"Mom..."
"Be a good girl. I'll have your brother buy you some next time."
Huang Qionghua's expression suddenly turned stern.
It was the Heavenly Empress who had guided Shen Lang back to the right path. Naturally, she had to offer the very best things from their home in worship.
"Shen Lang, get down on your knees for your old mother right now."
Hearing this, Shen Lang stood up from his chair, completely baffled, and knelt before Huang Qionghua.
"The fact that you know to buy things for the family shows you're starting to grow up. But making money is one thing—every single cent that rightfully belongs to our family, you must not yield an inch! As for black-hearted money that we have no business touching, if you dare take even a single penny, I'll risk rotting in prison just to beat you to a cripple!"
"Generations of the Shen family have been honest and kind, and your father is a thorough good man to boot. If not for that, this flower of the fishing village wouldn't have married your old man. If you want to make money, you get your ass out there and honestly harvest the sea and catch fish for your mother."
"If you ever run around with that crowd of beachcombers, humph!"
Huang Qionghua slammed her chopsticks down hard.
"Mom, don't you worry. Your son swears to the Heavenly Empress that in this lifetime I will only ever earn clean money."
A sudden realization dawned on Shen Lang.
With the economic recovery, there were all sorts of ways to strike it rich. As the old saying goes: those near the mountains live off the mountains, those near the sea live off the sea. The fishing village was right next to the ocean. But making a living from the sea wasn't limited to simple beachcombing and fishing.
Another kind of shady beachcombing had become extremely popular in recent years.
Smuggling!
By refitting fishing boats and installing extra engines, people traveled back and forth smuggling all kinds of valuable goods. A single run could net anywhere from several thousand to tens of thousands. While the profits were massive, the risks were boundless.
The nineties were both the best of times and an era of rampant chaos. As long as you were willing to risk your life, getting rich overnight was no mere dream.
Seeing Shen Lang swear such a solemn oath, Huang Qionghua finally broke into a smile.
"Get up..."
"Well, living it up with fine food and drink, are we?"
Suddenly, a sarcastic voice drifted in from outside the doorway.
Right after that, a middle-aged woman of roughly Huang Qionghua's age walked into the house.
"Oh, if it isn't Sister Li. You haven't eaten yet, have you? Come, come, pull up a chair and have a bite with us."
Seeing that the visitor was Lin Xiue, the mother of the local youth Li Xiangqian, Huang Qionghua warmly invited her to join them for a meal. Even though Lin Xiue's tone had been laced with thorns, Huang Qionghua had no intention of bickering with her.
Li Xiangqian was Shen Lang's little sidekick, coming and going, hanging out with Shen Lang every single day. Out of respect for the person, you had to respect the company. In front of outsiders, she had to save a little face for her son.
"Aunt Xiue, you can sit in my spot. I'll go dish up a bowl of rice for you."
Shen Ling proactively stood up to give up her seat.
"Humph! I can't afford to eat the food in your house!"
Faced with the warm hospitality of the mother and daughter, Lin Xiue narrowed her eyes and snapped, "Huang Qionghua, I didn't come here today to sponge a meal off your family. If you eat this sort of black-hearted food, it'll rot your heart and lungs!"
At these words, Huang Qionghua's brow furrowed tightly.
Seeing Lin Xiue show disrespect to her mother, Shen Lang said with a dark expression, "Aunt Xiue, it sounds like you came here looking for trouble."
"Shen Lang, you heartless little wretch! If you hadn't been stirring up trouble behind our backs, my son Xiangqian wouldn't have stolen money from home!"
"A full fifty yuan! Shen Lang, you thousand-times-damned bastard, these vegetables and meat were bought with my money, and yet the three of you have the nerve to stuff your faces without a guilty conscience!"
Shen Lang would have been better off keeping quiet. Lin Xiue erupted on the spot, furiously accusing Shen Lang of instigating Li Xiangqian to steal the money.
For some time past, money had been frequently disappearing from their home. Lin Xiue had never suspected that her own son, Li Xiangqian, was the thief. Unlike Huang Qionghua's strict discipline, Lin Xiue's way of raising her son belonged to the opposite extreme: her son could do no wrong, and she was terrified he might melt if she held him in her mouth.
It wasn't until this very day, while washing her son's trousers, that Lin Xiue accidentally dug out the missing fifty yuan bill.
"Aunt Xiue, you..."
"You shut your mouth!"
Huang Qionghua coldly interrupted Shen Lang, her face expressionless as she said, "Sister Xiue, you claim my son instigated your eldest boy to steal the money. Did he say that to you himself, or did you see it with your own eyes?"
"Do you even have to ask? Who doesn't know your son is the reigning little tyrant of our village? You never find him doing anything good, and there's no wicked deed he wouldn't dare commit! Xiangqian was such a good child, but ever since he started hanging around with your son, he's picked up a whole body's worth of bad habits."
Before Lin Xiue's voice had even faded, Huang Qionghua let out a cold laugh. "Coming over here to fling dirty water on my son without a shred of proof—Lin Xiue, do you honestly take this old lady for a decoration?"
"What kind of piece of work you were back when you were young—are you really going to force me to air all your dirty laundry?"
Just as Huang Qionghua finished fiercely chewing out the shameless Lin Xiue, Shen Lang said in a cold voice, "From this moment on, even if your son kneels and begs to call me grandpa, this man won't ever hang out with him again."
"Don't flatter yourself like you're some kind of big shot! As if anyone gives a damn about hanging out with you..."
"Mom! How can you be so clueless? Running over to my big brother's place to cause a scene!"
Before Lin Xiue could finish her sentence, a figure rushed frantically into the house. Grabbing Lin Xiue by the arm to drag her outside, he complained that she was always bringing trouble upon him.
The newcomer was none other than Lin Xiue's precious darling and Shen Lang's cheap minion: Li Xiangqian!
"Son, don't be afraid. Tell your mother honestly—those times before when money went missing, did you give it all to Shen Lang?"
"Mom, have you lost your mind in your old age? How can you call me taking money from my own home stealing? Won't all this money be mine eventually anyway?"
Li Xiangqian looked displeased, claiming that he took the money to secure himself an iron rice bowl of a job, not to pay tribute at Shen Lang's behest.
"Li Xiangqian, go home if you want to explain things. My house has no time to entertain the likes of you," Shen Lang told Li Xiangqian coldly. From now on, he was not to come looking for him ever again.
Hearing this, Li Xiangqian instantly blew his gasket.
Had he just been played by the capitalists? Why was Shen Lang targeting him every few days lately?!
Thinking of the terror of losing his backing, coupled with Shen Lang's methods, Li Xiangqian actually gave his own mother a hard shove.
"If Big Brother doesn't forgive you today, I won't have you as my mother anymore!"
Li Xiangqian glared fiercely at Lin Xiue. Did his mother have a brain in that head of hers at all? Didn't she realize Shen Lang's influence and clout in the village?
Once word got out that Shen Lang had drawn a line between them, there probably wouldn't be a single place left in the entire sprawling fishing village for Li Xiangqian to stand.
The older generation had their own social circles, and the younger generation had their own turf.
Last year, a dispute had broken out between their village and a neighboring one over the fishing grounds. Relying on their superior numbers, the outsiders had come over armed with all sorts of weapons for a brawl. Most of the able-bodied young men from their own village were out at sea fishing, leaving only a small handful behind to guard the home front.
Just as their side was about to suffer a crushing defeat, Shen Lang stood alone at the entrance of the village with a blade in hand. Facing hundreds of fierce, menacing toughs from the neighboring village, not only did Shen Lang show no fear, but he actively stepped forward to issue a challenge.
Three against one, leaving life or death to fate.
Even covered in wounds, with his thighs and arms scarred all over, he hadn't even frowned. Not only did he successfully defeat the three thugs, but he also bought enough time for the other villagers to return and reinforce them.
After that battle, while the older generation had mixed opinions about Shen Lang, every single young person in the village regarded him as their object of worship. If not for Shen Lang's desperate resistance, leaving aside how many elderly and weak women and children would have been injured, the livestock, the fishing nets that everyone depended on for a living, the fishing boats, and all kinds of household goods would likely have been completely smashed to pieces by the neighboring village.
Lin Xiue had also been frightened by her son, and for a moment she stood at a loss, not knowing what to do.
"Get lost!" Shen Lang said in a deep voice.
A perfectly good meal had been utterly ruined by this pair of mother and son.
"Big Brother, please don't be angry. I'm apologizing to you on behalf of my foolish old mother."
"Mom, all the things Big Brother bought for his family were bought with money he earned beachcombing! Why can't you get that through your thick skull?!"
Right after speaking, Li Xiangqian actually dropped to his knees!