Xia Xiaolan thought she was already popular enough.

She was wrong!

As poles repel – no matter how sweet her words were, she couldn’t compete with the business that Zhou Cheng’s mere presence brought. Although he didn’t engage in witty banter, the aunties loved crowding around him. If it weren’t for Xia Xiaolan’s face, which outshone all their daughters and nieces combined, some might have even tried to match Zhou Cheng with their relatives.

Even the usually frugal housewives became generous. Xia Xiaolan remembered one sister who had bought just twenty eggs yesterday and was buying again today!

She had been too naive, thinking the Anqing County market was saturated. But with Zhou Cheng at the machinery factory, they sold all of today’s eggs in less than an hour. Xia Xiaolan thought it might not be appropriate to leave Zhou Cheng behind and run back to Qijing Village for another batch of eggs.

After leaving the machinery factory, Zhou Cheng seemed to want to say something.

Finally, as if he couldn’t hold back anymore, he asked, “How much do you profit from each egg?”

“One fen. You probably look down on this business.”

Zhou Cheng said he was a driver, but Xia Xiaolan was skeptical. Though he dressed casually, the watch on his wrist was a high-end Rolex. While Rolex would later be criticized as a nouveau riche brand, in the 1980s, due to gold restrictions, many high-end watches with gold cases weren’t imported, making Rolex a “top-tier” imported watch.

Probably few people in Anqing County could even recognize this watch.

Xia Ziyu had taken all of the Xia family’s savings – just over 500 yuan – to school, but Zhou Cheng’s Rolex would cost at least 800 yuan for the most basic model in 1983.

Was this the spending level of a truck driver?

For just one of Zhou Cheng’s watches, Xia Xiaolan would need to resell over 80,000 eggs. Even if she could earn 10 yuan every day, it would take about three months of not eating or drinking to afford the basic Rolex model. And she was a private business owner – ordinary urban workers earned only dozens of yuan per month, needing to save for two years to accumulate 800 yuan. Thinking this way, Xia Xiaolan’s previous uneasiness largely dissipated – the gap between her and Zhou Cheng’s circumstances was too vast.

Zhou Cheng didn’t say he looked down on her business. In the hot weather, not yet 10 AM, both were already sweating.

“Reselling eggs is too hard. If you want to do business, with Wei…”

They’d known each other for less than 24 hours, yet Zhou Cheng was already trying to plan for Xia Xiaolan.

He didn’t say doing business was bad – that would be like saying “Why don’t they eat meat?” – but he wanted to find an easier path for Xia Xiaolan. She was just a young girl, too eye-catching, and reselling eggs was too laborious.

“Sure, when I save enough capital, I’ll ask Brother Kang Wei if I can invest.”

Xia Xiaolan quickly cut off Zhou Cheng’s words.

With her vision that transcended the era, did she need to rely on a man’s pity to make a living?

She appreciated Zhou Cheng’s intentions, and she wanted to firmly grasp opportunities when they came, but not by shamelessly taking advantage of others. This was different from someone treating her to a bowl of noodles – having no relation, yet someone would share their profitable business with you… Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t feel at ease accepting that.

Zhou Cheng slowly nodded.

Though Xia Xiaolan appeared delicate, she was quite proud at her core.

Zhou Cheng had no experience pursuing girls, but he figured Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t like him making arbitrary decisions.

“Then we’ll wait until you save enough capital to discuss it. Wei’s business connections won’t disappear anytime soon.”

He had originally planned to make one trip to Shanghai with Kang Wei and then step away from the business. Now thinking about it, since the route from Beijing to Shanghai passed through Anqing County, where Xia Xiaolan was, he couldn’t completely let go of the business yet.

If he disappeared for too long, whether it was Aunt Huang who sold soup noodles or Sister Ma who bought eggs, they might enthusiastically try to match Xia Xiaolan with someone else.

Since Zhou Cheng didn’t push, Xia Xiaolan felt much more at ease. They returned to the guesthouse where Liu Yong and Kang Wei had already arrived.

Liu Yong exchanged a look with Xia Xiaolan and pulled her aside to talk.

Zhou Cheng tossed a cigarette to Kang Wei. “How did it go? What did you find out?”

Kang Wei hemmed and hawed. After one stern look from Zhou Cheng, he dared not hide anything:

“Uncle Liu and I went to the police station. Those three bastards are still locked up. While Uncle Liu was getting friendly with the police, I slipped the old doorman two packs of Double Happiness cigarettes and went in alone to give those three bugs another beating. They said…”

Kang Wei steeled himself, his voice barely audible: “They said Xiaolan is known as the loose woman of Dahe Village, rolling in haystacks in broad daylight with some village idler, and was even seen naked trying to seduce her future brother-in-law. When her family wanted to discipline her, she pretended to attempt suicide – Brother Cheng, their story seemed so detailed. If Xia Xiaolan didn’t have a bad reputation, these three vermin wouldn’t dare act so brazenly.”

No wonder when they rescued her in the alley yesterday, the three men, though beaten half to death, still invited Zhou Cheng and Kang Wei to “have fun together.” They had truly looked down on Xia Xiaolan to the extreme, believing her to be available to any man, which was why they wanted to take advantage of her.

Kang Wei refused to believe it, but Liu Yong seemed to have heard something similar, his expression extremely poor.

Kang Wei began to believe it somewhat.

Seeing Zhou Cheng running around with Xia Xiaolan, Kang Wei felt conflicted and finally couldn’t hold back from saying these words.

Xia Xiaolan was incredibly beautiful – even knowing her supposedly terrible reputation, Kang Wei didn’t dare look directly at such beauty. But such a girl wasn’t suitable for Zhou Cheng. Zhou Cheng had never had a girlfriend, and if he fell for Xia Xiaolan, while it was unclear how the Zhou family would deal with her, they would certainly skin him alive first as an accomplice who knew the truth!

Zhou Cheng silently finished his cigarette. Kang Wei thought he would surely be furious at being fooled by such a loose woman, but surprisingly, Zhou Cheng discarded his cigarette butt and smiled instead of getting angry:

“Wei, is your brother handsome?”

Kang Wei nodded vigorously.

All the young girls in the compound chased after Brother Cheng, impossible to drive away – Zhou Cheng’s handsomeness was universally acknowledged.

“Then would you say your brother is wealthy?”

Kang Wei nodded again, thinking about their Shanghai trip – just half a month’s work, yet the profits were enormous. And this business route was something Brother Cheng wanted to give up and pass to him. If this didn’t count as wealthy, everyone else was truly poor.

Zhou Cheng exhaled his last puff of smoke. “I also think I’m handsome and wealthy, and I haven’t hidden that I’m interested in her. If she were as bad as those thugs claim, wouldn’t she have pounced on me, such a big fish?”

Unfortunately, far from seducing him, Xia Xiaolan remained unmoved even when faced with Zhou Cheng’s advances.

“Ah?!”

Kang Wei’s mouth gaped open.

Zhou Cheng coldly smiled, “Be nice to her later. Sooner or later, she’ll be your sister-in-law.”

Meanwhile, Xia Xiaolan and Liu Yong had finished their discussion and walked over, both looking preoccupied. Kang Wei’s expression changed as dramatically as a Sichuan Opera face-changing performance.

He was convinced – Cupid with his arrow had struck his Brother Cheng!