Chapter 46 Being Cunning
Actually, everybody is just observing in the morning and the bidding in the afternoon is the main part.
They eat lunch in the farm yard. Several tables in the two-story house are full, like they are having a feast. Leaving the disagreements in business aside, Dai people are hospitable. The Burmese host is alright, let alone all the jade traders who deal with people all the time. All of them are having a good time.
Dai people never eat overnight rice. The rice served to the guests are fresh. In the Dai culture, people have to use their hands and make rice balls while eating because they believe that this will preserve the color and fragrance of rice.
People from different regions have various customs. Lin Luoran thinks that eating rice balls with hands is not inelegant but interesting, and she enjoys herself very much.
There is also crab paste called “Crab Nanmibu”, which is made by chopping crab shell and meat into mince. Dipping the rice balls into Crab Nanmibu, the Dai flavor becomes even outstanding.
Except for roast chicken and fire fish, the dishes and desert are mainly sour. For example, there are sour bamboo shoot, sour pea meal, sour meat and wild cranberry. Lin Luoran can accept all the acidity, and she even drinks two bowls of home-made wine which is with low alcohol content and sweet.
What she feels uncomfortable with are those “local snacks” made of cicada, rod duan, spider, water bug and ant egg. These snacks scare her—Even though Lin Luoran is a cultivator, she is also a girl who naturally repels insects. How can she eat those?
Lin Luoran want to go out and get some fresh air on the excuse of being drunk. Seeing that the cheeks of the beautiful girl is red and knowing that she used a large bowl to drink the wine with them, they let her leave the table early.
Lin Luoran loves banana trees. These huge leaves make her mood better. Standing under the banana trees, she let her thoughts wander for a while. Wind blows. Lin Luoran’s face becomes hot, then she realizes she is quite drunk. As she tries to use the Reiki inside of her to dissolve the alcohol, a familiar voice comes behind her.
“Luoran, how do you do? You look thinner…”
Lin Luoran is shocked and disgusted as if she is just hit by a thunder. She turns around and sees Li Anping, who is posing as a passionate and artistic man while leaning on a tree.
His style… Wasn’t she attracted to his style before? Why is she disgusted by him now? Lin Luoran starts to question her taste. Li Anping notices Lin Luoran’s hesitation which improves his self-confidence.
“Luoran, you know about the condition of my family… Elly is only a fling. I thought that if I could get a promotion, we might be able to get married sooner. Therefore I projected myself in front of her. Who knew that she mistook me and started pursuing me… If I rejected her, I might lose my job. Luoran, you have always been the one that I love!”
Li Anping’s “passion” makes Lin Luoran quiver. She doubts that Li Anping sees her as a moron, or else how can he say disgusting things like this?
“What do you want?” Seeing that there is nobody around, Lin Luoran starts to have some wicked ideas. She is thinking whether she should give Li Anping a hard time so that he will never come to displease her.
Li Anping is speechless. The old Lin Luoran will be moved by him. How is she so calm this time?
Thinking of the image of Lin Luoran standing beside Liu Zheng, Li Anping swears in his mind. However, he fakes a smile and says, “Luoran, I’m thinking that since we’ll get married sooner or later, we should have some savings, right? Our salary will never be enough, and even your 6 million yuan can not supply us for long… How about we make a fortune together and live the rest of our lives comfortably?”
Though Lin Luoran has changed a lot, she is astonished by Li Anping.
What kind of man will want to help his ex-girlfriend with the plan of spending her 6 million yuan? Even though Lin Luoran knows that Li Anping is stupid, her anger turns into distress when she thinks of the fact that she used to be in deep love with this stupid man.
“What is your plan to make a fortune?”
Li Anping’s eyes are lightened because he believes that Lin Luoran still has feelings for him. However, he starts to hesitate that if Lin Luoran really has the ability to turn stone into jade, shall he use her by himself or go play up to Elly?
Li Anping thinks over and over again. He has spent much effort on Elly and he is reluctant to give this up now. Also, Lin Luoran is currently in a good place so he will have a route of retreat if things don’t work out with Elly!
As a result, Li Anping becomes excited again and says even gentler,
“Here is the thing. Luoran, you’ve been having good luck lately. However, even the best luck can’t bring you enough money to buy the huge stone in the yard, right?”
Lin Luoran squints and nods, “Yes.” In fact, she is thinking that she will never bother to bid on the huge stone even if she has enough money.
Li Anping is inspired. He says with excitement, “Luoran, do you think the huge stone contains jade? Will it be worthy to gamble on it?”
Hearing this, if Lin Luoran still can’t figure out Li Anping’s intention, she can just kill herself with a Tofu.
She pretends to be angry, “Li Anping, are you trying to get information from me? You want to kiss up to Elly with the information I give you, don’t you? No way! No matter how badly she wants that stone, she can never win over my company!”
Li Anping is happy, “Luoran, don’t get me wrong. Everything I do is for our future… Is that huge stone really worthy?”
Lin Luoran acts like she is going to cry, “Stay away from me! I’ll never believe in you!”
Li Anping has got the information. Although he is attracted to Lin Luoran’s beauty, his experience tells him that beauty will never be better than money. The only dependable thing in the world is money.
Li Anping goes away with faked reluctance. Standing where she is, Lin Luoran’s eyes are ice cold.
A man’s laugh comes deep from the banana trees.
While thinking of how he can hold the laugh for so long, Lin Luoran acts surprised and asks, “Who is it?”
“You act so tough to me. Turns out you are just so so in front of others!” With the arrogant voice and the tall figure, Foppish Mu shows himself.
Lin Luoran has put away her crying face and asks with questioning eyebrows, “Anyhow, you are a play boy. How can you do such degrading things? Shame on you!”
Mu Tiannan twitches his mouth, “I came here to have a walk in order to digest better. Who wants to listen to your repulsive love affair… Still, I didn’t realize that your taste was so low!” He finishes talking with a blink, which looks so infuriating.
Lin Luoran says fiercely, “Just mind your own business!” She turns around and stamps away.
If it were not for the reason that she didn’t want to expose her ability, Lin Luoran would never let anyone eavesdrop on her when she already knew that someone was hiding in the dark!
Mu Tiannan touches his nose and mutters to himself, “What a cunning girl! So unlovely!” Though he defines Lin Luoran as cunning, Mu Tiannan believes that the tears circling in her eyes just then can’t all be fake.
Mu Tiannan takes himself as a guardian of beautiful women who can’t bear the sight of women crying. He now automatically ignores the sadness he causes when he abandons the women before. Thinking of Lin Luoran’s ridiculous “conspiracy”, he touches his nose,
“All her emotions are completely showed on her face. How can she set anyone up successfully? Forget it. I shall just help her out today.”
