Chapter 1

Mrs. Yang Zhu Yanshu came out of the bedroom already curled her hair, made up, lips smeared with red, wearing a pine needle green cheongsam, draped in cashmere wool shawl, wearing high heels, swaying. When she saw Yang Yuyan in this outfit, she instantly became angry and walked over to her and heavily pointed her finger on her head.

“Come out without putting on your clothes!”

“I baked the quilt!” Yang Yuyan inclines her head away, “It’s heavy and wet, there’s no way to cover it at night!”

Zhu Yanshu: “Let Zhang Ma get it for you, don’t worry about it.”

Yang Yuyan raised her chin towards the kitchen and whispered, “Zhang Ma is making breakfast. Shouting at her complains about me again!”

As mother and daughter were talking, Zhang Ma from the kitchen came out, carrying a tray and said, “Mistress, Second Miss, breakfast is ready.”

Yang Yuyan then stood up and headed for the dining room, being pulled by Zhu Yanshu and pushed back to the bedroom, “Go change your clothes! Comb your hair too!”

Yang Yuyan could only go back to the house, half-covering the door, while changing, she listened to Zhu Yanshu and Zhang Ma in the dining room.

Zhang Ma said, “Amitabha Buddha, big sis isn’t here today, or else we’d have to make another kind of breakfast!”

Yang Yuyan snickered. There were only four women in this house, mother and daughter plus a maid, Zhang Ma. Zhang Ma was handy, she just liked to complain, her favorite complaint was that the three mothers and daughters in this family had completely different appetites for food, and she had to make three kinds of food from morning onwards.

Although Yang Yuyan was young, only seventeen, she had the appetite of an old man, only drinking congee in the morning and eating buns with small vegetables.

Zhu Yanshu, on the other hand, loves yellow fish noodles and has to eat them early in the morning, so Zhang Ma has to rush to the vegetable market early every morning to buy small yellow fish.

The eldest sister in the family, Yang Yucan, however, only eats milk coffee and bread.

Yang Yuyan changed her clothes, gathered her hair behind her head and tied it up, sloppily sort of cleaned up and rushed out, sitting at the dining table to eat breakfast. Zhang Ma has long been congee, small dishes are also placed in a small plate in front of her, two small round fat buns are also set up, this is also outside to buy back. Mrs. Zhang often says: “Just two buns, it’s not worth it for you.”

Look at this!

Yang Yuyan drank a mouthful of congee, tasted the small dishes, and took a bun to slowly nibble. Zhang Ma brought out a plate with only one slice of bread left on it, and put it on the table, asking, “This one is for Yu Cicada, she’s not at home today, so which one of you will eat it? Eat it up so I can buy new ones.”

Yang Yuyan shook her head, Zhu Yanshu didn’t eat this either, and said, “Zhang Ma, you can eat it.”

Zhang Ma: “If you don’t want to eat it, I’ll eat it.”

Zhang Ma took her share and sat down in the living room to eat.

Yang Yuyan saw Zhang Ma go out and whispered to Zhu Yanshu: “Why is Zhang Ma always reluctant to sit down and eat with us?”

Zhu Yanshu: “Zhang Ma is an old school person.”

Zhang Ma is the Yang family’s maid, and although she’s like family with the Yang family’s mother-daughter trio, she still has some small insistence, such as not eating at the same table as the host.

Yang Yuyan stretched her head towards the living room and snickered, “She didn’t eat less then. I see there are still fried eggs!” There were no fried eggs on this table!

Zhu Yanshu pounds her and gives her a warning glare.

Only then did Yang Yuyan get honest.

After breakfast, Zhu Yanshu made up her makeup and went downstairs to play cards. Zhang Ma urged Yang Yuyan to go brush her teeth and wash her face.

“Re-comb your head too! Otherwise, I’ll help you comb it! Little girl, why are you so uncouth!”

Yang Yuyan hurriedly hid back in her house and combed two twisted braids in front of the mirror. Then she didn’t go out and sat on the bed with a book. Not long after, Zhang Ma came knocking on the door.

Zhang Ma: “Teacher Su is here, come out.”

Yang Yuyan had to get up in a hurry, and before going out, she looked again in front of the dressing mirror, before opening the door and walking out.

In the living room, a thin and handsome young man is standing there talking to Zhang Ma.

Zhang Ma: “The living room is all cleaned up and well lit. I’ve brewed tea and have snacks, so take a break if you’re tired of reading. I’ll go grocery shopping and be back in less than an hour. Mrs. Zhang is playing cards on the second floor.”

Zhang Ma gave clear instructions, although polite, but also like a thief, afraid that just this moment of effort Yang Yuyan was bullied.

Su Chunjun kept a gentle smile, and when he looked up and saw Yang Yuyan, he just nodded politely.

Yang Yuyan only knew that he and Yang Yucan were students at the same university and rented the house downstairs from the Yang family. Because of his poor family, he often owed rent. Zhu Yanshu saw that he couldn’t rush out money, and couldn’t kick him out, so he took the opportunity to let him give Yang Yuyan tuition as a teacher.

Yang Yuyan is seventeen years old this year, two years ago a serious illness, lying in the hospital for more than half a year. Originally, the character is gloomy and twisted, after this time became silent, do not like to go out. She refused to go to school again, Zhu Yanshu did not force her, only asked her to continue to read, to maintain the enthusiasm for learning, and after that also for her to ask a teacher to teach her foreign languages.

After Su Chunjun arrived, Zhu Yanshu dismissed all the other home teachers because he could teach her English and Japanese, leaving him as the only one, which can be considered to have saved the Yang family’s wallet from drying up day after day.

Yang Yuyan knew something was wrong from the moment she woke up in her hospital bed two years ago and saw a group of outside doctors and foreign nurses. Originally just a small illness, will stay in the hospital for half a year because she refused to be discharged. Because once she was discharged, she would have to go back to a home she didn’t recognize at all and meet a bunch of relatives she didn’t know.

However, in the past six months, because she refused to leave the hospital, Zhu Yanshu, Zhang Ma and Zhu Yucan came to see her every day, spending money like running water, and they didn’t complain in the slightest. Yang Yuyan’s inner scales gradually tilted.

Especially after listening to Mrs. Zhang tell the story of “Yang Yuyan”, she was more empathetic.

Yang Yuyan’s father’s name was Yang Xuhe, a university teacher, and a famous poet and writer. He and Zhu Yanshu not only classmates, classmates, Zhu Yanshu’s father was also his teacher, the two people love each other, eventually become a couple.

After twenty years of living in love, Zhu Yanshu was busy taking care of his children and family every day, and the little time he had left was given over to mahjong and tenants, so Yang Xuhe found solace in his students, and fell in love with a female student twenty years younger than him, and eventually moved out of the house to build a love nest with the female student.

Yang Yuyan naturally can’t accept that her own father’s new baby mama is not much older than her, and commits suicide by taking pills – but she just messed around with all the medicines in the house, and ended up being dragged to the hospital for a stomach cleansing and enema, and a small touch of the flu and a fever.

How it ended up being her, she didn’t know.

But there was one thing they were the same. She is also because of her father’s affair to commit suicide, but her death should be more solid than Yang Yuyan, she is jumping off a building.

After jumping a hundred times, not only did she not gain eternal peace, but she became Yang Yuyan and had to face another broken family due to an affair. This has to be considered ironic.

As for the mother in her other life, she should be a little more relaxed now.

The mother in the other life was a housewife. Although she also graduated from college and used to have a job, she got pregnant after marrying her father, and that was her.

After she got pregnant, her mother quit her job and hasn’t worked since.

What pissed her off the most was that this wasn’t actually the first time her father had had an affair! As early as when she was still in her mother’s womb, her father had already had an affair! He cheated on her with a coworker, just like he did this time. And the way to deal with her mother and her is also the same, is to stop giving the family living expenses.

That time, the mother committed herself and saved the marriage. She said it was all because of her.

This time, the father cheated again, stopped the family’s living expenses again, and the mother complained about her again.

What could she do?

She didn’t want to drag her mother down and hated her father for having an affair. But she doesn’t feel it’s all her fault either. She neither hated her father nor felt her mother was innocent!

If she didn’t work, she didn’t have an income, she didn’t have money for food, could that be on her? There was no reason why her father should actually have to feed and clothe her for the rest of her life, was there?

Shouldn’t that be up to you!

Before she jumped off, she didn’t even have any attachment to her parents anymore.

Since she was the one who dragged them down, the only filial piety she could give was to stop dragging her down!

As a result, after changing worlds, she met the same family again.

Are all men and women in the world the same after marriage? Do all men have affairs? And women can’t do anything about it?

But Zhu Yanshu is a bit stronger than her mother. She didn’t blame God, nor did she blame her two daughters.

The family wasn’t exactly rich.

Although after she came home, she found out that her family had a building to collect rent.

But the people who came to rent the building were ordinary families, the rent wasn’t much and didn’t go up, they also owed a month or two from time to time, Zhu Yanshu couldn’t really kick the people out, all these families had been living in the building for more than ten years, when they said they were tenants, they were more like neighbors.

Other places like the police station, fire fighting bureau, health bureau, etc., also have to fight to send gifts, three festivals and two birthdays, ice and charcoal respect, this kind of thing she only saw in the history books is now surprisingly still there.

The family’s life can only be said to be able to get by without letting the mother and daughter starve and live on the streets.

At least Yang Yuyan no longer had the thrill and excitement she had at the time when she saw that her family had a building.

As for her refusal to go to school, firstly, it was because the tuition fees were not cheap at all, the cost of uniforms and books was even more exaggerated than in later times, and there were all kinds of social activities that she couldn’t escape from once she was in school.

Secondly, she realized that the textbooks of “Yang Yuyan” were not shallow at all!

At that time, “Yang Yuyan” was only a junior high school student, but she had already started to learn two foreign languages, as well as art classes must learn the piano and violin. In physics and chemistry, the textbooks were in German! She can’t even read it. And she also had to learn the Four Books and Five Classics, all of which she had to be able to memorize.

She refused to go to school no matter what.

At that time, “Yang Yuyan” was also ridiculed and taunted by her classmates at school. After all, Yang’s father was a celebrity who often published articles in the newspaper, and “Yang Yuyan” used to be very popular because of her father, but now she was very poor.

Zhu Yanshu did not force her to go to school.

After hiring a tutor, she no longer insisted that she go to school.

At the end of the year, Zhu Yanshu smiled and said, “Because of Yan Yan, the family got a few hundred dollars more this year!”

Then she really didn’t have to go to school.

Thank goodness!