CHAPTER 222: CHAPTER 222 ORIGINAL SIN 31

Liu Ying and Lu Jian had just finished grilling the meat when they heard someone knocking on their door. The two were a bit puzzled, wondering who would visit at mealtime?

Lu Jian went to open the door and saw an elderly woman with white hair but dressed neatly with a scholarly air, along with a little boy who looked about seven or eight years old, as thin as a skeleton, with a tiny neck and a big head.

Lu Jian recognized this elderly woman as a neighbor living upstairs, a university professor who is now retired and at home caring for her grandson. He didn’t know her name, only her surname Zhang. Because she looked young, the younger people in the building called her Aunt Zhang, while those of the same age called her Professor Zhang or Old Zhang.

This Professor Zhang had quite a bitter fate. Her husband died when she was young, and she raised her daughter alone. Unfortunately, her daughter met an unworthy man. She stood by him when they had nothing, and when they became wealthy, he turned his attention to a young and beautiful mistress.

The scumbag divorced Professor Zhang’s daughter, citing her lack of financial means, and took custody of the child. Worse, he even forbade Professor Zhang’s daughter from visiting her child.

Professor Zhang’s daughter is strong-willed and agreed to the divorce. She then went out to build her career. By the time she established her own company and had the financial means to fight for her child’s custody, she discovered that her beloved son had developed autism and an eating disorder in just a few short years!

The twelve-year-old boy looked only seven or eight, skin and bone, with thin limbs that seemed like they would snap at a touch. To Professor Zhang’s daughter, only children in starving African slums resembled this!

Professor Zhang’s daughter furiously sued her ex-husband and the mistress, even hiring a team of lawyers. She also took action against her ex-husband’s company. His success was largely due to her substantial help, yet he was dissatisfied because her abilities surpassed his, leading him to seek a gentle mistress who idolized him.

The final result was naturally a victory for Professor Zhang’s daughter. The mistress got sentenced for child abuse, her ex-husband’s company went bankrupt, and he returned to having nothing, as he did before marrying Professor Zhang’s daughter. However, even after getting revenge on her ex-husband and the mistress, Professor Zhang’s daughter wasn’t pleased, because the harm suffered by her son was irreversible.

A woman managing a company must exert several times more effort than a man. Professor Zhang’s daughter couldn’t spare enough time to accompany her son and had to leave him with her mother while trying to spend as much time with him as possible.

Professor Zhang deeply sympathized with her grandson, treating him as well as she could. Whenever he wanted something, she gave it to him. Yet her grandson remained eerily quiet, not speaking for over two weeks, barely eating besides drinking water.

While others ate to feel full, Professor Zhang’s only concern each day was whether her grandson consumed enough calories and protein to sustain life. She’d taken her grandson to see psychologists and tried all kinds of snacks to entice him, but none had any allure for her grandson.

Originally, like every other day, Professor Zhang was preoccupied with figuring out what to prepare for her grandson when a captivating aroma wafted through the window.

The most thrilling part for Professor Zhang was that her grandson reacted after inhaling the scent—a boy who hadn’t spoken for nearly a month actually said, "So fragrant!"

They were just two simple words, but they moved Professor Zhang to the brink of tears! She immediately decided to find the family who cooked such food and, regardless of losing face, beg for a meal for her grandson. Following the aroma, she found her way to Liu Ying and Lu Jian’s house.

Hearing Professor Zhang bashfully explain her request for her grandson to have a few bites at their home, Lu Jian and Liu Ying, who had come out at the sound, then understood why Professor Zhang came with her grandson.

The fragrance of barbecue is indeed pervasive, and with the current warm yet not too hot weather, windows were open across the neighborhood, allowing the smell to waft out, reaching several floors above. It wasn’t surprising for Professor Zhang’s family, directly upstairs, to notice the aroma.

Knowing the reason, Lu Jian and Liu Ying gladly invited Professor Zhang and her little grandson inside. Whoever lived in this building understood the situation of Professor Zhang’s family and sympathized with them; no one would begrudge a child a meal.

The barbecue marinade packet had a divider, one side spicy and the other not. Liu Ying and Lu Jian gave Qiangqiang, Professor Zhang’s grandson, the non-spicy kind.

To their surprise, Qiangqiang was quite accommodating, eating three pieces of grilled meat before stopping. Though his appetite was still woefully small, it filled Professor Zhang with emotion, her eyes moistening, because since her grandson had come to live with her, he had never eaten so much at once.

Seeing Qiangqiang able to eat, Liu Ying and Lu Jian were equally excited. Despite their love for food, they weren’t stingy and handed all their barbecue marinades to Professor Zhang, enthusiastically sharing details about Red Dust run by Yun Shuangshuang’s family.

Professor Zhang, being decisive for her grandson’s sake, learned that Red Dust offered accommodation. She didn’t accept Liu Ying’s marinade pack, thanked them, packed her bags upon returning home, called her daughter, explained the events of the day where her grandson ate, and had her daughter send a driver to take them to Red Dust.

At Red Dust, Yun Shuangshuang and her mother Feng Jinyan were dressed in matching ancient costumes, holding beautifully styled lotus lanterns, busy taking photographs.

Previously, when Yun Shuangshuang had too much free time, she devised numerous ways to decorate Red Dust. One such idea was to hang beautiful lanterns throughout Red Dust, allowing guests to both appreciate the lanterns and purchase them as a keepsake.

After Liu Ying and Lu Jian left, there were no more guests, and with night falling, it was a good time to test the lanterns’ effect. Yun Shuangshuang and Feng Jinyan set about hanging all the lanterns. As the lanterns were battery-powered, there was no fire hazard, and to evaluate the effect, Yun Shuangshuang extravagantly lit all the lanterns.

The lit lanterns unexpectedly created a stunning effect, adding an especially beautiful ambiance to Red Dust. This renewed Yun Shuangshuang and Feng Jinyan’s enthusiasm. With nothing else to do, they changed into new costumes and headpieces, diving into another round of fervent photography!

Just as they were engrossed in photographing, they heard the sound of a car engine from outside. Yun Shuangshuang was a bit perplexed; this place was isolated with no residences nearby, so how could there be a car? Could it be someone with foul intentions?