Gu’er looked at Li Hua. Li Hua lowered her head slightly, but then she imdiately raised it again, a resolute expression on her face.
Gu’er rarely saw Li Hua like this. Li Hua was a submissive person, and for her to be so resolute was no small matter.
"Mom? What made you think of going to the mall? What do you want to do?"
Gu’er asked, wanting to understand what was on Li Hua’s mind.
"Gu’er, you know your mom has no skills. I don’t know how to do anything and can’t earn money. I originally planned to stay ho and take care of your Grandma Sun so that you and Jia Ming wouldn’t have to worry about things at ho. But now Aunt Zhao is here, and she’s doing a great job. I’m not needed at all. That’s why I want to go to the mall. I want to do janitorial work. It doesn’t matter if it’s cleaning toilets, wiping tables, or mopping floors—I can handle any dirty or tiring job. Gu, I don’t even need a salary. If I do the work, you can hire one less person. You spent so much money on my treatnt, and I have no way to pay you back. Now your business is in debt again... I can’t do anything else, but I can definitely handle cleaning. Please, just let go, okay?"
Li Hua spoke with great earnestness and determination. She had been thinking about this for a long ti and had clearly made up her mind.
Gu’er understood. Back when she wanted Li Hua to divorce Zhou Mazi and stay in the city, Gu’er had told her that the money for her dical treatnt was borrowed and that she and Sun Jiaming had to work hard to pay off the debt. It hadn’t really affected Gu’er, but Li Hua had taken it to heart and had been worrying about it ever since.
’If I don’t let her go, Mom will probably always have this weighing on her mind, unable to let it go. Besides, if I don’t find sothing for her to do, she’ll just start overthinking things.’
"Mom, it’s not that you can’t go, but you have to wait until you’ve fully recovered. Let’s wait until after the New Year, until March. By then, if your health is fine, I’ll arrange it for you."
Gu’er agreed.
"Okay, okay, then it’s settled. When the ti cos, I definitely won’t tell anyone about our relationship, so don’t you worry. I’ll definitely do a good job. I won’t embarrass you."
Li Hua was very happy. She felt she had cost Gu’er too much money. Yes, she was living a comfortable life with the Sun Family now, and she believed that even if she did nothing, Gu’er would still support her. But that thought made her feel terrible. She hadn’t reached the age where she was too old to move. She could still work. There were other things she couldn’t do, but she still knew how to do manual labor. She wanted to lessen Gu’er’s burden, not beco a drag on her.
Gu’er squeezed Li Hua’s hand and smiled. Her original intention was for Li Hua to enjoy a comfortable life, but as long as Li Hua was happy, she wouldn’t stand in her way.
On the way back, as Sun Jiaming was taking Gu’er ho, Gu’er told him about Li Hua wanting to work as a janitor at the mall.
"You did the right thing. As long as Auntie is happy, just let her be. Having sothing to do will put her mind at ease. When the ti cos, we just need to find her a relatively easy position."
Sun Jiaming agreed with Gu’er’s decision. People from the village couldn’t stand being idle. If you didn’t give them sothing to do, they’d feel restless instead.
"You know, my mom has never ntioned Feng’er, Du’er, or Zhou Cai," Gu’er said to Sun Jiaming. "Do you think she’s truly stopped thinking about them, or is she just unwilling to talk about it?"
"She definitely thinks about them. No matter how bad they are, she’s still the one who gave birth to them. Auntie is angry, but it’s impossible for her not to worry. But Auntie is also a sensible person. She knows she can’t ask. She already feels like she’s living under soone else’s roof. She thinks about how much money that surgery cost, so how could she possibly let Zhou Feng’er and her siblings co and bother you? That’s why she won’t bring it up. We should just pretend we don’t know, either. Those Zhou siblings aren’t worth bothering with."
Sun Jiaming also knew about the Zhou family’s situation. The Zhou family was having a hard ti now. Zhou Feng’er desperately wanted to leave, because Zhou Mazi was taking all his anger out on her. But she couldn’t leave. No one dared to act as a matchmaker for the Zhou family anymore, so she could only endure.
Sun Jiaming didn’t feel any sympathy for the Zhou family. They had brought this upon themselves.
"Right, that’s what I was thinking too. In any case, I’m not going to get involved with the Zhou siblings. As long as Mom doesn’t bring it up, I’ll just pretend I don’t know."
Gu’er nodded. The two of them continued talking as they walked back to Gu’er’s place.
Sun Jiaming walked Gu’er up to her apartnt. He watched her turn on the light and had originally wanted to go in, but seeing how tired she looked, he didn’t. He told her to get so rest and then left.
Two days later, Gu’er rolled out a sale, followed by a buy-one-get-one-free event for New Year’s goods. Business imdiately bood, and the mall was packed with people every day. The employees were all exhausted, but they were also happy. Why? Because Gu’er had promised double wages for the month, plus bonuses. Employees also got an additional discount on their own purchases, so everyone was full of energy.
The good business continued until the 29th of the twelfth lunar month. That afternoon, Gu’er sat upstairs sipping tea, her brow slightly furrowed.
"Don’t worry. Uncle Lin will definitely be back on the night of the 30th. If he really can’t make it back, we can just go pick him up on the first," Li Zhi remarked, knowing what was troubling Gu’er.
"Yeah, don’t worry. Didn’t Uncle Lin say so himself? He’s just tied up with work over there," Sun Jiaming also chid in.
"Mhm," Dingzi mumbled, not knowing how to console her.
"I know, but it’s been snowing again these past two days, so the roads over there are difficult. Dad also said there are problems with a few households, so he can’t leave. I’m guessing he definitely won’t be back on the 30th. You guys have no idea. Whenever I go ho these days, my mom nags nonstop, asking why my dad isn’t back yet. She says if she had known, she wouldn’t have let him go to the countryside, that she’d rather he didn’t get a promotion than go. I an, is that sothing we can even control?"
Gu’er had been getting a headache from Chen Fengjiao’s nagging recently. She wanted to buy New Year’s goods for Chen Fengjiao, but whenever Chen Fengjiao saw her, she would start nagging. Gu’er could tell her mother missed her father, but she missed her father too! Work was just like that, though; it didn’t care about holidays. If sothing ca up, you couldn’t co back. It wasn’t that her mom didn’t understand this reasoning, she just couldn’t accept it.
"Auntie, too... I’m kind of scared to go over now," Li Zhi admitted, still shaken. "One, I’m afraid of seeing your little sister, and two, I’m afraid of Auntie’s nagging."
"You guys have it easy. If my dad isn’t back on the 30th, I’ll definitely have to stay ho and spend New Year’s with my mom. Just thinking about it gives a headache. Hey, do you guys think my mom is going through nopause?" Gu’er asked the group.
"nopause? What’s that?" Li Zhi asked, confused.
Sun Jiaming didn’t understand either and looked at Gu’er. Dingzi was even more clueless.
"Oh, it’s... it’s, how do I put it... It’s when a woman reaches a certain age, her body goes through changes, and her emotions beco unstable. She might get irritable, quick to anger, eccentric, and tend to overthink things. Sothing like that, I guess."
Gu’er gave a clumsy explanation. ’I’d forgotten that the word "nopause" probably doesn’t even exist yet.’
"I think Auntie is totally in that... nopause thing. My mom is a bit like that too," Li Zhi nodded.
Sun Jiaming just smiled. ’According to Gu’er’s description, couldn’t that apply to most won?’
Dingzi didn’t offer an opinion, as he didn’t have any such female elders in his life.
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