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He found Qiu Shanglin very interesting; the more he looked at her, the more interesting she became, and the more he studied her, the more fascinating she became. She was a great person to pass the time and relieve stress. Being with her meant he didn't have to use his brain, because she took care of everything.

I never thought about what the future would hold.

Now that Hua Zi is reminding him that he will inevitably have to go back in the future, and she is staying here, wouldn't that mean that the two of them will part ways and never contact each other again?

Oh, why does the thought of never contacting each other again make him feel a little sad?

The Secret on the White Wall (Part 1)

As usual, only the siblings had dinner together. Zhang Hongwei had a dinner engagement tonight and couldn't come home, so Qiu Jianguo, of course, wouldn't let his wife drink alone. A neighbor came over, prepared dinner for the siblings, and then went home.

Xia Lin listened intently, holding his rice bowl and mouth agape; Shang Lin responded half-heartedly to the uninvited guest.

The visitor was no stranger; it was none other than Yin Yeyao, who had come uninvited.

He began gesturing wildly as he described how cruel, callous, and ruthless the new teacher was. Xia Lin screamed in surprise, while Shang Lin seemed rather distracted, glancing at the wall from time to time.

He found it strange; if there were any famous calligraphic works or anything eye-catching on the wall, that would be fine, but it was just a plain white wall, and no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't see anything remarkable about it. They were still living in the Hongxing Workers' Compound. Although they had already bought a house in the best location in town, Zhang Hongwei was used to living in a down-to-earth bungalow and loved the lively atmosphere of the compound. After discussing it, they decided to let his uncle's family live in the house.

Xinglong Popsicle Factory grew larger and larger, and Zhang Hongwei couldn't handle it all by herself. She fell seriously ill before the Lunar New Year, and even with her illness, she still had to work hard, so she didn't even have a proper New Year. Right after the Spring Festival in 1986, she discussed with Qiu Jianguo about hiring her uncle from Shanglin to help out. They would pay him a monthly salary, which was more than what he could earn by farming. This way, they could support their family and she could have peace of mind. She repeatedly asked Qiu Jianguo to quit his job at the printing factory, but Qiu Jianguo felt that doing business wasn't a proper profession. He believed that if one of them ran a business while he worked a regular job and received a salary, they would have more options in case something happened in the future.

Zhang Hongwei strongly disagreed with his old-fashioned feudal ideas.

Forget about yourself, just look at your daughter's Mocha Cat stationery. In just a few months, a craze for buying Mocha Cat stationery has swept through schools in the city. Anything with a cat's image printed on it costs three times more than other brands, yet the kids are scrambling for it. Last month, she went to the provincial capital on business and treated a department store manager to drinks. During the meal, they talked about their children's studies, and the manager lamented that kids these days are getting harder and harder to raise—picky about food, clothes, even pencil cases and notebooks. He mentioned a new brand called "Mocha Cat" that wasn't necessarily of high quality, just pretty, and cost more than twice as much as other products, but his child absolutely had to have it!

The other woman laughed and said, "What's the big deal? My child is only in third grade. Someone at school wore a cat-themed outfit, and my child came home begging to buy it. But we've searched all over the provincial capital and haven't seen it for sale. If you ask the child's parents, they say the clothes were a gift from someone on a trip to the south by the child's father. They're only selling it on a small scale right now and haven't rolled it out on a large scale yet."

My child has been throwing a tantrum because we couldn't buy it!

Zhang Hongwei was speechless with astonishment, and somewhat disbelieving.

She was usually busy with her own business and hadn't paid attention to how much trouble her daughter was causing. She also didn't believe that a mere stationery store could make much profit.

Suddenly I remembered that my neighbor hasn't received her salary from last month, has she?

She was busy, and Qiu Jianguo couldn't cook. At first, the children ate the food he brought back from the factory canteen, but soon Shanglin frowned and said it wouldn't work, as it would affect the children's physical development. She hired a neighbor to take care of the children's three meals a day. As for the couple... they had to leave before dawn and didn't get home until midnight, so they rarely ate at home throughout the year.

My neighbor's wages are settled at the end of the month, and it's almost the end of the second month now, but she hasn't come to ask for the money yet.

Then I remembered, it seems like she hasn't given the children living expenses for several months, has she?

It's unrealistic to expect anything from Qiu Jianguo's meager salary. It's barely enough to buy him cigarettes and alcohol.

Groceries, firewood, oil, and salt—everything costs money! And what's more, it seems Shanglin hired a construction team a month ago to renovate the house; that must have cost a lot too, right? Why didn't this child ask me for money?

So the next day she made a point of going home early, took her wages from the previous month and this month to her neighbor, and apologized, saying she had been too busy to remember. The neighbor laughed and said, "Your neighbor, Shanglin, already gave me all the money."

Zhang Hongwei was stunned for a moment.

She went home and looked for the siblings again—but she returned too early. Today was the day for the stationery store to do its end-of-month accounting. Shanglin was still in town and hadn't returned yet. Xialin was writing calligraphy and reciting ancient poems with a bitter face, but he knew nothing when asked.

She peeked over the bookshelf and, oh my god, her son's papers were piled up in heaps!

Seeing her son's pained little face and furrowed brows, Zhang Hongwei, unusually displaying her doting maternal instincts, waved her hand and said, "No need to write anymore, rest today. When your sister comes back, I'll tell her you won't have to work so hard in the future!"

She muttered to herself, "He's only a few years old. Don't let him be like his older sister, who's so shrewd."

To everyone's surprise, the son wouldn't listen at all. Though his face was contorted in pain, he didn't dare slack off for a moment. He even muttered a cold laugh, mimicking his sister's.

"I wouldn't dare. Once you leave, she'll get angry and ignore me again."

Getting angry is a small matter, but ignoring people is a big deal.

His sister is ignoring him, and his brother Yin is also angry. What can he use to show off to his buddies?

You should know that although his sister was strict with him, she never lacked anything he needed, and even tried to get him things from the south that many children didn't have.

For example, that set of three Transformers comic books was a novelty that wasn't even sold in Xinhua bookstores in the provincial capital.

There are also Megatron and Optimus Prime toys; not many people in the province, let alone the whole of China, have them! His brother Yin specially asked someone to buy them from Hong Kong.

There was also a room full of comic books...

Zhang Hongwei was both amused and exasperated, realizing that she, as a mother, was less authoritative than her sister.

When Shanglin finally returned, he casually said that he had money on hand and there was no need to worry. In addition, the Mocha Cat clothes and dolls were planned to enter the market after the Spring Festival, which was in the spring of 1988. If needed, one could take a set as a gift.

Zhang Hongwei was completely petrified.

She suddenly realized that I didn't give birth to a daughter, but a monster... a monster who could get people to buy her designs at the age of five...

Of course, her feelings only lasted one night. A few days later, she happily gave away the children's clothes she had just received, achieving her goal.

She left all the education of her son and the arrangement of the home to her daughter.

So she had no idea that the white paint on her walls cost the equivalent of a month's wages for three workers at an ice cream factory.

Yin Yeyao knew that the white paint was brought from the south by Hua Ge through someone, and it was said to be the latest model. Even so, Qiu Shanglin was still not satisfied.

But he didn't know what was on the wall that was attracting her attention.

The Secret on the White Wall (Part 2)

"Li Changsheng, Li Changsheng, you get out here, get out here!" A hoarse voice, still going through puberty, suddenly broke the silence outside the door.

"Don't think you can hide from me and I won't find you. If you're so capable, come out and have a go with us. You think you're so tough, huh?"

"Damn it, this kid rubbed my face until it bled and thinks he can just run away? No way!"

A cacophony of shouting and cursing erupted, clearly audible through the door; the vulgar insults rang out right beside her. Yin Yeyao glanced inside. There was no one named Li Changsheng—not herself, Shang Lin, Xia Lin, or Hua Ge. What were these people doing shouting outside?

He frowned slightly, noticing that both Shang Lin and Xia Lin remained expressionless, and knew this wasn't the first time. There were about six or seven households living in the courtyard, but no one opened their door to reprimand them.

Hearing the insults growing increasingly offensive, he felt annoyed and nodded slightly to Hua Ge before getting up to leave.

Shang Lin said in a low voice, "No need."

Hua paused and looked at Yin Yeyao.

"They'll leave in a bit. Ignore them."

Yin Yeyao nodded again, and he sat down again.

However, these people did not seem to have any intention of leaving. They laughed and cursed loudly. After a while, there was a loud crash, which was the sound of a stone hitting the kitchen glass.

Accompanied by unbridled shouts: "If Li Changsheng doesn't come out soon, we're going in!"

Shanglin was also furious. He had been tolerant of these bastards who didn't know their own mortality because they hadn't made a move before!

She jumped up, grabbed a small police baton from the bedside, and stormed out. Xia Lin, who hadn't even swallowed a mouthful of rice, quickly grabbed a rolling pin and followed behind his sister, swallowing as he went.

Yin Yeyao shook her head helplessly, signaling Hua Ge to follow, and then slowly got up and followed as well.

Outside were several teenagers, around fourteen or fifteen years old. Despite their young age, they were all dressed in flashy clothes and had cigarettes dangling from their mouths; they looked like idle hooligans on the street.

They were happily smashing things when the door, which had been tightly closed for many days, suddenly burst open, startling them so much that they involuntarily took a step back.

Upon closer inspection, a little girl dressed like a doll stood menacingly at the door, carrying a stick. Inside, someone staggered and ran, shouting, "I'll come! I'll come!"

An even smaller doll emerged from behind the little girl, struggling to drag a rolling pin in front of her.

The group paused for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"Li Changsheng, you're supposed to be pretty capable, so why are you relying on two little kids for protection?"

One of them stepped forward and teased Lin with a smile: "Little brat, where's that big brat Li Changsheng? Tell him to come out here."

Shang Lin's expression hardened, and he retorted sarcastically, "You old brat, get the hell away from me."

Saying this, she fanned herself with her hand in front of her face: "You have such bad breath, how dare you come out in public!"

The other person frowned, cursing as he strode towards them, raising his hand to slap someone. Shanglin desperately protected Xialin, reflexively closing his eyes, as if he could already foresee the slap landing on his cheek, the burning pain.

The expected pain did not come, and there were two voices that stopped the other party.

"Stop!" Yin Yeyao shouted angrily.

"Stop!" The door to the next room, which had been tightly closed for many days, quietly opened at some point. A ragged, sallow-faced, and emaciated boy was playing with an unsharpened dagger in his hand, his eyes fierce and as wicked as a wolf.

The group was stunned. They looked at the Shanglin family's house number, then at the house number next door, and burst into laughter. One of them, whose face was wrapped in gauze, didn't seem to care about the pain and laughed so hard he almost fell over.

"You bastard, I told you we'd been banging on the door for days and you were hiding like a coward. Turns out we've been looking for the wrong place." He said, giving his partner a playful slap on the shoulder: "Are you a pig? You can't even find the right place."

He nodded flippantly to Lin: "Sorry, little girl, I've come to the wrong place."

Leading the way to the next room, Li Changsheng tightened his grip on the dagger in his hand, wiped his other hand on his trouser leg, and stared at them intently.

A crisis was imminent. Several adults behind the windows were sweating with anxiety. One of them couldn't resist opening the door to stop them, but his wife stopped him, saying, "Are you out of your mind? One of them is the son of the police station chief!"

Li Changsheng knew that things would not end well today, and he only regretted that he did not have a handy tool at home.

Just as he was preparing to fight to the death, the little girl next door, who had taken the beatings for him for days, slowly stepped outside and said clearly, "I said, what are you all good for?"

The leader of the gauze-clad girls was taken aback by her question. He'd seen sharp-tongued girls before, but he'd never seen one so audacious and nonchalant in front of him. He felt he'd lost face in front of his buddies.