Chapter 38

The Ge family lives not in the old apartment complex, but in another residential building they bought for export.

The export building was developed by the city two years ago to attract investment from Hong Kong businessmen. Initially, it was promoted with great fanfare, claiming that when purchasing, only foreign currency would be accepted, and they wouldn’t even accept RMB.

However, the results of the city’s investment promotion in Taocheng were not as expected, with only a few small business owners coming, so the export building was eventually opened up to local sales.

It was during this time that the Ge family bought the export building.

The building has an elevator, four bedrooms, two living rooms, and a total area of 180 square meters.

When Jian Li’s family arrived, most of the guests were already there.

Third Uncle Ge Changyuan was on the phone in the room. Once the New Year arrived, his colleagues and patients from the hospital constantly called him, and he could hardly answer them all. When he finished his call and came out, he immediately greeted Jian Feng enthusiastically.

“Brother, why are you so late? Oh, Xiao Li, you’ve lost quite a bit of weight!”

Jian Li gave a faint smile to this third uncle, whom she didn’t know very well, whether from this life or the previous one, and then quickly moved to Wang Mengmei’s side.

Third Aunt came out of the kitchen with a plate of fruit and caught her husband’s words: “I was shocked when you mentioned it before, thinking our Xiao Li, such a beauty-loving girl, how could she get fat. I couldn’t imagine it. But now, it’s not bad. You exaggerated it.”

Wang Mengmei reproachfully said, “She’s only slowly lost weight these past few months.”

Third Aunt smiled and said, “That must be because sister-in-law’s cooking is too good! If I ate your food, I’d definitely gain weight too.”

Both Third Uncle and Third Aunt were tactful, speaking kindly. Among her sisters-in-law, Wang Mengmei could talk the most with Third Aunt.

The two families chatted happily together, and Ge Changjun and his wife arrived the latest.

Jian Li hadn’t seen Fourth Uncle for a while. She quietly observed Ge Changjun. Since it was the New Year, he was dressed in new clothes, a black cotton jacket, a black leather bag tucked under his arm, and holding a large brick-sized cell phone.

Ge Changjun greeted everyone as he entered the house and then frowned as he went out to take a call. When he returned, he barely spoke before his phone rang again.

Fourth Aunt’s face didn’t look good. She couldn’t calm down as she heard her husband take another call and frequently looked outside. The other sisters-in-law were talking, but she wasn’t really listening.

While Ge Changjun was out, Third Aunt whispered, “Fourth is really busy recently, and his mood isn’t great.”

Indeed, his mood wasn’t good. The Liu family’s anger wasn’t going away, and although the older generation wasn’t prominent, they were determined to make things difficult for Ge Changjun. In the past few months, several of his projects had been taken away by competitors, and his hair had turned grayer from the stress.

He also wanted to reconcile with the Liu family, but they simply refused to negotiate.

It all stemmed from the fact that the Liu family insisted on making him pay, especially since it involved a child without a mother.

Jian Li stood quietly next to the adults, eavesdropping and feeling pleased with the gossip.

A few months ago, after that incident, Taocheng, like in the past, launched a special operation to fill in the wells.

Along with the notices of the well-filling, it became known that a group of second-year students were planning to throw their classmates into wells.

The news spread like wildfire through the neighborhood, and parents were scared. The school also took it very seriously, and the troublemakers from each class were dealt with by both the school and their parents.

The principal at Jian Li’s school was heartbroken: “It’s not a big deal if you’re not doing well in school, but if you don’t behave properly, you’ll not only embarrass our school, but also the cotton mill.”

The principal, along with the school’s tough teachers, waited at the school gate for a few days, catching a few small thugs who were collecting “protection fees.” They informed the parents of those still in school, and those who had already graduated were found and contacted at home. Over the past few months, not only was bullying gone, but even their shadows weren’t seen around the school gates.

In a way, Ge Ming helped improve the school’s atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Liu Laoshi’s family from the advanced math class remained relentless in targeting Ge Ming, insisting that he should be locked up for several years.

Originally, this matter depended on the willingness of the parents to reconcile, but the other party insisted that Ge Ming had intentionally tried to murder, with both eyewitnesses and material evidence, and rejected all attempts at reconciliation.

Ge Changjun tried everything, but it didn’t work. Eventually, he had to spend a lot of money to hire a lawyer from Beijing for his son.

When Jian Li heard about it, she was disdainful. In the previous life, Ge Changjun had a mistress as his backup plan. Despite all the failed ventures, he never invested a single penny into this fiasco. When his wife wanted to make a profit, he found a way to make her leave with nothing.

Not only did he not care, but he also hoped Ge Ming would be sentenced to more years, preferably to die in there.

In the end, Ge Ming received a heavy sentence, and after that, Ge Changjun held a grand celebration to mark his second marriage.

His eldest son was considered dead to him, and his youngest son could no longer bear the stigma of being an illegitimate child.

Jian Li’s family didn’t attend the banquet, but her aunt Ge Yaqin did. When she returned, she didn’t mention much but said Ge Changjun was very happy and got so drunk that people had to carry him home.

Jian Li always felt that, based on Fourth Uncle’s personality, it was unlikely he would raise a good child.

After all, half of Ge Ming’s problems were caused by Huang Guihua and Fourth Aunt, but the other half came entirely from Ge Changjun.

Ge Changjun worked in construction, but unlike small-time contractors like Qian Jinlai, he got into the business using family connections, starting with the renovation of the city’s supply and marketing cooperative building. Later, he expanded into buying state-owned factories and demolishing them to build commercial housing.

In the years around the turn of the millennium, Ge Changjun’s wealth grew exponentially, and it certainly wasn’t through the goodwill of kind-hearted people.

He also passed on these “entrepreneurial concepts” to Ge Ming, which is why Ge Ming, even in his thirties, repeatedly got into trouble.

Now, Ge Ming had already received the socialist iron fist a decade earlier, and there was hope that he would become a better person once he got out.

Jian Li, after overhearing the conversation, happily went to watch TV.

The adults were gathered in the study near the balcony, while the TV was in the living room.

As soon as Jian Li entered the living room, she saw Huang Guihua wearing a sour expression.

Her beloved eldest grandson had been arrested, and these past few months had been very hard for her.

Ge Changyuan’s child, Ge Cong, wore glasses. When he saw Jian Li come out, he didn’t greet her, just glanced up and continued watching his TV show.

Jian Li didn’t mind; after all, Ge Cong was the most studious among the children in the family.

He went all the way to a doctorate.

Unfortunately, the doctorate was earned in Germany.

When Jian Li passed away suddenly in her previous life, Ge Cong was still in Germany, and no one knew how many years he had extended his studies.

Jian Li grabbed some sunflower seeds from the table and started munching on them.

Ge Cong glanced at her, seemingly annoyed that she was making noise while he was watching TV.

Jian Li offered him some sunflower seeds, “Want some?”

Ge Cong refused.

She continued munching away, causing Huang Guihua’s nostalgia for her eldest grandson to be interrupted.

Huang Guihua glared at Jian Li with anger.

“Still eating, you’ve already become so fat, and you’re still eating!”

Jian Li had heard these harsh words from Huang Guihua many times in her previous life. Since she was little, Huang Guihua often scared her under the pretext of teasing her.

“Your parents don’t want you anymore, they plan to sell you.”

“Stop studying, your parents are about to stop letting you study.”

“Your real parents live in the mountains, you were adopted.”

When Jian Li was little, she was often terrified by these words. After going home, she didn’t dare to ask about it, quietly holding onto her parents’ arms, afraid they would sell her or send her back to her biological parents in the mountains.

But now, Jian Li didn’t indulge this old woman.

Whenever Huang Guihua was harsh with her, she ate even more enthusiastically.

There were expensive nuts in the fruit bowl on the table, and she picked them out to eat. Not only did she eat them, but she also took them, stuffing expensive candies into her pocket.

She looked like a bumpkin who had never seen the world.

Huang Guihua was so angry that she wanted to smack her hand. These expensive items weren’t for this girl to eat.

They were meant to be displayed for when guests came over on New Year’s Day.

“Eat, eat, eat! Are you starving to death? Even the pigs by the stove are skinnier than you! How can you have the face to eat? You’re so shameless!”

Jian Li ignored her, directly sticking out her tongue, infuriating Huang Guihua even more.

She made a face and said, “I’m going to make you angry!”

Huang Guihua clutched her chest as if Jian Li’s actions were about to make her faint.

“You little brat, how did your parents teach you! You’re so unfilial! You deserve to be struck by lightning!”

Jian Li shot back, “If anyone should be struck, it should be you first!”

After all this time, Huang Guihua had never imagined that Jian Li’s family could ever make a stir. She never expected that one day Jian Li would actually curse her to her face.

Huang Guihua’s vision blurred from rage.

Jian Li leisurely said, “Grandma, I advise you to save your acting. If you want to make a scene, why don’t you see how my Fourth Uncle feels about it?”

Didn’t Ge Changjun’s son just get arrested? The thing Ge hated the most, apart from the Liu family, was his own mother.

Didn’t you notice how Ge Changjun came in just now, without even greeting Huang Guihua?

The words Huang Guihua was about to shout got stuck in her chest, and her eyes went wide in frustration.

Jian Li, with a hint of schadenfreude, said, “My Fourth Uncle isn’t in a good mood today. You can make a scene if you want, but after that, we’ll be done with it, and we won’t even have to eat New Year’s dinner.”

Huang Guihua was furious but couldn’t act on it.

She had been waiting for months for her Fourth Son to return. She was looking forward to crying with him tonight and talking about how hard her life had been.

Making a scene now could be done, but as Jian Li pointed out, once it escalated, she wouldn’t be able to control it, and how would she complain to her youngest son tonight?

Jian Li happily packed a bag of treats, humming a song as she went upstairs.

Huang Guihua, seething with anger, thought, “Maybe next year, I’ll just tell Jian Feng’s family not to come.”

After all, they were just an unwanted burden brought by Jian Feng’s family, not really part of the family.

Just like Ge Changjun’s eldest son, Ge Changfeng, even though Ge Changming was the son of her husband and his previous partner, she still had her husband take Ge Changming away from her.

Ge Changfeng hadn’t come for New Year in years, and it was fine.

Huang Guihua thought about how her husband also looked at her with displeasure lately, and she felt foolish. Why did she have to insist on having Jian Feng’s family come and ruin the atmosphere?

The next day, she planned to tell Jian Feng not to come anymore.

After all, she didn’t expect that useless son to support her in old age.

As she was thinking this, the old man from the Ge family returned.