Yan Guifang had lost all interest in listening to Bei Qinghuan speak; she was completely focused on counting the money.
She hadn’t realized how much it was until she started counting, and the amount was staggering.
“I’ve already counted two hundred over here, and there’s still so much left. How much is it in total?”
Bei Qinghuan said, “Stop counting. It’s six hundred and twenty-four in total! Mom, ever since I was in Dian Province and realized I could make money from drawing, I’ve been focusing on picture-story books. I spent over three months drawing, and then the policy changed, allowing everyone to return to the city. So, I just sent my best manuscript to our Haishi People’s Fine Arts Publishing House.
“Before I came back to the city, I finally received a reply saying it was accepted. And now, two months later, they’ve really sent me the payment and the finished products. Mom, from now on, spend money as you please. I can definitely support you!”
Looking at the money covering the table, Yan Guifang felt an unprecedented sense of pride and vindication. “It’s true! With this much money, forget supporting me, we have enough to recruit a son-in-law to come live with and support us!”
Yan Guifang wasn’t young, but she hadn’t worked for many years. On top of that, her health was poor and she often needed to rest, so her monthly salary was only about thirty-something yuan.
Six hundred and twenty-four yuan was equivalent to a year and a half of Yan Guifang’s salary, without spending a single cent.
With that, couldn’t they indeed recruit a son-in-law to support?
Bei Qinghuan burst out laughing.
“Ha, hahaha, Mom, what kind of good son-in-law can you recruit with just over six hundred yuan? Probably just someone who isn’t missing any arms or legs, right? If we’re going to recruit one, we should get a good one. So I’ll work harder and earn more, at least enough to get a house big enough for a live-in son-in-law.”
It started as a joke, but unexpectedly, Yan Guifang took it seriously.
She grabbed Bei Qinghuan’s hand.
“Good! Huanhuan, let’s do just that. After you break off this engagement, we won’t marry you off. From now on, we’ll keep an eye out and recruit a son-in-law! I used to hear a temporary worker from Chongming say that in her village, families without sons would recruit sons-in-law to live with them. Isn’t that great? He’d listen to everything we say, and the children would take our surname. If he dares to treat you badly, we can team up and deal with him, don’t you think?”
Bei Qinghuan was speechless.
It wasn’t an entirely bad idea.
Seeing her daughter’s thoughtful expression, Yan Guifang grew more enthusiastic and continued to elaborate, “Think about it. A man willing to marry into his wife’s family must be from a poor background. In that case, we’ll be the ones doing the choosing. We’ll pick a handsome one!”
For some reason, as this topic came up, a face and a figure surfaced in Bei Qinghuan’s mind.
Thick, dark brows, long, narrow eyes, and a stunning red mole at the end of one eyebrow…
A tall, slender, and upright build, with a broad waist, narrow shoulders, and long, alluring legs…
Cough, cough, cough. That orderly spoke standard Mandarin. Where was his hometown?
For someone like him to settle down in Haishi, his only option would be to marry into a family, hmph!
While letting her imagination run wild, Bei Qinghuan also gave her mother suggestions, “Right, as long as we have money, it doesn’t matter if he’s a bit poor. Even if he’s from the countryside, it’s fine. He must be handsome, more handsome than Qin Zhenghua!”
“Exactly, exactly! As long as he’s handsome and can carry on the family line, that’s all that matters. In the future, we’ll have him do the chores at home, cook and do laundry for you, and have children for you. We’ll use a man like a woman!”
“Hahaha!”
The mother and daughter hugged each other, laughing heartily.
They were overjoyed. Money could cure all ills; even her mother had become more vivacious.
For this meal, even with only a small dish of pickled vegetables to go with the rice, Bei Qinghuan ate with particular relish.
After they finished eating, Yan Guifang announced that she would do all the housework from now on; Bei Qinghuan just needed to focus on drawing her picture-story books.
Bei Qinghuan herself felt that it was best to strike while the iron was hot and draw a few more sets for the idiom stories series. This would satisfy the publishing house with her output and quality, laying a good foundation as a reliable author.
Four hundred kilometers away, on a ferry in the middle of the river, Jing Xiao let out a series of sneezes, “Achoo, achoo, achoo!” He muttered to himself, “Who’s badmouthing me?”
Chen Erhuai brought his military-style casual uniform over. “Delegate, have you caught a cold? You should put this on. The river wind is strong. Your arm isn’t well, so you should avoid the wind.”
“No need, my nose is just itchy! It’s so hot… I’m not a female comrade!”
Jing Xiao didn’t take the uniform, but he did pull up his sleeve, took some medicine out of his pocket, and swallowed a pill dry. “By the way, how many pain-relief patches did you get from Dr. Ye yesterday?”
Chen Erhuai waved his hand. “Ten! I think that Dr. Ye is deliberately refusing to give us more. She wants you to visit the infirmary more often.”
Jing Xiao shot him a sideways glance and handed the uniform back to Chen Erhuai. “Stop talking nonsense. When we get to the logistics department of the unit over here, we can just get more from their military doctor.”
“Fine.”
Chen Erhuai reached out to take the uniform, but the ferry lurched. The uniform in his hand fell to the ground, and a small, round object rolled out from it, ending up under a nearby truck.
Jing Xiao exclaimed, “Hey, hey, hey, my token of love!”
Chen Erhuai asked, “Huh? What’s that?”
“Never mind what it is, just get it back for me!”
Since Chen Erhuai had dropped it, he naturally had to go pick it up. When he got it in his hand, he saw it was a child’s silver bracelet.
“It’s quite pretty, and there are words carved on it! Hey, I’ve never seen this kind of carving before.”
In fact, Jing Xiao had put the bracelet in his pocket that morning, planning to leave it at the gatehouse reception for someone to give to Yan Guifang when he reached the factory entrance. Who would have known that he would run into her little girl on the way, who rolled her eyes at him with an arrogant and impatient look.
Quite interesting.
Jing Xiao changed his mind. He wanted to wait for the little girl to come and get it herself.
He hadn’t examined the object closely before. Now, hearing what Chen Erhuai said, he took the bracelet and looked at it.
Sure enough, he saw that besides the common four characters for “peace, joy, and happiness,” there were two special characters in the middle—”You Ya.”
“You Ya?” Jing Xiao’s brows furrowed.
Why did that sound so familiar?
Chen Erhuai was still curious beside him. “Delegate, what does ‘You Ya’ mean? Back in my hometown, they always carve ‘long life and a hundred years’ or something. What region’s custom is this, to carve this?”
Jing Xiao didn’t answer. He put the bracelet back in his pocket and, without giving the uniform back to Chen Erhuai, held it himself. “We’re almost at the shore. Let’s get to business. When we get back in a few days, have Li Junhe organize all the reply letters from Dian Province for me.”
“Yes.”
Meanwhile, on Bei Qinghuan’s end, the sight of over six hundred yuan had her completely engrossed in drawing, unable to pull herself away.
She drew continuously for five days, managing to finish the first draft of a set of “Idiom Stories” picture-story books.
She drew until her vision was filled with circles and lines, only then deciding to get a good night’s sleep.
It was a Sunday again. Seeing how hard she was working, Yan Guifang couldn’t bear to wake her. She went out by herself to buy fresh, good ingredients, thinking of having a nice meal with her daughter.
While things were quiet on Bei Qinghuan’s side, Mei Suqin was growing anxious.
There were only about ten days left until the end of the month. If the district chief started asking around for that Bezoar Pill, just as he had in her previous life, and she hadn’t even confirmed a wedding date with Bei Qinghuan, how could she get the medicine from her to curry favor with him?
At this thought, Mei Suqin deeply regretted having a falling out with Bei Qinghuan that day.
Sigh, that wretched girl!
Now that things had come to this, she had no choice but to go to the Bei family’s home and try to coax her.