Back to 1984: Earning Money, Raising Kids, and Keeping the Household Busy

Chapter 299 Meeting Fang Ying
Lin Qin, who was standing to the side, couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Your aunt originally wanted to ask Tang Jing, but Tang Jing didn't even find out anything about Xu Jiahui before she figured it out herself."

"Huh? Auntie wants to matchmake Tang Jing and my cousin?" Chen Xinyue was even more surprised.

Seeing her reaction, Lin Ying suddenly had a bad feeling. "What? Is there something wrong with Tang Jing?"

"No, that's not it!" Chen Xinyue thought for a moment and told her everything she knew. "Back then, there were four of us in the dormitory. Tang Jing's family was relatively poor. Her hometown was in a remote mountain village in the northwest. According to her, it would take several days to get home. She spent all her holidays on the road. Even when she finally got home, she could only squeeze into a small room and had endless farm work to do."

She worked hard to get into university hoping to change her fate through knowledge and give her family a better life. But when she arrived in the capital, she realized how cruel reality was. At that time, we set up a street stall mainly to help her.

Fortunately, she was hardworking and spent all her time running a stall except for classes. When she graduated from university, she finally saved enough money to take the postgraduate entrance exam and get into a university in our provincial capital. She bought a house in our provincial capital and passed the teacher recruitment exam last year, and now teaches in the provincial capital.

Besides that, I also know that she has six siblings in total. Her two older brothers and sisters weren't academically inclined, but her younger brother was quite good; he got into university in the capital and went there. After graduation, he went to Guangdong Province to try his luck, but I don't know the specifics. If my aunt is interested, I can ask her. I just don't know if he's dating anyone.

"No, no," Lin Ying replied very quickly, which surprised Chen Xinyue.

Faced with Chen Xinyue's suspicious gaze, Lin Ying finally gave in and honestly explained the situation.

Chen Xinyue was stunned, and Xu Xinyi also looked like she was meeting her mother for the first time.

The two sisters secretly thought that experience was indeed valuable, and didn't ask any more questions.

The cruise ship departed according to the established route. The journey from Anshi to the provincial capital was not long to begin with, and even though they deliberately slowed down, they still docked quickly.

Seeing that Chen Xinyue was still not satisfied, Xiao Jinlin comforted her, "If you like it, we can go out to sea again after the baby is born. We can apply for a shipping route, go shopping in the port city, and travel abroad."

"Mmm." Chen Xinyue nodded happily.

As soon as the group disembarked, a car was parked nearby, ready to depart as soon as they got in.

The provincial capital is clearly much better developed than Anshi, and the roads are smoother.

The group arrived at the provincial university at noon, just as lunchtime was approaching.

The group accompanied Xu Xinyi to the freshman registration office to collect her materials.

The staff members stared wide-eyed at them, noting that they looked like a large tour group.

I was still a little dazed when I handed over the materials.

Lin Qin and Chen Wenjun were reminiscing about accompanying their child to register for school when they were suddenly stopped in their tracks.

"It's you!" Fang Ying looked at Chen Wenjun and Lin Qin in disbelief, blinking hard to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.

Lin Qin and Chen Wenjun also recognized Fang Ying, and were momentarily dazed.

"It's you!" the couple exclaimed in unison.

Fang Ying looked down at her clothes with delight and said warmly, "You must be the children's parents. I'm a teacher at the school. It's lunchtime, so I'd like to invite you to have a meal! Would you do me the honor?" Lin Qin nodded and followed Fang Ying to the teachers' private dining room on the second floor of the school cafeteria.

The restaurant has round tables, each seating ten people. You can order food like in a restaurant, unlike the canteen downstairs.

Fang Ying looked at everyone and asked, "What would you like to eat? There's a menu here, you can order whatever you want."

Lin Ying clicked her tongue in amazement, "This provincial university is really different! Eating here is like going to a restaurant, unlike our high school cafeteria back home, where you have to queue at the window and it's always crowded."

Chen Xinyue burst into laughter, "Auntie, do you want to go downstairs and take a look? There are so many people getting food at the windows over there."

"No wonder! I felt this upstairs was so deserted, and the people eating there didn't look like students. What? Does your school cafeteria have a restaurant?" Lin Ying was completely bewildered.

Fang Ying quickly explained, "That's not how it is. This is our school's faculty cafeteria. Only teachers and administrators eat here. Of course, students can also order food here if they need to have a gathering. The prices here are cheaper than outside restaurants, and it's more hygienic."

Everyone suddenly realized.

Fang Ying looked at Lin Qin and Chen Wenjun, her face full of urgency, and carefully explained, "I was fortunate to have your help back then, which gave me the opportunity to change my fate. However, although I successfully enrolled in school, I was too busy to attend to my studies because I had missed a year of school."

Another point is that although Fang Meixiang was expelled from school, some of her relatives and friends are still around. On the surface, everyone knows that I am the victim, but in private, everyone thinks that I am the one who harmed Fang Meixiang's family.

Their family has many relatives, and they have always suppressed my parents. Those were difficult years for me, and I didn't have the ability to go and thank them.

After I graduated from university, with the help of my partner, I stayed in the provincial capital to work, and the opportunities to go back became even fewer.

After I got married and my life settled down, I wanted to go back to find you, but I found that everything had changed. Anshi had changed drastically. The police station from back then had changed its address, and it seemed that even the police officers had changed. I talked to the police officer about it, but he was perfunctory and didn't want to care. After being brushed off a few times, I understood.

I thought this would be a lifelong regret, but I never expected to run into you all today.

The crowd roughly understood Fang Ying's identity.

Lin Ying looked at her in surprise, then covered her mouth in astonishment, "So you're the girl who got scammed! That was tough! Luckily, it all turned out alright in the end."

Fang Ying nodded repeatedly, "Thanks to my benefactor, I still don't know how to address my benefactor?"

Lin Qin smiled and said, "My name is Lin Qin, and this is my husband, Chen Wenjun. He helped you back then with nothing, so don't worry about it."

Fang Ying shook her head seriously, "That won't do! It's just a small favor for you, but it's not the same for me. If it weren't for you, my life would have been just like that. You know my situation back then. If the police hadn't shown up, I would have been dragged away by that man."

As she spoke, Fang Ying gave a self-deprecating laugh and lowered her eyes, saying, "I thought that once I cleared my name, my parents would stop looking down on me for being useless and forcing me to get married. But the truth is that they chased me to the school and gave me a good scolding, saying that I was making trouble for no reason and that I had made my family lose face in the village."

I just don't understand. I was clearly trying to set things right, but in their eyes, I was the one causing trouble and disrupting everyone's peace. They came to the school with only one purpose: to force me to go home and threatened that they wouldn't give me living expenses or tuition.

Fortunately, someone helped me back then, and with part-time work, I gritted my teeth and persevered until graduation.