It's quite strange to say that Lu Ming is not familiar with Yan Xiaohui. He only met her for the first time at a cocktail party at the British Consulate, but he is very familiar with Yan Xiaohui's father, Yan Hongdao.
At that time, Lu Ming's father came to Shanghai to do raw silk and cooked silk business. Yan Hongdao was Lu Ming's father's partner. They worked together for many years. Later, Lu Ming's father became a manager in Sheng Youde's company.
After Lu Ming's father retired and returned to his hometown in Huzhou, Yan Hongdao often stopped by to visit his old friends because of business. Therefore, Lu Ming got to know Yan Hongdao very early and always called him Uncle Yan.
After Lu Ming came to Shanghai, he kept most of his friends from his father's generation at a distance and never bothered him unless there was a special reason. He kept in touch with the Sheng family more, mainly because of Yuan Mingzhu. Ziyuan was the prospective daughter-in-law of the Sheng family, and Yuan Mingzhu was Sheng Muyi's daughter-in-law.
Best friend, he can't hide even if he wants to.
"Dad, why are you here?" Yan Xiaohui asked in surprise.
"Why can't I come here? This is my family's territory." Yan Hongdao said with a smile.
"Dad, you are making fun of me again, I mean you never come to the cafe." Yan Xiaohui said coquettishly.
"Aren't we going to entertain guests in a few days? I'm going to come over and choose some good coffee myself. I heard that coffee is also popular among Japanese people now," Yan Hongdao explained.
"The world is getting faster." Lu Ming blurted out involuntarily.
"Well, it turns out you two know each other." He looked at his daughter and Lu Ming.
"We know each other, we are still good friends." Yan Xiaohui smiled and almost went up to grab Lu Ming's arm.
"Good friends, that's right. I've long been optimistic about this baby from the Lu family. I originally wanted to make a baby for you, but it's a pity that I was a little late and let Old Ghost Yuan take the lead." Yan Hongdao regretted.
"Ah, is there anything else?"
Lu Ming and Yan Xiaohui were both shocked.
Yan Xiaohui was secretly happy. What does this mean? It means that Lu Ming and her are destined to be together, and she did not see the wrong person. But Lu Ming was wondering, was he so popular when he was a child? The East family robbed him, and the West family robbed him.
He had seen photos of himself when he was a child, and found that there was nothing surprising about them.
"Well, you must get along well with each other at all times. The friendship between our elders must be passed down to your generation." Yan Hongdao looked at the two of them, and there was something in his words.
"Dad, are you familiar with Uncle Lu?" Yan Xiaohui was also puzzled.
Growing up, she rarely heard her father talk about the Lu family. She didn't even know that her father had visited the Lu family many times.
"Of course we are very familiar with each other. We ate from the same pot, slept in the same room, and even fought for the same woman."
"What happened next?" Yan Xiaohui listened with interest.
"Later, I didn't argue, and that woman became this boy's mother. That's fine, otherwise I wouldn't have you anymore." Yan Hongdao pointed at his daughter and smiled bitterly.
Lu Ming blushed. He really didn't want to hear about the grudges of his predecessors, and his father had never told him about these past events.
He now understands a little bit why Yan Hongdao often dropped by Huzhou back then. Was it a drop-in? Was it to visit an old friend? Of course it was, but not only that, there was also an unexplained and unexplained concern.
"So, you almost became my brother." Yan Xiaohui became excited and said with a smile to Lu Ming.
"Uh, this... what does this have to do with?" Lu Ming didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Yan Hongdao chose a few kinds of coffee and left. Before leaving, he patted Lu Ming on the shoulder and repeatedly asked him to go home for dinner. Lu Ming had no choice but to agree.
While drinking his favorite cappuccino, Yan Xiaohui stared at Lu Ming and said with a smile, "I'm still wondering why I like you so much. It turns out that you almost became my brother. I'll just call you brother from now on."
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"Xiao Hui, you believe your father's nonsense." Lu Mingzhen still didn't quite believe Yan Hongdao's words.
"My dad doesn't talk nonsense. I only knew it after I met you. Otherwise, I wouldn't know at all. My dad never mentioned anything about his youth."
"Well, it's the same with my father. They were both influential figures in Shanghai's Shili Foreign Exchange, but they seemed to have forgotten these years after retirement." Lu Ming nodded.
As Lu Ming said this, he was thinking about the scene just now: Yan Hongdao left with several cans of coffee. The coffee cans were quite big and could probably fit into a pocket pistol.
"The coffee you have here is really good. I would also like to choose a few cans, okay?" Lu Ming asked.
"Okay, you are almost my brother, you can take whatever you want here!" Yan Xiaohui was still immersed in excitement.
"I drank it in the United States for a few years, but I didn't become addicted to it. Unexpectedly, I traveled to Italy and fell in love with the coffee there. I still remember it fresh." Lu Ming changed the topic.
"Then you have come to the right place. All my coffee is imported from Italy. From now on, you can come and get the coffee yourself. I will tell the manager later." Yan Xiaohui said boldly.
"Take a few cans back and try them. I don't drink them often." Lu Ming was still thinking in his mind.
It's strange to say that he usually doesn't drink anything when no one is around. When he's thirsty, he just takes a few sips of boiled water. Wine, coffee, and tea are just tools for him to make friends.
After drinking coffee with Yan Xiaohui for half an hour, Lu Ming heard Yan Xiaohui call her brother no less than a hundred times, which made his skin stand on end.
Lu Ming had seen the wild and bold Yan Xiaohui, the intellectual, beautiful and generous Yan Xiaohui, and today he was introduced to the bone-soft Yan Xiaohui.
For a moment, he even had an idea in his mind. He could just borrow the donkey from the slope and call each other brother and sister with Yan Xiaohui. That would make it easier to get along in the future. But he gave up the idea for no reason other than that he felt
It's not time yet.
Before leaving, he selected a few cans of coffee, which were actually coffee beans. They needed to be ground freshly at home, then filtered with filter paper, and then brewed in a special coffee pot.
Yan Xiaohui brought him a small electric grinder for grinding coffee and a lot of filter paper. Lu Ming took these back to his apartment.
He measured it with his hands and found that the .38 revolver should be fine when placed in a coffee can, but after a brief inspection, it became apparent that it must be a small one, preferably a special pocket pistol.
This kind of pocket pistol is not exclusively used by agents, but is specially made for women abroad. It can generally only hold one bullet. As long as you wear gloves, it will not be exposed when you hold it in your hand, so it is called pocket pistol.
Where can I find pocket pistols? He thought of the evidence room of the police station, where various pistols were stored, and immediately rushed to Cai Lian's house.
After meeting Zhang Ziyang, Lu Ming quietly expressed his thoughts.
Zhang Ziyang thought for a while and shook his head. The police station has collected many weapons over the years, but he has never seen such a pocket-sized pistol.
At this time Cai Lian came over and said, "I said Lu Ming, where did you go this afternoon? If you don't wait here, Mingzhu will be angry."
They walked around the streets all afternoon, bought a lot of fabrics, and found a tailor to sew. When Mingzhu came back, she saw that Lu Ming had disappeared, so she turned around and left in anger.
"Why is she angry? She didn't ask me to wait for her." Lu Ming felt confused.
"If I don't let you wait, then you won't wait. How did you coax the pearl into your hands?" Cai Lian said angrily.
"I didn't coax her. We grew up playing together, and then this happened." Lu Ming said with a smile.
"Oh, childhood sweetheart, childhood sweetheart, no one can compare to this, I can't envy you." Zhang Ziyang sighed.
"Why, do you also want to go back to your childhood sweetheart?" Cai Lian asked, staring at Zhang Ziyang.
"Where can I find it? I'm just a childhood sweetheart. If I don't have a sweetheart, I'm just Lu Ming, haha." Zhang Ziyang said with a smile.
Cai Lian was also amused by him: "Lu Ming, you haven't eaten yet. Let's eat together later."
Lu Ming was not polite. Cai Lian's place was almost like his own apartment. He could eat when he needed to and drink when he needed to. When he was tired, he could lie down on Cai Lian's big bed and take a nap.
Cai Lian cooked several exquisite dishes and drank a few glasses of wine with the two brothers.
She is basically out of business now. She usually just goes out to make some money and will never receive guests, even old acquaintances. Therefore, her monthly income is not much. In addition to supporting a few people, she also has to save for herself.
With the ransom money, life was very tight.
Lu Ming secretly put down a five-thousand-yuan banknote last time, and Cai Lian accepted it, but he didn't tell Zhang Ziyang, otherwise his pride would be unbearable.
Zhang Ziyang is like this, he can take anyone's money, but he can't take money from his good friends. He said this is the last bit of dignity.
Cai Lian also wanted to maintain her self-esteem, but she knew that relying on her own money to redeem her life was basically an unattainable dream, and relying on Zhang Ziyang was even more unfathomable, as he himself was full of holes.
You can make a lot of money by going out to receive guests. Even though she is older, there are still many guests who care about her, and there are a few who spend a lot of money, but it would be very embarrassing for Zhang Ziyang to do so.
Cai Lian is twenty-four years old this year, but a person who has been polished in the dust is already weathered at this age.
"By the way, haven't you two been following the case of Miss Shanda's disappearance? Why haven't I heard anything from you recently?" Cai Lian suddenly asked.
"That case has hit a wall and can no longer be investigated." Zhang Ziyang sighed.
"It's not that we've hit a wall, but that some people don't want us to investigate and use various means to interfere with and disrupt our investigation process, so we have to remove this resistance first before we can go back to investigate the case." Lu Ming corrected.
"Oh, that's right." Cai Lian said thoughtfully.
"Anyway, I'm a little discouraged. There are too many clues in this case." Zhang Ziyang scratched his head.
"By the way, are you and Du Juan getting close? Are you really fake? This girl whispered to me a few words. Isn't it just wishful thinking on her part?" Cai Lian asked Lu Ming with a smile.
"Okay, when did you hook up? Let me tell you, you should be friends with Du Juan. This girl is loved and sincere to you." Zhang Ziyang's eyes instantly lit up.
"Go away, what do you mean by hooking up? Du Juan came to see me yesterday, I invited her to a meal, or she told me about Zheng Chunyue, so I could find you." Lu Ming explained.
"Let me tell you, you should just take that girl in. Anyway, you don't live with Mingzhu now. Let's get a second room first." Zhang Ziyang said with a bad idea.
"Don't make bad ideas, okay?" Cai Lian took the chopsticks and patted Zi Yang's head lightly.
"Miss Mingzhu is such a good person, how could Lu Ming be so sorry to her?"
"Yes, Sister Cai Lian still understands the truth." Lu Ming said with a smile.
"What's the use of understanding things? Who doesn't know that that little girl is infatuated with you? If you don't want her, then you will destroy her. Saving someone's life is better than building a seven-level pagoda." Zhang Ziyang said.
Lu Ming had no idea how to settle his relationship with Du Juan, and if he couldn't solve the problem himself, others couldn't help him.
In fact, outsiders have no way to interfere in the emotional affairs between men and women. They just encourage them when they are good and comfort them when they are bad.
Just like now, even though Cai Lian was worried about Lu Ming, she couldn't come up with a better solution.
In private, she had tried to persuade Du Juan many times, asking her to understand that it was completely impossible for her and Lu Ming to do anything. If she continued like this, she would only destroy herself and hurt Lu Ming in the end.
It's a pity that no matter what, the cuckoo will go all the way to the dark side. In the words of lotus collectors, it is like a bastard who eats the weight and becomes determined.