Chapter 62: It Was Actually a Lu Family Member!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
That night, it was drizzling in Luo City and water droplets were dripping from the rows of green bamboo shoots. Mist formed in the sky from the cold weather.
The strong breeze was blowing at a pavilion not too far away and it was a rare sight to see such a beautiful and pure piece of land with all of the current developments.
Shen Yichen sat beside Gu Pingsheng in the pavilion as they waited for their guest to arrive. Gu Pingsheng had already prepared the dry tea leaves on the table and he was boiling a pot of hot water beside the wooden table.
Very soon, a black umbrella appeared before them and Shen Yichen looked towards the black umbrella, looking forward to seeing who was under it.
The first person that caught his eyes was Jiang Yuning and she was holding tightly onto another person’s arm.
When the two of them finally arrived at the pavilion and lowered the black umbrella, Shen Yichen was speechless from shock.
It was a Lu family member!
It was actually a Lu family member!
Furthermore, it was none other than the prestigious heir to the Lu family, Lu Jingzhi. He was one of the top representative figures of the next generation in Luo City.
He could tell that Jiang Yuning and Lu Jingzhi had an intimate relations.h.i.+p because she was holding tightly onto his arms as they walked in. However, he could not tell what the relations.h.i.+p between Lu Jingzhi and Chairman Gu was.
“You have finally arrived?” Gu Pingsheng said as he looked up at the two people who were busy putting the umbrella aside. He snorted and said, “Couldn’t you have left your house earlier?”
“I was caught up in a meeting and that is why we got delayed,” Lu Jingzhi explained as he kept the umbrella before sitting down at the wooden table with Jiang Yuning.
“This…is my nephew,” Gu Pingsheng said as he introduced Lu Jingzhi to Shen Yichen. “My biological nephew.”
Shen Yichen was stunned once again before he greeted Lu Jingzhi. “h.e.l.lo, Mr. Lu. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“As for their relations.h.i.+p, you can open your eyes and see for yourself,” Gu Pingsheng said as he glanced at the two sitting before them. He was too lazy to explain the situation to him.
Jiang Yuning smiled and was about to explain their relations.h.i.+p to Shen Yichen, but was stopped by Lu Jingzhi who quickly replied, “She is my girlfriend. She will be the future Mrs. Lu and she will also be helping me manage matters relating to the Lu family in the future. Therefore, I hope that Director Shen will be able to take good care of her on my behalf.”
Shen Yichen was stunned for a moment as he digested the information that he had just received.
He could not understand how their relations.h.i.+p could have happened. After all, Jiang Yuning was Lu Zongye’s fiancé up until recently. It had only been such a short time so…
“Their relations.h.i.+p may seem complicated to you, but it is not what you think it is,” Gu Pingsheng explained to Shen Yichen. “I just want you to know that I am handing you a very big responsibility when I entrust Jiang Yuning into your care. You know I am not joking now.”
“I understand,” Shen Yichen replied. Although he seemed to reply in a calm manner, he could not help breaking out in cold sweat.
“You do not have to be so nervous. I just want you to treat her well and do what is best for her. Trust me, she is worth it,” Lu Jingzhi suddenly said.
“Didn’t I already tell you that you are always acting like you are my father?” Jiang Yuning said as she poked Lu Jingzhi’s cheek because he had such a serious expression on his face. She then corrected her posture and sat properly in her seat before she said, “Uncle, are these tea leaves here because you are waiting for me to prepare the tea for you?”
“What do you think?” Gu Pingsheng stared at her.
Jiang Yuning laughed and then wiped her hands with wet tissue before she placed the dried tea leaves directly in front of her.
She started by pouring the boiling water into the teapot and then covering the tea pot with its lid. Then, she poured away the water in the teapot before placing the dried tea leaves into the cups. She then poured boiling water over the tea leaves to rinse the leaves before she placed them into the teapot. These were the steps that she had taken to wash the tea leaves.
After that, she poured out half of the water that had been used to wash the tea leaves onto the platter before them and at that instant, they could immediately smell the fragrance of the tea.
She then poured out the remaining half of the tea water over the tea cups to rinse the cups.
The next step was to add boiling water into the teapot and wait for a few minutes before the tea was ready to serve. When the tea was finally ready, Jiang Yuning poured out a cup of tea and served it to Gu Pingsheng for him to taste it.
Gu Pingsheng took the tea cup and started sipping the tea slowly. He was very impressed because she indeed knew the correct way to prepare tea. “I thought that this girl was just talking big when she said she knew how to make tea. I did not expect her to be this good at it.”
Lu Jingzhi picked up a tea cup and started tasting the tea that Jiang Yuning had made. In the past, he used to accompany Jiang Yuning’s grandfather when he wanted to drink tea. At that time, Jiang Yuning was already very skilled in preparing and making tea, but he had not expected her to still remain so skilled even after so many years.
It was a pleasant surprise to Shen Yichen to personally witness Jiang Yuning preparing the tea for them. After all, girls of her age nowadays would not be able to make any tea, as they would not pay attention to this sort of skills. They would usually just be drinking bubble milk tea instead, as it was the trend.
Even though the Jiang family had already lost their status and prestige, he could instantly tell that Jiang Yuning was raised by an aristocratic family just by watching her prepare tea.
At this moment, he suddenly thought of something important.
The Ministry of Culture was preparing a doc.u.mentary, with its third episode being . That episode would encompa.s.s the history of tea and its preparation process and he thought that it would be a good idea for Jiang Yuning to try and audition for that episode.
Furthermore, the tea episode would be filmed before the filming of started and would therefore not cause any clash in the scheduling.
After all, based on Jiang Yuning’s current situation, it would be best for her to do as many things as possible that would improve the perception and image that the public had of her.
After pitching his idea to the three of them, Gu Pingsheng smiled and said, “I like that you are already planning ahead and fighting for roles for your artistes even before she has even signed the employment contract.”
“I can do it,” Jiang Yuning replied. “I enjoy having tea.”
“You have to prepare another round of tea later and this time, give us a meticulous description of the tea-making process. I will record the procedure and send it to the person in charge to review.”
“No problem,” Jiang Yuning replied as she nodded her head.
“In future, you have to be careful and take care of your own reputation. You cannot behave like you used to anymore,” Shen Yichen started nagging her the same way that Lu Jingzhi usually did.
“Hahaha, second brother, is Director Shen actually your brother?” Jiang Yuning suddenly laughed. “Anyway, Director Shen, since we are about to sign an employment contract now, there are a few things that I need to inform you of, in case you would not know how to handle the situation if it were to come up in future.”
“Alright then, go ahead and say it.”
“First of all, Ku Jie…is my brother,” Jiang Yuning said in a serious manner as she carefully observed the expression on Shen Yichen’s face.
Shen Yichen: “!”
Gu Pingsheng: “!”
“But he was the one who released the blackmail material about you.”
“In the past, my brother and I were struggling a lot and therefore, we did many things just so we could survive in the entertainment industry. As for the scandal that caused the annulment of my engagement to Lu Zongye, we had deliberately released the news so that I could get out of the engagement with him. I will explain this matter to you in detail in future, but what I am trying to tell you now is that Ku Jie would never harm me.”
“Secondly, my relations.h.i.+p with Huo Yuxi is really very bad and there will be a lot of ugly rumors and scandals involving Huo Yuxi coming up in the next month. Those scandals will involve my private family affairs and therefore, I hope that you will not interfere and try to do anything about it.”
“Thirdly, I would like you to keep my relations.h.i.+p with second brother a secret because my reputation is really bad at the moment. However, even if I am on the right track in future and my reputation is clean, I do not want to expose my relations.h.i.+p with second brother to the public either. Therefore, I hope that you will be able to keep this matter to yourself and maintain confidentiality about my personal relations.h.i.+p.”
“Since I have already made so many personal requests, I will naturally accept and give my unconditional cooperation with any arrangements that you may make in the future.”
Shen Yichen remained very calm and composed because from the moment that he met Lu Jingzhi, he had already known that it would not be easy to deal with Jiang Yuning. It was not surprising because she not only had Lu Jingzhi as her boyfriend, but she also had Ku Jie as her brother.
Therefore, his perception of Jiang Yuning had also changed overnight.
She had several different routes that she could choose to take right now.
An inspirational route, a mysterious and high-profile route, or even a low-profile route, which meant that there would be no exposure and no heat from the public at all. Furthermore, it would not be difficult for him to handle someone like Jiang Yuning because she had a cheerful and optimistic personality.
“These would not be an issue at all. Is there anything else you would like to tell me?”
“Shouldn’t I allow you to slowly discover my talents and strengths in the future? That would be more fun and surprising right?” Jiang Yuning said as she laughed. “It would be so boring if I simply revealed every little detail about me to you right now.”