CH 60

November 9, 2021kaychandra

Chapter 60: Behave Responsibly

The cast and crew of ‘Cultivation’ didn’t anticipate that the compassionate actions of their lead actors, each of whom donated hundreds of thousands of yuan, could cause such an unexpected commotion.

After their donation was reported, at first it was just a lot of netizens on the internet praising them. However, they didn’t expect that a few days later, the National Station news channel also reported on this matter, and the segment was full of praise.

To them, they weren’t lacking in fame or fortune. What they lacked was positive recognition from the official media. It was a pleasant surprise for them to be praised by the National Station.

Because of this, they were more grateful to Gongxi Qiao, who took the lead in donating money. Originally, a few of them didn’t really want to donate. They were just embarrassed to lag behind when they saw that someone else had lent a helping hand. Who knew that the value of the donations received had far exceeded hundreds of thousands of Flower Country Yuan.

As a great hero, Gongxi Qiao unknowingly attracted a favorable view among his peers. However, when the news aired, he was out accompanying Mama Qiao to choose jewelry, so he didn’t know about it.

Because the filming was so hard, when he returned to the Imperial Capital, Director Jiao finally gave him a day off in mercy. It just so happened that Mama Qiao had to go to a charity gala and needed to buy a suitable necklace to match her evening gown. Gongxi Xiong had to go negotiate a contract, so Gongxi Qiao took over the position of advisor.

In the Imperial Capital, where prestigious families and tycoons were abundant, there was no shortage of luxury stores. Although Gongxi Qiao was an entertainer, he didn’t have to worry about being recognized in such a high-end place with his sunglasses on. Even if someone recognized him, it wouldn’t cause a mob situation.

With her son by her side, Qiao Lanfen was in a very good mood. Though she hadn’t yet chosen a suitable necklace, she first bought a pair of eye-catching earrings.

In particular, when Gongxi Qiao took out his card to pay the bill, Qiao Lanfen felt the envious eyes of some people around her and felt even more proud. While other rich second generation kids were still spending their parents’ money, her son had already shelled out money to buy things for his parents. This kind of satisfaction couldn’t be compared to a few sets of jewelry.

“Both of these necklaces seem to be very good.” Qiao Lanfen looked at the necklaces laid out in front of her. “What do you think, son?”

Gongxi Qiao saw his mother’s indecisive look. He smiled and held her shoulder. “I think both of them are pretty, buy them both.” After that, he said to the salesperson, “Please wrap them up for me. Thank you.”

The salesperson was so happy that she nodded repeatedly. When selling fine jewelry, it was already a good achievement to sell one item per day. She was really lucky to meet such a generous person who picked the most high-grade goods.

When the several millions of yuan in sales was made, the salesperson smiled very sweetly. After putting the packaged jewelry into Qiao Lanfen’s hands, she said a lot of nice things.

However, when she handed the card back to the young man, she felt like he was a bit familiar. Just now, because the two of them were sitting in the VIP seat to select jewelry, she didn’t notice his appearance. Now, when he looked up to thank her, she realized that she seemed to have seen this person somewhere before.

Who exactly did he look like?

“Mom, is there anything else you like?” Gongxi Qiao flipped through the various jewelry sample albums in his hand. “If there’s anything you like, have them bring it over to you. I’ll spare no expense.” Recently, his paintings and calligraphy works had been hyped up to sky-high prices, and the profits from the several film and television works he invested in were also good, so he had a lot of assets on hand.

“Since you made a fortune, you should just buy more gold.” A woman carrying a pearl bag suddenly walked up to Qiao Lanfen, and said with a smile, “Gold holds its value better than any jade or diamond.”

Hearing the mockery in the other party’s words, Qiao Lanfen looked up at the woman with a gentle smile and said, “Isn’t this Mrs. Cai? I’ve never had a good eye for jewelry. But we women don’t think too much about it. Regardless of whether it’s gold or jade, buying it and keeping it at home is just spending money to buy joy.” After that, she swept her eyes over the sapphire necklace around Mrs. Cai’s neck. “I always wanted to know where you got this sapphire necklace. The workmanship is quite beautiful. It’s no wonder you’ve been wearing it for the last year. Unfortunately, I was unlucky and could only buy rubies, black sapphires, and amethysts. None of them look as good as this one of yours, which is really a pity.”

Hearing these snide words from his own old mother, Gongxi Qiao coughed dryly. Mrs. Cai’s grandmother was from a side branch of the Bai family. Over the years, she had always claimed to be from a prestigious family. Unfortunately, her family’s business was in the doldrums. She usually only maintained the surface image of a noblewoman, while in reality, she couldn’t compare with Qiao Lanfen at all.

Qiao Lanfen operated a chain of nearly 20 supermarkets, and all of them were operating very well. They were a family of three, and just Qiao Lanfen’s income alone was enough to leave Mrs. Cai’s family in the dust. Therefore, she didn’t take Mrs. Cai’s seemingly lofty but actually sour provocations seriously.

This was a war between women, not to mention that his own mother had the upper hand, so Gongxi Qiao very wisely chose not to speak up.

Mrs. Cai was stung by Qiao Lanfen’s words and her face turned red. She was so angry that she couldn’t think straight. “Well, I wouldn’t teach my son to go show his smiling face on TV.”

“That’s true. Our family’s Xiao Qiao looks good and can win glory for the country internationally. It’s not really something that ordinary people can teach their children.” Qiao Lanfen said with a sneer, “I heard that your son was sentenced to two years in prison for injuring someone while driving drunk a few days ago. Although our family’s Xiao Qiao doesn’t have many skills, he at least has a lot of friends in the Imperial Capital. You should ask him to help inquire about your son’s situation in there. If there’s anything we can do to help, considering our friendship over the years, we won’t refuse.”

Gongxi Qiao removed his sunglasses and looked at Mrs. Cai with a smile. “If Auntie Cai doesn’t mind, I’ll ask a friend to take good care of your son today. I don’t know…… Does that sound good to you?”

Qiao fans all knew that Gongxi Qiao had a pair of particularly good-looking eyes, and some Qiao fans even said that Qiao Shao’s eyes could speak.

However, at this time, those beautiful eyes made Lady Cai’s heart feel terrified, because his smile was too cold, as cold as a blood-stained knife.

Hearing the threat in his words, Mrs. Cai didn’t dare to nod her head. After a moment of silence, she laughed awkwardly and said, “Qiao Shao is both talented and handsome, he’s won glory for the country. How that bastard in my family compared to him? He committed a crime. If you make a mistake, you need to be punished or you won’t learn. Let him stay in there. How can I bother you again?”

She now regretted that she had said nasty things to Qiao Lanfen out of jealousy. Nowadays, she couldn’t afford to offend the Gongxi family.

Gongxi Xiong’s business was getting better and better, Qiao Lanfen’s supermarket had a good reputation, and her son was even more enterprising. There were many people in their circle who were envious of them. Not to mention that Qiao Shao was now involved with the real prestigious families in the Imperial Capital, and even called those young masters “brother”. Why did she go crazy and provoke this mother and son?

“Sister Qiao, I’m a little lightheaded today, please don’t mind me,” Mrs. Cai said with a dry smile. “I still have some things to do at home, so I won’t disturb your shopping mood.”

Qiao Lanfen watched Mrs. Cai leave in a hurry and sighed. Back when they first met, Mrs. Cai was actually a very nice woman. Although she was a bit pretentious, she was definitely not as mean as she was now. Unfortunately, over the years, her son didn’t do well, and her husband was no good, going out drinking and womanizing all day. A good woman was worn into a jealous and irritable person.

“Son, as a person, you must have a sense of responsibility, and you shouldn’t take the people around you for granted, or else you’ll do harm.” Qiao Lanfen shook her head. “If you commit too many sins, who knows if there will be retribution.”

“Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll definitely be a good man with a sense of responsibility. I’ll follow the example of you and Dad.” Gongxi Qiao saw Qiao Lanfen’s mood affected by what just happened, so he said, “It’s almost noon, let’s go to lunch.”

“Okay.” Qiao Lanfen was coaxed by Gongxi Qiao to smile, “My son has the final word.”

Only after the salesperson sent Gongxi Qiao away did she cover her fluttering heart. It turned out Qiao Shao was like this in reality, really charming.

She turned her head and looked outside just in time to see the scene of Gongxi Qiao bending down to pull open the car door for Qiao Lanfen. She thought with some emotion that she initially thought Gongxi Qiao’s filial piety was just a pretence, but after today, she would never think so again.

If this wasn’t filial piety, there wouldn’t be many filial children in the world.

Feng Xiang Lou was always full at noon. When Gongxi Qiao arrived with Mama Qiao, the manager wanted to arrange a private room for him, but he refused the kind offer.

He and Mama Qiao were just two people, and they weren’t inviting anyone else, so there was no need to be so particular.

Seeing that Gongxi Qiao was so easy-going, the manager was also happy, so when they served the dishes, they took special care of their table.

“Didn’t you say that you have to make reservations in advance to eat here?” Qiao Lanfen looked at the dishes that had all been served on the table. “How come we got a seat today?” After saying that, she remembered that some time ago a staff member of Feng Xiang Lou made a special trip to bring dim sum. She wondered, “Are you familiar with the people here?”

“Last time I came here to join in the fun on Young Master Xue’s birthday,” Gongxi Qiao explained with a smile. “Probably, the people here already know me from that time.”

Gongxi Qiao said it simply, but Qiao Lanfen already roughly guessed what was going on. She nodded. “Your father and I don’t care much about what friends you make. We believe you can handle it.” After saying that, she paused slightly, “You and the head of the Xi family…… are actually close friends?”

When she had nothing to do but browse Weibo, she often saw people teasing her son and the head of the Xi family together, so she went to Xi Qing’s Weibo to read it and found that this person did seem to have a good relationship with her son.

“Yeah, ah, last year when I was drunk and someone sent me home, I heard you gave that person a bag of oranges. Do you still remember that?” Gongxi Qiao said with a smile, “That person is the head of the Xi family.”

“He’s the head of the Xi family?” Qiao Lanfen was a little surprised. Although it happened last year, Xi Qing gave her too deep of an impression, so she still remembered him. After carefully recalling, she slowly said, “That was a nice young man.”

As the head of the family, he had no shortage of people, but he was willing to personally send Xiao Qiao back. Before leaving, he even bothered to remind them to pay more attention to Xiao Qiao at night. If he didn’t sincerely treat Xiao Qiao as a friend, he definitely wouldn’t do those things.

“Xiao Qiao?”

Speak of the devil and the devil appears[1]. Gongxi Qiao looked back at someone behind him and laughed softly, “What a coincidence.”

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