By November, the weather had gotten colder, and Qi Taiguo was a bit puzzled. His wife was up to something again, being secretive and all.
And after a deeply satisfying bout of lovemaking, Qi Taiguo understood—this woman was gearing up for another endeavor!
He looked at the detailed business plan and various data Cheng Su handed him, finding them as incomprehensible as an arcane text. Had she not been there to explain it, he doubted he could have grasped it all!
"So, in a nutshell, you’re thinking of opening another fast food store near the train station?" Qi Taiguo eyed her sideways.
"What do you think? I’ve thought it through carefully, and I feel it’s feasible," Cheng Su said, blinking her eyes.
"Hey, I’m telling you," Qi Taiguo sat up straight and said, "Don’t you feel tired?"
She already had a restaurant to manage and a Jam Company; she was also squeezing in time to review tutoring materials, and he never saw her at leisure. Now that it was cold, while other families would go to bed early, she wouldn’t go to bed before eleven at night.
"Not tired at all. Just thinking about making money energizes me," Cheng Su’s eyes twinkled like stars.
"I think you’re so obsessed with money you might as well crawl right into a money pit. Why not just change your name to ’Counting Money’," Qi Taiguo huffed and started to rail at her, "...tell me, how much time do you have?"
Cheng Su couldn’t help but retort, "I like ’Counting Money.’ I can manage my time."
Looking at her, Qi Taiguo pondered for a while and said, "Actually, our family now lives better than many others, even every household in this compound, don’t you also say we’re a ’ten thousand yuan household’?"
Hearing a hint of persuasion and dissatisfaction in his tone, Cheng Su frowned and said, "Do you think I’m dissatisfied with the current situation?"
"Not at all, I just don’t want to see you work so hard," Qi Taiguo said.
"Essentially, you think I’m ungrateful," Cheng Su pursed her lips and countered, "Then let me ask you, are you content with being a company commander?"
Qi Taiguo was at a loss for words.
"Company commander is neither big nor small—having a beautiful wife, as you said we also have money, in a few years we’ll have a child, a perfectly happy life. But, are you content? Do you see yourself in this position forever, with no desire to climb higher?" Cheng Su asked him word by word.
Of course, he wasn’t content. He had climbed from being a lowly soldier to his current rank by sheer stubborn ambition, and he looked forward to reaching even higher, Qi Taiguo thought, pressing his lips together.
"You see, you’re not content either!" Cheng Su said. "Our family is now indeed better off than others, with more money, but it’s still not enough, not enough for my dreams."
"What dreams?"
"The dream of opening a starred hotel," she spoke slowly. "Not just that, I also want to build it into a chain of food and beverage groups, I imagine having my starred hotels in many places."
She wanted to stand once again on the stage of managing a starred hotel.
Qi Taiguo was stunned.
"Qi Taiguo, you have ambition, and so do I. I’ve said it before—if you stand high, I’ll stand just as high, shoulder to shoulder with you. That’s my ambition," Cheng Su looked him in the eye and declared, word by word, "I will never choose comfort when it’s time to strive. The time for me to enjoy ease has not yet come."
And this ambition would drive her to keep moving forward, continuously learning and advancing, until she reached that position—
Where she could stand at the highest peak and look down upon the smaller mountains.