"When he was 12, he told me he was going to write a groundbreaking novel and it would make a lot of money."
"What groundbreaking subject matter?"
Lu Qingxuan couldn't help but think of the development of domestic literature in recent years, but she couldn't think of any subject matter that could be called "groundbreaking".
Chen Chi smiled bitterly and said, "I want to know too. Unfortunately, I still don't know what topic he is talking about."
"You didn't ask him?"
Chen Chi's smile was even more helpless: "I didn't ask."
Lu Qingxuan was silent, and Chen Chi said with a smile:
"You must be wondering why I am so indifferent to this matter and why I have no curiosity about my nephew's affairs?"
Lu Qingxuan felt a little embarrassed by Chen Chi's direct question: "That's not the case..."
"It's not that I don't care, it's that I simply don't believe it," Chen Chi told her. "At that time, I didn't believe that Chen Ya could write a novel. After all, he was only 12 years old at that time!"
Lu Qingxuan was speechless.
It feels like this scene is a bit familiar.
"So, you thought he was joking and didn't ask him? Then how did you know he really wrote the novel?"
Chen Chi smiled, and a hint of reminiscence appeared on her half-made-up face.
"If I want to talk about this, I have to tell you what happened in the first few years after we arrived in Beijing. But this story is a bit long. Miss Lu, you still have things to do..."
"I'm fine now." Lu Qingxuan's eyes were firm and her tone was tough. "Just treat it as a chat before the wedding to help you relieve your tension."
Chen Chi looked at her gratefully and nodded, as if he was very grateful for her understanding. He then sorted out his thoughts and slowly began to speak:
"That was two years after my brother and I arrived in Beijing. In the first year, we were unfamiliar with the lifestyle there, ran into obstacles everywhere, and suffered a lot. But eventually, we finally settled down.
"We found a basement with a monthly rent of 1,000 yuan. Although it was dark and damp, it was large enough for three people to live in. It was much better than the previous rental house where we had to remind the people next to us even to stretch our legs.
"At the time, there was a policy that some schools were open specifically for children of migrant workers. Chen Ya and I both went to school there. Although the education quality was not very good, at least we had a school to go to.
"We live a hard life. But I know that my sister-in-law who stayed back home is the one who has it really tough. Our income in Beijing has gone up a lot, but back home, farming is already a meager income, and she has to take care of two children. You can imagine how difficult it is for her.
"So, I've been thinking about how to go out and work to earn money and help my family alleviate the difficulties.
"I secretly found a part-time job at a restaurant and did odd jobs every day after school. In three months, I saved up a thousand yuan. I filled out a remittance form according to the procedures and sent it to Chen Ya. I told him to use the money to supplement the family expenses.
"Soon, he wrote back and sent me the remittance slip, telling me that he had made a lot of money writing books and that his family no longer had to worry about making a living."
Lu Qingxuan sat on a stool beside her, with her hands on her knees, listening blankly to Chen Chi's story. The makeup artist was helping Chen Chi put on makeup, her movements deliberately light, as if she was also listening to Chen Chi's story.
Hearing this, Lu Qingxuan's heart began to tighten.
Perhaps this is the beginning of Chen Ya's entire life experience. He started from here, from the mountain village to the world, and finally successfully founded Jiang Lizhi.
Lu Qingxuan is a person who pursues excellence and she likes to read celebrity biographies. Listening to Chen Ya's story, she felt as if she were reading a celebrity biography.
Chen Chi continued, "I naturally thought Chen Ya was just trying to comfort me, but when I went to the bank to handle the formalities later, I found that there was an extra 50,000 yuan in my account. I then realized that he was absolutely not lying."
"So, have you asked him what novel he is writing?" Lu Qingxuan asked quickly.
Chen Chi frowned and said, "I think I asked, but I also think I didn't. It's been so long that I can't remember clearly. But regardless of whether I asked or not, he didn't tell me. My brother remarried around that time, and things got bad with our family, so we kept in touch less and less. I didn't feel comfortable asking for the truth."
Lu Qingxuan said, "Wait, you're having a falling out with your family? What happened? Didn't you guys just..."
She looked a little stunned. Based on the fragments she had heard from Chen Ya, Chen's father had abandoned his wife and children and left his hometown from the very beginning, but Chen Chi's story was different.
Chen Chi pursed his lips and said, "Is Chen Ya saying that his father abandoned his wife and children and left his hometown in order to marry a rich lady? From his perspective, that's indeed the case, but that's not the whole truth."
"So, what is the truth?"
Chen Chi said: "Think about it, if he came to the capital with the intention of abandoning his wife, why would he bring Chen Hai and me with him? He didn't intend to abandon his wife, at least not at that time.
"Miss Lu, you may not be very familiar with the historical context of that time. Back then, a large number of rural people went to the city to work, and my brother was just one of them.
"Moving to the city didn't mean betraying my hometown. It was just that the countryside at that time was too poor, so poor that it couldn't support so many people.
"The reason he wanted to take me with him was because my parents died early and I was still in school. He couldn't leave me to be raised by my sister-in-law because that would put too much pressure on her.
"He took Chen Hai and me to Beijing to work, and sent the money he earned back home; my sister-in-law stayed at home to raise Chen Ya and Chen Xi. This was something they had agreed on from the beginning, otherwise my sister-in-law wouldn't have agreed to him leaving like this.
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