Chapter 71: This Idea Works

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“Am I talking nonsense? When Tingyuan said he was going to get the industrial invoice, I scolded him in front of him and asked the village head behind his back. Do you think I don’t know?”

“Hey, why do you say everything?”

Li Yurong continued, “When he didn’t have the invoice, you nagged him every day about not getting it. Now that he finally got it, you say he doesn’t know how expensive it is to run a household. It seems that nothing he does can meet your expectations.”

Zhang Yuanxiu, who was being criticized, felt a bit embarrassed and made an excuse to go to the bathroom.

On the other hand, Ye Junsheng and his wife kept this matter in their hearts.

For the villagers, getting a TV was not easy, but for Ye Junsheng and his wife, it was quite simple.

These things were already common household appliances abroad.

They sighed again at the gap between domestic and foreign situations.

“Ah! Our Huaguo has been at the forefront of the world for thousands of years, yet in the past few hundred years, we’ve taken a wrong turn and fallen so far behind. For our common people, even getting a TV, such a commonly used household appliance, is so difficult,” Ye Junsheng lamented.

Gu Siyun said, “It’s not scary to take a wrong turn; as long as we can correct it, it’s already changing. We Chinese are hardworking and wise; I believe that after hundreds of years of wrong turns, we can catch up in just a few decades.”

Ye Junsheng: “A few decades? How is that possible?”

“Why not? Just wait and see.”

While they were talking, an unexpected guest arrived at the Zhang family.

No, she wasn’t even a guest.

Zhou Shufen came again, using the excuse of seeing Jianguo.

Zhang Yuanxiu and Li Yurong glared at her with dark faces.

Zhou Shufen said, “I just want to see Jianguo; don’t look at me like that.”

Lin Bingwei whispered something in Zhang Jianguo’s ear and then carried him out of the room.

“Zhou Shufen, do you want Jianguo?”

Zhou Shufen was taken aback, what did that mean?

“Jianguo is your son; he should indeed be under your care. You can take him away.”

What?

Take him away?

Li Yurong and Zhang Yuanxiu were reluctant.

Li Yurong hurriedly said, “You can’t let her take him away; she didn’t want him when Jianguo was three months old. If she takes him away, Jianguo doesn’t even know how much suffering he will endure.”

Lin Bingwei turned to Li Yurong and smiled, “It’s okay; if Mom likes her grandson, I’ll give you a few more later.”

She even winked at her while speaking.

Li Yurong was taken aback.

Zhang Yuanxiu understood and came over to pull Li Yurong, “Weiwei is right; let her take him. We’ve helped raise her child for three years; we owe it to her and to Tingyi.”

Li Yurong looked at Zhou Shufen’s erratic gaze and suddenly understood.

Following Zhang Yuanxiu’s words, she said, “I’m really reluctant to part with Jianguo; after all, I’ve raised him for three years. But if his biological mother wants to take him, I can’t do anything about it. Fine, fine, you can take him; I’ll go pack his clothes.”

After saying that, she turned around and went to collect a few of Zhang Jianguo’s clothes from the bamboo pole in the yard, looking like she was really going to pack up his things for her to take away.

Zhou Shufen panicked and repeatedly said, “Mom, I didn’t say I wanted to take Jianguo away; I just came to see him.”

“What do you mean? Do you want him or not?”

“I don’t… I don’t want to; I want…”

“If you want him, take him away.”

“No, I’m not taking him away. Mom, you’ve raised him for so many years; he is your Zhang family’s child. You continue to raise him. I just came to see him; I’ll leave after I see him, okay?”

After saying that, she really left.

Lin Bingwei shot her a disdainful glance.

Li Yurong seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and hurriedly took Zhang Jianguo into her arms.

“You scared me to death! I was really afraid she would agree and take Jianguo away.”

Lin Bingwei said, “If she wanted Jianguo, she wouldn’t have abandoned him here back then. She just wants an excuse to stay in our house.”

Zhang Yuanxiu said, “She has already moved her household registration away; she can’t just stay here.”

“Exactly, let’s not bother with her,” Li Yurong retorted.

Turning around to see Ye Junsheng’s family, she felt a bit embarrassed and said, “Big brother, big sister, I’m sorry for making you witness this.”

These two only knew that Zhang Jianguo’s father had passed away; the Zhang family hadn’t mentioned what happened to his mother, and they didn’t dare to ask. They didn’t expect his mother was still alive.

“Li Jie, what’s going on?”

“Ah!” Li Yurong sighed and said, “What a pity, the family is unfortunate.”

Their family matters weren’t a secret; even if they didn’t say anything, it wouldn’t take long for the Ye couple to find out in this village.

So Li Yurong explained the situation regarding Zhang Jianguo and Zhou Shufen to them.

After hearing this, the two were dumbfounded. “I didn’t expect Jianguo to have such a difficult fate.”

“The girl just now was his mother; she doesn’t seem to want him very much.”

“Right, she doesn’t want him; she’s afraid he will drag her down.”

“Then does she still want to come back?”

This question made Li Yurong quite awkward, not knowing how to respond.

Lin Bingwei, however, said straightforwardly, “She wants to remarry Zhang Tingyuan and raise Jianguo together with him.”

Zhang Yuanxiu: “…”

Li Yurong: “…”

Both of them felt extremely awkward, embarrassed and uncomfortable.

Ye Junsheng and Li Yurong were shocked.

“Weiwei, isn’t that your husband?”

“Yes, she probably didn’t expect that Zhang Tingyuan married me.”

“She didn’t know before, but she knows now. If she keeps pestering, that would be too much.”

Lin Bingwei said, “It’s none of our business what she does.”

“But her constantly coming to harass us isn’t right either.”

“That won’t happen; Zhang Tingyuan isn’t home now. If she comes by every few days and we ignore her, she’ll eventually stop coming.”

This made sense; Zhou Shufen didn’t seem to have a strong desire to cause trouble at the Zhang household, especially since Zhang Tingyuan wasn’t home.

Her occasional visits were just to make her presence felt.

Aunt Liu, who had taken her in for so many days, noticed she hadn’t given up and was gradually becoming impatient.

“Shufen, I’m not trying to dampen your spirits, but you really can’t keep that child with you. You won’t be able to make money with him around. You might as well listen to my advice: let his grandparents raise him, and you go out to earn money. Once you have money, you won’t have to worry about the child not recognizing you.”

Aunt Liu’s daughter, Xiaoqin, also agreed, “My mom is right, Shufen, having someone help you take care of the child is a good thing. You should earn more money while you’re young.”

Originally, Xiaoqin didn’t want to work with Zhou Shufen; she wanted to go to the noodle factory with her classmates.

After failing to get into the noodle factory, she was brainwashed by her mother every day, saying that following Zhou Shufen could earn big money. Now she also thought it would be good to go out with Zhou Shufen to earn money.

But Zhou Shufen wasn’t willing.

Zhou Shufen looked at Aunt Liu and then at Xiaoqin and said, “Well, let me be honest with you; actually, I didn’t come back just for Jianguo.”