Zhou Xinya found her mother's behavior strange today; she was absent-mindedly staring at her watch and lost in thought.
They even agreed to eat "that kind of food".
"Boss, add extra chili oil to my snail rice noodles!"
Sun Lifang ordered two bowls of snail rice noodles.
The shop is owned by a newlywed couple. They sell dumplings, soup dumplings, and snail rice noodles together, but the taste of the snail rice noodles is not accepted by the locals.
So when a glamorous mother and daughter ordered snail rice noodles, many people in the shop turned their attention to them.
Zhou Xinya wasn't used to being stared at, and kept her head down, looking at her toes. Sun Lifang knew she was scared; coming from a small town, eating snail rice noodles seemed like such a shameful thing.
At that time, Western food was popular in Haicheng, but in Sun Lifang's opinion, Western food was just a piece of meat and a piece of noodles, which was not enough to fill her up. It was nothing compared to the sour and delicious taste of snail rice noodles.
The aura of a wealthy woman is no joke. Sun Lifang held her daughter's hand and glared back at all the scrutinizing gazes.
Zhou Xinya found it novel and interesting.
"I'm sorry, Mom—" Sun Lifang apologized to her daughter halfway through the meal, "I've been in a bad mood lately, and there are some things I'd like to ask for your forgiveness for."
Sun Lifang felt that some things needed to be made clear. Mother and daughter shouldn't hold grudges overnight. Zhou Xinya was a bit timid, and she had to slowly win her over.
Sun Lifang used to hate the older generation's parenting style, which often involved physical punishment. She tried her best to break free from the influence of her family of origin.
Unexpectedly, she herself began to treat her daughter the same way.
"Authoritarianism" means doing a lot behind the scenes without saying a word. For example, she went to great lengths to get her daughter into high school and felt sorry for her daughter, planning her future for her. But on the surface, she was sarcastic and cynical, worried that being gentle would spoil the child.
Because she is not good at expressing herself, her daughter developed a rift with her, feeling that her mother only loved her younger siblings and that she wanted to drive her away because she found her troublesome, leading to a estrangement between mother and daughter.
She pushed her daughter away.
In a daze, a mouthful of chili pepper choked my throat.
She took the water her daughter offered, her nose burning and her eyes watering; she looked utterly disheveled.
Just as she was about to tell her daughter not to worry about her, a slightly sweet taste touched her tongue; the half-eaten chocolate from the stairwell had been brought into her mouth.
Zhou Xinya's eyes widened, and she angrily took the chili oil from her mother's bowl, muttering loudly, "Mom, you're like a pig sticking scallions in its nose! Don't do that again!"
"Okay." Sun Lifang felt like she was the one being taken care of. "Thank you, Mom's good daughter."
Zhou Xinya looked away, her ears turning slightly red, betraying her emotions.
The little girl's lips were bright red from eating, and she hissed as she took another bite.
It's so hot, and eating spicy food makes Sun Lifang feel like her whole body is sticky.
After paying the bill, she took her daughter's hand and walked out of the store. As the evening breeze blew, she couldn't help but let out a comfortable sigh.
It all felt like a dream, a dream in which she was doing what she wanted to do.
The mother and daughter arrived downstairs at the Engelmann Hotel where Sun Lifang worked.
After Hong Kong's return to China in 1997, it was hit by a financial crisis, which caused a sharp drop in the property market and a rapid shrinkage of the real estate industry.
Their hotel business was originally a state-owned enterprise that underwent mixed ownership reform, and they had a fixed customer base, so the impact was minimal.
Sun Lifang works in the marketing department. The management team is a Sino-foreign joint venture. Influenced by foreign companies, the company has performance targets and only looks at the results, not the employees' working hours, so the working hours are very flexible.
Zhou Xinya sat on the sofa in the hotel lobby, staring intently at the entrance.
It was the first time she had ever seen a revolving door like this, and she wanted to go around it again, but she was a little embarrassed to look around.
"Play again?" Sun Lifang asked her.
Zhou Xinya nodded repeatedly in agreement.
Sun Lifang then pulled her out through another door and back in.
"That's the kind of door you see in movies!"
Zhou Xinya watched it again and again, then introduced her to her mother the movie "The Adventures of Douding" that she had watched on the movie channel. Finally, she held her mother's hand tightly, determined not to be tricked by bad people!
The little girl mustered her courage and looked straight ahead at the security guard who was watching her.
All the way up, I felt so proud that her mother worked in such a beautiful building!
"Little Sun is here, please have a seat."
A familiar yet unfamiliar voice rang out, sounding like a very cheerful person, "You should have called before you came. Your teacher's wife hasn't seen you in a long time and has been nagging you about missing you and wanting you to come over for dinner."
The speaker was a man with half-gray hair, wearing a white shirt with black polka dots, and a gold belt on his suit pants that accentuated his round belly. He looked very energetic.
Wang Heng was Sun Lifang's benefactor. She joined the company right after graduating from university, and while her classmates were still interviewing and looking for jobs, she was already receiving a salary.
For a poor girl from a small county, this was incredibly lucky.
Sun Lifang did not disappoint Wang Heng's promotion; she quickly got the hang of things and consistently ranked among the top performers.
As soon as she sat down, Wang Heng poured her a cup of tea and asked, "Do you want to reconsider your resignation? I know your difficulties, but a woman needs money to have a voice. You'll definitely regret resigning now."
Wang Heng is in his fifties. In terms of age, Sun Lifang could be his daughter, and he did indeed treat her like a daughter.
"Are you even listening to me?!" Wang Heng tried to persuade him for a long time, but he was so anxious that he didn't know what to do. "How could you be so foolish? Is it easy to get into university? You've come full circle and you're going back to being a housewife. How can you face your grandmother who supported your education?"
Sun Lifang's grandmother had five sons, and she was the only granddaughter among her descendants. Having worked in the fields all her life, she supported her granddaughter and hoped that she would be an independent woman and not depend on men.
She had mentioned her grandmother to Wang Heng before. The old woman didn't get along with her son and lived alone. She hoped to bring her grandmother to live with them, but the old woman always declined.
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
