Yao looked at him and couldn't help but said, "He came to you to repair his tractor. Don't scare him."
When the man heard this, he immediately agreed: "I'm from the Qianjin Production Team in the neighboring commune. Can you help me repair the tractor?"
"No problem." Boss Lu changed his expression in an instant, patted the man on the shoulder, and said, "Let's go."
The attitude changed so quickly that the man could hardly keep up with his pace. He was stunned for a moment before he reacted and said repeatedly: "Thank you, thank you for your trouble."
Seeing that Lu Che was about to leave with the man, Jiang Yao immediately shouted, "You haven't even eaten yet, finish your meal first."
"It's okay. I'll come back to eat after I finish my repairs. I have to go to work in the afternoon and I'm afraid I won't make it in time." Lu Che said.
The man listened to Lu Che's gentle voice and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, it is true that even heroes cannot resist the temptation of beautiful women.
"Why don't you finish your meal first, otherwise your wife will be worried." said the man.
"..." Jiang Yao was stunned for a moment, and just as she was about to explain, Lu Che took the lead and said, "It doesn't matter, let's go quickly, or we really won't have to eat."
Jiang Yao: “…”Who is your wife?
Qianjin Production Team was not far from Qingyuan, but it would take quite some time to walk there and back. It was hard to say how long it would take to repair the tractor, so Jiang Yao left a large bowl of rice for Lu Che and let everyone eat first.
Lu Che had been gone and had not returned by the time it was time to go to work in the afternoon.
"Sister Qing, do you want to bring food to Lu Che?" Jiang Yao asked while pasting paper.
"Are you feeling sorry for your partner?" Lu Qing looked at her with a smile and a teasing expression.
“Sister Qing, why are you…” Jiang Yao’s face suddenly turned red.
"I'm not blind, how can I not see it?" Although Lu Che had almost no communication with Jiang Yao when he came back yesterday, and his attitude was very cold, didn't this abnormal attitude prove that there was something fishy going on? Moreover, she saw him enter Jiang Yao's room last night.
Jiang Yao said helplessly: "Is it that obvious?"
"Although I've never been in a relationship, the look of love in your eyes can't lie." Lu Qing said, somewhat moved, "Yaoyao, thank you."
"What's there to thank me for? We are in a relationship willingly." Jiang Yao laughed.
"I know, but I'm still grateful that you didn't despise him because of his poor background." Lu Qing said, "But don't worry, my brother is a responsible person. Once he makes up his mind, he will protect you for the rest of his life."
"I know." Jiang Yao said with a smile, "Otherwise I wouldn't like it either."
Lu Qing laughed out loud, "Yes, you have good taste."
Jiang Yao didn't bring food to Lu Che after all, because Lu Qing said that the Qianjin Production Team hired someone to repair the tractor, and even if the tractor couldn't be repaired well, they couldn't let them work for nothing, so they had to arrange two sweet potatoes at least.
She thought so too, but she didn't expect that the Qianjin Brigade would give her much more than just two sweet potatoes.
When Lu Che came back in the evening, Jiang Yao received one dollar and ten eggs as maintenance fees from the Qianjin Production Team.
"Wow, the Qianjin Production Team is very generous!" Jiang Yao looked at the one dollar in her hand and was very happy, but then she thought: "Did you hand it in to the production team to record the cents? Will they say that you took private work?"
"I handed over ten eggs but didn't pay for them." Lu Che said, "They took the initiative to say that they would erase the one dollar and not tell anyone else."
"They are quite capable then."
"One dollar can buy a tractor, so they are not losing money."
"That's right." Jiang Yao looked up at him and smiled, "You are really amazing now. You can even make money through your skills."
Seeing her unconscious admiration, Lu Che couldn't help but feel a little smug. He put his big hand around her waist and smiled at her, "Shouldn't you give me some reward?"
"Of course." Jiang Yao knew what this man was thinking. She said, "The heart-warming taro pork rice I made for you is warming up in the big kitchen. You can go get it now!"
Lu Che was so angry that he laughed, "You know that's not what I meant."
"Which one are you talking about?" Jiang Yao continued to play dumb.
Lu Che: "Since you don't know, I'll tell you now. But it will take me a long time to "tell" you, and you will understand it faster."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Yang's voice came from outside: "Uncle, uncle, where have you been? It's time to eat..."
Lu Che pretended to kiss her, but Jiang Yao was worried that Zhou Yang would come over and keep pestering her, so she had no choice but to kiss him.
Although it was just a light touch, Lu Che let her go. She was wondering why he was so easily satisfied today when she heard him say, "I'll go to the Xiashui production team to repair the tractor after dinner. Don't go to bed so early at night. Wait for me to find you and continue kissing."
"..." As expected, Jiang Yao couldn't help rolling her eyes in her heart, but she couldn't help feeling sweet. She really despised herself now. She was already 30 years old, but when it came to love, how could she be like a primary school kid?
The author has something to say:
Please don't look down on Mr. Lu and Lawyer Jiang, whose IQ drops in a second. When it comes to love, they are just elementary school kids.
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