In the past, he would never have been willing to buy them to eat, but now, he can pick out four full insulated boxes of hairy crabs without even blinking.
Moreover, he only selected female crabs with crab roe, which cost 20 yuan more per pound than male crabs.
He spent over seven thousand yuan on so many crabs.
However, the thought that a woman like Yan Susu could live a life of luxury made Jiang Xiaoman furious.
His father and his Uncle Baichuan, in terms of character, morality, and social contributions, who doesn't deserve a better life than Yan Susu?
Jiang Xiaoman particularly detests a certain distorted ideology in society. Those people, perhaps lacking some virtue when they were born, insist that any exemplary role model must be hardworking and conscientious!
Even a meritorious figure like Grandpa Yuan, who made enormous contributions to the nation and its people, would be criticized for being pleasure-seeking if he touched a luxury car...
What a load of rubbish!
If that old man really wanted to enjoy life, he wouldn't need to do anything else. He just needed to firmly hold onto the patent rights for hybrid rice and sell a bag of rice seeds to these scoundrels for ten thousand yuan. He could immediately top the list of richest people in mainland China!
Let alone touching a luxury car, it wouldn't be impossible for them to just buy an entire car company.
That being said, his father and uncle worked hard without complaint because of their noble character, and it didn't stop him, as a junior, from providing them with fine clothes and food.
If Yan Susu can eat it, why can't her father?
Thinking of this, Jiang Xiaoman asked the boss to bring him two of the largest Australian lobsters and spent another two thousand yuan.
He was very brave when shopping, but when he got home and faced with his father's glare, Jiang Xiaoman immediately and calmly pulled Jin Chengjie out to take the blame.
"It's Ah Jie! He went home, didn't he? His hometown is famous for its freshwater delicacies, so he had a few boxes shipped over for you to try. They're local specialties, which are expensive here but very cheap there!"
Hearing that these crabs and foreign lobsters were gifts from Jin Chengjie, that rich second-generation, Jiang Youliang fell silent.
Xiaoman is the only child in the family. Jiang Youliang is always worried that after he passes away, Xiaoman will be all alone and will have no help when she fights with others.
In his heart, Old Man Jiang really wanted Xiaoman and Jin Chengjie, these two brothers, to get along well. After all, they were brothers born of the same mother, and blood is thicker than water. If the two brothers got along well, they would have someone to rely on when they were all gone.
“Since it’s a local specialty gift from A-Jie, let’s accept it. We’ll cure two big hams and get some other local specialties from Langshan to take home for him for the New Year at the end of the year.”
Jiang Xiaoman knew his father would say that, so he agreed and divided the crabs into several portions, giving twenty crabs each to the Shan Yan family, the Lang Ying family, and the Shan Que family.
After thinking for a moment, he reluctantly gave Qu Jingjiang ten more.
They kept the rest for their own family to eat.
This year, there's an extra person in the family, and Jiang Xia, that charlatan, is now using the same old tricks again, refusing to leave their house.
Don't ask, the answer is that he's all alone at home, the house is empty, and they can't even find two pairs of chopsticks to eat with.
Every time he said that, the soft-hearted Jiang Youliang wished he could stay at home and never leave.
Anyway, his family doesn't need Jiang Xia's food. Having another person in the house will make it more lively.
Jiang Xiaoman: "..."
"Aren't you going to come help wash the crabs? Are you waiting for me to feed them to you?"
Jiang Xiaoman rolled her eyes at Jiang Xia and unceremoniously assigned him the housework.
They don't support idlers in their family!
"Did you vent your anger? If not, why don't you beat me up?" Jiang Xia suddenly spoke up by the pool.
Jiang Xiaoman looked at him, completely bewildered.
"It's about... Edmund. I'm sorry about that." Jiang Xia steeled herself and finally blurted out the apology that had been stuck in her throat for so long.
Turns out, apologizing to a good friend isn't so hard to say after all!
Chapter 281
"What does this have to do with you? Even without Edmund, there might be Edward or Emily or something. Good things, like good partners, are bound to attract attention."
Jiang Xiaoman did not feel that Jiang Xia needed to apologize for this matter.
The "victim blaming" argument doesn't work for him.
He had encountered a similar bizarre incident when he was in high school in the county town. There was a school beauty in the class next to his, exceptionally beautiful and outstanding. Which of the boys in school, just beginning to experience romantic feelings, wouldn't have their eyes on a girl like that?
As a result, there was this idiot who sent the school beauty milk tea and snacks for a month and thought that the girl must have accepted his pursuit. Unexpectedly, when he asked the girl out to dinner, she actually refused!
This really hit the nail on the head for this ordinary guy!
I don't know what's wrong with this guy, he's going around telling everyone that the school beauty accepted his gifts but won't date him, and that she's a shameless gold digger.
What's even more frightening is that this guy actually took a lot of photos of the school's most beautiful girls, printed them out, and plastered them all over the walls of his house... By the time his parents found out about the school, he had already dropped out of school to see a psychologist.
What truly left Jiang Xiaoman speechless was that, despite their child having a mental illness, the parents still had the audacity to come to the school and berate the girl, even saying things like, "It's all because of this promiscuous girl that my son has been ruined."
exm?
The girl doesn't even know your son, okay?
There was also the so-called "gifts given to the school beauty for a month," which was eventually exposed by the school beauty's deskmate. In reality, it was just two tea eggs, an orange, and a cup of milk tea every day, with an average price of less than ten yuan. The cheapest thing seemed to be a rose picked from the school's flower bed.
The milk tea wasn't even freshly made; it was just the five-yuan Xiangpiaopiao from the convenience store!
It's not that you can't give inexpensive gifts. If the two of you are dating, even if you just pick a few foxtail grasses from the roadside and knit a little bunny for your girlfriend, Jiang Xiaoman will praise you for being skillful.
The problem is, the girl has absolutely no idea who you are!
Jiang Xiaoman remembered the school beauty from the next class, not because she was pretty, but because she once pushed her out of the top ten in the grade.
Every year at their school, the top ten students in the grade receive a scholarship, but that time he underperformed and came in eleventh! The girl ahead of him, who snatched the last scholarship spot, was none other than the school beauty!
She's academically gifted, good-looking, and seems to come from a good family. Who gave you, a monster, the right to try and manipulate her? How dare you!
Jiang Xiaoman was able to see through the "victim blaming theory" more than a decade ago, so naturally she wouldn't blame Jiang Xia for Edmund's situation.
It wasn't him who made Edmund pursue him, nor was it him who forced that thieving designer from South Korea to copy their Langshan embroidery.
However, since Jiang Xia truly wants to make amends...
Jiang Xiaoman's eyes lit up, and she immediately came up with a good way for Jiang Xia to "atone for his sins".
"Old Xia, don't you know a lot of marketing accounts in the entertainment industry? Can you teach me how to stir up trouble and start arguments online?"
Jiang Xia: "..."
Why does this sound like an insult?
Who's been stirring up trouble and arguing online all day?
However, that's just how the Chinese entertainment industry is... cough!
Jiang Xia thought Jiang Xiaoman wanted to ask him for advice on online flame wars so she could insult that Korean thief designer. But after hearing Jiang Xiaoman's plan, he was speechless.
Actually, isn't Jiang Xiaoman the true originator of marketing accounts?
...
Jiang Xiaoman hadn't thought of it at first, but when he saw Jiang Xia and thought about the provocative posts from domestic entertainment marketing accounts that he had accidentally come across, he suddenly had an idea.
Are Korean thieves unable to speak Chinese and therefore unable to use mainland Chinese accounts to swagger around?
It's okay~ He can just find someone to create an online alias and cause trouble~
Jiang Xiaoman's original plan was to hire someone to write a promotional post and post it online. She wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, regardless of whether it was good or bad, to first make Langshan embroidery famous.
Upon seeing Jiangxia, Jiang Xiaoman suddenly had a new inspiration!
If there are no victims, then he'll just create one.
Hiring people online to pretend to be thieves, paid trolls hired by the designer, and then forcibly educating them about ancient Korean clothing to "prove" that the designer didn't plagiarize Langshan embroidery, which has a history of thousands of years, but rather "pays homage to Korean culture, which has a history of hundreds of years"... Tsk tsk! This must infuriate netizens in their own country, right?
Jiang Xia was dumbfounded.
Although these are all things that have been done before in the Chinese entertainment fan circle, it's strange that these words came out of the mouth of Jiang Xiaoman, who is so upright.
He thought that a righteous person like Jiang Xiaoman would go to a lawyer first when encountering a shameless plagiarist, so why would she think of spending money to hire an online army?
"Um... While it might sound like I'm boosting their morale while diminishing our own, do you really think the lawyers we hired in China can beat Hera Group's top-notch legal team?" Jiang Xiaoman asked tentatively.
Jiang Xia: "..."
What kind of pipe dream are you having!
Do you know how much the Hera Group spends on lawsuits every year?
Thinking about it this way, no wonder Jiang Xiaoman made a feint, using the lawyer's letter as a shield, and then turned around to consult him on how to start a war online... Does this guy have a hundred and eighty tricks up his sleeve?
However, if you can't rely on lawyers, you might really have to resort to a media war.
While helping to wash the crabs, Jiang Xia was thinking in his mind that marketing accounts don't keep their mouths shut. They should be the ones to post provocative posts. Anyway, the villagers don't usually frequent forums and probably haven't even registered an account. He could borrow phones from the villagers and have each person register a few accounts. He could then gather at least two hundred accounts.
With so many aliases, they could easily orchestrate their own drama and stir up everyone's anger.
Jiang Xia had even thought of all the words he could use to start a fight, but when he finished washing the crabs, went back to his room, picked up his fully charged phone, and opened Weibo, wow!
Why would they need to spend money to buy traffic and incite conflict?
The internet is in an uproar!
It turns out that some genius couldn't stand this Korean designer who was a habitual plagiarist, so he dug up one of his "Spring Garden Series" designs from last year. The pattern on it was actually a meticulous silk painting by a painter from a certain dynasty in my country!
This guy actually has the nerve to promote it as "an iconic pattern of a spring garden originating from the East"? Pshaw! Have he no shame?
Netizens are furious.
If not many people know about Langshan embroidery, then this painter's landscape and flower-and-bird paintings are ones that countless Chinese people who love visiting museums have personally appreciated.
What's most baffling is that the visual focus of this painting should clearly be a pair of magpies perched on a branch. However, the designer missed the point entirely and, when cutting the skirt, actually buried the most expressive eyes of the magpies in the folds, instead magnifying the garden that was originally the background of the painting. Anyone who understands art would be utterly speechless!
"Hilarious! They stole the answers but still couldn't copy them correctly. This year's Korean thieves are really bad at their craft!"
"Even wild boars can't eat fine chaff! The master must be turning in his grave. Where's the magpie? Where are the eyes? The most stunning part of this painting was actually cut off? Truly a cultural thief with no substance!"
"Is it possible that he didn't understand the painting at all..."
"A disgrace to the design world! I've turned against Hera Road. How could they turn a masterpiece of traditional Chinese fine brush painting into such an ugly dress?"
"Is it true that Hera Custom, headquartered in a certain country, cannot function independently without Chinese elements?"
"I suggest renaming Hera 'Chinese Hera,' since it can't survive without Chinese elements anyway. Why not just move the headquarters to China as well?"
"Don't you feel unlucky, upstairs? I, a Chinese, don't want to be neighbors with thieves."