Lu Hongjun asked the doctor, “What should she eat to recover as quickly as possible?”
The doctor said that traditional Chinese medicine excelled at this kind of recuperation, and recommended a Chinese medicine physician from the hospital to the two of them.
Lu Hongjun thanked him and took Lu Jiaxin outside, saying quietly in the hallway, “I’ve heard there’s an old Chinese medicine doctor especially skilled at helping people recover their health. I’ll have someone arrange an introduction, and once he agrees, I’ll take you to see him.”
“All right.”
Once they’d left the hospital, Lu Hongjun said, “Xinxin, I couldn’t get away yesterday, take me to see that house of yours today.”
Jiaxin didn’t refuse, but there were things she needed to make clear. “I’m your daughter, and if you want to live with me, I welcome that. But Ding Jing and Zhao Siyi are my enemies, if you bring them along, don’t blame me for disowning you as my father.”
This was, of course, to keep Lu Hongjun in good spirits. Through today’s probing, she’d confirmed that Lu Hongjun surely had a substantial hidden fortune saved up. So on the surface, she needed to keep playing the dutiful daughter, that way she could keep milking him for resources, and could turn to him for help if she ran into difficulties in business later. As for the Xie family, unless it was truly a matter of life and death, she had no intention of ever calling on them.
Hearing this, Lu Hongjun felt genuinely warmed, his daughter really was filial after all. He sighed and said, “Don’t worry, they won’t come to your door.”
After what had happened yesterday, he knew there was no way to mend the relationship between the two sides now, they were like fire and water. All he hoped for now was that both sides would stay out of each other’s way. As for what came after, he’d deal with that when it came.
Jiaxin changed the subject. “Dad, Xue Mao can’t sit still and wants to keep running his stall.”
Lu Hongjun said, “Jobs aren’t easy to come by right now. He’s never been to school, he’s still young, and he’s from out of town, there’s no way to find him a suitable job at the moment. Since running a stall lets him support himself, just let him keep doing that for now.”
With so many educated youths returning to the city, the capital had precious few positions to offer, and jobs right now were scarce compared to demand. If it were about finding Lu Jiaxin a job, he’d surely move heaven and earth to make it happen. As for Xue Mao, by his own reasoning, giving him a lump sum of money would already count as repaying the debt of gratitude. But since Jiaxin had said yesterday she’d repay that debt herself, he hadn’t brought it up again.
Jiaxin had brought this up deliberately, with a clear purpose in mind. “Dad, I want to buy a tricycle cart, it would make running the stall much more convenient. Otherwise, hauling all that equipment back and forth is exhausting.”
Lu Hongjun stared at her intently.
Jiaxin’s heart nearly leapt out of her chest, had he noticed something off about her, started suspecting she wasn’t really the original owner? But she quickly steadied herself, ever since remarrying, Lu Hongjun’s attention had been consumed by Ding Jing, and he’d paid less and less mind to the original owner. Combined with everything that had happened, there was no way he’d suspect her.
Lu Hongjun simply felt she seemed like a completely different person from before, in the past his daughter had never cared much about money, but now she seemed obsessed with it. Still, thinking about how she’d been forced to sell food on the streets in the ancient capital just to eat, he couldn’t help softening. “Xinxin, having a clear plan in mind is a good thing. It’s just that I’m your father, whatever you need, just tell me directly, no need to beat around the bush like this.”
Jiaxin let out a quiet sigh of relief, so it hadn’t been suspicion about her identity after all. She lowered her head and put on a wounded expression. “These past few years you’ve always favored that venomous mother and daughter, and stopped caring about me. I was worried that if I kept asking you for things, you’d get tired of me.”
Hearing this, Lu Hongjun laughed and said, “You’re my daughter, my only child. Whatever you want, as long as I can afford it, I’ll get it for you. It’s just, Xinxin, your Auntie Ding is the person I plan to spend the rest of my life with, and you’ll grow up and have your own family eventually, I have to consider her feelings too. But don’t worry, everything I own will be yours eventually.”
Jiaxin scoffed. “I’m not a three-year-old, you don’t need to placate me with words like that.”
Only what was actually in her hands truly belonged to her, everything else was just talk. Of course, it would be ideal if he genuinely intended to leave everything to her rather than just dangling an empty promise, but if not, that was fine too. As the old saying goes, a mountain you lean on can collapse, a mother you depend on will grow old and die, relying on yourself is the only sure path.
Lu Hongjun said in a scolding tone, “You silly girl, when have I ever broken a promise to you in all these years?”
Jiaxin feigned surprise and suspicion. “You’re not just placating me? You’ll really leave the family fortune to me, and not to that venomous mother and daughter?”
Lu Hongjun said, “The bulk will go to you, a smaller portion to your Auntie Ding. I’m so much older than her, I’ll surely pass before she does, so I need to leave her something to secure her future.”
Jiaxin said with disgust, “I don’t want to hear those two names. If you can’t manage that, then there’s no need for us to see each other anymore.”
Since the relationship between the two sides was beyond repair anyway, Lu Hongjun had no desire to anger his daughter further over this. “I can’t promise that. I’m just so used to saying it, it slips out naturally.”
Jiaxin turned her head away and stopped talking to him.
By the time they reached Guangming Road by car, Lu Hongjun was quite startled walking into the house. He’d assumed it really was just a small place, never expecting it to be this large, though he soon figured out the reason behind it.
Lu Hongjun said, “This house, the Xie family helped buy it, didn’t they?”
Jiaxin didn’t deny it, but to guard against him setting his sights on the Xie family, she said deliberately, “Mom said unless it was a matter of life and death, I wasn’t allowed to go to the Xie family for anything.”
The Xie family was the greatest support her mother had left her, purchased with her own life, no one was to touch it, Lu Hongjun included.
Lu Hongjun’s expression paused for a moment, but quickly returned to normal. “This house wouldn’t have been easy to buy. They’ve done us such a huge favor, we should go pay them a visit to say thanks.”
Jiaxin said nothing, sometimes silence itself was refusal.
Lu Hongjun had heard rumors that his superiors were planning to move him into a secondary role next year. He didn’t want that, he wanted to stay in his current position until retirement, and if the Xie family were willing to help him, that could be handled easily. But his daughter still harbored resentment right now, this needed time to settle before he brought it up properly.
Lu Hongjun stayed less than ten minutes before leaving.
Xue Mao said quietly, “Sis, is he really your father? He doesn’t seem like it to me somehow.”
“I take after my grandmother.”
It really was a strange twist of fate, she thought, this girl not only shared her name but resembled her by seventy or eighty percent in appearance too, the remaining difference being one of bearing. She figured this must be part of why she’d ended up in this body.
Xue Mao explained, “Sis, I don’t mean the looks, I mean his attitude. His new wife and stepdaughter nearly destroyed you, and he never even held them accountable, just let you move out. And now, coming over here, he barely stayed any time at all before leaving, without even helping you sort anything out.”
Jiaxin explained with a smile, “The reason he let me move out is that he knows that woman and I can’t coexist under the same roof anymore. As for not helping me sort things out, I’ve got Fifth Brother helping me arrange the house, no need to trouble him with that.”
“What kind of father is that, leaving everything to other people and taking care of nothing himself?”
Jiaxin gave him a fair assessment. “He didn’t contribute effort, but he did contribute money. And he just agreed to buy you a tricycle cart, which will make running your stall much easier going forward.”
Through these two exchanges, she’d figured him out well enough, to Lu Hongjun, he himself came first, and his wife and children came second. Ding Jing wasn’t just gentle, considerate, and beautiful, most importantly, she was young, and he was counting on her to care for him in his later years. So whenever conflict arose between them, he’d always wrong his daughter to keep the peace. But privately, he’d try to smooth things over so she wouldn’t harbor resentment toward him, so he could still enjoy the comforts of family in old age. It had to be said, he really did know how to calculate his own interests, the original owner hadn’t resented him even at the moment of her death.
Xue Mao didn’t say anything more after hearing this.