Chapter 155

Chapter 155

From Lu Mingzhu’s account, Lu Pingan’s plan came to light. Neither Lu’s father nor Lu Mingzhu believed this endeavor could last under the state monopoly on purchase and marketing, but as elders, they felt it necessary to support the younger generation’s ideals when conditions allowed.

It was all about good intentions.

Lu Pingan, who had always been somewhat aloof, was rarely so passionate about anything. He likely felt empathy after learning about the elderly lady’s family hardships, realizing how fortunate his own family was.

Regardless of the outcome, the intention was right.

Food keeps people alive, and education opens their minds, fostering talent development.

"I remember that not long after the founding of the country, the government established literacy classes," Lu’s father recalled. At the time, he hadn’t yet moved his family away from Shanghai, so he knew firsthand how vigorously these classes were promoted.

Lu Pingan nodded. "Now they’re nearing their end, but the number of people who’ve received education is still small. Most common folks are too busy with work to participate in literacy campaigns. The younger ones get more education, but the elderly lady’s village never had a literacy class."

Literacy classes were more common in urban work units, less so in rural areas, and some remote regions didn’t have them at all.

Lu Pingan had looked into these issues.

Lu’s father, who had more life experience than Lu Pingan, offered him advice: choose the elderly lady’s village and its surrounding villages as pilot sites. Build a primary school in a central village among several villages, and a middle school in the township. Nearby youths and children could attend for free, with no summer or winter breaks, just time off during harvest. Girls who attended without missing classes would receive ten jin of grain monthly, and the top three students in each grade would receive thirty jin of grain as a reward after bi-annual exams, with no rewards at other times.

This wasn’t about being cheap but genuinely increasing the likelihood of girls receiving education, as families would naturally send their boys to school without needing incentives.

That’s the reality.

Many hope their sons will soar like dragons, but few wish their daughters to rise like phoenixes.

Most importantly, Lu’s father knew the saying, "A little help is appreciated, too much breeds resentment." If this educational support stopped due to policy changes, it wouldn’t be met with understanding but with blame.

People would blame Lu Pingan for not supporting their kids indefinitely.

Lu Pingan had previously suggested five jin of grain per person per month, plus rewards based on exam rankings, essentially covering the children’s education without any cost to the parents.

Who wouldn’t jump at such an opportunity?

"If it works and we have the money, spread it to other areas. If not, stop in time. Because our family is now based in Hong Kong, and mainland policies can change, sometimes beyond our control, leading to unnecessary troubles," Lu’s father advised Lu Pingan.

Lu Pingan’s excitement quickly faded.

Taking a deep breath, he said, "You’re right. I should focus on one spot instead of throwing up schools all over. We don’t have enough manpower or funds, and it could easily lead to chaos."

Let’s start with the old woman’s village!

He would arrange it.

As Lu’s father advised Lu Pingan, Lu Mingzhu listened quietly. After Lu Pingan left, she gave her father a thumbs up. "It shows that experience counts."

Lu’s father calmly said, "Couldn’t you have pointed that out to him?"

"I’m not the boss—you are!" Lu Mingzhu didn’t want to be the aunt who dampened her nephew’s enthusiasm. "When will big brother return? His face will be priceless when he finds out his son’s set up a job for him!"

Lu Mingzhu was eagerly anticipating it.

"As the father, so the son," Lu’s father said.

Lu Mingzhu seriously remarked, "It’s a Lu family tradition."

The ancestral property of Lu Changsheng was inherited from the old master. Has he never skimmed a little off the top?

Not likely!

He was young once and strapped for cash.

Lu Changsheng let out a soft snort, picked up the tea bowl in front of him, and gently sniffed the aroma of the tea.

Lu Mingzhu took a whiff, "Da Hong Pao!"

And it's the finest grade.

Possibly from the mother tree of Da Hong Pao in Wuyi Mountain.

She wasted no time pouring herself a cup.

Before her reincarnation, Lu Mingzhu had the fortune to taste it once and had been longing for it ever since, but never had the chance to drink it again. It wasn't until she brought the finest Da Hong Pao from the Lu family's storeroom to Hong Kong that she could savor its wonderful flavor once more.

Even now, she still has some of the tea leaves left in her space.

She keeps them there to savor slowly.

She pulls them out whenever she needs them, and usually stores them in her space to ensure they don't spoil.

After taking a sip of tea, Lu Mingzhu reminded Lu Changsheng, "You better not meddle in my brother and Pingan's relationship."

"Do I look like a meddler to you?" Lu Changsheng asked her.

Lu Mingzhu looked him up and down, "Sure looks like it."

Lu Changsheng looked around for something to throw but found nothing, so he dropped it.

Lu Mingzhu pretended not to notice his actions and continued drinking her tea, saying, "If it could keep going strong, it’d be a good cover for my brother to hoard grain on the mainland. By then, to make sure their kids are fed, families might start sending their girls to school, to receive primary and secondary education, reducing the family burden."

Lu Changsheng shook his head, "No way."

The purpose of unified purchase and sales is to stabilize prices, reduce speculation, promote planned economy, and ensure grain supply. Private folks can’t just hoard grain. Even if Lu Changsheng wanted to do it, he’d have to go through import-export, pay in foreign cash, and get a temporary pass to stash grain on the mainland.

Lu Mingzhu sighed and asked him, "Will Pingan’s work go to waste?"

"No," Lu Changsheng replied, "It’ll help a bit. We can tweak things once the new policies roll out. Worst case, we stop giving grain and switch to cash. It’s the same until it falls apart."

He never planned for it to last anyway.

Lu Mingzhu nodded, "I hope it all works out for him."

After a while, she finished the tea in her bowl and asked Lu Changsheng, "Dad, what kind of birthday gift are you after this year? I can prepare it in advance to ensure your satisfaction."

Lu Changsheng has a strange habit—he never marks his birthday.

In the original body's memory, he could throw grand celebrations for the old lady and Mrs. Lu, and he never forgot to hold birthday parties for his children every year, but he himself never celebrated his own birthday.

Others wanted to give him gifts but never got the chance.

The family only knew that Lu Changsheng's birthday was in the second month of the lunar calendar, but they didn't know the exact day.

Even the birthday on his ID isn’t real.

Lu Mingzhu figured only the old lady and Lu Changsheng knew his real birth date in the whole Lu family.

Upon hearing Lu Mingzhu's question, Lu Pingan chuckled and replied, "I don’t celebrate birthdays, and I don’t accept birthday gifts. You can show your love anytime, no need to use the pretext of a birthday gift."

"You’re so weird," Lu Mingzhu said, as she loved celebrating birthdays, but he didn’t seem to care for them.

"To each their own," Lu Pingan replied.

A few months before the old lady was due to deliver, she moved to a separate courtyard to await the birth. By the time he was born, the maids, servants, and midwives accompanying her, without keeping track of the dates, didn’t even know the exact month or day of the year they were in, so his birth date got mixed up.

Only the old master, who visited the courtyard daily, knew, and he didn’t hold any traditional ceremonies like the third-day bath, full-month, hundred-day, or first-year celebrations for Lu Pingan.

Several months later, the old lady took Lu Pingan and left the courtyard with the old master.

When Lu Pingan was young, he asked the old master about it, and the old master told him it was a family rule passed down from their ancestors that the birth information of the firstborn son should not be known to others, to keep anyone from messing with it.

What kind of meddling?

The old master didn’t know either; he just followed the tradition.

Thus, the birth information of Lu Changsheng and Lu Pingan was also fabricated, and Lu Pingan never celebrated their birthdays.

Lu Pingan didn’t plan to explain the reason to Lu Mingzhu, so he changed the subject, saying, "No need to wait to show your love; I’ll give you a gift now, something I promised you before, and it’s ready."

Lu Mingzhu was immediately captivated by his words: "What is it?"

He didn’t seem to be being cryptic like Xie Junyao.

Lu Pingan walked to the safe, opened it, and took out a small square blue leather ring box. He went back to his seat by the coffee table before handing it to Lu Mingzhu, "Take a look and see if you like it."

Lu Mingzhu said playfully, "If it’s from my dad, I’ll love it."

After the compliment, she opened the ring box.

"Wow!" she exclaimed in surprise.

This had to be the biggest pink diamond she’d ever gotten!

It was slightly smaller than the deep blue diamond Lu Pingan had given her but larger than the red diamond on her hand, cut in an emerald shape, presenting a flawless pure pink color, shimmering with a stunning hue.

The setting was made of platinum, with a trapezoid-shaped white diamond on each side of the pink diamond.

Lu Pingan said, "Didn’t I tell you before that I got a piece of pink diamond rough? This is what was cut and polished from that piece. It took a lot of effort, but it turned out great."

Lu Mingzhu slipped it onto her right index finger, "Beautiful!"

Her collection now had another treasure.

"Alright, I’ve given you the gift, now head back and get some rest," Lu Pingan started to shoo her away, worried she would pester him about his actual birthday.

Lu Mingzhu obediently left.

On her way home, she passed by the race track and got out to see Xie Junyao’s horse.

That handsome and agile little horse with small ears.

It was well-fed and had grown even stronger.

Lu Mingzhu didn’t like to participate in horse races and didn’t visit the little horse often, but it recognized her because Xie Junyao always brought a photo of Lu Mingzhu to teach it to recognize its mistress.

Thinking of the martial arts novel she was writing, Lu Mingzhu changed into riding attire and took the little horse for a few runs.

Listening to the wind whistling past her ears, Lu Mingzhu felt thrilled.

After galloping for a while, she slowed down.

Just as she was turning back, Lu Mingzhu suddenly heard someone calling her. She turned her head and saw, "Big Brother."

It was Xie Junhao, also on horseback.

Dressed in riding attire, he had sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, handsome and cold, like a gentleman from a Western painting, making the foreign men and women riding nearby seem somewhat overshadowed.

Lu Mingzhu guided her horse towards them, "Big Brother, isn’t Junyao with you?"

"No, he’s preparing a gift for you," Xie Junhao said with a faint smile, then introduced her in English to the foreign men and women riding alongside him, "This is Miss Lu Mingzhu, my brother’s fiancée."

Before he could introduce them, a scream came from the racecourse.

Everyone turned to look and saw a horse charging out of control towards them, with a young woman clinging tightly to the horse’s neck, her eyes closed as she screamed.

Her face was obscured, and no one recognized her.

In that critical moment, Xie Junhao whipped Little Ears on the rump.

In pain, the horse bolted forward.

It sped off like a gust of wind.

Lu Mingzhu reacted quickly, gripping the reins and calming Little Ears, unable to look back at Xie Junhao and his friends.

Still, a few curses were carried by the wind into Lu Mingzhu’s ears.

Moments later, while steering Little Ears, Lu Mingzhu glanced back to see chaos, with people and horses scattered.

Xie Junhao and a tall, sturdy young man were unharmed, standing about ten meters from the chaos.

Clearly, they had good skills, successfully avoiding the disaster.

The unlucky foreigners included a blonde, blue-eyed woman knocked off her horse and trampled, lying motionless.

The other horses panicked, running wildly across the field, out of control.

The woman was still clinging to the horse’s neck, screaming, and the horse beneath her didn’t stop, continuing to run madly forward.

Xie Junhao spotted Lu Mingzhu and shouted, "Mingzhu, get out of here!"

"Got it, Big Brother," Lu Mingzhu replied, riding off and avoiding the crazed horse as she headed back to the stable.

Handing the horse over to the groom, Lu Mingzhu went to the changing room to change out of her riding attire.

As she exited, staff were carrying a stretcher with the injured woman, moaning in pain.

Lu Mingzhu inquired, "How serious is it?"

"Very serious," the staff said briefly, taking the blonde, blue-eyed woman to seek medical attention.

Concerned for Xie Junhao, Lu Mingzhu stayed behind.

About fifteen minutes later, Xie Junhao and his companions returned. Seeing Lu Mingzhu, he shook his head at her, stopping her from asking questions, and instead said to his companion beside him, "The racecourse will definitely give you an explanation, but now the most important thing is to send Melissa to the hospital, to see the doctor’s examination results and treatment plan."

The few foreigners left cursing, leaving only Xie Junhao.

"Brother," Lu Mingzhu walked up to him, "was that crazy horse taken care of?"

"It’s handled," Xie Junhao replied, and under Lu Mingzhu's curious gaze, he added, "It's a horse adopted by Xia Lin. Apparently, she’s been riding that horse every time she’s come to the ranch lately."

Lu Mingzhu was taken aback, "Was Xia Lin the one screaming on the horse?"

Xie Junhao shook his head, "No, it was an actress named Rong Yan."

"Rong Yan?" Lu Mingzhu quickly recalled this person. It wasn't long after she arrived in Hong Kong that she saw news about her in the newspaper, wearing a diamond ring that she had sold, "Ming Hui's girlfriend."

"That's her," Xie Junhao said.

Lu Mingzhu sensed there was more going on.