It makes sense that an acquaintance can bring two strangers closer together.

Although Su Ting and Duan Xiaolan have known each other for some time, and their relationship with Duan Xiaoying was not very good, their relationship did become closer after they learned that the other knew Duan Xiaoying.

How does the saying go?

Oh, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This sentence is very suitable for Su Ting and Duan Xiaolan.

Although Su Ting and Duan Xiaoying were not enemies, their relationship was not good, and she did not think highly of him. Duan Xiaolan was even worse, as she had a real grudge against Duan Xiaoying's family.

Duan Xiaolan and Duan Xiaoying are cousins. Her father is the eldest son in the family, and Duan Xiaoying's father is the youngest.

Because his grandma died early, Duan Xiaoying's father could be said to have been raised by Duan Xiaolan's father. However, no one expected that he would raise such an ungrateful person.

When Duan Xiaolan was fifteen years old, her father died in an accident, and she was the only daughter in the family.

In the countryside, it is very difficult for a woman to live alone, especially if she is not yet an adult. Her family has money and a house, and there are many people around her who are eyeing her covetously.

After her father died, her uncle and aunt did not reveal their true colors immediately. At that time, the two families were very close, and her aunt even invited her to their house for dinner.

Every time they had dinner, her aunt would tell her about the accidents of orphans living alone in the surrounding area, and remind her to pay attention to safety. At that time, she was also stupid, and was deeply moved by her aunt's concern for her. She never thought that they had already set their sights on her house.

After her aunt had reminded her for a while, one night when she was sleeping at home, she suddenly heard a noise outside in the middle of the night. She quickly got out of bed and went to the living room to check what was going on.

When she saw this, she was shocked. Someone had stuffed a knife through the crack of the door and was scraping the bolt of her main room.

She was so frightened that her legs went limp, but she was even more afraid that someone would unbolt the door and come in, so she quickly rushed over to push the bolt back in, and then blocked the door and shouted, "Help! There's a thief!"

The person outside the door heard the noise, drew his knife and ran away.

Because she shouted so loudly, the people living on both sides heard her. The next day, her aunt came over and asked her to pack up her things and move in with them, saying that the house here should be sealed for the time being and they would do that after she got married.

Although she didn't dare live alone at home, she didn't want to live in someone else's house, even if it was a relative. What's more, her uncle's house didn't have enough rooms, and her cousin who was over ten years old still lived in the same room with her uncle's aunt.

So after discussion, the result was that her uncle, aunt and cousin moved into her house together. Her uncle and aunt lived in the main room where her parents slept, and her cousin slept with her.

Later, when Duan Xiaolan recalled these things, she realized that she had made a wrong move and was inviting a wolf into the house.

During the first six months of living in her house, her uncle and aunt were nice to her, but her cousin was very annoying.

Her father worked in a shop when he was young. He could read and use an abacus. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he became the accountant of the brigade. Because she was the only daughter in the family, she lived a good life. Other girls in the brigade might not make a new dress every three to five years, but she had one every year.

Before she moved in, her cousin would at most express her envy verbally whenever she saw her wearing new clothes. But after she moved in, she would go straight to the point and always put on the clothes when she wasn't looking.

Every time her aunt saw it, she would take the initiative to apologize to her and say a few words to her sister.

Then her cousin committed the same mistake again and was scolded again. One time, she felt that her cousin did not change despite repeated teachings, so she started arguing with her. But after just a few words, her aunt wiped away her tears and said that she had not taught her child well.

She was being coaxed around at the time, and when she saw her crying, she reflected on herself whether she was making a big deal out of nothing.

It was not until she grew up and saw the true face of that family that she realized that every time her aunt talked about it, she never said a single unpleasant word, and never touched Duan Xiaoying. She realized that those words were only said to her.

A year after her uncle and aunt moved into her house, a subtle change occurred in their relationship.

It was as if they had forgotten who owned the house. Although they still put on a kind face, the meaning revealed in their words always made her feel like a guest under someone else's roof.

As for the clothes in her closet, because she had grown taller, all her clothes became her cousins' and she could no longer move them. The clothes she wore were all altered from her aunt's and cousins' wives' old clothes.

What's even more frightening is that the people in the team seemed to have forgotten who the house belonged to. When they mentioned her uncle and aunt, they had nothing but good things to say about her, saying that she was lucky to have met such elders.

By the time she realized what was happening, their roles had been reversed.

She was frightened by this and wanted to ask her cousin for the clothes back, but was scolded instead. The two of them quarreled in front of her uncle and aunt. Her uncle and aunt, who had always been kind to her in the past, suddenly changed their expressions and asked her impatiently what she was arguing about.

Later, she proposed to live alone, and her aunt pointed at her and scolded her for being heartless, saying that she wanted to drive them all away when she grew up. Other people in the group also pointed fingers at her.

Although people nowadays advocate that women can hold up half the day, the phenomenon of favoring boys over girls still exists, especially in rural areas, where very few girls can inherit real estate.

Even if she was an only child, if her uncles and aunts wanted to fight for her, they would take a bite of her flesh, not to mention that she had already gone astray, allowing her uncle and aunt to move in and live with her for several years.

It was such a bad account that even the brigade officers were unwilling to deal with it.

Her uncle was still alive and had two sons, so they were the majority. She was alone and weak, so she had no way of getting the house back. She could only hold her nose and continue to live with them.

After that, her uncle and aunt completely dropped their hypocritical faces, letting her do whatever she wanted, beating and scolding her at every turn, and then going out to complain about how ungrateful she was.

She had a very difficult time during those years, constantly competing with her uncle and aunt's family in a battle of wits and courage. In the beginning, she always suffered losses, but gradually she learned how to knock on doors and sell miserably, and later on, her life became a little better.

She also did not give up the idea of ​​kicking them out of her home and kept working towards it.

But before she succeeded, her aunt arranged a marriage for her. The man had very good conditions: he was a military officer, but he was much older than her, a second marriage, and had three children.

When Duan Xiaolan learned about this, her aunt had already accepted the betrothal gift from the other party and was just waiting for the two to meet and get the marriage certificate.

She was about to go crazy and was about to make a scene, but her cousin Duan Xiaoying went really crazy and started making a scene at home about marrying the guy her aunt introduced her to. When her aunt learned that her cousin was upset, she also went crazy.

So Duan Xiaolan calmed down and started watching the show.

Finally, her cousin succeeded and married the man introduced by her aunt. When they got married, Duan Xiaolan paid special attention to the officer's appearance. His height and appearance were okay, but he had three children around him.

Duan Xiaolan couldn't understand why her cousin was rushing up.

But she didn't wonder for long, because that night she had a dream. In that dream, she lived out her life.

But her life in the dream was different from the real life. In the dream, she finally married Han Bin. Before leaving to follow the army, she asked Duan Xiaoying's mother for a betrothal gift, drove their whole family out, sold the house at a discount to a rich family in the brigade, and left her hometown with the money.

After joining the army, her life was neither good nor bad. The good thing was that she could get a job while joining the army, and it was easier to make money than farming. The bad thing was that her relationship with Han Bin was not good.

To put it bluntly, Han Bin remarried just to find a nanny to look after the children. After they got married, she devoted herself to work and let the children eat three meals a day in the cafeteria. When he was not out to sea, she saved his clothes for him to wash when he came back. He felt that she was not fulfilling her responsibilities as a mother.

But what does Duan Xiaolan think she relies on?

The child is not hers, and she did not want to get married, so why should we expect her to devote herself to this family until her death?

Besides, it wasn't like she hadn't given his son's daughter money. The same food could be bought in the cafeteria, so why did she have to cook it herself?

She is not used to this bad habit.

In the first few years of their marriage, they had a big fight every three days and a small fight every two days. She knew that Han Bin wanted to divorce her several times. But she was not afraid, because the worst that could happen was that she would just go back to her hometown to farm.

But Han Bin was a man of honor. His wife had died once before, and he didn't want his second marriage to end in divorce, so no matter how angry he was, he endured it in the end.

He endured it, and Duan Xiaolan naturally would not initiate a divorce. It was so nice to live on an island, with plenty of seafood and fruits. After two years of marriage, she gained weight.

Moreover, she did not have to fulfill her husband's and wife's obligations. At the beginning, Han Bin was afraid that she would get pregnant, so he set the time every time and used condoms. Later, the two of them always quarreled, and their already fragile relationship was almost gone. They were in no mood to do anything even when they were lying in the same bed.

In the third year of their marriage, Duan Xiaolan moved to the second bedroom to live with her stepdaughter Han Qianqian, while the Han Bowen brothers moved to the master bedroom to live with their father.

In the first few years of her marriage, she had a bad relationship with her stepchildren, especially Han Bowen, who was old enough to remember things at the time and was very jealous of her as his stepmother. After she and Han Bin slept in separate rooms, the situation improved, and gradually Han Bowen was willing to call her mom.

Although she didn't care about the title, who would want to fight with each other when they could live under the same roof and get along well? If she had known that living apart would have this effect, she would have moved out of the master bedroom long ago.

Han Bin doesn't want to have children with her, and she looks down on him.

After a few years of peace, the great movement ended, and then came the reform and opening up. During that time, she was eager to divorce.

After Han Bin learned about her thoughts, he had a long talk with her and asked her why she wanted a divorce. She said she wanted to find a man she liked and have a lovely child. He then frowned and said, "I am just a man," and asked her why she wanted to go far away instead of close to her.

She thought at the time that this man was so shameless.

But they did not divorce in the end because an accident happened soon after and he saved her.

Ancient vernacular novels always like to write stories about repaying a life-saving favor with one's own body. She had never thought of promising herself to Han Bin, but looking at him lying on the bed, she really couldn't ask for a divorce, so the two of them continued to live in a daze.

In their later years, in the eyes of outsiders, they could be considered a model couple, but to her, Han Bin was more of a partner in life than a lover.

After waking up from the dream, thinking about the changes in Duan Xiaoying before her marriage, Duan Xiaolan finally understood why she suddenly "went crazy".

Perhaps, she also dreamed of her past life.

After realizing this, Duan Xiaolan thought about whether to tell Han Bin the truth, but she ended up saying nothing because she had no way to prove that her dream was true.

What's more, Han Bin was first introduced to her by her aunt. Now he and Duan Xiaoying are married. If she were to get involved again, people might misunderstand that she was unwilling to give in and spread a romantic scandal.

Duan Xiaolan did not get involved in these matters at that time, and now she does not intend to inquire about the recent situation of Han Bin's family. He is a person who never lets himself suffer losses. Duan Xiaoying may not be able to get anything good if she goes against him.

What's more, when her aunt wanted to introduce a date to her and Han Bin, Lu Zheng had already gone to her hometown to work in the countryside and had heard about these things. If he knew that she was asking about Han Bin's family's recent situation behind their backs, he would definitely be jealous again.

Although everything that happened in the past few years has proven the reality of dreams, and she has benefited a lot from dreams, for Duan Xiaolan, dreams are always dreams, and she will not let a dream affect her real life.

Duan Xiaolan didn't ask, and Su Ting didn't want to say anything.

What to say?

Are these bad words from Duan Xiaoying?

Although they all had a bad relationship with Duan Xiaoying, it had been a year and a half since she left Pingchuan Island, and it was not good for her to still whisper bad things about her former neighbor to others.

Let’s continue eating fruit.

…

After He Dongchuan finished cooking, Duan Xiaolan took over.

In fact, Lu Zheng also knows how to cook. The educated youth didn't know each other before they went to the same place to work in the countryside. After living together, no one got used to each other. They took turns cooking, collecting firewood, and cleaning. After a few years, even those who had never touched water in their lives could do all the cooking and washing.

After marrying Duan Xiaolan, Lu Zheng moved out of the educated youth center and lived with her. But she was the factory director and was busy every day. Although he also held a position in the factory, he had more free time than her, so the housework fell on him.

Because of this, many people in the team complained that he was a gigolo.

Lu Zheng heard it but didn't care. They wanted to live off others but they couldn't!

But when it comes to cooking skills, Duan Xiaolan is still much better than Lu Zheng. After all, she has been cooking for more than ten years.

Before they came down, the two thought that since He Dongchuan was a good cook and had prepared so many delicious dishes, the dishes they put on the table couldn't be too bad. Due to ticket restrictions, they couldn't buy meat, but it would always be okay to stir-fry something delicious.

So it was decided that Duan Xiaolan would show off her skills at noon.

However, after coming down and smelling the aroma of food wafting in from the balcony, the couple both felt that they might not be able to show this trick.

Duan Xiaolan and his wife brought only vegetarian dishes, which they cooked very quickly. At 12:10, they put the dishes on the table and started eating.

Before dinner, He Dongchuan remembered and asked, "Do you want to drink?"

Lu Zheng said: "I don't drink much, if you want to drink, I'll drink two cups with you."

"No, I don't drink." He Dongchuan waved his hand.

After listening to their conversation, Su Ting asked curiously: "Do we have any wine at home?"

"no."

"So what are you asking?"

He Dongchuan said without any guilt: "I have to be polite."

Su Ting: "...Okay."

Duan Xiaolan and Lu Zheng: "..."

Although there was no wine, everyone drank a bowl of soup to warm their stomachs before dinner. The bone soup stewed with lotus roots was mellow but not greasy, and the lotus roots were powdery and soft and sticky.

Su Ting slowly inserted a piece of lotus root into her mouth with chopsticks and asked her to hold up the chopsticks to eat it. The little girl found that the lotus root could be pulled into threads when she bit it. When she wanted to take a bite of the lotus root, she held up the chopsticks and pulled it out, having a lot of fun.

When He Yan finished eating a piece of lotus root and looked up, he saw white lotus root shreds all around his mouth and laughed out loud with joy.

Su Ting looked up at Manman, got up and went in to find a handkerchief, took it out and wiped Manman's mouth clean, saying, "Eat quickly and stop playing."

He ate the last bite of lotus root with his chopsticks with two slow humming sounds, picked up the bowl to drink all the soup, and then started to eat rice.

There were six of them, so they cooked seven dishes in total, five vegetables, one soup and one cold dish. Although the portions were not large, they were enough to make them bloated.

Of course, He Dongchuan was not among them. His stomach was a bottomless pit and he could eat anything.

This meal was another one of his. Su Ting and the two children were used to it and didn't think it was a big deal. Duan Xiaolan was a woman and it was not appropriate for her to stare at other men, so only Lu Zheng was more and more surprised the more he looked.

Lu Zheng is also 1.8 meters tall. Although he is thin, he has a big appetite. When he eats at school, he usually eats 4 liang of rice. If he is very hungry, he can eat 5 or 6 liang.

Don't think that five or six taels is too little. The meals served in the cafeteria are measured by weight based on the raw rice. When raw rice is cooked into cooked rice, its weight can double. So if they say you want five taels of rice, in reality the cooked rice weighs one kilogram.

The bowls used by the He family were quite large. One bowl could hold at least four ounces of cooked rice. He Dongchuan had just eaten three bowls of rice. Oh, Su Ting also gave him the last bit of rice at the bottom of the pot. In total, he had eaten at least one catty and three ounces of cooked rice, which was more than six ounces of rice.

More than 600 grams seemed okay, but He Dongchuan ate all the dishes. Even when Lu Zheng went to the countryside to work in the fields during the busy farming season, he had never eaten so much.

Today he ate two bowls of rice, with just the right amount of vegetables, and his stomach felt uncomfortable. However, He Dongchuan ate so much and acted like nothing happened, which shows that he usually eats a lot.

More importantly, he eats so much but looks quite thin. Where does all the food go?

But when he thought about how he got up at dawn in the morning, took He Yan for a run, and did boxing for half an hour, Lu Zheng understood.

He Dongchuan eats a lot, but he also exercises a lot. Today is Sunday, and he got up early and exercised for an hour. He also has a lot of training in the army on weekdays.

Maybe he looks thin, but when he takes off his clothes he's full of muscles.

…

The next day, He Dongchuan and He Yan set out again at around four in the morning. When Su Ting woke up, there was no one around her.

She lay in bed for a while, and waited for the alarm to ring before she got up, dressed, and went to the bathroom to wash up. After taking care of herself, she went to the second bedroom and told her to get up slowly. This was another tough battle.

Hurrying to send Manman to the nursery, Su Ting started her daily desperate run again. Maybe her speed was improved, today she arrived at the classroom a few minutes earlier than usual, and after sitting down to calm her breathing, she still had time to eat breakfast.

Breakfast is soy milk and fried dough sticks. Su Ting’s breakfast has basically not changed since school started. It is either soy milk and fried dough sticks or fried cakes and soy milk. Anyway, if she wants breakfast, it has already been prepared in the shop, and she doesn’t have time to wait.

But foods like fried dough sticks and fried cakes are fine to eat once or twice, but eating too much is really greasy, and the oil is too thick. If she didn't drink soy milk with it, she wouldn't be able to eat it now.

After quickly finishing the fried dough sticks and taking a big sip of soy milk to relieve the greasiness, Su Ting let out a long sigh and thought about buying a bicycle.

If she was just a little excited when He Dongchuan mentioned it yesterday, now she can be said to be extremely looking forward to it.

After buying a bicycle, she no longer has to rush around every day, and she can also have more time in the morning to have a good breakfast.

"What are you thinking about?"

Hearing Ma Yan's voice, Su Ting came back to her senses and said, "Nothing."

Ma Yan exposed her: "Your mouth is almost stretched to your ears, and you still say it's nothing."

"Yes?"

"Of course, tell me the truth, did something good happen to you?"

"No," Su Ting denied, saying, "My husband came over with the kids on Sunday."

Ma Yan understood: "No wonder you are laughing like that."

As the two were mumbling, the teacher came over and the classroom quickly became quiet. The sound of textbooks being opened could be heard one after another.

…

It's a new week and all the students in the class are busy.

They are going to have an election for class leaders this Saturday. There are many students in the class who want to run and they are all trying to show off in order to gain more support.

In addition, the Student Union is also recruiting this week. As long as you can join the Student Union, you will have one more item on your resume during graduation assignment, so many people want to join.

The radio station is also recruiting editors, which is in line with their major, and students in the class who are confident in their writing skills also want to give it a try.

For those like Ma Yan who want to make the most of the four years of college to perform well, the new week can be said to be very busy. She has to serve her classmates, gain more support, and strive to become a full-time monitor in the class meeting on Saturday, and get the word "acting" in front of the monitor.

Second, she had to be busy with the student union interview. All the students who wanted to be class leaders wanted to join the student union, and Ma Yan was no exception.

Third, she also wanted to get involved in the radio station's recruitment, but this was just a fallback for her. She would only consider the radio station if the students failed the interview.

As for the class monitor election, Ma Yan felt that the final candidate should be between her and Xu Hui. She had a better chance of winning, but even if she didn't become the class monitor, she would definitely be the deputy class monitor.

Therefore, she only needs to focus on one of the student union and the radio station. It may take her more time to adjust.

Compared with the ambitious Ma Yan, no, compared with the vast majority of classmates, Su Ting was relatively timid. She had no plans to become a class leader, nor did she plan to join the student union.

There is no need to consider the editor of the radio station. If Wang Jingfang knew that she had delayed the serialization because of writing for the school radio station, she might kill her with a knife.

Therefore, while other students were busy, Su Ting's life did not change much compared to the previous week. She still attended classes during the day and hid in the back of the classroom to draw during evening self-study.

Except for the past few days, Su Ting no longer sits in the middle of the classroom during evening self-study. Instead, she will slowly move to the corner of the last row of the classroom.

Su Ting didn't plan to let her classmates know about drawing the comic strip for the time being.

If possible, Su Ting actually doesn't want to paint in the classroom because it is too easy to be discovered, but their schedule is too full. There are classes all day from Monday to Saturday. If she doesn't paint during evening self-study, she will have no time to paint.

So she could only choose a corner seat as much as possible, but even that was not safe. Firstly, she became too popular and a group of people would surround her as soon as the class was over. If she moved a little slower, people might see what she was doing.

Secondly, some people are not only extremely curious, but also do not know how to respect privacy. They will open her notebook when she is not around to see what she is doing behind the scenes.

Fortunately, Su Ting was doing the homework assigned by the teacher at that time, so she was not exposed. After that, she was careful not to bring her sketchbook during the day. If she had to go to the toilet during evening self-study, she would close the sketchbook and put it in her backpack, and ask Manman to watch it for her.

Therefore, up to now, Su Ting’s vest has been well covered.

Her classmates only knew that she would hide in the back and draw during evening self-study. She did not hide this from anyone because she knew that the more she hid, the more curious people would become. If she revealed the truth appropriately to satisfy everyone's curiosity, people would stop staring at her.

This method was very effective. Except for a few who were particularly curious, most people in the class were not interested in what she drew.

This is also related to the fact that she covers her paintings and doesn't show them to others. Everyone wants to show off. If she painted very well, she would definitely not cover them so tightly. She doesn't want to show them to others probably because her painting is not that good and she feels embarrassed.

Anyone with a slightly higher EQ would know that in this situation, if they insist on looking at the paintings, it would be tantamount to making things difficult for others, so they would naturally suppress their curiosity.

But there are also those with lower emotional intelligence. Even though they know that she doesn't like to be seen by others, they still run up to her and ask, "Why do you hide in the back every night to write and draw? And you hide it so carefully, are you drawing something shameful?"

Su Ting, who was talking to Manman, raised her head and looked at Ding Mei who was standing in the middle of the aisle. She asked sincerely, "Excuse me, do you live by the sea?"

Ding Mei was confused when she heard this and said blankly: "No, why are you asking this?"

Su Ting smiled and said, "Since you don't live by the sea, why do you care so much about width?"

Although it was during the break, Ding Mei's voice was quite loud, and the other students in the class thought that there was going to be an argument, so they all lowered their voices, or tilted their ears to eavesdrop, or looked over blatantly.

So even though Su Ting's voice was not loud, the whole class heard it. They were all stunned at first, and then burst into laughter.

Ding Mei was so embarrassed by the laughter that she blushed and said, "I, I'm just curious. Is it okay to ask?"

"No." Su Ting answered straightforwardly and gave the reason, "Because I don't know you well."

Ding Mei choked: "We are all classmates, how come we are not familiar with each other?"

"Do we know each other just because we are classmates? Do you dare to say that you are familiar with all the classmates in the class to the extent that you can ask each other about their private affairs?" Su Ting's face turned cold as she spoke, "Also, I don't think that classmates who are close to me will maliciously speculate that I have drawn something that cannot be seen by others, so don't show me such a wronged expression. After all, the one who teases first is the loser, classmate Ding, don't you agree?"

Of course Ding Mei thought it was not true, but all the classmates in the class thought it was true, and they all said, "That's right, Ding Mei, you first put a label on others, what's the point of pretending to be pitiful now?"

"Student Su drew his own paintings. If he wants to show them to others, he can show them. If he doesn't want to show them to others, he can just show them. What's it got to do with you?"

"She lives by the sea!"

Listening to the classmates' discussions, Ding Mei couldn't stand it anymore and ran out with her face covered. Ma Yan saw it and quickly called out to the girl who was close to her, "Go out and see."

It's just that although the girl usually has a good relationship with Ding Mei, seeing how embarrassed she was tonight, she didn't want to admit that she was her friend, so she said with a stiff face: "Let her run away, she's such a big person, nothing will happen to her."

Ma Yan didn't think so. "It's late at night, what if she runs out of school?" After saying that, she saw that the other party didn't say anything, and said angrily, "Forget it, if you don't go, I will go." She said to the acting vice-class monitor Xu Hui and ran out of the classroom.

After Ma Yan left the classroom, the bell for class rang. Xu Hui stood up to maintain discipline and the classroom soon became quiet.

He slowly leaned over to Su Ting's ear and asked softly, "Mom, why is that aunt crying?"

"I couldn't win, I was so angry that I cried."

Manman Oh Oh: "Mom is so awesome!"

While raising her thumb, she slowly recalled what her mother had just said in her mind, preparing to write it all down. There was an annoying kid in her class who always bullied girls. If he bullied others again next time, she would go and quarrel with him and use all her mother's words to make him cry!

Humph, let’s see if he dares to bully others again in the future!

She was thinking slowly in her heart and mumbling something. Su Ting noticed it and leaned over to listen. She heard her saying, "Do you live by the sea? The one who teases first is a loser..."

Su Ting almost choked on her own saliva and asked in a low voice, "Why are you memorizing these?"

Man Man had no secrets from her mother, so she told her mother all her plans. After hearing this, Su Ting forced a smile and praised her, "Your idea is very good, haha..."

In her heart, she was thinking that when she returned home she would pick out two balls of cotton from the quilt and carry them with her. Next time she had an argument with someone, she would have to plug her ears!