RGL – Chapter 48

When Su Min heard that Sun Bing and his wife were working at a hotel and were unwilling to accept the suggestion to set up a street stall, she was somewhat surprised. In this era, relying on a regular job could get you by, but making real money was very difficult. Basically, if you stuck with working for others, you could only manage a modest living. And that was already considering those city folks who had their own homes.

But her eldest uncle and aunt didn’t even have a house—they had to pay rent every month. Even if the whole family tried to be frugal, the living expenses couldn’t be cut down by much. Even if Yanyan eventually stopped studying, Qiangzi definitely would continue, and that would be another expense.

Looking at it this way, even if her eldest uncle and aunt continued to work steadily, they wouldn’t be able to save much money. In a few years, as they got older, their income would only decrease. At that time, the family situation would just keep getting worse.

At their age, working like this really wasn’t a wise choice.

But she had already said what needed to be said. Her younger uncle had also done a lot for them. If her eldest uncle’s family still insisted on their path, then no one could stop them. As for who was right and who was wrong—perhaps only time would tell.

The second semester of eighth grade was soon coming to an end.

With Xue Mian no longer in school this term, Su Min had become the top student in the class, consistently ranking first in every test.

However, Su Min wasn’t particularly interested in the title. To her, it wasn’t about defeating a rival—it was that the rival was gone. Without even a worthy competitor, the fun was gone for her.

But Su Wenwen had changed her strategy this semester. Instead of picking fights with her directly, she now adopted an approach of isolating her.

Su Wenwen had a few followers who joined her in isolating Su Min. They felt smug seeing Su Min with no one to talk to. But they didn’t know—Su Min didn’t care about it at all.

On the morning of the final exam, Su Wenwen blocked Su Min at the school gate.

Seeing Su Min looking so calm, Su Wenwen was infuriated. “Why are you acting all arrogant in front of me? Let me tell you—no one in class even talks to you now. Do you think you’re all that? Xue Mian is gone, and you don’t have a single friend left in class!”

Seeing Su Wenwen so flustered, Su Min chuckled and said mockingly, “You came all the way just to tell me this? If that’s all, please move. I’ve got an exam to take.”

“I’m not moving! Su Min, didn’t you hear me? You don’t have a single friend. So what if you get good grades? You’re isolated!”

Su Wenwen grew more agitated as she spoke.

Su Min smiled and shook her head at her. “You chose this moment to come talk to me—surely not just to inform me that I’m being isolated, right? Are you hoping that this will upset me and mess up my exam performance?”

Hearing Su Min’s words, Su Wenwen’s heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t expected Su Min to see right through her. Ever since conflict broke out at home, and since she had always disliked Su Min, she’d constantly tried to make Su Min unhappy. As a result, her own grades had dropped significantly. She knew that students would be separated into different classes in ninth grade based on their results. She was well aware she wouldn’t do well in this exam, so she came to provoke Su Min, hoping Su Min would also do poorly—so that neither of them would be happy.

Why should a low-born girl like Su Min get better grades than her, and even be invited to visit County Chief Zhao’s home? Thinking of how Madam Zhao was so warm toward Su Min but so cold toward her, she just couldn’t accept it. Wherever she went, she was always treated like a princess. She could not allow herself to lose to someone like Su Min.

Watching her face turn red and pale by turns, Su Min found it all rather amusing.

She had long since passed this age and couldn’t really relate to that kind of desperate, irrational mindset. She had always been mature and rational. She knew why she studied and had never let anything else interfere with that. Meanwhile, Su Wenwen was willing to throw away her own study time just to mess with her—dropping her class rank below 20, and from what it seemed, even beyond 30 in this term’s final exams.

And even now, she was using such a nasty little ploy to try and affect her.

Su Min had to admit—sometimes, when a child set their mind on doing harm, they could be just as devious as adults. If she had truly been only fifteen years old, maybe she would have been affected by being isolated like this, and her exam performance would have suffered under Su Wenwen’s provocation.

And that would have definitely affected her class placement for ninth grade.

The more she thought about it, the more laughable it seemed. She couldn’t help but look at Su Wenwen with a mocking expression. “Are you done? If you are, I’m off to take my exam. Oh, by the way—your last exam ranking was thirty-seventh, right? Best of luck this time. Also, I don’t care about being isolated. You’re probably the only one who enjoys making friends just for the sake of it. Look around—do any of your friends skip studying like you do, just to maintain those friendships?”

Seeing Su Wenwen’s face grow increasingly sour, Su Min felt a surge of satisfaction. There’s a saying: “Fight fire with fire.” Just because she was older didn’t mean she was going to tolerate Su Wenwen’s antics.

After parting ways with Su Wenwen, Su Min took a deep breath, adjusted her mood, and quickly entered exam mode.

Before the exam, she had already worked through several exercise books so thoroughly that she was intimately familiar with the question types. After finishing the test, she carefully reviewed her answers twice. Only when the dismissal bell rang did Su Min leave the classroom with the rest of the students.

Just as she stepped out the door, Wu Yong called her over to the office.

Su Min was still a little puzzled when she saw Teacher Wu pull an envelope from his desk drawer. “This is from Xue Mian. I thought it was addressed to me, but when I opened it, there was another envelope inside. Tell me, was that brat messing with me on purpose or what?”

During the time Xue Mian was in the class, he had been a total headache for Su Min. He didn’t pay attention in class, and when he was bored, he’d throw out all kinds of weird questions to trip up the teachers, causing quite a few awkward moments for them.

Even now, just thinking about it made Wu Yong grit his teeth in frustration.

Su Min glanced at the wild, messy handwriting on the envelope and couldn’t help but laugh. “Teacher, Xue Mian was just messing with you because he liked you. That’s just the way he is. In private, he always had good things to say about you.”

“Really?” Wu Yong looked skeptical.

“Really,” Su Min nodded firmly. Saying something nice at a time like this could only help, not hurt.

Wu Yong laughed. “Well, at least that brat has a conscience. When you write back to him, tell him that since I’ve basically been his postman, the least he could’ve done was scribble a few words to me. Not writing anything is just plain disrespectful to a teacher.”

Su Min nodded again. “Don’t worry, Teacher. I’ll be sure to pass along your exact words.”

Wu Yong looked thoroughly pleased. “That’s more like it. You’re a good student.” Then he added, “By the way, class assignments for ninth grade are coming up soon. I’m confident in your performance—you’re one of the top students in the school. You’ll definitely be placed in one of the advanced classes. Would you be willing to join my class?”

“You can decide that already?” Su Min asked, surprised. She thought it wouldn’t be finalized until after the exam results came out.

“No, it’s not official yet. But the teacher recruiting has already started. If I hadn’t called you in today, the other teachers would’ve already started trying to rope you in. The school may be assigning students, but with your grades, you’ll be allowed to choose your own class. With a few top students like you holding up the fort, I’ll be the homeroom teacher of a top class. Don’t leave the home base when the time comes.”

Hearing Wu Yong talk about such a serious matter in a joking tone, Su Min relaxed and smiled. “Since Teacher thinks so highly of me, of course I’d be happy to be in your class.”

“Good. With that promise, I feel at ease,” Wu Yong clapped his hands. “Study hard. I have high hopes for you.”

Su Min gave a small, earnest smile and nodded.

Now that she basically knew which class she’d be in, Su Min had nothing weighing on her mind. On her way home, she found a small park, sat down, and read Xue Mian’s letter.

Xue Mian had always had a habit of messy handwriting. He only used neat script during exams. So seeing this wildly scrawled letter made Su Min want to crumple it up on sight.

Fortunately, she had seen enough of his scribbles to recognize most of the words. While it looked chaotic, reading it slowly and carefully, she could still understand what it said.

The letter stretched over several pages and rambled on about all sorts of trivial things. Su Min summed it up and found there was really only one important point: the school Xue Mian was attending now was a closed-campus school. Once you entered, you basically couldn’t leave for the whole year. That was why he hadn’t written to her for an entire semester. He could make phone calls, but Su Min didn’t have a phone on her end, so they couldn’t talk. When he mentioned this, even through the chaotic handwriting, Su Min could clearly sense a tone of complaint.

Originally, he had planned to visit during the summer break, but as soon as he left school, he was told he’d be sent overseas to visit his grandfather. So he couldn’t return for now. In the letter, he repeatedly promised that he’d try to find a way to come back and see her.

At the end of the letter, he awkwardly reminded Su Min not to fall in love at school. In his closed-off school, maybe because the students had been cooped up too long, he’d actually caught some people holding hands in the woods. That got him worried that Su Min might not be able to resist temptation and fall into puppy love, which would affect her grades.

“Girl, do not fall in love early. Otherwise, I’ll write to Teacher Wu and report you.”

After finishing the letter, Su Min couldn’t help but laugh. Xue Mian was miles away—even if she did fall in love, he wouldn’t see it. What could he even report? And honestly, at her current mental age, looking at the boys in her class felt like watching the next generation of the motherland. The idea of falling in love with any of them made her feel slightly nauseous.

Even if Su Min were to fall in love in the future, it would have to be with someone mature and steady.

After getting home, she wrote a reply to Xue Mian’s letter. But after finishing it, she remembered that he had mentioned going abroad, so she tucked the letter into her diary, deciding to wait for a better opportunity to send it.

At that moment, far away in City B, Xue Mian was lying lazily on the sofa, staring in the direction of the front door.

He had no idea when Xiao Min would reply. He was leaving the country today, so he definitely wouldn’t be able to receive it in time.

An elderly man with white hair but brimming with energy came down the stairs. Seeing his usually hyperactive grandson lying quietly on the couch for once, he raised an eyebrow and asked, “Got everything packed?”

“All packed,” Xue Mian replied helplessly.

He had been tricked into staying in City B by his grandfather faking illness. Given the old man’s authority, he had no choice but to accept it. But being shipped off to the U.S. like this still left him feeling a bit resentful.

The old man sat down on the sofa, and someone quickly brought over a cup of tea.

“This trip abroad—don’t you dare embarrass our family. If you let your maternal grandpa mock me, you and I will have words.”

“I know, Grandpa.”

“I’m glad to see you behaving so well.” The old man chuckled, his face full of deep wrinkles.

Xue Mian buried his head into the couch, not wanting to look at his grandfather’s smug expression. After a moment, he suddenly said, “Grandpa, if someone sends me a letter, you have to keep it for me. I want to read it when I come back.”

“Oh? Someone’s writing you letters?” Grandpa Xue asked, pretending to be surprised. In reality, he knew exactly what his grandson had been up to in that little county town. He was well aware of the reason behind his grandson’s change in behavior.

Xue Mian’s face flushed red. After a long pause, he mumbled, “It’s just a classmate. Just remember to keep the letter for me.”

“Fine, but you’d better do me a favor too—go show that old geezer Li what the Xue family is made of. Let him see that our family’s bloodline is stronger than his.”

Grandpa Xue made his demands bluntly, clearly negotiating a deal.

Xue Mian gritted his teeth. “Deal.” These two old men were really something—still bickering at their age.

Meanwhile, Su Min had no idea that Xue Mian was waiting for her reply.

In fact, after writing the letter and tucking it into her notebook, she completely forgot about it. Instead, she threw herself wholeheartedly into brainstorming ways to make money with Liao Zhaodi.

Last year, they were still selling popsicles—an option they only chose out of desperation. Now that she had some money saved up, Su Min wanted to try something more profitable and less physically exhausting.

She stayed at home thinking for days but couldn’t come up with any good ideas.

Liao Zhaodi was getting anxious too. She would be entering high school next year, and without enough money for tuition and living expenses, she might not be able to continue her studies. She had made up her mind—she would go to school. And not just for herself; she wanted her older sisters to go too.

Since Su Min hadn’t thought of a better plan yet, she arranged for Liao Zhaodi to sell a batch of popsicles for now. Meanwhile, she stayed home to help Sun Qiufang mind the shop and continued brainstorming.

A week passed, and Su Min still didn’t have a breakthrough. She figured sitting at home wasn’t helping, and she needed to go out and explore to look for opportunities.

When her mother heard she was heading out, she was quite pleased. She handed Su Min ten yuan and said, “Buy yourself something to drink if you get thirsty.”

Su Min waved her hand. “I’ve got money, Mom.” With that, she grabbed her umbrella and ran out the door.

The sun outside was blazing, and walking down the street was exhausting. Su Min, shielding herself with the umbrella, hurried into the nearby shopping mall.

At that time, the mall hadn’t yet installed air conditioning, but every sales counter had a fan—those huge industrial ones. As soon as she stepped inside, a gust of wind hit her.

Su Min sighed in relief and thought, One day, if I get the chance, I’m going to install central air at home.

Even with the heat, the mall was bustling with young people wandering around.

“Overstock turned domestic sale! Huge discounts!”

The shouts were coming from the clothing section.

Su Min followed the noise and saw a crowd of people surrounding a clothing counter, picking through clothes like it was a clearance sale at the market.

Watching the young women holding up clothes and trying them against themselves, Su Min couldn’t resist joining in.

“Hey there, young lady! Want to buy some clothes? These were meant for export, but the factory had too much stock, so they’re selling them here now,” one of the younger sales clerks called out loudly.

Su Min looked over the clothes and realized they weren’t all that different in style from what people usually wore. But the quality was indeed a bit better.

Still, no one seemed to care about style or quality. Just hearing that they were “export goods” was enough to get people excited. At that time, international trade wasn’t as developed as it would later become, and foreign products still held a special appeal. If they couldn’t afford imported goods, buying something made for export was the next best thing.

Looking at the plain styles, Su Min picked up a piece and examined it carefully. Seeing her hesitate, the sales clerk said, “Hey, are you buying or not? These are export goods—meant for foreigners. You won’t find this stuff anywhere else in the country.”

Su Min laughed to herself. Wow, what a talker. If it’s for sale in a small county like this, how could it not be sold elsewhere?

“I’m just looking,” she said with a smile as she put the item down and walked away from the stall.