The words of assurance, that she would never remarry, stopped abruptly when Liu Fang heard this.
Happiness?
Was she happy?
She felt happy now, with a thriving career, her daughter ranked first in the entire school, and Lai Jing had even given her a heads-up that if Chenchen maintained this score, Tsinghua University was a sure thing.
In a few years, when Chenchen started dating, got married, and had children, she would become a grandmother and help raise the kids. Life would just drift by.
She used to think such a life was happiness.
But now?
Liu Fang couldn't quite say. She just felt that this kind of life stretched out before her, seemingly... a little lonely.
But she didn't want to break this beautiful future.
Blinking, Liu Fang lowered her head, stroked Liu Chen's long hair, and repeated,
"Mom is happy now."
—
January 22nd, the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month.
To prevent her mother from sneaking off without her, Liu Chen set an alarm for three in the morning. She got up, washed up, and steamed some of their frozen buns and milk steamed buns.
When Liu Fang woke up, she saw the dining room light on and steam rising from the kitchen. Liu Chen poked her head out from the kitchen and looked at her mother, saying,
"Mom, you go wash up. The buns and steamed buns are ready. I’ve poured hot milk into your thermos."
On the road, mother and daughter, a rare sight, drove together on the streets of C City at 3:30 AM.
C City was exceptionally cold this year. When the car's heater was on, the windows had to be slightly opened, otherwise, a white mist would form on the windshield due to the temperature difference, obscuring vision.
The icy air whistled through the gaps in the windows like a strong wind, making the silence inside the car even more pronounced.
After much contemplation, Liu Chen looked at the red light ahead and spoke,
"After the college entrance exams, I'll be going to university."
Without waiting for Liu Fang to respond, Liu Chen continued,
"I want to go to university in Beijing. University takes four years. In the future, I might stay in Beijing to work. If I meet someone I like, I might get married and have children."
"That's great. Beijing is our country's capital. Mom will give you money, and I'll buy you a house in Beijing so your future partner won't look down on you. Our family is well-off."
Liu Fang's straightforward and generous words, however, caused Liu Chen, who had been building up her emotions all morning, to falter.
"Mom, what I mean is, in the future, my presence in your life will become increasingly faint. So, I hope you can find someone to accompany you. You're only forty, less than halfway through your life."
Liu Fang gripped the steering wheel tightly, remaining silent. Her eyes fixed on the green light ahead, she gently pressed the accelerator. The second-hand BYD began to move.
On the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, the freight companies had all stopped operations for the holiday. In the frozen food market, some businesses located further away had already closed for the day and gone home.
However, fewer people were from distant places. Only one or two shops had their roll-up doors down, while most remained open. But among the open shops, the majority were only run by the owner and his wife.
The employees had all gone home for the holiday.
Liu Chen, wearing a short black down jacket, a pair of winter denim jeans, and black snow boots with sequins that Liu Fang had bought her, wore a white woolen hat with two pom-poms dangling down her black hair onto her chest.
"Oh, is Liu Jie's daughter, the one who's first in her grade, here today?"
"Let me see, let me see!"
As Liu Chen walked down the alleyways of the wholesale market, the small business owners on both sides looked at her enthusiastically. There were many high school students in their market, but most of their grades were not good, like "Delicious Frozen Foods," a major player in frozen goods.
In 2009, "Delicious Frozen Foods" already had a daily delivery volume of two hundred thousand, and even with the meager profit margins of the wholesale market, their daily profit was five to six thousand yuan.
That's over two million a year.
Business was good, but the owner of "Delicious Frozen Foods," Ge Meiwei, was most troubled by his only son – Ge Bin.
Because the family had good financial standing, Ge Meiwei was generous with his son's allowance, wanting him not to envy others as he had in his childhood.
But while he was lenient with money, Ge Bin indeed never envied others. He spent his days treating his friends to meals and entertainment. As for studies, his college entrance exam scores were a disaster. Yet, with just a high school diploma, he was expected to take over the family business?
Ge Meiwei wasn't that desperate. While Ge Bin was still playing around at university, a different idea began to form in his mind—
He wanted to find a capable daughter-in-law for his son, who could eventually take over their frozen food business.
This thought had actually occurred to him when Ge Bin started university. He assumed Ge Bin would surely date in university, but then he discovered a problem.
The girls Ge Bin dated were all like him, enjoying food, drink, and entertainment...
Ge Meiwei was so worried that he even suspected his company would have to rely on him until his old age, until the day he died.
However, after hearing news about "Liu Jie Frozen Foods," his dormant idea suddenly began to stir.
First in the entire school?
Top few in the city?
How smart must such a girl be? If Ge Bin's partner was like that, wouldn't he be able to retire early and enjoy his life?
While sitting in his shop, he heard employees say that "Liu Jie Frozen Foods'" daughter had come back from holiday to help.
Upon hearing this, Ge Meiwei's evaluation of his future daughter-in-law instantly increased by ten points. Not only was she smart, but she was also diligent and filial – a good girl! Out of a perfect score of one hundred, she was now at ninety!
With the mindset of seeing his future daughter-in-law, Ge Meiwei strolled out of his shop early in the morning.
Liu Chen sat behind the office desk and took off her scarf, folding it neatly and putting it into a drawer to prevent it from getting dirty.
Early in the morning, Uncle Li had already arrived and was using a cart to move goods from the large cold storage. Although the number of customers today was smaller, each of them was placing large orders, with a minimum of five cases.
Even though Liu Chen hadn't been to the wholesale market for several months, the customers recognized her immediately as the young lady who had taken orders and promoted products during the summer.
While waiting for the goods to be shipped, Xiao Zhu, who always bought from "Liu Jie Frozen Foods," couldn't help but ask curiously,
"Little boss, I heard Liu Jie say you got first place in the school exams?"
Liu Chen printed out the order form and smiled as she handed it to the customer, replying,
"It was just a unified test. The final exam results haven't come out yet, so we don't know who's first."
Xiao Zhu quickly shook his head,
"It's not calculated like that. One first place is first place. Being first every time, that's too difficult."
Just as he finished speaking, Liu Fang, wearing white gloves, came out from the small cold storage and neatly stacked ten cases of hand-grabbed pancakes onto Xiao Zhu's brought-along cart.
She then straightened up, leaned against the freezer, and asked,
"Xiao Zhu, you kid aren't taking time off for the New Year? And you're buying ten cases of pancakes?"
Xiao Zhu scratched his head and smiled at Liu Fang, replying,
"This year, I'm not celebrating the New Year at my father-in-law's. My brother-in-law got us a stall at the temple fair. This time, I'm bringing him along to make hand-grabbed pancakes and sell them. Once he learns, I'll ship them to the county town for him to sell."
After hearing this, Liu Fang silently gave him a thumbs-up.
"You, brother-in-law, are alright."