Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Jianghai Dicai Abandons the Simenkou Kindergarten... Aren't they going back to the Yu family? Mother Yu had just called. Secretary Shen's expression was too obvious. Yu Jianghai furrowed his brow, his dark pupils calm and unfathomable. "Is there a problem?" Secretary Shen shook his head like a rattle drum. "No, no, no. No problem." In front of Yu Jianghai, he was hardly the smiling tiger he was outside. He was clearly just a soft, adorable, well-behaved little kitten. Secretary Shen immediately started the car, doing his best to keep the speed steady so his boss wouldn't feel the slightest bump while sitting in it! That was his job. You could pat a horse on its hoof. But you must never pat a horse on its rear. Otherwise, you'd be asking for death! Because her daughter had been found, Lin Meiyan felt like she had regained a lost treasure. When Qiaoqiao slept, she stayed by her side watching over her. In fact, she had even notified the Linji Restaurant side to suspend business for a day. Qiaoqiao suddenly woke with a start at around three in the afternoon. She bolted upright from the bed and cried out in surprise, "Mommy!" This instantly diverted the attention of Lin Meiyan, who had been leaning nearby, flipping through her daughter's books. Almost reflexively, she pulled Qiaoqiao into her arms. "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Mommy's here." As she spoke, she patted Qiaoqiao's back. Qiaoqiao opened her eyes, drenched in sweat, and looked up at her mother in her youth. Her mother had been very beautiful when she was young. Her hair was black, there were no wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, her skin was fair, and her features were striking—like an ink painting in the misty rain of Jiangnan. Gentle and elegant, delicate and soft. Qiaoqiao stared blankly at Lin Meiyan. Only at this moment did she feel a sense of reality. She had really been reborn. Reborn into the past, seeing her mother in her youth. She swore she would keep her mother away from that scumbag second husband, make sure her mother lived a long life, and guard the little restaurant to earn lots of money. She would stay by her mother's side for the rest of her life. "What's wrong?" Seeing her daughter's dazed eyes, Lin Meiyan waved her hand in front of her face. Qiaoqiao shook her head. She threw herself into Lin Meiyan's arms, nuzzling her fuzzy little head against her, her big eyes curving into crescents, full of attachment. "I just think it's really nice to see Mommy again." The words carried a double meaning. Unfortunately, Lin Meiyan didn't catch it. She simply held her daughter quietly. After a while, she picked up her notebook, and Qiaoqiao saw it too. She saw the countless crookedly written "Daddy" scrawled across the pages. Four-year-old Qiaoqiao had wanted nothing more than to have a daddy with all her heart. But twenty-five-year-old Lin Qiaoqiao didn't need one. Almost reflexively, she hid the notebook behind her back. "Mommy, I was just scribbling nonsense. I don't want a daddy at all." It was very much a case of "protesting too much." Lin Meiyan looked at the notebook she had hidden away and met Qiaoqiao's eyes. "Qiaoqiao, do you really not want a daddy?" Qiaoqiao nodded, her chubby little face full of seriousness. "I don't want one." "Not even a little." "Having Mommy is enough for me." The opposite of what she meant. That was Lin Meiyan's first thought. She had given birth to this daughter; she knew her personality better than anyone. Just like in summer, when she wouldn't let her eat popsicles. Every time they passed the big freezer at the corner store, her daughter would cover her mouth and say in her baby voice, "I don't want to eat popsicles. I don't want to eat them at all." "Eating popsicles will make my tummy hurt." Two-year-old Qiaoqiao already knew how to say the opposite of what she meant, let alone four-year-old Qiaoqiao. Her "don't want" meant "want." Lin Meiyan stroked her fuzzy little head and said softly, "I understand." Understand what? Qiaoqiao was a bit confused. But Lin Meiyan began making arrangements. "Since you're awake, get up, wash up, and have a meal. Before school lets out, I'll take you to the kindergarten to see Teacher Li and Director Chen." After Qiaoqiao had gone missing on her way home from school yesterday, both Director Chen and Teacher Li had been extremely anxious. Lin Meiyan wasn't the only one who hadn't slept all night. Qiaoqiao actually couldn't remember what her kindergarten teachers looked like anymore, but she was an obedient child. Especially obedient to her mother. She immediately went to get dressed on her own. Lin Meiyan was a little surprised. "Since when did you learn to dress yourself?" Qiaoqiao had known how to dress herself before, but she always liked to act spoiled in front of her mother and ask her to do it. Qiaoqiao paused, then suddenly moved with stiff, awkward steps. "It's just—" She seemed to be racking her brains for an explanation, but Lin Meiyan came over and hugged her. "From now on, Mommy will definitely protect you." There was a fair amount of guilt in those words. Qiaoqiao stiffened. She gently wrapped her arms around Lin Meiyan and whispered, "It's me who's going to protect Mommy." "What?" Her voice was too soft. Lin Meiyan didn't quite catch it. But Qiaoqiao just shook her head. She came out of the room, and Ye Qiuju was right outside. The Gu family's house wasn't very big. Back then, in order to accommodate Lin Meiyan and Qiaoqiao, the Gu family had split the main hall in two with a partition—half of it serving as the living room. The other half was given to Lin Meiyan. In that four-square-meter room, Lin Meiyan carried her pregnancy, gave birth, and did her confinement, enduring the most difficult five years of her life. "Qiaoqiao, you're awake? Come have some porridge." This was something Lin Meiyan had simmered in the kitchen while Qiaoqiao was asleep—mung bean porridge paired with golden, oily salted duck eggs. It was both nutritious and cooling for the summer heat. When Qiaoqiao saw Great-Aunt Ye Qiuju again, she still felt a bit dazed. So after her rebirth, it wasn't just her mother who had grown younger. Her great-aunt had also become considerably younger. At this time, Ye Qiuju still carried a smile toward life. Though she was past fifty and had gray hair, her spirit was strong. As long as a person still had their spirit, everything could still be saved. What was frightening was when the spirit was gone. Thinking of this, Qiaoqiao lowered her eyes, her fine lashes casting a shadow beneath them, and called out softly, "Great-Aunt." Hello. I'm very glad to see you again. Back when Lin Qiaoqiao had returned home at fifteen, her mother had already remarried, following the trail of "fathers" that Qiaoqiao had written about one after another in her childhood. It was because of her that her mother had remarried. She understood her mother's intentions—out of guilt, out of a sense of debt, she wanted to make amends, to give her a complete family, always waiting for her to come back. But she had come back too late. When she returned, her mother's remarriage had gone wrong—she'd met a scumbag. And her great-aunt, because her uncle had contracted cancer, had collapsed entirely, her spirit broken. Nothing like how she was now. Full of energy, speaking with a booming voice. Ye Qiuju let out a warm "Aiyah," and smiling, stroked Qiaoqiao's hair. "Good that you're awake. After you eat, have your mother take you to the school. Don't run off on the way, alright?" At this, her tone carried a hint of reproach, and she was also speaking up for Lin Meiyan. "After you got lost, your mother suffered so much." That kind of suffering was the kind where you couldn't see any hope. Back then, when Lin Meiyan had come back with a big pregnant belly, she had said to Ye Qiuju, "Aunt, please, I beg you, give me a place to stay." "I won't eat and live here for free." When she'd said those words back then, though life was hard, she wasn't at the end of her rope—her eyes still held a light. She wanted to give birth to the child in her belly. She wanted to raise the child to grow up. But yesterday? Ye Qiuju had never seen Lin Meiyan so utterly lost, as if her very soul had been ripped out of her. Qiaoqiao was Lin Meiyan's life. Having lost Lin Qiaoqiao, Lin Meiyan had lost half her life. Like a walking corpse. A four-year-old Qiaoqiao couldn't read between the lines of her great-aunt's words, but a twenty-five-year-old Qiaoqiao could. She looked up and said softly and seriously, "Great-Aunt, I know." Ye Qiuju reached out and pinched her cheek. "What a good girl." "Go eat now." After Lin Meiyan and Qiaoqiao finished their meal, she led her out of the Gu family's doorway. Qiaoqiao kept looking back with every step. The Gu family lived in the biscuit factory's family compound, in one of those Tongzilou buildings where everyone cooked in the shared corridor, so the entire hallway was cluttered with daily necessities. You had to walk sideways, on your tiptoes, just to get through. Along the way, every household they passed greeted them: "Meiyan, you found your child?" Qiaoqiao didn't really want to greet these neighbors, but she couldn't resist Lin Meiyan's willingness—everyone who asked, her mother would stop and answer seriously. She seemed to notice Qiaoqiao's impatience, and after they exited the Tongzilou, she held Qiaoqiao's hand and said, "Qiaoqiao, during the time you went missing, your mother was at a complete loss, and these neighbors who usually love to gossip all went out to help look for you." "For that alone, we should be grateful." Qiaoqiao was stunned for a moment, then said softly, "Mom, I understand." Lin Qiaoqiao was a little bandit. She feared nothing and no one—except her mother. She feared making her mother unhappy. She feared her mother not wanting her. And she feared losing her mother. From the biscuit factory staff building to Simenkou Youeryuan was only about a ten-minute walk. Along the way, every person who greeted Lin Meiyan received a gentle response in return. Qiaoqiao followed her mother, her little face nearly smiling itself crooked. Holding her mother's hand, she walked along Simenkou Hengjie in 1990, walking down this familiar yet shabby street. She felt a bit dazed. She had truly returned to the past. She had truly returned to that golden era of the nineties, where opportunity was everywhere. She saw Linji, she saw the tofu shop, she saw the bathhouse, the pork butcher, and the supply and marketing cooperative. To Lin Qiaoqiao, all of this was both familiar and strange. "The kindergarten is just ahead," Lin Meiyan said. "Let me go buy some peach crisps to bring along." When her daughter had gone missing at the kindergarten gate, both Teacher Li and Director Chen had been terrified. Lin Meiyan was not an unreasonable person—she couldn't say that her daughter's disappearance was entirely the school's fault. Since Qiaoqiao would still be attending Simenkou Youeryuan, proper etiquette still had to be observed. Qiaoqiao let out an "oh" and obediently stayed close to Lin Meiyan's side. Under the setting sun, her two little pigtails bobbed up and down, looking utterly adorable. Lin Meiyan patted her head, and after buying the peach crisps, she led Qiaoqiao to Simenkou Youeryuan. At that moment, a black Mercedes was parked at the kindergarten's entrance—understated yet dignified. As soon as the car came to a stop, the gatekeeper immediately reacted and went to notify Director Chen. But Secretary Shen said, "Uncle, we can just go straight in. We already made an appointment with Director Chen yesterday." The gatekeeper glanced at Secretary Shen, then discreetly sized up the man following behind him. Knowing that the other party was someone who intended to demolish Simenkou Youeryuan, the gatekeeper's attitude wasn't exactly warm. "Fine, I'll take you in then." Secretary Shen smiled broadly and thanked him. Yu Jianghai, meanwhile, quietly surveyed the interior of Simenkou Youeryuan—the classrooms, the slide, and other facilities like the horizontal and parallel bars. Everything looked rusted and worn. The place was old, and it was shabby. He turned back and fixed his gaze on the kindergarten's entrance—an empty corner where no one stood. But through that corner, he seemed to see a young woman, waiting at the school gate every day to pick up her child after class. Yu Jianghai smiled faintly. Director Chen's office. When Gatekeeper Uncle Li led Secretary Shen and a stranger—a handsome man—inside, she recognized the former. But who was the one behind him? Tall, dressed in a suit, with broad brows and striking features—extraordinarily handsome. Not to mention the aura he carried; one look told you he was no ordinary man. Director Chen didn't even need to guess to know who he was. She stood up abruptly from behind her desk, a hint of hostility in her voice. "Secretary Shen, I already made myself very clear yesterday." "I said Simenkou Youeryuan will not be sold to Jianghai Dicai." "And I absolutely do not agree to Jianghai Dicai's Phase Two project demolishing Simenkou Youeryuan." Her stance was unmistakable—even if the boss of Jianghai Dicai himself showed up, it wouldn't change a thing! Secretary Shen's smile remained unchanged. "Director Chen, please don't be so hostile toward us." "We're not here to acquire Simenkou Youeryuan. We're here to—" He glanced back at his boss. Yu Jianghai, who had been silent all along, strode calmly to Director Chen's desk and met the old director's gaze. Director Chen was no longer young, and in her lifetime, she had seen countless people. But she had never seen eyes so deep, dark, and still—impenetrable, unfathomable, unreadable. It made Director Chen instinctively want to step back, but she couldn't retreat. If she retreated, that would mean Simenkou Youeryuan retreating. She took a deep breath and said, with a show of force that masked her inner unease, "What exactly are you trying to do?" Yu Jianghai looked out the window. From his angle, he could just see the slide placed in the middle of the kindergarten. His voice was calm, as if offering genuine praise. "Simenkou Youeryuan is wonderful." "From this moment on, Jianghai Dicai's Phase Two project will abandon all plans to demolish or acquire Simenkou Youeryuan." Author's note: A token of sincerity from Yu Jianghai. Yanyan, I hope you can see me.