"Do I even need to ask?" Lu Siyuan said with a touch of pride. Despite not turning in his homework regularly, he was clever and hadn’t fallen behind in his studies.
This time, I’m not just aiming for the top one or two spots—the top three shouldn’t be a problem.
Shen Mianmian rolled her eyes. "When are you going to the city? Let me know, I’ll go with you."
"If you pass the exam, won’t your dad support your education? What do you need to go to the city for?" This update ıs available on 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡~𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢~𝙣𝙚𝙩
"That man, my dad, he’s unpredictable. Who knows when my mom might cause trouble and he changes his mind. I have to be prepared for the worst."
As they talked, they arrived at Lu Siyuan’s bicycle. After he turned the bike around, Shen Mianmian promptly sat on the rear seat. Through their long acquaintance, the two had become very familiar with each other.
In Shen Mianmian’s eyes, Lu Siyuan was like a sensible older nephew. She wasn’t pretentious or polite and would hitch a ride whenever she had the chance.
"We still have half a day of classes tomorrow, so we definitely can’t go. But the day after tomorrow, I’m planning to. If you want to do business, I can take you around."
Lu Siyuan, while pedaling the bike, arranged the plans for the day after tomorrow with a seriousness that belied his fifteen or sixteen years. Everything was well organized.
"Alright, that’s settled then."
Shen Mianmian readily agreed.
Initially, she had planned to get off at Lu Siyuan’s village and then walk home, but Lu Siyuan insisted on taking her all the way. His feet pedaled furiously, and Shen Mianmian, unable to dissuade him, only got off the bike at the entrance of the village.
When she got home, Shen Jianhua and Zhou Lanfang had already made dinner. Seeing her enter, Shen Jianhua raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why didn’t you come back with Siyu?"
Zhou Siyu looked proudly at Shen Mianmian. This time, it wasn’t that she didn’t offer Mianmian a ride; Mianmian had bolted as soon as school ended and was nowhere to be found.
"There were too many people, I couldn’t find Siyu, so I hitched a ride back with a classmate," she said, making up an excuse on the fly.
"What classmate is so kind to give you a lift?" Zhou Lanfang glared at her. If it weren’t for Siyu asking her to keep it a secret, she’d surely spill everything about Shen Mianmian.
The wild seedlings, barely grown up, are already up to no good, messing with wild men.
If she dares to get pregnant one day, I’ll beat her to death.
"Enough talk, let’s all sit down and eat," Shen Jianhua quickly interjected, fearing Zhou Lanfang would start another ruckus.
Zhou Siyu breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Shen Mianmian put her backpack in the room and sit down to eat after washing her hands, not mentioning anything about the matchmaker. Siyu had indeed abandoned Shen Mianmian that morning. If her uncle found out, he would surely feel bad, and Mianmian didn’t want to get into trouble for meddling.
"The day after tomorrow, my sister-in-law is going to the city to prepare for the New Year, and I plan to join her. The produce in the city’s market is much cheaper than in our town. If we’re going, we’ll need to stay at my sister-in-law’s place tomorrow night and set off early the next morning."
Zhou Lanfang returned from her mother’s house earlier in the day and had lunch there before coming back. The moment she heard her sister-in-law was going to the city, she felt tempted. Despite her age, she had rarely visited the city.
She was better off than her neighbors who were going to the city with her sister-in-law. If they could go, why couldn’t she?
Her family didn’t need to save money to marry off a son.
Shen Jianhua was healthy and skilled; even if he couldn’t work at the kiln factory, he could still work on dam repairs next year.
Once Shen Mianmian stopped going to school, their family would have only one student to support, and it wouldn’t be a financial burden.