Since we are both reborn, of course I would choose the rich woman!

Chapter 444 A parent outlives their child (Please subscribe)

Lu Yao still doesn't know where his father inherited his eccentric personality. After thinking about it, Lu Yao thought it might be from his grandmother.
That old man was indeed skilled at playing mind games, but he used a subtle approach, unlike his father who was so blatant.

Since he had come back for a rare visit, Lü Yao didn't want to argue. He just wanted to have a nice meal, stay for a few days, and then return to Shangnan.

So Lü Yao put down his chopsticks, looked at his father with a calm and expressionless gaze, but the atmosphere had become heavy and somber with Lü Yao's emotions. In this heavy and somber atmosphere, Lü Yao gradually and slowly straightened his back, looked directly at his father and said, "Dad, let's eat."

Looking at Lü Yao's straight back and his calm yet ominous gaze, Lü Yao's father felt a sudden, inexplicable fear. All his grievances were stuck in his throat by Lü Yao's upright posture, and he couldn't utter a word despite several attempts to speak.

Under Lü Yao's piercing gaze, the man who had spent his entire life being sarcastic and bossy towards his family finally turned away and silently drank his wine.

Lu Yao didn't want to say anything to change the old man.

If it really came down to dealing with this old man, Lü Yao had a way.

Whether it's sending him to a sanatorium or spreading rumors to get "some people" to do some ideological work on him, it's all fine, but Lü Yao doesn't want to do that. Lü Yao doesn't want to expose the family's scandals, even though those who are paying attention to Lü Yao may have already figured out his father's personality.

However, judging from the changes in his hometown, it has long been under tight control. Any attempt to exploit Lü Yao's father's weakness to break through Lü Yao's defenses will be ruthlessly crushed.

My hometown village has long since become, to some extent, "The Truman Show".

Since that's the case, why not let Mom and Dad live in this "Truman Show"? For them, this village is a "Truman Show," and for most people in this world, isn't the world they perceive also an even bigger "Truman Show"?

After intimidating his father, Lü Yao smiled and invited Lin Yongzhen and his mother to start eating. As long as Lü Yao's father didn't spoil the mood, the atmosphere at the dinner table was quite harmonious.

Thanks to Lin Yongzhen's protection of her own information and Lü Yao's protection of Lin Yongzhen's information, there is not much information about Lin Yongzhen outside the village. Therefore, Lin Yongzhen can easily deal with Lü Yao's mother's inquiry about her household registration.

As for Boss Lü Yao...

In fact, Lü Yao and his mother had long been used to his father's sarcastic remarks, so after his father fell silent, no one felt anything was wrong. It's just that in the past, Lü Yao's father dared to boss people around and try to make his presence known at the dinner table, but Lü Yao is no longer the same as before.

The sudden increase in investment to help farmers, the sudden enthusiasm of township officials, and the sudden visits of officials to the countryside... Rural people may not have much experience, but that doesn't mean they are stupid.

Even the most oblivious person would know why all this was happening.

Not to mention, among the relatives in the row behind Lü Yao's house, there was one who was a minor official in the capital.

Although he was a minor official, he had been the pride of the village for the past twenty years. Even though the family had long since moved away to the capital and cut off all ties with the village, it did not stop them from becoming a legend in Lüyao village.

Lu Yao had only met that relative a few times when he was a child, and they lost contact after he went to university. Even after Lu Yao became a big entrepreneur in Shangnan, he never had any contact with that relative.

By now, that person is over fifty years old and only a few years away from retirement, so whether we have any contact or communication is actually irrelevant.

In fact, from the moment that relative took his parents and family away, he had no contact with the village. If there was anything he needed to contact, the other party would probably only have one chance in his life to find Lü Yao and ask him for help.

Even so, the man who was once the pride of the village still broadened the horizons of the villagers in this remote and impoverished village.

The Lü family was relatively close to the relatives who worked in the capital. Lü Yao's father had also witnessed the power and prestige of officials, which is why he was afraid of his son.

Years of ingrained habits and a fear of authority left Lu Yao's father feeling conflicted and distressed. Having never learned how to hide his emotions, Lu Yao's father slammed his chopsticks heavily on the table halfway through the meal and then got up and left without any politeness.

This impolite behavior made Lu Yao's mother look embarrassed for a moment. Then she smiled at Lin Yongzhen and said, "Oh, don't mind your uncle. That's just how he is. Let's keep eating. Come on, eat more. Look how thin you are."

As she spoke, Lu Yao's mother kept putting food on Lin Yongzhen's plate.

Thanks to Lu Yao's mother's efforts to smooth things over, the atmosphere at the dinner table wasn't too awkward.

After dinner, Lin Yongzhen politely offered to help Lu Yao's mother with the housework—this was a way of expressing goodwill. Regardless of gender, when visiting someone's elders for the first time, it's customary to be polite about household chores.

This is normal etiquette.

It is also a polite and symbolic courtesy.

So Lu Yao's mother quickly declined, not letting Lin Yongzhen get involved.

This is also correct.

Since it's their first time here, they're guests, so how can we really let them do the work?

However, this polite and symbolic practice is rarely seen when young men and women visit each other's homes.

Often, "pretending to be polite" turns into "being impolite".

This "rudeness" often isn't because elders don't understand the nuances; it's actually a form of "obedience test."

Of course, it's not a big deal for ordinary families to be subjected to an "obedience test," but it's extremely dangerous for wealthy families that have been rich for generations. For example, in a certain TV series called "The CEO Falls in Love with Me," the female lead, a girl from an ordinary background, was brought to a party at the CEO's house. She actually stood up and offered her seat to outsiders like a servant, and even took over the servants' work...

The people who write this kind of drama are probably people who were taught by their families from a young age to "be observant and proactive" and "do more work and show more performance at work".

Although Lü Yao's family didn't start out well, he was naturally lazy and had an inexplicable arrogance, so he rarely did anything that would make him feel wronged.

As for Lin Yongzhen, she has seen all sorts of strange and unsavory characters, and she can always handle any situation with ease.

On his first day back home, various situations arose that were somewhat unpleasant, but this development was still within Lü Yao's expectations.

After the initial friction subsided, the conflict between Lü Yao and his father was somewhat "ignored." Lü Yao was too lazy to explain anything to his father anymore. In the following days, their conversations were limited to simple, basic greetings.

Lü Yao has a very good relationship with his mother, so he has been talking to her a lot these past few days.

The conversation mostly revolved around village affairs: how the family's fields were doing, and what major events had occurred in other villagers' homes. To Lü Yao's astonishment, a bizarre incident of "son killing father" had occurred in their village around the Mid-Autumn Festival last year. The person "killed" was Lü Yao's distant cousin. This was the first time Lü Yao had heard of this in either his past or present life. After graduating from his studies abroad, he rarely returned home for several years, and each time he did, he would only stay for a few days before leaving with a belly full of anger.

All of this is thanks to Lu Yao's father.

Later, after Lü Yao's relationship with his father improved somewhat, this matter had become a thing of the past and no one mentioned it anymore. So Lü Yao only learned about it after returning from studying abroad in the future.

This was a huge matter. When Lü Yao was talking about it with his mother and Lin Yongzhen, his father, whose face had been gloomy for two days, actually joined the conversation from afar, showing off his "knowledge".

On the third night at his hometown, while Lü Yao was chatting with his mother and Lin Yongzhen in the downstairs living room, his mother suddenly said, "Isn't your cousin Li's son a police auxiliary officer? Your cousin contacted me a couple of days ago."

Lu Yao raised his hand to interrupt his mother, then he smiled and said, "Our village will develop better and better in the future. When there are good development directions in the village, we should actively cooperate. In the future, every household in our village will definitely be able to live a well-off life, or even better than a well-off life."

"If you ask me, our village might one day be better off than that township in the next county that specializes in selling seedlings. Let's work harder to develop in this area. If we don't have enough start-up capital, we can talk to the brigade and they will definitely provide low-interest loans."

The villagers had limited knowledge, so Lü Yao made his point very clearly.

Lu Yao continued to smile at his mother, "From now on, if anyone asks us for a favor, just say that life isn't good enough for them right now. Let them focus on living their lives well."

This is the right thing to do. Even if Mom can't refuse to do it, she has to do it this way.

Lü Yao's decision to let his parents stay in the village, which even attracted outside investment institutions to pour money into the area, is already a very good thing for the villagers. If the villagers are still not satisfied after all this—what does that have to do with Lü Yao?

As for those ungrateful villagers... like the relatives behind Lü Yao's family who were blocking the demolition in Beijing, they simply took their parents away and severed all ties with the village.

Lü Yao could have done that as well.

Unlike the Guangdong and Guangxi regions in the south, where clans are truly respected and respected, Da Su is different.

Even if it's not Zhejiang or Fujian, the clans there are very influential, especially in Wenzhou. Whenever someone in Wenzhou wants to start a business, the village will offer advice and suggestions. Those with money will contribute money, those with people will contribute people, and those with connections will provide the means.

Such scenes of mutual help are rare in Da Su.

The most abundant product of the Great Su region is the cousin who later became the subject of an online rant titled "I Have a Cousin Who Is Ambitious, Smooth-Talking, and a Failed Person."

A man who keeps trying to find a glimmer of hope, only to end up bruised and battered, is not only ridiculed by outsiders, but also condemned by his closest relatives as "ambitious and glib"—they are his family, yet they watch with cold indifference, believing that his repeated attempts to start businesses and fail are a grave sin.

Because for poor families, wasting money is the greatest sin.

But if that cousin succeeds, then his "ambition" will become "foresight," and his "smooth talk" will become "eloquence."

In reality, due to human nature, most people are like that "cousin's" cousins; places like Wenzhou are ultimately a minority.

and so.

Lu Yao never cared about the other people in the village.

The changes that Lü Yao brought to the village were benefits that Lü Yao wanted to give back to the village, and they were also a consequence of improving the living standards and environment of his parents—simply put, they benefited from Lü Yao's work.

If he's really not satisfied, what else can Lü Yao say?
Lu Yao then said something similar to his mother, basically telling them to keep a clean record in the village, and if there was anything they couldn't refuse, they should just agree to it insincerely and then blame Lu Yao for not being able to do it.

But Lu Yao's mother disagreed. She turned her face away and confronted Lu Yao in front of him to defend him: "What kind of talk is that? If you can't agree to something, you can't agree to it. That's just how I am."

Lü Yao smiled.

My mother is indeed very clear about right and wrong. Although neither of us went to school, she's really good at interpersonal relationships. It's thanks to my mother's teachings from a young age that Lü Yao was able to improve himself. If Lü Yao had completely inherited his father's way of dealing with people, even if he came back from studying abroad in the future, he wouldn't have been able to turn things around.

After chatting with their mother, Lü Yao and Lin Yongzhen went upstairs.

There are quite a few rooms upstairs. In addition to Lü Yao's bedroom, there are two guest bedrooms, a study, and a storage room.

This is a self-built house that Lu Yao's father borrowed money to build in 2010. It is his pride and backbone throughout his life. However, this backbone seems somewhat "out of place" in the face of the rapidly growing economy and real estate market. When Lu Yao was studying abroad, he talked to his father about this and said that it would have been better if he had used the money to build the house to buy a house.

But Dad always stubbornly insisted that he couldn't get used to living in the city, saying that the city was too stifling.

Lu Yao had some mixed feelings, but he never complained, because he believed that he could always rely on his own abilities to gain a foothold in the city, just like his father.

In reality, Lü Yao did indeed thrive in the city, with the glamorous world always welcoming him. It was because of the allure of the glamorous world that Lü Yao was able to come into contact with so many things and so many people, which is why Lü Yao was never able to save any money.

After all, the entrance fees and expenses in this glamorous world are quite expensive.

Lying on his bed in his hometown, Lü Yao felt relaxed and comfortable, but his mind was constantly filled with thoughts of his hometown...

Upon returning this time, Lü Yao didn't even dare to tell his parents that he was going abroad.

After all.

He was still afraid.

I was afraid my parents would worry.

I fear that parting will cause me too much worry.

I fear the tragedy of an elderly person outliving their child.

(End of this chapter)