Re-engraving the Spring - Chapter 23
Ji Yanchen unceremoniously squeezed into Chi Qiu and Lu Ming’s rare time together, walking with the wind, very dashing.
Ji Feining brought some gifts and handed them over to Aunt Zhang. He was on crutches and walked with a slight limp, but it did not affect his upright and elegant posture.
Probably the excellent genes of the Ji family were all shown in Ji Feining, Ji Yanchen only inherited the face at most. In layman’s terms, that was, Ji Feining in the eyes of the people could inherit the family business, while Ji Yanchen in the eyes of outsiders could only be the mascot of the Ji family.
The short time of ‘flower viewing’ in the front yard had to end early.
The four of them entered the villa and Aunt Zhang brought new refreshments.
Lu Ming and Ji Feining exchanging courtesy on the scene. Ji Feining answered with a soft smile before turning to say: “Yesterday Yanchen messed up Yinliang’s birthday party, causing you and Chi Qiu extra trouble. Today I brought him here to make amends, I hope Mr. Lu won’t take it personally.”
“No.” Lu Ming took a sip of tea and said, feigning politeness, “If it wasn’t for Young Master Ji, Chi Qiu might have been tricked.”
Ji Feining smiled noncommittally.
Lu Ming said out of politeness, “Mr. Ji’s foot injury still hasn’t healed?”
“It takes a hundred days to recover a broken bone, I’m old.” Ji Feining was not careful when he was on a business trip and fell on his foot. He was supposed to be recuperating at home, but could not resist his life of working hard. He had basically never recuperated, so his feet healed even more slowly.
Lu Ming said, “Mr. Ji still needs to be more careful.”
Listening to the conversation between the two, Ji Yanchen held his chin in boredom. Chi Qiu beside him patted his arm and asked him, “Do you want to eat cake?”
There was a new one sitting in front of Chi Qiu, and he really didn’t want to eat it.
Ji Yanchen squirmed and said, “I don’t like cake, it’s not like you don’t know.”
“You obviously…” Why did Chi Qiu remember that Ji Yanchen loved to eat it?
“But~ I definitely want to eat what you give ah.” Ji Yanchen interrupted Chi Qiu, really did not treat himself as an outsider. He happily picked up the cake in front of Chi Qiu and cheekily showed a provocative expression towards Lu Ming.
Childish to the point of no return.
Ji Feining was so speechless that he almost slapped Ji Yanchen on the forehead…all adding to the mess.
Fortunately, Lu Ming was a mature person. He was not mad at Ji Yanchen’s little tricks. Apparently, Lu Ming seemed to be somewhat calm about it. Ji Feining didn’t know whether Lu Ming’s unconcerned look was a pretense or his own character, but Ji Feining didn’t want to interfere too much with other people’s family partners.
Right now, except for Ji Yanchen who talked to Chi Qiu from time to time, what Ji Feining and Lu Ming talked about had been changed to the business field.
One sentence for you, one sentence for me.
It was so boring.
Ji Yanchen couldn’t stay any longer. He looked around at Lu Ming’s villa and felt that the front yard had a nice view: “Chi Qiu, your house has a good greening. Would you like to show me a tour of the garden of your villa?”
Ji Feining said in a deep voice: “Yanchen.”
Lu Ming didn’t have any comments. He took the inconvenience of Chi Qiu’s eyes into consideration and took the initiative to stand up: “Chi Qiu’s eyes are inconvenient. If Second Master Ji wants to visit, I will lead the way.”
“No, you can talk to my brother.” Ji Yanchen said, “I know how to take care of Chi Qiu, I’ve known him for much longer than you.”
For a moment, the air froze awkwardly.
Ji Feining: “……”
Chi Qiu: “……”
When everyone thought Lu Ming would be upset, they only saw him sit down again and say indifferently, “Okay, I almost forgot that you guys are childhood friends.”
Chi Qiu rushed to speak to explain. However, when the words reached his mouth, his tongue began to knot.
Knowing that he had overplayed his hand, Ji Yanchen first said straightforwardly: “Mainly, Chi Qiu and I haven’t seen each other for a long time, and I have something to say to him. Besides, don’t you feel awkward when the four of us sit and chat together? Business matters, I’m tired of listening to it, Chi Qiu is even more tired.”
Lu Ming agreed. He didn’t have a hint of jealousy at all.
On the contrary, Lu Ming actually welcomed the arrival of Ji Yanchen and Ji Feining. He felt that Chi Qiu had too few friends and would be a bit lonely if he always put his mind on him.
He said to Chi Qiu: “The view from the backyard is also good, I’ll ask Aunt Zhang to clean up the open-air tables and chairs there. It just so happens that Mr. Ji and I also have work matters that I want to talk about.”
Chi Qiu blinked, not sure if Lu Ming was jealous.
No matter what time of day, the emotions on Lu Ming’s face were basically not much, and his voice had no ripples.
Chi Qiu couldn’t make a judgment, so he could only say the last sentence briefly: “Yanchen always talks like this, don’t be angry.”
“I’m not angry.”
The guests were still present, Lu Ming felt that it was not quite appropriate to say this now. But Chi Qiu grew up with Ji Yanchen, so it was okay to say it to his face.
When the two went to the backyard, Lu Ming sat back on the sofa.
He and Ji Feining were relatively speechless. The two companies had no business dealings, so many of the words spoken were just to be polite.
Unfortunately, there were only a few of these words, which all had been cleared up just now.
Ji Feining saw the rather calm Lu Ming, thinking about it and decided to explain something: “Sorry, Yanchen is spoiled by me and he doesn’t have a sense of talking properly. But he and Chi Qiu are just friends, Mr. Lu don’t misunderstand.”
“…” Lu Ming thought that he had no misunderstanding.
But Ji Feining wanted to say it, and Lu Ming let him say it.
Seeing the awkward atmosphere, Ji Feining had no intention of hiding it from Lu Ming: “Actually…I came on this trip because I wanted to say hello to Mr. Lu first.”
“Please speak.”
“I plan to let Yanchen stay in the country for development in the future.”
This was the Ji family’s own matters. Lu Ming didn’t understand what Ji Feining was doing, specially saying hello to him.
Seeing Ji Feining hesitating to speak but stopped, Lu Ming still had little curiosity about it.
Ji Feining had read countless people, but it was the first time he saw a person like Lu Ming who did not show any color on his face. He took a sip of his tea and continued: “Once Yanchen is in the country, he will inevitably come to find Chi Qiu often. Most of the time I have to go abroad on business, so I can’t control him. They grew up together, their feelings are quite deep. Of course, this relationship stops at friendship, please rest assured Mr. Lu.”
And Lu Ming knew Chi Qiu’s affection for him, so he didn’t feel worried at all.
After a few words, he was instead persuading Ji Feining to be at ease: “Mr. Ji is too worried.”
Ji Feining couldn’t tell what kind of attitude Lu Ming actually had. Reasonably speaking, anyone would be unhappy when Ji Yanchen, a guy who didn’t know good or bad, showed too obvious childish hostility towards them.
But Lu Ming in front of him didn’t even mean to be jealous. Ji Feining couldn’t help suspecting that Lu Ming had facial paralysis.
However, doubt was just a doubt. In order not to let Ji Yanchen disturb the stable married life of others, Ji Feining always put the ugly things to the forefront.
He was like this; obviously he was an older brother, but he had acted as a parent, and he couldn’t let go of Ji Yanchen.
“There is another thing, I don’t know if Chi Qiu has told you…this matter is not a good memory for him. If Mr. Lu doesn’t know, I think it would be better for me to say it.”
When Lu Ming heard this, he vaguely guessed what Ji Feining was going to say.
As expected, what Ji Feining wanted to tell Lu Ming was exactly the kidnapping case Chi Qiu had said.
Unfortunately, what Ji Feining said was completely different from what Chi Qiu said about the follow-up.
Chi Qiu only said that the kidnappers took him away by mistake.
Ji Feining, however, said that the kidnappers grabbed Ji Yanchen at the beginning.
……
In the dim recollection of the heavy rain pouring down, the tall man wore a jet black peaked cap and a dark trench coat. He stretched out his hand and pressed it on the shoulder of the young Ji Yanchen.
The rain washed away the differences between the two children of similar height, making them look like twin brothers. Especially that morning, Ji Yanchen deliberately wore the same white sweater as Chi Qiu to anger Chi Xia.
The man’s face was haggard and he asked hoarsely, “Your name is Ji Yanchen, right?”
Ji Yanchen was pinched by him so much that his shoulders hurt, and he took a step back in fear, but was held down by the man. Ji Yanchen was so scared that he couldn’t speak, and his frightened expression had long betrayed his identity.
The next second, the man yanked his hair and left, so that Ji Yanchen bawled in pain and slapped the man helplessly.
The man impatiently kicked Ji Yanchen in the stomach, so much so that he could not make a sound for a long time.
A few steps away was a gray van. If Ji Yanchen was taken into the van, it would be completely over.
Chi Qiu suddenly shouted: “Chi Qiu!”
He shouted his name at Ji Yanchen, enough to get the man’s attention. He rushed up and bit the man’s hand hard: “You let go of him! You let go of Chi Qiu!”
Chi Qiu was knocked to the ground by the man’s slap. The rain got heavier and heavier and their shouts were buried in the sound of the rain.
There was not a single pedestrian on the road in this terrible weather.
The man looked at the teeth marks on his hand with chagrin and the blue veins in front of his forehead bulged. He let go of Ji Yanchen’s hair and directly grabbed Chi Qiu’s: “He’s not him, then it’s you?”
Chi Qiu smelled the man’s mouth full of alcohol. He trembled and struggled, desperately shaking his head: “We, we are not… Uncle, are you drunk? You have mistaken the person.”
The man smiled obliquely, obviously not convinced.
He picked up Chi Qiu, who was thin and weak. He didn’t do anything and planned to take both children away.
Ji Yanchen, who was kicked in the stomach, curled up pitifully on the ground, like a dying puppy.
There was a buzzing sound in Chi Qiu’s ears. Seeing Ji Yanchen’s frightened expression, he grabbed the man’s hand and lay on the ground: “Chi Qiu, you go and call the adults! Chi Qiu you run! You go and call for someone to save me–”
He blurted out his name recklessly, pretending that Ji Yanchen was him.
Someone around had heard the sound and came up to them, asking loudly what was going on.
The drunk man frowned and took Chi Qiu directly away.
