“Stop wandering around outside all day. Now that you’ve married into our Song family, you need to behave.”
Bai Ping had just opened the door after spending the day outside when she was met with a barrage of criticism. Her face twitched. She wanted to snap back, but knowing it would be useless, she closed her mouth instead.
Seeing her like this, Zhao Meixiang felt wronged on her son’s behalf. Marrying such a woman—her son hadn’t had a single happy day since.
It was true. Although Bai Ping had married Song Guoping as she wished, he had slept in a separate room from her ever since their wedding day. Beyond that, he stayed away from home as much as possible. If it weren’t for the fear of people discovering the truth about his marriage, Song Guoping probably wouldn’t live at home at all.
So, watching her son suffer like this every day, Zhao Meixiang was bursting with pent-up anger. And Bai Ping was restless, running around offending people after the wedding. If her husband, Old Song, didn’t still have some influence, someone would have filed a complaint against her long ago.
Moreover, Bai Ping—someone who had swapped identities—had not only alienated her biological family but had also managed to offend the family that raised her for twenty years. That alone showed she wasn’t a good person.
Recently, their family had been implicated in the spy case and needed to keep a low profile. Yet Bai Ping had gone out wandering again. This made Zhao Meixiang even angrier.
“I’m telling you, if you keep offending people like this, even if it costs us our reputation, I will make Guoping divorce you.”
Bai Ping had heard this hundreds of times. She wasn’t afraid of Song Guoping wanting a divorce. Although she had survived that one reporting and investigation, she knew some future events. Bai Ping was aware that the Song family had quite a few skeletons in their closet.
Ignoring Zhao Meixiang, she went straight to her room, locked the door, and pulled out a red-covered notebook.
Ever since losing that previous notebook, she had prepared a sturdy one this time. The notebook recorded many dream contents. A small portion was her recollections of previous dreams. The rest were dreams that had come to her after marrying into the Song family.
Yes, after marrying Song Guoping, she had started having new dreams. Most of the content in these dreams took place several years in the future. From these events, she could infer what might happen in the present.
Among these entries was one about the recycling station near the compound.
In her dreams, this recycling station was a treasure trove. She had gone there today, not only to continue searching for the missing jadeite rough stones but also to get to know everyone at the recycling station in advance.
Who would have thought she would run into Bai Lan?
Bai Ping had no idea what Bai Lan was doing there. But Bai Ping had a feeling it couldn’t be anything good. Ever since her new dreams had appeared, Bai Ping had been very confused. In these new dreams, the personalities and fates of Bai Lian, Bai Li, and Bai Lan were vastly different from reality.
Besides them, there were also some people who had never appeared in her dreams but now frequently showed up—like the brothers Xu Jianbei and Xu Jianxi. And there was the spy case at the steel plant.
All of these events were vastly different from her dreams. If it weren’t that too many people were involved, Bai Ping would have suspected that they, like her, could dream about the future. Because they knew the future held disappointments, these people had changed their fates.
But no matter how much these people changed their fates, the appearance of certain treasures wouldn’t change. And some people’s futures remained as unchanged as ever.
Thinking of the people she had encountered at the recycling station today, Bai Ping let out a cold snort. Bai Lan thought she was so great! Hmph, people like her would soon learn that her life wasn’t so wonderful.
—
Bai Lan was temporarily unaware of the deep-seated malice coming from Bai Ping.
After comforting Da Tou, Bai Lan and Xu Jianbei headed back to the screw factory together.
There were quite a few people on the road. The weather was getting warmer, and after dinner, everyone was out and about.
“Do you think Da Tou will be able to talk to his mother properly this time?” Bai Lan nudged Xu Jianbei with her elbow.
Xu Jianbei smiled. “He should. If he drags his feet any longer, his situation will only get harder.”
Bai Lan thought of Aunt Qin’s expression today as she talked to Matchmaker Wu and sighed. “Aunt Qin wouldn’t be willing to let Qin Yan date Da Tou. And besides, Qin Yan doesn’t seem to like him that way right now.”
Yes, Da Tou liked Qin Yan. Xu Jianbei had noticed it first. Later, Bai Lan found out too. Her good friend liked another good friend. As the go-between, Bai Lan felt it was best not to get involved.
Especially since Qin Yan clearly hadn’t noticed Da Tou’s feelings, and she still seemed rather immature when it came to romance. Usually carefree, her only worry was not being able to secure a permanent position at the recycling station.
So Bai Lan thought Da Tou’s chances were very slim.
“Anyway, enough about that. Let me tell you about that lamp…”
The lamp and some scrap paper had been bundled together and were now in Xu Jianbei’s hands, ready to be taken back to the screw factory to be repaired there.
Xu Jianbei hadn’t paid much attention. Hearing Bai Lan mention it, he looked down at the things he was carrying.
“I’ll see if I can fix it tomorrow when I have time. Come to think of it, that kid Cao Changsheng has been collecting various components lately…”
Bai Lan immediately thought of a common trope in period novels—collecting parts from radios and tape recorders, assembling them yourself, and selling them. It could make quite a bit of money.
She shared her thoughts, and Xu Jianbei laughed. “You know about that too? Although the kid hasn’t said anything, judging from the parts he’s been looking for, I suspect he’s trying to assemble a radio.”
“Is he short on money?”
Xu Jianbei thought for a moment and shook his head. “He just got promoted, with a decent raise. Quite a few people were fired from the steel plant. His workload has increased recently, so his bonus must be substantial. Besides, his family is actually quite well-off.”
Bai Lan didn’t know much about Cao Changsheng’s family background. She only knew he was Xu Jianbei’s high school classmate. After graduation, he started working at the steel plant and usually lived alone in a single dormitory there.
With such treatment, he could be considered a promising young talent.
“Both his parents are researchers at a classified institution.”
At this brief sentence, Bai Lan was stunned. Then she remarked, “Then his parents must be truly great people.”
Xu Jianbei smiled, realizing Bai Lan understood. He nodded. “Yes. Don’t let that kid’s slick demeanor fool you—he’s genuinely reliable.”
Bai Lan agreed. Take the time Xu Qiang had arranged that “hero saves the damsel” scenario. If Cao Changsheng hadn’t helped, her second sister might have actually been deceived.
And it was precisely Xu Qiang’s failure that time that led to the subsequent kidnapping and the unraveling of the spy network.
So, in a way, Bai Lan’s second sister and Cao Changsheng had also rendered meritorious service. Both had been commended by their units. Some people in the compound even marveled at how Bai Li’s factory-floor fight had ultimately exposed a spy—truly incredible.
—
The next day, when Bai Lan arrived at the canteen, she saw the older women huddled together in a lively chatter.
Seeing Bai Lan come in, someone waved her over and asked, “We heard that Widow Hu went to the man’s house in person yesterday to propose a match and got rejected?”
Even though the textile factory had so many employees, Widow Hu was someone everyone knew. After all, she was not only a gossip but had also swindled quite a bit of money from the factory.
Bai Lan was tempted to confirm it, but since neither Hu Aihua nor Da Tou had done anything wrong, she just smiled and didn’t answer the question.
The women were disappointed. When Aunt Qin arrived, they immediately surrounded her and asked about it again.
Aunt Qin loathed the Hu family. She immediately nodded. “Isn’t that right! What kind of people are the Hus? The Nings are honest, hardworking folks. After Widow Hu showed up at their door, they were so scared they practically locked themselves in.”
Everyone’s eyes lit up, and they pulled Aunt Qin aside to ask for more details.
Some had also heard about the matchmaker, Sister Wu’s, abilities and eagerly asked Aunt Qin to introduce her.
Bai Lan was in the back kitchen making buns, listening to the glorious tales of Sister Wu—how many couples she had set up today, how many single people she would help find someone tomorrow.
In Aunt Qin’s telling, Sister Wu was like a walking matchmaker god, every pairing she proposed succeeding. Bai Lan found this utterly ridiculous.
If she really had such power, wouldn’t this Sister Wu be a deity?
But everyone else seemed to believe it, one after another saying they would contact Sister Wu to find matches for their own families.
In short, after listening to matchmaking stories all morning, Bai Lan didn’t believe a word of it. But when she got home from work, she found herself proven wrong.
Because, sure enough, someone in the compound had successfully found a match through this Sister Wu’s introduction!
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