Back to the 90’s-Chapter 2.
Lin Wenjun’s anger surged in an instant. She took a deep breath and gently asked her daughter what had happened.
In reality, it was a very trivial matter. Jiang Ning and Sun Yingying had a quarrel over a small issue.
Before Jiang Ning transferred to this school, Sun Yingying was the most prominent girl. She immediately took the lead in isolating Jiang Ning. Jiang Ning had only been in the class for one semester, and the rest of the children were all from the same neighborhood and had known each other since childhood.
“Xu Rongrong is willing to play with me, but she doesn’t dare to play with me when Sun Yingying is around,” Lin Wenjun’s daughter explained. After class, the two of them would secretly play together outside the classroom.
Jiang Ning held her doll gift box and asked eagerly, “Should I invite her to come to our house?”
“Sure,” Lin Wenjun immediately nodded in agreement. She took her daughter’s hand and headed home. The night breeze blew against them, making her feel as if this were a dream, a dream where she could do what she wanted.
The rented house only had a shared bathroom. After the mother and daughter took a bath, Jiang Ning opened the TV to watch “Brain Challenge.”
Lin Wenjun turned on two electric fans, but the room remained hot. She opened a large wardrobe and pulled out a travel bag from the bottom, following her memory as her husband usually kept money there.
Jiang Ye’s old habit persisted until he was almost sixty; he would bring bags of cash home without bothering to count the amount at the beginning.
On the other hand, Lin Wenjun had never hidden any secret money.
No one in the Lin family believed that Lin Wenjun didn’t have a stash of private money. From Lin’s mother to Lin Wenjun’s sister, it was almost unimaginable for a woman not to have some hidden funds.
However, she indeed never hid any secret money. Starting today, she needed to have her own money.
Nowadays, most families have dual-income earners. Those who can afford to be full-time homemakers are usually wives. There’s hardly anyone emphasizing the value of a full-time homemaker for the family, as if women staying at home means they don’t have to do anything.
Jiang Ye shared this perspective.
“What have you been doing at home every day? Cooking, grocery shopping, and cleaning – aren’t those all done by the domestic helper? What are you tired for?” Jiang Ye proclaimed, believing that having a full-time wife Was something worth bragging about.
“I’m busy working outside, and she enjoys a comfortable life at home. Even the gods don’t have a life like hers,” he proudly declared.
But what was the reality?
Lin Wenjun never had a moment of rest. Even after giving birth to her son, she never had a lazy day, often Was sleep-deprived.
Before starting school, her son engaged in various extracurricular activities—drawing, playing the piano, ice skating, and fencing. Whatever caught his interest, she would enroll him in, spending half a day accompanying him.
After he started school, there was still no leisure time. Since Jiang Ye didn’t like having a live-in nanny, Lin Wenjun woke up at six to prepare breakfast, took her son to school, and picked him up after school.
Her son also had health issues, frequently falling ill during elementary school. Whenever a teacher called, she had to rush to the school to pick him up. There was hardly any time to spare.
Lin Wenjun didn’t want to go through the days of reaching out to Jiang Ye for household expenses again. Even though there was plenty of money at home, Jiang Ye still calculated and budgeted for household expenses. If she couldn’t save on her children’s needs, she would cut back on her own.
She didn’t want to experience those days again!
Jiang Ning was watching TV in the dining room, while Lin Wenjun sat on the bed counting money.
She unzipped the travel bag, revealing stacks of bills, approximately fifty thousand. Including the money in the bank passbook, it added up to three hundred thousand.
At this time, Jiang Ye had just established a foothold in Haicheng. Getting projects was not easy, and the business was challenging. They had just earned their first sum of money and were considering using it to buy a storefront property in their hometown.
If things didn’t work out in Haicheng, the plan was to return to their hometown and open a small shop to make a living.
However, Lin Wenjun knew that Jiang Ye would likely do better over time. The storefront property bought with this money was leased to Jiang Ye’s sister, who had opened a shop. Though it was supposed to be a lease, not a penny of rent had been paid.
They had bought it for eighty thousand, and after twenty years, they only managed to sell it for three hundred thousand—it wasn’t worth much at all.
Jiang Ye’s first real estate investment ended in failure.
The money could have been used to improve their living conditions or to enroll their daughter in a better school. However, it wasn’t until their daughter was about to enter junior high school that Jiang Ye thought about sending her to a good school.
By then, it was too late, and Jiang Ning couldn’t catch up with the students at the better schools. A once lively child became increasingly silent. She told Lin Wenjun that other classmates could play musical instruments, but she couldn’t. Other students had already studied New Concept English and participated in math competitions, but she hadn’t.
In her original elementary school, children who played musical instruments were rare, and she didn’t feel inferior or lesser than others.
However, upon entering junior high school, she discovered that the majority of her classmates could play musical instruments, with piano being the most common. There were also those who played the violin, and even some who played less common instruments like the clarinet or drums.
She became the only one in the class who felt inferior.
Because Jiang Ye hadn’t purchased a house, they continued to rent, and Jiang Ning had to change schools multiple times. In five years of elementary school, she changed schools three times, having to adapt to new classmates and teaching methods each time she moved to a new school.
Her academic performance also worsened year by year.
Lin Wenjun hadn’t thought much about it before, believing that a child’s academic success depended on their own efforts. However, when she began to carefully cultivate her son, she realized how much she had missed and how many things she hadn’t done.
Having a good elementary school education would pave the way for a good middle school. Confidence in a child is nurtured along the way, not by simply sending them to a good school and expecting them to immediately fit in.
Jiang Ning, holding her doll while watching TV, saw the host presenting a cognitive challenge and began to ponder.
“Ning Ning, would you like to learn the piano?”
Jiang Ning turned around, looking at Lin Wenjun with a puzzled expression. Before nodding, she asked, “Is the piano expensive?”
Lin Wenjun felt a pang in her heart. Her eldest daughter had experienced hardship since childhood, always asking if things were expensive before accepting or requesting anything.
“Not expensive. Mom and Dad can afford it,” Lin Wenjun smiled gently and continued, “But first, we need to move to a house big enough to fit a piano.”
And then, find a better school for her daughter.
Lin Wenjun lay on the bed, waiting until late at night for Jiang Ye to return.
He knocked on the door, and Lin Wenjun took a deep breath. Walking to the door and just as she opened it, her husband, Jiang Ye, entered with a strong smell of alcohol clinging to him. He had been out drinking and entertaining clients again.
Despite having consumed alcohol, his mood seemed quite good. “Pour me a glass of water,” he requested.
Lin Wenjun initially didn’t want to bother with him, but Jiang Ye, after making the request, took out a bag and handed it to her.
“What’s this?” Lin Wenjun asked.
“Open it and take a look for yourself,” Jiang Ye said, rubbing his chest as he spoke. Drinking on an empty stomach led to heartburn, and he seemed a bit intoxicated.
Inside was a small box, and within the box was a bottle of perfume with English writing on it. Jiang Ye, with a flushed face from the alcohol, laughed and said, “What’s this… Parisian Night perfume. A friend brought it for me from abroad.”
Lin Wenjun held the perfume box, unable to recall if she had ever owned a bottle like this. Perhaps she had, but she couldn’t remember when she might have lost it.
She poured him a glass of warm water, saying, “I’ll make you a bowl of noodles.”
Cooking noodles for him in the hallway, Lin Wenjun topped them with the pre-bought cooked vegetables. Once the noodles were ready, she brought them in, only to find Jiang Ye already lying next to their daughter, fast asleep.
[If you read 80’s and 90’s novels you’ll find that they often depict characters living in modest one-bedroom apartments, where bathrooms and kitchens were shared among neighbors.]
The sound of his snoring woke their daughter. Rubbing her eyes, she sat up and nudged Jiang Ye. “Dad, you stink!”
Jiang Ye, half-drunk and half-awake, playfully hugged his daughter, teasing her. The girl, frustrated and out of breath, squirmed out of his armpit, exclaiming, “Mom, save me!”
A slight smile appeared on Lin Wenjun’s face as she saw herself in the mirror of the wardrobe. She suppressed her laughter, setting the noodles on the table.
“Get up and eat the noodles; I need to talk to you.”
Jiang Ye got up, washed his face, and felt hungry. The table was filled with alcohol, and there were hardly any vegetables. The aroma of the noodles made his stomach growl. When he saw the cooked vegetables, he lost his appetite.
“Why did you buy cooked vegetables?”
He often attended social events and mostly ate prepared meals. When at home, he rarely liked to eat pre-cooked dishes, preferring homemade ones.
Lin Wenjun didn’t answer him immediately. The dining table was a low one, and she sat down, saying, “I want to change Ning Ning’s school to a good one.”
Jiang Ning, sitting on the bed with a blanket wrapped around her, stared at her parents with big eyes, curious if she could go to a good school and learn to play the piano.
Jiang Ye frowned and sighed, “I’m busy lately. Let’s talk about it later.”
Indeed, he was occupied. Having just completed a small project, he needed to focus on developing the company. The daily social engagements already consumed a significant amount of his energy, leaving him with little time to consider his daughter’s education.
“I didn’t ask you to come; I’ll handle it.” After so many years of marriage, Jiang Ye’s weakness in being more agreeable after drinking was well-known to Lin Wenjun. She deliberately chose this moment to bring it up. “If I can manage it, you can’t disagree.”
Jiang Ye took a few sips of the noodle soup, not believing that Lin Wenjun could handle these matters on her own. Even back in their hometown, she was a timid and shy person. In the city, she didn’t even have friends of her own. What could she possibly accomplish?
Drunk and feeling content after a successful business discussion today, Jiang Ye lay down on the bed, saying, “Do as you please.”
