Chapter 79: She Swears

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: She Swears

Lu Zhengchuan gripped her hand, unwilling to let go. He even gave it a couple of squeezes, their fingers lacing together tightly.

"Hm?" Su Wan looked up at him, puzzled.

Lu Zhengchuan gazed at her face, his eyes lingering with reluctance. "It’s nothing," he finally said. "Just wait for me."

"Okay, go on."

Su Wan waved at him, showing no sign of reluctance.

Lu Zhengchuan paused. Even noticing this, he could only sigh inwardly before turning and leaving.

Qin Yao scanned the area and quickly found a spot to set up a stall. As a police officer, securing a location was easy for her. She took Su Wan to find the street administrator to pay the stall fee. Then, the two of them went to a spot in the middle of the street and began setting out the pottery bowls.

Qin Yao admired the bowls as she arranged them. "These are quite pretty. I almost want to buy a set for myself."

"No need to buy any. If we don’t sell them all, I’ll give you a set. My younger cousin fired these. I still have a few sets of the ones I made back at the family dependents’ courtyard." Su Wan had been planning to give away the remaining sets as gifts anyway. As her pregnancy progressed, she wouldn’t have time for pottery for at least a year or two.

Qin Yao asked curiously, "Comrade Su Wan, are the ones you make even nicer looking?"

"They mainly have more patterns," Su Wan replied humbly.

While they were talking, a woman from a nearby factory passed by, saw the bowls, and squatted down to pick some out.

"How much for a set of eight bowls?"

"Ma’am, it’s forty cents for a set. No ration tickets needed." Su Wan’s price wasn’t steep—only ten cents more than at the supply and marketing co-op.

"No tickets needed?" The woman’s voice immediately rose when she heard those words. Ration tickets were much harder to come by than money. "I’ll take one set... no, better make it two."

"Alright, Ma’am. Pick out the ones you want, and I’ll pack them for you."

After Qin Yao finished packing the bowls for the woman, she whispered to Su Wan, "Comrade Su Wan, you’re selling them too cheap by not requiring tickets. The tickets are the precious part. You could still sell them even if you asked for tickets."

Su Wan didn’t mention that she wasn’t short on tickets at all. If there was one thing Lu Zhengchuan had in abundance, it was ration tickets.

Besides, forty cents wasn’t a small sum. The meal they just had at the cafeteria—a few dishes plus rice—had only cost a little over a yuan in total.

She had nearly two hundred sets of bowls here. Selling them all would bring in eighty or ninety yuan.

"My younger cousin made these for practice, so we’re just happy to sell them at all. The quality is fine, they’re just not very refined. I’d feel bad charging more," Su Wan said, shamelessly offering a flimsy excuse.

Her last sentence convinced Qin Yao.

After all, anyone who dared to become a private entrepreneur these days was bound to be audacious.

’It’s only natural to have a guilty conscience.’

"Oh, okay. Let’s stick with this price then." Qin Yao stopped questioning her. She even felt a pang of sympathy for Su Wan, wondering what had forced her to bear the stress of private enterprise and resort to selling bowls.

Su Wan: ... ’I’m just doing this because it’s a good way to make money. I’m not pitiful in the slightest.’

"Excuse me, Comrades, how are you selling these bowls...?"

More customers began to arrive, and the crowd swelled once word got out that no tickets were required.

Su Wan and Qin Yao were suddenly swamped.

The other private vendors on the street saw how well Su Wan was doing, and their eyes filled with envy. When they heard it was because she wasn’t asking for tickets, they couldn’t help but sneer.

They only held back from flying into a jealous rage because her pottery bowls weren’t in direct competition with their own wares.

It was at this moment that Zheng Zhizhi spotted Su Wan.

"Su Wan, what are you doing here?"

With the bustling crowd, Su Wan couldn’t quite make out the voice.

Seeing that Su Wan didn’t even lift her head, Zheng Zhizhi grew indignant and reached out to grab her hair.

Before her hand could connect, it was seized in an iron grip.

"OW, OW, OW..." Zheng Zhizhi howled in pain.

Qin Yao, gripping her wrist, frowned. "What do you think you’re doing?"

"Who are you? Let go of me."

"Even if you were a customer, you have no right to pull Comrade Su Wan’s hair. You started this, so don’t blame me for getting rough." With swift efficiency, Qin Yao shoved Zheng Zhizhi away.

Zheng Zhizhi stumbled, nearly falling. She snatched her hand back and rubbed her wrist, which was throbbing with pain.

Jealous that Su Wan had someone to protect her, she snarled, "Su Wan, did you hire someone to bully me?"

Su Wan patiently finished helping the customer in front of her before turning her attention to Zheng Zhizhi.

She first thanked Qin Yao. "Comrade Qin Yao, thank you. This woman is from my hometown. She tried to push me on the military base and cause a miscarriage, which is why she was kicked out. She’s not even allowed back on the base now."

"If you hadn’t stepped in, she might have hurt me again."

"You..." Hearing Su Wan so bluntly expose her ugly past, Zheng Zhizhi’s chest heaved with rage. Her eyes went wide with humiliation and fury.

As soon as Qin Yao heard that, she immediately shielded Su Wan behind her, eyeing Zheng Zhizhi with the guarded suspicion she’d reserve for a criminal.

Zheng Zhizhi was provoked by that look and raised her hand as if to strike. But faced with Qin Yao’s imposing height, her nerve failed her. No matter how resentful she felt, she instinctively shrank back in the face of danger.

"What are you trying to pull? You want to get physical?" Qin Yao warned.

Stiffening her neck, Zheng Zhizhi ignored Qin Yao and addressed Su Wan directly.

"Su Wan, selling things out here on the street... Does Lu Zhengchuan know? Do the people from our village know? Aren’t you afraid of becoming a laughingstock?"

"You’re not afraid of being laughed at, so why should I be?" Su Wan couldn’t be bothered with her.

"If you don’t have anything better to do, then leave. Don’t stand around here making a scene."

’I have no idea why Zheng Zhizhi is still here and hasn’t gone back to Yang Province, but that’s her own business and has nothing to do with me.’

"How dare you say that!" Zheng Zhizhi shrieked. "It’s all your fault I’m stranded in this county town!"

"What does that have to do with me?" Su Wan looked at her and offered a serious suggestion. "You should do some self-reflection instead of always blaming others for your problems."

"Hmph. Give me twenty yuan, and I’ll leave," Zheng Zhizhi said, revealing her true purpose.

She was brazenly trying to extort money from Su Wan.

Su Wan was utterly exasperated. She glanced up. "And why would I give you money?"

"If you don’t give it to me, I’ll go ask Lu Zhengchuan. His reputation won’t sound so good after that. If my life is difficult, I’ll just latch onto him and make his difficult too."

Zheng Zhizhi threatened Su Wan with an air of confidence.

Su Wan was speechless.

"Comrade Qin Yao, you’re a police officer, and you heard her yourself. If anything actually happens, I’ll have to trouble you to testify that this was a deliberate act on Zheng Zhizhi’s part."

"What? You’re a cop?" Zheng Zhizhi’s hand trembled as she pointed at Qin Yao.

Su Wan, perfectly composed, raised an eyebrow at her. "So? Are you still planning on threatening me?"

"You..." Zheng Zhizhi faltered. She had only been bluffing.

"I-I didn’t say anything. Fine, don’t give me the money. I’m leaving."

Zheng Zhizhi scurried away but didn’t go far. She squatted around a corner, glaring at Su Wan’s stall with eyes full of venomous jealousy.

She watched Su Wan easily sell all the bowls and earn a thick wad of cash. It was clearly enough to make up many ten-yuan bills.

She saw the smiles on Su Wan’s and Qin Yao’s faces and watched as they unhesitatingly hired a pedicab to leave. In that moment, she had an epiphany. What she was missing was money!

She swore she would one day live a better life than Su Wan.

Zheng Zhizhi vowed to herself.