Chapter 4: Chapter 4 The Wind in Destiny

    Wang Anquan felt like his soul had been hit by a formidable force.

    "Good girls shouldn''t be let down, and bad girls... shouldn''t be wasted?"

    Brother Zhu actually wrote it down in his notes?!

    The bus arrived at its stop, at the neighborhood where Cheng Zhu and Wang Anquan lived.

    Sashaying off the bus, Cheng Zhu disembarked first, quickly followed by Wang Anquan.

    At the entrance to the neighborhood, they said their goodbyes, as their homes were in different directions.

    "It''s four in the afternoon, probably no one''s home," Cheng Zhu thought to himself.

    His family owned a small restaurant, the Yunlai Restaurant, located across the street from the neighborhood.

    The restaurant was small, consisting of just two rooms.

    In those days, private kitchens weren''t yet popular, and the delivery industry was still developing. So places like this little restaurant mostly made money from dine-in customers.

    Cheng Zhu''s father, Cheng Donglai, was the owner and chef of the restaurant.

    Overall, the business was neither particularly good nor bad.

    This meant that although Cheng Zhu grew up without any real wealth, he also never had to worry about food and clothing.

    Cheng had limited skills but never let Little Cheng go hungry.

    Looking back, running a restaurant was quite tough, with the smoke and flames every day, and occasionally dealing with difficult customers.

    "I''ll go home first, change clothes, and take a shower. I''ll head to the restaurant for dinner at five-thirty," Cheng Zhu decided.

    Upon arriving at home, he went straight to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.

    "This hair is so long and such an ugly perm," Cheng Zhu couldn''t help but think.

    During those days, perming hair in the style of a middle part or a four-six part seemed to be the trend. Once high school was over, many students let loose and splurged at hair salons.

    "But this perfect hairline is really something to miss," Cheng Zhu couldn''t help but say.

    Before showering, Cheng Zhu looked for a change of clothes in the wardrobe.

    He searched for a while and found that his trousers were either cropped or so long they dragged on the ground.

    "Oh, I remember now, showing ankles was the fashion at that time. Either wear cropped pants or roll up the trouser legs," Cheng Zhu chuckled.

    He faintly remembered a special method of rolling up the trouser legs to create the look of tapered pants.

    In the end, he picked out a pair of black sweatpants.

    After the shower, he did not rush out but sat at the desk in his room, took out his phone, and checked his total assets.

    "I have a total of 12,312 yuan," Cheng Zhu murmured.

    After the high school graduation exams, his elders would give red envelopes as gifts.

    In Zhejiang Province, people were quite generous with their red envelopes.

    Xu Yun was exactly forty years old, indeed a middle-aged woman, but compared to the image in Cheng Zhu''s memory, she looked much younger.

    "What''s the matter?" Xu Yun, puzzled, stared at her son who was staring blankly at her.

    "Mom, you''re really young. No, I mean you look really young today," blurted out Cheng Zhu.

    "What nonsense!" Xu Yun, usually gentle, furrowed her brow involuntarily and quickly turned to grab a bowl of iced mung bean soup from the fridge for her son.

    This generation of mothers might ask their sons if the food they prepare tastes good, but they rarely ask if they look pretty.

    Likewise, children seldom compliment their mothers on looking young and beautiful.

    Cheng Zhu''s thought was simple; lavish praises on an outsider woman, and she might still regard you as a sycophant. But casually compliment your mom, and truly, she would be happy all day long.

    Today, Xu Yun was unexpectedly flattered by her son''s unconventional praise.

    It took her a while to pretend everything was normal and went to the bathroom, where she bashfully looked at herself in the mirror back and forth.

    At first glance, she didn''t notice anything, but as she kept looking...

    "I guess... there''s a bit?" she whispered to herself, joy spreading at the bottom of her heart.

    Meanwhile, Cheng Zhu sat in his family''s little restaurant, pretentiously sipping the mung bean soup. Soon enough, a little head popped out from beside the checkout counter, and with a roar like a fierce dragon, tried to startle him.

    Looking at the tiny Nezha-like hairstyle, Cheng Zhu pretended to be utterly frightened, and the little girl immediately giggled.

    He picked up the little girl and looked at her round chubby cheeks, her shining black eyes, and the endearing Nezha hairstyle, and felt like he''d been struck by his sister''s cuteness.

    "Little Youzi is only five this year; this is when she''s at her most adorable," he thought to himself.

    He had always missed his sister from this period.

    Cheng Youu at this current age was also the closest to him, extremely clingy.

    Later, when he moved from Hang City to start a business in Wu City, first getting into e-commerce and then live-streaming sales, he was away from his family, seeing Cheng Youu only a few times a year.

    After giving her a few rounds of "lift high" play, Cheng Zhu put her down to sit next to him.

    "Little Youzi, do you want your brother to feed you some mung bean soup?" he asked.

    "Just a moment!" Cheng Youu, small but savvy, raised a hand.

    "What''s up?" Cheng Zhu looked puzzled.

    "Brother, I wanted to ask you something," said the little girl.

    "Go ahead," Cheng Zhu said with a smile.

    "All day today, I was not at home. Did you miss me?" Little Youzi looked up, her chubby face lifted.

    "I sure did," Cheng Zhu responded promptly, in a way that had a double meaning.

    It wasn''t just a day I haven''t seen you; it''s been many years since I''ve seen this version of you.

    Little Youzi immediately placed her small hand over her chest, breathed a sigh of relief like a little adult, and said in a sweet voice:

    "That''s good. I was worried it was just me secretly missing you at the restaurant."