Yan Yan

Chapter 17.2 – Forty Thousand

Her uncle, Su Jianye, settled in Dongfu earlier than her father, Su Jianan, but he never proposed to take his mother to live in a big city. Until Su Yan’s father and mother established a foothold in Dongfu, she and her grandmother lived in their hometown, which was located in a rural area.

Actually, the first person who came to this city was her father, not her uncle. The reason why Su Jianan got a foothold in the city later than her uncle was really thanks to her uncle.

When her father and mother went to work in Dongfu, Su Yan was only two years old. The couple worked hard. First, they worked at a construction site, and after saving a little money, they opened a small restaurant near the construction site. Because they sold food at an affordable price, they were welcomed by many workers on nearby construction sites.

After selling boxed lunches for more than two years, they were able to save more money, so they built a small house near the university town and shifted their restaurant there. As it became famous among university students, the couple made a little fortune after some time.

In the third year of opening the restaurant, the couple bought a small car and returned home during the Chinese New Year.

After seeing that his elder brother was doing well in the city, Su Jianye begged his brother to take him to the big city with him. Su Jianan couldn’t refuse his younger brother’s request because of their mother’s strong request, so he took his younger brother and sister-in-law to Dongfu.

Su Jianye and his wife Chen Baihui started out as part-time workers in the restaurants of their brother and sister-in-law. Su Jianan and Liu Xiang paid them a lot of wages, but who knew that they had raised white-eyed wolves. That kind of harmony only lasted for half a year. Half a year later, a new restaurant opened opposite theirs, and the owners of the new restaurant were Su Jianye and his wife Chen Baihui.

Only then did Su Jianan know that Su Jianye went back to his hometown behind his back, asked their old mother for the 20,000 yuan that Su Jianan had given her, and then opened a restaurant opposite, to grab business with them.

Su Jianye and his wife were cunning, and they quickly robbed most of the business from his brother’s restaurant.

Su Jianan and Liu Xiang were very annoyed by such backstabbers. Seeing that the restaurant’s business was getting worse and worse, they had to find another way out, so they resolutely sold the restaurant.

Afterward, Su Jianan became a used-car salesman, selling used cars from dawn to dusk. Liu Xiang became a full-time wife because her son was old enough to go to school, so she could no longer follow her husband around like before.

A family of three lived together in a small rental house in Dongfu City for three years. During this period, Su Jianye and his wife had already bought a house in Dongfu with a loan and then began to show off everywhere.

Thankfully, the heavens had eyes, and Su Jianan became wealthy because of his hard work. In reality, because of his good vision and wit, he was the first to recognize the sizable market for online second-hand automobile transactions. He was fortunate enough to be alive throughout the period of the emergence of e-commerce. He soon started a used automobile trading business after gaining his wife’s backing and investing all of his savings in the family. Then, as the times changed, he gradually evolved and expanded.

He made a full payment on a house in Dongfu in the third year following the company’s founding and waited another year to decorate the new home before inviting his daughter and his elderly mother to move in.

But Su Jianan learned a lot from a pitfall; this time he resolutely ignored his younger brother’s begging, and he didn’t care about his old lady’s swearing, no matter what, he would never be Mr. Dongguo again.

From that day on, Su Jianye and his wife hated their brother and sister-in-law to this day.

Both Su Yan and Su Zhan knew about these past events, so they hated their uncle and his family.

Even though Mrs. Su was aware of these facts, she still favoured her youngest son. She lived with the eldest son and ate and drank there, and she was looked after by the eldest daughter-in-law every day. Despite this, she frequently chastised the eldest son and daughter-in-law for being cruel to their own brother.

Su Yan was furious as she continued to consider the situation. “If she loves her youngest son so much, why does she have to live with us all the time? Let her go to stay with his younger son and younger daughter-in-law.”

“Be quiet, don’t let that elderly lady hear you,” Liu Xiang said, terrified and hastily covering her daughter’s lips. Liu Xiang sighed, murmuring, “There’s nothing I can do about it. Can I really send her to your uncle’s house knowing how they will treat her? She is so old…”  Although she didn’t like the old lady very much, she couldn’t let her be mistreated.

Liu Xiang thought of something again and reminded her daughter. “Also, your uncle and his family will come to celebrate Grandma’s birthday in a few days. Then no matter what they say, don’t be angry, just bear with it, otherwise, the old lady should be endless again.”

Su Yan didn’t want to cause trouble, but well, everyone has a bottom line. After thinking about it, she replied, “I will bear it if I can, but if they go too far, I can’t bear it.”

Before Liu Xiang could continue, Su Yan cut her off, saying, “Mom, I’m really sleepy now. If you have nothing to do, go out and let me sleep for a while.”

“Why do you sleep in broad daylight?” asked Liu Xiang.

“I’m tired,” said Su Yan.

“Hmm, then come down and eat dumplings. They are your favourites.”

“Well, ok!”

Su Yan once more fell asleep, and after taking a nap, she picked up the phone.

Bai Xingfan had not replied.

She felt she was lost and got annoyed after some time.

More than a week had passed since she last used her phone. She checked her phone and saw condolence messages sent by her friends. Then she put the phone on the table beside the bed and closed her eyes to go to sleep. After a few seconds, she felt something under her pillow, so she got up to check. Under the pillow, there were two bundles of money. From the thickness of a bundle, it should be 10,000, for a total of 20,000.

‘Sure enough, it’s my mother.’ Her mother often did this, always worried that she would not have enough money to spend, and suffer.

Although Su Yan was not short of money when the money was in front of her, she didn’t have the courage to refuse, so while being moved that only mothers were good in the world, she put the money in the first drawer of the bedside table while spurning herself and, at the same time, thinking she would buy two bracelets for her mother on Mother’s Day.

When the phone suddenly vibrated, she was lying on the bed. She reached for her phone and turned it on. It was not from Bai Xingfan, but a message reminding her to recharge her phone. Su Yan sighed and recharged her phone with 200 yuan, but she didn’t put it down because she was looking up the price of the building block bear on the Internet. Bai Xingfan didn’t answer her, so she had to check it herself.

‘Kaws02, minimum, forty thousand? A teddy bear, forty thousand? Su Zhan, you prodigal son!’ Su Yan was so angry that she pounded on the bed. 

When she transferred the money to Bai Xingfan, her heart was bleeding.

A few minutes later, Bai Xingfan finally replied. “Miss Su, what does this mean?”

Su Yan gritted her teeth and typed. “The money for that bear!”

Bai Xingfan: “What?”

‘Can’t you understand the literal meaning?’ Su Yan was wondering and then glanced at the conversation above, and she typed again. “the money for the bear that you bought for Su Zhan.”