Chapter 7: You Can Just Let Miaomiao Go Sell Herself

Gao Qingya sat at the desk doing her homework.

The academic pressure in the third year of junior high was intense; the town middle school students had returned to class right after the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year.

Gao Qinghe, feeling too full to lie down, watched her little sister diligently doing her homework and couldn't help but think of her fate in their previous life.

Dropping out of high school, being deceived and taken into the deep mountains, never to emerge for the rest of her life.

For a girl in the prime of her youth, this was simply the most vicious curse.

But looking at her little sister studying so earnestly now, Gao Qinghe couldn't help but feel puzzled.

This momentum of diligent study was much stronger than when she was in school.

She didn't look like someone who would drop out at all.

Gao Qinghe tried hard to recall the past, finally digging out from the depths of her memory what happened during her little sister's high school years.

It seemed that because she had clashed with a teacher at school and was criticized, she had impulsively decided to drop out.

And that teacher whom Gao Qingya had targeted was none other than Hao Huaping, who taught at the County No. 1 Middle School.

Thinking of this, Gao Qinghe understood.

People whom her eldest sister disliked, Gao Qingya disliked even more.

In her previous life, Gao Qingya felt that it was because Hao Huaping had stolen her eldest sister's sweetheart that her sister was unhappy, so she was extremely hostile toward Hao Huaping.

On top of that, Hao Huaping became her homeroom teacher, so she would go against her at every opportunity and refuse to submit to her authority.

In the eyes of a student, dropping out voluntarily was the greatest challenge to the authority of the school and the teacher.

And so, Gao Qingya had done just that.

After quitting school, she had no choice but to go south to work.

Once she left, the two sisters never saw each other again.

Coupled with Gao Qingya's explosive temper, the family thought she had run off with a man and were furious.

It wasn't until later, when the internet became more developed, that Gao Qinghe saw a figure who looked like her little sister in a short video she stumbled upon.

A woman with messy hair, a sallow complexion, and a gaunt, hunched body, holding two wailing, dirty children in her arms.

Facing the camera, she gave a simple, rustic smile, saying she was happy to help her son and daughter-in-law raise their grandchildren.

She told her son and daughter-in-law, who were working away from home, to rest assured and work in the factory, as she was there to take care of things at home.

"What a fool!"

Gao Qinghe sat up from the bed with a start, furious.

Gao Qingya, who was struggling with a review question, heard her eldest sister's words out of the blue and her heart skipped a beat.

Gao Qinghe walked to the desk and tapped the tabletop with her fingertips.

Gao Qingya's spine stiffened instantly.

"What did you score on the final exam last semester? Bring me your report card."

"This is the last semester of junior high, the most important stage, and it concerns the fate of your life."

Gao Qinghe crossed her arms and leaned against the edge of the table.

"Gao Qingya, listen to me: at your age, you don't need to worry about anything other than your studies, understand?"

Gao Qingya trembled: "Un-understood."

Her inner self was screaming: Did Eldest Sister take the wrong medicine? Why is she suddenly managing my studies!

"The report card," Gao Qinghe reminded her.

Gao Qingya hurriedly pulled open the drawer and obediently took out the report card she had been hiding inside.

She held it up to Gao Qinghe with both hands.

She thought to herself that even Mom and Dad hadn't seen this report card.

"Math 109, Chinese 110, Politics 90, Chemistry 80... not bad, it's just that your English is a bit poor."

Gao Qinghe put down the report card with satisfaction and instructed her little sister

"I'll get you some English tapes later. Let's make a final sprint for this last half-year and strive to raise your English score from 70 to over 100."

"Sister, I..." Gao Qingya wanted to say something.

Gao Qinghe interrupted her forcefully: "Don't bargain with me. You must be the first college student in our family. The glory of the whole family rests on you; you must believe in yourself."

Gao Qingya: "Sister, I wanted to say that we don't have a radio to play tapes at home."

Gao Qinghe: "..."

"It's fine, as long as it helps with your studies, I'll buy it for you!"

Gao Qinghe paused for only half a second before immediately making a grand promise.

Gao Qingya was very moved, but...

"Eldest Sister, do you have any money?"

Gao Qinghe fell into deep thought.

Did she have money?

She seemed to have a little bit, right?

That night, the two sisters searched every place in the room where things could be hidden.

Happily, they found three yuan and seventy-five cents in Gao Qinghe's pillowcase.

Looking at her little sister's embarrassed face, Gao Qinghe generously pulled out seventy-five cents and stuffed it into her hand.

"Take it, eat well at school, and nourish your brain."

Gao Qingya: Should she be happy or not?

The answer, of course, was happy!

This was the first time her eldest sister had given her pocket money; even their second brother hadn't gotten any. It was one of a kind~

That night, the light in the sisters' room didn't go out until the early hours of the morning.

Gao Qingya clutched the seventy-five cents in her arms while doing problems, wishing she could swallow all the books into her stomach.

She was going to get into college!

She was going to be her eldest sister's glory!

Gao Qinghe had a wonderful sleep on the wooden bed that smelled of fresh straw and sunshine.

At five o'clock in the morning, Gao Qingya packed her things and went back to school.

In junior high, there was only one full weekend break every two weeks; when the time was up, she had to return to school.

Gao Qingya left on tiptoe, and since no one in the family called her, Gao Qinghe slept until she woke up naturally.

She got dressed, got out of bed, and first picked up the half-broken mirror her little sister had left on the table to look at the wound on her forehead.

The bump had completely subsided, and the bruise had faded by half.

It should be healed in another two days.

Gao Qinghe held an enamel mug, brushed her teeth and washed her face quickly, and applied medicine to her wound.

She jumped around in the courtyard for twenty minutes doing aerobics.

After drinking the milk her grandmother had prepared and eating a steamed sweet potato, she returned to her room.

Gao Qinghe lay on the bed, thinking about what her family could do to make money.

After the embarrassment of the three yuan and seventy-five cents last night, she realized deeply that the family was very short of money.

Her father was a village primary school teacher and had gone to school early in the morning to tidy up.

Classes for the students were starting soon, so he had to clean the classrooms and then go to the homes of students who owed tuition to collect the fees from last semester, while also doing home visits.

In any case, he wouldn't be back until dinner time.

For such a dedicated and excellent teacher, wouldn't it be appropriate to be named an advanced worker and get a bonus?

Later, she would have her father go to the village head's house to lobby for his position to be made permanent.

With a formal establishment, his salary and benefits would also increase.

As for Mom, she was in the kitchen making vermicelli.

Gao Qinghe scrambled up, ran to the kitchen, and asked Huang Ying

"Mom, how much can this vermicelli sell for per jin?"

"That depends on who you sell it to. If the unified collectors come to the village, it's one yuan and twenty cents per jin; if you take it to town yourself, it's one yuan and fifty cents per jin."

Huang Ying asked curiously: "Why are you asking this?"

Gao Qinghe smiled without explaining, only asking: "Then what is the cost of a jin of vermicelli?"

"Cost?" Huang Ying had never calculated that. "It's all sweet potatoes grown in our own fields; it doesn't cost anything."

Doesn't cost anything?

Time and labor were costs too.

Gao Qinghe: "Mom, a bowl of sweet potato noodles can sell for fifty cents in the county, and one jin of noodles can make five bowls. If you add some minced meat, you can sell it for another ten cents more. This jin of noodles can sell for three yuan, which is double!"

"Why don't you set up a stall in the county and sell some roasted sweet potatoes or something on the side? You'd definitely earn even more."

Huang Ying finally turned her head to look at her daughter. "My precious, where would your mother find the spare time to sell sweet potato noodles? I'm already too busy with all the work at home."

"Besides, making this sweet potato vermicelli is troublesome. It's better to just buy it ready-made; doing it yourself would tire you to death!"

Gao Qingmiao, that lazybones, finally decided to get up and just poked his head into the kitchen.

He saw his eldest sister pointing at him with excitement.

"Mom, let Miaomiao go sell it! He's an unemployed vagrant anyway."

Gao Qingmiao: Huh? Sell? Sell what? What could he possibly sell?