Buy a house with 30,000 yuan and live in a small town

Chapter 529: A Showdown with Jinghe

For the barbecue in the evening, Shen Nian'an and Gu Qingyue's family arrived early, pulling two small carts that were usually used for shopping for groceries, with ingredients for the barbecue on one side and fruit snacks on the other.

Wang Keng arrived at about the same time as them, riding a small electric bike with the trunk removed and replaced with a plastic basket filled to the brim. He was invited by Xu Qingsong because Youyou and Jinghe both said they wanted to eat the barbecue made by Uncle Dakeng. He had been staying at home since the serialization of his novel, and he thought it was time to come out and relax. He also happened to have some questions related to game production to ask Xu Qingsong.

When Liu Wangxue, Xu Qingsong and Du Yunkai came back with Cha Cha and the three little ones, it was getting dark. Because Cha Cha met Xiao Tao and Hao Hao on the road, the three good friends stood together and chatted for a while. Cha Cha got Liu Wangxue's permission and invited them to have barbecue together, but they were almost done for dinner at home, so they did not come together.

Li Yu, Jin Zhaofei, Richard, Gu Zicheng, Zheng Zhou and others came together. Jin Zhaofei would definitely join in the fun after finishing his work, so he led two and three. Some of the other colleagues had to work overtime, and some were worried that there would be too many people and Liu Wangxue would not be able to sit down, so they did not come along.

Tao Huayu was unable to return to the company today. When he went to deliver lunch to Tao Huaxin at noon, he brought his computer with him and handled his work online. He came back once before dusk, first delivering some drinks to Liu Wangxue, and then sent the dinner made by Tao's father to the hospital before coming back.

Gu Xuelan had already learned from Liu Nanshan what happened in the morning, and she also called Tao's mother in the hospital. After meeting Tao Huayu, she asked a few more questions. When she learned that Tao Huaxin had not shown any symptoms this afternoon, she felt relieved and thought of going to check on him tomorrow after he returned.

Tao Huaxin didn't go to the studio all day today. His colleagues were only worried after hearing what Du Yunkai said after he arrived. Li Yu called Tao Huayu at that time to ask if he needed any help. Now that they met, he and Jin Zhaofei and others asked a few more questions with concern, praying in their hearts that Tao Huaxin would return safely tomorrow.

Tao Huayu gave a warning to Jin Zhaofei and the other coffee addicts: "You will probably have to make your own coffee tomorrow. My brother-in-law will definitely let my sister rest at home for one more day."

Tao Huaxin hadn't left that morning, so he sent a message to Jin Zhaofei, jokingly asking them to fend for themselves. No one expected that they would have to do everything themselves for the whole day. Not only did they have to solve the problem of coffee by themselves, but they didn't even have any desserts.

Li Yu doesn't like coffee. He doesn't like the taste of coffee, and coffee doesn't have any effect on him. He will still feel sleepy after drinking it. It's better to have a cup of green tea to wake up. However, he likes other "non-sweet" drinks and desserts! Without these, he always feels that the day is not very enjoyable.

However, Tao Huaxin is a pregnant woman after all, and nothing is trivial. She should rest at home, so everyone asked Tao Huayu: "Will my brother-in-law's bakery be able to operate normally tomorrow? We can't do it ourselves."

Tao Huayu smiled and vouched for his brother-in-law: "Yes, definitely!"

The ingredients were ready, and we were just waiting for them to come back. We didn't go to the rooftop this time, because the yard was big and there was enough space for so many people to stand. Also, the temperature was a little low at night in winter, and with a little wind, the rooftop was cold, and the grilled meat would probably get cold right after leaving the grill. So we grilled it in the yard, and if the adults and children felt it was too cold outside, they could take it to the kitchen or living room to eat, and sit wherever they felt comfortable, and they could immediately heat it up in the microwave if it got cold.

When the barbecue grill was lit, Youyou pulled Jinghe and Chacha over to watch. He was not tall enough to see, so he asked Jinghe to hold him. Chacha could not see either, and was tired of standing on tiptoe, so she turned around to look for Du Yunkai. However, no one knew where this uncle had gone, and he was not seen in the yard.

Richard happened to be nearby, so he asked Chacha, "Do you want a hug?"

Cha Cha raised her arms towards Richard and said "thank you".

Richard was happy, because Cha Cha was his little nephew - although it had not been finalized yet, he was already very sure of it, so naturally he would get close to Cha Cha whenever he got the chance.

While lighting the charcoal, Youyou was giving Chacha some "science": "The meat grilled by Uncle Dakeng is delicious and very fragrant." After saying this, he was afraid that Chacha would not believe him, so he asked Jinghe to help him prove it: "Right, brother."

Jinghe nodded affirmatively: "Yes, it's delicious."

Cha Cha began to look forward to it.

After the charcoal was lit, Youyou called out to Uncle Dakeng. Wang Keng came over with a bunch of skewers of meat marinated without chili peppers and said to the three children, "Wait, Uncle Dakeng will show you how to cook!"

Shen Nian'an was chatting with Xu Qingsong and the others nearby. After hearing this, he said to Wang Keng, "These two kids have been missing your barbecue for the entire semester."

Wang Keng's heart was immediately filled with pride and satisfaction, and he laughed loudly: "Okay, I will make sure you guys have a good meal today!"

When Liu Nanshan saw Wang Keng's posture, he knew that he was quite capable. After hearing what he heard, he became itchy and asked Wang Keng if he wanted to have a competition with him.

Liu Wangxue and Gu Qingyue were passing by with fruits, and upon hearing this, they whispered to Liu Nanshan, "Youyou and Jinghe love to eat meat. As long as it tastes like meat when grilled, they think it's delicious."

Liu Wangxue added: "The last time Tao Huayu lost to Brother Wang, it was because there were vegetables in the skewers."

Tao Huayu was standing nearby and immediately tried to save his reputation: "Brother Wang's victory was unfair."

Wang Keng said, "Then I'll give you a chance, let's compete again?"

"Let's compete." Tao Huayu pretended to roll up his sleeves, took a handful of skewers of meat, put them on the rack and started grilling them.

The result is predictable, the children all said it was delicious and it was impossible to tell who was better.

Not long after everyone started eating the grilled skewers, six little kids suddenly appeared at the gate. They were Xiao Tao, Hao Hao and the others. They came to call Cha Cha to play in the threshing ground. They went to You You's house first, but found that You You and Jing He were not there. Their gates were locked. It turned out that they came here to have a barbecue.

Xiao Tao ran over first and asked, "Cha Cha, You You, Brother You You, why haven't you finished eating yet?"

Haohao followed and asked, "We are going to the threshing ground to play, do you want to go?"

Youyou took a bite of the greasy roasted pork belly and said, "My brother, I, and Chacha, we need to have a meal."

The adults called the other four children at the door in and gave each of them two skewers of freshly grilled skewers. Liu Wangxue said, "Let's have barbecue at my house first, and then we can go out and play together, okay?"

The children took the skewers, said "thank you", and then said "ok" in unison.

Seven or eight children gathered together, making the yard even more lively. Liu Wangxue and her friends not only ate themselves, but also took care of the children. It was unlikely that they would go to the threshing ground. When the children had almost finished eating, she took out toy cars and other small toys and let them play in the yard, with the three little ones accompanying them.

Li Yu brought over a plate of fruit with toothpicks on it and handed it to Liu Wangxue. Liu Wangxue picked up two pieces and handed one to Xu Qingsong beside her. Then she watched the little friends, led by Jing He, act out the fairy tale she had made up for them when they took the photo that day, and a smile appeared on her face unconsciously.

Li Yu suddenly sighed: "Brother Huayu's position is about to be taken away by Jinghe."

"Hmm?" Liu Wangxue asked, "What status?"

Xu Qingsong answered: "The status of the king of children."

Li Yu gave him a thumbs up: "Brother Qingsong, correct answer!"

Liu Wangxue smiled and said, "Does Comrade Huayu care about this status?"

Tao Huayu came over with the skewers and shared them with them: "What do you care about?"

Liu Wangxue repeated it.

Tao Huayu stuffed all the rest into Xu Qingsong's hands: "Of course I care! Wait, I'm going to compete with Jinghe!" After that, he went over to join this non-proprietary situational drama, and happily got the role of "Big Devil" - the kind who was ultimately defeated and badly defeated.

The three of them laughed together. Li Yu felt that he was the "big devil" because he remembered something and said with a sly grin, "The children won't be happy for much longer. School will start soon. Hahahaha..."

Seeing that he had finished eating, Xu Qingsong took the fruit from his hand and gave him the remaining skewers. He said ruthlessly: "Come on, eat more. Don't forget, you are a student too."

Li Yu's laughter stopped abruptly, but he immediately became happy again: "Hey, school has started, but I don't have to go to school anymore, hahaha..."

Liu Wangxue laughed along with him, and then became even more ruthless: "Although, you have seamlessly adapted to a working life with only weekends off - oh, and you have already received an offer to study abroad in the second half of the year, so after that even weekends may be a luxury." Li Yu's laughter stopped again.

Xu Qingsong was also smiling, and he patted Li Yu's head as a comfort. Although they were now colleagues, Xu Qingsong still treated Li Yu as a child. Then he added another blow: "I asked a friend a few days ago. It is said that it is not easy to graduate from the graduate school of St. Ishmael University, especially your major, which is the top 1 in the entire country Y. You have to be strong in the next two years."

Li Yu's face suddenly turned bitter: "Teacher Zhou said the same thing." He had never mentioned it before and only told him after he got the offer.

Liu Wangxue comforted Li Yu: "Don't be afraid, we are a koi, and we are so strong and capable, any difficulties can be easily solved."

Li Yu took a bite of the skewer and said, "Thank you, Sister Xuxu. I was not comforted."

Liu Wangxue and Xu Qingsong finished the two pieces of fruit left on the plate and laughed together.

When Li Yu and Wen Xi were preparing for the Porcelain Spring/Summer fashion show in Country Y, Wen Xi took Li Yu to several good universities for field trips on his day off. In the end, Li Yu chose St. Ishmael University, the alma mater of Professor Zhou, his graduation design mentor.

The university was originally a church, and later it was changed into a church school. Now after several rounds of expansion, it has become a private university. The university is named after the original church, and the church is named after the designer and donor, and has never been changed, just to commemorate this person.

St. Ishmael's University is located in the capital of Country Y. The university's overall ranking in the entire country is not high, but its landscape architecture major is second to none in Country Y.

After returning to China and before the winter vacation, Li Yu was working on his graduation project and preparing application materials. When Professor Zhou learned that he was going to apply to St. Ishmael University, he was very happy and wrote him a letter of recommendation. In addition, before he came back from Country Y, Joshua also wrote him a letter of recommendation.

To be on the safe side, Li Yu applied to two more universities as a backup. He applied relatively late, submitting his materials almost at the deadline when the application channel was closed, and then it was Christmas. During this period, the colleges and universities would process a large number of student applications in the early stage, so the processing speed would be relatively slow.

Two students of the same grade and major as Li Yu also applied to study in Country Y, but they did not apply to the same university or the same region as Li Yu. Like Li Yu, they also submitted their documents almost at the deadline, but one of them received the offer after New Year's Day. Li Yu was anxious for a while after learning about it, and was worried that his application would fail.

In fact, he didn't have to worry at all. Porcelain's spring and summer show was a sensation in the entire European fashion industry. The media's coverage of the show lasted for nearly half a month. Everyone who watched the show on site was amazed by the exquisite layout of the show. After the video was uploaded to the Internet, some college teachers even took the garden design of the show to class as a case study. Everyone noticed a name, the special designer of the show, Li Yu.

In the interview after the show, Joshua specially called Li Yu to his side and affectionately called him "the little koi from country Z". He also said to the camera: "There is a legend in their country called 'the carp leaping over the dragon gate'. I believe his future will be even brighter than it is now."

After the show, Li Yu went out with Wenxi and also visited Zerlina's hometown. He himself did not register a foreign social media account, and had no real sense of the "rise to fame" mentioned by Wenxi. Even though Wenxi had comforted him by saying, "Putting aside all the trophies, certificates and previous works you submitted, just based on the title of special designer for Porcelain's spring and summer show, those schools will scramble for you", it did not eliminate his nervousness.

It was not until the end of the studio's Spring Festival holiday that he received an offer from St. Ishmael's University, and his heart finally became lively again.

At that time, he and his father Lao Li were both in his hometown. After hearing the news, Lao Li was even happier than Li Yu. He immediately arranged a banquet and invited relatives and friends from his family, Li Yu's friends and his teachers.

But Li Yu's grandmother rejected this idea. The old lady thought a lot, and when she heard that the school would not start until September in the second half of the year, and her child had not yet graduated from college, she felt that it was not necessary to publicize this matter so early, in case something unexpected happened during this period?

The old lady was also happy in her heart, the kind of joy that she wanted to tell the world about. However, she couldn't because she heard that Li Yu's mother was not doing well now. She was afraid that after that woman heard about it and saw that her son had become successful, she would come back to make trouble. Wouldn't that affect the child's future?
However, she would definitely keep this matter and speculation to herself, and resolutely refused to speak of it. She made up an excuse: "We will definitely have to get married, but definitely not now. We have to wait until everything about the child is settled. When Xiaoyu graduates from university, gets a visa and is ready to go abroad, we will write a formal invitation and invite everyone over."

Old Li felt that what his mother said made sense, so he put the matter aside for the time being, and did not tell anyone about Li Yu's receipt of the notice.

But Li Yu was a kid who couldn't hold it in. He would have kept it to himself if others didn't tell him, but he had to tell Professor Zhou, who had high hopes for him, as well as Sister Wenxi, Sister Xuxu, Brother Huayu, Brother Qingsong, and Boss Du, all the people who cared about him and gave him so much help.

After Liu Wangxue and the others found out, they also said they wanted to hold a celebratory party for Li Yu, but Li Yu remembered what his grandmother said and did not agree. And everyone was busy with their own things those days, so they respected the decision of the person involved and agreed to hold the party before he went abroad.

The barbecue didn't end until after eight o'clock. The children were tired from playing in the yard, so Liu Wangxue and the others took them to the living room to sit on the sofa and watch cartoons with the three little ones. In the kitchen, Yuan Lianyun and Gu Xuemei cooked some fermented rice and eggs, and Liu Wangxue and Xu Qingsong went over to serve each of the children a bowl.

Liu Wangxue and a few others sat beside them, accompanying them. Thinking of their "Lantern Battle", she did not go to the threshing ground last night and did not know who won, so she asked.

Xiao Tao said: "Of course we won!"

Haohao said, "You are lying. Yueyue and the others didn't go to the threshing ground. We didn't compete."

Liu Wangxue thought, maybe because there was a lantern viewing event in the central park and a night market on Wutong Avenue in the town last night, the children were taken there by their parents, but she didn't meet these children in the town. That's right, they didn't go there early and came back late. Xiao Tao and his friends were taken by their grandparents, so they probably went there early and came back early.

Then I heard Xiaopang say, "Yes, after returning from town, we went to the threshing ground."

Youyou said: "Ah, I didn't go!"

Cha Cha suddenly remembered: "I didn't go either!"

Jinghe reminded them: "Youyou, you fell asleep after watching the lanterns, and Chacha, you fell asleep on the way home."

The expressions on Youyou and Chacha's faces suddenly became filled with regret.

Leilei said: "It doesn't count, because Yueyue and the others didn't go to the threshing ground."

Fengfeng nodded along with her sister: "Not really."

Yaya also thinks it doesn’t count.

Xiao Tao continued, "We agreed to compete, but they didn't go, which means they were scared. Not going means they admitted defeat, so we won."

Tao Huayu exclaimed, "This logic is fine!"

Xiao Tao was even more proud: "Look, Uncle Huayu thinks I'm right!"

Haohao was helpless: "Okay then."

Then the children's attention was attracted by the cartoon again.

After eating the fermented rice wine eggs, Xiao Tao, Hao Hao and their families came to look for them, and they went home with the adults. Before leaving, they made an appointment to play together again the next day.

There were many people, and almost all the prepared ingredients were eaten up. Everyone picked up a bowl and ate some fermented rice and eggs. Liu Wangxue's bowls were not enough, so he went to Xu Qingsong's place to get them, and added a few disposable cups to make the bowls complete.

After eating, everyone helped to clean up the kitchen, yard and living room. There was no need to wash the dishes and chopsticks, just put them in the dishwasher in batches. Jin Zhaofei and his friends took out the bags of garbage and threw them away when they returned to the studio.

Little Youzi was held in Shen Nian'an's arms. Before they even left the hospital, she fell asleep with her head resting on his shoulder.

Gu Qingyue raised her hand and put the hat on Youyou to block the wind: "What a little pig, you can eat and sleep well."

Seeing his brother sleeping so cutely, Jinghe couldn't help but stretch out a finger and gently poke his face: "He can still run and jump, he is a healthy and cute little pig."

Shen Nian'an smiled and said, "What do you mean by that? Then what has become of our family?"

The child's grandparents also laughed: "There's nothing wrong with it, after all, we are all family!"