Rebirth after the college entrance examination

Chapter 148 I Like Her
Le Ning prepared a lunch for Xia An that included meat dishes and two braised meatballs.

Just now, when Le Ning suddenly asked him how much money he had, he had just chewed half a meatball, glanced at the phone, and fell silent, his eyes slightly narrowed.

This sudden silence was like a vacuum bottle with the air removed, making Xiao Le Ning feel suffocated. At this moment, she did not understand that this was Xia An's basic temperament and aura.

She felt a little sad and a little confused. She remembered that when Xia An was in junior high and high school, he was very scary when he got angry. He would hit people with red eyes. But since the summer vacation, he seemed to rarely get angry. The only time he hit someone was when Hu Ning bullied her.

Le Ning pursed her lips and said, "Are you angry? I was just curious, I won't ask anymore."

After she finished speaking, Xia An came to her senses, chuckled, put down the lunchbox, pinched Le Ning's cheek, and said with a smile, "I just suddenly thought of something, what does it have to do with anything else? Here, look."

He wiped his mouth and showed his phone to Le Ning.

First, there was a text message from Bai Nan. Xia An said, "This is an employee I hired for a small studio I set up recently. She just helped me open the account today."

Secondly, it was his own account. Le Ning glanced at it and couldn't count how many digits there were. Only after looking closely did she realize that it was more than eleven million.

With her mouth wide open, Le Ning was more shocked than surprised, staring at Xia An, speechless for a moment.

To put it simply, although she was young, she was precocious. From a young age, she knew that although her family was not extremely wealthy, they were certainly not just well-off.

From the time she started receiving pocket money in junior high school, she saved almost all of it. Aside from occasionally helping her then-boyfriend by giving him gifts, she rarely spent it recklessly. Over the years, she accumulated over 30,000 yuan in secret savings.

She was well aware that this was quite impressive among her peers; calling her a young, wealthy woman wouldn't be an exaggeration.

Tens of millions...

My father is a deputy bureau chief in the provincial capital. Although it's a low-level department under the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, his benefits are not bad.

With her mother running her own business, even without deliberately inquiring, Le Ning could roughly calculate that Zhou Ting earned several hundred thousand yuan a year from what she had heard since childhood.

They've bought a new house, a new car... they're not short of money.

But compared to the string of numbers she was seeing... she couldn't think of a good word to describe her current feelings, but it was impossible not to have a twisted perspective.

"You think Tang Wan is keeping me as a mistress?"

Xia An could easily see through her little scheme. It was perfectly normal; Le Ning wasn't from a wealthy family, and she didn't have the complex logic to figure out the underlying reasons.

Xia An pinched her cheek again and said, "Her family is at the most critical moment of going public. At this time, every expenditure must be justified. Moreover, Tangshi Group is a real business with many assets but little capital. Taking out so much cash from the account at once will have a big impact. She is not stupid, and her subordinates are even less stupid. Don't overthink it."

As he edited an email to the blonde Venus, he said, "This money isn't mine either. It's an investment from someone who's planning to invest in a project I'm currently working on."

Why would investment funds be transferred to an individual? But Le Ning didn't understand, and Xia An didn't intend to explain He Zhenzhen's reason for borrowing money.

Le Ning breathed a huge sigh of relief: "The 'megaphone' project?"

She wasn't stupid. During those days when she and Tang Wan were inseparable, Tang Wan accidentally let something slip, and she realized that Xia An and someone else had set up the messenger.

"no,"

Xia An sent the email, put down her phone, turned her head and shook her head, saying bluntly, "I've created a new one."

"again?"

Looking at Xia An, Le Ning's eyes sparkled; it wasn't mindless liking, but rather a kind of admiration.

Since the start of the semester, Le Ning has received countless love letters, both overt and covert. During the time Shan Xia'an was away, she received countless confessions of love in person.

She had also heard many people say behind her back that Xia An was just messing around to get attention. He was only a freshman, what kind of business was he starting? Wasn't it just to attract attention and get girls' attention?

In fact, Le Ning didn't take Xia An's entrepreneurial venture to heart at first. Even with this real little theater right there, she only thought of it as a club.

Especially that mouthpiece; she only thought of Xia An as a minor shareholder, just helping out.

Who would have thought... that over ten million was real money, the impact was too great.

Le Ning studied art and understood the meaning of money from a very young age. When she was at the Children's Palace, she saw some of her friends who were discouraged and gave up their hobby because of poor conditions and left the band one after another.

Zhou Ting always said: "Your mom and dad are scrimping and saving to support your musical instrument lessons, so you have to work hard and make us proud." Le Ning always kept this in mind.

Money is not everything, but it can solve most of life's difficulties.

She never imagined that Xia An would achieve great things one day. In her eyes, Xia An's ambition was enough to make her happy, and she didn't care about anything else.

I still remember what I said that night during summer vacation: "Get me picked up from get off work by another bicycle."

This wasn't a teenage girl's naive love, but a genuine decision she made at her age: even if Xia An achieved nothing, she wouldn't change her mind.

So, his ability to accomplish things and succeed is an unexpected surprise in a down-to-earth life.

So, unable to think of anything to say, Xiao Le Ning finally transformed into a loving mother to her husband, uttering the earnest advice that many parents share: "You... don't do anything illegal."

Xia An: "..."
-
In the afternoon, while tidying up the newly purchased musical instruments, Lu Yao swayed over, still half asleep.

Xia An was banging away on the drums when she asked him, "Where's Fatty Qi?"

"I'm going to take a shower."

Lu Yao yawned, picked up the triangle, examined it, and muttered, "What a piece of junk..."

Lu Fei sat on the edge of the stage, strumming a big red electric guitar haphazardly. "Le Ning and Wang Yue said they wanted to form a band, and Lao Xia sponsored a music store."

Lu Fei wouldn't normally say such witty things in public. This was a joke Wang Yue made at noon, and he remembered it and repeated it.

Lu Yao glanced at Le Ning and Wang Yue fiddling with their bass guitars in front of the curtain, and gave Xia An a thumbs up: "Well, you can't catch a wolf without risking your cub. You're really something, bringing your wife out to support our theater. Now we won't have to worry about selling tickets."

Xia An winked at him while pretending to be fierce but actually weak, saying, "What are you saying? I'm not willing to do it. It was Lady Le and Righteous Man Wang who took the initiative to help us solve our problems and didn't hesitate to show their faces."

He lowered his voice again and said, "The reasoning is correct, but dare you say it outright?"

Little did he know that Xiao Le Ning had already quietly walked up behind him and pinched Xia An's shoulder from behind: "If you dare to, I'll pinch you!"

Lu Yao chuckled, then coughed and walked onto the stage, pulling a pair of clappers from the pocket of his down jacket.

"Since the girls all have chivalrous hearts, I can't fall behind. I might as well use my best skills to help in an emergency."

While everyone stared in astonishment, Lu Yao showed no stage fright whatsoever. He let out two strange cries as a warm-up, then began to sing, cracking his bamboo clappers.

—With that clapping of the bamboo clappers, let's not praise anything else, but I will praise this Le Ning girl, our good sister-in-law…

—What makes this wonderful sister-in-law so good? She's intelligent, brave, kind, and generous; she's like a flower…

Lu Yao was from Beijiang Province. At this moment, not only were his expressions and movements perfectly captured, but even his voice had transformed into that of a native of Jianghukou, the lower reaches of the Nine Rivers, a genuine old Tianjin accent.

Most importantly, after praising Le Ning, he praised Wang Yue, then Li Xiaoru, and finally included Lu Fei and Xia An in the story. He didn't know that Le Ning and Wang Yue were there today, so it was obviously an impromptu joke.

But the rhyming words and catchy tune immediately captivated everyone present. Finally, the bamboo clappers were put away, and the right hand was raised: "How was that?" This concluded the performance.

Even Xia An clapped enthusiastically; to be honest, it was quite a shock.

Wang Yue clapped her hands and peered up and down at Lu Yao, as if she were meeting him for the first time.

Xia An laughed, "Seriously, you think you can just wear a jacket and start charging tolls under a pedestrian bridge? What's up? Mr. Lu, were your ancestors wandering the streets?"

Lu Yao chuckled, "Who the hell didn't attend extracurricular classes for a couple of years when they were a kid?"

Everyone: "..."

Wang Yue laughed so hard she bent over: "Your hobby is even more niche than mine."

Lu Yao sighed and said, "This was the extracurricular class with the fewest classes that summer vacation. There were only eight classes in one vacation. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gone."

Everyone burst into laughter.

Lu Yao asked them, "I've been thinking about this for the past two days. If you don't mind that this is beneath you, I can go on stage and put on a show."

These words warmed everyone's hearts. The LSP project team was small and not well-liked by other clubs. Their stage play a few days ago was outstanding, and Li Xiaoru suggested striking while the iron was hot and putting on another play to maintain the momentum.

Later, Qi Buyang organized a group of students in the class and suggested that anyone with talent could come to the small theater for an audition. If they passed, they could go on stage and perform for a fee.

This was supposed to be a good thing, but as Lu Yao said, who didn't attend a couple of extracurricular classes when they were young? Not a single one of the dozens of art students showed up.

Li Xiaoru went up to the stage and reassured everyone not to feel embarrassed, as it was just a performance for her classmates, and they should just enjoy it, whether it was good or bad.

But she was met with even more ridicule. The boys didn't say anything, but several girls immediately asked Li Xiaoru, "Are you going to go up and perform somersaults?"

Lu Fei was so angry that his face turned red and he couldn't say anything. Qi Buyang almost started arguing with those who had a grudge against him during military training.

Xia An stood up, patted Lu Yao on the shoulder, and said happily, "Crosstalk has lost its value? How popular is Deyun Club lately? It's settled then. I'll contact someone to get you a set of costumes today, and Mr. Lu will be the grand finale."

The so-called costume consists of a mandarin jacket, a square table, and a gavel. You should know that it's not easy to perform solo.

With Lu Yao's involvement, Xia An believes that the concept of stand-up comedy will soon be popularized ahead of schedule, which is also a profitable project he designed for the film and television company.

Riding the wave of Guo Degang and Zhou Libo's immense popularity, we can develop stand-up comedy training and performance, which represents a huge market.

Entertaining the masses is low-cost and high-profit, so why not?
Seeing Xia An's great determination, Lu Yao felt a little unsure. "Why don't we try it out first? If we make a big fuss, I'm afraid we won't be able to handle it."

Xia An shook his head and laughed, "Xiao Ru is right. It's all for our own students. What if it goes well or badly? It's just for fun. As long as you're not stage-frightened and perform confidently, I'm sure many people will like it."

Lu Yao straightened his back and laughed, "Alright then, it's a good thing my mother's 120 yuan wasn't wasted. Who knows, we might recoup the cost in just one performance."

Goodness! Eight lessons for 120 yuan…

The whole afternoon was spent with everyone busy with their own things. Li Xiaoru and Lu Fei didn't have any special talents to perform on stage, so they stayed on the sidelines thinking about how to promote the small theater on BBS and online platforms, and at least to hurry up and string together a performance that could last for two hours.

They decided to issue invitations widely around the university town, including but not limited to the two universities and several surrounding colleges, even to people outside the schools.

To put it bluntly, Xia An wants to turn this place into a real, off-campus theater, a hodgepodge of live performances, in addition to the campus theaters.

Le Ning and Wang Yue have a solid foundation in string instruments and can apply their knowledge to other instruments. After practicing for an afternoon, they were able to play the guitar and bass to a basic level, but they were still quite unfamiliar with them.

Xia An laughed and said, "This is something that requires a lot of practice. You guys understand this better than I do. It's impossible to achieve everything in one go. We'll practice slowly once the band members are all together."

Le Ning thought for a moment and said, "Keyboard...we have too many people in our class who can play the piano, so that's not a problem. We definitely need a drummer, and guitar and bass are pretty common. Yueyue and I can find other less common instruments, but..."

She winked at Xia An and said, "The drummer and the lead singer..."

Xia An smiled and looked at her, encouraging her, "If you don't become the lead singer, the hype will probably be gone after just one performance."

Le Ning, unusually embarrassed in public, said, "I can't sing..."

Xia An said, "I'll take you to two shows, and then you'll dare to sing."

Wang Yue exclaimed in surprise, "You can sing? Then let's try to call it a husband-and-wife band."

Le Ning glared at her, but Xia An shrugged: "Openly showing off our love, if we do it more than twice, I guarantee no one will come."

Xia An took the electric guitar from Lu Fei, plugged it in, and sang a short, slightly off-key rendition of "Casablanca."

Amidst a slight surprise, Le Ning asked him curiously, "How come you play the guitar so well? I never knew that before."

Xia An smiled faintly, "I've been influenced by you since I was little, and I've been secretly learning and trying to catch up."

Le Ning was touched by the lie, but she didn't know that he learned guitar from Zuo You, while she personally taught him piano.

However, that was all in the past.

The golden rays of the setting sun shone in through the small windows on the west side of the theater, and several beams of light, shrouded in swirling dust, shone on the closed chairs.

Xia An clapped her hands: "Let's call it a day. How about we have dinner together tonight? Director Xu is treating tomorrow. Let's check out the dishes today and see if they're any good?"

He had just discussed it with Lu Yao and Lu Fei. They didn't know Xu Wanying's current situation, but Xia An did. He told the two Mr. Lus that it wouldn't be good to let the counselor spend money, "Let's go early today and get a half-membership card. Let her pay for the food, but we can skip the drinks."

Lu Yao gritted his teeth and patted his chest, "I'll pay for the drinks, Lao Xia, don't try to take them this time."

Seeing Lu Fei and Xia An blinking, their faces full of suspicion, he looked around and whispered, "I consider you brothers, so I'm not afraid to tell you the truth. Just don't laugh at me... I..."

Lu Shuai blushed and blurted out, "I like her."

hiss.

As if he had heard something outrageous, Lu Fei gasped and slowly exhaled, "You... are amazing."

Xia An patted him, recalling Lu Yao's unfulfilled life in his previous life, and laughed lewdly.

"Okay, then call Fatty Qi and tell him to come straight to Weita in a bit. Damn it, he's been lying there all afternoon. Order him some lamb kidneys tonight to help him recover."

Lu Fei chuckled. Lu Yao took out his phone, but before he could dial a number, an unfamiliar landline call came in.

After answering the call, his face turned green.

"Yes, that's me, huh? Oh, what???"

People around him, seeing his startled reaction, gathered around.

After hanging up the phone, Lu Yao, without waiting for anyone to ask, pulled Xia An and Lu Fei to a corner and whispered in a voice that the girls absolutely couldn't hear, "That idiot PC got arrested. The border police station just called."

(End of this chapter)