Chapter 228: The Path Grows Brighter

Chapter 228: Chapter 228: The Path Grows Brighter

Perhaps because it was his first good sale of the day, the owner broke into a grin.

"Ma’am, you’re a straight shooter and an honest person. I’ll add another twenty to round it up to nine hundred and fifty. I’ll get you the cash right now!"

Yao Yuzhen’s nose stung, and her eyes immediately reddened.

"Th-thank you..."

It was the first time she’d been treated with such warmth since leaving the Shen Family.

But in the end, it was all thanks to the old heirloom she’d brought from the Shen Family.

Seeing her eyes well up, the owner offered some genuine words of comfort.

"Everyone has their ups and downs. The important thing is to keep moving forward! Things will get brighter as you go."

A lump formed in Yao Yuzhen’s throat.

She could only nod, unable to utter a single word.

The owner deftly wrapped the cash in red paper, folding it into a neat square.

"There’s a credit union just around the corner. You’ll have peace of mind once it’s deposited."

Sniffling, Yao Yuzhen thanked him again.

She deposited the entire nine hundred and fifty yuan into the bank without touching a single cent.

She still had a little left of the money Shen Zhenwu had given her earlier.

She had been hospitalized before the Lunar New Year, and the hospital had refunded a small amount when she was discharged.

After moving into Ruan Yongxing’s apartment, she didn’t have to pay rent.

She later found a job and, working on and off, managed to save over a hundred yuan.

She had been working for the past six months, but the restaurant hadn’t paid her for last month and was holding back this month’s wages as well. However, her room and board were covered. She only had to buy a steamed bun for breakfast and pay a little for utilities, so she could get by on ten or twenty yuan a month. This allowed her to save about twenty yuan each month.

Unfortunately, Ruan Xinxin had borrowed a good portion of it over the last few days.

If she were to rent her own place, the money she had now would last a year at most.

She now regretted not taking the apartment offered by her work unit back then.

If she had just gritted her teeth and accepted it, would she be in this situation now, struggling to even find a stable place to live?

Back then, she had been swept up in the moment, pouring her heart and soul out for Ruan Yongxing. And for what?

The only person moved by her actions was herself.

She wiped the corners of her eyes and stood up, deciding to have a look around.

She needed to see if she could find a suitable job and a new place to live.

After all, she had to move out of Ruan Yongxing’s apartment as soon as possible.

Yao Yuzhen wandered aimlessly for half the day, crossing several streets and scanning the "Help Wanted" signs on the glass doors of half a dozen shops.

However, she hardly saw any formal, printed notices.

After riding a bus for a few stops, it suddenly dawned on her that for years, all her energy had been focused on Ruan Yongxing and his daughter.

Then, right by the side of the road, she spotted Song Yao.

Her baby bump was already visible, and she was sitting on a small folding stool.

Yao Yuzhen quietly slipped behind the crowd, watching Song Yao greet passersby.

A middle-aged woman sat beside her, helping pass items and collect money.

Yao Yuzhen had never seen this woman before.

But one look at the woman’s eyes and nose—a spitting image of Li Hanchen’s—and Yao Yuzhen immediately knew who she was.

’That’s probably Song Yao’s mother-in-law.’

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were running a small stall, selling various little trinkets.

Yao Yuzhen stood in the back, and it wasn’t long before she saw something.

She saw Song Yao’s hands overflowing with cash, so much she couldn’t even count it all.

She watched intently from her hiding spot in the crowd.

The two of them then turned and entered the state-run canteen on the corner.

The canteen wasn’t crowded, and the air was thick with the steam of hot food and the smell of soy sauce.

Yao Yuzhen stood outside under the shade of a tree.

She watched as Song Yao picked up her chopsticks, lifted a large, glistening piece of braised pork,

and placed it in her mother-in-law’s bowl. The meat glistened like amber under the light.

She stared for a few seconds, swallowed hard, and silently turned to leave.

Completely unaware that someone had been watching her, Song Yao was asking her mother-in-law with a grin.

"Mom, doesn’t this pork taste better than when we make it at home?"

Wei Guilan nodded.

"It’s delicious! The restaurant’s stoves are much more powerful, so the flavor is richer. It’s just not the same! They stewed it so thoroughly, and it’s practically dripping with juice when you take a bite."

Before she had even finished speaking, Song Yao tried to give her another piece, but Wei Guilan quickly covered the rim of her bowl with her hand.

"No, no, I’m really full! You eat, you eat. You’re carrying a baby now, so you need the nutrients. The baby is growing!"

"At my age, if I eat too much, I’ll get indigestion at night and won’t be able to sleep properly."

"You eat! Go on!"

But no matter how much Song Yao insisted, she wouldn’t budge.

Then Song Yao had an idea. While pretending to get a piece for herself, she swerved at the last second and dropped two more pieces into her mother-in-law’s bowl.

"If you don’t help me eat, how am I supposed to finish all of this?"

"Besides, one portion is only two yuan. With what we earned today, we could buy a hundred of these and still have money left over!"

"Don’t tell me you’re afraid I can’t afford it?"

Wei Guilan shook her head, a little bashful.

"Back home, we were lucky if we got to eat meat twice a year for the holidays. I never dared to dream of eating it every day... Now that I’m with you two, it really feels like I’m dreaming."

Song Yao replied with a smile.

"We didn’t get this just for you. Brother Chen and I were both craving it, so just think of it as you keeping us company. Don’t overthink things so much."

Wei Guilan could only agree.

"Mm-hmm..."

She agreed out loud, but her heart still felt a jolt.

"Song Yao, you’re really amazing!"

she said, putting a large piece of pork in Song Yao’s bowl.

"I never even dared to dream of a good life like this."

Her gaze rested on Song Yao’s face, her expression gentle and slightly dazed.

"How is your mind so quick? Who else could have come up with an idea like this?"

She spoke slowly, her tone measured.

"Sigh... If you hadn’t ended up with the Song Family back then and had been able to study properly at home, you might have gotten into a university by now..."

As she finished speaking, her fingertips lightly touched her own empty left wrist.

An old digital watch used to be there, but after it broke, she never got a new one.

Wei Guilan sighed, sincerely thinking it was a shame.

But then again, she thought, if none of that had happened, Song Yao might never have met her son.

But even so, her heart still ached for the girl.

Song Yao paused mid-chew.

"Maybe," she said.

’After all, this wasn’t the real world,’ she thought. ’It was a world constructed within a book.’

’The author decided everyone’s fate with a stroke of the pen, and every character, protagonist or not, had to follow their script.’

Song Yao had long expected that sooner or later, someone would try to horn in on her business.

But she never, ever expected that the first person to try and compete with her would be her own biological mother.

When Yao Yuzhen passed by the stall that day and saw how briskly Song Yao was selling her hair clips and bracelets,

her heart skipped a beat, and an idea began to form in her mind.

’Maybe... I should give it a try?’

’After all, I know how to make those little trinkets, too.’

’I come from a line of artisans. My ancestors did this for a living!’

’How old is Song Yao, anyway?’

’For her skills to be this good, she must have inherited the talent from the Yao family!’

Yao Yuzhen had a neighbor secretly buy several items from Song Yao’s stall for her.

She took them home, took them apart, and studied them carefully.

It didn’t take long for her to figure out the techniques involved.

After all, she had grown up running around a silversmith’s shop, practically raised on the smell of soldering flux.

She could tell with a single glance which parts were soldered and which were bent into shape.

The day she returned, Ruan Xinxin, to her surprise, had already cooked some noodles

and was bringing a bowl over to greet her.

"Mom, where have you been?"

"Have you eaten yet?"

"Let me get you a bowl. I’ll even add an egg!"

But what was the real story?

While she had been out, Ruan Xinxin had turned the apartment upside down.

In the end, all she’d found were a few old clothes and some pairs of discount shoes.

There wasn’t a single valuable item to be found.

Ruan Xinxin thought back to what Yao Yuzhen looked like after she was released from prison.

Before, she had just assumed Yao Yuzhen didn’t wear any jewelry because it was inconvenient for work.

Only now did it hit her: it wasn’t that she didn’t want to wear any... it was that she truly couldn’t afford to!