"Bro, you have no idea how much I admire Nianhua," Ji Ying said, slurring her words, with most of her body leaning on Pei Yicheng. "How can she be so wonderful, always helping her classmates?"
Pei Yining, drunk and bleary-eyed, stumbled along as she spoke: "You don’t know, none of our classmates are as great as Nianhua. Whenever they get a good test paper, they’d rather hide it for their own use than let anyone else take a glance, let alone teach others how to use better study methods."
"I like Nianhua, I really really like Nianhua."
Pei Yining looked at him with hazy, drunken eyes.
"Alright, alright, you like her," Pei Yicheng responded, going along with her as he steadied Pei Yining, afraid she might fall at any moment.
He added, "Next time, don’t drink so much, okay? It’s not good for girls to drink too much."
Pei Yicheng, smelling the alcohol on her, couldn’t help but frown. From now on, he’d strictly forbid her from drinking; once she started, she couldn’t even tell people apart when she was drunk.
"Bro, I didn’t drink much, I’m not drunk," Pei Yining protested as she staggered, shaking off the hand that was holding her, trying to prove she was not drunk. Yet, even though she thought she was standing steady, why did the world seem to spin?
Just as she was about to fall, Pei Yicheng strode forward and caught her, saying, "Okay, okay, you’re not drunk. Are you happy now? Let’s go home and rest."
Pei Yicheng felt that reasoning with a drunkard was truly a waste of breath.
"Bro, Nianhua is so great, you need to pursue her more aggressively!" Pei Yining clung to Pei Yicheng’s clothes, mumbling incessantly, "That Chen whatever-his-name-was, he looks at Nianhua differently. She’s going to be my sister-in-law."
"You’d better hurry up and win your sister-in-law over, or someone else might take her away. I’m telling you, I only acknowledge Nianhua as my sister-in-law."
After mumbling to herself, Pei Yining nestled into Pei Yicheng’s arm and fell asleep.
He grabbed her hand and hoisted her onto his back.
"Sister-in-law, my sister-in-law."
"I only recognize Nianhua as my sister-in-law."
The words Pei Yining mumbled were unclear and gradually faded, except for the word ’sister-in-law,’ which remained audible. Pei Yicheng glanced sideways, felt her steady breathing, and shook his head helplessly as he looked up at the stars that shined like eyes in the night, twinkling. His lips curved into a slight smile as he said, "True to form as my little sister, we have the same taste."
In Shuangzhu Village, the Xu family became the main topic of conversation.
Whether it was Xu Zhong’s Xu Family or Xu Qinghe’s family, everyone in the village considered them to be very successful.
Xu Zhihao had married a wife from the county and had now become the director of a cannery.
Xu Zhiyuan had been admitted to university and his future was bound to be bright.
Not to mention Xu Qinghe’s family, Xu Qinghe himself had opened a furniture factory. They didn’t know exactly how much money he was making, but there was certainly a lot of traffic to and fro.
Ji Ying took several women from the village to work in the factory, and seeing their own lives getting better and better, they knew they were earning money.
Xu Nianji, the eldest of the Xu family, was selling bean sprouts and had gotten married; he was about to become a father, which promised a good future.
The second and youngest sons of the Xu family had both been admitted to university, and it was a university in Beining, no less. How impressive was that?
The villagers didn’t understand the specifics, but they knew that getting into university was not easy, let alone getting admitted to a good one outside the province. It was incredibly difficult. With the lengthy time it took to prepare for college entrance, how could their futures not be promising?
Many people had already started asking around discreetly, wanting to know how they managed to get into university. Even more so, several villagers came knocking, hoping to hire Nianhua to tutor their children.