In the past, they only needed to look for a place that was close to school. Now that she has a shop, she also needed the place to be close to a bus stop which has buses that would take her to West City Nan Road. That and when she threw in the criteria that it must be close to school, the areas she could look at were very limited.

She mentioned that she needed to look for a new place to Lao Hu yesterday. Lao Hu even apologized to her then and immediately promised that he would look for an even better place for her.

Shu Yan did put all her hopes on Lao Hu. She also contacted Lin Hui and Wu Xiuyue. They were both locals and have many friends and relatives. Even if they'd just casually asked around, it'd be better than Shu Yan trying to look on her own.

Ideally, she'd prefer to find something on or around Fujian Road. Except that Shu Yan's criteria was for the place to have its own kitchen and bathroom. That made things a little bit more difficult.

Housing was limited in 1992. It was not unusual for three generations to live together in a 40 ~ 50 square feet unit and most of them don't have individual bathrooms. So looking for an ideal place was no small feat.

"Maybe you want to compromise for a few months? You will be able to move into your new place by the end of the year, right?" said Wu Xiuyue to Shu Yan after she had asked around some. Most of the places were either rented out or that they were only renting a room out for supplemental income.

"Let me look around for a little more." That would be the last report. If she started now, she just might be able to find something that meets her criteria. '

"I have a relative whose daughter studied overseas and stayed after graduation. Now that she had a child, her parents went to take care of their daughter and the grandchild. They plan to rent their place out. It's a single-family house with a yard, so the pricing might be on the higher side." Lin Hui brought up her relative's place after she thought about it for a while.

"I don't mind a little higher rent, but I only need to rent it for four months. Six at most. As you know, I've bought a place over at Nanfu Mansion. I am just waiting to move in after the remodeling is done and the place is aired out. Will your relatives be okay with that?" Shu Yan had already made up her mind. If this place fell through, she would look for a shared rental place. But it must have a bathroom, that was her ultimate bottomline.

"I am aware of your situation. I don't think that will be an issue. Truth was, my relatives are quite well off. They are not renting their place out for money, but more so that someone would be there to take care of things for them. The couple is really nice. The older lady of the household isn't as nice, but you don't have to live with her anyway. You can just close the door and do your own thing." Having said that, Lin Hui took Shu Yan to go and check the place out.

There was a bus stop not too far from the house. That was the first thing that Shu Yan looked at. It's all moot if there was no bus that'd take her to West City Nan Road.

She was quite lucky; there were buses that would take her to West City Nan Road. And if she made a right, that'd be the road to the grade school. Just a 5-minute walk. Transportation was about as good as it could get.

The house was a little two-story building with yards in the front and in the back. In the front yard, there was a jujube tree and two pomegranate trees. The jujube tree was already bare, but there were still fruits on the pomegranate trees. The living room was in the middle and the kitchen to the left side of it. To the right, there was a study. There were three bedrooms, a small living room on the second floor and bathrooms on both floors. The place was very spacious and furnished. They just need to move in with their clothes.

The backyard was sectioned up with lettuces, green onions, chives growing there. There was another section cordoned out for gingers. No weeds could be seen anywhere.

"I thought you said they are overseas? How is this place so well maintained?" asked Shu Yan as she gave Lin Hui a dubious look.

"My son asked the neighbor to help out before he left," said the old lady as she walked outside. She gave Shu Yan a very judgmental look and asked, "How many of you will be living here?"

"Just me and my two kids." Shu Yan noticed that the old lady was really not that nice. Or that she especially looked down on anyone who was an outsider.

When Lin Hui introduced her to the old lady earlier, her first questions were where was she from and what did she do for a living.

"And two kids? How old are they?" asked the old lady with a frown.

"The old one is 7 and the younger one is 3. But my two kids are very mature for their age and won't be a hassle." Shu Yan understood that many people didn't like renting to someone with children, especially those with young children. Kids could be naughty and might draw on the walls or break the doors, windows, or furniture.

"Third Aunty, her daughter is a classmate of Tongtong. Her daughter is a very well-behaved kid. I have met her son too. He, too, is very mature. Both of them are nice kids and won't cause troubles at home." Lin Hui tried to speak up for Shu Yan.

"No way. No way." Third Aunty kept on shaking her head. "All furniture inside my son's house is expensive and made out of real redwood. Very valuable. Kids don't know any better. I don't want them dinging or scratching them. No way. No way."

Shu Yan liked this place a lot, but there was nothing she could do if they were not willing to rent the place to her.

They heard a door open next to them on their way out. Shu Yan looked over and met the man's eyes. Shu Yan paused. It was the hero whom she had split the ride with last time. She didn't know that he lived here too.

The man nodded at Shu Yan when he saw her before he turned and left.

"You know him?" asked Lin Hui.

"No, I don't know him. I split the ride with him when I went merchandising last time. I don't even know his name. But the driver said he's a hero." Shu Yan took another look at the man who had already walked away and asked, "Is this his house?"

"What hero? He's a murderer," said the old woman as she locked the door and spit on the ground in the direction of the man. "The house next door belonged to a sister of mine. She is getting old and confused. That was the only reason she'd rent to her place to someone like that."

"Murderer?" Shu Yan paused and looked at the old lady in disbelief. Did the driver lie to her?

"Third Aunty, it was an accident. Besides, that only happened because he was trying to save someone else. It's not the same." Lin Hui gave Shu Yan a look and said to her softly, "Yes, you can call him a hero."

"What happened?" Shu Yan was very curious about it.

Lin Hui told Shu Yan everything that she knew as they walked away.

"His name is Fang Zeyu. His father was an educated youth who had been sent to City Nan during the . His parents separated very early on so I don't know much about his mother's side. His father was a worker at our factory. As the saying goes, 'it there's a stepmother, there's a stepdad'. All in all, his family treated him poorly, so he joined the military after he graduated junior high school.

He spent five years in the military. After his return, he was assigned a job as a chauffeur. One day, when he took the leader to dinner, he saw a group of people trying to drag a female student into a car. He went to try and stop them, and they ended up in a fight. It was late at night, and nobody knew what happened, but one of the boys was pushed into the road, got hit by a car, and died. That person has some background, so all the blame was placed on Fang Zeyu."

Having said that, Lin Hui sighed. "Any other family would have pleaded for him. But Feng Zeyu's father didn't want to risk offending anyone, so he never said a word. Even the girl that he saved turned around and said she was friends with the others and they were just messing around when Feng Zeyu suddenly started the fight."

"That's so awful." All he tried to do was the save someone, and even that person ended up turning on him. Shu Yan couldn't even begin to fathom what she'd do if that had happened to her. She'd probably be so disappointed that she'd never do another nice act for the rest of her life. 

"What could you do, right? The other side had both witnesses and evidence. So he went to jail for a few years. And this was only because some of his buddies from back in the military helped him out. Otherwise, he might still be in jail right now. Now he has lost his job and severed his ties with his father's side. The worst part was that his grandmother, who was the only one nice to him, died when he was in jail. He didn't even get to see her one last time.

When he returned, he cried outside the house on his knees. It was heart aching just listening to it. The house next door belonged to Third Aunty's sister-in-law. She's a very nice person, but she, too, had a rough life. She lost both her son and her daughter-in-law. Even her only grandson died in the military. He was a buddy of Feng Zeyu from the military. It was said that one of them died and the other was severely injured during the incident.

All in all, after Feng Zeyu returned from the military, he treated the old lady like his own grandmother. The old lady treated him as if he's her own grandson as well. She was the one who picked him up personally when he returned. Words also had it that Feng Zeyu had moved his household register under her and even said that he will change his surname to the old lady's and be her real grandson... but that's just from words of mouth."

"I think that's great. I wouldn't want parents like that either." Only kind fathers would have filial sons. What was the point of having a father like that? If it was her, she'd change her surname to be a family with the old lady too.

"Well, it's more complicated than that. Words on the streets were awful. It was said that he only wanted to be the old lady's son for the house. And many others also said that he was a murderer. His reputation is pretty bad in this area. That and he has a scar on his face, which was why he is still single at 35." Lin Hui sighed and shook her head.

Shu Yan felt bad about that as well. A person who could have a bright future turned out like this because of something that he didn't do.

"Oh, right, do you want to..." Lin Hui hesitated for a bit before she shook her head again. "Never mind. Nothing."

"Oh, just tell me." It was worse when she didn't finish saying what she had wanted to.

"What I wanted to say was that the house next door has multiple rooms. Perhaps you can rent one for the time being, but...." Lin Hui really wanted to ask Shu Yan where her husband was. Her life would have been easier if she wasn't a single woman with two children. "Never mind. If you move in with Feng Zeyu with two children, the rumors would be awful."

Shu Yan felt very speechless. If this was her time in the future, there were many single males and single females renting a place together. Many of the houses were converted into 7 ~ 8 single rooms and rented by both males and females. There were never issues like this.

But the times were different. Things were more conservative right now. She may not care about it herself, but she needed to keep her children in mind. Both of her kids were attending school here, and this place was pretty close to the school. Rumors like that would negatively impact her kids.

As she wasn't able to find a place just yet, she put her hopes on Lao Hu. Shu Yan looked at the time and it was already past 11 AM. She had planned to visit her daughter, but she figured she'd have already had lunch over at Teacher Liu's; it's best if she didn't go to disturb them. She took Tianbao to a noodle restaurant by the grade school for a quick lunch. Tianbao spit it back out after just one bite.

"Mommy. It's too sweet."

Shu Yan tried a bite quietly. It was alright to her, but not so much for the two children. As she recalled how her daughter said this place was tasty even though she probably didn't like the food, Shu Yan's eyes reddened and her heart ached. She had no idea what life was like for her over at her teacher's place. Her daughter wasn't the type to complain even if days were rough. One way or another, she needed to find a place soon so she could take Jingjing back.