Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

"Aiya, it takes a university student for you—even his friends are company bosses!" Uncle Five exclaimed enviously. "If only that no-good boy of mine could reach that level someday. Well, Sister Sumei, I'll be going. Thank you both for this."

"Uncle Five, stay for lunch. Come to our home for a simple meal before you go." Mother Yang politely urged him to stay.

"No, the farm can't do without me," Uncle Five said. "I'll be heading back now."

"Daming, see your Uncle Five out," Mother Yang instructed.

Yang Yuting nodded and walked Uncle Five out. When they reached the property office entrance, Uncle Five got into an Audi A6. What Yang Ce had not expected was that Uncle Five was actually a wealthy man.

Still, to be saddled with a son who had no sense—that too was enough to give a man a headache. Thinking of Uncle Five's plight, Yang Yongjin could not help but recall himself a year ago. Back then, had he not been much the same as that Fifth Cousin?

Fifth Cousin was the village bully; he, Yang Ce, had been the school bully. Every day it was fights and brawls, skipping class, playing billiards—he was probably no better than Fifth Cousin. At that thought, Yang Minlan felt more sympathy for Uncle Five.

That he could pull himself together again was due, to be sure, to his gaining the extraordinary power—but he could not have done it without the help of Zhao Ying and Chen Shutang, the two most important women in his life. Like his beloved Su Ya, these two meant a very great deal to him.

Zhao Ying. At the thought of Zhao Ying, Yang Juehuan gave a faint sigh. So willed it by heaven that a man and a woman who so plainly cared for each other had still, to this day, never come together.

"Daming, I'm off. Go on back inside. When you have time, come back to Dayu Village—your Uncle Five will treat you." Once in the car, Uncle Five rolled down the window and said to Yang Yanzhou.

"All right, Uncle Five. Drive carefully." Yang Minlan nodded to Uncle Five, then went back into the property company.

Entering his mother's office, Yang Ce saw her sigh and say, "Daming, you don't blame me for making decisions on my own, do you? I only agreed because I felt sorry for your Uncle Five. It won't cause your friend any trouble, will it?"

"It's fine," Yang Hengye said, thinking to himself: that's my own subordinate—what trouble could it be?

"You understand things now. That Fifth Cousin of yours, from what I hear, still hasn't found a proper line of work. All he knows is eating, drinking, and playing. That's why your Uncle Five is so anxious," Mother Yang said. "A grown young man of twenty-odd years and still no sense."

"Mom, I'll handle this," Yang Ce said, waving a hand. Even if the matter should not have been agreed to, since his mother had agreed, he could only find a way to handle it properly—and he could hardly blame his mother for what she had done, could he?

"Yes, I know what you mean—you don't want your father to owe anyone a favor," Mother Yang said. "Heh. Compared with the rest of them, my Daming is a true chairman."

"Mom, honestly, around this time last year I was pretty clueless, wasn't I?" Yang Moyi gave a slightly embarrassed, bitter smile. "Back then I didn't study seriously either—fighting and skipping class all day long. I gave you and Dad no end of trouble."

"Mm, that's all in the past." Yang's mother smiled as well. "Back then, Teacher Xiao Zhao spent plenty of time reasoning with you and guiding you, didn't she? She even helped you with tutoring, so of course I have no objection to you treating her to a meal. And you should thank Mengyan too—if she hadn't given you motivation, could you have tested into this top-tier university alongside her? Your father and I figured back then that getting into a junior college would have been more than good enough for you."

"Mom, you're underestimating me here," Yang Ce said with a chuckle.

"That's not it at all—I'm just telling it like it is," Yang's mother said. "So don't go blaming your fifth uncle-in-law either. He's just anxious. Your fifth cousin won't pull himself together."

"Mom, I don't blame anyone for this. I actually think pretty well of Fifth Uncle-in-law—at least better than those snobbish relatives. And his request isn't all that unreasonable." Yang Hengye said, "My only worry is that some relatives will find out my dad's the chairman and insist on being made general manager, and then sulk if they don't get the position."

"Don't worry, Daming. Your mother knows her limits—she knows what can be helped and what can't." Yang's mother shook her head, gazing at Yang Ce with affection.

Only then did Yang Cenbin suddenly realize that his mother, in the way she dealt with people and matters, had imperceptibly improved a great deal. She was no longer the stay-at-home wife who kept to herself and avoided conflict.

To be continued

987. Humbly Seeking Advice

Environment makes a person—though that saying isn't entirely true, it certainly has some sense to it. Yang Ce left the property management company, got in the car, and drove toward the commercial street. He had temporarily put the matter out of his mind; it wasn't anything major anyway.

Still, whether that fifth cousin would still be as shiftless as before after he got there was not something Yang Ce could predict. That was up to the man himself. After all, Yang Shuoxuan was no savior who could manage everything.

As for Wei Dekang's real estate company, if he couldn't get his hands on it, so be it. There was nothing to regret. Yang Yongjin was short on funds anyway—she simply had no experience in that line of work.

The car slowly rolled out of the residential compound and headed in the direction of the commercial street. To be honest, Yang Ce was not a romantic sort, nor did he have any experience buying gifts for girls.

Being with girls had always come naturally to him, and when it came to confessing his feelings, he was quite direct. Expressing things through a gift in such a veiled way was a first for him.

He parked the car in a lot near the commercial street and decided to start browsing from the street's end. This sort of thing was usually rare in the big malls; it was the small gift shops along the street that tended to carry similar items.

There were plenty of gift shops along the roadside, and their wares were varied and numerous. Yang Ce picked one that looked reasonably decent and walked in. He chose this one because the other shops all had signs like "Imported Gifts from Such-and-Such Country"—and Yang Puqi held them in frank contempt. This was just fooling people who didn't know any better. The vast majority of the world's light-manufactured goods were produced domestically and then exported; these people simply reimported them to hoodwink the ignorant.

It wasn't peak hours yet, so there weren't many customers in the shop. As soon as Yang Ce walked in, a salesgirl came up to greet him. "Sir, are you looking for a gift?"

"Yes, I am." Yang Yuting nodded.

"What kind of gift are you looking for?" the salesgirl asked with a smile. "Is it a birthday gift for a friend, or for a sweetheart?"

"Uh—" Yang Ce found himself at a loss for an answer. What exactly was Zhao Ying to him? Call her a sweetheart, and that wasn't quite right either; call her a friend, and the gift he had in mind didn't quite fit.

"Heh, sir, would it be that you want to give it to a girl you like, but the two of you aren't together yet?" The salesgirl saw many customers every day and understood their thoughts and needs well. Seeing Yang Cenbin hemming and hawing, she immediately caught on.

"That's right." Yang Ce scratched the back of his head and nodded. He himself hadn't figured out how to put it, yet the salesgirl had said it for him.