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After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future-Chapter 186 - 185: Cut the Grass Without Removing the Roots, and It Will Grow Again in the Spring Breeze
The next day, on his way to the company, Lu Liang checked the messages he had received on WeChat yesterday.
His parents and elder sister had sent him red envelopes for his birthday and instructed him not to work too hard. He should remember to cook himself a bowl of noodles with an egg.
Eating egg noodles on one’s birthday is a tradition in his hometown. It symbolizes a safe and fulfilling year ahead.
Lu Ya also sent him the details of the new house’s renovation, including the main construction, decorations, furniture, and appliance purchases, totaling $2,452,500. Each expense was traceable.
Lu Liang had transferred money to her in five installments, totaling $2,600,000. Currently, $147,500 remained, not a penny less.
Lu Ya said, "Send me your card number, and I’ll transfer it to you. The housewarming party for the new place is on the eighth; do you want to come back?"
"The eighth is the 23rd, right? I’ll see then. Just give the remaining money to mom and dad."
While chatting with his sister, Lu Liang suddenly saw that Liu Mingxuan had also sent him a message the night before.
He couldn’t help but pessimistically think that perhaps the name "Lu God" had, after all, impacted their decades-long revolutionary friendship.
Only when he listened to the voice message did he realize that Liu Mingxuan was still the same old Liu Mingxuan, not there to congratulate him but to take advantage of him.
"What a coincidence, I just remembered, my son’s birthday is on the same day as yours."
Liu Mingxuan sent over the child’s birth certificate, with the name already chosen: Liu Junyou, the tone full of pride.
His Ai Bao had been ruined, which had irked him for a long time, but now he could finally take a satisfying revenge.
Lu Liang couldn’t help but laugh and cry: "Since it’s such a coincidence, he might as well take my surname. Lu Junyou seems to have a better implied meaning."
After replying, he didn’t look at his phone again. It was a message from the previous night; he checked and found that Li Manli was the only one missing.
Lu Liang thought for a moment, opened Panda, and realized that yesterday was Wednesday, but Li Manli had taken a day off due to sickness.
With a thoughtful look, Lu Liang said to his cousin driving the car, "Don’t go to the company; let’s first head back to Tangchen."
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Half an hour later, he arrived home and saw Li Manli curled up on the sofa like a little cat, with only a light blanket covering her belly.
Her long eyelashes trembled slightly, her eyes adorned with shiny diamond-like patches, and she was dressed in an exquisite Lolita maid outfit.
But a night had passed, and her makeup and hairstyle were disheveled, with the white stockings around her legs unintentionally rolled down to her ankles.
Colorful hydrogen balloons floated on the ceiling, and "Happy Birthday" decorations dangled from the wall.
Lu Liang looked on with a complex expression, sighed, put away his Nine-Eyed Sky Bead bracelet, and sat next to Li Manli.
He gazed at Li Manli’s sleeping face as it slowly softened. He brushed the clutter off the sofa and lay down beside her.
The sofa was almost four meters long, so they could lie vertically or side by side with plenty of space.
Lu Liang browsed his phone for a while.
Suddenly, he heard a soft hum beside his ear.
Li Manli hummed and stretched out her hand to scratch her neck, accidentally knocking Lu Liang’s phone to the floor.
She abruptly opened her eyes.
Lu Liang picked up the phone from the ground, turned to her, and smiled, "Good morning."
Their noses were only a fist’s width apart, although visually, everything was upside down.
Li Manli quickly sat up, too rushed to be happy, then screamed and hurriedly removed her blue contact lenses.
Rubbing her eyelids and blinking rapidly, she hoped to quickly relieve the dryness: "Liang, when did you come back?"
"Just now."
Lu Liang watched as her eyes became redder from rubbing: "Sleeping with contact lenses; do you not care about your eyes? Go take off your makeup quick."
"Oh~" Li Manli’s face showed her distress as she squinted like a drunk, staggering towards the bathroom.
Having rubbed her eyes too hard, she suddenly felt like there was something in her eyes, blurring her vision.
Lu Liang shook his head, sighed heavily, quickly went to assist her, and escorted Li Manli to the bathroom door.
Listening to the sound of flowing water, he headed to the kitchen. As expected, the dining table was covered with a lavish spread.
Inside the refrigerator was a cake over thirty inches in size with Taurus sculptures that glimmered as if wrapped in gold leaf.
Li Manli had more money than Su Wanyu, not an exaggeration to call her a little rich girl. Although she sent her first year’s signing fee back home, she earned at least two hundred thousand a month.
She hurried back after removing her makeup and saw Lu Liang standing in front of the fridge with a mournful face: "All the surprise is gone."
Lu Liang couldn’t help but grin, pinching her soft and tender little face: "Why didn’t you call me last night?"
"If it’s a surprise, it’s no longer a surprise if you say it."
Li Manli wore a look of dejection, like a salted fish that had lost its dreams, slumped on the table: "Who knew you’d be working all night on your birthday?"
She had quietly come back yesterday afternoon to prepare. After busying herself for five or six hours, she finally finished all the preparations before evening.
But she had waited and waited, probably until one or two in the morning, before she couldn’t stand it and fell asleep.
I seemed to have woken up for a moment in the middle of the night, but continued sleeping when I realized Liang hadn’t returned yet, until now.
Liang took out a cake from the fridge, lit the candles, and said with a light chuckle, "Celebrating your birthday now isn’t too late."
Li Manli beamed with delight, her face alight with excitement, as she introduced the golden bull on top, "This bull is not just for decoration, you know."
Liang was born in 1985, the year of the ox, not only a Taurus but also working in the finance industry, so she had the patisserie chef specially craft this bull to be the same design as the one on the Bund.
The outer layer was edible gold leaf, inside was chocolate filled with crushed pine nuts; she had tried a sample and it was delicious.
"Hold on a second."
Li Manli suddenly rushed back to her room in a flurry and came out with an exquisitely small box, "Here, this is for you."
An Audemars Piguet from the shimmering Starry Sky collection, with a blue and white dial, black strap, giving off an impression of luxury and grandeur from the first glance.
The price was indeed not cheap; she had spent half a year’s worth of live streaming income on this watch, enough to buy a Panamera.
Li Manli watched Lu Liang put on the watch, her eyes full of anticipation, "Do you like it?"
"I like it very much," Liang nodded with a smile. Although he was not in the habit of wearing a watch, it was the thought that counted.
Li Manli’s smile was bright as she quickly donned a kitchen apron, "You must be hungry, shall I heat up the food?"
Liang held onto Li Manli, wrapping his arms around her waist, "I don’t really feel like eating a big meal this morning, let’s just have some cake."
"Right, it’s starting to get hot now, it might have gone bad after being out all night."
Li Manli’s eyes darted around mischievously, she chuckled and finished off the remaining half of the golden bull, "One half for each, so the affection won’t fade."
Liang chuckled, pointing at the gold leaf he had picked out, and said abruptly, "Gold leaf isn’t digestible by the body."
"So what?"
"It will come out the same way it went in."
"...Can we not talk about this while eating?"
Liang stayed at home until the afternoon, then while heading to the office, he dropped Li Manli off at her villa in the West Suburb.
She planted a fierce kiss on Liang, waving goodbye cheerfully, "Bye, I’m off to work."
She skipped away in high spirits, even plucked a flower from the flowerbed to tuck in her hair, giving Liang a cute look.
Liang smiled, looking down at his watch, which he had just checked online to find was priced at 1.12 million.
"Let’s head back to the office," he said, taking out the Nine-Eyed Sky Bead from his pocket and putting it on his wrist.
In the afternoon, Liang received a financing plan from Li Bing and, after signing it, authorized Tang Caide to make the payment.
They were financing two hundred million dollars, holding 10% of the shares, contributing twenty million dollars in accordance with their share.
Then, Liang walked into the neighboring trading room.
Recently, due to disputes in the south, the stock market had been sluggish, and gold had spiked.
He had been paying close attention to this issue and even received long-awaited news last night that the yen had plummeted.
[July 12, the US Dollar/yen exchange rate is 113.1500]
This date and exchange rate conveyed one message.
On the southern issue, the country would take an unprecedentedly firm stance.
And where some stood firm, others would soften.
The US, Japan, and Philippines formed what they called an iron triangle; the United States being too firm, the Philippines too soft, leaving Japan just right in the squeeze.
And so it was in for a rough time.
"Slash weeds but leave the roots for the spring breeze to bring them back to life; crop after crop of leeks are cut and they grow back again the next year."
A buzz of excitement filled Liang’s eyes as he murmured to himself, "I have said it, I will take it back with interest."
Last year’s plunge in the yen ultimately ended with Anshan kowtowing to Ma Ao, pinnning the blame on him.
At the time, he had made just over six million, but was falsely rumored to have made over seventy million—in US dollars.
Although, looking at the current situation, being blamed at that time was more beneficial than detrimental overall.
It was still annoying, though.
Now, Liang had finally got the opportunity for his revenge, and this time, he aimed to earn more than just seventy million.
In the past ten months, the yen had been recovering lost ground, having shed the impact of that time, and had even made some gains.
The current exchange rate was 105.2600.
With a fall of 78900 basis points, if Liang could just give it a little push, stoke the fire, and badmouth the yen a bit more.
A 10% plunge was not out of the question.
If Soros could influence with mere words, so could he.