Wang Miaomiao strolled into Wang Jia Bao's room. The door wasn't locked, it opened with a gentle push.
At home, Wang Zhaodi and Wang Pandi only attended elementary school before returning home to work. Liu Yulan didn't allow Wang Zhaodi to continue studying, while Wang Pandi herself didn't want to; she simply didn't have the knack for it.
Actually, this house was newly built when Wang Miaomiao was five years old. From the time it was completed until she turned twelve, Wang Miaomiao had been living in this room. Of course, it had two beds.
Until she was twelve, she got her first period and had become a young lady. Liu Yulan then allowed her to move to the small room at the back, squeezed in with her two sisters.
However, it was only the bed that moved over; the desk remained there because the room at the back was really too small.
The front room was bright, with two old desks placed by the window on the south side, cluttered with things all over the place. Alas... both the original and Wang Jia Bao were not fond of cleanliness nor organizing, the room was indeed a complete mess.
Wang Miaomiao reluctantly rolled up her sleeves and started cleaning up.
Because her backpack was on the desk, Wang Miaomiao easily recognized that the desk inside was hers.
On top, underneath, and on the floor, books were piled up. Wang Miaomiao flipped through them one by one, placing the useful ones on one side, and the unused on another.
After picking and sorting, she gathered a pile of trash. She only left a set of relatively new textbooks, covering all grades from first to second year of middle school. She planned to review them all.
Although the content was simple, it was something she hadn't encountered before, and the textbook content of this era had unique points relevant to the times that she needed to quickly learn and master.
Only twenty-five days left until the entrance exam, the time was somewhat pressing. She looked through the original's homework and previous test papers and found that the correctness was quite high, indicating that the results weren't bad.
Luckily, the original wasn't a bad student, so the persona wouldn't fall apart.
Otherwise, if her grades suddenly soared in a short time, wouldn't that arouse suspicion?
Alas... one more sigh, why couldn't she have the original's memories? Otherwise, it could save her so much trouble... Now, she had to bury her head in studying hard.
Math and physics were manageable, the knowledge points were too simple and could be brushed over casually. Language and politics, however, posed heavy tasks as there was a lot to memorize.
Fortunately, she had worked as a secretary for over ten years, summarizing and highlighting key points was never a problem.
Wang Miaomiao was buried in her studies in the room, outside, Liu Yulan returned angrily.
She had just taken the fabric to her sister-in-law's place at the old house in the village to help make the clothes, who knew she'd bring back a bellyful of anger.
In the village, there were only two families with sewing machines; her sister-in-law's family had a second-hand one. Her skill was decent, compared to the other family, the new daughter-in-law from the Zhang Family married over this year, the relation was less familiar, and her skill was unknown.
Thinking her sister-in-law, though she had a sharp tongue, was after all a relative, 'water from your own fields never flows to outsiders,' she went to her.
Who knew her tongue would be so harsh? She was given a processing fee yet didn't say a single nice word. Frustrated to the point she acted as if she was grabbing the fabric to leave, not having it made there, this forced her to close her mouth.
Next time, she absolutely wouldn't go there again; if not, she would go to a tailor shop in town, preferring to spend a little more money rather than putting up with her.
"What are you doing?" Liu Yulan entered the room and saw Wang Pandi cutting what had been good clothes, instantly infuriated, her anger rose by two points, and her voice increased by three decibels. "Who told you to ruin things like that!"
Frightened, Wang Pandi's hand shook, the needle pricked into her finger, "Ah…," she cried out.
Wang Miaomiao heard the sound and hurried out to explain, "Mom, you're back. I asked second sister to help me alter the clothes, they were too big, I couldn't fit properly, second sister's sewing skills are good, I asked her to help me make them smaller. Mom… you're thirsty, aren't you? Sit down and have some water, the sun outside is fierce..."
As Wang Miaomiao spoke, she poured water for Liu Yulan, quite attentive.
She noticed her mom came back from a trip in a bad mood, probably having been irritated outside, so she promptly tried to appease her, like a kind of consolation.
Upon hearing her youngest daughter's explanation, Liu Yulan realized she had wronged her. She gave Wang Pandi a sheepish look, took the clothes, examined them carefully, her eyes flickered, and she uncharacteristically praised, "Nice job."
Wang Pandi's finger throbbed from the needle prick, and she had her index finger in her mouth, feeling very aggrieved. Suddenly hearing her mother's rare praise, her feelings were extremely complex.
"Right, second sister's skills are really good. If she practices a few more times, she could be making new clothes…" Wang Miaomiao noticed the subtle exchanges between them, cracked jokes, eased the tension, and tried to win over her second sister.
She found second sister's personality somewhat aloof and stubborn, isolating herself from the household, always observing everyone with cold detachment.
This was different from Wang Zhaodi, who did not consider herself part of this family at all. If it weren't for her household registration being here, and sleeping here, she wouldn't come back for a day. And now she was also plotting how to leave this household early.
Liu Yulan took a sip of water, listening to her youngest daughter, a thought suddenly came to her mind. She cleared her throat, "Hmm, really good, Pandi, think carefully, practice with the old clothes more often, you'll surely put it to use in the future."
After saying meaningfully, she stood up and left.
Wang Miaomiao and Wang Pandi exchanged a glance, not quite understanding what their mom meant. Whatever, as long as their mom didn't oppose. They separated and went back to their individual tasks.
Liu Yulan returned to the room, glanced at Wang Baoxing who was napping on the bed.
After a moment's thought, she pulled out a large envelope from the bottom of the wardrobe, inside was all her savings accumulated through frugal living over the years.
There were only eight hundred fifty in total, among which six hundred forty were given by her two brothers over the years. Eldest brother gave four hundred six, second brother gave one hundred eighty, she remembered every bit clearly.
Her brothers gave secretly, refusing to take no for an answer, she accepted but never used it.
She managed through the most difficult times, thinking that saving could see her through, so she never touched it.
And unless it was an absolute last resort, she didn't want to use the money given by her brothers due to inner barriers; she could never forget the look her sister-in-law once gave, looking down on her as if using this money would forever bend her spine.
Liu Yulan looked at the money and sighed deeply, the shareable amount throughout the year was simply too little. Even with thrift, she hadn't managed to save much.
She counted out one hundred fifty, thought for a moment and added thirty more, totaling one hundred eighty. She hid the rest again, found a notebook, and started writing a letter.
In the afternoon, she didn't go to work, instead took half a day off and went to the town post office, sending the letter and money order together.
Actually, her personality was never one for procrastination, when she thought of something, she'd do it.