Chapter 690: Lu Jiajie's Blind Date
Chapter 690: Lu Jiajie's Blind Date
Once Wang Xiaojie confirmed that Lu Jiajie intended to remarry, she eagerly took on the task of playing matchmaker. With Lu Jiajie's desirable qualities and the fact that he was seeking a divorced woman, it didn't take long to find a potential candidate.
Upon Lu Jiajie's return to Si Jiu City after delivering a batch of goods, Wang Xiaojie showed him a photo: "This young lady's name is Yao Hongmei. She's 28 years old and works at the Health Bureau. She divorced two years ago."
Lu Jiajie glanced at the photo, noting her delicate features. "Why did she divorce?" he asked.
Wang Xiaojie sighed. "Her ex-husband used to be a teacher, but he ventured into business a few years ago and made some money. You know how some men get when they have a little extra cash—they start fooling around. Sadly, he was no exception. Yao Hongmei didn't want to divorce at first. For the sake of her child, she chose to turn a blind eye to his affairs. But when another woman showed up at their door pregnant, she just couldn't take it anymore and decided to leave."
"What about the child?" Lu Jiajie inquired.
"It's gone," Wang Xiaojie replied.
Lu Jiajie's expression changed slightly. "Gone? What do you mean?"
"She had her tubes tied after giving birth," Wang Xiaojie explained. "With only one child, she naturally didn't want to leave him or her in the care of a stepmother. But her ex-husband and his family refused to let her take the child, so they ended up in court. The court ruled in her favor and granted her custody..."
A fleeting look of pity crossed her eyes as she continued, "But not long after, while she was at work, her ex-in-laws went to the kindergarten and took the child away. They hid him at a relative's house. Unfortunately, the relative was neglectful, and the child wandered off in search of his mother, only to fall into a pond and drown."
As a mother herself, Wang Xiaojie understood the devastating impact of losing a child. She couldn't help but feel compassion for Yao Hongmei, who had suffered at the hands of a selfish ex-husband and his family.
Lu Jiajie, himself a father, also felt a pang of sympathy for the woman. However, he knew that some things needed clarification. "Has she truly moved on from that tragedy?" he asked.
The pain of losing a child could push most people to the brink of collapse, especially if it was an only child.
"No matter how painful it is, life goes on," Wang Xiaojie replied. "If you're interested, you can meet her and see if there's any chemistry between you two."
Lu Jiajie agreed to the meeting. The fact that Yao Hongmei had a stable job, no children, and was reasonably attractive already exceeded his expectations.
Wang Xiaojie wasted no time and contacted a matchmaker that very day. She arranged for the two to meet the following afternoon.
When Lu Jiajie met Yao Hongmei in person, he noticed that she appeared thinner than in her photo, but her overall demeanor was graceful and exuded an intellectual beauty.
We are all visual creatures, and first impressions matter. Lu Jiajie was immediately drawn to her, and he politely invited her to take a seat before introducing himself.
After Lu Jiajie finished speaking, Yao Hongmei nodded, indicating that she had been briefed on his situation by Wang Xiaojie. "With your financial means, Mr. Lu, finding a young and beautiful bride wouldn't be difficult. Why, then, are you specifically looking for someone who has been married before?"
Lu Jiajie appreciated her directness. "It's true that I could easily marry a young and beautiful maiden. However, there would be many challenges. Firstly, my future wife would have to take on the role of stepmother to my two children, which would be difficult for her and something I wouldn't feel comfortable with. Secondly, if I marry a young woman, she would naturally want to have children of her own. But at this point, I'm not ready to have more kids."
Yao Hongmei looked directly at him and asked, "Are you saying you don't want any more children in the future?"
Lu Jiajie shook his head. "Not at all. I just don't want to have children for the time being. I believe that people's affections are biased. Once you have your own children, your attention and love will naturally be focused on them. My daughter is still young, and if I were to remarry and have another child, I'd have to wait until she's at least in middle school. By then, she'll be more mature and capable of taking care of herself."
Yao Hongmei asked in confusion, "If you dote on your children so much, why did you divorce? Even if your wife helped out her natal family, considering the children, you wouldn't have ended up in this situation if she hadn't gone too far."
It was customary for daughters to provide some support to their natal families if they had the means and capability to do so. Even she herself had helped out her own family before.
Upon hearing this, Lu Jiajie's heart skipped a beat. "Do you often help out your natal family?"
"I helped my younger brother find a job after he graduated from high school, and I also lent my older brother money when he was short for buying a house," Yao Hongmei replied.
"Have you gotten back the money you lent?" Lu Jiajie asked.
Yao Hongmei responded, "I lent them the money, not gave it to them. Anyone could run into difficulties, and it's only natural to help out your own siblings if you can."
"My situation is different from yours," Lu Jiajie said. "My ex-wife borrowed money to support her natal family, and I was left to fill in the financial holes. That's not the issue, though. The problem was that she would give away the food and toys I bought for our children to her nephew. It happened so often that I got fed up and decided to divorce her."
"I didn't mistreat her after the divorce, though," he continued. "I left her the four large houses that I had painstakingly acquired, and I also compensated her with a substantial sum of money. Not long after our divorce, she remarried and gave birth to a son within a year. After that, she completely ignored my two children. A couple of years ago when I got into trouble, she thought I had died out there, and she tried to take back our children. Wanting the children was just an excuse; she actually wanted to get her hands on my house and savings."
Yao Hongmei found this a little hard to believe. "You're not pulling my leg, are you?"
"There's no need for me to lie to you about this," Lu Jiajie said. "You can ask around in that area and find out for yourself. In her attempt to take back the children, she told them that I had died and that my body couldn't even be found. During that time, my son cried every day in his bed, and my daughter was so scared that she had nightmares and cried for her daddy every night. After I returned, the two children wouldn't leave my side for a moment, even following me to the toilet, afraid that I would disappear again."
Every time he thought about this, he felt a surge of anger. However, he had only taken revenge on Ma Dahua and her husband, Yan Fang. Yan Fang had his arm chopped off due to gambling debts and was subsequently fired from the factory. Ma Dahua's factory, on the other hand, wasn't doing well, and her wages were very low. The couple couldn't even support themselves, let alone a child, so they depended on Ma's parents. Fortunately, while Ma Lili treated Qiangqiang and Xiaofeng harshly, she truly loved her youngest son and no longer supported her in-laws or her parasitic sister, Ma Dahua.
Yao Hongmei's heart ached as she listened, and she developed a good impression of Lu Jiajie. Someone who loved his children this much couldn't be a bad person, unlike her own ex-husband, who had been shameless and unscrupulous.
Lu Jiajie also had a favorable impression of Yao Hongmei. She was sensible and level-headed, and he felt confident that she wouldn't cause any unnecessary trouble if he were to bring her home as his wife.
After they finished eating, Lu Jiajie suggested, "It's still early. How about we go and catch a movie?"
Yao Hongmei understood that he wanted to take their relationship a step further, but there were some things she needed to clarify first. "You mentioned that you got into trouble a couple of years ago. Is this business of yours very dangerous?"
"Previously, I worked with foreigners, and it was easy to run into trouble due to the mix of people involved," Lu Jiajie explained. "Now, I don't go abroad anymore; I just do business along the border. It's not dangerous, but I don't make as much money as I used to."
Hearing this, Yao Hongmei secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She actually didn't want to remarry, but her parents were worried about her, and her brother, sister-in-law, and younger brother had been constantly persuading her to forget the past and start anew. She had agreed to go on this blind date to set her family's minds at ease. The previous candidates hadn't been suitable, but Lu Jiajie seemed decent in all aspects, and he appeared to have a good character as well.
(End of Chapter)
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