Little Lang was running in circles, covered in sweat and panting heavily, but still not stopping.
Little Wang and Yuanyuan were working together to hang up a set of pink bed sheets and pillowcases.
It was late August, and Xiping City was known as one of the four furnaces of Hua Country. Cicadas were buzzing in the backyard, and it was so hot that people were sweating just sitting still. The bed sheets had barely been hung up and were already visibly starting to dry.
"This washing machine is great, the spin-dried clothes dry so quickly," Little Wang said excitedly.
Yuanyuan thought it wasn't drying fast enough, so she kept fanning the sheets with a banana leaf.
Chen Meilan had promised Little Lang some fried sausages, but she didn't have any ham sausages, only homemade garlic sausages bought from the market.
The garlic sausages were very meaty, and Chen Meilan was worried about Little Lang's little tummy getting too full, so she only used a tiny bit of oil.
"Ask your mom what smells so good," said Little Wang, who couldn't control his appetite and always liked to sneak some food, never daring to enter the kitchen much.
Yuanyuan wasn't happy to hear this: "That's your mom too, why don't you ask her yourself? Is it so hard to call her 'Mom'?"
"You ask then. I found a broken radio yesterday, if I can fix it, I'll play some music for you."
Just as Yuanyuan was about to reply, Ningning called her from outside.
Little Wang asked Yuanyuan, "Guess what Ningning wants to do?"
Yuanyuan said, "Play with me, of course."
Little Wang smirked, "You're so naive. Haven't you noticed? She never comes when my dad's not here, only when he is. Why? Because your mom never lets her jump on our bed, but my dad does. So now she wants to jump on our bed."
Yuanyuan was a simple girl. She thought about it carefully and realized it did seem to be true.
Dad was more lenient with her and Ningning, but particularly strict with Little Wang and Little Lang.
"Oh yeah, Dad does seem to treat me and Ningning better than you two."
Little Wang pouted, looking hurt, and said nothing more.
Little Lang had been sitting obediently on a small stool in the kitchen since he first smelled the aroma, waiting for the garlic sausages to be ready. As they were almost done frying, he couldn't wait and tried to reach for them. Chen Meilan, worried about getting oil on his hands, cut the sausages into slices and put them in a small bowl.
The child reached out to take it, but Chen Meilan pulled it away: "Tell me again, what's Mama's name?"
"Zhou Xueqin?"
"My name is Chen Meilan, not Zhou Xueqin. You have another mother named Zhou Xueqin, understand?" Chen Meilan said.
She couldn't deny that Zhou Xueqin was Little Lang's birth mother, but she couldn't let the child think she was Zhou Xueqin.
"You are my mama," Little Lang got angry when he heard this and shouted, "Little Lang doesn't want another mama!"
Little Wang and Yuanyuan had come in too, and because of what Little Lang said, Chen Meilan asked Little Wang, "How come Little Lang doesn't remember his other mother at all?"
Little Wang picked up the bowl, licked a sausage first, and said nonchalantly, "Because his other mom always lived in the city, so he rarely saw her."
"Then who breastfed him when he was little?" Children don't start running as soon as they're born, they need to be nursed for at least the first year. The bond between mother and child is usually formed during this time.
Little Wang was about to bite into a garlic sausage when Chen Meilan added some vinegar and a bit of chili oil.
Now the sausages smelled even better. The little guy let his guard down and said casually, "His mom went south right after he was born. He grew up on formula milk fed by me and my grandpa."
Chen Meilan knew about this. Zhou Xueqin and her brother had taken a truckload of fabric down south, hoping to make a big profit, but accidentally burned it all in a fire.
When they came back, to avoid debt collectors, they rented out their house and the family had been hiding in rented places ever since.
If Chen Meilan had been worried before that Zhou's Mother might coax Little Lang away, she wasn't worried now. Little Lang was a late bloomer, slow to develop mentally. Zhou Xueqin and Zhou's Mother's group rarely saw him because they were hiding from debt, so it's no wonder he didn't remember his birth mother.
Chen Meilan gave each person a small bowl with half a bowl of garlic sausages, arranging for the two older ones. Seeing Yan Zhao in her bedroom, she went in and said, "Captain Yan..."
Yan Zhao was sitting cross-legged on the kang bed, rummaging through her cabinet.
Seeing Chen Meilan come in, he stood up, looming like a dark cloud, and walked to her side. "Go on," he said.
Chen Meilan didn't mention Zhou Xueqin at first, because she wasn't sure if Zhou's Mother's visit was on Zhou Xueqin's orders.
But as soon as she mentioned Zhou's Mother, Yan Zhao called out, "Little Wang!"
Little Wang, who had been fixing the radio, dropped it and came in immediately. "Here!"
"Now memorize my office phone number. Remember, 8837988. If your grandmother appears within your sight, call me immediately, understand?" Yan Zhao said.
This scene frightened Chen Meilan.
Fortunately, Yan Zhao immediately explained, "This child's uncle is short on money, and it seems his grandmother always likes to take clothes off Little Wang and Little Lang. We can't let her get away with this habit. That old lady is quite troublesome, she doesn't dare come openly, always sneaking around. If she dares to come again, have Little Wang call me. I need to have a good talk with her."
Yan Zhao probably hadn't met his mother-in-law since returning from the army, but while Little Wang wouldn't tell on his mom to his dad, he would definitely tell on his grandmother.
Having dad's support made all the difference. Little Wang looked quite happy: "Dad, did my grandmother come?"
"Yes. Go memorize the phone number. I'll check on you later," Yan Zhao said.
Little Wang saluted, "I promise to complete the mission."
Seeing Little Wang leave, he turned and asked Chen Meilan, "Anything else?"
How should she say this?
How to comfort a man who appears strong and decisive on the outside, but is indeed insecure about not being able to earn money himself?
Chen Meilan decided to give an account: "The bonds you told me to buy made over five thousand." This was indirectly praising him, saying she knew how to do it, which should encourage him, right?
The money was indirectly earned by him too!
Yan Zhao moved even closer to her, blocking out the evening sun coming through the window.
"Go on..." he said.
Judging by his expression, he didn't believe it at all.
Chen Meilan turned away from Yan Zhao and continued, "I'm not that bold, but my older brother took on a small project, and I invested a bit of money. We should make a little profit, so we shouldn't be so tight on money."
But just then, Little Lang suddenly started crying outside, and Yuanyuan was shouting too. It sounded like they were fighting over a bowl.
Yan Zhao was almost pressed against Chen Meilan now. It was hot, they were wearing thin clothes, and she could feel his heartbeat.
But he seemed to be looking outside too, because hearing Yuanyuan whimpering, he asked Chen Meilan, "Did Little Lang take something from Yuanyuan?"
Although Little Lang and Little Wang had never bullied Yuanyuan, this man had a habit of immediately asking if his children were bullying hers.
This was actually the wisest approach for a man in a second marriage.
Men always tend to scold their own children, but that doesn't mean they don't love them.
Superficial kindness is just politeness; everyone keeps their love for their own children in their hearts.
Take Lu Jingyu for example, on the surface he treated everyone equally, even being a bit nicer to Yuanyuan.
But when it came to education, he only invested heavily in his own children, being especially strict with Lu Dabao. That's what you call true fatherly love.
Seeing that Yuanyuan had given her bowl to Little Lang, and they clearly weren't fighting over meat, Chen Meilan felt relieved.
So she continued with what she was saying: "Actually, we're not missing any big items at home. We should live comfortably, buy what we need, and not skimp. But don't worry, I won't waste money, and I won't break the law."
"Keep going," Yan Zhao's voice was particularly deep.
But suddenly he put his hand on her shoulder, and one arm wrapped around her chest.
This man was very sturdy, and his body was cool. His skin was rough and very dry. On such a hot day, he wasn't sweating at all.
They say only people with particularly good physiques have cool body temperatures. Like Yan Xishan, who was always sweating and sticky, because he was weak.
The room was a bit dark and very hot. Suddenly, with his arm around her, Chen Meilan's whole body broke out in goosebumps.
"Why did you stop talking?" He actually had the nerve to ask.
At the same time, his lips were by her ear, his scorching breath burning her ear.
How could she continue talking when he was like this?
"Let me tell you something," he said, likely just wanting to whisper, as his lips lingered by her ear and he began speaking: "I've always suspected it was Yan Xishan who hit Teacher Huang's son Xiang, but thankfully it wasn't, so Shengnan's parents' records can remain clean."
Chen Meilan didn't dare turn around, because then she would have touched his lips.
But she still asked, "Did you find out who it was?"
Yan Zhao said, "The case is quite difficult to investigate, because we need to reconstruct the tire tracks from Little Xiang's autopsy photos, and then check all the large trucks in the entire Jindong District, examining them one by one. It's an extremely time-consuming process, but..."
Chen Meilan was indeed very curious about whose black truck had killed Little Xiang.
The key issue was that two years had passed, making it hard to track down the vehicle and the person.
Chen Meilan leaned in closer with her ear, and Yan Zhao's breath grew heavier. He suddenly exhaled and then quickly grazed her ear with his lips.
It was a swift, rough sensation, with a slight stinging pain. She even felt the collision of his teeth and the urge to bite.
This time it seemed real; this man definitely wanted to do something naughty.
Chen Meilan instinctively dodged, and Yan Zhao abruptly stepped back, striding out of the room with his ears still red.
Because Little Lang came in holding a bowl: "Mommy, my meat."
"What's wrong?"
Little Lang held out the bowl: "A bird pooped on my meat."
It turned out that earlier, the children weren't fighting over meat, but were eating sausages from their bowls when a house martin flew by and left a white dropping in Little Lang's bowl, rendering the child's meat inedible.
"Don't worry, Mommy will fry some more for you."
Chen Meilan looked back at the cabinet. Since Yan Zhao had mentioned Little Xiang's case, she thought he might have been looking for evidence related to Yan Xishan, but she found that Yan Zhao had already neatly folded the clothes in the cabinet for her, arranged in rows like troops at a military parade.
The tidiness of the clothes in the cabinet gave her intense satisfaction.
Yuanyuan was washing dishes in the kitchen and saw Chen Meilan come in with a puzzled look: "Mom, why are your ears so red?"
"It's not just your ears, your face is red too. Do you have a fever?" Yuanyuan added.
"Go on out, Mom's going to make us something to eat," Chen Meilan said.
That night, the pink bed sheets and duvet cover, freshly washed and sun-dried, emitted a fragrant aroma. Yan Zhao had made the bed himself.
Actually, Little Lang and Little Wang both wanted to sleep there, especially badly, but Ningning insisted on sleeping over that day.
Yuanyuan didn't really want her there, but Ningning swore to tell Yuanyuan a little secret about herself and to share lots of whispered confidences.
So Yuanyuan let Ningning stay, and the two little girls cuddled up together, sleeping soundly on the big pink memory foam mattress.
Early the next morning, Chen Meilan had just finished cooking a pot of chicken to take to Chen Degong.
However, today Chen Meilan played a little trick. When Yuanyuan asked her what time she'd be back, she deliberately said loudly outside the courtyard that she wouldn't return until the afternoon.
But actually, after delivering the chicken to the construction site, she turned right around and ran home.
Little Wang had picked up a broken radio yesterday and tinkered with it for ages without success. Seeing how pitiful the child looked, Chen Meilan gave him money today to buy a new one, along with a few cassette tapes.
With this errand done, she jogged all the way back, ready to catch Zhou's Mother in the act.
But she still arrived a bit late. A woman in her fifties was at her door, and upon seeing her appear at the village entrance, she dashed away in a flash, running faster than a rabbit.
From behind, it was clearly Zhou's Mother.
Little Wang strutted back proudly, carrying a brand new radio along with several original cassette tapes. He passed by his grandmother, who suddenly darted down another small path.
It seemed the old woman was very afraid of Little Wang. Next time, she should leave Little Wang at home specifically to guard against her.
Although they had a TV, Yuanyuan liked to sing and listen to cassette tapes.
Little Wang's purchases perfectly suited her taste - Li Lingyu, Feng Fei-fei, Chen Fangyuan - all the current popular songs.
Little Lang held a sausage in his hand and offered it to Meilan: "Mommy, Grandma gave me this sausage."
Chen Meilan took the sausage and called Little Wang and Yuanyuan over as well: "Mommy needs to tell you something very important. You must listen carefully, okay?"
Children all like to eat snacks, but it's not good to get used to eating food given by strangers.
As we enter the 1990s, there are so many child abduction cases, and aren't they all lured with food?
If Little Lang got used to casually eating things from others, what if someone tricked him away?
"Yesterday, a child in the First Brigade ate a sausage bought by a stranger and got a stomachache when he got home. Do you know why?" Chen Meilan asked.
Little Lang looked very serious: "Why, Mommy?"
"Because some people are very bad and purposely put medicine in the sausages that makes people's stomachs hurt. They give these to other people's children, and when the children eat them, they get stomachaches." Chen Meilan was soft-hearted after all and afraid of scaring the children, so she put it rather mildly.
But the world is complex, and the children had heard even more terrifying things. Yuanyuan and Little Wang said in unison: "Some people even put rat poison in snacks to kill children."
Little Lang was frightened and cried out, while Yuanyuan's little face scrunched up, her eyebrows forming a figure eight, looking exactly like her uncle, speechless for a long time.
Chen Meilan not only had to take Little Lang to throw away this sausage, but also stomped on it twice. Then she said: "So Little Lang can only eat sausages that Mommy gives you. Even if it's from Grandma, you can't eat it from anyone else, okay?"
Children are still easy to convince. Little Lang nodded obediently: "Mm-hmm, not even from Grandma."
Little Wang, however, looked vigilant: "Little Lang, did Grandma come to find you again?"
Little Lang still looked confused: "She said she was Grandma." The child didn't actually recognize that old woman.
But Little Wang knew her, and he pointed at Little Lang's nose, embellishing the story: "That's not Grandma, that's the Big Bad Wolf Grandma. She specializes in giving rat poison to children. Next time she tries to trick you, you absolutely can't go out."
Not to mention that Chen Meilan was about to die laughing at Little Wang's serious demeanor, Little Lang was indeed frightened silly. Suddenly his eyes bulged like copper bells: "Bite the Big Bad Wolf Grandma to death."
Zhou's Mother couldn't possibly come every day with her hit-and-run tactics, after all, she didn't live in Yanguan Village, and it wasn't easy to make the trip.
What Chen Meilan worried about was the old woman trying to get the children used to accepting food from her.
She was concerned the children might get in the habit of eating things given by strangers in the future.
Since Little Wang was so vigilant, she felt reassured.
Building a cafeteria for the Dongfang Group was just a small job, but it was their first time contracting a project, and the process went more smoothly than expected. Moreover, Chen Degong and Teacher Huang calculated the construction period and found it wouldn't even take two months. With a push, they could finish the job in just one month.
Now, basically all the materials had arrived, and Chen Meilan needed to do a final accounting to check the costs.
Then it would be time to calculate the workers' wages.
Currently, skilled laborers earned three yuan a day, while unskilled workers got two yuan. They carried bricks and cement, each more reckless than the last.
But with so few construction sites available, if you weren't hardworking, you wouldn't have any work at all.
As she calculated, Chen Meilan couldn't help but sigh: physical labor was so undervalued, the migrant workers were truly shedding their sweat for nothing.
Oh right, in her past life she didn't know that the Sanbao Paint Factory intentionally used substandard paint to harm people, but now that she knew, she definitely needed to write a letter to report them.
These days, the work of the industrial and commercial tax departments was not just bad compared to the public security bureau, it was worse than worse.
However, Chen Meilan's report was cleverly written. Instead of sending it to the Industrial and Commercial Office, she wrote to the Public Security Bureau, saying the company was involved with organized crime. Now that there was a special crackdown on criminal organizations, which private business owner wasn't involved in some way? If you weren't involved with criminal elements, you couldn't do business. So in fact, she was indirectly reporting this to Yan Zhao.
She might not trust others, but she trusted Yan Zhao. He would definitely handle it.
After writing and mailing the letter, she returned home to find Little Wang playing music for Yuanyuan. Sometimes it was "Just Like Your Tenderness," then "Cherish Tonight," and then it changed to "In the Fields of Hope."
Yuanyuan listened for a while, and when she saw Chen Meilan come in, she looked at her rather embarrassed: "Mom?"
"What is it?" Chen Meilan asked her daughter.
Yuanyuan seemed to make up her mind and said, "Mom, I don't want to be friends with Ningning anymore."
"Why is that?" Chen Meilan asked again.
Yuanyuan pouted and said, "She told me that Dad loves me more, and asked me to tell Dad to send Little Wang and Little Lang away. Then Dad would be mine alone."
Little Wang was outside listening to music. He had been humming "In the Fields of Hope," when suddenly he bit his lip, caught off guard.
It was said how pitiful these two children were. They had a mysterious grandmother who needed to be caught, a biological father, and now a stepmother. And with a stepmother, it's said that in most cases, even the biological father would become like a stepmother.
However, Chen Meilan believed in her daughter. Although she was a bit naive, she had a kind heart and good character.
"How did you respond to her?" she asked deliberately.
