Chapter 244 - Uncle needs to look at your appearance as well
Chapter 244: Uncle needs to look at your appearance as well
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
While on the way back to the Family Mansion, Yan Zhiqing had told the caregiver not to say anything once they were back and to just tell them that Jiang Changdai was being taken good care of. She was also told not to mention everything else, including Lu Weining’s incident, in case it would worry the two elders.
At night, Yan Beicheng and Lin Chu reached Hotel Sheng Yue only to find that Yan Huaian’s family had not yet arrived. Meanwhile, Wen Ren’s whole gang was already waiting in the room.
The last time they met in the Lanshan Institution, everyone had simply minded their own business, so Lin Chu did not have the chance to get to know Chai Yu and his gang all that well. They had talked before but were basically still strangers.
They went into the room and saw Yuan Jiangyi looking over Lin Chu’s shoulders.
Lin Chu did not understand what he was doing, but Yuan Jiangyi and Hao Donghuai exchanged glances and snickered.
Fang Boran was speechless.
He had so many idiot underlings, it was a disgrace.
“Is Miss Yan not here yet?” Hao Donghuai asked loudly.
Right at this moment, Yan Huaian arrived alongside Yu Zi and Yan Ningbai. Yan Ningbai skipped in whilst wearing his Pikachu backpack that had been gifted to him by Lin Chu.
“Who’s that? Who asked for my big niece?” Yan Ningbai asked with his clear voice. His two hands held the straps of his backpack tightly, making him look like the fat dolls often featured in textbooks.
Yuan Jiangyi looked at Yan Ningbai and mumbled, “Whoever marries Yan Zhiqing will have an uncle like this!”
Wei Wucai ignored them; after all, Yuan Jiangyi was a bit of a lunatic. Once they got back to the hotel, he would tell Hao Donghuai about talking to Yan Zhiqing.
According to Wei Wucai, this was a normal thing. Should he not speak to women to be considered normal? Did talking to someone mean that he was in a relationship with them?
However, this was not the case when it came to Yuan Jiangyi and Hao Donghuai. He simply could not stand it.
“It was me.” Hao Donghuai smiled while baring his teeth.
He did not come into a lot of contact with children. Even when it came to training the children of noble families in the Lanshan Institution, he did not have to do much because there were always mentors who took care of it.
There were a few kids that he got along with, but they were more like little adults as they were always so serious.
If not it was Wen Xu and Wen Ming. This was not the case for Wen Xu and Wen Ming. Wen Xu was usually expressionless whilst Wen Ming was dumb and sweet. Hao Donghuai felt that Wen Ming was more like regular children, so he lumped Yan Ningbai together with Wen Ming, who, at the time, was smiling at him naively.
“You want to be my big niece’s husband?” Yan Ningbai asked with a look of horror on his face.
Hao Donghuai was speechless.
What a stupid kid!
Yan Ningbai adjusted his shirt collar while pondering for a bit. “Uncle… Uncle needs to consider your appearance for a while.”
This meant that Hao Donghuai was not handsome enough.
Hao Donghuai was speechless.
He was not as handsome as Wei Wucai, but he was manly. This could definitely make girls feel secure.
Seeing that his friend was being bullied enough, Yuan Jiangyi said, “Don’t worry, we’re just asking.”
After this, he explained the meeting they had with Yan Zhiqing in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, Yan Ningbai took out a lollipop for Wen Ming, which Wen Ming happily took before saying sweetly, “Thank you, uncle!”
Wen Ren was speechless.
He wanted to knock this kid over the head.
Yan Ningbai looked at Yuan Jiangyi. “But if you really like her, then uncle will try to accept you.”
Yuan Jiangyi’s face twitched.
Hao Donghuai’s knuckles were cracking from clenching them so hard. “I can handle other things, except if you say that I’m not as handsome as you. Let’s fight outside, I’ll go easy on you!”
Yuan Jiangyi was speechless.
Why was everyone going easy on him today?
However, in the end Fang Boran took care of the two idiots.
…
Lin Chu did not pay so much attention to the issue regarding Lu Zhenting and his son. Nevertheless, because there were so many updates surrounding it, Yan Beicheng had no choice but to inform her about them. However, he still did not want to let her know too much out of fear it would affect her health.
Lu Zhenting and his son would not be sentenced. They might get a criminal record, but the possibility of them being released on probation was very large.
This much was to be expected. What caught everybody off guard was the fact that they had talked Jiang Changdai into refusing Yu Zi as her lawyer.
Yu Zi was still in disbelief when told this to everyone after coming back. “When I heard it, I started laughing from frustration you know?”
Yan Huaian comforted her, “Don’t be angry. It’s her decision so we don’t need to worry about her.”
Yan Huaian needed to be more careful from now on as he had made Yu Zi angry out of jealousy in the past. He would say “yes” and “okay” and nothing else to everything Yu Zi said.
As for Jiang Changda’s testimony, there was nothing bad about it. Yan Zhiqing’s recording proved that Lu Zhenghang did know about the whole thing, but obviously, he was protected by Lu Zhenting.
In the end, Jiang Changdai and Lu Zhenghang were let off with only a fine.
Jiang Changdai did not have the money for it, so naturally, it was handled by the Lu family.
Because of Jiang Changdai, the Jiang family had been disgraced. Jiang Changzai even hinted about not having a relationship with this sister during public events. On the other hand, the Jiang family either did not know or did not care about Jiang Changdai’s incident.
The Jiang family did not even want to know where Jiang Changdai lived. This was all because they were so disappointed with her. Jiang Changzai even said with reddened eyes that once he found out about what Jiang Changdai had done to Yan Huaiyuan, the madam of the Jiang family fainted on the spot. Apparently, she was still in the hospital up until now.
“My sister lied to all of us. After the last incident with Huaiyuan happened, we all thought that she regretted it after she came home, even if the two elders in the Yan Family hated her. We understood all of this because in reality, she did in fact implicate Huaiyuan. However, even if she was wrong, she was still our family, so we were ready to accept her with outstretched arms. We don’t care if she marries again either as we’d pamper her in the same way we did before she was married. Who would have known that in doing so we’d only spoil her. We turned her into someone who is selfish and willing to do such heinous things. Even as my mother was hospitalized, she never once showed that she cared. We want nothing to do with this person. If she wants to continue to work with the Lu family, then let her as we can’t control her anymore. However, let it be known that we will never support her decision in helping the Lu Family!”
On the other hand, the Lu Family was not that lucky now that its name has been dragged through the mud. Before this, the Yan Family did not want news of this to spread to the public, so the public was kept unaware of the relationship between the Lu and Yan Family, and thus did not hesitate in working with Lu Family.
However, due to the current matter, it had been revealed that the Lu Family had completely offended the Yan Family, yet the Yan Family had not acted harshly. Thus, the companies that shared a good business relationship with the Yan Family were now staying away from the Lu Family.
Lu Zhenting was able to build up the Lu Family thanks to the benefits of a few previous marriages. Naturally, when his in-laws learned about his relationship with Jiang Changdai before their daughter died, they took back their offers in anger.
Lu Zhenting had been enjoying the benefits brought by their daughter while fathering a son with other women. The son would then inherit the Lu Family’s family business in the future even though he was not their grandson. Thus, their contributions over the past few years have all gone to waste.
The more he thought about it, the more upset he felt. With the new developments, the Lu Family would gain nothing.
Other than this, the busybody Nan Jingheng got to show his talents. There was a gossip studio under the corporation, with any gossip spread by the studio backed up by hard evidence like photos and videos.
Hence, this particular studio was famous online for sharing news procured by celebrities in the circle. It was not just worded by mouth, their claims were all backed up by videos and close-up footage.
There were so many videos- everything from second and third-line artists to first-line artists, both male and female. There were some videos of female artists with middle-aged men who ranged from businessmen to the producers and directors in the field.
There were also videos of all-male artists with female billionaires, including some children of the nouveau riche.
Most importantly, it was not only the artists with their customers, but there were also some Xing Chuang’s agents as well, which included the middle and senior leaders of the corporation.
The studio zoomed in the footage and circled each one out, even going so far as to list out their names.
Xing Chuang had gone under fire from this kind of news before, but back then it was not a huge thing, so it was brushed aside after some clever public relations.
However, this incident looked like it was on a different scale altogether, with the male and female artists in the video quickly disappearing such that they could not be contacted. Because of the bad reputation caused by the video, the films that they had signed for were also affected; their appearance in reality shows were also soon deleted. TV series that have yet to start shooting swiftly changed casts members while the ones that were done shooting tried their best to lessen the blow of the incident.
The artists not involved in the video scandals all came out to say that they were innocent and tried to jump ship to agencies to hop over any spillover effects.. The ones with contracts even paid Xing Chuang the liquidated damages so that they could break the contract.
For a time, Xing Chuang Entertainment became an empty shelf. In B city, all of Xing Chuang’s artists were gone and the whole building was empty.
One month later, Jiang Changdai was discharged from the hospital.
The cast on her arms and legs were not removed yet, while the plaster holder on her neck was still in place. Nevertheless, she could not stay in the hospital much longer. Aside from the caretaker, Jiang Changzai hired for her, no one came to visit her.
Lu Weining came to see her once but did not come again after that. When Jiang Changdai called her, she always claimed to be busy with Xing Chuang’s scandal.
Jiang Changdai stopped calling after being brushed off a few times. She felt that Lu Weining was just not paying attention to her.
After this, she also called Lu Zhenghang and Lu Zhenting. Lu Zhenting did answer the phone, but he said he was busy and that he did not have time.
Lu Zhenghang was afraid that she would overthink, so he sent her the news so she would be aware that the Lu Family was in chaos at the moment. Jiang Changdai felt more at ease upon knowing this.
The day before she was discharged, she called Lu Zhenghang, hoping that he could come pick her up. She even cried about the fact that Jiang Changzai was ignoring her now.
“I have no one except for you guys. Now that everyone knows that I’m your mother, I hope that there is no need to hide. My family doesn’t want anything to do with me now and Zhiqing has stopped coming to see me since I’m being discharged. I am always alone in the hospital so please take me home, Zhenghang.”
Jiang Changdai was only happy once Lu Zhenghang said yes.
Thus, on the day that she was to be discharged, Jiang Changdai was wheeled to the entrance of the hospital by her caretaker.
She waited for about half an hour and got frustrated. She had recently been quick to anger because she had been overthinking a lot.
The incident had been spread by her two most loved people, and now she was their enemy. She broke her arms and legs for them and had become crippled. Now, even her own daughter and parents did not want to have anything to do with her – she was all alone. To make matters worse, she suddenly got sued; everything was going against her. Although she did not have to go to prison, she did pay a large sum of money.
There were so many things happening at the same time, and none of them were going her way, so her temper worsened. She felt like the whole world was against her, and everything felt like a nuisance to her.
When she wanted to go to the toilet during her stay in the hospital, she felt like her caregiver was not doing her best to take care of her and was looking down on her because she was slow.
When she accidentally bumped into something, she would feel that god was testing her patience.
These kinds of negative emotions only grew, until eventually, her once pretty face became ugly.
Her two front teeth had been knocked out, so she had two porcelain teeth fitted for her. Even so, these were not her real teeth, so whenever she was eating or hitting it with her fingers, she would not feel anything.
With her lower teeth at the front of her mouth losing all feeling, her face became contorted.
“Why don’t we go sit on the sofa over there, Mr Lu should be here soon,” the nurse said.
Jiang Changzai only paid her for a month’s stay at the hospital, the rest had been paid for by the Lu Family.
“You’ve only stood for a while and you’re already tired?” Jiang Changdai said, “Are you making fun of me because I can’t move?”
“That’s not what I meant. It’s just that there are a lot of people coming in and out of the entrance, so I’m afraid that you’ll feel uneasy.” The caregiver realized that she had said the wrong thing immediately after replying.
Sure enough, Jiang Changdai screamed, “What’s there to feel uneasy about? Do you think I look embarrassing?”
“No, what I meant was, the door keeps opening and closing, and the cold wind keeps coming in, so you’ll get sick,” the caregiver quickly replied.
Jiang Changdai let out a grunt. She had indeed felt a little cold, and grumbled, “Push me over there.”
When the caregiver was about to sit down and rest for a while after pushing her over, Jiang Changdai said, “Go make me some coffee. Don’t you know to give me something hot in such cold weather?”
The caregiver pouted somewhere Jiang Changdai could not see and then hurried off. If she was slow, who knew what Jiang Changdai would say next.
Before she began this job, she knew her client was rich from the amount they offered her. The ones with the money to hire a caregiver were usually the people with money. She did take care of a few rich people, but none of them were as horrible as Jiang Changdai.
There were some well-behaved ones. Even though these people would look down on you and think that them spending money on you made them superior, they were not like Jiang Changdai who would make a fuss out of nothing. She suspected that if Jiang Changdai could move, she might even hit her.
The caregiver decided that she would quit after this month and would not stay no matter how much money they offered her. Making money is hard and there would always be something that goes against your way, but you could not be subjected to this kind of treatment. If you got sick from it, then the money earned would all be used to pay the medical bills. It was simply not worth it.
The caregiver soon brought over Jiang Changdai’s coffee, but Lu Zhenghang arrived before she could drink it.
A smile finally appeared on Jiang Changdai’s face as she immediately turned into a loving mother. “Zhenghang, you’re finally here. How are you?”
Lu Zhenghang looked like he lost a great deal of weight. His face looked significantly thinner and sunken, making his pointy cheekbones stand out. His eyes seemed to be sunken shadows under his eyes. There was also a messy stubble on his chin.
“Sorry I’m late. I was handling something with the company so I didn’t sleep well last night. After I’m finished it this morning, I came straight away to pick you up.” Lu Zhenghang smiled and said softly.
Jiang Changdai immediately forgot her anger at the caregiver and smiled softly like she had in the past. “It’s okay, I know you’re busy. I’ve only waited for a little while. But you didn’t even have any rest. Why didn’t you just send someone to pick me up instead? Why’d you have to come yourself?”
“I don’t feel good sending just anyone to pick you up. I’m afraid you might overthink,” Lu Zhenghang said. “Let’s go. Let’s get in the car.”
Jiang Changdai nodded while smiling as all her frustration from the past few days suddenly disappeared. She had just been overthinking the whole time, Lu Zhenghang was still a good boy.
With that, Lu Zhenghang greeted the caregiver cheerfully; it did not matter though, as the caregiver had already made up her mind to quit. She was quite well-known in her field and held many highly-esteemed certificates, there were many people lining up to hire her so she did not need to worry about not being able to find a job.
Lu Zhenghang put Jiang Changdai in the back seat, and when the caregiver tried to follow, Lu Zhenghang said, “You don’t have to follow us. I’ve already given you this month’s pay. This will be your last day, so you can just take the rest of the money which will cover for the remainder of the month.”
The caregiver did not think that she would not have to mention her resignation to them, so she did not hesitate and immediately agreed. She handed the thermos in her hands to Jiang Changdai and happily left.
While Lu Zhenghang was driving, Jiang Changdai looked at his side profile from the backseat. “Zhenghang, who’s going to take care of me now that you’ve let her go?”
“Don’t worry. We will find someone you trust to take care of you. I don’t think it’s convenient to just have some outsiders do it,” Lu Zhenghang explained.
“True.” Jiang Changdai smiled pleasantly. “You’re so thoughtful. That caregiver was not good. She’s a bit slow when she was taking care of me. I didn’t want to cause you any trouble so I just let her be. But come to think of it, she had been hired by my brother so he must have just hired someone randomly without any thought. Not like you who’s so thoughtful.”
Lu Zhenghand smiled. “You woke up early today, do you want to take a nap?”
“That sounds good.” Jiang Changdai had nothing to do anyway, so she soon shut her eyes.
Not long after, she woke up groggily. She noticed that there were no high-rise buildings outside the window, just vast emptiness.
After a while, they reached a small neighborhood. It was so small that she could not even sure if anyone was living there.
“Where are we going?” Jiang Changdai asked in confusion. She did not think that Lu Zhenghang would harm her so she was not afraid.
“I’m taking you to your temporary home,” Lu Zhenghang said.
The car drove for a while before arriving at the neighborhood. It was not big, and there were only a few buildings with red paint. There was a farmhouse that did not seem to be in very good condition off in a distance while in front of the dilapidated bungalow was a few acres of farmland, so there was quite a bit of distance between the buildings.
When the car stopped in front of a building, Jiang Changdai began to panic. “What do you mean temporary home? Why did you bring me here? Where are you and Zheng Ting staying? Can’t you just bring me there? There’s nothing and no one here, how can I live here? It’s so inconvenient for me to stay here, what if something happens to me?”
Lu Zhenghang had already switched off the car and gotten out. He opened the door next to Jiang Changdai as a buff, unfriendly man carried her out from the backseat of the car.
Lu Zhenghang said, “We’re only staying in B City temporarily, once we’re done with our business here in B City, we’ll be going back to Ning City. Because of the Yan Family, we have no place in B City anymore.”
Lu Zhenghang’s face scrunched up when he mentioned Yan Family, but it quickly disappeared.