Chapter 38: Record of Moving to the City in the 90s. 38

In the eyes of the Su family, Su Huandan’s pair of sons were truly precious children.

Their one-month celebration, hundred-day celebration, and first birthday were all properly held, with banquets for every occasion.

And the guests who were invited were not even allowed to bring gift money. The Yu family simply treated more than a hundred tables of people to a free feast.

“What a waste of money. I’ve really seen how rich people live now. My eldest son-in-law said one table costs over a hundred yuan. More than a hundred tables, how much money is that? And all those people are just eating for free.” Even though it wasn’t her own money being spent, the mere thought of it made Jiang Chunhua’s heart ache.

Wouldn’t it be better to save all that money for the children instead of spending it on treating guests?

Su Dakui retorted, “They’re only using the kids’ names as an excuse to throw a banquet, really. As long as they maintain their connections well, with all the ways the Yu family has of making money, let me ask you this, wouldn’t they make a fortune off any project they casually take on, whether it’s building houses or filming movies and TV dramas? Even our youngest son-in-law, doesn’t he stay in Hong Kong all the time? What’s he doing there? Cooperating with film and television companies over there, doing that spe… spe… what’s it called again? Oh right, special effects. He says he’s doing special effects business. Every order they take is guaranteed profit, big profit. They’re spending a little to earn a lot. We don’t understand their ways of doing things, so stop worrying on their behalf.”

It’s one thing to say that at home, but if word got out, wouldn’t people laugh their heads off?

In his whole life, Su Dakui had only ever made money by reselling goods. If not for the family’s Gold Sycee, it would’ve been hard for him to get rich too.

As for Third’s father-in-law and mother-in-law, they used money to make money, investing in land, real estate, films, and TV dramas.

And what about Third’s husband?

He makes money with technology. That’s the word, right? I didn’t say it wrong, did I?

None of it was anything people like them could really make sense of.

As long as the children were all living well, that was enough. Why bother worrying about so many useless things? Wasn’t it exhausting?

Once the children turned one, if they were still drinking milk, then they could switch to formula and cow’s milk.

Su Huandan had completely weaned them off breast milk.

When it came time to stop breastfeeding, it was best not to let the older son see Su Huandan, his biological mother.

Since that was the case, Su Huandan moved into the villa with Yu Zexiu for a while, and Su Huandan started school again.

By the time the children turned two, she had gotten her doctoral degree.

And Su Huandan still didn’t slow down. She went on to study finance.

She also took a position at Wansheng Special Effects Company as the general manager of the finance department.

Wansheng Special Effects Company was the special effects company founded by Yu Zexiu, a subsidiary under his mother’s Dingsheng Entertainment Company.

It was the career Yu Zexiu most wanted to make a success of.

It had been nearly three years since he started the company.

Only this year had they finally begun to break even on the initial capital poured into it.

With profitability just around the corner, Yu Zexiu threw himself into developing the business with even more drive.

At night, after their passionate bout in bed, he held Su Huandan in his arms and said, “It’s enough for you to just get a general grasp of the finance side. Keeping the company’s accounts free of problems isn’t something that depends on you alone. We absolutely have to bring in outside accountants to audit and inspect the books. I’m only having you transition through the finance department for now. You’re better off staying by my side.”

They would go to Hong Kong, and later, once the company grew bigger, they would even take overseas orders and make foreigners’ money. When that time came, he would be even busier. Keeping his wife at home to guard the finance department of a mere subsidiary would be far too much of a waste of her talents. It would be better for her to follow him and learn how to negotiate business deals. Learning that would be more useful than anything else.

That way, when he was too busy to handle everything himself, his wife would also be able to hold her own.

What Yu Zexiu never could have imagined was that in just three years, while the children were only four years old, his wife had become someone who could not only take charge of finance with ease, but was also no worse than him at negotiating business.

Other than not having his same almost maniacal level of ambition for her career, anything his wife handled was never mishandled.

In the domestic special effects industry, in less than seven years from start to finish, Wansheng Special Effects Company had become the industry leader.

Whether it was films, television, advertisements, or anything else in the country that needed special effects, almost all of that business was taken by the husband-and-wife pair.

Of course, not everything at the company was good news. Quite a few of their technical talents were sent abroad by the couple to learn better skills, but of every ten they sent out, if three came back, that was already considered a good year for recruiting talent.

Watching this happen, Yu Zexiu felt a little discouraged as well, but that was just how things were in those days. If people could stay abroad, they simply didn’t want to come back.

Su Huandan genuinely didn’t think there was anything so great about living abroad.

Food, clothing, daily necessities, none of it felt right anywhere. If you followed a foreign country’s customs and habits and changed more than half of your own, then tell me, were you still really yourself?

Over the past three years, Su Huandan had traveled to quite a few countries too, but she never stayed long. As soon as business was done, she hurried back, and she never found the food to her taste at all.

That point alone was enough for her to never understand the mindset of those people who desperately tried to go abroad.

What mindset?

“They listened to what others said, heard that gold was everywhere overseas, and wanted to go pick it up. It’s like there’s something wrong with their brains. If life abroad were really that easy, then why are there still so many poor people in developed countries like America living off welfare?” Old Master Yu had fallen ill and was lying in a senior cadre ward¹ at the sanatorium. Looking at his wife sitting to the side and wiping away tears, he only found her more and more distasteful.

How had he ever become so bewitched back then that he got involved with a woman like this?

Sure enough, when a mother doesn’t have enough brains, you can’t expect the children she gives birth to to be smart either.

In his life, he had never lacked children or grandchildren. He had four sons, four grandsons, and now five great-grandsons. If there was anything he lacked, it was daughters and granddaughters.

He did have two daughters, but unfortunately neither of them had enough sense. Looking at them one extra time was enough to make him angry.

As a woman, surely you ought to be able to do what’s appropriate for your age, right?

When it was time to study, she insisted on dating and delayed her education. In the end, the man still looked down on her and wouldn’t marry her, and she lost everything.

When it was time to get married, she insisted on doing business, but she didn’t even have the brains for it. She lost money so badly that she wiped out all the family savings he, her own father, had built up.

And now, already in her thirties or forties, she has no family, no children, no money. Even the real estate I prepared for her as her father was all lost, and now she doesn’t even have a place to live?

What would the future hold?

Old Master Yu had wracked his brains over those two daughters of his who just didn’t have enough sense, and had even swallowed his pride and tried to get closer to the second son.

After all, the second son and his wife were still living in the Military Compound. If you two acted a little more attentive and kept your heads down for a while, you were siblings, blood relatives. Surely they wouldn’t just stand by and watch you starve to death, would they?

There were some things he couldn’t say outright as their father, but the second son’s side had long since seen through the little scheme in their father’s mind. Yet those two daughters understood nothing at all, just lifting their chins and refusing to go, refusing to meet, refusing to speak, refusing to mend the relationship!

What else could Old Master Yu do?

Even if he wanted to force a cow’s head down to make it drink, he’d still need the strength to do it.

So once those two daughters had squeezed every last bit of benefit they could from their own father, they ran off abroad, saying they were going to make a fortune.

Only after they had already left did they contact their parents.

And just like that, Old Master Yu got so angry he fell ill, while Step-grandmother did nothing but cry and tell the old master to come up with a solution.

Translator’s Notes