Chapter 83 – Mengmeng Ruins Daddy’s Good Time

“Mom, my dad and my little brother still haven’t come back at all?” Cheng Xiaolin leaned against her mother’s arm and asked.

“No, they’re all busy. They said better to work while there’s still work to be had. If jobs dry up after a while, they’ll come back,” Li Xiaojuan replied.

Her grandson, Cheng Tiandong, saw his aunt and uncle arriving. His first instinct was still to hide behind Grandmother.

When he spotted his cousin Mengmeng, he wanted to come over and talk, maybe play with her—but he hesitated.

Seeing this nephew, Cheng Xiaolin felt sour inside, but it wasn’t her place to interfere. She and her own family already had a pile of things to deal with; she couldn’t play the busybody and meddle in someone else’s household. Who knew, she might just end up with a mess on her hands.

Cao Shujie, on the other hand, believed everyone had to live their own life. No sense in forcing things.

“Mom, the lamb’s boiled and ready. Keep it in the fridge, eat it slowly.”

“The fish is cleaned and gutted. I’ll marinate it for you—just stew it whenever you feel like having some.” Cao Shujie parceled everything out clearly.

Li Xiaojuan looked from her son-in-law to her own son who’d abandoned his kid at home, and couldn’t help sighing.

After lunch at the mother-in-law’s house, Cao Shujie and his family of three drove back to Cao Family Village.

When she was sending them off, Li Xiaojuan considered asking them to stay for a few more days, but in the end she kept the words to herself.

As July arrived, the fruit trees in the orchard seemed to change day by day. However careless he might appear, even Cao Shujie knew what needed to be done at harvest time. With the season so close, he didn’t dare relax for a moment.

Aside from tending the fruit trees, he spent the rest of his time on his laptop, researching everything he could about “Bitcoin.”

After all, he still had over 1.5 million sitting idle in his bank account.

He’d been wanting to invest in something, but with only that much money and no good project in sight, it hadn’t gone anywhere.

The ventures he remembered from before all required enormous amounts of capital to get rolling.

That 1.5 million sounded like a lot, but when it came time to actually invest, it wasn’t enough.

As for stocks—previously, he’d only been a technical manager, focused solely on research. Saying he was oblivious to the outside world might be an exaggeration, but he’d never studied unfamiliar fields in depth.

Yesterday, when they’d been drinking, Cao Zhen had dropped a remark that struck him: Bitcoin would skyrocket in ten years, to a point of madness.

No need to go crazy—just buying a little would be like putting money in a long-term savings account!

With time to spare, Cao Shujie dug deeper into the data. He found that Bitcoin really was how his childhood buddy had described. From the peak of 198 yuan, the value had been falling nonstop and seemed not to have bottomed out yet.

Online sources explained the plunge was due to the MTGox trading platform suffering a sudden hacker attack in late June. That triggered enormous volatility and user losses. Such insecurity scared investors off, so many dumped their coins in panic, leading to wild short-term swings. By now, the price had already fallen below 65 yuan per Bitcoin.

“What a scam!” Cao Shujie cursed.

He couldn’t remember what the absolute lowest price at this stage had been, but seeing the current situation, he didn’t dare buy blindly. Better to study the trading process and the price trends a little more.

“Shujie, what are you doing?” Cheng Xiaolin, dressed in a pale yellow skirt, leaned against him. She glanced at his screen filled with English text—not much of which she could decipher.

“Nothing serious. Just checking out the news about this Bitcoin thing,” Cao Shujie admitted.

Cheng Xiaolin blinked, then remembered: “That’s what Brother Zhen mentioned yesterday, right?”

“Yeah. I wanted to see exactly what it is. In just a few months, it shot up twenty-eight times in value!” said Cao Shujie.

Cheng Xiaolin didn’t understand it and shook her head. “Do whatever you want. Worst case, even if you blow it all, we won’t starve back home.”

“Haha!” Cao Shujie slipped an arm around her waist—soft and a little plump—and drew her closer.

The next moment, he tossed the laptop aside. His hand began to wander, inching her skirt up bit by bit. Cheng Xiaolin caught his misbehaving hand in time. “Stop it. Mengmeng will be here any second.”

“How could she? Grandmother’s still telling her stories right now!” he argued, still angling for some fun, savoring the thrill.

But he’d barely finished speaking when he realized he’d been overconfident.

“Grandmother, where’s Mommy?” Mengmeng’s voice rang out.

A moment later came the sound of little feet pounding down the floorboards.

Cao Shujie instantly yanked his hand back. Cheng Xiaolin hurriedly smoothed down her skirt and forced her breathing steady. “Mengmeng, Mommy’s here,” she called.

“Mommy!” A heartbeat later Mengmeng dashed in. Seeing both parents inside, she raced straight to Cheng Xiaolin’s side. “Mommy, Grandmother told a story! About Pigsy and the Monkey King—it was so good!”

Cao Shujie stared at his daughter, who had just ruined his fun, and for a brief moment he found her not nearly as adorable as usual.

…

A few days slipped by. Soon it was mid-July. His younger sister, Cao Huifang, called home to say she wasn’t coming back this summer break. She and some classmates had found summer jobs. The money they earned would cover next year’s living expenses.

“Shujie, how much money do you think your sister can make in just two months?” Wang Yuelan’s voice was dripping with disappointment as she absorbed the news that her daughter wasn’t returning.

But when she saw Mengmeng, the irritation melted somewhat, replaced by the joy of a sweet, obedient granddaughter—even if she couldn’t quite keep the bite out of her words.

“Mom, Fangfang’s grown up. You can’t keep her tied to your side forever. If she wants to work and get a taste of the real world, just let her. A little hardship, a little struggle—it’ll make her appreciate studying all the more. She might even push herself harder and try for grad school,” Cao Shujie reasoned.

Wang Yuelan rolled her eyes. “Shujie, you’re getting less and less reliable with your talk. With your sister’s level, don’t you think I know exactly what she’s capable of?”

What else could Cao Shujie say?

Mengmeng overheard Grandmother grumbling that Little Aunt wasn’t coming home. She couldn’t be happier—good riddance!

She really didn’t like seeing her little aunt anyway.

“Woof-woof!”

Daha barked in the yard, instantly distracting Mengmeng. She dropped thoughts of her aunt and went running outside.

Mengmeng saw Daha barking at Little Wild Cat Huahua, who was perched on the rooftop. She marched over and smacked Daha without hesitation.

“Daha, what are you barking at?”

“Woof—owuu.” Daha let out another cry.

Not far away, Erha was curled up, sprawled comfortably on the ground and dozing off.

Its half-squinted eyes showed just how relaxed it was.

But Mengmeng simply couldn’t stand seeing anyone enjoying themselves more than she was. After dealing with Daha, she immediately ran over to Erha and kicked him.

“Woof! Woof—wooo!”

Erha glared at Mengmeng, barking every now and then, the expression on his dog face practically spelling out: *If you can’t give me one good reason for that kick, I swear I’m going to bite you!*

—

(End of this chapter)