Chapter 110

In the Zhou family.

Zhou Pinghuai inadvertently saw the news and immediately understood. No wonder he hadn’t seen Xie Tingyu at school lately; it turned out he had gone to the United States.

In a flash of insight, he also understood what his mother had meant by the opportunity he had missed.

But Zhou Pinghuai couldn’t bring himself to feel regret.

For Xie Tingyu to be sent as a representative to the U.S., his spoken English ability was far beyond merely winning a speaking competition. It was at a level that could easily handle international business transactions—a level Zhou Pinghuai honestly admitted he would struggle to reach.

Zhou Pinghuai finished watching the news and calmly turned off the television.

Li Rong, however, angrily smashed a cup, her expression hard to read.

Zhou Pinghuai saw this scene and frowned deeply. It seemed that ever since Xie Tingyu returned to the city, his mother’s strange behavior had increased, becoming frighteningly obsessive. She was no longer the mother he remembered.

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Nk Ssdt’p cseu valxczle okvb ydtla.

A few days later, the military transfer order finally came down. Xie Jun, who hadn’t had a transfer in over ten years, was unexpectedly promoted by one rank.

Zhou Pinghuai’s father, Zhou Yuan, still had no transfer. Old Mrs. Zhou pounded her leg and cursed, “How can that good-for-nothing Xie family member compare to my Yuan?”

Li Rong said coldly, “Just based on the fact that he doesn’t have influential parents, and even his son is less successful than theirs.”

“Rong, what kind of talk is that? Is that even human?” Old Mrs. Zhou felt a knot in her chest upon hearing this and started scolding her vehemently.

Li Rong’s ears were filled with the incessant insults, and her heart felt like it was being boiled in oil.

Her face grew increasingly grim.

---

In the rundown, single-story house outside the Third Ring Road, Xu Maofang poured herself a cool glass of water, her face pale.

She had recently had an abortion, and her body was as weak as a drafty house; no amount of tonics seemed to restore her former health.

She began to regret divorcing Xie Jun, and she gradually regretted arguing with her mother-in-law.

“Is that young man who came to your house last month your son?”

“The tall one, the one who looks particularly energetic and handsome? He’s in the newspaper!” Xu Maofang’s neighbor said with the tone of a shocked commoner.

Xu Maofang stared at the newspaper, her blazing gaze wishing she could burn away the thin layer of paper.

She tore the newspaper away. “Pah, what kind of son is he? That heartless wretch—how can he have a day like this?”

“He even harmed his own little brother; he’s not even human.”

Why didn’t God strike down a person like that?

Xu Maofang blamed the loss of her baby on Xie Tingyu. She resented that he knew the sausages were problematic but never planned to tell her, coldly watching her eat them all.

At the same time, she hated Ye Qingshui, hating her for not caring about their old connection. If she hadn’t made the sausages, if she had been willing to give the spice recipe to Zhou Dongmei, none of this would have happened.

Xu Maofang, however, chose to forgive Zhou Dongmei.

…

After some time, something even more painful happened to Xu Maofang.

It turned out that besides Zhou Jiahui, another pregnant woman who had bought sausages from Zhou Dongmei also had a miscarriage. Neither woman had initially suspected the sausages, but coincidentally, while comforting each other at the hospital, they discovered they both knew Zhou Dongmei.

And both had problems after buying sausages from her.

The pregnant women’s families found Zhou Dongmei and sued her.

Xu Maofang hadn’t even finished her recovery period from the abortion, but she was frantically helping her daughter find connections, fight the lawsuit, and even went to the military compound to beg her mother-in-law.

“Mom, Mom, please tell Xie Tingyu to stop, please beg him not to hold onto Dongmei. How did Dongmei offend him? I’ll let her kowtow and apologize to Xie Tingyu, okay?”

Grandma Xie was happily enjoying her life, watching the grandchildren and having fun. Recently, there had been frequent good news from her grandson, and her granddaughter-in-law had given her a big red envelope for the Lunar New Year.

She had nothing to worry about until she unexpectedly saw her former daughter-in-law, which brought back all the unpleasant memories of the past.

Grandma Xie certainly wasn’t going to acknowledge her. Xu Maofang had almost derailed her son’s promotion; she hated her too much.

However, Grandma Xie listened for a couple of sentences and realized it was somewhat related to her grandson, so she patiently listened to Xu Maofang finish. When she heard that two pregnant women had miscarried after eating Zhou Dongmei’s sausages, she shook her head:

“Go home. I can’t help with something like this.”

How could she help with something that harmed someone’s flesh and blood? Grandma Xie, with her two healthy great-grandsons, felt a pang of pain upon hearing it.

If Qingshui had miscarried like that, she probably would have wanted to devour the other person alive.

Grandma Xie bounced her oldest great-grandson in her arms, politely closed the door, and called the guard to ask Xu Maofang to be escorted out.

---

During Xie Tingyu’s absence, Ye Qingshui completed her exams and received her results before the Spring Festival break.

After a full year of hard work, her scores were delightful. She ranked first in five of the eight specialized courses, her lab grades were very high, and her overall comprehensive score was firmly ranked first in her year.

She printed the results and put them in a box, planning to give Xie Tingyu a surprise when he returned home.

Ye Qingshui watched the news daily. China and the U.S. had signed a joint agreement, and the Chinese delegation had also accompanied the leaders of both countries to visit many places of interest. After staying in the U.S. for so long, the visit should be concluding soon.

Over the past year, Xie Tingyu had often worried that his wife would get pregnant and have a child for his sake, delaying her studies. He often sacrificed his free time to go to the Physics Department to attend lectures and tutored Ye Qingshui when he got home at night.

When he saw this exam transcript, Xie Tingyu would surely be very pleased.

Whether Xie Tingyu would be pleased remained to be seen. But the sisters in Ye Qingshui’s dorm finally felt a weight lifted off their chests.

After the semester ended, Ye Qingshui invited them to her house.

“Wei Jing, we’re going to Ye Qingshui’s house for dinner. Are you coming?” Pan Lijuan asked.

“Oh, and did you know she got first place in her professional courses and first in overall GPA this semester?”

Wei Jing’s face tightened. “I won’t go. I don’t want to trouble Ye.”

She didn’t understand why these girls were so happy about a simple meal. With Ye Qingshui’s background, wouldn’t going to her house just mean steamed buns and pickles?

Perhaps, for the sake of their friendship, she would spare some pork to treat her old classmates.

Wei Jing hadn’t scored as well as Ye Qingshui. The thought of this made her miraculously feel relieved; the tightness in her chest was gone.

Ye Qingshui smiled too. “It’s no trouble. You don’t have to worry about me so much. Although I don’t have much money, I can still afford to treat my classmates to a meal.”

“Why invite her? Let her go or not, as she pleases. She probably looks down on this meal and can’t be bothered to make the trip,” Ren Yingying said.

“Come on, I guarantee you’ll all be full. I won’t let you down,” Ye Qingshui said with a smile.

Grandma Xie and Mother-in-law had been preparing for this meal for a long time.

Ye Qingshui took the three girls home in a car.

Ye Ma enthusiastically prepared many dishes: steaming hot Peking duck bought from Quanjude, a bubbling lamb spine hot pot, candied fruit rolls, fried dough twists, paired with top-grade Maojian tea brought from their hometown. When the lid was lifted, the dishes were so abundant they were mouth-watering.

Life was getting better and better; Ye Ma would never have dared to make such an array of dishes before. Now, she was even afraid there wouldn’t be enough and wanted to add a fish dish. In those days, everyone, male or female, had a surprisingly large appetite.

From the moment she got out of the car and entered the military compound, Pan Lijuan had a vague suspicion.

Yu Shi wasn’t doing much better. When the door opened and Auntie Wu kindly asked if she needed hot water to wash her face and brought her slippers to change into, Yu Shi looked at the clean, shiny floor and didn’t know where to step.

Ren Yingying had thought they would have to turn left and right and end up in some remote, suburban corner. They did go to the suburbs, but she never expected to arrive at the military compound. “Wow!” she exclaimed, mouth agape.

“Qingshui, you are so unfair—”

She had tricked them into believing she had married a man from the mountains and had two children!

This was practically like having children for a wealthy family!

What kind of family did Ye Qingshui marry into?

Ye Qingshui coughed. “Are you all frozen? Wash your hands and come eat quickly; the food is getting cold.”

These few were, after all, students from a prestigious university, so after their initial shock, they weren’t entirely overwhelmed by the scene. The girls happily began to eat.

The taste of the duck meat from Quanjude was exquisite. The duck was tender and slightly oily, and the lamb spine hot pot was piping hot. In the cold winter day, drinking a mouthful of the clear broth warmed the whole body. Not to mention the various crispy, sweet snacks that made their eyes brighten even more.

Although they were studying in the capital, they usually didn’t have the spare money for these things. Quanjude’s Peking duck was famous, and the girls had been dreaming of it for a long time; today was their first taste.

“Shui Ya, who exactly is your husband?”

To live in a place like this and afford domestic help, he certainly wasn’t some old man from a remote mountain village.

Ye Ma smiled and asked, “Haven’t you all met Tingyu yet?”

She didn’t know her daughter had never mentioned her son-in-law to her roommates. In her mind, her son-in-law should be quite famous at school.

Tingyu?

Ren Yingying, drinking tea, nearly choked.

Considering the names of Dabao and Erbao, could this man from the “mountain village” be the famous… Xie Tingyu from Peking University?

Pan Lijuan suddenly recalled, “Shui Ya, you’re from the same place as the National College Entrance Exam Top Scorer from our school last year, right?”

“You guys…”

Ye Qingshui cleared her throat and said, “Yes, he is my husband.”

Yu Shi coughed violently and unexpectedly.

Looking back now, it seemed like there were traces everywhere. Last year, there were rumors at the school that Xie Tingyu was already married and had children. Ye Qingshui had told them on her first day at school that she had two babies.

But no one, no matter how hard they thought, would have linked Ye Qingshui and Xie Tingyu together.

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Sansukini: Wow! We’re almost at the end.

I think I will be translating a novel I haven’t fully read yet next. I have seen the vertical drama version first and liked it, then I fortunately found the novel source too. Hehe! I’ve only read a few chapters but so far the plot is and scenes are the same so I feel like I can safely translate it.

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