RGL – Chapter 144

Because of this incident, Su Min trusted Zhang Qingqing and Grandma Zhang even more. In times like these, for them to be willing to follow her all the way here meant more than just adding flowers to a brocade—it was truly valuable.

“Qingqing, if you can’t bear to leave your family, then let me go with her instead.”

In the city, Grandma Zhang took advantage of a break to chat with Zhang Qingqing in her office.

This time they had to go to City B, and both she and her granddaughter were reluctant to leave their family behind. Especially since her granddaughter was already at the age of marriage, going so far away meant who knew when she’d be able to settle down. But just like her daughter had said, Su Min was their benefactor—she reached out to help them during their most difficult time, giving them the good life they had today. They couldn’t be ungrateful and turn their backs on someone after benefiting from her kindness. Besides, she had buried her skills for most of her life. Now that she was old and had a chance to pick them up again, she wanted to leave something behind—to be worthy of the master craftsmen who had once taught her.

Zhang Qingqing sighed. “Grandma, I’m willing to go. We’re not people who forget favors and abandon righteousness. We can’t turn our backs on Su Min at a time like this. Besides, Su Min was right—going to City B offers better opportunities. We’ll be better off there than we are here.”

“Then what about your marriage? Are you really planning not to get married?” Grandma Zhang’s heart ached when she thought about her granddaughter’s failed marriage. That Zhao family really judged people by their status—how could they not want such a good girl?

Zhang Qingqing shook her head. “Grandma, I’ve met many people through Su Min. So many women are incredibly capable. Even after getting married, they still have their own careers. I never knew that women could live such rich and meaningful lives—not just having babies and cooking at home, but doing so many important things. Now that our house is being rebuilt, I’m even more convinced that we women are not inferior to men. Grandma, right now all I want is to work hard with Su Min. Whatever happens in the future, we’ll deal with it then. We can’t force fate.”

Grandma Zhang never expected her usually quiet and soft-tempered granddaughter to say something so resolute. She was surprised, but also deeply comforted.

She smiled, and the wrinkles on her face became even more pronounced. “If I had had your awareness back then, maybe my life wouldn’t have turned out this way.” After speaking, she sighed. “Alright, if you’ve thought it through, I won’t stop you. At least the two of us will have each other.”

Zhang Qingqing smiled with her lips pressed together.

Su Min didn’t yet realize that she had already deeply influenced Zhang Qingqing’s way of thinking.

At that moment, she was thinking about what to say when she went to the Xue family, especially to Grandma Xue. Then there was Xue Mian’s mother—an aunt who was not easy to get along with. How should she deal with her?

After mentally preparing herself a little, Su Min organized some local specialties she had brought and carefully packed the gifts Sun Qiufang had told her to give to Grandma Xue. After informing Ke Wan, she carried the items and took a car to the Xue family home.

As fate would have it, Su Min had been hoping that Xue Mian’s Mother wouldn’t be home, thinking it would make things easier. But the moment the door opened, it was indeed Xue Mian’s Mother who stood there.

“Who are you looking for?”

Su Min was briefly stunned, realizing that the woman probably didn’t recognize her. She smiled and said, “My name is Su Min. I’m Xue Mian’s classmate. I came to see Grandma Xue.”

Upon hearing the name Su Min, Li Aiyun instinctively frowned. She remembered now—this was the girl who had visited their home before. Her son had often mentioned this girl. Over the years, he had never been so close to her, yet he seemed quite attached to this young woman. That left her with an uncomfortable feeling.

Moreover, the girl was from a small county with an ordinary family background. What were her intentions in getting close to their family? At this age, kids couldn’t exactly be called naive anymore.

With a stiff expression, she said, “The old lady is out today, not at home. Come another time.”

Su Min wasn’t sure if this was true, but she had no intention of staying while Xue Mian’s Mother was there. It wasn’t that she was afraid, but being treated with obvious disdain while visiting someone’s home—no one would feel good in that situation.

So she simply said, “In that case, I’ll head back for now.” She handed the items in her hands to Li Aiyun. “These are some local specialties my mom asked me to bring for Grandma Xue. They’re her favorites.”

Li Aiyun glanced at the items—mostly farm products, and there was even a jar of fermented tofu.

Seeing these things already made her feel uncomfortable. But since Su Min was right in front of her, she couldn’t show it too plainly and reluctantly reached out to take them. “Alright, I’ll give them to her.”

Su Min smiled and nodded before turning to leave.

Watching her go, Li Aiyun closed the door.

In the living room, Xue Jun was reading the newspaper. Seeing Li Aiyun walk in with something in hand, he asked, “Who was it? Why didn’t they come in and sit?”

“It was someone here to see the old lady,” Li Aiyun replied, placing the items down and sitting on the sofa with a frown. “Xue Jun, I’m not being picky, but think about the kind of people your mother usually associates with. We’re all government employees—why are these people getting close to us? If they have some agenda, it could easily drag us down with them. Your mother is just too careless and never thinks about us. And look at these things—are they even edible? Your mom’s health isn’t good, and this fermented tofu is basically poisonous. Eating too much is bad.”

Xue Jun chuckled. “Alright, alright. I’ll talk to Mom later. No need to get upset. It’s not a big deal. If you don’t think the tofu’s good for her, we won’t give it to her. You’re a doctor—you know more about health than anyone. We’ll listen to you.”

Li Aiyun said, “I wouldn’t dare say much. When I first married into this family, I didn’t say a word and still got looked down on. Now, I’m even less inclined to speak up. And look at our son—he’s not even close to me anymore. Who knows what your mother told him back then?”

“Aiyun.” Xue Jun looked a bit helpless. “That’s all in the past. Mom doesn’t say anything now either, right? Don’t hold grudges. We agreed years ago to slowly let go of all that.”

Li Aiyun turned her body away with a stern face. “I’m not saying I won’t forgive her. It’s just that being treated with such disdain—it was the first time in my life. How can I be comfortable with that? And don’t forget, if we hadn’t both insisted back then, the person who married you wouldn’t have been me. Every time I think about it, it still hurts.”

Hearing Li Aiyun bring up the past, Xue Jun didn’t know how to comfort her.

Back then, when they were dating, his mother had shown her disapproval during the first meeting—and later outright opposed their relationship.

Because of this matter, after marrying Ai Yun, he hadn’t returned home for a long time. It wasn’t until later, when Xue Mian was born and there was no one to take care of the child, that he brought the child back to his parents to raise.

But no one had truly let go of what happened back then.

“Ai Yun, my mom’s health isn’t good now. Even if you’re angry, let’s not say anything in front of her anymore, alright? If you’re really unhappy, we can just come back less often.”

“We’ll talk about it later. Mianmian has been abroad for a few years now. He’s coming back this time, and I must see him at home. Otherwise, he’ll forget what his own mother even looks like.”

“How could that happen?”

“Why couldn’t it? Just think about how he’s treated us over these years. And now, going abroad—he wouldn’t listen when I told him to study medicine, and insisted on studying something like electronic technology instead. What kind of nonsense is that? I think it’s those two old folks at home who spoiled him.”

“Alright, as long as he studies well, that’s what matters. Isn’t he doing quite well now? He even graduated early. If he had studied medicine, he’d still be at it for years.”

Xue Jun actually still hoped his son would join the military, but since the two elders in the family hadn’t spoken on the matter, he didn’t feel it was right to intervene. After all, the conflicts on both sides were already intense, and the son had been raised by the grandparents all these years. As a father who hadn’t fulfilled his duties, it wasn’t right for him to interfere too much in his son’s future.

His son was already grown—no longer the child who waited at home for him and Ai Yun to return.

In August, Sun Yan finally brought along Grandma Zhang and the others.

This time, Su Min couldn’t rent an apartment in a residential complex, but she did manage to rent several rooms in a factory dormitory for them to live in temporarily, planning to slowly look for proper housing to settle them later.

The three apprentices were originally from the local orphanage in this city, so after returning to City B, Su Min arranged for them to stay back at the orphanage for now. During the day, they would go to the shop and learn the craft from Grandma Zhang.

Grandma Zhang, Zhang Qingqing, and Sun Yan temporarily stayed in the dormitory.

“Why didn’t Zhaodi come along?” Zhaodi hadn’t gotten into the same school as her, but she did choose a school in City B. The two schools were in the same district, so they were quite close and could still visit each other often in the future.

“She said she wants to work at your uncle’s place for another month and will come when school starts. She plans to move directly into the dorm then.”

Su Min figured that Zhaodi probably didn’t want to accept her help anymore.

On the first day of their arrival, after settling them down, Su Min brought everyone to the shop and started arranging things.

“Minzi, this shop is really nice. It even looks bigger than the one we had in the city. And the area around here is so good. Just walking here, I saw how trendy people’s clothes are. Even their spirit looks better than ours—you can tell just by looking at them.”

“That’s a kind of temperament that comes naturally from living in this kind of environment. Being born and raised in the capital—their mindset is bound to be different from ours.”

“That’s true. This is the best place in the country.”

Sun Yan looked around longingly, then turned to Su Min, who was hanging up clothes. “Minzi, if it weren’t for you, I would’ve never dreamed of working in a place like this in my whole life.”

Su Min smiled as she turned back. “If it weren’t for all of you helping me along the way, I wouldn’t have dared to dream of what I have today either. It’s all thanks to everyone.”

She truly meant what she said. If she had been on her own, no matter how ambitious she was, she wouldn’t have had the confidence she had now. Sun Yan helped manage the shop, Zhang Qingqing was in charge of embroidery, and in the past Ke Wan had helped with sales. Now she was also collaborating with William. All of this was the result of their combined efforts.

Listening from the side, Grandma Zhang quietly thought that Su Min was a genuinely sincere girl. With her granddaughter working alongside Su Min, there was no need to worry about her being taken advantage of. She’d have to persuade her granddaughter not to have any selfish thoughts—just work diligently and wholeheartedly. If one gets greedy, in the end, they might lose everything.

In just three days, the shop was officially opened.

They had some ready-made clothes brought over from the previous shop in the city, so even though production hadn’t started yet, they still displayed some sample outfits on mannequins in the shop.

Su Min also used the free time during this period to design some summer and winter clothing. Not everything featured embroidery—some just had small floral accents. This saved a lot of time and reduced costs. Since the prices weren’t too high, customers started showing up quickly.

Sun Yan noticed that the quality of life in City B was vastly different from their hometown. Back home, there were few custom orders, and the shop was doing well if it could receive one or two customer orders a day. But here, things were different—just a few days after opening, customers were already coming in for custom orders.

Of course, this was also thanks to the previous batch of clothing Su Min had delivered to City B, which had already established a name for the brand Xiuse. Many wealthy clients knew each other, and the word quickly spread. Some people passed by the shop, saw the Xiuse sign, and came in to ask. Once they confirmed it was the same brand from before, they hurried to place their orders, afraid of delays and getting pushed to the end of the line again. Some customers came because Shu Jing and Ke Wan had mentioned that the shop had moved to City B, so they came looking for it by name.

In the first few days after opening, they received more orders than they had in the past few months combined.

Since it was haute couture, customers weren’t very concerned about the timeline. Su Min personally designed each piece, which also took time, so she had Sun Yan create a scheduling chart—listing when clothes for each customer would be made and when they’d be completed. Once an item was done, they would contact the customer.

While designing clothes, Su Min also recruited a few veteran tailors in City B. Though older, they had years of experience and solid craftsmanship.

To ensure quality, Su Min even appointed the eldest among them as the quality director to specifically oversee the workmanship and finish of each piece.

She thought that if she wanted to grow Xiuse, she could no longer operate like a workshop. It had to be managed systematically like a real company.

Clear job roles were the first step.

As the shop gradually got on the right track, Su Min was also about to officially start university life.

On the day of her enrollment, a plane from the U.S. slowly landed at the City B airport.

Su Min’s university in City B, F University, ranked among the top in the country. She had chosen this school specifically because of its highly regarded fashion design program.

Although she had already made some achievements in the fashion world, she wasn’t professionally trained. So she wanted to use her time at university to learn more and make up for her shortcomings.

After starting school, Su Min didn’t live in the dormitory; instead, she rented a house nearby.

Liao Zhaodi was originally going to live in the dorms, but since they lived so close, Su Min pulled her along as a companion.

These past few days were the start of military training at the university. The two of them were exhausted every day, but fortunately, it rained today and training only lasted half a day. So Su Min quickly asked Zhaodi to grab a meal near the school, and then they went home to rest.

“Military training is really hard. I used to think farm work was tough, but I never imagined there was something worse than that. I really admire those soldiers now—they do this every day and no one ever complains.”

Liao Zhaodi took a sip of cold water and added, “Oh right, didn’t Sun Yan’s younger brother also join the army?”

“Yeah, he’ll be gone for two more years. Sun Yan even hopes that if he can stay on, he’ll build a career in the military. But staying on is probably hard. I wonder if Qiangzi really has what it takes.”

Su Min thought that if Sun Qiang could stay in the army, that kind of career would be great. But growing up, he wasn’t very disciplined, so she wasn’t sure whether the military would change him or not.

After resting for a while, Su Min went out to make a long-distance call to Sun Qiufang and the others, telling them school had already started and that she was currently in military training.

Su Changrong wasn’t home, so it was Sun Qiufang who picked up. When she heard that her daughter was doing well, a weight finally lifted from her heart.

“That’s good. Your dad’s been worried these past few days. He even said that if you didn’t call soon, he’d go check on you. You know how he is—if he doesn’t see his daughter for a while, he always thinks she’s being bullied.”