Du Lanshan walked out of the bedroom and ran into Lu Hanting head-on. She simply stopped and stared at the other's expressionless face.
Lu Hanting stood in front of her with his hands in his pockets, looking down at her.
"Your brother will start school the day after tomorrow?" After receiving a positive answer, he raised his eyebrows and smiled, "Remember to leave the key at the entrance, I won't see you off."
He was really just explaining things, without saying a word to her. After he finished speaking, he walked straight past her and went back to his room without even looking at her.
Du Lanshan looked back at the closed door and gritted her teeth.
She moved out of Xia Linchen's house with determination and became homeless afterwards. What was worse was that she couldn't solve Wen Hao's problem and she couldn't go back to the snack bar at all.
For her, five hundred thousand is as difficult as climbing to the sky, but for some people, it is easy to take it out with just a flick of the finger.
Lu Hanting is one of those people.
Among the people she knew, Mr. Liu would not pay so much, and Cheng Kou didn't work either. In the end, she had no choice but to ask Lu Hanting for help.
Fortunately, he was straightforward and didn't even frown when he made the conditions.
The Lu family is currently discussing a project that involves a lot of things, and Mr. Liu, who has a close relationship with her, is a key figure among them.
Lu Hanting didn't necessarily need her, but she thought that if there was a shortcut, he might not be unwilling to achieve a win-win situation with her.
This is indeed the case.
She called Lu Hanting to borrow money, but he said he would not make an investment without a return, so she used this bait to impress him.
Lu Hanting drove to meet her. After she got in his car, she let him drive to a secluded place.
Surrounded by green trees, Lu Hanting took out a bank card and waved it in front of her.
Du Lanshan naturally reached out to take it, and a hint of eagerness appeared on her originally calm face.
However, Lu Hanting held it down, preventing her from pulling it out.
Men are always stronger than women. Du Lanshan couldn't win against him and couldn't help but yell at him, "What do you want? Is it fun to humiliate me like this?"
Lu Hanting smiled when he heard this, as if he had heard something funny. However, he was waiting for Du Lanshan to say this, so he slowly stated his second condition: "You don't have to return the 500,000 yuan to me, but I need you to do one more thing."
Du Lanshan was silent for a moment, then withdrew her hand, looked at him and asked, "What's the matter?"
Lu Hanting placed the thin bank card on Du Lanshan's lap and said slowly, "Don't appear in front of Cheng Kou again."
Du Lanshan laughed sarcastically. She should have guessed that he was willing to help her just for Cheng Kou.
In this case, she opened up the negotiation: "I have no place to live."
"You can live in my house." Lu Hanting looked like a businessman, "until the day your brother returns to school."
"You know so much." Du Lanshan did not hide the sarcasm in her words at all. "You did all these things for Cheng Kou, does she know?"
She put her bank card in her purse. In front of him, she didn't have to pretend to be what others wanted to see, and could completely release her true self.
Anyway, they had already torn their faces apart, didn't they
"You just need to do your part, and as for the rest, you can say whatever you want." Lu Hanting started the car and drove in the direction they came from. "Now, we can go get your luggage."
Thinking of the confrontation with Lu Hanting, Du Lanshan felt deeply exhausted. In fact, she solved all the troubles without paying anything.
What a bargain.
She had lived in this apartment for more than half a month, and had seen Lu Hanting only a few times. It was said that the old man of the Lu family had been ill recently, so he went back to the Lu family every day after get off work to act as his "bedside filial son" to win favor without having to see her, an annoying person.
It really kills two birds with one stone.
But it was better not to see him. She didn't want to shiver every time under his freezing gaze.
Lu Hanting was kind and gentle in front of others, but he was scheming and decisive behind others. He was always smiling in the former, and expressionless in the latter. Only when facing himself, he would show obvious disgust.
Du Lanshan thought self-deprecatingly, should she be glad that she still had a place in his heart? Even though it was a negative one, it was enough to comfort her for having foolishly fallen in love with him at her young age.
Lu Hanting's door suddenly opened, and he was startled to see her. Then he frowned and asked, "Why are you still standing here?"
Du Lanshan curled her lips and turned away, not wanting to embarrass herself in front of him.
Lu Hanting curled up the corners of his mouth, walked to the refrigerator, and poured himself a glass of water.
The memory was too distant. Twelve years had passed and he had forgotten what the cautious Du Lanshan was like at the beginning.
It only takes a moment for a person to go from being cowardly and kind to being unscrupulous. The root cause of her downfall was that deformed family, and I was probably the trigger.
Having said that, Lu Hanting felt that he should feel a little guilty, but it was just a feeling.
His family was not much easier than hers. The fights between siblings were often the most cruel. His kindness had long been buried deep in his heart due to his cautiousness day after day, and he would never show it to others easily.
He was not surprised that Du Lanshan was obsessed with Su Yan. After falling for him once, given her personality, she would definitely choose someone who was completely the opposite.
However, what she thought was always contrary to her wishes.
So he more or less understood Du Lanshan. If she had hurt someone else, he might have just stood by and watched, but since that person was Cheng Kou, then it was her bad luck and he couldn't just not intervene.
Lu Hanting cleared his mind, drank the water in his hand, and put away the cup.
After tomorrow, after Du Lanshan leaves, everything will return to normal.
If Cheng Kou had to describe her feelings after visiting Su Yan's grandfather's house to meet the elders, she would choose a word without hesitation - returning with a full load.
The two old people were too enthusiastic, and since Shen Wenzhou was there too, they stuffed her hands with jewelry.
Su Yan's grandparents live in a small town a few hours' drive away. It is truly a paradise with beautiful scenery, like a series of paintings.
After Mr. Shen retired, he moved there with his wife despite the dissuasion of his daughter and son-in-law. The vegetables and fruits in the yard were all grown by the two old people themselves.
Cheng Kou naturally brought back a lot of fresh vegetables, but there were too many for her and Su Yan to finish them all, so they had to call Xia Linchen and Shen Yinran, and the four of them had hotpot together.
Shen Yinran naturally agreed to eat and drink for free. After hearing this, Xia Linchen laughed at the two of them for wasting natural resources. Cheng Kou urged him to not come, but he refused and simply climbed over the fence between the two houses and came uninvited.
Cheng Kou said that he was shameless and broke into a private house, but in his heart he was glad that Xia Linchen was there. Otherwise, with the cooking skills of the three of them, even if they had a hot pot, it would probably be tasteless.
It’s different with Chef Xia here.
When the three of them lived together before, all the delicious food and drinks were ready. Now that she was at Su Yan's house, Shen Yinran suddenly became reserved and obediently went into the kitchen to help wash and pick vegetables.
Cheng Kou washed with her and said with emotion: "Eat more later, it's all natural and pesticide-free."
Shen Yinran said with a smile: "It's better to have pesticide-free ones, they are healthy enough."
Xia Linchen glanced at the two of them and said unceremoniously, "Aren't you two enjoying your meals at those dirty roadside stalls?"
Shen Yinran pouted and retorted, "So Linchen, do you think we don't need to eat pure natural vegetables?"
Xia Linchen was cutting mutton slices. He stopped the knife when he heard this and shook his head, saying, "No, I'm asking you not to make excuses for eating too much."
Shen Yinran and Cheng Kou looked at each other and both felt that what he said made sense, so they were speechless.
The preparation for hotpot is not difficult. While Su Yan was setting up a folding square table on the balcony and preparing bowls, chopsticks and dipping sauces, Cheng Kou came out with a plate of washed vegetables and sliced mutton.
He stood aside and watched Cheng Kou put down the plate before he reached out and pulled him into his arms.
Cheng Kou was startled and almost screamed, but she calmed down when she felt the familiar embrace.
Ten seconds later, she pushed Su Yan's arm across her waist and said anxiously, "They will be here soon..."
Su Yan didn't let go at first, but after hearing her words, he let her go, but lifted her chin and asked dissatisfiedly: "I think we should be aboveboard and not have an affair?"
Cheng Kou guessed that this introverted man was feeling a little uncomfortable because there were two more people in the family and he couldn't enjoy his own world.
Suddenly I thought he was kind of cute.
Cheng Kou wanted to tease him again, so he moved forward, with his face very close to Su Yan.
At this moment, she heard a light cough behind her. She looked in the direction of the sound and saw Xia Linchen standing at the door with a pot in his hand.
There was a half-smile on his face. When he saw that he had attracted the attention of the two people, he walked in and put the pot on the table.
"I don't mean to disturb you two, it's just that this pot and the soup base are a bit heavy, and I don't want to stand for ten minutes holding all this."
Ten minutes, about the time it takes for a long French kiss.
Su Yan understood and said nothing.
Cheng Kou didn't understand, so she chased Xia Linchen and asked a few questions.
Xia Linchen couldn't stand her anymore, so he asked Su Yan to keep an eye on her and went back to the kitchen.
In fact, he was a little afraid that Shen Yinran would be alone in the kitchen...
Fortunately, Shen Yinran didn't move around while he was away. They took the remaining things and went to the balcony together.
The hot pot dish was very rich, and there was also the shrimp paste made by Xia Linchen himself, which was fresh, fragrant and tender. Shen Yinran praised it highly, and even Su Yan took a few more chopsticks.
Xia Linchen has a slow tongue and eats hotpot very slowly, taking a few sips of ice-cold beer from time to time.
Cheng Kou had always teased him about this: "You are a grown man, but you eat as slowly as a little girl."
Xia Linchen was not willing to be outdone and retorted: "It's better than a girl like you who eats like a wolf."
This was the first time Cheng Kou received such an evaluation. She put down her chopsticks, looked at Su Yan, and asked uncertainly: "Do I have it?"
Su Yan smiled and shook his head, but Cheng Kou had already taken his words to heart, because Su Yan was very polite when eating, and compared to him, he could be considered to be "wolfing down" the food.
After they made such a fuss, Shen Yinran also became much more restrained.
Seeing that the lively hot pot party had turned into a meal in a high-end restaurant, Xia Linchen was helpless and hurriedly said, "Cheng Kou, I lied to you."
Cheng Kou curled his lips: "It's too late."
"Auntie, I was wrong, isn't that enough..."
Cheng Kou smiled slyly and took the opportunity to squeeze him: "Speaking of which, my mother asked me to buy a gift for Aunt Zhuang. Will you go with me tomorrow?"
As Zhuang Wanhua's birthday was approaching, Song Qingwu had already mentioned this matter to Cheng Kou several times, fearing that she would be too busy with her love life to remember it.
Cheng Kou looked at Xia Linchen. It would be a waste if he didn't use the ready-made labor force.
Xia Linchen looked far away and smiled, "Okay."