Chapter 35

“…Sister-in-law, my brother didn’t sleep at all last night. He just sat by the bed staring at me and Old Fang. It was so scary. You need to do something about it. This habit is not okay!” Ren Yeliang complained to Wen Yue as soon as he woke up the next day, his face full of grievances.

Wen Yue blinked and turned to look at Zhou Yao.

Zhou Yao snorted, expressionless, “One snores and the other grinds their teeth.”

Wen Yue noticed the dark circles under Zhou Yao’s eyes and shifted her gaze to Ren Yeliang. “He didn’t sleep well. It’s understandable that he acted like that. It’s already good enough he didn’t beat you guys up.”

Ren Yeliang pretended to cry. “I forgot that Sister-in-law and Brother Yao are a family. Family members will always side with each other. My feelings were all in vain~”

Wen Yue responded, “Oh, if that’s the case, then no hardship allowance for you.”

“Sister-in-law will always be the best sister-in-law in my heart. It’s all our fault! How could we make Brother Yao sleep badly? We are so wrong!” Ren Yeliang immediately changed his tune and began to self-reflect.

Wen Yue was amused. “Last night, I had a discussion with Nian Qiu. We’ll each give you 5,600 yuan as a hardship allowance. You’ve worked hard during this period.”

“5,600 yuan?? Isn’t that too much?” Ren Yeliang was genuinely shocked this time and turned to look at Zhou Yao. He knew that Sister-in-law and Li Nianqiu must be making a lot of money since he and Old Fang were selling the goods, but he didn’t expect to get such a large share.

Zhou Yao frowned slightly. “You don’t need to give that much. After all, they were just helping out since they were free.”

Ren Yeliang nodded. “Yes, yes, 5,600 yuan is too much.” He didn’t dare to take it.

Wen Yue looked at Li Nianqiu.

Li Nianqiu received the signal and said, “You guys have helped a lot during this period. This is what you deserve, and we will need your help with future orders too. So you can take this money with a clear conscience. Yueyue and I usually have to go to school and have little time to help. We also discussed the future orders. At that time, the five of us will each get a 20% share of the profit, and we’ll split the costs of materials, labor, and rent…”

Wen Yue nodded vigorously on the side in agreement. “Yes, that’s how it is.”

This amount of money was indeed significant, and Ren Yeliang and Fang Shitao didn’t dare to accept it. They could only look at Zhou Yao, waiting for his decision.

“Take it,” Zhou Yao thought for a moment and nodded at the two of them. “My share can go to my wife.”

Ren Yeliang teased, “Wow~”

Even Li Nianqiu cast a teasing glance.

Wen Yue pretended not to notice.

Dividing the money was a big task. Fortunately, Wen Yue and the other two had counted and organized it last night. Otherwise, just counting and dividing the money would have kept them busy until noon. Ren Yeliang still had to go to the city to respond to the boss who placed the order, and then find female workers when he returned. Zhou Yao had to go rent the adjacent courtyard.

Everyone had their tasks to do.

Wen Yue and Li Nianqiu’s job was to go and deposit the money. By now, there was a bank, but it was only in the city, as the county town didn’t have one yet. So, the two of them made a special trip to the city to deposit the money.

Wen Yue had nearly 40,000 on hand, leaving 5,000 as a reserve, and deposited the rest in the bank.

That evening, Li Nianqiu and her sister didn’t need to go home. They went straight to school. Wen Yue suggested to Li Nianqiu that she check if there were any vacant houses for rent in that alley, so they wouldn’t have to return to the village and face the disgusting faces of Old Lady Li and her group.

However, Li Nianqiu refused, saying, “If they find out I have money to rent a place, they’ll make a scene. I don’t want to waste time on them. Anyway, there’s only one year left. If I endure it a bit longer, it will pass.”

Wen Yue thought this made sense. She had forgotten about that aspect.

Zhou Yao rented the neighboring yard, and Ren Yeliang quickly found suitable female workers, moving remarkably fast. By Tuesday, they officially began work. The most surprising part was that two of the workers knew how to use a sewing machine, so they moved the two machines that had been at Grandma Fang’s house over.

The first order was delivered on Thursday, and sure enough, there were business owners coming to inquire about their products. They ended up taking five orders in total, but the time was tight, as they had to ship everything within a month.

Wen Yue didn’t have to worry about the follow-up tasks; Zhou Yao managed everything very well with Ren Yeliang and Fang Shitao.

Zhou Yao told her she only needed to focus on her studies to get into university.

Busy times always pass quickly; a month flew by in the blink of an eye, and it was time to divide the profits. They had taken six orders in total, and after deducting labor, material, and rent costs, they made about 30,000 to 40,000 from each order, totaling a surprising 200,000!

This meant each person could get 40,000!

When Ren Yeliang heard there was so much money, he almost collapsed, staring blankly, “Oh my god, am I dreaming? Am I really dreaming? Old Fang, give me a pinch, I need to see if this is real…”

Fang Shitao didn’t hesitate to punch Ren Yeliang on the shoulder.

“Dude, Old Fang, are you trying to kill me? That punch was way too hard!!” Ren Yeliang yelled.

Fang Shitao: “Didn’t you ask me to hit you?”

Ren Yeliang: “But you don’t have to do it so hard!!”

Fang Shitao scratched his head and chuckled a couple of times.

Ren Yeliang then turned his gaze to Wen Yue and Zhou Yao, shouting, “Brother, sister-in-law, you two are my heaven, my earth, my money gods! From now on, whatever you ask me to do, I’ll do it! If you tell me to go east, I won’t go west! If you tell me to go forward, I won’t go back!!”

He realized that not only could he make money by following his brother, but he could also make money by following his sister-in-law! In three months, earning 45,000! What incredible strength! Now, each of them was a person with ten thousand yuan!

Oh my god, a ten-thousand-yuan household!

Zhou Yao shot him a cold glance: “Then I’ll tell you to shut up.”

Ren Yeliang quickly quieted down, wearing a silly grin.

“However, people in the city have already started to imitate us and sell the same kind of accessories. We’ve pretty much reached the limit with this business,” Li Nianqiu said calmly, not getting carried away by excitement, and sighed regretfully.

Wen Yue smiled brightly: “We’ve already made a lot. After working hard for so long, it’s just right to take a break. We can talk about the rest later.” She had a very calm mindset. If others wanted to follow the trend, so be it. Following trends was the norm.

Even in the future, with copyright awareness, there would still be countless pirated goods that couldn’t be eradicated, let alone now? At most, she could just design a few new clothes that would be novel for this era…?

Wen Yue pondered.

Li Nianqiu nodded in agreement: “Yueyue is right. We can focus on studying now.” With this money, she no longer had to worry about what she and her sister would do in the future; their lives were secure.

To celebrate this harvest, they picked a weekend to eat out in the city.

After eating and drinking their fill, they entered lazy mode.

Wen Yue had things to do, like doing homework and reading, which were very enjoyable. Zhou Yao, Ren Yeliang, and Fang Shitao were a bit bored at home.

Wen Yue had been reading extracurricular books to Zhou Yao for several nights in a row, and she could see the visible boredom on his face.

“Zhou Yao.” Wen Yue closed the book, turned her head, and looked directly into Zhou Yao’s dark eyes, her expression serious: “You should take Yeliang and Old Fang to Shencheng to have a look.”

Zhou Yao rejected her without thinking: “Not going.”

Wen Yue sighed lightly: “I know you want to go. If you want to go, then go. You don’t need to worry about me. I’m just at home studying, and I won’t run into any trouble. Besides, Grandma Fang is here; if it’s really necessary, Nianqiu can help me. Also, didn’t you promise Yeliang last time that you would take him and Old Fang to Shencheng?”

“You can’t go back on your word. If you do, you’ll lose credibility in their eyes.”

Zhou Yao lowered his gaze, indifferent: “If I lose it, I lose it.”

Wen Yue frowned: “Think about it carefully; I’m going to sleep now. I have class tomorrow.” She turned off the light, lay down, and fell asleep immediately.

Zhou Yao found it a bit hard to sleep; he lay awake staring at the ceiling, his mind in a mess.

During this time, Wen Yue’s sleeping posture had improved a lot; she no longer moved around and kicked like before. She had probably gotten used to resting her head on Zhou Yao’s arm; after falling asleep, she would unconsciously lean over, naturally placing her head there and finding a comfortable position.

Saying he didn’t want to go to Shencheng was a lie; Zhou Yao had wanted to explore Shencheng for a long time. At first, he didn’t want to leave his grandparents, but now he didn’t want to leave Wen Yue. He just wanted to be with Wen Yue every day, to see her every day; it made him feel secure.

He was worried that if he went to Shencheng, someone would bully Wen Yue and was also concerned about someone breaking into their home while he was gone. After all, even now, Zhou Yao wasn’t entirely sure how Wen Yue felt about him, but he was sure that he liked her.

Zhou Yao was a bold person. Before the reform and opening-up, he dared to go with Ren Yeliang and Fang Shitao to buy and sell things without fear of being caught, and he had thought about going to Shencheng to make a name for himself before he even reached adulthood.

However, he wasn’t so bold when it came to feelings. They hadn’t even registered their marriage yet, and Wen Yue could leave him at any time, leaving Zhou Yao with no sense of security.

He silently turned his head to gaze at the peaceful sleeping face of the person beside him, his dark eyes swirling with complex and intense emotions, deep and unfathomable.

…

The next evening, Wen Yue finished her evening study session.

Zhou Yao would come to pick her up every night, and today was no exception. He skillfully took the backpack from behind Wen Yue and held it in his hand. After a brief silence, he said, “The day after tomorrow, I’ll take them to Shencheng.”

Wen Yue was taken aback for a moment, her eyes curving into a smile: “Is it already confirmed?”

Zhou Yao gave a low “mm-hmm.”

Wen Yue continued, “It takes four to five days by train from our city to Shencheng. Make sure to buy sleeper tickets, don’t get hard seats. It’s not that much money, treat yourself better. There should be food for sale on the train. I don’t know how good it is, so maybe bring a few packs of instant noodles…”

She lowered her eyes, chatting away with various reminders. The soft yellow light cast on her face made her brows and eyes appear exceptionally gentle.

“Don’t worry too much about home. I’ll take good care of Grandma Fang and Lulu, so Old Fang can relax. I’ve saved the money we earned in the bank. Remember to bring your bank card just in case you need it.”

Zhou Yao’s gaze remained fixed on her as he looked down. His intense presence made it impossible for Wen Yue to ignore him. She lifted her small face to look at him, asking, “What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Zhou Yao softly asked her, “If I leave, will you miss me? Will you be reluctant to part?”

Wen Yue replied with an “ah,” blinking her eyes and furrowing her brows: “Are you not planning to come back?”

Zhou Yao: “Of course, I will come back.”

“Well, then that’s settled. The way you asked, I thought you weren’t coming back,” Wen Yue said, turning her face away as she pushed open the half-closed courtyard door. “We’re home. I’ll go take a shower first.”

“Oh, by the way, remember to bring me a gift when you come back.”

Wen Yue stood at the door, smiling at Zhou Yao, revealing a small dimple.