That evening, after everyone had finished bathing, Yan Zhao was about to go out. Before leaving, he asked Chen Meilan for a hundred-yuan note.
Since the man had given her all his money, it was perfectly normal for him to want some pocket money now. She had to be generous and encourage him to maintain this good habit.
Afraid he might have trouble spending it, Chen Meilan was about to count out a stack of ten-yuan notes from her purse.
"I need a hundred-yuan note," said Yan Zhao.
So Chen Meilan gave Yan Zhao a hundred-yuan bill. He took out a pen from his pocket, wrote something on it, and then put it away, saying, "You all sleep on your own tonight, don't wait up for me. I'll probably be back early tomorrow morning."
"Is Daddy going out drinking?" Zhaodi, already sitting on the kang bed, asked with a precocious air. "Don't get drunk, okay? We're supposed to buy a spring mattress tomorrow."
Yan Zhao patiently explained, "I'm going to work. I'll be back in the morning."
"The new daddy is so nice, going out to work and earn money even late at night," Zhaodi said, waving her hand. "Little Lang, if Daddy's not coming back, shall we sleep together?"
"No way. Dad, if you don't come back, I'll scare myself to death all alone," Little Wang said angrily. After all, his mom often didn't come home at night either, claiming she was working overtime, but actually she was often dancing at karaoke bars or playing mahjong.
Seeing his father change into casual clothes, he became even more convinced that his dad was up to no good.
After Yan Zhao had left, Chen Meilan picked up the new household registry book. She frowned and felt a bit angry, inwardly blaming Yan Zhao for not consulting her before choosing a name. After a moment of sullen silence, she asked Zhaodi, "Your new dad has given you a new name, but I don't think you'll like it. Do you want to see for yourself?"
Little Wang's curiosity was piqued too. He snatched the registry book, saying, "I'll look, I can read."
"What is it?" Zhaodi asked nervously, looking at Little Wang. But Little Wang stared at it for a long time, only recognizing the character for "male," and stammered without being able to say it out loud.
"Shengnan. Yan Shengnan. Zhaodi, what do you think? If you don't like this name, Mommy can change it for you."
Chen Meilan herself didn't like this name. In her previous life, she had later changed Zhaodi's surname, and Zhaodi herself had chosen this name - Shengnan. The name suited her well, as the girl had surpassed men in the business world and never admitted defeat.
But while Chen Meilan didn't like it, Zhaodi did.
The child cried out, "Mommy, this is exactly the name I wanted!"
Lying down on the kang bed, Zhaodi said with relish, "I will surpass all the boys, including you two."
"How about this, Mom will give you a nickname, okay? This formal name doesn't sound good, I don't like saying it," Chen Meilan tried again. "Mom will give you a nickname we can use every day."
"Call her Yuanyuan," Little Lang blurted out.
Zhaodi immediately said, "I like it, I like it!"
Chen Meilan's suggestions of Xuanxuan and Qiqi were ignored by the children.
"Why Yuanyuan?" Chen Meilan asked Little Lang.
Little Lang cupped his own face with both hands. "Because sister's face is round and cute."
"Yuanyuan, I'm going to bed now. Goodnight," said Little Wang, who tended to feel lonelier in lively places. With that, he slipped off the kang and ran off.
Well, from now on Zhaodi would be called Yuanyuan. It was her own choice, so Chen Meilan had no say in the matter.
This was the first time she had seen Little Lang and Little Wang's full names on the same household registry, with her listed as the head of household. Little Lang and Little Wang were noted as stepchildren, with her relationship listed as stepmother.
Yan Zhao had done well on this point. After all, if the house were to be demolished in the future, stepchildren would have no inheritance rights.
"Yan Wangye, who's this? Yan Minglang - what a nice name," Chen Meilan said loudly on purpose, holding the registry book.
Little Wang hadn't even turned on the light. When he was scared, he always liked to eat something. He had hidden a chicken leg and a bottle of cola for himself, planning to use these two items to get through the night.
It was just like when Zhou Xueqin used to take him out dancing, and those men would deliberately lock him in a dark private room, giving him only a piece of bubble gum to pass the time.
But hearing the words "Yan Wangye," Little Wang couldn't stand it. He jumped over and said, "The police station wrote it wrong! I'm not called Yan Wangye, I'm called Yan Wangqi!"
Chen Meilan had always been good-tempered, which had spoiled this little guy into not being afraid of her. She grabbed his wrist and said, "You should call me Mom too, because now you're on my household registry."
The little guy definitely wouldn't open his mouth.
"If you don't want to say it, then come up here and sleep," Chen Meilan said.
Little Wang obediently climbed onto the kang, sleeping far away from the others, his hands crossed over his chest, not making a sound.
The bonds from Capital Petrochemical wouldn't be redeemable for at least another half month. With only 800 yuan in hand, how were they going to buy that spring mattress tomorrow?
Finding a chicken leg and a small bottle of cola from next door, she put them in the refrigerator. Chen Meilan heard footsteps outside and faint voices saying, "They're checking vehicles up ahead. Let's hide at the coal yard first."
Nowadays, coal trucks were all severely overloaded. Due to high sales volume, they had to transport frequently. Once overloaded, the coal trucks couldn't brake properly. To make more trips, the drivers simply never used their brakes.
Yanguan Village wasn't on the main road into the city, which was fortunate. In villages along those main roads, people's lives depended entirely on luck.
For instance, children who ran onto the road to pick up a ball would often be hit and sent flying by trucks. There were countless such cases.
Especially at night, no truck would slow down. If they hit and killed someone and were caught, they'd have to pay compensation.
If no one saw it happen, the person died for nothing.
The son of Teacher Huang had been hit and killed by a truck on his way home from evening self-study. To this day, the culprit hadn't been found.
This behavior needed to be stopped through checkpoints, strict inspections of coal bosses, and heavy fines to make them behave.
But the police would leak information before setting up checkpoints. The coal yard bosses would then notify the overloaded truck drivers to lock up their vehicles and hide in nearby coal yards until the police left before driving again.
Yan Xishan's drivers, whenever the police came to inspect, would hide in the coal yard opposite their home.
These people were also a major nuisance for the village. Coming and going, they'd steal things from people's homes, and everyone just had to accept their losses.
Chen Meilan propped two more wooden sticks against the door before daring to go back to sleep.
At that moment, Yan Zhao was standing in front of a row of large trucks at the first intersection into the city.
A few policemen walked over, laughing and chatting. One of them said, "Late at night like this, the leaders must all be out drinking, leaving us here to check vehicles and get eaten by mosquitoes?"
"What's there to check? As soon as they hear about vehicle inspections, those truck drivers have already run off."
"We actually caught one... You, are you the driver? This truck is overloaded. Driver's license, vehicle registration, which company are you from?" A police officer asked routinely.
Yan Zhao directly took out a hundred-yuan note and handed it over, saying, "Can you do me a favor?"
It was too dark, there were no street lights here, only flashlights. The officer couldn't see Yan Zhao's face clearly, and of course, he couldn't be bothered to look closely at these truck drivers. He took the money and said, "Alright, you can go."
"Take care, officer," Yan Zhao said in a deep voice.
The officer walked a few steps, then turned back and said, "Wait another two hours before you leave. In a while, our deputy station chief and leaders from the branch bureau might set up another checkpoint further down the road. Take a detour."
These were police officers from the Yanguan Police Station. Yan Zhao knew all of them from the files, but they didn't recognize him.
Him saying this proved that Lv Liang, Yan Bin, and the others not only weren't personally setting up checkpoints, but weren't even on duty tonight.
"Thank you," Yan Zhao said again.
"A hundred-yuan note, these truck drivers really make money. They can afford to hand out hundred-yuan bills," another police officer exclaimed, shining his flashlight on the olive-green banknote.
"That's nothing. Several police officers in our squad have spring mattresses at home, all given by coal bosses. They easily make three to five thousand in one night."
"Let's go, let's go. My monthly salary is only three hundred yuan. Hearing too much about this makes me angry and my liver hurt."
"By the way, where are the leaders drinking?"
"Must be Dream Paris, in a big private room."
"Let's go to Dream Paris too, let's splurge a bit tonight."
"The leaders are definitely going to hire prostitutes. We can't afford prostitutes, but we can have a drink at least."
As they chatted, they didn't notice two eyes, cold as steel, in the darkness. Yan Zhao followed closely behind them.
Chen Meilan woke up to the sound of crowing roosters and barking dogs. Her daughter was no longer on the kang. As soon as she opened her eyes, her daughter said with a mouthful of toothpaste, "Mommy, I've already asked Teacher Qin for leave. I also told Ningning that our family is going to have a spring mattress too."
The children were so anxious they couldn't wait to finish breakfast, while Yan Zhao didn't return until almost ten o'clock.
After taking two bus trips, they headed straight to the department store.
They still needed two pairs of black stockings, otherwise Chen Meilan definitely wouldn't be able to buy a spring mattress today.
Sun Nutao's wife was called Zou Jie. She used to work at the wool textile factory, but now she was the sales manager at the local Ximei Mattress Factory. She only came to the store today because Yan Zhao was coming; otherwise, she would have been working at the factory.
In this era, spring mattresses were considered holy grails in people's minds.
Buying one was like buying a house for your future wedding - even more important than buying a house for your future wedding.
However, Zou Jie didn't sell the most famous Phoenix Brand mattresses, but rather the local Ximei Brand. This brand was harder to sell, as the price was the same but her brand wasn't as well-known.
So her husband had essentially brought her a big business deal.
She watched from afar for a while, then reached out her hand: "Meilan, it's actually you?"
"Sister Zou."
"How did you and Yan Zhao end up together?" Zou Jie looked at Yan Zhao, then at Chen Meilan, wanting to say something but swallowing her words.
Chen Meilan keenly sensed that Zou Jie was holding back, that she must have something she wanted to say.
"You two know each other?" Yan Zhao also asked.
Zou Jie used to be a leader at the wool textile factory, while Chen Meilan, after graduating from the Adult Continuing Education School, had cut fabric scraps for a few days at the wool textile factory due to Zhou Xueqin's introduction.
Later, with the reform and opening up, the state-owned wool textile factory had no business, so she went back home.
After that, Zhou Xueqin's father introduced her to Yan Xishan, and she got married.
"Yes, we know each other, we worked at the same place," Zou Jie said with a smile.
Looking up at Yan Zhao, in his military uniform, with a crew cut close to his scalp, eyes like a falcon's, full of vigor, but his skin was dark, too dark.
After all, he was a soldier, exuding an intimidating aura.
Zou Jie looked up at him, suddenly sighing: "Yan Zhao, you should spruce yourself up a bit. Our Meilan likes men with fairer skin, more handsome, more easy-going."
Yan Zhao's face remained expressionless, but Chen Meilan detected something different in Zou Jie's gaze.
She linked arms with Zou Jie: "Sister Zou, who told you I like men with fair skin and handsome looks?"
Zou Jie and Chen Meilan had only met briefly before. After all, she was a leader in charge of political work and propaganda at the wool textile factory at the time, while Chen Meilan was just a small temporary worker. Apart from talking once during the political review, they had never spoken again.
But since they knew each other and had worked at the same place, they could be considered acquaintances.
Zou Jie intended to treat her as such.
She pulled Chen Meilan aside and said in a low voice: "Keep your voice down. Back then, didn't we ask Secretary Zhou to get your photo, to introduce you to a soldier boy? Didn't you refuse, saying they were too dark, too fierce and ugly, insisting on finding a handsome, likable man with a gentle personality? Your first marriage didn't go well and ended in divorce, right? Yan Zhao was originally a soldier, not the type of man you like, but you're both on your second marriage, so neither of you should be picky, understand?"
"What do you mean you once tried to introduce me to a soldier?"
"At that time, the wool textile factory was doing joint activities with the army, and I had sent your photo to the army. That soldier even said he wanted to come see you, but then Zhou Xueqin said you didn't like fierce and dark soldiers, that you wanted to find someone with fair skin, preferably like Tang Guoqiang from 'Tonight the Stars Shine Bright', like a pretty boy. I was afraid it would cause a misunderstanding, so I even sent a special telegram to the army to explain the situation," Zou Jie added.
The implication was that seven or eight years ago, her photo had actually been sent to the army.
So had Yan Zhao seen her photo early on, and also thought she liked fair-skinned, handsome men?
Heaven knows the truth.
At that time, Zhou Xueqin's father had indeed asked for Chen Meilan's photo, saying he wanted to introduce her to a soldier boy, but when they met, it turned out to be Yan Xishan.
After meeting Yan Zhao, she always felt this man was neither warm nor cold, and he seemed quite familiar with her.
Could it be that the wool textile factory had wanted to introduce her to soldier boys like Yan Zhao, but Zhou Xueqin refused on her behalf, and then introduced her to a landlord's son instead?
Was Yan Zhao always so cold because he had seen her photo before, but thought she liked pretty boys and didn't like soldiers?
That dog of a man.
Of course, this was just Chen Meilan's guess.
Whether Yan Zhao had seen her photo and knew about her, probably only the tight-lipped Yan Zhao himself knew.
Chen Meilan and Yan Zhao were looking at beds, while Yan Xishan, clutching his small crocodile leather bag, was also strolling around the department store.
At this time, Yan Zhao led the children to a corner, and then the children exclaimed simultaneously: "Dad, is this the bed?"
"This isn't a spring mattress," Little Wang's voice was filled with disappointment.
Yuanyuan (renamed from here) was more obedient: "I think it's quite good, let's get this one."
Little Lang directly burst into tears: "Dad lied."
Not only heartbroken but also disappointed, the child started crying.
Chen Meilan ran over to look and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
In the corner was a small wire bed, one meter wide, sitting there covered in dust.
But even such a wire bed now cost 600 yuan.
After all, it was an era when steel was scarce.
When Yan Zhao promised Zhaodi to buy a bed, this was probably what he had in mind.
The children were just like her future self when online shopping - expecting something amazing from the pictures, but finding it's nothing special in reality.
But at least it had springs, and you could bounce on it.
All the children were actually terribly disappointed, yet Yan Zhao still said: "This can bounce just like a spring mattress, who wants to try it?"
Yuanyuan shook Yan Zhao saying: "Forget it, Dad, let's not buy a spring mattress, we don't like spring mattresses."
Little Lang bit his lip tightly, sniffling.
Little Wang said: "Come on, little Yuanyuan, this morning you were still bragging to Ningning, saying our family would soon have a spring mattress."
Yan Xishan, either coincidentally stumbling upon the scene or deliberately coming to watch the drama, slowly sat down on a spring mattress, gently bouncing himself on the bed's springs.
Looking at his daughter from afar, he had a half-smile: "Zhaodi, come here to Dad, try Dad's new spring mattress."
Yuanyuan stood beside her new dad, looking at her old dad's spring mattress, pressing her lips tightly together, not saying a word.
Chen Meilan wasn't a wise woman.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have had such a difficult life in her past life.
And she still wasn't now.
But her daughter loved spring mattresses so much. Of course, a child's world is only so big.
When Ningning was bouncing and jumping freely on the bed, she watched from the ground. Little Lang was locked outside, not even having the chance to see. That spring mattress, to a little girl, was all of her desire.
Perhaps it was because women are naturally weak, but become strong when they become mothers.
Also, in her past life, she had disappointed her daughter too many times, made her suffer too many times.
She didn't want her daughter to be disappointed anymore.
In that instant, Chen Meilan suddenly thought of a way.
This method could both help her get a spring mattress that cost five thousand yuan,
And let that dog of a man Yan Zhao know that it wasn't because she liked fair-skinned men that she had rejected those soldier boys back then.
Being misunderstood - uncle can bear it, but auntie cannot!
