After the morning rush of customers left, Liu Fang was tired and slumped onto a chair, not wanting to move.
Liu Chen, on the other hand, continued to silently recite vocabulary words, showing no signs of fatigue. This made Liu Fang hesitant to disturb her daughter's studies, thinking she could discuss it later during dinner.
When Sister Chen arrived with breakfast, she saw Liu Chen sitting in a chair, her lips moving but not making a sound.
She leaned closer and saw the English on the table.
Immediately, she turned her head to look at Liu Fang, gave her a thumbs-up, and whispered to Liu Fang, "Sister Liu, you're blessed. Your daughter is so sensible."
The morning business was busier than usual, and Liu Fang was too tired to even smile. Now, hearing Sister Chen's words, Liu Fang's smile crinkled her eyes shut.
A while later, the afternoon customers arrived.
As Liu Chen was making out orders, she noticed that her mother didn't promote their own hand-grabbed pancakes when customers who ordered breakfast items came in. Observing this, and at around eleven o'clock during a lull, Liu Chen quickly sat beside her mother and asked:
"When those breakfast customers come to pick up their goods, Mom, why didn't you mention the hand-grabbed pancakes?"
Liu Fang was fanning herself with a small fan. Hearing her daughter's question, she didn't just dismiss it but turned around and explained seriously:
"Those customers who have been getting goods from our shop since we first opened, we don't say it out loud, but we must remember it in our hearts. When we have the opportunity, we'll repay them. For this hand-grabbed pancake, as long as we secure the distributorship, we let them make the first wave of money. Then, whether they want to take apprentices or anything else, we don't care, as long as they sell the goods.
This is how you have give and take, and it lasts. Understand?"
Liu Chen wasn't a typical seventeen-year-old girl; she understood her mother's words. At the same time, she gained a deeper understanding of her mother. Although her mother was a small business owner, she was more about loyalty and righteousness.
Her personality was completely different from her scumbag father who liked to cheat customers. Thinking this way, perhaps her mother was more at ease after the divorce.
Seeing her daughter sit beside her, Liu Fang decided to mention what she had forgotten to say yesterday.
"Your grandma called yesterday and asked you to have dinner today. She said she hasn't seen you in a long time and misses you. I didn't know your tutoring class would end so late, so I agreed."
Grandma?
Hearing the word, Liu Chen felt a sense of discomfort throughout her body.
In her previous life, after her mother divorced, her grandma would still call her over for meals occasionally. This led Liu Fang to believe that her grandma doted on her. Since divorce was between the couple, she didn't want to prevent people from seeing their granddaughter, so she always went when called.
But the reality?
Liu Chen shook her head. In her past life, she couldn't see her grandma clearly. Like her father, she had expectations, which is why she felt sad and hurt. In this life, she no longer cared about these insignificant people, let alone felt sad.
However, it was grandma's birthday, and her aunt would definitely be there. For her aunt's sake, it was worth going.
With a goal in mind, Liu Chen ate with exceptional gusto today. Her appetite was so good that Liu Fang even began to wonder if Chenchen hadn't been eating much outside lately to save money.
After eating and resting, Liu Chen combined the eight remaining lottery tickets from yesterday with the 73 she received this morning and started a ten-draw session.
The familiar small roulette wheel appeared before her eyes. The center of the wheel displayed 73, and then the wheel began to spin.
A burst of dazzling fireworks erupted. Liu Chen looked closely and saw the pointer had landed in the red zone again. She immediately became excited.
Could it be a permanent increase in memory?
That would be a great thing!
"Acquired a permanent height increase of 1cm, current height (160+1)cm."
"Received one hundred yuan in cash."
"..."
It was still nine hundred yuan in cash, the same winning ratio as before: one-tenth of good items and nine-tenths of one hundred yuan cash.
However, Liu Chen roughly calculated that the appearance rate of the red zone was estimated to be only one percent.
She continued with another ten-draw.
"Acquired a silver necklace, wearing it adds one point of gracefulness."
"Received one hundred yuan in cash."
"Received one hundred yuan in cash."
"..."
"Acquired a junior sweet singing pill (after use, you can sing one sweet song)."
"..."
"Acquired a light blue dress, wearing it adds one point of gentleness."
"..."
"Acquired a silver bracelet, wearing it adds one point of luck."
"..."
"Acquired a pair of white sandals, they will never rub your feet."
"..."
"Acquired a pair of white leggings, wearing them will prevent accidental exposure."
Liu Chen glanced at the neatly stacked hundred-yuan bills beside her. Combined with the previous ones and the two thousand her mother had given her, she temporarily stored the fourteen thousand two hundred yuan and the seven physical items in the system. She planned to change into the clothes rewarded by the system after her tutoring class.
After resting, she took a taxi to the tutoring school.
Perhaps it was due to the memory boost, Liu Chen found learning particularly smooth. Since she had to go to her grandma's house for dinner that evening, she ate only two egg tarts and ordered a cup of iced cola, which she then poured into the insulated cup won from the system.
The insulation effect was indeed powerful. When the last class ended, the ice cubes in the cup were still there.
She waved goodbye to some familiar classmates at the tutoring center, changed her clothes in the restroom, put on her leggings, wore the silver bracelet, and slipped on the white sandals. Liu Chen then hurried downstairs to catch a taxi to her grandma Luo Meihong's house.
Passing by a fruit shop at the entrance of the residential complex, she remembered that her aunt loved grapes the most, so she bought two bunches. It should be just enough for herself and her aunt.
Carrying the plastic bag into the complex and taking the elevator to the twelfth floor, she heard bursts of laughter from apartment 1203 in the quiet corridor. Liu Chen, who hadn't visited in over a decade, now knew which door to knock on.
She knocked gently. The laughter inside continued, but footsteps approached the door.
The door opened, revealing her slightly plump aunt, with noticeable dark circles under her eyes.
Seeing her beautiful niece standing at the door, Hu Min smiled at first, then took the plastic bag from Liu Chen's hand and reached out to pull her niece inside with her.
"Who is it?" a female voice called from the living room. Liu Chen recognized it as her elder aunt, Hu Jin. Elder Aunt Hu Jin worked as an accountant in her father Hu Xingfa's excavator rental company and was good friends with Zhang Lili.
"It's Chenchen! The little one even brought fruit. It was so heavy, her hand is all red from the bag," Aunt Hu Min quickly replied for her introverted niece, then brought Liu Chen to the living room sofa and sat her beside her.
Hu Jin directly took the plastic bag from Hu Min's hand and placed it on her lap. She opened it, saw the two bunches of grapes, and laughed:
"Liu Fang is getting stingier. She only sends two bunches of grapes for Mom's birthday. Who is she trying to annoy?"
"Huh? Elder Aunt, don't you know? Grandma had her birthday last month, and my mom sent a gift then. I thought my mom probably figured no one celebrates their birthday twice a year and accepts gifts both times. If that's the case, wouldn't that be too shameless? So, to avoid making Grandma seem like that kind of person, she specifically told me to just buy some fruit."
After speaking, Liu Chen smiled at Luo Meihong, who was sitting in the center of the sofa, sporting newly permed wine-red hair, wearing a red qipao, and with three rolls of fat squeezed out at her waist.
Her smile was full of sincerity.
Liu Chen's words caused the elderly ladies sitting on the sofa to stop their conversations.
Indeed, who celebrates their birthday twice and receives gifts twice?
Hu Jin reacted the fastest. Seeing her mother's displeased expression, she quickly tried to salvage the situation: "Then it seems your mother misunderstood. Mom, you celebrate your birthday on the lunar calendar."
"Oh... is that so? Elder Aunt, is Dad's business doing well lately? I heard Hu Qian say her mom is taking her to Beijing to buy clothes next month, and they'll be watching the Olympics? That trip alone must cost ten to twenty thousand yuan, right?"
Hu Jin glanced at Liu Chen with suspicion. Why did this child feel different today? Usually, she couldn't get a word out of her with a stick, but today, every sentence she spoke seemed to ignite a gunpowder barrel.
Luo Meihong, after hearing Liu Chen's words, scrunched her entire face up and shouted at Hu Jin: "What? Buying clothes and going to Beijing?! And going to Beijing to watch the Olympics? What's there to see at the Olympics! You can see it more clearly on TV at home! Jinzi, go call Zhang Lili and tell her to get over here!"
After saying this, Luo Meihong didn't forget to turn her head and roll her eyes at Liu Chen: "You've been here for so long and haven't even greeted me. Children born to country women are just rude!"
"Heh heh, Grandma, are you talking about my dad? I also think my dad isn't much. Even though they're divorced, he shouldn't fail to provide child support for his own daughter. I calculated it, and he's owed a total of thirty-six thousand."
Luo Meihong, who was accustomed to acting like Empress Dowager Cixi at home, was rendered speechless by this direct hit. With a roar, she stood up from the sofa.
"You jinx! Say that again!"
Liu Chen smiled and was about to speak when she saw her aunt Hu Min, who had been sitting beside her, suddenly stand up.
"Your father, that scumbag, didn't give you child support?!"
Seeing her aunt's shocked expression, Liu Chen was also surprised: "Yes, from the divorce until now, three years, and he hasn't given a single penny."
"Mom! You have to educate my elder brother today! People can't be like this!"
Luo Meihong, standing in place, heard this and looked at her younger daughter, wishing she could slap her.
They were divorced, and she had changed her surname; she wasn't their Hu family's descendant anymore. Why should he give child support?
However, looking at her now angry younger daughter, Luo Meihong thought of the two thousand yuan pocket money her daughter gave her every month. In the end, she chose to kill Liu Chen, the jinx, with her eyes.
She sat down indignantly and turned to complain to her friends from the dance troupe:
"This brat Liu Chen, she argues every time she comes. She'll be the death of me, and then she'll be happy. Just like her mother, a bringer of bad luck!"
Liu Chen was about to continue her verbal assault when she heard the front door open from the outside. At the same time, a sweet female voice rang out:
"Grandma! Qianqian is here~~ Qianqian's hands are red from carrying the fruit for Grandma!"