Chapter 27
While Jiang Xiaoman was listening to his father bring up old grievances, Tang Xinlan was also discussing matters concerning Langshan with Su Peng.
"Are you really planning to let Xinran go? She's a homebody, can she handle it?" Su Peng wasn't saying this to look down on women. In fact, none of his closest relatives and friends, from his own mother to his wife, and then to his mother-in-law and wife's daughter, were easy to deal with... cough!
"What's wrong with being a homebody?" Tang Xinlan asked, displeased.
"No...you're sending her to be a guesthouse manager, right? Doesn't managing a guesthouse require communicating with guests? With Lu Xinran's personality—she's a woman who's absolutely certain of what she says—how are you going to have her communicate with guests? With her mind?"
"Honey~ Please use your brain! I'm trying to develop a secluded, Zen-style guesthouse in Langshan, not a bustling farmhouse, okay? Why does the guesthouse manager need to talk so much? People are going there for meditation, not to find someone to chat with."
"No, why did you suddenly decide to develop a Zen retreat bed and breakfast?" Young Master Su suddenly had a bad feeling. "Could it be that Old Zhang is trying to trick you into divorcing me again?"
Good heavens! Five years into their marriage, their child is old enough to run errands, and Young Master Su has already passed the test of his mother-in-law, but he still hasn't passed the test of his wife's best friend.
The key point is that Zhang Jia Hui, this woman, is living a wonderful life as a single mother, setting a terrible example for married women who believe "life is better without a man"! This woman also frequently tries to "turn" her wife against her, using tactics such as—
"Now that you have a child, what do you need a man for? Is he just there to cause you trouble?"
"What's the use of having a man? He's busy at the company all day long, has he ever taken care of the kids? Sister! This kind of widowed marriage is unacceptable!"
"What man can compare to sisters? Anyway, we both have kids now, so you should dump him! After the kids grow up, we can find a beautiful, secluded place to live, and go up the mountain to pick mushrooms and wild vegetables whenever we want. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"
Su Peng had practically memorized all these kinds of rhetoric for turning people against each other.
Now my wife is saying she wants to open a secluded Zen retreat guesthouse in Langshan. Has she really been successfully turned by that woman, Zhang Jiahui?
Thinking about his arduous journey to win back his wife, Young Master Su couldn't help but burst into tears.
Strictly speaking, although Tang Xinlan was the one who took the initiative at the beginning of his marriage with Tang Xinlan, in the following years, he was the one secretly devising various ways to solidify the relationship.
The idea of "jointly raising a child" is indeed a bit sensational in rural areas, so the two families specifically took the opportunity to go to the provincial capital and negotiate this "deal" at his home.
Yes, buying and selling.
For a long time, Tang Xinlan insisted that this was just a business deal. The two "investors" did not want betrothal gifts or dowries. They simply got together, pretended to get married, and then used "special and advanced scientific methods" to conceive two children, one for each family, in a fair and just manner.
Su Peng did indeed think that way at first.
He was genuinely fed up with his mother's pressure to get married. Since his mother just wanted to have a grandson (or granddaughter), he figured he might as well skip blind dates and get married, and go straight for the baby. That would solve everything!
The two old classmates hit it off almost immediately. Before the villagers of Shangtang Village could react, and before anyone knew when their village's Goddess of Wealth had started dating President Su, they received a wedding invitation from Tang Youcai.
From getting married to having a baby, Tang Xinlan diligently fulfilled the terms of the "jointly agreed childbirth" agreement for a year and a half. However, the other investor, the father, suddenly had an affair.
He wanted to turn the charade into reality and lock himself into the arms of this woman he already had.
But Tang Xinlan was such a blockhead! She just wouldn't get it! Initially, the two agreed that once the child turned one year old and could wean, they would officially separate and divide the child, citing "personality clashes." At that time, although Su Peng hadn't fully realized his feelings for Tang Xinlan, his keen intuition told him he couldn't let her get away like that!
So he secretly spent money to hire a child psychologist, who pretended to be a longtime friend, to visit his home. Sure enough! Even though Tang Xinlan didn't care about his feelings, she still couldn't bear to "let the children live in a dysfunctional family," thus creating potential problems for their future mental health.
And so, with the "divine assistance" of his two children, Su Peng, this "temporary stay-at-home dad," happily survived for another three years!
However, happy times always pass quickly. With both children starting kindergarten and school education as a backup, "sound family education" seemed less important. Therefore, he had to postpone his "succession plan" to return to head office. Furthermore, the health industry had indeed been booming in recent years. The freeze-dried vegetable factory he and Tang Xinlan had founded to escape an arranged marriage had now grown significantly, with an expanding product line. These days, Su Peng spent more time in Shangtang Village than in the provincial capital.
He's tried so hard, but what about that heartless woman, Tang Xinlan? She's probably preparing to break up with him at any moment, isn't she?
Breaking up is absolutely out of the question, not even in this lifetime!
Su Peng's eyes lit up, and he immediately came up with a new idea—
“Xiaoyu and Xiaojin have been spoiled since they were little and have never experienced hardship. How can that be? I think we should bring the two kids along this time when we go to Langshan. You can do your thing, and I'll take them to visit the local people's homes so that these two little rascals can know how hard it is to earn money!”
As the saying goes, it takes ten years to grow a tree but a hundred years to cultivate a person. As long as his two little brats still need a complete family education, he, as their biological father, will never be laid off!
Tang Xinlan stared at him thoughtfully for a while, making Su Peng's scalp tingle, before nodding: "Then remember to ask the kindergarten teacher for leave. We'll go there on Friday. Xiaoman said there's nowhere to stay there right now, so let's leave early on Friday morning and try to come back the same day."
Tang Xinlan is going to Langshan with all the members of her newly selected team, the two most important of whom are designer Xiaoman and Lu Xinran.
Su Peng, being so straightforward, never realized Lu Xinran's true talent! This girl may seem like a shut-in, and usually acts like she's mute, but she has an exceptional physique that makes her particularly attractive to real tycoons!
Don't get me wrong, the "attraction" she's talking about has nothing to do with romantic relationships. It's simply that it makes people want to stay by her side. To borrow the words of a wealthy customer: "I don't know why, but when I'm with Teacher Xinran, I feel completely calm down."
In recent years, rural tourism in Shangtang Village has truly taken off. With the automatic selection of tourists, the popularity of the village's various industries has gradually diverged. Among them, the one that people visit once and will basically never go back a second time is the village's intangible cultural heritage experience center...
Fortunately, the project received subsidies from various levels of government, and it was also considered a storefront in the village, so although the profits were meager, it was still able to stay afloat.
It wasn't until Lu Xinran suddenly became popular that this deadlock was completely broken.
At first, Lu Xinran only gained popularity in a small circle of intangible cultural heritage circles. However, this circle has an advantage: although there are not many people, everyone got into it because they really like it, so the fans are very loyal. With the support of these loyal fans (who spend money), Lu Xinran's innovative New Year paintings have always sold well in online stores. In addition, with the sales share of her "senior brother" Wang Maoxuan's colored pencil portrait paintings, the experience center has at least attracted some popularity.
Later, when Tang Xinlan went to the city to attend a meeting, several bigwigs from the provincial capital took the initiative to greet her. She was startled: although she had done well in the town in recent years, she could only be considered a "township entrepreneur" at best, and she could not compare with these real bigwigs from the provincial capital. Could it be that they took the initiative to greet her because she was Su Xueqiao's daughter-in-law?
This question was answered during the working lunch after the meeting: listening to the bigwigs lavishly praising Lu Xinran with exaggerated adjectives, Tang Xinlan immediately understood.
However, upon closer reflection, it is indeed true. Although Lu Xinran appears to be a woman of few words, she possesses a unique aura of tranquility. Moreover, due to her privileged upbringing, she exudes an elegant demeanor in every gesture. Even Tang Xinlan sometimes feels restless and can't help but want to go to Lu Xinran's studio for some peace and quiet. It is precisely because of this that Tang Xinlan overruled objections and insisted on having Lu Xinran take the lead in developing new markets.
Of course, another advantage of using Lu Xinran is that you can get free support from a social expert.
Lu Xinran has already gone, so how can Hao Shuai feel at ease letting his wife lead the team alone to open up new markets in remote mountains and wilderness?
Sure enough! Upon hearing that his wife was going to Langshan to oversee the Zen retreat homestay project, Hao Shuai was shocked!
Considering his wife's personality, Hao Shuai was actually more worried than Su Peng that his wife might become a nun at any time. After all, if a person can take life, death, and wealth lightly, what else is there that he is reluctant to give up?
After struggling for less than three seconds, Comrade Hao Shuai resolutely decided that he would also go to Langshan for an on-site inspection. Tang Xinlan said that the place was beautiful with clear waters and lush forests, and he wondered if he could really find some new business opportunities.
Among a group of shrewd and calculating people, only Lu Xinran remained steadfast in her original intentions. For her, it didn't really matter where she stayed at home. She had heard that Langshan was sparsely populated, and the neighbors were so close that they could hear each other's chickens and dogs but never interacted with each other. It was simply a paradise for shut-ins!
She only made two requests to her boss: first, the internet speed had to be good, because she now had to give three live-streamed lessons on New Year painting techniques to her fans every week; second, she did not live with anyone, and her studio and room could only have one person.
Tang Xinlan readily agreed to her request.
Especially the internet speed issue. Even if Lu Xinran didn't mention it, she would still have to handle this matter properly. After all, even if the real big shots are "in seclusion and meditating," they still need to remotely direct their subordinates' work. What if the internet speed is bad and it delays the big shots' video conference?
On Thursday evening, Su Peng drove to the provincial capital and picked up his two children from kindergarten.
Chapter 28
Su Jin and Tang Yulin, who just turned four this year, are already in the middle class of kindergarten. The two siblings are twins, with Su Jin being the older brother, born a dozen minutes earlier than his sister Tang Yulin. However, perhaps they inherited their grandmother's cunning, as they are already doing very well in kindergarten at such a young age.
Su Jin, the older brother, is even more like a playboy from a privileged background than his father. He changes "girlfriends" almost every month. There are three classes in their middle school, and he has an "ex-girlfriend" in every class. He is simply a child version of a playboy!
Compared to her brother, Tang Yulin looks like a pitiful little thing. She is often bullied to tears by her brother and classmates. However, because this child's "green tea" skills are not high enough, her parents and teachers have already seen through her.
At first, everyone sided with Tang Yulin. Later, Tang Xinlan and her husband, along with the teachers, gradually discovered a pattern: whenever Tang Yulin was bullied, she would only cry until her nose turned red, while the children who bullied her would suffer the consequences, either getting their bottoms or their palms bruised.
This time, Su Peng suggested taking the two children to experience the life of mountain people, and Tang Xinlan actually quite agreed.
Perhaps because they haven't experienced much hardship since birth, and the people around them have all lived comfortable lives, the two children have developed somewhat naive and domineering personalities, which really need to be changed.
Like all parents, Tang Xinlan felt that when she first became pregnant, she would definitely be able to raise her child into a good socialist teenager who embodies the five virtues and four beauties. However, as the child grew older, her expectations plummeted to the point where she thought, "As long as the child doesn't cause trouble and doesn't call the parents, that's fine."
Early Friday morning, I first dragged the two kids out of bed, dressed them, and put them in their car seats in the back. The two little ones usually don't get up until 7:30 at school, but I suddenly dragged them out at 5:00. Their big heads were still nodding and they weren't awake at all. Tang Xinlan was prepared. The night before, she and her mother made some steamed buns, which were steamed in the morning and put in a thermal container. She also took a case of milk and a case of mineral water to drink on the way. The three cars ahead and behind drove towards Langshan in the morning glow.
Unexpectedly, when I passed through Langshan Township, I happened to come across the township's market day. There were stalls on both sides of the road, and the road was crowded with people, so cars couldn't pass at all.
The two children were also awakened by the noisy shouts of the market vendors and were staring wide-eyed at the outside world through the car window.
"Alright, let's park the car and go get some breakfast." Seeing that the car couldn't get through, Tang Xinlan simply told them to find an open space by the roadside to park the car, and the group got out of the car to take a walk.
The market here is even more lively than in their town. They sell all sorts of things, and there's even a side road specifically for trading medicinal herbs. Mountain people go into the mountains to collect herbs during their off-season, and then carry them down the mountain during the market to sell for some money to buy good food for their families, or to buy oil, salt, soy sauce, and other household items. Tang Xinlan doesn't recognize many of the herbs.
On the other hand, Lu Xinran, who needed to know many kinds of flowers, plants, insects and fish to paint New Year pictures and could recognize some common herbs, spent money to buy a bag of roots of a certain plant, which was said to promote sleep when boiled in water.
After searching half a street, the group finally spotted a breakfast shop and quickly squeezed through.
This shop sells deep-fried brown sugar pancakes and tofu pudding. The taste wasn't very good. Tang Xinlan coaxed the two little ones into eating half a bowl of tofu pudding. The two picky little ones only took one bite of the sweet and greasy brown sugar pancakes and refused to eat any more. Tang Xinlan didn't care and planned to get them steamed buns when they got back to the car.
She had just finished eating when she heard someone calling her. Tang Xinlan looked up and immediately smiled: "Xiaoman, you're here too?"
"Yes, sister, I came with my dad to sell the potatoes we harvested at home. There were too many, and we couldn't eat them all ourselves."
Actually, it was because their house collapsed and there was nowhere to store the potatoes they had harvested. So Jiang Xiaoman borrowed a donkey cart from someone in the village, and the father and son carried the potatoes on more than a dozen trips, finally managing to get them all to the village so they could sell them all at the market.
On the last trip down the mountain carrying potatoes, Jiang Xiaoman felt her legs trembling. She couldn't go on like this!
Carrying fifty pounds of potatoes down the mountain, at a purchase price of five cents per pound, can only sell for twenty-five yuan. After deducting the cost of seeds and fertilizer (his family cuts grass to feed pigs, so they basically don't use herbicides), it's almost like working for nothing!
However, he knew his father's temper. People of Jiang Youliang's generation were all like that. They valued the land more than their own lives and couldn't stand seeing their family's land lying fallow. Letting him leave the family's land uncultivated was worse than killing him. Even if it meant losing money, his father would still make sure to cultivate every vacant spot under his nose...
That's why Jiang Xiaoman is trying to find other things to do, whether it's doing business or opening a bed and breakfast, it's all to find something for his father to do, so that he doesn't have to go farming whenever he has free time... It's not that farming is bad, if it were mechanized farming like in the Northeast farms, he would definitely support it wholeheartedly, but his father is so old, it's really too harmful to his body to carry things on his shoulders to farm.
Jiang Xiaoman had been hoping that Tang Xinlan would come soon, but she never expected that the two people would run into each other at the market!
They arrived early, and the family had already sold their potatoes to the market vendors. Jiang Xiaoman planned to go to the grocery store to buy some seaweed and bean curd sheets, since they would be hosting a meal for the people who were cleaning the house site. They already had cured meat and vegetables at home, so they only needed to buy some side dishes.
Unexpectedly, just as I came out of the grocery store, I saw Tang Xinlan sitting in the breakfast shop across the street eating. There were also several stylishly dressed young people sitting at the next table, who were probably the team members that Tang Xinlan had mentioned earlier.
Jiang Xiaoman greeted Tang Xinlan and heard that the car had to be parked outside because there were too many people at the market. She scratched her head apologetically, "That's how it is when there's a market in the mountains. People rarely come down from the mountain, so they try to finish all their family matters at once when they go to the market. Sister, wait a moment, I'll go tell my dad to take the donkey cart back. I'll ride with you and take you through the side path."
With that, Jiang Xiaoman carried her bags and disappeared into the crowd at the market.
"This kid is quite decisive and efficient, he seems like he can get things done." Looking at Jiang Xiaoman's tall and upright figure, Su Peng said with admiration, "I glanced at him in Banligou last time, but I didn't pay much attention. He's quite handsome, fair-skinned and clean-cut, not like a typical mountain dweller here."
“I heard from the old village chief of Shanrong that Xiaoman was found by his father more than 20 years ago at the market. I don’t know if he was kidnapped here or if someone didn’t want him after he was born. Unfortunately, no one thought to call the police at that time. Xiaoman’s father was short of a son, so he took him home and raised him as his own son.” Tang Xinlan was also a little doubtful, but they were not familiar with each other. Moreover, she heard that Jiang Xiaoman’s father never married and had only this one adopted son. The two of them had depended on each other for more than 20 years. This kind of affection could not be erased by the word “blood”.
Not long after Tang Xinlan and the others finished eating, Jiang Xiaoman returned, carrying two bright red candied hawthorns. She gave one to each of Su Jin and Tang Yulin, saying, "There's not much good food in the mountains, and the snacks at the convenience store aren't very healthy. Try these."
How could children resist the charm of candied hawthorns? As soon as they met, Jiang Xiaoman won the hearts of the two little ones, who called him "Uncle Xiaoman" repeatedly.
The group got into the car. Jiang Xiaoman sat in the passenger seat of the first car and directed the driver, Su Dashao, to drive the car behind a house. Sure enough, there was a narrow dirt road there.
"This is the fire lane in our town! One year during market day, a house in town caught fire. Because there were too many people at the market, the fire brigade couldn't get in, and the fire burned down several houses. Later, the town built a dirt road behind this place. Not many people usually walk on this side, but it's a fire lane, so even if no one walks on it, it still needs to be reserved, right?" Jiang Xiaoman explained.
"I didn't expect the officials in your town to be so organized, they even reserved a fire lane." Su Peng laughed.
“There’s no other way. Life is hard for people in the mountains. It takes generations to save up enough money to build a house. It’s all built brick by brick with great effort. If a fire breaks out, the whole family will have nowhere to live.” Jiang Xiaoman directed Su Peng to bypass the town through the “fire lane.” Sure enough, the exit was the road leading to the town. Once they got back onto the asphalt road, the rest of the journey was much easier.
The car drove all the way to the entrance of Langshan Elementary School. Jiang Youliang hadn't arrived home yet. When they found that the students were still in class, everyone unconsciously slowed down and lowered their voices.
"Xiaoman, I brought some gifts for the children at the school. Can you help us find a place so we can unload them first?" After Shanrong told Tang Xinlan about the situation at Langshan last time, Tang Xinlan searched for Jiang Xiaoman's personal account through her contacts and learned about the current predicament of Langshan Elementary School. She couldn't help solve the problem of the teaching staff, but she could still take care of their living conditions.
This time, the trunks of all three of their cars were filled with supplies for Langshan Elementary School. Since pure milk doesn't keep well, Tang Xinlan also bought five large boxes of children's milk powder, a total of twenty cans, which should last for a while. They also brought half a carcass of raw pork, three boxes of frozen chicken legs, over a dozen boxes of instant noodles, and over 100 kilograms of defective dried tofu. Although these were all defective products rejected from the production line, they were all vacuum-packed, and apart from their less appealing appearance, they tasted practically the same.
"As you know, I currently own three bean product factories, mainly producing our local specialty spiced dried tofu. Every day, the factories produce a lot of substandard products that don't meet the standards. Basically, it's just that the whole piece of dried tofu is broken, but it tastes the same. I heard that your school principal is reluctant to even buy fermented bean curd. How about this, you take these to them to try first. If there are no problems, I'll have the factory reserve some for you and have the school bus bring them over once a week. What do you think?"
Tang Xinlan wasn't reluctant to donate genuine dried tofu; she simply knew that Langshan Primary School needed sustained, long-term support, not a fleeting donation. This substandard dried tofu was delicious whether used in cooking or as a snack. She happened to have some, and the school needed it; she believed the teachers wouldn't refuse.
"That's great! Uncle Baichuan can save some money on groceries. He'll be so happy if he finds out." Jiang Xiaoman readily agreed on behalf of Jiang Baichuan.