“Ah, Mom understands! It’s only because your aunt is talking about Liang Huan’s education. For anything else, even if she ran back to the village a hundred times and flooded your grandparents’ graves with tears, I wouldn’t pay her any attention.”

Liu Fen spoke decisively, and Xia Xiaolan believed her.

That girl Liang Huan was quite arrogant with a sharp tongue, really unlikeable.

Though they were cousins, Xia Xiaolan had no deep feelings for her. During the Fan Zhenchuan forced marriage incident, Xia Xiaolan even tied Liang Huan up to scare her. At the time, Liang Bing’an and Liu Fang thought Xia Xiaolan had slit Liang Huan’s throat – the couple was so frightened they wet themselves, and Liang Huan did too.

They’d only interacted a couple of times.

In terms of familiarity, she knew Xia Ziyu better.

Of course, Xia Xiaolan’s familiarity with Xia Ziyu was all hatred.

However, Liang Huan’s brother Liang Yu was completely different from her – sweet-talking and polite. It was remarkable to Xia Xiaolan how the same parents could raise two completely different children.

Xia Xiaolan’s thoughts were similar to Liu Fen’s. They had cut off contact with Liu Fang, and if Liang Huan had ability and prospects, they absolutely wouldn’t suppress her.

But if Liang Huan was counting on Xia Xiaolan… sorry, Xia Xiaolan wasn’t that magnanimous. Not only was she unforgiving, but her memory was also very good!

It wasn’t until evening that Xia Xiaolan got through to Chen Wangda.

Chen Wangda was very happy because he had bought threshing machines from the provincial capital.

When he heard that Xia Xiaolan had made an overseas call, Chen Wangda became quite nervous.

His first worry was that something had happened to Chen Qing in America. After returning home from the provincial capital and hearing what his daughter-in-law said, Chen Wangda barely ate anything and kept watch by the phone.

As soon as the phone rang, Chen Wangda picked up immediately:

“Is that Xiaolan?”

Xia Xiaolan had waited a long time for the call to connect. Hearing Chen Wangda’s voice, she didn’t know how to begin.

“Grandfather Chen, it’s me! It’s been a long time since we’ve spoken. How’s your health lately?”

“Good, good, good. My health is fine, and everything in the village is good too. Do you have something to tell me? There’s no one around – I sent Chen Qing’s mother away. Whatever it is, just say it… Is it about Chen Qing? Is he safe in America?”

Parents worry about children who travel thousands of miles.

And it wasn’t just Chen Dasao who worried about Chen Qing.

There was also Chen Wangda, his grandfather.

If not for Chen Wangda’s wisdom in instilling the importance of studying seriously in Chen Qing from a young age, Chen Qing couldn’t have become Qijing Village’s first university student. Xia Xiaolan barely counted since she only returned to Qijing Village later – Chen Qing was truly cultivated by the village.

Chen Wangda had high hopes for Chen Qing, and previously Chen Qing hadn’t disappointed him.

Going to university in Beijing, and studying abroad in America – each step proved his excellence.

If something happened to him abroad, Chen Wangda truly couldn’t bear such a blow. He feared hearing bad news from Xia Xiaolan.

How could Xia Xiaolan let the old man worry so much? This wasn’t the time to keep him in suspense:

“Chen Qing is fine physically. It’s not what you’re thinking – he’s neither sick nor injured. He just hasn’t adapted well to life in America and has learned to lie… Grandfather Chen, Chen Qing deceived you.”

Even saying these words was difficult for Xia Xiaolan.

Chen Wangda wasn’t an ordinary person – he was smarter than the average rural farmer.

How could Chen Qing deceive him?

Studying in America wasn’t a lie.

Attending university in Beijing wasn’t fake either.

Most recently, when Chen Qing called home, it was about tuition fees.

“You mean that money…”

“Yes, that money wasn’t for tuition. Chen Qing is on a government scholarship – the country covers his tuition and living expenses. He doesn’t need to pay tuition. He took that money to trade stocks. I ran into him on Wall Street and found out he had lost all the money he asked from you!”

Xia Xiaolan still felt angry thinking about it.

Throwing just one cup of coffee at Chen Qing was too lenient!

But now she didn’t want to upset Chen Wangda too much. Hearing no response from the other end, Xia Xiaolan grew worried:

“Grandfather Chen—”

“I’m fine, fine. Xiaolan, let me process this for a moment.”

Chen Wangda wasn’t fine.

He had spent two days with others in the provincial capital, haggling until his lips were worn out to save some money.

Unfortunately, the agricultural machinery factory in Anqing County didn’t produce threshing machines, otherwise, Chen Wangda could certainly have found someone to buy several at internal prices.

Chen Wangda was so frugal when buying machines for the village because he knew how hard farmers worked for their money.

Other farmers worked hard for their money – wasn’t the Chen family’s money hard-earned too?

The Chen family were all farmers too, making their living from the land. Only in recent years, with Liu Yong bringing big changes to the village, plus Xia Xiaolan earlier letting the Chen family take over the oil residue business, could they save a few thousand yuan a year.

Then there were others earning money working in Pengcheng.

When the Chen family had to pay this money, everyone had opinions, but they couldn’t overcome Chen Wangda’s will. Plus, Chen Qing studying in America was a glory for the entire Chen family. Paying tuition was the right thing to do – while cursing American capitalism’s greed, they still emptied their savings to gather the money!

Chen Wangda’s children practically cleaned out even the mouse holes in their homes to gather 60,000 yuan.

The remaining 20,000 yuan gap was borrowed from Chen Wangda’s old war comrades… In all these years, he had never asked his old war comrades to borrow money. During the Cultural Revolution, rural life was somewhat better than city life, and he had even helped his urban war comrades.

When they heard it was for his grandson studying in America, they lent the money without hesitation, not even letting Chen Wangda write an IOU – they got angry at the mere mention of an IOU.

Tuition fees?

Was that tuition fees?

The physical exhaustion of the past few days couldn’t compare to this moment’s mental exhaustion.

If not for sheer willpower holding him up, Chen Wangda might have fallen backward!

No, no, no, he couldn’t fall. All that money was given to Chen Qing with his approval – if he fell now, it would be completely avoiding responsibility.

“Grandfather Chen, Grandfather Chen!”

On the other end of the phone, Xia Xiaolan’s repeated calls brought Chen Wangda’s soul back.

He could hear the concern in Xia Xiaolan’s voice.

She was a conscientious girl.

Despite many adverse circumstances, nothing could stop her from striving for a better life.

That child Chen Qing… the family hadn’t put much pressure on him, so why didn’t he learn good things, but learn bad ones instead?

For tuition fees, 80,000 yuan would have been paid even if it meant gritting their teeth.

But Chen Qing used tuition as an excuse to deceive the family, and now the money was gone. Chen Wangda had no face to meet the whole family and was utterly disappointed in Chen Qing.

Had he failed in raising the child?

Otherwise, how had Chen Qing turned out like this?

Chen Wangda felt like he was floating in the clouds, a vast sea of clouds with no visible path ahead. He wanted to run to America, make Chen Qing kneel in the street, and loudly answer why he did this, but he couldn’t go to America.

Economic constraints, and various other constraints.

Chen Wangda closed his eyes. He could only trouble this conscientious girl, he truly owed Xiaolan:

“Xiaolan, I know this has nothing to do with you. You told me this for the Chen family’s good. I’m setting aside my pride to make one request… please save Chen Qing, if he can still be saved!”