novelraw Chapter 1412 - 930: Persuasion
Chapter 1412 - 930: Persuasion
I’m exhausted today, so there’s less update; I’ll make it up tomorrow.
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"Are you this unreasonable in front of Zuo Jiang too?" Wu Jingbo stared at Lin Mengran, looking very displeased. "I was just reminding you to be careful. How did that turn into us wanting to be your spies?"
"Jingbo, can you stop always treating me like some naive little kid?" Lin Mengran sighed too. "Think carefully—other than when it’s just the few of us together, have I ever been this careless with my words?"
Yang Xiaoli immediately burst out laughing. "Listen, listen, our boss is so anxious she’s starting to talk like a book."
"Screw you!" Lin Mengran glared at her. "Next time you get wrongly judged and looked down on, just watch how I laugh at you."
"Boss, I’m sorry, don’t be mad..." Wu Jingbo hurried to apologize. "I was just running my mouth. Even if it had been someone else saying that back then, I still would’ve butted in. It’s all my fault. I won’t meddle anymore, okay?"
"It’s not like you were wrong either. It’s right to remind everyone—you were doing it for us sisters’ sake too..." Once Wu Jingbo apologized, Lin Mengran also stopped fussing, and smiled a bit embarrassed. "Was I being too sensitive?"
Everyone: "..."
Since they couldn’t be there in person, the girls put the allowance they’d saved over the past few months into red envelopes and gave them to Chuxia to take over, making her promise that when she came back she had to bring them wedding candy.
"Of course. Even if you didn’t give red envelopes, Doudou would still prepare wedding candy for you." Chuxia pinched the thick stack of red envelopes and laughed. "You’re really going all out—do you still have money left to eat?"
"If we don’t have money to eat, we still have you, don’t we?" Lin Mengran gave her a smug side–eye. "We’ve already decided we’re going to leech off the rich. You think you can escape?"
"Zuo Jiang’s family counts as rich too."
"If I don’t eat his, I’ll eat yours."
"Yo, you’re already thinking about saving money for your Husband’s Family..." Chuxia clicked her tongue twice. "I have to tell Zuo Jiang about this. Marrying a wife like you is a huge bargain."
"Get lost, I only eat yours because I’m close to you."
"Oh please, who are you trying to fool?" Chuxia shot her a contemptuous look. "You’re glued to Zuo Jiang every day, and you expect me to believe that? If you said the two of you were teaming up to eat me into bankruptcy, that’d sound more believable."
The few of them joked around until eight-thirty before finally breaking up. Li Xinli stayed behind.
"What’s wrong?" After everyone left, Chuxia looked at Li Xinli and asked. She’d been especially quiet all evening, and when everyone left just now, they’d all pretended not to notice her staying behind—clearly they already knew she had something to talk to Chuxia about.
"I..." After a moment’s hesitation, Li Xinli looked at her. "I want to take a year off from school, but the others all disagree. They told me to talk it over with you alone and said if you agree, they’ll agree."
Chuxia looked at her in puzzlement. "Why do you want to take a year off?"
Li Xinli let out a sigh. "Didn’t my mom run off with a man before? That man spent all her money and then refused to stay with her. Now she’s lost everything and she’ll definitely come looking for me. My sister hates me to death right now and will definitely help my mom come make a scene.
They already made such a big mess last time that I became pretty famous for it. I don’t want to stay here and let them torment me anymore. If I can, I want to trouble you to help introduce me to a job.
I don’t mind physical labor; I just need to get away from them. This year I also won’t fall behind on my schoolwork. When the time comes, I can just come back with you—we can still be together."
"Since when did all this happen?"
"I only heard about it yesterday."
Chuxia suddenly understood. "So you mean, you heard about your mom getting conned from someone else, and your mom herself hasn’t actually shown up to make trouble yet, right?"
"Right. The one who came to tell me the news was my aunt. She told me to hide first, but where could I hide?" Li Xinli sighed again. "After thinking it over, I felt the only way was to take time off from school.
But the others said it’s not worth it to take a break from school over this. If I hide this year, there’ll still be next year. As long as my mom wants to find me, she’ll never let me live in peace.
They said they’re willing to help me together, but I don’t want to drag everyone down again. I know my mom and my sister all too well. If they really go all out, they absolutely won’t care about saving face.
Besides, I’m also worried my mom will be egged on by my sister to go find Jiang Jie, so I’ve decided to break up with Jiang Jie first. If we’re meant to be, he’ll wait for me; if we’re not..." She bit her lip. "I’ll accept it."
Chuxia frowned at her. "Do you really think what you’re doing is right?"
"Maybe not right, but it’s the most effective. As long as they can’t find me, they naturally can’t keep making trouble. And..." After a moment of silence, Li Xinli continued, "And Jiang Jie’s mom never liked me to begin with. If my mom makes another scene like this, she’ll be even less likely to like me.
So this is basically a dead end. Since no matter how I play it there’s no solution, I might as well back off for a while like this. Maybe things will change in the future, who knows.
I keep troubling you and...I do feel really bad about it, but...but I really have no one else to ask. How about this—when you have your baby, you can hire me as your nanny, okay?" She looked at Chuxia pleadingly. "I don’t want any money. I just want to stay by your side and help you."
"Have you talked it over with Jiang Jie?"
"No." Li Xinli shook her head. "If I tell him, he’ll just feel torn, so I might as well just leave him a letter. Of course, if I stay with you, I can just explain it to him when he comes to find me."
"Do you know what your biggest problem is?" Chuxia looked at her seriously. "I’ve been meaning to tell you this. You’re very smart and tough, but whenever something happens, you always like to think about the worst possible outcome first.
Right now, all you’ve done is hear that your mom was conned. You haven’t even seen her yet, and you’re already thinking about abandoning everything you have and running away. But will running away really solve all the problems?
If she can’t find you for now, what about later? You can hide for a year—what about the next year? Or what if, after going through this, her personality actually changes a bit compared to before?
I actually feel that no matter what, you should at least meet her once before you decide. If she plans to come to school to make a scene, isn’t there still campus security? They let her in before because she was your mother. If she starts disrupting the normal order of the school, they can refuse to let her in.
How this plays out depends on your attitude. As children, we’re supposed to be filial, but it also depends on what kind of parents we’re dealing with. If your mom hasn’t changed at all, I’d actually suggest you be a bit ruthless with her for the time being.
Otherwise, whatever you give her will just become capital for her to be conned by someone else again. In the end, she keeps getting cheated, and you keep paying the bill. What lesson does that teach her?" (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)