Outsider: The Fifth Young Master of the Kang Family

Chapter 94: A-Zu wants to move out

The next day, A Yao took Kang Qirui's calligraphy and painting to attend the director's daughter's wedding banquet. He came back drunk at night and kept singing ditties after entering the house. The old maid complained: "Oh, why are you so drunk?"

"As soon as I smelled it, I knew it must be Wuliangye." Er Lao laughed, "There were so many people at your director's daughter's wedding party? So much wine was drunk."

"Of course it's more, more than thirty in circumference." A Yao replied.

The old man was most concerned about his own calligraphy and paintings. "Ayao, I gave you the painting that the director wanted to see. Does he like it?"

"I like it. I like it very much." A Yao found it funny when he thought about it. "His daughter and son-in-law wanted to take it away, but he refused to let them. They said it was a gift for them. The lotus and mandarin duck must be a gift for the newlyweds." A Yao blurted it out after getting drunk.

When my father heard this, he frowned and asked, "Lotus and mandarin duck? What I gave you is a twin melon?"

Kang Qirui quickly tried to make up for it: "How can you take Third Brother's words seriously when he's so drunk? He would have nodded if you told him that it was a statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Childbirth." Ah Yao also reacted at this time and pretended to be drunk and said: "Yes, the statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Childbirth that I gave him liked it the most. He kept asking me to drink with him and said that I have a bright future."

"Help him back to his room. Drink, drink, drink until he can't even recognize his mother's last name." The old man said angrily. At least the matter was resolved. Kang Qirui and the second brother helped A Yao back to his room.

Seeing that Ayao didn't look like he was unconscious, the second brother asked curiously, "Ayao, are you really drunk or just pretending to be drunk? Did you really give your director the painting from your father?"

Ah Yao went back to his room and lay on the bed, saying unhappily, "How can I get away if I don't pretend to be drunk? How can I give away my father's painting? Ah Rui gave me one of his paintings yesterday."

"So that's how it is. Then go to sleep." The second brother pulled Kang Qirui out and whispered, "Mr. Rui, when will you give a painting to your second brother?" Kang Qirui rolled his eyes and refused to communicate.

On September 2000, Kang Qirui returned to school to attend the defense meeting for promotion to associate professor. He had not yet reached the term limit, but he met all the conditions for exceptional promotion. In terms of teaching, he won the Outstanding Teacher of the 01- academic year; in terms of papers, five of his papers were included in the full text of "Xinhua Digest" and "Abstracts of Journals of Humanities in Higher Education Institutions"; in terms of books, his publication "Explanation of Human Words" was selected into the Chinese Literature Research Classics Series; in terms of projects, he was independently leading the "Academic Origins of Traditional Chinese Literary Theory" project, and therefore obtained the qualification for exceptional promotion.

He was lucky enough to be number 1, the first to defend his thesis. He prepared for a month and was on stage for ten minutes. He felt that the whole defense process went smoothly. After the defense, he returned to the office and chatted with his colleagues for a while, and went home around noon.

As soon as Kang Qirui got home, Zhu Wanling couldn't wait to ask, "How is it? Did you pass?" Zhu Wanling continued to work after she became pregnant, but the hospital no longer arranged for her to work the night shift, and the day shift was basically a three-day work and one-day rest rhythm.

"Not so fast. The results will be announced after everyone has defended their thesis. It will be at least next week." Kang Qirui replied. This time, teaching assistants were promoted to lecturers, lecturers were promoted to associate professors, and associate professors were promoted to professors. A large group of people were defending their thesis, and the results were announced uniformly. We had to wait for a while.

"Oh." Zhu Wanling nodded, moved closer to Kang Qirui, and whispered, "The master is very unhappy now. He is angry with grandma."

"Ah? What's going on?" Kang Qirui was stunned. The two elders have always been in love.

"During the painting class today, the teacher held grandma's hand and taught her step by step. Grandpa was already a little jealous, and then my mom said a few sarcastic words, which made him even angrier." Zhu Wanling became more and more embarrassed as she spoke. Mrs. Zhu was also largely responsible for this matter.

Kang Qirui shook his head and smiled bitterly. His mother-in-law and his father seemed like enemies, and there was nothing he could do. As for the fact that his father was angry, he didn't care much. It was normal to be jealous. The more jealous they were, the more they loved each other. The mother-in-law could easily control his father.

Sure enough, when it was time for dinner, the old man was no different from usual, still talking and laughing, Kang Qirui knew that the mother had coaxed the old man, the jealous king of Xiguan. After dinner, the old man notified everyone to go to the living room to hold the third plenary meeting of the Kang family.

"Today, your mother and I went to the power supply bureau to pay the electricity bill. Here is the electricity bill, take a look." After seeing that everyone was gathered, the old man went straight to the point and directly stated the topic of the meeting.

A-Zu took the electricity bill and looked at it, and was shocked, "No way? One thousand four hundred and fifty dollars?"

"Dad, have you checked the electric meter to see if there is anything wrong with it?"

"The meter is fine." The old man shook his head. "Don't you think about it? You all turn on the air conditioner right after you come back, day and night. You feel bad, don't you? Let's see how to share the money."

"Dad, from what you said, does that mean that the electricity bill should be shared by us who own air conditioners?" asked the second brother. "Then who will pay for the electricity bill other than the air conditioner?"

The old man nodded and said, "A Guang's room doesn't have air conditioning. Although my room has air conditioning, your mother and I are afraid of cold but not heat, so we have never turned it on. We will cover the average of 200 degrees per month, and you will share the rest."

"Dad, let me tell you about my situation. My room also doesn't have air conditioning. You, the big brother and I should all pay for 200 degrees of electricity, and they should share the rest." A-Zu wanted to cheat.

Er Lao was so angry that he slapped A Zu, "You poor bastard, you sleep with me every night, and I'm lucky enough that I didn't ask you to pay for half of the air conditioner. Now you don't even want to pay the electricity bill?"

A-Zu also knew that he was in the wrong, so he just talked big. In the end, it was calculated that the eldest brother, Lao Dou, each paid 60 yuan for electricity, Kang Qirui, A Yao and Youmei were 266 yuan each, the second brother was 399 yuan, and A-Zu was 133 yuan. Except for Kang Qirui, everyone felt very painful, but fortunately it was already September. "Let's do it this month. Starting tomorrow, each room will have an electricity meter installed. I will pay for the installation of the meter. In the future, each room will pay for how much they use. The rest is for the electricity used in the public areas, and everyone will share it. Do you have any objections?" Taking into account that some people like to turn on the air conditioner all night, while others only turn it on for two or three hours, Lao Dou proposed installing an electricity meter.

Everyone nodded to show that they had no objection, only the second sister-in-law raised her hand and said, "I have an objection." The old man raised the big sunflower fan in his hand, signaling the second sister-in-law to speak directly. The second sister-in-law ignored the second brother's obstruction and said, "Nayumi is sleeping in the living room, how should this be calculated? There are so many electrical appliances in the living room, it is not fair to charge all the electricity in the living room to her, but it is also not fair not to count her air conditioning electricity."

The second sister-in-law's words were not unreasonable, they did make sense. Yumi slept in the living room with the air conditioner on, so it was a problem to calculate her electricity bill. The old man couldn't think of any solution at once, so he asked, "What suggestions do you have?"

Yumei looked at Ayao for help. Ayao also scratched his head. He had no choice but to look at Kang Qirui. Kang Qirui thought for a while and said, "Yumei, why don't you just take an average? How about dividing the electricity used by the four air-conditioned rooms?"

It seemed like he was trying to get Yumi's consent, but in fact, Yumi had no room to refuse. If she didn't want to do this or that, she could only go back to her room to sleep. Compared with the electricity bill, she couldn't accept the high temperature in the room. So Yumi nodded and said, "Okay, then let's do as Brother Arui said. I'll pay the average."

The matter was perfectly resolved, and the third plenary meeting of the Kang family was declared over. Those who were watching TV took the remote control to turn on the TV, and those who wanted to go back to their rooms stood up and prepared to go back, but A-Zu stopped everyone, snatched the remote control and turned off the TV, saying, "Wait, wait, wait, we have finished talking about the electricity bill, but I haven't talked about my matter yet."

"What can you say? Just talk while watching TV." Er Lao said unhappily.

A-Zu insisted on not turning on the TV. "Excuse me for interrupting you all for a while. I'll watch TV after I finish talking. This is very important."

"You also have important things to say? It's a strange news in the world." Er Lao looked at A Zu with shocked eyes.

"Yes, I do want to tell you one thing. That is, I want to say goodbye to you all. I hope that in the days without me, you can be happy and think of me." A-Zu seemed to be giving his last words.

"You bad boy, are you planning to commit suicide for love?" Er Lao asked when he heard what A Zu said.

"Bah! What kind of suicide for love?" A-Zu corrected him quickly, "I just want to move out."

A Yao was surprised and asked, "Move out? Who will you live with?"

"Of course it's Diana." Yumi guessed.

The second brother frowned and said, "You don't want to follow the trend of trial marriage, do you?" Kang Qirui also nodded in agreement, "It seems like something that the fourth brother would do."

"It's not Diana, I live alone. Although Diana is a foreigner, she is very conservative. How could she try marriage with me?" A Zu explained.

"Grandpa, have you made any new friends?" asked the old man.

"Grandpa, is it because your mother didn't take good care of you?" the old maid asked with a worried look on her face.

Seeing that the nanny was in a bad mood, A'zu hurried over to her and comforted her, "Of course not, nanny, you take good care of me." God is witness, the nanny was so good to him that he didn't have to worry about anything. It was almost like living like an emperor.

"Then why do you want to move out?" asked the old man.

A Zu walked over to Lao Dou, squatted down and said, "Lao Dou, this is what happened. A friend of mine is going abroad, so he left a house for me to live in and asked me to help him look after it."

"Oh, so that's how it is. Were you a dog in your previous life? You guard the door for others all day long?" Er Lao directly laughed at A Zu, "Hahaha." Everyone was amused by Er Lao's words.

After hearing this, A Zu was so angry that he ran over and grabbed Er Lao's neck, angrily saying: "It's so hot now, do you think it's comfortable to sleep with your son? You kick my stomach every night, making me uncomfortable. Now there is another place with air conditioning for me to sleep, how can I not leave?"

"Uncle?" After playing for a while, A Zu looked at his uncle with anticipation on his face. As long as his uncle nodded in agreement, he could move out.

"You can live anywhere, but you must remember the Kang family rules." The old man didn't say anything, he just emphasized it and agreed directly.

"I know, dad. Men and women are not allowed to live together before marriage. At thirty, one is independent, and at forty, one is free from doubts. It's clear." When A-Zu heard that his dad agreed, he immediately smiled. As for the family rules, those were trivial matters.

Kang Qirui thought for a moment and asked, "When are you going to move out?" He thought that if he had time, he would help A Zu move his things. "I'll move tomorrow," A Zu said after thinking for a moment. That was out of the question, as he had to go to a meeting at school tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)