1990s: Spring Water Family

Chapter 234 My own mother, I guess I'll just have to put up with it.

"Tsk tsk."

Wu Meng smacked her lips a few times, feeling a bit of toothache: "Just say your husband loves you, there's no need to beat around the bush and show off your love anymore."

"No."

Lin Xiyu laughed awkwardly: "That's not what I meant."

Wu Meng rolled her eyes at her.

It's like, "That's what you mean, and there's no point in explaining further."

Has Li Liang replied to your letter?

Lin Xiyu was both amused and exasperated, so she could only change the subject: "What did his family say? Did they agree to pay for your house?"

"Agree my ass."

Upon hearing this, Wu Meng became even angrier and launched into a tirade: "That mother of hers is so stingy, she treats money like her life depends on it. It's no wonder we can't get any money out of her. Liangzi has already told me that we should both compromise, we'll move out of our parents' house, buy our own place, and no one should hold a grudge anymore. When we go home for holidays, we'll act like nothing happened, and we'll just be polite to each other and keep things on the surface."

"Be content."

Lin Xiyu smiled and advised, "Li Liang is a very filial son. He has done enough for you."

"Ugh."

Wu Meng was still furious: "If I had known he was so blindly filial, I wouldn't have married him. How can a man not even prepare a house for his wife? His mother is clearly bullying me, thinking that I offered myself up and doesn't take me seriously."

"I've finally learned my lesson. If my daughter ever dares to pursue a man again, I'll break her legs. Men are all masochists; they don't cherish what they get easily. That saying is so damn true."

-

"Didn't you already arrange a son-in-law for your daughter?"

Lin Xiyu wanted to comfort her, and joked with a smile, "Why would a daughter need to chase after men? My little nephew has been smart since he was a child, and he'll be just as good as his uncle when he grows up. If you want a son-in-law, stop complaining here and hurry up and flatter him. Only by making your future son-in-law happy will you have a chance to become your mother-in-law."

“You are right.”

Wu Meng slapped her thigh, perking up: "I really like Rui Rui, I have to keep an eye on her for my daughter, I can't let anyone else take her away."

"Go and appease your son-in-law."

Lin Xiyu smiled and said goodbye: "I'm going to cook for my grandma. I'll also ask my mom if she can help me find some teachers. Most of the teachers around her age have retired, so we can hire them to teach at our training institution."

How's your mom doing lately?

Wu Meng raised an eyebrow: "Is your temper still so bad?"

She's going through menopause.

Lin Xiyu complained helplessly: "It's unpredictable, and it's hard to say whether it's good or bad. After Xiaoyi got into university, our relationship improved a bit. He still gets angry occasionally, but it's always over trivial things."

"You have such a good temper."

Wu Meng admired her from the bottom of her heart: "With your mother's personality, not many people could stand it."

"What can you do about your own mother? You just have to put up with it."

Lin Xiyu shrugged helplessly, picked up her handbag, and stood up from the chair.

"Please give my regards to your grandmother."

Wu Meng saw her off: "I'll go see her with you in a couple of days when I'm free."

"to make."

Lin Xiyu smiled and agreed, opened the parasol, and walked out the door.

Wu Meng watched her walk away until she turned into the alley and disappeared from sight before turning away.

-

Qinglong Back Street.

Lin Xiyu was cooking for her grandmother when she came in. Her cousin happened to be there too. The two sisters chatted about tutoring, but her cousin seemed uninterested, clearly not interested in the meager earnings from teaching children.

"Running a training course can't compare to your renovation business. You handle large projects, with a single building generating hundreds of thousands in gross profit."

Lin Xiyu tried to communicate with her: "Wu Meng and I didn't think that much. We just wanted to earn some money with our own abilities and achieve financial freedom without relying on others."

My cousin scoffed: "Isn't Gu Bin's earnings enough for you to spend? A family with hundreds of millions in assets couldn't spend it all in several lifetimes for an ordinary person."

"Gu Bin made his money."

Lin Xiyu has her own principles: "What I earn is truly mine. I feel at ease spending my own money, without having to depend on others. Even if something unexpected happens in the future, I'll have security."

"Xi Yu"

Her cousin glanced at her with some concern.

"what happened?"

Seeing that her expression was off and she seemed hesitant to speak, Lin Xiyu was quite surprised: "Just say what you want to say, I don't like guessing games."

"Are you feeling uneasy because you don't have children?"

After hesitating for a while, my cousin finally voiced her concerns: "Judging from your tone, you always seem to lack confidence in the future, feel that your marriage is insecure, and need money to fill the emptiness in your heart."

"no?"

Lin Xiyu denied it.

I think you do.

Her cousin glanced at her worriedly again.

"Isn't this kind of thinking quite normal for a woman?"

Lin Xiyu thought about it seriously for a moment, then smiled and asked, "You yourself don't want to rely on men to start a company and make money, so why is it different for me? Does it mean that just because I'm married, I should give up my career and devote myself entirely to my family?"

"Uh."

My cousin choked for a moment, then said after a brief pause, "That's not what I meant. Of course, it's better for women to have their own careers. I just wanted to say..."

"do not talk"

Lin Xiyu interrupted her with a smile: "The dishes are ready, hurry up and take them out, Grandma is waiting for dinner."

"You really want to start a training course?"

My cousin gave an awkward laugh and changed the subject: "Do you want me to help you find a shop? I know the market for properties in the area pretty well."

"Okay."

Lin Xiyu readily agreed: "I was just about to say that. It would be great if you could help me find one. It should be in a densely populated residential area, preferably a single-story building along the street. If that's not possible, a two-story building is fine too. It should be around 400 square meters and be able to be partitioned into at least three classrooms."

"A 400-square-meter single-story apartment along the street in the old town is hard to find; I'll do my best."

My cousin understood immediately: "Separating the classrooms is easy; our company can do that. Once you've bought the shop, you don't need to worry about the renovations; I'll take care of that and make sure you're satisfied."

"Thank you, sister."

Lin Xiyu smiled and her eyes narrowed: "I won't stand on ceremony with you."

"Don't mention it."

My cousin exudes confidence: "Your sister works in the renovation industry. If you don't contact me, it means you look down on me, and I'll be unhappy about that."

"That's what connections are all about."

Lin Xiyu smiled and flattered, "I'm someone who has an older sister to protect me now."

"Hahaha." My cousin was delighted to hear this, and her laughter was full of energy and very hearty.

-

After lunch, before her grandmother fell asleep, Lin Xiyu called Chen Xiulan in front of her, saying she had something to discuss and asked her to come to her grandmother's house.

Chen Xiulan was initially a little annoyed, complaining that her mother wasn't going home and was making her run errands. But when she heard her grandmother cough twice, she immediately fell silent.

"Do you think I, as your mother, can't boss you around?"

When she arrived on her bicycle, Grandma still glared at her with displeasure.

"This girl didn't explain herself clearly."

Chen Xiulan, her eyelids drooping, retorted, "How was I supposed to know she was at your house?"

"Xi Yu comes over to cook for me at noon; she's been doing it for several days now."

Grandma scolded with a stern face: "You, as a mother, do you really not know, or are you pretending not to know? So what if you're retired? What's there to be unaccustomed to? Look at you, so slovenly, you don't comb your hair or wash your face. Aren't you afraid of being laughed at if you go out like this?"

"I washed my face."

Chen Xiulan retorted defiantly, "I combed my hair, it was just messed up by the wind when I rode my bike over, it's not as sloppy as you say."

"My second aunt wasn't like this before."

My cousin chimed in with a laugh: "When he was the dean of students, he dressed very formally. The crease in the front of his suit pants was ironed perfectly straight, and his hair was always combed meticulously."

Listen to this.

Grandma glared at her again, dissatisfied: "Did Leilei say the same thing? How dare you argue back?"

Why did you call me here?

Chen Xiulan felt embarrassed being scolded by her grandmother in front of the younger generation: "You're not just looking for trouble, are you? You made me come here to listen to your nagging, are you?"

"Mom, it's like this."

Lin Xiyu seized the opportunity to tell Wu Meng about her and Wu Meng's plan to open a training class.

"Rehiring experienced teachers to teach in training courses?"

Chen Xiulan was stunned, and it took her a long time to fully digest what she had said.

"Including yourself"

Lin Xiyu pressed her advantage, saying, "I believe that with Mom's teaching experience, she is more than capable of providing after-school tutoring."

How many teachers do you need?

Upon hearing the flattery, Chen Xiulan instantly lost her temper and was quite moved.

"Chinese, Math, English."

Lin Xiyu has her own plans: "Two teachers are needed for each of the three main subjects. Chinese will mainly focus on tutoring elementary school students in composition, math will focus on advanced math, and English grammar and speaking are both very important. Ideally, the teachers should be proficient in all of them."

"Chinese and math are easy."

When Chen Xiulan mentioned teaching, she straightened her back and regained the shrewdness she had when she was the director of teaching: "There are many good teachers. Many of them were the backbone of the school before they retired. They are senior primary school teachers and have a lot of experience."

As for English...

She paused, looking somewhat embarrassed: "We don't have any retired teachers, so we can only hire current ones. Our country only started popularizing English among primary school students in 2001, so English teachers are all very young, mostly in their twenties or thirties, not yet of retirement age."

Lin Xiyu tentatively asked, "Can the current teacher teach outside of school?"

"It's not allowed according to regulations."

Chen Xiulan frowned and thought for a moment, then gave her a helpless look.

"That would be a bit troublesome."

Lin Xiyu looked away with some disappointment.

"What's the trouble?"

My cousin chimed in with a laugh, "Aren't you an English teacher? If you can't find someone else, you can just teach the class yourself."

"I can temporarily cover a few classes, but I can't rely on the training center indefinitely."

Lin Xiyu was a little conflicted: "Grandma Hu is getting old and her eyesight is failing. She can't design blueprints by herself anymore, she needs someone to help her. Besides, I have to go to the Children's Palace to teach children paper cutting on weekends and receive foreign friends. My schedule is full, and I can't take care of the training classes."

How about this?
Her cousin continued to offer advice: "Invite English majors from Shandong Normal University to teach classes; anyone with a teaching certificate will do."

"That's one way."

Chen Xiulan nodded in affirmation.

"The student's words."

Lin Xiyu hesitated: "Without practical teaching experience, can the teaching quality be guaranteed?"

"What's so difficult about elementary school English?"

My cousin didn't take it seriously: "It's just some simple grammar. Anyone you could grab from Shandong Normal University could teach it."

"Elementary school students are at a crucial stage of building their foundation; we can't afford to be careless."

Lin Xiyu has her own principles: "Parents spend money to send their children to training classes, so they must have some expectations for their grades. If they are not taught well, it will damage their reputation and have a bad influence."

"I don't think all those who run training courses are as serious as you."

My cousin curled her lip and said, "Their purpose in running after-school tutoring is purely to make money. They don't care whether the grades can be improved or not. If parents are not satisfied, they just brush it off with the excuse that the children's learning levels are uneven."

"This won't do; it goes against my original intention of starting extracurricular classes."

Lin Xiyu gave an unexpected answer without hesitation: "Although I don't deny that the purpose of opening training classes is to make money, the initial idea came about because of our little cousin."

“Nana is already in the third grade. Her aunt is reluctant to spend money on her and hasn’t sent her to any tutoring classes. She only has the little English she learns at school, so her test scores aren’t good and she’s struggling to learn.”

"When my grandma asked me to tutor her in English, I thought to myself, 'If only Nana could attend a tutoring class. As long as she learns useful knowledge that helps improve her grades, it's worth spending a little more money.'"

"I have this thought: put yourself in their shoes, other parents are the same. If I don't teach my child well and let them down, I will feel bad about it."

-

"If you're going to teach, you have to teach well."

Chen Xiulan agreed with these words and looked at her seriously, sharing the same thoughts: "My second aunt has been a teacher all her life and has never slacked off in her teaching. No matter what subject she teaches, the classes she leads always rank among the top in the district in every year's assessment."

"I believe."

My cousin, quick-witted and eloquent, replied smoothly: "My second aunt's title as head teacher isn't just for show; it's earned through solid academic achievements. Otherwise, why would Xu Weiguo have been so eager to curry favor with her? Wasn't it because my second aunt was a good teacher and wanted you to tutor her daughter?"

"Cough cough."

Chen Xiulan's face darkened, and she said nothing more.

"You silly child, you always bring up things you shouldn't."

Grandma laughed and scolded, "Xu Weiguo and his daughter have been dead for many years, why bring that up again?"

"Hey, hey."

My cousin laughed awkwardly, "I just said it offhand, I didn't mean anything by it."

You know how to ruin the mood!
Lin Xiyu rolled her eyes, looking at her with a helpless expression.

"Let's settle on that."

Grandma, acting as the head of the family, made the final decision: "Xiulan, don't dwell on the past. Finding a teacher for your daughter is the important thing. Leilei, you too, stop talking nonsense at home and hurry up and find a shop for your sister. It's a good thing that Xiyu wants to open a training class. We're family, so let's help each other out. If we work together, we'll all be happy when we make money."