QTIMP -Chapter 54 Character Persona – Lazy (Part 2)

This was for the Si family. For the Lu family, she had gotten some dried seafood from the supply and marketing cooperative using her position, along with some spicy pickled vegetables made by someone she knew.

She planned to have Lu Hongqi send them back by mail tomorrow. Why didn’t she go herself? Because she would have to take a long detour through the cooperative, and she was too lazy to bother.

Her daily energy barely lasted to take care of herself; even going to work felt like sheer endurance.

Meanwhile, the couple had finished their meal. Si Lai asked Lu Hongqi to retrieve the dishes. After knocking on the door, Lu Hongqi waited at the entrance.

Almost two minutes later, the door opened.

“Sister-in-law, I came to get the dishes.”

“Oh, they’re inside. Come in and take them! Also, I’ve prepared some things for both sets of parents—please make sure to send them out tomorrow morning.”

Lu Hongqi saw two equally sized packages on the tea table. After confirming which was for which family, he took the postage fee handed to him by Si Qiu and carried the packages back.

“Why are you carrying so much?” Si Lai asked, taking the dishes from his hands and putting them in the kitchen.

“These are for sending to both sets of parents,” Lu Hongqi explained after a moment’s thought.

“Come on, see if we should send some things to our side too.”

Si Lai paused mid-wash. “No need, right? Your parents don’t lack anything, and my little brother takes care of my side, so I don’t have to.”

Lu Hongqi opened his mouth but said nothing. He knew that arguing was pointless and would only provoke Si Lai into crying about how he had no job, how children’s expenses were high, and so on. But as a battalion-level officer with a monthly salary of just over a hundred yuan, supporting two people was more than enough; supporting five or six was still feasible.

Seeing that Lu Hongqi didn’t say anything further, Si Lai breathed a sigh of relief. “Big brother’s mission has been going on for a week now, right?”

“Yeah, six days.”

“Then he’ll be back soon.” Si Lai remembered that in her previous life, right after Lu Hongjun got married, he went on a mission and didn’t come back. Her mother-in-law almost ate her alive.

Plus, since they didn’t have a child yet, she went straight back to her own family. Who knew that soon after, her family forced her to marry a disabled recycling station worker with only one arm.

But Si Qiu, a woman who would always lie down if she could, married Lu Hongqi and even gave birth to a son, elevating the Lu family to the skies.

And her? For her child’s tuition and her own family’s exploitation, she scavenged and ran a small stall. She didn’t even make it to fifty.

Who knew that when she opened her eyes again, she had returned to before marriage, before Si Qiu went to the army to help her half-sister recover from childbirth. Back then, she had secretly opened the window, causing her sister to get sick.

She volunteered to help and coincidentally ran into the two brothers on temporary duty. This time, she chose Lu Hongqi—a man whose achievements didn’t match his father’s but who adored Si Qiu.

The prominent Lu family, especially Lu Hongqi’s mother, wasn’t particularly fond of her, but Lu Hongqi insisted. At the moment they received their marriage certificate, she felt immense satisfaction, believing she had changed her destiny. Yet she still saw Lu Hongjun and felt a hint of resentment.

She feared heaven would correct the fates of the two of them.

So, using the guise of a sisterly introduction, she introduced Si Qiu to Lu Hongjun. Since she was taking over someone else’s life, she might as well exchange it—letting them walk the path she had already walked, without resistance.

But this time, after marriage, Lu Hongjun only went on his fourth-month mission. She didn’t understand what had gone wrong or whether Lu Hongjun would even return.

In truth, Lu Hongjun hadn’t gone immediately because Si Qiu had shocked him—he never expected his beautiful wife to be that lazy.

You could go hungry, thirsty, or have to hold it in—but if you could lie down, you’d never sit.

He was afraid that the moment he stepped out the door, she might starve herself to death at home. He thought of countless ways to prevent it, and in the end, only when he heard that the supply and marketing cooperative was hiring—and threatened with living expenses—did he manage to get someone to go out to work.

Not to earn much money, but just to make sure she went out for a walk every day and could have three meals on time.

Arranging it this way ended up delaying things by two months. That mission, which could have been deadly due to new recruits’ mistakes, was handled by other company commanders with veteran soldiers.

Of course, they returned safely, so no one made an issue out of it.

Having the younger sister-in-law take care of his wife wasn’t something the couple demanded—it was something Si Lai took on herself.

As for why she did it… well, she was still pregnant! Honestly, everyone knew in their hearts that she was doing it for a good reputation and for the benefits given by Lu Hongjun.

Just like now, anyone who saw her would praise her and, at the same time, belittle Si Qiu. Normally, if Si Qiu minded, Lu Hongjun would cover for her a little.

After all, a husband should care for the wife he brought home. But seeing that Si Qiu didn’t care at all, he and his brother only occasionally restrained themselves.

Actually, this worked out well—it satisfied Si Lai’s vanity while catering to his wife’s laziness.

As for the parents at home, oddly enough, they liked Si Qiu more. Mainly because she was generous and sweet-talking, did no chores, but every month sent letters and parcels, asking after them.

Si Lai, perhaps because of her family’s poorer circumstances, was meticulous, frugal, and treated her parents with a faint sense of rivalry.

There were no fools in his family—they could feel it.

But they just didn’t want to intervene, since Si Lai was only saving money and wasn’t wasteful herself.

The next day, Lu Hongqi carried a package to send. In the end, he decided to send some money back to his parents and some tickets to his father-in-law’s family.

Although Si Lai controlled the family money, he still received bonuses from his missions. Ever since arguments had erupted over spending, he had learned to consciously set aside a little.

Si Qiu carried her cloth bag and lazily went to work.

“Xiao Qiu, good morning!”

The one greeting her was Song Juan, 22 years old, mother of two, selling daily necessities.

Rolling her eyes at her was Zhang Meijuan, also 18 like Si Qiu, selling vegetables and seafood. It was said that she had fallen for the Lu brothers at first sight, but before she could start pursuing, someone else swooped in.

That Si Lai could be ignored—she was rarely seen except when buying groceries. But Si Qiu was out there every day, selling goods alongside her.

And in just two or three months, everyone knew she was famously lazy. How could a person like that be worthy of Big Brother Lu?

What was even more infuriating was that Big Brother Lu treated her like a treasure—busy outside and still busy when he came home. If Big Brother Lu married her instead, she would never let him trouble himself for the family.

Thinking about this made her face flush involuntarily.

But no matter what she thought, it had nothing to do with Si Qiu—after all, she was too lazy even to argue.

Si Qiu sold snacks and high-end nutritional products—candies, pastries, milk powder, malted milk, and so on.

This was the only thing Si Qiu was satisfied with. Apart from the beginning and end of each month, she wasn’t busy most of the time.