Gu Ning was still immersed in the joy that she was about to have at least $200 million in assets before hearing Mother Gu calling out to her: “NingNing, just now Xiao Yu called and said that she would be coming over later. I’ll go out to buy some fruit and come back. Do open the door for her later.”
Gu Ning instantly withdraw herself from the joy of becoming a rich woman and immediately opened her bedroom door before walking out: “Why is she coming over?”
Mother Gu replied: “She didn’t say, probably she is here to visit you. When you came back the first day, they wanted to come over to visit you but you rejected them. They asked you to go over for dinner but you were too busy with work. The two of you are the only girls in the family, so if you don’t put more effort into your relationship, you’re going to be distanced. In the past, both of you were very close so now that you’re back, no matter how busy you are, you two sisters need to make time to get together right?”
Mother Gu didn’t know what had happened in the post-apocalyptic world, so she naturally thought that Gu Ning and Jiang Yu were still maintaining a good sister relationship. Perhaps that is what Jiang Yu thought so too, but Gu Ning only wanted to be as far away from Jiang Yu as much as possible, it would be better if they never get to see each other again till they died. However, she was afraid that Mother Gu wouldn’t be able to accept it if she suddenly became too indifferent to Jiang Yu’s family, so she could only take things slowly.
Gu Ning quickly thought of an idea, an anxious look appeared on her face: “Then what should I do? I just received a call from the child’s parents asking me to hurry over, they have some urgent business to attend and the child is alone at home.”
Mother Gu immediately replied: “Then you’d better go now. The child’s parents treat you so well and trust you so much. You can’t let them down. Xiao Yu is our family member so it’s okay. I’ll just let her know later.”
Gu Ning even deliberately asked: “Will that be fine?”
“It’s fine. You two can meet anytime you want, so go ahead and don’t worry about it. Don’t drag on any longer, go now.” Now it was Mother Gu who kept urging her to leave.
Gu Ning got her way so she hurried left.
Within ten minutes after Gu Ning had left, Jiang Yu parked her car downstairs.
She knocked on Gu Ning’s house front door, and upon entering the house, she hugged Mother Gu and greeted sweetly: “Auntie, I haven’t visited you for so long, I miss you so much.”
Mother Gu couldn’t stop smiling and joked: “Aiya, why do you even bring so many fruits over? Too much money to burn ah.”
“It’s a token of my respect to you, Auntie.” Jiang Yu entered the house and placed the fruits on the table, then glanced around the room before asking: “Eh? Where’s Gu Ning? Didn’t you say she was home?”
Mother Gu explained: “She received a call from the parents of the child she is tutoring, they said it was urgent and needed her to rush over and take care of the child. So I’ve let her head over. There’s still plenty of time for you sisters to meet and catch up with each other anyway.”
Jiang Yu smiled and asked: “It’s quite tiring for Gu Ning to take care of children, isn’t it? In fact, our company has a position open right now, so why don’t I try to get it for her?”
Mother Gu waved her hand and rejected: “There’s no need. The other day, JiaZi said there was a position in their company where Gu Ning could go and work there when she felt like it but in the end, she still rejected it. Her current job is quite good, and the parents are very nice and pay her a lot, nearly ten thousand per month. It’s quite good that Gu Ning has just graduated and is already getting such a good pay.”
Jiang Yu was surprised for a moment: “The salary is that high?”
Mother Gu answered proudly: “Yes. It’s mainly because the parents of that family think especially highly of NingNing, and she had only been working for a few weeks yet they’ve already given her an advance payment of thirty thousand.”
The expression on Jiang Yu’s face was a little unnatural but it was only there for an instant: “With such a good offer, NingNing isn’t being scammed right?”
“No way!” Mother Gu immediately replied: “It was introduced by a friend of Gu Ning’s who is a police officer. Don’t worry about that.”
Jiang Yu asked curiously: “How come Gu Ning didn’t tell me that she has a police officer friend before?”
“Ah, speaking of Fang Fa, he is Gu Ning little police officer friend. I really like that boy. He’s good-looking, tall, sunny, and at the right age. Some days, I will get Gu Ning to bring him back home so that you can take a look too and see how compatible they are.” Mother Gu was close-knitted to Jiang’s family and Jiang Yu also grew up with Gu Ning, so the sisters were very familiar with each other which was why Mother Gu had no reservations when she was talking to Jiang Yu. She was so happy with Gu Ning’s current situation that her desire to chat about it was particularly strong, and she spilled everything in her mind without noticing that Jiang Yu’s smile was a little different.
“Oh sure.” Jiang Yu gave a faint smile: “Then call me out for a meal someday and I’ll help Gu Ning check it out then.”
She smiled and then chatted about recent events. Finally, Jiang Yu changed the subject to her real purpose of this visit: “By the way, Eldest Aunt, I have something I need to trouble you.”
Mother Gu asked casually: “What is it?”
“It’s like this, I’m actually doing it as a favour to a friend.” Jiang Yu explained and took Mother Gu’s arm affectionately: “A friend of mine is working at the TV station and they have a treasure appraisal show. Yes, it’s the one that has been getting high ratings lately. I was looking for something like an antique to borrow for the show, and I’ve remembered that you have a pair of vases that seem like an antique, right? So I’m humbly asking if I can borrow it to help out the favour.”
Mother Gu laughed at that: “What antique. That was Gu Ning’s old grandmother’s dowry when she got married, and then it was passed down to me when I got married. It was something from the Civil War Era only.”
Jiang Yu urged: “It’s okay. They don’t necessarily have to be antiques, they just need others to bring them over and come up with a story before appraising them on the spot. After the show is filmed, I’ll return the items to you immediately.”
Mother Gu gave in: “Fine then. Although it’s not something valuable, I’m thinking of handing it over to NingNing as her dowry when she gets married. Wait for a while, I’ll go and get it for you.”
With that, she stood up and went to her room to retrieve it. Jiang Yu smiled and called out: “Thank you, Eldest Aunt.”
Then she also stood up, looked around casually, and found that the door to Gu Ning’s room was left open. Her heart thumped slightly before entering Gu Ning’s room. In the past, when the two of them were very close, she used to go in and out of her room as she pleased. Gu Ning didn’t say anything about it so Jiang Yu didn’t have many worries so she entered the room and glanced around casually. Suddenly something caught her eyes that was placed next to the computer desk.
Mother Gu froze for a moment when she saw Jiang Yu carrying out a box from Gu Ning’s room, then Jiang Yu asked: “Eldest Aunt, Gu Ning has a particularly nice porcelain bowl here, it looks like an antique to me too, can I borrow it?” The item in her hand was none other than Gu Ning’s Northern Song Ru-Kiln Celadon Sunflower Wash, which she had left at home and forgotten to take with her because she was in a hurry to avoid Jiang Yu.
“I can’t make decisions about her stuff, so why don’t you give her a call. I’ll give you her new number.” Mother Gu said as she searched her phonebook.
Jiang Yu called Gu Ning on her mobile phone.
“NingNing’s phone is off. How about I bring the stuff back first? I’ll call Gu Ning later and let her know. If it isn’t needed, I’ll send it back right away.” When Jiang Yu saw that Mother Gu was still hesitating, she immediately came forward and wrapped her arm around and coaxed: “Please Eldest Aunt, let me borrow it, I’ll definitely send it back in one piece, pretty please.”
Mother Gu’s heart softened and had no choice but to agree with her pleading.
The two of them chatted for a little longer, after which Jiang Yu took the pair of an emerald green vase and the $200 million worth of celadon sunflower wash and left.
Gu Ning had just remembered that she had left the celadon sunflower wash at home when she was in the taxi. She wanted to call back and ask Mother Gu to keep it away properly but she just noticed that her phone happened to be out of battery. Thinking that Mother Gu’s character, would definitely help her keep it away if she saw it, so she didn’t put much more thought into it.
Right now it was just slightly over one o’clock and there was still plenty of time.
Gu Ning borrowed the taxi driver’s phone to look up available warehouses for rent on the internet.
Soon, she had found a warehouse of about 100 square feet. The property prices in Jinyong were not very expensive, plus the location was near the outskirt. Thus, after negotiating, Gu Ning managed to rent it for 2,500 yuan per month and she instantly paid for the full year.
Gu Ning couldn’t care less about the money spent on the rent and then directly went to the city’s famous wholesale market. They sold a large bundle of winter items like men, women, and children’s winter cotton clothing, different variety of socks and shoes, heavy quilts, and all kinds of household goods.
Gu Ning was afraid of trouble, so she purchased a large number of items all at once. As long as she thought that it was useful, she took a lot of it, and because of the huge quantity of goods she was purchasing, Gu Ning managed to bargain it for a low price. The owners of those wholesale shops were also smiling happily because they rarely encountered such a large buyer and sent a large truck to deliver it for Gu Ning for free. It took around two trips for them to finish delivering all the goods.
The warehouse which Gu Ning had rented was actually a staged cover for her to keep the items to her space.
Afterward, Gu Ning went to the farmers’ market and found a shop specialising in seeds and bought a whole bunch of fruit and vegetable seeds.
In one afternoon, Gu Ning had spent about 100,000 yuan or so.
The money from the previous gold jewelleries exchanges went down the drain in a flash and Gu Ning felt a slight pain. However, when she thought about the diamond necklace alone could be sold for at least eight hundred thousand to a million, and the antique from the Northern Song Dynasty which was worth around 200 million dollars, the pain disappeared without a trace. Yet, she didn’t know that the celadon sunflower wash was now in Jiang Yu’s hand.
In the parlour of the TV station. The man in his thirties wearing a green shirt was the TV station friend called He YouPing that Jiang Yu had told Mother Gu about. He first picked up one of the pair of vases and held it in his hand to examining at it carefully. The style of the vase looked like the recent era so he put it aside after a few glances and then opened the other delicate box.
Jiang Yu saw that he looked as if he was not satisfied with the two vases and was inevitable a little disappointed.
He YouPing was unaware of Jiang Yu’s thoughts and simply lifted the lid of the box in front of him. He was also mentally prepared that Jiang Yu would not be able to bring anything worthy and the pair of vases proved his thoughts. Yet, as soon as the lid of the delicate box was lifted, He YouPing’s eyes lit up.
Gu Ning transferred most of the items in the warehouse into the space and left a small amount in the warehouse.
Gu Ning checked the time and it was only five in the afternoon.
In the post-apocalyptic world, her parents and friends from the third company were settled safely in the Zhongnan base. Except for the regular hunting of zombies for the crystal cores, there wasn’t much for her to worry about and there were times when she didn’t return for a day or two after informing them.
On the other hand, apart from slight suffering from the daily training by Ji JiuZe, without the constant threat to her life and feeling that her close combat skill was improving by leaps and bounds, Gu Ning was very satisfied with her current lifestyle.
Thinking about the kitchen that had all the equipment but was always not in use. As well as yesterday, Zhuang Chen had said she was tired of eating takeout, Gu Ning ran to the supermarket and brought back some ingredients before taking a taxi back.
“Don’t tell me that you even know how to cook?!” Zhuang Chen was shocked as she watched Gu Ning enter with two large bags of ingredients. She was beaming with joy after receiving the confirmation: “Gu Ning, did you hear me yesterday that I was tired of having takeout, so you are cooking it for me today especially? Gu Ning! I’m so moved that my tears are coming out!” Zhuang Chen commented exaggeratedly.
Yi ShaoQing, Zhang XiaoBai, and the rest had all gathered around. After politely declining their offer to help, Gu Ning methodically moved around in the kitchen.
She originally didn’t know how to cook.
It all happened when Lu JiaZi was in college and complained once to Gu Ning that the food in the school cafeteria was getting worse. At that time, Gu Ning was immediately motivated and she, who had never held a spatula before, began to study recipes, read various books on food and watched culinary shows. She even secretly spend several thousand dollars to enroll in a cooking class.
When she was slightly confident in cooking, she started making various dishes and brought them to school for Lu JiaZi whenever she had time. With just a single praise from Lu JiaZi would make Gu Ning’s heart burst with joy.
Gu Ning’s cooking skills had improved dramatically in those years, and she was even exposed to all eight major cuisines and was now at the level of a professional chef. Father Gu often joked that if she had studied in high school with the same vigour as she did with her cooking, she would have attended Tsinghua University or Peking University by now.
Although it had been a little over half a year since she had cooked, and the knife in her hand had been used mostly for slashing zombies instead of fishes, the familiarity of the kitchen was still seared into her bones.
After watching Gu Ning’s knife skills in slaughtering the fish, Zhuang Chen tsked in admiration: “See guys? This is excellent knife skills!” Then she remembered to ask: “Gu Ning, when will the food be ready?”
Gu Ning answered as she sliced open the fish: “The food will be ready at six-thirty exactly.”
Zhuang Chen glanced at her watch then bemoaned: “It still needs nearly an hour!”
Washing, chopping, and preparing various vegetables and ingredients. It was obviously a very tedious and hectic task, but watching Gu Ning moving around in the kitchen made everything feel so organised.
“Do you guys feel that Gu Ning is glowing in an aura?” Zhang XiaoBai suddenly asked Zhong Xu who was beside him as he looked at Gu Ning.
Zhong Xu replied; “I just didn’t think that Gu Ning could actually cook….. I thought all she knew was how to fight.”
Ji JiuZe, who happened to be passing by, didn’t know if he had overheard their conversation but his footsteps gave a slight pause. His gaze seemed to glance over to the kitchen inadvertently, a faint glen flashed in his eyes before he continued to walk away with his cup of tea.
As soon as Zhang XiaoBai had brought out the last dish to the table, Ji JiuZe arrived late and sat down in the seat opposite Gu Ning.
There were eight dishes on the table: braised carp, sweet and sour pork ribs, beef with small red chilies, cola chicken wings, white-scorched prawns, farmhouse stir-fry meat…… six meat dishes, three vegetarian dishes plus a fresh scallop and tofu soup.
These full table of dishes was not only rich in their variety but was also well-presented with exquisite usage of cutlery. This made Zhuang Chen’s appetite tingle as compared to the usual takeout plastic cutlery and poor-looking and tasting meals, her mouth was already salivating like craziness.
She had already tied up her big, loose, wavy red hair and as soon as the last dish was served, Zhuang Chen chimed: “I’ll start eating!” Then she darted her chopsticks toward the nearest plate of braised carp. Right after she had shoved it into her mouth, she exaggeratedly shouted before she could taste it properly: “It’s so delicious!”
Gu Ning knew she was just trying to support her so she couldn’t help but smiled.
Ji JiuZe looked at the plate of sweet and sour pork ribs placed in front of him and was a little surprised when he glanced at Gu Ning. How did she find out that he liked sweet food? Then he took a piece of the sweet and sour ribs, slightly lowered his head, and ate the small piece. After a few bites, he was slightly surprised that the food was indeed more than just being nicely presented.
“Gu Ning, how do you cook all these dishes? It’s so delicious!” Zhang XiaoBai said vaguely as he stuffed all the vegetables into his mouth.
Yi ShaoQing’s mouth was full of food, but he still managed to spare a bit of breath and exclaimed: “It’s really so yummy!”
Zhuang Chen could no longer care to speak, she just kept nodding her head and then tasted every dish on the table.
At the end of the meal, there were only some sauces left on the dishes, and even the sauce from the stir-fried beef with chilies was mixed with rice by Yi ShaoQing who loves spicy food most. On the contrary, the pot of soup was too much to be finished. Zhuang Chen held her stomach and rested on the chair with satisfaction.
The others winded up all the food and filled their stomachs to the brim, but only Ji JiuZe had a brief taste of each dish, and then finished half a bowl of the fresh seafood soup.
It was a great tribute to the chef that their dishes were cleared so clean. Gu Ning also felt very satisfied, she didn’t eat much so after sitting for a while, she got up and started cleaning up the mess on the table.
Ji JiuZe, however, silently carried the dinner plate from the table and walked to the kitchen. Gu Ning hurriedly went over and tried to take the plate off his hand: “Captain, let me do it!”
Ji JiuZe, however, dodged Gu Ning’s hand as he raised it up and then explained: “You are responsible for cooking so I am responsible for cleaning it up.”
With such a logical answer, Gu Ning was too embarrassed to grab the plate he was holding on to.
Thus, she went back to collect other plates.
With a few trips, the table was clean and cleared.
When Gu Ning wiped the table clean and prepared to wash the dishes, she was shocked to see that Ji JiuZe had already put on his apron and even wore one of the gloves. Seeing that Gu Ning was walking over to him hurriedly, he turned his back to Gu Ning while wearing the other glove and instructed: “Help me tie my apron.”
Gu Ning subconsciously began to help him tie the string on the back of his apron —— only after tying, then she asked weakly as if she had just woke up from a dream: “Why don’t I do it……”
Ji JiuZe snapped open the tap and Gu Ning promptly went up to pour the detergent into the sink.
Ji JiuZe took the sponge and started washing the dishes, while Gu Ning stood beside him in a slightly awkward manner, feeling like she had no idea whether to stand here or leave. Just when she was hesitating to give all the space to Ji JiuZe, he had finished washing the first plate and passed it to the side very naturally. It was right in front of Gu Ning, who froze for a moment and then took the plate, wiped it clean with a dry cloth, and then kept it back in the cabinet beside her before receiving the second plate and continued……
Two figures, one tall and one short, accompanied by the sound of running water, didn’t communicate with each other in any way but just simple gestures of handing and receiving. It was so incomparably harmonious and natural.
Meanwhile, Zhuang Chen and Yi ShaoQing’s eyes were staring at them with their body being petrified…..
After a long while before Zhuang Chen blinked and asked Yi ShaoQing: “Have you ever seen Ji JiuZe do the dishes?”
Yi ShaoQing stiffened and shook his head.
Gu Ning was still immersed in the joy that she was about to have at least $200 million in assets before hearing Mother Gu calling out to her: “NingNing, just now Xiao Yu called and said that she would be coming over later. I’ll go out to buy some fruit and come back. Do open the door for her later.”
Gu Ning instantly withdraw herself from the joy of becoming a rich woman and immediately opened her bedroom door before walking out: “Why is she coming over?”
Mother Gu replied: “She didn’t say, probably she is here to visit you. When you came back the first day, they wanted to come over to visit you but you rejected them. They asked you to go over for dinner but you were too busy with work. The two of you are the only girls in the family, so if you don’t put more effort into your relationship, you’re going to be distanced. In the past, both of you were very close so now that you’re back, no matter how busy you are, you two sisters need to make time to get together right?”
Mother Gu didn’t know what had happened in the post-apocalyptic world, so she naturally thought that Gu Ning and Jiang Yu were still maintaining a good sister relationship. Perhaps that is what Jiang Yu thought so too, but Gu Ning only wanted to be as far away from Jiang Yu as much as possible, it would be better if they never get to see each other again till they died. However, she was afraid that Mother Gu wouldn’t be able to accept it if she suddenly became too indifferent to Jiang Yu’s family, so she could only take things slowly.
Gu Ning quickly thought of an idea, an anxious look appeared on her face: “Then what should I do? I just received a call from the child’s parents asking me to hurry over, they have some urgent business to attend and the child is alone at home.”
Mother Gu immediately replied: “Then you’d better go now. The child’s parents treat you so well and trust you so much. You can’t let them down. Xiao Yu is our family member so it’s okay. I’ll just let her know later.”
Gu Ning even deliberately asked: “Will that be fine?”
“It’s fine. You two can meet anytime you want, so go ahead and don’t worry about it. Don’t drag on any longer, go now.” Now it was Mother Gu who kept urging her to leave.
Gu Ning got her way so she hurried left.
Within ten minutes after Gu Ning had left, Jiang Yu parked her car downstairs.
She knocked on Gu Ning’s house front door, and upon entering the house, she hugged Mother Gu and greeted sweetly: “Auntie, I haven’t visited you for so long, I miss you so much.”
Mother Gu couldn’t stop smiling and joked: “Aiya, why do you even bring so many fruits over? Too much money to burn ah.”
“It’s a token of my respect to you, Auntie.” Jiang Yu entered the house and placed the fruits on the table, then glanced around the room before asking: “Eh? Where’s Gu Ning? Didn’t you say she was home?”
Mother Gu explained: “She received a call from the parents of the child she is tutoring, they said it was urgent and needed her to rush over and take care of the child. So I’ve let her head over. There’s still plenty of time for you sisters to meet and catch up with each other anyway.”
Jiang Yu smiled and asked: “It’s quite tiring for Gu Ning to take care of children, isn’t it? In fact, our company has a position open right now, so why don’t I try to get it for her?”
Mother Gu waved her hand and rejected: “There’s no need. The other day, JiaZi said there was a position in their company where Gu Ning could go and work there when she felt like it but in the end, she still rejected it. Her current job is quite good, and the parents are very nice and pay her a lot, nearly ten thousand per month. It’s quite good that Gu Ning has just graduated and is already getting such a good pay.”
Jiang Yu was surprised for a moment: “The salary is that high?”
Mother Gu answered proudly: “Yes. It’s mainly because the parents of that family think especially highly of NingNing, and she had only been working for a few weeks yet they’ve already given her an advance payment of thirty thousand.”
The expression on Jiang Yu’s face was a little unnatural but it was only there for an instant: “With such a good offer, NingNing isn’t being scammed right?”
“No way!” Mother Gu immediately replied: “It was introduced by a friend of Gu Ning’s who is a police officer. Don’t worry about that.”
Jiang Yu asked curiously: “How come Gu Ning didn’t tell me that she has a police officer friend before?”
“Ah, speaking of Fang Fa, he is Gu Ning little police officer friend. I really like that boy. He’s good-looking, tall, sunny, and at the right age. Some days, I will get Gu Ning to bring him back home so that you can take a look too and see how compatible they are.” Mother Gu was close-knitted to Jiang’s family and Jiang Yu also grew up with Gu Ning, so the sisters were very familiar with each other which was why Mother Gu had no reservations when she was talking to Jiang Yu. She was so happy with Gu Ning’s current situation that her desire to chat about it was particularly strong, and she spilled everything in her mind without noticing that Jiang Yu’s smile was a little different.
“Oh sure.” Jiang Yu gave a faint smile: “Then call me out for a meal someday and I’ll help Gu Ning check it out then.”
She smiled and then chatted about recent events. Finally, Jiang Yu changed the subject to her real purpose of this visit: “By the way, Eldest Aunt, I have something I need to trouble you.”
Mother Gu asked casually: “What is it?”
“It’s like this, I’m actually doing it as a favour to a friend.” Jiang Yu explained and took Mother Gu’s arm affectionately: “A friend of mine is working at the TV station and they have a treasure appraisal show. Yes, it’s the one that has been getting high ratings lately. I was looking for something like an antique to borrow for the show, and I’ve remembered that you have a pair of vases that seem like an antique, right? So I’m humbly asking if I can borrow it to help out the favour.”
Mother Gu laughed at that: “What antique. That was Gu Ning’s old grandmother’s dowry when she got married, and then it was passed down to me when I got married. It was something from the Civil War Era only.”
Jiang Yu urged: “It’s okay. They don’t necessarily have to be antiques, they just need others to bring them over and come up with a story before appraising them on the spot. After the show is filmed, I’ll return the items to you immediately.”
Mother Gu gave in: “Fine then. Although it’s not something valuable, I’m thinking of handing it over to NingNing as her dowry when she gets married. Wait for a while, I’ll go and get it for you.”
With that, she stood up and went to her room to retrieve it. Jiang Yu smiled and called out: “Thank you, Eldest Aunt.”
Then she also stood up, looked around casually, and found that the door to Gu Ning’s room was left open. Her heart thumped slightly before entering Gu Ning’s room. In the past, when the two of them were very close, she used to go in and out of her room as she pleased. Gu Ning didn’t say anything about it so Jiang Yu didn’t have many worries so she entered the room and glanced around casually. Suddenly something caught her eyes that was placed next to the computer desk.
Mother Gu froze for a moment when she saw Jiang Yu carrying out a box from Gu Ning’s room, then Jiang Yu asked: “Eldest Aunt, Gu Ning has a particularly nice porcelain bowl here, it looks like an antique to me too, can I borrow it?” The item in her hand was none other than Gu Ning’s Northern Song Ru-Kiln Celadon Sunflower Wash, which she had left at home and forgotten to take with her because she was in a hurry to avoid Jiang Yu.
“I can’t make decisions about her stuff, so why don’t you give her a call. I’ll give you her new number.” Mother Gu said as she searched her phonebook.
Jiang Yu called Gu Ning on her mobile phone.
“NingNing’s phone is off. How about I bring the stuff back first? I’ll call Gu Ning later and let her know. If it isn’t needed, I’ll send it back right away.” When Jiang Yu saw that Mother Gu was still hesitating, she immediately came forward and wrapped her arm around and coaxed: “Please Eldest Aunt, let me borrow it, I’ll definitely send it back in one piece, pretty please.”
Mother Gu’s heart softened and had no choice but to agree with her pleading.
The two of them chatted for a little longer, after which Jiang Yu took the pair of an emerald green vase and the $200 million worth of celadon sunflower wash and left.
Gu Ning had just remembered that she had left the celadon sunflower wash at home when she was in the taxi. She wanted to call back and ask Mother Gu to keep it away properly but she just noticed that her phone happened to be out of battery. Thinking that Mother Gu’s character, would definitely help her keep it away if she saw it, so she didn’t put much more thought into it.
Right now it was just slightly over one o’clock and there was still plenty of time.
Gu Ning borrowed the taxi driver’s phone to look up available warehouses for rent on the internet.
Soon, she had found a warehouse of about 100 square feet. The property prices in Jinyong were not very expensive, plus the location was near the outskirt. Thus, after negotiating, Gu Ning managed to rent it for 2,500 yuan per month and she instantly paid for the full year.
Gu Ning couldn’t care less about the money spent on the rent and then directly went to the city’s famous wholesale market. They sold a large bundle of winter items like men, women, and children’s winter cotton clothing, different variety of socks and shoes, heavy quilts, and all kinds of household goods.
Gu Ning was afraid of trouble, so she purchased a large number of items all at once. As long as she thought that it was useful, she took a lot of it, and because of the huge quantity of goods she was purchasing, Gu Ning managed to bargain it for a low price. The owners of those wholesale shops were also smiling happily because they rarely encountered such a large buyer and sent a large truck to deliver it for Gu Ning for free. It took around two trips for them to finish delivering all the goods.
The warehouse which Gu Ning had rented was actually a staged cover for her to keep the items to her space.
Afterward, Gu Ning went to the farmers’ market and found a shop specialising in seeds and bought a whole bunch of fruit and vegetable seeds.
In one afternoon, Gu Ning had spent about 100,000 yuan or so.
The money from the previous gold jewelleries exchanges went down the drain in a flash and Gu Ning felt a slight pain. However, when she thought about the diamond necklace alone could be sold for at least eight hundred thousand to a million, and the antique from the Northern Song Dynasty which was worth around 200 million dollars, the pain disappeared without a trace. Yet, she didn’t know that the celadon sunflower wash was now in Jiang Yu’s hand.
In the parlour of the TV station. The man in his thirties wearing a green shirt was the TV station friend called He YouPing that Jiang Yu had told Mother Gu about. He first picked up one of the pair of vases and held it in his hand to examining at it carefully. The style of the vase looked like the recent era so he put it aside after a few glances and then opened the other delicate box.
Jiang Yu saw that he looked as if he was not satisfied with the two vases and was inevitable a little disappointed.
He YouPing was unaware of Jiang Yu’s thoughts and simply lifted the lid of the box in front of him. He was also mentally prepared that Jiang Yu would not be able to bring anything worthy and the pair of vases proved his thoughts. Yet, as soon as the lid of the delicate box was lifted, He YouPing’s eyes lit up.
Gu Ning transferred most of the items in the warehouse into the space and left a small amount in the warehouse.
Gu Ning checked the time and it was only five in the afternoon.
In the post-apocalyptic world, her parents and friends from the third company were settled safely in the Zhongnan base. Except for the regular hunting of zombies for the crystal cores, there wasn’t much for her to worry about and there were times when she didn’t return for a day or two after informing them.
On the other hand, apart from slight suffering from the daily training by Ji JiuZe, without the constant threat to her life and feeling that her close combat skill was improving by leaps and bounds, Gu Ning was very satisfied with her current lifestyle.
Thinking about the kitchen that had all the equipment but was always not in use. As well as yesterday, Zhuang Chen had said she was tired of eating takeout, Gu Ning ran to the supermarket and brought back some ingredients before taking a taxi back.
“Don’t tell me that you even know how to cook?!” Zhuang Chen was shocked as she watched Gu Ning enter with two large bags of ingredients. She was beaming with joy after receiving the confirmation: “Gu Ning, did you hear me yesterday that I was tired of having takeout, so you are cooking it for me today especially? Gu Ning! I’m so moved that my tears are coming out!” Zhuang Chen commented exaggeratedly.
Yi ShaoQing, Zhang XiaoBai, and the rest had all gathered around. After politely declining their offer to help, Gu Ning methodically moved around in the kitchen.
She originally didn’t know how to cook.
It all happened when Lu JiaZi was in college and complained once to Gu Ning that the food in the school cafeteria was getting worse. At that time, Gu Ning was immediately motivated and she, who had never held a spatula before, began to study recipes, read various books on food and watched culinary shows. She even secretly spend several thousand dollars to enroll in a cooking class.
When she was slightly confident in cooking, she started making various dishes and brought them to school for Lu JiaZi whenever she had time. With just a single praise from Lu JiaZi would make Gu Ning’s heart burst with joy.
Gu Ning’s cooking skills had improved dramatically in those years, and she was even exposed to all eight major cuisines and was now at the level of a professional chef. Father Gu often joked that if she had studied in high school with the same vigour as she did with her cooking, she would have attended Tsinghua University or Peking University by now.
Although it had been a little over half a year since she had cooked, and the knife in her hand had been used mostly for slashing zombies instead of fishes, the familiarity of the kitchen was still seared into her bones.
After watching Gu Ning’s knife skills in slaughtering the fish, Zhuang Chen tsked in admiration: “See guys? This is excellent knife skills!” Then she remembered to ask: “Gu Ning, when will the food be ready?”
Gu Ning answered as she sliced open the fish: “The food will be ready at six-thirty exactly.”
Zhuang Chen glanced at her watch then bemoaned: “It still needs nearly an hour!”
Washing, chopping, and preparing various vegetables and ingredients. It was obviously a very tedious and hectic task, but watching Gu Ning moving around in the kitchen made everything feel so organised.
“Do you guys feel that Gu Ning is glowing in an aura?” Zhang XiaoBai suddenly asked Zhong Xu who was beside him as he looked at Gu Ning.
Zhong Xu replied; “I just didn’t think that Gu Ning could actually cook….. I thought all she knew was how to fight.”
Ji JiuZe, who happened to be passing by, didn’t know if he had overheard their conversation but his footsteps gave a slight pause. His gaze seemed to glance over to the kitchen inadvertently, a faint glen flashed in his eyes before he continued to walk away with his cup of tea.
As soon as Zhang XiaoBai had brought out the last dish to the table, Ji JiuZe arrived late and sat down in the seat opposite Gu Ning.
There were eight dishes on the table: braised carp, sweet and sour pork ribs, beef with small red chilies, cola chicken wings, white-scorched prawns, farmhouse stir-fry meat…… six meat dishes, three vegetarian dishes plus a fresh scallop and tofu soup.
These full table of dishes was not only rich in their variety but was also well-presented with exquisite usage of cutlery. This made Zhuang Chen’s appetite tingle as compared to the usual takeout plastic cutlery and poor-looking and tasting meals, her mouth was already salivating like craziness.
She had already tied up her big, loose, wavy red hair and as soon as the last dish was served, Zhuang Chen chimed: “I’ll start eating!” Then she darted her chopsticks toward the nearest plate of braised carp. Right after she had shoved it into her mouth, she exaggeratedly shouted before she could taste it properly: “It’s so delicious!”
Gu Ning knew she was just trying to support her so she couldn’t help but smiled.
Ji JiuZe looked at the plate of sweet and sour pork ribs placed in front of him and was a little surprised when he glanced at Gu Ning. How did she find out that he liked sweet food? Then he took a piece of the sweet and sour ribs, slightly lowered his head, and ate the small piece. After a few bites, he was slightly surprised that the food was indeed more than just being nicely presented.
“Gu Ning, how do you cook all these dishes? It’s so delicious!” Zhang XiaoBai said vaguely as he stuffed all the vegetables into his mouth.
Yi ShaoQing’s mouth was full of food, but he still managed to spare a bit of breath and exclaimed: “It’s really so yummy!”
Zhuang Chen could no longer care to speak, she just kept nodding her head and then tasted every dish on the table.
At the end of the meal, there were only some sauces left on the dishes, and even the sauce from the stir-fried beef with chilies was mixed with rice by Yi ShaoQing who loves spicy food most. On the contrary, the pot of soup was too much to be finished. Zhuang Chen held her stomach and rested on the chair with satisfaction.
The others winded up all the food and filled their stomachs to the brim, but only Ji JiuZe had a brief taste of each dish, and then finished half a bowl of the fresh seafood soup.
It was a great tribute to the chef that their dishes were cleared so clean. Gu Ning also felt very satisfied, she didn’t eat much so after sitting for a while, she got up and started cleaning up the mess on the table.
Ji JiuZe, however, silently carried the dinner plate from the table and walked to the kitchen. Gu Ning hurriedly went over and tried to take the plate off his hand: “Captain, let me do it!”
Ji JiuZe, however, dodged Gu Ning’s hand as he raised it up and then explained: “You are responsible for cooking so I am responsible for cleaning it up.”
With such a logical answer, Gu Ning was too embarrassed to grab the plate he was holding on to.
Thus, she went back to collect other plates.
With a few trips, the table was clean and cleared.
When Gu Ning wiped the table clean and prepared to wash the dishes, she was shocked to see that Ji JiuZe had already put on his apron and even wore one of the gloves. Seeing that Gu Ning was walking over to him hurriedly, he turned his back to Gu Ning while wearing the other glove and instructed: “Help me tie my apron.”
Gu Ning subconsciously began to help him tie the string on the back of his apron —— only after tying, then she asked weakly as if she had just woke up from a dream: “Why don’t I do it……”
Ji JiuZe snapped open the tap and Gu Ning promptly went up to pour the detergent into the sink.
Ji JiuZe took the sponge and started washing the dishes, while Gu Ning stood beside him in a slightly awkward manner, feeling like she had no idea whether to stand here or leave. Just when she was hesitating to give all the space to Ji JiuZe, he had finished washing the first plate and passed it to the side very naturally. It was right in front of Gu Ning, who froze for a moment and then took the plate, wiped it clean with a dry cloth, and then kept it back in the cabinet beside her before receiving the second plate and continued……
Two figures, one tall and one short, accompanied by the sound of running water, didn’t communicate with each other in any way but just simple gestures of handing and receiving. It was so incomparably harmonious and natural.
Meanwhile, Zhuang Chen and Yi ShaoQing’s eyes were staring at them with their body being petrified…..
After a long while before Zhuang Chen blinked and asked Yi ShaoQing: “Have you ever seen Ji JiuZe do the dishes?”
Yi ShaoQing stiffened and shook his head.
