Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins

"You mean Mengyan? Heh, she already knows about you. I've told her about your situation already. It's no problem." Yang Ce spoke vaguely; only Yang Duoji knew exactly what "situation" meant.

"Oh." Lin Yanhe did not feel she could press further, so she nodded. Yet she still vaguely felt something was off: "She didn't say anything?"

"What would you want her to say?" Yang Hengye countered.

"N-nothing." Lin Yanhe had no idea how to answer, so she let it drop.

"All right, let's not talk about that. In a bit I'll take you to the company to have a look, get you familiar with the business first. According to the original plan, we need to get the products onto the market before Valentine's Day, February 14th, and launch a whole line of couple's jewelry," Yang Ce said. "If we don't hurry, there won't be enough time."

"All right." As the two were talking, the sound of the door opening came from outside. They looked up to see Shen Yueping stepping in with a basket of groceries.

"Oh, Little Yang is here too!" Shen Yueping's face lit up at the sight of Yang Ce. Toward Heng, Shen Yueping felt not only fondness but also gratitude.

With all that had happened in her family, if not for Yang Ce, this household might have fallen apart long ago. So every time Yang Ce came to visit, Shen Yueping was exceptionally warm.

"Hello, Aunt Shen." Yang Ce hurriedly stood up to greet her.

"Sit down, Yang Ce, no need to be so formal. Treat this place like your own home," Shen Yueping said. "What would you like for dinner? Auntie will make it for you."

"I've just eaten, Aunt Shen. Zhiyun made me fried rice." Yang Ce pointed at the empty plate before him.

"So you've just eaten. All right then, whenever you're hungry, just tell Auntie." Although Yang Ce had suggested that Shen Yueping stop working outside, she was the sort who could not sit still, and she still did hourly work in other people's homes.

Her schedule was quite flexible, though—she worked only half a day, and her monthly pay was not low, so Yang Shuoxuan let her be.

It was just like his own parents, who were not the sort to sit idle. Otherwise, with Yang Ce's current wealth, he would have long since sent his parents off to travel the world.

"Oh? You're watching Shu Ya's interview too?" Shen Yueping set the grocery basket down in the kitchen, then turned and sat on the sofa, glancing at the television as she spoke.

"Mom, you know Shu Ya too?" Lin Yanhe was taken aback—she had not expected her mother to recognize figures from the entertainment world.

"How could I not know?" Shen Yueping said with a smile. "The child at the house where I work is a Shu Ya fanatic—her room is plastered with Shu Ya posters and photos from floor to ceiling. It'd be hard not to know. And in the summer, it's all Shu Ya CDs on display."

Yang Ce shook his head. It seemed Shu Ya's appeal and influence were no small matter. Good thing he'd been soft-hearted at the time and hadn't gone through with it—otherwise who knows how many of Shu Ya's fans would have been plunged into grief.

If they ever found out he was the one who'd taken out their idol, Yang Shuo Xuan would be finished. No matter how tough he was, he couldn't fight off thousands upon thousands of people in a crowd tactic—one kick from each and he'd be dead.

"Yun'er, you like Shu Ya too?" Shen Yueping turned to ask her daughter.

"Mm, I quite like her. I think Shu Ya's quite pretty, and she's never had a scandal in the entertainment circle—that's really not easy." Lin Yanhe nodded. "And her songs are genuinely nice to listen to."

"I see a lot of you young people are fans of this Shu Ya," Shen Yueping said with a smile. "Oh, right—I heard Shu Ya's going to hold a concert here. The child at the house where I work even had a big fight with her parents over it."

"A big fight? What happened?" Yang Ce asked, curious.

"It's like this—the child asked her parents to buy tickets a long time ago, but her parents were busy with work and forgot all about it. Now the tickets are completely sold out, and there's no way to get one even if you want to. So the child sulked and quarreled with her parents." Shen Yueping shook her head. "Sometimes I think that child is really pitiful. Her parents make a lot of money and she never lacks for anything, but she doesn't have a shred of happiness. She's only in middle school, and already she goes days without seeing her parents."

"Aren't there always scalpers selling tickets at every concert or competition?" Lin Yanhe said. "Her parents could just buy from a scalper."

"They looked—of course they looked. That very day they had the secretary go find those ticket touts, but the touts didn't have any tickets either." Shen Yueping smiled bitterly. "Apparently the organizer of this concert has underworld connections. None of the scalpers dare to speculate on these tickets."

Yang Ji Yan hadn't expected Bao Lin and Hou Lin to have taken precautions about such matters. It seemed the two of them really had matured a great deal, and handled things much more meticulously now.

Although scalpers speculating on tickets didn't affect his own income, the number of tickets was ultimately limited. Those who couldn't get tickets would pay exorbitant prices to scalpers, and that was unfair to some people.

"Auntie Shen, how are things at that house where you work? Are they treating you well?" Yang Ce asked after a moment's thought.

"Quite well. That family is all good people. The husband and wife are both very busy, so they've left the whole household to me, pay me a decent sum every month, and never give me any trouble." Shen Yueping said sincerely. "Much better than the last household."

"And what about that child you mentioned?" Yang Yan Chuan asked.

"The child is quite sensible too, never looked down on me, always calls me Auntie Ping. Sometimes I even give the child a bit of advice, and she listens to me pretty well—we get along quite harmoniously." Shen Yueping paused, then asked, puzzled, "Yang Ce, why do you ask?"

Shen Yueping thought Yang Ce was trying to use the opportunity to persuade her again not to go out to work.

"Nothing, just asking casually." Yang Yan Zhou opened the handbag he carried and took something out, handing it to Shen Yueping. "Here, Auntie Shen, this is a ticket to Shu Ya's concert. It's not VIP seating, but it's still a ticket that's hard to come by. Give this to the child at that house."

"Ah?" Shen Yueping was taken aback, looking at Yang Ce with some confusion. "Aren't you and Yun'er going to the concert?"

"I have more tickets." Yang Ce pointed at his bag. "The organizer of the concert is a friend of mine—he set aside tickets for me. This one's a spare."

That morning, Hou Lin had sent Yang Ce quite a few concert tickets—both VIP and regular seating, and reserved tickets for every single show.

"Then Auntie thanks you on the child's behalf." Shen Yueping hurriedly took the concert ticket, glanced at the price printed on it, and immediately froze. "This ticket is so expensive—did it cost you money?"

"No need. I didn't spend any money on it either." Yang Ce waved his hand.

Through that business with Bi Hai and Ge Xinyao, Lin Yanhe had already gathered a rough idea of Yang Jue Huan's background, so she wasn't too surprised. But Shen Yueping felt rather uneasy—she'd heard the concert organizer was someone from the underworld, which was why no one dared to scalp the tickets. Yet Yang Ce actually knew the organizer, and by the looks of it, carried considerable weight with him—enough to have tickets set aside for him.

But then she thought of how easily Yang Ce had settled the matter of Lin Changqing in Donghai, and concluded it must be because Yang Jue Huan's background was out of the ordinary. So she let it go.

To be continued

699. An Invitation to Join

After chatting with Shen Yueping for a while, Yang Ce brought up the idea of having Lin Yanhe come help at the company. Shen Yueping was, of course, fully in favor.