Chapter 8: Record of Moving to the City in the 90s 8

That was what daily school life was like, and there were no weekends off, either.

After a week of classes, Su Huandan realized that her time in the Underworld hadn’t been wasted after all.

The Underworld was especially suited to nurturing souls, so perhaps after being reborn, the strength of her soul was greater. That was probably why studying felt much easier for her now.

In class, she could remember the key points her teachers explained the moment she heard them.

As for the things in the textbooks that normally had to be memorized by rote, one glance was enough for her to retain them.

What she lacked now was understanding everything thoroughly and learning how to apply it flexibly.

Since that was the case…

“Mom, I want to take some time off. I want to start from elementary school and relearn everything from the beginning by myself. Then I can pick out the parts I still don’t understand and ask the teachers for extra help. What do you think?” Su Huandan had never really planned to use school as her path to success, but her parents needed that.

Parents always wanted their children to amount to something. It gave them something to be proud of when they went out.

What she hadn’t been able to do in her previous life, she could try in this one.

For her parents, she was willing.

This was one of the regrets she had carried over from her past life.

Jiang Chunhua looked at her youngest daughter with a smile that wasn’t really a smile, then raised her hand and smacked her on the back of the head so hard Su Huandan’s head jerked forward.

“Your mother may not be able to read, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know anything. At school, under your teachers’ noses, you still can’t even bring me home a perfect score, and you expect me to believe you’ll learn better on your own? If you really don’t want to go to school, then do what your eldest and second sisters did. Finish junior high, get your diploma, then come home. Right now? Cut the crap.”

Su Huandan: KO’d.

Her own mother didn’t agree, and her eldest and second sisters were looking at her like she was an idiot. Su Huandan fell silent.

That night, lying in bed, she slapped a hand to her forehead. “My brain really short-circuited. How did I forget? In my last life, the reason I got whatever I asked for at home was because I was seriously ill.”

During those years she was sick, her family had known she was just dragging herself through her days. While worrying about making money for her medical bills, they had also done everything they could to fulfill her wishes.

Now she was perfectly healthy, and the moment she opened her mouth, she wanted to take leave and stay home to study by herself. It would have been stranger if she hadn’t gotten hit.

It was only in front of her family that she could be this careless, acting without the slightest caution.

Back in the Underworld, she had been famous for being careful and prudent.

Since they didn’t agree, then she’d just have to squeeze time out elsewhere. She would finish as much homework as she could at school, and when she got home, she’d start relearning everything from the beginning.

Once Su Huandan made up her mind, she acted on it immediately. Not only did her classmates and teachers find her sudden change strange, even her family thought her carrying around elementary school textbooks was just her making a fuss.

But her teachers felt that it was a good thing for Su Huandan, who used to run wild all day, to spend her free time doing homework. At the very least, she was obedient now and wasn’t causing trouble, so they let it be. Not every student had to become a model student, but if you behaved yourself and didn’t stir up trouble, teachers would like you well enough.

As for her family, they neither interfered nor asked questions. They just watched to see how long Su Huandan could keep up this act.

Anyway, she wasn’t all that good at studying to begin with. If she was willing to read, that was still better than constantly running off to play with other people. She was getting older, and if a girl kept going out all the time, what if she had the rotten luck to run into a bad person? That could ruin her whole life.

In those days, even though human traffickers were being cracked down on hard, they were still rampant.

In every village for miles around, which one hadn’t lost a child or a girl at some point?

As long as she stayed honestly at home reading, then no matter what book she was reading, the family would just count it as studying. Good food, good drink, the family would provide it all. As long as she didn’t run around outside, they could thank the heavens.

In that sort of atmosphere, by the time her father came back again, Su Huandan had already gone through all the Chinese language material from first grade elementary school to the second year of junior high. It was basically no challenge at all. She had never been bad at the subject in the first place, and now that she had reviewed it all once more, her foundation was even firmer.

Next, she could tackle math.

When Su Dakui came back this time, he was dressed impressively. He wore a black wool Zhongshan suit¹, carried an old-fashioned black leather bag in his hand, and had his hair combed neatly, even using a bit of hair oil to keep the stray strands in place.

Dressed like that, he didn’t look like one of those county office leaders. He looked more like a Hong Kong businessman.

Of course, Hong Kong businessmen tended to wear those loose suits with thick shoulder pads, while bosses on the mainland during this period were dressed more like Su Dakui.

He looked bright and polished.

Jiang Chunhua had nearly failed to recognize him. Su Dakui was handsome to begin with, with long phoenix eyes that tilted upward at the corners. Plenty of people had said that if he ever put on opera makeup, he’d be stunning enough to take people’s breath away.

His features were also strong and sharply defined. The only flaw was his big mouth and slightly protruding teeth. If those teeth were straightened out, he’d absolutely be one of those ruggedly handsome tough-guy types.

He was truly tall and built well too, a towering six foot two, broad and solid.

With Su Dakui showing up in that getup, how could Jiang Chunhua not be stunned?

“Huandan’s dad, what is this?” Jiang Chunhua felt a chill in her heart as she looked at him. He was dressed up better than a young bachelor. What was he trying to do?

There wasn’t someone else outside, was there?

That train of thought…

Heh.

Su Dakui handed the bag in his hand to his wife, sat down, and drained in one gulp the tea his eldest daughter had poured for him. Only then did he say excitedly, “Didn’t I tell you last time that the suppliers at construction sites make a killing? This time I took the family’s money and flipped a batch of cement. Just one run, and I made a thousand yuan. Too bad we don’t have our own fleet of trucks, or I could’ve made more than two thousand easy. But buying vehicles isn’t that simple, and freight trucks are scarce right now. We’ll just have to wait and see later. I’ve figured it out. Using money to make money, now that’s what real earning is. All these past ten-plus years, I worked myself to the bone and still made less than seven thousand yuan. On top of that, the household expenses all depended on you farming to cover them. The money I earned was only saved up because I put aside every cent, and even then I only managed this much. But look at what happened when I used that money to make more money. See how fast it comes in?”

Everyone except Su Huandan was dumbfounded.

He’d only been gone a month, and he’d made a thousand yuan?

Was money in the city really that easy to earn?

“I came back this time because I want to discuss something with all of you. The family has eight thousand yuan now. Should we go buy a house in the city right away and move the whole family there, or should I keep flipping goods a few more times, and after Old Third² graduates from junior high next year, the whole family can move into the city then?” Su Dakui was burning with excitement now. The family wasn’t short on money. They still had all that gold, after all.

But he couldn’t just take the gold out and sell it directly.

It was only because he had that gold as a fallback that he dared to use the family’s money to resell cement.

Who would’ve thought he really did make a profit.

Su Dakui already had a plan in mind. He intended to keep reselling cement a few more times while also looking for a reliable channel to sell some gold. Just like his youngest daughter had said, before the New Year he wanted to buy the Homestead Land. With three daughters in the family, that meant one dowry house lot for each of them, plus one house for the old couple to live out their retirement, so they needed four plots of Homestead Land in all.

That way, maybe all the girls could marry nearby. They wouldn’t be far away, and even after they married, they could still look after their parents. Wouldn’t that be convenient?

He had gone over it in his mind so many times he couldn’t even count. Wasn’t that why, the moment he made a thousand yuan, he hurried back to discuss it?

Jiang Chunhua stayed quiet for a long while. Listening to all this, she was completely muddled and honestly couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“We’ll do as you say. You’re the pillar of this family.” The moment Jiang Chunhua said that, the matter was settled.

Translator’s Notes