Chapter 48: Wealthy, Generous, and Unconcerned with Details

"Dad, why are you still going to work?"

Returning home, Lu Liang saw his father returning from outside, riding a motorcycle and still wearing his work uniform.

His father worked at a mold factory. Lu Liang had a very deep impression of this: ever since he was a child, whenever his father came home from work, he was covered in grime and grease, and sometimes he even had to work the night shift.

"There's a batch of rush orders at the factory recently. Once things quiet down, I'll resign from the boss."

His father smiled, pushed the motorcycle into the courtyard, picked up the garden hose on the ground to rinse his head, and then washed his face with soap.

He had been at this factory for more than twenty years, and the boss had always treated him well. He believed in seeing things through to the end.

"You two are something else. One goes to work, the other goes out, and neither of you has any idea how many people came to the house today."

His mother was holding a vegetable basket. Although she was complaining, the corners of her mouth turned upward, betraying the joy in her heart.

Today, the phrase she heard most often was, "Your son is truly capable." For parents, that was perhaps the most pleasing thing to hear.

"Poverty in the bustling city brings no questions; wealth in the deep mountains summons distant kin," his father suddenly mused with emotion.

Although he wasn't home, he had received calls from many relatives he hadn't heard from in ages.

Lu Liang was surprised. With his dad having this kind of awareness, friends and relatives who wanted to borrow money from them in the future would probably find it quite difficult to succeed.

"Mom, stop cooking. Let's go out to eat tonight and take you guys around to look at things."

Lu Liang hadn't gone out with his parents for many years, and they had never ridden in his car.

His mother was tempted, but thinking about the food already being cooked, she said, "Let's wait for next time."

"After Dad's birthday, I'll be heading back to Shanghai, and I won't have much free time later."

Lu Liang persuaded them repeatedly, and his father made the final decision: "We'll just save the porridge for tomorrow."

His parents went back to their respective rooms to shower, change clothes, and put on new outfits they rarely wore on ordinary days.

Lu Liang felt a sudden pang of heartache. He recognized that outfit; it was bought two years ago for his wedding.

It was very new, as if it had never been worn, but having been stored away for so long, the white collar had turned slightly yellow.

Stepping into the car, the two of them were very cautious, sitting upright and stiff, afraid of touching any buttons and breaking the vehicle.

"Dad, you drive. Just drive around casually. You're an experienced driver, surely you have some confidence?"

Lu Liang asked his father to drive while he sat in the back with his mother, introducing her to the features inside the car.

"This is the air conditioning control button, this is the refrigerator, and the car also has internet connection so you can watch TV and movies..."

Lu Liang instilled the idea in his parents that a car was just an external possession and wasn't that fragile; even if it broke down, it was covered by the warranty.

The family of three headed into the city, had dinner at a decent-looking restaurant, and then went straight to the largest shopping mall in the city.

Lu Liang bought several sets of clothes for each of his parents, a watch for his dad, a gold bracelet for his mom, and finally, two Apple phones.

Although Apple phones had poor signal, they were relatively user-friendly for the elderly, unlike Android phones where accidentally clicking a certain webpage might automatically download a mess of random software.

He spent around one hundred thousand yuan in a little over two hours. The most expensive items were the watch and the bracelet, but this was definitely the most worthwhile money Lu Liang had ever spent in his life.

On the way back, his father drove again. He was now handling it with ease, not nearly as restrained as before.

A fork in the road appeared ahead. To the left was Luhe Village. Lu Liang suddenly said, "Dad, let's go to Jinyao Garden."

Townships and rural areas did not have large-scale residential compounds; generally, developers built a few buildings and named them with suffixes like "Garden" or "Courtyard."

The apartment Lu Liang bought was on the fifth floor of Building B in Jinyao Garden.

Hearing that Lu Liang had gone out for a trip and bought an apartment just like that, his parents were both stunned.

"Do you have too much money and nowhere to spend it?" his mother scolded with a stern face.

"It wasn't expensive anyway."

Lu Liang smiled cheerfully, acting like an unyielding rogue, and led the two of them upstairs. "Besides, a new house probably won't be built in a year. Are you going to make me stay in a hotel the next time I come back?"

His dad had a stronger tolerance and was very reasonable: "Since you bought the apartment, so be it. It's better than wasting money."

He couldn't help but look down at his wrist, where he wore a plain-looking metal watch worth forty-eight thousand yuan.

If the two of them hadn't stopped him, Lu Liang had even intended to buy that watch worth five hundred and eighty thousand yuan as a birthday gift for him.

"My dad has good taste. People in Shanghai are all speculating on real estate. Right now it's over five thousand per square meter, but in a few years, it might shoot up to ten thousand."

"You only know about Shanghai. Can our small place compare to a big city?"

His mother sighed and said no more. After all, since it was already bought, purchasing property was still better than squandering money.

The large three-bedroom apartment of one hundred and twenty square meters had simple suspended ceilings and wall finishes.

Inside, there was only a table and a few chairs, and on the table were the leftovers from Lu Liang's lunch.

His mother's muscle memory was instantly activated. She picked up a broom and immediately started cleaning.

His dad and Lu Liang were chased out to the balcony.

His father suddenly asked, "Have you thought about your plans for the future?"

"What plans?" Lu Liang asked.

"Your work. We don't understand it, and we can't help you. All we can do is not cause you trouble, and not let anyone in the family cause you trouble either. But what about a family of your own? You're not young anymore."

Lu Jiancheng was smoking a cigarette, specifically a soft-pack Baisha. He wasn't used to smoking soft-pack Zhonghua; he always felt that those cigarettes lacked any real kick.

The couple had barely slept a single wink last night. Regarding Lu Liang's career, they had reached a consensus: ignore it, don't ask, and don't cause trouble.

However, his family life had become their lingering heartache. He was no longer young, and the children of Lu Liang's childhood playmates were almost starting elementary school.

"Let nature take its course. These things can't be forced."

Hearing Lu Liang say this, Lu Jiancheng felt a pang of guilt and did not try to persuade him further.

Back then, the reason Lu Liang married Lin Wenjing was actually closely tied to his parents constantly pressuring him to get married.

Running back and forth between two places time and again for blind dates, he must have been exhausted in the end and just found someone "good enough" to get married.

Facts proved that a forced melon is not sweet.

"Dad, if I don't want to get married, even if you put a knife to my neck, I won't do it."

Lu Liang smiled, looking completely relaxed and at ease. Those things were in the past; he just considered it a failed investment, nothing major.

Early the next morning, Lu Liang took photocopies of his father's driver's license and identification documents and went to the Volvo dealership in the city.

He spent four hundred and thirty-nine thousand yuan to buy an XC60, reputed to have the highest safety rating on earth, as a birthday gift for his father.

When he brought the receipt home and his mother was about to lecture him, Lu Liang offered a well-founded reason.

The two places were more than five hundred kilometers apart, and every trip back took at least six hours of driving.

If there was a car at home, he could take the high-speed rail next time, and when idle, his dad could also drive his mom around to travel and sightsee.

His mother was convinced.

His dad had no reason to refuse either.

Men remain boys until the day they die, and they truly have no resistance against cars.

Lu Liang had already noticed last night that his father had been affectionately stroking the steering wheel.

That look in his eyes was just like Lu Liang looking at Li Manli wearing a school swimsuit—he couldn't bear to look away for even a single second.

On Wednesday, it was Lu Jiancheng's fifty-fifth birthday.

Lu Liang booked a small private dining room at Zhenhai Tower, then acted as the family chauffeur. He first dropped off his parents, grandfather, and grandmother at the restaurant, and then went to the township to pick up his sister's family as well.

Lu Ya's consideration was not unreasonable: with the grandparents still alive and their father not yet very old, a small gathering was just right.

His parents and grandparents were chatting, the two nephews were darting around the table, and Lu Liang, Lu Ya, and Luo Haitong were conversing.

"Take a look at how you want to build it. How many floors should it have?"

Over the past few days, Lu Ya hadn't been idle either; she had visited several professional construction companies and obtained a few template designs.

Although their old house was dilapidated, the plot area was quite large, totaling two hundred and fifty-five square meters including the small courtyard.

Lu Liang took one look and fell in love with a three-and-a-half-story small western-style villa with a front yard: "Let's build it according to this style."

Eighty-five square meters would be reserved as a front yard, with a lawn on the left, a slate-paved area on the right, and the main building in the back.

The lawn could be used to grow fruits and vegetables, while the slate area could be used for parking cars or drying quilts.

Lu Ya smiled and said, "I figured you would like this style. The construction cost for this one is nine hundred per square meter."

Building a house wasn't expensive; the expensive part was the interior decoration.

With a building area of one hundred and seventy square meters built over three and a half stories, the construction cost was just over five hundred and thirty thousand yuan, but there was no upper limit for interior decoration.

One could spend tens of thousands to decorate it in a Syrian war-torn style, or spend millions upon millions to turn it into a royal palace.

Having transferred five hundred thousand yuan to Lu Ya in advance, Lu Liang handed a cigarette to Luo Haitong: "Brother-in-law, I still have work in Shanghai and can't get away, so I can only trouble my sister with this matter."

Luo Haitong was an honest and simple-hearted man. He smiled warmly and said, "Within a family, we don't speak of two different households."

Everyone enjoyed this birthday banquet immensely.

Because there was someone who was wealthy, willing to spend money, and unreservedly generous.

In any family, as long as there is one such person, the atmosphere will naturally become harmonious.