Yan Yan - Chapter 17

Chapter 17 – Forty Thousand
Su Yan didn’t expect her silly Baitian’s mouth to be so fast, and she felt annoyed in her heart. ‘Why didn’t I tell him not to say so much in advance?’
If her parents knew that she had been staying at a male friend’s house for the past few days, they would definitely keep asking questions, and maybe they would misunderstand that there was an improper relationship between her and Bai Xingfan.
“How did he tell you?” Su Yan asked her mother with doubt in her heart.
“He said a big package would be mailed to our home, and if he is not at home, let us check it carefully. And it is a bear,” Li Xiang replied.
Su Yan: “And then?”
Liu Xiang: “Then he went out, saying he was going to buy a cage for his bear.”
Su Yan: “Nothing else?”
“No, that’s all he said.” Liu Xiang looked worried. “Yanyan, he won’t raise bears at home, will he? This is not going to work! Whether we support him or not, the property manager will definitely not agree to it. Bears are so dangerous that they must not be kept as pets.”
“Hahaha. Mom, he is not going to raise a real bear. It’s a toy one, a figure like the things in his room.” Su Yan couldn’t stop laughing after hearing her mother’s words. ‘Sure enough, this silly Baitian has not revealed too much news.’ She breathed a sigh of relief in her heart.
“Oh, that’s a big teddy bear?”
Their mother didn’t have any understanding about those building-block bears, so she just referred to all building-block bears as “teddy bears,” the big ones being big teddy bears and the small ones being little teddy bears.
Su Yan smiled and nodded. “Yes. It’s that kind of big teddy bear.”
Liu Xiang said helplessly, “He already has so many bears, and why does he need more? If he adds more, no one will be able to enter that room!”
Su Yan shrugged. “What to do! Your son likes them.”
“It’s a waste of money. By the way, he said that this bear is very valuable, and it costs tens of thousands. How could he accept such an expensive price? He can’t take such expensive things from others. Why didn’t you stop him? ” Liu Xiang was annoyed.
‘Judging from the current market situation, ordinary building block bears cost 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. As this was a limited edition one, it would be more expensive than ordinary ones.’ Su Yan pondered for a while before replying to her mother.
“Why didn’t I stop? I told him several times that he couldn’t take it. Who knew that he promised me at that time and let people send express delivery behind my back?”
She had been thinking about how to repay Bai Xingfan for days, and now another favour had been added to it.
‘Surely, Bai Xinglan will cry his heart out after learning the truth.’ Su Yan felt sorry for him.
“When Su Zhan comes home, I’ll talk to him. How can he accept such an expensive thing? I really don’t know what he was thinking,” Liu Xiang said with a frown.
Su Yan continued unconvinced. “You are used to him! Anyway, you don’t have to scold him; he has already accepted it, so you can’t let him return it.”
Liu Xiang: “Why can’t he return it?”
Su Yan: “Then you just wait for your son to cry, make trouble, and hang himself.”
Liu Xiang: “…”
Liu Xiang knew very well about her son, so she couldn’t ignore her daughter’s words.
Su Yan said again, “When you scold him, grandma will scold you, saying that you are bullying her precious grandson.”
“Then what should I do? How can we allow him to take this kind of expensive thing?” Liu Xiang couldn’t think of another idea.
Su Yan thought for a while and said, “Don’t worry about it; let me solve it. I’ll transfer money for that bear.”
Although she had already made up her mind not to contact Bai Xingfan again, she really didn’t want to owe him so much. So she took her phone and sent a WeChat message to Bai Xingfan. [How much is that bear?]
Liu Xiang: “Yanyan, then do you have money? If not, Mom will give you some.”
Su Yan put down her phone and nodded. “Don’t worry, I have enough money.”
Because Su Yan was a screenwriter whose income was not very stable, her mother was often worried that she did not have enough money to spend. In fact, the money she had earned from writing scripts was completely enough to spend. Although she couldn’t make much money, it was enough to cover her daily expenses.
“How about…you also go to take the civil service exam?” Liu Xiang pursed her lips and couldn’t help but say, “The position is secure.”
Su Yan responded without hesitating, “I just like my current job. I won’t take the exam.”
“I know you like it, but working for the government is a good job. Qianqian has been admitted to the civil service.” Liu Xiang sighed once more.
” …”
Su Qian was Qianqian’s real name; she belonged to her uncle’s household and was two years younger than Su Yan. Grandma also liked her a lot. In their grandmother’s heart, Su Zhan ranked first, and Su Qian ranked second, while she was at the bottom.
Her uncle and aunt were also very interesting, as in order to prove that their girl was the best, they didn’t hesitate to tramp over other families’ girls. They frequently stepped on Su Yan.
Su Yan realised what was going on after hearing her mother’s words. “The couple came to show off to you again.
“The admission notice arrived yesterday,” Liu Xiang said in an irritated tone. “How could that couple’s stinky behaviour be held back? They have announced it to the whole world.”
Su Yan: “Don’t talk to them!”
“I don’t want to speak to them either, but isn’t your grandma’s 70th birthday coming up soon? When the whole family comes that day, there will definitely be a lot of nonsense. Maybe your grandma will add fuel to the flames. Huh, that old lady, we mother and daughter are not pleasing to the eyes.”
Liu Xiang had long-standing grievances against her mother-in-law, and she couldn’t bring herself to tell her husband or son about them; she could only grumble back to her daughter.
“This old lady is a complete white-eyed wolf,” Su Yan said angrily. “How can she forget who has been caring for her for so long? She still has such a soft spot for her younger son. Has she forgotten how they treated her and us back then?”
Her father and her uncle were the only children her grandma and grandfather had during their lifetimes. When Grandpa passed away, her grandma was in her thirties. She never remarried and raised the two children alone.
Her uncle, Su Jianye, settled in Dongfu earlier than her father, Su Jianan, but he never proposed to take his mother to live in a big city. Until Su Yan’s father and mother established a foothold in Dongfu, she and her grandmother lived in their hometown, which was located in a rural area.
When her father and mother went to work in Dongfu, Su Yan was only two years old. The couple worked hard. First, they worked at a construction site, and after saving a little money, they opened a small restaurant near the construction site. Because they sold food at an affordable price, they were welcomed by many workers on nearby construction sites.
After selling boxed lunches for more than two years, they were able to save more money, so they built a small house near the university town and shifted their restaurant there. As it became famous among university students, the couple made a little fortune after some time.
In the third year of opening the restaurant, the couple bought a small car and returned home during the Chinese New Year.
After seeing that his elder brother was doing well in the city, Su Jianye begged his brother to take him to the big city with him. Su Jianan couldn’t refuse his younger brother’s request because of their mother’s strong request, so he took his younger brother and sister-in-law to Dongfu.
Su Jianye and his wife, Chen Baihui, started out as part-time workers in the restaurants of their brother and sister-in-law. Su Jianan and Liu Xiang paid them a lot of wages, but who knew that they had raised white-eyed wolves? That kind of harmony only lasted for half a year. Half a year later, a new restaurant opened opposite theirs, and the owners of the new restaurant were Su Jianye and his wife, Chen Baihui.
Only then did Su Jianan know that Su Jianye went back to his hometown behind his back, asked their old mother for the 20,000 yuan that Su Jianan had given her, and then opened a restaurant opposite to grab business with them.
Su Jianye and his wife were cunning, and they quickly robbed most of the business from his brother’s restaurant.
Su Jianan and Liu Xiang were very annoyed by such backstabbers. Seeing that the restaurant’s business was getting worse and worse, they had to find another way out, so they resolutely sold the restaurant.
Afterward, Su Jianan became a used-car salesman, selling used cars from dawn to dusk. Liu Xiang became a full-time wife because her son was old enough to go to school, so she could no longer follow her husband around like before.
A family of three lived together in a small rental house in Dongfu City for three years. During this period, Su Jianye and his wife had already bought a house in Dongfu with a loan and then began to show off everywhere.
Thankfully, the heavens had eyes, and Su Jianan became wealthy because of his hard work. In reality, because of his good vision and wit, he was the first to recognise the sizable market for online second-hand automobile transactions. He was fortunate enough to be alive throughout the period of the emergence of e-commerce. He soon started a used automobile trading business after gaining his wife’s backing and investing all of his savings in the family. Then, as the times changed, he gradually evolved and expanded.
He made a full payment on a house in Dongfu in the third year following the company’s founding and waited another year to decorate the new home before inviting his daughter and his elderly mother to move in.
But Su Jianan learned a lot from a pitfall; this time he resolutely ignored his younger brother’s begging, and he didn’t care about his old lady’s swearing; no matter what, he would never be Mr. Dongguo again.
From that day on, Su Jianye and his wife hated their brother and sister-in-law.
Both Su Yan and Su Zhan knew about these past events, so they hated their uncle and his family.
Even though Mrs. Su was aware of these facts, she still favoured her youngest son. She lived with the eldest son and ate and drank there, and she was looked after by the eldest daughter-in-law every day. Despite this, she frequently chastised the eldest son and daughter-in-law for being cruel to their own brother.
Su Yan was furious as she continued to consider the situation. “If she loves her youngest son so much, why does she have to live with us all the time? Let her go to stay with his younger son and younger daughter-in-law.”
“Be quiet; don’t let that elderly lady hear you,” Liu Xiang said, terrified and hastily covering her daughter’s lips. Liu Xiang sighed, murmuring, “There’s nothing I can do about it. Can I really send her to your uncle’s house, knowing how they will treat her? She is so old…” Although she didn’t like the old lady very much, she couldn’t let her be mistreated.
Liu Xiang thought of something again and reminded her daughter. “Also, your uncle and his family will come to celebrate Grandma’s birthday in a few days. Then no matter what they say, don’t be angry; just bear with it; otherwise, the old lady should be endless again.”
Su Yan didn’t want to cause trouble, but well, everyone has a bottom line. After thinking about it, she replied, “I will bear it if I can, but if they go too far, I can’t bear it.”
Before Liu Xiang could continue, Su Yan cut her off, saying, “Mom, I’m really sleepy now. If you have nothing to do, go out and let me sleep for a while.”
“Why do you sleep in broad daylight?” asked Liu Xiang.
“I’m tired,” said Su Yan.
“Hmm, then come down and eat dumplings. They are your favourites.”
“Well, okay!”
Su Yan once more fell asleep, and after taking a nap, she picked up the phone.
Bai Xingfan had not replied.
She felt lost and got annoyed after some time.
More than a week had passed since she last used her phone. She checked her phone and saw condolence messages sent by her friends. Then she put the phone on the table beside the bed and closed her eyes to go to sleep. After a few seconds, she felt something under her pillow, so she got up to check. Under the pillow, there were two bundles of money. From the thickness of a bundle, it should be 10,000, for a total of 20,000.
‘Sure enough, it’s my mother.’ Her mother often did this, always worried that she would not have enough money to spend and suffer.
Although Su Yan was not short of money when the money was in front of her, she didn’t have the courage to refuse, so while being moved that only mothers were good in the world, she put the money in the first drawer of the bedside table while spurning herself and, at the same time, thinking she would buy two bracelets for her mother on Mother’s Day.
When the phone suddenly vibrated, she was lying on the bed. She reached for her phone and turned it on. It was not from Bai Xingfan, but a message reminding her to recharge her phone. Su Yan sighed and recharged her phone with 200 yuan, but she didn’t put it down because she was looking up the price of the building block bear on the Internet. Bai Xingfan didn’t answer her, so she had to check it herself.
‘Kaws02, minimum, forty thousand? A teddy bear, forty thousand? Su Zhan, you prodigal son!’ Su Yan was so angry that she pounded on the bed.
When she transferred the money to Bai Xingfan, her heart was bleeding.
A few minutes later, Bai Xingfan finally replied. [“Miss Su, what does this mean?”]
Su Yan gritted her teeth and typed. [“The money for that bear!” ]
Bai Xingfan: [“What?”]
‘Can’t you understand the literal meaning?’ Su Yan was wondering and then glanced at the conversation above, and she typed again. [“The money for the bear that you bought for Su Zhan.”]
End of chapter 17