Chapter 342 Waste Utilization

Chapter 342 Waste Utilization

Jiang An: "..."

Li Zhishen: "..."

Li Zhishen noticed Jiang An's disdainful look, and a hint of emotion flashed across his face: "I didn't expect her to come up so quickly."

"How did the share negotiations go?" Jiang An changed the subject, not wanting to talk to him about those matters anymore.

“Apart from Li Chengxuan’s faction, everyone else has come to persuade me to give the shares to Ruan Ruan.” Li Zhishen answered every question. “After a while, Huo Zhizhou will put a little pressure on me, and it will basically be done.”

Jiang An's eyes darkened slightly, and it was unclear what she was thinking.

Li Zhishen pressed his advantage, asking, "Your willingness to let Ruan Ruan accept my shares, does that mean you..."

“Making use of waste.” Jiang An had never forgiven him, and what she said was the truth. “Anyway, we’ll be targeted by Li Chengxuan and his people, so we might as well confront them head-on.”

Li Zhishen: "Don't you have even the slightest feeling for me?"

Jiang An: "No."

Li Zhishen: "Not even a little bit?"

Jiang An: "Not even a little bit."

"For the sake of all these years I've remained chaste for you, could you at least do something?" Li Zhishen said very seriously, "After you left, I didn't look for anyone."

Jiang An's scrutinizing gaze fell on him.

Li Zhishen thought she didn't believe him: "Really, if you don't believe me, ask them."

Jiang An said two words: "Fortunately."

Li Zhishen was completely bewildered: "Fortunately what?"

"People always use a noble reason to cover up their own incompetence." Jiang An put it another way, without any emotional fluctuation in his eyes.

Li Zhishen was even more bewildered.

What is noble and what is despicable?

Just as I was about to ask, my mind suddenly came up with an answer based on her thought process: "You think I'm chaste because I'm impotent?"

Jiang An didn't even look at him.

He only had one thing on his mind: "What else?"

"If I couldn't do it, how would I have gotten Ruan Ruan?" This was the first time in Li Zhishen's life that he had been so vulnerable.

“You were under twenty-five when you had Ruan Ruan.” Jiang An answered very seriously, and was very calm. “The internet says that men’s prime is very short. If you calculate the time, you should have been over the breakup by the time you were twenty-five.”

Li Zhishen: "..."

Who spread this rumor!

"I can prove myself."

"If you want to cut it off, you can just say so." Jiang An went downstairs, clearly not wanting to talk to him anymore. "There's no need for all this trouble."

Li Zhishen: "..."

Jiang Ruan, who overheard this in the room, was speechless.

"Ruanruan?" Mr. Qin called her from the other end of the phone.

Jiang Ruan snapped out of her daze: "Yes, please speak."

"What do you think of the suggestion I just made?" Old Master Qin said kindly. "I'll have dinner tomorrow night, so it won't interfere with your New Year's Eve dinner the day after tomorrow."

"I still have a lot of things to do at home, so I probably can't come," Jiang Ruan said, indirectly declining the offer.

Old Master Qin fell silent.

A little while later.

He then asked, "Is it because your mother still doesn't want to come back?"

Jiang Ruan didn't respond, but her mother still didn't like the Qin family or the Li family very much, and often she didn't even want to mention the Qin family.

"Is your mother with you now?" Old Master Qin's voice was a little hoarse, and his mood was slightly heavy. "I want to talk to her."

"I'll give it to her."

Jiang Ruan went downstairs and handed her phone to Jiang An.

Upon learning that it was Old Master Qin calling, Jiang An showed little emotional fluctuation and remained remarkably calm: "Mr. Qin."

"I'd like to invite you all back for a New Year's Eve dinner." Old Master Qin's emotions were mixed, and even his voice sounded much older than before. "Just the two of us, no one else."

"Thank you for your kindness." Jiang An treated him like a stranger. "I'm quite busy at home, so I won't be able to come over."

"Can I come over?" Old Master Qin asked.

Jiang settled down for a moment.

When has the stubborn and aloof head of the Qin family ever been so cautious?

"New Year's Eve dinner is for family, it's not suitable for you to be here." She composed herself and declined. Letting go of the past doesn't mean forgetting it. "If there's nothing else, I'll hang up."

Mr. Qin felt as if his heart had been stabbed with a knife.

Time passed by, bit by bit.

Seeing that no one had spoken after three or four seconds, Jiang An hung up the phone.

Li Zhishen overheard the phone call, and it was then that he realized that although An'an had allowed him to stay by her side during this time, it might really be because she needed a follower, rather than because she was gradually forgiving him.

But he didn't care.

As long as I can stay by her side and make amends, that's enough.

“If you want to visit the Qin family during the Spring Festival, you can take Sui Sui with you,” Jiang An said to Jiang Ruan as she handed the phone back to her. “What I just said was only directed at him and me, not at you.”

Jiang Ruan said "okay".

It was close to 10:30 p.m.

Jiang Ruan was taking a walk in the garden outside the villa when she bumped into Li Zhishen. Out of consideration for his status as an elder, she took the initiative to greet him: "Uncle Li, haven't you gone home yet?"

Li Zhishen: "..."

Is it absolutely necessary to greet them?

"We'll leave in a bit."

"Did you need something?" Jiang Ruan noticed that he had come from the entrance.

"Do you know what An'an meant when she told you before?" Li Zhishen asked.

Jiang Ruan: "I know."

“She doesn’t want to have any contact with the Qin family because of the past, and she doesn’t want to face Mr. Qin.” Li Zhishen’s expression was calm, and his words had the tone of an old father. “But since you came to Haicheng, he has treated you well.”

Jiang Ruan did not deny it.

So far, Mr. Qin has indeed treated her better than Mr. Li.

One was filled with guilt and concern, the other was driven purely by self-interest.

“Your mother is trying to tell you that she is her, and you are you.” As an observer, Li Zhishen saw it clearly. “You don’t need to be too cold to him. He’s just an old man who made a mistake that can’t be made up for.”

Jiang Ruan paused for a while before saying, "I understand."

After several encounters, she could sense that Mr. Qin was lonely and forlorn.

It wasn't because few people cared about him, nor because no one chatted with him every day, but because of his guilt and remorse towards his mother.

“If you have time, go to the Qin family during the Spring Festival,” Li Zhishen said. “You don’t have to force yourself to do anything against your conscience. Just chat with the old man and talk to him.”

"What exactly happened back then?" Jiang Ruan only knew a few words from her mother.

Li Zhishen: "Don't get involved in the affairs of the previous generation."

Jiang Ruan rarely spoke to him directly: "And what about you?"

Li Zhishen: "I am spending the rest of my life making amends. I don't ask for your mother's forgiveness, I only ask to stay peacefully by her side."

“What Mom cares about isn’t what you’re thinking.” After thinking it over, Jiang Ruan told him some things. “If you want to make amends, why don’t you think about what happened back then from a different perspective?”

Li Zhishen paused.

He quickly realized what was going on: "You mean..."

"You can think about it yourself." Jiang Ruan didn't say anything more.

Many things are not absolutely right or wrong; more often, they are driven by the helplessness of reality.

If her biological "father" had the same personality as Huo Zhizhou, perhaps her mother would have settled the score many years ago, instead of letting time gradually fade it away.