July, the sun blazed like fire!
It had been a month since Jiang Longcheng and Zhang Xinyao got married, and Huang Lixing and his wife had already returned to Guangdong Province.
Li Yi and Jiang Xue’s lives had also returned to their former tranquility!
However, as the college entrance exam drew nearer, Jiang Xue’s studies became increasingly intense.
To avoid disrupting Jiang Xue’s review sessions and to ensure she achieved excellent results, Li Yi turned down all work-related social engagements to fully support her.
His mother-in-law, Ye Lingyun, had also moved in from the Jiang family’s ancestral home to help look after the children while guiding Jiang Xue in her studies.
Now, the entire family’s focus is on Jiang Xue’s college entrance exams!
Although whether or not Jiang Xue gets into college no longer affects her marriage to Li Yi—after all, they’re already legally married—
But Li Yi still hoped his wife could fulfill her dream of attending college!
And Jiang Xue was working incredibly hard, studying for over ten hours a day from dawn till dusk. Aside from eating, sleeping, and breastfeeding the baby, she devoted every remaining moment to her studies.
Such dedication filled Li Yi with admiration, while Ye Lingyun felt a pang of sympathy.
But despite her concern, Ye Lingyun didn’t say much; she, too, hoped her daughter could get into a better university.
Regardless of how much knowledge she acquired, she needed to at least keep pace with her son-in-law.
She was a practical woman. Although her son-in-law Li Yi came from a humble background, his abilities were undeniable, and his future prospects were limitless.
While it is certainly a blessing for a woman to marry such a man, it is also a challenge, for she must constantly elevate her own standing; otherwise, she risks being left further and further behind by her husband.
“A bird flies far when it follows a phoenix; a person’s character rises when they associate with the virtuous!”
This has nothing to do with love or affection; being with an outstanding person inevitably leads to this.
With Ye Lingyun as her “mentor,” Jiang Xue made rapid progress.
In May, when she took practice exams, she could only score around 300 out of a possible 520.
But by mid-June, she was scoring over 400 points, and on a good day, she could even reach 410 or 420.
This might not seem particularly high, but given the limited overall proficiency of this year’s test-takers and the relatively low college admission cutoffs,
Therefore, with Jiang Xue’s current level, setting aside whether she could get into prestigious universities like Wudaokou University or Beijing University, she would certainly have no trouble getting into a regular university.
During this period, although Li Yi’s focus was on Jiang Xue, he also accomplished two major projects.
The first was the purchase of land to build a cold storage facility!
With strong support from the district government, the relocation of all residents was finally completed in mid-June.
Subsequently, Li Yi formally signed a land purchase agreement with the district government, ultimately securing ownership of 314 mu of land in Beiguan Village for 2.55 million yuan.
Although this drained more than half of Li Yi’s savings—and he still had to set aside funds for the cold storage construction—he was still overjoyed.
Judging by the pace of development in Beijing in his previous life, this area of Beiguan Village would have become an urban district by the 1990s.
Just imagine owning over 300 mu of land within Beijing’s Fourth Ring Road—what a concept that is. It’s safe to say that even if he did nothing now and simply laid back,
Once land prices rose, he could simply sell the plot and achieve financial freedom.
The second matter was that Li Yi selected two factories from the batch of materials Jiang Longyin had given him to serve as pilot projects for reform.
These two factories were the Capital’s Third Candy Factory and the Capital Television Factory!
The candy factory primarily produced various types of candy, but it also served as a downstream enterprise of the Qingshan County Sugar Factory, which supplied it with raw white and brown sugar.
However, due to poor management, the Beijing Third Candy Factory was suffering severe losses. Not only did it owe millions of yuan to its upstream and downstream partners, but its own workers hadn’t been paid for over half a year, and the factory was on the brink of bankruptcy.
The Beijing TV Factory was in slightly better shape. It wasn’t operating at a loss, could guarantee its workers’ wages, and didn’t owe money to anyone.
However, sales were sluggish and profitability was low, leaving the factory in a state of neither thriving nor failing.
After selecting these two factories, Li Yi conducted on-site inspections to assess their conditions. Upon returning, he personally drafted a reform plan and entrusted its implementation to Jiang Longyin’s team.
Although it was still too early to see results, Li Yi remained confident in these two factories.
He planned to take charge of these two factories himself once Jiang Xue finished her college entrance exams, aiming to turn them into new star enterprises in Beijing.
But just as everything was moving in the right direction, problems unexpectedly arose with Jiang Xue.
As the college entrance exams drew nearer, Li Yi noticed that Jiang Xue’s condition was deteriorating.
At first, she just seemed a bit nervous and was having trouble sleeping.
But soon her mood swings became more pronounced; even the sound of a child crying could make her feel on the verge of breaking down, and she appeared to be under immense pressure.
After this went on for a few days, her academic performance began to suffer.
Not long ago, she was scoring over 400 on practice exams, but in recent days, she’s been barely scraping by with scores in the 310s.
These results only added to her psychological pressure, trapping her in a vicious cycle…
As an outsider, Li Yi could clearly see Jiang Xue’s state and knew exactly what was going on.
Taking the college entrance exam for the first time inevitably brings with it various anxieties and worries.
For example, fear of performing poorly due to nerves, or what if she does so poorly that she fails to meet her goals?
Put simply, Jiang Xue’s mental resilience still needed work.
Although Li Yi had never taken the college entrance exam himself, he understood that mental resilience can sometimes determine success or failure.
Especially when it comes to exams—only by staying calm and composed, free from anxiety and nervousness, can one perform at their best, or even exceed expectations!
Therefore, Li Yi decided to have a serious talk with Jiang Xue…
……..
Late at night, all was quiet!
With everyone in the house already asleep, Jiang Xue finally dragged her weary body back to the master bedroom.
She tiptoed over to where Yunrui and Yunjin lay, and as she gazed at the two sleeping little ones, she couldn’t resist giving each of them a kiss on the cheek.
Only then did she take off her clothes and lie down on the kang.
Just as Jiang Xue closed her eyes to rest, a large hand suddenly reached out and pulled her into the bed next to her.
Jiang Xue let out a startled gasp, then whispered, “Stop fooling around—Mom’s still here!”
“Wife, you’ve changed!”
Jiang Xue’s expression froze for a moment, then she asked, “What about me has changed?”
“You kissed our son and our daughter—why didn’t you kiss me? You weren’t like this before!”
Hearing this, Jiang Xue blushed and gently punched Li Yi in the chest.
“You’re just making things up—aren’t you afraid of setting a bad example for the kids?”
Li Yi smiled without saying a word, but his hand slipped inside the loose neckline of Jiang Xue’s nightgown.
As a long-married couple, Jiang Xue naturally knew exactly what her husband was up to.
She immediately pressed down on Li Yi’s “misbehaving” hand and said, “Don’t move. I’m a little tired today!”
“I don’t think you’re tired—you’re just putting too much pressure on yourself. You can’t keep this up!”
“I… I’m just worried I won’t do well on the exam. I’m afraid I’ll let you and my parents down. I…”
As she spoke, tears began to fall from Jiang Xue’s eyes.
She’d realized this herself over the past few days, but didn’t know how to cope, to the point where she felt on the verge of breaking down.
Li Yi gently ruffled Jiang Xue’s hair with his other hand, smiled, and said, “Why are you crying? There’s nothing to worry about!”
“I… I’m just worried!”
“Think about it—if others do poorly on the exam, they have to go back home to farm or set up street stalls.”
Li Yi continued, “As for you, you don’t have to worry about any of that. If you do well on the exam, you go to college; if you don’t, you go home and become a rich housewife.”
“Besides, the worst that can happen is we’ll just study for another year and take the exam again!”
Anxiety is simply a habitual psychological instinct.
When faced with a situation, people don’t think positively; they tend to push themselves into a corner, drive themselves into a dead end, and get stuck in a rut.
Not only does this do absolutely nothing to help the situation, but it actually makes people even more fearful and anxious.
So when you encounter situations like this or people like this, don’t beat around the bush—tell them straight up that even if they fail, it’s no big deal.
All risks are manageable, and any losses are within acceptable limits!
Sure enough, after hearing Li Yi’s words, Jiang Xue felt a little better.
“Is it really okay if I don’t do well on the exam?”
“What’s the big deal? Our family doesn’t need you to go out and earn a living to support us. I’d actually love it if you stayed home with me for another year!” Li Yi said with a smile.
“No way! I’m going to college!”
“I’m all for it, but if you go to college, you’ll have to take good care of me!”
With that, Li Yi wrapped his arm around her and pulled Jiang Xue right into his embrace.
This time, Jiang Xue didn’t resist…
For a moment, the room was filled with springtime warmth…
………