Lu Xiao rushed into the room with large strides: "Mom, Mom, what's wrong with you?"
Lu Qing also realized her actions were somewhat inappropriate and quickly crouched down to check on her mother.
Lu Jianguo stared gloomily at his chaotic son and daughter, along with his useless wife.
He felt slightly panicked deep down.
The loss of the account book left him unable to focus on anything, resulting in sleepless nights spent staring wide-eyed until dawn. Consequently, he now felt dizzy and muddle-headed.
Seeing the chaotic scene, he couldn't help but feel the urge to erupt in anger.
Li Yue, witnessing this, curled her lips, glanced at Feng Jing who hadn't moved, and went straight back to her room.
Who cared whether they lived or died—these people deserved it.
It had nothing to do with her.
Only when she heard the bedroom door on the west side close did Feng Jing snap out of it and hurried over with quick, small steps.
Li Shaohua, unable to report the loss of her belongings to the police or make it public, had bottled up her frustration until she fell ill. She lay in bed all day, didn't go to work, and couldn't even attend to her favorite daughter-in-law.
These past few days had been the most relaxed for Li Yue. Lu Xiao, in an effort to avoid divorce, had been practically hiding from her.
Lu Jianguo, preoccupied with matters at the factory and worried about the account book, had no time to deal with family affairs.
Now, he actually felt that losing that money and gold was for the best.
Originally, he had planned to take some money and gold from the items he had buried outside to give to his wife, hoping to help her pull herself together at the very least.
But now he abandoned that idea entirely, as the factory seemed to be auditing accounts recently. The head factory director, Li Wenbin, had been summoned by the review team, giving him a vague sense of foreboding.
As for Feng Jing, the loss of her money and wedding gold left her anxious every day. Although she felt unwell, she didn't dare mention it.
She was afraid of being sent back to the hospital, which would prevent her from keeping an eye on Lu Xiao every day.
After that "intimate contact" between Lu Xiao and Li Yue,
she completely made up her mind to marry Lu Xiao.
Initially, she had just been stringing him along, but now that her money had been taken—whether by Li Shaohua or Lu Jianguo, she couldn't tell—she was suffering in silence. She could only tread carefully day by day, trying to keep a low profile.
She was terrified of being questioned about where she got that money.
Meanwhile, she continued to flirt with Lu Xiao.
But even though Lu Xiao had some affection for her, he always kept his distance, using the excuse that his health was too poor or that he wasn't divorced yet.
Days passed like this, one after another.
By mid-September, Li Yue and Gu Huaichuan had looked at several properties and finally narrowed it down to two options.
They planned to choose one of them.
The first was a street-facing property in the Xinkailu Fuyuan Residential Area, diagonally across from the Department Store Building. It was a two-story building with over 250 square meters total. Since houses back then didn't include shared areas, it looked very spacious.
The second was an old grain and oil shop right next to the Department Store Building. It used to be a state-run grain, oil, and non-staple food store but had been closed for several years.
The property had been vacant because it was too large and had never been rented out.
There was another reason: it needed to be renovated.
"Xiao Yue, if we rent the grain and oil shop, we'll probably have to renovate it,"
Gu Huaichuan said, looking at the somewhat dirty shop with disdain.
Li Yue nodded in agreement: "Then let's go talk to the old man across the street first and see if he can give us a discount. Two thousand yuan a year with at least a three-year contract is really a lot."
Given the current price levels and nationwide wage standards, the rent was too high. Most importantly, the old man was particularly fussy—before even renting it out, he had listed a bunch of restrictions: no modifications to the electrical circuits, no repainting of the walls.
And it had to be a three-year lease.
Gu Huaichuan’s face lit up with delight. "Let’s go, we’ll head over now."
After discussing it briefly, the two of them headed straight for the small two-story building across the street.
Li Yue had considered buying it, but storefront properties cost nearly 1,100 per square meter, whereas residential units in the neighborhood were only around six or seven hundred, maybe seven or eight hundred.
By nature, she was a cautious person. Without a clear direction or a stable source of income, she wouldn’t just sit back and deplete her savings. For now, she had no plans to buy a property.
She could only focus on getting the shop up and running first. If there was any money left over, then she would consider buying a home.
But plans often change faster than expected.
"Boss, didn’t we agree on 2,000 yesterday? Why are you going back on your word now?" Gu Huaichuan looked at the elderly landlord with disdain, unable to suppress his anger.
The landlord was an especially sloppy old man who, at first glance, resembled a lonely elderly villager. Who would have guessed that he owned three such two-story buildings along the street?
His property was in a prime location. Thanks to favorable timing, the area had become the county center. He had been renting it out since 1980.
The rent had risen from 800 to 2,000 this year, making it a consistently profitable venture.
"That’s right, how can you, as an elder, go back on your word like this?"
Li Yue was also annoyed.
When they had contacted him earlier, he hadn’t mentioned raising the price.
Now, just as they were about to sign the contract, he suddenly changed his mind, claiming that some other big shot wanted to buy it at a high price and he no longer wanted to rent it out.
"I only raised the price because I felt bad turning you down outright. If you can buy it, I’ll sell it to you. If you want to rent, it’ll be 3,000."
The old man stood with his hands behind his back, quite pleased as he admired his own property.
Hearing this, Gu Huaichuan gritted his teeth in frustration. "Just a moment ago, you said 2,500, and now you’ve raised it another 500. Are you out of your mind for money?"
Li Yue pulled back the furious Gu Huaichuan and shook her head at him. "Uncle, there’s no need to hesitate. If you don’t want to rent it out, just say so. Raising the price at the last minute like this is really unfair."
She had already realized that the old man wasn’t genuinely interested in renting it out. He probably didn’t want to rent but felt too awkward to say it outright.
"You’re a clever one, young lady. I just don’t want to rent it out anymore. I can sell this place for 750 per square meter—what’s the point in renting? But I’m not sure yet if that big shot will actually come, so I have to keep you waiting for now."
The old man wore an infuriatingly smug smile, completely unaware that there was anything wrong with what he was saying.
"You…"
Gu Huaichuan wanted to argue further, but Li Yue stopped him again.
"Forget it, let’s just wait a bit. If the big shot doesn’t show up later, we’ll rent the place across the street," Li Yue whispered.
Although they hadn’t been particularly impressed with the property across the street, given the circumstances, they had to settle for the next best option.
Other locations were either too remote or too expensive. This area was in the bustling part of town, the county’s most prosperous district.
The old Grain and Oil Shop across the street was admittedly a bit large, but the location was truly ideal, right next to the Department Store Building.
Li Yue hadn’t planned on starting with such a large space.
But since the old man was toying with them like this, she decided not to rent from him and would instead lease the place across the street.
Gu Huaichuan pulled Li Yue outside and whispered, "That place is too big—it's two large units, over four hundred square meters across two floors. Didn't you say you were worried about losing money if it was too big?"
"Let's take a look first. If it really doesn't work, we can keep searching." Li Yue was indeed concerned about overextending and risking failure if things didn't go well.
As they spoke, a flashy red sedan pulled up and parked in front of the door.