A Surprise
Li Lanlan was completely taken aback. A teacher? She actually had this opportunity, but her liangpi stall had only just gotten off the ground!
To be honest, although she hadn’t considered it before, she was actually a little tempted.
Li Lanlan didn’t reply right away; she thought about it for a moment, but her expression already gave her away.
Language talent is still in short supply in China these days. Judging by how fluently the older woman had the child spell out English words, her English must be quite good.
With that foundation, if she taught them a few of her own secret techniques, her teaching skills would surely improve rapidly.
People who’ve studied English have at least a junior high school education. While they can’t match college or vocational school graduates, they were sufficient before the expansion of higher education enrollment. Currently, only a few percent of the population in China has an education beyond junior high school.
Seeing that the older sister was already interested, Li Yanqing pressed on with his persuasion.
He glanced around; there was hardly anyone else there—just this woman and her husband. Still, he lowered his voice and said, “I guarantee you’ll make at least 20,000 yuan a month!”
Now it wasn’t just Li Lanlan who couldn’t sit still; Wang Dashan was restless too. The couple stared intently at Li Yanqing.
Li Lanlan wasn’t worried that Li Yanqing was trying to scam her; he had just handed her a business card with the name of the organization on it.
This institution was well-known—it was the same one Li Lanlan’s eldest daughter had enrolled her grandson in for English lessons.
By the time more than a decade had passed, this organization had become an industry giant; surely they wouldn’t scam anyone!
Seeing that the couple was interested, Li Yanqing pressed on, “Sister, once you’ve made up your mind, just come straight up to this office to find me. My name is on the business card. Just tell the front desk you’re looking for me, and they’ll let me know.”
With that, Li Yanqing wrapped up the remaining three portions of liangpi and went upstairs to eat, leaving Li Lanlan and her husband standing there in a daze.
It was getting pretty hot by then, so the two of them packed up their stall and headed home not long after. Once back, they quietly tidied up the morning’s equipment and prepared the ingredients and seasonings for the afternoon.
Suddenly, Wang Dashan stopped what he was doing. “Lanlan, what do you think about what that guy just said?”
Wang Dashan had known all along that Li Lanlan was a technical school graduate, but he only knew she’d taken a sewing skills training course—her dowry included a sewing machine, and that was all. He had no idea her English was so good.
When you’re toiling in the fields, no one really cares about your education. After all, no matter where you graduated from, you end up back on the land anyway.
Some people even mock you behind your back, saying that after all those years of schooling, you’ve ended up just like them—scraping a living from the soil without even finishing elementary school or ever attending school at all.
This has even given rise to plenty of idle talk about how education is useless.
The couple had actually suffered greatly from such gossip in the past, yet they truly had no marketable skills to speak of.
Wang Dashan knew Li Lanlan was tempted, but their business was just getting started, and he had only recently arrived. Although she was assertive both at home and in public, she wasn’t the type to disregard others’ feelings.
Wang Dashan was tempted himself—it was 20,000 yuan, after all! 20,000 yuan in the 1990s!
“If you want to go, just go. I’ll keep an eye on this place. Let’s try it out for a while. You go check it out first. If it works out, you can stay there—you’ll make just as much a month. If it doesn’t, you can come back. We’ve still got this business to fall back on!”
Wang Dashan knew full well that it was best for him to say this himself; it would also ease Li Lanlan’s mental burden.
Besides, no one could stop Li Lanlan from doing what she wanted to do. By saying it himself, he could avoid the two of them arguing over this—and that just wouldn’t be worth it.
Li Lanlan didn’t say anything else. “Let me think about it.”
Li Lanlan wanted to go too, but with the business stall and four children to care for, Wang Dashan certainly wouldn’t be able to handle it all on his own.
But fate’s gifts don’t wait until you’re fully prepared, nor do they come around time and time again.
She knew she had to make a decision. Opportunities don’t wait for anyone; this might be her only chance in life to turn things around.
“Why don’t we ask a relative to help out? After all, we’ll make some money out of it. To be honest, I don’t want to let this opportunity slip away!”
Li Lanlan suggested.
She’d already decided who to ask: her eldest sister. The moment her sister heard there was money to be made, she’d surely come running. As for her sister’s two children, it was summer vacation now, and school wouldn’t start for another two months, so they could stay at their grandmother’s house.
Besides, her sister left the kids with her parents every summer anyway—this wouldn’t be any different.
The only problem was that her older sister had a bad habit of bossing other people’s kids around—she rarely made her own kids do anything.
Li Lanlan remembered from her past life that when the kids were little and went to their grandmother’s house to play, there was a period when they stayed at their aunt’s place. Their aunt would always make the second child do all the chores.
Eventually, the second child discovered that the eldest was playing with a cat on the heated bed in the main room with her cousin from her aunt’s family, while she alone was being bossed around by her aunt.
This girl had a short fuse, so she immediately got into a fight with Li Xiaolan and refused to eat the meal Li Xiaolan had prepared. Later, fearing the child might wander off, Li Xiaolan quickly had her uncle-in-law ride a bike to take her back home.
Since then, the second son has never set foot in his aunt’s house again. More than a decade has passed, yet the old woman and the young man still frequently trade insults from afar.
However, she has now enrolled all the children in classes, so they don’t spend much time at home, and this conflict has largely disappeared.
Another crucial point is that her relationships with her in-laws’ sisters-in-law are rather strained. If they don’t work hard, she doesn’t feel comfortable saying anything, and Wang Dashan is even more of a pushover when dealing with them.
She hired them to work, not to act like big shots.
Her own older sister is different. She’s tough and doesn’t take things to heart so easily; if Li Lanlan points out that she’s not doing a good job, it’s no big deal.
Although her older sister liked to take advantage of situations, she was honest in her work, quick and efficient, and certainly wouldn’t get involved in any underhanded shenanigans.
This was mainly thanks to Li Lanlan’s parents’ good upbringing; her family had always been strict with their children in these matters.
Wang Dashan didn’t argue about it. He knew his own family well—they were the classic type of household riven by internal strife, where no one could stand to see another succeed. In fact, he often envied Li Lanlan.
After getting the ingredients and other supplies ready, Li Lanlan called her older sister in the village. Over the phone, Li Lanlan had quoted a wage of 300 yuan. In the countryside these days, people only make a few hundred yuan a year, so 300 yuan was quite a lot.
Li Xiaolan was very satisfied. As for the travel expenses, they had saved up some money, so that wasn’t much of a concern.
In the afternoon, the two took a short nap. They got up around three or four o’clock, cooked a meal, and shortly after eating, headed out to set up their stall again. Business was good, and they sold out before eight o’clock.
The two quickly packed up their stall and went to pick up the children. When they arrived at the kindergarten, even though it was already past eight, there were still quite a few children there—they weren’t the last ones.
Li Lanlan breathed a sigh of relief. She felt as if she were taking an exam—as long as they weren’t last, she could accept it.
After picking up their children, the kids chattered away the whole way home. She felt younger, and her mindset seemed to have grown younger too. Li Lanlan’s head ached from the children’s constant chatter.
She just wanted to go home and rest right away.
The night passed without incident.
Early the next morning, she dropped the kids off at school. The couple prepared their stall goods. Not only did things sell quickly today, but they even ran out of stock. With business this good, Li Lanlan really didn’t want to let it go—but that was just a passing thought.
After finishing up, Wang Dashan was waiting for her downstairs. She took the business card and went to the designated floor. The entrance was decorated with great pomp and grandeur—she’d never been to a place like this before!
Although she was usually fearless, always ready to take on the world, she really had never set foot in a place like this!
Her usual boldness seemed to vanish instantly. She hesitated at the door for a long time, too afraid to go in.
It wasn’t until the receptionist at the entrance asked her that she snapped out of it and handed over Li Yanqing’s business card.
The receptionist dialed an internal line and explained the situation. Before long, Li Yanqing came out briskly and led her inside.
“So, what do you think, ma’am? Are you considering joining us?” Li Yanqing asked as he handed her a glass of water.
“I might need a few more days to sort out some family matters. We run a small business back home, and I can’t just leave it unattended right now.
Someone from my hometown will be coming over in a couple of days, and once they arrive, I’ll be able to come over. It’ll probably take about a week!”
Li Yanqing readily agreed. They were currently in the midst of recruiting new students; after all, summer vacation had just begun, and they had to give the kids who’d just finished their exams some time to rest, otherwise they might develop a dislike for school.
He handed Li Lanlan a teacher’s manual and told her to take it home to look over.
It was a way to prepare in advance. Li Lanlan took it, flipped through it, and saw that it wasn’t entirely in English—there were plenty of Chinese explanations. Seeing this put her mind at ease.
Li Yanqing walked her to the door and reminded her to bring her ID when she came next week so they could finalize her employment contract.
By the time Li Lanlan came down, Wang Dashan had already been waiting for a while. The sun was beating down; even with their parasol, it was still hot.
“How did it go? Did it work out?”
Wang Dashan asked as he pushed the cart forward. He’d seen Li Lanlan come out holding a book, so he assumed things had gone well, but he still felt a bit anxious until it was confirmed.
“No problem! I’ll just wrap up things here at home first. Once my sister gets here, I’ll be ready to start work!”
Li Lanlan was truly overjoyed. Even after she got home, she was still buzzing with excitement. It really was true—you had to go to a big city to find all kinds of opportunities.
Wang Dashan told Li Lanlan to go read, and he volunteered to prep the vegetables; all Li Lanlan had to do was mix the sauce later.
As Li Lanlan flipped through the book, she grew more and more excited. That slight unease she’d felt earlier vanished instantly—this was all very familiar to her.
Phonetics, vowels, consonants—her teachers had taught her all of this back then, and she’d always remembered it clearly.
Even after all these years, seeing these things still felt very familiar.
She’d loved learning new things since she was a child. Whether it was learning to play a musical instrument, studying accounting, or mastering computers in her previous life when she was nearly forty, she’d always been enriching her mind within the limits of her abilities.