Starting a new chapter in life

Chapter 161 There's no shortage of heartless men.

He Zhijun perked up: "Weren't your grades bad when you were in school? I had pretty good grades back then. I never did the homework the teachers assigned. I just played every day after school, and I could still get in the middle to upper ranks in exams. Wasn't I smart?"

Jing Yan smiled and looked at him: "Didn't your teacher complain to your parents?"

“My dad was always in the army, and my mom was busy too. The teacher came to see me twice, but after seeing that I wouldn’t listen to her, she just stopped caring about me. I was basically completely left to my own devices when I was in elementary school. At home, as long as I wasn’t hungry or cold, that was fine. At school, as long as I didn’t disrupt the class, the teachers didn’t care. I was so carefree back then.” He Zhijun tilted his head back high, looking very smug.

"You're so unruly, how did you manage to get into high school?" Jingyan asked curiously.

He Zhijun lowered his head: "Later, in my second year of junior high school, it happened to be during the Cultural Revolution. The school was in turmoil. A teacher who was very patient with me was dragged to the street for public criticism. I only dared to watch from afar. When everyone had left at night, I secretly went to see him. He was covered in bruises, but he was still comforting me."

He told me that no matter how bad the outside environment is, I must not abandon my studies. He also told me not to let myself go and become decadent just because I'm no longer under supervision. The darkness is only temporary, and the knowledge I've gained will eventually be useful.

Actually, I didn't quite understand what he was saying at the time. I just felt sorry for the teacher. When I got home, I told my mom about the teacher, and she even told me to secretly send the teacher some food and supplies. From then on, I studied hard, and if I didn't understand something, I would secretly go to the teacher to ask.

"What happened to that teacher later?" Jingyan couldn't help but ask.

He Zhijun shook his head: "The first two years were very difficult. Although my mother would ask me to bring him things from time to time, my family was not doing well at that time. My grandparents were forced to hide in a sanatorium. My teacher only lasted two years before he passed away."

Doesn't he have family and children?

He Zhijun shook his head: "Right after his accident, his wife published a notice in the newspaper severing ties with him and took his son away. After that, we never heard from them again. After the teacher passed away, it was my father who helped with the funeral arrangements."

Actually, we didn't do much. Back then, things were too strict. Under the cover of night, we bought a thin coffin, found a cemetery, and buried the child. That was it. We didn't even burn paper money. It's only in recent years that things have been less strict. When my parents go to sweep the tombs of our ancestors during Qingming Festival, they will burn some paper money for the teacher as a token of their respect.

"What would you be like if it weren't for your teacher's situation?" Jingyan was even more curious about this.

He Zhijun thought for a moment and shook his head: "I guess when I get old, my dad will send me to the army to serve for a few years, then I'll be demobilized and assigned a job. Maybe I'll be working as a security guard in some factory now."

Jing Yan smiled and said, "Actually, that's not bad either."

He Zhijun shook his head: "It's different. If it were like that, I wouldn't have met you. I might have married a girl from an ordinary family. I would go to work and earn money, and she would take care of the housework. We would have to be very careful with every penny, and we would occasionally argue about money. If we had children, my parents might have to help out a bit."

It will never be like this again. We have no worries about food and clothing, and we even have these large appliances. We don't argue over trivial matters; we live a happy and harmonious life.

Jingyan looked at him seriously: "Don't you think I'm too strong-willed and not like a woman?"

He Zhijun asked in confusion, "What should a woman be like? I like you just the way you are."

Jingyan smiled genuinely: "Alright, you don't need to worry about the children's studies for now, but Ci'en is starting high school, and getting into university isn't easy. You'll need to pay close attention to his studies from now on."

He seems to really enjoy astronomy, and he's very patient and focused. He'd be excellent as a researcher; he needs to explore both professional and extracurricular knowledge. You'll need to find the books on those topics; I don't know much about them.

He Zhijun nodded seriously, but then sighed: "Those who do research are all poor. You know, my two older brothers are already not well-off. If Ci'en doesn't earn much in the future, how hard will it be for them?"

Jingyan felt that he had gone from being an aloof beauty to a frilly flower, even more vulgar than her, a materialistic person. However, looking at his face, touching his lean waist, and licking her lips, she realized that whether he was vulgar or aloof didn't really matter.

"Do you remember when Grandma gave me half of her jewelry?" Jingyan asked him.

He Zhijun thought for a moment: "When did this happen?"

Jingyan sighed helplessly: "It was shortly after we brought Grandma back that she gave me half of her things, about half a suitcase this big. Grandma and I even went to the bank to put those things and our house deed in Haishi into a safe. You came with us that time too."

He Zhijun thought for a while before suddenly realizing, "Ah, you mean that time? I thought that besides our family's property certificate, there were also the jewelry you received from relatives and friends when we got married."

I remember you said Grandma gave you some nice things, but you thought it was only a few pieces, you didn't expect it to be half a box full. Besides, I don't see you usually wearing jewelry, so I assumed it was just these things.

Jingyan didn't want to argue with him anymore: "When Ci'en gets married in the future, I'll pick out a few items from there to give him as a wedding gift. Believe me, if we sell three or four of these items, with our current standard of living, we might be able to live a life of comfort and ease."

He Zhijun's eyes widened: "That valuable?"

Jing Yan squinted and leaned closer to him, shaking her head: "It's not worth that much now, but it will definitely be valuable in the future. After all, gold is valued in times of chaos and antiques in times of prosperity. Grandma's things are antiques."

Life remains mundane yet busy. With the addition of the freezer, Jingyan has now added grilled beef skewers, beef tendons, grilled bread slices, grilled corn, and other miscellaneous items to the monotonous grilled lamb skewers. After boiling whole ears of sweet and sticky corn, she puts them in the freezer to freeze. When the corn season is over, she takes them out, thaws them, and grills them in the oven. They are just as good as fresh ones.

One grill was no longer enough, so He Zhijun borrowed a chainsaw and welding equipment from the factory and made two more in the yard using materials such as sheet metal and iron pipes, based on the style of the grill.

Jingyan tried it and thought it was pretty good. She also started to hire more staff to cope with the increasingly good business. That's right, she added three more employees: one in charge of barbecue, one to join the waiter team, and one cashier. This time, only the cashier was a girl, while the other two were young men.

This cashier was a college graduate with a degree in accounting. She was originally assigned to work as a clerk at an agricultural machinery factory, but was essentially laid off due to some workplace issues. She didn't have a good reputation in Haishi.

She came to Changxing Island to stay with her older sister and brother-in-law. It wasn't appropriate for her sister-in-law to stay at her sister's house for an extended period. After passing the political vetting for permanent residency on the island, she planned to find a job, move out of her sister's house, and rent a place to live.

She originally came for the shop assistant position at Jingyan's shop, but during the interview, Jingyan saw that she was fair-skinned and spoke in a gentle and shy voice. A little bit of her lecherous side started to sprout, so she chatted with her a bit more. When she learned that she was an accounting major, she thought she had struck gold and immediately assigned her to the cashier, where she would be responsible for accounting, processing payments, and reporting expenses.

Despite her delicate appearance, the young girl was quite strong-willed. Within two days, she had the shop's accounts meticulously organized and even helped improve several accounting habits and formats, making the accounts much clearer. Jingyan was genuinely satisfied with her.

With help, Jingyan wasn't as busy as before, and she was able to spare some attention to slack off. However, after only two days of this, she noticed that the food preparation assistant, Xiao Jinhua, was acting strangely. Although she wasn't neglecting her work, the usually cheerful girl rarely smiled and seemed quite silent.

She held back for two days, but finally couldn't resist. That noon, after everyone had eaten their staff lunch and were gathering to skewer meat, she casually asked, "Jinhua, has something been bothering you lately? You seem down."

Xiao Jinhua hesitated for a long time, and after looking up at the concerned looks in the eyes of her old and new colleagues, she couldn't hold back her tears, which flowed down her face. She sobbed for a while before she could speak:

"Didn't I say before that I had a childhood sweetheart to marry, Chu Ziqi? We were supposed to get news by the end of last year, but nothing happened until recently. My parents actually got in touch with them to ask about our situation."

They said her son is now a teacher at a middle school in Beijing, and his girlfriend is the daughter of the school's academic affairs director, who is also a teacher. His mother told my mother that not only are the two families far apart, but my son and I aren't a good match either, so the arranged marriage is off.

"How could this family do this? This is so unfair! It was supposed to be a marriage between children, and you've been waiting for him for so many years. Even when his family suffered hardship, your family didn't even think about breaking off the engagement. Now that things are looking up for them, they're starting to look down on us. What kind of people are they?" Aunt Li was quite old, but her temper was still volatile, and she exploded at these words.

Jing Yanque shook her head: "A blessed woman doesn't marry into an unblessed family. It's not necessarily a bad thing that they don't want to fulfill the marriage contract. You have your parents who love you at home, but their home is so far away. If you marry them and suffer grievances and hardships, with your personality, you definitely won't want your parents to worry and get upset. In the end, you'll be the one who suffers. Since the marriage contract is dissolved, you can find a partner nearby. Even if you suffer after marriage, at least you'll have your family as a support, so you won't suffer too much."

Xiao Jinhua, whose tears had already welled up in her eyes, couldn't shed a single word. She stared blankly at Jing Yan, her mind following her train of thought for a moment, and nodded earnestly: "Sister Yan is right. I shouldn't feel wronged; I should be relieved. This way, I won't have to marry far away. After all, we haven't seen each other for many years, and my memory of that little brother from back then has faded a lot. I don't feel heartbroken if he's gone; I just feel like I've been at a disadvantage all these years."

"Suffering a loss is a blessing, silly girl," Sister Feng comforted her.

"Did your mom say what kind of person she's looking for for you?" Jingyan asked jokingly.

Xiao Jinhua shook her head: "My parents are still angry. They keep talking about the heartless man at home. They won't get over it anytime soon. As for what kind of person I will marry in the future, I don't know. I don't think my parents have thought that far ahead."

“There will always be plenty of heartless men. Even Chen Shimei from ancient times made it into a storybook. Compared to him, these men are nothing special,” Aunt Li said, shaking her head.

"Even Chen Shimei was talented and handsome, but these days, they have neither talent nor good looks yet they think they're not bad. Sigh, even the heartless men are getting worse with each generation." Jing Yan sighed with a smile, which amused everyone.

After preparing all the meat skewers and placing them in the freezer and refrigerator respectively, and cleaning up the lobby, they began preparing for dinner. Jingyan had been following along for a few days and found that the barbecue guy was quite skilled; he was very precise in controlling the amount of salt, which is the most difficult part of the grilling process.

He's quite capable in the kitchen, which is a pleasant surprise. Now there's not much for Jingyan to do personally anymore. She just needs to go to the store every night to keep an eye on things and fill in for anyone who's running late. That's about it.

During the National Day holiday, Jingyan's family became lively again. This time, her uncle's family also came to visit her grandmother. He Ci'en, as the eldest brother, lived up to his reputation. The three little ones studying in Shanghai had been doing very well this semester. Unfortunately, he came happily, but the next day he was like a wilted eggplant.

According to their grades, He Ci'en gave them math problems and Chinese dictation tests for second, fifth, and sixth graders, corresponding to He Chaoli's textbooks. Well, He Cihai, who is already in the first year of junior high school, only scored over 80 points on the sixth-grade test. Not to mention the two younger ones, most of them scored around 70 or 80 points. On the one hand, at least they don't have to worry about failing. On the other hand, it's not that they are not good at studying.

He Ci'en, who is now in high school, has been neglecting his own studies for the past few days, focusing instead on tutoring his three disappointing younger brothers. The three little ones study in his study, and he watches them learn with a small stick in his hand. He punishes them with a stick for every mistake they make, and his strictness is even more terrifying than that of a school teacher. Jing Yan came to check on them at first, but she never came back after that. The children's cries were too heart-wrenching for her, an old auntie.

When they got downstairs, Jingyan saw Zhizhi eating fruit and watching TV. She sat down next to her and asked softly, "Zhizhi, has Brother Ci'en been helping you with your studies?"

Zhizhi turned to look at her, not quite understanding: "Yes, I always ask Brother Ci'en if I don't know something or don't understand something."

"Did he ever hit you?" Jing Yan swallowed hard and asked with some difficulty.

Zhizhi shook her head: "Brother Ci'en is very gentle and would never hit Zhizhi. Why would Mom ask that?"

Jingyan pointed upstairs with her index finger: "Why don't you go to the study and take a look? Remember, be quiet and don't disturb your four older brothers."

Although Zhizhi didn't understand what her mother meant, she obediently went upstairs quietly and came down shortly afterward, then sat back on the sofa to continue watching TV.