CH 16.1

Chapter 16.1 - Headlines

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Never coming back? Su Qin froze outside the door for a while, and asked, “Then who are you to them?”

The woman said, “My husband bought this house. The owner of this house was originally an old granny, who is Yun Qin’s maternal grandma. After Yun Qin disappeared, the granny’s son took her away and I heard that she is living in a big villa enjoying a blessed life.”

**********

On the way home, Su Qin felt dismally empty walking on the street.

Yun Qin’s grandma has no son and the old granny is all alone. So, who took the old granny away, while Yun Qin and Feifei, where did they go then?

The sub districts of Yunyang City in 2006 were outdated and many of the commercial buildings in the city center had not been revamped yet, thus were not as upmarket as 19 years later.

As Su Qin walked on the street, she passed by a telephone booth. Stopping for a moment, she called Meng Sisi.

The person who answered the call was Meng Sisi’s nanny, who called out “Miss, someone is looking for you”, and the girl immediately snatched the phone from the nanny.

“Hello, is it Sister Su Qin? You finally called me, wu wu wu …” The little girl’s voice was coquettish when she added, “By the way, how are you? Are your parents exceptionally happy when you return home? Let me tell you, after I got back, my brother, sister, dad, mom, grandpa and grandma almost spoiled me to the sky. I have only returned home one day, and they have bought me lots of food and clothes, Heaven, how I used to think, I am the family’s pet … “

Hearing that she is so happy, Su Qin felt happy too and said, “Such a blessing ah, really envy you.”

The girl added, “Oh right, for next year’s high school exam, I probably will attend Yunyang High School. Sister Su Qin, which school are you in ah? We can see each other more often then.”

“Yunyang High School? This high school is difficult to get into.”

Yunyang High School is the top high school in the province. Ninety eight percent of its top senior and junior students are able to attend the two elite universities in the country; Nanjing University and National Tsing Hua University.

Meng Sisi said, “Let’s go for it. My Dad said if my grades difference is within 10 points, he’ll pay up for me to get in! So this year, I’m going to do well in my exams! And strive to get in! Then, I can come and play with you more often!”

If Su Qin remembers correctly, 1 point is 10,000 yuan, so 10 points will be 100,000 yuan.

In 2006, 100,000 was not a small amount. It is thus clear that Meng Sisi’s family is really well-off.

Losing contact with Yun Fei, Su Qin’s original intention to pay for his education fell through. Under the vast sky and huge world, it is too difficult to find one person. At present, she can only bolster herself first and when she has the prerequisite, she can then find Yun Fei’s mother and son.

Hearing what Meng Sisi said, she actually wanted to try out Yunyang High School too.

She was ranked first during junior high school in her previous lifetime, but still 30 points short of Yunyang High School’s admittance score.

One actually can get an exception to take the exam if one has acquaintances in Yunyang High School. Unfortunately she is now alone and knows no one, so she can only save enough for the high school fees first, then go find her junior high school’s class teacher to discuss the matter of retaking the high school admittance exams.

Hearing Su Qin’s silence on the other end of the phone, Meng Sisi sensed something and asked her, “Sister Su Qin, what’s the matter with you?”

Su Qin briefly described her current situation.

Meng Sisi was so angry that she slammed the phone on the other end, “Your dad and mom are too hateful! Sister Su Qin, how about this, you come to my home, I’ll let my Dad accept you as his goddaughter. You don’t go back to that home hereafter! I’ll ask my Dad to pay for your education.”

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“No need.” Su Qin said, “I have other plans now, but you can be rest assured that I will not give up studying.”

Meng Sisi, “Sister Su Qin, don’t feel embarrassed. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have gotten out of the village either. I want to repay you since I owe you a favor.”

“If you insist on returning this favor, save it for later, there’s always a chance.” Holding the phone, Su Qin let out a laugh, “Oh right, do you have Wen Mei’s number?”

Meng Sisi, “No ah, but she has mine. She should call me when she gets home. Do you have any message that you want me to pass to her?”

Pondering for a while, Su Qin then said, “En … you tell her that adversity is not bad but giving up on yourself and drifting with the tide is the worst. We are not fortunate people. For us, the lowest ebb in life is starving to death and nothing else is worth mentioning. To achieve our goal, we must go through trials and tribulations, so don’t lightly give up at any time.”

“Okay, I’ll tell her that. You also have to take care of yourself ah. If you have any difficulties, just call me, loans or anything is okay too. I have a private fund myself that has quite a lot of savings.” Meng Sisi said.

“Okay, I’m hanging up now.”

After hanging up the phone, Su Qin bought newspapers and fashion magazines published in recent months from the postal kiosk in passing. She then went to the market to buy a handful of dried noodles for 2.50 yuan and some cheap vegetables before returning to the rental room.

Su Qin had cleaned the room tidily. The windows were hung with a floral bed sheet that could barely be used as curtains yet the outlook was pretty good.

With the stove on the balcony, she simply cooked a bowl of noodles then went back to the room and began browsing through the newspapers and magazines of the past few months, and began to accept this former era.

There was no WeChat or Weibo yet, and most hand phones were still using the Symbian system, an era dominated by Nokia.

Most hand phones in 2006 couldn’t download the QQ instant messenger, and QQ was still using the WAP web version. If someone sent a message, the page must be refreshed before it could be seen, which was far less convenient compared to a few years later.

Hence, the paper media was still in its thriving period in this era. Thus to know the recent news, just read the newspaper.

Su Qin spent four hours completely browsing through a month’s worth of newspaper and the fashion weekly of the past three months, and also re-accepted the fact that she has been reborn back in 2006.

In the following weeks, Su Qin would go to the bookstore to buy some high school revisions on her off-days. Every night after dinner, she would begin to revise and write down some test questions based on her previous memories.

If there were some points that she couldn’t remember, she would take note and rush to the phone booth to call Meng Sisi and ask her.

She had taken into careful consideration that if she could not directly take Yunyang High School’s admittance exams, she would then go look for her junior high school’s class teacher and return to the former school, where she would take the high school exam with the third year junior students.

Her junior high school grades were good, so there shouldn’t be a major problem for her to return to school and take the exams again.

Su Qin’s two most important tasks at present: revision and to earn money.

**********

The clothing store business was getting better after Su Qin worked here. Her image was pretty good and in order to attract customers for her lady boss, she wore the clothing in the store.

Clothing store assistants in this era were far less enthusiastic compared to many years later.

She brought out the service level of those shop assistants many years later, so that customers could be exposed in advance to the wonderful experience of ‘buying clothes is seventh heaven’.

Wearing a very simple white T-shirt with its loose hem tied up around her waist revealing her slender waist and the popular flared-bottom pants, she looked slim and fashionable.

Standing at the door, Su Qin attracted many female customers.

When the passing-by female customers saw her, they would come in to take a look at the clothes. Without doubt, Su Qin wouldn’t let those incoming customers go. With her previous lifetime shopping experiences, she would emulate the enthusiastic phrases used by those shop assistants and highly compliment those customers who came in.

The lady boss, who was sitting and watching at the counter, stared dumbfoundedly at Su Qin who was greeting customers outside the store. She thought she was an honest unsophisticated little girl when she came for the interview but didn’t expect this girl to be eloquent to this level?

Su Qin would call those younger women pretty ladies; while those middle-aged women, Su Qin would sweetly call them Sister. No matter how apparently ample the clothes look on the body, Su Qin could always compliment them like the flowers.

“Sister, you certainly wear the right clothing that truly showcases your temperament and looks slim. See, these pleated puff-sleeves just cover your arms and the flared jeans are a little comfortably loose, coupled with the white bleaching, it presents a kind of highlighted shadow effect on your legs and from afar, wow, your legs are twice as slender as usual ah. If you don’t believe me, stand back and look in the mirror again.”

The 40-year-old aunty stood back, and sure enough, she looked very slim from a distance. The pleated puff-sleeves covered her flabby arms while the ‘highlighted shadow effect’ also made her elephant legs not so beefy.

The aunty happily paid without even bothering to haggle the price.

Before she left, Su Qin asked for her phone number and QQ messenger account, saying that she would recommend a new style to her in the future.

[Translator’s rambling: Not too sure if some of the terms translated are accurate. Do pardon me if there are any errors. ]