Rebirth of the Millennial: Getting Rich After Parents Get Laid Off

Chapter 207 I'll Buy You Fireworks

Two weeks after New Year's Day, the first semester of the first year of high school came to an end.

At Jinzhong High School, there's no requirement to return to school to collect exam results after the exam. Instead, the teachers send the results directly to the class group chat, and students claim them themselves.

Furthermore, Jinzhong has a tradition of holding opening exams. In the two weeks before the start of the next semester, they will not only go over the exam papers from the end of the previous semester, but also the exam papers from the opening exam.

In other words, the content of the opening exam is completely equivalent to the scope of the final exam.

But none of these things mattered to Shen Qingqing.

The more important thing now is that her dad is coming back.

Shen Rongzhou went on a business trip last September, which was originally scheduled for three months. However, due to the many holidays in Europe at the end of the year, the trip was repeatedly delayed. In order to advance and implement the project, Shen Rongzhou had to extend his business trip time again and again in accordance with the time schedule in Europe.

Last week, Shen Rongzhou finally brought back good news: he could go home this week.

Just then, Shen Qingqing finished her semester and had already made plans with Shen Rongzhou to cook a big meal at home to welcome him.

Li Xunli didn't come back this time. The progress of that porcelain project was about halfway done, and the entire project team was left with that master. They would be working hard until the 27th or 28th of the year before they would return.

So Shen Qingqing asked Li Yuxing to help her buy groceries in advance, and then told Li Shuyun to take Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong home.

She herself took the bus back with Wu Fangyi. There is now a bus route that goes directly from Jinzhong to Anlu Town.

However, Shen Qingqing needs to transfer buses to reach Anlu Town, while Wu Fangyi does not.

Since the final exam dates were set, Shen Qingqing started moving her things back home little by little each week. Inspired by Shen Qingqing, the other girls in the dormitory also gradually emptied their beds and wardrobes. By the time the exams were over and the holiday was finally over, they only had a small suitcase full of stuff left, which they could easily take with them on the bus back home.

When Shen Qingqing returned home, Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong were not yet back, because they had to wait for Li Shuyun to get off work before they could bring them back together.

The things Li Yuxing bought were already in the kitchen. Shen Qingqing first opened her suitcase, threw the things that needed washing into the washing machine, and put everything away properly before going to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

As soon as the range hood was turned on, Shen Qingqing became immersed in her culinary art.

Shen Rongzhou went straight to the company as soon as he landed today, to report to Zhang Zeqin on the progress and completion of the project.

In fact, as soon as the project was finalized, the European boss made a cross-border call to Zhang Zeqin, hoping to negotiate some more profit with him. However, Zhang Zeqin ended up showing off his good assistant instead.

Therefore, when Shen Rongzhou went to report, he was simply summarizing the things that Zhang Zeqin already knew in a systematic way. In doing so, Zhang Zeqin also needed to listen to whether Shen Rongzhou had made any inaccurate reports or boasts.

This can be seen as Shen Rongzhou's first time independently negotiating a project since the establishment of the transportation subsidiary, a test that Zhang Zeqin was preparing to give him more authority.

In other words, if Shen Rongzhou's business trip goes well, he will be second only to Zhang Zeqin in the transportation subsidiary.

Shen Rongzhou also had a vague feeling, but he was more anxious to go home and see his children. He had never been away from his children for so long before, and he was eager to return home.

So after get off work that day, I went straight home.

As soon as he got home, he was embraced by Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong. The two little ones hadn't seen Shen Rongzhou for a long time, and had only seen him through video calls on WeChat.

Now that I can actually hold Shen Rongzhou in my arms, it's different.

After enjoying a pleasant dinner together, they made a video call to Li Xunli.

After the winter vacation officially started, Shen Qingqing quickened her pace, making the most of her time to advance her studies, Youqiantu, and Tu Chuan.

In 2013, a domestic company with four-character names launched a group of three boys. At the time, not many people were optimistic about the group, but Shen Qingqing knew that in the future, the popularity of these three boys would be unprecedented in China.

This year marks the year these three boys became wildly popular. Last year, Li Xunjin and Li Xunli had already reached an agreement with this four-character company for a collaboration, which included licensing the merchandise related to these three boys.

In her previous life, Shen Qingqing wasn't a fan of celebrities; she was completely absorbed in the world of anime and manga. But in this life, she has to put in some effort to research how to design their derivative merchandise.

The target audience for the merchandise is the group's fans, whose love for these three boys is sincere and passionate. Therefore, the merchandise for these three boys cannot be done carelessly, and it is best to make it as exquisite as possible.

In the ten days or so before the Lunar New Year, Shen Qingqing held meetings with Tu Chuan's design department from morning till night, starting with the initial outline of the peripheral design and then refining and polishing it again and again.

During the day, Shen Qingqing would spend all her time in the online meeting room, and after dinner, she would start studying for the next semester, communicating with Wu Fangyi via video call to check on their progress.

Wu Fangyi didn't spend as much time working part-time this year. In order to apply for the college entrance exam a year earlier with Shen Qingqing, she learned that high school knowledge points are not as easy as they were in elementary and middle school. Therefore, Wu Fangyi had to spend a lot of time understanding these knowledge points, just like Shen Qingqing.

Shen Qingqing wished she could stretch every minute into 120 seconds, but no matter how much she wished, time was limited.

The Tu Chuan design department worked tirelessly to produce a peripheral gift package that satisfied Shen Qingqing, just before the Spring Festival holiday at the end of January.

Shen Qingqing did not want to turn Tu Chuan into a one-man show where "whatever she says, we make the product." Tu Chuan's team was also recruited by her one by one. Compared to Youqiantu, Tu Chuan was more like a growing child that Shen Qingqing had high hopes for.

Therefore, she needed to give Tu Chuan's group more room to expand. She could only offer some peripheral forms and models from her previous life as inspiration, but she wanted to see the thoughtfulness that Tu Chuan's group demonstrated in these processes.

After finalizing the satisfactory design draft, Shen Qingqing sent five red envelopes in Tu Chuan's group chat and also gave individual red envelopes to everyone in the design department so they could have a good New Year.

On the evening of the 28th, Li Xunli, who hadn't been home for more than half a year, finally returned.

Originally, the master planned to have a dinner party with everyone on the evening of the 28th, which was a holiday. However, Li Xunli couldn't resist and wanted to go home to see her child and Shen Rongzhou. She made a quick appearance at the dinner party and put on a show before she could barely escape from the group of colleagues and went home that night.

When they got home, it was already past 1 a.m. At that time, only Shen Qingqing was still awake, and she was in her room discussing a chemistry reasoning problem with Wu Fangyi via video call.

Hearing the noise in the living room, Shen Qingqing was so frightened that her hair stood on end. After dropping her earphones, she quietly opened the bedroom door. Just as she was about to sneak into the master bedroom to call her father, she met Li Xunli's eyes as she walked from the living room into the master bedroom.

"Mom!" Shen Qingqing exclaimed in surprise. "Shh!" Li Xunli quickly held up a finger to make Shen Qingqing lower her voice.

"Oh, oh, oh..." Shen Qingqing immediately realized what was happening, covered her mouth and quieted down, "Mommy, are you hungry?"

Li Xunli shook her head: "I'm not hungry, you should go back to sleep. We can talk about it tomorrow."

Shen Qingqing said "Oh," but didn't dare tell her mother that she hadn't actually slept at all.

Back at my computer desk, as I picked up my headphones again, I heard Wu Fangyi ask, "What's wrong?"

Shen Qingqing lowered her voice and answered, "My mom is back. I thought it was a thief just now."

This answer was then ridiculed by Wu Fangyi.

Even during the Chinese New Year, it didn't affect their unwavering online learning sessions.

This year's Spring Festival Gala featured many popular songs that are still well-known to later generations, such as Da Zhangwei's "Bei'er Shuang", Wulan Tuya's "Taming the Horse", Wang Zhengliang's "Where Did the Time Go?", and Huang Bo's "My Demands Are Not High", which is still used to satirize life ten years later.

The current Spring Festival Gala still features Cai Ming and Guo Donglin, and it's also the first time that Shen Teng and Ma Li's classic skit "To Help or Not to Help" has been broadcast.

It was remarkable that even someone like Shen Qingqing, who hadn't watched the Spring Festival Gala since, watched it with great interest for an entire evening.

After the Spring Festival holiday, Shen Rongzhou went back to work, and Li Xunli also returned to participate in the porcelain project that was almost completely isolated from the world.

Shen Qingqing resumed her daily routine of shuttling between Youqiantu, Tu Chuan, and her studies. Every day, except for eating, sleeping, and showering, her time was fully scheduled.

However, just before the start of the school year, I accepted Lin Ziyang's invitation.

School started this year after the Lantern Festival, on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month. So on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, Lin Ziyang bombarded Shen Qingqing on QQ, begging her to come out and play.

Shen Qingqing originally wanted to refuse because she really didn't have enough time, but Lin Ziyang said that if she didn't come, Wu Fangyi wouldn't be able to come out either, so he had to beg her to accompany Wu Fangyi.

You see, when people are gossiping or sharing stories, they always have plenty of time to listen to others elaborate.

Especially since this kind of gossip was obviously something to laugh at, Shen Qingqing felt she shouldn't miss it. Besides studying and working, she also needed some entertainment to spice up her life and not be too rigid.

In short, Shen Qingqing and Wu Fangyi went out together on the night of the Lantern Festival.

"Come on, I'll take you to see our village's annual procession!" Lin Ziyang came specifically to pick them up.

"Okay!" Shen Qingqing has always loved watching the parade of gods since she was a child. Each village has its own way of celebrating the parade of gods.

For example, Shen Qingqing's family has always followed the time of Lijia Village, which is the 25th day of the first lunar month. In their previous life, they moved to another village and started following the time of that village, which is the 8th day of the fourth lunar month.

However, they never lived like that again. After selling their only house, the family was like a rootless duckweed floating on the water, spending their days in prayer.

Shen Qingqing took one of Wu Fangyi's arms, leaving the other arm for Lin Ziyang.

This time, she reluctantly gave Lin Ziyang some face and didn't walk between the two of them.

Lin Ziyang was very savvy; as soon as he entered the parade grounds, he bought an arm-length fruit skewer for Shen Qingqing at the entrance.

It wasn't that I didn't want to buy it for Wu Fangyi, but Wu Fangyi was very uninterested and said she didn't want it.

While Lin Ziyang was still unsure whether Wu Fangyi really didn't want it or was just being polite, Shen Qingqing chuckled and bit off the top strawberry, saying, "Sister Fangyi doesn't like things that only kids like to eat."

This was practically an explicit hint, and Lin Ziyang immediately understood, deciding to stop while he was ahead.

Thanks to Wu Fangyi's family background, she really has a strong preference for anything that doesn't cost money, such as visiting all the places in this parade of deities on a budget.

Shen Qingqing was very dedicated to being a little accessory, only occasionally giving Lin Ziyang some hints when there were issues that might actually anger Wu Fangyi, otherwise she didn't care about Lin Ziyang's life or death at all.

He wandered around, ate and played by himself, and occasionally tried to distract Wu Fangyi.

Several times, Lin Ziyang was talking to Wu Fangyi and felt that Wu Fangyi was quite interested in the topic when Shen Qingqing suddenly appeared out of nowhere with a small item and asked Wu Fangyi what she thought of it.

This made Lin Ziyang wonder if it was right or wrong for him to invite Shen Qingqing along.

"There are fireworks over there, want to play?" Lin Ziyang really had no choice but to accompany the two ladies as they strolled around until they passed a fireworks stall. In desperation, he tugged at Wu Fangyi's wrist and asked.

After pulling Wu Fangyi to a stop, Lin Ziyang let go and didn't dare to continue pulling her.

Wu Fangyi looked at the pile of fireworks, thought for a moment, and said, "Let's buy some."

This was the first time Wu Fangyi had agreed to buy something during the procession. When Lin Ziyang thought about Wu Fangyi wanting to play with fireworks, he was immediately energized and volunteered to let Wu Fangyi and Shen Qingqing wait for him while he went to buy them and came back.

Shen Qingqing had eaten quite a lot that night, both hot and cold. She had just finished eating four takoyaki and thrown the box back in. Seeing Lin Ziyang running off excitedly, she asked curiously, "Where is Brother Ziyang going?"

"I'll buy you fireworks. I remember you used to really like playing with fireworks. I took a look, and that stall had a lot of different kinds." Wu Fangyi took out a pack of tissues, pulled one out and gave it to Shen Qingqing. "There's some sauce on your lips, wipe it off."

Shen Qingqing took the tissue, but her tongue unconsciously licked the corner of her mouth. When she couldn't lick it, she simply stuck a piece of paper on it and wiped her mouth.

After wiping, Lin Ziyang returned carrying two bags of fireworks: "Let's go, I'll take you to set off fireworks!"

See you tomorrow night~