For Jian Dashao to be kind for once and do the things an older brother should do, such as picking up his younger brother after his college examination; of course, the main purpose of that task was not for the sake of said brother.
Just as they turned the car onto the road toward the school where the examination took place, his head nearly exploded at the scene ahead.
A numberless amount of cars blocked the entire street, making it practically impenetrable. Looking over everything, all he saw were cars and people. It was so bad that even the traffic police had to come and direct the traffic as to clear the way.
In twenty minutes, Jian Sui Ying"s car moved forward less than ten meters.
"f.u.c.k, the traffic is crazy… okay, you don"t have to go in this direction. I"ll get off and look for them myself. Just turn around up ahead and wait for us across the street."
His chauffeur let out a sigh of relief, taking forever to just move forward would annoy anyone.
The moment Jian Sui Ying opened the car door, a gust of heat wave almost lifted him up and forced him back in.
He narrowed his eyes and looked up at the huge sun before he got out of the car and walked toward the school gate.
Although his ankle was still slightly sore, it did not affect his walking. The main thing was, the heat was unbearable.
Fortunately, the cars could not cross over the solid white lines on the road. Jian Sui Ying managed to wobble there and waited at the school gate with a group of uncles and aunts, who were stretching their necks as they looked around with anxious expressions.
Soon, Jian Dashao"s long and slender legs started to act up as he made his way toward where the students" guardians were standing. That spot was exceptionally conspicuous.
After asking an aunt who was standing to the side, Jian Sui Ying came to know that there were still another two to three more minutes until the examination end at noon. With that, he hurriedly found a shade of trees and waited patiently.
Just as he had nothing better to do than to look around, he heard someone calling for him from behind.
The person called out, "Jian Shao". Anyone that called him that was either the descendant of a communist official who was not familiar with him, or someone who wanted to get close to him in order to curry favors.
He turned around for a look; the person was tall and handsome, and his appearance was similar to that of Li Yu"s. The only thing was, his features had somewhat of a solemn and majestic presence to it, while his walk, although simple, exuded an unearthly strength. With one look, it was obvious that he was not a normal person. "Hey, if it isn"t Li Da Gongzi."[1]
The person that came was none other than Li Yu"s older brother, Li Xuan.
He was not particularly familiar with Li Xuan.
Li Xuan was different from him. Li Xuan"s grandfather was a government official and Jian Sui Ying"s paternal grandfather was a General in the army. Although they were regarded as the same type of people who aided in laying down the foundation of the country, a person that was educated and a person that only fought with guns and knives had never thought highly of each other since ancient times.
Although their grandfathers got along, their friendship was not deep. However, Li Xuan"s grandfather was different from his grandfather in the sense that he was extremely strict when it came to cultural education for his children and grandchildren.
Li Xuan and Jian Sui Ying were about the same age. As a child, when Jian Sui Ying was busy climbing trees with his muddy legs just to reach into a bird"s nest, he heard that Li Xuan was obediently sitting in front of the table studying English.
Therefore, a wild guy who caused trouble all day and couldn"t wear new pants for more than two days like him, naturally, could not hang out with a clever and obedient, good-natured guy who knew about books like Li Xuan.
The two had their own respective circles. Although there were many interactions between these social circles, they only exchanged a few conventional greetings.
However, under the scorching sun and with a vast crowd of people, the two met with the same purpose: shortening the distance between them just a bit.
Li Xuan smiled and brushed through the crowd to shake hands with him. "Jian Shao, what a coincidence."
Jian Sui Ying also smiled, "Exactly, isn"t this call fate? You must be here to get Li Yu."
"I came to wait for him, but not to pick him up. He told me that he was staying at your place with Sui Lin. I rushed over here once I got off the plane today and didn"t have enough time to call you. Sorry for troubling you."
"There"s no need to say that, I"m no outsider. Isn"t your brother also mine? Besides, our brothers get along pretty well. Before the examination, the two hung out and talked quite a bit which, helped them relax and not be so nervous." Jian Sui Ying chuckled as he spoke, more or less trying to curry favor with Li Xuan.
For the children of prominent families, whose predecessors had sweat and bled for the establishment of a new age in China, there was an unwritten rule that the older generation had their beliefs set on the children. That was, the older generation would only focus on supporting and promoting no more than one child.
What does that mean? For an old family like the Jian"s, the paternal grandfather had two sons and two daughters, but he chose the youngest son to take over, which was Jian Sui Ying"s uncle. The whole family, and the elderly in the family who already had a high position in the government, would focus on supporting and promoting the uncle to get to at least an X Commissioner position before he retired. All the while, the other children would do whatever they had to do. Even if they also entered the government, promotions were limited. Therefore, his father was a government official for only a few years before he automatically left the position. His father held onto the money for the family, while his uncle held the power and authority. That was the so-called check and balance mechanism. That way, their family would flourish for a long time.
As for the Li family, Li Xuan"s grandfather chose Li Xuan and Li Yu"s father, who then chose Li Xuan. Therefore, if Li Yu wanted to take a career path as a government official, it would certainly not flourish like that of Li Xuan"s. In short, the head of the Li family will inevitably be Li Xuan.
Li Xuan was very determined to work hard as to not fall short. Since he was small, the word "excellent" had never once been separated from his character. Riding on a smooth wave toward the top, he was already a section chief for someone under thirty years old, and after two more years, he would undoubtedly get promoted again. With an undeniably bright future and a prospering career, he was the best among his peers.
Although Jian Sui Ying was also proud of his current career, his uncle was not his father, and he had to back down one day. Since his cousin was still young, the next successor had not yet been chosen. In the deep pool of the officialdom and bureaucracy of Beijing, it was necessary to start acc.u.mulating and developing one"s own network from an early age. The broader and wider his network spread out, the longer his, Jian Sui Ying"s, and the Jian"s family foundation would last.
Having a good relationship with Li Xuan, the future head of the Li family, was exactly what Jian Sui Ying had been looking forward to. And Li Xuan obviously had the same idea.
Since he heard that Li Xuan had been transferred to Guangxi[2] some time ago, he did not expect to encounter him that day.
Li Xuan smiled and agreed with him. "Yes, I know that from experience. It is definitely important to maintain a positive mindset before the examination. Your place is close to the examination"s location, which saves the risk of being late. Thank you very much for letting him stay there."
"Don"t mention it, it"s not big there. It"s only a bed and some food."
The two looked at each other and laughed, then started to chat about random topics.
After a short while, Jian Sui Ying cleverly directed the topic to Beihai.[3]
The other day, he actually wasn"t speaking nonsense with his father when he said he wanted a piece of land in Beihai. He recently obtained a project to produce fodder,[4]which could reduce the cost to a very low price. It was a very compet.i.tive product in the marketplace, but the raw materials needed to be imported from Southeast Asia, and the harbor closest to his factory was the Beihai Harbor.
Initially, that was a small project he never had his eyes on, but it couldn"t be helped as the project belonged to one of his close friend"s wife"s sister-in-law, who wanted him to invest and a.s.sist in it. He contemplated about it but didn"t want to spend the money. If he could request the piece of land from the government in the name of saving energy and reusing environmentally-friendly waste products, then he could use the land as a collateral to raise funding. That inadvertently meant he would gain something valuable from nothing. In the future, if he could a.s.sist the company in going public,[5] then he could make a huge profit out of it. If the request for the land did not go through, there were still plenty of projects in his hands. Besides, he wasn"t going to waste his own money on something that could potentially go wrong. Holding a mood of "giving it a try", he was going to actively try and help them out at least. If it all worked out, that would be great, but if in the case that it didn"t, he would have justified himself to the other person.
As he thought about it, he still felt that the relationship with Li Xuan was more reliable than the cost of the aforementioned, so he subtly sounded him out a bit.
Unfortunately, this was not a place to discuss such matter, as Li Xuan absentmindedly stared at the school entrance where a wave of students was pouring out. He did not answer directly and cleverly suggested they should find another opportunity to gather together for a meal and further expand on the topic again.
Jian Sui Ying also knew that the timing was not appropriate, but he had casually said it anyways in order to leave an impression of that matter on Li Xuan. Afterwards, he also concentrated on the school entrance.
In a short while, Jian Sui Ying saw a pair of red lips, and a handsome and outstanding young man"s appearance at the entrance. He was even more excited than Li Xuan as he shouted loudly from far away. "Li Yu, Li Yu!"
Li Xuan was shocked as he glanced at him confusingly.
However, Li Yu did not hear him at all since there were too many people.
Li Xuan also shouted a couple of times and wanted to push through the crowd. However, all the parents, who were eagerly awaiting their children, began to squeeze into the school gate toward the entrance of the building, making it quite strenuous to pa.s.s through.
Seeing that, Jian Sui Ying quickly took out his phone and gave Li Yu a call.
From far away, he looked as Li Yu took out his cellphone and frowned, seemingly hesitant before finally answering. "Jian Ge…"
"Look to your left."
Li Yu froze in place before he turned his head and saw Jian Sui Ying waving at him with his older brother standing beside him.
With that, he smiled brightly at his brother and hurriedly race through the crowd. "Ge, how come you"re here?"
"Mom and dad didn"t want to come. They said that when they brought me to take the examination back then, it was really frightening since there were too many people. Not only that, the car couldn"t move either. So, they told me to come and see how you did."
Li Yu smiled, exposing his white teeth. "I think it went pretty well." He looked as though he thought of someone and quickly turned to look at Jian Sui Ying. "Jian Ge, Sui Lin and I were not in the same examination site." Just as he said that, his cellphone rang. "Hey, Sui Lin. Your Ge is here, my Ge is also here. We"re at the left side of the school."
In a short while, Jian Sui Lin exhaustedly came over with a calm expression.
Jian Sui Ying asked thoughtfully in a rare tone, "How was the exam?"
Jian Sui Lin smiled faintly, "It"s alright. It shouldn"t be that bad."
"Ha, ha, that"s good. Don"t think about it anymore since it"s over, and you still have to prepare for the other exams."
Li Xuan patted Li Yu"s shoulder, "What your Jian Ge said is true. Once you"re done, there"s no need to think about it. Lao Er,[6] you"ve caused trouble by staying at your Jian Ge"s place. Have you thanked your Jian Ge properly?"
"Aiya." Jian Sui Ying patted Li Xuan"s shoulder, "You shouldn"t say that."
Li Xuan started to laugh, "I"ll be the host for today"s lunch. Sui Lin, where do you want to eat?"
Jian Sui Lin smiled, "Li Dage, I"m not picky."
Jian Sui Ying, "There"s no need to go out. I"ve already had a table of food prepared. Go, go, go, let"s go rest at my place."
When Li Xuan insisted on speaking politely, Jian Sui Ying also insisted on having him go eat at his place.
Li Xuan also took advantage of the situation and went along, "Okay then. Once we"re done eating, you guys can rest up."
Jian Sui Ying led the three across the street, where the chauffeur had been waiting for them.
When they got on the car, they became a bit worried since none of the four were less than 180cm tall. One had to sit in the front seat and the other three had to squeeze in the back seat—with three squeezing in together, how was it bearable? What part would be unbearable, you can imagine it yourself.
Jian Sui Ying regretted bringing this small car, so he insisted on having Li Xuan sit in the front pa.s.senger street.
However, Li Xuan"s courteous nature would not have it as he insisted for Jian Sui Ying to sit there instead.
Since the two were not that familiar with each other, they had to give the other face, so that later they could have a better relationship.
In the end, Jian Sui Ying stubbornly pushed Li Xuan into the front seat. He happily ran to the back seat and squeezed in between his brother and Li Yu.
Li Yu"s arm was stuck to the side of his waist, and his thigh was also close to his thigh. And, as the fresh and cool scent of Li Yu"s body floated into his nose, he really wanted to turn his head and kiss Li Yu"s smooth cheek.
He was so happy that the only thing missing was a smile.
–
Translator"s Note:
[1] Li Da Gongzi – Li is the surname, Da is big/older and Gongzi is a term to address the son of an official. The t.i.tle translates to "The older son of the official Li," or "Li, the older son of the official". Sometimes, Gongzi can be seen translated to Mr., but it doesn"t clarify the brothers age so…
Also, when you see Jian Dashao – Jian is the surname, Da is big/older and Shao is from the word 大少爷Dashaoye which means eldest son (of a rich family). The t.i.tle is too long to write each time, so I"ll just use the Chinese, just keep it in mind ? if you see Jian Shao, Jian Dashao = Jian Sui Ying.
[2] Guangxi – autonomousregion located in southern China. It is bounded by the Chinese provinces of Yunnan to the west, Guizhou to the north, Hunan to the northeast, and Guangdong to the southeast; the Gulf of Tonkin(Beibu Gulf) and Vietnam border it to the south and southwest. Nanning, the capital, is about 75 miles (120 km) southwest of the region"s geographic centre. The name Guangxi dates to the Song dynasty (960-1279), when the region was known as Guangnan Xilu, or "Wide South, Western Route" (i.e., the western half of all territory south of the Nan Mountains). The Yuan dynasty (1206-1368) contracted the name to Guangxi ("Western Expanse")—as opposed to Guangdong ("Eastern Expanse") to the east—when it created a province out of this territory. In 1958 the province was transformed into the Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangxi—a step designed to help foster the cultural autonomy of the Zhuang, or Zhuangjia, people, who const.i.tute the largest minority living in the region.
[3] 北海; pinyin: Běihǎi) is a prefecture-level city in the south of Guangxi, People"s Republic of China. The name of the city means “north of the sea” in Chinese, signifying its status as a seaport on the north sh.o.r.e of the Gulf of Tonkin, which has granted it historical importance as a port of international trade for Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan. Between the years 2006 and 2020, Beihai is predicted to be the world"s fastest growing city. Beihai has a large shipyard, but most of the money generated in the city is derived from trade. In addition, it governs the small islands of Weizhou and Xieyang, and is directly west of Leizhou Peninsula.
[4] fodder – a type of animal feed; coa.r.s.e food for livestock, composed of entire plants, including leaves, stalks, and grain, of such forages as corn and sorghum.
[5] going public – is the process of selling shares that were formerly privately held to new investors for the first time. Otherwise known as an initial public offering (IPO).
[6] Lao Er – second-eldest child in a family; many people used this as a term of endearment. Li Yu will be addressed with this a lot ? Also, Li Lao Er (called by someone outside of the family, the user will add the family surname ‘Li" before the ‘Lao Er"