Chapter 15: How About We Sleep Together!
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Song Yi: “…”
Without a moment’s hesitation, she retorted, “Of course not.”
She had long since stopped taking Xie Yu seriously. The reason she had agreed to follow Shang Chen to his posting was simply that, as she had said before, big cities offered more opportunities for business.
Shang Chen stared intently at Song Yi, not missing the slightest change in her expression. After a long while, he said in a low voice, “If that’s the case, then there’s even less need for an IOU.”
Song Yi: “?”
Her head filled with question marks. “What do you mean?”
Shang Chen crumpled the IOU into a ball and tossed it into the dustpan. “Since neither of us is getting divorced, what difference is there between my money and yours?”
Song Yi was speechless. “That’s not the same.”
“How is it different?”
Song Yi’s lips moved. When she met Shang Chen’s dark, inky eyes, the words at the tip of her tongue suddenly refused to come out. “Forget it. I’ll just consider it your investment. Once I make money, I’ll give you a share.”
She had originally wanted to say that she and Shang Chen were merely roommates, but saying that aloud would make her seem rather cold and ungrateful.
Shang Chen simply said, “We’ll talk about it later.”
Song Yi did not argue with him further. She returned to her room and began working through the first-year middle-school exam papers.
To other people, it seemed that she had merely been out of school for a month because of summer vacation. Only she knew that thirty-five years had passed in between.
She had no idea how much of what she had once learned she still remembered, so she bought every exam paper from the first year of middle school through the second year of high school to test her abilities.
Strangely enough, once she opened the papers and began answering the questions, the solutions would emerge in her mind of their own accord.
What was going on?
Why did she know the answers?
Unwilling to give up, she worked through a set of second-year middle-school papers and found that the result was exactly the same. A few questions were more difficult, but as long as she calmed herself and thought for a while, she would know the answers. Even the methods of solving them would appear clearly in her mind, step by step, without the slightest omission.
Song Yi’s initial surprise gradually turned into astonishment. After finishing the third-year papers, she marked them herself against the answer key. Apart from composition and English, she scored above ninety in nearly every subject.
Mathematics was slightly worse. Out of a total of 120 points, she had managed only 100.
She then took out the second-year high-school papers. Unlike before, this time she knew the answers clearly to far fewer questions—only about half of them.
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After finishing everything and marking the papers, she found that her results were average. Aside from Chinese and politics, which she had done fairly well in, her scores in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and English had only barely reached passing.
Seeing the result, Song Yi felt both pleased and worried.
She was pleased that she would not have to start reviewing from the first year of middle school. Otherwise, she would have needed at least two or three years of study before she could take the college entrance examination.
What worried her was that her second-year high-school grades were so poor. To hope for admission to a good university next year would be nothing more than a fool’s dream.
It seemed she could only hire a tutor for extra lessons. There was still more than a month before school began. If she studied with a tutor for half a day every day and worked hard at night, her grades should improve by the time the new term started.
Once she had made up her mind, Song Yi put everything away and went to bed.
She and Shang Chen were now sleeping in separate rooms. Shang Chen slept on the army cot in the study, while she slept in the master bedroom.
Just now, she had told Shang Chen to return to his room while she went to sleep in the study.
Shang Chen had refused. Not only had he refused, he had blocked her with a single sentence.
“Either we sleep in the same bed, or I sleep in the study. You choose.”
What else could Song Yi do? She had said no, then fled in embarrassment.
Watching her retreating figure—flustered yet graceful—Shang Chen could not help curving the corners of his lips.
&
The next day, after breakfast, Song Yi informed Shang Chen and took the hair accessories she had made the day before to the department store.
She had thought about it the previous day. The people likely to buy hair accessories would be pretty female students and other young women.
It was summer vacation, so the students were all off school. There was no point going to a school, so she had set her sights on the department store instead.
Anyone who could afford to shop at a department store had at least a little money to spare, and young women made up more than half the customers. Selling there could not possibly be a mistake.
When she reached the entrance, she looked around, then walked into a nearby household and greeted the owner with a bright smile.
“Ma’am, hello. Do you happen to have a spare table? Could you lend me one?”
When Wang Shufen looked up, she saw the pretty and delicate Song Yi and asked in confusion, “What do you need to borrow a table for?”
Song Yi shook the cloth bag in her hand. “I want to set up a stall and sell hair accessories. Don’t worry, I won’t borrow it for free. I’ll pay you fifty cents for the day. How does that sound?”
Wang Shufen’s eyes lit up. “Fifty cents? You’re not joking?”
Song Yi immediately took out the money and handed it to her. “Of course not. I can pay you in advance.”
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The proprietress accepted the money, her face breaking into a delighted smile. “Little sister, just tell me where you want the table, and I’ll have my husband carry it over right now.”
Song Yi pointed toward the entrance of the department store. “Just set it up there. Thank you, ma’am.”
She was sweet-tongued, addressing Wang Shufen as “sister” every other sentence until the woman was positively beaming. Not only did Wang Shufen lend her a table, she also gave her a chair for free.
When she saw that the table was dirty, she even brought over a clean rag and scrubbed it three times.
“Little sister, use it for now. If anything comes up, just call for me. I’ll come and help.”
Song Yi thanked her sweetly. Noticing that the proprietress had tied up her hair with nothing but an elastic band, she selected one of her hair accessories and gave it to her.
“Thank you, sister. This will suit you perfectly. I’m sorry to trouble you. Please take this hair accessory as a gift.”
Wang Shufen could hardly believe it. “This hair accessory is so beautiful, and you’re just giving it to me?”
Song Yi smiled with her lips pressed together. “Mostly, it’s to thank you for helping me. Besides, I made it myself, so it isn’t worth much. As long as you don’t mind it.”
How could Wang Shufen possibly mind? This hair accessory was prettier than any she had ever seen, and the workmanship was exquisite. Most importantly, she had never seen a style like it before. Overjoyed, she said, “Mind it? Of course not! It’s so lovely—how could I dislike it? Thank you, little sister. You’re such a kind girl.”
Song Yi smiled. “I’m glad you like it. If anyone asks about it, could I trouble you to recommend me?”
Naturally, doing business meant attracting as many customers as possible. The more customers there were, the greater the chance of selling the goods.
On the surface, giving Wang Shufen a hair accessory seemed like a loss. But as long as Wang Shufen introduced her to a few customers, selling just one item would cover the cost of the gift.
Wang Shufen immediately thumped her chest and promised to do so. As soon as she returned home, she eagerly redid her hair and put on the new accessory.
Her husband saw her constantly staring at herself in the mirror and could not help scolding her. “It’s barely morning, and you’re already admiring yourself in the mirror. Why aren’t you getting to work?”
Wang Shufen spat toward him and turned the back of her head in his direction. “Do I look any different?”
Xu Yong noticed the hair accessory at a glance and could not help praising it. “Where did you get that? It actually looks pretty good.”
His wife was only average-looking, but she had beautiful hair. With the accessory holding it up and a pretty dress to complete the look, she suddenly looked rather charming.
If it had not been so early in the morning, he might even have felt like taking his wife off somewhere to indulge in the sort of activities best left for nighttime.
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