Chapter 88: Acquaintance?
The next day, when Mu Jingzhe took the children to the art school, she surprisingly ran into Tang Moling again.
Tang Moling stopped the car without hesitation. “I’ll drive you guys there. Get in.”
Mu Jingzhe was a little hesitant, but Tang Moling told Shao Dong, “Hop on. Haven’t you realized that you’ve grown taller again? Besides, even though you’re children, there are five of you, so it’s tiring to take you there by bicycle.”
“I’m not tired. I’m very strong,” Mu Jingzhe quickly replied.
Shao Dong pursed his lips and immediately jumped off the bike. “Let’s take Uncle Tang’s car.”
He thought for a moment and said, “When we earn money in the future, we can buy another bicycle. I can take my younger siblings there.”
Shao Xi was even more ambitious. “In the future, let’s just buy a car.”
Tang Moling found it funny. “You guys sure are ambitious. Do you know how much a car costs?”
Shao Xi turned around and asked seriously, “How much?”
Shao Dong and the others also turned their heads and stared at him, waiting for him to reveal the amount.
It was as if they were really going to save up money to buy it.
Tang Moling: “The price differs based on the brand and quality. Let’s take my car as an example. The price…”
It was indeed very expensive. At present, it was impossible for the children to buy one.
It would be a lie to say that they didn’t suffer a blow, but they didn’t give up just like that.
The five children’s hearts were now occupied by this number. They quietly resolved to earn this amount of money in the future and were doing the math in their minds.
Shao Xi calculated his royalties, then looked at his hand. Surely he could earn this much if he wrote until his hand broke?
Little Bei secretly whispered to Shao Nan, “I’m not buying a television anymore. I want to keep the money to buy a car for Mommy.”
Seeing them secretly whispering to each other, Mu Jingzhe asked curiously, “Little Bei, what are you whispering about?”
“I want to dance again. I want to film advertis.e.m.e.nts again. I want to earn a lot of money.”
“There will be a chance.” Mu Jingzhe laughed. “We’ll buy a television then.”
Little Bei wanted to say that she didn’t want to buy a television anymore and instead would buy a car for Mommy, but when she saw Tang Moling, she was afraid that he would laugh at her, so she swallowed her words.
Tang Moling had mixed feelings when he saw the children, whom he had not seen for a while, change their form of address and call her ‘Mommy’.
“Did anything happen recently? Were you frightened by what happened to Li Tao?”
“It was alright.”
Tang Moling saw that she was still the same, polite but distant. She kept maintaining a certain distance from him, and he felt very upset.
Along the way, he couldn’t help but keep finding topics to talk about with Mu Jingzhe.
Mu Jingzhe didn’t take the initiative to find a topic to talk about, but she would answer politely when he asked.
Tang Moling had never done this before, for it was usually other people who racked their brains to find something to talk to him about. This was his first time trying to find topics to talk about, so he was really inexperienced and quickly ran out of things to say.
In the end, as a result of him forcibly trying to find a topic of conversation, he started talking about work.
It was now time for him to succeed his grandfather, so there were many problems that needed to be solved.
He should have returned to the city long ago, or even to the capital. However, his relations.h.i.+p matters had delayed him, and the problems still had to be solved.
Tang Moling was currently troubled by some HR issues and a few other problems. As he spoke, he poured out his troubles to her unknowingly. Immediately after telling her all that, Tang Moling regretted it.
Why was he saying all this? How was Mu Jingzhe supposed to answer? She also wouldn’t know…
He still regretted it, but reality proved that Mu Jingzhe really knew a little.
Many girls would look for a clerical job after graduation, thus getting exposed to administrative and HR issues at work. Mu Jingzhe, who had extensive working experience, had also encountered these issues in her line of work before.
Hence, based on her experience, she succinctly gave her opinion on the issues he mentioned.
As for the issue of poor business at a brand-new mall, there were many marketing strategies one could use in the modern era. Mu Jingzhe had worked in marketing before, so she came up with a couple of suitable ideas based on the characteristics of this era.
After she gave her suggestions, she glanced at Tang Moling curiously. In the book, Tang Moling was portrayed as a cool and arrogant big boss.
She hadn’t expected him to encounter trouble in reality. When she thought about it carefully, though, it made sense. How could anyone be born to be a boss? Even a boss grew to be one step by step.
Mu Jingzhe sighed, while Tang Moling was completely amazed. How did Mu Jingzhe know everything?
Besides, although the method she’d suggested seemed simple, it might actually solve the problem if it was executed well.
It was rare for Tang Moling to speak in such a sincere tone. “I’ll give it a try later. If it works, you’ll have helped me a lot.”
“It’s nothing. All I did was say a few words.” Mu Jingzhe waved her hand. She hadn’t come up with this idea anyway; someone else had.
Along the way, there was no awkward silence because they were talking about this.
After taking Mu Jingzhe and the kids to the art school, Tang Moling got out of the car and watched them enter.
After a while, he was about to leave when he suddenly saw a figure walking past the school that felt strangely familiar.
He let out an ‘eh’, but when he took a closer look, that figure was gone.
“I must be seeing things. He can’t possibly be here…” Tang Moling murmured to himself as he drove away.
In the art school, someone came out of the bathroom and happened to see Tang Moling’s back view as he got in the car and left.
The figure paused, finding that back view familiar, but the car was soon gone, so he didn’t pay it any mind.
After the foreign language cla.s.s ended, Little Bei went to learn dancing and hosting, whilst Xiao Wu went to learn music. Only Shao Dong, Shao Xi, and Shao Nan had no other courses.
“Little Dong, Little Xi, Little Nan, take a look too. If you want to learn, you can. It’s summer break now, so there’s time.”
Mu Jingzhe had only called Shao Bei and Shao Zhong Little Bei and Xiao Wu previously. Later on, after all five of them had started calling her ‘Mommy’, she had found out from Shao Nan that calling the three of them by their full names was actually also a form of differential treatment.
Mu Jingzhe was just used to calling them that, but she immediately corrected herself and uniformly called them Little (insert first name).
“We’ve taken a look at the list of courses, but we’d rather go to the library to read than study these things.” Shao Xi was the first to speak.
“Yes.” Shao Nan nodded.
“I’m more interested in chess, but I think the grandfathers at the county’s cultural center are more impressive at chess. I’ll go learn Chinese chess from them. I can learn it for free.”
The county library was in the county cultural center. There was also an elderly activity center inside. Many retired elders would usually hang out there to play the erhu or the accordion, dance, or play Chinese chess.
Previously, when they had gone to the county library, the sharp Shao Dong had set his sights on them.
Mu Jingzhe said helplessly, “No, you really don’t have to keep thinking about saving money. If you like it, you can learn it. Our family isn’t that poor anymore.”
“I really want to read.”
“Me too.”
“I just want to learn from the grandpas. They’re pretty good.”
The children wanted to buy a car, and their goal was to earn money.
Shao Xi wanted to submit some more ma.n.u.scripts, while Shao Dong was thinking of ways to earn money.
Since they insisted, Mu Jingzhe had no choice but to follow them to the county cultural center.
Shao Xi and Shao Nan headed straight to the library, and Shao Dong really went to look for the old folks.
He didn’t like to talk and he just watched obediently from the side;ines. The few grandpas didn’t pay much attention to him at first, letting him stand there as he wished.
Later on, upon seeing that he hadn’t left and was still watching, they couldn’t help but ask a few questions. Then, Shao Dong said that he also wanted to learn.
The elderly folk had plenty of patience and time now, so they gladly obliged. The result was shocking after just one afternoon of chess lessons.