Chapter 14

The next morning, at 6:30 a.m. sharp, Fu Le delivered the milk to the government compound.

Hearing the knock, Zhang Xia quickly came out. In the dim morning light, the pretty little girl was covered in sweat. "Oh, Fu Le, you're here so early. Your uncle isn't even up yet." Looking at Fu Le's chubby face, Zhang Xia smiled. This daughter of Brother Fu's is well-loved; she even knows how to earn money to help support the family.

It's a pity that Brother Fu's business was so big back then, but he met the wrong people and lost it all.

"Hello, Auntie. I'm on my way to school this morning and just happened to be passing by. I'm not going to your house, but I'll be passing by around this time anyway." Fu Le chuckled as he took the money Zhang Xia handed him.

"Your children must be working so hard at school, Lele, thank you."

"Thank you so much, Auntie, for choosing our milk. Don't worry, the quality is absolutely top-notch. Your two younger siblings will definitely grow strong and tall. Auntie, I'm leaving now. See you tomorrow."

Zhang Xia smiled as she watched Fu Le disappear into the morning light, then picked up the milk and prepared to go inside.

"Hey, Xia, you've ordered milk? Which brand did you order? Is the quality good?" It was Grandma Zhang from next door. She had also been thinking about ordering milk for her grandson who wasn't growing much, but she was struggling to decide which brand was good, just like Xia had been struggling with before.

“This is from my older brother’s family. They deliver milk, and it’s all freshly squeezed. This bottle is 500 ml, which is enough for two kids. It’s a bit pricey, though, at 20 yuan a bottle, but it’s very thick and worth the price.”

"Twenty yuan a bottle, that's quite expensive, but your milk looks really good." Even though the light wasn't bright enough, Grandma Zhang's farsighted eyes could clearly see the milk in the bag; it was snow-white and thick, clearly not the kind you find in the market.

"Oh dear, it's been almost ten minutes, Grandma Zhang. We can't chat any longer, the children need to get up and have breakfast. Talk to you later."

"Hey, Xia..." Grandma Zhang, who wanted to ask Zhang Xiayun for a bottle, watched helplessly as the door closed. She wanted to knock, but the person was indeed busy at the moment, so she was too embarrassed to ask and went home feeling depressed.

Upon entering, the old man noticed the old woman's sullen expression and asked in confusion, "What's wrong? Weren't you going out for a stroll? Why are you back so soon, and looking so unhappy? What happened?"

"Hey, I ran into Xia when I went out. I saw that she had ordered milk, and a child delivered it. I was thinking of asking her for a bottle, but before I could even ask, she went off to do something else."

The old man immediately understood what it meant. His wife had been worried about Dun Dun not growing taller lately, but their son and daughter-in-law were at work and couldn't worry about such things.

"That's easy. Go out early tomorrow. It's 6:45 now. Go to the gate a little after 6:10 tomorrow. The milk delivery will be around that time. Why don't you just buy a bottle from them and try it yourself? Why bother Xia? Her milk is also ordered. If I give you a bottle, one of her family members will definitely not get any."

“That’s a good idea, but the milk is a bit expensive. It costs 20 yuan for 500 milliliters. But Xia said it’s freshly squeezed and very fresh. Even though I could see it through the bottle and bag, it looked really good. Xia is such a smart girl. If she thinks it’s good, it must be good.”

“Hey, it’s just 20 yuan. Our combined pensions are so much. This 600 yuan a month for milk is nothing.”

"That's true."

What Fu Le didn't know was that his milk was about to experience a surge in orders.

No. 2 Middle School.

There are people who get their parents called in on their first day back. Fu Le is one of them. It's a lingering effect of the fight he had with Xiao Sen last week.

The homeroom teacher, Ms. Sun, crossed her arms over her stomach, her large belly protruding, and leaned back like a roly-poly toy. "Tell me, Fu Le, when is your mother coming to school?"

Fu Le lowered his head. "Xiao Sen's parents didn't come to school either, did they?"

Teacher Sun: !!!

She laughed in exasperation, "You're quite the talker! Go get your mom right now! I'm going to tell her that not only have your grades dropped, but you've also gotten into a fight with a male classmate!"

"Teacher, with Xiao Sen's foul mouth, even if you called his parents today, do you believe that the moment they left, we'd be fighting again? He's a guy, always spewing filth, shouldn't you be telling him off? If he weren't so rude, would I hit him? Why can't he just focus on his studies? Why does he have to go looking for a beating!"

Fu Le was about to say a few more words when he suddenly noticed that Teacher Sun's big belly was twitching with anger, so he stopped talking and lowered his head again.

Just then, knock knock knock! There was a knock on the door.

Teacher Sun glared at Fu Le and said, "Come in!"

The wooden door creaked open, revealing a face with acne scars that Fu Le found repulsive.

Rolling her eyes, Fu Le looked outside the door and, sure enough, Xiao Sen's parents hadn't come either.

Xiao Sen walked in under Old Teacher Sun's angry gaze, and stood less than half a meter away from Fu Le, head down, "Teacher, my parents don't have time."

Teacher Sun: ...

"Fine, fine, fine, you don't have time, huh? You two will stand at the back and listen to the lesson today!!"

Fu Le and Xiao Sen, who were delighted to be assigned to guard duty, glared at each other unhappily as they left the teacher's office before obediently going to stand at the back.

During her time on duty, whenever get out of class ended and everyone went downstairs to play, Fu Le would quickly sit down for a while to get some rest. The morning would pass quickly without her getting too tired. That scoundrel of a homeroom teacher would sneak up behind her to check on her, which made her afraid to go back to her seat even when other teachers asked her to.

Fortunately, Mr. Sun was a kind-hearted person, and after lunch, he let the students go back to their seats to listen to the lesson.

Returning to high school after many years of graduation, Fu Le's studies were a complete mess, especially physics and chemistry—it was utterly awful. To avoid being expelled from her class, Fu Le devoted all her free time to studying. Even Xiao Sen, that jerk, didn't dare to mess with her, because when she was studying, she was so full of resentment that she seemed ready to explode at any moment.

Fu Le always refuses to participate in other classmates' advances, saying she doesn't have time. It's so hard for her!

From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. after evening self-study, Fu Le was completely absorbed in his studies.

Help! Help! Someone save me! I don't want to study!!

After riding her bicycle home, Fu Le washed up and went back to her desk to study diligently. She didn't want to miss out on a good university. If she hadn't studied well, she would study like crazy! Picking it up again was too difficult.

From 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., Fu Le was in good spirits thanks to the milk, until Fu's mother felt that studying for too long was not good and forced her to go to bed.

On Tuesday morning, Fu Le was shocked to see a brand new women's bicycle at the bottom of the stairs, and almost thought he was seeing things.

"Mom was originally going to let you ride the new one, but you said your classmates keep losing their bikes, so you can ride Mom's old bike instead."

Fu Le: I'm so annoyed, but it makes so much sense!

This time, when Fu Le brought milk to the government compound, he was surrounded by a group of people as soon as he pushed his bicycle through the gate.

Fu Le: !!!

What are you doing? Stealing milk?!

Isn't it just about stealing milk?

Fu Le was surrounded by a group of elderly men and women, all with the same goal: they all wanted to order milk.