Chapter 42 - Three Years (1/2)
Chapter 42: Three Years
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Three years later.
The second Li Sui and Lu Shang got to the door, they smelled the fragrance of rice dumpling leaves.
On the porch of the front door sat a little girl, dressed in a little goose-yellow colored skirt. The little girl was roughly two to three years old, in her hands was a small bowl. When she saw them walking up, she said, “Dad.”
Li Sui laughed as he gave her the box of toys in his hand. Li Sui scraped the little girl’s nose gently and corrected, “It’s ‘Godfather’.”
“You guys are here? Come in, come in.” Zuo Chao heard the voices outside and hurried to greet and invite them into the house. When Zuo Chao saw his daughter about to throw the bowl away to grab the box of toys, he hurried over to catch the bowl and said, “Dear, you can’t drop this. If you drop this, mummy will be angry.”
“Nice smell.” Li Sui sniffed the air in the house, concluding that the smell came from the kitchen.
“Of course it smells nice, you guys are lucky today,” Zuo Chao lifted his daughter and brought her inside. He then poured them tea, “Yesterday, I went to the pond to scoop up lobsters. YouYou’s (i) mother cooked a huge pot of it. Oh, there’s also rice dumplings (ii).”
T/N:
(i) YouYou is most likely a nickname, her name should be “Zuo SomethingYou” or “Zuo you something.”
(ii) Chinese rice dumplings are triangular cones of rice wrapped in loquat leaves. There are many types, the most common kind have green beans in them and are eaten with soy sauce.
“It seems like we came just in time,” Li Sui helped Lu Shang take his coat off and folded it, he then asked, “By the way, how come I didn’t see the peacocks in the bamboo dojo yard?”
As soon as the question came out, Lu Shang and Zuo Chao froze, they looked at each other briefly.
“Hmn,” said Zuo Chao, scratching his head with a complicated expression, “I took them to the temple as sacrifices…”
“Temple? Is there a temple around here?
Zuo Chao glanced at Lu Shang, as he was not accustomed to lying. He whispered, “Yes, there is a temple of WuZang temple (iii).”
T/N: (iii) Wu (Five/五), Zang (Organ/臟), it’s a Chinese saying, referring to the five main human organs, the heart, the liver, the spleen, the lungs, and the kidney. Basically means the human body. Zuo Chao couldn’t come up with a lie, so he made a joke about it, the peacocks were sacrifices to their body XD.
Li Sui didn’t understand what kind of a temple that was, so Lu Shang put his teacup down and said sincerely, “He is talking about the temple of WuZang, you know the Monkey King Sun WuKong and Tang SanZang (iv).”
T/N: (iv) Characters from a novel called Journey to the West (西遊記). Tang SanZang (唐三藏) is a monk that was going to the west to get Buddhist books. As a punishment of being naughty in heaven, the Monkey King called Sun WuKong (孫悟空) had to accompany the monk on his quest.
Talk about quick thinking on Lu Shang’s part. Wu stands for Sun WuKong, and Zang stands for Tang SanZang.
“Oh, I see.” Li Sui nodded, “I didn’t know there was such a temple.”
Unexpectedly, YouYou seemed to have heard something and suddenly turned around and said, “Peacock, eat.”
Li Sui pinched her little face and teased, “Eat what?”
Zuo Chao facepalmed as he heard their conversation, coincidentally a female voice came from the kitchen, “The meal is ready, are you guys going to eat here or in the living room?”
“Eat here.” Zuo, Chao answered immediately.
A large pot of spicy lobsters was soon served, the lovely fragrant came crashing into their noses like waves, just the smell of it was enough to make saliva drip from their mouths. It immediately attracted everyone’s attention.
“Try the wine my wife brewed.” Zuo Chao poured a full glass for Li Sui. They clinked their glasses together and drank all of it down.
Lu Shang couldn’t drink alcohol, so he peeled a cooked shrimp instead. Seeing that the little girl opened her mouth enthusiastically as Lu Shang fed her the shrimp. She blinked a few times and suddenly cried loudly after eating.
Lu Shang was shocked, he pulled out some paper to wipe the tears off her.
“What’s wrong?” Li Sui asked.
Zuo Chao laughed, “Gluttonous little thing, it burns.”
When YouYou’s mother heard the crying, she came in to pick the kid up. She said while laughing, “She’s too young to eat spicy food.”
“Sorry.” Lu Shang said apologetically.
The little girl twitched her mouth a bit and was crying hard. Even so, the little girl was still chewing the food, refusing to spit the food out. Her greedy and stubborn look charmed all the adults there.
When she finished crying, YouYou’s mother held her up to feed her milk. Unexpectedly, the little girl refused to obey and tried with all her strength to crawl back to Lu Shang instead.
“How dare you compete against me for your Godfather.” Li Sui ruffled her hair with a smile.
YouYou was not admitting defeat as she pushed Li Sui’s hand away, she snuggled into Lu Shang’s lap skillfully, occupying the most comfortable position. YouYou said, “godfather” in a childish voice. Earning a laugh from Lu Shang as he reached out his hands to guard the little thing’s head.
Lu Shang usually wore formal suits and leather shoes, and his personality was somewhat too placid. He seemed a bit unapproachable, sometimes it was almost like he had a barrier around him. But right now, he was getting all tangled up with the kid, not to mention looking like he didn’t know what to handle her. It was a huge contrast from his usual serious image.
Li Sui watched them both, the big one hugging the tiny one, and he felt his heart turning into a fluff of cotton.
The little girl seemed to be particularly close to Lu Shang, no matter who approaches her, she would only let Lu Shang hold her. Zuo Chao chirped in, “Look, even I have to stand aside. This child is terrible. She just took one glance and immediately knew who the richest amongst us.”
Lu Shang helped YouYou wipe her mouth and said with a smile, “I am the poorest now. I have lost all my control over financial matters.”
Zuo Chao froze and asked, “Did you really transfer all the shares of Tong Yan you have to Xiao Li Zi? So, you are just not going to care about the company anymore?”
Speaking of that, Lu Shang’s face showed a touch of fatigue, “I want to, but there are the other shareholders…… Now, it’s more like I want to leave but can’t. Transferring shares requires the approval of the other shareholders. They won’t let me go so easily.”
Li Sui held Lu Shang’s hand under the table and comforted him by saying, “Don’t worry.”
Zuo Chao frowned deeply.
Liu XinTian was not a fool. Although Lu Shang and Li Sui were on the same front, who owned the shares meant a huge difference. Tong Yan was originally founded by the Lu family, so it could be used to threaten Lu Shang, but it could not threaten Li Sui. Li Sui was young, capable, and uncontrollable. If the shareholders try to force Li Sui’s hand, he could just sell the company off directly. Although he was obeying Lu Shang now, who could tell about the future? This was a time bomb for them.
There was another point of headache about Li Sui for Liu XinTian. In the past few years of Li Sui working in Tong Yan, he obviously noticed that Li Sui did not care about Tong Yan, he only cared about Lu Shang. The reason why he was willing to work for Tong Yan was entirely because of Lu Shang. There seemed to be only one extra layer, but it was in truth miles apart. If Li Sui took over Lu Shang’s shares, Liu XinTian would completely lose control of Tong Yan, something he would never allow.
“Well, anyway, you take good care of yourself. There will be a lot ahead of us, we’re not afraid of them, let’s see who’d live longer. Right, Xiao Li Zi?” Zuo Chao said.
Li Sui smiled, and they clinked their glasses together again.