“Hey, hey, hey, big sister. Don’t do that, don’t do that. It’s just a couple of pieces of clothing, right? I’ll wash them. You go back inside and keep writing your draft. You’re going to the city Women’s Federation tomorrow, so you need to think about what you’re going to say.”
Bai Lan came out with the clothes she was about to wash and saw Bai Ping putting on that fawning, grin-filled act. Bai Ping snatched the clothes that her two nieces had changed out of from Bai Lian’s hands, as if afraid her big sister might refuse. After saying a couple of nice things, she hurried off to the sink with the clothes.
Any outsider who didn’t know the full story would probably praise Bai Ping—what a wonderful little sister she was!
“Has she turned over a new leaf?” came a pleasant female voice from behind. Bai Lan turned and saw Liu Meiling, and couldn’t help but smile.
Strangely enough, ever since the day before last when Liu Meiling had held Bai Ping back so Bai Lian could hit her, Bai Lan had noticed that Liu Meiling had been consistently showing her goodwill. So naturally, whenever the two of them ran into each other in the courtyard, they would exchange a few words.
Bai Lan shrugged. “You know how she is.”
Liu Meiling raised an eyebrow. “That I do.” Although she had only been married into the courtyard for less than two months, Liu Meiling already had a general understanding of everyone there. She knew a bit more about the Bai family because Bai Lan was Xu Jianbei’s girlfriend.
Looking at the four Bai sisters, it was clear that Bai Ping was the wiliest of them all.
Chatting as they went, the two walked toward the sink. By the sink, Bai Ping was already washing the clothes. Several older women also washing clothes nearby saw that Bai Ping was washing children’s clothes and praised her as a wonderful sister.
“I’ve always said there are no overnight grudges between sisters. Your big sister was upset before because you didn’t handle things thoroughly and didn’t give her a heads-up. Look now—your sisterly relationship is just fine!”
Aunt Qian was also doing laundry and sighed with feeling as she talked about the Bai sisters’ commotion the night before last.
Aunt Wan, who lived next door to Aunt Qian, nodded. “Isn’t that right? There’s no overnight grudge between sisters. Now that your big sister is divorced, those two little nieces are going to rely on you aunts for help.”
Bai Lan: Suddenly I don’t really want to go over there to wash clothes anymore.
Liu Meiling: “Let’s go wash in the front courtyard.”
There was also a sink in the front courtyard. Fewer residents lived there than in the back courtyard, so the sink was much emptier.
“Hey, Meiling, come over here! There’s room over here!”
Before Liu Meiling could finish speaking, Bai Ping, already washing clothes, started calling out to her. She sounded so warm and familiar that anyone who didn’t know better would think the two of them were close sisters.
The actual sister, Comrade Bai Lan, shot Bai Ping a speechless look and then called to Liu Meiling, “Come on, let’s go to the front courtyard.”
Liu Meiling had no desire to engage with Bai Ping anyway, so she followed Bai Lan straight to the front courtyard. Bai Lan, meanwhile, was already starting to wonder—Bai Ping seemed a little too eager with Liu Meiling.
She had Bai Ping figured out by now. Bai Ping never got up early without some benefit in sight.
Sure, she might be chatting warmly with the older women at the sink, but Bai Lan knew she looked down on these housewife-types who did nothing but chores. She was only chatting them up to salvage her own image.
And the reason she was washing her big sister’s daughters’ clothes? Even simpler. She was trying to get on Bai Lian’s good side so that Bai Lian would take her along to the city Women’s Federation tomorrow.
As for why she was so warm toward Liu Meiling?
Bai Lan guessed it had something to do with her dream.
Bai Lan was very curious—just how much of the “script” had Bai Ping seen in her dream?
—
Seeing that Liu Meiling was being so difficult, and instead getting closer to Bai Lan, Bai Ping felt a surge of frustration.
A woman like Liu Meiling, who was destined for greatness, should be associating with someone as ambitious as herself—not with her younger sister Bai Lan, who just muddled through life.
Yes, Bai Ping knew some things about the future. Because she had dreams. And some things from those dreams had already come true in reality. In her dreams, she saw a lot, but also very little. A lot, because she saw her own failed life. Very little, because she wanted to see more of other people’s futures. Unfortunately, this magical dream had severe limitations.
Fortunately, although her dreams were mostly limited to things revolving around herself and the Qiu family, they did feature glimpses of some important figures. Among them was this woman, Liu Meiling. She didn’t stand out now, but in the future, she would become one of the wealthiest people in the north. She and her husband, Xu Jiannan, would one day be looked up to by everyone.
And her youngest sister, Bai Lan, would live a life a thousand times better than Bai Ping’s dream-self. Because Bai Lan would marry into a good family. The Song family were all shrewd and capable. In a little over a decade, Factory Director Song would become the true owner of the current steel plant. And Song Guoping would inherit the family business and become a wealthy man. Marrying Song Guoping, Bai Lan would be rolling in riches.
As for her eldest and second sisters? They would probably have very hard lives. They didn’t even appear in her dreams.
Although reality had started to diverge from the dreams ever since Bai Lan stubbornly called off the engagement with the Song family, Bai Ping didn’t think that was a bad thing.
Because the direction of the times wouldn’t change. Families with good standing and conditions wouldn’t just suddenly fall into decline. She knew of several influential people and wealthy families who would rise to prominence in the future.
So Bai Ping was full of confidence about her own prospects.
Someone like her youngest sister, who had personally thrown away a wealthy future—Bai Ping felt a mixture of pity and relief.
Dumping Song Guoping for Xu Jianbei was the worst choice Bai Lan could have made. Xu Jianbei hadn’t appeared at all in Bai Ping’s dreams. Even Xu Jiannan’s two other brothers had made brief appearances.
That meant Xu Jianbei’s future was either to remain utterly unknown as a nobody at the bottom of society, or to die young, unnoticed.
Choosing someone like that, Bai Lan’s future was bleak!
But she—Bai Ping—was destined for greatness!
——
Bai Lan, washing clothes in the front courtyard, had no idea that Bai Ping was pitying her. If she had known, she would have laughed her head off.
Right now, Bai Lan was chatting with Liu Meiling, and she was discovering that Liu Meiling had a remarkably sharp mind and spoke with great emotional intelligence.
“Originally, Jiannan and I wanted to invite you and Jianbei over for a meal. Jiannan and Jianbei are very close. But right after we got married, Jianbei was pretty busy. Later, he said he’d find another time. But that kid still hasn’t given us a definite answer. I figured I should ask you—then we can finally set a date.”
The tone was teasing but not uncomfortable. Bai Lan just wanted to laugh when she heard it.
Xu Jianbei had been putting it off—probably because he felt the two of them didn’t have enough time alone together. Plus, she was still relatively unfamiliar with Xu Jiannan and Liu Meiling. He was probably worried she’d feel awkward at a group dinner.
But she really wouldn’t feel awkward. Not only was Xu Jiannan on good terms with her father, but Bai Lan was also genuinely curious about Liu Meiling—the quintessential “female lead.”
“Sure! How about dinner tomorrow night?”
Liu Meiling clapped her hands together. “Done! I knew asking you would get it settled.”
After finishing the laundry and returning home, Bai Lan saw Bai Ping still hovering around Bai Lian. She thought better of joining the commotion. Judging by Bai Lian’s attitude, she probably already had a way to deal with Bai Ping, who was like a piece of sticky toffee.
Sure enough, when Bai Lan got up early the next morning to get ready for work, she found that Bai Lian was already gone from the house. Asking her father, Bai Lan learned that Bai Lian had left ten minutes ago. That meant she had been out the door before six o’clock.
Bai Ping, who had gotten up at her usual time, was furious when she discovered that Bai Lian had sneaked off. She didn’t even eat breakfast, just splashed water on her face and rushed out the door.
“What on earth is she after?” Bai Mama watched Bai Ping’s behavior and once again felt disappointed. Maybe it was because Bai Ping had let her down time and again recently, so Bai Mama only expressed a bit of dismay, without the deep hurt she had felt before.
Bai Lan thought: Bai Ping was after a lot of things. In the end, she was overly utilitarian, which set her far apart from the rest of the family’s more easygoing nature. Bai Lan wondered how her personality had even developed.
—
Meanwhile, Bai Ping hurried as fast as she could and finally arrived at the gate of the city Women’s Federation half an hour early.
Thank goodness—the Federation hadn’t opened early just because Bai Lian had arrived ahead of time. So Bai Ping easily spotted Bai Lian sitting on the steps at the entrance.
“Why didn’t you wait for me? Didn’t we agree to come together?”
Bai Lian wasn’t surprised in the least to see Bai Ping show up. After watching Bai Ping’s behavior the past two days, she knew this younger sister wouldn’t give up so easily.
“I never agreed to that.”
“But I talked so much last night, and you didn’t say no!”
“That’s right. I didn’t say no, but I also didn’t say yes.” Bai Lian didn’t know if she was being deliberately difficult. But with Bai Ping, this was the only way she wanted to talk.
Bai Ping was momentarily speechless at this shameless response. Since when had her cautious, honest big sister become so slick? If she hadn’t been sure that Bai Lian was thin-skinned and would be too embarrassed to refuse if she humbled herself, Bai Ping wouldn’t have spent two days playing the groveling role.
And now this honest big sister had learned to toy with her?
“It’s not too late for you to agree now.”
“Bai Ping, what exactly do you want?” Bai Lian stared into her sister’s eyes and asked the question that cut to the soul.
Bai Ping suddenly felt as if those words had burned her eyes. She unconsciously averted her gaze and said in a firm voice, “Big sister, bringing me in there won’t hurt your interests at all. On the contrary, if you help me now, I’ll repay you in the future.”
Bai Lian shook her head in disappointment. “To this day, you still haven’t woken up to see where you went wrong.”
The years of sisterly feeling couldn’t be measured by interests. And with Bai Ping repeatedly thinking only of herself, completely disregarding what Bai Lian wanted, Bai Lian had no desire to say anything more to her.
She stood up and walked straight into the Women’s Federation, whose doors had just opened.
Bai Ping tried to follow, but without a letter of introduction, she was stopped right at the guard post.
—
“Do you see clearly now, you foolish boy?”
In an office on the second floor of the Women’s Federation, Zhou Caimi watched her simple-minded son still staring down at Bai Ping by the gate and felt utterly exasperated.
She had brought her son here early this morning specifically to watch this little drama unfold. She had thoroughly looked into Comrade Bai Lian—a person who was gentle on the outside but firm within. Someone like that, after being used repeatedly by her own younger sister, would not simply pretend nothing had happened.
Now it seemed her guess had been correct. Bringing her foolish son along, she had perfectly witnessed this wonderful scene.
“Mom… Pingping… Pingping just wants to get to know more people at the Women’s Federation…”
“And what exactly is her goal in getting to know so many people at the Women’s Federation?”
Qiu Chengcai was stumped by his mother’s question. Finally, he forced out, “She likes making friends…”
Zhou Caimi let out a scornful laugh. She thought her son looked even more foolish when he tried to fool himself. But what could she do? She had given birth to him; she couldn’t stuff him back in her belly.
“You know perfectly well what kind of person she is. You’re a statistician—you’re a hundred times better at math than I am. So do the math. Since you started dating Bai Ping, how much money have you spent? How many favors have you called in from the family’s connections to benefit her? And then calculate what she has brought to you.”
Feelings weren’t as simple as 1+1=2. But even more, feelings weren’t about one side giving zero and the other giving a hundredfold. Emotional contributions couldn’t be calculated, but material ones could be easily tallied.
Qiu Chengcai was left speechless by his mother’s words.
But Zhou Caimi didn’t let him off the hook just yet. She wanted to use today’s opportunity to cut the Gordian knot once and for all.
“Play the fool if you want. Play deaf if you want. In a moment, I’ll call Bai Ping up here, and I’ll lay everything out for her in person. You hide in the next room and listen carefully—truly listen. Listen to whether this person chooses you or chooses whatever benefits her the most.”
Leave a Reply