Song Laosan only cried and cried, not saying a word.

Finally, Su Xiangwan couldn’t hold back anymore: “If you have something to say, say it. If you have something to let out, do it. Otherwise, leave, I haven’t even gotten up yet, and you’re making all this noise.”

“I just feel that I was really foolish before. I’m sorry, big sister-in-law,” Song Lao San said, and with that, he started crying again.

“Then you can keep crying, cry for a bit longer, I’m going to sleep,” Su Xiangwan said casually.

It was clear that Laosan had something to ask her but was waiting for her to speak first, to ask him.

That wasn’t going to happen. Su Xiangwan wouldn’t play along.

If someone is helping you, and you simply agree without any gratitude, then why should you? Isn’t that why Zhuge Liang had to visit Liu Bei three times in the thatched cottage?

In the end, Song Laosan didn’t dare to speak up. With his small bag, as stiff as a block of tofu, he turned his head after every step and eventually left.

Recently, Su Xiangwan was busy looking for money to build the kindergarten.

She already had an idea of who might provide the funds, but that person wasn’t in Qing Shui County at the moment, so she had to continue waiting.

With the winter break approaching, the math grades of her son, Lu Dan, were getting worse. In second grade, memorizing the multiplication table was a must, yet he still hadn’t managed to memorize it.

Now, unlike before, children were precious. Not only did their test results need to be kept secret, but with the nine-year compulsory education, there was no such thing as repeating a year.

If a child did poorly in school now, they could end up repeating the grade.

So, Lu Dan kept reciting the multiplication table as he walked.

At the entrance to the school, Su Xiangwan stopped by the Revolutionary Committee of Qing Shui County. She was there to find out when Liu Zaiye, the director of the committee, would return to the county.

Since Liu Zaiye came back from Haixi, he hadn’t returned to Qing Shui County and had been staying in Qinzhou, helping his younger sister, Liu Minli, with her admission to a worker-peasant-soldier university.

Currently, the work of the Qing Shui County Revolutionary Committee was being handled by Liu Zaiye’s subordinate, Liu Ming.

“Sister-in-law, what’s going on with you? You’ve been asking around about things lately. Are you thinking of our Director Liu?” Liu Ming asked, puffing away at a cigarette with a smile.

“If I’m thinking about him, when he comes back, he’ll definitely let me know,” Su Xiangwan jokingly replied.

At the Women’s Federation, before she even entered the door, Su Xiangwan could already hear Director Liu Tang joking with a few subordinates: “I’ve been saying that Su Xiangwan doesn’t have any issues. To build three kindergartens, at least three million yuan—that’s a lot of money. It’s a joke.”

“Su Deputy Director has been looking for funds all over, maybe the money will really come tomorrow,” said a staff member, Xiao Fang.

Liu Tang clicked his tongue in disbelief: “Our County Head Li said, if Su Xiangwan really manages to bring in three million, he’ll make her the head of the department. I’m still waiting to see when she’ll get the money and cover for my vacancy.”

Su Xiangwan cleared her throat from outside.

Liu Tang immediately ducked under his desk, pretending to be dead.

Xiao Fang quickly opened the window to let in some cold air.

Since Su Xiangwan’s family didn’t smoke, she couldn’t stand the smell of tobacco.

Everyone knew this, so as soon as she walked into the office, they would think to clear the air.

“Go ahead, keep talking. Why did you stop?” Su Xiangwan asked.

Xiao Fang hurriedly brought over the tea: “We were just joking, Director Su. What’s on the agenda today?”

As the end of the year approached, various departments were busy with year-end summaries and benefits.

Overall, it was the time when it was hardest to manage people.

“Director Su is always working hard, maybe it’s time to get some benefits for everyone,” Liu Tang said.

He didn’t have much authority now, but his only source of influence was his ability to get some perks for the team.

So lately, every time he spoke, it was about benefits, and when he looked around, the staff were quietly clapping for him.

“Pig feet and offal from the meat factory? What’s so special about that?” Su Xiangwan laughed. “Xiao Fang, take two people to Xiaosong Village, tell them I, Su Xiangwan, said to get us two whole pigs—not the domestic pigs, but wild pigs crossed with domestic pigs. No need for tickets from the village, we’ll use our small treasury funds to buy them, and everyone can share.”

Suddenly, all eight staff members stood up.

Compared to a few pig feet and some offal, the wild boar meat from Xiaosong Village was only supplied to the county committee.

If they got to taste it, who wouldn’t be happy?

“Look, Su Deputy Director is so generous! Liu Director, you can keep your pig feet and offal for yourself,” one of the staff members quipped.

Liu Tang, who had hoped to profit from buying pig feet from the meat factory, was angered by this.

He grabbed his cigarette pack and went outside to smoke.

By the time work was over, Su Xiangwan put on her gloves, wrapped her scarf, and cheerfully said goodbye to everyone, then left the office.

When it came to office politics, she had experience in administration—Liu Tang was still a rookie compared to her.

At the county’s No. 1 primary school, second grade classroom…

With the winter break approaching, two new students suddenly joined the class.

Lu Dan was too busy memorizing his multiplication table to care who the new students were, but Gou Dan kept teasing him: “Bro, look, our Song Fu is here.”

“Why does it matter to me?” Lu Dan flipped open his book, glanced at it, and continued: “Seven times seven is twenty-nine, eight times eight is thirty-four.”

“Bro, just take a look again. He came in with a little girl, and she looks familiar,” Gou Dan said.

After a long pause, Lu Dan snapped his book shut and looked up: “Yo, Song Fu, why are you so thin now?”

Song Fu, along with an eight-year-old girl, entered the classroom.

After the teacher introduced them, they sat in the row in front of Lu Dan and Gou Dan.

The little girl, named Chen Xiaoli, was round and plump, sitting there with her head held high, looking around.

Song Fu, who had once been as plump as a little balloon, was now so thin, he looked like a monkey.

Lu Dan thought the little girl looked familiar, so he teased her by pulling her braid. When he turned back to look again…

“Don’t you think, bro, Chen Xiaoli looks like A She?” Gou Dan said.

Lu Dan thought for a while, then replied: “You mean the one who starved to death, A She?”

“Really?” Gou Dan nodded.

Lu Dan also thought there was some resemblance, but he didn’t care much.

He was tired of memorizing the multiplication table and was now practicing the boxing moves Old Xiangtou had taught him, using his feet.

Song Fu and Gou Dan, on the other hand, were chatting away happily.

After all, they were both boys, and Song Fu, like his father, had the gift of gab.

As they were talking about the little girl sitting next to them, Gou Dan learned that Chen Xiaoli was the daughter of Song Fu’s stepfather’s family and was about the same age as him.

Her parents were divorced, and she had originally been with her mother. But now that her mother was getting remarried, she had been sent back to the Chen family.

“I heard your stepfather works at a food factory, so you must have a lot of food at home?” Gou Dan asked.

Song Fu wiped his face. “Don’t mention it, I’m hungry all the time now, so miserable. Gou Dan, do you have any snacks? Can I have a bite?”

In winter, the kids didn’t go home for lunch and ate snacks at school. So yes, Gou Dan had some snacks, and they were the fried dough rings that all the other kids were eyeing.

He broke half a fried dough ring and was about to hand it to Song Fu when Chen Xiaoli suddenly turned around and said, “Ah, you ate three steamed buns this morning and took one of mine. Now you’re trying to steal someone else’s food, Song Fu, you’re such a greedy ghost, a poor beggar.”

Gou Dan snatched the half-fried dough ring back. “Song Fu, you’re still stealing food from others?”

“I didn’t!” Song Fu pointed at Chen Xiaoli. “She’s the one lying! Since she came back, I’ve been getting beaten up every day. Really!”

Chen Xiaoli rolled up her sleeves, revealing red scratch marks all over her soft little arms. “You see, this is all from him hitting me.”

Because Chen Xiaoli looked like A She, Gou Dan already had a special liking for her. But seeing those marks on her, he couldn’t stand it anymore.

He threw a punch at Song Fu. “Song Fu, you jerk! How dare you hit a little girl?”

Lu Dan, who had been practicing his footwork, looked up and saw Gou Dan hitting Song Fu.

He immediately grabbed Gou Dan and slammed him onto the desk. “Song Xiling, you shouldn’t hit your brother. What’s wrong with you?”

Taking advantage of the moment, Chen Xiaoli also started hitting the skinny Song Fu.

In an instant, the kids were all tangled up in a fight.

That evening, because Song Qingshan got off work early, he first picked up Su Xiangwan before heading to get the kids.

When they didn’t see the kids at the school gate, Su Xiangwan thought Lu Dan must be staying after school to do homework with the teacher, with Gou Dan staying with him.

But when she entered the school, she saw the two brothers with Song Fu and three others standing on the playground.

It was already late in the year, and it was freezing cold, with water turning to ice.

The kids weren’t wearing down jackets, just thin cotton, which Su Xiangwan had pulled out of the blankets. It didn’t help much against the cold.

Looking at the two brothers’ faces, one had a black eye, and the other had a red ear.

Lu Dan’s situation was even worse.

His cotton jacket had torn, and the cotton was spilling out from the seams.

After hearing the teacher explain, Su Xiangwan learned that Song Fu had fought with his stepsister, Chen Xiaoli.

The two brothers, one helping Song Fu and the other helping Chen Xiaoli, ended up in a fight.

Song Qingshan slapped Lu Dan first, then slapped Gou Dan, saying, “So you two have learned to fight your brother now, huh?”

Lu Dan had always been criticized by the teacher for not being as good as Gou Dan, and in his heart, he was secretly jealous of Gou Dan.

Gou Dan, on the other hand, thought Lu Dan was too slow and couldn’t even memorize the multiplication table, which made him look down on his older brother a bit.

The two kids were glaring at each other, one on the left and one on the right.

“Don’t teach your kids in front of others, Song Tuan. Let’s talk about this at home,” Su Xiangwan hurriedly said, seeing that Song Qingshan was still angry.

Just as they were about to leave the school, a little girl ran over from a distance. She handed Gou Dan a roasted sweet potato, then quickly turned and ran off.

Gou Dan, holding Su Xiangwan’s hand, pointed at the girl. “Mom, her name is Chen Xiaoli. She’s now Song Fu’s sister. Do you think she looks like little A She?”

Su Xiangwan, who had been wondering earlier, now noticed the girl more closely after Gou Dan’s remark. Indeed, she looked familiar, but she hadn’t connected her to A She until now.

The little girl and Song Fu were following Fang Baoyu, who was likely taking them home together.

Fang Baoyu had recently married into the city and was doing well, so she was clearly trying to please her current husband.

She was holding onto one child with one hand and constantly scolding Song Fu. When she got really angry, she kicked him.

“You Song Fu, good-for-nothing, Xiaoli is now your sister. If you dare hit her again, I’ll beat you to death,” Fang Baoyu yelled, kicking Song Fu again.

Song Fu staggered forward, still looking back at Gou Dan and Lu Dan, but didn’t notice he stepped on Fang Baoyu’s foot, causing her to fall.

At that point, Song Qingshan couldn’t stand it anymore.

He rushed over to help Song Fu up, dusted him off, and confronted Fang Baoyu. “The child belongs to the Song family. If you don’t want to raise him, you can give him back to Laosan. Fang Baoyu, why are you hitting a child?”

Fang Baoyu spat. “Give him back to your Song family? He’s just a farmer. Now that he’s in the city, he can at least go to school. Laosan doesn’t even deserve to have a son like Song Fu.”

“He doesn’t deserve it, but you don’t deserve to be my mother either.” Song Fu, not knowing when to keep quiet, blurted it out, and this only made Fang Baoyu want to slap him again.

Song Qingshan, being the eldest brother, spoke firmly, “If you slap him again, I’ll take him away right now.”

Fang Baoyu finally stopped, grabbed Song Fu, and continued scolding as they walked away.

When they got home, the two little brats had just entered the door when Su Xiangwan went into the kitchen and heard them fighting again in the bedroom.

“What’s going on with you two?” Song Qingshan asked, unable to contain his frustration as he entered the room.

Lu Dan pointed at Gou Dan. “I was memorizing my multiplication table, and he laughed at me. He was mocking me.”

Gou Dan punched Lu Dan in the head and, wiping his nose, said, “I wasn’t laughing at you. Besides, you only scored 58 in math. You’re the one with the problem.”

As for fighting, Gou Dan couldn’t match Lu Dan. Even Song Qingshan couldn’t hold him back. With one punch, Lu Dan sent Gou Dan to the bed, clutching his stomach and crying out in pain.

This was too much. Song Qingshan grabbed Lu Dan and slapped him twice on the backside.

Lu Dan was embarrassed, ashamed, and guilty. He was so mad that he rushed out the door and ran straight into Li Chengze, knocking him to the ground.

Li Chengze had already finished his homework during the afternoon break and had returned home early.

He had been carrying Zhi Zhi on his neck, and they had gone out to play for a while before returning. When they bumped into Lu Dan, Li Chengze got knocked down.

After a while, he got up, but Lu Dan had already disappeared without a trace.

What a beautiful family it had been!

The brothers had always treated each other with respect, humbling themselves in front of each other, but now everything was out of place—nothing was the same anymore.

Song Tuan stood in the yard for a while, hands on his hips, unsure of what to do. He turned around and went into the kitchen, where he found Su Xiangwan still picking vegetables.

He asked, “What do we do about Lu Dan? What’s going on with these kids?”

Su Xiangwan paused and looked at the disheartened Song Qingshan.

Unable to hold back her laughter, she said, “These two sons of yours were destined to turn against each other. And the reason they’ll fall out isn’t just because they have different academic abilities or different fates, it’s because of a little girl. That little girl is Chen Xiaoli.”

…

Seeing that Song Qingshan looked utterly confused, Su Xiangwan briefly explained the story from the book.

In the book, Chen Xiaoli, the girl who looked like A she, was supposed to be studying with Lu Dan. But Gou Dan had always liked her since she resembled his beloved Ashe.

However, unlike Ashe, who was innocent and kind, Chen Xiaoli was clever and had a bit of a mischievous side due to her parents’ divorce.

As a child, she pretended to be close to Gou Dan, often making him steal things for her from the supply store or the grain station, though secretly, she liked Lu Dan.

As they grew older, she discarded the sincere Song Xiling(Gou Dan) and instead actively pursued Song Donghai(Lu Dan).

Song Qingshan didn’t want to believe this, but he had to acknowledge that these seemingly laughable situations could indeed affect the kids for the rest of their lives.

“What should we do?” he asked Su Xiangwan.

Song Tuan was great at demolition, but not at teaching kids.

Su Xiangwan said, “Forget everything else for now. Let’s focus on finding a way to improve Lu Dan’s math grades.”

Lu Dan’s math grades were now a top priority, a real problem.

The couple exchanged glances.

Song Tuan looked at his wife, her face flushed from the smoke, like a spring peony.

Indeed, it wasn’t surprising that Liu Zaiye couldn’t take his eyes off her—she was really beautiful, though, unfortunately, she spent every day cooking, dealing with the household chores.

A wave of guilt rose in his heart, and he said, “Alright, I’ll help him with his lessons today.”

Song Tuan had never helped his children with their studies before.

As a man, he always felt that his kids should be naturally strong, just like him, and should learn everything easily. But now, he had to face the fact that his son was struggling academically.

After finding Lu Dan, Song Tuan(Song Donghai) called him over and started tutoring him.