"Why do I need to find a partner? I will never get married in my lifetime!" An Xin exclaimed passionately.
Li Man and Chen XiaoHui exchanged glances, both sensing the concern in each other's eyes.
"I was just making an analogy," Li Man quickly responded. "Even if you don't find a partner, aren't the friends you make also lacking in culture?"
"Mom won't force you into anything. Since you don't want to go to school now, you can follow us to set up a stall and see how hard it is to earn money!"
Chen XiaoHui felt a pang in her heart. Her unfortunate marriage had left a psychological shadow on An Xin, which could potentially affect her entire life.
She didn't want to say too much, afraid that her daughter would develop a rebellious attitude. Well, maybe with time, things would get better. Time has the power to heal everything, including psychological wounds.
Just care for her more in the future.
"Fine, I'll go. I'm not afraid of hard work!" An Xin declared.
Tomorrow, there would be no more school. An Xin felt her mood improving.
After An Xin fell asleep, Chen XiaoHui went to Li Man's room.
"What should we do? What if An Xin really doesn't want to get married in the future? It's all my fault, I've ruined An Xin," Chen XiaoHui's voice choked with tears, her face filled with self-blame and sadness.
"Don't worry too much. An Xin is still young, her thoughts haven't fully formed yet. Just show her more care and concern in the future, and things will gradually improve. But then again, getting married doesn't guarantee happiness either. Aren't we the best examples of that?" Li Man said.
"You can't generalize based on our situation. Just because we're unhappy doesn't mean others can't find happiness."
Li Man pursed her lips. "If my daughter doesn't want to get married in the future, I won't force her. As long as she's happy, that's all that matters. Not getting married is not a big deal."
...
The stalls in the night market were fixed because of the large number of people. Business in the night market was booming, and it was difficult to secure a stall. Very few people would be willing to transfer theirs.
However, after a few days of inquiries, Li Man finally found a stall that was up for transfer. The transfer fee was 80,000 yuan.
Li Man thought the fee was too high and asked if the other party could lower it. But the other party refused to budge, saying, "If I wasn't forced to transfer it because my wife fell ill, I wouldn't have considered it at all."
Chen XiaoHui had been looking for stalls with Li Man these past few days and knew the stall owner was telling the truth. She made up her mind and said, "80,000 it is. I'll take it!"
Hearing Chen XiaoHui's decision, Li Man became anxious. She only had a little over 10,000 yuan, and she didn't expect the transfer fee for a stall to be so high.
"I don't have that much money," Li Man whispered to Chen XiaoHui.
"Don't worry, I have it," Chen XiaoHui reassured her in a hushed voice.
After arranging to sign the contract with the stall owner the next day at noon, Chen XiaoHui and Li Man left.
"I'm sorry, Xiao Hui. I can only come up with 16,000 yuan at most. How about this, we can treat it as an investment partnership. You give me 16% of the shares."
Li Man thought this would be fair to both of them. Even blood siblings keep track of their accounts, after all.
"This... It's not fair to you, I think it's better to split it fifty-fifty. We'll each contribute 40,000 as the transfer fee. If you don't have enough, consider it as a loan from me. You can pay me back later," Chen XiaoHui said.
To be honest, Li Man didn't want to borrow money from Chen XiaoHui. She didn't want money to come between their sisterhood. After all, in a partnership, the one who invests more money holds a larger share. No one seeks a partner to borrow money for a joint venture. If you have the money, it's better to invest it on your own."
