Chapter 56: A Year's Change

  Time flies so fast, one year has passed just like that.

  Qiu Ye has finally finished the first grade of elementary school, and the teacher has finally taught all the Chinese phonetics before the holiday. Qiu Ye was sweating for the teacher, this teaching progress is just in time, next year she can finally learn a few Chinese characters.

  This semester's language teacher is a newly graduated teacher, who has no experience in teaching young children who have just entered school, so she was very busy and flustered all year. It's not clear whether she was relieved or holding her breath when she announced before the exam that anyone whose language score didn't pass would be held back to repeat the grade.

  A group of kids were scared and cried all the way home because they would be hung up and beaten by their parents.

  For Qiu Ye, the first grade final exam was not a burden at all. She carried a small school bag and happily ran back home. The students of Shida were also on holiday, which meant that the annual peak season for tea leaf eggs was about to begin, and she had to hurry back home to prepare her money-making pockets.

  As expected, Qiu Ye's final exam results were perfect scores, earning her a letter of commendation from four parents and some material rewards. Then Qiu Ye once again threw herself into her lucrative business.

  This time she can't go to Xizhai market to sell tofu anymore, because there's already a mom there.

  This year, the Qiu family also underwent great changes. Mom and Dad's tofu business was booming, and Dad showed off his talent for doing business. He took advantage of the weekend holidays to visit all the small restaurants in the area and secured the right to supply them with tofu. As a result, Qiu Dad had an extra task every morning - delivering goods. Although he didn't earn as much from this as he did from selling directly to customers, it was more stable. With several restaurants combined, the sales volume wasn't small either.

  Qiu's father specially bought three bicycles in the provincial city to send goods in the morning. One of them was a 28-inch bike for himself, and the other two were converted into tricycles. Every morning, Qiu's father rode the 28-inch tricycle to deliver goods, which saved him a lot of effort and time compared to pushing a cart. When he returned, it was just in time for him to go to work, so nothing was delayed. Then, at around 10 o'clock, Qiu's mother would ride the tricycle to sell tofu at the Xizhai market. The other tricycle belonged to Qiu Ye, who usually lent it to Wang Zhuozi to deliver and collect goods, making things easier for him. Qiu Ye no longer earned money from bus fares, as her tea egg business had grown in scale, with only Wang Zhuozi delivering goods every day, keeping him very busy, so he didn't care about the 80 cents on the bus anymore.

  Qiu Ye had thought about hiring someone, but there really wasn't a good candidate. Tea egg doesn't require much skill, and Qiu Ye was afraid that if she hired someone who didn't take care of the business, it would ultimately affect her own livelihood. So for now, she could only rely on Wang Zhu Zi to work hard. In this past year, Qiu Ye had already given Wang Zhu Zi two raises, and his monthly salary was now 100 yuan. Although it wasn't the highest in this era, among the working class, he was already a top earner.

  Wang Zhuzi started treating Qiu Ye as his closest relative from the moment he received so much salary, vowing to work for Qiu Ye until old age. He made Qiu Ye feel embarrassed, but in fact, it was just a salary allocated according to labor, and unexpectedly earned a lifelong follower, really earning it.

  As the family's income increased, the living conditions of the Qiu family also improved a lot. This could be seen from the dinner table. Originally, they could hardly eat pork once a month, but now, every time Mrs. Qiu came back from setting up her stall, she would bring back something from the market, either pork or pig's feet, and then Zhao Shuyan would cook it for the children to eat.

  Here is the translation:

  Also, staple food was a problem. In the past, every month's grain supply for teachers and staff at Shi Da was fixed in quantity. Rice was limited to six kilograms per household per month, and even if you wanted to buy more, no one would sell it to you. So although rice was cheap, people couldn't eat it often. Since our family's situation improved, my father used his connections (he had been a purchasing officer at the cafeteria) to buy rice from the cafeteria supplier every month at twice the price of what was sold at grain stores. My mother felt a bit heartbroken and thought that eating millet was just as good, but seeing her daughter eat with a mouthful of rice grains, she didn't say anything. It's okay if it's expensive, my parents worked hard for what? Wasn't it all for the two kids to have a better life? If they like to eat it and can eat more, then we'll just provide it for them.

  Qiu Ye also secretly took some for his employees' welfare. Zhu Zi Ge loves to eat rice, usually she would tell him that when he goes to collect eggs, he can take a look and see if anyone is selling rice, he can buy some back. However, the Oil City area does not produce rice, it's almost impossible to get rice from the local farmers' hands, but there are plenty of millet and sorghum.

  Qiu Ye also asked Wang Zhu to buy some food, such as chicken, duck or goose, or newly slaughtered pork, so during this period, neither Wang Zhu nor Qiu's family lacked oil and water.

  This year, Qiu Ye and Qiu Feng have both undergone some changes. Qiu Feng has grown even more robust and tall, his height increasing by another section, it's clear that he will surpass his father's 183cm in the future.

  As for Qiu Ye, she also grew a bit taller and was the tallest in her class since first grade. She sat at the back of the classroom, far from the gossip zone, so it was easy to get along with others that year. Also, Qiu Ye's face had filled out; originally thin and pale, now white and plump, round and rosy, her eyes looked bigger and more attractive. It was unclear whether this was due to improved nutrition, but when she looked in the mirror, she thought she looked much better than before - no longer ordinary. Now she could add an adjective to describe her appearance: cute. This made her happy for a while, proving that women of all ages care about their looks, especially Qiu Ye, who was pseudo-Lolita.

  Qiu Ye, apart from her appearance, also doesn't dare to slack off when it comes to keeping in shape. Every day, she will take out an hour to practice yoga. Although Qiu Ye doesn't know what kind of impact this practice has on her figure since she hasn't developed yet, the impact on her body is still very significant. In this year's time, she didn't even catch a cold or fever once, not even during the coldest winter days when she and her brother went out to sell tea eggs and rice balls. When her brother came back with a runny nose, she was fine. This strengthened her determination to continue practicing, as one's body is the foundation of revolution and must be taken care of.

  That year, the Qiu family also suffered a lot of rumors and gossip. People said that Qiu's family was able to make money easily and didn't work hard at their proper jobs, instead becoming petty merchants who were looked down upon. Their children were also affected, starting to not study well from a young age, and every day after school they would go sell things at the cafeteria entrance.

  Later on, when everyone saw the changes in the Qiu family's situation, they were both envious and jealous, speaking with sour tones. However, their words changed, saying that the Qiu family had become rich, extremely rich. Qiu Yanlin went to the provincial city and brought back three bicycles worth over a thousand yuan. At that time, not many families at the university could afford such a large expense (people thought that if you were willing to spend a thousand, you must have at least ten thousand in your hands).

  Moreover, Old Lady Xiang from upstairs also confirmed that the Qiu family had indeed become rich from selling tofu. Every day they ate meat, and the smell of meat wafted up to their apartment on the upper floor.

  Qiu's mother had also thought of covering up the changes in her family, but the final failure to do so had made her give up. She thought to herself, "You say what you want, spread it if you want, this thing will be known by everyone sooner or later. After a while, when people have new topics to talk about, no one will mention it again."

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