Chapter 4

Ye Wanqing completely ignored Ye Mingzhu and placed the teacups on the coffee table. “Uncle Wang, Aunt Zhao, the water is a bit hot, so I’ll leave them here for you.”

Wang Qiang nodded. “All right.”

Zhao Yan, however, was full of pickiness and made no attempt to hide her mood. “You’re eighteen? Already stopped studying?”

Ye Wanqing shook her head. “Yes. I stopped.”

Zhao Yan: “Then what are you doing now? Are you working? How much is your monthly wage? When is your family planning to let you take over and become a formal worker?”

At the mention of taking over the job, Ye Xiangdang secretly thought, “This is bad.”

If it had been the old Ye Wanqing, he believed she would certainly handle it gracefully and would never make the family lose face in front of others, much less air “family matters.” But last night Ye Wanqing had actually talked back to her parents and was clearly dissatisfied with their decision. He worried she might stir up more trouble.

He wanted to change the subject, but Ye Wanqing had already spoken in a clear voice.

“I was originally working as a ticket seller on the buses at the station. Yesterday the family told me they would let Ye Mingzhu take over the job in the future, so I plan to do something on my own.” After a pause, Ye Wanqing smiled shyly. “I’m adopted, so I shouldn’t have been the one to take over the job in the first place.”

“You’re an adopted daughter and can’t take over the job?” Zhao Yan’s voice suddenly turned sharp.

Wang Qiang’s expression also darkened. “Brother Ye, that’s not very honorable of you. You said you wanted to switch and let Wanqing marry Jiabao. I thought we were just moving the wedding earlier because Mingzhu was indeed too young, so I agreed. But you never mentioned Wanqing was an adopted daughter, and you treat her so poorly.”

Although the Wang family lived in the town, their conditions were a whole level above the Ye family’s. The only thing they had valued was the formal job at the Ye family’s bus station—high wages and respectable.

They never expected Ye Xiangdang to have so many schemes and to try to calculate against the Wang family!

Zhao Yan said sarcastically, “That’s right. How could such a good job go to an adopted daughter? Of course it has to go to the biological daughter! They really treated our Wang family like fools, thinking they could stuff any Tom, Dick, or Harry on our Jiabao!”

The words were ugly. Ye Xiangdang glared fiercely at Ye Wanqing and hurriedly tried to soothe them.

Ye Wanqing continued adding fuel to the fire. “I also told the family last night that I don’t want to get married right now, and I certainly won’t get married just because someone threw dirty water on me and claimed my reputation was ruined!”

Zhao Yan: “What? Your reputation was ruined too? Explain yourself clearly!”

Ye Wanqing: “No no no, I didn’t! I really didn’t kiss any little hooligan!”

Ye Xiangdang’s vision went black. This explanation was worse than no explanation at all. He felt Ye Wanqing was doing it on purpose! She definitely was!

“Heavens! She even kissed someone!” Zhao Yan felt she was about to faint from anger.

Wang Qiang said furiously, “Ye Xiangdang, what do you mean by this? My father once saved your life—is this how you repay the favor? I don’t agree to this marriage!”

“……”

A chaotic uproar followed.

While the three of them were tangled in argument and had no attention for anything else, Ye Wanqing went to the utility room and carried out the things she had put there earlier for the stall, exactly as they had been.

Originally she had planned to use the kitchen at home to do some preparatory work, but now that she had thoroughly enraged Ye Xiangdang, doing things at home would definitely no longer be convenient. She might even be deliberately made things difficult for or become the target of his anger……

There was no other way. She would have to think of something else.

Ye Wanqing was about to leave with her things when Ye Mingzhu suddenly blocked her path.

“Sister, you know you’re adopted now? By the way, do you want to know who your biological parents are?” Ye Mingzhu wore an expression that clearly said, “Beg me and if I’m in a good mood I’ll tell you the secret.”

Ye Wanqing was surprised, yet somehow not surprised.

She lifted her cool almond eyes. “You already knew. Since when?”

“So what?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why should I tell you? If I told you and you stopped treating me well, what then? If you were in a bad mood and stopped doing housework, and Mom made me do it, what then? I can’t do it.”

“No wonder……” Ye Wanqing couldn’t be bothered to continue. She lightly exhaled, stepped past Ye Mingzhu, and walked outward, quickly descending the stairs in a few steps.

“No wonder what?” Ye Mingzhu leaned over the railing and called after her. “You, I’m talking to you! Hey, hey!”

Ye Wanqing walked quickly out of the stairwell, leaving Ye Mingzhu’s innocent and willful voice behind her.

In the cold wind she felt a little dazed.

No wonder…… When she and Ye Mingzhu argued as children, whenever Ye Mingzhu could not win she would shout, “This is my home, these are my parents, you get out!” That self-righteous look was still vivid in her mind.

She had never thought carefully about this issue before. Now that she did, her heart ached with fine, dense stabs of pain.

Home?

She suddenly wanted a home of her own—right now.

How Ye Wanqing had carried the things upstairs and then put them back on the bicycle, she did not clearly remember.

She pushed the bicycle along the street, worrying about where she could buy a coal stove and a large iron pot, and also worrying whether the money she had left would be enough for those things.

As she walked, someone suddenly bumped into her and then ran off very quickly.

She frowned and looked up, only to see a short, thin back wearing a conspicuous floral shirt racing ahead. Then she noticed the person had dropped a roll of ten-yuan bills not far in front of her. It looked like several dozen yuan.

Ye Wanqing: “……”

She picked up the money, got on the bicycle, and gave chase.

After chasing for quite a while she finally caught up. Panting, she handed the money to the careless fellow. “Be more careful next time. Don’t keep losing things!”

The careless fellow was dumbfounded, then kept thanking her. “……All right, all right. Thank you, thank you.”

Ye Wanqing waved her hand and continued strolling along the street.

When she saw a general store and was about to go in to ask if they had coal stoves, another man with a center-parted hairstyle suddenly called out to her: “Comrade, is that money you dropped?”

Ye Wanqing lowered her head. A roll of ten-yuan bills lay by her feet.

“No.” She shook her head and walked into the general store.

She felt vaguely strange. Her unexpected fortune today seemed a bit too good, yet she was a person who returned lost money.

Center-part: “……”

Ten minutes later, Floral Shirt and Center-part stood in front of a tall man with a dark expression, each holding a roll of money and offering it with bitter faces.

“Brother Yuan, we can’t give the money away!”

“She’s a progressive young woman. Her ideological awareness is extremely high. This method doesn’t work.”

Ge Yuan glared with tiger eyes, furious. “Useless! You can’t even handle such a small matter!”

“I’d love to handle it well, but my two legs can’t outrun a bicycle!” Floral Shirt muttered softly. “Last time you couldn’t outrun her either. I saw it……”

His voice grew smaller and smaller under Ge Yuan’s glare.

He wanted to cry but had no tears.

Brother Yuan himself couldn’t outrun her bicycle, yet he still expected him to run! His legs were short—could he be blamed?

Ge Yuan took the two rolls of money with a dark face, lit a cigarette and held it between his fingers, his tone full of worldly weariness. “The ways of the world are cold. Even money can’t be given away.” That little girl looked even prettier after cutting her hair. Truly infuriating.

Floral Shirt: “Brother Yuan, ‘the ways of the world are cold’ isn’t used like that.”

“Only you have read books!” Ge Yuan could no longer hold back and kicked Floral Shirt in the rear in anger.

Ye Wanqing rode to the supply and marketing cooperative and indeed found cast-iron coal stoves and large iron pots for sale inside. But when she asked the price, the two together cost thirty-two yuan. She only had a little over ten yuan left—far from enough.

She bit her lip and walked out of the cooperative. Suddenly a shadow fell over her.

Looking up, who else could it be but Ge Yuan?

A sudden joy rose in her heart, but she quickly remembered his bastard line about “kissing means paying money.” Her pretty face immediately turned stern. She glared at him and was about to dodge away.

Ge Yuan hurriedly followed, keeping a distance.

Only when they reached a place with fewer people did he speak. “I have a coal stove.”

Ye Wanqing slowed her steps a little.

Ge Yuan’s heart brightened. “My family also has a large iron pot!”

Ye Wanqing stopped.

Ge Yuan quickly circled in front of her. His pitch-black eyes were full of eagerness to please. “I’ve also made a lot of honeycomb coal, piled in the corner. It could burn for a whole year without running out. You can use all of it!”

“You didn’t come here with some other purpose this time, did you?” Ye Wanqing glanced sideways at him. “Speak. How many kisses do you want this time?”

“Cough, cough cough……”

Ge Yuan nearly choked to death on his own saliva.

Why did this little girl’s words have to be so sharp and so lacking in propriety?

He stiffened his neck and retorted, unwilling to show weakness, “When did I ever say I wanted to kiss you? You’re the one who wants to kiss me!”

“That’s right!” Ye Wanqing propped up the bicycle. Under Ge Yuan’s panicked, dodging little eyes she walked smilingly up to him, once again reached out to grab his collar, and pulled him down so he had to bend over.

Ge Yuan’s whole body went rigid. He did not know where to put his hands. The only question in his mind was: He had no experience kissing women. Should he close his eyes this time, or keep them open?

However, he did not wait for the woman’s soft lips. He only waited for her smiling, ill-intentioned question: “Why aren’t you wearing short sleeves today?”

Ge Yuan: “……”

“Are you cold?”

Ge Yuan yanked his collar free, straightened up, and put on a cold face. “Do you want the things or not? If not, forget it!”

“I do.”

Having a coal stove and a large iron pot was still not enough. She lacked a kitchen where she could do preparatory work, so Ye Wanqing decided to go to Ge Yuan’s place.

Ge Yuan’s home was in a relatively remote part of the county town—a small courtyard with its own gate.

Before opening the door, Ge Yuan once again declared solemnly, “My reputation is bad. If someone sees you entering my house, who knows what ugly things they might say. Have you thought it through? Actually, you could just wait outside and I’ll bring the things out to you. It’s the same. I keep my word!”

Ye Wanqing looked at him sideways with a half-smile. “Actually you’re just timid, right? Are you afraid you won’t be able to restrain yourself from kissing me, or are you afraid of being kissed by me?”

Ge Yuan: “……”

He felt that his deterrent power seemed to have dropped these past two days…… Was it because his beard was not prickly enough, or his eyes not fierce enough? This little girl was almost riding on his head. Where did she get the guts to think he would keep putting up with her?!

Ge Yuan furrowed his brows and tried hard to make his eyes fiercer and more intimidating. Ye Wanqing patted his arm. “Open the door.”

“……All right.”

“Is there any water to drink?”

“The tea’s cold. I’ll pour you hot water!”

This was the first time Ye Wanqing had entered this small courtyard of Ge Yuan’s in either her previous or present life. She had thought it would definitely be messy beyond recognition, yet it turned out to be clean and tidy.

Without her needing to say anything, after pouring her a cup of hot water Ge Yuan went to fetch the coal stove and light a fire.

Looking at Ge Yuan’s busy figure, a gentle warmth seeped into her eyes.

In such a good atmosphere she wanted to say something to draw them closer, but then the door panel was “bang bang bang” pounded hard.