The car door opened, and a middle-aged man stepped out. He walked around the front of the car to Shen Man and said anxiously, “Manman, Daddy’s late today. You must have been waiting for ages, huh?”
“No, Dad. I just came out.”
Shen Man turned to Linlin with a smile as radiant as a flower. “Come play at your sister’s place again tomorrow. I’ll buy you some candy.”
Linlin secretly glanced at her brother, then nodded vigorously.
Seeing this, Shen Changshan’s eyes lit up. “Manman, have you made a new friend?”
Shen Man gave a soft “Mm” but did not elaborate. She bent down and got into the car.
Shen Changshan smiled at Linlin, then nodded at Jiang Chengzhou and Yan Yuan before walking back around to the driver’s seat and starting the car.
Jiang Chengzhou remained where he was, watching the sedan disappear around the corner. He frowned. “Who is that guy? Is it really all right for Linlin to play with her?”
Not many people in this era could afford to drive a car. In their entire area, they could be counted on one hand.
Even having money did not necessarily mean you could buy one. The key was having the necessary qualifications.
“It’s fine,” Yan Yuan said quietly. “What she said before was true. She’s even more capable of protecting Linlin than we are.”
“Is she the daughter of some high-ranking official?” Jiang Chengzhou asked.
Linlin also looked over curiously.
Yan Yuan shook his head. “There used to be a famous old pharmacy in Yangcheng. It was the largest pharmacy in the entire southern province, and the family also owned a major pharmaceutical factory. Later, the factory was taken over by the state.
“Now that the family has been cleared of wrongdoing, they can’t get the factory back, but most of their former land deeds and property have been returned.”
Jiang Chengzhou was still puzzled. “Then did they assign him some important position? Did he become a high-ranking leader?”
Yan Yuan seemed to have made a point of finding out the details. “No. The land that the municipal government building stands on was donated by the Shen family.”
Jiang Chengzhou: “…”
Linlin said in a small voice, “Wow.”
As if he felt the siblings had not been shocked enough, Yan Yuan continued, “Oh, right. The land beneath this department store also belongs to the Shen family. So does the foreign-affairs hotel across the street. More precisely, this entire street belongs to the Shen family.”
Shen Changshan was not short of money, but he had no intention of flaunting his wealth just because the family had regained its former status.
The Shen family had only one child, Shen Man, and treated her like the apple of their eye. Her legs were inconvenient, so Shen Changshan had gone to great lengths to buy a car for her, making it easier to take her wherever she needed to go.
Still, Yan Yuan had never expected the Shen family’s young lady to open a shop across the street and personally watch over it.
If Shen Changshan had not come to pick her up today, he would never have learned about Shen Man’s background.
“The Shen family only has Miss Shen. All their future property will belong to her. Quite a few people are already eyeing her family fortune, hoping to take advantage of the fact that she has no brothers to inherit it. Linlin is a girl too. If you want to play with her, then go ahead, but there’s no need to curry favor with her. Understand?”
“Okay.”
The corners of Yan Yuan’s lips curved upward. “All right, let’s go home for dinner.”
Linlin was about to answer when she saw Jiang Chengzhou staring blankly toward the corner of the street.
“Brother, what are you looking at?”
“Nothing.” Jiang Chengzhou came back to his senses.
No wonder Shen Man had said earlier that he was not qualified to pity her. Jiang Chengzhou now felt that he was the one who deserved pity.
She was so rich. I want to marry her.
The thought flashed through his mind. After Jiang Chengzhou and Yan Yuan finished dinner, they still had to go to the wharf to collect their shipment.
Once he had money, he would buy an entire street too. He would buy Linlin a car and a huge house.
From that day on, Linlin had a friend, and Shen Man had one too.
However, Shen Man stubbornly refused to admit that Linlin was her friend. She always called her “little sister.” Her greatest pleasure each day was teasing Linlin and dressing her up.
Sometimes, Jiang Chengzhou even felt that she was treating his little sister like a doll.
But Linlin herself was having the time of her life, so as her brother, there was nothing he could say.
What none of them knew was that Shen Changshan had already investigated the three siblings’ backgrounds thoroughly.
If either Yan Yuan or Jiang Chengzhou had deliberately tried to get close to Shen Man, Shen Changshan would certainly have stepped in and driven them away. But the two brothers spent every day guarding their stall, occasionally sneaking into the mainland to bring back goods. They showed no intention of approaching Shen Man.
That girl had lived a life just as difficult as Manman’s own childhood. Shen Changshan did not know whether his daughter had projected her feelings onto Linlin, but as long as it was something his daughter liked, he would support it.
It had only been a few days when Linlin received a whole pile of gifts from the Shen family: a watch, jewelry, clothes, cosmetics, and all sorts of other things.
She did not dare keep them and hurriedly took them back to Shen Man.
Shen Man held a hairband up against Linlin’s head. “What are you afraid of? My dad has more money than he could ever spend. Help him spend a little.”
Linlin could neither laugh nor cry. “Sister, I really don’t want them. It feels strange.”
“What’s strange about it?”
“If we’re friends, I can’t accept your things. Otherwise, our friendship wouldn’t be pure anymore.”
Shen Man was amused by her words. Then she straightened up and said seriously, “Then what should I do? The more you refuse to accept them, the more I want to give them to you.”
The Shen family had suddenly regained their wealth, and many people wanted to curry favor with them.
Over the years, the family had seen every kind of cold look and disdain. They could tell at a glance whether someone was sincere or merely pretending.
The more someone tried to flatter them or get money out of their pockets, the more Shen Man disliked them.
On the other hand, with someone like Linlin—who refused to accept anything—Shen Man only wanted to give her even more.
“Little sister, why don’t you come live with me? From now on, you’ll be my real little sister. You can do whatever you want and have whatever you want. You won’t have to sell fish anymore.”
Linlin hurriedly shook her head. “No, we’re good friends.”
Shen Man jabbed her lightly on the forehead. “Silly girl. You don’t know what’s good for you.”
Linlin’s eyes curved into crescents. “Sister Manman, the books say, ‘Wealth cannot corrupt me, poverty cannot make me waver, and force cannot make me submit.’”
Shen Man finally understood why some young ladies in stage plays fell in love with poor scholars.
If all poor scholars were like Linlin, she might fall for one too.
Linlin linked her arm through Shen Man’s, looking a little excited. “Sister Manman, I’m going to night school.”
Shen Man was stunned for a moment, then said, “Yes. At your age, you should still be studying.”
“When I get into college, I’m going to become a leader.”
Shen Man laughed. “So you study because you want to become a leader? That dream doesn’t sound very pure either.”
“That’s not it.” Linlin rubbed her head against Shen Man’s shoulder. “I want to be a good leader.”
Shen Man laughed helplessly, then suddenly asked, “Your brother must want you to go to school. What about that Yan Yuan? Did he try to stop you from studying?”
Linlin looked confused. “No. Why would Brother Yuan stop me from going to school?”
Shen Man let out a derisive laugh. “That’s more like it. If he tried to stop you, I’d go to his door and butcher him myself!”
Shen Man was simply accustomed to assuming the worst in human nature.
Yan Yuan could make a decent amount of money now, but in the eyes of the general public, he was still only a self-employed businessman whom people looked down on.
He had no stable job and no guarantee of what tomorrow might bring.
If Linlin got into college and secured a better future, the gap between them would only grow wider.
When that happened, what would Yan Yuan have to make him worthy of her?
Sometimes, liking someone and loving them could be selfish. Shen Man had seen far too many examples.
