Chapter 423: Gu Zhiyan Goes to the Fuli Yuan Where Jiang Lai Grew Up

Once the product launch date was set, the relevant staff had already begun bustling about, but all of this was kept confidential from outsiders.

Ke Zhongyu came out of the conference room; Assistant Zhou said Chi Ce had come by, read halfway through the contract before being called away by the eldest miss, and would come back to look at it tomorrow.

Ke Zhongyu gave an "Mm" without paying it much mind; he was heading to the lab to make Jiang Lai get off work. Ever since the product launch date was set, Jiang Lai seemed a bit excited—not only focusing on the individual soldier intelligent equipment side, but also going over to the crop detection system side to provide guidance.

Assistant Zhou still had matters to report, following behind Ke Zhongyu as he said: "Recently the Gu clan has shown some activity; they seem to be partnering with A City's cultural tourism."

Ke Zhongyu glanced at Assistant Zhou.

Assistant Zhou continued: "It's not confirmed yet, I'll keep watching. Also, Gu Zhiyan went to G Province."

Ke Zhongyu's footsteps paused slightly: "G Province? Keep an eye on Gu Zhiyan's side too."

Gu Zhiyan already knew about what Lin Shutong and Gu Yinxue had done together, and had also confessed before Jiang Lai; this trip to G Province was probably related to Gu Yinxue.

After finishing his report, Assistant Zhou did not continue following—he had no intention of being a third wheel.

Ke Zhongyu had thought he'd have to go to the lab to drag someone out again, but he didn't need to; Jiang Lai was already sitting in the lounge area, looking at her phone, and looked up when she heard footsteps.

"You're here."

"Mm." Seeing that she had no intention of getting up, Ke Zhongyu sat down beside her, noticed she kept staring at her phone, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Jiang Lai didn't know how to explain; she simply placed her phone in his palm, the screen lit up, showing the chat interface with Gu Sen.

The messages above were all from Gu Sen—nothing trying to be chummy, just weather forecasts and clothing suggestions, and from time to time he'd forward some articles and videos, all health-related.

Jiang Lai didn't know how to reply for a moment.

She didn't reply, yet couldn't help thinking about whether not replying was impolite—after all, she was the one who had agreed to add him as a friend.

Jiang Lai's life had always lacked the role of a father, until she met Old Cui, but Old Cui's personality and Gu Sen's personality were different, and their roles were different too—one was a mentor, the other a biological father.

Ke Zhongyu was also a bit at a loss facing such chat records; the way he got along with his father wasn't like this either.

"Ke Zhongying knows very well how to get along with a father." He offered a suggestion, "But she's mischievous, so she may not have reference value."

Jiang Lai corrected: "She's adorable."

Ke Zhongyu clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.

Jiang Lai smiled, and actually went to ask Ke Zhongying.

Analyze each specific problem specifically; Ke Zhongying also knew her own way of getting along wasn't suitable, but she offered one effective suggestion—if she really didn't know how to reply, just send stickers.

What followed was the phone vibrating frantically.

Ke Zhongying contributed her entire collection of stickers, figuring at least one would suit Sister Jiang Lai.

Ke Zhongyu: "So noisy."

Jiang Lai saved them one by one, getting to know each sticker in the process; her favorites were that cat and that mouse, so she used one to reply to Gu Sen.

Gu Sen received Jiang Lai's message and suddenly smiled.

Recently something major had happened in the Gu family, and everyone could see that Gu Sen had been in low spirits; today he suddenly smiled, and even cheerfully told people to continue reporting on work.

After the meeting ended, he said to Gu Hui: "The business on the A City side needs to be expedited; if it really won't work, go and oversee it yourself." If he didn't need to personally hold the fort here, he would have gone himself.

……

G Province.

Gu Zhiyan went to K City and followed the address in the photo to look for it; that area had already been demolished. Fortunately, the Gu family's identity was useful—Gu Zhiyan asked someone to track down the whereabouts of the driver Wang Peng.

The man was no longer in K City; he had moved his entire family to the provincial capital twenty years ago.

Finding out Wang Peng's address in the provincial capital would still take some time, so Gu Zhiyan simply checked in and stayed first.

Lying in the best hotel room in K City, Gu Zhiyan tossed and turned, unable to sleep no matter what; when dawn was about to break, he went with dark circles under his eyes to the Fuli Yuan where Jiang Lai had grown up.

It was already early spring in March, and the green belts along the road were blooming, but the mornings in G Province were very cold; white mist hung over the mountains along the horizon, and even with a cashmere coat over his clothes, Gu Zhiyan still felt his hands and feet freezing.

The people at the Fuli Yuan hadn't expected someone to be standing at the gate at the crack of dawn, and asked what he was here for.

Gu Zhiyan gazed at the concrete floor inside the Fuli Yuan, at the adults occasionally passing by—they should be the Fuli Yuan's staff.

"I'm here to see Director Tang. I am…" his voice paused, "Jiang Lai's older brother."

Director Tang rushed over upon hearing the news, looked at the tall man before him dressed in luxury yet bearing exhaustion, and asked: "Mr. Gu's son?"

Gu Zhiyan guessed the person before him was Director Tang, and nodded in greeting.

Director Tang welcomed him in: "You don't look much like Mr. Gu."

"I look a bit more like my mother." With every step Gu Zhiyan took inside, he began thinking that Jiang Lai had actually grown up in such a crude place.

Director Tang noticed his frown but didn't ask why he had come here; he simply said: "Economic conditions are better now. The orphanage has been renovated—the facilities are ten times better than before."

Gu Zhiyan couldn't believe that this was already what good conditions looked like.

And Director Tang's next words stuck in his throat even more.

"But by the time of the renovation, Jiang Lai had already gone off to university; she never got to enjoy it, only coming back occasionally."

"Before, we still had dirt floors and tile-roofed houses here; when the rain was too heavy, they'd leak, and everyone squeezed together to sleep. When the rain stopped, we'd go up on the roof ourselves to replace tiles—the children would line up in a long queue, passing tiles up one by one."

"Our Jiang Lai was very capable from a young age; as soon as she could stand steady, she knew to pass tiles, and when she could run, she'd go up the mountain to pick honeysuckle and wormwood to dry, then carry them to sell. When she sold them for money, she'd bring it back to me. Later, when she was a bit older, when it rained she'd go in the middle of the night to catch water with basins, and put plastic sheeting over the other children's quilts. She was very careful, but the plastic sheeting would still make noise."

"When the rain stopped, she insisted on following me up to the roof to learn how to lay tiles; she learned from me, together taking care of this Fuli Yuan and the children here."

Gu Zhiyan stopped his footsteps along with Director Tang, looking up at the building before them—it was long since no longer a tile-roofed house, but a single-story building.

"When she was in elementary school, she already knew to dig through trash cans to collect bottles to sell. Others mocked her, and she never said a word—no crying, no fussing. She'd come back and carry a little stool to the courtyard to do her homework; she had to finish before dark, otherwise there'd be no light."

Listening to Director Tang's account, what surfaced in Gu Zhiyan's mind was himself and Gu Yinxue at home, living in luxury, chauffeured everywhere, with nannies to look after them.

Leaking roofs, picking through trash to sell bottles—that was simply something out of a fantasy.

Jiang Lai went up on the roof to remove tiles because she was afraid of leaks when it rained; he "went up on the roof to remove tiles" because he was angry that his mother wouldn't let him eat things bought from street stalls, deeming them unclean.

Director Tang looked at the grim-faced Gu Zhiyan and said earnestly: "When a person is too able to endure hardship, they'll have endless hardship to endure; they even feel that life is better than before, so it doesn't count as hardship. Back then, the Shen Family bullied her because she was an outsider who had married in, but she and the Gu family share a blood tie—surely the Gu family wouldn't also see her as an outsider coming back, would they?"

The two words "No, we wouldn't" were like a branding iron, searing Gu Zhiyan's throat; he couldn't spit out those words, and could only have his eyes burned red.

His own younger sister had actually lived this kind of life as a child?

After a long while, Gu Zhiyan said: "It's different from the Fuli Yuan I knew about."

Dean Tang sighed: "How could a few words possibly describe true suffering? Moreover, the times have developed too quickly, to the point that everyone has forgotten the hardships of the past."

"G Province is not B City where the Gu family resides; the economic conditions here have always been backward, and now that the economy is developed, who ensures that every region has kept up with the average standard?"

Dean Tang turned sideways to look at Gu Zhiyan: "I'm telling you this not so you pity Jiang Lai, but so that the Gu family, whether they welcome her or not, should respect her, respect someone who, barefoot, pulled themselves out of the mud and brought themselves to the prosperous city."