Chapter 44: Buying Books

Wen Nian picked up the nutrient solution that came with the plants and, as usual, went to the garden to sprinkle water on the flowers.

A while back, when she went to the tailor’s shop, she suddenly discovered a wild Osmanthus tree growing in a corner of the wall.

It was skinny and small, looking malnourished.

So she begged Lu Hanzheng to have it moved and planted it in the northeast corner of the garden.

She kept watering the Osmanthus tree with nutrient solution for a long time.

She just hoped that the Osmanthus tree would show some mercy and bloom.

That way, she could have the Osmanthus cakes she wanted.

“Xiao Wen, Xiao Wen.”

Just as she was walking into the yard, she heard Zhang Guihua’s loud voice.

From the tone, she knew there was some juicy gossip again.

Zhang Guihua was carrying a vegetable basket, speaking mysteriously.

“Do you know who I just saw?”

Wen Nian shook her head.

Zhang Guihua didn’t keep her in suspense.

“Your younger sister.”

Wen Xue had just come out of the police station.

Well, it wasn’t a big deal anyway.

Just a scolding and some education—that was all.

Wen Nian was a little curious about how she got in.

“Where did you see her? In the clinic?”

Zhang Guihua waved her hand.

“No, you absolutely won’t guess—she went to work as a nanny at Director Fu’s house.”

What?

Wen Nian rubbed her ear, thinking she must have misheard.

A nanny?

What kind of move was this?

“Auntie, which Director Fu?”

Wen Nian thought for a while; she hadn’t heard of any director named Fu in the compound.

“Who else? The one who just moved here from Shanghai.”

“Xiao Wen, your sister just got into trouble, right? How can she go work as a nanny for the Fu family?”

Wen Nian really didn’t know.

If she didn’t ask, it must have been Chen Qiwei who arranged the connection.

Just thinking about often seeing her in the compound made Wen Nian annoyed.

Why can’t she just disappear?

Zhang Guihua was truly baffled.

What kind of mother would send her own daughter to be a nanny?

Even if the employer is good, it’s still serving others.

To put it bluntly, it’s just being a servant.

Seeing Wen Nian’s unpleasant expression, Zhang Guihua quickly said goodbye.

“Xiao Wen, you get back to what you’re doing. I have to go cook! Come visit Auntie’s house when you have time!”

Wen Nian gave a perfunctory nod.

She carefully thought the whole situation over again.

She vaguely remembered that there was such a Fu family.

The earlier parts of the book mainly revolved around the Wen, Lu, and Zheng families.

The Fu family had only a few brief mentions.

The Fu family was also a military family, but their main base was in Shanghai.

What was Wen Xue trying to do?

She was really desperate to get close to Lu Hanzheng.

It was hard to have any real prospects, but instead of studying hard and getting into a good university…

Finding a secure government job or going into business were all solid paths.

Although there’s no high or low in professions,

Being a nanny means low pay, and the work is long, complicated, and tiring.

Even more so, working as a nanny at the Fu family wouldn’t even give her much chance to see him.

What was she thinking?

Wen Nian considered another possibility.

Maybe the novel was automatically repairing itself,

Pulling the plot back on track after it had veered off.

She thought about it for a long time but couldn’t figure it out.

Might as well not think about it.

After all, she and Lu Hanzheng were already officially a couple.

Wen Xue was completely out of chances.

Moreover, Lu Hanzheng had a very clear sense of likes and dislikes.

He loved some people as if their life depended on it, and hated others as if he wanted them dead.

He had long grown to dislike Wen Xue.

Even if Wen Xue had a golden shovel, she still couldn’t pry open this corner of his heart.

Let her do whatever she wants; he didn’t care.

Wen Nian packed her things and went out the door, deciding not to look for a house that day.

In the 1980s, most roads were still dirt paths, full of potholes and bumps.

The sneakers of that era couldn’t compare to those of later times.

After walking for a long time, not only would her feet ache, but her shoes would also be covered in mud.

Since she couldn’t buy a house in the capital city now, she’d just put that on hold.

There was still a long way to go in life.

Once the reform and opening-up policy advanced, there would be chances later.

After thinking it through carefully, Wen Nian still decided to take the college entrance exam.

She planned to go to the recycling station the next day to see if there were any high school textbooks.

When Wen Nian left Shanghe Village, she packed up the female supporting character’s belongings too.

She didn’t know where that supporting character had gone or whether she would come back.

So she took the valuables with her.

Leaving the items there was too easy for them to get lost or damaged.

Better to bring them back to the capital.

If the supporting character ever returned, she could return everything properly.

Actually, there wasn’t anything really valuable inside.

Forget money or cash—there wasn’t even a single decent piece of clothing.

Everything was worn-out and tattered, patched again and again.

The most valuable thing was a junior high school graduation certificate.

The supporting character graduating junior high was quite surprising.

When people were barely able to get enough food, the elders still managed to get her through junior high.

She obviously wasn’t an ordinary person.

Wen Nian didn’t dig deeper, but she could make use of that certificate.

If she missed this year’s college entrance exam, she would just wait for next year.

The country was still under reform and opening-up; openly doing business was considered speculative and illegal.

She had greatly underestimated how difficult it was to buy a house in this era.

Wen Nian was still thinking with a modern mindset, focused on buying a house to settle down.

She had forgotten about the route of going to college.

The 1980s were still a time when studying could change your fate.

Getting into university could not only arrange a job but also solve the household registration problem directly.

She could register at a university in Shanghai.

Then she could naturally settle her residence in Shanghai.

She realized she had been stubborn and took a lot of detours.

Those days she ran all over town trying to buy a house.

Her legs were almost worn out.

She was ignoring the shortcut of taking the college entrance exam, insisting on buying a house.

In her previous life, she had just graduated from college, so she could still pick up high school knowledge.

Wen Nian had already scouted the buying points when trying to buy a house before; now she headed straight to the recycling station.

Most recycling stations were converted residential homes, yards filled with all sorts of scrap, furniture, and textbooks scattered messily everywhere.

Soon enough, Wen Nian found the books she needed.

They were all high school textbooks, some still intact.

She rummaged through the scrap piles and found the best ones inside.

Everyone was short of money in this era, and it wasn’t common to tear up textbooks after graduation.

If you didn’t need them anymore, you sold them to get some money.

Wen Nian wasn’t unable to afford new textbooks; she just thought that for self-study, old textbooks had better cost performance.

Especially the densely written notes inside—they were exactly what she needed now.

She carefully picked out tidy books with clear handwriting.

The owner tied two tall stacks for her.

The whole pile only cost a few yuan.

Seeing her delicate, small frame, the old man felt sorry for her.

“Miss, can you carry all that? If you don’t live far, I can have my little grandson deliver it to your home.”

Wen Nian politely refused the old man’s kindness.

“No need, sir. Just help me carry it to the door. Someone will come to pick me up later.”

She didn’t want to trouble a seven- or eight-year-old kid with such heavy work.

Later, if no one came, she could just throw everything into her space bag and be done with it.

She then took a detour to the bookstore to buy English textbooks and some matching practice test papers.

The key was to do lots of practice problems.