125. 125 A wake-up call for my son.

“Come with me to the South,” Su Yu said to Ning Jin.

"What's up? What are you going south for? Is it still about your article submission?"

"Yes, it's almost February and we still haven't received a reply. It seems our submission wasn't accepted. I'm thinking of buying a press release, but it would be more efficient to go there in person."

She handed over all the matters under her jurisdiction, packed her things, and boarded the train south with Ning Jin. Fortunately, the travel expenses were reimbursed; otherwise, the train fare alone would have cost her half a month's salary.

After resting for a night, she went directly to the New Hope Daily, a newspaper with the widest readership in southern China. She paid for a week's worth of space to publish her article and photos.

"Su Yu?"

Su Yu turned around and saw a beautifully dressed woman with an elegant demeanor, wearing a name tag around her neck; she was probably a staff member of this newspaper.

"Hello, is there any procedure I haven't completed?" Su Yu asked, puzzled.

“It’s you! I thought I was seeing things. Don’t you recognize me? I’m He Qing.” She reminded them that they had met in the orchard.

The moment she mentioned the orchard, Su Yu remembered her. She knew only a limited number of people while working at the orchard. Now that she was working at a well-known newspaper in the south, and considering her age, she could only be Liu Quan's ex-wife, who had taken the college entrance exam in the same year as her.

"Are you free? Let's have lunch together. You're the only acquaintance I've met in the past ten years," He Qing said.

Su Yu agreed, and the two went to a Cantonese restaurant for dinner after He Qing got off work.

He Qing asked her where she worked and why she came to the newspaper office. Su Yu didn't hide anything and told her why she came, laughing and saying, "Your newspaper is so popular. I submitted an article to you last year but it wasn't accepted. I'm an impatient person, and I didn't want to waste any more time, so I came here to spend money on publicity. How are you? Are you studying at university here?"

"Yes, I studied and worked here. Things are pretty good now, but it was tough when I was studying. I had two children to raise, so I earned money by submitting articles or by secretly selling odds and ends to send back home."

“Well, your writing is quite good. If your writing isn’t good, you can’t support your child with royalties.” Su Yu went along with her conversation, not asking about her private life. They were strangers before, and now they hadn’t seen each other for more than ten years, so they had even less to say to each other. She wasn’t interested in other people’s lives either. But even though she didn’t bring it up, He Qing seemed quite eager to talk.

"Liu Quan has been released from prison. Have you seen him?"

Su Yu shook her head. If she hadn't run into He Qing, she wouldn't have remembered him at all. Her current job is completely different from the one she did ten years ago.

"After he was released from prison, he often went to my parents' house to wait for me, hoping to see the two children. My brother had him beaten up a few times, and after not getting any news from me, he gradually stopped going. But I heard from the neighbors that they had seen him. He no longer comes to the house, but he hides in corners to spy on my brother and sister-in-law's lives. I asked someone to check, and it turns out he hasn't remarried. His parents took him back and sent him to the countryside. Apparently, he has sexual dysfunction. Was it you who did it?"

There's nothing wrong with admitting this. So much time has passed. Su Yu nodded. "His behavior disgusted me back then. I beat him up, but that wasn't enough. So I kicked him in the balls."

He Qing almost burst out laughing. She couldn't believe that she dared to speak so bluntly, especially in a restaurant.

"I'm married again, to a very outstanding man."

"Congratulations, you've found the right marriage for you," Su Yu sincerely wished.

He Qing could tell that Su Yu wasn't interested in exploring her life. She smoothed her hair, wondering if they would ever meet again after this, and decided to speak freely: "Actually, you played a significant role in getting me to where I am today. When I married Liu Quan, I was basically in a state of despair, disgusted with the life of toiling in the fields and barely having enough to eat. Returning to the city was hopeless, so I traded marriage and my body for a life without labor. But less than half a month after I married him, I discovered that Liu Quan had been secretly watching you, comparing me to you, and telling me to learn from you. He would buy me books to read, and he would even go crazy explaining your forestry expertise to me. I couldn't understand the other books and didn't want to annoy him, so I bought him high school Chinese textbooks and some literature books. I was able to get into university after only two months of preparation, entirely due to my prior preparation. My math score was less than 60, but I was still admitted to a good university."

She was able to report Liu Quan only because Su Yu first sent him to the police station. Without Su Yu paving the way, she wouldn't have had the courage to report him. Su Yu also led the way in daring to take the college entrance exam. Everyone laughed at Su Yu back then; she stayed home studying and no one noticed until the admission notice arrived, at which point the village realized she had taken the exam. By then, she was already prepared to leave, and neither the jokes nor the surprise affected her. It must be said that preparing for the exam unnoticed greatly reduced the pressure on her. Even her parents, brothers, and sisters-in-law were unaware. She went to the exam with the mindset that it wouldn't be shameful if she failed, and the entire exam was easy for her, even though she left a large portion of the math paper blank.

"It's because you're decisive, you've made the right steps every time, you dare to think and act without hesitation. Any other woman would hate me to death, and even her child would hate me." Su Yu was somewhat pleased. Unbeknownst to her, her actions had brought about such a big change in another woman.

"Liu Quan's greatest fortune is meeting you. I can't have left without you. Living with him would have been a miserable experience, and neither his daughter nor I have amounted to much. This year, my eldest child is a senior in high school and is doing very well academically. My second child is very talented in table tennis. My current husband is a table tennis coach, and he discovered my second daughter's talent. We had another daughter together, who is three years old and very clever."

"Wow, three daughters! How lucky you are." Su Yu was a little envious. There was only one thing she was really envious of: although she didn't have a daughter, her two sons were also very considerate, not only considerate but also clingy.

"While that's true, Liu Quan would be furious if he heard you say that his luckiest thing was meeting me."

“Who cares about him? The sooner he dies of anger, the better. He’s made me afraid to go back to my parents’ home, for fear that my daughter will be harassed by him.” He Qing stopped complaining and said, “Come back to the newspaper later and ask them to take down the section you bought. I’ll do a special interview for you and make sure to promote you well. My writing skills are very good.”

This was a pleasant surprise, and Su Yu expressed her gratitude repeatedly, even showing her all the photos she had brought.

“I’ll give you a few contact numbers. I know a few people who are in the skincare business and are interested in this. I see that your aloe vera is of very good quality and it’s all wild, so there must be buyers. You can privately find out about the potential customers before the advertisement is published in the newspaper.”

"Thank you so much! Please bring your spouse and daughter out for a meal sometime. My spouse came with me too, so let's get together," Su Yu invited.

He Qing glanced at her with a smile and joked, "If I had offered to help you from the beginning, you probably wouldn't have just given me a perfunctory response."

“If I were to come up to you like a gossipy woman and immediately pry into your marriage, children, work, and life, you would probably be disappointed and leave. We haven’t seen each other for over ten years, so you need to give me some time to adjust,” Su Yu explained with a smile.

Indeed, He Qing thought that if she had asked for her help right away, the woman would probably have made an excuse to leave. This was truly an eager offer of help, she laughed.

After the party, He Qing introduced Su Yu to two clients who ran a skincare business on the other side of the strait. After seeing Su Yu's experimental data on aloe vera and the photos she had taken over a season, they placed an order on the spot.

Su Yu hurriedly went back with Ning Jin to register the company, then took him to the Forestry Bureau to sign a contract. After that, she carried a pot of aloe vera with him south to sign orders based on the current production volume.

"I won't accompany you on this matter anymore. I can give you the most accurate experimental data, and the goods are fine. From now on, you can handle the business yourself, Boss Ning."

Ning Jin, who was new to being a boss, was still quite unaccustomed to it. Having been used to being a driver who took orders, he was afraid of messing up the business when he suddenly started managing the company himself.

Hearing him say that, Su Yu laughed so hard she couldn't stand up straight. She said that he was the only one in the company right now, both the boss and the employee, and would be the driver in the future. The business was also a small business, so what was there to mess up?

"Don't overthink it. For the next year or two, you'll be a transport driver. The amount of aloe vera we harvest in the desert is fixed. Right now, we're just maintaining these few orders. What I mean is, it's up to you to decide what other trades you do. I won't get involved."

After that came the purchase of a car. For safety reasons, Su Yu ignored the man's suggestion to buy a used car to save money and instead spent 48,000 yuan to buy a truck with a cargo capacity that was a quarter smaller than the one he used to drive. She took this truck back home instead of the train.

"How much money is left in the savings account?" the man asked anxiously. He hadn't worried about his savings for many years, and now that he had suddenly spent tens of thousands of yuan, he was afraid that something might happen to his family and they wouldn't have any money to use.

"There's still four or five thousand left. Your son is getting married tomorrow, so we're not short of money. Don't worry, they'll both be working in a few months and their salaries won't be low."

"When will we be able to earn back 48,000?" He was still heartbroken. Su Yu didn't say anything. With the addition of fixed assets, the family's working capital had decreased from tens of thousands to a few thousand, and she was also a little numb.

"Forget it, I'll just focus on making money. Now that I have this company, my buying and selling is legal too." He comforted himself, worried that Su Yu would be anxious, so he said he would hire her as his personal accountant, and she would handle all his income and expenses, and he would pay her a salary.

"Boss Ning is very generous."

"Speak properly." He scolded her in a mock-serious manner, his smile practically reaching his ears.

With everything arranged, Ningjin had work and money to earn, and he was full of energy again. When telegram orders came in, he would set off on his journey. When he wasn't shipping goods, he would ride his secondhand bicycle around to buy good things and save them up to sell to the south when he needed to set off on his journey.

In July, Xiao Yuan's job assignments at Ping An were all finalized. Ping An employees were still in Northeast China. Xiao Yuan wrote to me saying that he now had two job options: one was to start as a junior staff member and slowly build up his seniority, and the other was to be assigned to a grassroots position. He was interested in being assigned to a grassroots position and to achieve political success like his mother. Now he just didn't know which place to choose.

As soon as he wrote to Su Yu, she understood that he intended to come to the Northwest, probably thinking that with her there, his work would be easier. She directly refused, as the situation regarding desertification control in her area had improved. If Xiao Yuan came, he would only get a small share and wouldn't stand out. She sent him a letter, telling him to choose a more challenging location, such as the Loess Plateau. The harsh environment there would make his abilities more apparent once things improved, and besides, his profession was about environmental protection, not something that could be achieved overnight; there was no room for shortcuts or cheating.

“Son, I hope you remember that you chose to enter politics to improve the environment. I have spent years planting trees and grass in the desert to combat desertification. I hope that one day you will rise to a high position based on solid achievements, rather than taking detours and shortcuts for promotion. Otherwise, I would rather my son be an ordinary person for the rest of his life.”