“Is that you, sister-in-law?” Qin Han’s voice.
She probably got back late today, and the family must be worried.
“Big brother, it’s me.”
With someone from the family picking her up, there was no need to delay Sun siblings’ time, so Lin Chuxia turned to them and said, “Qin Yang big brother has come to pick me up, you two hurry back and watch out for your safety on the road.”
“Okay, then we’re off.”
Sun Bingnan turned his bicycle around and set off in a different direction with Sun Lanlan.
The light from the flashlight swayed, accompanied by the ding-ding-dang-dang sound of the bicycle, gradually moving away. Qin Han also approached Lin Chuxia and asked as he looked into the distance, “Someone walked you back?”
“Yes, they were worried about me coming back alone at this hour,” Lin Chuxia answered truthfully.
In the darkness, Qin Han frowned, “That Su… Su what-his-name?”
“It wasn’t him.”
Qin Han handed the flashlight to Lin Chuxia and followed a meter behind her, with a frown knotted on his brow.
Judging by the voice, it was clearly a man; if not someone with the last name Su, then who could it be?
Lin Chuxia didn’t notice Qin Han’s reaction, and remembering the things she had done in the past few days, she continued, “There are two new people at the shop. I plan to add a cooked food section to sell alongside the existing items, so we’ll need more hands on deck.”
“Oh.”
Qin Han just responded, indicating that he understood, there was yet another man by his sister-in-law’s side.
No, probably more than one.
How vexing!
…
After returning home, Lin Chuxia thanked Qin Han and greeted Mr. and Mrs. Qin, then returned to her own room.
She felt very happy today, hoping that after seeing Old Master He so delighted tonight, he would never take that desperate path in his lifetime.
After bathing in her spatial dimension and stepping out, she looked at the room that belonged to her and Qin Yang and suddenly felt that she should write a letter to Qin Yang.
The matter of her taking Old He as her master wasn’t a big deal, but it wasn’t trivial either; she should inform him about it.
After writing about Old He, she also briefly mentioned the situation at the shop, nothing more—Qin Yang always wrote about his daily work in his letters, and responding in kind, she also shared some of her own.
Otherwise, she really wouldn’t know what else to write.
Lin Chuxia thought of the somewhat childish man and smiled to herself.
When Lin Jiayi suggested that she marry Qin Yang, she just went with the flow, seeking to escape the Lin Family.
Marriage was the only way out of that house, and since she had to marry someone, it didn’t matter who it was. Qin Yang was rarely home, which made it more convenient for her to do her own thing.
However, she hadn’t expected the Qin Family to be completely different from what she had imagined, splitting the household upon her arrival, with reasonable in-laws, and a kind-hearted big brother and sister-in-law. Now, with the business on the right track and growing step by step, and having taken Old He as a mentor…
Lin Chuxia felt that life was becoming more and more promising.
………
Meanwhile, at Li Family in Xiaoqingshan.
Lin Jiayi, dragging her weary body back home from the fields, collapsed directly onto the kang bed.
She now regretted helping Li Guangyuan with the farm work, even though they agreed she’d only lend a hand. Who knew that “lending a hand” meant diving into the cornfields for an entire day.
And the most annoying part was that Li Guangyuan had promised to look for a business opportunity after finishing that bit of work. To look forward to better days, she could only endure with gritted teeth.
“I seem to have married a princess, never seen any bride with such airs before. She’s even more demanding than a mother-in-law, expecting her mother-in-law to cook and serve her meals every day.”
Just as she was resting for a while, Old Mrs. Li’s voice came from outside the window, and Lin Jiayi irritably closed her eyes.
Speaking of which, Mrs. Li Senior was just as annoying as Qin Yang’s sister-in-law from her past life. Last time she was plagued by Qin Yang’s sister-in-law’s passive-aggressive attitude, this life she had Mrs. Li as her mother-in-law.
Thankfully, Li Guangyuan was on her side, always speaking up for her, and with that thought, Lin Jiayi felt somewhat more balanced.
She figured that Lin Chuxia was probably being targeted in the other family. Qin Yang and his wife could do anything they wanted, and Lin Chuxia’s skills wouldn’t be considered much in their eyes.
With Qin Yang not around, Lin Chuxia didn’t even have anyone to speak up for her, just like how Lin Jiayi herself had managed in her past life.
Old Mrs. Li’s voice came from outside again. Just as Lin Jiayi was about to go out and retort, she saw Li Guangyuan pushing a bicycle into the yard.
Mrs. Li instantly found her backbone, pulling Li Guangyuan aside and murmuring something to him. After a while, Li Guangyuan pushed open the door and entered the room.
Lin Jiayi turned over with her back to him and snorted coldly, “What complaint has your mom been making to you now?”
Li Guangyuan, feeling helpless, said, “Look at you getting angry again. I haven’t even said anything yet.”
Lin Jiayi sat up and faced him, “What more is there to say? You want me to work in the fields all day and then come back to cook and serve the young and the old in your family? Forget it!”
“No, no, look at you getting worked up. Why would I think that way? My mom is just old, and it’s not proper for her to be cooking outside while you’re lying on the kang inside, is it? She actually meant well, afraid others would gossip about you. Next time, you don’t have to do anything, just sit on the sidelines.”
“There won’t be a next time,” Lin Jiayi knew all too well the consequences of being around Mrs. Li, “Where did you go? Don’t you dare leave me behind again. We go home together.”
Normally, the couple would work in the fields and go home together, and Mrs. Li wouldn’t have anything to say.
Today, Li Guangyuan insisted he had something to do and asked her to go home first, which gave Mrs. Li a handle on her.
“Do you have something to do so important that you have to keep it from me?”
At the mention of this, Li Guangyuan became enthusiastic.
“Aren’t you interested in doing business? I’ve been considering some business opportunities these past days, and I finally found a good one.”
Lin Jiayi’s eyes lit up as well, “What sort of business? Tell me quickly.”
“Selling vegetables,” Li Guangyuan said proudly, lifting his chin.
Yet, Lin Jiayi frowned, “Selling vegetables? How is that considered business?”
“Yes,” Li Guangyuan said excitedly as if he discovered an incredible secret, “Let me tell you, Jiayi, don’t look down on selling vegetables. I’ve checked; vegetables here at our place are several cents cheaper per pound than in the city’s night market. For a pound of vegetables, it’s two or three cents, for ten pounds it’s two or three dimes, for a hundred pounds it’s two to three yuan. Calculate that for a month, and it’s more than a wage worker earns.”
Li Guangyuan spoke more and more excitedly. “Even if I can’t sell a hundred pounds every day, as long as we make one yuan a day, it’s thirty yuan a month, the same as a worker’s wage.”
Lin Jiayi wasn’t interested in selling vegetables, after all, it sounded like the same old farmer’s work, “Can’t we do something else?”
“I think selling vegetables is quite good. I know this business, and it doesn’t need much capital. Even if we can’t sell them, we can still eat them ourselves. It’s a business with no losses,” he said with all the ideas he had managed to come up with.
Seeing Lin Jiayi still reluctant, fearing she might ask for her investment back, he tried to coax her gently, “The fieldwork is almost done. Let’s start with a small business to try, and when we have more capital later, we can do bigger business.”