"Old Qin," they said, "you speak of this child,"
Old Qin nodded, "She is a perceptive child, just too polite and way too independent. No wonder Old Zheng had instructed that if she doesn’t want to stay at ho, just let her be. It seems he understands her nature well. This is good for her growth; it’ll make her more stable when she enters society. However, we should ask about her more often in the future whenever she visits, so we won’t have a hard ti explaining things when Old Zheng asks."
"Alright, relax. I’ll go check out where she’s living later."
Zhou Yiyi also expected that Aunt Qin’s family wouldn’t feel at ease about her living out on her own, so when they suggested visiting her relatives, Zhou Yiyi tactfully declined, claiming that her family wasn’t ho because they were on a business trip. After repeating this excuse a couple of tis, the Qin family dropped the subject, and Zhou Yiyi breathed a sigh of relief.
To compensate, she often made so delicious food to bring to them, saying it was sothing her uncle and aunt made to thank the Qin family for their care.
In fact, by this ti everyone had already understood, and they just didn’t explicitly call it out. The reason why the Qin family had offered to visit was out of politeness.
Once Zhou Yiyi had settled down in Beijing, she used the ti in the mornings and evenings to set up a stall at the entrance of a nearby vegetable market. However, Beijing’s managent was rather strict, requiring a fee for setting up stalls. As long as she was allowed to set up her stall, she would pay the money.
With the addition of a tricycle and stove, her variety of offerings increased. Sotis, she sold stead buns, sticky bean buns, and braised dishes. While selling hot food, she also had a variety of small snacks and desserts on the cart, selling whatever she could. At first, business wasn’t good, and she only made tens of dollars a day. But as repeat custors increased, she soon surpassed the hundred yuan mark in daily earnings, which added to her inco.
The ti she spent working at the stall did not conflict with her class schedule.
Since her System space had everything she needed, she felt too lazy to spend money renting another place. She attended classes six days a week and rested on Sundays. On her day off, she would run the stall in the morning and then go to the internet café in the afternoon to chat with Zhou Mo and their group, updating each other on their situations.
As July arrived, the weather got hotter, and her vending ti was reduced due to the heat. From six to eight in the morning, at most two hours; once the sun was up, she packed up. In the evening, she could vend a little longer, sotis not closing up until nine o’clock.
Being a young girl running a stall every day, she was bound to attract the attention of so criminals. Zhou Yiyi considered herself fortunate that she hadn’t experienced any trouble over this ti. However, in recent days, she had a heightened sense of being followed. If it wasn’t for her ability to retreat into her space at the unlit corner of the alley, she might have already been in danger.
Her biggest fear was being cornered by a group from both ends, which is why she took different routes each ti. It was her space that gave her the confidence to keep vending until nine at night.
The nights in Beijing are full of unlit alleys and side streets, but she couldn’t be sure that she would always be this lucky. So ever since she noticed she was being followed, she changed locations, fortunate that the managent fees were paid daily, giving her the flexibility to move spots frequently, anxious about being targeted. Thankfully, she had not yet encountered any criminals directly.
Ti flew, and by August 20th, Zhou Yiyi had been in Beijing for two months. Through systematic study during this ti, her calligraphy had improved significantly.
This year, at the Lanting Award, she only received third place. Though it was just third place, it amazed several teachers because how many people had strived and how much effort was needed to achieve even this? Moreover, she was only fourteen. Even Qin Qiong comnted that in a couple of years, she might be beyond even his tutelage.
The prize money for third place was ten thousand yuan. When she received the prize, she wanted to give it to Qin Qiong, but knowing the pride of the literati, she dared not offer it directly. Instead, she called Mr. Zheng. After thinking about it, Mr. Zheng believed a gesture was necessary, especially since he was unwell and hadn’t thanked Qin Qiong personally for taking care of the child for two months. On Mr. Zheng’s advice, just before leaving, Zhou Yiyi secretly placed ten thousand yuan in cash under the cushion of the Qin family’s sofa.
When Aunt Qin was tidying up the sofa and found the money, she imdiately sought out Qin Qiong, who was shocked, but Zhou Yiyi was already gone. Left with no choice, he could only call Old Zheng, who, of course, knew about the situation.
"You just keep it," Old Zheng said. "It is the child’s token of gratitude. She stayed with you for two months, and you’ve tutored and provided als for her. How could you not get compensated? If I had visited, I would have personally handed it over to you,"
"Old Zheng, what are you saying? With our relationship, do we need such formalities? Besides, even if we’re talking about a service fee, shouldn’t it be so much? Ten thousand yuan is too much for to accept with a clear conscience, especially considering the child’s circumstances. I can’t take it. Alright, I’ll keep half, and I’ll send the rest back to you. Otherwise, I won’t take a single cent; you decide!"
So, after much insistence on the part of Qin Qiong, five thousand yuan changed hands several tis and eventually found its way back to Zhou Yiyi.
Adding this five thousand to the five or six thousand she made in Beijing, along with the initial four or five thousand, Zhou Yiyi only kept a little over one thousand yuan for imdiate expenses, investing the remaining fifteen thousand yuan back into the stock market. Her stock holdings, after a year and a half of juggling, had crossed the hundred thousand yuan mark.
By mid-June, the bull market was over, but a bear market was looming, and it would last until June 2005. How could she miss such an opportunity?
Relying on her mory, she bought the sa dozen or so stocks that Gong Mingxia had owned in her previous life, investing all her funds—around one hundred and twenty thousand yuan—into the stock market to keep it growing.
On August 25th, school started, and the new students had already undergone military training for a week. They too had a week of military training ahead. Though it was one week less than in their first year, it was still quite exhausting. The purpose of this week was to get them ready for the new term’s exams—yes, exams right at the start of the term, which were no longer based on the previous term’s finals for class placent. It was clearly a test to see who had slacked off during the sumr and who had worked hard—a truly cruel practice.
To be honest, Zhou Yiyi hadn’t really looked at her schoolbooks over the sumr break. Whenever she wasn’t making snacks or practicing writing, she read so books, but not the textbooks, because they always made her sleepy almost imdiately.
So, while undergoing military training, her classmates had to cram their knowledge of the first year’s curriculum. Zhou Yiyi was luckier than most because her ti in her space was longer, allowing her at least half a month extra to review because the results of this exam would be a reference for class placent. No one dared neglect their studies.
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