Chapter 18 The Ungrateful Childhood Sweetheart

"Your boyfriend is a college student?" The older woman finally understood. No wonder the boy looked so scholarly. "You two are really capable. You can earn money on your own before you've even entered the workforce."

"I hope my two children will be as capable as you two in the future."

The eldest sister is sincere.

"No, not at all." Jiang Xiaomei smiled and said, "After we leave, you can prepare more food, since it's convenient to sell portions."

The older woman nodded in agreement: "I also steam buns and dumplings. I see some people are so frugal that they don't want to buy lunch."

"I'll make some pickled vegetables and sell them with steamed buns later."

"Now that everyone knows my husband is disabled, people will pity me and want to support my business."

The older sister understands these people very well; that's why they were able to sell so quickly today.

Seeing her undisguised joy, Jiang Xiaomei laughed too: "That's great, as long as you sell more and make money, who isn't pitiful these days?"

The older sister was pleased to hear this.

"Little sister, you really understand your older sister." The older sister was also holding back her anger.

Seeing how young she was, I couldn't help but pour out my grievances: "My life is so hard. Before I got married, I was treated like a slave in my parents' home, and after I got married, I was wasted by my husband's family."

"He lived a timid and hesitant life, never daring to eat an extra bite of food."

“I thought this was how my life would be, but he not only hit me, but he also tried to hit my children. I’m already like this, I don’t want my two children to be beaten too.”

"So I crippled his leg and also crippled one of his hands. That way he won't dare to hit people anymore. At worst, I'll just take care of him like this."

"If his hands and feet can recover, then I'll hit him again."

Jiang Xiaomei's expression changed: "Big sister, don't go around saying that to others."

"I didn't say anything, I didn't say anything." The older woman gave an awkward laugh.

“He wouldn’t dare sue me; in his current state, no one would marry him.”

"I just blurted it out to you, but nobody in my family knows about this, not even my two kids."

Jiang Xiaomei looked at him with admiration, making the older sister feel embarrassed.

"I won't keep you any longer, you guys go ahead with your work."

Jiang Xiaomei never expected that she was rebelling for her child, just to prevent her child from being like her. She was a very good mother.

On the way back, Jiang Xiaomei told Ji Huaizhi.

"She won't be beaten anymore, and she'll keep the money she earns."

Then he looked at Ji Huaizhi: "How do you know that man won't come?"

Ji Huaizhi: "I guessed. The way my older sister looked at him before was already strange. If he doesn't explode in silence, he'll die in silence."

"The fact that she was the only one selling boxed lunches proves that she won."

Jiang Xiaomei raised her chin: "You really make women proud."

The number of boxed meals for the two of them then increased to about thirty per day.

Occasionally, the older sister would bring Jiang Xiaomei some pancakes she had made herself.

With the start of the new school term just around the corner, Jiang Xiaomei offered to stop selling today once she sold out.

"Isn't there still a few days until school starts?" Ji Huaizhi asked after the guests left.

"We need to give you a few days to rest," Jiang Xiaomei said, picking up the steamed buns she had made and walking towards her older sister.

"Big sister, these are steamed buns I made myself, please try them." Jiang Xiaomei brought quite a few, so she could take them back and let her children try them.

"That's so embarrassing!" The older woman wiped her hands and accepted it with both hands.

"What's there to be embarrassed about? You always bring us food, we're the ones who should feel embarrassed." Jiang Xiaomei said sweetly as she helped someone get their lunchbox.

"Then I won't stand on ceremony. I'll make some chive boxes tomorrow and bring two over for you."

Jiang Xiaomei said with a regretful expression, "It's a pity, today is the last day for Huaizhi and me to set up our stall. We won't be able to eat the delicious chive boxes that I make."

The older woman was taken aback: "Why aren't you setting it up anymore?"

"Ouch." He slapped his forehead. "School's starting soon, right?"

Jiang Xiaomei nodded: "Yes."

"Who knows, we might run into each other again when we're setting up our stalls in the future."

The older sister was a little reluctant to part with me: "I really will miss you. I'm so old and I don't have many friends. I just like talking to you. If you don't come anymore, I feel like there's no point in talking to you."

How could making money be uninteresting?

Jiang Xiaomei offered a few words of comfort.

Her older sister then spoke a few heartfelt words to her: "You must study hard. Didn't you say that you can continue your studies even if you drop out of school now?"

“Your man is a college student now, and you need to keep up with him. Just because he’s doing well now doesn’t mean he’ll still think the same way in the future.”

"In your words, young people, you need to improve yourselves so you don't fall too far behind."

Jiang Xiaomei nodded vigorously.

As soon as I got back, I picked up a book and started reading.

Ji Huaizhi twitched his lips when he saw this, turned around and went to the kitchen to clean up, but he didn't expect that less than five minutes later Jiang Xiaomei collapsed on the table.

Looking at Ji Huaizhi's broad shoulders and narrow waist with utter despair, she said, "Brother, I'm a good-for-nothing."

"You little brat, want some watermelon?"

Jiang Xiaomei suddenly sat up: "Eat!"

Not long after they left the construction site at noon, a dark-skinned middle-aged man came out.

After looking around, he went to his older sister's side and asked, "Where did the man and woman who sold the boxed lunches go?"

The older woman thought he had gotten a stomachache from eating their boxed lunches, so she immediately said, "You've sold everything and are heading back now. I'm leaving too. Do you want to buy a boxed lunch?"

The man waved his hand: "I'm not buying, I've already eaten."

"I'll come back to see them tomorrow."

After he finished speaking, he went back to the construction site. As he walked away, the older sister thought to herself, "Thank goodness those two aren't coming anymore."

Otherwise, they'll cause trouble.

The man had just stepped into the shade when his phone rang: "Hello?"

“I really saw them. I thought those two looked familiar, but I didn’t pay much attention to them at first. Then you called and said that Ji Huaizhi came to the provincial capital to study at university, and I started to think that it was probably him.”

"They're selling boxed lunches at the construction site, and the girl next to them is probably the girl from the Jiang family."

"They packed up and left. When I went back to look for them, they were already gone."

"Alright, alright, I still have work to do this afternoon. If they come again tomorrow, I'll go find them, okay?"

"Okay, okay."

The man hung up the phone, and someone came over to give him a free show.

"Home phone?"

"Yes, a kid from my hometown ran away with someone else's daughter. I noticed that the two people selling boxed lunches outside looked a lot like those two kids from my hometown, so I wanted to confirm it."

"Wow! Not bad, you ran off with someone's daughter?" The man smoking found it amusing: "If this were my son, I'd think he's capable, but if it were my daughter, I'd break her legs."

"Actually, I'm not even sure. I haven't seen him in years. I only saw him twice when I was a child." The dark-skinned man lit a cigarette.

"Speaking of which, that boy is a distant relative of mine, we're both from the same clan."