I trade in both worlds

Xu Jianjun agreed, "How about you come and look after the store for a few days, and your mom and I can go out and play for a few days?"

"No, it's better to let Xiaoqing go out and play for a few days to relax." Chen Xiaofen refused. She was not at ease to hand over the shop to Xu Ziqing. She usually did nothing and didn't care about anything. She was afraid that when she came back from playing, the shop would be gone too.

Xu Ziqing thought of the videos online about driving to Tibet to cleanse the soul, find oneself, and break through difficulties, and wondered whether he should also go to Tibet for a trip to cleanse his soul.

Xu Ziqing looked at Xu Jianjun with a smile: "Dad, I won't go to the store. I'd rather go out and play with some friends for a few days to relax."

Xu Jianjun didn't care. As long as his daughter was happy, she could do whatever she wanted.

Grandma Xu agreed 100%: "Yes, find some young friends to go out with. You are not young anymore, you should go out more, meet more people, and find a boyfriend."

Afraid of causing Grandma Xu to nag about getting married and having children, Xu Ziqing quickly agreed and changed the subject.

The next day, Xu Ziqing started to make travel plans online and communicated with netizens for a long time. She initially selected three travel routes. After comparing them back and forth, she decided to drive along the Northwest Grand Loop to see snow-capped mountains, salt lakes, deserts, ride camels, and see mirages.

Just as she had decided on the idea and before she started contacting her friends, Xu Ziqing received a call from her university senior: "Hello, Ziqing, are you busy recently?"

Xu Ziqing replied with a smile: "I'm not busy. Senior sister, you are such a busy person, why are you looking for me?"

Senior sister: "Yes, I have an illustration job here, and I'm looking for a part-time job. I'm just asking if you're interested. You don't have to work in the office, and it won't affect your work. Just finish it and send it over within the specified time."

Just as he was about to go on a trip, something came up. Xu Ziqing thought for a moment and asked, "What illustration?"

She decided to listen to what they wanted to do first. If she was interested, it was not impossible for her to take over. Anyway, she was unemployed now and could go out whenever she wanted.

Senior sister: "We are doing a column about educated youth, and we need some farming illustrations from the 50s to the 70s. You can create whatever you want as long as it fits the theme. However, this project is semi-public welfare, and we don't have much funding. I tried my best to get you 300 yuan per piece, and you need a total of 10."

"What are your demands?" Xu Ziqing didn't know much about the subject of educated youth. He only knew that there was a group of people who were sent to the countryside to do farm work to earn their own food because they could not be supported in the city.

Senior sister: "If you are interested, I will send you the relevant requirements and contracts in a while, and we will communicate on WeChat later."

"Okay." Xu Ziqing agreed readily.

After two days of communicating with her senior sister, Xu Ziqing finally took on the illustration job. However, she grew up in Beijing and had never farmed or seen anyone farming, so Grandma Xu suggested that she go back to Baiping Village. It was the busy farming season, and she could just see the busy scenes in the fields.

In order to find creative inspiration and materials, Xu Ziqing changed his travel plan to go back to Baiping Village for vacation. The last time he went back to Baiping Village was during the Qingming Festival. It has been almost three months since he went back. Now the first thing to do is to clean up his hometown.

In order to be able to move in right away, Xu Ziqing quickly contacted a part-time worker to go to his hometown to clean up the place. Early the next morning, Xu Ziqing drove back with his packed luggage.

It was evening and the children had just gone to bed when it began to rain outside again. Soon it turned into a downpour. Even with the windows closed, one could hear the sound of rain hitting the wooden windows. Xu Xu walked to the door and took a look. He felt relieved when he found that the drainage around was not blocked.

Fortunately, when the house was built, Xu Jizu learned from the houses of wealthy families and raised the foundation by more than one meter. As long as there is no major flood, the house will basically not be flooded. Back in the room, Xu Xu's lower body was soaked. He changed his clothes and checked around again. After not seeing any other leaks, he fell asleep with the children.

In the middle of the night, a loud thunder woke Xu Xu up. She opened her eyes and looked around. It was pitch black and she couldn't see anything clearly. She fumbled to light the oil lamp, but just as she put the tinder in place, the flame of the oil lamp was extinguished by a drop of water.

Xu Xu looked up at the roof, and seemed to see a little dim light in the pitch-black roof tiles. Suddenly, Xu Xu realized that the roof was leaking.

Listening to the dripping sound, Xu Xu lit the oil lamp again. She looked around and found that water was only leaking slightly above the kang.

Xu Xu quickly woke up the children, moved them to the couch, folded up the quilts and mats and placed them on the head of the kang. After that, he went to the utility room to find a wooden basin and placed it on the top of the kang to collect water.

Looking at the raindrops falling into the wooden basin, Xu Xu began to regret it. If he had known earlier, he should have moved to Xu Jizong's house for two days, or let a few children live there. Given the current situation, he probably won't be able to sleep tonight.

After instructing the twins to look after the two younger ones, Xu Xu went to check the other rooms and found that except for the utility room, there were one or two places where water was dripping in the other rooms. In order to collect the water, she used all the wooden basins and jars that could hold water.

Xu Qiwei was so sleepy that his eyelids kept drooping. Soon he lay down next to Xu Tiantian, closed his eyes and continued to sleep. Xu Zhun was a little scared, so he stayed close to Xu Jin, his eyes moving constantly following Xu Xu.

Xu Jin watched Xu Xu busy in and out, and asked with a worried look on his face: "Sister, is there any water leaking anywhere else?"

"Yes." Xu Xu sighed, and then said: "But don't worry, I have taken care of it. If you are tired, just sleep on the couch first, and I will watch it. If there is another leak, I will wake you up. Go to sleep, don't worry. If it really doesn't work, we can stay at Second Uncle's house for one night."

Listening to the dripping sound in the basin, Xu Jin thought of the whole house leaking, and was too worried to fall asleep. After thinking for a while, he asked carefully: "Sister, can we sleep over there? I wonder if it will rain there too."

"Huh? Where? Where are we going to sleep?" Xu Xu didn't react for a moment to where Xu Jin was talking about.

"The utility room." Xu Jin said, pointing to the room opposite.

"Ah?" Xu Xu thought about it. It's not impossible, but there's not even a stool there. How can I sleep there? Maybe I can get a mat and sleep on the floor. I did it right away: "Xiao Jin, you watch them. I'll go over and take a look."

Xu Jin embraced Xu Zhun and nodded, saying, "Okay."

Xu Jin got up and went to the utility room to get a drying mat to put on the ground.