“Heh-heh. I don’t think so. Huanhuan knows what I like, so she wouldn’t send any of those,” laughed Lu Jin. He wore a smile a lot more often these days. He was always no-nonsense before strangers, and a strict leader to his troops. When it came to family, however, he had been increasingly amiable over the years. Now, he would grin like an idiot whenever anyone talked of his collection-filled study.
“Come with me, Lu Yi,” said Lu Jin, turning to Lu Jin with the crate in his hands. It was simply perfect that he had come, since he needed to talk to him about some things.
Mei Zhi took a step back, her head dipped the whole time. When Lu Yi walked away, however, she studied him with a hint of hostility.
Suddenly, Lu Yi turned around, his cold eyes meeting Mei Zhi’s.
Taken aback, Mei Zhi quickly looked away and behaved herself.
Lu Jin opened the door and carried the crate into the room. It wasn’t very heavy. He wondered what was in it. He made Lu Yi shut the door before laying the crate on the table and unboxing it.
Inside was a blue tea set very much similar to Old Master Lu’s, but even finer. Since his outbursts, all that remained of Old Master Lu’s set was the kettle, which he treasured to no ends.
Yet this set was clearly of superior quality, and had prettier patterns. Lu Jin picked up a cup and examined it under the light. Light passed through the delicate cup. It felt more like an ornament than a utensil. Of course, Lu Jin didn’t have as much time as to stare at it all day. He was coarser than Old Master Lu, but that didn’t affect his appreciation and liking toward antiques.
“This,” said Lu Jin, pointing to a Yuan-dynasty vase on a shelf. “I got someone to appraise it, and guess what? It’s authentic, from the early Yuan-dynasty. There’s only a handful of others in the entire world that can match its pristine condition. How does Huanhuan find treasures like this all the time? And now this…” Lu Jin liked the tea set very much.
“Even the old man’s treasured set isn’t this fine.” Back when Old Master Lu had the full set, Lu Jin had always been envious, but never dared to ask for it knowing that it was the old man’s favorite. His heart shattered when he learned of his father smashing the cups.
“No idea,” said Lu Yi, picking up a tea cup. “Maybe she just had a hunch you would like these containers.” Of course, he wasn’t going to say that it was because Yan Huan had spent her previous life in the Lu Family, under the same roof as the antique-loving Old Master Lu. She had clearly done her homework, which gave rise to many opportunities of laying her hands first on antiques no one knew about.
That was why she could bring these antiques back every time. In fact, she might’ve even gone on some trips just to retrieve these antiques.
Walking out, he took out his phone and rang Yan Huan. She should be free since it was lunchtime.
Yan Huan was picking up her rice grain by grain when she received the video-call. Pressing accept, she set her phone aside and continued eating.
“Is that even enough?” frowned Lu Yi. “What are you doing? Eating? Or counting rice?”
“It isn’t very tasty,” argued Yan Huan. She didn’t have much of an appetite. Might be because she just arrived and wasn’t used to the environment.
“Even so, you must eat,” said Lu Yi, holding the phone closer to his eyes. “Eat properly, and don’t play with your food.” He narrowed his eyes threateningly.
Yan Huan picked up her chopstick and began eating begrudgingly. She knew Lu Yi was soft on her, and would do anything for her and give anything to her. He would never stop her from doing the things she wanted either.
He was not Lu Qin; Lu Qin had stepped on her to advance, but Lu Yi was there to support her so that she could walk an easier and more comfortable path.
However, one thing he wouldn’t budge on was making her eat her meals properly. He didn’t force her to eat meat, but made her eat three proper meals every day. She was way too skinny. Apart from the lumps of flesh on her chest and butt, her body was pretty much skin and bones.
Yan Huan wanted to get plumper too. Her current stickman-figure was perfect for the screen, but Luo Lin had told her that she would look nicer with more meat on her legs, which looked like a pair of matches at the moment.
Lu Yi didn’t like that, and neither did Luo Lin.
Yan Huan ate obediently, making herself swallow the rice she didn’t enjoy much. She wasn’t too picky aside from avoiding meat, thankfully.
“Speaking of which, where did you get the tea set you gave Dad?” asked Lu Yi, after having made sure there was no one beside him.
“I came here just to buy that.”
Yan Huan remembered that tea set very well. It belonged to Old Master Lu, but one of the cups broke during a small accident. Of course, he was the one who broke it, and not anyone else.
Lu Qin had gone to great lengths to get his hands on that tea set.
The initial owner of tea set sold it cheaply, and the buyer immediately resold it for around 80 million RMB. In the end, Lu Qin gritted his teeth and outbidded everyone at the auction, so that he could gift it to Old Master Lu.
That was the point where Old Master Lu began to like Lu Qin, going so far as to granting him access to the resources of the Lu Family. That was what gave Lu Qin the confidence to act as boldly as he did, since he wasn’t afraid of anyone other than Lu Qin. Nor was he afraid of Yan Huan dying, for he saw her as an overused stepping stone rather than a person. He would’ve done her in himself had she not had some value left in her.
In this life, Yan Huan knew about the tea set and bought it off the initial owner first. Of course, the price she offered was thrice the amount of the person who had bought it during her previous life.
Even though the owner of the tea set still got the short end of the stick, a few millions was still a better deal than a six-digit offer.
Of course, that was all she could remember. She couldn’t hope to remember every single detail, after all.
