CH 38.2

Shi Yunnan looked at the few contacts on his phone, and his heart felt a little hollow.

He had not returned to the country often in recent years. If there was no “contract relationship” with Luo Lingsheng, he didn’t have many places to go, even abroad. Just like now, he couldn’t actually find a place where he could hide temporarily.

Just as he was thinking, an unfamiliar phone number called.

Shi Yunnan hesitated for a while, then answered the phone, “Hello.”

“Hello, is this Mr. Shi?”

The voice on the other end of the phone was familiar. Shi Yunnan thought for a moment, and the owner of the voice automatically appeared in his mind.

“Lu Zhao’an?”

“It’s me. It’s very presumptuous of me to contact you like this. Last time you bought a jade carving at Yuan Jade, you left your phone number, so I asked the sales clerk for it. ” Lu Zhaoan calmly explained the reason.

Shi Yunnan had a pretty good impression of this person, “Well, what’s the matter, Mr. Lu?”

Lu Zhao’an didn’t beat around the bush, “I wonder if it’s convenient for us to meet up in the next two days? I have a jade design cooperation proposal and want to talk to you about it.“

Shi Yunnan was surprised when he heard the words. He obviously didn’t expect Lu Zhao’an to mention this to him.

Looking at the cars speeding by on the road, he remembered his idling situation right now, and was thinking of finding something to distract himself.

“We can now. Where shall we meet up? “

Lu Zhao’an didn’t expect Shi Yunnan to agree so readily. After a slight pause, he replied, “Mr. Shi, you can choose the location. Since it’s me who has a favor to ask, then I’ll go to you. “

“Okay.”

…

Half an hour later, Shi Yunnan sank into the soft sofa, quietly listening to the melodious tunes coming from the store.

After talking to Lu Zhao’an on the phone, he found a restaurant nearby that had good reviews online.

There was a welcome sound at the door.

Shi Yunnan looked up and saw Lu Zhao’an’s figure. The other party obviously saw him first and walked straight over.

“Hello, Mr. Shi.”

“Take a seat. What would you like to drink? ” Shi Yunnan sat upright.

Lu Zhao’an glanced at the drink in front of him and replied calmly, “The same as you, lemon black tea, since I’m driving.”

After the waiter on the side heard this, he immediately went down to prepare.

Shi Yunnan took a sip of black tea and said, “Mr. Lu, how did you know I could design?”

Lu Zhao’an said, “To put it simply, the jade beads on the shell of Lou’s new product are provided by our Yuan family.”

Hearing this coincidence, Shi Yunnan couldn’t help but sigh.

As the current sole responsible person of the Yuan family, Lu Zhao’an naturally knew the popularity of Lou’s new product designs in the market. This series of designs were the national style that he liked, so he took the initiative to ask the Lou company about the designer.

Then, he unexpectedly got the name ‘Shi Yunnan‘.

Not only that, he also learned one thing from Mrs. Lou: Shi Yunnan seems to have a lot of experience in jewelry and should have been engaged in relevant design before.

After going back and forth, Lu Zhao’an became more and more determined to contact Shi Yunnan.

While talking, the waiter brought the drink up.

After the waiter left, Shi Yunnan asked, “What does the jade design cooperation that Mr. Lu mentioned on the phone just now mean?”

Lu Zhao’an genuinely needed this cooperation, so he answered Shi Yunnan’s question seriously.

“To tell you the truth, the Yuan family relied on jade carving for a living from the very beginning. Counting back to forty or fifty years ago, when the jade carving market was popular, the Yuan family can be regarded as one of the best brands in the country…“

But in the past decade or so, the jade carving market has been getting narrower and narrower.

Refined manual crafting was replaced by mechanical processing. The quality of goods in the market varied, which indirectly affected sales.

Although good artificial jade carvings can still be sold at high prices, the cost and energy are also proportional. It can sometimes be described with one sentence:

It’s rare to sell one piece in three years1It is derived from a saying: three years of not selling anything, three years of eating after selling something. It refers to non-mainstream industries like antiques or calligraphy, where you might not sell anything for months or years, but once you do sell something, you make a lot of money at once, enough for you to eat for three years..

Because jade carving skills couldn’t support their livelihoods, the jade carving masters of the Yuan family quit and changed their careers. It was even harder for the younger generation to learn the craft seriously.

During the two years that Lu Zhao’an managed the Yuan family for his master, he clearly felt the limitations of the jade carving business. It was more like an art form within the circle than a popular trend among the public.

Yuan’s sales in the jade carving industry had been declining year after year. They were only able to sustain themselves by relying on the sale of rough stones.

Shi Yunnan probably understood what Lu Zhao’an was thinking, “Mr. Lu wants to use jade jewelry as a new approach?”

“Yes.”

The ancestors of the Yuan clan have set a rule: be good at what one does. Jade carving is the foundation of our Yuan clan. We cannot abandon our way.

Therefore, the Yuan family did not develop the jade jewelry market on a large scale, and now the market is occupied by other companies.

Because of the heavy nature of jade itself, most jewelry designs tend to give people a sense of ‘old age‘, and the market itself has not yet been fully opened.

If the Yuan family wants to attract customers now, it has to rely on new and novel designs in addition to the common jade designs.

Shi Yunnan surpassed this limitation with the design he did for the Lou company. Although it was not exactly a jade design, it has the same merit.

“I want to find a group of designers to cooperate with. The designers can choose to design a mass-produced piece or a high-end design for auction. All the rough stones and materials used in the design will be provided by the Yuan family. “

“In addition to the one-time payment of the design fee, the selling price can also be divided according to the contract.“

After confirming his plan, Lu Zhao’an immediately found his master, Yuan Puguang, to discuss. After thinking over and over again, the latter decided to delegate the authority to him.

“Mr. Shi, I know this proposal is very abrupt, and there are differences between jade design and appearance design, but if you have any interest, you are welcome to cooperate with us, Yuan, at any time.“

Lu Zhao’an’s expression was calm and his words were sincere.

Shi Yunnan didn’t rush to give his answer, but remembered another thing—

Because Yuan Rui is the second male lead, the Yuan family’s follow-up trend wasn’t bad. He has indeed made a name for himself in jade design and established his own brand in the market.

But all of this was based on Xie Keyue’s proposal.

Xie Keyue proposed and invested in the Yuan family’s jade design field, so when the Yuan family made a lot of money in the jade jewelry industry, he naturally made a fortune as well.

As for Yuan Rui, who was in charge of this matter, he naturally trusted this good friend even more.

Now, how come Lu Zhao’an was the one who brought this up?

Seeing that Shi Yunnan didn’t speak, Lu Zhaoan asked, “Mr. Shi?”

“Mr. Lu is unaware that what I did abroad was jewelry design.”

“It is said that diamonds and jades are not separated from each other. If I can apply the design skills I have learned to the jade design of our country, I will…”

Before he could finish speaking, the mobile phone on the table vibrated again. The name displayed on the screen was Luo Lingsheng.

When Shi Yunnan saw this name, his thoughts, which were not easily concentrated, drifted out again.

In Lu Zhao’an’s eyes, he thought it was inconvenient for him to answer the phone, so he said, “Mr. Shi, do you want me to go out first?”

“There’s no need.”

Shi Yunnan calmly hung up the call and turned off the phone, “Let’s continue. I’m very interested in Mr. Lu’s proposal for cooperation. “

…

Luo’s house.

Luo Lingsheng looked at the phone that was hung up and turned off when he dialed again, and wrinkled his brow in a complicated way.

Seeing all this, Uncle Qin couldn’t help but approach and reminded him, “Patriarch, don’t be too anxious. Mr. Shi might be dealing with some business, and it wasn’t convenient for him to answer the phone. “

Luo Lingsheng didn’t answer. The complexity between his eyebrows was even more obvious.

Yuan Meng was taking his luggage out. Qin Jian tidied up the work matters, glanced at the time, and stepped forward, “Patriarch, it’s time for us to leave for the airport.”

“Can you change the flight ticket?” Luo Lingsheng asked.

He had said the wrong thing in the training room before, causing Shi Yunnan to run out just like that. He was worried now that the other party seemed to be holding back his anger and didn’t answer the phone.

“Change the ticket?”

Qin Jian glanced at Uncle Qin with uncertainty. Under the latter’s silent gesture, he immediately picked up his cell phone to look up.

“The earliest flight is tomorrow at noon.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Rong, who had already prepared to leave on the same road, came back from outside, “Lingsheng, I just had a phone call with your brother-in-law, and the team over there said that they could arrange a checkup schedule for tomorrow night.”

“There are other patients’ appointments the day after tomorrow, so I’m afraid it will be inconvenient.”

As an elder, the housekeeper stepped forward to persuade him in a low voice, “Patriarch, you, Miss Luo Rong, Qin Jian, and the others should go first.”

“If Shi Yunnan doesn’t come home after five o’clock in the afternoon, I will contact him and send someone to find him. You don’t have to worry about the little young master; I am here. “

“Your leg injury is an important matter, so try not to put it off if you can.”

Luo Lingsheng didn’t refute it. He just used WeChat to send messages to Shi Yunnan and helplessly said, “Let’s go.”

…

Before 7:00 p.m., Shi Yunnan, who had calmed down, returned to the Luo residence. His documents and luggage were still in the room. It was impossible for him to leave home in anger due to what happened in the training room this afternoon.

“Little uncle!”

Little goldfish who was eating pounced on him immediately, holding Shi Yunnan’s hand and shaking it excitedly, “Little uncle, there is fish custard today. Let’s share it, okay?”

The housekeeper came up and said to him, “Mr. Shi, you’re finally back? Have you eaten yet? The Patriarch has temporarily gone abroad to deal with some matters. “

“I know. I saw the message he sent me.” Shi Yunnan replied indifferently.

However, his heart still felt suffocated, so he didn’t want to reply.

Since the other party has a white moonlight in his heart, he shouldn’t stick around like this, otherwise he will be humiliating himself in the end.

“Little Uncle, are you hungry?” Little Goldfish asked happily, not knowing what happened in the afternoon.

“I’m not hungry, I’ve eaten outside.” Shi Yunan squatted down to look at him, “I’m a little tired today. I want to go back to my room to rest first. Be good and finish your meal, okay? “

“Oh.”

Little goldfish looked at him and nodded obediently.

It wasn’t until Shi Yunnan quickly went upstairs that Little goldfish pouted in disappointment and whispered to the housekeeper, “Grandpa Qin, is Little Uncle unhappy?”

Uncle Qin also felt that Luo Lingsheng and Shi Yunnan’s reactions were not quite right, but facing the child, he couldn’t say too much, “It shouldn’t be, your little uncle is just tired.”

“But he didn’t pinch my face today, and he’s talking sullenly.” Little Goldfish’s perception has always been keen: “He didn’t even eat his favorite fish egg custard; he must be unhappy.”

“Then be a good boy and eat your meal first. When he’s hungry, we’ll go to the kitchen to prepare it for him, okay? ” The housekeeper took him back to the dining table.

“Okay.”

…

After Shi Yunnan returned to his room, he sat blankly at his desk, thinking about the path he should take next.

However, he couldn’t sort out his thoughts.

Rationally, he told himself to keep a proper distance from Luo Lingsheng, and even to terminate the contract directly, so as to stop the loss in time.

But emotionally, he couldn’t let it go.

In less than four months, he had regarded the Luo family as a short-lived home, the second home that he had found since his mother passed away.

Time passed minute by minute, and it was eight o’clock in the blink of an eye.

Knock knock.

There was a sudden knock on the door.

The unlocked door was quietly opened, and Little goldfish came in with a small bowl covered with a lid.

“Little Uncle, are you asleep? May I come in? “

The soft and nuanced child’s voice made people feel reluctant to refuse.

Shi Yunnan hooked his lips subconsciously, “Come in, I haven’t slept yet.”

Little goldfish who had changed into cat pajamas ran in and held the small bowl in front of Shi Yunnan, “Uncle, fish custard, all for you!”

“Grandpa Qin has already warmed it up. It won’t freeze your stomach. “

Shi Yunnan was so touched by Little Goldfish’s behavior that he suppressed his emotions and patted his own thigh with a smile, “Come up.”

Little goldfish crawled on his lap and said, “Little uncle, you like fish custard the most, so you won’t be sad anymore after eating it.”

“Who told you that I’m sad?” Shi Yunnan poked his little dimple, which felt good to the touch.

“I can tell.” Little goldfish replied.

He raised his head and asked, “Little Uncle, why are you unhappy? Because uncle is not at home? Grandpa Qin said he went to see his legs. “

“Ok, I know.”

Shi Yunnan didn’t want to talk about Luo Lingsheng again.

In order not to disappoint the child’s good intentions, he scooped a mouthful of fish custard into his mouth. But at the moment when the familiar taste filled his mouth, Shi Yunnan suddenly felt an unbearable heartache.

When he was a child, he thought he could eat the fish custard made by his mother for a long time, but it only happened until the age of seven.

After entering Luo’s house, the first bite of fish custard he ate was arranged by Luo Lingsheng. Perhaps in the near future, he won’t be able to savor this taste anymore.

Little goldfish stared at Shi Yunnan’s faintly red eyes and suddenly seemed to realize something. He wrapped his hands and feet around Shi Yunnan’s body, saying, “Little uncle.”

Little goldfish rubbed his little head against Shi Yunnan intimately, his soft hair scratching the side of his neck.

Shi Yunnan didn’t dodge him, “Hmm? What are you doing clinging to me so much? “

“I like Little Uncle very much.”

Little goldfish suddenly spoke in his ear. The soft voice was full of seriousness. He paused, and did not forget to add the last sentence—

“And uncle, he likes you very much too!”