Chapter 148 Extra 1
Wei Li mixed water and eggs with pickled vegetables and stir-fried them, then ate a large steamed bun.
This dish was clearly cooked by Zhao Xiheng. While it's normal for pickled vegetables and eggs to be a little salty, it's unusual to see it this salty. The eggs are also burnt and blackened. Fortunately, the steamed buns probably weren't made by her, so they're alright.
"When are your exams?"
What exam?
"It's the exam that gets you into university from high school," he asked.
"The college entrance exam is in July. July 7th and July 8th."
Wei Li nodded. No wonder she took out her books again; it's already the 3rd. "Is it still possible to take the exam this year?"
When he asked that, Zhao Xiheng was stunned. Could she... still take the college entrance examination?
She tugged at her clothes. "I'm already married, and I'm still teaching in elementary school. Can I manage?" So much had happened in the past year, it felt like half a lifetime had passed. When she thought back to her school life, she felt that she was too far removed from the ivory tower of school life. Even when she thought of her former classmates, she felt like they were from a different world, let alone those students who were a year or two younger than her.
Wei Li wiped his mouth and said, "If you think you can't go to university because you're married, then how about we get a divorce?"
Zhao Xiheng's pupils shrank in surprise. She kicked him, not expecting to be so strong. Wei Li was kicked to the ground along with the chair, making a clattering sound.
She dragged the person up from the ground.
Wei Li clutched his waist, deliberately grimacing and saying, "I was just joking with you, you didn't have to be so harsh."
"I wasn't paying attention, it wasn't intentional. Who told you to say such things so easily?" Zhao Xiheng pressed his waist, a little worried. "Are you alright? Should we see a doctor?"
"If we break up, you'll have to serve me for the rest of your life." Wei Li leaned against her, and Zhao Xiheng knew he was just being silly, so she pushed him away, "Get out of here, get out of here."
“If we get divorced, you’ll be the one who loses out more. You’ll have spent money and lost your wife. Several thousand yuan will have gone down the drain.” Zhao Xiheng thought for a moment. If we were to compare the investment, Wei Li would definitely be the one who would be least willing to get divorced between the two of them.
"So what? If I really divorce you, you can take that college entrance exam?" Wei Li looked at Zhao Xiheng's expression and continued, "The country doesn't stipulate that you can't go to university after you get married. People say that many college students get married in school. What makes you any worse than them? You can't go to school just because you're married?"
"Just tell me if you want to or not?"
"Of course I want to." She nodded eagerly.
Zhao Xiheng definitely wanted to, but she never told anyone.
Mom will definitely feel guilty for not being able to send her daughter to university.
As for Wei Li, she couldn't say anything more. In truth, she was a wife Wei Li had bought for two thousand yuan. Although she was bought, Zhao Xiheng was still quite grateful to him; he had given her enough money to treat her mother and improve their lives.
Ordinary people have already treated her well, so for her to ask to go to school and university is really shameless and makes too many demands.
It's strange, though. People buy wives to have them dote on and have children, but Wei Li gives her the feeling that they really fell in love and got married, and that they get along well and are equals.
"Go if you want to. I earn money so you can have a good life, don't I?" She twisted the hem of her clothes with her fingers, looking so pitiful that it was heartbreaking. Wei Li's heart skipped a beat, and he slammed his hand on the table and blurted out.
After saying that, he realized something was wrong. It seemed like he was putting her too much importance on him, and she might take advantage of him and start ignoring him. He subconsciously touched the bridge of his nose and said, "No, I'm just making money, it has nothing to do with you."
Zhao Xiheng felt both amused and touched, her heart burning. Wei Li was just too good to be true. Those people didn't understand him and always said he was bad. "Aren't you afraid I'll run off with someone after I go to university? You're so good to me!"
There are quite a few of these kinds of things.
Many college students have husbands or wives at home, but once they go to university, their horizons broaden, and they gain education, they abandon their original spouses. If Wei Li really wants to keep her, he should prevent her from going to school and make her stay at home to have children.
"If you dare run off with someone else, I'll break your legs." He flicked her forehead. "Being good to you? I'm only good to you because you're my wife and you're beautiful."
Wei Li got up and tidied up the dishes. Zhao Xiheng tried to take them, but he dodged to the side and said fiercely, "Go to sleep."
His clothes were piled on the chair. Zhao Xiheng reached into her pocket, pulled out a cardboard notebook and a bunch of loose change, and soaked the clothes in detergent water, waiting for him to wash them in the morning.
When Wei Li was washing clothes, he never remembered such trivial things. Rather than saying he had a bad memory, it would be more accurate to say he was careless. Sometimes he would even forget where he put his household registration book and bankbook, and wouldn't even know if he lost them.
After he got a second passbook, he simply handed it over to Zhao Xiheng, telling her to buy whatever the family needed herself.
Zhao Xiheng saw that there was only a little over a thousand yuan left in her savings account.
The wedding cost several hundred yuan, and he also paid for the travel expenses and accommodation in Shanghai.
Of the two thousand yuan given to her, Zhao Xiheng only used half to pay for medicine and examinations on her trip to Shanghai.
She did the math: when Wei Li said he'd spend two thousand yuan to marry her, her entire fortune was less than four thousand...
He's incredibly bold, not afraid of marrying the wrong person, and even willing to support her through university.
"You won't make it to the college entrance exam this year, but once you get into university next year, I'll put up a banner for you at the entrance of the village, the biggest and brightest one ever." Wei Li, who was lying down, suddenly turned over and stretched out his finger, "Let's make a pinky promise."
When his wife becomes a college student and he has money, let's see who looks down on him then.
"Okay, then you should get ready in advance." Zhao Xiheng smiled subconsciously and beckoned him with her little finger.
In the sweltering heat of July 1982, Zhao Xiheng applied to the Department of Mathematics at Peking University. When the admission notice arrived, her mother chased after her and gave her a severe beating, hitting and scolding her at the same time.
"You've set your sights so high, aren't you afraid you won't pass? If you don't pass, you can come back and herd cattle! You brat, you've got some nerve."
You have to register first and then take the exam. If you don't pass and don't get enough points, all the hard work of studying for a year will be wasted, and you'll have to spend another year studying.
Wei Li sat on the doorstep with a bowl in her hand, watching Zhao Xiheng get beaten with glee. After receiving a glare from Zhao Xiheng, she shifted the blame, saying, "It was your good son-in-law who encouraged me. He said if we were going to apply, we should apply to the best school."
Zhao's mother turned her gaze to Wei Li, who immediately tensed up and gripped his chopsticks tightly.
"Xiao Wei, Xiao Wei's advice to you is good... Young people should have a pioneering spirit."
"Mom! You're being unfair!" Zhao Xiheng shouted.
Zhao's mother slapped her hand. She could hit and scold her own daughter, but could she hit and scold her son-in-law? What if she hit her son-in-law and he held a grudge and treated her daughter badly?
The banner that was supposed to be there had been ordered by Wei Li before Zhao Xiheng's results came out. After dinner, he couldn't wait to hang the banner at the entrance of the village, leaving the villagers looking at each other in surprise.
Ah! Beijing? Beijing is the capital! Universities in the capital must be good schools. I never imagined that Wei Li, that good-for-nothing, would not only be famous for his business outside, but also have a wife who's a college graduate. What incredible luck!
Wei Li started outsourcing his logistics fleet last year, making him one of the first people to enter the logistics industry.
He seized the opportunity well and has now basically taken over the logistics of the entire Northeast region.
However, as the country's economic center of gravity gradually shifts southward, there is great potential in the south, and he is still gradually trying to develop in the south.
In September, when university started, Wei Li and Zhao's mother took the train to Beijing to see Zhao Xiheng off.
This can be considered the second highlight of Wei Li's life.
The first was when his small company went public, causing a stir in the whole village. Now, when he sends his wife to university, the entire village is gathering to see him off.
Looking into their eyes, Wei Li suddenly felt that there was no need to stay in this small village anymore; he had done everything he wanted to do.
When he was a child, he was starving and was constantly being chased away by his neighbors.
They said he was a little bastard, destined to be a good-for-nothing when he grew up, destined to be a beggar. He wouldn't even be able to find a wife, and even if he did, he'd just trick some mentally challenged and ugly vagrant into coming to his beggar's den.
Then he stayed in the village, built the only brick house in the village, drove the biggest car, earned dozens of times more money than them, and now he has married the most beautiful and educated wife.
There's no point in staying in such a disturbing place.
He sold the house to the village secretary and took some furniture with him.
Wei Li was the first wealthy man in their village, and his wife was a college graduate. Even though they used to look down on him, now they all fawned over him, bringing him eggs and steamed buns as he was leaving.
Wei Li naturally disdained such belated flattery and refused to accept any of it.
The principal sat far away on a small earthen slope, smoking a pipe.
Wei Li waved his hand at him, "Old man, I'm leaving, and I'm never coming back."
"Get out of here, you little brat! I'm so annoyed by you!" the principal cursed. He slowly stood up, picked up a tattered cloth and gave it to Zhao Xiheng. "This is filled with soil. If you get sick from the change in water and soil, just take some and put it in your water to drink."
The bag was quite heavy, weighing four or five pounds, so Zhao Xiheng couldn't refuse his kindness and accepted it.
The family of three boarded the train, and Zhao's mother fell asleep leaning against the carriage.
Zhao Xiheng hugged the soil the principal had given her, touched it, and heard a faint crackling sound inside.
She opened it, rummaged through the soil, and found a cloth bag inside. She opened the bag and found it wrapped in layers of plastic bags. When she opened it, she found a neat stack of money, totaling five hundred yuan.
She nudged Wei Li's arm and handed him the money, saying, "Look."
This money clearly wasn't meant for her.
When Wei Li looked at it, he saw that the money was divided into five parts, separated by pieces of paper, each with the year written on it.
8508/8509/1980/1981/1982
Finally, there was a crooked note: "When I was young, I read Liang Qichao's essays and only remembered one sentence: 'It is the responsibility of the youth of China to create a young China in the future.' Thank you for your contribution to the construction of a young China."
He didn't know what the sentence meant, but he knew that these were the years he had donated supplies to the village school. Although the value of the supplies he donated wasn't equivalent to the actual amount, it was probably all the money that stingy old man had saved in his life.
At the end of last year, the government allocated funds to support the construction of rural schools, and the village schools were completely revitalized. They also had new volunteer teachers, and the principal led the teachers to persuade students to return to school from house to house.
Wei Li always thought that the principal didn't know that he had bought those things.
"Old man," he muttered softly, a smile playing on his lips, but his eyes reddening.
The author's note: The responsibility for shaping a future, youthful China rests with the youth of China. (From Liang Qichao's "On the Youth of China")
Creating a strong and vibrant China in the future is the responsibility of Chinese youth. In context, this roughly means that only outstanding Chinese youth can create the future of the motherland. The principal thanked Gouzi for his contribution to education, which indirectly promotes the future development of the country.
But if the dog doesn't study hard, he'll probably never understand...
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