The Ex-Wife of the Educated Youth is Reborn

CHAPTER 18

　　The two parties did not speak when they met, but looked at each other silently. The woman was wearing new clothes and her hair was permed into fashionable curls.

　　Li Xia was also wearing a brand new sweater and black polyester pants. The cotton slippers on her feet were very nicely made. Her hair was braided and tied behind her head. She looked neat and tidy with the gentleness of a housewife.

　　Li Xia thought to herself: Could this be Fang Zhongcheng’s new girlfriend?

　　The two women were silent, and Fang Zhongcheng spoke to Li Xia, “Wanwan and I are getting married. So we came to my house today to meet my family and hence I came to pick up Yiyi to go home for the New Year.”

　　Li Xia looked back at her son. Little Fang Ruyi was having fun with his brothers and sisters and didn’t want to leave. Yesterday he heard his uncle ask him to stay for the New Year. Since his uncle agreed, it was okay for him to stay, right?

　　”I want to play with my brother and sister. Dad, can I come back after kindergarten starts?”

　　Her son didn’t want to leave. Li Xia originally wanted to talk to Fang Zhongcheng about changing the custody, but now didn’t seem like the right time, so she said to Fang Zhongcheng first: “Let him stay here, it’s lively here. You just found a partner, so you can spend more time together and get to know each other better.”

　　After she said that, Fang Zhongcheng’s new girlfriend pretended to greet Yi Yi. “Yi Yi, I will be your new mother from now on. Can you say hello to your mother?”

　　Li Xia stood aside and said nothing, letting her son make his own choice. If he wanted to live with his father, he would have to have a good relationship with this woman. But now family planning is in place, does this woman have her own children? If she wants to have another child with Fang Zhongcheng, then it would be against the policy and she would be fired.

　　Yiyi was somewhat resistant to this new mother and turned to look at his brother and sister. Shen Hui suddenly turned around and ran away, Huihua chased him and Yiyi followed. In the blink of an eye, the three little guys disappeared in the yard.

　　”Well, the kids are having a great time. Let’s talk about it after the Chinese New Year.”

　　Seeing the children’s situation, Fang Zhongcheng turned around to look at his girlfriend. The woman nodded, stepped on her high heels and walked away with the man. They went out to ride their bicycles, and the two quickly disappeared at the gate.

　　Li Xia closed the street door and went into the house. At the door, she heard Shen Haiyang telling stories to the children. He loved reading and had a lot of stories in his head. The children listened with great interest and smiled at her when they saw her come in.

　　After hearing the story, everyone helped and quickly prepared a table of food. There were six dishes, a soup and dumplings, and the children were eating with their mouths drooling.

　　After dinner, she helped to clean up the dishes, and the children went out to play in the alley with firecrackers. Li Xia had nothing to do, so she sat down to knit a sweater, and the couple talked about what had just happened.

　　”Where is Yi Yi’s household registration now?” Shen Haiyang asked with concern. Fang Zhongcheng remarried, and if they wanted to have another child, then this would definitely be a problem.

　　”In my hometown. There are many cases like Fang Zhongcheng across the country. I heard that the higher-ups will find a way to solve this problem. If he is willing, the child can be transferred with him in the future.”

　　”What if they want to have another baby?”

　　”Then wait until Yi-yi is older and takes the college entrance exam. Then he can get his household registration in the city. The trouble is that for the child to go to school, you have to find connections and pay tuition fees.”

　　”It’s okay, as long as there is a solution to the problem.”

　　Seeing each other like this, the couple began to plan for the little one’s future. Li Xia worked quickly and knitted a sweater for the man.

　　The dark grey cardigan with a white shirt inside made him look more refined and handsome, full of bookish air. Li Xia liked people who read books even though she didn’t have much education. She used to listen to Fang Zhongcheng’s words, but now, as long as it didn’t touch the bottom line, she basically didn’t refute what Shen Haiyang said.

　　After the fifth day of the New Year, all units started to work as normal. Li Xia opened her breakfast shop. She got up at around 2 a.m. and prepared. Not long after entering the kitchen, she heard the door open. When she turned around, it was Shen Haiyang.

　　”Why are you here? Did I wake you up?”

　　”Let me help you. I know how to make dumplings. There will probably be a lot of people on the first day, so it will be faster if we have two people.”

　　He didn’t look down on the small business during this period. Li Xia was very happy just for this, not to mention that he came to help. He got a high stool for him to sit on, and the couple worked together to make dumplings quickly.

　　The restaurant opened at 5 o’clock and soon welcomed the first batch of customers.

　　As the clock struck 7, more and more customers came. She was busy running around, her feet hitting her head.

　　”Comrade, give me two cabbage buns.”

　　”Comrade, I want five carrots, two cabbages and two bowls of corn porridge.”

　　Just when Li Xia was so busy that she wished she could split herself up, Huihua and Shen Hui came in. The two little guys quickly collected the bowls and wiped the table, and Li Xia was finally able to go back to the kitchen to make dumplings.

　　Just after dawn, Yi Yi came in from the back door. “Why didn’t you ask me for help? Brother and sister, you two are not loyal enough.”

　　Shen Hui rolled his eyes at him and said, “Stop talking nonsense. Go to the kitchen and wash the dishes. There aren’t enough bowls and chopsticks.”

　　”okay.”

　　The two older ones were responsible for clearing the table, washing dishes, and collecting money. Shen Haiyang sat on a chair to help her make dumplings and serve rice to customers. Yiyi was the youngest, so she asked him to sit in a corner of the back room to avoid getting burned. The little guy happily sat on a stool to wash dishes, playing with water in the two large basins to help with the work. If there was anything dirty, Li Xia would clean it up again after using it.

　　”Mom, are soy milk and porridge the same price?” Shen Hui shouted.

　　”Yes. Vegetarian buns are the same price, but meat buns are 10 cents more than vegetarian ones. If you give meat coupons, it’s 5 cents less.”

　　”Okay, got it.”

　　The family of five worked from 6:30 to 9:00 before they could sit down and rest. All the food they prepared was sold out, and even the food they wanted to eat was gone. Li Xia could only make boiled noodles.

　　Shen Hui had been collecting the money today. The little guy had an excellent memory and was good at math. He was sitting there with a red face full of excitement. He sorted out the bills with his father and looked up to make suggestions to Li Xia.

　　”Mom, many people asked if we have fried dough sticks and wontons today. Mom, can you make fried dough sticks and wontons?”

　　”Yes. At the beginning, I didn’t know how the business would be, so I didn’t dare to prepare too much. You guys should work hard for a few days. If the business is still so good after the Lantern Festival, I will recruit more people.”

　　”Okay.”

　　After eating noodles, the three children went back to sleep. Li Xia took the money to buy ingredients, and came back to prepare the stuffing for the next day’s buns. She bought an extra bag of flour today. The flour is not very white, but it does not affect the making of fried dough sticks and buns. Nowadays, the rural households are all under the control of the government, and the private sale of grain is considered to be a blind eye. After she found the channels, she used two methods to trade.

　　The minced meat is chopped in advance and mixed with seasonings and vegetables, and then placed in a room without a stove. The dough is also mixed with leaven, and the vegetables are washed and chopped, and then seasoned and marinated in the evening.

　　In the past, she did all these tasks by herself, but today Shen Haiyang was with her. The man’s legs and feet were not very agile, but his arms were very strong from the recent rehabilitation exercises, and he helped to knead most of the dough.

　　”Isn’t that a lot? Will it be sellable?”

　　”Today I prepared 50 kilograms of buns, and they were all sold out around 8 o’clock.”

　　”All right.”

　　After the preliminary preparations were done, She took a nap in the afternoon and got up to mix the vegetarian fillings with seasonings. She couldn’t make wontons for the time being because there were no machine-made wonton wrappers for sale at that time, and it was too laborious to make.

　　After she was done, she put everything aside and counted the money in the box. She earned nearly fifty yuan in one day. She looked up at Shen Haiyang who came in from the door with excitement. The man had just helped her sort out the money, so he knew it.

　　”It’s a bit tiring, but it really makes money. You can earn as much as I earn in a month in just one day.”

　　”Life cannot be judged only by money. Your work can contribute more to society than running a restaurant.”

　　Since she doesn’t have to pay rent for her own house and doesn’t have to worry about making the landlord jealous and refusing to rent the house to her one day, Li Xia is full of energy and rolls up her sleeves.

　　She sells steamed buns with various fillings, fried dough sticks, millet and cornmeal porridge, and cornmeal porridge. These are just a few simple items, but they are selling like hot cakes day by day. With small profits but quick turnover, many people at work would come to buy for convenience. With the accumulation of small amounts, her business is booming.

　　Self-employed people are not popular in this era. Most people look down on them because they have no security and do not realize that this business can make so much money. She does not care about other people’s opinions and is only focused on making money.

　　”Here, this is the wages for the three of you.”

　　Each of the three children received two yuan, and after four days of work, they earned fifty cents a day. The children were very happy and sorted the money neatly.

　　Shen Hui immediately gave the money to his father.

　　His father became a vegetative, and his biggest need was to support and take care of his father. Everything he did was based on this premise. The reason why he wanted to stay with his biological mother was also because he was afraid that Li Xia would ignore him and his father after getting the money, or even harm his father, as others said.

　　He chose to believe his biological mother between Li Xia and his biological mother. Since his father woke up, he has always followed his father’s lead. He knows that his father is rich, but the desire to protect his father has never changed.

　　Shen Hui actually never lacked food or clothes when he lived with his grandmother, but he felt very insecure because of his parents. Huihua and her brother also felt insecure when they lived with their mother. When they had money, Huihua would return it to their mother, and Yiyi would also give it to her.

　　”It costs money for me to learn painting, and so mother can save all this for my use.”

　　”If you save up, you won’t have to worry about not having money to buy food.”

　　Li Xia was choked up for a moment, holding the money stuffed by her child in her hand and unable to speak. On the way to the provincial capital, she finished her dry food and was reluctant to spend money to buy food. The mother and her two children went hungry all the way to find Fang Zhongcheng. How old is he to still remember him?

　　Facing the three children, the two adults felt guilty for a moment. The children had no sense of security, even though they were living in a big house now and Shen Haiyang was recovering day by day. But the scars left on their young hearts could not be erased in a day or two.

　　”Take it all. This is your pocket money. You can spend it as you like. Don’t worry too much, you are just a kid. We two adults are here to help you with painting, school, and food. You don’t need to worry about it.”

　　Shen Haiyang’s words were convincing. In addition, outsiders always said that he was the head of the family and the one who had the final say, so the little ones happily took the money from him and put it in their pockets.

　　Li Xia let the three children go to bed, and when they left, she looked at Shen Haiyang and smiled helplessly. “Do I make people feel so insecure? They all saw the money in the box, why do they still think I’m unreliable? When you opened your mouth, everyone smiled happily.”

　　Shen Haiyang smiled and continued kneading the dough. His legs and feet had become much stronger after the exercise in the past few days, so he could use more strength when standing. “It’s not easy to get rid of the psychological trauma of childhood, and the children don’t know the actual profit even though they see the money. I still remember the feeling of being so hungry when I went to dig rat holes with my mother in 1960. Later, I had the habit of storing food for many years. When I ate, I always wanted to save some food for a rainy day.”

　　”I also remember going with my brother to dig wild vegetables and rob bird nests. Every time we cooked a meal, I always wanted to keep a handful of them, for fear that we would run out of food.”

　　As she spoke, she lifted the steamer, revealing two buns inside. The couple looked at each other and smiled, their smiles were filled with helplessness. After so many years of food shortages, hiding food was ingrained in their bones. Except for the first day when they forgot, they would always save a few for themselves.

　　”The children are still young, there’s still time for everything.” Shen Haiyang consoled her with a smile: “When I start working and life returns to normal, we’ll take them out for a trip every year. First, it can broaden the children’s horizons, and second, the children will be bolder and more responsible when they are with their father. I didn’t have a father around, so I was soft-tempered when I was a child, but I slowly changed after I started working.”

　　”Well, with you here we have support.”

　　In her previous life, she took care of two children. Although she tried her best, the children still felt insecure, right? In the final analysis, it was still a question of strength. If you don’t have the strength, the children wouldn’t believe anything you said.

　　Wait, wait until I have transformed myself into a person who can fulfill your wishes, and then see if you still believe me.