Chapter Seven: BEAUTIFUL
"This kid's a crafty one! Once he's out in the world, he won't be easy to take advantage of!" That morning, this was Su Licheng's assessment of Su Can.
Zeng Ke wore the same happy expression and was thoroughly pleased whenever her son came up. With the Spring Festival approaching, the shop was about to conduct its year-end inventory, and the various work units were also settling their accounts. Li Yulian's daily task was to go around collecting payments. Wang Yue looked at Su Can with considerable admiration. More and more, she felt that he was not merely a master of bluffing; he did have some ability.
Of course, Wang Yue had no idea where these "abilities" of Su Can's came from. The one thing she acknowledged was that his extensive, wide-ranging reading had given him a perspective and way of thinking far beyond those of ordinary people his age, and even beyond her own, though she was four years older.
So much so that he could act decisively even when confronted with school violence. That incident had caused quite a stir in Su Can's family shop. Wang Ming had visited him in the hospital too, but the endless stream of students visiting him then had surprised even her.
"You can do quite a lot, huh? You must be pretty famous at school too. I bet loads of girls like you!" Across the counter, Wang Yue wiped rows of fountain pens with a cloth, her eyes turning toward Su Can opposite her.
"Oh, not really." Su Can was distracted, looking at the stationery price tags before him and considering whether they should standardize their selection of tools such as compasses and rulers. There were less than two months left until the end of term, when students from