In fact, Dong Liang was completely serious. He found Wang Caixia petty for refusing to turn a blind eye, and since she also refused to admit fault, hurting his pride, he insisted on divorcing her.
Wang Caixia hadn’t originally wanted a divorce—after all, she had two sons—but she couldn’t swallow her pride either. If Dong Liang had just obediently admitted his mistake and sworn to cut ties with the other woman from then on, she would have forgiven him. But she never expected that Dong Liang would not only refuse to admit fault but also use words to provoke her, shouting over and over, “Whoever doesn’t get a divorce is a coward!” Even a mild-tempered person has their limits, and Wang Caixia wasn’t one to shamelessly cling to someone. Thus, the major matter of divorce was finalized.
Next came the division of property and the children. The relocation compensation was split down the middle, and each took one child. Neither had to pay child support to the other.
In reality, if Wang Caixia had taken him to court, she could have received sixty percent of the family property. However, she didn’t want to entangle with him any longer, and she also feared he would squander all the money, so she wanted a swift resolution.
When Song Lanfang learned about this, she cursed Dong Liang out thoroughly at home, “What is wrong with Wang Caixia? She is so virtuous, handling everything inside and outside the house, and she even bore him two sons. He actually didn’t appreciate her goodness at all and went out to keep a mistress. This man is too wicked.”
Lin Weisen shamelessly leaned in close, “Aren’t I much better? Look at how single-minded I am toward you.”
Song Lanfang gave him plenty of face, “Compared to him, you can indeed be called a good man. But don’t associate with men like that; I’m afraid he’ll corrupt you.”
Lin Weisen was seasoning the starch jelly, not forgetting to reassure her, “Rest assured. Even without what happened before, I wouldn’t associate with him. How could anyone who abandons their wife from hard times be a good person? You just wait and see; in our village, count them all up, who could possibly respect him!”
Song Lanfang curled her lip, “I doubt it will take long before he brings a new woman through the door. It’s just hard on Dabao. Who knows what his stepmother’s character will be like.”
Lin Weisen felt that few women willing to be mistresses could be good people, but since the person hadn’t entered the household yet, his worrying was useless. He glanced at Song Lanfang, “If he really hosts a wedding, are we going?”
After their previous falling out, any friendly feelings had long since vanished.
Song Lanfang slapped her thigh, “Of course we’ll go. Why shouldn’t we? At least we get to eat at a banquet; we won’t lose out.”
When hosting banquets in the countryside, the gift money from villagers was small, so the host wouldn’t make a profit from them; they could only make money from relatives, whose gifts were very substantial.
Since he could get the better end of the deal, Lin Weisen was happy, “Alright. I’ll listen to you.”
However, this matter wasn’t urgent yet; Lin Weisen’s top priority was to prepare the ingredients needed for setting up the stall the next day.
His previous experience of setting up a stall to sell vegetables had left a shadow on him, making him a bit anxious, “Is it really okay for us to bring so many dishes? What if we can’t sell them and they spoil?”
He wasn’t just overthinking; the weather was so hot, and the cold dishes were all blanched in advance in the morning, so they would spoil by midday.
Lin Qionghua had already thought of a plan, “Don’t worry, I’ll ask Uncle to give us a block of ice. When the time comes, you can put the cold dishes into the box, and they won’t spoil.”
To make it convenient to sell, they got up very early the next morning to blanch the vegetables.
They packed the blanched vegetables into plastic bags. Each portion was twenty cents. There were no meat dishes, mainly because it was their first day setting up the stall, and they didn’t want to overwhelm Lin Weisen.
Just as they finished blanching the vegetables, Lin Weimu returned from wholesaling the popsicles. As usual, he left one box at home for his wife to sell in the village, while the remaining three boxes were taken to the town.
They put the cold dishes into the wooden box used for storing popsicles.
Lin Weisen saw that the tires were already compressed halfway down, “Brother, you’ve got so much. Why don’t we put one box on the back of my bicycle? Qionghua can just sit on the front crossbar.”
Lin Weimu usually took great care of his little niece and wouldn’t dare let her ride a bicycle loaded with popsicles, but his third brother had no such concerns, so he readily agreed, “Alright.”
They tied a box of popsicles to the back seat of the bicycle.
Song Lanfang packed the hair accessories she had made yesterday into small bags and handed them to her daughter, “See how you can sell them. The prices are marked on them, so just go by those prices.”
Lin Qionghua took them, “Okay!”
With the three of them fully prepared, they set off.
When they arrived at the market, they specifically chose a central location where the foot traffic was heavy.
Once the tricycle was parked, Lin Weisen stayed in place to hawk their wares, while Lin Weimu pushed the tricycle around, hawking as he walked, selling both starch jelly and popsicles together.
However, since Lin Weisen had made a lot of starch jelly today, both of them were able to sell it.
Lin Qionghua took out the hair accessories and began hawking them from the side.
She had prepared a long wooden board with two ropes tied to it, clamping the hair clips onto the ropes. Many nails were driven into the board, and the hair ties hung from the nails.
Fearing that her daughter wouldn’t be able to sell them, Song Lanfang didn’t set the prices too high, aiming just to make a bit of money.
Today, Lin Qionghua had specifically styled her hair into two buns and put on cute little rabbit hair ties, which looked quite attractive.
After she called out just twice, someone came over to ask, “How much?”
“Twenty cents for a pair.”
This price was not expensive, but the other party still tried to bargain. However, Lin Qionghua stood firm on a fixed price, “This is the cheapest price. Our house sells them for ten cents cheaper than other places. Auntie, look at how good it looks on me; your daughter will definitely look even prettier wearing it.”
Early this morning, she had begged her mother to help her tie beautiful double buns, using the pretty hair ties and matching them with hairpins, making her look cute and nimble.
Hearing this, the woman was indeed pleased, “You certainly have a sweet tongue. Alright, give me a pair.”
Lin Qionghua immediately packed a pair of hair flowers into a transparent bag.
Seeing his daughter sell something so quickly, Lin Weisen couldn’t help but give her a thumbs-up, “Impressive!”
Lin Qionghua proudly tilted her little chin up and began to teach her father step-by-step, “You have to hawk your wares!”
“Isn’t it written on the sign?” Lin Weisen pointed to the sign.
“That’s different. Hawking is more eye-catching.” Lin Qionghua set an example for him, putting her hands to her mouth to act as a megaphone, shouting loudly, “Popsicles! Cool and refreshing old-fashioned popsicles, ice creams, red bean cakes, mung bean cakes, delicious and inexpensive!”
After she called out a few times, someone approached, wanting to buy a popsicle.
Seeing her father standing there dazed, Lin Qionghua hurriedly nudged him, reminding him to fetch the popsicle.
Lin Weisen immediately opened the lid and asked the customer how many they wanted.
“Just one.”
Just as he paid and was about to leave, Lin Qionghua asked him, “Our house also sells starch jelly and cold dishes. My dad is a chef, and the flavor is wonderful.”
The customer probably couldn’t refuse such an offer, “Alright, give me a portion of each.”
Lin Weisen turned out to be quite clever this time, immediately opening the lid to serve him, “Our house has many kinds of cold dishes: tofu skin, vermicelli, green vegetables, wood ear mushrooms, chives, shredded three-treasures, cucumber, and shredded kelp. Which ones do you want?”
“How do you sell them?”
“Ten cents for a portion.” Lin Weisen picked up a bag to show the customer, “This is the amount per portion.”
The portion size wasn’t very large, so one could mix several kinds together. The customer immediately ordered wood ear mushrooms, shredded three-treasures, green vegetables, and tofu skin.
“Give me a portion of starch jelly too. The weather is hot, so eating this cools you down!”
While Lin Weisen mixed the dishes, Lin Qionghua chatted with the customer, “Exactly. It’s so hot that wearing even a single T-shirt is unbearable. If only there were air conditioning.”
The customer didn’t expect this half-grown child to even know about air conditioning. He laughed out loud, “Air conditioners are too expensive; buying one is pricey, and running it is even costlier.”
Lin Qionghua deeply agreed, “Life will get better and better in the future. Maybe every household will be able to afford an air conditioner.”
The customer was pleased to hear this and finished the popsicle in the blink of an eye.
After settling the bill, he left carrying the starch jelly and cold dishes.
With the first business transaction completed, Lin Weisen gained more confidence, “I didn’t expect we could actually sell it.”
“Dad, you hawk the wares yourself now. My voice is too thin, and I can’t call out for too long.”
“Rest assured.” Lin Weisen called out a few times in his coarse voice, and soon another customer came over.
By the time Lin Weimu finished selling all the popsicles and starch jelly and pushed the empty cart back, Lin Weisen had already sold out of cold dishes. Today was the first day, so he hadn’t dared to make too much, preparing only fifty portions. He hadn’t expected them to be in such high demand.
The popsicles and starch jelly sold slightly slower.
“I just saw someone else selling popsicles at the end of the street over there. Business isn’t as easy to do as before.”
The trouble with being a reseller was that others would follow the trend. Lin Qionghua suggested they could wholesale a bit less next time, “I see that cold dishes sell quite well; Dad can prepare more next time. You have the culinary skill for this; if others want to learn it, they won’t be able to pick it up anytime soon.”
Lin Weisen nodded, “Alright!”
However, since the weather was hot, popsicles and starch jelly were easy to sell, and after staying a while longer, they sold them all out completely.
The ingredients at home weren’t enough for the next market day, so they bought some more before heading back.
As soon as he walked through the door, Lin Weisen showed off to his wife, “My cold dishes are completely sold out.”
Song Lanfang was also very happy, “It seems you’ve ridden on your daughter’s coattails.”
She looked at her daughter, “What about the hair accessories I made? How many did you sell?”
She hadn’t made many, only twenty in total, and Lin Qionghua sold ten. That was half of the inventory. If there had been a larger quantity to make it more noticeable, perhaps they would have sold even more.
“Since I was set up next to Dad, my stall was actually placed in the vegetable section when it shouldn’t have been. If we went to the street further ahead, more people would buy them.”
Country markets set up stalls categorized by the type of goods. To teach her father, she hadn’t gone to a different section. Of course, it wasn’t without benefits; since they were together, they only paid a single stall fee.
Song Lanfang rubbed her daughter’s head, “Not bad at all, to actually sell ten. I made another forty today. By the next market day, I can get a hundred together for you. When the time comes, you can set up a stall on your own.”
Lin Qionghua’s money-loving nature took over, “Wonderful! I can be a boss too.”
She unloaded the items and looked at the new hair accessories her mother had made. Her mother was getting more and more adept at making hair flowers now; looking at this craftsmanship, it was not inferior at all to that of a factory worker. The styles were also very novel, so they would surely sell well.
While their family of three was sharing business experiences, a mother and son arrived at the village entrance, dressed plainly.
The woman looked to be under fifty, fair-skinned and plump. Named Hao Xiujuan, she told her son, Liu Guoqing, “This is the place. This is the village undergoing relocation.”
Liu Guoqing nodded and flipped his hair, “Mom, just wait to live a good life. With my face, I will definitely succeed.”
Hao Xiujuan led her son toward a large tree nearby, where several villagers were sitting underneath to escape the heat.
Hao Xiujuan stepped forward, “Old sister, I’d like to ask you for some information.”
Matchmaker Jiang was dozing off. Hearing someone call her, she half-opened her eyes and found an unfamiliar face standing before her. She let out a yawn, “Who are you?”
Hao Xiujuan shamelessly leaned closer, “We are from out of town. We heard that life in your county is comfortable, so we came over to find work. Who knew the factories aren’t hiring? My son and I lost our livelihood, so we’re looking to marry him off to a woman’s family.”
Matchmaker Jiang suspected there was something wrong with her ears. Marry him off to a woman’s family? Her sleepiness vanished instantly. She opened her eyes wide, took a look at the woman, and then at her son, who was in his early twenties and indeed looked quite decent.
Matchmaker Jiang asked uncertainly, “You want your son to be a matrilocal son-in-law?”
Hao Xiujuan slapped her thigh, “Exactly! To tell you the truth, my old man died over ten years ago. It really hasn’t been easy for me, a widowed mother, to drag this child up to adulthood. His uncle even seized our house, so there’s absolutely no way I can afford a wife for him on my own. I thought to myself, a person moves and lives, a tree moves and dies—it’s better to find a family in better circumstances and marry him off into it. I can worry less in the future too.”
Everyone had their own way of thinking; a widowed mother raising a son with no one to lean on meant living a life as bitter as medicine. Matchmaker Jiang felt that entering into a matrilocal marriage was also a way out. She searched through her mental roster of the village, “But the only-child daughters in our village are still young, and your son is much too old for them; it’s not a good fit. However, there is a household that gave birth to three daughters. Would your son marry into it?”
Hao Xiujuan asked probingly, “They can’t possibly bring in a matrilocal husband for all three, right?”
“Of course not. They couldn’t afford to anyway. Keeping one at home is enough.” Matchmaker Jiang felt that Lin Weimu and his wife were getting old and likely wouldn’t be able to have a son in this lifetime, so they might as well bring in a matrilocal husband for their youngest daughter.
“That works then!” Hao Xiujuan slipped a red envelope to Matchmaker Jiang, asking her to put in plenty of good words to strive for an early conclusion to this fine match.