A Young Woman's Heart

"So what are you thinking about from the past?" Zhuang Lianlian mixed water and flour together, kneaded it simply, and then placed it in front of Chen Cheng. "Wash your hands, then help me knead the dough~"

"Oh!" Chen Cheng quickly stood up and went into the washroom. His voice, mixed with the sound of water, came out. "It's nothing, just some things from when I was a kid."

"Ok?"

"When I was a child, my family didn't have much money."

"You seem to be quite wealthy now, right? Did your parents divorce because they became rich?"

"Maybe so, ha, money always makes people lose their way. I don't know whose fault it is, but they're both definitely at fault for abandoning me." Chen Cheng couldn't control his anger when talking about his parents. "What kind of job is it to leave me a house and send me money every month?"

“At least you still have these,” Zhuang Lianlian comforted her.

Chen Cheng frowned, but didn't say anything. He continued, "That was probably when I was in first or second grade. I don't remember it very clearly. I said I wanted to buy a toy, but he wouldn't buy it for me. So I cried and cried all the way home. Finally, he took out two yuan from his wallet and bought me that 'very expensive' toy."

"You were this mischievous when you were little?"

“Who didn’t make a fuss when they were little…” Chen Cheng sat back on the sofa and started kneading dough. “When I think back to it now, I find that I actually remember that my dad’s wallet only had five or six coins in total, and the largest denomination was probably only ten yuan.”

"If it were in that era, it wouldn't be considered too little. Maybe your dad gave all the money to your mom."

“My mom doesn’t even have a wallet; she only carries some loose change.” Chen Cheng scoffed dismissively. “My dad and mom each keep their own money; they don’t give it to each other. You can probably tell from that that they’re not a loving couple.”

When did your family start to have money?

“When I was in fourth grade, my family suddenly became much wealthier. My dad bought this house. For a while, things were quite harmonious at home. But then there were a lot of arguments, and then they got divorced. They left me all alone.” Chen Cheng said, with an unlit cigarette in his mouth. “That’s when I started living alone.”

"So you still prefer your old life?"

"Well... at least I had a home back then."

Isn't that what we have now?

"It only comes after you're here," Chen Cheng said with a slight smile, turning his head to the side.

"Oh my, that's so cheesy!" Zhuang Lianlian said, but she was actually laughing very happily.

Kneading dough is a very tedious task, but while kneading, Chen Cheng's thoughts drifted back to the past once again—

……

"We have to pay again. Why do we have to pay every day at school?" In the cramped rented room, the father didn't want to turn on the lights, so he lit a candle in a glass. On the dining table were a cold tofu salad and a cold cucumber salad, and the only meat dish was a cold pig ear salad on the side.

It was a hot summer day.

Chen Cheng's father was a tall man with a lot of solid muscles, which he had developed from physical labor.

He didn't have a stable job, or rather, his job was to do manual labor in different places, the content of which was the same, only the bosses who hired him were different.

"This time it's to buy exercise books." Young Chen Cheng was a little guilty. He muttered to himself, "The teacher told us to buy them, but I don't want to buy them... I don't want to do the exercises either."

"You still need to study." The father immediately smiled again, picked up a pig's ear, put it in his mouth, and chewed slowly, as if savoring its taste. "How much?"

"twenty."

Twenty? That's so expensive!?

“The child needs to study, so it’s normal to buy more workbooks and make them more expensive.” The mother, who was only focused on eating the cold tofu dish in front of her, was eating one bite of tofu and then three bites of rice.

"Tell me the truth, how much did it cost? The teacher said last time that the school's supplementary teaching materials aren't that expensive. Are you trying to sneak in and buy something else?"

"I didn't..." Chen Cheng looked guilty.

"No? I'll make a call right now." The father sensed something was amiss, picked up the home phone and dialed the teacher's number. "Hello? Is this Chen Cheng's homeroom teacher? Hello, hello, this is his dad. He said he needs to buy workbooks soon, is that true?"

"Yes, buy the 'One Lesson, One Exercise' book, one for math and one for Chinese, two books for a total of ten yuan."

"Okay, thank you, teacher. How has Chen Cheng been doing at school lately?"

"He's alright, just keep up the good work."

"Okay, okay, thank you. Oh, I'm hanging up now, thank you." Chen Cheng's father politely hung up the phone, but the smile on his face vanished instantly. "You brat, lying again? You want a beating?"

Chen Cheng lowered his head in fear, listening to his father and mother scolding him together.

When he got excited later on, his father's face turned as red as a pig's liver, and he slapped him twice.

But in the end, he calmed down and slapped a ten-yuan bill in front of him: "Here, if you dare to misuse it, I'll hang you up and beat you! Tomorrow I'll ask the teacher if you paid the money."

"Oh..." Chen Cheng pursed his lips, lowered his head, and didn't say anything more.

Memories started jumping back on the timeline, probably three days after that day.

The family had almost forgotten about what had happened before, and the three of them went to the night market together happily and harmoniously.

Things in supermarkets are not as cheap as at night markets, so poor people prefer to go to night markets.

As soon as we stepped outside, my father turned to the door of a grocery store and tossed out a five-yuan bill: "Give me a pack of Double Happiness cigarettes."

"Two yuan and fifty cents."

"Two yuan and fifty cents? The price has gone up?" Chen Cheng's father was taken aback. "Wasn't it two yuan yesterday?"

"Prices are rising," the shop owner sighed. "If the cost of goods hadn't gone up, would I have had to raise prices?"

"Tsk, why is there an extra 50 cents? That's disgusting."

"Would you like to buy something else?"

How much does Hongmei cost?

"Two pieces."

"That's a whole dollar more!"

"The packaging has been changed recently, the quality of the cigarettes has improved, and with the rise in prices, the price has also gone up."

Chen Cheng's father grabbed back the five yuan he had thrown over and said casually, "Forget it, I won't smoke anymore. Smoking is a waste of money anyway."

"Haha, you really don't smoke? Is it really necessary?" The shopkeeper was clearly quite familiar with the father.

"I just bought some supplementary teaching materials for my child a couple of days ago. If I'm careful with my money, I can save another ten yuan in a few days."

"Come on, you old smoker, you think you can quit? I don't believe it!"

"Don't believe pull it down."

"You really don't want to buy a pack? Here's what we'll do: these are the cheapest packs from the last batch. If you want them, we'll sell you five packs together for the same old price of two yuan each."

"Alright then." The father's face immediately lit up with a smile.

However, the truth is that since that day, Chen Cheng has rarely seen his father smoke.

Those five packs of cigarettes lasted for a full six months.

……

Chapter 258 Wang Jiale's Parents

The rain stopped, and fresh air drifted into the room from outside the window, making Mo Xueyao take a deep breath.

The girls were just having a ghost story session in the rain.

Wang Jiale, who was leading the discussion, had just begun when the rain stopped. Fortunately, the sky was still overcast, which added a bit of atmosphere to the scene.

But the sound of the door opening interrupted what she was about to say.

And it startled her.

"What's wrong?" Mo Xueyao asked, puzzled.

"My parents aren't coming home today..."

"Could it be a thief?" Mo Xueyao immediately became nervous.

And there really wasn't a sound outside the open door.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense.

Thinking back to the beginning of the ghost story Wang Jiale had just told, Mo Xueyao couldn't help but feel a chill run down her spine.

"Could it be..." Hua Yinyin deliberately lowered her voice.

This made Mo Xueyao feel as if the wind blowing around her had become even colder.

"Wow, it's so lively today!" Wang Jiale's father was a round, chubby man who looked like a giant panda walking upright. His skin wasn't very fair; it was probably because he was always out and about, making him appear somewhat dark-skinned.

"Dad? Why are you back? Didn't you say you weren't coming back today or tomorrow?" Wang Jiale asked nervously. "Well... these are my friends."

"Oh, they're all beautiful girls." Wang Jiale's father peeked inside. "Is your school known for producing beauties?"

"It should be our class!" Wang Jiale proudly puffed out her chest.

“I wasn’t talking about you, you’re not exactly a beauty,” his father joked.

This eased Mo Xueyao's tension considerably; it seemed he wasn't such a serious father after all.

When visiting a classmate's house, the thing I fear most is encountering those strict parents.

In that case, they wouldn't even dare to speak.

"Why are you back? Aren't you going anymore?"

"I'll go later." Wang Jiale's father smiled, his smile lines creased together, obscuring his eyes. "Something's happened."

"What's wrong?" Wang Jiale asked curiously, peeking out.

"Tsk, we were supposed to talk business, but something happened at the other party's home. Apparently, his wife wants a divorce."

"Oh……"

Wang Jiale immediately lost interest; she had absolutely no interest in such adult gossip.

After all, it was far too far away for her.

"Alas, every family has its own troubles."

Wang Jiale pursed his lips, inwardly mocking his father while thankful he hadn't called Lü Bolun over.

Otherwise, if the father opens the door and sees a boy in the house, who knows what he would think?

"I don't really know if we'll be going out today." Wang Jiale's father sat cross-legged on the tatami mat. "Haha, everyone, do you mind if I sit here for a while?"