Chapter 652: God of Wealth

~34 min read 6,613 words

"What is this?"

"Didn't I tell you just now? Someone gave it to me."

Gu Ning cried for a while, and seeing Li Shu playing with a bag beside her, she asked Li Xuewu.

Li Xuewu also replied, stood up indifferently, and gently wiped Gu Ning's tears.

"Tomorrow is Saturday; how about we go home and make dumplings?"

"Mm."

Gu Ning sniffed, and seeing Li Xuewu didn't care about this, she didn't ask anymore.

Li Xuewu would naturally say what he wanted to say, and what he didn't say was naturally unnecessary for her to know.

The two had agreed before marriage that Gu Ning wouldn't take the initiative to ask him, but if she asked, he must explain clearly.

And Li Xuewu had always done very well; he absolutely wouldn't hide what Gu Ning wanted to hear, and he really didn't care about this bag.

He hadn't even opened the seal; the ribbon knot on it was still there.

"Then it's settled; I'll go down in a while and tell Qin Jingru to prepare the filling in advance."

Li Xuewu gestured outside the window and said, "The car is still waiting, so I won't delay work time."

As he spoke, he walked out while exhorting Gu Ning, "Remember to call the communal courtyard in a while, and have them prepare the flour in advance on Saturday; we'll wrap them as soon as we arrive."

As he spoke, he had already gone downstairs, *deng deng deng*, and Gu Ning subsequently heard Li Xuewu talking to Qin Jingru in the courtyard.

Listening again, the car at the door had already started; he was just that anxious.

Gu Ning knew Li Xuewu didn't want to delay work time because of private matters, just like he never handled office work at home, and even less would he let work matters easily affect his rest time.

Lowering her head to look at the bag Li Shu was tearing at, she reached out to help her open it.

Li Shu was also interested in this box with a butterfly knot; it was a bit heavy in her arms, and she wanted to bite it, but it was taken away by her mother.

"Oh~"

Seeing her mother open the box, Li Shu also stood up holding her mother, and pointed at the box with her little finger, guessing with her mother what was inside.

In her cognition, things that were well-protected were generally valuable, or precious, or delicious.

When they were in that home before, Aunt Yu Li would often find dried shrimp for her to eat from the locked cabinet.

This time, Li Shu the Great Demon King guessed that what was in this box was either dried shrimp or something else delicious.

No matter what it was, she must be the first to taste it; if it could be eaten, she would eat it, and if it couldn't, she would drop it to hear the sound.

Since it couldn't be eaten, what was the use of keeping it!

Gu Ning opened the box lid, and a beautiful watch was lying inside; the lining was red soft cloth, and there was a small card next to the watch.

Li Shu stared with big eyes and leaned over to look carefully; hmm, it didn't look like something delicious.

Forget it! Let's drop it to hear the sound!

Gu Ning had a rare thought at this time that was the same as Li Shu's, especially regarding that small card with a fragrance.

She didn't look at the content carefully, because she knew what was written at a glance.

Clichés, vulgar~

*Click. *

Gu Ning buckled the box, then said to Li Shu, who was staring at her with big eyes, "Shall we play a little game with Daddy?"

After saying this, she picked up Li Shu, took the watch box, walked to the study, and placed it in a prominent position on the bookshelf.

After placing it, she adjusted it, looked at which wood grain it was on, remembered the position, and then walked out holding Li Shu.

Li Shu looked at the box, then looked at her mother; what kind of game was this? It wasn't interesting at all! It would be better to drop it to hear the sound~

Gu Ning didn't know Li Shu's thoughts now; if she had known, she definitely wouldn't have pursued Li Shu for causing destruction in the small garden.

The villa in Haiyuncang Courtyard No. 1 wasn't big, but the courtyard wasn't small; vegetables were planted in the backyard, and fruit trees were in the west courtyard.

Originally, there was a vegetable garden in the east courtyard, but because Li Xuewu wanted to build a garage, it was destroyed; now there was a platform protruding at the corner of the east courtyard wall, which was the garage roof.

Since it was useless, Li Xuewu asked Master Dou to build a pavilion-style leisure area on top.

Because the height was sufficient, it was suitable for drinking tea, playing chess, and enjoying the cool air inside.

The front courtyard was planned by Zhou Wang Yamei and Gu Ning, with two gardens separated by a path, which must look beautiful against the villa.

But the flowers in the garden hadn't grown yet when, because of one sentence from Li Xuewu, Qin Jingru leveled them, and now it was a vegetable garden.

Only the place under the big tree in the east courtyard, which wasn't suitable for planting anything, was left empty, and the flowers and plants planted by Zhou Wang Yamei and Fu Zhidong were preserved.

Now it was just under the big tree, a small garden, with two swings hanging from the tree, which were set up when Fu Zhidong was here.

Although because the front courtyard garden was destroyed, Li Xuewu took her to buy many flowers and plants to decorate the villa, the small garden in the east courtyard was still Gu Ning's favorite.

Gu Ning had calculated it from the beginning; once the garden grew, children would definitely cause destruction, and Fu Zhidong, who lived here at the time, was a child.

But Gu Ning never thought that she could avoid Fu Zhidong, but not Li Xuewu.

After the front courtyard garden incident, Gu Ning felt that the dust had settled, and now Li Shu had started causing destruction again.

As long as she played in the courtyard, Li Shu would inevitably go around the garden; as long as she didn't watch her for a moment, she would inevitably harm a flower.

Holding Li Shu downstairs, Gu Ning looked at the fence Qin Jingru had already woven; it was indeed very beautiful.

Half a person high, diamond-shaped holes, with unpruned branches on top; once they were all woven and uniformly pruned, it would be even more beautiful.

As long as they were women, they would have a girl's dream: a big house, fruit trees and a flower garden, a fence with green leaves, two little ducks, and a little milk dog.

Qin Jingru was also a woman, and a young girl, so she naturally had such a dream.

But such a dream was her life before; except for not having a big house, she had everything else, plus endless work every day.

Now that she had leisure, she naturally wanted to transform it according to the scene in her dream.

Such a small fence—what kind of exquisite family in the village would have it?

There were many men in the family, and the old lady was idle, so she made such a fence for the family's vegetable garden.

Qin Jingru's family couldn't live like this; the whole family was busy to death, so where would they have time to do this?

Even if there was a fence, it was just branches inserted side by side into the ground, and then fixed with a horizontal bar.

If she had been so painstaking to weave patterns at home, her father would have used the sole of his shoe to teach her what a broken dream was.

"Why did you suddenly think of eating dumplings?"

The old lady saw Gu Ning holding the child downstairs, remembered what her second grandson had exhorted when he went out, and asked.

Gu Ning didn't know how to answer; should she say Li Xuewu was coaxing her not to cry?

Qin Jingru took the branch the old lady handed over and replied, "We still have beef at home; it will spoil if we don't eat it, so I'll buy some celery, and it will be just right for the filling."

The old lady also saw Gu Ning's silence, looked at Qin Jingru, and smiled, "You only know how to eat, without asking what kind of filling Aunt Xiao Ning and the others like."

"Anything is fine."

Gu Ning replied, and then added, "He said he wanted to go home and wrap dumplings together."

"I said so~~"

Qin Jingru raised her eyebrows at the old lady and said with a smile, "Last time it was cabbage and oil dregs; I saw Aunt Xiao Ning eat well."

"Then wrap them, make more filling."

Although the old lady felt that eating dumplings twice a month was a bit extravagant, since the young people said they wanted to do it, she didn't think about stopping them.

Life was lived by young people; with her feet already in the yellow earth, what else did she have to worry about?

Gu Ning put Li Shu on the ground, gave her a small branch, told her not to harm the garden, and then learned from Qin Jingru to weave the fence herself.

When she first came back, she thought about going upstairs to read, but she couldn't read anyway, so it was better to come down and get busy for a while; once tired, she would forget her worries.

Facts proved that once tired, the worries were still there.

Li Xuewu was very tired now, and the annoying things were still one after another.

The situation these past few days had changed drastically, and the situation at the Steel Rolling Mill had become more complex accordingly.

Just like Bi Yuding today, there were more people who needed to take a stand and express their attitude at this time.

And more people were like Li Xuewu's wish—they didn't want to express their attitude because some of them didn't want to participate in this.

But the wind was rising and the clouds were surging; how could the small fish and shrimp have a choice?

Li Xuewu was busy all morning, and Sha Qizhi came in to remind him that it was lunchtime before he knew he was hungry.

Just as he stood up, the phone on the desk rang again; Li Xuewu had to signal Sha Qizhi and pick up the phone.

Those who knew his phone number and could call at this time were just those few people.

Li Xuewu only prayed it wasn't Huang Gan, because this grandson was too slow and never had anything good.

Fortunately, it wasn't Huang Gan; it was Lou's father calling from the club, saying he wanted to meet in the afternoon.

Seeing it was almost Sunday, and it was so urgent, there was no need to ask; there must be something.

Li Xuewu looked at his watch and made an appointment with Lou's father to meet in the evening at the club.

Putting down the phone and leaving the office, the people in the building were almost all gone.

Going down to the second floor, he saw Fan Hua turning out from the corridor.

"What are you doing? Afraid of me~"

Li Xuewu saw Fan Hua standing still and not walking over, asked with dissatisfaction, and then continued to walk downstairs.

Fan Hua hesitated, but still followed him down.

"No, Director, I was just suddenly startled."

"Also, what are you afraid of me for? You should hate me, right?"

Li Xuewu's steps were very steady, one step at a time, without any swaying.

Fan Hua, following behind Li Xuewu, also had a bitter face; having just been removed from her post and then meeting the director was truly embarrassing.

Especially when Li Xuewu said this, with her emotional intelligence, she naturally wouldn't think Li Xuewu was testing her or doubting her.

Leaders were all like this; they might be rigorous at work, but they liked to make a few jokes in private.

But sometimes these jokes were really burdensome; those with insufficient mentality couldn't tell if it was a joke or real.

Take the words the director just said as an example; was he testing whether you hated him, or asking about your current mentality?

It was very obvious, right? Would you tell your leader directly if you hated them?

Conversely, would a leader believe you if you said you didn't hate them?

It was still the same; so this sentence was mostly asking her if she had thought it through these past few days and if she had corrected her position.

Another thing was caring about you, feeling that you were still cultivatable, that your ability was fine, but your mentality needed strengthening.

One sentence, several meanings, all depending on how you responded.

Fan Hua tidied her hair by her ear and said softly, "What's the use of hating you? It's useless even if I hate my parents; it's me who didn't correct my position, and didn't respect myself, including my profession."

"Oh, so you still hate me."

Li Xuewu went down to the first floor, looked back at Fan Hua, and said with a smile, "Fine, if you can think it through like this, then hate me if you want."

"No~~~"

Fan Hua lowered her head and smiled, followed Li Xuewu to continue walking outside, and scolded, "It has nothing to do with you; if it weren't for you, I would have had to go to the front lines."

"Hehe."

Li Xuewu looked at her with a light smile, stood at the door, looked at Fan Hua, and said, "It seems it was only useful after a big cry."

"You saw it all~"

Fan Hua raised her hand to cover half her face and said somewhat embarrassedly, "It's too shameful; I'll never cry again."

"Mm~"

Li Xuewu made a negative sound in his throat, looked at Fan Hua jokingly, and said, "Someone said that the tears shed today are the water that entered the brain yesterday; draining the water has benefits."

"Director~~"

Fan Hua coquettishly scolded, "You're the one who said this!"

Li Xuewu smiled, turned around, and went to the guest house, leaving Fan Hua standing at the door glaring at his back.

The Security Department personnel returning from the cafeteria who met Li Xuewu all greeted him, and Li Xuewu responded to each one with a nod.

And those who greeted him also saw the interaction between Li Xuewu and Fan Hua, especially Fan Hua glaring at the director.

After Fan Hua also went to the cafeteria, someone raised their eyebrows, whispered at Fan Hua's back, "Aren't they all removed?"

"Hey~ you don't understand this!"

Someone who understood smiled lightly, "Work is work, friendship is friendship; Section Chief Fan also has ability."

"Ability, my foot; this matter is not small."

This person holding the lunch box raised his eyebrows and said, "Years of effort are all wasted; there are records in the file, and it's much harder to be promoted than others."

"So what?"

The one who understood raised his thumb, pursed his big mouth, and said, "As long as our director is still in the Steel Rolling Mill, as long as he is still in power, does he need to look at the file for the people he wants to use?"

"As for going further~"

This person said again, "A female comrade, and still in the security sector; I think it's enough to be content; she still has Ren An at home."

"That's why I say."

The previous one sighed, "If you have ability, you still need connections; if you don't have connections, you have to know how to handle relationships."

"Look at our director; he doesn't have any connections at home, and look at the connections our director has now, hey!"

Li Xuewu didn't know what connections he had; entering the cafeteria, he gestured at the piles of equipment outside the door and asked Zhang Songying, "What are these for?"

"Installing air conditioning."

Zhang Songying explained, "They were transported here last night; such big machines, so they are installing pipes in each room today."

Li Xuewu glanced at the equipment outside the hall door again, didn't say anything, and entered the small cafeteria.

He came late, and people from other departments were all sitting and eating; Li Xuewu also found a seat next to Xia Zhongquan and greeted the others.

After telling a circle of jokes, he turned back to Xia Zhongquan and asked, "I've never seen an air conditioner before; do they look like this?"

He wasn't really seeing an air conditioner for the first time, but this big guy outside the door was indeed the first time he had seen one.

Of course, he was just saying this to Xia Zhongquan; this old guy was a technician, so it was easy to let something slip.

Xia Zhongquan laughed and said, "You haven't seen it? That's normal; we made this ourselves."

"Hehe, it's really rare."

Li Xuewu took a steamed bun, raised his eyebrows at the people at the table, and said, "When did our factory change into an air conditioner factory?"

"This is called self-reliance and arduous entrepreneurship."

Kuang Yusheng smiled and said, "Old Xia took people to Beijing Hotel, Peace Hotel, Friendship Hotel, and other places with unified air conditioning to inspect and learn before making this."

"It's nothing complicated."

Xia Zhongquan saw Kuang Yusheng bragging for him, and felt somewhat embarrassed, especially when Li Xuewu looked at him with surprised eyes, he waved his hands repeatedly.

"It's just a compressor plus a few key components; our experimental workshop can make them by hand."

"Is that so!"

Li Xuewu widened his eyes and asked, "Is the cost high? If it's not high, I'll get one too; it's very hot at home."

"Hehe, you're dreaming."

Xia Zhongquan rolled his eyes at Li Xuewu and whispered, "The compressor is imported."

"Damn, didn't you say you made it by hand!"

Li Xuewu looked at Xia Zhongquan suspiciously; he had just wondered why he didn't let Kuang Yusheng brag for him, so it turned out the key components weren't made by themselves.

Xia Zhongquan also caught him, widened his eyes, and said, "I'm a mechanical designer; making cars is already awesome enough, and you still want me to make air conditioners? I'll make you a plane tomorrow!"

"Hey! If you can't do it, just say you can't; why talk about planes!"

Li Xuewu laughed at the others at the table, "If they were all ready-made parts, I would also dare to say I'm a designer."

"Your mouth is really sharp!"

Kuang Yusheng smiled and said to Li Xuewu, "You can't say that; the compressor isn't ours, but everything else was made by ourselves; we just invited a designer from the Beijing Refrigerator Factory to help debug it."

There were no air conditioner factories at this time, because air conditioners weren't daily necessities, and even less were they something ordinary people could afford; they were more precious than refrigerators and color TVs.

It wasn't that the craftsmanship was complicated, but the key technology wasn't domestic.

Shanghai made them themselves, but the output was worrying, and they were all supplied to special departments; ordinary people couldn't even see them.

Just like the one in the guest house, the machine box was almost as big as a truck carriage; wouldn't it be like a fighter jet once it was turned on?

Xia Zhongquan had a solution, which was to put it on the roof of the guest house.

Fearing resonance, it had to be elevated, and sound-insulating and sound-controlling materials had to be added.

This was actually a good method; it was ventilated on the roof, water supply and drainage were convenient, and more importantly, it was convenient to supply cold air to the building.

Xia Zhongquan nudged Li Xuewu's arm and said with a smile, "It's not that I won't get you one, but even if I did, you couldn't afford to use it."

After saying this, he looked at the others at the table and said, "The power consumption is huge; only our factory's power lines can withstand it; outside? Hehe."

Li Xuewu was just asking, inquiring about the current air conditioning preparation technology and conditions.

To say it was hot, it was actually just like that; having air conditioning was cool, but it wasn't like everyone died of heat before air conditioning.

"If you have the ability to make planes, we won't research cars anymore and will research planes directly."

Li Xuewu looked at Xia Zhongquan and said, "We'll build an airport later, and you'll be the director."

"Get lost! Hahaha~"

Xia Zhongquan was also amused, looked at the others at the table who were also laughing, and replied to Li Xuewu, "Airport, and director; people who fly planes are called captains!"

"Hehe~ why don't you say they're called flight leaders!"

Kuang Yusheng didn't believe that the head of an airport was called a captain; if that were true, what were the people flying the planes called?

"Anyway, they aren't called directors!"

Xia Zhongquan emphasized with certainty; the table here was lively, and everyone was discussing what the head of an airport should be called.

By the time they finished eating, Xia Zhongquan pulled Li Xuewu and asked, "Hey! What do you think the head of an airport should be called?"

Li Xuewu twitched the corner of his mouth, drooped his eyelids, looked at the curious gazes of the people around, pursed his lips, and said, "Shouldn't they be called Party Secretary?"

Because of this joke, several people at the table sprayed with laughter, and Li Xuewu watched the waiter glaring at them.

They were all people in their tens, why were they still ruining the dinner table!

Li Xuewu also caused trouble and ran away, fearing he would hear the waiter cursing in a low voice at the service desk.

Xia Zhongquan, who came out with him, wouldn't let go of him, insisting on going to the lakeside to sit.

Li Xuewu was truly convinced; this old guy didn't sleep at noon, but he wanted others not to rest at noon either.

No way, Xia Zhongquan followed him out, Kuang Yusheng also followed, and several others also aimed at them and followed them out.

"Fine, are you setting an ambush for me today!"

Li Xuewu looked at the several people beside him with a smile, waved his hand, and said, "It's settled; I didn't bring money today, not even enough for ice cream, so I'm not treating."

"Hahaha~"

Everyone saw Li Xuewu joking and followed suit with laughter; some were teasing Xia Zhongquan to treat, but Xia Zhongquan waved his hand with a smile, "Fine, I'll treat."

After saying this, he signaled Zhang Songying, who was standing at the door, and said, "Deputy Director Zhang, bring a cup of tea for everyone, the cheapest kind."

"Hahaha~"

Everyone saw Old Xia only talking about drinking tea and not mentioning ice cream, and laughed loudly again.

To be honest, based on Xia Zhongquan's salary level, let alone ice cream, he could afford cake.

It was just this atmosphere; everyone knew it in their hearts; when Li Xuewu was at the guest house, did he need anyone else to treat?

Treating was also like this; seven or eight department heads walked along the small path in the woods by the lake to a leisure area not far or near.

The leisure areas here were large and small; the large ones could seat more than a dozen people, and the small ones had stone tables and stools for four or five people.

Qin Huairu and Zhang Songying really knew how to ponder, trying every way to open the guest house.

The hygiene of the leisure area here was managed every day, so they didn't have to worry about dirtying their pants.

And at night, this place became a place for leisure and dining, earning benefits for the guest house.

It was also a trend started by the Security Department; cadres from various departments wanted to use their abilities to get some subsidies for the workers and office cadres below.

The most enviable one here was Old Xia from the Design Department, followed by Kuang Yusheng.

Because Li Xuewu first found Old Xia, and Kuang Yusheng saw Old Xia getting the benefits, his subordinates were anxious, so he lowered his face and played along with Old Xia.

To put it bluntly, Kuang Yusheng was brought by Xia Zhongquan to play with Li Xuewu; without the initial shyness, now it had become blatant.

Last time Nie Chenglin went to inspect the work of these two departments, he was so angry he almost cursed.

It was also because the car maintenance project was done too well, and the money came too fast; some diligent and hard-working workers earned subsidies that were almost equal to a month's salary.

Who could stand this? One after another, the teams were accelerating the production of target tasks, saving time to engage in projects.

The key was that these two departments didn't just have this one project; there was also the fire truck modification.

Fire equipment manufacturing, security equipment manufacturing, special mechanical modification, etc., not counting an engine research center that was temporarily eating money and not making money.

Seeing the Design Department and Production Management Department eating well, other departments were naturally jealous; today, coming to block Li Xuewu had this purpose.

Another purpose was also very important; just look at Bi Yuding who followed, and you would know what their purpose was.

Bi Yuding had already talked to Li Xuewu in the morning, but seeing Li Xuewu and the others sitting and talking, he naturally wanted to follow.

This was also a way of handling relationships; if you didn't contact everyone at this time, when would you contact them?

He had already experienced the taste of holding the Buddha's feet temporarily once, and didn't want to experience it again.

The department heads who followed today saw that honest people like Bi Yuding had followed, and shouted that the wind was tight.

Everyone sat down laughing, and Zhang Songying had already brought the tea with the waiters.

These department heads walked slowly, but they didn't walk slowly.

Serving tea to these department heads, other waiters brought seasonal fruits and ice cream.

Wei Zai from the Party Organization Department smiled at Zhang Songying and said, "You better watch out; Old Xia didn't say to bring these; we won't pay the bill when we finish eating~ Hahaha~"

"You, Old Wei, really talk too much; they brought it, so just eat!"

Xia Zhongquan joked, "I can't pay the bill, but I can't owe it!"

"Really~"

Kuang Yusheng also followed, "If you can't owe it, you can't call your wife to send money!"

"Hahaha~"

Everyone knew Xia Zhongquan was henpecked; with Kuang Yusheng making a joke, everyone laughed.