This time Shu Yan didn't just wait like a fool out front but looked for a somewhat decent looking hotel nearby, borrowed an alarm clock from the owner, and set it to 3:30 AM.

It didn't take her long to fall asleep after laying down. When the alarm went off, Shu Yan sat up abruptly. She looked at the time. It was 3:30 AM. She quickly got up, wiped her face down, grabbed her stuff, and headed toward the wholesale market.

After the last few times, Shu Yan was already pretty good at grabbing the merchandise quickly. The last few days in business had given Shu Yan confidence in her judgement, and she grabbed quite a few of the ones that she liked. Then she headed to a few shops that she was familiar with for some new designs.

After she went back to where the car was parked, the driver helped her put her stuff inside the trunk.

"Boss Shu, my friend is running a few minutes late. Do you mind waiting a little bit?" The driver negotiated with Shu Yan.

Shu Yan took a look at the time. It was already past 7 AM. "It won't be long, right? I am in a hurry."

"It won't. Probably another 10 minutes or so."

Shu Yan went to get herself some breakfast and brought a bottle of soda back for the driver. With nothing else to do, she chitchatted with the driver. "Your friend looks a little mean. Is he in the car rental business too?"

"Sort of. He might look mean, but he is a really nice guy." The driver had a look of admiration on him when he talked about his friend. "Did you see that scar on his face? That's not just a scar. That's a man's medal."

"He's in the military?" Shu Yan didn't look very closely at the man; besides, she didn't think she'd be able to spot the so-called temperament anyway.

"He was, in the past. He went on an assignment one time and came back severely injured. He never talked about what happened. It probably had something to do with national security. Plus, he saved my life once. In our business, especially when we do long-distance trips, sometimes we will run into robbers. I ran into robbers once. If he didn't happen to be nearby, I might not be around anymore." Having said that, the driver was very emotional. "Did you know? He was able to take 7 ~ 8 men by himself in a matter of minutes. Hahaha."

So that's why the driver had such respect for the man. Shu Yan had originally thought that he might be a mobster.

About 10 or so minutes later, the man returned. When Shu Yan saw the scar on his face again, she no longer found it scary. Now, she found it fairly attractive.

"Something's the matter?"

Shu Yan only realized she had been staring at him for too long after she heard his voice. She quickly recollected herself. Feeling a bit awkward, she answered, "No. Are you thirsty?" She handed over a bottle of soda to him.

The man paused for a second and said, "No, thank you."

She didn't even know his name after all, so Shu Yan wasn't too overly enthusiastic about it. She had a bit of a hero complex. Back in the days, she had always gotten very excited when she saw heroic military men on TV.

Running back and forth getting the merchandise, Shu Yan was exhausted and fell asleep in the car shortly. She felt that with a military man in the car, albeit a veteran, made her feel very safe.

When they were almost back to City Nan, the man in the passenger seat suddenly said, "Let's drop her off first."

Shu Yan took a look at him and thanked him softly.

It was after 9 AM when she arrived at her shop, and the driver helped her unload her stuff. The man, too, helped, to her surprise. Shu Yan ran over to a shop close by and bought a bottle of beverage for him. "This is to thank you for helping me unload the stuff."

Back in her shop, Shu Yan was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Naturally, she wouldn't have the time to think about someone she had barely just met not too long ago. All the merchandise that she had brought back needed to be mixed and matched.

Business was slower today compared to the last few days. Granted, the promotional activities had already been running for days ,so this was only normal that business would start to slow a little. It wasn't doing bad by any stretch of imagination, but they had, after all, been spoiled by how well it did the last couple of days.

Another person won the first prize in the afternoon, so there was a spike in business. But then it started sprinkling around 4 o'clock and the traffic on the road thinning, so there was no more business.

"Why don't you go organize the stockroom a bit and then head out?" Shu Yan paid the temporary workers as well. As there was no overtime today, she paid them each 10 yuan. The few temporary workers didn't say much. Work ended a few hours early today so, all in all, they came out ahead.

Zhang Huaxiu and Yingying weren't able to leave so early, naturally. "I need to go pick the kids up. Keep an eye out in the shop. If it is still raining by 7 o'clock, then just wrap up and take off."

Tianbo's eyes sparkled when he saw his mother. He ran over to his mother and asked happily, "Mom, are you done being busy?"

"Just a couple more days. Did you listen to your teachers at school today? Did you behave yourself?" asked Shu Yan as she picked him up.

"I have been a good boy. This is the little red flower that I got today. I have received little red flowers five days in a row already!" said Tianbo as he looked up with pride.

"Is that so? Tianbo is so good," said Shu Yan as she patted him on his head. "Let's go pick up big sister too. Mommy will make some good food for you two tonight."

They ran into Wu Xiuyue who was here to pick up Tianbo on their way. "You are done being busy with your shop?"

"It started sprinkling and business has slowed, so I figured I can come and pick up the kids myself. I was going to let you know firs,t but I figured you had already left so I didn't swing by your place." Shu Yan explained herself; she didn't want Wu Xiuyue to misunderstand.

"I went over to a friend's earlier. You went to get merchandise at City Hang last night, so you must have been up all night and you've worked all day today. Don't worry about cooking. Just come over to my place for dinner." Wu Xiuyue looked at Shu Yan. Shu Yan had lost a lot of weight since they first met, but her spirit seemed to be higher.

"It's alright. It was only 10 o'clock when I got to City Hang yesterday so I took a nap. And I slept some more on my way back. I felt alright right now."

The two of them walked and chatted at the same time and got back to their little district in no time. Shu Yan hadn't cooked in days, so there was no food at home. She went to the market for some groceries with her two children in tow. She saw a man standing by her front door when they went home. She looked at him when they got closer. It was the landlord.

"Is something wrong?" They hadn't been renting this place for too long and had paid both rent and deposit. There was nothing wrong with the place so far, so why was the landlord here?

"Um..." The man seemed to have a difficult time stating his purpose. Finally, feeling a bit awkward, he said, "I don't even know where to start. Well, what happened was, my brother-in-law came from their hometown. If it was him by himself, we'd have him stay with us. Except that he brought his whole family with him and our place isn't big enough. So my wife and I thought we'd have him stay over here. Don't worry, I will refund both your rent and your deposit."

Shu Yan frowned and said, "We've signed a three-months' contract. Per our contract, you can't just ask me to move without a legitimate reason during this time or you will have to compensate me for my loss."

"This is a legitimate reason. My family came and there is nothing I can do about it. I want to rent this place out too; that way I will have income. Not only can I not collect rent from my brother-in-law, I will probably have to spend more money. As for compensation, I am refunding you both your rent and deposit, so you'd have stayed here for free for over half a month."

Shu Yan took a deep breath and suppressed her irritation. "When is your brother-in-law arriving?"

"They will be here tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? That's kind of abrupt. You need to give me a heads up. Where am I going to find a new place right now?" Shu Yan hadn't expected this to happen so abruptly.

"I was surprised too. But he had already bought his train tickets, so..."

"I can't do it tomorrow. You need to give me at least three days to look for a new place. That's not asking for a lot, is it?" Shu Yan opened up the door and let the two children go inside first.

The man looked at Shu Yan and the two children who had walked inside the house and sighed. "It's not unreasonable, but my hands are tied. My wife gave me her final order."

Alright, so he was a man who was deathly afraid of his wife. Apparently now that his wife had told him that he must take the house back, her being upset at him wouldn't change anything. This was his house. Even with a contract, there was not much she could do when the landlord wanted to take the house back. Such was the tragedy of renting.

"Alright. I get it."

When it rains, it pours. She has been busy with matters in the shop lately, and she has two children with her. With this new issue about where they would be staying, Shu Yan didn't feel like cooking anymore. She quickly ate something with the kids and kept on thinking about what options they had when she did the dishes.

"Mom, we can't stay here anymore?"

Seeing the worries in her daughter's eyes, Shu Yan recollected herself; she did not want the kids to feel the weight of the issue. She put on a smile and said to her, "Everything is fine. Mom bought a house next to your school. Remember we have looked at it before? It has already finished remodeling and we will be able to move in after the new year."

"Aren't we going home for the new year?"

Shu Yan paused for a little. It took her awhile to realize that when she said "home" she was referring to their house back in City Xi.

Ye Jingjing was older than Tianbo and remembered and knew a lot more than him.

"You want to go back?" ask Shu Yan directly.

"No, I don't want to," said Ye Jingjing as she shook her head. Back in the village, her grandmother always called her worthless. Neither her father nor mother paid her any attention and doted only on her brother. Now that she has been with her mother, her mother was equally good to both her and brother, and sometimes treating her even better than her brother. She had made a lot of new friends there. All of them were clean and polite. None of them ever cussed. This was heaven to her comparing to where she had been. She never wanted to go back to that old place again.

"Mmm, Mom doesn't like it either. So this will be our home from now on. The other place... let's just say it's Mom's mother's home. We will be like distant relatives in the future." She said that both to herself and to Ye Jingjing.

She needed to move for sure. After all, it belonged to someone else. Not to mention that she was a woman with two children and not a local. They didn't stand a chance fighting with the landlord. Luckily, she had only planned on staying here temporarily and didn't buy too much stuff. She could throw some of them away and the rest could be sent over to their new house first. Their possessions weren't a big deal; a bigger question was what to do with her two children.

Ye Jingjing was in first grade and was already behind. She didn't want her to fall further behind. Last time Shu Yan went to pick her kids up she saw some students staying over at the after-school place. Perhaps, some parents had the teachers look after their children for them. Shu Yan planned to find out more details; she might be able to have Ye Jingjing stay with her teacher for a month.

***

"I only have one extra room here, and I have two boys staying there already. I won't be able to accommodate Ye Jingjing. You can go ask Teacher Liu though. She has a male student too, but she has a room for her daughter. It has been vacant since her daughter has gotten married. One month shouldn't be a problem. "

Teacher Liu was Jingjing's English teacher. After hearing Shu Yan's request, she said, "Not a problem. I can take care of her for you for the time being. My daughter doesn't come home very often. Jingjing can stay in her room."

"Thank you so much, Teacher Liu. I really have no other options. We were renting this place and the landlord wanted it back last minute. My own place is still being remodeled. The fume is not good for the kids' health, so I dare not move in just yet. Which was why I had to ask you for the favor."

"What is wrong with these landlords nowadays? That is so unreasonable!" Teacher Liu seemed to be very upset about what had happened.

"Who knows? But not much I can do about it. Thank you so much for looking after Jingjing for me for the month."

Shu Yan took Jingjing to her school, squatted down, and talked to her. "You stay at Teacher Liu's for a month. Mom might even come and pick you up in less than a month. Mom will come and visit you often during this time. You must tell Mom if there are any issues, okay?"

"Okay, Mom. Don't worry," said Ye Jingjing as she gave Shu Yan a big smile.

How was this kid so mature!