Chapter 4.2

For breakfast, there were three dishes: spicy stir-fried eggplant, bok choy, and tofu meat soup.

The taste wasn’t great; it was just cooked. Jiang Rou lowered her head and ate two bowls of rice. After eating, Li Xiao still got up to clean up.

Seeing him move efficiently, Jiang Rou accepted it calmly, walked around the living room holding her stomach after a few laps, and then returned to her room to make baby clothes.

Before making baby clothes, she had to draw the pattern. It took her a while to find a pencil that was only half left and a broken notebook in the corner of the drawer.

She was very familiar with the style of her nephew’s clothes. Infants born in the future generally wore one-piece suits for convenience, with sizes typically around fifty to sixty centimeters.

Jiang Rou sat on the chair, carefully sketching and drawing and marking points on the paper that needed attention.

The courtyard door outside was knocked on several times, but she didn’t hear it.

When Jiang Rou finally heard the knocks, she stood up, however, she saw Li Xiao had already gone out ahead of her.

Seeing him open the door, Jiang Rou sat back down.

But she stopped sewing her baby’s clothes. The room’s window faced the courtyard, and by craning her neck a bit, she could clearly see the people outside.

Outside, Li Xiao opened the courtyard gate, and the one looking for him was Zhu Qiang.

Upon seeing him, Zhu Qiang smiled somewhat embarrassedly and said, “Brother, I heard you came out, so I came to see you.”

He was holding two palm-sized crucian carps, which he had caught in the river on his way back from seeing Mei Zi yesterday.

There was a reason for their fight this time. If it weren’t for venting his anger for him, they wouldn’t have ended up in the police station.

In the end, only he managed to escape unscathed.

Zhu Qiang hastily added, “By the way, I heard that a factory is being built in the neighboring city, and they need people at the construction site. It pays fifteen yuan a day. Are you interested?”

Jobs are hard to come by in the second half of the year. Zhu Qiang and Mei Zi’s matter had already been settled, just at the end of the year, and they were preparing to earn some money in the next six months.

Thinking about getting married, Zhu Qiang’s smile deepened. “Brother, the big hotel in our county is almost complete. My uncle is going to be a chef there, and he said he would take me along. I heard that places like this big hotel will need all sorts of staff, so you can let your sister-in-law work there.”

It was because of this that Mei Zi’s family agreed.

This fight cost Li Xiao and the others their jobs. Zhu Qiang felt uncomfortable about it. He was okay himself; he used to hang out with Li Xiao and the others before he grew up, but he had a way out. Now he was learning to be a chef with his uncle. If he learned well, he could open his own restaurant in the future.

But Li Xiao and the others couldn’t. Li Xiao and Zhou Jian were children without parents, neglected by their parents. After finally establishing a business in shipping, they had a conflict with Qin’s old brother Zhang.

His mother and Mei Zi didn’t want him to interact with Li Xiao now. Zhu Qiang also knew that he couldn’t go on like this, but he still remembered Li Xiao’s care for him when he was a child, so he came over to give him an offer.

Working as a waiter in a big hotel is a good job. Nowadays, the number of laid-off workers from factories is increasing every year, and it might be difficult to get in later.

In recent years, the county town had a new leader who was developing a tourist attraction, aiming to turn their county town into a tourist county. There were investments, and a big boss from Haicheng had built a four-star hotel here, which was quite grand.

Li Xiao didn’t pay much attention to the previous incident. Zhu Qiang was as skinny as a monkey, and if he got involved in a fight, he would also end up getting beaten.

When he heard that there was a shortage of workers at the construction site in the neighboring city, he gave a vague response, and his attitude was unclear. However, when he heard Zhu Qiang suggest Jiang Rou work as a waiter at the hotel, he couldn’t help but furrow his brows, seeming somewhat dissatisfied.

“Let’s talk about this later. How long do we have to work at the construction site?”

The business of transporting goods went downhill, and he didn’t want to bow to Old Qin. Though he was involved in shady dealings, he knew there were certain things he shouldn’t do, as crossing those lines would stain him forever.
Jiang Rou still has a child in his stomach, so he had to consider the future.

This time, going into the police station, he had his own plans. Old Qin had a hot temper and was prone to trouble. He believed that someday Old Qin would get into serious trouble, and he didn’t want to be burdened by it with his brothers. So, he decided to create an opportunity to break ties, and now it seemed like they had severed their relationship.

Zhu Qiang was unaware of his thoughts and replied, “About four or five months.”

Li Xiao’s eyebrows didn’t loosen; he thought it was a bit too long. By that time, Jiang Rou would have given birth.

He is indeed short on money, but he wanted to be present for the birth of his son. His mother wouldn’t help them, and Jiang Rou’s parents were out of the question.

He didn’t say a word, but Zhu Qiang quickly added, “The construction site pays daily. You can work as long as you want. I plan to work until the end of the year and come back for a good New Year.”

The dowry demanded by Mei Zi’s parents was too much, almost emptying his home. That’s why he considered going to the construction site to earn some money. Working as an apprentice at a state-owned restaurant with his uncle only paid three yuan a day, and it involved dirty and tiring work, not even enough for a pound of meat.

Thinking about Jiang Rou’s words from last night—about the child being born and the need to prepare for certain things—he didn’t understand it fully, but he knew it involved money.

He nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll think about it.”

Zhu Qiang left the fish behind, and Li Xiao returned to the house with two small fish, preparing to soak them in a basin of water.

As he turned around, his gaze glanced faintly towards the window, causing Jiang Rou to quickly retract her neck in fear.

Though Jiang Rou couldn’t hear very clearly at a distance, Zhu Qiang’s voice was occasionally loud. She caught snippets like “construction site,” “waiter at a large restaurant,” and “sister-in-law.”

Because she was too familiar with Li Xiao’s experience, she quickly pieced together the Because she was very familiar with Li Xiao’s experience, she quickly pieced together the events. If she remembered correctly, that year Li Xiao had a falling out with a local big shot named Qin Wenguo. Qin Wenguo’s men caused trouble for Li Xiao’s men, leading to a fight that landed Li Xiao in jail. After his release, he beat up Qin Wenguo’s men, and their relationship was irreparably damaged.

If it weren’t for this, Li Xiao would have made a fortune earlier. The large trucks he used for transporting goods laid the foundation for future freight companies.

But who knew if it was luck or fate? Qin Wenguo was executed for drug trafficking a few years later, dying more than a decade before Li Xiao.

After the trouble with the Qin, Li Xiao took a detour and went to a construction site in the neighboring city with friends to work as a bricklayer. Little did he know, he ended up in a pyramid scheme and got cheated badly.

Fortunately, Li Xiao was not an ordinary person. In the end, he exposed the pyramid scheme and even befriended someone named “Brother Feng.” Li Xiao managed to bring back some money, which became the capital for his ventures in the south the following year.

“Jiang Rou,” on the other hand, had worked as a waitress in a local four-star hotel in the county for a few years. It was there that she met a wealthy businessman from the port, who eventually abandoned his daughter and ran away with someone else.

Jiang Rou was a bit conflicted and unsure whether to remind him. After all, anyone involved in a pyramid scheme would suffer a lot, even if they managed to escape.

However, as a former police academy student, she couldn’t help but think that his joining might, in a way, be helping society by exposing the harmful organization.

It’s really hard to make a choice.