Chapter 155 The Great Art of Sorrow
Shen Xuewei calmly replied, "It's true. I overheard Grandpa saying it. If you don't believe me, you can ask him when you get back."
Based on her understanding of her second uncle, she was certain that he wouldn't dare ask her maternal grandfather.
Chen Fangyang shook his head violently, "Forget it, what's the point of asking? If you anger your grandfather, he'll beat me to death."
He coughed lightly, "Since your grandfather misses me, I'll go home to see him next month."
While browsing in the mall, he was bored when Shen Xuewei called, and he wanted to chat with her for a while longer.
Shen Xuewei was quite heartless, saying, "Second Uncle, I'm not talking to you anymore. Phone calls are expensive, so you should save your money."
Before Chen Fangyang could speak, she slammed down the phone and immediately called Chen Fanglan.
Chen Fangyang exclaimed "Hey hey!" twice, only to find that Shen Xuewei had already hung up the phone.
He stared at the phone that had been hung up on, and reluctantly called back.
Hey, he was just getting into the conversation, why did Xiao Weiwei hang up so easily?
He pays 200 yuan for his home phone every month, which is enough to make calls every day.
There's no issue with phone bills.
In his opinion, Xiao Weiwei must be hiding something from him.
When the call was made, it wasn't Shen Xuewei's voice that answered.
"The user you are trying to reach is currently on another call. Please try again later."
A notification sound will be heard, and then the call will automatically disconnect.
Chen Fangyang called twice more, but received the same notification sound. He pouted in disappointment.
"It seems that Weiwei is still closer to her second sister..."
When his mother called, she told him that every time Xiao Weiwei came home from school, she would call her second sister to chat without fail.
Right now, he's probably calling his second sister.
He shook his head, put away his phone, and casually walked into a store.
On the other side, Chen Fanglan had just gotten home from get off work and was lying in her rented room when she received a call from Shen Xuewei, which puzzled her.
"Weiwei, what's up with your call?"
Shen Xuewei immediately asked, "Auntie, what are your plans for July and August?"
Chen Fanglan slumped onto the cushioned wooden sofa and sighed wearily.
The pair of high heels she had worn for eight or nine hours were now lying forlornly in front of the sofa, one of them slumped over, while the other had been kicked under the sofa.
"What else can I do but go to work and come home? I don't even know when I'll get a break."
Beauty salons in the county town operate on a shift system, with employees getting four days off each month.
She can only rest on days with fewer customers.
Even during her rest time, if any emergency occurs in the store, as the store manager, she must rush to the store as soon as possible to handle it, even if she is still resting.
This job pays well, but the workload and the psychological pressure it brings are also great.
Her current salary, including a guaranteed base salary of 1,500 yuan per month, increases significantly if the beauty salon performs well.
The highest monthly salary I've ever received is four thousand.
But it's really tiring.
Although she was tired, Chen Fanglan never thought about quitting her job.
After all, if she leaves here, where else can she find a place that can offer her such a high salary?
While on the phone with Shen Xuewei, she thought about the difficult client she had encountered earlier that day and complained to Shen Xuewei for a few more minutes.
Shen Xuewei listened quietly without interrupting, occasionally echoing her complaints.
What Chen Fanglan needs now is a way to vent her emotions.
Venting your bad emotions will make you feel much better.
After a long rant, Chen Fanglan breathed a sigh of relief, feeling much better and less tired.
At this moment, she finally remembered the question she had asked Shen Xuewei earlier: why she had suddenly called her.
Shen Xuewei tried to make her voice sound sweeter, "Auntie, I miss you. When school lets out for summer vacation, can I come and stay with you for the whole summer?"
Chen Fanglan picked up the water glass on the table and took a sip to moisten her throat.
Hearing Shen Xuewei's words, she looked around the small rented house.
She has lived in the small two-bedroom apartment for more than two years.
She gradually added many things to the originally empty room.
Since she lived alone, her small room was not furnished with a bed and was mostly filled with miscellaneous items.
She hesitated, then said, "I'm tired from work, and I don't want to share a bed with you tonight. If you come, you'll have to sleep on the floor or the sofa..."
Afraid that she would change her mind, Shen Xuewei quickly interjected, "Auntie, I can sleep on the sofa, as long as you let me go."
Chen Fanglan was about to agree when she suddenly remembered something, and swallowed her words, asking instead:
"You've already talked to your grandparents, right?"
Shen Xuewei paused, then made her voice even sweeter.
"No, Auntie, I'm too scared to tell Grandpa and Grandma. Auntie, could you please tell them for me?"
If she were still seven or eight years old, she could have swallowed her pride and thrown a tantrum to get what she wanted.
However, this trick no longer works when he is almost twelve years old.
She resorted to her most distressing tactic: "Auntie, working in the fields is just too tiring. I've tried to persuade Grandpa and Grandma not to farm so much, but they still insist. Look at me, every summer I'm tanned to a crisp, I'm practically peeling off a layer of skin..."
Call her heartless if you will.
With a summer vacation of over fifty days, and this year the family has planted so much land again.
As long as you're at home, you can't escape the fate of doing chores.
She worked for several summers in a row, her skin went from white to dark, then darker and then even darker, and now it's almost as dark as Wu Yuhong, who has naturally dark skin.
Being too sensible is not a good thing either.
The thought of her shirking her responsibilities during summer vacation filled Shen Xuewei with an indescribable sense of guilt.
But she was just too tired to take it anymore!
Even when she comes home on weekends, she's not idle.
But what if you work for dozens of days straight during summer vacation?
Just thinking about it makes her want to faint.
Given the Chen family's current economic situation, they don't need to farm so much land anymore.
The living expenses that Chen Fanglan and Chen Fangyang give to the elderly couple alone are estimated to be around two thousand yuan per month.
Shen Xuewei herself has been trying her best not to ask them for living expenses without giving herself away.
Every Sunday, after finishing her chores at home, she would take advantage of the elderly couple's absence to leave by car, simply because she didn't want their money.
When they ask her later, she'll say she didn't spend all the scholarship money the school gave her, or that her second uncle had slipped money into her books before...
Despite having no financial worries, the elderly couple still refused to give up their land.
It must be said that their love for the land is truly profound.
However, when this profound feeling was conveyed to Shen Xuewei, she felt it was bitter.
She couldn't bear to stay at home and watch them work in the fields.
If she doesn't stay at home and doesn't see how hard they work, she probably won't feel guilty, right?
The crops that need to be planted at home are planted one after another.
Let's talk about the most recent one.
After the rice harvest, it's time to plant more crops, and then there's the corn that needs fertilizing and weeding, and the chickens, pigs, and ducks at home all need to be fed...
After working on one thing after another, I was so tired that I could barely straighten my back.
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