With Qiao Lanshu’s support, Zhong Mei was brimming with confidence in her business!
Although this was only her first day in Wencheng and she had yet to finish settling in at home, she already had grand plans for the future.
The dining table was small, so the four adults ate at one table while the four children ate at another.
Zhong Mei rather missed Han Ye, so she asked Qiao Lanshu, “Where’s Niuwa? Why didn’t he come see me?”
Qiao Lanshu laughed. “Him? He went back to his own home. He didn’t come over today, so he doesn’t know that you moved.”
Only then did Zhong Mei say, “I thought he’d forgotten about me.”
Niuwa had been such a mischievous child when he was little, and Zhong Mei had spent no small amount of time looking after him. During the New Year celebrations, she had also given Han Ye plenty of lucky money.
As they talked, Qiao Lanshu brought up the incident involving Han Ye and Liu Wenqiu’s love letters. Zhong Mei was so furious that she spent quite a while cursing.
She even said that if anyone dared to slander her son like that in the future, she would take a kitchen knife straight to the school and deal with them herself.
Her words made Qiao Lanshu burst out laughing, but Guan Wenjun, who was sitting beside them, wore a complicated expression.
He reminded her, “Don’t forget that I’m your husband, will you? You can’t just pick up a kitchen knife whenever you feel like it. If something goes wrong, I could lose my job, so take it easy.”
Zhong Mei: “……”
Zhong Mei then said, “Don’t worry. Once I grow the business and become a big boss, it’ll be perfect if you lose your job. You can come home and look after the children and do the cooking.”
Guan Wenjun: “???”
Guan Wenjun closed his eyes and said to Qiao Lanshu, “Comrade Xiao Qiao, look at her. Talk some sense into her!”
Qin Yuanzheng continued eating as he said, “It’s your wife we’re talking about. Say a little less. Your children are already this old—why are you still nitpicking over everything?”
Qin Yuanzheng really couldn’t stand watching anymore. He had never seen a man who loved arguing with his wife so much.
He couldn’t win an argument, and he couldn’t beat her either.
What else could he do—divorce her?
Guan Wenjun let out a long, weary sigh and said quietly, “I used to think Zhong Mei had the same personality as your wife—gentle, virtuous, and easygoing. But after I married her, I discovered that their personalities are completely opposite.”
He had practically married a shrew.
Qin Yuanzheng reproached him. “Zhong Mei is a good woman too. She’s already given you two children. What else is there that you can’t let her have her way over?”
Guan Wenjun rolled his eyes at Qin Yuanzheng. “Fine. I can’t be bothered to argue with you anymore.”
No matter what he said to Qin Yuanzheng, Qin Yuanzheng always told him the same things: he should give in to his wife, coax his wife, remember that his wife was always right, and never go against her.
Guan Wenjun pointed at Qin Yuanzheng and said, “Lao Qin, I really didn’t expect you to be this kind of person—a henpecked husband.”
Qin Yuanzheng smiled and shook his head without saying anything else.
The two men ate in silence while listening to Zhong Mei and Qiao Lanshu discuss her grand plan for getting rich.
Zhong Mei asked Qiao Lanshu, “Are you free this weekend? Come with me to look at some shops. I want to open a general store somewhere with lots of residential areas. There has to be enough people around for the business to thrive.”
Qiao Lanshu nodded. “I have to tutor Han Ye on Saturday morning, but I’m free Sunday afternoon.”
When Zhong Mei heard that the children were taking extra lessons, she asked a few more questions. Then she said in shock, “You’re even teaching the children a foreign language?”
Guan Wenjun frowned. “What’s the point of learning that foreign stuff? Isn’t Chinese good enough?”
Zhong Mei immediately snapped at him, “You’re just too old-fashioned. Foreign languages are absolutely worth learning, I’m telling you. In the future, as our country continues to develop, I’ll have to do business with foreigners too. How am I supposed to make money from them if I can’t speak their language?”
Guan Wenjun muttered, “If they want to do business here, can’t they learn Chinese?”
Zhong Mei ignored him. She asked Qiao Lanshu about the foreign-language teacher, and after Qiao Lanshu’s family left, she cornered Guan Wenjun.
“You’re always going on about how you’re a section chief with connections everywhere, aren’t you? Then go find the children a foreign-language teacher too!”
Guan Wenjun squeezed his eyes shut in misery. “Comrade Zhong Mei, where am I supposed to find a foreign-language teacher? The foreign-language teachers at the schools only know their ABCs. They might not even be able to say hello in English. You want to hire them to teach the children? You might as well stop wasting your money now.”
Zhong Mei sighed as well. Somewhat disappointed, she said, “But the foreign-language teacher on Lanshu’s side is a professor at Wencheng Normal University. He’s only teaching her children because of a personal favor. I can’t shamelessly send our children over there too.”
Guan Wenjun came over and put an arm around her. “Oh, it’s getting late. We should go to bed. We can talk about this foreign-language business another time. The children are still young, so there’s no rush.”
Zhong Mei had no solution for the moment, but she was already in a bad mood. She shoved Guan Wenjun away and scolded him, “All you think about day in and day out is what happens in bed. Can’t you think about something else and give me a break?”
Sometimes Zhong Mei felt that Guan Wenjun was her eldest son, with two younger sons below him. Raising three sons at once was truly exhausting.
There were times when she didn’t even want to deal with Guan Wenjun.
So she went straight to the room next door and slept with the two children.
Guan Wenjun was furious.
Zhong Mei was always refusing to sleep with him. He was genuinely going to get angry!
……
Over the next six months, Qiao Lanshu worked during the day, tutored Han Ye, and accompanied Zhong Mei as she searched for a storefront.
In the end, Zhong Mei finally found a place she was satisfied with, and the landlord was willing to rent it to her.
The shop stood beside a three-way intersection. Nearby were large compounds where ordinary residents lived, dormitories for factory workers, and even a school.
Zhong Mei thought the location was excellent. She could sell general merchandise, stationery, books—in short, just about anything. She told Qiao Lanshu, “Business will definitely be good!”
Qiao Lanshu agreed. “Then let’s go with this place. By the way, where are you planning to get your merchandise?”
At that time, the source of the goods depended on what one wanted to sell. Ordinary stationery and household items could be found in any city, though the profit margins were low.
If she wanted higher profits, she would have to source goods directly from various factories.
Some people even made a special trip by train to the south to purchase merchandise. But the south was too far away, requiring a long train journey, and along the way they had to watch out for pickpockets and thieves.
Zhong Mei immediately dismissed that option.
“I’ll visit the factories one by one first and make a list of everything I can get from them. For the rest, I’ll look elsewhere. I heard Wencheng has a wholesale market, so I’ll go take a look there.”
Qiao Lanshu didn’t know much about this either. Whatever Zhong Mei said, she nodded along and occasionally offered some suggestions.
Once they had rented the shop, Zhong Mei began handling every aspect of opening it by herself.
Qiao Lanshu, meanwhile, was busy with work and didn’t have much time to stop by.
Zhong Mei was capable and hardworking. Since the shop needed to be renovated, she spent practically every day there supervising the work, leaving the two children in Guan Wenjun’s care.
After work each day, Guan Wenjun had to pick up the children and then cook for them.
But how could he know how to cook?
Even the children complained that his food tasted awful.
A month passed like this, and both Guan Wenjun and the children had lost weight.
There was no helping it. Guan Wenjun could only help Zhong Mei keep an eye on the work at the shop, allowing Zhong Mei to go home to look after the children and cook.
But the work at the shop was even more exhausting. Day after day, Guan Wenjun was worn out like a dog.
All of Guan Wenjun’s money was with Zhong Mei. Zhong Mei had invested twenty thousand yuan in the shop, while Qiao Lanshu had invested ten thousand yuan as an advance for merchandise.
Finally, by the time Zhong Mei’s shop officially opened, half a year had passed.
By then, it was summer vacation once again.
Han Ye had finished the middle school entrance examinations and successfully been admitted to Wencheng No. 1 High School, becoming a high school student.
Qin Qiao'an had also started his first year of middle school, while Xiaxia had entered sixth grade.
In the blink of an eye, the children had all grown up.
……
After Han Ye entered high school, he became even more mature and sensible. Most importantly, he never got into fights or caused trouble.
Why?
Because Qiao Lanshu worked at the school. Every day, she heard about Han Ye’s behavior, his grades, and everything he had done—even if she did not ask, the other teachers would tell her about it when they returned to the staff room.
Han Ye could not embarrass Qiao Lanshu, so he behaved exceptionally well in high school.
Just as Qiao Lanshu was beginning to relax now that her most troublesome child had suddenly become sensible, Qin Qiao'an took up his older brother’s mantle and became the latest notorious figure in middle school.
He often failed to come home on time after school, only appearing at the door on his bicycle after night had fallen.
During holidays, he disappeared altogether.
And now that he was older, Qin Qiao'an no longer liked sticking to Han Ye. Whenever Qiao Lanshu could not find him and went to ask Han Ye, she discovered that Han Ye had no idea where he was either.
Qiao Lanshu was a little worried. She said to Han Ye, “What do you think about this Qin Qiao'an? He wouldn’t go out and cause trouble for me, would he?”
Han Ye continued reading as he said, “Mom, don’t worry. With my past mistakes as an example, An'an not only takes his studies seriously, he also won’t get too close to girls for no reason. He knows his limits.”
Qiao Lanshu was rather helpless. “That’s not what I’m worried about… Forget it, forget it. I’m not going to bother with him.”
Qiao Lanshu sighed. What she was worried about was Qin Qiao'an getting into a fight outside and causing trouble that would eventually come knocking on their door.
After all, whenever the children got into fights—whether it was Han Ye or Qin Qiao'an—they rarely lost.
Most of the time, they were the ones who beat the other family’s child black and blue, after which the child’s parents would come looking for them.
That was what Qiao Lanshu feared most of all!
Once someone else’s child was injured, a mere apology would not be enough to resolve the matter.
She decided that as soon as Qin Qiao'an came home, she would have a serious talk with him.
……
With Han Ye now in high school and Qin Qiao'an nowhere to be seen every day, Xiaxia went to and from school by herself.
She had become less introverted over the past two years and had made a few friends at school.
However, none of her friends lived along her route home. After all, Xiaxia was the only child in her class who lived in the military compound.
One day after school, she suddenly saw someone she had not seen in a long time—Li Taohua.
She stood by the roadside and watched for a while.
It really had been a long time since she had seen Li Taohua.
After Li Taohua’s parents were laid off, the family had moved away. Xiaxia had no idea where they had gone.
But Li Taohua had dropped out before finishing elementary school, and her older brother, Li Jian, had dropped out as well.
Li Taohua was wearing a dress, and her hair had actually been permed into curls. She even seemed to be wearing makeup.
She was a little older than Xiaxia, perhaps thirteen or fourteen by now.
Xiaxia did not know her exact age, but her clothes and makeup looked remarkably mature.
There were two other girls beside Li Taohua, dressed much like her. They were taller and older, probably sixteen or seventeen—about the same age as Han Ye.
Xiaxia was curious. How had Li Taohua ended up like this?
What were they dressed like that for?
The three girls came out of an alley and crossed the street. They were dressed very fashionably. Li Taohua had once been dark-skinned and stout, but after losing weight and dressing up, she had actually become quite pretty.
Xiaxia was usually a bookworm and had never really seen anyone like them before. Their hair was curled into tight waves, which looked rather attractive.
Their fingernails were painted red, and their sleeveless dresses left their arms bare. They were even wearing high heels, walking with their hips swaying from side to side.
Xiaxia did not think they looked bad, though she found it difficult to describe exactly how she felt about them.
At that moment, she thought of the many books she had read before—the various women described by authors in their stories. She searched through those characters for someone resembling Li Taohua.
In an instant, she was able to think of several, from both ancient and modern times and from countries all over the world.
Without exception, none of those characters were particularly good people.
And suddenly, Xiaxia understood.
It seemed that Li Taohua had taken the wrong path.
Li Taohua saw her as well. Looking at Xiaxia with her schoolbag on her back, she glared fiercely at her several times.
When the two girls beside her saw Xiaxia, they laughed and said, “Well, well, little sister, you’re quite pretty. Taohua, who is she? Do you know her?”
Taohua shook her head in disgust. “I don’t know her. Judging by the way she’s dressed, she’s probably a student at one of the nearby schools.”
The two girls pulled Taohua over. Carrying small handbags, they smiled as they looked Xiaxia up and down several times.
Xiaxia was beautiful, with fair skin and a pair of bright, dark eyes.
The two girls exchanged a glance, then smiled and asked her, “Little girl, what’s your name?”
They continued, “Just look at what you’re wearing. Why are you dressed so plainly? Do you like wearing dresses?”
