Chapter 47.2

On the first and second days of the New Year, both Li Xiao and Jiang Rou stayed at home, and An An was the happiest.

She clung to Jiang Rou and Li Xiao. During this time, Li Xiao took advantage of the opportunity to make her a small wooden horse using old second-hand tools, wood, and a piece of wood he had bought previously.

An An loved the wooden horse and only wanted to sit on it.

On the second day of the New Year, since they didn’t have to go out for New Year visits and were feeling a bit bored at home, Jiang Rou suggested going hiking. Li Xiao had mentioned that the temple Mr. You had prayed it was reputed to be very effective, so they decided to check it out.

Originally, Jiang Rou had planned to offer incense at the temple, but she didn’t expect that there would be so many people climbing the mountain today. The path was completely blocked by crowds. It seemed that many people who had stayed in G Province instead of going back to their hometown for the New Year had come here.

In the end, the family of four had no choice but to play at the base of the mountain.

There was a river at the base, and Li Xiao picked up some stones to skip on the water. The stones bounced several times and flew far away, which excited An An greatly. She picked up a small stone and threw it, but it only made a “splash” sound and disappeared.

Jiang Rou and Li Xin found it hilarious.

An An seemed a bit embarrassed, running over to hug her mother and burying her face in her embrace.

On the third day of the New Year, Li Xiao bought some fine wine and fruit and went to Chang Yong’s house. Jiang Rou didn’t want to go, so Li Xiao didn’t insist and went alone. When he arrived at Chang Yong’s house, he said his sister-in-law was leaving, so Jiang Rou had gone to see her off.

Chang Yong wouldn’t come to check on him anyway, no matter how he made up excuses.

However, Li Xin did need to return to her hometown. With the crowded train stations during the New Year, she had to leave early; otherwise, she might not be able to get a ticket in a few days.

Li Xin left on the 5th. Jiang Rou packed a large bundle of things, including a big backpack on her shoulders and a large bag she carried by hand.

As soon as Li Xin left, Zhou Jian returned and came to find Li Xiao immediately.

After a few days apart, Zhou Jian seemed to have gained some weight, looking as if he had eaten well at home.

Jiang Rou asked him with a smile, “How is everything at home?”

She had heard from Li Xin that Wang Yan had given birth to a son named Zhou Chen, with the nickname “Chou Dan” Li Xin and Aunt Wang had visited Zhou’s family before; the child resembled Wang Yan more, though the family insisted he looked like Zhou Jian when he was young.

They also mentioned that the child’s crying was very loud, unlike An An, who was very well-behaved.

Li Xiao took great pride in this; in his eyes, no child could compare to An An.

Zhou Jian took a sip of water to catch his breath. The trip had exhausted him, as he had brought along five large snake-skin bags filled with mountain goods collected by his father-in-law and elder brother-in-law.

His father-in-law and mother-in-law were thrilled to know he had bought a house here, even more excited than he was. They invited him over for meals every day.

His mother-in-law, in particular, was very generous, cooking ginseng chicken soup for him every day, insisting it was to nourish him. In just a few days, he had gained weight.

The chicken soup was indeed a good thing. He felt that after eating it for several days, his vitality had improved, so he had brought some back for his brother and the others.

“Everything is fine at home. My wife gave birth to a son, and both kids are healthy. My elder brother-in-law has also leased two mountain tops to plant fruit trees. The mountains are connected to two ponds, and he plans to stock the ponds with fish.”

Jiang Rou nodded at this: “You could raise some chickens on the mountain. Their manure would be good for fertilizing the fruit trees. But it’s best to confine the chickens after the trees start bearing fruit, or they might peck at the fruits.”

Zhou Jian thought this was a good idea. “I’ll call my brother-in-law when I get back.”

He glanced over at Li Xiao, who was cutting An An’s chubby little fingernails. An An had her eyes wide open, seemingly afraid of getting hurt by her father’s trimming.

An An was dressed in beautiful new clothes, which were not available in the county town. Her skin was fair and tender, and she was growing up well, looking more like a city child.

Zhou Jian couldn’t help but reflect on how much better the big city was. After returning home, he had found the county town to be quite backward. The houses were run-down, the streets were dirty, and most people were still riding bicycles, unlike the high-rise buildings and bustling streets filled with food, drinks, and entertainment in the city. He found himself a bit unaccustomed to it.

Especially his eldest son, Zhou Hong, who, having just turned six after the New Year, still wore split-crotch pants and played in the mud. Unlike the children here, who by the age of four or five were already speaking English, playing the piano, and painting, there was simply no comparison.

Zhou Jian felt very fortunate to have come to this side with his brother. He planned to move his own mother, wife, and son here once the house was renovated next year.

Suddenly, Zhou Jian laughed, recalling something. “Brother, you won’t believe this. A few days ago, Zhu Qiang came to find me. I let it slip to my father-in-law that I had bought a house here, and somehow, it got around to Zhu Qiang. He came over to ask me if we really had a house in G Province. His face looked so bad at that time.”

Zhou Jian couldn’t help but feel pleased. He still remembered the wedding of Zhu Qiang and was still angry about it. It always irritated him when he thought about it.

Li Xiao smiled but remained silent, focusing intently on trimming An An’s nails.

After trimming, he used the nail file to smooth them out. An An sometimes scratched people without noticing, and this morning, she had scratched Jiang Rou’s neck, which Jiang Rou hadn’t felt, but Li Xiao had noticed.

Jiang Rou, trying to keep the conversation going, asked, “How is Zhu Qiang’s house?”

Zhou Jian replied, “I heard that his father borrowed money from several colleagues to afford it. They moved into a big house but had to sell quite a bit of furniture. When I was home, my wife told me that Zhu Qiang and his wife had a big fight at night, and his wife almost had a miscarriage. It was a big deal. Things are a bit better now, probably because they have a child.”

As he spoke, he seemed to remember something else and said to Li Xiao, “I heard that last October, your mother wanted to move into your old house. Luckily, Aunt Wang and Uncle Wang were at home and told her off.”

Jiang Rou and Li Xiao were taken aback. Li Xin hadn’t mentioned this, and they wondered if she had felt any distress about it.

Jiang Rou quickly asked, “What happened?”

Zhou Jian shook his head. “I’m not sure of the details. It seems that Big Brother’s mom had a falling out with He Wenying. He Wenying and her husband are still living at He family’s place and refused to leave.”

Jiang Rou looked at Li Xiao.

Li Xiao sneered, “It’s probably because He Wenhua came back during the National Day. I don’t care about her issues. That house was left to me by my grandfather; she doesn’t have the right to live there. I’ll call Aunt Wang later.”

Zhou Jian shared the same sentiment, thinking that He Wenhua was truly annoying.

Noticing that his brother and sister-in-law seemed to be in a bad mood, Zhou Jian changed the subject with a smile. “I never realized how popular I was. On the way back, everyone I met greeted me, and many people wanted to invite me to dinner.”

He shook his head and sighed, “It turns out that the difference between having money and not having money is so significant.”

Li Xiao advised, “It’s better to stay low-key.”

Zhou Jian quickly responded, “I understand. I told my father-in-law that it’s best to keep a low profile. If anyone asks, we’re just running a small business here, and the house was bought with a loan.”

Otherwise, if everyone came looking for them, it would be quite bothersome.

His big brother-in-law had the same thought and said he would help keep an eye on his father in the future.

When Zhou Jian came to the south, Wang Tao wanted to come with him, but he didn’t refuse. He just said that they owed the bank several million and invited him only if he was willing.

Wang Tao didn’t say anything more after that.

Zhou Jian was aware of Wang Tao’s intentions. Just like his wife, Wang Tao was only looking for benefits without doing much effort.

However, Zhou Jian had thought he would feel quite pleased to see Zhu Qiang and Wang Tao during this trip, but in reality, he didn’t feel much satisfaction. His mind was still on the business in the south and didn’t consider the two much.

He thought that perhaps this was what his brother meant by having a different perspective.

After Zhou Jian left, Li Xiao carefully wrapped An An’s trimmed nails in tissue paper, as if he wanted to keep them as a memento. Jiang Rou looked at him with a disdainful expression. “What are you doing?”

Li Xiao touched his nose and said, “I think it’s cute. I want to keep it for when she grows up, so she can look at it.”

“……”

What a peculiar hobby.

—o—o—o—

After Zhou Jian left, Li Xiao became busy. The two of them started preparing for the factory—choosing locations, machines, employees, and products… every aspect required careful selection.

Li Xiao did not forget that he needed to dine with others. The afternoon before the meal, Jiang Rou took him to the mall to buy clothes. Li Xiao usually didn’t pay much attention to his wardrobe; he had worn a black jacket throughout the winter. Jiang Rou had been buying him casual clothes, often inexpensive, pure cotton items that were comfortable but too plain and casual.

Since he would be dining with investors, it was important to dress more formally. Jiang Rou took him to the mall to buy some suitable attire.

In the store, the clothes were easy to mix and match. They selected a thin black-and-white striped turtleneck sweater, and it took a while to choose an appropriate jacket.

Li Xiao walked behind, holding An An. At first, An An turned her little head curiously, looking around, but soon she lost interest and simply stared into space while nestled in her father’s arms.

Noticing that Jiang Rou had entered another store, Li Xiao quickly sat down on a nearby bench with the child to rest, watching Jiang Rou enthusiastically pick out clothes. He couldn’t help but say, “Just pick anyone, it’s fine.”

Jiang Rou didn’t even turn around and said, “That won’t do. It has to be something nice; otherwise, it wouldn’t be worth the price.”

Then she picked out a black suit for him to try on.

Li Xiao put the child down, reluctantly stood up, and went to change. After trying it on, Jiang Rou was still not satisfied, thinking the collar of the suit didn’t look good. She then took him to another store and they continued shopping until it was dark. Finally, Jiang Rou led him back to the original store and bought a black, thick woolen suit jacket.

Then Jiang Rou took him to buy a pair of leather shoes.

Li Xiao: “…”

He couldn’t tell the difference between these clothes and the ones he had before.

When it came time to pay, Li Xiao felt a bit of pain in his wallet, thinking it was too expensive.

Jiang Rou, however, remained unfazed. “This money is a necessary expense. I actually wanted to buy you a watch as well but forgot about it. We’ve already exceeded the budget a bit. Anyway, the suit sleeves are quite long, and people might not even notice a watch.”

She then urged him to get a haircut.

By the time they got home, it was already past seven in the evening. Both Li Xiao and An An looked rather exhausted.

Jiang Rou was in good spirits, humming a tune as she hung up the clothes, polished the leather shoes with shoe polish, and prepared the outfit Li Xiao would wear the next day.

“All set,” she said, clapping her hands with satisfaction.

Li Xiao let out a sigh of relief. “Let’s go to bed now. Your daughter has finished her milk.”

When Jiang Rou came upstairs, An An quickly rolled over to her. As Jiang Rou picked her up, An An, in a babyish voice, seriously said, “An An tired.”

Jiang Rou laughed. “What are you tired from?”

An An threw the milk bottle to her father and clung to Jiang Rou. “Sleepy.”

—o—o—o—

The next day, Li Xiao went out for a meal. Jiang Rou, not wanting to stay home, decided to take An An out to play. She had bought a child seat for the bicycle last year, intending to use it to take An An out, but she hadn’t installed it yet. Li Xiao usually drove, and they mostly used the van when going out.

Jiang Rou took out the woven child seat, cleaned it, and then used a strap with hooks to secure the seat tightly to the back of the bicycle. She placed Li Xiao’s old clothes inside the seat to cushion it.

When Jiang Rou took An An out on the bicycle, An An laughed heartily. On the way, Jiang Rou saw a vendor selling windmills and bought one, tying it to the side of the seat.

An An was thrilled by the spinning windmill and laughed even more.

Hearing her laughter, Jiang Rou couldn’t help but smile too, feeling that children are really easy to please.

“Mommy flying,” An An said, not quite understanding, but thinking that this was like flying.

“Alright,” Jiang Rou responded as she pedaled.

She took An An to a nearby park where there were seesaws and slides. An An quickly learned how to use them.

When they returned home in the evening, Li Xiao remarked, “While we were eating out, I saw someone who looked just like you, riding a bike with a child.”

He had been sitting by the window on the third floor, having dinner with Boss You, and had glanced down, initially thinking he had seen Jiang Rou.

Jiang Rou replied calmly, “Isn’t it possible that it was actually me?”

“……”

Li Xiao looked at Jiang Rou and then at their daughter, who was sitting on her little wooden horse, holding a red windmill and making “ah-wu ah-wu” sounds.

When she noticed her father watching her, she happily tilted her head back and smiled, saying, “Mommy flying.”

Li Xiao understood that her notion of “flying” came from last year when he took her on the motorcycle around G City and told her they were flying.

He recalled the stylish figure he had briefly glimpsed that day and thought about how next time, he and Jiang Rou could take An An out for a bike ride together.

Even though he wasn’t around, it was clear that the mother-and-daughter duo had enjoyed themselves thoroughly. He felt a bit of a complex mix of emotions, but overall, he was happy.

He loved seeing them so cheerful every day.

However, this happiness didn’t last long. By February 14th, Jiang Rou had to go back to school, and An An was once again spending time “depending on her dad.”

It wasn’t long before An An picked up a new skill. One night after dinner, Jiang Rou noticed An An walking with her little hands behind her back, bending over and hunching forward.

Jiang Rou’s lips twitched as she asked Li Xiao, “Where did she learn this?”

Li Xiao rubbed his nose and replied, “I recently hired a chef. Since the factory address isn’t settled yet, we rented a house for him to experiment with recipes, and he’s been preparing our lunches and dinners.”

He paused and added, “The chef is quite old, and that’s just how he walks around.”

He took An An to the chef for meals every day, which was probably how she picked up the habit.

“The chef comes from a well-known family, but the later generations were not so impressive and squandered the family fortune. By the time it reached him, there was nothing left but his skills. At his age, he should be enjoying his twilight years, but he’s got a bad temper. He suffered a lot when he was younger, and his wife and children all passed away. The few nephews he had were untrustworthy, so he’s stubborn and doesn’t rely on anyone. He started selling food on the street by himself. His business has been poor due to his temper and frequent conflicts with customers. I only hired him because I think his food tastes really good.”

Li Xiao valued the chef’s skills and was willing to overlook his temper, thinking that a few insults from him didn’t really matter.

However, the chef had a bad habit of using harsh language. Recently, An An had picked up this habit and, during a trip to buy strawberries with Li Xiao, she used the term “bastard” in front of Chang Yong when he playfully asked if she remembered him.

Fortunately, An An’s speech wasn’t very clear, so Chang Yong didn’t catch on. Li Xiao quickly covered for her by using a similar-sounding word, “unfamiliar,” and Chang Yong just laughed and called her cute.

Afterward, Li Xiao kissed his daughter’s face and thought to himself that she was truly his good daughter, and she had used the perfect words.