Atypical crematorium of Lint's help and family owner

Chapter 27 "Temptation"

The days when brothers and sisters are in the same breath... It seems that there won't be too many days.

That night, the Li residence was very quiet.

Li Zhenbai sat on the sofa in the living room, hung up the phone with a gloomy expression.

It was almost ten o'clock, Mrs. Li had gone to bed early, and the helpers had also rested. In this family, Li Zhenbai was the only one awake now.

He got up and stood for a while, then entered the small reading room on the first floor.

Turning on the record player, Li Zhenbai heard Schubert's soothing "Trout Quintet".

He sat on a separate small sofa in the corner of the room and looked around the small room.

There are more small ornaments on the bookshelf than in the past, and there is a half-read book with bookmarks on the small round table next to it, which is Tagore's "Gitanjali".

There was still half a glass of water beside him, Li Zhenbai looked down at the armrest of the sofa, on which a thin beige blanket was casually draped.

He remembered that he had never seen this thin blanket before. After his attention was attracted by this blanket, a scene appeared in his mind.

That was when Lin Zhen was drunk that day, curled up on the sofa under a thin blanket.

The body is thin, and the whole person is sunk in the soft and wide sofa, the waist is sunken deeply, the two slender legs are curled up in front of the chest, the hands are clenched around him, the eyes are closed, and it looks extremely fragile up.

But it is such a body, it seems to contain amazing energy, this pair of thin shoulders can support the burden and despair that many people cannot face.

Besides, it's so beautiful.

Bang, bang, the little angel ornament in the CEO's office was smashed into countless pieces, and the sound is still ringing in my ears.

At that time, Li Zhenbai was furious, no one had ever dared to provoke him like this.

And after that?

Li Zhenbai who was sitting on the small sofa raised his head back, leaned against the back of the sofa, and closed his eyes.

The faint scent that belongs to someone seems to still be lingering in the nose, along with the warm breath, with a little moisture, invading his skin, his brain, and his thinking.

Li Zhenbai felt a kind of panic and dizziness that he had never experienced before. He clasped his fingers tightly on the armrest of the sofa, grabbed the soft off-white thin blanket, and kneaded it into a ball. .

"I think Lin Zhen...he likes me."

"I... I approached him, and he didn't refuse."

"Tomorrow, I'll go down the mountain tomorrow to buy some flowers and decorate this place."

"I...I want to formally propose to him the day after tomorrow. I treated him badly before, and he must still be resenting me. But Xiaozhen is so kind and likes me so much, so he will definitely forgive me. "

"I won't mess around outside in the future, and I have to work hard so that Xiaozhen doesn't have to worry about me anymore."

"Brother, can you send someone to bring over the jade bracelet that my grandmother left me? It will be more solemn."

My younger brother's voice was warm and bright, full of happiness and hope, as if it was still ringing in my ears.

Li Zhenbai thought, how did he reply to his younger brother just now?

By the way, he remembered, and he said to his brother, "Just as long as you think it's okay." Then he hung up the phone.

Zheng Xiao finally looked a bit grown up, he should be gratified.

But... Li Zhenbai's eyes froze, he stood up suddenly, picked up his mobile phone and dialed a number: "It's me, prepare a car for me right away, I'm going..." Before he finished speaking, he stopped abruptly.

The person opposite asked, "Mr. Li, where are you going?"

Li Zhenbai's eyes flickered, he was silent for a while, and said in a low voice: "It's okay, I won't go."

After hanging up the phone, Li Zhenbai walked out of the small reading room and went to the big study on the other side of the first floor.

After he pressed lightly on a certain place on the wall, a bookshelf automatically slid open, revealing a door behind, Li Zhenbai opened the door and walked in, and took down a stack of books from a corner of the bookcase in this secret room with a space of only five or six square meters. An old, thick, thread-bound booklet, with four big traditional characters written on the dark red cover of "Li Family Genealogy".

When the heavy genealogy falls on the table, a little dust is stirred up, mixed with the fragrance of ink from the pages, it is a smell of time.

Li Zhenbai's fingers slid over the spines of these books. These are the precipitation and glory of the Li family for hundreds of years, recording the names and lives of more than ten generations of the Li family.

Li Zhenbai put the top book on the table and opened it, found the latest page, and gently stroked the list of the Li family's generation with his fingertips.

Father Li Renfeng and mother Zhou Jialu, the two lines under the line connecting their names correspond to the eldest son Li Zhenbai and the second son Li Zhengxiao respectively, and next to Li Zhengxiao's name is the second son-in-law Lin Zhen who was filled in at the beginning of the year.

Li Zhenbai's fingertips trembled, and he quickly closed the genealogy tree. His chest heaved and he breathed rapidly, as if he had just experienced something very dangerous.

A few minutes later, Li Zhenbai's breathing calmed down. He opened the cover of the genealogy and looked down at the content on the first page.

The title at the top is four words: Li Family Rules.

Li Zhenbai looked at it line by line carefully, until he saw one line, his pupils trembled, and his gaze was fixed on that line.

"Brothers are brothers, they share the same spirit; Bo Ge Ji Wu, brothers Yi Yi."

Li Zhenbai read this line in a low voice, staring at it for a long time with a calm expression.

After a long time, he closed the books, took out a soft cloth from the drawer, wiped off the dust on these books, and put them back on the shelf.

After leaving the study, Li Zhenbai went upstairs to his room, washed up and lay down.

Closing his eyes, a scene from the past came to his mind.

That was when his father died of a sudden illness. Li Zhenbai was 17 years old and Li Zhengxiao was only 11 years old.

The atmosphere at home during that time was gloomy. Mother Zhou Jialu shed tears every day. Relatives of the Li family, relatives of the Zhou family, company employees, business partners, friends, etc. came and went, always reminding Every member of the family: "You have lost your husband and father, you must be very sad."

Li Zhengxiao was in panic every day, and had nightmares every night, crying that his father would come to him at night when his body was covered in blood.

He is a premature baby born when Zhou Jialu's health was not in good condition. He has not been raised all these years. His face is pale and his body is thin, like a stunted bean sprouts poked in his father's mourning hall. Dazed and frightened, the big eyes watched the comings and goings in the mourning hall.

Li Zhenbai was just a sophomore in high school that year, and his stature has initially grown into the appearance of an adult.

He has to carry this home.

From then on, he began to participate in the company's internal affairs management during his spare time at school. After high school, he went directly to Europe to study, and by the way, practiced with the international business that had just begun to expand. After graduation, he returned to China.

Starting from the head of the department, at the age of 28, he took over as the president of ENERGY Group. At the age of 30, the second uncle who temporarily acted as the head of the Li family officially handed over the position of head of the Li family to him.

Now, Li Zhenbai is 32 years old. The development of the group has reached a new level under his painstaking management. He has also secured the position of head of the family. The whole family respects and obeys him. The only shortcoming is that he spent six years abroad , my younger brother was spoiled terribly at home.

The company and family affairs are busy and complicated, no one can really help him, and my mother is gradually losing consciousness, and there is not even a single person who can sit together and discuss things.And his inner debt and pity for his younger brother made it difficult for Li Zhenbai to discipline his younger brother ruthlessly.

Therefore, after learning about Lin Shu's family background, he asked people to investigate Lin Zhen's information and chose him for his younger brother.

Unable to sleep, Li Zhenbai got up and put on his nightgown, took out a bottle of rum from the wine cabinet and poured half a glass, stood on the balcony with the window open, the early summer night breeze was blowing coolly on his body, a little cold, and took a sip After swallowing the wine, the spicy feeling spread from the mouth to the esophagus, and then went down into the stomach. The body quickly warmed up, but I didn't feel comfortable, because I always felt that something was missing in my heart, empty.

But no problem.

"I am the head of the Li family, and the rules cannot be broken." Li Zhenbai drank the remaining sip of rum, closed the window with a clatter, and went back to bed to sleep.

……

The next day, Lin Zhen got up early as usual, found boots and aprons from the treasure chest-like warehouse, took the big scissors, and went to the yard to trim the messy bushes. After finishing, he went to pull the water pipe to water the flowers. and grass.

At this time, Li Zhengxiao also got up, and ran out wearing indoor slippers. He graciously helped Lin Zhen pull the water pipe, and tried to pick the most beautiful rose flower in the middle of the flower garden, but before the flower touched it, he yelled. With a sound, he jumped and shook his hands desperately: "It hurts, hurts..."

He jumped off the slippers, and his feet stepped on the gravel in the yard, and he screamed in pain even worse.

Lin Zhen quickly turned off the water pipe, and ran over to grab his hand: "Don't shake it, you were stung by a bee, it's still on your hand, shake it off after a while, and you'll die if the needle stays in your skin." ..."

"It's late, woo..." Lin Zhen grabbed Li Zhengxiao's wrist, his face twisted in pain, his eyes narrowed as he watched the bee that stung him wobble away.

Lin Zhen turned his head and took a look, frowning slightly.

Li Zhengxiao cursed: "It just flew away after biting people, so why did it go? It hurts so much from being bitten, and I don't know how many days it will recover."

Lin Zhen grabbed him and walked into the house: "Let's go, go into the house, I'll go find the medicine box, pick out the needle and heal faster."

Li Zhengxiao had never suffered this crime, and was still muttering and scolding the bee. Lin Zhen stopped and looked at the flowers not far away.

Li Zhengxiao stopped and looked at him in bewilderment. Lin Zhen said softly, "You won't get well even if it stings you. It's a way to save both sides. If the needle falls, it won't live long."

When the small hole where he was stung was opened by the tip of the needle, Li Zhengxiao endured the pain and didn't make a sound.

After treating the small wound and applying anti-inflammatory ointment on it, Lin Zhen went to the kitchen to help make breakfast.

Li Zhengxiao followed along blindly, Lin Zhen almost ran into him when he turned around, Li Zhengxiao stretched out his hand to support his shoulder, not forgetting to raise his finger that was stung, he carefully looked at Lin Zhen's face, and asked in a low voice :"You're angry?"

Lin Zhen shook his head, "Are you hungry, eat now, go sit and wait."

Li Zhengxiao had no choice but to sit at the dining table and wait.

After eating, Li Zhengxiao said to Lin Zhen, "I'll go to the Internet cafe in the county town to play games, and I'll come back after dinner."

Lin Zhen nodded in agreement, and asked the bodyguards to follow him, while he went to the study to read, completely unaware of what Li Zhengxiao was planning behind his back.

Li Zhengxiao took people down the mountain. This small county is really barren and there is nothing to buy. He wanted to go to the city, but several bodyguards stopped him.

"Mr. Li said that you can't be allowed to leave the suburbs, so don't make things difficult for us."

Li Zhengxiao had no choice but to hang out in the only commercial street in the county town, and managed to order fresh roses. He originally wanted [-] roses, but the flower shop can get a hundred and one roses at most. , more will not arrive so soon.

He also wanted to buy a pair of rings. He and Lin Zhen had wedding rings, but they didn't usually wear them.

And it was chosen by his elder brother for them. Li Zhengxiao felt that since it was a formal marriage proposal, it would be sincere to buy another one he chose.

But there are only gold shops in this small county town, and there are no decent jewelry brands at all, so he took out his mobile phone, under the sun, and called his friends one by one, asking who had time to go to the jewelry store to choose a pair of rings for him, Then drive over.

The journey was [-] to [-] kilometers back and forth, not counting the time to go to the store to buy, change the size, etc. It was not easy to settle this matter. Li Zhengxiao promised to sell a Hermès belt, and only then did a friend agree to help.

Li Zhengxiao also planned to decorate the banquet hall of the house, so he went to buy a lot of gold leaf garlands, balloons and other things.

I went to the mall and reluctantly picked out a formal suit for myself to wear tomorrow.

It took most of the day, and Li Zhengxiao was so tired that his eyelids were twitching, that he finally got it all done, put it in the trunk of the car and sneaked up the mountain with the bodyguards, and fortunately asked him many times not to leak anything.

During dinner, Lin Zhen noticed that the faces of Li Zhengxiao and those bodyguards were all darkened, and he asked puzzledly, "Didn't you guys play indoors?"

Li Zhengxiao smiled awkwardly: "It was drying on the road, the sun outside is very strong today."

Several bodyguards echoed: "Yes, it is very strong."

At nine o'clock in the evening, Lin Zhen came out of the video room and went upstairs to sleep.

Li Zhengxiao managed to pull himself together, went to call those unlucky bodyguards over, quietly moved all the things he bought from the car to the banquet hall, and went to the warehouse to find ladders, hammers, nails, tapes, etc. Several people lowered their voices as much as possible and set up quietly.

They didn't finish their work until nearly twelve o'clock in the middle of the night.

The bodyguards were exhausted, and before they went back to sleep, they did not forget to congratulate Li Zhengxiao for finding true love, getting married, and having a son soon.

The last sentence successfully filled Li Zhengxiao's heart with daydreams, and the things in his mind went beyond description.

He was sleepy and tired, but he was very excited. He took out the pair of rings given by his friend from his pocket. Under the crystal light, the two big diamonds on the pair of rings shone brightly.

After thinking about it, Li Zhengxiao still couldn't help but want to find the most reliable and closest person to share his joy, so he took out his mobile phone and dialed the familiar number.

"Hey, brother, are you asleep? I'm sorry, I forgot it's almost twelve o'clock." Li Zhengxiao quickly apologized.

What was said on the phone, Li Zhengxiao nodded repeatedly after listening to it, and then realized that the other party couldn't see him, so he hurriedly said: "Yes, I have something to tell my brother..."

He stammered excitedly, "Brother...Big brother, I'm all ready. Tomorrow morning, when Xiaozhen wakes up, I'm going to take him to the banquet hall that's been set up to surprise him. I...I want to go down Kneel down and formally propose to him!"

"He...he will definitely be very touched, and he will definitely agree to me right away..." Li Zhengxiao showed an embarrassed smile, "Maybe, instead of tomorrow night, I can really be the bridegroom tomorrow daytime!"

Li Zhengxiao was immersed in beautiful fantasies, and after a while, he realized that the phone was quiet, and no one spoke for a long time.

"Hey, brother, are you still there?"

"Hey, big brother..." Li Zhengxiao said "huh?", took the phone from his ear, stared at the screen, "what's going on, did you hang up the phone, I haven't finished yet !"