Chapter 120: Breaking Out Of The Cocoon To Become A Butterfly?
Qin Hengzhi chuckled lightly: “If you want just two people, then it’ll be us two. If you want it lively, we can invite friends or classmates.”
Lu Qiaoge asked in surprise: “Do you have friends here?”
Qin Hengzhi: “I’m not some alien, why wouldn’t I have friends? Quite a few comrades are in Jiangcheng. It’d be perfect to introduce you to them.”
Lu Qiaoge grinned: “Can you swim in the river water?”
Qin Hengzhi: “Yes, you can. But do you know how?”
Lu Qiaoge: “If I don’t, I can learn.”
Qin Hengzhi gazed at Lu Qiaoge: “Then it’ll just be us two.”
Lu Qiaoge tilted her head and bit the cherry stem, her gaze sweeping over his serious handsome face, then burst out laughing.
Qin Hengzhi looked at Lu Qiaoge helplessly and couldn’t resist tapping her forehead with his finger.
Lu Qiaoge didn’t dodge, her eyes sparkling as she grinned and ate the cherry.
Qin Hengzhi felt a warmth in his chest, his mood joyful and soaring. He said nothing more, just tilted his head watching Lu Qiaoge eat cherries.
He discovered that this girl was very relaxed.
She didn’t feel uneasy at all being stared at.
Though he tried not to think about it, he still couldn’t help recalling the former Lu Qiaoge.
Speaking of which, during that lakeside falling into water incident, he had watched the whole thing from nearby.
At the time, he had been indifferent.
Liang Aishu and Shen Yun were hugging by the lake. Lu Qiaoge, who rushed over crying and accusing them, seemed especially pitiful standing alone against the two of them together.
Clearly, Shen Yun was deliberately stimulating her, saying ambiguous words. Lu Qiaoge couldn’t outtalk her and started tussling with Shen Yun.
The two young women then fell in together. From his angle, he couldn’t clearly see who had pulled whom.
Then Liang Aishu froze for a moment before jumping in. Even then, he still didn’t move.
So he saw Liang Aishu rescue Shen Yun first. He thought he would continue to save the next one, but unexpectedly, Liang Aishu seemed to collapse by the lakeside, while Shen Yun hugged him sobbing.
Completely forgetting there was still someone in the lake.
The memory cut off abruptly.
Qin Hengzhi’s gaze darkened slightly as he subtly glanced at Lu Qiaoge without a word.
Was this breaking out of a cocoon into a butterfly?
Lu Qiaoge handed the white porcelain bowl of cherries to Qin Hengzhi: “You eat some too. We’ll eat while we talk about some things.”
Qin Hengzhi knew Qiao Ge had something to discuss with him, but he didn’t know what.
Lu Qiaoge started by talking about Chang An.
“Can I ask you about Deputy Director Lin? Like his family situation. I wonder if that violates discipline?”
Qin Hengzhi paused, then said: “Depends on how much you want to know.”
“I want to know if he has any long-lost younger brother at home.”
Qin Hengzhi’s brows lifted slightly, his gentle and casual expression finally changing.
He looked at Lu Qiaoge seriously and was silent for a moment: “Old Lin currently has one son and three daughters, but he actually has a youngest son, born in He was taken away at ten months old and has never been found.”
Lu Qiaoge excitedly stood up.
Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Qin Hengzhi sitting on the sofa.
“That day at the performance, I felt Old Lin looked especially familiar. I even thought, have I seen him somewhere? But no matter how I racked my brain, I couldn’t remember.
Then I saw Chang An, Zhou Li’s mute husband. He’s now at the food factory with Zhou Li. After seeing him, I realized he looks just like Old Lin.”
Qin Hengzhi also stood up, gazing intently at Lu Qiaoge.
The Qin Family and Lin Family were family friends, though Old Lin was fourteen years younger than his grandfather. By age, he called Old Lin Uncle Lin.
They weren’t from the same compound and didn’t interact often, but he knew Uncle Lin had a youngest son who was lost and still hadn’t been found.
In the vast sea of people, lost at just ten months, it was impossible to find.
So the Lin Family rarely mentioned that lost child now.
Qin Hengzhi asked: “Do you know Chang An’s situation?”
“Not very well, but I know the basics. His hometown is some small village in the southwest, where Zhou Li was sent down to the countryside. He was adopted, also born in 1949—that’s accurate—but the birth month was August of “
If he was lost at ten months that year, there’s no way he was born in August.
Qin Hengzhi looked at Lu Qiaoge, his voice low: “First tell me your idea.”
Lu Qiaoge: “The inspection team is coming to visit and express condolences on Saturday morning, right? If they could stop by the food factory, that’d be great. Personally, I don’t suggest telling Chang An directly.
His adoptive parents treated him badly after having their own children. At the Chang family, he was worked like an ox or horse. Now following Zhou Li to the military factory and then into the food factory, he’s about to have grain for sale and city household registration. For him, it’s no less than a new life.
If we suddenly tell him now, he might be Deputy Director Lin’s biological younger brother, the youngest son of Old Lin from the aviation bureau. If it’s true, great. But if not, can Chang An’s mindset go back to normal? That’s what I’m mainly worried about.”
Qin Hengzhi looked at Lu Qiaoge approvingly: “You’re young, but you think things through very thoroughly.”
Lu Qiaoge smiled smugly.
Qin Hengzhi said: “We’ll do as you say. Find a method to get them to the food factory, let Old Lin meet Chang An openly yet naturally. As for what comes next, Old Lin will have his own arrangement.”
Lu Qiaoge nodded. If Chang An and Old Lin are related, that’s best. If not, Chang An can continue his small family life with his wife and child.
With Chang An’s matter basically settled, what Lu Qiaoge wanted to discuss with Qin Hengzhi was another matter, the most important one.
In the neat and solemn military representative office, Lu Qiaoge slightly raised her eyes to look at Qin Hengzhi standing across from her.
She put away the casual expression on her face, her clear and bright peach blossom eyes gleaming with an inexplicable light.
Qin Hengzhi didn’t know why Lu Qiaoge was looking at him like this.
But he knew Lu Qiaoge had something to say to him.
So Qin Hengzhi stood before Lu Qiaoge, looking at her very attentively.
He also struck a posture of listening attentively.
Lu Qiaoge asked directly: “Do you have a method to make the city fishery company stop eyeing Hongxing Lake within five years?”
Qin Hengzhi: “…”
He thought Lu Qiaoge would ask about his family’s view of her, or invite him to the Lu Family. Actually, many thoughts flashed through his mind, though fleeting, he really had thought a lot.
The human brain, when not blank, is always thinking nonstop.
But no matter how he thought, he never expected Lu Qiaoge to propose this request.
Within five years?
That was the term of his military representative position.
But what did it have to do with his term?
Qin Hengzhi said seriously: “Can you give me a reason?”
Lu Qiaoge thought for a moment and said seriously: “Not for now.”
She could say there’s a tin box with gold and silver jewelry at the lake bottom, but that would bring the next problem. After answering, there’d be another one.
Lu Qiaoge didn’t want that trouble.
If Qin Hengzhi didn’t agree, she’d figure out her somewhat unethical method.
Seeing all those monthly passes in the backend, it was really moving. Love you all, super love, full of motivation, treasures!
