Although Wang Shuxiu couldn’t bear to be angry with Lu Lingxi, it didn’t mean that she would immediately agree to the two of them being together. Even though what Xiao Feng said made sense, she still had some concerns in her heart, afraid that Lu Lingxi would regret it in the future. She basically didn’t sleep much this night, thinking about what to do with Yan Yue over and over again. Should she acquiesce to Yan Yue’s contact with the little bastard, or temporarily isolate the two of them?

At breakfast, Wang Shuxiu was a little distracted by the events of last night. Xiao Feng had been driving Lu Lingxi to the shop for the past few days, and she hadn’t decided whether to do so today when she heard a knock on the door.

“Who’s coming so early?” Wang Shuxiu said casually.

Lu Lingxi was the closest to the door, so he ran to open it in a flash. “Big Brother Yan.” He didn’t expect to see Yan Yue at the door and called out in surprise, subconsciously turning his head to see Wang Shuxiu’s reaction.

Outside the door, Yan Yue was standing with a gentle expression, wearing a well-cut black coat that made him look very upright. He seemed to have guessed that it would be Lu Lingxi who would come to open the door, so he smiled at Lu Lingxi, saying softly, “Has Xiao Xi eaten yet?”

Lu Lingxi nodded blankly, then quickly remembered something and asked nervously, “What are you doing here, Big Brother Yan?” The latter half of the sentence sounded lower and lower as he was afraid that Wang Shuxiu would hear him.

Yan Yue chuckled lightly. With a calm expression he nodded politely to Wang Shuxiu past Lu Lingxi and said, “I’m here to pick up Xiao Xi to go to the shop.” He spoke in a natural tone, as if nothing had happened last night.

When he finished, not only did Lu Lingxi look astonished, but also Wang Shuxiu and Xiao Feng were speechless.

Yan Yue took Wang Shuxiu’s silence as agreement, and in front of the two parents, he intimately reached out and rubbed Lu Lingxi’s hair, saying gently, “Go and put on your coat, I’ll wait for you at the door.”

Lu Lingxi looked at Yan Yue and then turned his head to look at Wang Shuxiu, put on his coat in a daze and said to Wang Shuxiu and Xiao Feng, “Dad, Mom, I’m going to the shop.”

Yan Yue thus took Lu Lingxi away in front of his parents. It wasn’t until Lu Lingxi was out of the door that Wang Shuxiu came back to her senses. She couldn’t believe what had happened just now. How on earth did Yan Yue manage to stand in front of them as if nothing had happened and pick up Lu Lingxi with a straight face!

“Yan Yue, he…”

Xiao Feng laughed in his heart but didn’t dare to show it on his face. He coaxed Wang Shuxiu instead. “Yan Yue will take Xiao Xi to the shop just in time. Xiaohua, aren’t you thinking of moving? We’ll go over there later and take a look.”

Speaking of moving, Wang Shuxiu only then remembered that there was such a thing. She was thinking of moving before mainly to separate Lu Lingxi and Yan Yue. As for the future space for the child in her belly, it was still early for him to be born, so there was not much of a hurry. But… Wang Shuxiu was a little hesitant. She still remembered what Xiao Feng said last night, Lu Lingxi and Yan Yue were happy together, what was the point in forcing them to separate? Did she still want to move then?

As she hesitated so much, Xiao Feng could see her meaning and shook his head helplessly. No matter how hard-mouthed Xiaohua was, in her heart she still put Lu Lingxi’s wishes first. Yan Yue was the winner here. Xiao Feng had to admit that Yan Yue was not bad for their kind of family; he truly personified what was called “thick-skinned and black-hearted”. 

“Moving is not a matter of a day or two. Big Brother has bought a lot of things these days, it’ll take a while to pack them all. Let’s take a look first.”

“Okay, let’s take a look first.”

Wang Shuxiu was led by Xiao Feng to change the subject, and then compromised on the matter of moving once again.

Of course, Lu Lingxi didn’t know that his mother had started to hesitate about moving. He was sitting beside Yan Yue, smiling, telling him about what had happened in the shop in the past two days. There were some things he had already told Yan Yue on the phone, but there were some little things he hadn’t had time to talk about yet, and the ten-minute drive was just enough for him to talk about them all over again.

At the last traffic light in front of Tiny Garden, Yan Yue stopped the car and waited for the green light. Lu Lingxi was talking to Yan Yue about the interesting story of Dahei over at Fang Lei’s place when Yan Yue suddenly reached out and took hold of Lu Lingxi’s hand, interlocking their fingers tightly.

“Big Brother Yan…”

Yan Yue looked sideways at Lu Lingxi and smiled slightly. He was already handsome. At this time, the winter sun had just risen, and the golden sunlight through the car window gilded Yan Yue’s smile with a light layer of soft light. He looked at Lu Lingxi with a very focused gaze, his eyes were dark, as if they were rivers of stars in the sky, full of a desperate tenderness. 

Lu Lingxi’s heart thudded; Yan Yue ignored the traffic on both sides and quickly leaned over to give Lu Lingxi a kiss on the lips, smiling, “I wanted to kiss you when you opened the door this morning, and I’ve been holding back until now.”

He said it so bluntly that the tips of Lu Lingxi’s ears turned red at once.

Yan Yue was in a very good mood, not only because Lu Lingxi was by his side, but also because of Wang Shuxiu’s attitude in the morning. He was certainly not so naive to think that Wang Shuxiu would agree to Lu Lingxi being with him in one night, but he could see that the other party’s attitude had softened and it was now more of a stalemate. Yan Yue knew that aside from all kinds of tricks, the only way he could impress Wang Shuxiu was to be good to Xiao Xi. As a mother, this was what Wang Shuxiu wanted to see most.

When the green light came on, Yan Yue let go of Lu Lingxi and turned a corner to the street of Tiny Garden. Yan Yue still had something to do and had to leave after dropping Lu Lingxi off at the shop. Before he left, Yan Yue stopped Lu Lingxi and kissed him for a long time before leaving him reluctantly.

“I’ll pick you up tonight and take you home.” Yan Yue instructed in a soft voice.

Lu Lingxi nodded obediently.

After sending Yan Yue away, Lu Lingxi quickly got busy. Tiny Garden had been closed for a few days during the New Year, and many of its regular customers had come over after the New Year. Although Tiny Garden’s main focus was on the sale of evolved plants such as chlorophytum and begonias, and the retail sales in the Tiny Garden shop didn’t make much money at all, Lu Lingxi still enjoyed being in the shop and receiving all kinds of different customers every day.

Not long after Yan Yue left, Elder Zhang arrived at Tiny Garden with his precious orchid in his arms. Elder Zhang was going to come for a long time  but either Lu Lingxi or he had something to do, so after much procrastination, both of them finally had time today.

As soon as Elder Zhang entered the shop, he called out to Lu Lingxi with a smile on his face, “Xiao Xi, come and see my flower.”

Lu Lingxi put down the watering can in his hand and quickly greeted him. Elder Zhang cherished his orchid very much and used the best clay pot to raise it. At first, he wanted to use a purple clay pot, the most expensive pot available, but Lu Lingxi stopped him from doing so. Although purple clay pots were beautiful and elegant in appearance, they were not particularly good in terms of permeability and water penetration. Among all the common flower pots such as clay pots, porcelain pots and lacquer pots, the best pots for water penetration and air permeability were clay pots.

Not only the pot, but also the soil and fertiliser used for the orchid were the best in Tiny Garden. Elder Zhang devoted countless hours of his time and effort to taking care of the orchid, and in Elder Zhao’s words, he probably cared about it much more than he cared about himself.

Elder Zhang’s efforts were rewarded. The spring orchid in front of him looked proud and strong, with long and vigorous leaves, shiny and lustrous, very verdant. Lu Lingxi habitually scanned the plant, and the information on the spring orchid appeared in his mind.

Plant name: Wild spring orchid

Plant needs: none

Plant vitality: very high

Plant Status: primary peak

Plant evolution condition triggered, please select the direction of plant evolution.

Lu Lingxi was a little surprised. When he sold this spring orchid to Elder Zhang half a year ago, the spring orchid had just been saved by him, and its newborn root system was still very weak, so if it wasn’t raised properly it could die. He didn’t expect that after Elder Zhang’s careful care, this spring orchid would reach the evolutionary requirements in just half a year’s time.

Lu Lingxi scanned through the evolutionary directions given by the panel. Generally speaking, the evolutionary directions for ornamental flowers were mostly of two kinds: one was more beautiful flowers and the other was more fragrant flowers. Lu Lingxi didn’t take the liberty of deciding, but pretended to ask Elder Zhang casually, “Grandpa Zhang, do you prefer orchids that look good or flowers that smell pleasant?”

Elder Zhang didn’t understand what he meant and said smilingly, “I like both.”

Lu Lingxi carefully pinched the soil inside the flower pot that was slightly dry, watered it a little and asked, “Which do you like better?”

Elder Zhang was a bit baffled with this question. He pondered over the beauty of the orchid, which was so pure and graceful, and the fragrance of the orchid, which was so distant and elegant. It was hard to choose. But since Xiao Xi had asked, Elder Zhang gave his answer after a long time of comparison. “It’s better to have beautiful flowers. Your Grandpa Zhao’s nose is not good, he can’t feel the fragrance of flowers that much, but he can still see well when looking at flowers.”

Lu Lingxi didn’t expect Elder Zhang’s reason to be this. He lowered his head in amusement and chose the evolutionary direction of more beautiful flowers while Elder Zhang wasn’t paying attention. After finishing this, Lu Lingxi put away the panel and asked in passing why Grandpa Zhao hadn’t come.

“Isn’t it because of that donglingcao experiment you guys made, Xiao Xi, it totally hooked your Grandpa Zhao’s soul. These days he doesn’t even go to the flower market anymore, he goes to the lab to watch the experiments when he has time.”

Elder Zhang was half happy for Elder Zhao and half complaining that he had left him alone and bored. Lu Lingxi heard what Elder Zhang meant and smiled vivaciously.

“Grandpa Zhang can come to Tiny Garden if he’s bored, there are a few camellias blooming in the plant nursery, they are rare double-petal mutated species. I’ll bring one for you next time.”

Elder Zhang’s eyes lit up when he heard about the mutated species, and he said repeatedly, “Good, good.”

The old man and the young man got so excited about their conversation that Elder Zhang almost forgot the purpose of his visit. “Xiao Xi, do you have time in May?”

Lu Lingxi was taken aback, and Elder Zhang smiled and said, “There is an orchid exhibition at the beginning of May at the Kunnan Botanical Garden that brings together famous orchids from all over the world. Your Grandpa Zhao and I have already agreed to go together. If Xiao Xi can go, he can come too. Your Grandpa Zhao has relatives there, and food and accommodation are all included.”

Elder Zhang said that and curved his eyes at Lu Lingxi in a childish manner, “This kind of opportunity to take advantage of your Grandpa Zhao is rare, Xiao Xi must come, don’t save money for your Grandpa Zhao.”

The old man’s words were funny, and Lu Lingxi couldn’t help but laugh. In his heart he was thinking that Wang Chaoliang was also at the Kunnan Botanical Garden, so perhaps he should really go and have a look sometime. Both the part of the botanical garden that wasn’t open to the public and the orchid exhibition were very rare opportunities, and both happened to be in the same place, so it would be a pity if he couldn’t use them.

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