County No. 1 High School agreed to Xia Xiaolan’s request.

They had no choice.

She had scored 457 on her second attempt.

At school, grades spoke for themselves.

County No. 1 quickly handled her student registration. She only showed up on the first day, was placed in Chen Qing’s class, and blew up Class 3’s heads.

After that, she went back to business as usual. Xia Xiaolan had her own study plan.

She just needed to show up regularly, take the school’s tests, and keep proving her成绩 had not dropped. That was enough.

Teacher Lao Wang and the others were still a little regretful. They felt that if she studied in school full-time, she might get even better results next year. But Xia Xiaolan was firm, and she had already persuaded the adults at home. No one could change her mind.

Seeing Zhu Fang again was awkward.

Zhu Fang himself had no real problems, but his mother was extremely snobbish. Xia Xiaolan did not want people pointing at her and saying she was trying to climb higher than she deserved.

She had no feelings for Zhu Fang at all. This was just an unnecessary disaster.

Zhu Fang had not heard what his mother said. He still treated Xia Xiaolan warmly. Xia Xiaolan thought about it, then left herself a way out:

“I might stop making deliveries very soon.”

The eel business could last until November, and if Xia Xiaolan ended it early, Zhu Fang would definitely be reluctant.

But what could he say?

Xia Xiaolan never said she disliked him, and she never said she didn’t want to make money. She was just going back to school. Compared with running a small business, getting into college was the proper path. Zhu Fang wanted to confess, but the words got stuck in his throat.

He only had a middle school education.

His family conditions were decent, and his salary was not bad—but that depended on who he was compared to.

A real official’s son would never be allowed to stop at middle school, even in years when the *gaokao* had been canceled. Otherwise, how could Zhu Fang have become a buyer at the Huanghe Restaurant?

Among ordinary town workers, his family was considered decent. Enough to look down on rural people, yes—but only because they had a little power.

“Xiaolan, good luck getting into the university you want! If you get busy, you can let someone else do the deliveries. I’m still a buyer at the restaurant, so this business won’t just die off.”

Zhu Fang still would not give up.

He wanted to leave himself some hope. What if Xia Xiaolan didn’t get in?

The person Xia Xiaolan arranged to help with deliveries would most likely be her uncle, not some outsider. If he got on good terms with her uncle, wouldn’t that mean he had a connection to Xia Xiaolan too?

Zhu Fang was proud, but he was not stupid.

That was how he put it. What could Xia Xiaolan do?

When she left the Huanghe Restaurant, she could not help patting her face. With looks like this, she thought, even in her past life she would never have dared dream of such treatment.

…

Zhu Fang had guessed wrong. Liu Yong would not keep delivering for her forever—he still had his own family to support.

With Li Fengmei and Liu Fen buying up eels everywhere, and even the oil dregs Xia Xiaolan brought back being sold along the way, Xia Xiaolan did not need to go to Shangdu every other day anymore. She focused on selling off the several hundred jin of eels stocked at home. And since oil dregs were in short supply in the countryside, the money came back quickly—several hundred yuan in no time.

Liu Fen had learned to ride a bicycle.

Their supply channel was still intact, so it did not really matter who made the delivery to Shangdu. Even if Zhu Fang found out it was Xia Xiaolan’s own mother delivering the goods, would he dare be careless? With other motives in mind, he could only be extra polite to Liu Fen.

No matter what he said, Liu Fen listened—but in her heart, she still believed her daughter’s college entrance exam was the most important thing. What kind of boyfriend could compare to getting into college?

Boyfriends could break up. A college graduate, on the other hand, would be assigned a state job.

Liu Fen had a simple, down-to-earth value system. Straightforward, but effective.

Then Liu Yong had to leave on a long trip.

Before that, those thugs led by Zhang Erlai had finally been sentenced. The thugs who had blocked the road before got twenty years. Zhang Erlai got life imprisonment. He would never again dare to falsely accuse Xia Xiaolan of having anything to do with him. If he added the charge of hooliganism on top, life imprisonment could easily become a death sentence.

That thorn in the side had finally been pulled out.

As time passed, other gossip naturally replaced the rumors about Xia Xiaolan.

Liu Yong finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“This trip should take about a month if it goes fast. If it goes slow, it could be more than two months. The three of you women and Tao Tao stay home. If anything happens, don’t try to handle it alone—ask the villagers for help.”

Liu Yong was anxious. His friend had been pressing him for a long time, and he had already delayed long enough.

Now that Liu Fen had divorced, mother and daughter had moved their *hukou*, Xia Xiaolan was back in school, and the hooligans had been sentenced, Liu Yong could not keep putting it off.

Why did rural families always want sons? It was not only old-fashioned thinking, and not just because villages needed labor. If there was no man at home, it was easy to be bullied.

Not to mention disputes over interests—if Liu Yong was not around, leaving behind three women, including a delicate girl like Xia Xiaolan, would troublemakers get ideas?

Of course, the Xia family was not short on men. The three Xia brothers were all strong and sturdy, but Xia Xiaolan’s reputation had already been ruined. And the Xia men never stood up for her anyway, which was worse than having no one at all.

Before leaving, Liu Yong brought back two dogs to guard the house, and he also greeted the neighbors one by one, asking them to keep an eye on things.

“Tao Tao’s dad, take care of yourself while you’re away. We’ll look after things at home!”

Li Fengmei’s eyes were a little red.

Of course she hated to see Liu Yong leave, but he was the head of the family. The burden on his shoulders was heavy. If he didn’t go out and earn money, that would not work.

If a couple wanted to stay together all day long, they would have to live in poverty. Adults might be able to endure poverty, but Liu Yong and his wife had a son to think about. Parents had to consider the child’s future.

To outsiders, Liu Yong still said he was going out to do masonry work.

Xia Xiaolan thought that her uncle was making the whole thing sound mysterious. He did not seem like a man who just went out to do hard labor as a bricklayer. But everyone had secrets of their own. She only hoped Liu Yong’s trip would go smoothly.

…

After Liu Yong left, life went on as usual.

At Village Chief Chen Wangda’s house, people were also talking about Xia Xiaolan.

“Liu Yong used to be such a useless man. Now he’s finally acting like he wants to improve himself,” Chen Wangda’s daughter-in-law said to her husband in private.

Of course, Chen Wangda did not have only one son, but the village chief position would definitely pass to the eldest son. Chen Dazhi and his wife had a good son—Chen Qing was the eldest grandson and the Chen family’s future college student.

Chen Dazhi was using paper saved from his son’s homework to roll tobacco. That was how most rural people smoked. A pack of cigarettes was expensive, and there were no cigarette ration coupons in the countryside, so people were used to smoking dry tobacco or rolling their own. Unfiltered cigarettes were stronger.

He took a drag and exhaled slowly.

“He may have been a mess, but he never caused trouble for the village. Since he’s not home, we should look after his family a bit.”

Liu Yong had even brought gifts before leaving—cigarettes and liquor. That was a proper courtesy.

Chen Dazhi’s wife gave a light “mm.”

“Things can turn around. I think the Liu family’s future won’t be bad.”

Liu Yong was improving himself. He had brought his divorced sister Liu Fen back home. At first, that seemed like he was taking in a bad burden, but unexpectedly, that burden was nothing like the rumors said—she was capable, good at making money, and sharp-minded too.

County No. 1 High School’s teachers had even come all the way to the village to tell Xia Xiaolan to attend school, saying she had a very real chance of getting into college next year.

That was what Chen Dazhi’s wife was thinking about.

As a mother, how could she not see the way her son Chen Qing looked at Xia Xiaolan?

Before, she would never have agreed.

But if Xia Xiaolan really got into college, then maybe it was not impossible.

For that reason alone, they should take better care of Liu Yong’s family. Chen Dazhi’s wife nudged her husband.

“Has the village decided anything about the land Liu Fen and Xiaolan were split off from?”

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