CHAPTER 21
At night, after exercising, Li Xia slowly spoke: “My second brother got into trouble this time, and he definitely doesn’t have enough money. I promised my father to lend him money…”
”Of course we have to help with this kind of thing. You hold the financial power in our family, so you can decide how much you need.”
In such a short time, he seemed to understand her very well. This was what she expected. She was very touched, but she was not good at talking, and she could not learn the skill of being a spoiled child like others. She kept this love in her heart. You love my family, and I will do the same to your family.
”I want to tell you that they wont pay you back soon. I know the income in rural areas. Now that the land reform has just begun, the most important problem for our family is not only food and clothing, but also housing. I don’t know when they can pay back this money.”
Li Xia was a little nervous after she finished speaking. Actually, she didn’t have to tell anyone. She could save some money and say that her parents paid it back. Besides, her father had money on him, but it was the family’s savings for many years, and the house was still waiting for money to be repaired. She was able to afford it now. In her previous life, she was single and raised two child, and her parents helped her a lot. Now that they encountered such an emergency, she couldn’t ignore her parents.
She was testing his attitude. Who knows what might happen in her family in the future. Knowing his bottom line, she could be more measured in her words and actions.
”It’s okay. We are well-off, so it’s okay to help out. Your parents raised you, so you should give them some back.”
”um. Thank you.”
Appropriate, she pondered these two words secretly. In the end, it was still a matter of money. When money reached a certain level, this little money was nothing. In her this life, she wanted to live a good life and also help her parents. Making money could solve most of the troubles in life.
The next day she found another person to help her in the breakfast shop. As for whether the outsider would embezzle money, she thought it would be fine as long as it did not exceed the limit. She was already very familiar with selling buns and could not be easily fooled.
She made time to go out and wander around the streets, thinking about what business she could start to make money. The home appliance business was not ripe for the time being, so she couldn’t do it. Smuggling was illegal, so she didn’t do it, so she only had food and clothing left.
After a few days of wandering around the market, her second brother’s swelling had subsided and he was ready for surgery. In the morning, they waited for the results of the surgery. When they heard the doctor say that everything went well, they all put their minds at ease.
In the afternoon, she went home with her old father and took a detour to the entrance of the mall. She bought a can of milk powder for her second brother, but the salesperson’s attitude was still arrogant.
”It was not until the 1990s that people started to be self-sufficient. Only then did they rent out counters and start private businesses.”
She stood at the entrance of the state-owned shopping mall and muttered. The old man looked back at her and patted her like she was possessed. “What are you mumbling about?”
”How to make money?”
”Your bun shop doesn’t make money?”
The old man was a little panicked. Whether his daughter made money or not gave him a completely different sense of confidence. Although his daughter was married, she could earn money by herself and help her parents when they needed it. If it was all up to her son-in-law, then the money his daughter borrowed might not be accepted. Her parents were holding her back, and the daughter was not upright in front of her son-in-law.
”No.” No one knows a father better than his daughter. Li Xia knew what her father was thinking. “I make as much money as your son-in-law, so don’t worry about it. Besides, your son-in-law agreed to lend this money, and he knows it all.”
”Then why do you want to make money? Just run your bun shop well and don’t mess around. If you lose money, you won’t have time to cry. Is it easy to make money? You will be heartbroken if you lose money in business.”
”I know. I won’t make trouble.”
It would be impossible to rent a state-owned counter in the next few years, so she decided to set up a stall. She would go to Beijing during the summer vacation to see if there was a wholesale clothing market there, and if not, she would go south.
Nowadays, it is very rare to see street vendors in the City. Perhaps she can be one of the first to do wholesale. She has a certain amount of capital and a forward-looking vision. She knows what is popular in the next few decades. She buys in large quantities and lets the vendors sell on the street.
She was thinking about how to get rich all the way. She didn’t cook when she got home, but counted the money she had. It was less than 10,000 yuan, but the purchasing power of that time was incomparable to that of later generations. With this start-up capital, she could start her wholesale business.
”Xia, why aren’t you cooking?”
”Here it comes.” The old man shouted from outside, and she quickly put the money back.
Today is Saturday, and everyone should be back home by now. Li Xia is wearing an apron and walking towards the gate, but still didn’t see anyone. The old man had brought Yi Yi back, and the little guy also looked out curiously.
”Mom, why haven’t my brother and sister come back yet?”
”I don’t know. Your dad should be back by now, why is he still hanging around outside?”
She went into the house to cook, and soon the three of them came back. Through the window, she asked why they came back so late, and Shen Haiyang raised his hand to show her. He was holding a big fish weighing two or three pounds, and flicked its tail in the dusk.
”Where did the fish come from? It’s so fresh.”
”I bought it by chance. I ran several miles to buy it, but I made an appointment with someone, so I will have a place to eat fish next time I want to.”
It’s so hard to buy something. Li Xia smiled and took a basin for him to pick up the fish. Wait a little longer, and everything will be fine in a few years. At least it won’t be like now where you can’t buy anything even with money.
She was going to make noodles in the evening, but since she had fish, she cooked rice instead. Two kinds of rice, stewed fish with tofu, and fresh cucumbers, water radishes and other cold dishes. After eating at home, she rode her bike to deliver food to her second brother. When she came back, she saw Shen Hui holding a flashlight to help light the way for others in the alley.
A man and a woman were carrying a wooden box together, and Shen Hui followed closely behind them with a flashlight in one hand and a small jar in the other. The woman was Murong Danling, how could she be here?
After she went into the house and washed her face, her father came over to talk to her with concern. “Just now, the woman asked son-in-law to help her move things, but he refused. My daughter, has this woman regretted her decision? She wants to come back to here again. But judging from son-in-law’s attitude, he doesn’t seem to want to reconcile with her .”
Even the old man could see that his son-in-law had no intention of reconciling with his ex-wife. Shen Haiyang knew how to handle things very well. After the old man finished speaking, he saw that his daughter was silent, looked at the door and sighed deeply.
”She moved to your neighborhood. Why is this woman so stubborn? If she insists on sticking to you, it will be hard to deal with her since they have a son. Huihui was still angry when he first saw her, but then she said something about being pregnant for ten months and breastfeeding. There was no way the child would not go with her again.”
Li Xia didn’t expect to encounter such a difficult situation. Murong Danling was obviously determined to get the father and son. Yes, fifty thousand dollars in this era was enough to make people forget everything and pounce on it.
As they were talking, lightning flashed across the sky again, followed by a downpour. The father and daughter hurried back to the house. After stroking her hair a few times, Shen Haiyang handed her a towel from behind.
”Is everything alright at the hospital?”
”Yes” Li Xia looked at the heavy rain that suddenly poured down outside and asked, “Do you want to go find Huihui?”
”No need. Let him figure out many things on his own. Give him time. Murong Danling said how hard it was to be pregnant with him and how painful it was to give birth to him. He absorbed all the nutrients from his mother’s belly. She got up several times at night to feed him. The milk was all made from her blood. This is a way to repay a favor. Not to mention that Huihui is so young, even if he is older, he would not be able to refuse.”
”Why did Murong Danling suddenly move to our neighborhood?”
”She said she missed her son.” Shen Haiyang let her go and looked into her eyes silently. “No one would believe that, Huihui frowned, But he was her son, and this woman is using the grace of giving birth to her to justify her… This is a tricky one.”
Is this tricky? This is simply dirty. You are the mother, and the child was born by your own subjective will. He has no right to choose. From the moment you gave birth to him, you have the responsibility to raise him.
You abandoned him when his father became a vegetative. Why didn’t you fulfill your duty as a mother at that time? Now you have the nerve to tell the child that you gave birth to him and fed him milk.
”What should we do next?”
”She is not a patient person and will soon show her true colors. She has already used up the grace of giving birth to him and raising him. Let’s see what else she can do next.”
It seemed that this was the only way for now. Thinking of the news from her previous life, she hesitated whether to tell him. Later, she decided not to tell him for the time being and wait and see what would happen.
The old man paced back and forth in the corridor, worried that his daughter’s bad temper would cause a quarrel with his son-in-law. He also knew that there was something wrong with this matter, but if there was a problem, he had to find a way to solve it. Getting angry and quarreling would only push people away. What’s more, it was the child’s own behavior, and his son-in-law didn’t help.
It was still raining outside, and one side of his body was soaked by the splashing rain. But he was worried about going back to the house, so he could only stand there and think about how to persuade them to stop arguing.
There was no movement in the room until Li Xia came out to pour water.
”Dad, what are you doing here? It’s raining so hard, hurry back to the house. Your clothes are getting soaked.”
”oh oh.”
”Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’ll get you an umbrella.”
”No, why would you need an umbrella for just two steps?”
The old man covered his head and ran from the main hall to the side room. He went into the room and wiped the water off his face with a towel. He was still muttering to himself that he had guessed wrong. How could his impulsive daughter not quarrel with her son-in-law after such a thing happened?
Hearing Shen Hui coming back, his daughter wiped the child’s face with a towel and found some clothes for him to change. The two adults didn’t say anything about it, but he always felt uneasy. Rural people rarely get divorced, and he thought that after a divorce, both parties would become enemies, so how could he be willing to let the child see the other party?
He thought Shen Hui’s move would definitely cause a lot of commotion, and he was so worried that he didn’t sleep well all night, but the fact is that the family is doing what they want. On weekends, everyone didn’t have to go to work or school, so they slept in. Li Xia was used to getting up early, cleaning up the yard and going into the kitchen to prepare noodle soup.
The old man followed in and sat on a stool smoking. “Xia’er, are you two doing well?”
Li Xia knew that her father cared about her. In her previous life, the old man always advised her not to be so impatient in doing things and speaking. “It’s okay, we are fine.”
”Yeah. Try to talk it over. My son-in-law is a reasonable man.”
”I know.”
”Marriages in the middle of life face many difficulties. You must trust each other and don’t be petty. That woman is Huihui’s biological mother. It’s no big deal for her child to be close to his biological mother, as long as the son-in-law has the right intentions. A man’s heart is like sand in your hand. The more you want to hold it tightly, the faster it flows. In life, sometimes you just turn a blind eye and let it go.”
”Dad, I know.”
It is rare to be confused, that is an attitude towards life. Other things can be ignored, but emotional matters are always not good for three people. Li Xia didn’t say much to her father, thinking about her own money-making plan.
Everything else was fake, only the money in her hand was real. She had two children to raise, so she didn’t have time for romance. Murong Danling wanted to use this kind of lingering connection to sow discord between them, but it was a pity that the connection didn’t work.
Shen Haiyang had seen through her true colors and had given up on her. He refused to say a word, which only made people despise her more. She used Shen Hui as a breakthrough point, because he was her own son. But her own son also had a rift with her, and she put forward the credit of raising and feeding him. Such consumption, as Shen Haiyang said, no matter how deep the feelings and gratitude were, it could not withstand it.
Maybe Murong Danling used this trick in her previous life? Shen Hui was sentimental and stubborn. If she continued to use her feelings to buy money, her true colors would be discovered one day and Shen Hui would be devastated.
In his previous life, when Shen Haiyang was gone, did Murong Danling support him, or did he live with his uncle? Thinking carefully, she didn’t get any more useful information. What she knows is that he lost his grandmother and his father in his previous life, and his only relative was his mother. If she deceived him for money, it would not be difficult to understand why he and his mother quarreled and he accidentally killed her.
”What are you talking about?”
As they were talking, Shen Haiyang came in. Li Xia looked up and changed the subject. “Dad is worried about whether my second brother’s leg can recover. Old farmers rely on their bodies to make a living, and they are worried that he will not be able to work well in the future. I was just trying to comfort him, that the doctor said that he has recovered and it’s okay, and you are just worrying about it.”
”Dad, you have to believe what the doctor says. The surgery went very well. He will recover if he rest well.”
Shen Haiyang continued her words to comfort his father-in-law, and the old man nodded in agreement. He was concerned about his son’s affairs and his daughter’s current situation. He hoped that they would be well and live a happy life.
