Chapter 0207: Promise

"Son, have you been resting poorly lately?"

During the meal, Zhao's mother asked Zhao Fusheng with concern.

Zhao Fusheng smiled. "It's nothing. I've just been staying up late working on a marketing plan these past few days."

She touched her son's head sympathetically, then piled meat and vegetables into Zhao Fusheng's bowl. Li Yuan was also full of concern; the two women's chopsticks never stopped, and soon Zhao Fusheng's bowl was piled high like a small mountain.

Zhao's father cleared his throat and raised his voice. "Well, I've been very busy lately too, you know. Running here and there..."

He had indeed been busy lately. After finalizing the equity division of the shopping mall investment with a few old army buddies, and pulling some strings, Zhao's father and the others registered a company and began soliciting outside investment.

After all, Hualian Department Store currently had no merchants; only they had secured the lease for the first floor. So the storefronts along the street attracted quite a bit of interest.

Zhao's father came up with a plan: let these people pay two years' rent and a deposit, just like he did.

With this move, they managed to recoup a fair amount of capital. The supermarket renovation was also proceeding at a brisk pace, and it was expected to be open for business before New Year's Day.

"If you're tired, go to bed." Zhao's mother gave her husband a strange look. "You seem pretty energetic to me."

Li Yuan burst out laughing. As for Zhao Fusheng, his face was red from holding it in, but he dared not laugh; he just silently lowered his head and ate his meal obediently.

Zhao's father sighed, resignedly lowered his head, and began to eat.

After dinner, the family sat on the sofa chatting. Zhao's father and Zhao Fusheng discussed matters concerning the supermarket, while Zhao's mother, having nothing else to do, chatted with Li Yuan about household affairs.

"Let me tell you, something really funny happened at the hospital a few days ago." Zhao's mother said to Li Yuan with a smile. "In the obstetrics department, there was a woman giving birth naturally. A whole room of people were cheering her on, shouting 'Push hard, push hard!' And guess what? She actually pooped..."

Pfft!

Zhao Fusheng, who was drinking water, sprayed it out. He looked up at his mother in surprise. "Mom, can you not tell jokes?"

Zhao's mother looked innocent. "This isn't a joke; it's a true story. After she finished pooping, the baby came out. The nurses disinfected and cleaned everything again, then took the baby out and stitched her up. After that, they pushed her out. But as they were leaving, she felt embarrassed about pooping in the delivery room, so she secretly covered her head with a sheet. The doctors and nurses were so busy they didn't notice. Guess what happened?"

"What happened?" Li Yuan asked at just the right moment.

"What else could happen? When she came out, the family was dumbfounded. She was lying there stiff as a board, covered from head to toe with a white sheet. What do you think that meant?" Zhao's mother couldn't help laughing as she spoke. "Her mother-in-law peed her pants on the spot, her own mother fainted, her father grabbed her husband, trembling all over, her husband dropped to his knees, and the relatives were all about to start crying..."

"And then?" Even Zhao Fusheng was curious now.

"And then she poked her head out and asked, 'What's wrong?'" Zhao's mother said with a laugh. "Her family was completely stunned. In the end, her parents grabbed their just-delivered daughter and wanted to slap her silly. Her in-laws stood by shouting, 'Serves her right! Beat her hard!' Her husband and relatives didn't stop them; instead, they said she deserved worse..."

Pfft, hahaha!

The whole family burst out laughing. Zhao Fusheng couldn't help rubbing his stomach. "Mom, you're too good at making things up."

Zhao's mother looked helpless. "I'm telling you, it's a true story..."

Even Zhao Fusheng had to admit that the world was full of wonders, and there really were all kinds of奇葩 out there.

After chatting a while longer, Zhao Fusheng saw that it was getting late, so he said goodbye to his parents and went downstairs to return to school.

Li Yuan handed Fan Beibei over to Zhao's mother and personally saw Zhao Fusheng to the ground floor.

"Auntie, is there something you want to say?" Zhao Fusheng asked Li Yuan downstairs.

He knew very well that given Li Yuan's personality, if she didn't have something inconvenient to discuss at home, she wouldn't have come down to see him off.

Li Yuan nodded and said to Zhao Fusheng, "Fusheng, Auntie wants to ask you: is Fan Bao's advertisement related to you?"

Fan Bao didn't know, but Li Yuan wasn't stupid. Zhao Fusheng had brought home so much money, and Zhao's parents hadn't hidden from Li Yuan that Zhao Fusheng was working at Zheng Yao's company. Li Yuan had also heard Fan Bao mention the name General Manager Zheng before, and after Zhao Fusheng returned from Beijing last time, Fan Bao occasionally mentioned in phone calls that Zhao Fusheng was a designer at the company where she had shot the ad.

Li Yuan's intuition told her that her daughter's advertisement must be related to Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng smiled. "How did Auntie guess?"

Li Yuan smiled back. "Silly child, you brought home several tens of thousands of yuan. If you were just an ordinary employee, as Bao said, how could you..."

Zhao Fusheng nodded. "The ad Bao shot was my idea. I just never told her."

"You..." Li Yuan was taken aback. Before she could speak, Zhao Fusheng continued, "Auntie, don't worry. No matter what, I will take good care of Bao."

Li Yuan was stunned for a moment, then her eyes reddened slightly. She nodded firmly. "Auntie knows. Auntie knows."

Zhao Fusheng smiled. "You go back now. I'm off."

With that, he turned and walked out of the neighborhood.

Watching Zhao Fusheng's retreating figure, Li Yuan's face was full of gratified smiles.

...

...

Sitting on the bus back to school, Zhao Fusheng idly scrolled through his phonebook. Earlier, he had taken the time to input all the phone numbers he had copied into his notebook into his phone.

Although the Ericsson was one of the most advanced mobile phones at the time, compared to later smartphones, it really had no亮点. Apart from making calls and sending text messages, it wasn't much different from an ordinary PHS, and the call charges were outrageously expensive.

Thinking about this, Zhao Fusheng couldn't help but want to complain about that guy Han Bin. Giving him a phone but not paying the bill—he was really stingy to the extreme.

As he scrolled through the phonebook, Zhao Fusheng suddenly noticed a name: Su Xia.

He then remembered that he had once encouraged Su Xia's husband, Wang Shen, to develop a media player. If he remembered correctly, he had named the software KuaiBo and suggested that if it was successfully developed, Wang Shen could set up a small program in KuaiBo so that all users who downloaded it would have their browser homepage set to wo123.

"Damn, the recent traffic couldn't be from that, could it?"

This thought suddenly popped into Zhao Fusheng's mind, and he really had a bad feeling about it.