轉碼失敗！請您使用右上換源切換源站閱讀或者直接前往源網站進行閱讀！The little "incident" during the evening party caused a minor shock...
When Su Can entered earlier, many people noticed that he didn't bring a gift. This wasn't much of an issue since if their relationship was close enough, not bringing a gift could be overlooked.
But nobody expected his gift to appear in such an extravagant manner. Right now, this pile of cars full of flowers was parked outside the suite; people could still smell the faint fragrance, and most importantly, these were all vividly red roses.
This time, many people looked at Su Can with a different gaze. For birthdays, carnations or lilies might be appropriate gifts, but red roses seemed overly flamboyant.
Several guys secretly thought it was shameless and considered the boy rather shameless; their gifts would certainly make any girl delighted when they were opened, yet nothing could compare to the overwhelming impact of countless roses.
But realistically, if asked whether they'd dare to do it in such a manner, most likely wouldn't have the courage.
This was Su Can's first time giving flowers and doing it this way. When he opened the door earlier, his heart was actually quite tense. He thought that giving a woman flowers wasn’t a big deal in people’s imagination. Indeed, initially, Su Can agreed with this idea, but when the actual bouquet appeared, he realized he wasn't as composed as he imagined. This huge bunch of flowers wasn't just for Tang Wu; it also included gifts for Mu Ji.
After the initial stir, everyone returned to calmness.
The table was continuously filled with dishes like foie gras, beer-brewed rabbit stew, sour bean curd steamed scallops, and iron plate sautéed live shrimp—these were relatively mild tasting delicacies that earned praises from the women who had tasted many exquisite dishes before. Of course, there was also some praise meant to flatter the host.
The food here wasn't particularly expensive nor extremely rare; they didn’t serve imported lamb from New Zealand or sturgeon from the Caspian Sea. It simply triumphed in atmosphere and mood. Mu Jian knew these middle-aged guests well, so there was no need to make Tang Wu's birthday party look overly ostentatious; that would be meaningless.
In this region of Rongcheng, those present were influential officials and merchants. They had seen many grand occasions before, but Mu Ying didn't intend to showcase any power or intimidate anyone with the opportunity. There weren’t political opponents here, only former classmates and current friends who didn’t have significant interests at stake.
She merely wanted to make up for a birthday party that she hadn’t truly organized for Tang Wu in all these years, on this eighteenth birthday.
Muban glanced at Tang Wu once, but didn't say much. However, everyone must have seen the surprise and relief on her face when she received the flowers, as well as how her smile became more frequent even while dealing with the banter from a few middle-aged women.
One could only imagine how elated she was in her heart.
Finally, one of the middle-aged women couldn't hold back and started to inquire about Su Can's family background. "Daxie Construction Isn’t the chairman of Daxie Construction Xu Zheng’s old man"
"Yes," Su Can nodded. "Xu Zheng’s old man has a substantial background in Rongcheng, as it is said that even an assistant director should have the connections of a deputy director, and so on. This isn’t entirely baseless, because sometimes the rank doesn’t necessarily hold power over certain matters. A director may find it tough to deal with lazy subordinates who abuse their positions.
Old Man Xu is well-connected in both military and political circles, which is why Daxie Construction has managed to thrive even after transforming from Rongcheng’s construction bureau into the Daxie Construction Group. Although its era is gradually fading.
"Su Licheng As far as I know, the vice presidents of Daxie Construction are Li Chibing and Zhang Zhao," someone at the table asked.
Seeing everyone’s inquisitive looks, Su Can truthfully answered. "Not long ago, there was a staff congress where new personnel changes were made, and my father was promoted to vice president."
The others all responded with an "Oh," some of them suspiciously disbelieving while others didn’t care much. Even though Daxie Construction had a reputation, being just a vice president wouldn’t give him any real clout; problems would still have to be dealt with according to the rules and regulations. Overall, he was no better than they were at home in terms of family background.
Nonetheless, this caused some people subconsciously to treat Su Can differently since he was an obstacle for their children. Moreover, from what it seemed like, regarding Tang Jia's daughter, Su Can had taken a step ahead.
The girls at the table started asking Su Can various questions—about his school (he was from No. 27 High School), how he handled himself during dinner, and also impressed by those roses earlier—they were naturally curious about him.
From today’s weather to sports they enjoyed, music they listened to, places they liked visiting, etc.,
Then the conversation shifted to delicious dishes and daily life tips. With his experiences from two lifetimes, Su Cen was well-equipped and handled each topic effortlessly.
A girl who found the discussion fascinating remarked, "Mom, did you hear that From now on, when stir-frying carrots, use lard instead of vegetable oil; otherwise, it will destroy their nutritional value."
The woman being spoken to clearly wasn't pleased. She shook her head and said, "That’s not quite right. Lard isn’t better than vegetable oil in any way. It’s completely unscientific; there’s no logic to what you’re saying!"
Thus, Su Cen was tagged with various labels such as being “illogical,” “western-obsessed,” and “wildly imaginative.”
It wasn’t hard to understand why. Without his parents around, the women felt a sense of threat from their own children towards him and naturally disapproved of him. Although it wasn’t obvious, talking about their own kids while mentioning him was still an indirect form of attack.
Su Cen smiled through all this, seemingly not taking any offense to it. None of the children here paid heed to what their parents were saying either; they showed no indication of targeting Su Cen in any way.
When Tang Wu saw this, her smile faltered slightly.
Mu Ban changed the topic at an opportune moment, interrupting the ongoing conversation among the women.
A middle-aged man stood up and offered a toast: "Today I must thank you, Mu Sister. If not for your help from the judicial bureau, my lawsuit would probably still be hanging in the air for who knows how long! And all those brand promotion plans by mid-year would surely have fallen through! Although you’re a remarkable woman, you are still a lady. I’ll drink Wuliangye while you sip on red wine!"
Mu Ji clinked glasses with him and smiled in response.
The middle-aged man sat down with a smile and caressed his glass as he mused aloud, "Tang Wu from your family is turning eighteen this year. She’s grown into such a beautiful young lady, just like you used to be! I wonder what lucky boy will get to marry her in the future"
Among the crowd, someone joked back, “Old Mr. Zheng, have you become a renowned entrepreneur and still can’t forget about Mu Sister from your past She’s now a model wife and mother with a husband watching over her!”
It seemed that making jokes about Mu Ban, a beautiful woman, was boosting everyone's mood. Most of these people were classmates of Mu Xia from back then, and they had since become successful. This man called Old Zheng was also someone who had once pursued Mu Ban in school. He patted his bald head and said, "To be honest, I used to be the student union president back then. But there was nothing I could do; she had high standards and fell for the most handsome guy in our school."
Mr. Tang, who didn’t look like the ‘handsomest guy’ at all, patted his belly and took charge of the situation, saying, "Alright, alright, no more jokes. Just like what Xianzhong said during last year’s class reunion, we should stick together as classmates for the future. After retirement when we have enough money and time, let's go to fun places together and enjoy delicious food."
The deputy director of the provincial personnel department stood up, agreeing with Mr. Tang, "Old Tang is absolutely right! We can travel all over China and Europe after our retirements. Whoever remains in good health will be a hero. My body isn’t as strong; I thought I could retire early at sixty to live comfortably outside work, but it seems we should take care of our health for future reunions. Whoever lives longer will see the day! We won't just meet on gatherings but also at our children's birthdays and weddings. The one who lives longest will enjoy their old age more!"
The deputy director sat down as everyone applauded, smiling and saying, "If I didn’t speak well enough, shall we ask Old Chu to say something"
Among the clamor of everyone's encouragement, literary master Chu Zimiao waved his hand, saying, "I’m an old intellectual who likes to be pedantic; it might bore you. But when talking about happiness, I recalled a speech that would interest you all."
The crowd held their breath and listened.
"Happiness is simple: if I'm hungry and you have a meat bun in your hand, then you are happier than me. If I’m in the Arctic and you’re wearing a thick coat, you’re happier than me. If I want to use a toilet but there’s only one pit being used by someone else, that person is happier than me."
Upon hearing this, everyone cheered with approval. Middle-aged women laughed uncontrollably while even Mu Ban nodded repeatedly and found Chu Zimiao quite endearing for his ability to blend highbrow and lowbrow humor seamlessly.
Mr. Tang lightly tapped the table. "Old Master Chu, you truly live up to being a great master of your generation. Along with Li Zongwu in modern times, Chu Zimiao should be considered another remarkable figure from Sichuan. Speaking of which, both of you have similar backgrounds as professors; he’s deputy minister of education and provincial inspector while you’re head of the Provincial Department of Education's Party Committee."
Chu Zimiao shook his head with a sigh, saying, "Compared to Li Zongwu’s refined demeanor, I fall short. To be honest, this speech wasn’t written by me but someone among us."
The crowd fell silent, looking at each other in surprise.
Chu Zimiao stretched out his hand and pointed to a person seated at the dining table.eed for further learning. Otherwise, if in two years I fail to achieve the goals set by SASAC for state-owned asset preservation and appreciation, I would be reverted back."Su Licheng felt somewhat te...