Seeing An Hong actually walking toward him, Li Yi felt a strange sensation well up inside him!
As for An Hong, Li Yi considered himself fairly familiar with her.
Of course, what he knew wasn’t the woman standing before him now, but the woman she would become forty years later.
By then, An Hong had become the CEO of Tian’an Group, a “Iron Lady” of the business world, and the richest woman in the country!
Compared to the An Hong of decades later, the woman before him was not only inexperienced but also very calm and composed.
“You must be Comrade Li Yi. An Guo mentions you often!”
“Hello, Sister-in-law. I’m Li Yi!”
Li Yi never imagined that one day he would be chatting so amicably with An Hong—and might even become friends with her.
In his previous life, he and An Hong were practically at odds—he’d have loved nothing more than to pin her to the ground and stomp on her a few times.
“Since you’ve called me ‘sister-in-law,’ I’ll take the liberty of calling you ‘Brother Li Yi.’ I don’t drink alcohol, so I’ll offer you a cup of tea instead to thank you for saving my father’s and An Guo’s lives!”
With that, An Hong downed the cup of herbal tea in one gulp!
Li Yi didn’t drink either; he wasn’t much of a drinker. Not only did he feel miserable when drunk, but it also made him prone to messing things up.
So he poured himself a cup of tea and drank it in one gulp.
“Sister-in-law, what happened between me, the old man, and Captain Wang was simply a matter of fate—please don’t let it weigh on your mind!”
Seeing Li Yi speak in such a calm tone, with an air of quiet depth about him, she couldn’t help but feel a growing fondness for him.
Thinking of her own unmarried younger sister, An Hong suddenly asked, “Brother Li Yi, are you married yet?”
“Not yet!”
“Oh, I see. I have a younger sister who’s 19 this year. She’s a student at our provincial Agricultural and Animal Husbandry College…”
Hearing that An Hong actually wanted to set him up—and that the person she was introducing was her own sister—Li Yi was instantly taken aback.
Never mind that he was about to get married himself—even setting that aside, he wouldn’t dare accept An Hong’s sister!
Li Yi knew that An Hong’s younger sister was named An Ran and would eventually become the Senior Vice President of Tian’an Group.
An Ran was very beautiful, but more than her looks, it was her feisty personality that had made her famous in the business world.
Unlike An Hong, who had built her empire from scratch, An Ran had also worked her way up from the bottom of the company.
The most talked-about story was how she shot to fame by collecting overdue payments. At the time, An Ran was just an ordinary sales representative at Tian’an Group. In the beginning, she had no sales experience or connections, so distributors had accumulated a massive amount of unpaid invoices.
So, at the end of the year, the company assigned her the task of recovering these outstanding payments.
At first, An Ran appealed to reason and emotion, explaining the situation and her position, but the other party used various excuses to evade responsibility and refused to pay the full amount.
Faced with such “deadbeat behavior,” An Ran had no choice but to adopt an even more “stubborn” approach: she pursued the distributor relentlessly, following them wherever they went.
Thus, the two sides engaged in a battle of wits and wills that lasted nearly a month. Eventually, the other party was completely defeated; not only did they settle the entire debt, but they also paid a portion of the interest.
Thanks to this incident, An Ran shot to fame and quickly rose through the ranks within Tian’an Group, becoming the second-in-command under An Hong.
Now that An Hong wanted to introduce him to her, Li Yi really didn’t have the guts to do it!
“Sis, to be honest, I’m not married yet, but I do have a fiancée, and we’re getting married in a few days!”
“Oh, really? That’s such a shame!” An Hong said.
Standing nearby, Wang Anguo looked surprised and asked, “Brother Li Yi, you’re getting married? When is it?”
“We’re making preparations. Barring any surprises, it should be in just three or five days!” Li Yi said with a smile.
“You’ve got to let us know in advance so we can come celebrate with you!” Wang Anguo said.
“No problem. I’ll definitely let you know once the date is set. Who knows, I might even need your help with the wedding procession!”
“Hahaha, that sounds great!”
……..
The birthday banquet began at 12:00 noon sharp and lasted for over two hours!
It wasn’t until after 2:00 p.m. that the guests began to leave one by one.
Li Yi left at 2:30 p.m., mainly because the old man kept holding him back, refusing to let him go.
But Li Yi had other things to do and naturally couldn’t stay long, so he eventually left.
As he was leaving, Old Man Wang gave him a large supply of cigarettes, alcohol, and fruit, saying he should take them home for his parents to enjoy.
Seeing that he couldn’t refuse, Li Yi had no choice but to accept them!
After leaving the Wang residence, Li Yi headed straight to the textile factory to pick up his second and third sisters and take them home.
However, when he arrived, he found the place deserted.
The area in front of the textile factory was deserted; clearly, his two sisters had already packed up and gone home.
So Li Yi had no choice but to return to the village alone!
By the time he returned to Nianzishan Village, it was already past five in the afternoon!
As soon as he entered the courtyard, Li Yi saw his third sister feeding hay to the big red mule.
Seeing Li Yi return, she immediately came over to greet him: “Why did you take so long to get back? We thought you’d be home much earlier!”
Li Yi smiled and said, “They were so hospitable, they wouldn’t let me leave. If I hadn’t insisted on coming back, they wouldn’t have let me go home today!”
“Captain Wang’s family is really hospitable!” Li Na remarked with a touch of admiration.
“Sis, do you know who Captain Wang’s father is?”
“How would I know? I’ve never even met his dad!”
“Haha, you have met him!”
“Have I seen him?”
“Yeah, you definitely have!”
Li Na thought hard but still couldn’t figure out who it was. She said immediately, “All right, stop beating around the bush. Just tell me—who is it?”
“It’s the old man we rescued on the road that day!” Li Yi said.
“You mean that old man is Captain Wang’s father?”
“Yep! You wouldn’t have guessed, would you?”
“I really didn’t. Wait a minute—doesn’t that mean Captain Wang’s older brother is the Party Secretary of our county?”
“That’s right!”
“Well, you’ve certainly managed to latch onto some serious clout!” Li Na said with a laugh.
Just then, Second Sister Li Lan came out of the house.
Upon seeing Li Yi, her eyes lit up instantly as she said, “Xiao Yi, I want to set up a stall too!”
Li Lan had truly been taken aback by her younger brother and sister’s business today. She had originally thought they were just dabbling in a little side hustle—how much money could they possibly make selling just a few snacks?
But when the textile factory let out at noon, she was stunned by the flood of workers pouring out.
Male and female workers immediately surrounded her younger sister’s stall, leaving no room to move, and then kept urging her to serve them liangpi and white-skinned pancakes.
Three or four hundred servings of liangpi and over four hundred white-skinned pancakes were snapped up in less than two hours.
Her little bag for holding money and grain coupons was nearly bursting at the seams—it was absolutely astonishing.
Plus, when she got back, her third sister told her that, by a conservative estimate, they’d made 70 yuan today.
Hearing this, Li Lan was completely dumbfounded.
The two of them worked themselves to the bone all year round and still made less than 200 yuan—which was already considered a high income in the entire village of Yaogou.
But she never imagined that her younger brother and sister could earn in three days what they made in an entire year.
To be honest, Li Lan was tempted!
Seeing the eager look on her second sister’s face, Li Yi smiled and said, “Alright!”
In fact, the reason he’d brought his second sister along today was precisely so she could join him in his work.
Compared to their third sister, Second Sister Li Lan was clearly more capable. With her helping him, things would be a lot easier for him in the future!