Zhou Hui was a strict mother who dreamed of her son becoming a dragon among men.
She hadn’t originally agreed to let Zhang Jiaming go to Rao Lili’s house today, but when she saw her son hesitantly pleading, “Mom… there are a few problems in the Complete Collection of Application Problems you bought me last week that I don’t know how to solve. I was hoping… I could ask Teacher Luo to explain the tricky ones to me.”
Teacher Luo was a math teacher at Central Elementary School and Zhang Jiaming’s first-grade homeroom teacher. Her teaching skills were decent enough, but her temper was too good—she couldn’t keep the students in line. As a result, Class One, where Zhang Jiaming was, had a learning atmosphere that was way too lax!
Can you imagine a teacher and her students gathered around chatting and laughing together after class?
Teacher Luo had even bought a whole basket of snacks to reward her students. In Zhou Hui’s eyes, these were all unacceptable methods. A teacher needed authority and the ability to command respect from the children—only then would they learn to behave in the future.
Zhou Hui shook her head in strong disapproval. Exactly—no wonder Teacher Luo, being a teacher herself, hadn’t managed to raise her own daughter properly.
And Rao Lili was exactly that daughter. She and that Taotao were two of a kind—not a shred of femininity between them, always climbing and jumping around, with their minds anywhere but on their studies. Their grades were terrible, and on top of that, those two girls were constantly getting into fights with the boys at school!
Ugh, such bad kids… Zhou Hui secretly sneered. She truly hoped the government-subsidized housing would come through soon. In the future, she and Guodong would definitely move Xiaoming out of this alley. The neighbors here, frankly speaking, just weren’t up to par.
With that thought, she glanced again at the remaining egg tart on the table.
Tao Guangzhi’s baking skills used to be absolutely atrocious—she’d never stoop to buying his pastries or bread, preferring to go all the way to Dongsheng Street instead. Today’s creation was surprisingly delicious, completely out of left field.
She’d just eaten one, and the milky fragrance still lingered in her mouth.
Zhou Hui’s face flushed slightly.
She said she was buying them for Xiaoming, but she… kind of wanted some too.
Watching Grandpa Zhang tuck the money into his pants pocket, quickly put on his shoes, and head out the door toward the South Street bakery, Zhou Hui hurried over to grab her mop and speed up her floor cleaning.
Gotta finish this quickly—then I can snack while watching TV!
In just a few minutes, before Tao Guangzhi had even left the shop, Grandpa Zhang showed up again—this time saying he wanted to buy more of those egg tarts. Tao Guangzhi was both surprised and delighted. Taotao had been right—this new style of egg tart was actually pretty popular!
But remembering how Grandpa Zhang had just insulted Taotao’s grades, Tao Guangzhi instead put on an air of unapproachable haughtiness:
“Grandpa, these tarts are very labor-intensive to make. I can’t make many in a day. They use imported butter and cream, and each tart takes two of my egg yolks! These aren’t the cheap eighty-cent ones you find elsewhere—mine are made with top-quality ingredients, as I’m sure you could taste. So the price is a bit higher—three yuan each. If you buy more, well, considering we’ve been neighbors for years, of course I’ll give you a discount.”
Grandpa Zhang’s eyes bulged like a frog’s. “Three yuan each?! Why don’t you just rob me?”
“No helping it—these are premium goods. Those few I gave you earlier, I already sold at a loss.” Tao Guangzhi didn’t flinch at all. He casually pulled out a large box of egg tarts, beautifully packaged in a delicate gift box, which he’d prepared to take to his older brother. “Let me tell you—today’s batch was actually ordered by a big-shot leader from the coal yard. I made a few extra, which is why I could give you some to try. See? I’m packing them in the finest gift boxes.”
Even for a man with such honest, straightforward features as Tao Guangzhi, lying came as naturally as breathing when it came to business.
Grandpa Zhang thought about how even the ten yuan in his pocket couldn’t buy four egg tarts, and he was furious inside. But since he’d already come, he couldn’t exactly go back empty-handed, could he? Otherwise his picky, difficult daughter-in-law would accuse him of being stingy later.
It’s not my money anyway. Fine, fine…
After hesitating for a long while, he reluctantly slapped the money down on the counter. “Give me four. We’ve been neighbors for years—charge me two yuan each!”
“Hey, two yuan is definitely not going to work—I’d be losing my shirt! Fine, fine, I’ll give them to you for two-fifty. At this price, I’m making absolutely nothing. Don’t go telling anyone, or I won’t be able to do business.” Tao Guangzhi looked pained, as if selling those four tarts was causing him agony in every organ, and he acted as though he regretted being so generous. But his hands moved swiftly to pocket the money.
Grandpa Zhang’s expression finally softened a little at that, though he still grumbled, “At these prices, only we could afford them. I’m telling you, you’re not going to sell many of these.”
Tao Guangzhi smiled, wrapped them up, and handed them over without engaging. “Come back if you like them.”
“I’m never coming back!” Grandpa Zhang’s heart ached as if bleeding. He stalked off with the four tarts, still complaining nonstop to Zhou Hui when he got home.
Tao Guangzhi just curled his lip. Come or don’t come—I don’t care!
He tidied up, closed the shop, and headed out with his own box of egg tarts.
Next semester, Yu Luan would be transferring from Lipu Village Elementary to Zhangxi Town Central Elementary. Ideally, he’d end up in the same class as Taotao so the siblings could look out for each other, and he and Meizhen would have less to worry about.
Yu Luan’s household registration was still under Meizhen. Tao Guangzhi had a town residency, while Yu Meizhen had a rural one. Back then, town residency was still valuable and hard to get. He’d asked before—they had to be married for at least five years before she could apply to switch from agricultural to non-agricultural status. So the family still had two separate household registers.
That mother and son had really suffered back then. Meizhen’s former in-laws lived in a village in a neighboring town, and Yu Luan’s biological father had died from a workplace injury and accident. The compensation had totaled a staggering 300,000 yuan! At a time when ordinary town workers made only a few hundred to a thousand a month, let alone in the village, that was an eye-popping fortune!
To get their hands on the money, her in-laws actually refused to acknowledge Yu Luan as their son’s child and even accused Meizhen of infidelity. Through who-knows-what maneuvering in the village, they managed to kick the mother and son out with nothing. That’s why Yu Luan now had his mother’s surname and had attended first grade at Lipu Elementary.
Tao Guangzhi planned to use the egg tarts as an excuse to ask his older brother about how to handle the school transfer. After all, he didn’t know any principals or school administrators, and spots at Central Elementary were much harder to come by than at the village school. His brother had always been better connected—even able to talk to people at the town education office. A few phone calls to grease the wheels might make things much easier.
Who would have thought—just half an hour after Tao Guangzhi left, Grandpa Zhang, who had been so dismissive with his words, had changed into a new set of clothes, picked up his tea cup and two “high-end imported Portuguese egg tarts,” and excitedly headed to the tiny mahjong parlor down the alley to show off. That place was always where the old folks gathered to kill time.
“Hey! Old Liu, take a look—what do you think this is?”
“Just an egg tart, isn’t it?”
“Philistine! These are Macau-style Portuguese egg tarts specially custom-made for the coal yard boss by Guangzhi’s bakery! Portuguese, you get it? Made by the Portuguese! You can’t find these anywhere else—three yuan a pop! Look at this—top-quality ingredients!”
“How did I get them? What do you think? I’ve got a fat wallet, good taste, and plenty of face around here! I even paid extra to make him set a few aside for me!”
…