If you'd like to support my work and help me create more chapters, I've opened Ko-fi memberships!
Your support helps fund future chapters and commissions, and lets me spend more time creating new content.
No pressure—reading and enjoying the story is already a huge support. Read for free, support if you can, and thank you for being here.
Kang Wei couldn’t sit still at home. It felt like someone had dumped a whole pile of nails under him.
In the end, he ran off to find Zhou Cheng.
He visited the Zhou family often, so they were used to him, but he was a little afraid of Zhou Cheng’s father. He deliberately came at noon, when Uncle Zhou definitely wouldn’t be home.
When Kang Wei arrived, Zhou Cheng was in his room fiddling with a pile of small gadgets.
“ What’re you doing, Cheng-ge? ”
Zhou Cheng packed the things into a bag.
“ Your sister-in-law always goes around alone. I’m getting her some self-defense tools. ”
Those things were not easy to get. There wasn’t even a civilian version available. Zhou Cheng had gone to a lot of trouble to get them.
If he hadn’t been waiting on this shipment, he would have gone to Anqing County long ago instead of staying home for two weeks.
Kang Wei quietly shut the door.
“ Cheng-ge, are you still going to Anqing? ”
Zhou Cheng glanced at him.
“ Tired of me already? Think you’ve got the route figured out and want to go solo? Fine. I’ll find my own vehicle. You carry your own goods, I’ll carry mine. What I said before still stands— the old route is yours. I’ll find a new one. ”
That almost made Kang Wei cry.
Zhou Cheng’s route made far more money. Kang Wei knew that better than anyone. Even between real brothers, you might not be willing to share such a profitable line of work.
Zhou Cheng didn’t have to help him at all. He only did it because he sympathized with him.
“ I was wrong, brother. I’m here to apologize. Please don’t leave me out anymore… If you take me with you, I’ll owe you forever! ”
“ Fine, I get it. ” Zhou Cheng said.
He didn’t deny that he had fallen for Xia Xiaolan at first sight.
When a man pursued a woman, he had to create more chances to meet her. Staying away too long would affect his future plans, and Zhou Cheng understood that. His prior disciplinary issue in the army had already been handled in a different way now. It wasn’t all because of the Zhou family—there was a big leader upstairs who liked Zhou Cheng and was willing to speak on his behalf.
But this was the first woman he had ever liked. He simply couldn’t control his thoughts, and he didn’t want to.
“ I’ll run the route two more times at most. It won’t delay anything important. ”
That was Zhou Cheng’s answer to Kang Wei.
He was not the kind of person who explained himself to others, but Kang Wei knew the situation, and Zhou Cheng could see he was under pressure.
In Zhou Cheng’s view, a man’s future did not have to be in the army or the civil service. But his family had high hopes for him, and he had been sent into the military when he was still a teenager.
That uniform was not something he could just throw away on a whim.
Since he had time, he might as well spend it with the woman he planned to marry. Zhou Cheng packed up the things and told Kang Wei to get ready— they would leave tomorrow.
Kang Wei was both excited and nervous.
Excited, because he’d get to follow Zhou Cheng and make money again.
Nervous, because if the Zhou family found out, they might not be able to do anything to Zhou Cheng, but they could certainly skin Kang Wei alive.
The Zhou family had a high threshold.
Would they even accept Xia Xiaolan?
The more Kang Wei thought about it, the less likely it seemed. Forget marriage alliances— the Zhou family had to have standards for Zhou Cheng’s future wife. No matter how he looked at it, Xia Xiaolan didn’t fit.
His own family situation was probably more realistic. His father was dead, and his grandparents couldn’t keep him in line if he acted up. His mother might object, but Kang Wei was confident he could handle it.
Hold on—what was he thinking?
No matter how pretty she was, he couldn’t go there.
That was his future sister-in-law.
Kang Wei was kind of funny that way. On one hand, he thought the Zhou family would never accept Xia Xiaolan. On the other hand, he had been completely brainwashed by Zhou Cheng.
If Zhou Cheng wanted to do something, it usually worked out.
Kang Wei trusted him blindly.
Zhou Cheng tucked the things he’d prepared for Xia Xiaolan under the bed.
“ Any progress on the thing I asked you to check? ”
He meant Xia Ziyu.
“ She’s from Anqing County in Henan Province, right? The college student, Xia Ziyu—she’s studying in Beijing. ”
“ Beijing Normal College.”
Kang Wei curled his lip.
He had thought she got into Peking University or something.
They had built Xia Ziyu up so high, but Kang Wei wasn’t impressed. He had no desire to go to college himself, but if he did, there was no way they’d send him to Beijing Normal College.
He was a martyr’s orphan, after all. Even if the Kang family wasn’t much, he should still get some preferential treatment.
“ And Xia Ziyu’s boyfriend is also at Beijing Normal College… We both know him too. ”
“ Wang Jianhua.”
Names like Jianhua and Jianguo were too common, and Wang was one of the most common surnames. At first, the name Wang Jianhua hadn’t meant anything to Kang Wei. But since he was investigating Xia Ziyu, he’d also looked into the legendary future brother-in-law Xia Xiaolan had supposedly seduced in broad daylight.
That’s when it got interesting.
It was actually Wang Jianhua, someone he knew.
The world really was small.
The Zhou, Kang, and Wang families had all been about the same in the early years. Now the Zhou family was the strongest, the Kang family was a little weaker, and the Wang family had been pushed out of the circle long ago.
Wang Jianhua was a little older than them, so they hadn’t really played together as kids. After the Wang family fell, Kang Wei heard that Wang Jianhua had been sent down too. He hadn’t paid attention to it, and never expected to hear his name again under these circumstances.
“ Wang Jianhua? ” Zhou Cheng asked.
He hadn’t seen him since the Wang family’s problems, and he could barely remember what Wang Jianhua looked like.
Anyway, he wasn’t as handsome as Zhou Cheng.
Zhou Cheng immediately lost interest.
In his memory, Wang Jianhua had been arrogant, always looking down on people.
After a few years in the countryside, maybe he’d changed a little?
Zhou Cheng was confident.
Put him and Wang Jianhua side by side, and Xiaolan would definitely choose him.
“ Can find those two fine. Leave them alone for now. ”
Anyone who had bullied his woman, Zhou Cheng would remember. But how to deal with them, he would leave to Xia Xiaolan’s opinion.
Xia Ziyu was different from Zhang Erlai. Zhang Erlai was just a filthy thug, while Xia Ziyu was Xiaolan’s cousin. Zhou Cheng only felt that something was off between them, and he still didn’t know exactly what Xia Ziyu had done.
So he would keep investigating, slowly.
None of them were getting away.
…
Xia Xiaolan didn’t know she now had backing.
Even if she did, she wouldn’t rely on Zhou Cheng.
Mountains collapse, people run. Who could depend on someone else forever?
She was the only one she could truly count on.
After turning in the grain levy, the farmers still weren’t done. In a few days, they would have to plant wheat and rapeseed. The land needed to be leveled first, and Li Fengmei still had plenty to do.
She refused to let Xia Xiaolan help, saying Xia Xiaolan’s hands were for holding a pen, not a hoe.
“ Can your business really be handled by just you and your mother? ”
Li Fengmei was not only worried about Xia Xiaolan’s studies— she was also worried about her business. Now Liu Fen delivered goods to Shangdu City, while Xia Xiaolan spent the day collecting goods and only studied at night.
On the days Liu Fen didn’t go out, she would collect the goods instead, and Xia Xiaolan could stay home all day and study.
Really, Liu Fen was the one doing the hardest work.
Xia Xiaolan knew agricultural machinery was barely used at this time. Before planting wheat and rapeseed, the fields had to be turned over by hand or with ox-drawn plows.
The Liu family had no ox, so Li Fengmei had to hire someone else to plow. People did not raise oxen for free; feeding them took time and money.
Plowing one mu cost money, and even if it hurt to spend it, it had to be spent.
One strong laborer was missing from the household, so all the farm work fell to Li Fengmei.
Liu Fen had once been good at farm work too, and since the Liu family and Xia Xiaolan had not yet had their land allotted separately, Liu Fen could have helped— but now she was busier than ever.
Li Fengmei would never drag her sister-in-law into the fields.
Liu Fen and Xia Xiaolan were not freeloaders. Xia Xiaolan was constantly contributing money to daily expenses, openly and secretly. The mother and daughter were really just staying temporarily at the Liu family’s home— they were not there to be supported by Liu Yong and Li Fengmei.
Xia Xiaolan was worried that her aunt might not have enough money, so she returned the 50 yuan her uncle had given her as startup capital.
Since the family’s eel stock hadn’t piled up too much, she could pay it back now.
She had borrowed 50 yuan, and now she brought back ten crisp 10-yuan bills.
“ What are you doing? Take it back! Your uncle said that money was your pocket money. If you do this, I’m going to be mad! ”
Li Fengmei refused no matter what.
Fifty yuan was a lot, but not that much. Not to mention 50— if Liu Yong could take out 5,000 yuan as her uncle, Li Fengmei still wouldn’t take it back.
A husband and wife were one unit; whatever Liu Yong decided, she would support.
If she really were given 5,000 yuan, she would feel bad, but she wouldn’t feel bad in front of Xia Xiaolan.
Seeing that her aunt refused the money, Xia Xiaolan smiled.
“ Fine, if you won’t take it, then in a while I’ll do another business. Think of this as my uncle’s investment .”
This series has advanced chapters, you can check out my Kofi!