Gu Siyan couldn’t understand: “Yuan is a bad person, so why is he willing to sell his family heirlooms for Sister Zhou Yi?”

She could no longer simply define people as good or bad.

Xia Xiaolan asked Cheng Min to explain, but Cheng Min hemmed and hawed, unable to conclude.

Xia Xiaolan was exasperated – these two silly girls!

“Look at how sneaky he’s being. Let’s not even discuss whether these things are his. How is selling things considered a sacrifice for Zhou Yi? If he doesn’t marry Zhou Yi and marries someone else, he’ll still need to spend money on the wedding.”

This was just how society worked.

While some women might be willing to marry without requesting the four major items and new furniture, possibly due to various considerations, that didn’t mean asking for these things was wrong.

The Yang family had gone to great lengths to gather a proper bride price for Yang Jie’s marriage. Yang Yonghong and her brother had worked in Pengcheng until their shoulders were raw and their hands were calloused, all to gather enough money for the betrothal gifts.

If Yuan Han were a good person, Zhou Wenbing wouldn’t have made things so difficult for him.

Even if he found someone of lower status than Zhou Yi, or even someone inferior to himself, he’d still need to spend money on the wedding.

It was like in modern times when a man bought a house outright before marriage and claimed he spent so much money to marry his wife. Yes, the wife would have a place to live, but the property rights belonged to the husband. If he married someone else, the house would still be his – it was an increase in his assets.

Household appliances and furniture didn’t have names written on them – did the Zhou family care about these things?

Yuan Han wanted this marriage, but he was also buying things for himself.

The fact that he was selling things to gather money for the wedding showed how eager he was to marry Zhou Yi… Xia Xiaolan felt disgusted, but Zhou Yi would probably be moved to tears.

After hearing Xia Xiaolan’s analysis, Gu Siyan cursed Yuan Han for being so calculating: “Now that we’ve discovered this, are we just going to watch helplessly without doing anything?”

Gu Siyan felt frustrated, and Cheng Min was unhappy too.

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “We can’t say anything. It would be useless even if we did.”

There was nothing technically wrong with what Yuan Han was doing. Though Zhou Wenbing wanted to use this to make things difficult for Yuan Han, it now seemed that Yuan Han would soon gather everything the Zhou family demanded.

“Let’s forget about what happened today. You’ll be drinking wedding wine soon enough. Look how late it is – come on, I’ll take you both home.”

Xia Xiaolan would mention this to Zhou Wenbing, but she forbade Gu Siyan and Cheng Min from getting involved further, especially from returning to that stationery store: “If you two don’t listen, I’ll never spend time with you again.”

No more shopping, eating out, buying gifts, or offering guidance – all these privileges would be gone!

Gu Siyan and Cheng Min both promised repeatedly.

Then Gu Siyan belatedly realized something frightening: “Oh no, my mom must know I skipped class. She’s going to kill me when I get home…”

Cheng Min comforted her, “Just say I took you out of school to play. If Auntie wants to scold someone, she can scold me.”

At least they knew how to cover for each other.

Xia Xiaolan checked the time. “Stop acting. I’ll take you home, and I’ll take the opportunity to consult Uncle Gu about something.”

Gu Siyan was overjoyed. If Xia Xiaolan came to their house, her mother would have to attend to the guest first and wouldn’t have time to scold her. Moreover, her father particularly liked Xia Xiaolan. If he knew she had been with Xia Xiaolan, the scolding wouldn’t be too severe.

They dropped off Cheng Min first, then headed to the Gu household.

Halfway there, Xia Xiaolan realized something: “Siyan, does your father have any interest in calligraphy?”

Educators often seemed to have such interests. Principal Sun of Anqing No. 1 Middle School even styled himself as a refined cultural scholar. Given Gu Zhengqing’s demeanor, Xia Xiaolan figured he probably enjoyed such things too.

Seeing Gu Siyan nod, Xia Xiaolan weighed the items in her hand:

“Well then, I’ll buy another set for Grandfather Zhou another day. This set of scholar’s four treasures will be a gift for Uncle Gu. Don’t tell him how much it cost, understand?”

Ah?!

One visit to Sister Xiaolan had resulted in getting a watch for herself and a set of scholar’s tools for her father.

Gu Siyan felt particularly embarrassed.

When Xia Xiaolan brought her home, Aunt Zhou was indeed furious, berating Gu Zhengqing.

“Your daughter has learned to skip school and hasn’t even dared to come home until now. When she comes back, I’ll break her legs!”

It takes two to make a daughter.

But smart men know when to keep quiet, so Gu Zhengqing just took it silently.

Gu Siyan knocked on the door nervously. Her mother opened it and reached to twist her ear, but Gu Siyan dodged backward. Xia Xiaolan quickly stepped forward and sweetly called out to Aunt.

Aunt Zhou forgot about twisting ears:

“Xiaolan, what brings you here? Listen to what I was saying… Old Gu, Old Gu, come out and see who’s here.”

Gu Zhengqing slowly emerged from the room, quite pleased to see Xia Xiaolan.

Gu Zhengqing simply loved good students.

Xia Xiaolan was the model of a good student.

The college entrance exam results were already in the past. Now Gu Zhengqing constantly used Xia Xiaolan’s upcoming international exchange studies as an example to educate his children, telling Gu Siyan and her brother that even without any help, they could achieve anything through hard work!

Which university they wanted to attend, whether they wanted to study abroad – what couldn’t they achieve?

“Come in, come in.”

Xia Xiaolan presented her gift, and Aunt Zhou protested, “Just visiting is enough, don’t bring gifts next time.”

“I heard Uncle enjoys these things. I don’t know much about them, just bought something simple. It’s not worth much, just a small token of my appreciation.”

Not worth much?

Gu Siyan stuck out her tongue behind them and was caught by her mother again.

“Behave yourself, I’ll deal with you later!”

Xia Xiaolan put in a few good words for Gu Siyan. She hadn’t just come to bring Gu Siyan home; her main purpose was to discuss her scholarship plan with Gu Zhengqing.

Originally, she had no backing and it seemed like empty talk, big words.

This morning, Ying Jinchuan had called to say that the accounts for the 15th were also settled. The 16 million yuan bank loan could be repaid with plenty to spare. If they collected the remaining payments, after deducting various costs and taxes, Xia Xiaolan would have made roughly 8 million yuan from this venture.

It was only an estimate because the buildings weren’t finished yet, and material prices might still fluctuate.

So now Xia Xiaolan was worth several million yuan. Gu Siyan and Cheng Min had caught her in an especially good mood, which led to the shopping and gifts. When ordinary people suddenly come into money, they can’t help but want to spend it, and these two girls had perfect timing!

With money now, the plan she had discussed with Zhou Cheng could finally take shape.

She wasn’t sure whether this should be led by the Higher Education Department or Gu Zhengqing’s Planning and Development Department. If possible, Xia Xiaolan would prefer to give this achievement to Gu Zhengqing.

She wasn’t trying to flatter Uncle Zhou Cheng – if outsiders managed it, Xia Xiaolan feared there would be obstacles.

She didn’t like having leaders above her controlling everything – who knew if those leaders would think clearly?

Just like when Du Zhaohui had donated to universities in Beijing – though it was a good thing, Wang Guangping had still tried to create difficulties for young Master Du… Xia Xiaolan didn’t want to encounter such situations.

She trusted Gu Zhengqing more!

Even if there were disagreements between familiar people, they could be discussed. Gu Zhengqing wouldn’t harm her interests.

Xia Xiaolan had barely started explaining when Gu Zhengqing caught on, growing increasingly astonished as he listened:

“How did you come up with this idea? This project would require enormous manpower and involve many parties… Xiaolan, your plan would cost a lot of money!”