Cheng's father approached her, wanting her to take over a state-owned restaurant. After returning home, she also mentioned it to her husband.
Li Huai was naturally curious as to why it wasn't possible. In the past, when Zhao Qinglan talked to him about the future, she would only mention it when she remembered some major events, without going into much detail.
This time, she gave her husband a thorough explanation of the major trends in economic development over the next ten to twenty years.
Hearing that many state-owned factories and public institutions would go bankrupt and countless workers would be laid off and lose their jobs, Li Huai felt very complicated.
"Although the road is winding, the future is still bright and promising." That was the only way she could comfort her husband.
Li Huai knew that even if he knew all this, he couldn't do anything to turn the tide. He was only depressed and upset for a short while before he had no choice but to accept it.
At the start of the new semester, Xiaoduo entered junior high school, Erwa became a fifth-grade student, and only Sanwa in the family was still in kindergarten.
Zhao Qinglan doesn't need to pick up or drop off her children every day. Apart from a little housework and cooking, she has plenty of free time, so she continues to read books to enrich herself.
In late September, the Iron Lady from across the ocean visited my country, sparking considerable public interest.
Everyone was just proud of the friendly visits from major Western powers to our country, but Zhao Qinglan was reminded of a major event.
If she remembered correctly, the handover of Hong Kong was negotiated during this Iron Lady's visit, but it was announced to the public that it would probably take some more time.
However, this did not diminish her joy. She knew that her motherland would become stronger in the future, but experiencing and witnessing it firsthand again felt very different.
When she secretly shared these things with her husband that night, Li Huai became excited because of the depression he had previously learned about.
This time, Zhao Qinglan will not only be a witness to history, but she will also bring her husband, her closest person, along to witness it.
After the National Day holiday in October, Zhao Qingju and her boyfriend in Beijing officially got engaged.
As for the wedding date, it was set for May of the following year.
Sun began to slowly prepare her daughter's dowry. She now had quite a bit of money saved up, since Zhao Qinglan had long since given up her share of the snack shop's profits.
Previously, Zhao Qinglan and her sisters all owned their own properties in the region, but no one expected that they would recognize their uncle Sun Guangming, nor did they expect that Zhao Qingju would marry into the capital in the future.
The preparation of dowry is a different story.
After learning about his sister's dilemma, Sun Guangming invited her to stay in the capital to prepare for these matters.
When Zhao Qinglan and the others weren't going to the capital, Sun Guangming lived in the house allocated to him based on his rank.
If my sister comes, she can stay with him. He lives alone anyway, and occasionally an aunt will help with some housework, so the house is very empty.
Without much hesitation, Madam Sun headed to the capital. This time, she was determined to find a house in the capital as part of her daughter's dowry.
The man's family is from Beijing. If it weren't for the brother's position, they might not have even considered their daughter.
Although her future son-in-law seemed quite good overall, who knows what the future holds? She prepared a large dowry for her daughter so that her daughter would feel more confident after marriage.
It just so happens that Grandpa Dou has been looking for a house for Zhao Qinglan, and he has already found several properties. When Madam Sun goes there, she can also choose from them.
The children in the family are all grown up and no longer need Sun Shi to take care of them. Zhao Qinglan also hopes that her mother can travel around while her legs are still good.
The house in the provincial capital was completely renovated by the end of October, but it was not yet habitable. Zhao Qinglan felt that it should at least air out before moving in around the New Year.
Whether it was Zhao Qinglan's comfort that eased Song Yi's psychological pressure or it was simply fate, Zhao Qinglan received good news from Zhang Yu right after the house renovation was completed.
Song Yi found out she was two months pregnant. Counting the time, she conceived not long after Zhao Qinglan and the others left.
When Song Yi became pregnant, not only were the couple overjoyed, but the elders of the Zhang family were also ecstatic.
Zhang Yu is already in his late thirties, and he's finally going to be a father. Zhang's mother was overjoyed and cried tears of happiness.
Perhaps because Song Yi and Zhang Yu had both mentioned to the elders of the Zhang family the role Zhao Qinglan played in going south to Shenzhen, the elders of the Zhang family were very grateful to her.
Originally, because of Li Huai, Zhang's mother had a good impression of Zhao Qinglan, and now it's even better. She even sent Zhao Qinglan a lot of things as thank-you gifts, which made Zhao Qinglan both amused and helpless.
However, as the relationship between the two families grew closer, she couldn't very well refuse to accept the gifts. Instead, whenever she sent something to Grandpa Dou and her uncle in the capital, she would also send a copy to the Zhang family. The two families began to interact like relatives.
Zhao Qinglan's life was uneventful until the results of her children's midterm exams came out, which surprised her greatly.
The eldest child has always been self-disciplined and excellent. Even though he didn't live with them, he was always among the top students in his grade at the local middle school.
Xiao Duo doesn't need Zhao Qinglan to worry about her; barring any unforeseen circumstances, she's currently ranked first in the class.
However, the second child only scored in the lower-middle range of the class after the results came out.
In fact, Zhao Qinglan did not necessarily expect her children to have outstanding academic performance. However, although Erwa's grades were not as outstanding as his older siblings, he was still considered a good student in the class. Now that he only scored in the lower middle range, how could Zhao Qinglan not worry?
I don't know if it's because the older brother isn't around and there's no one to keep an eye on him, or what, but the younger brother's grades have dropped alarmingly.
As a mother who cares about her child, Zhao Qinglan naturally wanted to find out what was going on.
Fearing that going to the school would have a negative impact, Zhao Qinglan decided to have a good talk with Erwa.
However, whether out of guilt or fear, the child stopped coming home for dinner and ran out to play as soon as school was over, only returning when it was time for bed.
After waiting for two days, Zhao Qinglan felt that she couldn't spoil Erwa anymore.
Erwa sneaked to the front door, pressed his ear to it and listened for a while. There was no sound from inside. Thinking that everyone in the family must be asleep, he took out the key hanging around his neck and opened the door.
As Erwa opened the door and entered the house, the light came on just as he was about to slip into his room.
"Where are you running to?" Zhao Qinglan sat there with her arms crossed, watching him.
That was fine, but Li Huai also stood by the light switch, watching coldly; he was the one who turned on the lights in the room.
“Go sit down.” Li Huai glared at his son, then walked over and sat down next to his wife.
Now Erwa didn't dare to resist at all, and hunched his shoulders as he sat down in front of his parents.
Zhao Qinglan and her husband exchanged a glance, and it was she who spoke first.
"Tell me, what have you been up to all day lately, not coming home after school?"
Erwa didn't even look up and whispered, "I went to play with my classmates."
"Where did you go?" Zhao Qinglan pressed.
"Mom, didn't you say that we have our own freedom now that we're grown up?" Erwa didn't answer.
"Heh." Zhao Qinglan sneered. "I gave you freedom, not so you could run wild."
She began to reflect on whether she had been too lenient with the children lately.
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