Chapter 558 - 573: Expressing Thanks

The moment An Ning heard Liu Yiyi wasn’t seeing anyone, her inner matchmaker awakened.

Liu Yiyi shifted uncomfortably. "An Ning," she said, embarrassed, "don’t look at me like that. You’re making me nervous."

"Huh?"

An Ning was completely oblivious to how gossipy and inappropriate her stare was. Then again, if there was one thing An Ning had, it was confidence.

"Heh, my bad. It’s my first time playing matchmaker, so I’m not very good at it."

Liu Yiyi tilted her head to look at An Ning, hesitating to speak, a troubled expression on her face.

"An Ning, it’s not that... What I mean is, I... I don’t want to get married again."

Liu Yiyi was telling the truth. Her first marriage had left her utterly exhausted and had nearly cost her her life. Besides, Tangtang was much older now.

"I get it, and I won’t pressure you. I just wanted to confirm you aren’t seeing anyone right now. The rest is someone else’s problem."

"Okay, on to the second thing."

An Ning changed the subject so quickly that Liu Yiyi could barely keep up.

"Tangtang’s on break from school, and I’ll be home for a while. If you don’t mind, you can bring her over to my place. I’ll teach her how to fight."

"And as for her homework, don’t worry. I’ll provide complete academic support."

Liu Yiyi couldn’t help but laugh, her tone affectionate. "You can really tell the difference between someone who has kids and someone who doesn’t."

"You wouldn’t know, but being a parent is wonderful, and Tangtang is so well-behaved. I should be completely content, but... there are always those one or two days when you just want some peace and quiet for yourself."

"Not to mention the terms you’re offering—complete homework tutoring? It’s an offer I can’t refuse."

Liu Yiyi added, "With the homework they get these days, there are some problems I can’t even solve myself."

With Tangtang’s stay settled, An Ning left so the girl would have time to pack. She herself had to make a trip to the county office.

Before she came to the county seat, Lin Cuihua had given An Ning a small booklet. It was for a subsidy that paid out over two hundred yuan a year.

According to Lin Cuihua, the payments for last year and this year had both been issued at once. In those days, two hundred yuan was often enough to cover a family’s food and drink for an entire year.

An Ning didn’t drive since the office wasn’t far. She walked under the shade of the trees, enjoying the breeze.

Five minutes later, she was at the office entrance. Just as An Ning was about to go inside, an employee in a white uniform came out, set up a sign by the entrance, and the door clicked shut.

"Closed for lunch: 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM."

’Alright, guess I’ll go get some lunch then.’

An Ning thought this was perfectly normal, but a few other people who had also come to do business grumbled for a bit, though they were just as helpless.

Unwilling to walk far, An Ning ducked into a cold noodle shop. She ordered a bowl of buckwheat cold noodles, a small dish of spicy shredded potato salad, and a bottle of ice-cold soda to top it all off. Perfect.

The breeze from the ceiling fan, the cold soda, and the constant drone of cicadas in the sun outside... it was enough to make anyone drowsy.

Luckily, the cold noodles arrived incredibly fast. She took a bite. ’Sweet, sour, and perfectly chewy. Delicious.’

"Are you An Ning?"

"Hm?"

With noodles still in her mouth, An Ning looked up, puzzled, at the girl with bright eyes and a radiant smile standing before her. She didn’t recognize her.

She quickly slurped down the rest of her noodles, still perplexed.

"We’ve never met, but you’ve definitely heard my name."

The girl, holding a book in one arm, extended her other hand toward An Ning. "I’m Lin Niaoniao," she said by way of introduction.

’Lin Niaoniao...’

An Ning remembered.

The Lin Niaoniao who had been pushed so hard by her mother that she’d resorted to self-harm, the one who broke down the day the college entrance exam scores were released.

"Hello, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you."

An Ning put down her chopsticks and took Lin Niaoniao’s hand. At the same moment, they both broke into warm, radiant smiles.

"I made a point to find your picture back then. You were the top scorer on the college entrance exams. I’ve always remembered you. Thank you for the letter you sent."

"It was nothing. I just jotted down some thoughts. You were the one who made the final decision. You seem to be doing very well now."

As it turned out, after hearing about the incident from An Guoping and Zhou Xiaoshan, An Ning had written a letter to Lin Niaoniao. It wasn’t full of grand theories; she simply told a version of her own story.

She told the story of her own journey, from being mute to becoming the top scorer on the college entrance exams.

"It might have been a small, insignificant gesture to you, but for me, it was a hand pulling me out of the darkness."

Lin Niaoniao stood up formally to thank An Ning.

"I accept your thanks. Please, sit down."

Lin Niaoniao was wearing a tasteful, white, short-sleeved dress with a light green belt, a simple and elegant outfit.

"I repeated my last year of high school. Following your advice, I started running every day. No matter how heavy my workload was, I always made time to go for a walk outside and read plenty of books that weren’t for school."

"The next year, I tested into a teachers’ college, and now I’m a high school teacher."

"You’ll be a great teacher."

’Because you’ve walked through darkness yourself.’

Lin Niaoniao didn’t stay long. She left a handmade bookmark for An Ning and departed.

When An Ning went to pay her bill, she discovered Lin Niaoniao had already taken care of it.

’A bowl of cold noodles in exchange for a letter,’ An Ning thought. ’Not a bad trade.’

An Ning walked out of the noodle shop, and the scorching heat on her arms immediately made her want to turn back.

An Ning checked the time. It was still a bit early, so she decided to wait in the shade of a tree on the street, making small talk with the elderly folks nearby.

The moment it turned one o’clock, An Ning set off.

To her surprise, in that short amount of time, a line had already formed.

With no other choice, An Ning obediently got in line. ’Should I call someone to pull some strings or just wait it out for such a minor thing?’ she wondered.

Fortunately, the line moved fairly quickly. An Ning was a bit lost in thought and didn’t hear the person ahead of her grumbling. She shuffled forward bit by bit until it was finally her turn.

"Hello, I’m here to pick up a subsidy payment."

The clerk at the window didn’t even spare An Ning a glance, their fingers flying over an old-fashioned keyboard. The CLACK-CLACK-CLACK was as loud as a tractor back in the village.

"Papers."

An Ning handed over the booklet Lin Cuihua had given her. The clerk barely glanced at it, flipping through the pages with one hand.

"Are you the person named here?"

"No, I’m the daughter of the head of the household."

"Your ID."

"Right here."

An Ning handed over her ID card. ’Good thing I brought it,’ she thought.

"Nope. Your paperwork is incomplete. I can’t process this."

"What’s missing? What documents do I need?"

An Ning didn’t understand the process, so she figured she’d ask for the details, get everything ready at home, and just pick it up the next time she was in town.

Two hundred yuan might not be much for the An family these days, but to Lin Cuihua and the older generation, it meant something more.

"Household register and a certificate from your village committee."

"A certificate proving what, exactly?"

"Tsk—" The clerk shot An Ning a look for the first time, their voice dripping with lethargic impatience. "Proving your relationship to the head of the household."

"Alright. Next."

Pushed along by the person behind her in line, An Ning had no choice but to take her documents and step aside.

But as she looked at her ID card, she couldn’t help but feel confused. ’Doesn’t this prove I’m my mother’s daughter?’

’Isn’t all this in the system already?’

’A system that she herself had helped build, no less.’