◎ Third update ◎ 

Before Liang Baozhen could react, she was brought into the house by her aunt, pushed onto a stool, and served her tea. 

Fang Yuehe didn’t feel like she was in someone else’s house at all. Instead, she urged Liang Baozhen to come over, “Baozhen, drink some water. I heard that you’ve been working in a state-owned factory. You’re really capable and promising.” 

“Xiao Jie, come and sit down too. You all have jobs, and you just got off work now, right? I helped your grandma cook, and we can have dinner soon.”

How did my uncle and his family come to the city? And they even found her house. 

Liang Baozhen pushed the enamel cup away and spoke first, “Aunt, why are you here?” 

Liang Zhiqing did not want to argue with his niece. She didn’t even call out to him when she entered. He didn’t know how Liang Zhigao was teaching her, but since his family needed something, he couldn’t be too picky, “We came specially to see you.” 

See her? Liang Baozhen couldn’t help but roll her eyes, suspecting they might have ulterior motives.

“We brought some things with us, all of which are dried vegetables that we have saved up at home. It must be hard to buy vegetables in your city, right?” Fang Yuehe opened a package, which contained some dried vegetables. Liang Baozhen took a look and was amazed. It was as if the sun was rising from the west this time. 

“Uncle, Aunt, you came to the city with the team, right? What time is it? If you don’t leave now, you’ll miss the return bus.” 

Fang Yuehe sat down and smiled, “We’re not going back today; we’ll stay in the city.” 

“Not going back?” Liang Baozhen thought to herself. Her relatives didn’t know anyone in the city—would they really stay in a guesthouse? Could they afford that? 

“We talked to Grandma Zhou. We’ll just sleep on the floor in this house.” 

Liang Baozhen almost choked. Was this really happening? She understood now—they had come prepared and must have some plan in mind. 

Zhou Yun didn’t know about the twists and turns between Liang Baozhen’s family and Liang Zhiqing’s family. Seeing that they came from far away and were all smiling, she naturally felt that they were real relatives and must be treated well. She even borrowed meat from the Fang family next door and made a dish of braised pork with radish. 

Liang Zhiqing’s family did not hold back at all. They hadn’t eaten meat for a long time, so they stretched their chopsticks straight into the basin. They were so fast that none of the Xu family members could get their chopsticks in. 

Xu Shengwei had been looking forward to eating meat today but found that he couldn’t compete with them. 

However, when he heard his grandmother say that these were his sister-in-law’s relatives, he wondered how there could be such a difference between his sister-in-law and these people. Seeing them devour their food greedily, with oil dripping from their mouths, was really annoying! 

The Xu family was not in a position to say anything, but Liang Baozhen had to speak up, “Uncle, if you eat like this, how will the others have any?” 

She was holding back her anger. If this were in Damei Village, this family wouldn’t even be allowed at their table. But with her grandmother present, and with them being from the Xu family, it was indeed difficult to express their dissatisfaction. 

“Oh, oh, eat too, don’t be polite!” Fang Yuehe urged everyone to start eating and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “We’re from the countryside, so we don’t understand these things. Grandma Zhou, you won’t mind, will you?” 

After hearing this, what else could Zhou Yun do? She also had relatives from the village, like Lai Fengxia. But Lai Fengxia was nothing like this; she was very kind. Zhou Yun shook her head with the chopsticks in her hand, trying to be polite. “Everyone who comes is a guest; you should eat more.” 

After all, this was Baozhen’s real uncle. As her in-laws, they couldn’t be too stingy. 

Liang Baozhen glanced at Xu Shengjie. As the son-in-law of the Liang family, he had no right to speak to his father-in-law’s eldest brother’s family. If he was not careful, he would give people a chance to talk about him. 

“Xiaowei, Xiaoya, you can’t reach the dishes,” Liang Baozhen placed the radish and meat stew in front of the two children. “Hurry and eat, you’re still growing.” 

Xu Shengya received the look from her sister-in-law and immediately understood that this was an annoying relative, just like her third uncle. Seeing the look in her sister-in-law’s aunt’s eyes, she spoke softly, “Aunt, my brother and I are both children; we don’t know anything, and we want to eat meat. You won’t mind, will you?” 

After saying that, she blinked her big, soft eyes and looked at Fang Yuehe with an innocent look on her face. 

“You!” 

“Xiaoya, how can you speak to guests like that?” Zhou Yun smiled but struggled to keep her composure. She couldn’t stand the behavior of this family anymore, but she didn’t want them to add fuel to the fire and ruin the reputation of Baozhen when they returned to the village. 

“Grandma, my uncle and his family must be tired after the long journey. They will feel uncomfortable if they eat too much meat and will get sick of it easily. Let them eat more vegetables.” 

If Song Chunhua were here, she would have picked up a broom and chased them out long ago. But given the Xu family’s standing, they couldn’t just do that. Liang Baozhen, being from the younger generation, was in no position to act either. 

“It’s okay, we’re almost done eating too.” Liang Zhiqing didn’t care about the pieces of meat and turned to business. “Xiao Jie, this time we went to the city. First, we wanted to see Baozhen. We had to see her to feel at ease after she married into the city. Second, this is Baozhen’s cousin Baogang, my second son. He is very hardworking and has good eyesight. See if you can help arrange a job for him in the city.” 

Ever since Liang Zhiqing’s family heard that Liang Baozhen had secured a job in a state-run factory and moved her household registration to the city, they decided to take advantage of the situation. After all, they are all family and have the same surname, Liang, they can’t just ignore them, right? 

Before Xu Shengjie could speak, Liang Baozhen took the lead, “Uncle, it’s very difficult to find a job in the city. There are not many jobs waiting to be arranged.” 

“Baozhen, you haven’t even asked around, why are you talking like that? Whether it will work out or not is up to the men in the family.” Liang Zhiqing put on his uncle’s airs and began to educate his niece, “Your parents are far away, so as your uncle, I have to say a few words to you…” 

“Uncle.” Xu Shengjie interrupted Liang Zhiqing, “My wife has the final say in our family. If she says no, then no.” 

“Oh, Xiao Jie, you can’t do this! How can we men listen to women in everything? What does Baozhen know? She can only read a few words…” Unconsciously, Liang Zhiqing blurted out what was on his mind.

Xu Shengjie spoke in a deep voice, and he looked at them fiercely, but then he softened his tone, thinking that they were from the Liang family, “Uncle, it’s really late today, and it’s dark. You’ll freeze if you go out now. Tomorrow morning, you should pack up and go home.” 

“Hey… Hey!” Liang Zhiqing wanted to say a few more words, but Xu Shengjie had already started cleaning up the dishes and had no intention of paying them any more attention. 

That night, Liang Zhiqing and his family slept on the floor in the living room. Before going to bed, they were still thinking about speaking more on the following day. If that didn’t work, they would take out the secret weapon they had prepared. 

 *** 

The next morning, Liang Baozhen woke up in a bad mood. Even brushing her teeth and washing her face was noisier than usual. By just after five in the morning, the commotion from Uncle’s family in the living room was so loud that it disturbed everyone’s sleep. 

Before leaving, Liang Baozhen wanted to chase them away again, but her uncle’s family insisted on sitting and refused to move. They ate their steamed buns one bite at a time and kept saying that the steamed buns in the city were so delicious. 

“Alright, you and Xiao Jie go to work quickly and don’t delay.” Although Zhou Yun didn’t like Liang Zhiqing’s family very much, they were real relatives after all, so she couldn’t do anything too extreme. “Let’s treat them again today, and then ask them to leave. Let’s avoid making things too awkward with so many people around.” 

“Got it, Grandma. Be careful at home today,” Liang Baozhen locked the doors of the bedrooms before leaving to prevent her aunt from rummaging through their things and asked her grandmother to secure all the family’s tickets and documents. If she weren’t going to work today, she would have made sure to personally see the three of them on the bus. 

Xu Shengjie was waiting at the entrance of the alley on his bicycle. Liang Baozhen had already been delayed for some time, so she ran out in a hurry. It was dawn, and students going to school were also running on the road. Xiaolong got up late today, so he rushed out and almost bumped into Liang Baozhen. 

“I’m sorry, Aunt Baozhen.” He scratched his head and blushed a little. 

“It’s okay. Why are you so late today? Is your mother out?” 

“Yes!” Xiaolong covered his bag with one hand and raised his little face, “My mother left really early today, saying she was going to get paid!” 

Get paid? Liang Baozhen smiled; that was good news! 

Today is indeed a big day for Liu Nianhua; after all, it’s her first time receiving a salary. 

Sitting on the number five bus, Liu Nianhua was overwhelmed with emotion and felt that the huge crowd of passengers was much more pleasing to the eye. Thinking about money, she tried her best to push through the crowd, and her steps became much steadier. 

With a smile on her face, she became more and more skilled in collecting money and tearing up the tickets and was just looking forward to getting her salary in the afternoon! 

The last bus before lunch is from the Municipal Tractor Factory to the Municipal Library. After finishing this trip, she can have her lunch and get paid at two o’clock in the afternoon. 

“Those who are getting on the bus, please go inside. Don’t block the door. Go inside.” Liu Nianhua has become much more skilled now and she even called out to the passengers getting on the bus. 

She also squeezed in and asked the passengers who had just boarded where they were going. The distance was different for each section, and the fare was also different. The cheapest six-stop trip was five cents. Liu Nianhua recited the distances to each stop and how much it cost every night when she went home. She was even more diligent than Xiaolong in school. Now she knew everything. “That’ll be ten cents, here’s five cents change, hold on to your money.” 

After all of this, Liu Nianhua would lean against the pole at the door, waiting for the next stop to arrive, and shout at the top of her voice, “We’ve arrived at Chaohua Street. Those who want to get off, hurry up, and those who want to get on, please go inside.” 

Time flies by repeating the same work every day. 

With only four stops left, the door opened, and a group of people rushed onto the bus. Liu Nianhua went to collect the money as usual, but this time countless hands reached out. Liu Nianhua concentrated on collecting money one by one, and when she finally got to an old man, she asked, “Uncle, where are you going?” 

“What do you mean where am I going? I already paid.” 

“You didn’t give me money; I haven’t collected from you yet.” Although Liu Nianhua was new, she was thorough and remembered clearly that she hadn’t collected from him. 

“I paid, I paid! The six cents just now was from me, and I’m going to the library.” 

“No, I only collected six cents from that elderly lady,” Liu Nianhua insisted. 

The old man became more and more agitated as he spoke, his eyes almost popping out of his head. “How can you, a female comrade, still want to wrongly accuse me? You really have no eyes!” 

Liu Nianhua watched the old man arguing excitedly, feeling a little aggrieved. This man was aggressive and loud, and she couldn’t get a word in when she wanted to argue. “Uncle, I really didn’t take your…” 

“Nonsense! Everyone, come and see! What kind of bus conductor are you? I clearly paid, and you’re saying I didn’t! How can someone like you be a conductor?” 

“I…” Liu Nianhua was scolded by someone pointing at her nose. There was a lot of noise around her, all of them were watching the fun. The old man spoke quickly and anxiously. Her lips trembled, and her eyes reddened. “I really didn’t collect from you.”  

“You’re the one talking nonsense!” An elderly woman nearby leaned over and joined in, “You didn’t pay a cent! I saw you reach out empty-handed and shout loudly. You’re trying to take advantage of the new conductor, huh?” 

“That’s right, this guy has evaded the fare before. I saw him on a different bus. He was scolded by the fat conductor all the way and was kicked off the bus!” 

Liu Nianhua listened to the people around her denouncing the old man who wanted to evade the fare. She blinked back her tears, sniffed hard, and steeled herself, “Buy the fare quickly, or get off the bus.” 

“You’re all ganging up on me, aren’t you? How shameless!” The old man got off the bus at the next stop, cursing. 

“Thank you, everyone.” Liu Nianhua said to the crowd. Everyone was a person of dignity and looked down upon those who evaded tickets, especially the old lady who had spoken first and even said a few words to Liu Nianhua. 

“You’re new here, right? I always take bus number five, and you don’t look familiar” 

“Yes, I’ve only been here for a month.” 

“I see, that’s why. The other conductors on this bus aren’t so lenient. Next time this happens, you have to scold them back. The softer you are, the more aggressive they will be!” The old lady was kind-hearted and taught Liu Nianhua her experience in quarreling. 

After the last bus in the morning, Liu Nianhua ate her meal but wasn’t feeling great. Her good mood today was gone. She had never been scolded in public like this before. The old man was particularly arrogant and did not show any mercy when scolding people. 

The food didn’t taste good anymore. Liu Nianhua numbly put the food into her mouth, remembering the experience the aunt had taught her. She knew she had to be tougher when facing this kind of person and not be overwhelmed by their aggressiveness. She also had to practice how to talk back. 

She had almost never had an argument or a quarrel with anyone in her life. Today, when she encountered someone like this who pointed at her nose and scolded her, she was unable to react for a moment. 

“Comrade Liu Nianhua, it’s time to get your salary!” 

Salary? Liu Nianhua put down her lunch box, rubbed her hands, and went to the bus company office. Although she had just been scolded, her mood instantly improved when she received the salary eighteen yuan and fifty cents! 

The author has something to say: 

Liu Nianhua: Money can heal me!