"Li Xiulian probably wanted to come with Yu Wenli to live a better life. She was able to be with Yu Wenli because he probably made a lot of promises to her. Now she's in the village, and her family doesn't pay any attention to her. Zhou Fukun will be back in two years, and Zhou Yanshan will be released from prison one day. How can she go back?"

At the time, Zhou Fukun was only sentenced to five years. Once he returned, the Zhou family had a pillar of support. If Li Xiulian were to return to the village, she would inevitably be targeted.

Shen Heng said, "She can't stay here either. She sweeps the streets in a place like the train station. Regardless of how much she earns, in that environment, a woman like her will get into trouble sooner or later."

It's likely that Li Xiulian, just as Bai Jiaojiao said, followed Yu Wenli here. Even though she discovered that life wasn't as good as she imagined, she still couldn't go back.

Bai Jiaojiao agreed with Shen Heng's point of view: "It's too dangerous here. Even Yang Fenglin was deceived like this. From what I know, Li Xiulian isn't a smart person. If she stays in Zhuzhou, she'll only be at his mercy. If it were me, I would choose to go back to the village. Even if Zhou Fukun makes things difficult for her, she'll still have the village chief and brigade leader to support her. No matter how hard life gets, she'll be safe. If she's capable, she can find another man in her hometown and marry someone from another village. It'll be the same."

"You're quite resourceful. Why don't you tell Li Xiulian next time you meet her?"

Bai Jiaojiao was seriously analyzing the situation with Shen Heng, while Shen Heng was teasing her. Bai Jiaojiao pinched Shen Heng and said, "Didn't you ask first? I was just saying. What she wants to do is her business. I can't control other people's fate."

"Alright, go to sleep now. Be well-rested tomorrow so we can go out again."

Shen Heng wanted to sleep with Bai Jiaojiao in his arms, but Bai Jiaojiao refused because she felt hot and kicked him away.

Shen Heng wanted to hug her again, but Bai Jiaojiao said, "If you don't behave, you can go sleep with Feng Lin."

Shen Heng: "..."

Yang Fenglin tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. The next morning, he got up with dark circles under his eyes, hadn't shaved, and looked extremely slovenly. This young man in his early twenties looked like a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties.

"Are you really going out today looking like this?" Bai Jiaojiao was worried that Yang Fenglin might fall down because he was so listless.

Yang Fenglin nodded: "Yes, yes, we've come all this way. Besides, if you leave me here alone, what if I get scammed again?"

Bai Jiaojiao found Yang Fenglin's words both reasonable and absurd, so she could only laugh and say, "Then let's go have breakfast."

The three of them went out. Yang Fenglin hadn't eaten much the night before and was starving. He wolfed down his food and, after finishing, let out a satisfied burp and wiped his mouth. "I didn't sleep a wink last night and almost starved to death. I got up and asked that lady, and she said she wasn't bringing me food anymore. How come this place is worse than Yancheng? I used to stay in a guesthouse there, and there was always food, no matter how late it was."

Bai Jiaojiao said, "The hotels you stay in are all high-end guesthouses. How can they compare to this?"

"Sigh, I couldn't sleep last night because I was hungry." In general, Yang Fenglin was still carefree; he just couldn't sleep because he was hungry, so he could only think about what happened during the day.

After breakfast, she felt much better and started chattering again beside Shen Heng and Bai Jiaojiao: "Brother-in-law, is the stall you mentioned the same kind of market as yesterday? I thought their little trinkets were quite interesting."

"It's much more interesting than that. You'll see when you get there."

Since Shen Heng brought Bai Jiaojiao along, ordinary places were obviously not an option.

The three walked for about two miles and then took a bus for about half an hour before arriving at the market that Shen Heng had mentioned.

On the street, Yang Fenglin took another deep breath, because he hadn't slept well the night before and almost fainted from the effort.

"These are all small vendors, but it's interesting that they each sell their own things."

Unlike yesterday's shopping mall, the stalls here are mostly tiny shops, barely the size of a palm, with small stalls packed tightly together, without even a storefront.

But the items on the street are quite interesting. Almost no two items are the same. Even if the categories are the same, there is a wide variety of products, and the items on the street are different.

Yang Fenglin seemed to have gone mad, picking and choosing this and that, touching the money in his pocket, wondering if the eighty yuan in his pocket would be of any use.

He squatted by a stall selling small trinkets and spotted a small green tin frog that could jump quite far with a twist. He immediately fell in love with it, taking two in his hands and rubbing them constantly.

The stall owner held out a hand: "Fifty cents each."

Upon hearing this, Yang Fenglin was immediately ready to pay, but Chen Heng said from the side, "Fifty cents a pair."

The stall owner thought Yang Fenglin was a simpleton, so he tried to quote a higher price. Just as Yang Fenglin was about to pay, a dark-faced man appeared.

Not daring to provoke him, he could only say, "If this young man likes it, take it, take it."

Upon hearing this, Yang Fenglin was so pleased with the good news that he immediately gave one to Bai Jiaojiao: "Sister, this is for you."

Bai Jiaojiao, both amused and exasperated, accepted: "Okay."

"Give me another shuttlecock." Shen Heng picked out a shuttlecock with a lot of feathers from the stall and held it in his hand.

Even so, the stall owner couldn't afford to lose money, so he said, "How can this be? The cost price of this tin frog is already fifty cents. I'm opening a stall, and I can't afford to lose money if I don't make any, can I?"

"Fine, then we don't want it."

Shen Heng put down the shuttlecock and took the tin frog from Yang Fenglin's hand.

"Hey, young man, why are you so impatient? Judging from your accent, you're from out of town. Well then, it's not easy for you to come all the way to Zhuzhou, so consider this shuttlecock a gift from me. Come to Zhuzhou again next time!"

The stall owner made excuses for himself, and only then did Shen Heng take out his money.

Spend money where you should, save where you should—Yang Fenglin stared in disbelief: "This…"

When had he ever seen anything like bargaining? Isn't it always the same that you have to pay whatever price the department store lists? Even if the King of Heaven himself came, you couldn't go a penny less.

Shen Heng shoved the shuttlecock into Yang Fenglin's hand as well. Yang Fenglin, dressed in a neat military uniform, with a face that looked like he was in his thirties or forties, held a tin frog in one hand and a shuttlecock in the other, looking utterly out of place.

Seeing that Bai Jiaojiao was trying not to laugh, he put the two items in his pocket and said, "This street is so cheap! At this rate, the eighty yuan in my pocket can buy this whole street!"

He suddenly became cheerful again, and Bai Jiaojiao still couldn't help but laugh.

Bai Jiaojiao stopped at a button stall nearby: "These buttons are nice. I'll sew a little jacket for Xiao Shitou when I get back."

"I sewed all these buttons myself, using the best materials and quality. Little sister, are you going back to make your own clothes?"