Rebirth: Growing Up Together

"You actually still remember it. I had totally forgotten about it! Thank you, Xu Cheng!"

She tore open the candy wrapper, put the lollipop in her mouth, and with a look of happiness on her face, she started spinning around again.

Xu Cheng was watching from the side, looking helpless, and you didn't feel dizzy.

"Is it tasty?"

"Yeah, good!" Lin Wanzhou nodded vigorously, then thought of something and jumped in front of Xu Cheng like a little rabbit. He handed the lollipop he had eaten to Xu Cheng's mouth. Xu Cheng could even smell the mango aroma on the lollipop.

"Mom said that good things should be shared. Xu Cheng, let's eat together!"

"Ahem, eat it yourself. I'll read the book for a while and return it to you after school."

Xu Cheng pushed her arm away, climbed onto a chair beside him, and started reading the Sherlock Holmes collection by spreading it flat on his lap.

Lin Wanzhou moved closer to Xu Cheng again, staring at Xu Cheng with wide eyes, then looking at the book, with disbelief written all over his face.

"Wow! Xu Cheng, you are so amazing! You can read books! I can't understand this at all!"

Xu Cheng was helpless. Those who knew knew that this was a kindergarten, while those who didn’t thought he had joined a praise group.

"Xu Cheng, what is this book about? Can you read it to me?" Lin Wanzhou squatted in front of Xu Cheng again, holding his head and looking at Xu Cheng with watery eyes, which made Xu Cheng feel embarrassed.

"It's about reasoning."

"What is reasoning?"

"Reasoning is to skip all the reasoning processes and only explain the starting point and conclusion to the other party. Although this method seems simple and crude, it is enough to achieve amazing results."

Seeing the confusion in Lin Wanzhou's eyes, Xu Cheng explained again, "It's just...if you lose something, I can help you find it through reasoning."

Lin Wanzhou didn't know if he understood or not, his eyes were full of excitement, "Wow! That's amazing!"

Don't mention it, seeing that the future female academic master actually admired him so much, Xu Cheng actually felt a little proud in his heart...

"Xu Cheng, my socks are lost. Please use reasoning to help me find them!" Lin Wanzhou said in a baby voice.

Xu Cheng looked at her feet and saw a pair of small white socks on Lin Wanzhou's feet.

"It's not lost. Isn't it on your foot?"

Lin Wanzhou didn't answer. She sat down on the ground and took a long time to take off her socks. Then she rolled them into a ball and threw them aside, pouting and pulling at Xu Cheng's arm pitifully.

"lost……"

Xu Cheng: …

The abacus beads are falling on my face!

He walked over reluctantly, bent down and picked it up from the ground, "Here, here you go."

"Wow, the reasoning is amazing!"

Lin Wanzhou's face flushed red, and she looked at Xu Cheng with admiration in her eyes, which made Xu Cheng feel embarrassed.

No, I am going to be lost in the feeling of being worshipped by a young academic master...

He suddenly remembered that Kudo Washing Machine's first reasoning was to attract the attention of Xiaolan in the Sakura class. Xiaolan's admiring eyes at that time were exactly the same as Lin Wanzhou's eyes at this moment.

No wonder this guy is obsessed with reasoning...

Lin Wanzhou clumsily put on her socks, but her short arms couldn't reach her feet, and when she managed to put them on, they were still crooked. Xu Cheng had no choice but to squat in front of her and carefully help her put her shiny white socks back on.

"That's good..."

"Eh? You're still taking it off!"

……

In the blink of an eye, school was over and He Ying came to pick up Xu Cheng again.

My mother was obviously in a good mood today. When she came, she was holding a string of candied haws in her hand. She said she bought one when she saw it on the road. It was sweet and sour and delicious. It was crisp and cool when you took a bite in the sunny weather. The children in the next class were so greedy that they cried.

"Chencheng, what do you want to eat tonight?"

Xu Cheng's mind moved, and he asked, "Mom, is there anything happy today?"

He Ying looked very happy, "Mom will be promoted soon, and I will be able to make more money and buy you more toys."

Xu Cheng is a sober person. He knows that even if Baby makes more money as an adult, she will never buy more toys for herself. But she is still happy.

Opportunity at home has arrived!

The so-called mission passed down from generation to generation, the public institution that Xu Cheng had tried his best to get into, was easily assigned to by his mother He Ying as soon as she graduated. The job was at Jinghai Haixing Publishing House.

As a child, Xu Cheng felt that his mother He Ying's job was too hard and he felt sorry for her. It was not until he became a social animal for many years that he came to his senses. Four words were enough to summarize his mother's job:

Paid shit.

As the new century approached, publishing houses throughout the country began to reform their organizational systems. This change brought opportunities to He Ying. Perhaps because she got along well with her colleagues, she was appreciated by her superiors and had a good chance of being promoted to the distribution department as a regional manager.

The distribution department is the sales department in the popular sense, but it sounds better to call it the distribution department in a market economy.

As the saying goes, if you want to make it in life you need power and background, and this is even more true within the system. For an ordinary family like Xu Cheng's, it is a great blessing for He Ying to have such an opportunity!

What’s more important is that after my mom gets promoted and her salary increases, my dad will definitely have more confidence to give it a try.

Save dad in a roundabout way and kill two birds with one stone!

For the sake of his own bright future, Xu Cheng had to help his mother take this step smoothly no matter what.

Lu Xun once said: "Never open champagne at halftime."

He Ying obviously didn't understand this principle. She thought she had secured victory after hearing some news from her superiors, and planned to hold a celebration party at home in the evening. Little did she know that victory was like a dandelion on a hillside...

If the original timeline had been followed, the final result of this incident would have been that my mother would have been quietly squeezed out by the airborne connections because of her "lack of ability"...

The bicycle stopped at Caishikou. He Ying lifted Xu Cheng off the back seat like a chicken, and then took out a huge sum of twenty yuan from her bag and handed it to him.

"Chengcheng, mom is going to buy some food. Go to the delicatessen and buy what you want to eat tonight."

Xu Cheng nodded, walked past the fish stall that smelled strongly of fish, then turned around the meat stall that displayed large pieces of white meat, and casually glanced at the small blackboard in front of the meat stall - raw pork was 4 yuan per pound.

Xu Cheng was shocked. The prices were too shocking!

用猪肉衡量，25年后猪肉按19块一斤来算，那么2023年的4万块钱，才相当于1998年的1个万元户。

Of course… measuring it with a house is a different story.

While daydreaming, I arrived at the door of the delicatessen.

The meat stall and the cooked food stall are very close to each other, just around the corner. There are several large thermos barrels on the stall. The salty aroma of braised meat wafts out of the barrels. There is also a sign in front with the dishes written crookedly on the top - pig head, pig ears, pig feet... and the prices are marked at the back.

"Boss, boss, I want two pig's feet!" Xu Cheng said with a childish face.

He stood in front of the stall, with his head just showing. The middle-aged stall owner in a white apron saw him, stood up, took out two pig's feet from the thermos bucket, put them on a very traditional beam scale, measured them one by one, and put them in front of Xu Cheng as a gesture.

"Little friend, these two pieces of pig's feet weigh a total of one catty and six ounces. Braised pig's feet are nine yuan a catty, and six ounces...sixty-nine seventy-three...six ounces is seven dollars and thirty-three. Nine dollars plus seven dollars and thirty-three, the total charge is sixteen dollars and thirty-three."

Xu Cheng reached into his trouser pocket and was about to take out money when he suddenly felt something was wrong. He counted with his fingers...

Sixty-nine seventy-three...

"My mother gave birth to me."

Chapter 5: What a Powerful Woman

A popular song that anyone could hum was playing at some stall. Standing in front of the delicatessen, Xu Cheng could still vaguely hear the melody of "Wish You Peace."

“Is your income still so low?”

“Are you still paying that much?”

“There are always some unfair things in life”

"Please don't take it too seriously"

“Be more relaxed and live a better life”

"I wish you peace, I wish you peace"

Xu Cheng also wanted to be as carefree as Sun Yue sang in the song. It was only 16 yuan. Twenty-five years later, he might not even bother to argue with the stall owner and would just take out his phone to scan and leave.

But now it is 1998, prices are generally low, my mother only earns 300 yuan a month, and I can go to a roadside Sichuan restaurant and order a plate of shredded pork with fish flavor for only 10 yuan.

This is worth nitpicking about.

You have to be honest when doing business. It is not a good habit to favor others.

Xu Cheng leaned over the stall, tiptoed and said, "Uncle, two pieces of pig's feet are too much. I can't eat them all. Just give me one piece."

The business of two pieces of pig's trotters became one piece. The stall owner grumbled a few words of dissatisfaction, wiped his hands on the white apron with pilling on his chest, took off a larger piece of pig's trotter with tongs and placed it on the chopping board beside him, leaving only a smaller piece on the beam scale, and his hand was still gently pressing down on the object side of the beam scale.

"Little boy, this one is big, weighing nine taels... ninety-nine is ninety-seven... the total is nine dollars and seventy cents." After saying that, the stall owner quickly put the pig's trotter into a plastic bag and handed it to Xu Cheng.

Xu Cheng didn't take it either. He just shook his head at him with a harmless expression on his face.

"Uncle, the 9-ounce piece is too big, I can't eat it either. I want a smaller piece. Please help me change it to that one."

The stall owner frowned, his hand holding the plastic bag suspended in mid-air, and he was stunned for a few seconds before retracting it.

"Then let me weigh it for you again..." The stall owner's voice was obviously much lower than before.

“不用了啊，叔叔。”徐橙一脸阳光的笑道，“刚才不是称过了吗？两块猪脚一起总共算是16块3，这块大的卖9块7，16块3减去9块7等于6块6，剩下的那一块肯定就是6块6了。”

Hearing Xu Cheng's words, the stall owner's face darkened. He knew what he had done, and now he was in a dilemma, as if he was being roasted on a stove.

There were not many people in the vegetable market at this time. The owners of several stalls nearby had already noticed this place and had been watching for a long time with their heads tilted. When they heard Xu Cheng's words, they all laughed out loud.

"When doing business, honesty is the basis!"

"Alas, God is watching what you do!"

Listening to the teasing of other stall owners, the stall owner's face was uncertain. Looking at Xu Cheng's tender face, he was confused. What was wrong today? Could it be that he was tricked by this tiny little devil?

Xu Cheng was quick. He first handed the money to the chopping board, then stood on tiptoe to pick up the "small" pig's trotter on the chopping board. He knew as soon as he lifted it that it was definitely heavier than the "big" one weighed by the stall owner.

"Uncle, please give me some change."

The stall owner then noticed that Xu Cheng had already taken away the other piece on the chopping board, and hurriedly said, "Eh? You kid, bring it back to me! Um... I can't give you change, go buy it from somewhere else, I won't sell it to you!"

The stall owner seemed a little furious. He had been hunting geese all day and finally got his eyes pecked out by a goose. He thought to himself that if he really fell into the hands of this little brat today, how would he survive in this vegetable market in the future? Wouldn’t he be laughed at to death if other stall owners saw him?

As he said that, he walked around the stall towards Xu Cheng, and tried to snatch the thing from his hands without any courtesy. At this moment, a figure appeared in time and stood in front of Xu Cheng.

"I say, comrade, do you still have any shame? How can you have the nerve to bully a child in broad daylight?" The woman stood in front of Xu Cheng and scolded the stall owner in a domineering voice, which immediately intimidated him.

Xu Cheng stood aside, tilting his head, curiously looking at the strange woman in front of him. She should be about the same age as his mother, with a graceful figure and beautiful appearance. She only wore light makeup and had long brown hair draped over her shoulders.

She was wearing a pair of slender black high-heeled shoes, and her round and smooth calves were wrapped in flesh-colored stockings, emitting a vague luster like a cicada's wing. She was dressed in professional black attire, and exuded the temperament of an intellectual lady.

Strong and beautiful, this was Xu Cheng's first impression, but the beautiful face always felt a little familiar...

The woman's words hit home, and the stall owner was embarrassed, but he refused to give in and argued, "What did I do to bully you? It's my own stuff. If I want to sell it, I sell it. If I don't want to sell it, I don't sell it. What's wrong with that?"

Gao Manman folded her hands in front of her chest and said sarcastically with a calm face, "Yeah, don't even mention whether to sell or not. Sixty-nine seventy-three, ninety-nine ninety-seven, this is the first time I've seen a businessman who calculates so well. Aren't you ashamed of making money and putting it into the pockets of children? Could it be that the little conscience in your chest is only worth one or two dollars?"

What a powerful woman...Xu Cheng was secretly shocked.

The stall owner was scolded with a face full of shame and anger, but when he looked up, he saw more and more people joining in the fun, so he took a deep breath, returned to the stall and counted out the change for Xu Cheng, thus swallowing the loss himself.

I was so regretful. My plan didn't work out. I should have just admitted the loss. Why didn't I resist the urge to compete with this kid? If this matter got out, my brand would probably be smashed! After all, the most important thing in doing business is reputation.

"Chengcheng!" Outside the crowd, He Ying hurried over carrying a few black plastic bags. She didn't know what had happened here and was afraid that her son was being bullied.

"Are you the mother of this child?" Gao Manman looked at He Ying and told her the whole story.

"Director Gao, I'm so glad to have met you today." He Ying thanked Gao Manman while glaring at the stall owner, with a protective look on her face, "Old Yang, I've bought things from you several times. Is this how you do business? It's so rude!"

The stall owner smiled awkwardly, quickly cut off half a pound of pork head meat and stuffed it into He Ying's mouth, saying that he was really confused today, and asked you to forgive me...

He Ying didn't say anything absolutely. She and Guang Tongchen were both quite capable. After knocking on the door for a while, the stall owner finally accepted the item, and the stall owner was so grateful that he burst into tears.

Gao Manman saw this, with a hint of admiration in her eyes, and then asked He Ying in surprise, "How do you know me?"

He Ying hurriedly said, "I am He Ying from our publishing house. I have met Director Gao several times before."

Gao Manman suddenly realized, "Oh, you are He Ying, what a coincidence! I just heard Deputy Director Yang mention you this afternoon."

"Really?" He Ying said happily.

"The child's education is really successful. This is the first time I have seen such a smart child. They say that children are the epitome of their parents. I can tell at a glance that Sister He is also an outstanding person."

"Oh, you're welcome."