Chapter 27

Fortunately, Lai Jialin was not completely oblivious. After Lin Yilan carefully explained the situation regarding his parents' village, he finally knew to take out a pen and record her cautionary advice.

"Are you suggesting we hire neighbors from Grandpa’s village to do the construction work? But they aren't professionals..." Lai Jialin furrowed his brows.

Seeing the way his features twisted, Lin Yilan immediately understood his disapproval. However, if she remembered correctly, this point should have already been discussed with both him and his father.

Exhausted, she sighed and explained, "It is very difficult to find professional construction teams in the private sector inland right now. If we were to bring a team from Beijing to work on your grandfather's house, it wouldn't be worth it. The construction teams in Beijing aren't necessarily better than the people in your grandfather's village."

"Is that so..."

Lai Jialin didn't know how to refute this, so he nodded reluctantly, though he still marked a question mark in his notebook.

Upon seeing this, Lin Yilan shot him a faint, indifferent glance. Believe it or not, that was up to him.

Once they had communicated the precautions both sides had prepared, they began to divide the work. To be precise, Lin Yilan was only joining the project as a supervising on-site designer and had no administrative authority; therefore, aside from design-related tasks, most of the other work fell onto Lai Jialin’s shoulders.

Lin Yilan felt no unhappiness about this—in fact, she was incredibly relieved. After all, she genuinely felt that much of the work at the grandfather's house would be a nightmare to handle.

She had once taken on a rural practical project where her superior had collaborated with the local village committee, hiring many villagers to participate in the construction. The result was that because the project design had technical requirements that the villagers’ craftsmanship couldn't meet, the designers and engineers were nearly worked to death.

The current situation was similar to that project. While the construction workers' technical skills were mostly passable, many details would certainly require meticulous attention. Yet, to ensure the project’s success, they needed to maintain a good relationship with the villagers to keep communication smooth. Furthermore, since the workers were likely old neighbors of the client’s parents, they couldn't be treated like ordinary laborers.

Thinking of this, Lin Yilan felt a massive headache coming on.

What a headache!

-

"Students, I will give you two weeks for this assignment. I hope you all put in your best effort. Alright, class dismissed."

After the professor on the podium announced the end of the lecture, the students began to pack up their textbooks.

"It’s rare for the professor to let us do a residential design. What are you planning to do? An apartment building? Or a villa?"

"I don't know, haven't thought about it yet. Hey, Xuecheng, what are you planning to do?"

"...I’m not sure yet, but it probably won't be an apartment building. There’s really no room for design in those."

"True."

"We finally have a chance to show our skills. Before this, they only let us do basic designs; it was so boring."

"Exactly. Back in high school, I submitted a design for a department store to my old man. Who would have thought that upon entering university, I’d be sent back to childhood, still drawing those basic things. Ugh, what a waste of time."

"Don't say that, the basics are very~ important~."

"Xuecheng, Jianlin, why are you walking so fast? Hurry up! You don't expect them to wait for you, do you?"

-

"Hey, wait for me."

Xiong Zhaodi slung her bag over her shoulder. After watching that group of people walk away, she poked Lin Yilan’s arm and whispered, "Why are they so annoying!"

Lin Yilan looked at Xiong Zhaodi, confused. "Who's annoying?"

Xiong Zhaodi gripped her arm and shook it hard. "Xiaolan, what have you been thinking about lately? You look so preoccupied every day."

She immediately thought of the rumors and, after cautiously checking their surroundings, quickly pulled Lin Yilan into a corner. "You... you aren't actually seeing someone, are you?"

Her voice was as soft as a mosquito's. Lin Yilan frowned slightly. "What did you say? I didn't hear you clearly."

Xiong Zhaodi waved her hand, signaling for Lin Yilan to lean in. "Xiaolan, are you dating someone?"

After saying this, she looked behind her as if startled, and upon confirming no one was there, patted her chest.

Lin Yilan touched her ear, which felt a bit ticklish from the warm breath. "No, I don't have time for romance."

"Do you have a crush on someone, then?" she asked curiously. "But you’d better not be in a hurry to date during these few years of university; the school rules don't allow it."

Xiong Zhaodi hadn't expected Lin Yilan to still have the heart to warn her, and seeing that she didn't look like the typical lovestruck girl, she felt half-relieved.

As long as she wasn't dating, that was fine. Such a gifted sister shouldn't let her studies be delayed by such things.

But... where did the rumors come from?

Xiong Zhaodi recalled what a male classmate had warned her about recently. Just as she grabbed Lin Yilan’s hand to say something, she saw Lin Yilan suddenly pull away and walk toward a young man.

"Sister Zhaodi, someone is here to see me. I have something to take care of, so I won't be going to the cafeteria with you."

"Hey!"

"Anyway, Xiaolan, I’ll look for you when we get back to the dorm tonight."

Xiong Zhaodi had no choice but to wave as she watched Lin Yilan leave. She watched as Lin Yilan stopped in front of the man, and after the man said something, the two of them walked toward the school gate.

After standing on her tiptoes to watch for a while until their figures disappeared from sight, Xiong Zhaodi could only stomp her feet in frustration.

Meanwhile, Lin Yilan and Lai Jialin went to a small restaurant that had recently opened near the school.

Once Lin Yilan sat down, she looked at the dejected Lai Jialin and asked immediately, "Has something happened, Mr. Lai?"

Although they hadn't met for three or four days, she could tell that the past few days hadn't been easy for him.

Compared to the high-spirited, fashionable young man from Hong Kong she had seen a while ago, he now looked dull and gray, with seemingly a few more wrinkles between his brows. He looked like a vibrant oil painting that had started to fade after being exposed to the wind and sun.

How pathetic.

Why would a man in his twenties go through such an ordeal?

Although he hadn't said anything and she hadn't felt it was her place to ask, she could guess. In her heart, she felt both sympathetic and amused.

After Lai Jialin ordered, the table went quiet. He glanced at Lin Yilan, then glanced again, and seeing no reaction, he peeked at her several more times.

"Ahem—"

"Hmm."

After struggling to make a sound, seeing that Lin Yilan still hadn't noticed him, Lai Jialin coughed heavily.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem?!!!"

Lin Yilan shot him a sidelong glance and silently pulled her chair further away. If this man had a cold, he better not pass it to her.

Lai Jialin looked at Lin Yilan, deeply wounded. "Miss Lin, why are you so cold?" He slumped down again, looking annoyed. "I should have listened to you and talked to my grandfather beforehand."

He irritably ran his hands through his hair, turning what was already a bird's nest into a bird's nest caught in a gale.

"What should I do now? Miss Lin, you have to help me." He wailed while squinting his eyes.

People eating nearby looked over one after another.

Lin Yilan silently took a book out of her bag to shield her face—partly to block the onlookers' stares, and partly because Lai Jialin’s theatrics were too painful to look at.

"Stop wailing. Tell me what happened first."

Lai Jialin immediately went quiet and told Lin Yilan what had occurred over the past few days.

"After I met you the other day, I went to look for other construction teams in other parts of Beijing the next day. It turns out you were quite right, Miss Lin." Thinking he had caused some trouble, he took the opportunity to flatter her. "Then I went to my grandfather’s village to find the... what do you call it... the leader of the village, and told him I wanted to hire people to build my grandfather’s house, and I also proposed a price."

At this point, his eyes flickered, and he shifted in his seat. "But that village leader—Miss Lin, what do you call village leaders inland? It's not 'village head,' it's something else."

Lin Yilan waved her hand. "Just keep going, don't interrupt yourself."

Lai Jialin pouted. "That leader said they were very poor, so he said the price was a bit low, and then said my 'old bean'—my father—had earned money and should be more generous to give back to the hometown."

"He went on for a long time about my father's childhood, saying they used to climb trees, catch mud loaches, and fish together, and that they had a hard time farming back then, and that they used to cause trouble for the uncles and aunts in the village—saying everyone had such a 'nice' relationship."

"I don't know what else he specifically said; his accent was just too heavy. I'm already the best at Mandarin in my family besides my father. Why don't you inlanders speak the language your government mandates?"

Lin Yilan took a deep breath. She couldn't stand Lai Jialin anymore. How could someone so young be so long-winded and talk about so much nonsense?

The vein on her forehead throbbed. Lin Yilan put down her book.

"Mr. Lai Jialin, please get to the point!!"

Sensing Lin Yilan’s anger, Lai Jialin rubbed his nose. "Don't be angry. I'll continue. Girls who get angry easily get wrinkles."

As Lin Yilan began to radiate dark energy, Lai Jialin quickly said, "Anyway, he just said a bunch of nonsense, and when I heard him say how hard everyone had it, I agreed to raise the workers' wages."

After saying this, he looked at Lin Yilan cautiously. "Miss Lin, your budget isn't finalized yet, right? Why don't you just raise the labor costs?"

"Raise it by how much?" Lin Yilan stared at him, expressionless.

Lai Jialin played dumb, let out a sheepish laugh, and whispered a number.