Chapter 564: Chapter 564

The arrival of this snow brought a touch of sadness to the cold winter days, because when snowflakes filled the sky in my memories, it was usually a time when the family gathered together to warm up by the fire, chat, and eat a reunion meal. Apart from missing her own parents, Tangyuan would often think of her lovers and children from past lifetimes, so as she stood by the window watching the endless expanse of whiteness outside, her thoughts would unconsciously drift away...

Zhou Yiyi’s seat in the classroom hadn’t moved, and she actually found it quite nice to be alone. It meant she wouldn’t be distracted during lessons and could settle down more easily.

Whenever there were group discussions, Zhou Mo and Lin Mu who’d moved to the seat in front of her at some point, would always chip in.

For subjects like physics and chemistry, which required group work, they would include her too, so in principle she did not feel lonely—in fact, even during PE they would drag her to play basketball with them. It was a pity that her ball skills were terrible, scorned by the boys, but out of respect for Lin Mu and Zhou Mo’s influence, they would turn a blind eye.

Time flew by and the fourth monthly exam arrived. Finally, Zhou Yiyi’s name came right after Zhou Mo’s, though Zhou Mo’s total score still surpassed hers by more than ten points. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on noⅴelfire.net

Even Lin Mu had progressed, moving up by more than twenty ranks to take the thirteenth position in the grade.

There was a school evening party for New Year’s Day, but Zhou Yiyi had no interest in participating. Since each class only needed two or three acts, their class, despite being a strong academic one filled with talent, would not miss her.

Zhou Mo didn’t participate either, while Lin Mu did a solo vocal performance—this guy could dance and sing, definitely had a bright future ahead of him.

New Year’s Day fell on a Saturday, so they got a two-day holiday including Sunday. She was on her period during these two days, so she stayed and hibernated in her dormitory.

Half a month after New Year’s Day came the final exams for the first semester of grade 10, which lasted three full days, after which they went straight into the holiday.

While other kids joyfully went home, Zhou Yiyi returned to Y City.

She visited her master and his wife first to report on her studies and life over the past six months, then went to the local Police Station to sort out her ID Card.

Afterwards, she checked her account balance at the securities trading center. She had invested a total of 40,000 yuan and it had been about half a year since. In the end, her balance had surprisingly exceeded seventy thousand yuan, a number that excited her because it meant she hadn’t made a loss, haha~

Just because the overall number hadn’t lost didn’t mean all her stocks had made money; among them were a few that lost money. Although the Bull Market was in play, investment was still risky.

Zhou Yiyi carefully reviewed the data from the past six months. In the end, she sold all the losing stocks and bought some with smaller fluctuations but relatively stable performances.

She was a high school student, with no real means of making money at the moment. The money would just lie in the bank too, so she might as well invest it, potentially providing her with a significant startup fund for the future.

As for her daily living expenses, she maintained them through small scale trading.

After entering the 1990s, the stock market had been performing well, especially since she remembered the timing of the bull and bear markets. Timing her sales and choices around this knowledge brought her many pleasant surprises.

She had no place to stay; not wanting to return to her old home, she lived in her own ’space’.

But the winter vacation wasn’t short, so she had to find something to do.

Taking advantage of the fact she hadn’t received her report card yet, she bought a small tricycle for just over four hundred yuan, which was relatively good. Then she got a large coal stove and an insulated pot, spending around 700 yuan in total.

Lastly, with the remaining 1,500 yuan, she went to Y City to buy ingredients for braising such as pig faces, pig liver, pig’s trotters, beef tendons, chicken legs, whole chickens, chicken gizzards, duck intestines, tofu, tofu skin, kelp, marinated eggs, etc.

When Monday came, she went to L City to pick up her report card, and then officially started her vacation. School would not resume until the ninth day of the first lunar month. As high school students, their holidays were shorter than others.

In other words, she had roughly 20 days left, with ten days before the New Year. During these ten days, she planned to sell braised meat.

She had planned her holiday life well, but Lin Mu and Zhou Mo were concerned about her spending New Year alone and invited her to celebrate the festival with their families.

How could Zhou Yiyi possibly accept?

"I also have my own home in Y City, don’t worry. The neighbors take good care of me; I’ll be fine spending New Year alone."

After politely declining their offers, she quickly boarded a bus away from school and found a relatively busy area to hide her ’space’.

In the ’space’, there were still some pickles and desserts left over from previous sales, which she could sell along with the braised meat.

The braised meat was kept warm in a big pot over a coal stove, so it would be hot when sold to customers.

If she sold out halfway, she would use another pot as a decoy, transferring food from the ’space’ to ensure maximum temperature retention.

Her braised meat had a few lifetimes of heritage, and its flavor was naturally extraordinary. To attract customers, she cut it into cubes and offered samples on toothpicks. The strategy was effective, but as a newcomer, she didn’t sell much in the first few days.

As more and more people tasted it, she gained repeat customers. Her initial 1,500 yuan investment ended up earning her 3,300 yuan, doubling her money. Plus the final sale of pickles and desserts earned her another two thousand yuan before New Year’s Eve. Her original balance of 2,200 yuan shot up to four thousand, of course, this included the seven hundred yuan spent on coal balls, the tricycle, coal stove, and pots.

When New Year’s Eve lit up every household, she hid in her ’space’ alone, making dumplings, steamed buns, flower rolls, fried rolls, and bean-stuffed buns. She also fried beef meatballs, radish glass noodle meatballs, peanut brittle, and many other hometown snacks. She had enough to last a month. Her idea was to cook extra for the festival so that once school started, it would be convenient to grab something to eat.

On the first day of the lunar month, everyone had the tradition of visiting temple fairs. She prepared crispy rice bars, cat’s ears, cookies, and small bread rolls in advance for the early fair.

By ten o’clock when the crowd swelled, children were offered free snacks. Once the kids had a taste, ha-ha, her business picked up. One yuan, three yuan, five yuan, ten yuan—little by little it added up!

But she never expected that she would end up meeting the two people she least wanted to see, and what was more terrifying was that their families came together. Since when did the Zhou Family and the Lin Family get along so well?

Could it be due to the life-saving incident last time that brought the two families closer?

At this moment, she regretted not disguising herself because Lin Mu spotted her instantly, OMG, this damned fate!