The uncle just scratched his head and chuckled, but stopped pouring the wine.
"Auntie, isn’t there still two years left on the contract? What’s going on?"
Su Yajing couldn’t help but ask.
"They’ve hooked up with the travel agency and want to take over themselves!"
Su Man snorted coldly at the mention of the matter, "Now they’re finding all sorts of excuses and raising prices deliberately, just trying to force us to terminate the contract early..."
"Hmph, I paid hundreds of thousands in the contracting fee back then, plus renovations, and still haven’t recouped the costs. Now that tourism is picking up, they want a ready-made bargain. No way!"
As she spoke, Su Man became a bit agitated. She waved her hand to stop Su Yajing from asking further, "Hurry up and eat your food, kids shouldn’t worry about these things!"
Su Man stood up at this point, took the bottle of homemade liquor from the uncle’s hand, and, seeing he was somewhat embarrassed, came back and stuffed a bottle of unopened Wuliangye into his hand.
"Since we know we have guests, why are you still drinking that cheap homemade liquor? Drink this!"
"Oh, this is good, drink this!"
The uncle just laughed excitedly and quickly opened the bottle to pour Zhou Wang a bowl.
After saying thanks, Zhou Wang took the bowl of wine and glanced at Su Man, who still had a cold face. He vaguely understood why Su Yajing mentioned that her aunt wasn’t actually a bad person...
After the meal, the uncle and two young workers took the initiative to clean up. Shen Yutong and Miao Ying also went to help. Originally planning not to sit idle, Zhou Wang was called by Su Man:
"Zhou Wang, can you come with me for a moment? I have something to say to you."
"Okay."
Zhou Wang was taken aback, then nodded and stood up.
Su Yajing seemed anxious but hadn’t had a chance to speak before Zhou Wang smiled and shook his head at her. Faced with her aunt’s glare, Su Yajing could only pout helplessly and didn’t follow.
...
In the cicada chirping of the summer night, in the courtyard of the inn, by the wooden table surrounded by a fence.
It should be a place for some guests to have afternoon tea. Zhou Wang and Su Man were sitting here.
What surprised Zhou Wang was that before speaking, Su Man took out a pack of cigarettes, handed one to Zhou Wang after taking one herself.
Seeing it was ESSE, a ladies’ cigarette, Zhou Wang quickly declined, just helping Su Man light it, then took out his own Da Zhong Jiu.
Su Man didn’t refuse Zhou Wang’s action of lighting her cigarette, inhaled lightly after it was lit, and then exhaled smoke with a mint fragrance from her rose-red lips, her mature face in the mist had a kind of hazy beauty.
There were few women smoking around Zhou Wang, but he didn’t mind women smoking... except for his girlfriend.
Perhaps, on this matter alone, Zhou Wang had a bit of a double standard.
As he gradually came into contact with older women like Chen Shu and Zhong Huilan, Zhou Wang was becoming more appreciative of the charm of mature women.
Of course, given Su Man was Su Yajing’s aunt, Zhou Wang truthfully had no thoughts about her. Although his moral standards regarding men and women had always been not high, he wasn’t beastly to that level...
At this moment, he was just simply admiring.
"You and Ranran, aren’t in a conventional boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, are you?"
After taking a couple of puffs, Su Man spoke softly.
Zhou Wang was taken aback, thought for a moment, and said:
"That depends on how you define ’conventional’..."
"Ranran told me when she came back that she found her true love, but she also made it clear to me she won’t marry you."
Su Man glanced at Zhou Wang, "She said it was her idea, talking about freedom and ideology and such, but I think, that isn’t the truth of the matter, right?"
"It was my idea from the beginning, indeed not hers."
After a brief silence, Zhou Wang admitted straightforwardly.
From the moment this aunt suggested talking alone, Zhou Wang had already prepared mentally.
"I knew it, I just knew it..."
Hearing Zhou Wang’s admission, Su Man couldn’t hide her disappointment and then sneered, "I guess, a wealthy young man like you shouldn’t have just one ’girlfriend’, right?"
Facing Su Man’s questioning, since he didn’t plan to lie, Zhou Wang nodded frankly.
"Currently... that’s true."
"Ha, you’re quite blunt." Su Man laughed in anger, "Does Ranran know she’s not your only girlfriend?"
"I didn’t mention it directly, but she should know."
Hearing this, Su Man was so angry she was trembling all over: "Indeed, she really inherited her mother’s foolish character completely!"
Zhou Wang became puzzled hearing this, "Ranran’s mother?"
"I guess Su Yajing never told you what her mother’s situation is, did she?"
Su Man asked coldly, and when Zhou Wang nodded, she continued expressionlessly, "My sister was also somebody’s mistress before, now she’s mentally ill and can’t even take care of herself, that’s her fate."
"As for that man, he took a bullet ten years ago...the laughable thing is, Su Yajing doesn’t even know what he looks like."
Listening to Su Man’s seemingly mocking words, Zhou Wang couldn’t help but be stunned.
This was Su Yajing’s past...
When Su Yajing’s Wish List appeared, the system’s phrase "special growth experience", simple words, held such a heavy weight behind them...
While complex emotions surged within Zhou Wang’s heart, Su Man had already extinguished her cigarette, leaned in a little closer to gaze into his eye, and asked word by word:
"So tell me, Zhou Wang, what can you give Su Yajing?"