Chapter 102: He Still Owes Me Money
"You... do I know you?" Tong Zhaodi was stunned when she heard the young man call her name. Even Han Ruochen was, albeit, shocked, as she had never expected Tong Zhaodi to have friends. It wasn’t that she looked down on her, but the girl was so quiet that she hardly ever talked with anyone, which was surprising, just thinking about how she had someone she knew.
"It’s me, Jingmo. Lu Jingmo!" the man introduced himself as he pointed a finger at himself. "We used to play when we were young. You remember my dad used to live next to your house?"
Only then did Tong Zhaodi remember the man in front of her; she indeed used to play with a young man. If she was not wrong, then she used to call him Brother Mo.
Han Ruochen also recalled the young man. When they were very young, they indeed played around. But what shocked her was that Lu Jingmo still remembered them, or at least Tong Zhaodi.
"Brother Mo?"
"That’s right, it’s me." Lu Jingmo smiled at Tong Zhaodi and then turned to look at Han Ruochen and asked, "And you are—"
Han Ruochen: "..."
"I am Han Ruochen," Han Ruochen gritted out angrily. "We used to play together as well."
She couldn’t believe it. The man remembered Tong Zhaodi quite easily, and yet he was having trouble recalling her.
"Oh, it’s you, Ruochen." Lu Jingmo touched his nose with a guilty expression. He then changed the topic before saying to Han Ruochen, "You two just wait here; I will ask my brother to make some good dishes for you."
He then turned on his feet and walked away.
Han Ruochen pursed her lips and watched the man who disappeared behind the bead curtain and turned to look at Tong Zhaodi. "Who would have expected that we would run into an acquaintance here?" As soon as she finished speaking, a sudden thought passed in her head, and she asked, "Zhaodi, does your brother often come to the state-run restaurant?"
"Yes, why—" Tong Zhaodi just finished speaking when she realised why Han Ruochen was asking this question and suddenly her face twisted. Her expression changed again and again, and she didn’t know where to even begin. It seemed like the money that she had received today wouldn’t stay in her hands any longer.
"Table 14, here is your seabass."
A man walked over; his features were quite similar to Lu Jingmo, and Han Ruochen soon recognised him.
"Lu Jianguo?"
"That’s me." The man smiled sweetly. "These are the rest of the dishes. I am afraid that the two of you cannot finish them, so my brother told me that you can take them away if you want to."
Han Ruochen looked at the pickled pepper fish skin and scallion oil clams along with the dried clam soup. Lu Jianguo then served some shrimp fried rice along with a house-warming tea.
"Brother Jianguo," Tong Zhaodi suddenly spoke up and caused the calm atmosphere to break. Lu Jianguo turned to look at her with a subtle smile on his face and hummed in response. "I am sorry for the trouble that my brother might have caused you and Brother Mo. Can you tell me how much the remaining balance is?"
Lu Jianguo seemed to have understood what Tong Zhaodi was saying to him. He pursed his lips and then said, "I am afraid that the balance is more than four thousand yuan. After all, your brother often comes to our restaurant and eats a free meal."
When Tong Zhaodi heard that the balance was more than four thousand yuan, she was startled. She couldn’t help but say, "Brother Jianguo, how...how much did you say it was?"
"Four thousand yuan."
Boom!
Tong Zhaodi was sure that she was about to faint. Her foolish brother – how could he create a balance of four thousand yuan? However, when she heard that he used to come here with others, all her questions were answered. She pursed her lips and said in a hesitant voice, "I ...I will work hard to pay—"
"Why will you be the one to pay for it?" Han Ruochen picked up the teacup and had just finished taking a sip when she heard Tong Zhaodi’s shocking words. Was it really difficult for this woman to break free from the Tong family’s grip? She sighed and then thought about it carefully. Who was she looking down at? Even she had a hard time dealing with her mother’s constant brainwashing; how could Tong Zhaodi, who was suppressed even worse than her, change all of a sudden?
She said to Tong Zhaodi, "You were not the one who ate free meals using someone else’s name. If there is someone who needs to pay back, it’s your brother."
"He is the one who ate those free meals. Why are you rushing to pay for it for him? Do you think that something like this could be done just by moving your mouth?"
Tong Zhaodi lowered her head. She had to admit that even if Han Ruochen was speaking in a harsh tone, she was not wrong. She sighed and then said, "But my family doesn’t have that kind of money."
"Then it should be your brother’s turn to be worrying about this and not yours. Why are you making a fuss?"
Han Ruochen couldn’t understand why Tong Zhaodi was determined to take responsibilities that had nothing to do with her. She said to her, "Your brother is not a child who knows nothing. He clearly knew what he was doing—if not for the fact that you were really his sister, he could have been sent to the police station for faking a relationship."
Tong Zhaodi’s face turned pale when she heard that it was such a serious thing; she turned to look at Lu Jianguo and saw the man nodding. Immediately, her face turned, if possible, even paler, and she stammered, "That fool...how can he do such a thing?"
