novelraw Chapter 466 - 182: Mother-in-law’s Call, Goodbye Zhong Tingyue
Chapter 466 - 182: Mother-in-law’s Call, Goodbye Zhong Tingyue
Li Yuan opened the door to the startup hub’s classroom, and a cloud of dust puffed into his face. Cobwebs stretched across the corners of the room, and cockroaches scurried about with abandon. Although the classroom was dirty, it was quite spacious—about 180 square meters—and suitable for a temporary university startup hub.
Li Yuan smiled faintly as he looked around the classroom. The school is quite generous. It seems Qi Siyu must have put in a lot of effort for this. I need to find some people to clean this place up, get the internet connected, and buy some water dispensers, office computers, printers, and other equipment. Then, this simple startup hub can be put to use.
As for how to use the startup hub, I already have an idea. It will mainly be for Zhihu’s website operations, like managing posts and collecting and organizing information. And the staff? Since this is a university student entrepreneurship support program, it should primarily consist of students from our school. Some core personnel can be transferred from the company, and we can hire some part-timers.
Li Yuan pondered this, his first targets being Liu Jia, Wu Hao, and Xu Ziqiang. They had already agreed to follow his lead, so it was only natural for them to do some part-time work. He wasn’t going to just hand money to his roommates for free. To receive, one must give. This applied to everyone except his parents and family. Treating them to a meal or lending them emergency money was fine, but just giving them cash for nothing was out of the question. Even for Xu Zhi and Wang Shuai, high school classmates whose friendships had been tested across two lifetimes, he wouldn’t just give them money directly. At most, he would help them earn some on the side. The wages for university students’ part-time jobs were very low. In 2008, the daily pay was only forty or fifty yuan, usually for manual labor like handing out flyers. As for higher-paying tutoring jobs, they weren’t easy to find, as there were too many university students in Modu. Another option was to find some part-time upperclassmen from the junior and senior years of the Computer Science department.
After inspecting the classroom for a while longer, Li Yuan snapped a few photos with his phone and rushed back to the dormitory.
He had just arrived at the dorm and hadn’t even had time to change out of his sportswear when his phone rang again. Li Yuan glanced at the caller ID and the area code. He was puzzled at first, but then his spirits jolted. Huh, is this a Sucheng number? He immediately thought of one person; it could only be her calling him.
The call connected, and a familiar voice came through.
"Little Li, are you busy?"
Upon hearing the voice, Li Yuan knew who it was and hurriedly replied politely, "Mrs. Gu, not busy at all. Is there something you need?"
Hearing Li Yuan recognize her, Gu Lanxin felt a touch of relief, and her tone became even gentler. "Little Li, are you free tonight?"
Li Yuan nodded without hesitation. "I’m free, Mrs. Gu. Are you in Modu?"
Gu Lanxin smiled faintly. "Yes, I’ve been in Modu for two days. If you’re free, come over for dinner tonight, at our house in Jinxiu Villas."
Li Yuan genuinely hadn’t known that Gu Lanxin had come to Modu. He only knew Zhong Tingyue had returned to school, but she hadn’t been answering his texts or returning his calls. Because of Bai Weixi, he couldn’t just go to the girls’ dormitory to find Zhong Tingyue.
I feel so guilty towards Zhong Tingyue. That girl from a single-parent family is quite pitiful. She placed all her hopes for the future on me, and yet I was a scumbag to such a good person. Even now, I still feel like I can’t face her. This feeling is completely different from how I feel about Instructor Qi Siyu. With someone like her, I don’t feel any guilt at all, because our relationship was purely transactional, with no emotional foundation. But Zhong Tingyue is different. With my memories from a past life, I know exactly what kind of girl she is. On the outside, she seems like a proud, aloof goddess who looks down on everyone, but on the inside, she’s an incredibly kind girl who desperately lacks a sense of security...
These thoughts flashed through Li Yuan’s mind in an instant. He replied cheerfully into the phone, "Alright, Mrs. Gu. I’m free tonight. I’ll definitely be there on time."
Hearing Li Yuan agree, Gu Lanxin breathed a sigh of relief. She had been very worried about her precious daughter’s mental state for the past two days, fearing something might go wrong. She could tell her daughter was still deeply in love with Li Yuan; nothing had changed. Over the past few days, she had also gathered a lot of information about Li Yuan, which solidified her determination to help her daughter reconcile with him. Pulling out now would be a huge loss!
"That’s great, Little Li. I’ll start getting things ready and wait for you both to return," she said. "Oh, and I’m going to pick up Little Moon in a bit. Don’t tell her you’re coming, you understand what I mean?"
Li Yuan naturally understood Gu Lanxin’s intention. She was worried Zhong Tingyue wouldn’t want to see him if she knew he was also coming.
"Mrs. Gu, I understand. I’m sorry to have troubled you."
Gu Lanxin nodded. "Alright, then it’s settled. I’m going to hang up now. I need to go to the supermarket to buy some groceries."
"Okay, Mrs. Gu!"
After hanging up, Li Yuan’s face lit up with delight. This was an unexpected pleasant surprise. He hadn’t expected Zhong Tingyue’s mother to come to Modu, much less that she would be willing to give him an assist and help mediate their relationship.