Chapter 289 Part 1: King Zhou's Happiness

At night, after putting Little Wujin and Little Blacknight into the newly bought cage and closing the door, Chu Mingcheng got up and came to Jiang Luoluo's side.

"Okay, let's continue!" he said.

"Mm..." Jiang Luoluo nodded and started the music.

Then she quickly moved to Chu Mingcheng's right side, placed her hands one high and one low, imitating fox hands. Chu Mingcheng mirrored the motion, and the two faced the mirror together.

When the music reached the line, "The wind softly, with my love, a time that seems familiar..." the two began to imitate a fox's movements. In the mirror, their coordination was already quite good; at least Chu Mingcheng was keeping up with the rhythm this time.

His body slowly turned halfway with the music. He stopped in the middle while Jiang Luoluo danced a short solo, and then he rejoined for the next section.

This time, instead of fox hands, it was the fox tail. He placed his right hand behind his back, waving it softly to mimic a fox's tail swishing through the air. His feet didn't stop either, continuing to turn the remaining half-circle as he showed his back to the camera.

That's right—in this dance, Jiang Luoluo was playing Su Daji, and he was King Zhou.

[TN: King Zhou — A famously cruel final king of the Shang Dynasty, often portrayed in folklore as being spellbound by his consort, Su Daji, a malevolent fox spirit who bewitched the king.]

What they were dancing was the King Zhou's Happiness Dance (《周王的幸福舞》), a catchy, fun piece.

Chu Mingcheng had already practiced for over an hour tonight. His part had only two moves, both very simple. The tricky part was moving to the rhythm later on. When filming, he had to synchronize perfectly with Jiang Luoluo, so this section demanded a lot of repetition.

Earlier, when Little Wujin and Little Blacknight saw them dancing, they ran over to cause trouble. Chu Mingcheng, reaching his limit, finally went out and bought a small dog cage to temporarily lock them in. 

He'd also chosen this solution with Jiang Luoluo in mind—she would continue practicing in the Dance Studio, and the cage would keep the dogs from disturbing her there. Otherwise, if they were locked outside the door, their barking would bother the neighbors.

After practicing about ten more times, Jiang Luoluo turned off the music, satisfied. "Not bad—you've completely mastered the rhythm. Once we film the video for this dance, my work can come to a temporary stop."

"No rush. Take your time. Don't wear yourself out." Chu Mingcheng stroked her face. It felt less full than it had a while ago, and he said with a pang of heartache in his voice, "You've lost weight."

Jiang Luoluo shook her head. "I'll be done after filming two more videos tomorrow. Don't run off anywhere in the afternoon; we need to film this dance then."

Chu Mingcheng was a bit surprised. "You'll be done tomorrow? That's pretty fast!"

"Of course. Now I'm only responsible for practicing and filming. I don't need to worry about anything else except checking the monthly income and paying everyone's salaries."

As she spoke, Jiang Luoluo felt a little regretful. She used to think running a studio would be overwhelming, so she couldn't be bothered with it. Back then, she had to meticulously design every dance herself and personally confirm things like custom-made clothes. Only now did she realize how much easier it was to have a team working for her.

And she was earning more than before. After all, the more videos she posted, the more she earned.

Next, she started discussing an idea he'd mentioned that afternoon with Chu Mingcheng. His concept was actually quite simple: since he was playing King Zhou, there had to be a few shots of him blindfolded, trying to catch the beautiful women, to show how much Su Daji was favored. 

Wasn't King Zhou's happiness just that simple? Men were very simple, after all—they always stayed true to their original intentions!

While they discussed the dance video, on the other side of the city, Wei Jiaguo was looking at the black carp that had already flipped over, its belly facing up. His expression was one of regret.

He had just finished bragging to his friends tonight, and not long after they left, the black carp flipped over, its vitality fading fast.

In truth, when his friends arrived, the black carp was already floating on its side. Wei Jiaguo knew the fish was in bad shape, but he still held onto a sliver of hope.

Unfortunately, the damage from Chu Mingcheng's four punches that afternoon was significant. Coupled with the black carp's failure to adapt to the tank environment, the fish was ultimately doomed.

It was a good thing he hadn't spent money on this fish—otherwise, he'd be suffering a huge loss.

Before the fish died completely, Wei Jiaguo made a phone call. He decided to give it a dignified end.

Before long, a refrigerated transport vehicle arrived at the villa. Soon, the black carp was carried out and placed on a waterproof tarp that had been laid out. A man holding a fish filleting knife began processing it.

The black carp was cut open, and its internal organs were removed piece by piece. As for the scales, they were probably too hard to scrape on a fish this size, so the crew likely gave up on them.

Then came the important part. The man processing the fish cut the entire fish head open and, from its throat, extracted a black carp stone as large as an adult man's fist—estimated to be over fifty grams, worth about five or six thousand yuan.

Clearly, the value of the black carp stone far exceeded that of the fish maw.

Wei Jiaguo had given Chu Mingcheng fifty thousand earlier because a live black carp was worth that much. Whether sold as an ornamental fish or bought by the owner of a pay-to-fish pond, it would cost about that amount.

But a dead black carp naturally wasn't worth much; only the black carp stone held any value.

However, since Wei Jiaguo had said he'd give it a dignified end, he would naturally make the proper arrangements. The fish had a high meat yield, so he had someone help process it into pet food to give to Chu Mingcheng later.

Among the people Wei Jiaguo knew, Chu Mingcheng was the one with the most pets.

If the black carp had known that its "dignified end" meant having every last bit of its value extracted, it certainly would not have wanted such dignity.

…

On the morning of August 25th, Chu Mingcheng was driving the Raptor with Jiang Luoluo in the passenger seat. In the cage in the back were the two dogs, Wujin and Blacknight.

The dance filming was finished, so the two set off on a road trip to Wenzhou.

Flying with pets was inconvenient; driving was much more flexible. Besides, it was convenient to have a car for getting around after they returned home.

The only issue was that when it was time to return to Xiamen, Chu Mingcheng would have to trouble Chen Yang or Zhang Wei to help sail the Poseidon from Shanghai to Xiamen. But he believed they definitely wouldn't mind doing him such a favor.

They set off at eight in the morning, ate lunch on the road, and arrived in Wenzhou at four in the afternoon.

To make parking easier and to give the two of them some private space, Chu Yongxin and An Xiuwen had come to the old family house that day.

Knowing their son and future daughter-in-law were visiting, they had tidied up the house during the day and aired out the quilts and mats in the rooms. They were also aware of the progress in Chu Mingcheng and Jiang Luoluo's relationship, so they didn't prepare a separate room as they would have in the past.

Arriving at the old house, the two had just carried the dogs into the backyard when they heard the whirring sound of the range hood. Looking through the window, Old Chu was busy as could be, even showing off his wok-tossing skills. 

An Xiuwen was helping him, and because the back door was open, the corridor led straight to the front entrance.

She had just finished washing a chicken and was heading back to the kitchen when she suddenly spotted her son and daughter-in-law. A surprised smile lit up her face. "Ah Cheng, Luoluo, you're back? What are you standing at the door for? Hurry up and come in."

Before Chu Mingcheng could even say hello, Jiang Luoluo went up with a smile. "Hello, Auntie. I brought you a gift. Take a look."

"Oh?" An Xiuwen put on a surprised expression as she took the gift. "Aiya, Luoluo is the best—knowing how to buy cosmetics for Auntie."

"It's what I should do," Jiang Luoluo said, smiling with her lips pressed together.

Chu Yongxin, hearing the commotion from the kitchen, came out holding a spatula. When Jiang Luoluo saw him, she immediately greeted him and presented his a gift as well.

"Uncle, this is for you. Ah Cheng and I picked out some clothes for you."

Chu Yongxin naturally accepted it with a chuckle, not standing on ceremony with such a token of his son and daughter-in-law's filial piety.

Afterward, An Xiuwen pulled Jiang Luoluo into the living room to chat, while Chu Mingcheng was dragged into the kitchen to help, a wry smile on his face.

It couldn't be helped. Who else's fault was it that the two men of the Chu family were the better cooks? Of course, the person with the best cooking skills had to be the one to cook at home.

Chu Mingcheng washed his hands and started helping out, not forgetting to ask about the house situation. "Dad, did you ask the neighbors? Are they willing to sell?"

Hearing this, Chu Yongxin's hands paused. He then frowned and said, "Ah Cheng, why don't you just buy a house in the city? To be honest, there's not much development potential here. But because of the bridge connection, the housing prices are a bit high."

Chu Mingcheng understood immediately. It seemed the price the neighbors quoted made his dad feel it wasn't worth it.

But since he had a boat, if he came back after selling fish, living on Yanmen Island would be countless times more convenient than living in the city.

Rich people definitely owned more than one house. Chu Mingcheng knew of a wealthy family in a remote village in town who had built a very luxurious house. He'd heard that construction and renovation alone had cost twenty million. Just two trees in the courtyard were worth two million. They'd built the house specifically for their retirement, valuing the peace and comfort.

So, as long as the neighbors' asking price wasn't too outrageous, he definitely wanted to build his own "back garden" as well.

Chu Mingcheng couldn't live in Xiamen forever, and neither could Jiang Luoluo.

"What price did they quote?"

"Three hundred thousand."

Three hundred thousand. The neighbor's house was about eighty-five square meters per floor, which came to over 3,500 per square meter. 

Chu Mingcheng had done his research. A lot of commercial housing had been built near the bridge, and the original houses there had all been demolished and replaced with uniform, modern-style villas. Those houses ran about 6,500 per square meter. In comparison, his neighbor's asking price seemed very cheap.

But in reality, his location was on the inner part of the island. Second, these were all old houses; a price of 3,500 per square meter was almost double the normal asking price. Logically, no one would be willing to buy a house on this island even at 2,000 per square meter.

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