Chapter 22: Little New Year Events

It seems that the further back in memory we go, the more importance we attach to traditional solar terms and festivals. As the New Year approaches, the streets and alleys have already begun to be decorated with red and colorful decorations.

During the "Xiangjiang Failed Line" incident, after following Su Yun's Dongfeng and earning nearly a million, the Wang family's thoughts gradually became more active: the foreign trade garment factory where they were working had been affected by the intensification of the U.S.-Vietnam War and the domestic reaction in the United States. The war mood is high, business is getting harder and harder to do, more and more returned goods are backlogged, and wages are being deducted, with delays, shortages or even suspensions.

This is not because the factory's capital chain has been completely out of control, but because the factory owner has lost confidence in his own factory and is planning to sell the factory and immigrate abroad with his family. As a result, he diverted the factory's funds to cover the various immigration procedures.

The Wang couple have worked in this garment factory for more than ten years, and even their children are here. They have become half-family members with their co-workers. Now that they have become successful, they naturally want to bring these old friends along.

Since they don't know how to do anything else anyway, they might as well take the opportunity to buy a factory and do their old business.

Su Yun agreed with this very much: money cannot make money if it is just left there, but will only depreciate rapidly as time goes by. The Wang couple's intention to do business will make it easier for her.

Otherwise, she could only advise them to find a way to buy a property and hold on to it until it appreciates in value.

Speaking of buying a house, both families actually have this idea - although after you move into a public housing unit, the Housing Authority will not force you to move out unless something serious happens, even if it is developed, but Hong Kong has always been a place with a large population and limited land, and housing is tight. It is really unreasonable for them to occupy public housing even though they have money.

I haven’t moved to a new house yet. Firstly, buying a house and moving in is not that easy. I can’t just buy a house I like and move in. Secondly, I can’t bear to leave these old neighbors, so I want to stay here for a while longer so that I can get to know them more and leave behind beautiful memories for the future.

Compared to Su Yun and the Wang couple, who were mentally mature and thinking about their future, the two brothers Jiaju and Jiaxiang became more and more active as their family conditions improved.

"I heard from Qiangzi and Huizi that there is a big elephant named 'Tiannu' in Liyuan! It's super big! There are also Lianbao, Axi, Haola, Liqi, Mimi, Maria..." Wang Jiaxiang counted on his fingers and introduced to Su Yun the names of various ornamental animals such as elephants, crocodiles, lions, tigers, etc. that he heard from the group of naughty children.

It was a rare weekend, and the adults in the Wang family were on holiday at home, so they could help take care of Grandma Su. Therefore, Su Yun now had some rare free time.

So, while she is free, the two brothers Jiaju and Jiaxiang want to take her to Liyuan Amusement Park by bus.

"There's a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, and a merry-go-round inside... There are also blindfolded knife performances on Saturday and Sunday, as well as Cantonese opera and a singing stage!" Wang Jiaju hurriedly added, fearing that Su Yun didn't want to go out.

"Okay, let's go together." Su Yun couldn't persuade the two naughty kids, so he could only say something to Grandma Su, pack up and get ready to go out.

Grandma Su's eyes were full of smiles: "Go ahead, go ahead, Nannan, you have been taking care of me at home all day, and you must be tired. There are so many people at home today, why don't you go out with Jiaju and the others to play and relax."

"Yeah!" After confirming that Su Yun would go out together, the two naughty kids Jiaju and Jiaxiang immediately clapped their hands happily.

Su Yun laughed: Because she was busy setting up the stall to make money and preparing for the competition, and then she had to take care of Granny Su. In the eyes of the naughty children in the housing estate, she had not gone to the mountain behind the Su Estate to play with them for a long time.

The hill behind So Uk Estate is connected to many mountain ranges and there are many small animals. The groups of monkeys on the hill are well-known bullies in the estate. They sneak into the estate from time to time to steal food and also walk around in the pedestrian walkways in a swaggering manner.

Sometimes when you see the old men and women in the village doing morning exercises, they will come up to join in, squeaking and scratching everywhere, causing quite a nuisance.

Therefore, if the naughty kids in the housing estate go to the back hill to play in a group, the adults at home will let them bring various wooden sticks that they have named themselves, such as the Sword of the Heavenly Sword, the Dragon Slaying Sabre, and the Dog Beating Stick. When they encounter a group of monkeys on the hill, they can not only defend themselves, but also have a big fight with monkeys to drive away the monkey bullies if necessary.

This is really a case of one thing conquering another.

After seeing more common animals, I naturally want to see other kinds. In the past, my family was poor and I never went to Liyuan to play. I could only listen to other children who had been there talking about it. Now that I have money and time, I want to go to this paradise for children myself!

Su Yun is now rich and has plenty of free time, so she took the opportunity to experience the style of the 1970s.

When we arrived at the entrance of Liyuan Amusement Park by bus, there was already a long queue of people. After squeezing into the queue and buying tickets with the help of the two brothers Jiaju and Jiaxiang, Su Yun also bought a large handful of cotton candy for each person, which made the children around her salivate.

She worked hard to make money just to enjoy life - being surrounded by so many envious and hateful eyes, Su Yunsi, who had developed a comfortable and hedonistic mentality in later generations, did not feel uncomfortable at all.

Thanks to Su Yun, Jiaju and Jiaxiang also had a handful of big marshmallows in each hand.

In order to avoid getting lost in the crowd, the three of them held hands and walked towards the small stage to watch the performance.

Not long after they sat down, two little girls who were a little older than Su Yun came over from the aisle. They had boxes hanging around their necks and sang as they walked: "The plum blossoms are beautiful, the peach blossoms are beautiful, they are so beautiful with their fragrance..."

"Sister, do you want to buy some flowers? If you don't like flowers, my sister has some delicious candies!" The girl who looked younger handed over a box full of flowers, her eyes full of anticipation.

Before Su Yun could answer, a middle-aged man sitting in the back shouted in dissatisfaction: "Amei! You let your two daughters work again?! At least let them rest!"

"Mom and brother have lost all their money speculating in the stock market. If they don't make some money, there will be no rice to cook porridge at home..." The little girl looked cold and stubborn, but after hearing what the middle-aged man said, tears fell uncontrollably.

"That's not how I exploit you! Your mother and brother are adults with hands and feet. They usually make money by performing with you two sisters on stage. They won't even let you two take a break during the New Year's Day!" The middle-aged uncle guessed that he was familiar with the two sisters. The more he talked, the angrier he got. "No, I have to go talk to your mother!"

As he said this, the middle-aged man stood up from his seat and ran to the backstage in the suspicious eyes of Su Yun and the surrounding audience.

After taking a closer look at the little girl's features, Su Yun seemed to understand something and immediately looked at her with a sharp gaze: "What's your name?"

Facing the little girl's puzzled expression, Su Yun quickly added: "I have seen your performances before..."

"My name is Mei Aishuang, and this is my younger sister Mei Yanshuang. We often perform on stage in many places." The older and gentler sister Mei Aishuang came over and explained with a smile.

"Oh..." Su Yun pretended to understand something, "I really enjoy watching your performance. Here, I want three flowers and three bags of candy!"

Seeing the Mei sisters gratefully exchanging flowers and candies with Su Yun, and then turning around to continue to blend into the crowd and hawk goods, Wang Jia suddenly patted Su Yun's shoulder helplessly and said, "When did you see their performance? How come I didn't know?"

"I'll help if I can. It's not like I have much money." Su Yun smiled, opened a bag of candy, took out a candy, and stuffed it into his mouth.

Seeing Wang Jiaju giving her a look that said "I can't bear to look at you" with a sweet look in his mouth, Su Yun smiled even more, and turned around and couldn't help but glance at the Mei sisters in the crowd.

How wonderful it is that the people in our memories are still alive in this world.

Such ordinary yet slightly sweet days passed with the end of the calendar. The next afternoon, Su Yun, who had been "secluded" among the group of naughty kids in the housing estate for half a year, finally appeared again in the team heading to the back mountain with the two brothers Jiaju and Jiaxiang.

Seeing these naughty kids starting to scream and yell as soon as they entered the mountain, Su Yun smiled helplessly, found a flat place under the shade of a tree, sat down, took out the sketchbook she brought with her and started working.

It's not about sketching, but drawing stick figure-style film storyboards.

Before she entered the IT industry and became an endless office worker, she was also a "multi-talented" person. She had tried all kinds of trendy things such as cosplay, bankruptcy, and self-media. This made her look like she knows a little bit about everything but is not proficient in it.

The script has been basically written, but the expression of words is always limited, so during this period of free time, Su Yun took advantage of the free time to supplement her knowledge of storyboards in the system's small black room, and used her stick figure drawing skills, which she did not have time to improve at the moment, to draw the film storyboards.

However, even if she was just slacking off with her sketchbook, there were many people at home, in the corridors, on the stairs, and in the activity area. In order to avoid the plot leaking out, Su Yun used the excuse of going to the back mountain with everyone to play, and deliberately came to the back mountain to start. In this way, even if other children saw her, she had a reason to keep it secret before she finished drawing the figurines and writing the story, and refused other people's prying eyes.

Children of the same age are easier to deal with than bossy adult neighbors.

By dusk in the afternoon, I had almost finished half of the painting.

Su Yun put away her sketchbook, stood up, mixed in with the group of naughty kids and played for a while, and even followed them along many alternative roads that only children could fit in and out of.

There was constant laughter as they walked through the forests and caves, and Su Yun's childishness was almost aroused: these alternative "small" roads can only be walked on in the next few years.

When you grow up a little more, you will become an adult who has lost them.

So, you must never commit the literary youth disease!

The next day was the afternoon of the Little New Year. Reminiscing about the fun of childhood and in order to finish drawing the last few storyboards for the film, Su Yun and her friends fought off a group of monkeys that came to steal food. Then, she stayed on the mountain alone, using the excuse that she wanted to see the night view so that she could paint later.

So everyone went down the mountain to eat first: the monkeys had been driven away, and Su Yun knew the way because she had been with them many times before, so there was no need to worry about her getting lost.

As a result, Su Yun really got lost: it was the young Su Yun who had hung out with them many times and knew the way, not the new Su Yun!

Where the hell is this?

I wandered around but couldn't find the way down the mountain. I finally saw a familiar tree and ran over happily. When I turned around and took a look - yes, it was a deserted muddy mountain road that I had obviously never seen before, with a black vintage car parked on it.

Oh, no, there is a car parked there, and it looks like it is still in use...

That means there is someone!

Anyway, this is Hong Kong, not Japan, so there is no need to worry about encountering any weird stories like Spirited Away. Su Yun happily approached the car and took a look inside.

No one?!

Su Yun turned to the back of the car in confusion. Her keen hearing from playing music made her seem to hear a slight sob in the trunk.

Well done, you didn’t encounter any strange stories, but you did encounter a kidnapper!

Su Yun opened the trunk of the car with force and saw a little boy with his hands and feet tied tightly.

Seeing the cry for help in the little boy's eyes, Su Yun hurriedly took action and quickly untied the ropes on the boy's hands and feet.

Finally, he tore open the packing tape on the little boy's mouth with one hand, and without waiting for him to say anything, he approached him and whispered, "Run!"

Perhaps the most critical moments always bring out the strongest potential. During this operation, she not only heard footsteps in the woods, but also saw a path she walked yesterday.

"You crawl in first!" Judging from the appearance of the little boy, he was only two or three years older than Su Yun, and he could still walk on this alternative path, so Su Yun quickly let the little boy go first.

The frightened little boy didn't say much. He followed Su Yun into the woods, then got up and crawled into the gap.

Su Yun, who was at the rear, confirmed that the little boy had already gone in, and hurriedly started to move as well.

"Boss! I caught this damn bitch! She was the one who let our 'dragon grouper' go!" A strong man suddenly grabbed Su Yun's wrist and dragged her backwards.

Seeing the little boy subconsciously turning around to save her, Su Yun struggled and shouted at him: "Run!"

The restraint on my wrist suddenly became stronger and more urgent.

In a flash, Su Yun suddenly remembered a sentence she had seen from somewhere - when someone grabs your hand, you don't need to do anything, just step on his foot immediately and he will let go.

In a flash, Su Yunxin moved casually, and the moment the strong man dragged her to his side, she took advantage of the situation and stepped hard on the strong man's toes that were exposed outside the slippers.

Ignoring the terrible "Ah——" behind him, Su Yun slipped into the crevice again like a loach: it's because the Cantonese people are used to wearing slippers all year round!

She had just arrived and was going hiking, so naturally she was wearing her newly bought studded shoes.

After this step, everyone understands...

Relying on the dimensionality reduction attack of nailed shoes on slippers and the advantage of the road reserved for children, Su Yun successfully led the little boy to the street at the foot of the mountain.

A taxi suddenly stopped by the road where the two were standing. The driver poked his head out and asked, "Kid, would you like a ride? Do you remember where your home address is?"

Su Yun looked at herself and the little boy: the latter looked a little bit shabby, but the little boy's suit was obviously worth a lot of money, while she herself looked like a high-end designer even if she wore a sack... Perhaps the driver thought they were children who got lost while hiking and separated from their families.

Su Yun took the little boy to the back seat. After hearing the little boy tell the driver an address in the Mid-Levels luxury residential area, the driver immediately smiled in surprise and stepped on the accelerator to drive very fast.

"What's your name?" Su Yun asked.

"Zhao Lizhong." The little boy answered weakly.

Zhao?!

At the same time, at the Zhao family, Huang Misheng was heartbroken when she learned that her youngest son had also been kidnapped. Fang Mona and the Zhao family's two daughters, Zhao Suwen and Zhao Suyun, were constantly comforting her.

"Why don't we call the police?" suggested the eldest son Zhao Liming.

"No, we can't call the police!" Zhao Rifu objected flatly. "Once we call the police, we'll be in trouble with the media."

"Those kidnappers just want money. As long as money can solve the problem, it's not a problem. Just wait for them to call."

These familiar words...

Recalling the incident nine years ago when his eldest son was kidnapped in Singapore, Zhao Rifu was busy watching movies and company matters, and only planned to pay to replace the kidnapper...

After so many years of resentment and guilt, Huang Misheng finally couldn't help but explode: "Do you still think there will be a daughter to exchange for your son?! No more!"

After these words were spoken, the whole audience fell silent.

Huang Misheng realized that he had said something wrong, and immediately looked at Fang Mona next to him with shame: "Mona, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it..."

Fang Mona was silent and shook her head: "It's none of your business. It was my decision at the beginning."

Looking at the silence of Huang Misheng and Fang Mona, Zhao Liming also lowered his head: In fact, the reason for all this lies with him.

When he was staying with his uncle in Singapore, he was suddenly kidnapped.

Zhao Rifu was too busy with work to go, and the kidnappers demanded that his uncles and aunts, who were men capable of resistance, should not be asked to pay the ransom, so his mother Huang Misheng took the ransom money to Singapore.

Also going there was Fang Mona, who was eight months pregnant.

Although Fang Mona registered as a "concubine" when she came to Hong Kong, she always regarded herself as a confidante and did not live with their family. Therefore, compared with those gold-diggers who took advantage of the fact that the concubine system had not been abolished to force the first wife to abdicate, Fang Mona's knowledge and taste did not make their family dislike them. In terms of face, everyone was able to get by in those years.

It was not until Fang Mona risked her life to accompany Huang Misheng to pay the ransom and save the man that their relationship gradually improved and became harmonious.

During the escape, Fang Mona had a miscarriage and gave birth to a skinny baby girl who was born prematurely and could not open her eyes and only whimpered occasionally. The situation was critical and they could not let the baby's whimpering be heard by the robbers chasing them...

Finally, they placed the baby girl in the dense grass.

But when they escaped from danger and went back to look for the baby girl, all they found in the bush was a pile of tattered clothes, some wolf hair, and... bloodstains on the ground.

After returning, Fang Mona was found to have sustained serious injuries and would never be able to get pregnant again.

Although Fang Mona did not bear a grudge against this and started working at Zhao's after she recovered and was discharged from the hospital, Huang Misheng always felt sorry for Fang Mona: Huang Misheng believed that Fang Mona was using work to numb herself - because not only did she lose the right to be a mother, but because her daughter died too young, according to custom, she could not even give her daughter a name...

In the small Buddhist temple where Huang Misheng prays at home, the tablets on them can only read "The seat of Zhao's daughter".

People say that Huang and Fang of the Zhao family get along well with each other. Not only does Zhao Rifu enjoy the blessing of having two wives, but he also has various actresses to accompany him in his company. He lives a happy and carefree life. However, few people know how many unknown secrets are hidden under this harmony.

No one is a bad person or a good person at the beginning. What the ending will be is just a matter of what choices you make at the crossroads of life.

The silence in the living room was suddenly broken by a shout from outside the door.

"Hello! Is anyone there? I've brought your young master and young lady back!"