Chapter 24
That afternoon.
After seeing off Mu Yi, Lu You returned to the ward with her water bottle, only to see someone peeking into her grandmother’s room.
“Hi! Xiaoyou!” Seeing she was discovered, the person pretended to knock on the door, looking serious enough to make one laugh. “Did you go get hot water?”
Lu You smiled faintly: “Huanhuan.”
Su Huanhuan followed her into the ward, sitting on the small stool at the foot of the bed, watching Lu You tidy up the bowls on the table.
“You’re just eating now? Did your aunt and uncle bring it?”
Lu You said: “I made it myself. They’re busy with work.”
Su Huanhuan said: “Speaking of which, are you really giving up your old job? I thought it was quite good. Why did you suddenly quit?”
She counted on her fingers, asking cautiously: “Is it to take care of Grandma? Actually…”
She wanted to say that if the elderly woman needed care, it was much more sensible for Lu You’s parents to quit their jobs than for Lu You to quit hers.
Considering comparable wages, Lu You’s parents’ work was unstable, exhausting, and had no future development—it was a dead end.
But Lu You was different. She received a management trainee offer from a prestigious company before even graduating. Although she was still in her internship period, if she did well, her salary after being hired full-time would at least double.
In every respect, Su Huanhuan couldn’t understand why Lu You was the one who quit to take care of her grandmother.
She had just graduated from university; it was her time to develop. Being delayed now meant losing more than just a job.
Lu You said tactfully: “The job was good, but the internship period was too long. It would still be several months before I could be hired full-time.”
Su Huanhuan then understood.
Several more months until full-time meant several more months as an intern. An intern’s salary couldn’t cover Lu You’s grandmother’s medical expenses.
Given Lu You’s family situation, Su Huanhuan found it hard to say anything, so she just focused on her friend.
“So, are you going to continue looking for work next?”
Su Huanhuan was worried for her.
The job market wasn’t very good right now. It wasn’t easy for recent graduates to find high-paying jobs. Prestigious university graduates and even postgraduates were everywhere. Everyone wanted a good job, which indirectly made companies more demanding.
Overtime, flexible working hours, and the withholding of benefits were rampant.
Lu You saw her worried expression and was amused: “I’m not worried. Why are you so anxious?”
Su Huanhuan was exasperated: “How can I not be anxious! The pressure is massive! I don’t know how Lu You manages to be so calm!”
Lu You finished tidying the dishes and set the dirty ones aside, planning to wash them after Su Huanhuan left. Su Huanhuan rarely visited her, and she didn’t want her to sit there waiting while she washed dishes.
Lu You thought for a moment and revealed a few details: “I want to start my own company.”
Su Huanhuan was utterly surprised by this direction: “Huh? Start your own? Then…” She hesitated, then asked directly, “Where will the money come from?”
Lu You said: “I’ve already contacted a business partner. He is responsible for the investment, and I am responsible for company operations and everything else.”
Su Huanhuan still felt it was unreliable: “Who is it? Who is so kind? Isn’t that what they call… right! Angel investing?”
“It’s not angel investing. It’s a senior from my university. I helped him out once, and he offered to invest in my company. I had the idea when I graduated, but I wasn’t sure at the time, so I didn’t agree.”
Now, she couldn’t afford to refuse.
Su Huanhuan found the story confusing. He offers to invest in a company just for a favor?
How big of a favor was it?
Was it a life debt?
Su Huanhuan wanted to press for more details, but seeing her friend’s reluctance to talk, she restrained herself from becoming an overbearing mother-in-law demanding a background check.
“What kind of business will the company be in? You can tell me that, right?”
Lu You apologized: “Sorry, Huanhuan. That’s confidential for now.”
“Okay, okay, I won’t ask.” Su Huanhuan quickly changed the subject, peeling and eating a banana, then looking around for a trash can. “Hey, where’s the can?”
Lu You pointed out the trash can.
Su Huanhuan zinged the banana peel, standing three meters away, trying to catapult it into the can. Unfortunately, her aim was poor, and the peel didn’t even catch the rim. She had to walk over, pick it up, and throw it away properly.
“Huh?” Su Huanhuan stared into the trash can. “Xiaoyou, why is there He Yue Xuan takeout in your trash can? Aren’t their things ridiculously expensive? I heard a cup of soy milk costs hundreds of yuan. Tsk, is it ground with gold?”
Only then did Lu You remember that she forgot to empty the trash yesterday. The exorbitantly priced takeout sent by [Barbecue Stall Boss Liu] was still sitting there in its cheap packaging.
Lu You found the actions of this [Barbecue Stall Boss Liu] very strange.
One one hand, she was careless—she had replaced all the food packaging with cheap ones—but on the other hand, she was meticulous—she had left the original dining ware.
Fortunately, Lu You wasn’t familiar with these ultra-luxury restaurants and only knew the name. She wasn’t interested in anything else. And because He Yue Xuan only printed a small logo on its packaging to be pretentious, the secret hadn’t been exposed immediately.
Lu You had only glanced at the dishes, assuming they were wholesale disposable utensils, although this set did look a tiny bit more refined than other disposable cutlery.
But while the cutlery was low-key, the ingredients inside—the mountain and sea delicacies—were not.
The moment she bit into the “filling,” Lu You used her phone to look it up and realized what a precious soul was hidden beneath the shabby packaging.
“I didn’t have time to cook yesterday, so I ordered takeout. Don’t all takeouts come with cutlery? What He Yue Xuan?” Lu You feigned ignorance.
“Is this the world of a study god? You don’t even know about the famous He Yue Xuan in Rongcheng?” Su Huanhuan completely went off-topic.
Lu You said calmly: “I can’t afford to eat there. Why would I pay attention to it?”
Su Huanhuan: “…That’s true.”
She couldn’t afford it either. The sorrow of poverty QAQ.
“Are you very familiar with this restaurant?” Lu You asked, acting casual.
Most of the information on Baidu was pure advertising, overly exaggerated, praising the restaurant to the heavens and giving Lu You the illusion that eating there would add two hundred years to her life.
Lu You put her phone down after five minutes, concluding the online information was unreliable. She needed to learn about it from other sources to figure out the magnitude of the favor she owed.
As long as it doesn’t involve selling herself to pay the debt…
Su Huanhuan quickly took out her phone to educate her: “Look, this is the main gate. I heard this used to be the residence of a prince from a previous dynasty. When it was auctioned, the price was over nine figures!”
Lu You: “…” It’s just a restaurant. Does it have to be so dramatic?
Su Huanhuan: “And their ingredients! They are reportedly air-freighted from all over the country on the same day! The domestic ones are easy enough, they’re close, but the international ones… the cost is hard to calculate!”
Lu You: “…” Is China not good enough for you? Domestic cuisine is clearly the best!
Su Huanhuan winked mischievously: “Actually, there’s gossip. They say their waiters are all very handsome!”
Lu You: “…” Shallow!
Su Huanhuan became increasingly rapturous: “And the boss is really good at judging people! Female guests get male waiters, and male guests get female waiters! I had a girl in my high school class—an Alpha rich second generation—who held her birthday at He Yue Xuan. They said a group of Omega waiters, wearing white shirts and black aprons, were as handsome as celebrities, and they could dance!!”
“Bang!”
Su Huanhuan jumped.
Lu You rubbed her hand, which she had slapped red, and said expressionlessly: “Vulgar, crude! Truly disgusting Alphas!”
Su Huanhuan: “…”
Su Huanhuan lingered in the ward for the whole afternoon, then offered to leave.
Lu You walked her out of the hospital, planning to stop and buy some daily necessities on the way.
On her way back to the hospital, carrying shampoo, she recalled the events of the afternoon.
That girl named Mu Yi said… Chi Huan is not Chi Huan?
After Mu Yi left, Lu You spent a long time thinking alone.
She didn’t entirely believe Mu Yi’s words. Their relationship was subtle, but certainly not friendly. Mu Yi’s purpose in speaking those words was suspicious—she had “not having good intentions” written all over her face.
Were her words true or false? If false, what was her goal? If true, what was her goal? What benefit could she gain from it?
Lu You turned Mu Yi’s words over and over, concluding that Mu Yi’s purpose was actually very clear and singular: she wanted Lu You to stay away from Chi Huan, or even stand on her opposite side.
If she did that, then what? What would Mu Yi gain?
To completely drive her away and exclusively possess Chi Huan? Lu You didn’t believe that woman would ever do that, even if she wanted to—making her beloved so blatantly public.
Although they only met once, Lu You strangely felt this to be true.
If Mu Yi truly loved someone, that affection would be extremely restrained. If she ever stopped being restrained, it would be because she was absolutely certain she could hold onto that person firmly.
But none of that concerned her now. Lu You was more concerned with whether Mu Yi’s words were true or false…
However, at that time, she simply thought this was an eccentric rich second generation, and she recorded the debt in her phone, intending to return the favor later.
But after today’s events, Lu You couldn’t help but wonder…
Are there truly so many eccentric rich second generations in the world?
And are all these rich people, seemingly bored out of their minds, determined to pester her?
Is it possible?
Lu You calmly told herself internally—Are you dreaming?
Do you really think this is a fairy tale, or that you are the protagonist of a power fantasy novel?
Are there so many rich second generations lining up to casually bump into her on the street?
Impossible.
“Hoo hahahahaha—”
An open-top black Ferrari sped past Lu You, driving toward the sunset on the empty road.
The driver wore oversized sunglasses, his white teeth flashing in the setting sun.
“To hell with the blind date! My journey is the star—ocean—!”
Lu You: “…”
The girl, carrying shampoo, stood by the roadside. Her long, seaweed-like hair billowed in the wind. The thin white dress clung to her body, revealing delicate and lovely curves, beautiful as the female protagonist of a youthful campus novel.
The protagonist was internally confused.
Wasn’t that the guy who delivered her takeout yesterday?
Question: Can one person really run into so many rich second generations?
Answer: Yes. She just ran into one on the side of the road, but he seems to be mentally unstable, driving a Ferrari to deliver takeout.
Comments 0
You must be logged in to comment.
No comments yet. Be the first!