The Landlady and The Amnesiac

32

Chapter 32 – Envy

At dinner, Grandma Luo asked Luo Bei to invite Miss Chen for a meal. They were neighbors, after all; it wasn’t a bad thing to be more welcoming as their landlords.

Luo Bei had thought that Miss Chen wouldn’t come, but she came over with the little boy when it was time to eat.

The little boy seemed very cautious and did not dare to speak while sitting next to Miss Chen.

Grandma Luo was benevolent and amiable, even people like Miss Chen would behave well around her.

“No need to call me Miss Chen, everyone can just call me Chen Lan.”

Chen Lan wasn’t someone who couldn’t recognize othes’ good intentions. She might not be satisfied with the neighborhood’s atmosphere but since she had paid the deposit and signed the contract, complaining was no use. She wasn’t familiar with the landlords at all but because they had invited her for a meal, she naturally had to show them some face.

Luo Bei had seen all sorts of people. How to put this, the more prickly one seemed, the easier it was to deal with them. Based on Chen Lan’s appearance and attitude, it was easy to put her into the prickly category. But looking back at her attitude when signing the contracts today, although she wasn’t satisfied, she had been immediately willing to compromise. People who were actually ill-intentioned wouldn’t be so polite.

“Xiao Chen, I could tell from your accent that you don’t seem to be from around here?” Grandma Luo asked with a smile.

Chen Lan stiffened, “Yes, I’m not from here but I’m going to be registering my permanent residence here.”

Grandma Luo had no intention to ridicule her, but Chen Lan misunderstood.

“So you’re not from here. If you don’t have relatives in the city, then there would be times your neighbors would be closer to you than your actual relatives. Don’t they say a relative far away is less useful than a neighbor closeby? You can tell us if you need any help in the future. We’ll certainly help you where we can.”

Chen Lan subconsciously ignored the latter part. She had heard this so many times, she would be a fool to believe it. She looked around the table and smiled, “That’s not it. My husband is from here. I’ve already told Miss Luo that I won’t be staying here long. My husband bought me a property at the lakeside villas. You know where that is, right? It’s now around fifty or sixty thousand yuan per square meter. I’m only renting because it’s under renovation.

Grandma Luo nodded and asked again in concern, “What about your husband?”

“Oh, him, he does business outside.” Chen Lan became more enthusiastic as she spoke, “It’s a big company with several branches in the CBD. He also has two villas under his name. He earns a lot of money, but he doesn’t have time to be with me. But I digress, if a man doesn’t have money, what’s the difference between him and a good-for-nothing?”

There were a lot of holes in Chen Lan’s story. For example, if they had two villas, why did she still want to rent a place in the slums? Wouldn’t it be better to live in one of the villas? Another one was if they were as rich as she described, even if the villa was under renovation, she could totally rent a better place…

Zhao Pianpian had also seen many characters when she worked for Lei Yuhao. She immediately knew what was going on. Seeing that Grandma Luo was going to pry further, she immediately placed some more food into Grandma Luo’s bowl, saying, “Grandma, eat some more. The weather’s really nice, how about we go for a walk to digest after we eat? Beibei told me there was a sale at Carrefour. Let’s go to the supermarket.”

Grandma Luo’s attention was immediately diverted.

Chen Lan was a little dissatisfied as she couldn’t finish her story.

“Carrefour? Sale?” Chen Lan smilingly said, “I was going to join you but I only go to supermarkets selling imported goods. Carrefour and Walmart are too crowded. My husband told me that I shouldn’t care about saving that trivial amount and that it’s better to buy imported goods.”

Hearing this, even Grandma Luo didn’t know what to say.

Jiang Sihan wasn’t a man of many words and only focused on eating. He barely made a sound. While Luo Bei and Grandma Luo were indeed cordial people, they were not proficient in flattering people. They had no idea what to reply to this.

Zhao Pianpian would of course not say anything either. It just so happened that Baby Chen who was lying in his crib started crying.

For convenience, Zhao Pianpin bought another crib and put it at the Luo’s.

She hurriedly walked over to the crib, picked up the crying baby and started to calm him down. It wasn’t time to feed him yet. Zhao Pianpian knew her son, he woke up and just wanted to play. He was crying crocodile tears to attract the adults’ attention.

Zhao Pianpian couldn’t continue eating anymore. She walked around the house carrying Baby Chen, pointing out furniture from time to time. She had a gentle disposition in the first place, now she directed all her care towards her son.

She found the most comfortable position to carry him and would kiss his head time and again.

Luo Bei looked up and watched the little boy beside Chen Lan as she ate. His eyes followed Zhao Pianpian, no, his eyes followed the pair of mother and son. He was too young and hadn’t learnt how to hide his emotions. Luo Bei saw it, an emotion called envy swirling in his eyes.

What was he envious of?

Luo Bei looked at Chen Lan, who was still bragging about how rich her husband was, and couldn’t help but sigh.

Forget it, she had no right to intervene in others’ personal affairs.