Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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The dinner ended with Jiang Lan’s hypocritical response.
But he couldn’t figure it out why a good person suddenly acted like a fan when talking about Ying Long. Could it be that he had been brainwashed by Ying Long?
Jiang Lan couldn’t understand it, but he still cherished this friendship, so he saw through it but didn’t say anything. Out of politeness, he would also cooperate with Ying Qiao’s bragging appropriately.
Finally, Ying Qiao was happily coaxed away.
….
The aquarium and gems Jiang Lan bought arrived the next day.
The aquarium was a mini version that could fit in the corner of your desk. After he washed it, he poured in the soft white sand that was only available in Dragon Palace, and then placed the corals and rocks in one by one. The bag of gems brought by Shi Jing was poured on the table casually. It was colorful with red, yellow, blue and green gems, and looked dazzling in the morning sun.
Jiang Lan put Jiao Tu among a pile of gems and asked him to pick it himself.
He could keep the ones he particularly liked to play with, put the ones he liked generally in the aquarium box, and leave the ones he didn’t like very much with Jiang Lan, who could eat them like jelly beans.
Jiao Tu selected the largest and brightest yellow gem and a slightly smaller emerald, and Jiang Lan pushed the two gems into his shell for him to play with. The gemstones were irregular in shape, and Jiao Tu had his own way of polishing them. These gemstones were just left for him to kill time. After polishing it, maybe his shell would be replaced with new gems.
When Jiang Lan divided the gems, no one had come to the office yet. After finishing the selection, he started to arrange the aquarium. Xiao Xiaoyu, who came next, stared at the gems on the table and exclaimed: “Damn it, Jiang Lan, are you going to tell everyone that you are actually a rich second generation?”
She had seen a Rolls-Royce come to deliver something to Jiang Lan, so naturally she would not think that these gems were fake.
Just put gems in the aquarium? She really didn’t understand the world of rich people.
Xue Meng, who was a step behind her, happened to come in and heard the rest of her words, wondering: “Who’s a rich second generation?”
Then his eyes were attracted to the gems on Jiang Lan’s table, and he crowed like a rooster: “Jiang Lan, have you won the lottery? Are you suddenly rich?”
Jiang Lan blinked slowly and said innocently: “No, are you talking about these gems? They are all fake. They are man-made imitations.”
Xiao Xiaoyu relaxed a lot when she heard that they were fake. After all, there was a completely different feeling between knowing that Jiang Lan was a second-generation rich man and watching the second-generation rich man casually pile a bunch of valuable gems on his desk.
The latter was too stressful.
Fortunately, Jiang Lan was not so crazy yet.
Xiao Xiaoyu moved forward curiously and looked at these transparent and shining gems: “They look so real. They are no worse than those seen at the counters in shopping malls.”
Xue Meng also picked up one and said: “This kind of imitation must not be cheap, right?”
Was it too crazy to decorate an aquarium with them?
While arranging the aquarium, Jiang Lan pushed the small pile of gems that Jiao Tu didn’t like in front of the two of them: “It was given by a friend. His family makes jewelry. The cost of these artificial gems is not high, so he gave them to me to play with. If you like them, just pick two.”
In order to increase the credibility, he also picked a round ruby for the little Suan Ni to roll around with.
The little Suan Ni picked at the ruby with his paw, a little uninterested.
He was not like Little Nine who only liked gems, what he liked most was eating!
Just as he was thinking about it, he saw Zhang Tianxing coming in. He immediately jumped onto Zhang Tianxing’s desk with the ruby in his mouth and squatted down. When he came over, he flicked his tail, put the ruby in his palm, then raised his chin and meowed.
This meant reciprocity.
Zhang Tianxing stared at the ruby and paused. He arrived late and didn’t hear what Jiang Lan said, but it was not like he had never seen his mother’s jewelry at home, and he could still distinguish the authenticity of these jewels.
He held the ruby and looked at the pile of gems on Jiang Lan’s table.
Finally, he pursed his lips and accepted the gift. He didn’t expect Ni Ni to be a rich demon. He couldn’t help but feel a little regretful. It seemed that cat stealing was impossible.
His face darkened slightly, and he took out the new snacks he brought and fed them to Suan Ni without joining the discussion next to him.
When Jiang Lan asked them to pick whatever they wanted, Xiao Xiaoyu and Xue Meng were still a little embarrassed. But after seeing Suan Ni rolling around and playing with it, they felt that these gems were indeed worthless, so they stopped being polite and picked one each.
Xiao Xiaoyu was delighted: “The bracelet I made myself just lacked a stone, but I couldn’t find a good-looking one. This one is just right.”
Xue Meng immediately came up and said flatteringly: “Make one for me too.”
Xiao Xiaoyu rolled his eyes: “Get lost.”
Xue Meng: “A meal of crayfish!”
Xiao Xiaoyu thought for three seconds: “Deal.”
This was the way they made jokes. By this time, Jiang Lan had already arranged the aquarium. Gemstones of various colors were scattered among the soft white sand, occasionally revealing bright light, which was really beautiful.
He picked up Jiao Tu and gently put him into the aquarium.
Xue Meng, who was arguing with Xiao Xiaoyu, paused: “Is this alive?”
He thought it was a handicraft.
“Didn’t you see Ni Ni feeding him?” Xiao Xiaoyu couldn’t help but roll her eyes again, suspecting that Xue Meng was blind.
But she still looked at Jiao Tu curiously: “Is this a snail or a conch? Can this be kept as a pet?”
Jiang Lan had now developed the two high-end skills of keeping a straight face and not blinking an eye when lying after practicing on Ying Qiao. Hearing this, he said, “It’s a sea snail. My friend raised it. He has something and has to go abroad, so he asked me to help him raise it for a while.”
Xiao Xiaoyu and Xue Meng had no doubt about his words, and they stared at Jiao Tu curiously.
The Jiao Tu in the shell felt shy and couldn’t help but hide behind the red coral.
Xue Meng’s cry was comparable to that of three hundred ducks: “It’s moving! He’s moving! It’s really alive!”
Xiao Xiaoyu moved three steps away from him in an instant, looking at the fussing country bumpkin with disdain.
Jiang Lan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and said, “His name is Jiang Tu. He is a bit timid and easily shy.”
Xue Meng clicked his tongue. He probably had never seen such a special pet before. He stared at it with relish for a long time and did not return to his seat until work time came.
In the afternoon, Director Cheng convened another small meeting with everyone.
The main purpose was to discuss how to carry out the Dragon Boat Festival poverty alleviation work in the countryside.
The area that their department was assisting had been divided into several villages. It was a particularly closed and poor village in Hanyang District, called Sanshui Village. There were four people in one office, and they had to take turns going there for a week.
There were only six people in their department, including Director Cheng. Naturally, the four young people could do this kind of hard work.
Director Cheng briefly told them about the situation in Sanshui Village.
Sanshui Village was at the junction of Hanyang District and Caiyang District, with about 45 households. Because the land in the village was barren and transportation was inconvenient, the villagers of Sanshui Village almost lived a closed life in the early years. It was only in the past few years that Jiangcheng’s economy developed and it began to pay attention to the development of surrounding towns and rural areas, and vigorously carried out poverty alleviation work, and this closed village came into everyone’s sight.
Due to the lack of communication with the outside world and the generally low cultural level of the villagers, the villagers of Sanshui Village had been poisoned by many feudal superstitions, so they very much rejected people with foreign surnames, believing that people with foreign surnames entering the village would bring bad luck to the village.
This time they would be going to Sanshui Village to help the poor and provide warmth in the name of the Dragon Boat Festival. In fact, they wanted to establish a good communication bridge with the villagers first and dispel their wariness. After their work was completed, targeted poverty alleviation staff would contact the village committee to establish long-term poverty alleviation points.
Therefore, Jiang Lan’s work this time was not only to bring warmth to the villagers, but also to break the feudal superstition, set a good example for the villagers, and build their confidence.
Director Cheng didn’t like long speeches, so he spent just an hour concluding the meeting, setting the general direction, and asked them to look at the materials and make plans by themselves.
Jiang Lan carried a stack of materials from previous years back to the office to sort them out.
As soon as he sat down, the phone rang. He took it out and saw that it was Wang Qing calling.
Holding the phone between his ear and shoulder, Jiang Lan asked while reading the information: “Hello? Wang Qing? Are you okay?”
Wang Qing’s voice on the other side was a little anxious, and he explained the situation without even taking a breath: “Can you come over after work?”
After hearing what he said, Jiang Lan’s expression gradually became serious. He stopped flipping through the materials, picked up the phone again and went outside: “Are you sure it’s not an ordinary murder?”
Wang Qing’s voice was a little low: “OK. The victim has been with the Caiyang Criminal Police Detachment since a long time. He and his colleagues were watching here last night, but after one night, he lost contact for no reason. He was also a retired special forces soldier. His skills are definitely not bad. Even if he faced the murderer head-on, there’s no way that there won’t be any news. And this case is very evil, you’ll know it when you get here.”
Jiang Lan looked at the time and said, “Okay, send me your location and I’ll come right after work.”
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