In 1993, real estate business wasn’t something many people were involved in, but Zheng Xiao Qing herself was bustling with activity, building houses in Pudong. However, even so, it was still possible to buy a house in this small town.
Because of her son’s insistence, Zheng Xiao Qing eventually agreed to let him live here, but she couldn’t bear the thought of him staying at Zhu Yun Xuan’s house. Several times, when Zhu Yun Xuan mentioned having Li Rui stay at his house, she instinctively became alert. So, she simply bought a small house in the town’s mountain area.
The house was originally built by a factory and given to workers. It was a two-bedroom, one-living room apartment, totaling less than sixty square meters. But it was more than enough for just Li Rui and the nanny Xiao Hui to live in. When Li Yue came to visit his son, he could squeeze in with him.
Thinking of this, Zheng Xiao Qing suddenly realized that she seemed to have never slept with Li Rui before…
After setting up the house and enrolling Li Rui in school, Zheng Xiao Qing originally wanted to give him a few more words of advice, but after thinking it over, she decided against it.
She stayed in Wende Town for three days, and on the third day, she took Li Rui back to Zhu’s house.
This time when they arrived, Zhu Yun Xuan was busy getting Jiang Yue Xiu to make a dress for a doll using a sewing machine.
The light blue fabric, along with some lace taken from an old piece of clothing, was being used by Jiang Yue Xiu to make a beautiful princess dress and a sleeveless qipao under Zhu Yun Xuan’s guidance. Originally, Zhu Yun Xuan wanted her to make a short-sleeve top as well, but the doll was too small, and making sleeves wasn’t convenient, so Jiang Yue Xiu declined.
Zheng Xiao Qing came in with Li Rui and immediately noticed the clothes that Zhu Qiu Yue was playing with. “Sister’s hands are really skilled. These clothes are so beautiful!”
Zhu Yun Xuan really wanted to say that his mother was much younger than her and should be called “sister,” but when he saw Jiang Yue Xiu, who looked older, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he smiled innocently, “My mom is the best!”
“Yun Xuan.” Li Rui stepped forward. Just thinking about being with Zhu Yun Xuan in the future made him happy!
In his past life, when he was eleven, his mother had taken him away from his grandparents, and he had lived alone with the nanny after that. He knew that even if he stayed in Shanghai, Zheng Xiao Qing and Li Yue would probably not care for him, so why not choose to live in this small town?
“What are you here for?” Zhu Yun Xuan looked at Li Rui. He knew that others might not, but he knew that Li Rui wasn’t really a child. Was he still planning on getting him to go to Shanghai?
“…” Li Rui opened his mouth but didn’t say anything.
“Rui Rui will be studying here from now on, so I’ll have to trouble you to take care of him a bit more, sister.” Zheng Xiao Qing glanced at Zhu Yun Xuan. Compared to her own son, Zhu Yun Xuan was obviously spoiled, though she couldn’t understand why Rui Rui liked this person so much…
Zhu Yun Xuan was stunned. He didn’t expect Li Rui to give up his life in Shanghai and come to live here.
Jiang Yue Xiu was also a bit surprised. When she got married, she and Zhu Cheng Cai had gone to Shanghai to buy clothes and had seen the bustling city, which left her somewhat at a loss.
As Zheng Xiao Qing and Jiang Yue Xiu chatted, Jiang Yue Xiu told Zhu Yun Xuan to take Li Rui out to play. After thinking for a moment, Zhu Yun Xuan took Li Rui upstairs to his room.
Their house had two large rooms upstairs. Zhu Cheng Cai and his wife lived in one, while Zhu Yun Xuan had his own room. Before his rebirth, although he had insisted on having his own room, he often ended up squeezing into his parents’ room.
The house had two large rooms in the front, but only a small room in the back, which was used for storing miscellaneous items. The front part of the Zhu family’s house had two stories, but the back part was only one.
Zhu Yun Xuan’s room was spacious, but there wasn’t much furniture. He simply invited Li Rui to sit on the bed, took out a box of building blocks as a diversion, and asked directly, “Are you really planning to stay here?”
“Yeah, nobody cares about me in Shanghai. At least here, I still have you.” Li Rui spoke. He had thought a lot about his future, thinking that he would never let things be arranged for him like in his previous life, where he ended up living a mediocre existence. But there were so many things he wanted to do, and now, at such a young age, it was difficult to do anything under Zheng Xiao Qing’s watch. It might be better to just finish kindergarten in this town first!
“At least you still have me?” Zhu Yun Xuan was taken aback, then reached out and patted Li Rui’s shoulder. “Well, we’re brothers, life and death together! I’ll protect you, don’t worry about getting bullied!” He quickly changed the subject. “By the way, what have you been doing these days?”
Li Rui understood what Zhu Yun Xuan meant. Although he had been introverted since childhood, he was very good at reading people’s expressions. He didn’t continue the topic and instead told Zhu Yun Xuan about pretending to be a child with autism.
Zhu Yun Xuan was stunned: “No wonder your mom agreed to let you come to this small place! They say people like you will bite…” As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized he had misspoken and immediately stopped talking.
These past days, as he returned to a life of being pampered, it seemed like the more restrained side of his character from his previous life was beginning to resurface… He remembered that in his past life, when the vice president of the student council bragged about how handsome he was, Zhu Yun Xuan had responded with, “Like a cricket,” and was ostracized. He couldn’t let history repeat itself in this life!
“Have you never heard? Some quiet people don’t speak because they’re thinking of bad ideas,” Li Rui said. Being with Zhu Yun Xuan, he felt completely relaxed and found himself more willing to joke around.
“Well, now I’ll have to watch out for you!” Zhu Yun Xuan smiled and then asked, “How’s your hand doing?”
“It’s fine, it should be completely healed by the time school starts,” Li Rui said. Having been a soldier, he didn’t think much of such minor injuries.
“Still, be careful! If it heals wrong, you’ll end up with a third-degree disability!” Zhu Yun Xuan remembered that his maternal uncle was shorter than average and often joked about being a “third-degree disabled person.”
“I’ll be careful,” Li Rui replied, noticing footsteps approaching. He quickly built a small house out of the blocks in front of him.
The people coming up were Zheng Xiao Qing and Jiang Yue Xiu. Zheng Xiao Qing, a businesswoman, deliberately befriended Jiang Yue Xiu, and Jiang Yue Xiu immediately accepted her as a good sister. She even promised to frequently take Zhu Yun Xuan to visit Li Rui or bring him over.
That evening, Zheng Xiao Qing took Li Rui to Zhu’s house for a meal.
Jiang Yue Xiu had prepared a stew with soybeans that had been soaked all day and pig’s tails, scrambled eggs with chives, a bottle gourd soup, and stir-fried pickled long beans from the family’s garden.
Jiang Yue Xiu knew how to make pickled vegetables. She had learned from a woman who married into the area and even bought a special pickling jar from the dock. In the summer, she often made pickled cabbage and long beans to go with porridge. Later, Zhu Yun Xuan had tasted many types of pickled vegetables, including famous Korean ones, but none tasted as good as Jiang Yue Xiu’s.
The pickled long beans were quite sour, but Zhu Yun Xuan ate them with relish, and even Li Rui and Zheng Xiao Qing liked them, with Zheng Xiao Qing complimenting them several times.
“You see, when I stay home all day, I end up thinking about food,” Jiang Yue Xiu said modestly, clearly pleased. “Some people say I’m just idle.”
It was true that some people said that, but many more envied her skill as a seamstress, allowing her to stay at home all day while taking care of things and experimenting with food. In the countryside, women usually had to juggle both work and household duties.
“My mom can make stinky tofu jerky, salted duck eggs, and a lot of other things!” Zhu Yun Xuan proudly announced.
“Stinky tofu jerky? How do you make that?” Zheng Xiao Qing asked curiously, hoping to get closer to Jiang Yue Xiu.
“Don’t listen to this child, I only make it using the stinky brine I got from someone else. Unfortunately, the jar of brine I had recently got ruined…” Jiang Yue Xiu said, feeling embarrassed. In Wende Town, people made stinky tofu by placing dried tofu into jars filled with stinky brine.
“How did you ruin it? Did it go bad over time?” Zheng Xiao Qing asked, even more curious now.
“Whether it’s the stinky brine or making pickles, the longer it sits, the better it tastes… Over here, we steam the stinky tofu jerky and serve it as a dish, and we always add some yellow wine. I thought if I added some extra seasoning to the brine, it might taste even better, saving me from having to add anything later… but it ended up going bad,” Jiang Yue Xiu said, laughing at herself.
No wonder, the jar for making stinky tofu jerky at home was something his mother always warned him not to touch, to avoid getting things inside it… Zhu Yun Xuan suddenly felt a bit awkward. But, Jiang Yue Xiu, who paid such attention to food, must have only gradually learned to make so many dishes through trial and error, right? Unfortunately, later on, she became too busy with work and lost the time and inclination to cook him tasty food, even stopping making pickles and salted vegetables.
Li Rui lowered his head and ate, hiding a smile at the corner of his mouth, Zhu Yun Xuan’s mom was quite an interesting person.
After dinner, Zheng Xiao Qing brought up the idea of having Jiang Yue Xiu make a few sets of clothes for her. She had Jiang Yue Xiu take her measurements and ordered three outfits, then asked her to make four more for elderly women, saying they were for Li Rui’s grandmother and maternal grandmother.
Jiang Yue Xiu immediately agreed, but Zhu Yun Xuan secretly rolled his eyes. He knew that Zheng Xiao Qing would never actually wear the clothes his mother made. In the end, it was just a way for her to offer a little benefit under the guise of a favor.
Zhu Yun Xuan could understand why Zheng Xiao Qing didn’t just hand over cash. If his family were greedy, giving them money might make them think differently about Li Rui, and it could easily lead to fostering a group of ungrateful people. But if they weren’t greedy, giving money would make them feel bad about her… However, asking Jiang Yue Xiu to make some clothes and paying a little extra, or bringing gifts when she visited, was just normal social interaction.
Thinking of this, Zhu Yun Xuan remembered seeing on TV more than once where the mother of the male lead would give money to the female lead, who wasn’t from a good family, so that she would leave her son. If that woman really loved money, she’d probably have clung to the man even harder, right? After all, once they got married, everything would belong to her.
But he had no idea what Zheng Xiao Qing would do when Li Rui fell in love with someone he shouldn’t… At this thought, Zhu Yun Xuan furrowed his brows. This was probably none of his business, right? Probably?
Although Zheng Xiao Qing felt guilty about her son, she was unwilling to give up her life in Shanghai. So, the day after having dinner with the Li family, she packed her things and planned to return to Shanghai.
It was still early in the morning when she got up, but she found the door to her house being knocked. The nanny, Xiao Hui, quickly went to open it, and outside stood two kids, Zhu Yun Xuan and Zhu Qiu Yue.
“Auntie, has Rui Rui woken up yet? We came to play with him!” Zhu Yun Xuan smiled at Zheng Xiao Qing, holding a ceramic cup with pickles inside, which Jiang Yue Xiu had asked him to bring.
Maybe, this child really could help her son get better? Zheng Xiao Qing was momentarily stunned, then asked the nanny to entertain the two little guests before leaving the small town.
In the future, when she had time on weekends, she’d bring the child to Shanghai. After all, he was her son, and she didn’t want him to have a better bond with others than with her… She sighed inwardly, and her expression became serious as she thought about the people she would meet and the things she needed to do once she was back in Shanghai.