Chapter 454 - 394: Good News
Chapter 454: Chapter 394: Good News
"Classmate? Who are you trying to fool? He’s just some transfer student who popped up out of nowhere. Maybe I should transfer to your Medical College, too. Then we could be inseparable classmates. I’m more qualified than anyone!" Zheng Shaolian said, an inevitable pang of bitterness rising in his heart.
’It was a story full of tears. He had finally found a girl he adored, one he should have been the one to protect as she grew up. Who knew things would turn out so ridiculously coincidental? In the blink of an eye, she became his older cousin’s fiancée, and he was the one threatened to keep his distance and not get any ideas. The frustration... He’d never get over it as long as he lived.’
Although Zheng Shaolian had matured considerably, Xiao Man was still afraid he might suddenly lose it and do something stupid. She feigned disgust and said, "Just drop that idea. You don’t have the aptitude for medicine, so don’t come over and embarrass me."
Zheng Shaolian glared at her. "And that Sun guy has the aptitude? He was already a surgeon of some renown abroad. Why would he come back to the country to go to college all over again and be classmates with a rookie like you? He obviously has ulterior motives!"
"If you know his last name is Sun, what are you so nervous about? I’m not that easy to fool. He’s Imperial Doctor Sun’s great-grandson. His family’s roots are in Huaxia, so of course he had to come back, right? No matter how famous or accomplished he is, he’s a rookie when it comes to Chinese medicine. I, on the other hand, have learned his family’s traditional medical arts. So what’s so strange about me giving him a few pointers?"
"He’s a grown man. Does he need you to give him pointers?"
"He grew up abroad and only has a superficial understanding of his own family’s medical arts; he’s never grasped its essence. I’m just following Mr. Sun’s last wishes by giving him some guidance."
"I hear the guy’s pretty good-looking. What, is he one of those lovesick pretty boys?"
"He’s quite handsome, yes, but what does that have to do with me? To me, Gu Shaojun is the best. All other men are the same."
A flicker of dejection crossed Zheng Shaolian’s eyes. He was about to say something but was cut off by the sudden ringing of the phone.
Tang Haocheng answered the phone. After hanging up, he walked behind the sofa, leaned in, and whispered something in Grandpa Tang’s ear. Grandpa Tang nodded, then stood and patted Grandma Tang on the shoulder, gesturing for her to follow him upstairs to the study to take a call.
As soon as the two elders left, the atmosphere relaxed. Gu Shaozhen grabbed a plate and started scarfing down fruit, exclaiming, "Are these the big pears from Gongdao Village? They’re amazing! Gu Shaoqin, you guys are really something else! I’m out there busting my ass to make money while you’re at home devouring all the good stuff and not saving a single piece for me!"
Gu Shaoqin looked helplessly at his third brother and shrugged, at a loss for an explanation. ’When the big pears were airlifted to Beijing, I was still rattling along on a train. How was I supposed to know how they were divided up? All I know is that by the time I got home, there wasn’t a single pear left.’
Tang Haocheng smiled and pushed the other two fruit platters in front of Gu Shaozhen. "We only have a few left at my place. They’re all here. You can have them all!"
Gu Shaozhen glared. "What’s with that tone? I get to eat all the leftovers? Are you treating me like some beggar?"
"Fine, then Shaoqin and I will eat them!"
"Get lost! Don’t you dare try to take them from me. Didn’t you guys eat your fill back when you were picking them from the tree?"
"..."
Zheng Shaojin watched the gluttonous Gu Shaozhen and the dopey-looking Gu Shaoqin, speechless. ’These two,’ he thought, ’have definitely forgotten the reason they’re here.’
’But maybe this is for the best. Being too serious about it might just annoy Manman. She’s a young woman now. We can’t forbid her from interacting with other men just because she’s engaged to our older cousin. Besides, that Sun Yiming is Imperial Doctor Sun’s great-grandson. Since Manman learned the Sun family’s medical arts, she’s practically a disciple of their school. That’s a deep connection, so he must hold a certain place in her heart.’
Recalling the conspiratorial look on their grandpa’s face when he had summoned them to the study, Zheng Shaojin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ’Their brilliant and powerful grandpa, a man who once commanded entire armies, had his image utterly shattered today!’
’He had actually ordered his grandsons that from this day forward, they could put anything else on hold, but they must not fail in one duty: keeping Manman company. Whether the brothers took turns or went as a group, they had to guard Manman. Before their eldest cousin returned, they absolutely could not give any other man an opportunity to swoop in and steal away the Gu family’s future daughter-in-law!’
’The old man’s eyes were sharp, though. He’d somehow seen Zheng Shaolian’s feelings for Manman, which was why he’d been deliberately excluded from this mission. But then big-mouthed Gu Shaozhen had gone and spilled the beans over the phone, and Zheng Shaolian had immediately rushed back to Beijing.’
Zheng Shaojin glanced sympathetically at his twin brother, who was leaning in and whispering to Manman with a lowered voice. The bright smile on his face was so handsome it seemed unreal, yet it stirred... an inexplicable pang of pity.
He lowered his eyes and sighed. ’Who was there to blame? Manman belongs to their older cousin, but fate just had to have her be lost and then found by Shaolian. There was nothing to be done about it. You could only blame the whims of destiny.’
With the Gu brothers visiting, Xiao Man and Hao Hao couldn’t just rush back to school. They ended up staying for half the day, and after they all made and ate dinner, Gu Shaozhen and Zheng Shaolian drove them back to campus in separate cars.
That afternoon left Xiao Man buzzing with excitement. It was mainly because Gu Shaozhen had been talking about the jade business on the southern border. Her mind soared as she listened, and she wished she could just ask for a leave of absence from school and run straight to the border to see it for herself. Gu Shaozhen said that in that region, all kinds of raw jade stones were piled up like mountains. People would gamble on the stones, relying on luck to cut one open and find jade inside. As for whether those jade stones contained any Spiritual Energy, nobody knew.
For Xiao Man, however, picking out valuable jade was a piece of cake. If she could go to the border to gamble on stones, she was confident she could make the bosses selling the raw stones weep!
When Zheng Shaolian saw how interested Xiao Man was in stone gambling, he got worried she might actually run off to the border. He immediately tried to dissuade her. "You don’t have to go all the way to the border for stone gambling. That place is a den of crooks—filthy and dangerous. It’s no place for a girl. You can actually do it right here in Beijing, though there are fewer stones and the odds of winning are slim. If you’re really set on trying, wait for a school break and I’ll take you to N Province. A lot more people do it there, there are more raw stones, it’s more fun, and the environment is much better and relatively safe!"
Xiao Man was just about to nod in agreement when Gu Shaozhen shot Zheng Shaolian a look like he was an idiot. He slung an arm around Xiao Man’s shoulders. "A classy lady like you, why would you need to waste your energy on wild guesses and random gambling? Squeezing into a chaotic pile of stones with a mob of people? How revolting! Manman, you just wait. Soon, we won’t need raw stones, and we won’t need to gamble. All the jadeite jade will come to us with a wave of the hand. We’ll get you as much as you want!"
Xiao Man was skeptical. "Really? That sounds like magic."
"Of course!"
Gu Shaozhen triumphantly dropped a bombshell, and Xiao Man was overjoyed. The guy had been out of contact, practically missing, for nearly six months. She had assumed he was just doing business around Guangdong, but it turned out he had used some connections to go abroad, where he had scouted and was now preparing to buy two jade mines. The negotiations with the seller were almost complete. He was just waiting for their final word, and then he would head over immediately to finalize everything!
This trip back to Beijing was a rare moment of leisure snatched from his busy schedule. His jewelry company was already established and in full operation. He had used a break during his company inspection tour to fly back, but he could only stay home for two nights before he had to leave again.