Another custom-tailoring clothing shop appeared in Qinhai City, called Old Li Clothing Shop. The styles were almost identical to those at Alley End, but the prices were much cheaper.
Customers who had originally chosen Alley End flocked to Old Li Clothing Shop instead. Soon after, rumors spread from who knows where, saying that Alley End’s clothes were overpriced, while Old Li Clothing Shop’s clothes were the same as Alley End’s and the quality was about the same as Old Li’s.
For a time, aside from customers who had already paid deposits, not a single one of those still waiting in line remained.
Shi Fangfang secretly went to Old Li’s shop several times. Seeing how lively their shop was while her own shop was deserted, she was so angry that she cursed outright.
“Boss Jiang, how can there be people this shameless? Aren’t they just copying our clothes?”
Jiang Hua was angry too, but she had already anticipated this, so she was not as furious. “They’ve already copied them. What can we do about it? But this works out as well. We’re short on fabric anyway.”
At the mention of fabric, Shi Fangfang became even more troubled. Suddenly, her expression froze as if she had thought of something, and she looked at Jiang Hua. “Boss Jiang, do you think the fabric that the supply and marketing cooperative refused to sell to us was sold to them instead?”
Jiang Hua smiled and blinked at her. “Isn’t the answer to that question pretty obvious?”
Seeing that Jiang Hua could still smile, Shi Fangfang truly could not understand. She felt like she was about to explode with anger. “You’re really not angry at all?”
“I am angry,” Jiang Hua said. “But being angry doesn’t solve the problem.”
“I know the logic,” Shi Fangfang said. “I just can’t control myself.”
“Alright, don’t be angry,” Jiang Hua comforted her. “This might even be our breakthrough point.”
Shi Fangfang looked confused, but Jiang Hua had no intention of explaining.
Jiang Hua already had a vague plan in mind. To be honest, she even had to thank Old Li Clothing Shop for this.
After a simple lunch, seeing that the two children were about to go out to play, Jiang Hua quickly called them over and handed them the fruit and candy she had prepared in advance. “You’re always going to Grandma Qian’s place and bothering her. As your mother, I feel quite embarrassed. Take these over for me and thank her on my behalf.”
When the two children heard her mention Grandma Qian, their faces immediately turned tense. They thought she knew about them secretly going to Grandma Qian’s house, and when they realized she really did know, their hearts jumped to their throats.
However, they did not get scolded at all. Instead, Jiang Hua even took out gifts and said they were for Grandma Qian.
A shy smile appeared on Yunshu’s fair little face as she happily took the bag. “Mom, Grandma Qian will definitely like this!”
Yunkai leaned over to take a look. Disdain appeared on his face. “Grandma Qian doesn’t eat candy at all. She says eating candy makes her skin worse.”
Jiang Hua: …
She looked at him and smiled faintly. “If you don’t speak, no one will treat you like a mute.”
Yunkai pressed his lips together and turned his face away again, snorting. “What’s wrong with saying it?”
The smile on Jiang Hua’s face widened instantly. She flexed her fingers, her almond-shaped eyes fixed on him. “Nothing’s wrong with it. I’m just worried that some people might cry, that’s all.”
Yunkai froze, his small face full of defiance as he accused her, “If you’ve got the guts, don’t threaten people.”
Jiang Hua straightened her chest and said righteously, “I’m threatening you with my own ability. What? Got a problem with that?”
Yunkai: …
He glared at Jiang Hua indignantly. “Do I dare have a problem?”
“You don’t? Aren’t you expressing yourself just fine right now?” Jiang Hua said.
No matter how smart he was, Yunkai was still just a child. There was no way he could win against Jiang Hua. He was so angry that he was almost about to explode. He snorted heavily, grabbed Yunshu’s little hand, and said, “Yunshu, let’s go!”
Yunshu had long known that her brother would get so angry that he would storm off. She covered her mouth and giggled, then waved at Jiang Hua. “Mommy, we’re going to Grandma Qian’s house to play!”
The distance from the Xu house to Grandma Qian’s house was not far.
After crossing the open space and walking down another alley, they arrived. Guihua Alley was as quiet as ever. The only sounds were the footsteps of the two children on the stone-paved path.
“If we tell Grandma Qian that Mommy agreed to let us go play with her, she’ll definitely be very happy,” Yunshu chattered nonstop.
Yunkai only occasionally responded with a word or two. Most of the time, he just listened to the little girl talk.
“Mommy said she was worried it would be dangerous for us to go to Grandma Qian’s house, but we’ve been there so many times and never saw any danger,” Yunshu continued in a low voice.
Yunkai was also a little curious about this. He followed her train of thought and guessed in a mature tone, “Maybe she also thinks Grandma Qian’s place is a ‘haunted house.’ The other adults in the compound don’t allow their kids to go to Guihua Alley either.”
Yunshu immediately knitted her little brows together in distress. “Then we have to explain it properly to Mommy. Grandma Qian’s house doesn’t have ghosts, and Grandma Qian is a really good person. Otherwise, you and I wouldn’t have been able to earn money to help buy fabric.”
Speaking of this, the two children looked at each other and sighed in unison, very much in sync.
They had heard the adults talk about the price of fabric. Twenty yuan could not buy much at all.
Yunshu’s fair and pretty little face scrunched up as she sighed worriedly. “How can we earn a lot of money?”
Yunkai could not think of a good solution either.
The two children spoke softly as they walked, quickly arriving at the entrance of Grandma Qian’s house. However, the usually quiet doorway now had a man in a suit pacing back and forth.
Yunkai immediately became alert and pulled his sister back two steps.
However, the man did not look at them at all. Instead, he straightened his clothes and stepped forward to knock on the Qian family’s door. “Mother, just open the door. Your son has come all this way. I’m hungry and thirsty now. Please, just give me something to eat.”
Hearing the man knock on Grandma Qian’s door and call her “Mother,” Yunshu blinked her bright, clear eyes and carefully asked, “Is Grandma Qian your mother?”
The man immediately turned to look at her. “Yes.” As he spoke, he noticed the bag Yunshu was holding, which looked like a gift for visiting relatives. He paused, then asked in disbelief, “Are you also here to see Grandma Qian?”
Yunshu nodded obediently. For some reason, she felt an inexplicable sense of goodwill toward this uncle. “Mommy asked my brother and me to bring some things for Grandma Qian.”
Her soft, childlike voice made Qian Fenjin feel as if his heart had melted. His voice unconsciously softened. “Then you must be very close to Grandma Qian, right?”
Yunshu tilted her head and thought for a moment. “Uncle, did you make Grandma Qian angry? Why won’t Grandma Qian let you go inside?”
Qian Fenjin sighed. The once spirited middle-aged man instantly looked dejected.
He nodded gloomily. “Yes. Uncle did something that made your Grandma Qian very angry. She doesn’t want to acknowledge me as her son anymore.”
He had originally intended to win the little girl’s sympathy and then persuade her to speak kindly for him in front of Grandma Qian. However, to his surprise, after hearing this, the little girl immediately wrinkled her nose in disdain.
“How can you make your own mother angry?”
Yunkai thought about how he often provoked Jiang Hua himself. Looking at Qian Fenjin, he felt a sense of shared misery and could not help but ask sympathetically and nervously, “How did you make Grandma Qian angry? Was it because you didn’t listen?”
Qian Fenjin did not expect the two children to dig into the matter like this. His expression became a little unnatural.
He touched his nose. “Uncle was ignorant when he was young and did something very, very wrong.”
Hearing this, the siblings could not help but gasp. Something very, very wrong sounded extremely serious. Sympathy mixed with faint contempt appeared on both children’s faces at the same time.
Yunshu’s clear but innocent almond eyes blinked as she looked at Yunkai and said, “Brother, let’s not talk to bad people. Mommy says bad behavior can be contagious. We don’t want to become bad children.”
Qian Fenjin: …
Her voice was soft and adorable, but her words were cold and merciless.
The two children really ignored him after that.
They walked past him, climbed the steps, and gently knocked on the vermilion-colored door.
Qian Fenjin watched expectantly, but just like when he knocked, there was no response at all. It seemed the person inside had decided not to open the door for anyone.
He should have felt disappointed, yet he strangely felt a sense of satisfaction. Unable to resist, he said with a hint of schadenfreude, “Grandma Qian won’t open it. I’ve been knocking here for ages.”
After saying that, even Qian Fenjin himself froze. He did not know why he had suddenly become so childish, actually comparing himself with two children.
Yunkai pressed his lips together, glanced at him, withdrew his hand from knocking, and looked at his sister. “Did you bring the key?”
The little girl nodded. “I did.”
Qian Fenjin, who had been watching them, froze. “What key?”
As soon as his words fell, the little girl had already taken out a key hanging around her neck. Qian Fenjin was instantly speechless, staring at them in disbelief. He suddenly realized that the relationship between these two children and his mother was not an ordinary one.
His mother trusted these two children so much that she had even given them the key to the front door of her house?
Qian Fenjin frowned in disbelief, trying to deny his guess in his heart.
However, Yunshu gave him the answer in the next second. The little girl explained very politely, “Grandma Qian said it was too tiring to open the door for my brother and me, so she gave us a key.”
Qian Fenjin’s mind went blank for a moment. He was almost jealous to the point of distortion, looking sourly at Yunshu. “Your Grandma Qian really is something. Anyone who didn’t know better would think you’re her biological granddaughter and I’m the son she picked up.”
Holding the key, Yunshu’s fair little face looked serious as she said in her soft voice, “That’s because you made Grandma Qian angry. If you did something wrong, you should sincerely apologize. When Grandma Qian forgives you, you’ll be able to go inside.”
Yunkai stood firmly in front of him with a solemn face. “That’s right. We can open the door, but you can’t go in. Grandma Qian doesn’t want to see you.”
Qian Fenjin immediately showed a disappointed and dejected expression. He laughed at himself. “Don’t worry. Even if you let me in, I wouldn’t dare. I know your Grandma Qian’s temperament best.”
The two children looked at him with sympathy.
Yunshu opened the door and entered together with Yunkai. Before closing it, the little girl thought for a moment and then said to Qian Fenjin, “Uncle, we’ll help you say some good things.”
Qian Fenjin’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
Yunshu nodded obediently.
The door closed.
Usually, when the siblings came over, Grandma Qian would be lying in the rocking chair in the living room with her eyes closed, listening to the tape recorder. However, this time, she was unusually tending to the flowers and plants in the courtyard.
“Grandma Qian, we’re here!” Yunshu happily ran toward Grandma Qian.
Grandma Qian’s usually stern face instantly softened. She opened her arms to catch her and stroked her head. “Good girl.”
Yunkai had long accepted that Grandma Qian did not like him and was already used to this scene. His expression did not change at all, and there was no resentment in his heart. In order to stay at the Qian house and watch over his sister, he even lowered his attitude greatly.
“Grandma Qian, this is from our mom.” He lifted the bag in his hand and asked, “Should I put it on the table in the living room?”
Grandma Qian raised an eyebrow. “Your mom allows you to come to my place now?”
Yunshu’s almond eyes curved into crescents as she nodded happily. “Yes. Mommy also said she wanted to thank you!” The little girl paused as she spoke, widened her innocent eyes, and asked curiously, “Why does my mom want to thank you? Did my mom also secretly come to play with you?”
Grandma Qian naturally knew why. She reached out and tapped Yunshu’s perky little nose, deliberately keeping her in suspense. “Adults’ matters are not something children should meddle in.”
Yunshu was not disappointed and giggled cutely while hugging her arm.
Yunkai had already put the things away and came back out. Thinking of Qian Fenjin outside the door, he could not resist asking out of curiosity, “Grandma Qian, why won’t you let the uncle at the door come in?”
Grandma Qian’s expression immediately changed. She sneered and looked at Yunkai. “What? Do you want to go out and keep him company?”
The alarm bells in Yunkai’s head rang instantly. He immediately stiffened his little face and stated his position. “I don’t. I didn’t!”
Seeing this, Yunshu quickly took Grandma Qian’s hand. “Grandma Qian, I want to know too.”
Grandma Qian’s gaze fell back on Yunshu’s face. Her expression was still unpleasant, but her tone softened a little.
“He did something that Grandma will never be able to forgive for the rest of her life. Every time Grandma sees him, I can’t help but feel heartbroken, sad, and regretful.” As she spoke, deep pain surfaced in Grandma Qian’s eyes.