"Yes, now thatâs what Iâm most worried about. The main thing is, now the two of them are actually in the same city, and Tao Jia is also in Z City."
"In the same unit, or team?"
"No, Tao Jia and Xiao Yi are in the same team. Although theyâre not in the same team, theyâre not far from each other. Iâm just afraid that if they keep seeing each other, and we canât keep an eye on them, something might really happen between the two, and then it will be troublesome."
"Sigh, matters like this depend on fate too. Even if we oppose it, it wonât make much difference. Keep an open mind; good days will come."
The couple spent an afternoon at Mei Shuqingâs house. Liang Qian was excited to see Liang Hongmei and finally had someone to talk to, so much so that she insisted on not letting the couple return to the guest house, and instead had them stay at her place.
Lin Guozhi and Liang Hongmei agreed. It was a rare trip to this area, and moreover, they planned to visit Mr. Mei the next day.
Visiting Mr. Mei was also to pay respects on behalf of his own father, who, back in the day, had fought alongside Mr. Lin Senior and Mr. Mei as comrades.
Later, they were assigned to different places and rarely saw each other.
...
The next day, when Mr. Mei saw Lin Guozhi, he several times wanted to bring up the issue about Xiao Chi and hoped for help from Z City. However, Lin Guozhi was prepared, and each time Mr. Mei was about to speak, he avoided it.
After seeing Lin Guozhi off, Mr. Mei sighed and worried at home about his grandsonâs issues. In just one day, the old man appeared much more haggard.
In old age, one should be happily enjoying time with their children and grandchildren, but as he neared the end of his days, he was still constantly worrying about his sons and grandsons.
He wondered when such worrisome days would come to an end. He had originally hoped this year that Shuping and Shuqingâs brothers would both go to Z City to earnestly advise Xiao Yi not to reject the Mei Family.
Who knew it would be his grandson Xiao Chi who would cause such trouble for them again.
...
On the third day after New Yearâs, Lin Wan took Little Star to visit her auntâs home for the first time. Her auntâs apartment was allocated by her uncleâs railway job. It must have been allocated quite early â it was two bedrooms and a living room. Currently, only Aunt and Peng Le lived there, as her cousinâs family resided in the military housing area.
As soon as Lin Wan entered her auntâs neighborhood, she suddenly remembered that in a few years, sometime in the late â90s, this area would be marked for demolition. Back then, it was part of the first batch of redevelopment projects.
The benefits were substantial. Besides compensation of twenty or thirty thousand yuan per household, each family was given at least two apartments.
When Lin Wan was chatting with her aunt and heard she wanted to sell the house and add some money from her workplace to get a new one, as her school had built a new batch of houses last year,
Lin Wan quickly advised her aunt not to sell and shared the same advice she had discussed with Su Lingpei Bai before.
Sure enough, her aunt was tempted. To be honest, their family wasnât lacking in money. Both her son and daughter-in-law had stable jobs. Other than helping during their marriage and childbirth, they rarely needed financial support, and Lele, now pursuing a masterâs degree, even earned a bit to take care of herself.
They had also saved quite a lot over the years as a couple.
They knew that Lin Wanâs eldest brotherâs family was savvy and knew how to make money, so they trusted her words. They decided not to sell the house and, if necessary, use their savings to get a house from the workplace.
Their workplace offered three-bedroom, two-living room apartments, and the elderly couple wanted to get a bigger one so that when their son and daughter returned, they could stay over. Unlike now, where if the son returned, heâd have to leave the same day because there wasnât enough room.
...
After returning from her auntâs house, Lin Wan didnât go out much and spent her days playing in the courtyard with Little Star. With the New Year celebrations, many children were downstairs playing with firecrackers or fireworks. Over a few days, Little Star made some new friends.
Sister-in-law Jiangâs two sons, one twelve and the other ten, were older kids and didnât really play well with Little Star. However, Little Star loved following these older kids around, disappearing for an hour or two every day.
Fortunately, Sister-in-law Jiangâs kids took good care of Little Star, which gave Lin Wan quite a bit of free time and often found her chatting with Sister-in-law Jiang.
Over these days, Lin Wan also got to know the wife from the opposite door, who was also in the militaryâa technical soldier though Lin Wan didnât know her specific duties. She only knew that the family had a daughter who was already six years old this year.