Linfengchun

Kapitel 14

With such a fiery temper, how can you say her products aren't good?

Angered, she wanted to hit him, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught the man in the floral shirt who had been quietly standing by taking a step forward. Shang Lin was wary, still vividly remembering his behavior of almost breaking someone's arm without hesitation. She angrily withdrew her hand, picked up her small bag, and continued packing.

Normally, Yin Yeyao would have been furious at being treated like this, but she was dealing with Qiu Shanglin—perhaps because she was young; perhaps because she was cute—and Yin Yeyao had more patience than usual.

He smiled mischievously and said, "You've finally said something."

As Shang Lin tidied up in annoyance, he thought to himself: Shameless and shameless; bullying others with bodyguards!

However, they also began to doubt his identity.

Even if she were completely clueless, she could tell that the man in the floral shirt was not only exceptionally skilled, but also possessed a glint of wisdom in his eyes—he was more than just a muscular man with brute strength!

It's quite intriguing that such an outstanding man would willingly stay by the side of a bratty eight-year-old and obey his every word.

She didn't speak, and Yin Yeyao wasn't angry. She tossed the eraser up and down, saying, "Hey, why don't you sell notebooks?"

The stall was filled with a wide variety of goods, including erasers, knives, pencil cases, and even scented book covers, but there were no notebooks.

Qiu Shanglin didn't want to pay attention to him, but the last eraser was in his hand. He tried to reach for it several times with a stern face, but the eraser easily dodged him each time. Seeing the smug look on his face, he really wanted to slap him hard on the back of the head!

But Yin Yeyao was not Qiu Xialin; not only was she taller, but she also had a menacing bodyguard by her side.

She could only say angrily, "Give it back to me! I want to go home!"

It's all his fault! If he hadn't interfered, we could have kept this going for a while longer. But now, who would dare to come near us?

The thought of the money that had mysteriously disappeared caused Shang Lin a sharp pain in his heart.

Those are all genuine RMB!

"Give it to me!" I reached for it on tiptoe, wishing I were tall enough!

"When I get home, I drink milk and make bone broth every day," Shang Lin thought resentfully, looking at the eraser that was so close yet just out of reach.

"Why don't you sell your exercise books?" he asked, genuinely curious.

After trying for a while, she got tired and simply gave up. "It's just an eraser, I don't care if I don't want it!"

As she picked up her little schoolbag and prepared to leave, Yin Yeyao followed closely behind.

"Ugh, why is that?"

"Say something!"

"I'm not giving you back your eraser if you don't say anything."

"Hello."

After calling out several times to no avail, Yin Yeyao grew impatient and reached out to pull on her backpack strap. Shang Lin jolted as if pricked by a needle, shaking off his pull with a forceful jerk. Seeing that he was about to attack again, she slapped the thief's hand hard.

"What's all this noise about!"

He shouted at us in a bad mood.

Household

Only after the beating did they realize what had happened. Glancing out of the corner of their eye at the man in the floral shirt following behind them, they saw him frowning, opening his mouth as if to speak but then stopping, his hand already outstretched. Shanglin was terrified. "Wow, you even hit a child?" he exclaimed.

She was so frightened that she covered her head and curled up into a ball.

After waiting for ages, the expected slap never came. Fearfully, I looked up and saw that my little backpack had ended up in the hand of the man in the floral shirt. My backpack was heavy, but in his hand it looked like a toy, easily hooked.

Having escaped a beating, Shang Lin grew a little bolder, but was still puzzled. What was going on? Was it a robbery?

Seeing her questioning look, the man in the floral shirt explained, "I'll carry it for you."

Strange. He was only helping out of respect for Ye Yao, so why did he look at this little girl's eyes for the first time, as if he were seeing an adult instead of a child?

Yin Yeyao noticed her fear of Hua Zi and said with a grin, "It's okay, it's okay, I won't say anything, Brother Hua won't hit you—just tell me why you're not selling the notebooks."

As he spoke, he handed the eraser to Hua Zi as well.

Shang Lin glared at him irritably, but ultimately dared not act rashly.

"Are you stupid? All the workbooks are made and purchased uniformly for the whole school. Teachers check homework every day. Who would buy a different workbook? Are they just asking to get scolded?"

Middle school is a bit better, but elementary school is much stricter. Before a workbook is finished, it cannot be torn, lost, or soiled. Not only are the daily homework assignments checked, but at the end of the semester, all the previous workbooks are collected to check for any omissions.

Under such regulations, who would buy a useless notebook just because it's new and pretty?

Yin Yeyao suddenly realized, and looked at her with great interest. This little girl is quite clever!

Hua Zi tilted his head, looking at her with surprise. This little girl has quite the business acumen.

"I heard you made some juice, is that right?"

"Hmm." He snorted dully through his nose and walked home without looking up.

"I also heard that your mother is planning to build a factory to produce popsicles, is that right?"

This aroused Shanglin's suspicion, and she looked up at him warily: "How did you know?"

Although it's not exactly a secret, it's still quite annoying when a complete stranger comes to ask you about it.

Yin Yeyao scoffed dismissively: "It's all over there."

There? Where? She looked at Yin Yeyao in confusion, remembering where they had met—ah, he meant his grandfather's village! His arrogant attitude, so disdainful of even mentioning it, really annoyed her! You look down on the countryside? If you do, then don't come! Nobody's forcing you to come!

Subconsciously, I developed a dislike for him.

Yin Yeyao's tone was somewhat boastful, but after waiting for a long time without receiving a reply, he couldn't help but feel a little dissatisfied: "Is it because you don't have enough funds?"

Shang Lin didn't even bother to look at him, and snorted coldly, "None of your business." Of course, he spoke very softly, just so the man in the floral shirt wouldn't hear.

She couldn't understand. Martial artists are sharp-eyed and sharp-eared; how could her little schemes escape Hua Zi's notice? Witnessing her disrespect towards Yin Yeyao—not just disrespect, but utterly impolite—and seeing Yin Yeyao, whose temper was never pleasant, not only not angry, but smilingly letting her berate him, gave Hua Zi a strange feeling. It was as if he were facing a young couple, the woman throwing a tantrum, the man passively accepting it with a smile… Ugh, how could he have such wicked thoughts when they were so young? Besides, the difference in their social status was obvious. Even if Yin Yeyao took a liking to her when they grew up, how could Xu Mi possibly agree?

One has a bright future; the other has a bleak future.

One is a wealthy young master; the other is a poor village girl from a small mountain village.

Pshaw, that's absolutely impossible!

Hua Zi shook his head violently, a little annoyed. How could being stuck in a small mountain village make his brain so muddled? What nonsense was he thinking!

It's all because those two kids aren't acting like children—one's four years old and doing some kind of business; the other's eight years old and acting all sinister!

He grinned and brought his face close to Shanglin's: "I have some spare cash on hand right now, how about I lend it to you?"

Shang Lin completely ignored him, scoffing, "How much money could you possibly have!"

He continued to smile, as if he had become more cheerful ever since he met her.

"Including what Hua Zi just brought, it's probably around seven thousand." This was a conservative estimate, or rather, it concealed most of the money, only mentioning a small portion.

One should not flaunt one's wealth.

Shang Lin continued to ignore him, saying, "Tch, I thought you were so rich. Do you think you're one of the F4?"

She thought to herself, "Seven thousand? What can seven thousand do? It's not even enough for a down payment on a house..." She habitually used the perspective of later generations to measure things. After she finished thinking to herself, she realized, "Hey, it's 1986 now. Seven thousand is quite a lot, isn't it?"

Yin Yeyao was a little sad.

Damn it, he finally managed to show off his wealth in front of the girl, and she rejected him. She looked sadly at Hua Zi and silently asked, "Is seven thousand really so little?"

Hua Zi firmly stated: That's too little, you should say more!

For someone who frequently carries tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan around the city, seven thousand yuan is indeed a bit little. Unconsciously, Hua Zi began to see Qiu Shanglin as someone similar to Xu Mi, meaning that no matter what she said or did, it no longer seemed shocking.

Imagine someone once turned out to be something extraordinary, like steamed buns or rice, and you saw and ate it every day. Having been exposed to such things, when you encounter a smaller version of something extraordinary, you don't think you need to be surprised.

Remaining calm in the face of adversity and never underestimating anyone are some of the lessons he learned from following Xu Mi.

Yin Yeyao was heartbroken: "How about I lend you all seven thousand yuan?"

Shang Lin replied without hesitation, "I don't want to. We're not even close!"

She resolutely refused in the blink of an eye, and then suddenly realized her mistake in the blink of an eye.

Seven thousand... not seven cents, not seven dimes, not seven dollars, not seven hundred, just a whopping seven thousand... how many cups of soda would Zhang Hongwei have to sell to earn that much; how many erasers would he have to sell to save up that much?

She must have forgotten to bring her brain.

If she had her head on her head, she would definitely remember that it is 1986 and not the 21st century. Seven thousand dollars is enough to buy one, two, three, four, five, or countless Qiu Shanglin!

In the 21st century, she could disdainfully refuse someone's offer to lend her seven thousand dollars; in 1986—if you sold her a hundred times, could you raise seven thousand?

Suddenly realizing his mistake, Qiu Shanglin looked up at the sky, then at Yin Yeyao, whose face had suddenly darkened, and then at the man in the floral shirt who had been expressionless but now had a smile in his eyes. He suddenly sighed, "Life is as lonely as snow, and people are shameless for money!"

With a smirk, she eagerly took Yin Yeyao's arm, ignoring his surprise, and said with unusual enthusiasm, "Little Yin, you've come all this way, why don't you come to my house for a meal? After all, you're practically family to my mother. It would be so rude of me not to invite you home when you're family to my doorstep!"

Xiao Yin and Xiao Yin, whoever feeds you is your mother, whoever has money is your relative—at this moment when the whole family is struggling to make ends meet, Qiu Shanglin deeply feels how unwise and foolish it is to turn away money that is offered to him!

What? You're calling me a money-grubber?

Damn it, so what if I'm a miser? You try living next to a toilet if you dare!

Accepting her warm invitation, Hua Zi, as a representative of her family, accompanied Yin Yeyao to the staff dormitory compound of the Red Star Printing Factory.

After enduring a thorough check by the gatekeeper, a warm greeting from a passing uncle, and a census-like interrogation by the aunties, I finally escaped into the Qiu family's house next to the toilet.