While Le Qing was sticking double-sided tape with the kids, she looked up inadvertently and saw that Mr. Xie's hands were clenched into fists. She asked in confusion, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
This was the third time.
But every time, there was something wrong.
Jiang Suizhi really couldn't figure out why he was always mistaken for an unromantic middle - aged man. "Am I that old?"
Le Qing, who had never seen this man's real face, replied, "… Probably not?"
Jiang Suizhi's expression under the mask improved a bit.
He squatted down at an appropriate distance. "Go and do your own thing. I'll handle this with them."
He couldn't really let Le Qing help him paste the couplets.
As a model, Le Qing was actually not short, but Mr. Xie was half a head taller than her. It would actually be better for him to do it himself.
But with the kids around, she couldn't take her eyes off them. "I'll help with sticking the tape. I'm just idle anyway. But, Mr. Xie, don't you want to go home first?"
He went downstairs to get the couplets without even entering his house and was now directly starting to paste them. Le Qing had never seen such a strange habit before.
Jiang Suizhi paused in his movements. "It's not urgent."
It was someone else's family matter, so Le Qing didn't ask further. She lowered her head and guided the two kids hand - in - hand. "Here."
Pasting couplets for someone else was different from pasting them at her own home. It was better to be more careful.
At this time, her phone rang. It was the person who came to deliver things for Brother Jiang. Le Qing opened the downstairs door for him.
She had roughly known from the pictures that Brother Jiang would bring quite a lot of things today, but when she saw the huge pile in the elevator, she was still shocked. "Are all these for my place?"
The bodyguard in charge of delivery stammered, "Um … yes."
Regardless of how others did business, Le Qing thought that if Brother Jiang continued like this, he would surely lose money.
She blocked the elevator. "Come out first."
"Thank you." As soon as the bodyguard stepped out of the elevator with his front foot, when he saw the man squatting on the ground, his back foot stepped on his own heel and he fell to the ground with a thud.
Didn't Mr. Jiang say he would come up for just a few minutes and then go back to the old mansion? Why was he still here? He had come right on time, so he couldn't have been wrong, could he?
Le Qing was startled. Worried that the elevator would pinch the man, she quickly leaned over to help him up. "Are you okay?"
The two kids also rushed over to help this careless uncle.
"There's a small stool here." Little Le Jia moved the empty small stool beside the uncle. "Uncle, sit."
The bodyguard waved his hands hurriedly. "No no no, I don't need it."
With the boss here, he didn't dare to sit.
He didn't even dare to look in the boss's direction. Making a mess of things would result in a deduction from his pay. "I'll help you move the things in."
He had fallen solidly on the floor. Just hearing the sound made Le Qing's knees ache. She really couldn't bear it. "You take a rest. I can do it myself. The things aren't heavy."
The bodyguard stood up straight and assured her, "I can do it!"
"You …" Le Qing looked at his pale face from the pain and his bent knee. "Go to the hospital first. Do you need me to go with you?"
After all, the accident happened in front of her door.
"No, I'm fine!" The bodyguard wanted to endure the pain and move the things in, but when he saw the boss getting up from the corner of his eye, he subconsciously fell silent.
"I'll do it." Jiang Suizhi didn't look at him. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves and looked at Le Qing. "Do you have gloves?"
Le Qing was more afraid of troubling an injured person than troubling a neighbor. Moreover, this neighbor had seen her make a fool of herself several times. She nodded. "Yes, I'll go get them."
After seeing Le Qing enter the house, Jiang Suizhi casually glanced at the bodyguard. "Go to the hospital and get checked."
Feeling the boss's gaze, the bodyguard shivered. "I'll go right away!"
It was just a fall and a slight sprain. There wasn't really anything serious, but since the boss had spoken, he'd better leave quickly!
When Le Qing came out with the gloves, Jiang Suizhi had already moved all the things out of the elevator, and the delivery guy was nowhere to be seen. "Where is he?"
"Gone to the hospital."
Le Qing was about to call to check on the situation when she heard Mr. Xie say, "Their boss will reimburse the expenses."
Right, this counted as a work - related injury.
Le Qing handed him the gloves and lent a hand herself. She smiled and said, "It seems that Brother Jiang is a nice guy."
Jiang Suizhi, who was putting on the gloves, slightly raised his eyebrows. "Brother Jiang?"
"He's the boss of that delivery guy just now. He's in the general merchandise wholesale business. They have everything and the goods are of good quality and reasonably priced." Le Qing said, "If you need anything, I can give you his contact information."
Jiang Suizhi smiled. "Thanks, but no need."
Le Qing understood. Not everyone was like her, and Mr. Xie didn't seem like the kind of person who would use wholesale goods, even though she thought the things were really of good quality.
"He said he'd pack them all together. I didn't expect there to be so many. I gave too little money."
Jiang Suizhi picked up the box and followed her into the house. "Since he packed them himself, it's his problem. You don't have to worry about it."
"That's true, but we can't let others do business at a loss." Le Qing pointed to an empty space for him. "Just put it there. I'll tidy it up later."
Most of the things inside were food and drinks. She didn't want to be polite with people by pushing the things back and forth, so she decided to take them all and then make up the money for Brother Jiang later.
Jiang Suizhi gave an affirmative sound and then went back outside to move the remaining things.
The two little kids always remembered what their aunt had said about not standing on high places. So, without their aunt and the uncle coming over, they didn't stand on the stool. Instead, they picked the things they could carry and helped to move them.
"I'll count one, two, three!" Little Le Jia and his sister were carrying the same small box.
"Okay!"
"One, two, three!"
After lifting the small box, the two kids slowly shuffled towards home.
They were still shouting slogans in unison. "Come on, work hard! An'an, use more strength!"
Jiang Suizhi was leaning against the door frame waiting for them to come back. Seeing this, he didn't step forward to help but patiently waited. After hearing the slogan, he let out a soft laugh.
Le Qing walked out from behind him. "Huh?"
"Nothing. I just suddenly thought …" Jiang Suizhi stepped aside to make way for the kids. "You've raised them well."
Hearing this, Le Qing couldn't help but look at him.
But the other person didn't say anything more. Instead, he walked past the two kids and went outside to bring back the remaining things.
"Thank you for your hard work." Le Qing poured him a glass of water. "The restroom is over there. Wash your hands and have a drink."
"Thanks."
Although he said so, Jiang Suizhi just put the glass of water on the table and took off his gloves to go to the restroom to wash his hands.
On the way, he casually glanced around the furnishings of the whole house.
Sister Wang had told him some basic information when she came here before, saying that this place didn't seem like a place for raising kids.
Maybe because Sister Wang had brought in some things, the house was now a bit cluttered but not in a mess. It was very clean.
There were mainly a lot of toys and kids' books on the sofa, and there were also many small snacks on the table.
Even in the guest bathroom outside the master bedroom, two small stools were neatly placed, along with children's hand sanitizer. Almost everything in the house was for kids.
As for adult stuff, there were hardly any traces.
Jiang Suizhi quickly finished washing his hands and came out. Le Qing and the kids had already gone outside.
The glass of water was still there untouched. He stared at it for a few seconds but didn't walk over. Instead, he walked straight out of the house.
At this moment, Le Qing was standing on the stool, pasting Spring Festival couplets on her "home". The two kids were standing on either side of her, their small bodies firmly holding the chair.
"Auntie, be careful!"
"An'an will catch auntie."
Jiang Suizhi's eyes darkened a bit, but he didn't interrupt. He only stepped forward when Le Qing was about to paste the horizontal scroll: "Let me do it."
After pasting the couplets, the doors of the two households were now symmetrically aligned. Since Jiang Suizhi also let the two kids paste the character "Fu" at the bottom of the door, it looked kind of comical at first glance.
But perhaps because it all looked so new, Le Qing really felt like it was Chinese New Year.
Le Qing cleaned up the trash on the ground: "Then we'll go back first."
The two little kids were very sensible and picked up their small stools. There was still one left, and the siblings carried it together, one holding one side with a hand: "Goodbye, uncle!"
Le Qing gently said, "You should say Happy New Year to uncle."
The kids readily complied: "Happy New Year, uncle!"
Jiang Suizhi's fingertips started to itch again. He really wanted to touch the heads of the two kids.
But in the end, he just took out three red envelopes from his overcoat pocket and handed them over: "Happy New Year."
Red envelopes!
Just like the ones auntie gave to Brother Xuxu!
"Lucky money," Jiang Suizhi placed the red envelopes on the small stool held by the two kids in the middle. "Grow up healthily."
They couldn't just take money from others casually, but the kids wanted the red envelopes. To them, the meaning of the red envelope was more important than the money inside.
The two kids kept shaking their heads, but their eyes were fixed on the red envelopes. They rubbed their shoes on the ground: "Uncle, it's not good."
If they had free hands, Le Qing would have suspected that they had already opened their coat pockets. She held back her laughter: "Take them."
The kids immediately looked up: "Is it okay?"
"Yes, say thank you to uncle."
"Thank you, uncle!"
Jiang Suizhi couldn't help smiling: "You're welcome. Go back."
"But," Le Qing noticed something was wrong and asked in confusion, "Why are there three?"
Jiang Suizhi looked up and said, "One is for you."
Le Qing was stunned.
Why did she also get one?
"It's a family custom," Jiang Suizhi said slowly before she could speak. "On Chinese New Year's Day, we give red envelopes to people we know. And thank you for helping me paste the Spring Festival couplets."
So that was it.
Le Qing respected their custom: "Mr. Xie, please wait a moment."
She turned around and went back into the house. When she came out again, there were a few more red envelopes in her hand.
The two kids were eagerly waiting. Auntie actually had so many red envelopes!
Jiang Suizhi wasn't really surprised. Le Qing didn't seem like the kind of person who would owe others. Whether it was one more or one less red envelope didn't matter to him.
He was already prepared to take them, but then he heard Le Qing say to the two kids, "Go and grab some of your favorite candies."
The kids didn't understand, but they obediently ran home and rummaged through the table. Finally, they found their favorite candies.
"Auntie, here you are."
Le Qing also took three red envelopes. She opened two of them and put the candies brought out by each child into them respectively.
Jiang Suizhi silently watched her actions. When she sealed the red envelopes again and stood up, the two red envelopes filled with candies were placed in the hands of the two kids respectively: "We should reciprocate. Give them to uncle and say what you learned yesterday."
The two little kids immediately understood what auntie wanted them to do.
Their little hands held out the red envelopes filled with their favorite candies to uncle together: "Uncle, be happy every day and make a fortune healthily!"
Jiang Suizhi's eyelashes fluttered slightly.
"Mr. Xie," Le Qing also handed over the red envelope and said with a smile, "Happy New Year."
She gave out three and received three in return.
This was beyond Jiang Suizhi's expectation. He received such a unique red envelope for the first time.
It was a long time before he let out a laugh and reached out to take the three red envelopes: "Thank you."
The door with the "Fu" character, which was very different from other households, closed again. Jiang Suizhi stood in the elevator hall for a long time, holding the three red envelopes.
Until his phone rang. It was Jiang Hechang calling.
"What time is it and you still haven't come? What are you doing outside on Chinese New Year's Day?"
What was he doing?
Jiang Suizhi was in a good mood. His eyes fell on the low "Fu" character on the door. He picked up the red envelopes in his hand and looked at them for a while, then curved his lips: "I'm having Chinese New Year."
