The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 81: Chapter 81: The Soft Wu Dialect is So Gentle

In such a rare good mood, Han Xiaorui let her kids be. After all, Wu Cuicui hadn’t poured much honey for Yang Minmin.

Wu Cuicui also ignored the children, pulling Han Xiaorui aside to chat. ”Xiao Rui, you should bring the kids out to play more often when you’re free. Aren’t Pingping and An’an doing great now?”

Han Xiaorui smiled. ”Well, I brought them out today, didn’t I? By the way, could you give a jar of this honey to Uncle Yang? I’ll take a jar to Aunt Xu and Sixth Aunt Song in a little while.”

”Sure. Leave the kids here and go make your deliveries first. We can talk when you get back. I have so much to tell you!” Wu Cuicui said with a smile, hurrying Han Xiaorui along.

This was just how things were in the village; maintaining good relationships was essential.

If you kept to yourself and didn’t foster these connections, you’d better pray that no trouble ever came to your door. The moment it did, you would learn the importance of having people to rely on.

Han Xiaorui delivered the honey to Xu Hongxia and Sixth Aunt Song and returned without lingering.

”Sister Cuicui, what did you want to tell me?” Han Xiaorui asked, grabbing a handful of melon seeds, ready for the latest gossip.

Wu Cuicui saw that her husband, Yang Jianguo, was busy playing with a spinning top with the children, so she lowered her voice. ”Zhang Lili is in the hospital. I bought some gifts and went to visit her today. As I was leaving, I realized I’d forgotten to give her the gift money, so I went back. I happened to overhear their conversation in the room, and it made me absolutely furious.”

”If Brother Jianguo hadn’t been there to hold me back, I would have stormed right in and given Zhang Lili’s parents a piece of my mind. They’re just terrible people! And Zhang Lili is a complete fool for letting her parents dupe her so thoroughly.”

Han Xiaorui froze. ”Sister Cuicui, is the Zhang Family plotting against Uncle Yang again?”

”You bet they are,” Wu Cuicui sighed. ”And the worst part is, my Second Aunt was right there and didn’t say a peep. She just let the Zhang Family get away with their scheming.”

Han Xiaorui looked surprised. ”That doesn’t sound right. Isn’t Zhang Xiufang usually a force to be reckoned with? Is she really that spineless in front of the Zhang Family?”

This made Wu Cuicui even more furious. ”Her parents are demanding they buy a car for the wedding. A car costs over two hundred thousand! We’re not talking two thousand, or even twenty thousand!”

”My Second Aunt even chimed in, saying that it’s a new era. If you’re earning money, you should buy a car and a house to look impressive and modern. But my poor Second Uncle... he took out a loan for his boat and still hasn’t paid it off!”

”Making a living out on the sea is no easy task. If it were, why would Wu Guangfu from the next village have ended up unable to even repay his loans?”

”And the most infuriating part? Yang Jianming showed up too and actually said that if he just makes a big enough fuss, Second Uncle will definitely buy him the car. There was even a hint of smug pride in his voice, without a single shred of concern for his father.”

As she finished speaking, Wu Cuicui’s eyes grew red and her voice choked up.

’Are their hearts made of stone?’

Seeing her so upset, Han Xiaorui sighed. ”Uncle Yang is such a good man. He’s incredibly unlucky to be saddled with a wife and son like that.”

”These days, the cost of a car like that could buy several apartments in another town. Yang Jianming doesn’t even know how to drive, so what’s the point of buying one? Besides, with over two hundred thousand, they should be paying off that loan. When you make your living from the sea, you never know what tomorrow holds.”

”Tell me about it!” Wu Cuicui slapped her thigh in frustration, her teeth clenched. ”Jianguo cried the whole way home on the bus, burying his face in his hands. He only started to feel a little better when it was time for Minmin to get out of school and he got off to pick her up.”

Han Xiaorui sighed. ”Everyone else feels for Uncle Yang, but his own wife and son have no sympathy. They’re like leeches, sucking him dry, and they won’t stop until there’s nothing left! I just hope Uncle Yang wises up and stops giving in to their every demand, no matter how much of a scene they make.”

Wu Cuicui agreed wholeheartedly. ”Second Uncle said it himself last time. The only reason he agreed to buy them another apartment and give a betrothal gift was because Zhang Lili is pregnant. He didn’t want people to say the Yang Family were deadbeats.”

”Now that his wholesale stall at the seafood market has been sublet, Second Uncle only has to worry about fishing, so it’s not as exhausting. He’s keeping a tight grip on his money and won’t let Zhang Xiufang and Yang Jianming throw it around anymore.”

Han Xiaorui nodded. ”That’s the right way to think! Keep encouraging him. Life’s too short; there’s no need for him to wear himself out like this.”

”Mm, Jianguo and I have tried to talk to him, but there’s only so much we can say. In the end, it’s up to him.” She genuinely hoped her uncle could live out his later years in peace. She couldn’t bear the thought of him working hard his entire life only to be driven to an early grave by Zhang Xiufang and Yang Jianming.

At 7:30, Han Xiaorui got ready to leave with her children. ”Goodbye, Auntie! Goodbye, Uncle! Goodbye, Sister Minmin!”

”Goodbye, Pingping and An’an!” Yang Minmin walked a long way with them, reluctant to say goodbye to the two sweet, adorable little girls she considered her younger sisters.

”Goodbye, big sister!” Pingping and An’an called out, looking back as their mother led them away by the hand.

Watching from the doorway, Yang Jianguo saw how fond his daughter, Yang Minmin, was of Pingping and An’an, and he couldn’t help the prickling in his nose.

”Minmin,” he said, ”remember this. After your mom and me, Pingping and An’an are your dearest little sisters.”

He only had one daughter, and he hoped she would grow up with sisters she was close to, so they could always rely on each other.

That way, when he and his wife were no longer around, their daughter would still have family.

Yang Minmin nodded. ”I know, Dad. Auntie Xiao Rui is wonderful, and so are Pingping and An’an. Even if they’re a little behind other kids their age, they’re making so much progress now.”

”And most importantly, they like me as their big sister, and they love playing with me.”

Yang Jianguo smiled. ”That’s because my Minmin is as kind as she is beautiful.”

As for the baby in Zhang Lili’s belly, neither Yang Jianguo nor Wu Cuicui felt any sense of anticipation.

’The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’ He was actually worried that if his daughter got close to Zhang Lili’s child, she would end up getting hurt.

Han Xiaorui led her two daughters by the hand, singing a cheerful local folk song called ”Purple Bamboo Tune.” ”Purple bamboo blooms in the seventh moon, a little sister gaily picks the flowers, with a purple bamboo basket on her arm, in a shirt of purple bamboo...”

Pingping and An’an hummed along, babbling happily.

Ye Feng had gone to the research institute that day and learned that the objects Han Xiaorui had salvaged were, in fact, the latest foreign surveillance devices.

His superiors had instructed him to bring Han Xiaorui in the next day for a debriefing.

Additionally, she was to attend an awards ceremony jointly held by the national security and maritime affairs departments.

’He hadn’t submitted her name just for the prize money and the certificate. He hoped that by attending a ceremony like this, Han Xiaorui could expand her network.’

’She could build her own connections and wouldn’t have to rely on her ex-husband’s family for every little thing.’

Ye Feng himself didn’t even realize how much he disliked the thought of her having to swallow her pride and ask for help.

Since Han Xiaorui wasn’t home, Ye Feng felt it would be improper to go inside, so he waited in his car.

Feeling a bit tired, he pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, though he didn’t take a drag.

The faint, drifting scent of tobacco was indeed enough to clear his head and wake him up.

From a distance, he heard the sweet sound of a woman’s voice singing a lovely folk tune. He could almost picture a beautiful young maiden in a bamboo grove, a basket on her arm, her steps light and carefree—like a fairy from the mountains, gracing the mortal world with her presence.

The corners of the ever-serious Ye Feng’s mouth curved upward slightly. ’The gentle, lilting speech of southern women,’ he thought, ’is truly something else.’