Although Xie Zhuzhou had years of experience with illness and weakness, he could not figure out what was wrong with his father.
It's no wonder Xie Zhuzhou didn't notice, because Ji Wuqiu kept covering his mouth while coughing.
Filial son Xie Zhuzhou was worried that there might be a traitor among the family doctors, so he didn't let those people into the room. Instead, he called his elder brother to find another doctor to treat their father.
My older brother was a bit silent on the other end; I don't know if it was just my imagination.
My second brother drove back as soon as he heard that our father was sick.
My third brother, who was at the arcade, didn't seem to hear about our father's illness. He just said the signal was bad and hung up.
Or should I take him to the hospital?
Ji Wuqiu's identity prevents him from easily lying in a hospital bed. If he were photographed as "the chairman of the Ji Group is seriously ill and hospitalized," it could cause internal chaos within the company, and the company's stock would also suffer.
"Father, if you want me to go to the company, just say so. Why pretend to be sick and lie to me? I'm very worried." Xie Zhuzhou came to his senses and realized that his father might be faking his illness.
He refused his father's request only after his father said he was lying to him.
Unfortunately, experience prevails, and Ji Wuqiu saw through his youngest son's plan. He sighed softly, "I'd get tired of lying to you."
Xie Zhuzhou looked at Ji Wuqiu's completely unperformed face and his heart skipped a beat. His mind became flustered and confused. At this moment, all he could think about was who would protect him if anything happened to his father!
"Father, you probably just have a cold. There are a lot of flu cases around the Lunar New Year." Xie Zhuzhou thought it was probably a false alarm.
Wait a minute, the flu can be fatal if it gets severe now; there are countless cases of people's lungs turning completely white within days.
Thinking about it this way, Xie Zhuzhou was truly terrified.
With his father's eyes full of expectations, Xie Zhuzhou had no choice but to obey.
Ji Wuqiu: "You can go for three months."
Xie Zhuzhou felt that three months, rounded up, was roughly 100 days—wow! That's longer than the filming time for a dating reality show.
"One month." He quickly bargained.
"Two months." Ji Wuqiu finished speaking and then coughed violently.
Xie Zhuzhou was caught in a dilemma, and could only say with a heavy heart, "One and a half months! No more than that!"
A sly glint flashed in Ji Wuqiu's eyes. He slowly closed his eyes and opened them again, weakly saying, "Alright, then a month and a half it will be." He had originally thought that he would be grateful if his youngest son could work for a month, but he didn't expect to have an extra half month.
You can learn a lot in a month and a half.
Ji Wuqiu hadn't considered whether Xie Zhuzhou, who also had to go to school, could handle it; at this moment, he was in a very good mood.
"Alright, I want to rest for a bit. You can all leave now."
Xie Zhuzhou nodded blankly, then said that the new doctor would be here soon, and to wait a little longer.
It wasn't until he was standing outside the door that Xie Zhuzhou came to his senses. "Tell me, did my father lie to me?"
"I don't know either..." They were just having a barbecue, the fire should be going out by now, right? Chu Yanzhang didn't think too much about it. He believed that Uncle Ji's illness wasn't serious, and he looked quite well when they were having the barbecue.
I suppose that when someone is sick, they can pause or resume their routine at any time.
Chu Yanzhang then asked, " Zhouzhou, shall we continue barbecuing?"
Xie Zhuzhou glanced at the doorway. "Let's grill. The charcoal's already lit, and the grill's on. Uncle Butler, you join us too."
The butler nodded. "Yes, young master."
The barbecue was still going on, Xie Zhuzhou realized he would actually have to work for a month and a half! That's a whole month and a half! His school schedule hadn't even been released yet! And someone was already squeezing his time out!
He gnawed on the crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside golden chicken wing with a heavy heart, "So fragrant, so delicious..." He thought to himself, "I ate too blandly in my past life! This life is much better." However, the young master, who had never experienced hardship, felt a bit unlucky. In ancient times, there was no concept of going to work. The other people in the Marquis's mansion who went to court and were on duty could barely be considered to be going to work.
Chu Yanzhang had no Xie Zhuzhou was thinking. He smiled and comforted him, "Don't worry, just do it your way. Your family are all very kind people; they certainly won't let you suffer."
"I know Father wants me to stand on my own two feet early so I won't get taken advantage of later. But even someone as smart as you was still outmaneuvered by Chu Yu and his gang, wasn't you?"
What does this show? Even the smartest person can be caught off guard one day!
Chu Yanzhang: "..." That makes a lot of sense. He couldn't refute it. As expected of Zhouzhou.
While enjoying himself, Xie Zhuzhou also worried unnecessarily. "Actually, as long as someone conspires to set me up, blinding me to the bigger picture, even if I'm incredibly capable, I can't escape being tricked."
"I think your uncle probably just wants you to take a look; maybe you'll be interested in the company's affairs." Anyway, with him around, it doesn't matter if Zhouzhou doesn't understand business. As long as someone gets in Zhouzhou's way, he can just secretly take care of them.
Xie Zhuzhou was very interested in money, especially money that came from all directions, but he wasn't interested in the Golden Palace that he had built brick by brick, because it was too tiring.
"If I had to talk about interests, lying down would be my ultimate goal."
"You were born to do this, and you're already doing it."
Xie Zhuzhou: "Don't know me too well."
Chu Yanzhang felt secretly guilty. It seemed that Zhouzhou had forgotten about being angry with him these past few days, but he wouldn't bring it up. He didn't want Zhouzhou to distance herself from him. Fortunately, Zhouzhou was the kind of person who would forget her hatred after a good night's sleep.
While the two were reminiscing, Ji Wangyun back in an off-road vehicle with snow chains on the wheels, making for an incredibly cool and stylish scene.
Ji Wangyun felt that parking in the underground garage and then walking back up was too much trouble, so he simply parked in the small parking lot at the entrance.
"Little brother! I'm back!"
As soon as Aolai saw Ji Wangyun return, he ran over excitedly. Although he had some injuries on his mouth and neck, it didn't affect Aolai's handsomeness.
" Aolai, you're here too? Didn't you go play?" Ji Wangyun wanted to bend down and touch Aolai, but then remembered that she hadn't washed her hands, so she hurriedly ran to wash them.
After washing his hands, he squeezed between the two of them and domineeringly demanded that Chu Yanzhang grill a few skewers for him as well.
Chu Yanzhang: "..." Don't you have hands of your own?
Xie Zhuzhou had already forgotten that there was a sick old father upstairs.
"How is Dad now? He shouldn't have caught a cold, right? He used to be able to go winter swimming." Ji Wangyun helped her younger brother finish the slightly cold skewers.
Xie Zhuzhou: "He was coughing very badly, and later the doctor my older brother called said to observe him for two more days."
Ji Wangyun looked at Xie Zhuzhou's face, which seemed about to split open, and said, "Impossible! Father's lungs are very healthy."
"Being able to winter swim doesn't necessarily mean you can fight off a cold, since the water for winter swimming isn't always cold..." Xie Zhuzhou comforted himself.
Ji Wangyun was still unaware of what his brother had promised their father. He found Chu Yanzhang to be too meticulous and slow in his actions, like a sloth, and wondered how his brother could tolerate it.
Ji Wangyun asked his steward uncle to give him a few skewers as well, as he wanted to grill them himself.
The butler was merely a figurehead, quietly serving the young masters. He was like an NPC who could randomly appear in various parts of the house and move to different locations in the manor at any time.