Starting a new chapter in life

Chapter 184 Husband and wife talk to each other

Jing Yan sighed: "Okay~ We went looking today, but we didn't find anything suitable. The nearest residential area is seven or eight kilometers away from the research institute, which we think is too far."

“Auntie, I’m doing quite well here. Actually, some of my colleagues aren’t used to sharing rooms with others, so they applied for single rooms. I get along very well with my roommates, so I specifically requested to live together. You really don’t need to worry,” He Ci’en said with a smile, reassuring Jing Yan.

"Alright, since we've come to see your place and the conditions are indeed quite good, it's getting late today, your uncle and I are heading back to the guesthouse. We'll come to see you again tomorrow after you get off work and bring you some food and supplies. We didn't have time to buy anything today because we came in a rush."

"Okay, then I'll trouble you, Auntie."

The couple stopped He Ci'en from seeing them off and left on their own. They walked towards the gate, registered their departure time at the gatekeeper's office, got into the driver's car, and were taken to the guesthouse.

After settling the fare, the couple was about to go inside when the driver stopped them, nervously clutching the hem of his clothes, and mustered his courage to ask, "Um, are you staying here for a while? Do you need a ride tomorrow?"

If needed, I can actually come and pick you up directly. As for the fare, how about fifteen yuan a day? If you're only going to a few places, we can charge you per one-way trip.

Jingyan looked at He Zhijun, who thought for a moment and said, "We don't plan to go to too many places tomorrow. We plan to go to the mall during the day to buy some things for the kids at home, and then deliver them to them after he gets off work before coming back."

The day after tomorrow is the weekend, and my husband and I are planning to take our child and one of his colleagues out for a meal. After dropping them off, we'll be leaving. Can you cover our travel expenses for the next few days?

Our shift won't take long, but fifteen yuan a day is reasonable. You can also take on other jobs in your spare time.

The driver nodded repeatedly: "No problem. The mall opens at nine in the morning. It's about seven or eight kilometers away from the guesthouse. I'll wait for you here at nine. We can bring the things you buy back together, which will save us some effort."

He Zhijun nodded in agreement, and the driver happily pedaled away, his pedaling strength was quite impressive, and even his back view exuded a sense of joy.

The receptionist at the guesthouse, watching their conversation, smiled and said as the two entered, "This guy's luck has been pretty good these past few days with you guys. Life is much better now, and workers' wages have gone up a lot, but the cost of living has also increased accordingly."

Those who pedal their bikes so hard don't get many jobs a day. Beijing's transportation is convenient now; there are buses during the day, and nobody goes out at night.

"The occasional jobs they get are usually from out of town who don't know the way, so they only get those jobs. They have a lot of people, and after all that, they don't make much money. It's rare for them to find people like you who use the car every day, so they're lucky."

Jing Yan seemed lost in thought. Although she had also found it difficult to make money at this time in her past life, everything had gone smoothly for her in this life. This was because she had suffered enough from being poor in her past life, and could only admire many things but couldn't afford them. As a result, she was very generous when spending money in this life.

It felt like she was using this life to heal her past life. Suddenly seeing her past self struggling in life filled her with a profound sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, mixed feelings).

She wasn't particularly capable or ambitious. She knew that in another ten or twenty years, Chinese real estate prices would skyrocket, but she had no intention of buying property and waiting to make money.

Because she always felt that the second chance God gave her wasn't to use her prophecy to amass wealth, but to let her live a different, regret-free life. She dared not, and would not, break this rare blessing.

Let's just say she's timid. All she wants is for her family members who are good to her to live a happy and carefree life. Of course, she just wants them to have enough to eat and wear. As for being rich and powerful, she doesn't think she's destined for that.

What you gain and what you give are inherently equal; gaining too much means giving up a lot of luck. She dared not gamble on how much luck she could squander.

Therefore, she can only try her best to cherish everything she has now, cultivate good relationships, and seek a good outcome. She knows she is a selfish and calculating person, even though everyone sees her as warm, generous, and kind to the point of being saintly.

But only she knew that she was accumulating good fortune for herself, trying her best to keep everything she had. She was really afraid that one day she would wake up in the middle of the night and find that her current life was just a dream.

All the thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant. She smiled at the receptionist and said, "He wasn't just lucky to run into us; he's a good, steady rider, and he's also brave and good at judging people. He actively sought out the business these past few days."

If he hadn't asked us, we could have just picked up any car on the street if we needed one tomorrow or the day after. For my husband and me, we'd be using a car anyway, so it's better to use someone we know than someone we don't. But for him, it was a relatively stable source of income.

Now that the country is reforming and opening up, many policies are being relaxed. Only those with brains and courage have the potential to live a better life. These kinds of opportunities don't last forever; seizing them when they arise is the wise choice.

The receptionist's eyes sparkled: "Sister, what you said is so true. You seem to be very knowledgeable, knowing so much."

Jing Yan was stunned, then shook her head: "I only have a junior high school education, but I have traveled to many places and seen a lot over the years. If I use my brain and think more, I will understand a lot of things."

The couple returned to their room at the guesthouse. These days, guesthouses are trying to emulate hotels by offering standard rooms and double rooms, but the amenities are rather outdated.

The bathroom has showers and toilets, but perhaps because it's a renovation of an old building, the drainage pipes and other systems aren't as well-designed as those built in the original. It's a carefully selected room, but there's still a smell when you open the door. It's not too strong, but Jingyan has a keen sense of smell, so she can still detect it.

After entering the room, he first opened all the windows, then lit mugwort sticks and placed them near the windows and in the corner of the bathroom before lying down on the big bed in a corpse-like manner.

Seeing her lazy appearance, He Zhijun could only shake his head helplessly, resignedly open his suitcase, take out toiletries and put them on the table in the room, and then find a change of clothes and pajamas and put them away as well.

He handed the pajamas to Jingyan on the bed: "Go take a shower. Get a good night's sleep tonight and relax. You've had a tough time on the train these past few days. You haven't even had a chance to rest since you got here. You must be sweating a lot."

Jingyan patted the bed, telling him to put his clothes down first, then sat up: "Zhijun, the neighborhood we looked at today is too far from his place. Although the houses haven't been built for many years, this area is so spacious. Maybe there will be better ones in a few years. Let's wait and see?"

He Zhijun sat down on the bed and said, "Then let's not buy it for now. The accommodation there is indeed quite good. There's no need to go through the trouble of buying another house. We don't come to Beijing very often anyway, so having one house is good enough."

"That apartment was rented out by Ci'en. The rent money was wired over a while ago. Shall we go check on it again before we go back?"

Jing Yan asked in surprise, "The rent has been remitted? How come I didn't know?"

He Zhijun was also a little confused: "I remember mentioning it to you once, didn't you hear me?"

Jing Yan scratched her head: "Maybe I was thinking about something else when you said that, and I missed it. How much is the rent per month now?"

"It's forty yuan a month, ten yuan a room. Ci'en said it was rented to college students, four people sharing, one room each. The last payment they sent was six months' rent, two hundred and forty yuan, which isn't a small amount." He Zhijun knew the details better. Jing Yan hadn't been too concerned about this, so he had to worry about it more.

Jingyan thought for a moment: "By the way, are Ci'en's parents still giving him living expenses? I just cut them off last month."

"I heard that my elder brother and sister-in-law gave Ci'en four years' worth of living expenses in one lump sum. Since it was a one-time payment, there shouldn't be any more."

You wouldn't believe it, but our family has always neglected the boys. As my mom would say, as long as they don't starve, that's enough. They probably haven't paid much attention to Ci'en's life either, since they're quite busy themselves.

In the end, He Zhijun still tried to salvage the reputation of his unreliable brother and sister-in-law, but as for how much he could salvage, he'd leave it to fate.

Jing Yan… “Okay, compared to your family’s attitude towards the child, I’m the one who spoils the child.”

"That's why the kids all love you so much. You're so good to them, you cook them delicious food and spend money on them." He Zhijun sometimes didn't understand why Jingyan was so good to his family, so selfless, so that he was always afraid it was all just a dream.

He wasn't unfamiliar with how other families interacted. Let alone relatives' children staying for extended periods, even occasional visits from aunts or uncles inevitably resulted in complaints and arguments.

Whenever people hear him say that his uncle's eldest grandson has lived at his house for four years, and his own nephew has lived there for nearly ten years, and that he has hardly ever returned home during those ten years, they all think he married a goddess.

Moreover, Jingyan has never neglected these two children; she treats them like her own. Is that reasonable?

He hesitated for a moment before finally asking the question: "Jingyan, why are you so good to everyone in my family? You've spent so much money and put in so much effort for Ci'en and Xiaoli. Don't you ever feel bad about it? After all, you earned all that money through hard work."

Seeing his serious gaze, Jingyan paused for a moment, then carefully asked, "Zhijun, tell me, if I didn't marry you, but instead married someone near my home, what kind of life would I lead?"

"To work at sunrise and rest at sunset?"

Jing Yan chuckled: "No, if I hadn't married you, there wouldn't have been this whole thing about me accompanying the army. Chef Lin from the canteen wouldn't have given me the recipe for braised meat, Sister Liu wouldn't have introduced me to the meat processing plant, and I certainly wouldn't have made my first fortune with braised meat."

If I hadn't married you, I wouldn't have received the dowry of over two thousand yuan. At most, you'd only offer a few hundred yuan to bring me home. I would have had to live with my in-laws, get up early to cook, and do housework. If they favored sons over daughters, and my first child was a daughter, I would have had to endure their disrespect.

After a few years, when restrictions on street vendors are lifted, I might want to set up a stall. My in-laws might look down on me for showing my face in public, or they might be afraid that I won't be able to sell my goods and try to stop me. Even if they agree, the money I earn will have to support the whole family. Do you think this kind of life is tough?

Suffering isn't scary; what's scary is that you've given so much, and your in-laws might not be grateful. They might even think you're too ambitious and not content with the status quo.

If a man also has a narrow-minded perspective, he'll feel that he doesn't earn as much as I do, and after drinking, he'll use trivial matters as an excuse to start arguments and fights.

You know I'm not one to take things lying down, so divorce is unlikely. That means it has to be a fight. I have siblings, but they have their own families to manage. They can help me temporarily, but they can't always stand up for me.

If things continued like this, what kind of chaotic mess do you think I would make of my life? Just thinking about it makes me shudder; that kind of life is truly terrifying. That's why I cherish the peaceful days I've had since marrying you even more.

You never stop me from doing anything, even if you think it will lead to losses. You always give me your full support and tell me, "It's okay, you can always ask your family for money. We won't starve."

Your family has been good to me and given me a lot of respect. How should I put it? I'm petty. I can hold a grudge for a lifetime if someone treats me badly. While I wouldn't intentionally harm someone, I wouldn't hesitate to kick them while they're down given the chance.

I'm also very forgiving; if someone is kind to me even a little, I feel like I have to repay them tenfold. Isn't that contradictory? Of course, I feel the pinch when I spend money, but seeing the children happy makes everything else seem less important. That's why I can do this. Do you understand?

He Zhijun's eyes were filled with tears as he hugged Jing Yan tightly, his voice choked with emotion: "I can understand. You are kind and grateful, which is why you did such a perfect thing. I am so glad to have you by my side in this life."

Jingyan hugged him back, silently closing her eyes. What she was talking about wasn't what she imagined, but rather what she had personally experienced in her past life. Apart from not living with her in-laws, she had experienced every other terrible thing imaginable.

Her heart disease back then might not have been caused by giving birth to her daughter at all, but rather by the frustration she felt. Look at her now, she's had two children and doesn't have heart disease anymore.

Now that they had talked things out, Jingyan took her pajamas to shower and brush her teeth. After she finished, He Zhijun took over. After they were both clean, the two of them lay down on the bed and quickly fell asleep. The next morning, they went out to a small restaurant and ate soy milk and fried dough sticks. They returned to the guesthouse and it was almost nine o'clock when they got back.

After tidying up quickly, the two locked the guesthouse door and went downstairs together. As soon as they reached the door, they saw yesterday's driver squatting on the steps, puffing on a pipe.

He Zhijun coughed lightly, turned around and saw it was the two of them. He immediately stood up, tapped his pipe on the steps a few times to empty the tobacco, hung the pipe on the handlebars, and asked, "Shall we set off now?"