80s Transmigration: The Young Widow's Hustle to Riches

"Lin Lan..." Yang Liying covered her face and wailed.

Lin Lan gently patted her shoulder and comforted her softly, "Go ahead and cry. You’ll feel better after you let it all out."

After a good, long cry, Yang Liying felt a weight lift from her chest. She took out a handkerchief and wiped her face, a little embarrassed. "Thank you, Lin Lan. I feel much better."

"Mhm!" Lin Lan said warmly. "Take good care of yourself. When you’re better, come by my place for a look. I just got a lot of nice new clothes in. Xiangyang also got some watches—imported ones! You can see which brand you like and pick one out."

Yang Liying nodded repeatedly. "Okay, I will."

When Lin Lan got home from Yang Liying’s, Wu Shufen went into her room and came out with a thousand yuan. "Little Lan, your older brother delivered some specialty goods from the mountains after you left. This is part of the money for the house. Your dad said to pay you back some of it now and give you the rest after the New Year."

Lin Lan looked at her. "Mom, didn’t Dad say he wanted to expand the pig farm? Why is he thinking about paying me back now?"

Wu Shufen stuffed the money into her hand and smiled chidingly. "Your dad and the others are going to the river to haul stones to build up the pig farm. That won’t cost much."

Lin Lan nodded. "If it’s not enough, just ask me for more!"

The mother and daughter came out of the room, took the red beans and large white beans from the steamer, and began to mash the red beans into paste and peel the skins off the white beans.

Wu Shufen remembered the electric iron Lin Lan had brought into the house and asked, "Little Lan, is that an iron in your bag?"

Lin Lan nodded. "It’s an electric iron. I’d have forgotten if you hadn’t mentioned it. I need to ask Woodworker Li to make a couple of ironing boards tomorrow."

Irons back then weren’t like modern steamers. You had to sprinkle water on clothes to iron them, and for woolen fabrics, you had to place a damp towel over the garment to protect it from the heat.

Otherwise, it was easy to ruin the clothes, and an inexperienced person could leave scorch marks all over them.

Thinking about the several storefronts Lin Lan had renovated, Wu Shufen looked at her with concern. "I’m not worried about anything else. I’m just worried the policies will change again..."

"Mom," Lin Lan said, grasping Wu Shufen’s hand. "Don’t you worry. I had Dongzi look into it. As long as each shop hires two people, we won’t have any problems."

Wu Shufen shook her head. "How can I not worry? Have you forgotten what happened to Landlord Xu from your aunt’s production team?"

Lin Lan actually had no memory of it, so she just smiled and shook her head. "I forgot."

"Better to have forgotten, then!" After a moment’s thought, Wu Shufen added a warning, "Just remember to be careful. Don’t expand your business too much, or you’ll attract unwanted envy."

Lin Lan nodded. "I’ll be careful."

Before the mother and daughter could finish making the yellow soybean paste, Lin Yuezhen returned home with two large baskets, and the three of them got busy working together.

In the courtyard, Wangcai started barking. "WOOF! WOOF!"

"Who is it?" Lin Lan walked to the kitchen doorway and saw a weasel-faced, middle-aged man with a satchel standing at the gate. "Who are you looking for?"

The man craned his neck, his eyes darting around the courtyard as he smiled. "Miss, I buy live chickens. Do you have any to sell?"

Lin Lan gave him a flat look. "No." ’This guy is bad news,’ she thought. Remembering what Lin Guoliang had said about a chicken thief, her guard went up.

The man looked at Wangcai, who was snarling and barking at him relentlessly, and gave an awkward laugh. "You’ve raised this dog well."

Lin Lan didn’t silence Wangcai, instead saying coldly, "You should leave. We don’t have any chickens for sale."

"Fine, if you don’t have any." The man pulled his head back and left.

Wu Shufen came outside and looked at Lin Lan. "Chickens are more expensive here than in the countryside. Why would someone be trying to buy them here?"

Lin Lan agreed that something was off. "He’s probably a chicken thief, casing the place."

Wu Shufen agreed. Lin Lan closed the courtyard gate and went back to the kitchen to continue making pumpkin pastries.

Once the pumpkin pastries were finished and packed into bamboo baskets, Lin Lan checked the time and said to Wu Shufen, "Mom, I’m going to pick up Little Douzi."

Wu Shufen smiled. "Oh, you’re really going to get him?"

"I’m a grown-up, so I have to keep my word. Otherwise, he won’t trust us anymore," Lin Lan said with a smile as she put on her gloves and wrapped her scarf around her neck. "I’m off now!"

Lin Lan rode her bicycle to the school gate just as the final bell rang. Children poured out of the entrance like a flock of sheep released from their pen.

Little Douzi ran out with his little backpack on. When he saw Lin Lan leaning against her bicycle and smiling at him, he waved and ran over. "Mama, you really came to get me!"

"Are you happy?" Lin Lan reached into his bag, pulled out his scarf, and wrapped it around his neck. Smiling, she patted the rear seat. "Sit back here. It’s too windy up front."

Little Douzi nodded. "I’ll climb on myself." With that, he used the support bar for the rear rack as a step and scrambled on.

Once he was settled, Lin Lan asked, "Did you tell Brother Kai that Mama was picking you up?"

"I did. Brother Kai is on duty today, so he still has to clean the classroom!"

"Alright, here we go." Lin Lan got on the bike and started pedaling.

Little Douzi wrapped his arms around her waist, rested his head against her back, and began to happily hum a tune. "Little, oh little boy, off to school with a bookbag on my back..."

Listening to his cheerful song, Lin Lan smiled happily too. "You’re this happy just because Mama came to pick you up!"

"Mhm!" Little Douzi said, fiddling with Lin Lan’s braid. "Mama, after you left, I thought about you every single day. I missed Uncle Xiangyang, too."

A sweet warmth filled Lin Lan’s heart. "Mama missed you too. I rushed back as soon as I finished stocking up on goods."

Little Douzi’s eyes crinkled into a smile. "On Sunday, I went to the Eucalyptus Forest to help sell pastries. I even taught my auntie how to do the math."

Lin Lan laughed. "Oh, my! My son is so capable!"

Little Douzi pressed his lips together, hiding a grin. Then, as if remembering something, his little brow furrowed. "Mama, Dandan came looking for me. He said his mom is suing his youngest uncle. He also said his great-grandma was crying in secret, and that he doesn’t like his own mom."

"Mama, why is Dandan’s mom suing his uncle? And why doesn’t Dandan like his mom?"

Lin Lan didn’t know how to explain it to him, so she just shook her head. "Mama doesn’t know either. When you’re older and have learned more, you’ll understand."

Little Douzi nodded. "Okay! Can we go to his youngest uncle’s house on Sunday to see his great-grandma?"

"Alright. On Sunday, Mama will take you to see her."

After crossing the Shiqiao Bridge, the mother and son turned onto a tractor path. Up ahead, they saw a crowd gathered in front of a courtyard, from which heart-wrenching wails could be heard.

The gawkers were blocking the road, so Lin Lan squeezed her brakes, put a foot down to dismount, and pushed her bicycle forward. She saw Li Guizhi in the crowd and tugged her sleeve. "Sister Li, what’s going on?"

"Sigh," Li Guizhi lamented. "The Su family’s little grandson has been taken. They said he was just playing by the gate, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone. They’ve searched everywhere and can’t find him. All the men from the team have gone out looking for him."

The image of the chicken-buyer flashed through Lin Lan’s mind. "Have they reported it to the police? This afternoon, did a monkey-faced man come to your house asking to buy chickens?"

Li Guizhi shook her head. "No, he didn’t!"