CH 37

Chen Lan came back in the afternoon. When she came to the Luo family, she didn’t notice that Fang Jingzhou had changed into a new set of clothes. Luo Bei realized that she had been consciously ignoring her son.

Luo Bei had tried to talk to her before, but Chen Lan was very resistant to it, so Luo Bei had no choice but to give up. Perhaps for Chen Lan, there was a bad past.

“Thank you so much.”

Chen Lan was probably in a good mood. She bought freshly baked egg tarts and gave Luo Bei two boxes.

“But in my opinion, it would have been good for the kid to freeze outside for a night so he wouldn’t be so careless next time and forget the keys. Luo Bei, do you think my shoes look good?”

She showed Luo Bei her new shoes.

Luo Bei nodded honestly. “It looks pretty good, but aren’t you cold wearing heels on such a cold day?”

She felt cold at home so she had already put on the cotton shoes that her Grandma made for her.

“Beauty requires a price.”

Chen Lan decided to sit down and talk to Luo Bei about her principles as a woman.

“You should dress up more when you’re still young. I saw that you were wearing snow boots yesterday, do you think that you’re still a student? No, even students are more fashionable than you. Don’t waste your good looks, you have better conditions than me. I can’t find anyone good because I have to lug around an oil bottle, but you hurry and marry someone wealthy while you’re still young.”

“Where would I find someone like that? I should just focus on doing my job well first.” Luo Bei was very self-aware. With her condition, if she wanted to marry a rich man with just her face, it’s not like rich people were stupid… 

Chen Lan sighed. “I’m quite pretty, and to be honest, if I didn’t have a child with me, I would have no problem marrying into a good family.”

Luo Bei felt that Fang Jingzhou must have heard these words many times before, but she still didn’t want the child to be present while Chen Lan said these words to her, so she gave Fang Jingzhou the tablet and told him to go play in the bedroom.

Fang Jingzhou ran away quickly and even considerately closed the door.

“Is it not possible to find someone who would accept Little Jingzhou?” Luo Bei asked curiously.

Of course, from how she sees it, unless Chen Lan married a kind-hearted man, Little Jingzhou life would only become more difficult in a family where his mother didn’t love him and his step-father neglected him.

Chen Lan took a bite of the egg tart and said slowly.

“If a man is willing to accept a step-son, how good could his conditions be? They’re not even worth my time, anyone with even a bit of money wouldn’t do such a thing. I really regret now, I shouldn’t have given birth to him back then.”

Luo Bei couldn’t say anything and ate her egg tart in silence.

“What I regret even more is, when I had just given birth to him, there was someone in my hometown who had wanted to adopt him. Sigh, thinking about the past makes my head hurt, I have some good news instead.” Chen Lan said happily, “Didn’t I meet a man recently? I quite like him, and he likes me too…”

Luo Bei was curious and asked, “Is it the man on the phone yesterday?”

“That’s not him, that guy has a wife and is scared to death of her. Who cares about him?”

Chen Lan had a look of disdain on her face. “The man I’m seeing, he’s not married and he doesn’t have a girlfriend either. Although he’s not super rich, he has a house here and wouldn’t have a problem supporting his family. I’ve been in contact with him lately.”

“Then last night, you…”

Chen Lan laughed. “Did you really think I left with that man who has a wife ? That was just for show, last night, I was at the house of the man I’m seeing.”

“Does he know that you have a child?” Luo Bei asked hesitantly.

Chen Lan was also upset by this question. “He doesn’t know, but that’s not important. I already have it thought through, if I can talk him into marrying me, then I’ll send my child back to my hometown and have my mother take care of him, and I’ll just send some money back every month.”

Luo Bei blurted out, “But if he sincerely wants to marry you and found out that you lied to him, it wouldn’t be good.”

Chen Lan glared at her. “How could anyone know? We’re not going back to my hometown and I won’t let my mother bring my child over in the future. Everything will be fine, don’t jinx me.”

Fine. She was the biological mother so she had the final say.

Jiang Sihan made two decisions before the new year.

First was that he wouldn’t be going home to celebrate New Year’s this year. After all, he still hadn’t made a name for himself and more importantly, the train tickets had sold out and he couldn’t afford a plane ticket.

Second was that he had signed with Brother Liu’s studio and decided to put his music dreams on hold for now to try his luck in the unfamiliar territory of the film industry

Brother Liu knew that he was facing financial difficulties, so after he signed, he paid him half a year’s salary in advance and told him to move to a better place so he could focus on improving himself. 

When Jiang Sihan received his salary, he invited Luo Bei and the rest out to eat at a seafood restaurant.

However, Grandma Luo didn’t want to go out in the winter, and it wouldn’t be convenient for Zhao Pianpian to take her child, so in the end, only Luo Bei went.

Jiang Sihan wanted to eat at the buffet restaurant for a long time, but he didn’t have money. This time he chose the most popular restaurant that had the best price for its quality. This place wasn’t cheap for Jiang Sihan at all, it was 188 yuan for a person in the afternoon and 218 yuan for a person in the evening and could be considered luxurious. 

Luo Bei looked thin but her combative strength wasn’t bad, and Jiang Shihan ate a lot to begin with, so even if they didn’t get their money’s worth back, it wasn’t far off.

The buffet here was a pan per person. Luo Bei and Jiang Sihan were two people, so they decided to order a small hotpot and a grill. Wouldn’t it be great to have a hotpot while eating roast meat?

Lou Bei liked to eat mantis shrimps, but she didn’t eat a lot because they were hard to peel and hurt her hands.

Jiang Sihan was very considerate. He quickly helped her peel and few mantis shrimps and cracked a mitten crab, placing the tempting crab meat onto her plate, ” Eat more, or it won’t be worth it.”

“Let’s not talk.” Jiang Sihan seemed to be excited and told Luo Bei before they started eating. “Try not to talk and focus on eating.”

Luo Bei laughed. “Okay.”

The two really didn’t speak to each other throughout the entire meal. When the waiter came to clear the plates, he was surprised and thought another Eating King had come to the restaurant.

They had eaten no less than 15 dishes of just mutton alone, not to mention other seafood dishes and Chinese food.

They ate too much and the two decided to walk chme to help with digestion. 

Luo Bei and Jiang Sihan walked on the road. The trees on both sides of the street were decorated with beautiful lanterns that added a hint of romance to the night.

Luo Bei was dressed warmly. Inside her white down jacket, she wore a dress that was both beautiful and warm. It was just that it got dirty too easily. 

Jiang Sihan was wearing a gray overcoat, and if someone took a closer look, they would see that lints were forming on it. He wore a black sweater underneath it paired with casual pants and shoes. 

From the outside, they appeared like an attractive and well-matched couple.

“I decided to sign with a studio. It was created by a retired celebrity and there’s some other newcomers too. I was assigned under Brother Liu who’s quite good to be, he gave me half a year’s salary in advance.”

Jiang Sihan tilted his head and smiled at her. “He wants me to move to a better place, but I don’t want to. Luo Bei, if it weren’t for you and Grandma Luo, I don’t think I would have been able to hold one.”

“You’re exaggerating too much, we didn’t do much.” Lou Bei restrained from meddling too much in other people’s lives, and she didn’t do anything praiseworthy to help him.  so she thought that she hadn’t helped him in any way. 

If inviting him over to eat and giving him small gifts were considered as helping him, then wasn’t he also helping them when he cleaned up the garbage in the corridor every day? was a help, then wasn’t it a kind of help for him to tidy up the garbage in the corridor every day? In a sense, none of them owed anything to each other.

Jiang Sihan shook his head. “You don’t understand. There were so many times where I thought of giving up, I didn’t know what was the point in persevering anymore. A meal and a plate of dumplings, they’re not much to other people, but they were what I needed the most at the time.” 

Luo Bei had never experienced a hard life. Even when her family went bankrupt, her Grandma always took good care of her, feeding her well and dressing her warmly, so she couldn’t relate with Jiang Sihan’s experience. 

But the future superstar Film Emperor was saying such a thing to her right now, even if they no longer kept in touch in the future, she can still feel proud when she remembers today, no?

“I didn’t give up on my dream of being a musician, it’s just that I suddenly realized, if I can’t make my dreams come true on this path, then I’ll take a different road. But I don’t think I’ll be popular, maybe I won’t get to play a single role even until the day of my retirement…”

Jiang Sihan rubbed his hands together, his breath forming white steam. “But that’ll be alright, because I have tried my best.”

Luo Bei nodded and smiled. According to the plot, Jiang Sihan would explode in popularity next year. Although he didn’t make it big, he would enter the public’s view with a bang.

Jiang Sihan was still talking about dreams and reality when abruptly, he took a large stride forward and bent down. Under Luo Bei’s puzzled gaze, he turned around holding a ten-dollar bill in his hand. He smiled brilliantly, revealing his white teeth, “I picked up ten dollars.” 

In the end, Jiang Sihan used the ten dollar bill to buy two scratch-it lottery tickets. 

One for Luo Bei and one for himself.

But they used up all the luck between them just now and didn’t win anything.

Jiang Sihan mysteriously put the dud scratch-it ticket into his wallet and pushed Luo Bei to do the same. 

Lou Bei asked, “What for?”

Jiang Sihan pretended to say profoundly, “Maybe it can bless you to be rich.”

Luo Bei:”…”