Chapter 52: I’m Away Now, Don’t Disturb
Xu Wei had learned her needlework from her elders in the village when she was small. It was already 10 pm by the time Lu Jingqing got home, and he found his wife sitting on a bench in the corner of the room, cutting a fabric.
“What are you doing, honey?” Lu Jingqing asked as he hung his coat on the hanger. However, Xu Wei continued to look at her phone and ignored him.
‘Are you there?’
‘Are you there?’
‘Shenshen, are you there?!’
Xu Wei sent three messages in one sitting to show how urgent this was.
After roughly three minutes, Lu Yushen finally responded, “Yeah?”
Xu Wei immediately straightened her back as she ran her fingers across her masterpiece, which had just taken shape. A glow of pride rose from the bottom of her heart as she replied, “Can you get mommy a bag of rhinestones?”
As soon as the message was sent, Yushen tapped the screen rapidly.
Then, a sentence popped up from the pinkish chat background. “Lu Yushen” recalled a message, and the word “Yeah” disappeared.
Xu Wei stared blankly at the chatbox, as she couldn’t come back to her senses.
She opened up Lu Yushen’s “What’s Up” greeting message and realized he had changed it from “My target today is to buy another ore mountain” to “Away now, don’t disturb”.
Xu Wei had no idea why her son would suddenly change his greeting message or why he would ignore her.
Suddenly, her face scrunched up as she let out a soft sigh. She felt a little hurt as she said, ‘Mommy just wants to make a beautiful dress for your sister so that she can participate in the competition and look her best.’
‘Okay. Come and take some then,’ Lu Yushen replied almost instantly.
Xu Wei stared in a daze at the message, as she was once again perplexed by the change of her son’s attitude. She blinked several times, and it took her quite some time to see the light.
‘Oh. It turns out that I’m an old lady that nobody loves anymore.’
She turned her head around and looked at Lu Jingqing, who had just come out of the bathroom in his bath suit and was drying his hair. Suddenly, her eyes were red around the rims, and her nostrils were quivering. She pouted her mouth and said, “You will sleep in the study tonight. I need some alone time.”
Lu Jingqing had no idea what had gotten into his wife again tonight.
****
At the same time, after taking a bath, Fu Zhi pounced onto her bed with a large can of milk candy in her hand. Then, the moment she turned on her computer, the WeChat interface popped up, followed by a rain of red envelopes.
“Zhizhi.”
Fu Zhi opened the red envelopes one after another. Each red envelope had 200 yuan in it.
Old Master Li had sent a Spongebob meme to Fu Zhi. She had no idea what had gotten into his brain, but she reckoned that he must have good news to tell.
Her intuition was right on point. A minute later, Old Master Li’s message came. “Zhizhi, the three of us will have a house starting today!”
Fu Zhi was sitting on the corner of the bed. She put her laptop on her bed, surrounded by boxes of milk candy.
Milk candy and bubble tea had a therapeutic effect on Fu Zhi. She figured that if she had the opportunity, she would buy all the bubble tea shops in the country so that she could drink bubble tea every day as soon as she opened her eyes.
She threw another piece of milk candy into her mouth. As she was munching on the candy, she glanced at the name of the WeChat group—”The Royal Clan”.
The group name gave off the vibe of a group of delusional and ignorant delinquents engaging in a gang war, while the atmosphere in the group was full of purse-proud people who liked to flaunt their wealth.
There was a total of 66 red envelopes, and all of them had been sent by “Peaceful Life”, the nickname of Old Master Li on WeChat.
Li Nanli did not try to grab the red envelopes, and he did not speak either. It was probably because he was not online.
Fu Zhi opened the red envelopes one after another. Then, she sent 200-yuan red envelopes to Old Master Li before she went to bed.
‘For grandpa.’
‘Thank you, my dear Zhizhi!’
‘???’
‘Li Nanli! How dare you take my red envelope?!’
Old Master Li exploded. Frowning, Fu Zhi opened the red envelope and realized that “Xiao Li” had claimed it.
She threw another piece of milk candy into her mouth. After realizing that her nephew was not going to give the red envelope back to Old Master Li, she tapped at Li Nanli’s avatar and typed, ‘Xiao Li. That red envelope is for grandpa.’
Li Nanli responded swiftly. A white dialogue bubble immediately popped up. ‘But I claimed it first.’
Crunching on the candy between her teeth, Fu Zhi replied, ‘That’s not the point. Filial piety is one of the virtues that need to be held above all else. Just like you respect me by giving me money, I gave him the red envelope because I respect him as well. You shouldn’t take it.’
The moment she sent her message, a notification that her bank account had been credited with 200,000 yuan emerged.
Fu Zhi then added, ‘Of course, respecting the old and loving the young are traditional virtues. I respect him, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t love you.
‘Xiao Li, you’re still young. Just do whatever you want as long as you’re happy. I’ll always support you no matter what.’