Chapter 25

Monday arrived in the blink of an eye - it was time to go get the marriage certificate.Chen Meilan first changed into her pretty blouse and shorts, about to head out, when she saw Yan Zhao dressed in an olive green uniform with all the buttons fastened, holding his hat in his arms, looking at her. After a moment's thought, she went back and changed her shorts to long pants.

It wasn't that she wanted to inconvenience herself, but rather that he already stood out enough on the street. She didn't want to become another target for everyone's stares.

They still had to send all the children next door, asking Qin Yu to watch them as previously arranged.

"Oh, Meilan, quick, look at the newspaper. The Sanbao Paint Factory is looking for a child to be in their newspaper ad. Do you want to enter your Zhaodi?" Qin Yu said, waving a copy of the Xiping Evening News.

Ningning was dressed especially prettily today in a puffy skirt and plastic sandals. She came over to pull on Zhaodi, saying, "The newspaper says to send in a photo, and the factory will choose the prettiest child to be in the paper. They'll even pay! Let's go take photos together and see who gets chosen, okay? What if our village produces a child star?"

Now Hua Country had many private enterprises, with all sorts of products emerging. But not everything sold well - after all, everyone had products at similar prices. They had to engage in price wars, ensure good quality, and be able to attract people.

Advertising in newspapers, running ads, and finding spokespeople to sell products - all of this was just beginning now. S~eaʀᴄh the NôᴠeFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Chen Meilan took the newspaper and looked at it, seeing it was for a paint factory. After some thought, she decided against it.

In those days, there was no concept of formaldehyde levels. Most paint factories had formaldehyde levels that far exceeded standards. It was uncertain if Zhaodi would even be chosen, but even if she was, Chen Meilan didn't want her daughter advertising for a paint factory.

What if that paint factory's formaldehyde levels were too high?

In the home renovation market of the 1990s, how many people had died from toxic paints with excessive formaldehyde?

"Never mind, I won't enter Zhaodi," Chen Meilan said.

Qin Yu pursed her lips and asked in a low voice, "After spending a few days together, what do you think of Yan Zhao? We married into the village late and haven't met him, but I asked around about his reputation in the village. Why do so many people shake their heads when they talk about him?"

He had just moved into the nouveau riche's courtyard, and his ex-wife was occupying his family's courtyard in the First Team. The villagers were bound to gossip about Yan Zhao, just not in front of Chen Meilan.

What was his character really like? And he had two sons. Once the marriage certificate was signed, there would be no going back.

"He's quite good," Chen Meilan said with a smile.

Looking back at Yan Zhao in his crisp uniform, standing outside and constantly checking his watch, Qin Yu quickly said, "Hurry and go get your certificate. I'll take care of the children."

Seeing Little Lang still wanting to follow, Qin Yu pulled him back, saying, "There's 'Uproar in Heaven' on TV today. Want to watch?"

Sun Wukong?

What child doesn't like that? All the kids rushed into the house at once.

Getting the marriage certificate was just a formality - take a photo and get the certificate.

"What a rare, beautiful couple. Come, let's take a photo first. Face the camera, good... Oh, Officer, would you like two extra copies of the photo? It's only five yuan more per copy, to keep as a memento." The civil affairs office was now doing side businesses, making money from extra photo prints.

Yan Zhao took out a wallet with the characters "August First" on it - something issued by the military.

But when he opened it, Chen Meilan glanced inside and saw only two ten-yuan notes, one five-yuan note, and one two-yuan note. This was all the money the man had on him.

Getting the certificate cost 9 yuan, and with two photos it would be 19 yuan.

Men all care about face. For getting the marriage certificate, he wouldn't ask for her money.

But this man was now penniless because he had given all his money to his ex-wife.

Chen Meilan immediately said, "We don't need them."

"We do," Yan Zhao said.

Yan Zhao took out twenty yuan and gave it to the staff member, who gave him one yuan in change. Now there was only a pitiful 8 yuan left in his wallet.

Yan Zhao didn't give Chen Meilan the two extra photo prints either, but tucked them into his wallet along with the change.

He had to keep the marriage certificate too, because today Yan Xishan was going to the police station. Taking the marriage certificate and household registration book together, without needing Chen Meilan's "Homestead Transfer Certificate," he could transfer the house into Chen Meilan's name.

"Alright, the certificates are printed," the staff member said, handing them over with both hands, showing extra respect because Yan Zhao was a police officer. "When you leave, treat your wife to a nice meal."

A nice meal?

Yan Zhao could barely make ends meet.

"Well then... see you tonight," Yan Zhao said, noticing the bus arriving. He pointed at Chen Meilan: "You get on the bus first."

Chen Meilan boarded the bus and looked back to see Yan Zhao crossing the street to the other side.

The police bureau's Jindong Road branch was just across the street.

Couldn't he at least wave goodbye, or show her the photo? The marriage certificate was in his hands, and Chen Meilan had no idea what she looked like in the picture.

But never mind. She had exactly 23,000 yuan in her bag - the equivalent of ten years' salary for a department store clerk. Since Yan Zhao had agreed, she needed to go exchange it for an even larger sum.

After getting off the bus, Chen Meilan headed straight for the postal savings office.

It was her most vivid memory from her past life - there was a bond called Capital Petrochemical that would drop to its lowest point in a few days. But due to national policy support and market rescue efforts, it would rebound dramatically within days, rising by 29 percentage points. That was the historical peak of bond returns in all of Hua Country.

At the time, Chen Meilan had seen the news in the paper about the country supporting the oil industry, and had suggested Lu Jingyu buy some.

Needless to say, Lu Jingyu's immediate response was: "Meilan, a woman is still a woman after all, with limited vision. Big decisions should be made by men. This time I've decided - we're not buying."

He arbitrarily picked several others, which all ended in bankruptcy.

From then on, Lu Jingyu found excuses to argue with her, always saying it was because she hadn't tried hard enough to persuade him back then.

Bonds had to be bought at the post office. Just as Chen Meilan finished buying the bonds and turned around, she bumped into a woman.

It was Yan Bin's wife, Song Huaihua.

Yan Bin was the police officer who had helped Chen Meilan handle the Hu Xiaohua case.

Song Huaihua had a rustic name and was also a rural woman. She had taken over her father's job and was now the director of the Jindong Road post office. Though just the director of a small post office, when Lu Jingyu was about to make his fortune and had taken on a big renovation contract without startup capital, he tried to borrow money from Song Huaihua. He pestered her many times, but she never lent it to him.

It was Chen Meilan who, hearing that Song Huaihua was from Yanguan Village, used the hometown connection even though they didn't know each other. She brought her three children to the post office to plead, and Song Huaihua took pity on Chen Meilan and finally granted the loan.

It could be said that Song Huaihua was the fuse that ignited Lu Jingyu's fortune. Without Song Huaihua, Lu Jingyu would never have become wealthy.

But later she inexplicably jumped into a well. No one knew the exact reason.

"Oh, isn't this Meilan from the Seventh Team? What, come to deposit money?" Song Huaihua, on her way home, had to pass by Meilan's house and had seen her before, so she said with a smile, "I'm Yan Zhao's second sister-in-law. My name is Song Huaihua. We're family now."

"I wanted to buy some bonds, just to try it out," Chen Meilan said.

Just this ordinary statement made Song Huaihua explode: "You bought Capital Petrochemical? I really like Capital Petrochemical too, but my Yan Bin is such a blockhead. I just wanted to play around with one month's salary and he wouldn't even allow that."

Seeing Chen Meilan buy 23,000 yuan worth at once, Song Huaihua suddenly became worried: "You bought so much. Won't Yan Zhao be angry?"

The teller at the post office counter was a man. Because Chen Meilan often came to deposit money, he knew her and chimed in: "Director Song, you know her too? That's the ex-wife of the nouveau riche from our Yanguan Village. She just got divorced, so she must have gotten half of the nouveau riche's assets. She's got plenty of money."

Poking his head out from behind the counter, the teller looked curious: "Hey, I heard that back then it was because you were too fierce that the nouveau riche..."

"You've got it wrong. It was because the nouveau riche liked to meddle too much, so I beat him up and then divorced him," Chen Meilan stared at him, enunciating each word.

"It's good you divorced. A woman like you is better off single. What man would dare marry you?" the teller said with a laugh as he filled out the bond form.

Song Huaihua put her arm around Chen Meilan: "What are you saying, Xiao Wang? Who says no man would dare marry a woman like this? She's my sister-in-law now. We're family."

The bank teller was stunned for a moment, then immediately slapped herself: "I have eyes but failed to recognize Mount Tai. Director Song, please don't be angry, I was just joking."

In any era, men, especially unremarkable ones, have an unprecedented confidence in themselves and an unprecedented disdain for women.

If we were to listen to them, how could we even live?

Song Huaihua had always felt that her judgment was better than Yan Bin's. Inspired by Chen Meilan's carefree attitude, and since it was payday, she took out her wallet, pulled out five large bills, and said, "That's right, the worst that could happen is a divorce. This is my salary, why shouldn't I make my own decisions? I'll buy 500 yuan worth too."

Currently, Capital Petrochemical's bond yield was only 6%, but in a few days, the government would intervene to support the market, and the peak should reach 31%. This was the second stock Chen Meilan could remember from her previous life after listening to Lu Jingyu talk about stocks many times, and it was also the strongest dark horse in the entire history of bonds.

Not wanting to be too greedy, she planned to cash out when it reached 29%, wouldn't that still earn her four or five thousand?

Song Huaihua found a moment to tell Chen Meilan: "You probably don't know, but Yan Zhao's ex-wife Zhou Xueqin is now living in our First Team area. She's with a man who does home renovations, and I heard they bought government bonds a few days ago and made a lot of money."

"That's good," Chen Meilan said.

Zhou Xueqin, reborn and together with Lu Jingyu, was making money hand over fist.

"That man has two children who are quite ugly, and he has a bad temper, but Zhou Xueqin has a really good personality and is very nice to those two kids," Song Huaihua thought for a moment and added, "Oh, right, I ran into them early this morning. Zhou Xueqin was taking the little girl to some kind of advertising selection. She said if they win, the little girl could become a child star."

Qin Yu had mentioned in the morning that a paint factory was looking to select a child for an advertisement.

But if Song Huaihua hadn't brought it up again, Chen Meilan might not have remembered.

In her previous life, several large billboards were erected all over Xiping City, featuring a round, chubby little boy sitting in a puddle of paint, with paint all over his mouth and hands. Because the child was so cute, it was said that the paint brand sold exceptionally well.

At the time, she remembered someone saying that the child was Yan Zhao's younger son.

Even after many years, Chen Meilan could still recall the image of a big-eyed, adorable child eating paint. Thinking carefully, wasn't that Little Lang?

However, Little Lang later fell ill, and the city even organized a fundraiser to help with his medical treatment. Chen Meilan had donated money herself.

After saying goodbye to Song Huaihua, Chen Meilan went home.

Leaving the post office, crossing a street led to Yanguan Village. At the narrow entrance of the village, there was a grain store on one side and a small shop on the other, along with places like tailor shops.

In the evening, this area would turn into a row of night markets.

Not seeing Zhaodi, Little Wang and Little Lang were gathered around a red three-wheeled cart with a large refrigerator on it, surrounded by balloons.

The balloons all had "Coca-Cola" written on them.

It was the time when Coca-Cola was pushing into the Hua Country market. These small tricycles selling Coca-Cola were everywhere on the streets, selling wherever they went. People would drink on the spot and leave the bottles behind.

A bottle cost forty cents.

The Coke bottles were made of glass and weren't supposed to be taken away, but because the bottles were so beautiful, some people would try to sneak them away when the vendor wasn't looking.

Little Wang was watching over a group of children, shouting whenever someone tried to take a bottle: "You can't take the bottles away, put them back quickly!"

"Damn it, you motherless little bastard, who are you to tell me what to do?" a child grumbled, reluctantly putting down the glass bottle he had intended to take.

The vendor immediately rewarded Little Wang with a bottle of Coke: "Good job, young man. Keep watching for me, and this Coke is yours."

Little Wang grinned, and when the vendor opened the bottle, he just quickly licked it once before giving the Coke to Little Lang: "Drink up."

All the children from the village, especially the older boys, glared at Little Wang, looking at him as if he were a great traitor among enemies.

Little Wang, feeling guilty for aiding the "enemy," kept his face flushed red.

From time to time, when he saw someone's bottle still had a bit of Coke left, he would turn his back and secretly pour it into his own mouth.

His gluttony seemed quite severe. If not addressed at the root, he might end up like Zhaodi in her previous life, never able to change.

Chen Meilan watched from afar. In her heart, she preferred Little Wang a bit more, mainly because of his personality.

As for Little Lang, he was still young and not her own child. As a woman, it's impossible to genuinely love someone else's child. After all, even the scent of your own child is something you like, while it's never truly possible for a woman to really like someone else's child.

But just then, Little Lang suddenly saw her across the street and ran over with his Coke: "Mommy, have some Coke."

His little white face was beaming with an especially bright smile.

Chen Meilan's heart suddenly trembled. Seeing the child's familiar smile, she abruptly remembered that in her previous life, Little Lang had developed a blood-related illness and eventually had to use a dialysis machine.

The 1990s were a time when substandard paints were rampant.

Formaldehyde, benzene, ammonia - if manufacturers didn't handle these properly, they could easily trigger blood diseases.

Could it be that Little Lang's illness actually started from endorsing the paint?

Just as a motorcycle was passing by, Chen Meilan quickly stepped forward and snatched the pale little boy off the ground.

If Lu Jingyu's second daughter were to endorse the paint advertisement in this life, would Little Lang avoid getting sick?

...

Meanwhile, at the Jindong Road Police Station.

When Yan Zhao arrived, Yan Xishan was already in his office, surrounded by a group of police officers, chatting and smoking jovially.

Despite the pile of cases and the need for inspections at various large factories in the surrounding area, without the leader assigning tasks, they were just smoking, drinking tea, chatting idly, and shooting the breeze.

Yan Xishan's Zhonghua cigarettes were the favorite among these police officers.

"Oh, Captain Yan is here. This is our city's big shot, Comrade Yan Xishan. I heard you're from the same village, you should know each other, right?" Deputy Captain Lv Liang stood up and offered Yan Zhao a cigarette as well.

Yan Xishan, sitting on Yan Zhao's desk, also smiled and said, "Let me put it this way, Yan Zhao and I have been brothers since we were kids, sharing the same pair of pants."

"Really? That's great, then I don't need to introduce you further. Xishan, if you need any help in the future, just go directly to Captain Yan. He'll be more effective than me," Lv Liang said with a double meaning.

The Jindong Road Police Station was a peculiar place. Local leaders were ineffective, and leaders transferred from other places couldn't last three days before leaving.

Actually, according to convention, after the previous captain of the inspection team left, Lv Liang, as the deputy captain, should have been promoted, especially since he had been in the deputy position for seven or eight years.

But instead, Yan Zhao was parachuted in from above, and Lv Liang still had to remain as deputy. At the time, it nearly made him spit blood with anger.

Coal bosses like Yan Xishan had large trucks under their command, transporting day and night, not slowing down when passing through villages, recklessly charging through, terrifying nearby residents. The coal mines operated around the clock with little protection, putting workers' lives at constant risk. His illegal factory also polluted the surrounding environment. All of these issues should have resulted in fines and orders for rectification.

Before Yan Zhao arrived, it was Lv Liang who gave them the green light, allowing them to make money hand over fist.

Now that Yan Zhao was here, Lv Liang probably wouldn't be able to make the money he used to.

But as a leader, he still had to curry favor. Seeing that Yan Zhao didn't smoke, he made him a cup of tea instead: "Leader, please have some tea..."

Yan Zhao glanced around: "I've never bought tea leaves. Is this your tea?"

"Brother, I brought it for you. High mountain oolong from Taiwan, have a taste," Yan Xishan said proudly.

"No thanks," Yan Zhao sat down and asked everyone, "Nothing to do, right?"

The group looked at each other lazily and scattered.

"Go out and do push-ups, two hundred each. If you still have free time after that, do horse stance for forty minutes each."

In a flurry, the group of police officers suddenly became energetic and all scurried out.

"Lv Liang, take the tea leaves with you too." Yan Zhao sat behind his desk and opened his work notebook: "Xishan, you go out first as well. Wait for me for a bit, we'll handle the property transfer later."

Lv Liang took the tea leaves out and handed them to Yan Xishan, whispering, "Xishan, this 'Living King of Hell' is extremely stubborn and is in cahoots with Chief Sun. He's really hard to deal with. Do you have any confidence in bringing him down?"

Yan Xishan gave him a knowing look: "Leave it to me."

Lv Liang glanced at the tall man with the stern face and glared, "What's the big deal? Becoming a colonel at 28? I heard his father has connections in the capital. That promotion must have been pulled off through connections. If you ask me, no matter how strong his connections are, they won't work here in our Jindong Road. Sooner or later, someone will get rid of him."

Yan Xishan didn't know if someone would get rid of Yan Zhao, but he knew his own wife had already been taken by Yan Zhao.

His heart bleeding, he patted Lv Liang's shoulder and said, "Hurry along now. Leave everything to me."

Who could have known that Yan Xishan had cried half the night before?

He vividly recalled the incident when he had hit Zhaodi.

At the time, Qi Dongmei and Hu Xiaowei had joked together, saying that his "seed" must be weak since he couldn't produce a son. He had been drunk, and when he got home, Zhaodi had clung to him, calling him "Papa." Irritated, he had kicked Zhaodi. He still remembered how the child, after being kicked, had cried and apologized to him. The child had done nothing wrong, yet kept kneeling on the ground, crying and saying sorry.

If Chen Meilan hadn't hit him over the head with a stick at that moment, he might have kicked the child again.

He regretted it now. He deeply regretted it. He wanted to fight for custody of Zhaodi, feeling he had wronged his daughter.

But Lv Liang had advised against it.

Yan Zhao was the captain of the inspection team. Wasn't it suicidal to go against him?

Yan Xishan's coal factory, coal mine – Yan Zhao could easily find issues with any of them if he investigated.

He was covered in lice, metaphorically speaking.

But now he had two coal mines and connections within the police. As long as they could merge with other small coal pits, they would monopolize coal production in the entire Xiping City. And Shaanxi Province had the largest coal reserves in the country. They would eventually become fabulously wealthy in the entire Hua Country.

So not only did he have to transfer the house ownership happily, but from now on, he had to drag Yan Zhao into the mud to make big money together.

Today, Yan Xishan not only had to transfer the house but also corrupt Yan Zhao, all the way to the bottom.

Doesn't want tea or cigarettes?

That was all just a façade of false integrity. Yan Xishan had bribed so many officials, he was familiar with their true nature. The forthright ones accepted bribes openly, while the cautious ones seemed to refuse but actually wanted more.

So after the property transfer, when Yan Zhao went out to watch the inspection team boys do push-ups, Yan Xishan sneaked back upstairs. This time, he carried a large envelope containing exactly one thousand yuan, intending to place it in Yan Zhao's work notebook for him to find when he returned.

However, when he opened the work notebook, which had a leather cover, he saw a small plastic case on the title page. Inside were two portrait photos of Chen Meilan and Yan Zhao, with a red background. Their heads were close together, with Yan Zhao still sporting that donkey-like face that was unpleasant to look at.

But Chen Meilan had her lips slightly pursed, gazing at the camera with a loving smile, looking exactly the same as she did at eighteen.

Yan Xishan slammed the notebook shut and let out a long sigh: his teeth ached!

Still, he prepared to put the thousand yuan inside. It could be used to buy Yan Zhao's coffin – wishing him an early death by getting hit by a car.

Outside, Yan Zhao was walking and talking with Bureau Chief Sun Nutao as they came upstairs.

"Yan Zhao, your rewards from the Old Mountain frontline have come through. Three second-class merits, one third-class merit, and three excellent performances. There's a bonus of six thousand yuan. Here, take it. We dedicate our lives to serving the country, but the motherland doesn't forget us. This is the reward you deserve. The army asked me to thank you on behalf of the country." Chief Sun said, patting the bright red envelope against Yan Zhao's chest and saluting him.

Yan Zhao took the envelope, looked at its contents, and asked as they walked, "Chief, I've been at the frontline for several years. Coming back, I see prices have risen a lot. I haven't had time to look around. Isn't your wife working at the furniture factory? Could you ask her how much a bed costs these days?"

Wanting to buy a bed?

Others might not know, but Chief Sun was well-informed, as his wife worked in a bed-manufacturing factory in the city.

"Well, that depends on what kind you want. There's the old-style wooden bed, the box bed with storage space, or the most popular Spring mattress beds."

"What's a Spring mattress?" Yan Zhao asked instinctively.

It sounded nice.

Chief Sun waved his hand, "Oh, it's something else. An imported foreign novelty, costs four or five thousand yuan a piece. But they say it's incredibly comfortable. My family's been eating nothing but pickles and rice lately because she bought one of those Spring mattresses. It's like the old saying: 'The oil-seller's wife has her hair done up fancy, but we can barely afford to buy their oil.'"

"Then I'll buy a Spring mattress," Yan Zhao said.

Yan Xishan pocketed his money again.

For any situation, you don't really understand until you're faced with it.

Just yesterday, Lv Liang had asked him for a bed, specifically requesting a Spring mattress, saying that thing moves by itself when you lie on it.

What the hell kind of bed moves by itself? Just for that, Yan Xishan planned to send one to Lv Liang and buy one for himself too.

But hearing that Yan Zhao wanted to buy a Spring mattress to share with Chen Meilan, his hair suddenly stood on end.

Bribe him?

Yan Xishan would rather give his money to a dog than to Yan Zhao in this lifetime.

This money would be better used to corrupt the city bureau leaders. People like Yan Zhao deserved to be taken down; he would never wise up in this lifetime.

Just then, Yan Zhao entered the office and saw Yan Xishan still there. He asked, "You haven't left yet?"

Yan Xishan's face bloomed into a brilliant chrysanthemum of a smile.

"Well, I should let you know, Zhaodi is my daughter now. That name was too ugly, so I changed it. From now on, she'll be called Shengnan, Yan Shengnan."

This time, Yan Xishan really couldn't smile, not even if you killed him.

To hell with Yan Zhao!