It was cold inside the car, so Qin Xiaoyu pulled her younger sister's cotton-padded coat tighter and hugged her close.
"Brother, you drive back later, I'll pick it up tomorrow." Qin Xiaoyu was still worried.
"Do you remember the night of the first day of the Lunar New Year?" Qi Si suddenly asked.
"I thought you had blacked out."
"I know all that. I'm not stupid." Qi Si glanced at Qin Xiaoyu in the rearview mirror, sighed, and said, "I don't think much of Zhou Xing."
"I know, brother. Let's talk about it when he gets back." Qin Xiaoyu looked out the window sadly. She was unhappy because of one person.
That night, after Hanhan and her younger sister had fallen asleep, Qin Xiaoyu opened the faux leather bag. The contents were wrapped in a white towel; she gave it a gentle shake, and a pile of jewelry jingled and fell out.
The jadeite bracelet with floating patterns, the ruby necklace pendant, and the pure gold filigree bracelet were all gifts from her former wife, left behind when she left the Tang family. Needless to say, these gifts were sent back by her former wife through Tang Wenwen.
Tang Xiaoyu stared blankly for a moment.
Since she arranged for Tang Long to meet his wife, he has changed a lot. He has stopped drinking alcohol and stays in his room every day, writing and painting, and reading ancient books when he has nothing to do. His cousin-in-law is amazed.
"This house is finally settling down. Before, we were always on edge, either worried that the younger one would get drunk or that the older one would find fault with him. Now your brother can finally focus on his research." My cousin-in-law is finally at ease with her life, and a smile has returned to her face.
"How's my brother's research going?" Qin Xiaoyu knew that her cousin was a diligent person, but it wasn't enough to just be diligent. Without the internet, it was difficult to find information on many technologies. It was incredibly difficult to move forward on one's own.
"We've only spent money, but haven't seen any results." My cousin, with his stubble and a bit agitated, said that of the 15,000 yuan he borrowed from Qin Xiaoyu, more than half had already been used to buy raw materials, and he hadn't made anything yet.
There have been constant rumors of massive layoffs at the factory, and the factory manager's brother-in-law had long coveted his position, making his future uncertain.
“Brother, take your time, no rush. If it doesn’t work in a year, we’ll try two. If two years isn’t enough, we’ll try three. Anyway, with me here, our family can survive. You’re not doing this for next month or next year; it’s about the long term. If our technology is to be ten years ahead, we need to invest three to five years. That’s what long-term investment is.” Qin Xiaoyu believed that a technological revolution was coming soon, and that her cousin was on the right track.
She really wished she had a time machine so she could go back to the 21st century and steal a few books.
Sometimes she wondered. What would happen if she were allowed to go back now? The answer was that she wouldn't go back. Life here wasn't as comfortable as in the 21st century, but it was full of family love, and she didn't lack love.
My cousin's wife made sauerkraut dumplings with fried dough bits, which are the leftover cracklings from rendering pork fat. They were crispy and fragrant, and Qin Xiaoyu loved them the most.
While eating and chatting with them, Qin Xiaoyu couldn't offer her cousin technical support, but she could tell him about the future.
The family gathered around the table, listening to Qin Xiaoyu tell stories of a magical world, a world even more anticipated than the year 2000 described in textbooks. Everyone's eyes lit up as they listened, and even Tang Long unconsciously moved closer.
Qin Xiaoyu talked until her throat was dry, but she hadn't gotten even one percent of what she wanted to say, and it was already dark outside.
"There's no phone here. Maybe I should just tell them I'm not going back to sleep," my cousin-in-law said worriedly, looking out the window at the large snowflakes falling.
"Don't worry, sister-in-law, I'm a great driver." Qin Xiaoyu wasn't comfortable leaving her two children at home alone.
"Girl, please tell me more about this in the future. I learned a lot tonight, and my thinking has broadened." The cousin said gratefully.
Despite saying that, Qin Xiaoyu was still a little apprehensive about the road conditions. A long stretch of the road was a dirt road, only compacted. In the spring, when the frozen soil thawed, it would churn up, making the road uneven and full of gullies. When a car drove over it, it would turn into a series of ruts.
If the road hadn't been repaired in time, it would have been covered in ice and snow in winter, which would have been a killer for the car chassis. Fortunately, Qin Xiaoyu had an off-road vehicle, so driving it was still bumpy and bouncy. It wasn't driving a car; it was more like riding in a rickshaw.
Qin Xiaoyu didn't dare to drive too fast. The current anti-skid technology wasn't good, and there were no chains on the wheels, so it all depended on personal skill.
After a bumpy ride home, her bones felt like they were melting.
I rushed upstairs, opened the door, and froze on the spot.
The atmosphere in the room was off.
Grandma Zhang and her younger sister sat upright, but Hanhan was nowhere to be seen.
"Little Fish! Where have you been! Hanhan is missing!" As soon as Grandma Zhang saw Qin Xiaoyu, she rushed over to her, and her younger sister also started wiping away tears.
"Gone? How could it be gone?" Qin Xiaoyu's heart skipped a beat.
In the 1980s, children did not have parents pick them up from school. Although Qin Xiaoyu wanted to pick them up, she refrained from doing so out of consideration for Hanhan's self-esteem.
It was only a twelve or thirteen-minute walk home from school, crossing two intersections. Fortunately, there were traffic lights at both intersections, and there were very few cars on the streets back then. Since she was with her classmates, Qin Xiaoyu felt relatively at ease.
Grandma Zhang brought my little sister over today and prepared dinner. Normally, Hanhan will be home by 4:30. If he goes to a classmate's house to play, he will let them know.
But she still hadn't shown up by five o'clock, only half an hour late. Grandma Zhang couldn't stand it anymore, so she made a tough decision to leave her little sister at home and go to school.
I was even more uneasy about this trip. The school building was covered in ice water inside and out. It turned out that the heating pipe had burst in the afternoon, so the students were evacuated and sent home by 2 p.m.
Grandma Zhang was completely bewildered. School ended at 2 PM, and she hadn't come home by 5 PM. This wasn't Hanhan's usual behavior; the child was always very composed.
She was worried about the silent child at home, so she rushed home. Finding no one to look for Qin Xiaoyu, she called her son and Qi Si respectively, asking them to go out and look for her.
Qi Si, with a clear head, asked Yao Mei to contact Hanhan's homeroom teacher and get the addresses of her classmates' homes. He then sent his staff to visit each house one by one. Grandma Zhang's son, who was familiar with the neighborhood, took Jia Nannan and went to the homes of all the children Hanhan had interacted with to ask around.
It's already 9 p.m., and people who went out to look for her have returned in droves, but there's still no trace of her.
"I reported the case to the police station. Originally, I was supposed to wait 24 hours, but after speaking with the station chief, they're already looking for it. I asked around at various police stations, and there were no criminal cases or reported car accidents." Qi Si stamped his feet as he entered the room; he was already covered in snowflakes, and the snow was falling heavier and heavier.
He has extensive social experience and handled the matter flawlessly.
"Brother, I'm a little scared." Qin Xiaoyu wasn't telling the truth; she was terrified, her teeth chattering. She had a strong premonition that something big was about to happen.
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