Chapter 371

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Zhang Zhongtian's celebration banquet was grand, a table full of delicious dishes, and the guests ate happily.

Wang Zhanggen and Li Xiulan, however, ate without any enjoyment.

After the banquet ended, they returned home.

The couple remained unhappy.

"I told you to take over the shop earlier, but you refused, and now Zhang Zhongtian has snatched it away—are you happy now!"

Li Xiulan couldn't help but complain to Wang Zhanggen.

If it weren't for Wang Zhanggen's firm disagreement, she estimated she would have already taken over Niu Chunsheng's restaurant!

"Why are you angry with me?" Wang Zhanggen said with a grim face, "I didn't stop you; if you had insisted, I wouldn't have stopped you either. It's you who didn't insist!"

Hearing these words, Li Xiulan was so angry she couldn't speak.

Wang Zhanggen continued: "Besides, Zhang Zhongtian has just taken over that restaurant; whether he loses or makes money is still uncertain! Maybe in a few months, he'll lose so much he won't even have his underpants left! He's never run a restaurant before; he can't manage it well!"

Wang Zhanggen spoke firmly in making his judgment.

Li Xiulan sighed:

"If we had taken over that restaurant back then and resold it to Zhang Zhongtian, even selling it for one hundred thousand, we could have earned quite a bit..."

Wang Zhanggen was suddenly speechless.

The whole room fell silent.

The atmosphere was very heavy.

After a long while, Wang Zhanggen broke the silence:

"This isn't our fortune; we have no need to force it. Forcing it will only bring bad luck. We shouldn't always think about taking small advantages and speculating; otherwise, it will affect our feng shui. Not only will we not have good days, but our three sons will also be dragged down."

His words were an excuse he forced upon himself, and also a kind of psychological comfort.

Li Xiulan could only use this reason to excuse herself and let go of her inner resentment.

"Perhaps we are fated to have no wealth, destined to never earn much money in our lifetime."

Wang Zhanggen smoked, expressionless:

"What's the point of always thinking about making big money? As long as we're safe and sound, that's enough. We have three sons; even if we're poor, who in the whole Shanggou Village would dare look down on us?"

Li Xiulan said nothing more and turned around to feed the chickens.

Although she had found an excuse like "fated to have no wealth" to excuse herself, there were still great waves in her heart. These waves were not caused by missing the opportunity to make money, but by Niu Chunsheng's great kindness toward her.

That New Era Restaurant—Niu Chunsheng transferred it to Zhang Zhongtian for two hundred thousand, but to her, it was only fifty thousand!

What did Niu Chunsheng mean by this?

This inevitably made Li Xiulan's heart surge, filled with gratitude and emotion.

She felt she was truly foolish; Niu Chunsheng helped her so enthusiastically, yet she had failed to understand his good intentions!

Thinking of this, Li Xiulan couldn't help but silently wipe away tears.

But besides crying, she couldn't change anything.

She hadn't been able to change anything before, let alone now.

Now middle-aged, she just wanted to live out the rest of her life in peace and stability; as for other things, she wouldn't think about them anymore.

The next day, the foundation of the new house was to be laid.

Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen got up early, sacrificed a chicken to the gods, and then began construction, filling the foundation.

They had already tied the steel bars before; now they only needed to fill it with cement and stones.

Even so, it kept them busy all day.

Today happened to be Saturday.

Wang Xiaohua returned from school.

Because they had temporarily moved to the shabby house at the village entrance, he didn't even have his own room and could only sleep on the hard sofa in the living room. However, he didn't mind it much; as long as he had a place to lie down, it was fine.

What he minded was having no place to study.

This shabby house was really too small; not even a desk could fit.

He had to move a broken table outside to study under the big banyan tree.

But at the village entrance, many old people gathered to chat.

Some played chess, some played cards, and some boasted.

Wang Xiaohua studied under their very eyes, inevitably disturbed by them, making him feel uneasy.

But once he got into the state, he could focus wholeheartedly and not care about others' gazes.

"Wang Xiaohua is really a good child, studying so seriously and hard!"

An old man smiled and praised him.

Another old man said:

"Our Shanggou Village will probably produce its first prestigious university student."

But someone muttered softly: "I think he's just a bookworm; besides studying, he can't do anything..."

"People like that might not necessarily be popular in society..."

Wang Xiaohua focused on his own business and didn't hear their discussion at all.

Now there were less than a hundred days until the college entrance exam; he had to make good use of the little time left and do the work of finding and filling gaps.

Wang Xiaohua came back on Saturday, and on Sunday morning he went back to school.

The current temporary residence at home doesn't even have a room for studying; he didn't want to stay too long, so he went back early.

Shanggou Village has already opened a direct bus to the County Town; going to the County Town is much more convenient than before.

When Wang Xiaohua took the bus to school, he encountered quite a few old people from the same village going to the County Town to shop.

They all have free cards for the elderly, so riding the bus costs no money, therefore they often take the bus to the County Town to stroll around.

Zhou Aidi carried several snake skin bags onto the bus.

As soon as she got on, she took out her bus card and hurriedly tapped it once; "Free card for the elderly," a loud sound rang out on the bus.

Zhou Aidi hadn't put her bus card away yet, still holding it in her hand, and hurriedly moved the heavy snake skin bags to the side seat to sit down, to avoid blocking others from boarding.

"Sister-in-law Aidi, what are you carrying so many things for?"

An auntie next to her asked enthusiastically.

Zhou Aidi's face wore a simple and honest smile:

"I'm going to my son's place!"

After Zhou Aidi's husband Liang Yuanchao passed away, Zhou Aidi has always lived alone in the rural hometown.

Now her daughter-in-law just gave birth to a child and is in postpartum confinement; her son Liang Xinghua is also busy with work and has no time to take care of her, so he asked her to come down and help out.

Her son and daughter-in-law made this request, and Zhou Aidi naturally agreed wholeheartedly; after all, being alone in the rural hometown is also quite lonely.

So she is now carrying quite a few local specialties, heading to Shenzhen to find her son.

These local specialties of hers all took quite a bit of thought.

There are nutritious goose eggs, lemongrass for reducing the baby's jaundice, papaya for supplementing milk supply, and so on.

"Where does your son work?"

"In Shenzhen?"

"Wow, that's not close; you have to go to the County Town to transfer to a long-distance bus; have you been to Shenzhen before?"

"No, this is the first time going."

Someone heard this and couldn't help but add a gossipy remark:

"Why didn't you have your son come back to pick you up? You're going alone to an unfamiliar place! What if you get lost?"

Zhou Aidi's face still wore a simple and honest smile:

"He still has to go to work; work is busy; me going alone is fine! If I don't know the way, I'll just ask along the way; I know how to use a mobile phone, I won't get lost! A round trip for him would cost quite a bit of bus fare!"

Wang Xiaohua sat in the very last row of the bus, silently watching Zhou Aidi, and couldn't help but feel sympathy.

Rural widowed elderly, left alone at home, lonely and helpless; but going to the city to live with their children brings all kinds of new challenges, and it's very easy to stir up mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflict...