Kang Wei sat restlessly at home as if there were a handful of nails scattered under him. Unable to bear it any longer, he went to find Zhou Cheng.

He was a frequent visitor to the Zhou household, and they were quite familiar with him. However, Kang Wei was somewhat afraid of Zhou Cheng’s father. He deliberately chose to visit at noon, knowing Uncle Zhou wouldn’t be home at this hour.

When Kang Wei arrived, Zhou Cheng was in his room fiddling with some small items.

“Brother Cheng, what are you doing?”

Zhou Cheng put the items in a bag. “My sister-in-law travels alone, so I’m getting her some self-defense tools.”

These items weren’t easy to obtain – there weren’t even civilian versions available. Zhou Cheng had gone to great lengths to get them. If he hadn’t been waiting for these goods, he would have already gone to Anqing County instead of staying home for two weeks.

Kang Wei closed the door with a shifty look.

“Brother Cheng, are you still going to Anqing?”

“Tired of me? Think you’ve got the route figured out and want to go solo? Fine, I’ll find my truck. We can each transport our goods. What I said before still stands – the old route is yours, and I’ll find new channels.”

Zhou Cheng’s words nearly brought Kang Wei to tears.

Kang Wei knew better than anyone how profitable Zhou Cheng’s routes were. Even blood brothers might not share such lucrative opportunities – the profits were enormous. Zhou Cheng had his relatives; if not blood brothers, he had cousins. He was helping Kang Wei out of sympathy.

“Brother, I misspoke. I apologize – please don’t leave me out… Brother Cheng, I’m eternally grateful to work with you!”

“Alright, I get your point.”

Zhou Cheng didn’t deny his love at first sight for Xia Xiaolan.

When a man pursues a woman, he needs to create opportunities to meet. Zhou Cheng understood that delaying his return would affect his career prospects. His previous disciplinary unit had already come up with new statements. It wasn’t just the Zhou family’s influence – there were high-ranking officials who liked Zhou Cheng and were willing to look into his case.

But this was his first time falling in love, and he couldn’t control his thoughts. Nor did he want to.

“I’ll make at most two more runs, it won’t interfere with important matters.”

Zhou Cheng gave this explanation to Kang Wei.

He wasn’t the type to explain himself to others, but seeing Kang Wei’s anxiety, he made an exception.

In Zhou Cheng’s mind, a man’s future wasn’t limited to just one path. However, his family had high expectations for him. Zhou Cheng had been sent to carry a gun in his teens, and that uniform wasn’t something he could simply take off at will.

While he had time, why not spend it with his future wife?

Zhou Cheng packed his things and told Kang Wei to prepare for tomorrow’s departure.

Kang Wei felt both happy and anxious.

He was happy to follow Zhou Cheng for another profitable venture but worried that when the Zhou family found out, they couldn’t punish Zhou Cheng and would skin him alive instead.

The Zhou family had high standards – would they accept Xia Xiaolan?

The more Kang Wei thought about it, the less likely it seemed. Forget about strategic marriages – the Zhou family surely had requirements for Zhou Cheng’s partner, and Xia Xiaolan didn’t meet their standards for a daughter-in-law no matter how you looked at it. His family situation was more suitable – his father was dead, his grandparents couldn’t resist his persistence, and while his mother might object, Kang Wei was confident he could handle it.

Stop, stop – what was he thinking? No matter how beautiful she was, he couldn’t think that way. She was his future sister-in-law.

Kang Wei was quite amusing – on one hand, he thought the Zhou family wouldn’t accept Xia Xiaolan, but on the other hand, he had been brainwashed by Zhou Cheng – after all, everything Zhou Cheng set his mind to succeed, and Kang Wei had blind faith in him.

Zhou Cheng stuffed the items for Xia Xiaolan under his bed. “Any leads on what I asked you to investigate?”

Zhou Cheng had asked Kang Wei to look into Xia Ziyu.

“Xia Ziyu, the college student from Anqing County in Yunan Province, is studying in Beijing, at Beijing Normal College.”

Kang Wei sneered, thinking he’d gotten into Peking University!

Everyone had praised Xia Ziyu to the skies, but Kang Wei wasn’t impressed. He hadn’t wanted to go to university himself, but if he had, he certainly wouldn’t have been assigned to Beijing Normal College. As a martyr’s posthumous child, even if the Kang family wasn’t doing well, he should have received some preferential treatment.

“Xia Ziyu’s partner is also at Beijing Normal College… and we both know him, it’s Wang Jianhua.”

Names like Jianhua and Jianguo were too common, and Wang was an extremely common surname. The name Wang Jianhua hadn’t caught Kang Wei’s attention at first, but since he was investigating Xia Ziyu, he naturally looked into the future brother-in-law whom Xia Xiaolan had allegedly tried to seduce in broad daylight.

The investigation got interesting – it turned out to be the Wang Jianhua they knew. The world was truly small.

The Zhou, Kang, and Wang families had all been similar in the early years. Now the Zhou family was doing the best, the Kang family less so, and the Wang family had been kicked out of their circle many years ago. Wang Jianhua was slightly older than them, so they hadn’t played together much as children. After the Wang family fell from grace, Kang Wei heard that Wang Jianhua had been sent down to the countryside. He hadn’t paid much attention then, never expecting to hear about Wang Jianhua again in such circumstances.

“Wang Jianhua?”

Zhou Cheng had almost forgotten what Wang Jianhua looked like since he hadn’t seen him since the Wang family’s downfall.

At least he wasn’t as handsome as himself.

Zhou Cheng instantly became less concerned.

In his memory, Wang Jianhua had been quite arrogant, looking down on others. After struggling in the countryside for several years, had he changed at all?

Zhou Cheng was confident that if Xiaolan had to choose between him and Wang Jianhua, she would choose him.

“That’s enough information about those two for now, don’t worry about them anymore.”

Zhou Cheng wouldn’t forget who had bullied his woman, but how to deal with these two would depend on Xia Xiaolan’s wishes. Xia Ziyu was different from Zhang Erlai – Zhang was just a thug, while Xia Ziyu was Xiaolan’s cousin. Zhou Cheng just felt something wasn’t right about the situation, but he wasn’t clear about exactly what Xia Ziyu had done.

He’d investigate slowly – none of them would escape.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t know she now had someone to rely on.

Even if she knew, she wouldn’t depend on Zhou Cheng. Mountains may crumble, people may leave – who could be relied upon for a lifetime? Only she could truly rely on herself.

After paying the grain tax, farmers couldn’t rest. In a few days, they would need to plant wheat and rapeseed. The land needed to be leveled, and Li Fengmei had lots of work to do. She wouldn’t let Xia Xiaolan help, saying Xiaolan’s hands were meant for holding pens, not hoes for tilling the soil.

“With just you and your mother handling the business, can you manage?”

Not only did Li Fengmei refuse Xia Xiaolan’s help, but she was also worried about Xiaolan’s business. Now Liu Fen went to Shangdu to deliver goods while Xia Xiaolan collected goods during the day and studied in the evening. When Liu Fen wasn’t delivering, she would collect the goods, allowing Xia Xiaolan to study at home all day. Liu Fen was the one working the hardest.

Xia Xiaolan knew that agricultural mechanization was extremely low at this time. Before planting wheat and rapeseed, the fields needed to be plowed. Some used hoes, others used ox-drawn plows. The Liu family didn’t have an ox, so Li Fengmei had to ask others for help with plowing. People didn’t lend their oxen for free – how much time did it take to feed them? There was a set price for plowing each mu of land, and no matter how reluctant, they had to pay.

Without a strong laborer in the family, all the farm work fell to Li Fengmei. Originally, Liu Fen was also good at farm work, and since her and Xia Xiaolan’s fields hadn’t been allocated yet, Liu Fen could have helped… but Liu Fen was now busier than farming, so how could Li Fengmei ask her sister-in-law to work in the fields?

Liu Fen and Xia Xiaolan weren’t freeloading at home. Xia Xiaolan contributed money both openly and discretely to daily life. Mother and daughter just had a place to stay with the Liu family; they weren’t depending on Li Fengmei and her husband for support.

Worried that her aunt might be short of money, Xia Xiaolan decided to repay the 50 yuan that Uncle Liu Yong had given her as starting capital since they didn’t have so much eel inventory anymore.

When she borrowed it, it was 50 yuan; when returning it, she prepared ten 10-yuan notes.

“What are you doing?! Take it back quickly! Your uncle said that money was your pocket money. If you do this, I’ll be angry!”

Li Fengmei refused to take it.

Fifty yuan wasn’t a small amount, but it wasn’t much either. Whether it was 50 or 5,000 yuan, if Liu Yong as an uncle could give it, Li Fengmei would never take it back. Husband and wife were one unit – Li Fengmei definitely wouldn’t object to Liu Yong’s decision.

Even if it were 5,000 yuan, while Li Fengmei might feel the pinch, she wouldn’t show it in front of Xia Xiaolan.

Seeing her aunt wouldn’t take the money, Xia Xiaolan thought for a moment and smiled:

“It’s fine if you won’t take it. I’m planning to start another business soon, so this can be considered Uncle’s investment.”