Chapter 4[1.3]
Chen Rui saw that Xu Peng was going to raise his hand to bid and immediately pressed his arm down, glaring at him. "What are you doing?"
"I…" Xu Peng's anxious complexion was already starting to turn pale, speaking somewhat incoherently, "This piece of land, I'll help, that, this land is hard to come by, you guys must take it down, or else, or else it'll be taken away by Zheng Junming's people!"
"Let him (XP) bid." Jing Yang coldly squinted at him. "No matter how much he bids, he'll be paying with his own money. In any case it's him bidding, it has nothing to do with me, I'm certainly unable to take out that much money."
Chen Rui shook off Xu Peng's arm. "Since you're using your own money, then you keep bidding, bid however much you want."
"I, I, have no money." Xu Peng said with trembling lips. "You guys obviously have money, you guys can afford it, why wouldn't you continue bidding?"
Jing Yang and Chen Rui were both too lazy to pay attention to him.
The host had already introduced this piece of land twice, constantly asking whether there were people to continue to bid, and so on obviously delaying time. This let all of the auction participants find it somewhat abnormal, all using doubtful eyes to look at the host.
Seeing that he could no longer keep delaying, even if the last bidder was not the one the higher-ups had instructed, the host could only pound the gavel and complete the sale.
After the auction ended, the auction participants slowly trickled outside, only leaving Xu Peng and Zheng Junming's men sitting there distractedly, their complexions looking considerably unsightly. With the current result, they had absolutely no way of going back to report.
Jing Yang and Chen Rui had just walked to the door when Xu Peng rushed over and stopped them. Xu Peng had an ugly expression for being deceived and angrily interrogated them, "Lu Jingyu, did you not say that no matter how high the price, you would definitely fight over that piece of land?"
"Whether or not I take down that piece of land, what does that have to do with you? Could it be that if I take it down then you will have some sort of benefits? Could it be that if I don't take it down then you'll get some troubles? What are you being so anxious for?" Jing Yang's eyes were filled with irony.
"That's right." Chen Rui echoed. "You acting like this is completely the observer being more anxious than the person involved, this has not the least bit to do with you, what are you being so concerned for?"
"I, no, I'm thinking for your sake." Xu Peng strove to let himself stay calm. "Now that land was taken away by Zheng Junming's people, so wouldn't you have lost to him again?"
"All right, if your acting skills are this bad then just stop acting." Jing Yang stepped forward and used the brochure to pat his face. "Go back and tell your master, not only did I play Zheng Junming, but also him, and you, are only my helper for playing them."
Xu Peng entirely froze in place, Jing Yang and Chen Rui got on the car and left.
"What really happened just now? Xu Peng's expression was really strange." While Chen Rui drove the car, he felt the situation was really strange, he could tell that there was something wrong, but he wasn't clear what exactly it was in the end.
"This auction was just a trap designed by Zheng Junming and them for me, but I didn't follow their desired plan, naturally they would be anxious." Jing Yang had already understood through the system, that friend of Zheng Junming is a quite ruthless person, Xu Peng being so anxious and worried should be because he was very clear that with that person's quite unreasonable nature, he would definitely take his anger out on him (XP). Without even needing him (JY) to act, Xu Peng would not have any good ending.
"How did you know that it was a trap?" Chen Rui still couldn't quite understand.
"Guessed." Jing Yang said. "Turn right at the next intersection, I want to go back to the Lu family a trip."
"Go back for what?" Chen Rui turned his head to look at him, inwardly astonished, Lu Jingyu had already not been willing to return for a very long time. Even if earlier he had told him that the Lu home is currently under his name and belongs to him, even if someone needed to move out, it should be the Zheng family father and son and that woman moving out, but Lu Jingyu was still unwilling to go back again.
"Go back to get some stuff." Jing Yang said.
In the past, Lu Jingyu didn't want to go back because he wasn't willing to return to the place where his mother had committed suicide, and also didn't want to see that man he had called father. Even though Jing Yang was indignant for Lu Jingyu's plight, he didn't have as heavy a mental barrier as Lu Jingyu, so for all the matters that Lu Jingyu couldn't face or couldn't accomplish, he would help him fulfill them.
Zheng Jianlin was sitting on the sofa with a furious expression, Zheng Junming was also sitting on the side with wrinkled brows. They had just received news that Lu Jingyu had not taken down that piece of land according to their plan, instead that land had been bought by their own people at a very high price.
Now they have to pay a large sum of money for that land, but getting the land is also useless, even if they suppress the information that the land is a mass grave, they would still feel uncomfortable about it themselves. Opening a restaurant is also running a business, which business opening doesn't carefully select for appropriate Feng Shui. Plus they would still need to worry if just in case one day this matter were to be exposed, the losses would be even greater.
Seeing Lu Jingyu come in, Zheng Jianlin immediately stood up, bellowing at him, "You bastard, what are you doing coming back here?" He coincidentally had no place to vent his rage, this shameful thing actually dared to appear in front of him.
Jing Yang stood in the living room, sweeping his gaze over the two people's faces. "This is the Lu house, you people surnamed Zheng are still thickening your faces to live here, I'm surnamed Lu yet can't come back?"
"You bastard…" Zheng Jianlin pointed at him with an livid complexion. "You actually dare to use that kind of tone to talk to me, your father."
"If it weren't for the fact that you were my biological father, you still think that I would let you people live here?" Jing Yang said then turned to go upstairs.
"You…, you stop for me!" Zheng Jianlin bellowed at Jing Yang's back, but Jing Yang didn't pay attention to him.
For Lu Jingyu's entire life, Zheng Jianlin never showed him any good face, so since he was small Lu Jingyu was very afraid of Zheng Jianlin, and when Zheng Jianlin cursed at him, he never dared to talk back, and also never dared to mention letting them move out. But now Jing Yang definitely wasn't afraid of him, and would never just endure getting cursed at.
The Lu family ancestral residence was constructed by Lu Jingyu's great-grandfather, later on his grandfather expanded it. Altogether there are two main buildings, three auxiliary buildings, as well a few courtyards, the total lot size was very large. In the current district, even if you had money you would still be unable to build such a large building anymore.
Taking back the Lu family ancestral residence is one of Lu Jingyu's dying wishes, Jing Yang would definitely help him achieve this. Speaking more objectively, even if this wasn't one of Lu Jingyu's desires, Jing Yang would still definitely not let those three people live in this house for long.
"Dad, cool down, it's not worth it to worsen your health because of anger." Zheng Junming consoled Zheng Jianlin verbally, but internally he was also very uncomfortable. In his mind, Lu Jingyu was always a cowardly incompetent person, even if he went against him everywhere, he still never succeeded. Originally he planned to play a big trick on him, yet he never thought that he would pit himself instead. Seeing his imposing attitude today, it seems to be very different from before, could it be that he had always been pretending in the past?
Zheng Jianlin patted Zheng Junming's shoulder. "In Dad's heart, you are my only son, just let Lu Jingyu fend for himself. I will leave all of my assets to you, in the future our Zheng family will all depend on you."
Jing Yang said that he wouldn't go in for too long, Chen Rui just sat in the car waiting for him. When he saw him carrying a bag of things out, he opened the car door for him from inside. "What stuff did you take?"
"Some mementos from my mother."
From the system, Jing Yang learned that Lu Xuexian had the habit of recording Lu Jingyu's growth. One day she went out to buy the latest video camera model and came back, studying how to use it while walking into the house. When she was passing by outside Zheng Jianlin's study, she heard him and his lover talking inside, the study door was ajar. Lu Xuexian stood at the door listening for a while, it was also then that she found out that originally her father's death was caused by Zheng Jianlin.
At that time Lu Xuexian's mind was blank, somehow managing to get back to her room in a daze, even she didn't know that her video camera had recorded down Zheng Jianlin and his lover's entire conversation. Zheng Jianlin obviously wouldn't go look through Lu Jingyu's growth video, Lu Jingyu himself was too grieved over his mother's death and was afraid to go through her things, so no one knew about the existence of this evidence.
When Jing Yang returned to the Lu residence, besides confirming the existence of this video, he also went back to watch once again the farewell video that Lu Xuexian had left for him, because in that video there was another very important piece of evidence.
In the video, in the glass behind Lu Xuexian, there was the reflection of half a figure. Upon magnification many times, you could tell that this half figure was Zheng Junming, hiding on the side behind a bookshelf. So when Lu Xuexian was planning to commit suicide, Zheng Junming was aware of it, he saw the entire process, yet never prevented it or told anybody else. This behavior completely didn't match the good and honest image that he had painstakingly cultivated over the years.
Jing Yang used the funds that Lu Jingyu was planning to use to buy that piece of land to buy a few retro styled residential buildings in a relatively remote area and prepared to transform them into a restaurant.
His buildings were also surrounded by more retro style buildings, it didn't seem very flourishing or lively, but the advantage was that the environment was very good, not only peaceful but also sentimental.
Jing Yang drew the architectural designs himself and it was renovated for a few months. The three buildings' courtyard walls were torn down and a larger wall was constructed around the property. The three buildings were renovated in the classical style, separated from the encircling wall by a courtyard. This meant not only would the restaurant not disturb the surrounding residences, but this would also allow the customers on the upper floors to enjoy the scenery. After buying the buildings and renovating, more than half of his funds were still left.
Even though this district couldn't compare with those bustling commerce streets, but Jing Yang believed in the concept that quality goods need no advertising, plus compared to those restaurants that spent huge amounts of money to rent a floor in the major skyscrapers, he believed that this type of environment was what he really wanted.
That year, Lu Deyuan's disciples had been chased out using all kinds of methods by Zheng Jianlin, because they were harmed by Zheng Jianlin to no longer be able to keep staying in the city, they could only go to some remote small towns to open their own restaurants.
Jing Yang adopted a humble attitude to go personally invite two people, these two people were the ones who had been made most miserable by Zheng Jianlin that year. Jing Yang was moved by their situation, and hoped that they could return to help him out.
Originally because Zheng Jianlin had already taken control of the Lu family, as well as all of the Lu family restaurants, plus the fact that they had been placed into miserable situations by Zheng Jianlin, they were already not willing to ever return to the city. But in their hearts they had always thought of their master's past teachings about grace, and now their master's sole grandson came to beseech their assistance, so they had no way to refuse. So they just took it as reciprocating for their master's kindness to them.
Translator Notes:
[1] speaking incoherently – 语无伦次, idiom, literally meaning talking without rhyme or reason
[2] an ugly expression for being deceived – 一脸被欺骗的表情, the Chinese has a really very simple meaning, I just have no idea how to express it well in English…
[3] the observer being more anxious than the person involved – 皇上不急太监急, idiom for the emperor not being worried but the eunuchs are worried to death
[4] desired plan – 往套里钻, literally meaning go drill into the harness/rope, I'm just going to generalize it as a plan/strategem
[5] I, your father – 老子, used in anger or contempt, I usually only see this used as a joke, often in gaming novels lol
[6] speaking more objectively – 退一万步, literally the English idiom "take a step back," which means to withdraw to consider from a broader perspective
[7] quality goods need no advertising – 酒香不怕巷子深, idiom, literally fragrant wine fears no dark alley
[8] adopted a humble attitude – 放下身段, literally the English idiom "get off one's high horse"
Random Notes:
We're finally getting into the action. When I translated to the part with the farewell video, I was reminded of one of the phrases I was pretty confused about back in chapter 2, and in this context it makes a lot more sense. So I went back and fixed it in the middle of writing this up and now I feel a lot better. Translating is really making me read a lot more carefully than when I had read through the entire story in like 3 days a few weeks ago. Also, sometimes I find some of the transitions pretty jarring (going straight from talking about Zheng Junming to ay Jing Yang is doing some restaurant decorating), so I'll probably add some ~ subtle ~ sectioning at those points.
Let's see, this took me a bit over 2 hours: 10:45 – 11:45 pm + 1:45 – 3 pm. It's actually shorter than chapter 3, only 3.1k characters to around 2.4k words, so the fact that it took longer is a little strange. Anyways, we'll be meeting the ML very soon! I'm excited ~
Also, about the random point I mentioned last chapter about being able to change font sizes from MarsEdit to here, I'm pretty sure it doesn't work. Pls rely on page zoom from now on… Unfortunate (´-ω-`)