The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 94: Chapter 94: Behind the Smile Is All Calculation

After two days and two nights on the train, they finally arrived in Guishi.

They had already eaten all the food they had brought with them.

All that was left were two travel bags filled with their clothes.

Their money and documents were packed separately. For their return trip to attend their younger brother Han Xiaoyuan’s wedding, they hadn’t bothered with any flashy, impractical gifts.

Instead, Han Xiaorui had bought two Plum Blossom watches; she would give the men’s watch to her brother, and Han Xiaoqing would give the women’s watch to the bride.

An outfit made of dacron for each of their parents was more than enough.

Han Xiaorui and her sister each carried a bag, holding tightly to their children’s hands.

The train attendant, Yu, personally came over to see them off the train.

They had expected to look for Wang Qiang at the ticket office, but to their surprise, they saw someone on the platform holding a sign that read, ”Han Xiaorui.”

”Hello, I’m Han Xiaorui. You must be Mr. Wang Qiang, right?” Han Xiaorui asked tentatively. She didn’t know a soul in Guishi; the only possibility was that this was the person Ye Feng had arranged to help her.

Wang Qiang’s eyes lit up when he saw Han Xiaorui. ”Hello, Ms. Han. I’m Wang Qiang. Captain Ye sent me to pick you up. Please, come with me. I’ll take you straight home.”

”Thank you so much!” Han Xiaorui said gratefully.

After exchanging a greeting with Yu, the train attendant, Wang Qiang stepped forward and took the travel bags from Han Xiaorui and Han Xiaoqing.

They made their way through the crowded station exit, where a jeep was parked not far away.

Once the luggage was stowed and they were in the vehicle, Wang Qiang started the engine. ”Ms. Han, is the address Han Family Village in Ping Shui Town, Yangkai County?”

”Yes, it is,” Han Xiaorui replied.

”Alright, we’ll head out now,” Wang Qiang said with a smile. Having confirmed the destination, he drove straight toward the address of Han Xiaorui’s family home.

Wang Qiang wasn’t very talkative, and Han Xiaorui didn’t feel like saying much either, so the ride was quiet.

Han Xiaorui used the time to tend to the children, which helped to ease the silence.

After an hour and a half on the main road, the jeep reached Yangkai County.

Another half an hour brought them to Ping Shui Town. The road to Han Family Village was in poor condition, impassable for the jeep.

Wang Qiang drove the jeep directly to the local police station and used his connections to arrange for a donkey cart to take them the rest of the way to the village.

About an hour later, Wang Qiang asked with a smile, ”This should be the place, right?”

Han Xiaorui nodded, feeling incredibly grateful. Without Wang Qiang’s help, she might have been struggling to get home well into the night.

”This is it,” Han Xiaorui confirmed. ”Mr. Wang, now that we’re here, you must stay and eat before you leave.”

Wang Qiang waved his hand dismissively. ”I can’t. I need to get back. If I leave now, I can still make it to Guishi tonight, and I have work tomorrow.”

”The captain gave you my phone number, right? When it’s time for you to leave, just go to the post office in town and call me. We’ll arrange a time, and I’ll come get you.”

Han Xiaorui nodded. ”Thank you. We really appreciate all your trouble, Mr. Wang.”

’When I get back to Shanghai,’ she thought, ’I’ll have to mail some dried seafood to Mr. Wang.’

”It was my pleasure,” Wang Qiang said with a good-natured smile. He helped them unload their luggage and then urged the villager with the cart to start heading back.

Han Xiaorui watched until Wang Qiang was gone before she and her sister led the children into the village.

As the name suggested, Han Family Village was a settlement mostly inhabited by people with the surname Han.

It was surrounded by mountains on three sides and water on the fourth. There was very little flat farmland, with most of it consisting of terraced fields.

As soon as they entered Han Family Village, someone spotted the two sisters and approached them. ”You girls are...”

Han Xiaorui smiled warmly. ”Grandma Qing, it’s me, Xiao Rui!”

”And I’m Xiao Jing!”

Recognition dawned on Grandma Qing’s face, and she looked at them with envy for the Han Family. ”Oh, it’s Xiao Rui and Xiao Jing! You’ve both done so well for yourselves, making it big in Shencheng.”

Han Xiaorui just smiled. ”You’re too kind, Grandma Qing. We’re a little tired from the trip, but why don’t you stop by our house later for a visit?”

”Yes, yes, of course!” Grandma Qing had a granddaughter who also dreamed of leaving to find work and earn money, but she worried. ’There are so many bad people out there,’ she thought. ’What if she gets tricked or sold? There would be nowhere to even turn for help.’

But having an acquaintance in Shencheng changed everything.

’After all, didn’t Han Xiaorui find Han Xiaoqing her job? And between the two of them, they send forty or fifty yuan a month to Han Dayong and his wife!’

They greeted familiar faces all the way through the village.

It had been a long time. The houses in the village seemed shorter, the old folks looked even older, and the children had all grown up.

It was in moments like these that one truly felt the irreversible passage of time.

Pingping and An’an saw many new and exciting things on their journey, broadening their horizons.

They were quiet in the unfamiliar surroundings, but their big, beautiful, dark eyes were wide with curiosity as they took everything in.

Before they even reached their house, someone had run ahead to spread the news. ”Dayong! Your two gorgeous daughters are back!”

Han Dayong, who was sharpening a sickle to cut pig feed the next morning, immediately set it down. ”Xiao Yuan’s mother, Xiao Rui and Xiao Jing are home!”

Wang Cuilan, a woman with a slightly dark complexion but attractive features, was in the cookhouse making a meal. She quickly put out the fire and ran outside. ”You two troublesome girls, you’re finally back! Why didn’t you let us know you were coming? I would’ve sent your dad and your brother to get you.”

The tall, thin Han Dayong carried his daughters’ luggage inside. He saw the two children but didn’t see Han Xiaorui’s husband. ”Where’s Jianming?”

Han Xiaorui smiled and replied, ”He’s busy with work and couldn’t get away.”

She couldn’t be bothered to tell her parents that she had already divorced Yang Jianming.

’If she told them, Wang Cuilan would just drone on and on, scolding her for being useless and unable to hold on to a man.’

’Her parents’ enthusiasm wasn’t because they actually missed their daughters; it was because their daughters could now provide them with benefits.’

’Everything they squeezed out of the sisters was for their younger brother, Han Xiaoyuan.’

’It had always been this way, ever since they were children.’

Han Dayong opened his mouth, on the verge of scolding her, but he stopped when he saw other villagers were still around, afraid of losing face.

”Well, he is a university professor, so it’s normal for him to be busy. It’s wonderful that you two could make it back,” Wang Cuilan said with a chuckle, her eyes crinkling with a smile as she looked at her two pretty daughters.

But behind that smile lay a calculating mind.

’Han Xiaorui is already married,’ she mused, ’but Han Xiaoqing isn’t!’

’Sometimes, when she couldn’t sleep at night, she would lie awake wondering: should she find a local family for Xiao Jing to marry into, or should she let Xiao Jing marry someone in Shencheng?’

’If she married locally, they could get a huge bride price, but then it would be harder to get money from Xiao Jing in the future.’

’But if she married someone in Shencheng... people there were wealthy. The bride price wouldn’t be high—practically nonexistent, even—but she’d send money home almost every month.’

’It might not be a lot each month, but year after year, it would add up to a significant sum.’

’She’d sound out her elder daughter’s opinion on the matter today!’

Han Xiaorui had bought a large, ten-jin bag of candy in town, and she gave a handful to everyone who stopped by the house.

It pained Wang Cuilan to see it, and she quickly snatched the bag of candy and put it away.

’What was the point of handing out candy now?’ she thought. ’They should save it for Xiao Yuan’s wedding day. That would be a real celebration!’

Once the guests had left, Wang Cuilan turned to them with a wide, calculating smile. ”Xiao Rui, Xiao Jing, your little brother is getting married. As his older sisters, you’ll have to put in a big effort.”

Han Xiaorui met Wang Cuilan’s scheming expression with a smile of her own. ”Of course we’ll help. But we can only contribute what we’re capable of. You can’t just ask for the moon. After all, Xiao Yuan is your son, not mine and Xiao Jing’s.”

At this, Han Dayong slammed his hand on the table. ”What kind of talk is that? Xiao Yuan is your brother! You’re supposed to look out for him and protect him for your entire lives.”

Han Xiaorui had a rebellious streak. The more her father talked like that, the more she wished Han Xiaoyuan would end up destitute and miserable for the rest of his life.