Shu Jianyang's house was located near the clubs. The area back in '92 was nowhere near what it was in 2019. This was not a good area, and fights broke out here all the time. Shu Yan felt that her look was very safe and that nothing bad would happen to her.
"This area is unsafe. Let's have Xiao Fei and another guy be with you." Shu Jianyang was worried. Rape was not the only thing to worry about here. Most of the time they were after money. One couldn't be too safe.
Xiao Fei was the young man who ran to get her last time. The other man was a well-known muscle under Shu Jianyang. They were both the left- and right-hand man of Shu Jianyang.
"Thank you." Shu Yan was only tough on the outside. She was a single woman who had just transmigrated into a character in a book. She hasn't even had a chance to adjust herself before she had to clean up after the original owner's mess. Facing off a mean character like Ye Zhiqiang, it'd be lying to say she wasn't scared. She had only done so well so far because she was backed by Shu Jianyang.
"Third Brother, I have another favor to ask." Shu Yan really had nobody else that she could turn to, so she had to shamelessly ask Shu Jianyang for help again.
"Go ahead." Shu Jianyang had already given her his words that he'd help her out. He wasn't going to stop now.
"My two kids are still back in the village. I worry that Ye Zhiqiang will use them as bartering chips when push comes to shove." She wasn't as worried for Ye Tianbao; she was worried more for her daughter Ye Jingjing. Who knew what Ye Zhiqiang could do to her?
There was certainly that possibility. Shu Yan has asked Ye Zhiqiang to leave everything behind. Who knew what he would do when he was pushed too far?
"You want the kids with you?" Shu Jianyang thought about it for a little bit and said, "Okay. School hasn't started just yet and Second Brother should still be home. I'll have him bring the kids to town. I have a very close brother who has his own car. It won't be too much of a problem."
Just like Shu Jianyang, her second cousin Shu Jianbo was also quite well known. But, their reputation was quite the opposite. Shu Jianyang was known for being a character, while Shu Jianbo, on the other hand, was known to be a well-respected man and the principal of a grade school.
He was the only college graduate of the Shu's and also the only college graduate in the village. He could have chosen to stay in the capital city. Even at the province level, he could have any jobs that he wanted, but he chose to return to his hometown to be a teacher.
Lingan Township wasn't too poor of a village, but it wasn't great either. No teachers really wanted to teach there. An entire township with several hundred of students had a total of eight teachers, four of them were junior high graduates. One could gather the quality of the teachers there. When the township learned that a college student wanted to come back to teach, they've made him the model and the vice principal directly. As soon as the old principal retired, he became the principal.
Under Shu Jianbo's hard work, Lingan Grade School now has a new building and also a few more teachers. At least, they now have a different teacher for each grade.
Academic was the easiest and fastest path to success for someone in poverty. Everybody wants to go to college and get assigned to a good unit and live off of the government.
So everybody, regardless if they have a school-age child, has deep respect for Shu Jianbo.
Relatively speaking, Shu Jianyang had it better thought out than Shu Yan. If anyone else went to pick up the children, the elders would definitely ask a lot of questions, but not so much if it was Shu Jianbo.
Shu Jianyang, however, did not tell Shu Jianbo the whole story. Shu Jianbo was not without his own weaknesses. From Shu Jianyang's perspective, Shu Jianbo had been in the academics for way too long and was very stuck in his ways of thinking. He also cared a lot about reputation. He would never agree to Shu Yan getting a divorce. Had he known about it, never mind about picking up the children, he would first lecture them and then tell that to the elders back home.
"Second Brother, it's me. Shu Yan, Second Uncle's daughter has a favor to ask. Yes, Second Uncle's daughter. Nothing much. Ye Zhiqiang had been very busy with his work lately, and Shu Yan had been sick and couldn't go back to pick up the kids. Since school was about to start in a couple of days, they didn't want the kids to miss the start of school. As such, can we trouble you to pick up the kids and bring them into town? I have a brother who has a car and can take them to the city." Shu Jianyang made up a very convincing story in no time flat.
"Ye Zhiqiang was so busy with work that he can't even come to pick up his own kids? Hand him the phone, I need to have a talk with him. How could his business be more important than his kids?" said Shu Jianbo, displeased.
Shu Jianyang almost rolled his eyes. What went through his second brother's mind was never the same as what went through his. He was just about to say something when Shu Yan took the phone from him.
"Hi, Second Brother. It's me, Shu Yan." Shu Yan waited for him to figure it out before she continued, "Yeah, there was some issue with some supplies on site, and Zhiqiang went over to the factory directly to negotiate. That was a few provinces out, and I couldn't really get a hold of him. If I have any other options, I wouldn't have thought to trouble Third Brother. I should be the one to go pick up the kids, but I was just really been sick these last couple of days. Second Brother,I don't want to ask my parents. You know how it was between my parents and Zhiqiang's parents. They fight each time they see each other..."
"Alright, I will go pick them up in a bit." Shu Jianbo took a look at the time. It's 1:30 PM and there's one more bus leaving at 2:30 going into town. He should have enough time if he left soon and took his motorcycle.
"Look, Third Brother, I have been troubling you for all sorts of matters." Shu Yan felt bad about that.
She couldn't count on the original owner's own parents or her brothers, but the cousin that she wasn't closed to ended up giving her so much help.
"We're family. Don't say such a thing. Go and get some rest. Your kids will be here soon." Even though Shu Jianyang didn't own a lot of clubs, he still has a lot of matters to attend to on a day-to-day basis.
It only took some 10 minutes of motorcycle ride from the Shu's village to the Ye's village. When Shu Jianbo arrived at Ye Zhiqiang's house, the two children were playing in the courtyard.
When they heard the sound from the motorcycle, the two children look up with curiosity. Old Mrs. Ye wouldn't let them go over to the Shu's, so they didn't recognize this uncle of theirs.
They might not know him, but old Mrs Ye did. She put down what she was working on and greeted him with passion.
"Aunty, please don't trouble yourself. I came as a favor to someone else. Zhiqiang was too busy with his business, and my cousin has been sick the last couple of days. School is about to start in the next couple of days. and it so happened that I have a friend who has a car and is heading into the city. We thought we could trouble him to take the kids into the city." Shu Jianbo didn't take a seat. The bus stop was about 20 minutes from where they were. He worried that they'd miss the last bus if they didn't hurry.
"Neither Zhiqiang nor his wife had told me about this. This is so sudden," mumbled old Mrs. Ye. She didn't care if the granddaughter left, but the grandson was like her lifeline. Even dinner didn't taste as good if she didn't see him for a day. Once he left, she wouldn't be able to see him till the end of the year.
Old Mrs. Ye grumbled and packed up their stuff at the same time. Ye Jingjing didn't have a lot of clothes; everything of hers fit into one bag. Ye Tianbao, on the other hand, had much more – all sorts of clothes, shoes, toys, snacks. He had two full bags plus another denim backpack.
"Should we give Zhiqiang a call?" Grandpa Ye was a little worried.
Neither Zhiqiang nor his wife had said anything but suddenly sent Shu Jianbo over to pick the children up. Was everything okay?
"Never mind that. Round trip to make a call would take more than 10 minutes. They will miss the last bus. Plus, it's Principal Shu who came to pick up the children, what could go wrong with that?" said Grandma Ye as she hugged her precious grandson. "Aiyo. Our Tianbo is going to go back to mom and dad's. Grandma doesn't want you to go!"
"Then I won't go. I will stay and keep grandma company." Instead of his mom and dad, Ye Tianbao much prefer to stay with his grandma and grandpa who always let him have his way.
"You can't do that. Our Tianbo is a city boy and will need to go to a kindergarten in the city so you can become the number one scholar in the future."
"Okay, I will become number one scholar for grandma." Ye Tianbao patted his own chest and made a promise to his grandmother.
The two elders wanted to take the children to the bus stop, but after Shu Jianbo had loaded up all their bags, there were only room enough for the two children.
"It's almost 2. Uncle, Aunty, I am going to take off now."
***
Ye Zhiqiang held his hand over his stomach. His entire body ached, but nobody could figure out what was wrong with him. He knew he had ran into professionals this time.
"Qiang-ge, are you alright?" Li Jiaojiao had her checkup as well. She felt a little discomfort around her stomach after the scare. She wanted to make sure her child was alright.
"I am fine. What about you?" Ye Zhiqiang looked more relaxed when he looked at Li Jiaojiao.
"Qiang-ge, I am so scared!" Li Jiaojiao threw herself into his chest and so happened to bump into where it hurt the most. She quickly backed off after she heard his soft moaning nose. "I thought you said you weren't hurt. Where was it that hurt? Let me see." Li Jiaojiao rubbed his chest and her heart ached for him, "How could she do that? Having so many people to beat you up. That was so awful of her!"
"She's always been an uncultured village woman, nothing like you. It's fine. I will be fine in a couple of days."
Li Jiaojiao pursed her lips and feeling worried, she asked, "Qiang-ge, what do we do now? We can't let them leak those pictures. Or we will be done for."
"Don't worry. I won't let her have her ways,"aid Ye Zhiqiang viciously.
She started this. Wanted to blackmail him with the photos? Don't even think about it. It's just photos. He could do the same to her.
After Ye Zhiqiang had placated Li Jiaojiao, he took a few men with him and headed straight toward Shu Yan's house.
"Qiang-ge, we have searched from 1st to 5th floor. There's nobody here."
Ye Zhiqiang grabbed a cup from the table, smashed it on the floor, and said through gritted teeth, "She must be over at Shu Jianyang's."
Just as Shu Yan had thought, Ye Zhiqiang wasn't brave enough to try to go at her on Shu Jianyang's territory. But, of course, neither was he going to leave everything to her.
She was just a woman. She cared about her children. Thinking of that saying, Ye Zhiqiang immediately called his parents.
"Who is it?"
"Uncle, it's me. Zhiqiang. Nothing much, I just wanted to talk to my folks." Ye Zhiqiang thought it was about time to install a phone at his parents. This was way too inconvenient.
About twenty minutes later, Ye Zhiqiang called back. This time, it was old Mr. Ye who picked up the phone.
"Dad, it's me. Where are the kids?" Ye Zhiqiang cut straight to the chase. He was in no mood to chitchat right now.
"The kids? Didn't you send Shu Jianbo to come and pick them up?" Old Mr. Ye's heart fell to the bottom. "You didn't know about this?"
Ye Zhiqiang stood up abruptly and said, "Shu Jianbo picked up the kids?"
He should have thought about this sooner. Shu Jianyang was never a pushover.
"Yes, not too long ago. They should be on the last bus out now. What's the matter? You didn't send him?" Old Mr. Ye was worried.
"I have been very busy these last few days and didn't know what was going on at home. I thought school was about to start soon so I was going to give you a call. Perhaps, Shu Yan had sent her cousin to pick them up. I'll call and ask her." He has not yet told his family about the divorce and now all the more he couldn't. Wasn't there enough happening already?
"Okay, then call and find out soon." Old Mr. Ye's eyelids had been twitching all day long today, and he couldn't shake this feeling that something was not right.
"I know. Shu Jianbo is a principal. There's nothing wrong with handing the kids over to him. Okay, I'll hang up now and call you again some other time." After he had hung up, he was clenching down so hard that he almost broke his teeth.
Lingan Township was a 40-minute bus ride to town. The two children were not used to riding in buses, so they were fairly dispirited. By the time they had arrived, the man arranged by Shu Jianyang was already waiting there. He picked them up and took them all the way over to City Xi.
"Your kids are here," said Shu Jianyang as he knocked on Shu Yan's door.
They were here already? Suddenly, Shu Yan felt a bit hesitant. Certainly, she had said that she had the long end of the stick earlier, but after all, she was a single woman who had just became an instant mother. There were certain pressures that came with that.