Jiang Ye nodded, lost in thought.
Su Yueming pushed open the door and left.
A few minutes later, the office door was knocked on again.
Ju Lanlan pushed a meal cart in. She was wearing a gray tracksuit, dressed plainly, but her beauty was still stunning.
"Good morning, Commander Jiang," Ju Lanlan said with a smile.
"Morning," Jiang Ye stood up and walked to his desk, pushing various documents to the corner.
Ju Lanlan placed the plates from the meal cart on the table and handed Jiang Ye chopsticks.
The breakfast was steamed buns and vegetable soup, six different flavors of steamed buns. Overall, it was a simple meal.
"Please sit and try the food here," Jiang Ye said.
"Okay, I won't be polite then," Ju Lanlan nodded.
The two sat down to eat, and the atmosphere in the office was a bit strange. Jiang Ye felt an unfamiliar sensation. He hadn't seen Ju Lanlan in a long time, and he felt she had changed a lot, though he couldn't pinpoint where.
"What did you call me here for?" Ju Lanlan asked.
"Tell me about your recent situation," Jiang Ye said.
"Recently..." Ju Lanlan thought for a moment. "Nothing seems worth mentioning. Oh, I've been reading a lot of novels."
"A lot of novels?" Jiang Ye was taken aback. "What genres?"
"All sorts," Ju Lanlan said, biting into a steamed bun. "Like stories about company employees falling in love with domineering CEOs, time-traveling to ancient times to farm with high technology, surviving in a zombie apocalypse by hoarding supplies, forensic doctors dissecting bodies, harem struggles, esports players gaming, folk masters catching ghosts..."
"Online novels?" Jiang Ye asked in surprise.
"Some I read online, and some are physical books," Ju Lanlan replied. "For some reason, I've lost interest in watching dramas and have become addicted to reading novels. When people give me gifts, I ask them to send books, and then I pick the good ones and read them at home. Two large rooms in my house have become studies; one is filled with bookshelves, about four thousand books, and the other is like a warehouse, with boxes and boxes of books piled up."
"How much can you read in a day?"
"On weekends, I can read for fourteen hours a day and finish three books," Ju Lanlan smiled. "By the end, my head buzzes, and my eyes hurt. I've bought a lot of tonics to eat."
"Do you have any good wine there?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Good wine?" Ju Lanlan blinked. "There should be, why?"
"Not the common good wines on the market; I have plenty of those. I mean rare ones," Jiang Ye said. "Ancient ones, limited editions."
"I think I have a bottle of Yuan Dynasty wine, called Shi Jian Chun or something, I forgot the name," Ju Lanlan said, blinking. "I don't dare to drink that wine either; it's too old, kept as a cultural relic."
"Yuan Dynasty?" Jiang Ye was dumbfounded. "That's over a thousand years old. Is there still wine inside?"
"There is. If you shake it, you can still hear it sloshing," Ju Lanlan said. "I met a rich man in the energy industry on an alien planet before. He drank wine from a Ming Dynasty shipwreck and said the taste was very strange, but it still had a wine flavor. After drinking it, he had diarrhea... Let's not talk about this during meals."
"How did you get that wine?" Jiang Ye asked.
"An alien merchant gave it to me," Ju Lanlan answered very frankly. "A wealthy merchant in the textile industry who wanted to do business on Jiang Ye Star. He asked me to help him introduce him to the textile giants of Jiang Ye Star so he could pay his respects. After all, the scale is too large; they need to sit down and divide the profits, draw red lines. Old money has this habit; they won't fight to the death but will share a bit, with more people adding more chopsticks to eat together and prosper."
"Can you give it to me? I want to give it to someone. Name your price," Jiang Ye said.
"Two hundred yuan," Ju Lanlan said.
"Two million?"
"Two hundred yuan, not ten thousand," Ju Lanlan said. "I live far from you, and the shipping fee is about two hundred. I'll mail it to you, and you can pay the shipping fee upon arrival."
"How can something so precious be sent by courier? I'll send someone to pick it up," Jiang Ye said.
"Then it's free," Ju Lanlan lowered her head and drank her vegetable soup.
"How can it be free?"
"Anyway, I didn't buy it with money, so it's free," Ju Lanlan said. "If you ask me for the dark beer on my dining table, I'll have to charge you 12 yuan."
"Do you have any plans for the future?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Are you going to arrange a new job for me?"
"I'm asking you first," Jiang Ye said.
"To be honest, I've rested long enough," Ju Lanlan said. "With my abilities, you can give me more important work. I've tried all sorts of entertainment. Novels are the last line of defense. Once I get tired of novels, I'll definitely fall into emptiness. In the end, I feel that only work can make life fulfilling. I'm still a workaholic at heart."
"Have you found a boyfriend?" Jiang Ye suddenly changed the subject.
"Not yet," Ju Lanlan said with a helpless smile. "Some people pursue me, but they all have their own agendas. I haven't taken a liking to many either. There are a few ambiguous relationships now; we often chat via messages, but I guess they also have their own purposes, and it's unlikely we'll end up as husband and wife."
"Have your thoughts changed at all?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Thoughts on what?"
"In all aspects, like your worldview," Jiang Ye said.
"Yes," Ju Lanlan nodded. "I now believe in being at ease."
"At ease?" Jiang Ye savored the word.
"Fame and fortune are all fleeting. Living at ease is the most important thing," Ju Lanlan said. "Many things I've done, many thoughts I've had, cannot be told to outsiders. My mind was full of secrets, heavy secrets, and those secrets kept hatching new secrets, making me very tired. Now, everything I do, every thought I have, can be told to outsiders. I sleep very peacefully every day."
"You've cultivated yourself," Jiang Ye nodded approvingly. "I need to entrust you with an important task."
"As long as you still trust me, I won't let you down," Ju Lanlan said. "What is the important task?"
"Jiang Ye Star is about to establish a planetary exchange. You'll take up a temporary position there first," Jiang Ye said. "But this is not the final one."
From the moment she entered the office, Ju Lanlan's expression had been lazy. Now, she was finally shocked, as if she had heard some terrifying news.
"The planetary exchange isn't the final one?" Ju Lanlan put down her chopsticks. "Then what is the final one?"
"After you take up your temporary position at the planetary exchange, I need you to do two things," Jiang Ye said. "The first is to read."
"Not read novels, right?"
"Read books on governing planets, books that planetary governors and commanders need to read, books on all industries, books on global trends, books on human relationships and social etiquette, intensive reading of great disciplines like economics, psychology, management, military science, sociology, and so on," Jiang Ye said. "I'll give you a reading list later."
Ju Lanlan's expression became even more shocked, and she was too stunned to speak.