Thirty-eight followers are hard to find.
The next morning, when Li Wei, the female lead in the scandal, was studying at school, she deliberately glanced at Luo Da, who was late. He was as normal as ever, which was fine. She was fine, but it would be bad if he disturbed the little boy.
Li Wei pretended not to see the pairs of eyes secretly watching them in the classroom and went about her business. Luckily, this was only elementary school; if it were middle or high school, she might have been called in for a talk by the teacher.
Today was Li Wei's turn to clean. After finishing the cleaning with her classmates, she looked at the unusually quiet classroom, the simple cement blackboard, the red brick podium, and the wooden tables and benches. Suddenly, she felt nostalgic. To match the atmosphere, she took out her Chinese textbook and sat by the window to read it. She read the text in the book again before packing her bag and going home.
If nothing unexpected happens, her second uncle should have brought all the fabrics she bought back by the afternoon. She could go home and check on them first. Li Wei walked along, lost in thought. As she passed the grove of trees, she subconsciously glanced inside again. Damn!
Can't this just be left alone?!
So, Luo Da didn't have to go to the group to do homework or practice martial arts today, but instead came here to practice real combat.
There, she saw six or seven boys of varying sizes fighting deep in the woods. Li Wei, whose eyes were still sharp enough not to be nearsighted, recognized three familiar faces: Luo Da, Xiao Huang, and Xiao Hei.
Li Wei really couldn't understand why these boys loved to fight so much. The older ones were one thing, but even Li Lianhui and Luo Er could be fighting in the blink of an eye, and of course, they'd make up just as quickly, without the adults needing to intervene. Among these kids, Erpangzi was the best; although he was a bit chubby, he was relatively well-behaved compared to others.
Thinking of this, Li Wei decided not to leave. She squatted down to the side and watched from a distance, considering whether she should call for help. Although there weren't many people in this area, and they didn't seem to care much about meddling in other people's business, she hadn't called for help when Luo Da was beaten up last time. Maybe the people in this area had seen this kind of thing too many times and were numb to it. And this grove of trees, could it be the infamous battlefield?
While Li Wei was lost in thought, the outcome of the battle was decided. Xiao Huang, Xiao Hei, and Luo Da were all knocked down, and the other four boys each kicked one of them before leaving.
Seeing that everyone had left the woods, Li Wei hurried over to clean up the battlefield. Her mental fortitude had been thoroughly trained, and she admired herself for being so calm!
Upon closer inspection of the three wounded men, aside from some superficial injuries, they seemed unharmed. Li Wei was confident in this diagnosis because firstly, they had fought unarmed, without using any weapons; secondly, they were just teenagers, how much strength could they possibly have? And the most compelling evidence was that the three men, lying on the ground, were leaning against trees to catch their breath, while simultaneously analyzing their gains and losses and planning for future revenge. Wow.
Xiao Hei and Xiao Huang were two or three years older than Luo Da. They were also noticeably taller. Li Wei didn't have a very good impression of them either. Too lazy to pay them any attention, she walked straight to Luo Da: "How are you? Do you want to go to Old Lin's veterinarian's clinic? Hmm. Not bad. Your clothes are quite clean this time. You don't need to wash them in the river, right? Can you get up? If you can, get up quickly. What time is it? Grandma Luo is waiting for you to come home for dinner." Really. An old lady of such an age raising three unruly boys. Is it easy?
Before Luo Da could say anything, Xiao Huang and Xiao Hei let out strange, ambiguous laughs. Li Wei found it extremely displeasing. Without a word, one of them went over and gave their opponent another kick. The two boys deliberately exaggerated their cries of "Ouch!" The cheeky Xiao Huang even said, "Luo Jianhua, you'd better go with your wife, hahaha..."
Li Wei was both amused and exasperated: "You little brat. What do you know!"
Anyway, Li Wei and Luo Da went home one after the other. Li Wei was too lazy to discipline the little brat anymore; it was simply beyond her capabilities. She was already being kind enough to look after him occasionally if she happened to see him.
When Li Wei got home, she hadn't had dinner yet. However, the rich aroma of stewed green beans and potatoes, and boiled corn wafted quite a distance. Her grandfather and father were sitting around a small square table in the yard, drinking tea and chatting. Li Lin and Li Lianhui were fidgeting to one side. Judging from the pastries next to them, they seemed to have just had some snacks.
When Grandpa Cheng saw his granddaughter return, he said, "Girl, go inside and check the fabric your second uncle brought. Make sure the quantity and pattern are correct. Check it carefully. If he doesn't do a good job, we won't need him anymore, haha..."
"Okay!" Li Wei agreed and ran inside.
She wanted to see for herself, not to see if her second uncle was efficient or not, but to see if Zhou Qing had fooled the rural people. If he dared to cause trouble, she would make him pay.
Li Wei put down her schoolbag, took out a pair of scissors, and cut open the non-woven bags covering the bundles of fabric, revealing the fabric inside. She counted them as she looked at them, then checked them against her original order; the numbers were correct. Just as she was busy working, her mother came in with a receipt: "Xiaoming, is it okay to buy so much fabric to make hair accessories? Look, it's over 1500 yuan! I didn't say anything when you bought scraps of fabric before because they were cheap. But now, how can you use so much fabric for hair accessories? It's such a waste of money! Don't touch this fabric. Just sell it to the neighbors and villagers to make clothes. Anyway, I think the patterns are okay, and the purchase price is cheaper than what the town's wholesale stores sell it for, so we won't lose money. Since you've already bought it, I won't say anything more, but don't touch it, you hear me!"
Seeing her mother's unquestionable expression, Li Wei was dumbfounded. What... what was going on? How could this have happened? The fabric she had painstakingly obtained through connections had just been taken by her mother? Li Wei was so angry that she screamed, "Grandpa!"
The only one who could keep Mom and Dad in check was Grandpa.
Grandpa Cheng hadn't expected this situation to arise. Under the oppression of feudal patriarchal despotism, his daughter Cheng Min refused to yield. Finally, after much mediation by Grandpa Cheng and Li Zhaoxing, they barely reached an agreement: Li Wei would make her own hair accessories, and her mother would sell her own fabrics, with neither of them interfering with the other.
The underlying meaning of the agreement is simply to see who can act faster.
Li Wei was very upset and didn't even have the appetite for dinner. After taking a shower, she went to visit Aunt Lin next door. Aunt Lin was quick and efficient; she had finished all the processing work during the day. Bundles of cloth strips were neatly stacked on the kang (a heated brick bed), and each bundle had a fixed length. Li Wei counted the quantity, settled the payment with Aunt Lin, and Aunt Lin beamed with joy, finding Li Wei even more pleasing to the eye.
Li Wei stopped chatting with her fourth aunt and directly asked her to help deliver all the cloth covers to Wu Feng's house. Anyway, they all knew she was doing this work for Li Wei's family and would find out sooner or later, so she wasn't worried about them conspiring against her. It also saved her some effort. Her fourth aunt readily agreed. She was quite satisfied with the work and thought it was no big deal.
Li Wei stayed at her fourth uncle's house for a while and asked her fourth aunt about the things to pay attention to when cutting a whole bolt of cloth. This fourth aunt had made a lot of clothes for herself and others, and she was quite knowledgeable about cutting. Li Wei was only doing the simplest cutting, and she understood it as soon as she heard it. This gave her more confidence in her fourth aunt's future work. Otherwise, if a whole bolt of cloth was delivered like this, Li Wei would really be unsure of herself. It's not the same as a scrap of cloth.
When I returned home from Aunt Lin's house, the adults were still sitting in the yard chatting and enjoying the cool air. Li Lin and Li Lianhui were already asleep. Luckily, there are few TV programs now, otherwise this would be prime time to watch TV.
For the first six months after Li Wei's family bought the TV, neighbors would come over to check it out. Later, the neighbors all started working for Li Wei's family and didn't have time to watch it anymore. Also, in the past six months, many other people in the village have bought TVs one after another, so it wasn't as rare as it used to be.
Li Wei was in a bad mood today and went to bed early. She woke up hungry in the middle of the night and felt really uncomfortable, so she got up and went to the kitchen, opened the cupboard, took out an ear of corn and started eating it. After finishing the corn, she still couldn't fall back asleep, so she thought for a moment and went to check on the west room where the fabrics were kept.
Touching the bundles of fabric, some smooth, some with crisscrossing patterns, Li Wei sighed. She really couldn't bear to let her mother sell them; buying fabric wasn't easy. As she touched the fabric, she felt the edges, examining their texture with her palm. Suddenly, an idea struck her. After a long pause, she made a firm decision: this was it!
The next day, Cheng Min prepared breakfast and was waking the children when she suddenly realized one of them was missing—Li Wei was nowhere to be seen. At first, Cheng Min didn't think much of it, assuming the child had gone to the toilet. But after breakfast, Li Wei was still nowhere to be seen, and her calls went unanswered. Cheng Min, her husband, and her father exchanged glances and began searching the house, both inside and out.
The child had a history of running away from home, and the adults were on tenterhooks. They had no idea when she had left so early in the morning, and all three adults were quite anxious. Finally, Cheng Min found her sleeping daughter in a mountain of fabric in the west room and breathed a sigh of relief. However, when she saw the fabric, or rather, the sea of strips of fabric that had been piled up, Cheng Min's eyes immediately blazed with anger.
Actually, Li Wei had a tough time too. She started working at midnight last night and continued until morning. She finally cut all those bolts of fabric into scarf-like strips. Her hands were covered in blisters from the scissors, and her back ached. She finally finished before collapsing into sleep this morning. Her last thought before falling asleep was, "Mom, you should sell towels this time!"
Seeing the blisters on Li Wei's hands and her tired face, Cheng Min felt terrible. After being lectured and comforted by her father and husband, she had no choice but to ask Li Lin to ask for leave for Li Wei. She herself wrote a leave note for Li Wei, stating that her hand was injured.
Li Wei's efforts paid off; she got all the fabric. Although her mother didn't criticize her afterward, her eyes always seemed thoughtful, making Li Wei uneasy for a long time. She didn't know how her mother planned to punish her, but in the end, her mother didn't take any action.
However, Li Wei wasn't sure if she was just being paranoid, but she always felt that her secret savings account had been tampered with. Finally, one day she put a hair in the savings account, intending to check it after a while to see if it really had been tampered with. If it had, then her mother was the only one who could have done it.
After a hard-fought battle, the fabric finally returned to Li Wei, much to Aunt Lin's delight. This was much easier than piecing together scraps of fabric, and since Li Wei wasn't in a hurry, she could handle it herself. It seemed like her income for the month would be good again.
Over the weekend, Li Zhaoji and Cheng Min were planning to take their three children back to Li Zhaoji's parents' home. It was the wedding day of the third son of Cheng's grandfather's fourth brother, who worked at a bank. This son was considered the most successful member of the Cheng family, and the whole family valued him highly. Li Wei's family's steamed bun workshop had also worked overtime the day before, so only her aunt stayed to look after the business; everyone else had the day off. Only then could Cheng Min escape to attend the wedding with her husband.
Li Wei knew this uncle, who later became the branch manager, which was quite successful. However, Li Wei didn't have much contact with him because her maternal grandfather's fourth brother lived next door to her. So she only saw this uncle a few times during the Chinese New Year. She thought he was a good-looking man, but they weren't very familiar with each other.
However, this third uncle had a good relationship with my mother and aunt, especially my aunt. After failing the college entrance exam, she got a job at a bank, and he helped her a lot in that process. So, my aunt continued to have more contact with him.
Li Wei had arranged to meet Dong Hui on the weekend, so despite her mother's persuasion, she didn't go. After her mother and the others left with Li Lin and the others, who were dressed up beautifully, Li Wei changed her clothes, took a bag of hair accessory samples and a small basin of goat milk, and went to the front yard to find Luo Da to accompany her to meet a client.
Looking at Luo Da, who wasn't very talkative, Li Wei thought it wasn't right to keep using him as a child laborer, especially since he was so hardworking and dutiful. So she promised, "Luo Jianhua, when I make a lot of money in the future, I'll pay for your wedding. Consider it your current wages. As for houses and cars..."
Luo Da quickly walked a few steps to distance himself from the nagging Li Wei, who continued to mutter unhappily, "Let me tell you, houses and cars will cost a lot of money in the future..."
The older man continued to widen the gap: "Why don't you go with her? How embarrassing! Humph, I'll be richer than you when I grow up!"
Seeing that things were not going well, Li Wei quickly shut up, thinking to herself, "This kid really doesn't know the hardships of life. How many men will be unable to afford a house and get married in the future? You're just hoping I become a rich woman. Considering how much you've helped me out, I can't let you remain a bachelor."
Looking at my tiny arms and legs, I wondered when I would ever grow up, as it was so inconvenient to move around like this!
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