954 Mending Clothes
Qian’e turned around to look at Zheng Peng and then at Zhang Miao’s cautious and timid expression. In the end, she decided to give in to Qiao Mei. After all, the child was innocent and she did not want her to have bad memories.
Zhang Miao had already experienced too many misfortunes in her childhood. Qian’e did not want her own childhood experiences to be repeated in the lives of other children.
“If you’re not feeling well, then go back and lie down! Don’t use your health to intimidate me! I’ll give in to you! Go back into the house! Why do you still come out when you’re not feeling well!” Qian’e said to Qiao Mei tensely.
Although her words were not very nice and her attitude was very agitated, Qian’e had good intentions. Her demeanor had already improved a lot compared to how she was before.
“Alright, alright, alright. You can bring Miao Miao into the room for her lesson first. I’ll explain to Professor Zheng before going in,” Qiao Mei said.
“After the lesson, you must explain to me what’s going on. Why haven’t I heard about this person before,” Qian’e said unhappily.
Qiao Mei agreed with whatever Qian’e said. As long as it was something Qian’e wanted, Qiao Mei would try her best to satisfy her as long as she did not quarrel with Zheng Peng again.
After Qian’e brought Zhang Miao back to the room, Qiao Mei went over to Zheng Peng and said, “Professor Zheng, I’m so sorry. It’s my fault. There are some things which I have forgotten to tell you. That was Zhang Miao’s piano teacher, Professor Qian. Also, my elder sister, Xia He, is Zhang Qin’s dance teacher. My elder sister will teach the child during her free time and there’s no specific timing. Apart from these, the kids don’t have any other classes.”
Zheng Peng nodded in understanding. He did not mean to make things difficult for Qian’e, but it was just that this woman was really arrogant and despotic and did not respect him at all. She did not even look at him when she entered the house and even said that he abused children by making them go through such tiring physical training classes.
Even when he realized later that the children and Qian’e knew one another, he was unwilling to compromise. The situation had already reached a point where it would be embarrassing if he gave in first.
“Alright, I understand. You can go back and rest. Leave the children to me,” Zheng Peng said.
Li Gui returned to the small courtyard to make popcorn. Xia He helped Qiao Mei to make her way back slowly to the front yard. Too many things had happened today and she had to take a good rest.
Su Yang went to work on time early in the morning. Before he left, he even went over to Qiao Yu’s place to give her five dollars as her meal money for this week. It was rare for Qiao Yu to be able to sleep until late in the morning.
In the past, she always had to wake up before dawn. Even when she had a job in the capital, she still had to wake up early so that she could go to the canteen to be the first one to get food. If she went too late, she would not have anything to eat.
It was so good to be able to live unrestrainedly at home! Qiao Yu only got out of bed slowly when she was so hungry that her stomach growled. The coal fire in the stove had already extinguished and the room was a little cold.
Qiao Yu first restarted the fire in the stove and then rummaged through the old clothes that Su Yang had extorted from the landlord yesterday. She managed to find a cotton jacket in the pile, but a lot of cotton wool had fallen out and the fabric was also too dirty for it to be worn out.
If she wanted to go out, she had to try and assemble a proper-looking cotton jacket. Qiao Yu found a man’s jacket that was slightly too big for her, took out all the cotton wool from the other jacket and slowly sewed it all into this one. Soon, a thick cotton jacket was ready. It was even thicker than what she could buy outside!
This piece of clothing looked quite clean on the surface, but if one flipped it inside out, one could see that it was lined with colorful pieces of scrap fabric. Regardless, it was good enough for Qiao Yu to survive this winter.
Qiao Yu took the money and hummed a tune as she left the room. Before she left, she even locked the door carefully, worried that the landlord would take the chance to steal something from her room or retrieve the items that Su Yang had taken.
She was not Su Yang and did not have the strength to fight with the landlord. What if the landlord had ulterior motives? She decided that when she got back later, she would take the rags and sew them together to make curtains so as to prevent anyone from peeping at her in the middle of the night.
After walking around the supply and marketing cooperative, Qiao Yu realized that she could only buy some vegetables and could not buy meat at all. This was because Su Yang did not give her any meat coupons!
Every year, the pork which Qiao Zhuang’s family ate came from the pigs that they reared themselves. Qiao Yu had never left the village and had no idea that one needed meat coupons to buy pork. Her family had never given her any money.