In fact, there are many aspects of traditional culture that are worth promoting. For example, serving tea to guests is much more subtle than directly kicking them out, and it saves face for the other person. Also, the marriage system in Myanmar is worth studying...
Although in modern times, no one follows the custom of serving tea to guests anymore, even among cultural circles, this is no longer observed, but Zhuang Rui's actions just now made it very clear.
Although Liu Jia is a talented woman with a big chest and a brain, she doesn't know much about etiquette. However, Fatty Jin understood what Zhuang Rui wanted to express, so he had really swallowed his pride to say those words to Zhuang Rui.
"Teacher Jin, it's not that I don't want to give it to you..."
"Brother Zhuang, there's a police officer outside looking for you..."
Before Zhuang Rui could finish speaking, the intercom system installed at the living room door suddenly rang, and Peng Fei's voice came from inside.
"Officer? Could it be that something happened to me in Myanmar?"
Zhuang Rui was stunned for a moment, and his first thought was this.
However, Zhuang Rui quickly dismissed the idea. His actions in Myanmar had brought the country three tons of gold. Even if something happened, Ouyang Lei should have helped him settle it. It wasn't up to the Beijing police to come knocking on his door. With that in mind, Zhuang Rui asked, "Peng Fei, is this officer a man or a woman?"
"Brother Zhuang, it's..."
"Zhuang Rui, it's me, Miao Feifei..."
Alright. No need to ask anymore. Hearing Miss Miao's voice coming from the walkie-talkie, Zhuang Rui's face immediately fell. What's going on today? He hasn't even gotten rid of this annoying person yet, and now another one he can't afford to offend has arrived.
"Hehe, it's Officer Miao! Please come in, Peng Fei. Please lead Officer Miao to the living room..."
Zhuang Rui forced a smile. He didn't need a mirror to know how fake his smile looked, but Miao Feifei had already come knocking on his door. He couldn't just hide from her, could he? If this fierce woman really made a scene, he'd be in big trouble.
Miao Feifei's straightforward personality actually suited Zhuang Rui's temperament quite well. However, due to the drunken incident in Zhonghai, Zhuang Rui had always felt somewhat embarrassed to face Miao Feifei. He wasn't stupid; he could naturally sense that Miao Feifei seemed to have some feelings for him.
Zhuang Rui once read a book that said men and women could be purely platonic friends, and he used to believe that too. But now he's starting to disagree. If a single man and woman interact too much, who knows what might happen? Perhaps only a male gay man and a female lesbian can be truly platonic friends.
"Zhuang Rui, what have you been up to lately? I haven't seen you anywhere, and now I have to trouble this officer to come to your door..."
As Miao Feifei spoke, her figure appeared at the living room doorway, and a gust of cold wind blew into the room as the curtain was lifted.
"Oh no. This is bad..."
Zhuang Rui suddenly remembered that when he took Miao Feifei to the black market auction last time, Fatty Jin was also there. If the two of them met, wouldn't the whole thing be exposed?
"You are... Miss Miao from last time, right?"
Zhuang Rui couldn't salvage the situation now, because Fatty Jin had already recognized the policewoman in uniform as the girl who had been with Zhuang Rui last time, and his gaze became somewhat strange.
"Um, Ms. Jin, let me introduce you. This is Officer Miao Feifei. She works in internal affairs and doesn't handle cases. She just wanted to come with me to see what was going on last time..."
After Zhuang Rui got up and invited Miao Feifei to sit down, he turned around and introduced the place to Fatty Jin. You see, it's a big taboo for people in the antique business to get involved with the Six Doors. If word gets out, it will be very difficult to find any items in the future.
"Hehe, bro, you're really something..."
Fatty Jin laughed and punched Zhuang Rui, who was sitting next to him, with an ambiguous look on his face.
Because Miao Feifei's appearance is too feminine. Although she is wearing a police uniform and looks very heroic, it cannot hide her feminine charm and girlish innocence.
Fatty Jin hadn't thought about the case; instead, he was envious of Zhuang Rui's good fortune with women. He had seen Liu Jia's almost seductive behavior earlier and felt a little jealous. This beautiful policewoman was even better than Liu Jia.
"Officer Miao, you know Teacher Jin, this is someone from Beijing TV... no, now I should say CCTV. It's Liu Jia, the host from CCTV. Please introduce yourselves..."
When Zhuang Rui saw Miao Feifei enter, his eyes kept glancing at Liu Jia. Coupled with Jin Pangzi's ambiguous expression, the room became somewhat awkward. He quickly introduced Liu Jia to Miao Feifei.
"Well, I'm fine. I took the day off to come see you. I heard you're getting engaged soon, right? Isn't your fiancée Miss Qin from Hong Kong?"
After nodding to Liu Jia, Miao Feifei turned her gaze to Zhuang Rui. Even Fatty Jin could hear the resentment in her voice, and it was also subtly directed at Liu Jia who was present.
When Zhuang Rui was working in Zhonghai, Qin Xuanbing and Lei Lei visited him, and Zhuang Rui later mentioned it to Miao Feifei, so Officer Miao knew about this matter.
"Yes, I was planning to let you know, but I went to Myanmar a while ago and just got back..."
"Teacher Zhuang, you see, I've already guaranteed this to the director about getting on the show..."
Before Zhuang Rui could finish speaking, Liu Jia put on a pitiful look again. Zhuang Rui could tell that this woman had a tenacious spirit and was the type to never give up until she achieved her goal.
"Okay, I agree. That's settled then, Ms. Jin. Let's get back to each other tomorrow?"
Zhuang Rui was completely exasperated by these two women. Although he verbally agreed to Liu Jia's request, his eyes were fixed on Fatty Jin, his meaning clear: "Brother, you'd better take the woman you brought away quickly."
"Alright, Brother Zhuang, we'll take our leave now. Next time I, Old Jin, come visit, you'd better bring out some real treasures to broaden my horizons..."
It wasn't just tea that Zhuang Rui suggested the guests leave; he even told them to see him off. Although Fatty Jin wanted to watch the two women's antics, he still stood up to say goodbye, and also helped the host, Liu, along with him.
At this point, Fatty Jin was also getting annoyed. It was obvious that Zhuang Rui wasn't buying his nonsense, so he shouldn't stay here and try to sow discord.
If we go by Fatty Jin's mindset, even though I'm a bit older, I'm good at taking care of people. Fatty Jin wouldn't mind making a few more female confidantes besides his live-in girlfriend.
"Teacher Zhuang, see you on set tomorrow..."
Liu Jia's cloyingly sweet voice as she left made Miao Feifei, who was sitting in the living room, look very unhappy.
Chapter 519 Mother and Son
"Zhuang Rui, what are you doing exchanging glances with that vixen? Don't you know you're about to get engaged?"
After Zhuang Rui saw Jin Pangzi and Liu Jia out, he returned to the living room of the Central Courtyard and heard Miao Feifei's questioning voice. Her delicate face was sullen and puffed up with anger.
"A vixen? You mean Liu Jia?"
Zhuang Rui was taken aback; the analogy was indeed very apt.
"They were calling each other so affectionately, what did you promise her? And you're going to the film crew? You're not going to shoot one of those adult films, are you?"
Officer Miao is really tough; he dares to say anything. It seems that these students spent a lot of time watching Japanese adult films in their dorm rooms when they were in college.
"What nonsense are you talking about? It's a folk treasure appraisal event that CCTV is hosting during the Spring Festival. Hey, Officer Miao, where did you get upset today? Did you come here to vent your anger?"
Zhuang Rui was bombarded with insults by Fatty Jin and Liu Jia as soon as he woke up in the morning, and he was really angry, mainly because of the irritation caused by certain scenes that were forbidden for children.
"You... I heard you're getting engaged, so I came to ask if it's true. What's with your attitude? I'm leaving..."
Contrary to her usual behavior, Miao Feifei didn't argue with Zhuang Rui. Instead, she stood up and walked towards the door, which left Zhuang Rui somewhat dumbfounded. Was this still Miss Miao?
As they reached the door, Miao Feifei turned around, wrinkled her nose, and said "fiercely" to Zhuang Rui, "I'm on vacation these few days. Tomorrow I want to go with you to the filming set. I've never seen a TV crew filming before..."
"Go...you can go to Zhongnanhai if you want..."
Seeing that this young lady was about to leave, Zhuang Rui felt relieved, but it seemed... there was still a trace of reluctance.
Zhuang Rui couldn't quite describe his feelings. He was probably happy to see that Miao Feifei hadn't distanced herself from him because of his engagement; he didn't want to lose Miao Feifei, such a straightforward and kind friend.
"Brother Zhou, you're up too? No rush to go back to Pengcheng. Let's stay in Beijing for a few days before heading back. Hmm, we'll talk about it later. Call Da Chuan and the others to the gatehouse; we need to discuss something..."
After seeing Miao Feifei off, Zhuang Rui saw Zhou Rui come out of the house and practice a set of military boxing in the front yard. After giving Zhou Rui a few instructions, Zhuang Rui went back to the backyard and found the backpack containing the tiger skin that he had brought back yesterday.
Besides the tiger skin, Zhuang Rui browsed through the jewelry for a while before leaving the room.
"Mom, I found you a gift, take a look..."
Zhuang Rui carried his backpack back to his mother's room in the courtyard and saw Ouyang Wan watching Nannan and Yaya do their homework. He quickly went over to her, and the items Hu Rong had given him ended up being played with by Zhuang Rui.
"Uncle, I want a present, I want a present..."
Before Zhuang's mother could answer, the little girl dropped her pen and pounced on Zhuang Rui. She wasn't doing any homework; she was just scribbling on Ya Ya's notebook.
"Okay, okay, we have them all..."
Zhuang Rui took out two chains from his pocket and put them on Ya Ya and Nan Nan's left wrists respectively, saying, "Don't take them off unless necessary, and don't show them to anyone, understand?"
"Okay, did Uncle deliver it...?"
"Thank you, big brother. Could you show it to my brother?"
Ya Ya, wearing the beaded necklace, tilted her head and asked a question.
"Of course you can, but you can't show it to anyone other than your brother..."
Zhuang Rui smiled and ruffled Ya Ya's hair. The beaded necklace he gave the two little girls had six ancient dzi beads on it. The remaining beads were also made of a top-grade black jade. Although they looked unremarkable and dark, they were priceless items.
Zhuang Rui deliberately instructed the two maids not to go out and show off. Although this thing looked like a cheap trinket worth 10 or 8 yuan at a street stall to laymen, if an expert saw it, they might have some bad intentions.
Seeing the two little girls run off excitedly to show off to Peng Fei, Ouyang Wan asked Zhuang Rui, "Xiao Rui, is this thing valuable? Don't let it cause trouble for the children..."
Ouyang Wan knew that her son was now quite wealthy and dealt in antiques and jade, so the things he brought out were probably not bad. However, Ouyang Wan had never seen the old dzi beads before. She just vaguely felt that those black jade beads seemed quite valuable.
Zhuang Rui casually replied, "It's worth a few hundred thousand, I guess. If they don't say anything, no one else would know. Anyway, these things are just for people to wear; they're useless if you keep them at home..."
"What?"
Ouyang Wan was startled by her son's words. She had thought it was worth at most tens of thousands of yuan, but she hadn't expected it to be so valuable. She quickly stood up and said, "You child, you're so insensible. Why would such a big child wear these things? No, we can't let them wear them..."
"Mom, it's okay. Just tell Yaya to leave it at home when she goes to school. That bead is good for her health; let them carry it with them all the time..."
Zhuang Rui pulled his mother back and then opened the backpack.
Even folded up, the tiger skin still bulged and filled the entire backpack. When Zhuang Rui took the tiger skin out of the bag and unfolded it, Ouyang Wan was so shocked that she couldn't speak.
Ouyang Wan grew up in a military compound. Many people may think that the older generation of proletarian revolutionaries were very simple and unpretentious, which is true. However, they also had access to many things that ordinary people could not access.
People in that era could not have imagined things like using telephones and televisions in the 1950s and 60s, including some foreign brands in the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, and even things like movies and books that were considered poisonous weeds of capitalism.
Ouyang Wan was the same. She had seen a lot of things since she was a girl, and she even played the piano very well from a young age, which cultivated her quiet personality. At that time, her family also received many gifts from foreign friends. However, the tiger skin that Zhuang Rui took out frightened her.
Because Ouyang Gang had injured his leg in his early years, he couldn't be exposed to cold in winter. So Ouyang Wan's mother tried many ways to find a tiger-skin rug to cover Ouyang Gang's injured leg in winter.
When Ouyang Wan was little, every winter she would put her little hands inside the tiger-skin rug on her father's lap to warm them. She knew how precious this thing was; her father only had a small piece. She never expected that her son would take out a whole tiger skin.
"Mom, you can use this tiger skin as a blanket tonight. If you don't want to use it, I can have someone make you a tiger skin coat. It's cold in Beijing, and your health hasn't been very good, so please don't be stingy with it..."
Zhuang Rui walked to the sofa and spread the entire tiger skin on it. It looked just like a real tiger.
If Ouyang Wan wanted the tiger-skin coat, Zhuang Rui was actually prepared to have it altered. As for whether it would be a pity to turn this complete tiger skin into a coat, Zhuang Rui didn't even consider it.
Zhuang Rui felt ashamed thinking that his mother had always taken care of him. He would not have said anything about not having money before, but after he became rich, he had not cared for his mother much, except for giving her a few pieces of jewelry. His care for his mother was far less meticulous than that of his sister.
"Xiao Rui, I'm so happy that you're thinking of me. Actually, I'd be content if you just spent more time with me..."
Seeing her son's maturity, Ouyang Wan's eyes welled up with tears. It is said that only when you raise a child do you realize the love of your parents. Her son has really grown up and knows how to care for her.
"Mom, I'm not going anywhere this year. I'll spend the New Year with you and then on the second or third day of the Lunar New Year, we'll go back to Pengcheng together to visit our uncles and aunts..."
Zhuang Rui sat on the sofa and put his arm around his mother's shoulder.
Ouyang Wan's thoughts were somewhat hazy. How long ago was it that her son would lean his head on her shoulder like this when he was tired? In the blink of an eye, more than twenty years had passed, and she had already grown gray hair. She had really gotten old.
"By the way, Xiao Rui, selling tiger skins is illegal. You didn't do anything illegal, did you?"
Ouyang Wan suddenly remembered this matter. She was a teacher and usually paid close attention to social developments.