After a full meal, the lawyer took the initiative to ask to wash the dishes, Qu Dani touched the bulging stomach and contentedly sighed.
"It's delicious! Patrick, do you think we, Lai Lai, can open a restaurant and go our own way?"
Patrick smiled and nodded.
Dani Qu said, "Don't just nod your head. Be physically supportive! If you open a restaurant, you'll contract your law firm's lunch business to us."
Patrick, "This one's a little difficult."
Dani Qu, "Difficulty my arse. Aren't you the head of the firm? Such a small matter isn't something that can be taken care of in minutes."
Patrick looked embarrassed.
Qin Li rounded off, "Alright, don't make things difficult for him. We are not opening a restaurant."
Dani Qu said in Chinese, "I'm just teasing him. I quite like this old king next door, he is handsome and has a good brain, so his genes should be good. So, I want to ask him to borrow sperm."
Qin Li didn't hear clearly for a moment, so he asked, "Borrow what?"
Quidani blurted out, "Sperm."
Qin Li was shocked, "What do you want?"
Qu Dani is not convinced, "I want to have a mixed-race baby with a high face value, so I can explain. My family has pushed me to death, saying that women's fertility declines after 30, and as soon as I got home, they forced me to go on a blind date. You know what kind of people they are. In my case, I'm not good enough, the good ones don't like me, and the ones who come to my door are the best. I promised my family that I would let them have grandchildren by the end of this year."
Qin Li cried and laughed, "What do you mean by getting it done, is unmarried pregnancy?"
Qu Dani, however, waved her hand with an unimpressed face, "What's wrong with that? Nowadays, women are independent, they make their own money and bring up their children, so what is a man used for? What is a man for? Isn't that little stick still useful? Che, in that case, why do I need to start a family to bind myself, find a bed partner on the line!"
Qin Li was a bit dazed by her edgy thinking, always feeling that something was wrong, and it took half a day in a trance to make sense out of the rambling, "You slept with Patrick?"
Quidani shook her head, "No."
Qin Li, "So you're going to sleep with him?"
Qu Dani still shook her head, "Sleeping around would be stale. I quite like this pure friendship now."
Qin Li confused her even more and asked, "You don't want his child?"
Dani Qu corrected, "It's not about his kids, it's about his genes, get it?"
Qin Li was confused and felt that he didn't have enough brain cells, "I don't understand!"
Dani Qu said, "Isn't there IVF?"
Qin Li suddenly realised, "You are as long as his, his ..."
Quidani nodded, "Yeah, I said that at the beginning."
She did say, but Qin Li didn't understand, she thought that the two of them would have to sleep at least once, but she didn't think that even this step would be saved, and it was also bullish.
"And does he agree?"
"I don't care if he agrees or not."
Qin Li was even more dizzy, "How did you get that if he didn't agree? It's not like it's DNA, just dip it in saliva."
Dani Qu lowered her voice, "Don't tell him if you do."
Only after seeing Qin Li nodding did he say, "Pour Viagra beforehand, then make him dizzy, and then just ... you know."
"It's not good for you to do that, is it? In case he finds out, won't he fight you?"
Dani Qu, "Spell what spell? As soon as I'm pregnant, I'll get on a plane and go back home so he can't find me for the rest of his life. Besides, he won't be able to come looking for me because he won't even think about the fact that I borrowed a little something from him."
Qin Li listened for a moment speechless, so heartless things also亏她想的出来,真心可怕,不由 sympathise with Patrick. I remember when I was in college, Qu Dani although big-headed, but also quite simple, how now it has become so? It's all because of this evil Western open society scourged a generation of the root of the motherland flowers ah!
"What about your parents? Wouldn't they chastise you if they knew you were unmarried and pregnant?"
Dani Qu, "What's the point of cursing when the raw rice is already cooked? Besides, don't they want a grandchild? Who cares how I got this grandson?"
Qin Li, "..."
Patrick washed the dishes and dried them all the same, he suddenly felt that the atmosphere behind him was a bit heavy, and inexplicably there was an invisible pressure coming towards him, it was weird as hell.
He turned his head in confusion and asked, "What's wrong?"
Qu Dani immediately revealed a smiling face and said, "It's nothing, just a casual chat."
Saying that, she twisted Qin Li hard, Qin Li passively nodded in agreement, but inwardly she was still intoxicated by the shock she had just experienced, unable to extricate herself.
Even if Patrick had suspected what the two were chatting about, he would never have thought that Quatre Dany would be so bottomless as to count herself out, so he smiled unsuspectingly.
He looked at Qin Li and asked, "Didn't you say last time that you were going to participate in a farmer's matchmaking programme? How did it go?"
Qin Li felt a pang of weakness at the sight of him, there was always a vestigial feeling that this man was going to have bad luck. Seeing that she didn't say anything, Qu Dani answered for her, "It's still going well."
Patrick continued to chat to them oblivious, "When is it playing?"
Dani Qu, "It's in post-production editing, and it's estimated that it will be on air for another month or two. You must catch up then!"
Patrick promised, "I'll be sure to take a look when I have time."
Qin Li took a look at Patrick and then looked at Dani Qu, who was talking and laughing without changing her face and genuinely knelt. Since coming to Germany, she still felt that her cheeks had been worn thick, but after hearing Qu Dani's words, she realised that she was simply a small witch.
Dani Qu, "By the way, how about the contract I showed you last time? Any problems?"
Patrick said, "There are no major problems, just some details that I'm afraid are a bit unfavourable to Leigh."
Dani Qu asked hastily, "Where?"
Patrick, "For example, the article about picture videos. The contract says that you are prohibited from uploading them to public online platforms on your behalf, otherwise it is a breach of contract. The TV stations have no right to do that, because, under German law, all portrait rights are in the hands of the person concerned. The most they can do is to get authorisation, but you can also unilaterally terminate this authorisation relationship at any time."
The professional is not right, Qu Dani listened to the cloud, and pursued, "So what? Where are the disadvantages?"
Patrick, "That's a hidden concern. If you want to do some publicity on public platforms, you have to get permission from the TV station, such as a Facebook account, and while you can open a private account, you can't upload content outside of the official filming in your name, all under the false pretence of the TV station's hand. To explain it in a layman's way, the TV station is your agent, and if any income is generated later on, they will receive an agency fee from it."
He paused and added, "But that shouldn't be too much of a problem, since you're not actors, after all."
In other words, it's just a very popular entertainment programme that has been made for several seasons before and after, and without hype and pop, people will just watch it and forget about it.
Qin Li hadn't thought of becoming famous by this, and her going to the programme was just a whim, so hearing him explain it like this, she felt that none of these problems was a problem.
After a few moments of conversation, Patrick got up and said to Qin Li, "The food was delicious, thank you for your hospitality."
It's a $10 dish. Talk about hospitality!
Qin Li said, "Won't you sit down for a while? There's dessert."
Quidani perked up her ears and asked, "What's for dessert?"
Qin Li, "Tiramisu."
That said, he also tithed 50 cents to be able to give him a bite.
Patrick grinned, "Give Dani this bite of mine. I have some case files to go over tonight, so I'll retreat. Next time I'll treat you to a French dinner."
Qu Dani had no other reaction, it was his words that made her jump, "That's what you said, I'm going to eat at the most expensive place, the top of that TV tower."
Patrick made an ok sign.
When Patrick had gone, Qin Li said, "Only now do I realise you're so thick-skinned."
Dani Qu didn't mind waving her hand, "Money isn't an issue for him, time is."
Qin Li asked, "Is he a workaholic?"
Qu Dani, "But it is. Alas, so that pay and get proportional, want to get without paying, can only go to ask for food. Although he earns more, think of the energy he puts into it, I think I'd rather be an honest working girl."
Qin Li nodded in deep agreement with this.
***
After a week of rain, the weather finally cleared up, and when it came to the weekend, Dani Qu dragged Qin Li along to the weekend market.
Farmers pull vegetables and fruits they grow to sell at stalls in the square, the stuff is good, it's all organic, and it's just ridiculously expensive.
Five euros for a yellow peach. Isn't that outright robbery?
Qin Li said with disappointment, "What happened to the promised ten dollars for a cart?"
Before Qu Dani could speak, the farmer next to her said, "Do you think farming is so easy? It's been raining continuously for so long, and it was not easy for the sun to open up, but last week a hailstorm suddenly fell, killing all the vegetables in the fields."
Dani Qu, "But five euros for a peach is a bit too much."
The farmer replied with a straight face, "Where's the exaggeration? It's organic, no chemical fertilisers, we pick our manure and irrigate it."
Five euros a peach, too expensive to eat. Qin Li retracted his hand.
She pined for the garden in front of the farmhouse, the four peach trees she had planted, wondering if they had blossomed and would bear fruit. And those vegetable seeds, which were still missing when she left, had they taken root and sprouted?
Thinking about it, she remembered Yan Sen. This heartless guy, obviously had her phone number, why didn't he give her a call, or send a text message? Has he already forgotten her?
The people left, but her heart stayed there, and occasionally at night she dreamed of Jensen's sullen poker face, of him coming to Munich to see her, driving his overbearing tractor. Then there was Thomas and the haughty cat, each of whom had a vivid and deep picture in her mind, and she liked the life of the farmhouse better than she had thought she would.
She figured she'd go back as soon as Jensen reached out to her.
Seeing her frozen, Qudaini nudged her and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Qin Li, "It's so limited and expensive here, I'm thinking about the wild leeks I picked in the mountains."
Dani Qu nodded her head vigorously in agreement, "Leek dumplings are so delicious!"
Qin Li asked, "Are there any wild leeks around here?"
Quidani shook her head, "I don't think so! Not that I've heard anyway."
Qin Li didn't say anything.
Qudaini looked at her and said, "Do you want to go back?"
Qin Li nodded, then said, "But Yan Sen hasn't contacted me again."
Qu Dani nodded her forehead, "Can't you take the initiative to go after him? Take out the motivation you used to have to chase after Sun Yat ..."
Speaking of which, she asked, "Have you come full circle?"
Qin Li said, "Not completely, but I kind of miss him."
Dani Qu knew what her best friend was like, emotionally introverted and indecisive, and when she said a little bit, she reckoned that she already wanted it very much, but was just afraid of this and that and didn't dare to act on it. So she secretly decided to give the two of them another gust of east wind, to help them to the other side of the shore of happiness full speed ahead.