My cousin-in-law helped me achieve my ambitions.

Time ticked by, each second feeling like it was stretched tenfold. Su Ming gritted his teeth, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He tried to distract himself, counting sheep and reciting his lessons, but the throbbing pain in his bladder and the rustling sounds behind him kept pulling him back to reality.

Five minutes... ten minutes... fifteen minutes...

Qiu Tong seemed wide awake, the light from her phone screen occasionally illuminating the ceiling. She would occasionally turn over, the sound of the sheets rubbing together particularly clear in the silence.

Su Ming couldn't hold it in any longer. If he kept holding it in, he suspected he would lose control on the spot and wet the bed.

He took a deep breath and carefully sat up from the mat, his movements as quiet as could be. However, the noise of getting up still startled the person in bed.

"Ah!" Qiu Tong gasped, sitting up abruptly. She grabbed the T-shirt draped at the foot of the bed and covered her chest, her voice filled with shock and embarrassment. "What are you doing?"

Su Ming's face flushed red, and even in the dim light, his flustered state was still visible: "Sister-in-law, I... I need to pee..."

"You!" Qiu Tong glared at him, her chest heaving with shock. "You didn't make a sound! You almost scared me to death!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Su Ming lowered his head, not daring to look around, but the scene he had just caught a glimpse of was already etched into his mind. The waist that was exposed when she pulled her clothes to cover herself, and the long hair that fell over her shoulders in panic, were all beautiful.

My cousin's wife has such a great figure; if I didn't need to pee, I would have liked to take a second look.

"Still looking?" Qiu Tong's voice rose a few decibels, tinged with anger. "Go to the restroom!"

"Oh... okay!" Su Ming felt like he had been granted a pardon. He grabbed his waistband and practically ran out of the bedroom, even putting on one slipper on backwards.

"Bang!" The sound of the bathroom door slamming shut was particularly loud in the quiet night.

Qiu Tong sat on the bed, and it took her a while to come to her senses. She looked down at the T-shirt in her hand, then at the closed door, and the anger on her face gradually faded, replaced by a helpless bitter smile.

She shook her head, put on the T-shirt, and then covered herself with a thin blanket.

A few minutes later, Su Ming reluctantly returned to the bedroom. He stood at the door, like a child who had done something wrong, head down, stammering as if trying to explain, "Sister-in-law, I really didn't mean to, I just..."

"Alright," Qiu Tong interrupted him, her voice now calm, even tinged with a hint of weariness. "No need to explain. If you've seen it, you've seen it."

She paused, then lay back on the bed, her back to him: "Go to sleep!"

His tone was flat, revealing no emotion.

Su Ming froze for a few seconds before slowly moving back onto the mat and lying down. He stared at the ceiling, his mind a jumbled mess. What did his cousin-in-law mean by "So what if you saw it?" Was she angry or indifferent? Would she think he was a pervert?

The air conditioner was blowing hard, but Su Ming felt unbearably hot. He tossed and turned, the mat rustling under his weight, unable to fall asleep.

In the darkness, Qiu Tong stood with her back to him, her eyes open, her phone screen already off. She sighed softly, the sound barely audible, yet it still reached Su Ming's ears.

Length of night.

Each of them was preoccupied with their own thoughts, suffering in the silent darkness.

He didn't know how much time had passed before Su Ming finally fell asleep and drifted off to sleep. Soon, he dreamed of his cousin-in-law, who was wearing a pink cotton mini-skirt that revealed her hot and sexy figure.

She smiled and walked towards Su Ming, opening her arms to hug him.

"Sister-in-law, no..." Su Ming felt an indescribable comfort as she held his soft body in her arms.

He tried to gently push her away, but she pouted her red lips and pressed them against his. Su Ming felt a tingling sensation run through his body, and he involuntarily shuddered, his legs kicking involuntarily.

He opened his eyes and realized it was all a dream. It was already broad daylight. He quickly got up, rushed to the bathroom to relieve himself, took a shower, changed his pants, and put on the new clothes his cousin's wife had bought for him.

After washing up, he went back to his room and glanced around. Seeing that his cousin's wife was still sleeping, he took his ID, quietly closed the door, and went out alone.

Su Ming ate a rice noodle roll for 1.5 yuan at a breakfast shop downstairs before heading to an industrial area with many factories to look for work. However, reality soon gave him a cold shower.

He visited several factories, and the answers he received were all the same.

They all thought he had too low an education level and no work experience.

Even though he repeatedly explained that he had actually completed his senior year of high school, but had to drop out due to his father's serious illness, and that his grades in high school had always been good, the HR person who was recruiting didn't even bother to look at his resume and simply waved him away.

After being rejected yet again, Su Ming stood in front of a recruiter at an electronics factory, somewhat unwillingly saying to the seemingly kind HR lady, "Ma'am, although I only have a junior high school diploma, I'm not stupid, and I'm physically strong. I can do any dirty or hard work. Please give me a chance!"

The HR lady was about twenty-three or twenty-four years old, with a neat ponytail and a sweet face. She looked sympathetically at Su Ming's sunburnt face and shook her head helplessly: "Rules are rules, there's nothing I can do about it."

Su Ming was completely deflated, like a defeated rooster, he turned around and slunk away. He then realized that his cousin-in-law was right yesterday; finding a job outside was much harder than he had imagined.

Just as he had taken a few steps, that crisp voice suddenly came from behind him.

"Hey, wait a minute!"

Su Ming turned around and saw the HR lady waving at him. He quickly ran back.

"It's like this!" the HR lady said in a low voice, "We happen to be short of a general laborer in our warehouse. If you have a high school diploma, you can come and give it a try tomorrow. If you do well, there's a chance you can become a warehouse clerk."

"Warehouse clerk?" Su Ming's eyes lit up; the term sounded much more respectable than "general laborer." He quickly asked, "What does a warehouse clerk do?"

"It's just keeping track of numbers, doing accounting, and checking receipts and shipments against the orders. It's a very easy job," the HR lady explained.

Su Ming was so excited his heart was practically pounding out of his chest—this was exactly what he wanted! But as soon as the excitement wore off, his face fell, and he said sadly, "But... I only finished half a semester of my senior year of high school, and I haven't even gotten my high school diploma yet!"

The HR lady chuckled when she saw him looking like he was about to cry.

"Come here!" She beckoned to Su Ming with her finger, signaling him to come closer. Su Ming leaned closer, and a faint scent of shampoo wafted into his nostrils.

She whispered in his ear, her voice barely above a mosquito's buzz, "Go to the overpass in town. They make fake documents there for twenty yuan. When you get there, just call the number on the pillar. Sometimes they solicit customers under the bridge."

After she finished speaking, she quickly stepped back with a sly smile on her face: "However, you can't say that I told you this."

Su Ming nodded repeatedly with gratitude, and asked excitedly, "Big sister, thank you so much!"

"I give up! I don't think I'm that much older than you! Calling me 'big sister' like that sounds awful!" The HR lady winked at him and smiled sweetly, "Just call me Yang Tian. Be at the factory gate at 8:30 tomorrow morning sharp."