Rebirth after the college entrance examination

Chapter 172 The Great Cause Has Faded
The lights in the restaurants and supermarkets were off, as were the lights at home. Sitting in the car, looking at the dark and gloomy old neighborhood, Xia An didn't plan to go upstairs at this hour.

It's often said that after starting university, people begin to drift aimlessly, and that's absolutely true. Thinking about it, with offices scattered across different places that she doesn't visit often, and her dorm room she doesn't go back to frequently, Xia An realized she truly didn't have a fixed base.

I randomly picked a budget hotel and checked in. As soon as I entered the room, I collapsed onto the bed without turning on the light. I stared blankly at the dim ceiling, letting my thoughts drift lazily away, not knowing where they were going.

It took me a long time to get up and take a shower.
-
Wutong Garden.

Zhou Ting quietly opened the door and found the living room light still on, with Le Yuqun sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper.

"Still not asleep?"

After taking off his boots, Zhou Ting placed his handbag on the shoe cabinet and asked.

Le Yuqun took off her glasses, yawned, rubbed her forehead, and smiled, "I'm just waiting for my husband. I can't sleep if you don't come back."

Zhou Ting rolled her eyes as she walked over to help Xia Xia take off her coat, then asked, "Why didn't you let Xia Xia come up and sit down?"

Zhou Ting said speechlessly, "Who entertains guests in the middle of the night?"

As her long down jacket was pulled open, she suddenly remembered something and slapped her husband's hand away.

"Don't try to be nice to me, I'm going to take a shower." With that, she turned and walked into the house.

The sound of rushing water filled the air. Zhou Ting, now dressed in a silk nightgown, emerged, head tilted as he dried his hair. Seeing Le Yuqun still reading the newspaper, he walked over and asked, "What are you pretending for? Are you in the newspaper?"

Go around to the other side of the sofa, put the towel on the coffee table, and take off the hair tie from your wrist.

Le Yuqun turned his head in a fragrant breeze. His wife, who was strict with herself and maintained her appearance over the years, still looked like a lotus emerging from the water in her youth under the lamplight, not at all like someone her age.

Le Yuqun's eyes narrowed into slits behind her glasses as she smiled. "Why would I be in the newspaper? My son-in-law." She handed him the front page and nodded.

"You've only glimpsed the birth chart, and you're already a son-in-law?" Zhou Ting said with a hint of annoyance, then curiously looked at the newspaper, becoming more and more surprised as she read on. She then took the newspaper and read it carefully.

Le Yuqun leaned closer to her, smelling the fragrance, and said, "Official praise rarely uses such explicit words of commendation to praise individuals."

Zhou Ting asked curiously, "What do you mean?"

Le Yuqun remarked with emotion, "The organization must have decided to give him a big push."

"At his age... and I specifically asked, he's not a member of the Party, so what's the point of promoting him?"

Le Yuqun shook his head and smiled mysteriously: "Think about it carefully."

Zhou Ting gritted her teeth and slapped him. "What the hell am I thinking? Stop putting on airs. Do you think you're still young? Just tell me!"

Le Yuqun said, "College graduates have been devalued for many years. Now that the economy is booming, we need to establish a pioneer in entrepreneurship. Otherwise, in a few years, the employment pressure will become increasingly greater... If the drain is blocked, there will be trouble."

"Benchmark?"

Seeing her husband nod, Zhou Ting frowned slightly.

"A tall tree catches the wind; can he withstand it?"

Le Yuqun laughed and said, "Everyone is pessimistic. Today, someone at work commented that he is like Sun Wukong, with the golden headband being both a halo and a constraint. We'll see how he performs. I want to meet him and have a chat with him."

Zhou Ting's expression was somewhat serious. She immediately said, "I've invited him to our house for dinner the day after tomorrow. For our daughter's sake, you should give him a little pointers. His parents are just factory workers; they probably don't know anything about these things."

Le Yuqun's eyes darted around, and she nodded, saying, "Although it's true that one should become famous early, this child has risen too high all at once. I'm afraid he'll become too sharp and won't listen to advice."

Zhou Ting shook her head and said, "Probably not. After getting to know her these past few days, I think she has her own opinions, but she's not stubborn or self-willed."

Le Yuqun looked at his wife with amusement, "It's rare to see you so nervous. What's wrong? Aren't you going to send Ningning abroad?"

Zhou Ting spat at him, "Do you think I'm a snob? You have no idea how far my daughter went with her words..."

Le Yuqun asked curiously, "What level?"

"Forget it, it's no use knowing what a woman says. Go to sleep, I'll go shopping tomorrow."

While applying lotion to her face, Zhou Ting told Xia An about buying a house.

"He filled in our daughter's name."

Le Yuqun, who had been flipping through a few pages of a book under the bedside lamp, was stunned. "You forced me to?"

He spat at him again and cursed, "Do you think I'm so heartless? They decided it themselves."

Le Yuqun smiled, "Although that amount of money is nothing to him, it's still a thoughtful gesture."

Seeing his still-attractive wife lift the covers and get into bed, Le Yuqun immediately closed his book, turned off the light, and pressed himself against her.

In the darkness, there was a struggle, followed by rustling sounds.

"What nonsense are you spouting in the middle of the night?"

“You’ve been gone for a month, going between Beijing and Tokyo, and I’ve been left alone in this empty house. I can’t take it anymore. Oh? You’re doing the same thing… hey.”

Zhou Ting laughed and scolded, "You intellectuals are really repressed. Go, go take some medicine."

"No need, right? I've saved it up for so long, it'll do."

"Screw you, I don't believe it. Don't let yourself get the better of me while I'm stuck in the middle."

The geothermal energy was great; it lit an old firewood.

The medicine wasn't working; the ashes were still damp.

Listening to the snoring, Zhou Ting gritted her teeth in annoyance, tossing and turning in bed, unable to fall asleep.
-
nine in the morning.

Xia An, equipped with the standard nouveau riche three-piece suit—a large Jeep, a small watch, and sportswear—returned home in triumph, looking smug and confident.

The song "Serious Snow" on the radio suddenly stopped. The Range Rover pulled into the courtyard of Happiness Home, and Xia An slipped and fell on her bottom as soon as she got out of the car on the icy ground.

He grimaced and scrambled back into the car, gasped for breath, and rubbed his butt for three minutes before finally returning to the sunlight.

Since it was Tuesday, Xia Kangning went to work. Zuo Dashu came out of the kitchen to serve the dishes at the restaurant. When he saw Xia An enter, he asked him in his usual indifferent way if he had eaten.

"Not yet, Uncle, where's Auntie?"

Wu Su-fen has already taken early retirement and plans to spend the new year with Xiao Youzi.

Zuo Dashu told him to find a place to sit down, "I'll get you some food. Your mom and aunt are next door."

"My mom isn't at work?" Xia An thought for a moment and said, "I'll go check on her."

As they spoke, Wei Xiaofang and Wu Sufeng came through the small door that had been opened.

Wei Xiaofang was dressed very simply, but definitely not in a work outfit. Zuo You's mother, Wu Sufen, on the other hand, was wearing supermarket work clothes and an apron.

“Your dad couldn’t get leave, so I stayed here to wait for you,” Wei Xiaofang said, then called out to Zuo Dashu and said with a smile, “Don’t bother, I’m taking him out for a bit. He’s hungry and can’t eat.”

Wu Su-fen simply stood aside, smiling kindly.

No one was as excited or enthusiastic as expected. Xia An had thought about this scenario last night. Three hundred thousand was something the Zuo family had, and so did his own. Three million might make them a little uneasy, thirty million would be enough to make them shout and cheer, and three hundred million would be terrifying; the parents would be scared.

Xia An scratched his head and asked Wei Xiaofang, "Where are we going? I drove back, how about we take Auntie for a drive?"

Wei Xiaofang tapped him on the head and scolded him, "What are you showing off for? We saw the car enter the yard."

Wu Sufeng smiled and waved her hand: "The shop is busy getting new stock soon, you go with your mother."

Before they could say anything more, Wei Xiaofang grabbed Xia An and left.

He glanced at the large car a few times, then struggled to get into the passenger seat.

"Where are we going?" Xia An asked.

"Drive towards Zhaoling, to Fuguang Temple."

Xia An didn't notice it when she came back, but after driving out of the yard, she saw a banner hanging in front of the fresh food supermarket.

[Starting at 1 PM today, get free eggs, one pound per person, limited to the first 6,660 people, while supplies last.] Xia An was speechless: "What kind of promotion is this? That's a big deal."

Wei Xiaofang had just fastened her seatbelt when she heard this and said, "I haven't slept much at home these past two days, thinking about how to repay your good fortune. It was Yuzi's mom who said it, and in the end, Yuzi's mom said it was to help you distribute some wealth to ward off misfortune and accumulate blessings."

He glanced at his son and said, "We'll pay the public bill, so it'll be considered a joint payment from both our families."

Xia An was speechless, her nose stinging with tears.

Wei Xiaofang, who was always talking non-stop, remained silent for several minutes. After crossing two intersections, she hesitated before finally asking, "Have you told Youzi about what happened?"

As the red light turned green, Xia An turned left, looking ahead and said, "I called her on Friday when the money arrived."

Wei Xiaofang sighed and said, "Last night, Zuo Dashu asked your Aunt Wu to call Xiaoyouzi. Although she didn't mention you in the conversation, Xiaoyouzi didn't mention it either. You're not lying to me? She really knows?"

Xia An laughed: "What's there to lie about? I already told her I wanted to give you a surprise. Who's as cunning as the provincial newspaper?"

Wei Xiaofang finally breathed a sigh of relief and said with a laugh, "You've forgotten your mother now that you have a wife. Why didn't you tell me first? Your father and I were terrified when we saw the newspaper."

"I really wanted to surprise you all. I was busy with a TV interview yesterday, so I rushed back overnight. But I didn't expect to get into a car accident and be stuck in traffic for several hours."

Upon hearing about the car accident, Wei Xiaofang immediately forgot about the interview and asked anxiously, "Car accident? Are you alright? No wonder your dad said that fortune and misfortune are intertwined; it's only right that you went to burn incense today." Then, realizing something, she added, "You came back last night? Why didn't you go home?"

After thinking for a moment, she hesitated and said, "Son, don't blame me for nagging, but do you have someone else outside...?"

Xia An rolled her eyes and gave a wry smile: "What are you thinking? It was almost one o'clock when we got off the highway. I went downstairs and saw that you all had the lights off, so I just stayed at a hotel for the night."

He turned to look at his mother, who was making a big fuss, and smiled, "Mom, I won't be separated from Xiaoyouzi."

"Shameless." Wei Xiaofang rolled her eyes at him and laughed, "Tell her parents that tonight."

Once on the ring expressway, the road conditions were smooth. Wei Xiaofang put aside her anxiety that her son would change partners once he had money, and then asked him, "Is it really 300 million? That's a lot of money. Tell your mother in detail. Your father said that most people can't handle such a windfall."

Xia An retorted unhappily, "How is this windfall? I earned it through my own abilities and intelligence..."

He then explained the origin of the domain name.

Wei Xiaofang only half understood what she was hearing, and concluded, "It's still windfall."

"Okay, whatever you say goes."

"Don't spend it recklessly, especially at school. You can lend some money to classmates who are in trouble. Don't worry about them paying you back, whether it's a lot or a little. Just consider it a gift and let them help you avoid some disasters."

Xia An laughed and said, "Whether we lend it or not is another matter, but don't think that money will last long. It was almost 20 million that was spent the day after it arrived in the account."

Wei Xiaofang gasped in shock and raised her hand to hit her son, but stopped when she saw him driving. She scolded him sternly, "Twenty million? Our ancestors combined didn't earn that much, and you spent it all in one day? To buy this car? What else did you buy? Son, you can't do this. Your father told me to tell you that wealth doesn't diminish ambition, so don't be so smug."

“…” Xia An corrected: “It means not being arrogant when rich, and not losing one’s will when poor.”

Seeing that his mother was about to get angry again, he quickly explained, "The car isn't mine, it belongs to my partner. You'll see when you watch the TV interview. I've already started several companies, all legitimate businesses, and I spend money wisely."

Wei Xiaofang said angrily, "I don't understand. You can talk to your dad tonight."

After a moment, he muttered again, "Luckily, neither your dad nor I have any relatives on either side..."

Fuguang Temple was built in the 80s. Over the years, it has been continuously renovated with donations from wealthy people, and its scale has been expanded time and time again, making it a popular place of worship.

With Xia An utterly speechless and unable to stop her no matter what she did, Wei Xiaofang made the largest non-fixed asset expenditure of her life.

He donated 88,000 taels of silver.

Giant three incense sticks, lotus lamps, longevity plaques, and everything else you can buy and offer.

An additional ritual to relieve suffering will be offered as a gift.

Inside the main hall, Xia An was manipulated by the old monk like a puppet.

Kneel when you should, stand up when you should, and kowtow according to the slogans.

Xia's mother, sitting on another prayer mat, was three hundred million times more devout than him, bowing her head and silently making a wish.

Xia An looked up at the Buddha statue with its eyes lowered, exuding solemnity.

Having lived two lives, he still couldn't understand why, if you all have such lofty ideals of saving all living beings, you stand a hundred meters high and look down on the world with a compassionate expression.

It's true that coming down to the grassroots makes it easier to help those in distress, isn't it?

Why distance yourself from the masses and only serve the wealthy?

Amidst a sky full of gods and Buddhas, Xia An alone reveres Ksitigarbha.

After kneeling for a full hour and a half, the old monk clasped his hands together and bowed to the Xia family mother and son.

“Good layman, your great undertaking has been accomplished, and the road ahead is smooth.”

Wei Xiaofang was overjoyed and nudged Xia An, "Go and make a proper wish."

Xia An agreed.

He walked up to the donation box, took out the wallet Tang Wan had given him, and slipped in a purple 50-cent coin.

He turned around and said, "I don't have any wishes, I just want to be friends with Buddha."

As the old monk's eyelids twitched, Xia An pulled the furious Wei Xiaofang away.

……

A small fresh food supermarket was packed with people on half the street, a rare sight, all for eggs.

Xia An found it strange that ordinary people preferred eggs.

Wei Xiaofang and Wu Sufeng were really too busy, mainly maintaining order.

Xia An couldn't help, and before Xia Kangning could arrive, Zuo Dashu closed the restaurant at 2 PM and drank with Xia An.

Good girls, or rather, good parents-in-law, don't have too many requirements.

Having raised their daughter to adulthood, they only hope she will meet a good man.

No beatings or scoldings, enough to eat and wear, and a little kindness—that's enough.

Zuo Dashu's eyes welled up with tears after hearing Xia An's words. At that moment, Xia An was not yet drunk and said sincerely:
"Youzi and I are both still young, and we both have time to try doing things we like."

Home is always here; I come back whenever I'm tired.

I feel sorry for her traveling so much, but I won't stop her from doing it, as long as she's doing what she loves.

You four elders don't need to worry about her outside. I have the ability to protect her and prevent her from being bullied.

Uncle Zuo, it's all in the wine, I'll drink it all, burp~

Then he vomited all over the place.

After rinsing her mouth, Xia An took a stroll around the kitchen. The gas cylinders had been replaced with pipes specially installed by the gas company, ensuring safety.

……

When Xia Kangning woke up, it was already midnight. He was still awake and practicing calligraphy.

Xia An was called over.

"This calligraphy isn't very good; I'm not that skilled. But the meaning is there. Remember this sentence: you must keep it in mind."

Eight characters: Nothing is without a beginning, but few things have an end.
Xia An took a big gulp from her father's large tea mug.

Xia Kangning said, "Go to sleep. Get up early tomorrow. I took the morning off to take you to visit the graves."

(End of this chapter)