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◎ First update ◎
The movie playing on the screen ended, and melodious music began to play. Suddenly, the lights in the cinema came on, illuminating the previously dark room.
Liang Baozhen abruptly pulled her hand back and pretended to casually fix her hair. She then glanced at Xu Shengjie quietly. The man still had a serious face, but his ears were a little red.
Seeing Xu Shengjie like this, Liang Baozhen wasn’t embarrassed anymore!
Someone else was even more embarrassed than she was!
When they walked out of the cinema, the weather took a turn for the worse, and it started raining. The rain was pouring down heavily, blocking the way home for those who had just finished watching the movie.
Standing under the eaves to avoid the rain, Liang Baozhen gazed into the distance and saw the building of the Youth Palace across the way. She had heard that the child of Yang Jianlin, the workshop director, was learning to paint at the Youth Palace. At this time, some families with foresight and good financial conditions were already taking action and spared no effort in cultivating their children.
Thinking back to the information from the book, there were all kinds of classes at the Youth Palace. Liang Baozhen looked at Xu Shengjie. “Didn’t we say earlier that Xiaowei and Xiaoya should learn to swim? We haven’t found the time yet, so why not let them learn at the Youth Palace? The teachers there are professional.”
Xu Shengjie followed Liang Baozhen’s gaze and saw the large, red-painted characters in the distance—Youth Palace. He didn’t know much about the Youth Palace but had vaguely heard of it. Since his wife mentioned it, it must be good. “Alright, let’s go back and discuss it with them.”
The rain continued to fall, but when it finally stopped, Liang Baozhen sat in the back seat of Xu Shengjie’s bicycle. As she watched the Youth Palace fade into the distance, she suddenly sneezed.
“Achoo~”
When they got home, they quickly went inside. Seeing that they were wet from the rain, Zhou Yun hurriedly went to the stove to prepare ginger tea. She sliced some ginger, took out a piece of brown sugar, and a scallion to make a bowl of ginger tea to ward off the cold.
“Grandma, let me do it. You should go to bed.” Xu Shengjie took over Zhou Yun’s task, made the ginger tea, and then went to his grandmother’s room to bring a quilt and laid it out neatly. ” “It’s cold tonight, so cover yourself with something thicker.”
“I know, remember to have a bowl each with Baozhen, and don’t catch a cold.” Only then did Zhou Yun go to bed.
As the hot ginger tea went down, its sweet, bitter, and spicy flavors stimulate her taste buds, Liang Baozhen quite liked the taste and gulped down the bowl in one go. “The ginger tea you made is quite delicious.”
Xu Shengjie paused as he held the bowl, then swallowed the ginger tea in his mouth and spoke slowly. “My mother used to cook it this way.”
This was the first time Liang Baozhen heard Xu Shengjie mention his parents, so she silently listened without interrupting.
“My mother’s tea was delicious, but brown sugar was even rarer back then. It would take a long time to get even a small piece. But she liked to put a tiny bit in the water, which would make it sweet.”
“Your parents…” Liang Baozhen carefully observed Xu Shengjie’s expression, but he didn’t seem to be upset. Instead, it was her who looked cautious, and Xu Shengjie noticed it right away.
“It’s alright, it happened so many years ago.” Xu Shengjie collected the two bowls, rinsed them, and put them back in the cupboard. Then he returned to the table and said to Liang Baozhen, “My parents died suddenly back then. They were supposed to come home after work, but later the workers from the workshop said they wanted to go to the state-owned restaurant for a gathering and have a meal. When they left, everyone was fine. They just drank two taels of wine. But they didn’t come back that night.”
“What happened next? Did you go out to look for them?”
“We did look for them. My grandmother took me to the State Cotton Factory. There were still workers on the night shift, and they all said my parents had already left for home. No one knew where they had gone, and it wasn’t until the next day that they were found in the river.”
“Was it an accidental drowning?”
“The police were notified at the time, but they couldn’t find anything. Everyone guessed that my mother had drunk a little that night, and it was raining heavily, so the road was slippery, and she accidentally fell down. My father didn’t think too much about it and jumped down to save her, but in the end, neither of them could get up.”
“The police couldn’t find anything? Could it have been something other than an accident?” Liang Baozhen felt something was off, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
“My parents have never offended anyone. Besides, all the money on both of them was there, and it didn’t look like anyone was trying to steal from them. The police didn’t find anything and finally ruled it an accidental fall into the water…” Xu Shengjie sighed, thinking of what Zhou Yun said. Maybe it was fate. He was only twelve years old at the time and suffered quite a trauma, but he gradually walked out of that shadow later.
“Let’s go, it’s time to sleep.” Xu Shengjie stood up first, a forced smile on his lips, “It’s just a pity that my parents didn’t get to see you.”
Liang Baozhen stood up and took Xu Shengjie’s hand and held it tightly. She smiled like a ray of warm sunshine in the cold wind. “They must have seen us from heaven.”
Xu Shengjie held her hand tightly in return.
***
Chen Siming originally planned to visit Liang Baozhen in the workshop on the afternoon of her birthday. He had been wanting to talk to her for a while, but his father Chen Yong had repeatedly warned him not to cause trouble, especially not to cause problems with his work style, so he never dared to act.
But Liang Baozhen’s birthday was different. On this day, he had to express his intentions. The scarf he bought for her was not given away, so this time he took the scarf as a gift. However, he only saw Liang Baozhen hurriedly leave and get on the back of Xu Shengjie’s bicycle.
Today, he had to find her and express his feelings.
Liang Baozhen got off work at noon and was preparing to go to lunch. Wang Xin had left her spoon in the workshop, so Liang Baozhen waited under a tree outside the workshop with her lunchbox.
“Baozhen!” Chen Siming finally saw the person he had been thinking about day and night. At this moment, he didn’t care that there were many people in the factory and walked straight over.
Most people in the factory only knew that the factory director’s son was married to a country girl, but they didn’t know who she was. Even now that Liang Baozhen had joined the factory, no one knew the details.
Liang Baozhen looked at Chen Siming warily, frowned unconsciously, and turned to leave.
“Baozhen, don’t go!” Chen Siming wanted to reach out to stop her, but Liang Baozhen avoided him.
“Chen Siming, what do you want to do? Believe it or not, I will call the Security Department now?” Liang Baozhen glared at him coldly, “If that happens, your reputation will only get worse, and you’ll have to go through ideological education again to correct your conduct.”
“Hey, Baozhen, don’t hide when you see me. I did you wrong back then, but you can’t blame me entirely. It was Dong Jiayan who seduced me! Chen Siming tried to distance himself from the situation. “I had no choice but to marry her. From the beginning to the end, the only person I wanted to marry was you.”
“Hmph.” Liang Baozhen looked at the hypocritical man with her chin raised, “Don’t blame everything on Dong Jiayan. A fly doesn’t land on a seamless egg, and besides, is this the only thing you’ve done?”
The book also mentions that he was also involved with other women.
But now that he’s in trouble, he is still trying to distance himself from the issue.
“Anyway, let’s not talk about the past. There’s no point in talking about those grudges. I just want to apologize to you now. I’m sorry…” Chen Siming saw that Liang Baozhen was very disgusted with him, so he didn’t dare to say anything to provoke her. He could only hold back his thoughts on rekindling their past relationship. The priority was to improve Liang Baozhen’s opinion of him. “Yesterday was your birthday, so I bought you a silk scarf. I hope you can accept it.”
“I can’t afford it.” Liang Baozhen looked at the Lihua brand scarf and thought of the one Dong Jiayan had asked her to buy. This person really refused to repent. Seeing that he still wanted to pester her and remembering how Chen Yong disliked his youngest son, who didn’t have much ability, and valued the male protagonist in the book, who is Chen Siming’s brother, she couldn’t help but smile. “Chen Siming, you should pay more attention to yourself. I heard that Director Chen plans to give the purchasing office position to your brother.”
Chen Siming’s eyes flashed with surprise. How come he hadn’t heard of this? “Where did you hear it from?”
“Everyone is talking about it. Haven’t you heard? You have no capability and no status, and only Dong Jiayan was blind enough to follow you. Maybe she’s regretting it now.” Having said that, Liang Baozhen took a detour and left. Instead of being entangled by Chen Siming, it would be better to let him fight his brother. Chen Siming has no ability and only relied on his brother’s halo as the male protagonist to have a good ending.
Luckily this man couldn’t stand provocation, so he immediately set out to investigate the matter.
The position in the factory is his life. If the position of director of the purchasing office is taken by his elder brother, he will fight for it back even at the cost of his life!
Of course, what Liang Baozhen said was correct. Recently, many people in the factory have heard the rumor that Chen Yong thinks Chen Siming has been bringing shame to the Chen family recently, so he is preparing to train his eldest son, Chen Sixian.
Chen Sixian had always been business minded. After graduating from Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers University, he did not set his sights on his father’s factory but instead aimed for the black market to get rich.
But although he despised his disappointing younger brother, he still helped him. After all, they were brothers and were connected by blood.
“Father, I don’t want to work in the factory. I don’t want the position of purchasing director. You can let Siming continue to do it.” Chen Sixian directly rejected his father’s offer in his study. He was not interested in the position and didn’t want to compete with his brother.
“Siming is too impatient and has issues with his conduct. I really can’t trust him to take over. If only he had half of your composure…”
Bang!
The study door was pushed open forcefully. Chen Siming stood at the door angrily. He could no longer suppress his anger after hearing his father and elder brother’s insults against him. “Father, do you look down on me this much? And you, Chen Sixian, do you think I can only take what you don’t want?”
“Chen Siming, how can you speak like that?” Chen Yong’s voice was stern as he fixed a sharp gaze on his second son. “Is this how you address your father and brother? You have such little ability, yet you act so arrogantly!”
Bang, bang, bang! Chen Siming stepped forward. At this moment, his rage and the humiliation of being outdone by his elder brother had overcome his rationality. “Father, have you ever considered me your son? You only have Chen Sixian in your eyes!”
Smack!
Chen Yong slapped Chen Siming with his palm, leaving five red marks on his face. His anger flared up, and his son’s provocation only fueled his strength, “Get out! If you do this again, get out of the factory and go beg on the street!”
“What’s going on?” Guo Mingli heard the noise in the study and rushed over. When she saw the slap marks on Chen Siming’s face, she cried out in pain, “Who hit you?!”
Chen Siming is her favorite; she loves him more than her eldest son. When Chen Sixian was born, Chen Yong and his wife were busy working hard to build their careers. Their son was mainly taken care of by Chen Yong’s parents. When they took him back, the child was already grown up. He was filial but not very close to his biological mother. Chen Siming was different. She raised him with great difficulty. Although they were both her biological children, their importance was different.
“Chen Yong, why are you hitting Siming? Can’t you talk things out properly?”
“Talk? Don’t you see what kind of state he’s in?” Chen Yong was so angry when he saw his disappointing son. He pushed past the people blocking the door and walked straight out.
“Sixian, you know your father’s short temper. Why haven’t you tried to mediate?” Guo Mingli frowned at her eldest son and coaxed Chen Siming back into the house to treat her son’s injuries.
***
Dong Jiayan came back from shopping at the department store, her hands were carrying a lot of bags. Since she married into the Chen family, her living conditions have been really good. She has no shortage of meat and has bought a lot of things. Chen Siming doesn’t pay much attention to her and is still thinking about Liang Baozhen, but he doesn’t restrict her with money.
But when she came back home today, the atmosphere was not right. When Guo Mingli saw Dong Jiayan coming back from outside and buying a lot of things, she scolded her, Jiayan, it’s already a blessing that you married into the Chen family. Not to mention you should be taking care of Siming daily, but you should also be more concerned about your husband. All you do is go out and buy things. How much stuff did you get?”
“Mother.” Dong Jiayan was a little afraid of her mother-in-law. Guo Mingli was not someone to be trifled with. “I went out because I wanted to buy some clothes for Siming. He is the director of the State Cotton Factory, so he must dress well.”
“Alright, alright, go in and take a look. He had a fight with his father and brother today, and he’s in a bad mood.” Guo Mingli felt irritated for no reason and sent her daughter-in-law into the house.
Dong Jiayan walked to the door of the room. Just as she was about to turn the handle, she heard Chen Siming talking on the phone inside. The Chen family’s living room and three bedrooms all had telephones installed, which really reflects their affluent lifestyle.
“Yes, I have figured it out now. I still have to buy cotton from you… Yes, once the payment is settled, I can turn a blind eye to the details.”
The voice inside was going in and out. Dong Jiayan didn’t quite understand what was going on. She pushed the door open and went in. Chen Siming hung up the phone in a hurry.
***
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