Chapter 287 - Make Do
Translator: Henyee Editor: Henyee
Lu Li and Qiao Liang booked ban appointment appointed to have dinner in Pearl Hotel. When Tang Xi and Qiao Liang arrived, Lu Li was already there. Seeing Tang Xi entering, he stood up with a smile, and signaled Tang Xi to sit down. “I’m sorry I was at work until now.”
Tang Xi sat down with a smile. “Not at all. You have come all the way to City A and we should invite you to dinner to honor you, but now you are treating me to dinner.”
Lu Li had a gleam of surprise in his eyes when he heard Tang Xi speak as if she and Qiao Liang were already a couple. He looked up at Qiao Liang who seemed to be happy with it. Lu Li smiled. “It’s a pleasure. Can you order the dishes that you want? I don’t know what you like to eat, so… you’d better order instead.” With that, he handed the menu to Tang Xi. “I prefer Chinese food when I dine out with my friends, because then the atmosphere is more lively. Do you think so too?”
Tang Xi nodded in agreement with him and smiled. “Yes, Chinese food has many flavors and is easier to cater for our different tastes, while Western food tastes somewhat monotonous. I prefer Chinese food too.” She handed the menu to Qiao Liang who casually took it and began to quickly tick on the menu. Soon he finished ordering dishes and Lu Li took the menu from him…
Lu Li looked at Qiao Liang and the corner of his eyes twitched.”None of the dishes is what I like?”
Qiao Liang looked at with a straight face. “Aren’t you treating us to this dinner?”
Lu Li took a look at Qiao Liang and frowned. “Spicy crayfish? I remember you don’t eat spicy food. You have stomach trouble, so you never eat spicy food, right? You…” Suddenly he noticed Qiao Liang’s threatening eyes. He immediately shut up and smiled at Tang Xi. “Oh, I love spicy crayfish. I love spicy food. It’s just that he didn’t allow me to order spicy food. I haven’t eaten spicy food for long.”
Tang Xi looked at Qiao Liang, and the latter rubbed her hair and said gently. “Don’t listen to his nonsense.”
Tang Xi’s face darkened. In her memory, every time they dated, Qiao Liang would order spicy dishes such as shrimp in scallion sauce, spicy crayfish or taste shrimp for her, and she always asked Qiao Liang to eat those dishes with her. When she asked him whether he liked them, he would curl his lips and say they were yucky. But when he saw she was angry to hear that, he would say yes, they are very delicious actually…
For all these years, she had been used to being humored by Qiao Liang, but now Lu Li told her Qiao Liang actually couldn’t eat spicy food,because his stomach would ache if he did.
Lu Li noticed the gloomy look of Tang Xi and hurriedly added. “I’m kidding. Don’t take my words too seriously, Rourou. This guy… Well, forget it. I think now that you two are together, you should tell each other everything about yourselves. Qiao Liang has stomach problems and can’t eat spicy food since his childhood. And he has been drinking a lot these past few years, so his stomach has become even weaker. I think you should tell this to Rourou. I’m sure she doesn’t want to see you suffer from stomachache, right?”
“Lu Li!” Qiao Liang stared coldly at Lu Li.
“Qiao Liang!” Tang Xi looked at Qiao Liang and asked coldly, “Am I an unreasonable woman in your heart? Do you think I will leave you if you are sick?! Am I that kind of woman in your heart?!”
Qiao Liang looked at Tang Xi and was about to speak, when Tang Xi lunges to her feet and coldly said, “I am always a vulnerable woman in your eyes, no matter five years ago or now, right?! I’m that kind of woman who will just walk away from you when you are sick, right?”
“No.” Qiao Liang took Tang Xi’s hand. “I just don’t want you to worry about me, or feel guilty for me… the last thing I want to see is that you suppress yourself. I like to see you enjoy food and I like how it feels when I have dinner with you…”
“But these will harm your health!” Tang Xi stared at Qiao Liang. “I don’t want to see you endure stomach ache for me. I just want you to be healthy!”
“Okay, I’ll tell you everything about myself, everything.” Qiao Liang gazed at Tang Xi. “What I can eat and what I can’t. I can tell you whatever you want to know. Just sit down.”
Tang Xi closed her eyes, then turned to look at Lu Li who was sitting awkwardly aside and watching them quarrel, and smiled. “Thank you, Brother Lu. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have known I’m damaging his body. Then I don’t know how much I would regret it. Thank you for telling me this.”
Lu Li smiled. “You’re welcome. I’ll rest assured as long as you treat him well.”
Tang Xi smiled and nodded, and the waiter took the menu away.
Qiao Liang and Lu Li were talking about business, and Tang Xi was playing a mobile game that was very popular recently. Qiao Liang took a look at her cell phone to see her kill an enemy. He smiled and turned to Lu Li. “Once the money is in place, those companies won’t have any chance to struggle.”
“The money can be in place in three days at the earliest. Although I’ve come here, the money will be transferred much more slowly because we don’t have a branch in China yet. If I directly transfer the money to the account of the Qiao’s, it will arouse the FBI’s suspicion. If this affects the Qiao’s, our loss will outweigh the gain.”
Qiao Liang grunted. “No hurry. Those two are still locked in jail. Lu Hongkun will be sentenced next week, and we can take our time to deal with Lu Guangxiong. He has just repaid the one percent of the pain he inflicted on my mother. I’ll make him pay us back bit by bit.”
Lu Li sighed when he saw Qiao Liang talked about his father resentfully, he then took out a file and handed it to Qiao Liang. “I found out about this today. This company is in big trouble. Are you going to cooperate with them?”
Tang Xi spotted the name of the file and frowned. “What’s wrong with the Liu’s Group?”
“The vice-president of the Liu’s Group has drained the cash flow of the company. Now this company is on the verge of collapse, but very few people know it. Except us, only the Liu’s Group’s president Liu Chengyu is aware of this, but I don’t think he can solve this problem. The cash flow gap is several billion yuan, not in tens of millions… No matter how able he is, he can’t fill up this gap easily.”
Tang Xi frowned. “Is that vice-president still in China?”
“No, he has run off with the money.” Lu Li smiled and raised his eyebrows. “But if Ah Liang cooperates with the Liu’s Group and injects funds into the company, it may still be saved.”