Chapter 17

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

When Lu Yan saw the headlines about the arrests of Wu Qiang and Zhao Shen in the newspaper, she didn’t recover from her shock for a long time.

The newspaper stated that it was an anonymous report, that the recording method of a repeater was used to collect evidence of Zhao Shi confessing to the crime, and that was how they were caught.

The principal culprit Wu Qiang was hard-talking at first and refused to admit his guilt, but Zhao couldn’t endure. On the night of his arrest, he confessed to the arson.

After Lu Zhen and Liang Ting saw the newspaper, they naturally breathed out their anger and resentment and were extremely happy.

Every day, Lu Zhen kept talking about how “heaven’s net has wide meshes, but nothing escapes it*”. The eyes of the people were really bright. The criminals are caught in the ocean of the People’s War**, and they are suffering.

(*天网恢恢疏而不漏: a Chinese idiom, meaning: the way of Heaven is fair, but the guilty will not escape / you can’t run from the long arm of the law)

(**人民战争: people’s war, military strategy advocated by Mao whereby a large number of ordinary citizens provide support in a campaign)

Lu Yan felt that things were not that simple. What kind of person would record Zhao Shen’s words with a repeater? This was not a coincidence for sure.

The repeater was also very interesting, except for students, who would use this thing?

Later, Lu Yan went to Entertainment Street several times, and the song and dance hall had been sealed up because of the crime involved. She heard that Shen Kuo was now setting up a stall under the overhead walkway to do business.

After school, in the evening, Lu Yan came under the overhead walkway.

There are a lot of stalls selling everything: underwear and socks, men’s and women’s shoes, clothes and bags… all kinds of things.

Lu Yan strolled around curiously and saw Shen Kuo at the last row.

He was wearing a dark T-shirt, squatting on the rock, his long fingertips carrying half of a cigarette butt.

There was a red tricycle beside him, with various optical discs spread out in the back box of the tricycle.

Lu Yan strolled over, crouched down holding her skirt, and curiously looked at the colorful disc shells.

Such things as optical discs were only seen on the DVD on the bedside of her father’s bed when she was young. Later, with the development of the Internet and resource sharing, these things were not used anymore.

Seeing Lu Yan coming, Shen Kuo pinched out the cigarette butt in his hand and stood up to meet her.

“Is there something?”

“I heard that Shen uncle wants to do business here, so I’m here to take a look. Ah yes, is your hand better?”

“Well …”

He did not finish the sentence, for the little girl grabbed his hand and pulled his sleeve up to check for herself.

The wound was replaced with new gauze, but the dressing was poorly done.

Lu Yan’s delicate eyebrows frowned, “This won’t work, I’ll help you re-bandage later.”

Shen Kuo withdrew his hand, “No.”

“Uncle Shen, don’t be polite to me.”

Shen Kuo stretched his eyebrows and stretched out his hand. He patted her head, “Why do you call me uncle?”

Lu Yan turned her head away and smiled and said, “Lu Zhen is my father, so of course you are my uncle.”

Shen Kuo followed her words and said, “Lu Zhen can’t give birth to a daughter like you.”

“Why?”

He said lightly, as if teasing a child, “He is too ugly.”

A smile appeared on Lu Yan’s mouth, “Lu Zhen is not ugly. He is so popular in school.”

Shen Kuo suppressed his smile, “It is his identity as the young master of the Lu family that makes him popular, not him.”

“Not at all. If you know him better, you might like him too.”

“Never. “

Lu Yan shrugged and stopped carrying on this topic. The grudge between Shen Kuo and Lu Zhen could not be resolved by her in a few words.

She asked him again, “The anonymous repeater handed over to the police is yours?”

“It’s not mine.”

“It must have been you.” The little girl’s dark eyes looked at him seriously and firmly, “You can’t hide from me .”

Shen Kuo sorted the discs one by one, and stubbornly insisted, “No.”

Lu Yan knew that Shen Kuo was hard-mouthed, and that no one would do such a thing except him.

“Uncle Shen, you are such a good man.”

“Good man?”

A trace of absurdity crossed the bottom of Shen Kuo’s eyes.

Over the years, other people’s evaluation of him had always tended to be negative, and neither male nor female students at school were willing to go near him.

His hostility knew no bounds. This hostility was not the irritability or bad temper that was often shown on the outside, but the sharp edge given him by the years of hardship.

He looked at her and said lightly, “Don’t be too self-righteous, I’m not the kind of person you think.”

“Whether you admit it or not, I have to come to say thank you.” Lu Yan looked at him sincerely. The words and sentences came from her heart and soul, “Thank you, Shen Kuo.”

Shen Kuo said indifferently, “Whatever, it’s a free favor anyway.”

Lu Yan smiled generously, “One good turn deserves another, no matter what you want to be when settling in the future, I will definitely do my best to help you.”

Shen Kuo raised the corner of his mouth, thinking that this little girl looked naive, but she was actually quite clever.

At this moment, someone yelled, “The city management is coming!”

Shen Kuo moved extremely fast, putting all the discs into the trunk of the tricycle, then pushing it to leave.

The surrounding scene was chaotic, and Lu Yan was almost hit by a man riding a motorcycle next to her, but fortunately, Shen Kuo held her in his arms.

Lu Yan was caught off guard by him, her whole body stiffened, “Hey?”

The cells all over her body seemed to be awakened by the heat of his body, and the skin he touched was filled with an empty feeling.

Her mind was also empty.

A few seconds later, he let go of her.

The city management car swept over the wind and the clouds, and Shen Kuo didn’t have time to say anything. He hugged Lu Yan directly and placed her in the trunk of the tricycle, then turned and started riding, fleeing quickly.

“Uncle Shen…Uncle.”

“Uncle Shen” had no time to pay attention to her, and pedaled away quickly.

She looked at him riding the bicycle against the setting sun, with wide shoulders flexing, showing muscles under the T-shirt. His silhouette moved slightly, this movement exuded strength.

Lu Yan used to see small fresh meats who painted their eyeliner in the entertainment industry. It was really rare to see a man with a strong masculinity like Shen Kuo.

She looked back at the bottom of the overpass that went farther and farther away.

Vendors packed their things and carts and tried to leave, and of course, many vendors who could not run were caught, and they could only plead guilty with a downcast face.

“Uncle Shen, what will happen if you are caught?”

“All my items will be confiscated, and there may be fines.”

“Isn’t that a loss of money?”

“Yeah.”

In her last life, Lu Yan’s life was bright and beautiful, she was naturally far away from the market and rarely even entering the supermarket, so she had never seen such a chaotic scene.

Today, Lu Yan gradually understood the hardships and difficulties of Shen Kuo’s life.

In this world, not everyone can be born with a golden spoon like her, so they have to work hard to realize and actualize their dreams and do whatever they want to do.

Lu Yan looked at the colorful dishes around, feeling a little uncomfortable. She finally knew why Shen Kuo caught up with Lu Zhen in only ten years.

When Lu Zhen was still messing around, Shen Kuo had already begun desperately planning for the future.

So Lu Zhen would definitely not be his opponent.

Lu Yan climbed over and sat down at the front of the trunk, touching Shen Kuo’s hard back with her head, and sighed softly.

“Lu Yan, don’t pity me.”

Shen Kuo detected Lu Yan’s thoughts very sensitively.

“I didn’t.”

She didn’t know what was wrong with herself, and she suddenly felt very depressed, “Uncle Shen, don’t sell CDs in the future. Let’s change to the computer.”

“Huh?”

“You can earn money in game programming. A lot of money.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Lu Yan thought for a while and said, “This is a new industry with a promising future. In the future, all CDs and tapes will be eliminated. Internet resources will be the mainstream trend, you can understand it.”

“Oh.”

Although Shen Kuo didn’t fully understand it, he felt that what she described was quite novel.

After Lu Yan said it, she regretted it again.

In his last life, Shen Kuo started learning computer software and game programming, and developed a very popular social software. Later, relying on this software, he expanded his company to include video games and other industries, forming the industry chain of the Shen Group.

After rebirth, Lu Yan has been secretly planning how to make Shen Kuo fail in the Internet industry…

In short, everything is for her father, no matter what grievances he and Shen Kuo have, as long as Shen Kuo is unable to stand up, their family will not go bankrupt.

But in the end, she still softened towards him.

During that time, Beicheng was being evaluated on the criteria of being a clean city, and Beicheng No. 3 Middle School, as a national key middle school, took the lead in ushering in the inspection by the leaders. The school at that time was unlike when Lu Yan was studying, as they, in the later years, hired a professional cleaning team to clean the school every day.

At this moment, it was all about organizing the students to clean the campus in small groups after school.

Shen Kuo and Shu Mengfei, Lu Zhen’s ex-girlfriend, happened to be in a group to jointly take charge of the public area of the school’s small garden.

People come and go in the public area, so within a few days, rumors started to spread in school.

Lu Yan could hear a lot when eating in the cafeteria or walking on the playground—

“What the hell is Shu Mengfei thinking? Lu Zhen is so good, handsome and from a good family, why is she with Shen Kuo?”

“Shen Kuo is also very handsome and masculine.”

“It’s just that his family situation is too bad, his temper is not good, he was seen with the gang , and he’s …”

“Now, there are few girls like Meng Fei, who do not worship money or material things!”

“Are they together?”

“Obviously, they do cleaning together in the garden every day. Shu Mengfei is the goddess of the campus, so what reason does Shen Kuo have to refuse?”

… …

Lu Yan heard gossip about Shu Mengfei every day, and her classmates gave her a high evaluation of her decision to abandon the rich young master and choose the poor boy.

After all, at that time, money worship was definitely an existence that would be hammered to death by public opinion, and being rich was the original sin by nature.

That afternoon, when Lu Yan finished cleaning, she went to find her father.

Following the directions pointed by her classmates, she found Lu Zhen near a window on the first floor of the teaching building.

Holding a black rag in his hand, Lu Zhen stood by the flower stand, staring at the direction of the small garden in a daze.

Lu Yan quietly walked to his side, patted him on the shoulder with a “hey”, trying to scare him.

However, Lu Zhen didn’t respond. He stared at the small garden in front of him in a trance.

Lu Yan looked in the direction he was looking, and saw that in the small garden opposite, Shen Kuo was holding a broom and was bowing his head to sweep the yellow leaves on the ground.

He moved carefully, with a focused expression.

Shen Kuo has always been a serious man. No matter what he does, he will do his best.

Holding a broom, Shu Mengfei drew big characters carelessly, seeming to be very anxious, looking up at Shen Kuo from time to time, his cheeks were flushed, and her inner drama seemed to be very rich.

Her upper and lower lips kept moving, but because the distance was so big, Lu Yan couldn’t hear what she was talking about.

Shen Kuo didn’t respond, nor did he seem to intend to, he was just sweeping the floor seriously.

Lu Yan looked at Lu Zhen sideways, his hand on his side clenched into a fist and squeezed tightly, trembling slightly.

Seeing his jealousy making an appearance, it seems that he still can’t let her go.

“Dad, didn’t you want to take me to the movie? Let’s go.” Lu Yan gently pulled his sleeve, trying to pull him away.

Lu Zhen stared at Shen Kuo, biting his lower lip tightly, making his lips nearly bleed.

Lu Yan frowned. She knew that her father must be sad.

Anyway, Shu Mengfei is also his girlfriend whom he dated for a year and a half. It’s only been a few days since the breakup, and he actually ran into his rival with his ex-girlfriend seeming bashful.

For Lu Zhen, this is undoubtedly a double blow.

Lu Yan looked at Shu Mengfei and murmured, “I hate it.”

After she finished speaking, she walked towards them, and when Lu Zhen saw her, he hurriedly reached out to pull her. But the hand slid out of his reach—

“Hey! Come back! What do you want to do?”

“I’m so angry, I’ll help you break them up!”

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