Can not doing what one wants be called rebirth?

Chapter 360 370. Taking Root
February went by quickly, as it always does.

As he counted down the days to the start of school, Lu Jincheng respected his teachers and at the same time, he calmed down and reorganized the various issues in the company.

On an ordinary evening, Nanhu Industrial Park is still brightly lit and many employees are working overtime.

"Please help me check flight MU2543. When will it arrive?"

President Lu sat in his office chair, picked up the coffee cup in front of him, took a sip, and called He Ying, who was not far away, into the room.

"From Shanghai to Jiangcheng, the day after tomorrow at 3 pm."

He Ying quickly completed the query and responded.

"I don't have any plans the day after tomorrow afternoon, right?"

Lu Jincheng's eyes looked a little tired, and there seemed to be some bloodshot in his pupils.

Sitting in the office, he was casually wearing a dark casual shirt today. His clear facial features looked gentle and profound under the frame, and the outline of his tall upper body was faintly visible.

He Ying watched and actually stood there for several seconds.

"Ah no."

Seeing Mr. Lu frowning and rubbing his eyes, she suddenly wanted to do something for him and emphasized it again.

"nothing now."

"However, our school starts later than the one next door, so Ruirui probably hasn't bought her plane ticket yet."

"Boss, you can rest assured that the two of them will not collide at the airport."

"."

Lu Jincheng was stunned, put down the coffee cup in his hand, looked her up and down, and a half-smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Tsk tsk, you really look like a professional assistant now."

After being pointed out by the boss intentionally or unintentionally, He Ying suddenly reacted, and her cheeks turned red with embarrassment.

This is Mr. Lu’s private matter!

Whether his girlfriends collide or not, as a sensible subordinate, he only needs to arrange his time well and should never take the initiative to point out the potential Shura situation.

A feeling of regret and shame welled up in my heart.

Not competent at all!
How could you be so careless?

How come you don’t know how to keep your distance?

All these thoughts and emotions, ideas and palpitations, are actually just a moment.

Just when the embarrassment and awkwardness of this moment had not yet dissipated, she suddenly felt that Lu Jincheng's eyes were moving over her and noticed her subtle loss of composure.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Lu, I shouldn't have..."

She finally managed to organize her words and spoke.

"It's okay. Take me to the airport the day after tomorrow afternoon."

The man just nodded to He Ying, seeming to be quite satisfied with her honesty, and gave her a gentle, approving smile.

"Boss Lu, I might need to take a day off tomorrow."

"Ok?"

"We'll go back to worship our ancestors the day after tomorrow. Dad cares more about these things, so the whole family must be there."

He Ying gritted her teeth hard, came back to her senses, moved her eyes away from the table, looked at the man, and then moved away to the left and right as if avoiding him.

The young assistant had to be absent when he was needed, and there was a hint of regret in his eyes.

"Okay, go back now. You've been really busy during this holiday."

Lu Jincheng turned his neck, stood up, and patted He Ying's shoulder gently.

"Take a good rest for a few days. Do you want a car on the way home?"

"No, no, I can just buy a train ticket."

He Ying quickly shook her head.

"You oh you"

Mr. Lu smiled again, perhaps because he could see her mood, or perhaps because he realized that she was indeed a little tired and needed to relax, so he actually asked a question.

An extremely rare question from the boss to the secretary.

"That's all for today, do you want to go downstairs for a drink?"

Compared with the deserted Nanhu Industrial Park a year ago, the surrounding area is now much more lively.

Downstairs is a small bar called Corner.

There is a waterfall screen blocking the front, and the inside is not very big. There are a dozen booths in each of the two corridors and a semicircular bar. There are neither too many nor too few customers, and the atmosphere is full.

In a booth against the inner wall, a man and a woman sat facing each other, and the waiter leaned over and watched them order.

"One glass of lemonade, that's all."

Although it was said to be a drink, He Ying took the menu and did not order the common cocktails, but chose her comfort zone.

After all, these occasions where young couples date or strangers socialize are not places she often visits.

A hint of nervousness and awkwardness appeared on her face involuntarily.

She leaned half of her body against the sofa chair with one leg lightly crossed. Her crystal clear and slender figure and the casual sensual romance exuded in the air under the ambiguous light.

"It's not a big deal, you definitely won't ask for leave."

"Everything's fine at home, right?"

With the change of environment, even the atmosphere of the conversation became much softer.

Lu Jincheng turned the wine glass in front of him and asked softly with a concerned tone.

"It's okay, it's not what you think."

As if the softest string in her heart was touched, He Ying's eyes turned a little red and she wrinkled her nose and said.

"It's just a simple return to the hometown to worship the ancestors, but no one can be missing."

"In my father's spiritual homeland, fellow villagers are all family members, hometown is sentiment, and ancestors and family are an important bond."

"This bond also keeps me connected to my hometown forever even though I live in the city."

"Every year on Qingming Festival, Winter Solstice, the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, Chinese New Year's Day and Lantern Festival, my father would call on all family members to worship according to local customs without fail."

"Understanding, for the elders, is sometimes a kind of sentiment."

Lu Jincheng looked as if he understood and nodded.

"At first I couldn't figure out which gods or ancestors were floating above the ashes, but later, from the backs of these elders kneeling and kowtowing, I gradually understood what their beliefs were."

He Ying sat up straight, her bright pupils sparkling.

"I counted them silently in my early years. There are more than a dozen graves that I need to kowtow to. They are scattered in a fixed order."

"What's worse is that my father believes that it must be completed before 12 noon. No matter how strong the wind and rain are, or how deep the grass is, his determination to burn paper will never waver."

"So serious?"

"Yes, my father is determined, and you can even understand that he enjoys it."

He Ying held her chin, lowered her head, took a sip of lemonade, and described the details of her hometown.

"From that morning on, he was full of energy and led everyone to run from east to west, from one grave to another."

"He would prepare all the paper money in advance. There were more than a dozen plastic bags in the back of the car, which contained various financial products of Tiandi Bank in different categories."

"Every time we arrive at a place, we first clean up and put out cold dishes, then light a fire and burn paper. After setting off firecrackers, everyone kowtows in turn."

"It seems that you are also a big family."

The man interjected appropriately.

"There aren't any big families in the village. In their spare time, the elders would talk about the stories of the people behind the tombstones. When the paper money is almost burned, they would move on to the next one."

He Ying smiled self-deprecatingly.

"Year after year, this ritual has become a fixed process. No matter where you are, no matter what you have to deal with, you will never forget it."

"My dad in particular, he was always like the salmon in the river, always thinking about when and where to go upstream to spawn."

"He tried hard to make the younger generations remember the location of these graves, remember the position of the people buried in them in the entire family, and he wanted us to know the significance of doing so."

"But what's the point?"

"According to the elders, this should be called returning to one's roots."

Lv Jincheng, who was listening carefully, crossed his arms and sighed.

"He would say the same thing."

He Ying pursed her lips and slowly opened her five slender fingers: "But I don't have any thoughts about roots."

“So, by repeating this ritual over and over again, I forced myself to understand that I was looking for some kind of meaning.”

"The distance from the village to the city is exactly 100 kilometers, not more, not less. My father has walked this distance countless times, and I have accompanied him back and forth countless times."

"He seemed to be trying very hard to recall every time, piecing together the pictures of his childhood on this land, reminiscing about those people, and recalling the stories that happened to them."

"And at this time, it's rare to see him relaxed throughout the year."

He Ying suddenly raised her chin and smiled into Lu Jincheng's eyes. "He always told me and my brother that when he gets old, he won't go anywhere else but live in his hometown."

"My brother is so heartless that he doesn't take it seriously. I have always sneered at such words. If someone just has a headache or a fever, the village clinic can still handle it. But if the problem is serious, do we need an ambulance from the city to travel across mountains and rivers to pick him up?"

"I am not optimistic about the future of the countryside, and I often argue with him, saying that when your generation is gone, there will be no one left in the village."

"He often raises his voice. Let me teach you how to do it."

[Who said no? Look, who has built a new house? Besides, are you guys not coming back? ]

He Ying's imitation was so lifelike that Lu Jincheng, who was standing next to her, also curled up his lips.

"I've never been too embarrassed to say that I really don't want to come back."

The assistant raised her left hand, reached deep into the hair tied at the nape of her neck, and hooked the hair tie with her middle finger.

There was no alcohol, no clinking of glasses, and no natural reactions of blushing and heartbeats.

A quiet and patient listener allowed He Ying to naturally open up her long-silent conversation.

"Boss Lu, I really want to thank you."

"Thank me?"

"Thank you so much."

He Ying calmed down and took a deep breath.

"If you hadn't persuaded me to stay in Jiangcheng, I might have really chosen to go home to take the exam and do some grassroots work in the village or town."

"Hahahaha, this is your own choice. I'm afraid most people don't have the courage to start a business with freshmen. For ordinary people, having a job is a blessing."

Lu Jincheng raised his eyebrows and described the student union president in his previous life.

"Taking the civil service exam, dating, buying a house, getting married, having children, you can see a happy future along the national highway."

"Following me is unpredictable. What if one day you lose your job, the company goes bankrupt, and you lose your job?"

He couldn't help but tease.

"But that's not the life I want!"

He Ying seemed a little excited, her voice quietly raised a few degrees, and her eyes were shining.

“If I had lived in my comfort zone my whole life, I might never have discovered this side of myself.”

"Which side?"

"That is, by following you, I can feel my own value and see the meaning of hard work."

"If I had a choice, I would choose this kind of life even if I had to close my eyes and press the button 10,000 times."

"In these hot and sizzling days, I am learning to be mature, to plan, to think, to be refined and beautiful every day."

He Ying turned her head away, her words almost split into three pieces, her cheeks filled with a delicate and charming blush.

"I love so much."

"This is really pretty. Is it a strapless style today? It's quite eye-catching."

Lu Jincheng said half seriously and half jokingly.

"I like it too."

He Ying burst out laughing, and when she heard him mention the word "strapless", she immediately lowered her head, her face flushed.

"Am I wrong?"

"Hehe, I didn't expect that Mr. Lu would also make mistakes one day."

"How to say?"

Lu Jincheng put on an expression of serious inquiry.

"I put on breast stickers. This dress with exposed straps doesn't look good, and it hurts when I walk."

She actually wanted to say "the shoulder straps will fall off easily", but she pursed her lips and smiled, winked a little playfully, and was a little shy and didn't know how to say it.

However, Lu Jincheng understood what He Ying meant immediately and seemed attracted by the scene she described in just a few words.

I couldn't help but look at her and imagine the scene.

This is instinctive.

When a girl like He Ying is dressed so delicately and sexily, with the background music of Corner, she will describe a scene of "shoulder straps falling off" for you.

It would be hard for any man not to glance over at her, along her exposed shoulders, and around the graceful curves under her skirt.

He Ying seemed to notice the change in her boss's expression. She straightened her back slightly, with her brows curved.

However, Lu Jincheng did not continue with this slightly out-of-line topic.

"Then again, you may never be able to go back."

"."

"You must have one of the housing units the company has obtained. It's so much cheaper than the market price. You won't tell me not to buy it, right?"

"purchase!"

The young assistant clenched his fists and widened his eyes.

"You see, buying a house means that part of your life is anchored here."

Lu Jincheng smiled, stretched out his finger, dipped it in the water droplets on the wine glass, and drew a circle on the table.

"There are more goals ahead. You have to keep going forward, going further and further, until you can openly tell your family that you are not going back."

"The older generation only talks about fallen leaves returning to their roots, but lush branches and leaves are also a kind of root."

“Wherever capable people go, flowers and fruits will bloom and bear fruit, and that’s where they will take root.”

"When you have truly put down roots, and then you bring your uncle, aunt, and brother over, you can also say that you have put down roots, right?"

Staring at Lu Jincheng, who seemed to be his life mentor, He Ying nodded continuously and for a moment she didn't know what to say.

He stretched out his hand and snapped his fingers, and the waiter here reacted very quickly, walking over and bending over.

"Two glasses of Blue Moon, please."

"???"

He Ying was stunned, and subconsciously held down the lemonade in front of her, turning her head to look at the man's actions.

“Lemonade is also a comfort zone.”

"Ok."

He Ying bit her lip and stopped insisting.

A minute later, the waiter respectfully brought a beige plate with two brandy glasses on it. The amber liquid inside was sparkling and exuding an enticing aroma.

The man picked up a cup, and seeing this, He Ying could only pick up the other cup sensibly.

"Although this glass of Blue Moon is made with gin as the base liquor, it actually contains mostly violets and lemon juice. The alcohol content has been blended to a very low level, and the taste is also very mellow."

“It’s quite suitable for girls.”

"Uh-huh."

He Ying nodded. Although she didn't quite understand, she still smiled. She picked up the wine glass, clinked it against the rim of his glass, and took a sip.

She narrowed her eyes slightly.

There was a crisp lemon scent that filled my mouth and nasal cavity, and then a warm burning sensation ignited in my throat, and a hot spring-like feeling slowly flowed into my five internal organs.

When socializing outside, she had the experience of blocking the drinking for Lu Jincheng. In comparison, she couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

“It’s really delicious~”

"Hahaha"

Lu Jincheng looked at her reaction, picked up the wine glass again and touched the rim of He Ying's glass.

"Again?"

He Ying narrowed her eyes and chuckled.

After just a small sip, she felt a strange and incredible feeling surge in her heart.

Maybe it was the atmosphere of today, or maybe it was the blush that dyed her snow-white cheeks.

She raised her glass higher: "Boss, can I have a drink?"

"Okay."

Lu Jincheng smiled brilliantly, revealing eight white teeth.

"Then let's toast to our better selves."

"Yeah! Here's to my better self."

"Ding~"

The wine glasses touched lightly again, making an elegant sound.

The liquid rippled gently.

(End of this chapter)