She didn't have to worry about her two daughters at all. Her mother-in-law prepared all three meals a day. After breakfast, Qingshan would work in the yard, watching his two daughters do their homework and keeping an eye on his wife to make sure she didn't move around. Ideally, he would even accompany her to the toilet. Even in the dead of winter, he would often be covered in sweat from exhaustion. Lang Ying found this both amusing and touching.
Recently, Lang Ying has found it hard to smile.
She was perfectly fine when she was pregnant with her two daughters. Even when she was more than eight months pregnant, she would still carry a basket and go to work in the vegetable garden. Unexpectedly, now that living conditions are better, she has become more delicate. When she was more than three months pregnant, Lang Ying began to suffer from severe morning sickness, and nothing she ate helped.
Qingshan was so anxious that he would run to town every market day to see if there was anything rare and appetizing that he could buy to appease his wife.
His image as a devoted husband made the town's shopkeepers incredibly envious. That morning, seeing Qingshan carrying a basket full of food, the shopkeeper selling sugar-coated glutinous rice cakes couldn't help but tease him—
"Qingshan, does your wife crave something sour or spicy these days? I have some freshly made pickled cowpea buns here, would you like a few?"
Steamed buns? Perfect, neither he nor his mother know how to make them, maybe his wife would like some?
"Yes, yes, yes! Give me ten pickled cowpea buns, ten sugar-coated glutinous rice cakes, and ten meat buns." Qingshan looked like he was going to buy out the entire breakfast stall, and the people around him laughed at him.
In the corner, a man wearing a tattered cotton-padded jacket and with messy hair, looking like a homeless person, kept his head down, his long hair covering his face, as if he was afraid of being recognized.
If someone from Langshan Village came in for a meal at this time, they would definitely recognize him as Lang Ying's ex-husband, Jiang Erming.
Listening to the people in the shop expressing their envy, jealousy, and resentment towards Qingshan, Jiang Erming, in a corner, gripped his chopsticks tightly, his dirty head bowed even lower...
If he had known all along that Lang Ying was so good at making money, how could he have been so blinded by greed and insisted on divorcing her?
If he hadn't divorced Lang Ying, wouldn't Lang Ying's lucrative food factory and the famous wild mushroom cultivation cooperative in the area all be his now?
Unfortunately, there's no going back in life. He missed out on the chance to make a fortune with Lang Ying, and he also missed the opportunity to become a multi-millionaire...
Jiang Erming had accumulated a mountain of debt, and only then did he realize that as long as he continued to use the identity of "Jiang Erming," he would be identified no matter where he went. He couldn't take the high-speed rail or the regular train, and even when he went out to work, employers would check his ID.
Fearing that the debt collection company would break his legs, Jiang Erming has been hiding in the vicinity of Langshan for the past two years. His parents are also terrified of the debt collection company and dare not return to the village, for fear that the debt collectors will not be able to find Jiang Erming and will come to them for money. Where would they get the money?
With the Lunar New Year approaching, even the elderly living alone in the town received government subsidies and New Year's gift packages. However, the Jiang family of three could only hide in an abandoned old house in the mountains, burning firewood they had collected. They could forget about having a New Year's Eve dinner. Aunt Lang secretly took twenty yuan from her savings and gave it to her son, Jiang Erming, so that he could go down the mountain to weigh two jin of pork to take back for the New Year.
Jiang Erming ran down the mountain hungry, but the aroma of fried sugar-coated glutinous rice cakes from the breakfast shop made him unable to move. He ran into the shop and ordered five sugar-coated glutinous rice cakes and a bowl of tofu pudding, eating with his mouth full of oil.
Unexpectedly, they bumped into Lang Ying's current divorced man!
Through his greasy bangs, Jiang Erming looked at the spirited, young, and handsome Qingshan with envy.
This is the man who stole his wife!
Seeing the proprietress pack the buns for Qingshan, Jiang Erming, bewitched, couldn't help but secretly follow her.
After leaving the steamed bun shop, Qingshan saw a candied hawthorn vendor by the roadside and bought a few for his two daughters. He then went to a fruit stand and bought two sugarcanes and a bunch of bananas. Actually, there weren't many kinds of fruit at the rural market. They had a whole box of cherries, durians, tangerines, and the like at home, all sent to Langying by their business partners. They couldn't possibly finish them all. But, since they were going to the market, they had to bring some things that they didn't have at home. Otherwise, what would the two girls have to show off to the village?
Seeing Qingshan spending lavishly on snacks at the market, Jiang Erming's eyes turned red with envy.
This money should have been his all along!
Jiang Erming didn't know why he was following Qingshan. People were coming and going on the street, and everyone who saw Qingshan greeted him with a smile, asked how Lang Ying was doing, and invited the couple to their homes for dinner during the New Year. Even the town officials greeted Qingshan with smiles... All of this should have been his!
The streets were crowded, and Jiang Erming didn't even realize when he had lost track of Qingshan. By the time he realized it, he had already been pushed to the outskirts of the market by the crowd.
The fourteen yuan I had left in my pocket after finishing breakfast somehow disappeared!
"Where's my money? Where's my money? Who stole my money? Stop the thief..." Jiang Erming frantically searched with his head down.
Where can I still find it?
The people around him were staring at him as if he were crazy.
Who carries cash when they go shopping these days?
Even elderly women in the village can now pay by scanning a QR code when selling vegetables at their stalls.
After searching for a long time without finding any money, and even being stepped on several times and losing one of his shoes, Jiang Erming returned empty-handed and dejected to his temporary lodging.
"Erming, why are you only coming back now? Where's the meat I asked you to buy?" Seeing her son return empty-handed, Aunt Lang's sharp, triangular eyes immediately narrowed.
Before, with Lang Ying as their daughter-in-law, Lang Liugu and her husband both felt that their son's lack of filial piety was due to his daughter-in-law's machinations behind their backs.
But now that Lang Ying has divorced and remarried, without her daughter-in-law as a "hypothetical enemy," Lang Liugu and her husband can no longer deceive themselves—it's not that their daughter-in-law is unfilial, but that their son has never been filial!
I should never have let Erming and Yingzi get divorced!
In that case, even if Jiang Erming is out fooling around and doesn't come home, with Lang Ying at home, someone to farm the land and someone to do the housework, the couple can live a very comfortable life!
Now, everything has been ruined by that idiot Jiang Erming!
Hearing his mother's question, Jiang Erming seemed oblivious, rushed into the house, and fell asleep immediately.
"Get up! Get up! Where's the twenty yuan I gave you?" Aunt Lang frantically grabbed and beat her son.
"What are you making a scene about, you old hag? It's just twenty yuan! I lost it when I went to the market and I can't find it anymore!" Jiang Erming angrily shook off Lang Liugu's arm.
"It's just twenty yuan? If you're so capable, go earn twenty yuan for me! Old man, we can't live like this anymore. It's the New Year, and we can't even afford two jin of pork..." Aunt Lang wailed, crying as she forcefully grabbed and hit Jiang Erming.
That spendthrift! All he knows is how to spend money!
That twenty yuan was money she had painstakingly earned by going into the mountains to pick mushrooms. This year, Lang Ying's food factory was going to buy a large amount of wild mushrooms to make sauce. Everyone in the surrounding villages who could walk went into the mountains to pick mushrooms to exchange for money. In the past, Aunt Lang was lazy and never went into the mountains to pick mushrooms. She had to put in a lot of effort to pick some mushrooms, and she only made a little over a hundred yuan in total.
Jiang Erming suddenly lost twenty yuan!
Aunt Lang gritted her teeth in hatred. The two years of hardship of hiding and running away had resulted in a huge debt that even selling her entire family wouldn't be enough to pay off. It felt like heavy stones were pressing down on her. Now, while people in the surrounding villages were busily preparing for the New Year, her family of three was hiding in the mountains and couldn't even get a piece of pork!
Today is the 29th of the lunar year. After today, tomorrow will be New Year's Eve. Even if you take money to town, you won't be able to find a pork stall. The butchers also have to go home for the New Year... Will they only be able to eat potatoes this year?
"You spendthrift...you good-for-nothing!"
"If it weren't for you, those debt collectors wouldn't be coming to us for our money..."
Aunt Lang was so angry that she trembled all over. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a few dried poisonous mushrooms in the corner. She trembled all over, but her eyes gleamed with an unusual light.
On New Year's Eve, Langshan Village was filled with a joyful atmosphere. Everyone had made money this year with Jiang Xiaoman and Lang Ying. They bought the biggest firecrackers for the New Year, and the children carried boxes and boxes of fireworks home. Before it even got dark, the village fireworks were already on display.
Jiang Erming and his son Jiang Hongyi were both starving and refused to cook. Lang Liugu roasted a dozen shriveled potatoes by the fire and then made a pot of bland mushroom soup with wild mushrooms she had dried herself.
Before she could even finish peeling the potatoes, Jiang Hongyi and his son Jiang Erming had already eagerly grabbed their broken bowls, scooped out the mushrooms from the bottom of the pot, and started eating them heartily, leaving none for Aunt Lang.
"Eat up, you'll feel better once you're full..." Aunt Lang huddled in the corner, silently munching on the potato in her hand.
Down the mountain, Lang Ying, heavily pregnant, sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) and drank the old hen soup that her mother-in-law had just stewed.
On the mountain, Jiang Hongyi and his son Jiang Erming ate poisonous mushrooms and writhed in agony on a pile of dry grass.
The dilapidated old house didn't even have a door. Aunt Lang had gone out to collect firewood under the pretext of doing so, and no one knew where she had gone. The father and son struggled to climb out of the threshold, their sharp fingernails carving deep scratches in the mud. They hadn't crawled far before they foamed at the mouth and lay quietly on the ground, which had been trampled into mud.
Heavy snowflakes fell to the ground, gradually covering the two stiff corpses.
"Mom! Our wintersweet is blooming!" In the courtyard at the foot of the mountain, Da Niu pointed excitedly to the newly bought wintersweet in the corner of the wall.
"Good, today's diary entry will be about observing winter plum blossoms, and you'll also need to memorize two ancient poems related to plum blossoms!" Qingshan, this academic underachiever, had no qualms about assigning homework to his two daughters.
Anyway, he'd already made up his mind that he was going to raise both of his daughters to be college students, and he'd earn the tuition fees; all the girls had to do was study hard.
The girl's pretty little face was all scrunched up. Can't she stop doing her homework for a day during the Chinese New Year?
Her father was absolutely ruthless in his efforts to get her and her sister into university!
Chapter 253
March 22, cloudy.
In March, the temperature in the mountains is still very low, and the river is frozen in the morning. However, the cooperatives in Langshan Village have been working hard these past two days.
Jiang Xiaoman and Shan Yan have already led a team to D Province to participate in the International Exhibition and Sales Fair for Cultural Tourism and Agricultural Specialty Products. Jiang Yu and Lang Ying must stay in the village and be ready to supply goods for the orders that Xiaoman and his team have received.
"What? Xiaoman went to D province? Why didn't he wait for me? People from the county are here; we need to finalize the location for the industrial park as soon as possible." Upon hearing that Jiang Xiaoman had led a team to participate in the exhibition, Sun Zheyuan was so anxious he wanted to jump into the river.
The county attaches great importance to the cultural tourism industrial park project in Langshan Village. Especially after hearing that they had introduced a camping base and a film and television base, they took the initiative to call and ask to see the site after the Spring Festival.
This is a very rare thing!
You know, in the past, if a township needed to do anything, everyone had to make multiple trips to the county.
After contacting leaders and departments, and begging and pleading with everyone, sometimes it can take several years to secure a project, and it's common for the deal to fall through.
Any project that the county government actively promotes is bound to be a key project in the county's cultural tourism sector in the future!
Sun Zheyuan wanted to verbally abuse Jiang Xiaoman over the phone!
Creativity comes from your own ideas.
You tricked them into coming to this project.
Even the county leaders were fooled by you, Jiang Xiaoman, and now you've run away at the last minute?
Province D, right?
Director Sun rolled up his sleeves and decided to take a flight to bring the person back.
"Director Sun, please calm down. This... didn't you know? We're not representing Langshan Town at this trade fair. I heard from Xiaoman that our village's booth is in the same hall as the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism's main exhibition hall." Jiang Yu couldn't bear to remind Sun Zheyuan.
Although Director Sun is a poverty alleviation cadre and can manage almost anything, he has no authority over the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.
That's a provincial-level leader!
Sun Zheyuan almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Director Sun, if the county leaders just want to know about the cooperatives in our village, how about I help explain them?" Lang Ying stepped forward, holding her large pregnant belly.
Oh right~ Lang Ying is not only the factory director of the food factory, but also the secretary-general of several cooperatives in Langshan Village.
Just as Qing Shan said when he first introduced Lang Ying to his family, "Secretary-General" and "Secretary" are not the same. To put it bluntly, "Secretary" is just an assistant who serves the boss, but the "Secretary-General" of an association is the person who knows the association best, second only to the president and vice president.
Lang Ying is meticulous and eager to learn. She usually seems quiet and unassuming, but she is actually a veteran figure around Jiang Xiaoman and perhaps the one who understands Jiang Xiaoman's entrepreneurial ideas best.
"Hmph~ He always begs me to write his reports, but he can't be counted on even once when it matters!" Sun Zheyuan was really at his wit's end. How could a mere township poverty alleviation cadre dare to snatch someone away from the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism?
But can Lang Ying really succeed?
On March 23, leaders from several departments of the county's Culture and Tourism Bureau and Investment Promotion Bureau arrived in Langshan Town and, accompanied by the Party Secretary and the Town Mayor, visited Langshan Village.
Dang Yimin, the Party Secretary of Langshan Town, looked at a large rock at the entrance of the village with a complicated expression.
Before Langshan Town was relocated, this was the administrative center of the entire Langshan Township. The three characters "Langshan Township" are still engraved on this large stone.
Later, the administrative center moved to its current location in the town, and this place became Langshan Village. No one knows when, but the village quietly erased the character "乡" (township) and replaced it with "村" (village).
Alas, perhaps this place truly has "lingering imperial aura." Even though the administrative center moved away from here, after all the twists and turns, Langshan Village has now become the most prosperous and affluent place in the entire Langshan Town.
No, it will become even richer soon... The county's first township-level industrial park is about to be established here.
Dang Yimin really wanted to ask the county if the industrial park could be built in the town, or at least a little closer to the town, so that it could also boost the town's economy.