Chapter 2 Chapter 2 If he

insisted on bringing a woman with him, there would be many unknown problems. If it was a little boy, fifteen or sixteen years old, working outside, he would not think much even if he had no news from his family for a year or two.

A little girl, it was really too dangerous.

After returning to Shanghai, he asked Ren Qiu to arrange for Xiaozhen to live in the company dormitory. The company dormitory had rented seven or eight rooms before, but in the past few months, most of the rooms were empty due to layoffs and resignations. The rent had not expired, and it was not a solution to leave it empty, so Ren Qiu became a sub-landlord and continued to rent it out.

In the 1990s, most people worked for the state, and there were very few college students who could find jobs, so they could not rent out the rooms immediately. Fortunately, Shanghai was more developed than other places in China, and two or three rooms could still be rented out sporadically.

Ren Qiu was the company's administrative director, but he was in charge of all the company's chores, including serving tea and water, receiving guests, and recruiting housing.

Xiaozhen didn't bring any clothes, so she had to pay for everything first, and there was no time to approve the finance in advance.

Because Qiao Yihua's father came from Xi'an.

… His face was always very bad. He was only in his fifties but was sick all over. In addition to the root of the disease left over from the previous ten years, this time he came to Shanghai to see a doctor and to see his son who had graduated from college for almost ten years. What was he doing if he didn’t work in the company?

After the □□ ended, he could be transferred back to Hangzhou, but Qiao Yihua’s mother wanted to go back to Beijing, and the two of them couldn’t agree.

In the end, they both stayed in Xi’an. Not long after Qiao Yihua graduated from college, his mother returned to Beijing.

He saw their relationship very clearly. When he was a child, he saw other people’s parents quarreling over trivial matters, but his family was very polite. They

were like roommates. From his memory, his mother rarely cared about the gossip of the outside world and the trivial matters of the neighbors. His father was also a hard-working person. Later, he went to school to become a lecturer. He brought the lecturer’s habits home, and Qiao Yihua listened to many great truths.

However, even though his parents were very cold, he still didn’t recognize it. His personality was also stubborn. He went to Shanghai to attend college for two or three years and didn’t go home during the Spring Festival or summer vacation. He said he was working to earn money. Later, his parents came to Shanghai specifically, and they were a little older before they were relieved.

He already knew how sick his father was last year. He

had been to Shanghai the most in the past few months.

The atmosphere in the hospital was so tense that people wanted to cry, but Qiao Qingguan didn't talk as much as he did as a teacher. He

said that he didn't like going to school since he was a child, and that he was not as good at studying as his son. What he wanted to do most was to ride a bicycle and sell popsicles in the streets and alleys. He said that the popsicles he had when he was a child were different from those now. They were made from sugar water and were pure, transparent and colorless, not the colorful and pigmented ones now.

At that time, he also thought about how to buy a freezer, which was to go to the state-owned factory to pick up some old ones. He also said that the things discarded every day at the garbage dump could be used after repairing them. He already knew how to repair circuits, so physics was the best subject in high school.

People may always think about the things that they can't let go of in their childhood and youth at this time. Qiao Yihua peeled an apple and listened to his words.

The meal sent by Ren Qiu didn't eat a bite in the morning, and Xiaozhen came to take the lunch box back in the evening.

She was unfamiliar with everything in Shanghai, and even more unfamiliar with the hospital. Even after being here for a few days, she still didn't know what to do. She walked around for a long time before she got to the ward.

Xiaozhen looked at the silent father and son, not knowing what to call them or say, so she bowed.

Qiao Qingguan smiled. "I want to sell popsicles at this age." He turned to Qiao Yihua and said, "But this is the age to study."

Later, he was discharged from the hospital, and Ren Qiu and Qiao Yihua began to work busy. At her age, she could not do anything except sweeping the floor and tidying up the room.

But what is the difference between asking a thin teenage girl to clean the house and hiring child labor?

But she said that she could chop wood and cook, so Xiaozhen would come to her house from time to time to cook some food. Because she was used to eating spicy food, she couldn't get used to the slightly spicy ingredients.

Fortunately, Qiao Yihua usually ate the rest.

"My dad has always loved sweet and light flavors since he was a child. Your little bit of chili is really unbearable, but I'm fine."

Xiaozhen was not used to eating these days, and she could understand it naturally. She was young, and there were very few things to eat at home. Meat and vegetables were not very common. She didn't know how to cook much, but it was not unpalatable.

Qiao Yihua originally wanted to hire someone to take care of his old father, but he refused. He didn't have much money, and the hospital was already a huge expense, so

he said, "Xiaozhen can cook a meal." Not long after that, his condition gradually improved, and it was not as serious as the doctor said. He

wanted to go back to Xi'an.

Qiao Yihua couldn't persuade him.

Before Qiao Qingguan left the train station, he looked at Xiaozhen who was helping to carry the bag and said, "Let her go to school after the summer vacation. She is still a girl at such a young age, why should she do hard labor."

Xiaozhen thought he was going to drive her back to her hometown, and shook her head like a rattle, "No, no, I don't want to go to school."

"I don't care, you can do whatever you want, and you still think you are her brother."

When Xiaozhen helped take care of her old father at home, Qiao Yihua usually followed Xiaochun and the others when she came back, calling him Brother Hua, and sometimes just calling him Brother.

Qiao Yihua knew her little thoughts, because she said several times that she would send her back to her hometown during the summer vacation, and she always had a sad face.

Xiaozhen hated that she was not a man, otherwise she could also become sworn brothers and not have to go to that place.

In the days before summer vacation, Xiaozhen lived in fear, imagining every day that Ren Qiu would tell her that she could leave. It was not

until Xiaochun, who had disappeared for a long time, went to the office and told Qiao Yihua about the situation that he considered staying.

No matter if it was just a casual mention by her father, and there had been some feelings for her for a month or two, plus when he went to her hometown, he said that Xiaozhen was sold to another place by her father as a wife by human traffickers, and he also received 2,000 yuan. She was only fifteen years old, and she was not suitable for working as a service worker in any way.

Qiao Yihua leaned on the boss chair and smoked a cigarette, listening to Xiaochun's spitting words, "You go and ask Xia Qiang to come, I have something to tell him."

Specifically, he went to Xi'an to find someone to get a household registration certificate. At that time, household registration was worthless except for Beijing and Shanghai, and there was no other means. It could be done by hand, and birthdays and typos were everywhere. Get

a certificate for parents to join the team and come to Shanghai to study in a middle school in another place.

It was just starting from the third grade again.

Xiaozhen dropped out of school not long after the third grade, and the teaching conditions in her hometown were very poor, so she only had a superficial understanding of what she learned.

Almost everything from junior high school and even elementary school had to be taught again.

At first she lived in the company dormitory, but later she went back home with him. After all, tutoring was something that Ren Qiu only graduated from a technical secondary school, and she basically couldn’t understand the questions in the third year of junior high school, let alone other men.

Only Qiao Yihua could read her homework when she got home.

Her handwriting was crooked, and she didn’t understand a lot of things.

So she hired a tutor.

Xiaozhen was flattered. She had never had such conditions since she was a child, with a desk lamp, a school bag, a pencil case, and pens to use at will.

She couldn’t help but wonder if Brother Hua was going to go bankrupt.

In fact, it didn't go bankrupt, because in order to strengthen the new opening and trade policies in Shanghai, his company became the first beneficiary, with bank loans and export preferences, it recovered briefly, at least it didn't have to eat steamed buns and white rice every day.

Occasionally, his father would call to ask about Xiaozhen's work and her studies, and said, "It would be great if I had a daughter."

Because of this sentence, Xiaozhen cried for a long time in the middle of the night.

Qiao Yihua knocked on the door once and asked her to be quiet, so she continued to cry under the quilt, and went to school early in the morning with her head swollen like a walnut.

Later, because of this sentence, they became nominal siblings.

The next year, her father passed away, and she and Qiao Yihua returned to Xi'an to send off the body.

Qiao Yihua sometimes wondered why her father chose to be buried in Xi'an in the end, as he had been missing his hometown for decades and kept talking about his grandparents and his childhood.

"People always like to beautify the sufferings of childhood and exacerbate the troubles of adulthood. This is the place where the youngest people struggled until death. Only after entering the loess can they feel at ease. Your grandparents will find me."

Qiao Yihua thought, what about him? He has lived in a place since he was a child, and he may stay here for the rest of his life after growing up and studying. If he is alone, he can go anywhere. Will he still miss his youth and hometown after having children, a wife and a career?

This is probably what the man thinks. On the train back to Shanghai, he asked Xiaozhen, "Where do you want to be buried after you die?"

Xiaozhen was stunned for a moment, "I haven't thought about it."

"You don't want to go back to your hometown anyway, right?"

Xiaozhen nodded very affirmatively, "I will never go back."

Hometown is the harbor of men's fantasies. Even if Xiaozhen has not experienced all kinds of things in her childhood, she probably won't miss such a place. A little bit of suffering is a place you want to escape from for a lifetime.

Recalling this, there is still a scene of the rumbling sound of the train in my mind. After the business has improved in recent years, Qiao Yihua has never taken a train again. His former joking and flamboyant personality has become much calmer with age and ups and downs in the business world.

Moreover, he was used to communicating with people from all walks of life, so his moral bottom line was lowered and he could accept anything.

So when he heard Ren Qiu talking about Zhou Yun's phone call, he didn't care too much, and he acted more blatantly and unscrupulously.

Zhou Yun loved him, that's for sure.

Before the two of them were together, he was surrounded by beautiful women when they met a few times. She was one of the objects of teasing at that time. It seemed that if he had a meal with a group of men, or a man with a little success, he would be out of place if he didn't have a beautiful woman to accompany him.

At that time, everyone knew that he liked him and pursued him. Qiao Yihua would just smile and not say anything

when he teased him casually. They didn't even hold hands before they were together.

So in the woman's mind, he was just playing with other women, and he was a self-disciplined and restrained person.

No one knew whether he was such a person. After they were together or even married, he behaved no differently from before. He would generously give some gifts and jewelry, and he would also clearly sign a prenuptial agreement.

Prenuptial agreements are very popular among the wealthy in Europe and America, but not many people in China practice them. However, Zhou Yun has been abroad for two years and has seen the global trend, so she is not opposed to them. Her family conditions will not take advantage of others.

And their wedding was grand and luxurious.

No one would not be moved. Xiaozhen must be no exception.