Back To The 80s-Chapter 463 - 473: Compromise_1

Once Xiaopang was asleep at night, Gu Xiaobei pulled Lu Zhanguo into the living room for a talk.

"Can we stop spoiling the child like this in the future? It’s not suitable to call her out in front of my parents, but you’re also overindulging her. Once she grows up, she won’t be able to change her temper," Gu Xiaobei said angrily from the couch.

Lu Zhanguo had a different view: "Xiaopang is still young, why should we be so strict with her? She hasn’t done anything majorly wrong."

"There’s a saying – ’The child of three is father of a man’. This isn’t without reason. Xiaopang is a girl, we should be more strict, otherwise spoiling her will lead to problems in the future."

Seeing Gu Xiaobei’s anger, Lu Zhanguo felt she was taking things too seriously: "Xiaopang is only two years old, she doesn’t understand what we say. It’s not too late to teach her when she’s older. Don’t you think you’re being too harsh right now?"

Gu Xiaobei looked shocked at Lu Zhanguo: "Harsh? You’re the one spoiling her excessively. When she throws tantrums, I try to handle it calmly in the hope that she realizes crying and throwing things doesn’t solve problems. When it comes to educating our child, I hope we’re consistent and not always playing the good guy. That won’t help her recognize her mistakes, but only make her more spoiled."

Lu Zhanguo remained silent. At rocket speed, it dawned on him he had upset his little wife. Despite disagreeing on how to educate Xiaopang, he smartly chose to remain silent to avoid their first fight.

Seeing Lu Zhanguo not saying anything, Gu Xiaobei continued: "I hope we could correct Xiaopang’s habit of throwing things in anger. It’s not good to say she’s just a temperamental child and she will grow out of it. If we don’t control her now, it would only become worse. I am not physically punishing her, I just want us to ignore her when she’s throwing tantrums. After she’s done crying and has calmed down, we can give her the reasoning."

Lu Zhanguo still didn’t say anything, his silence showing his disagreement. Annoyed, Gu Xiaobei went to sleep in the master bedroom, all the while staying firm on her stance when it came to raising children.

Seeing Gu Xiaobei heading to the master bedroom and locking the door, Lu Zhanguo realized things were getting serious. He returned to the secondary bedroom and looked at his sweet daughter sleeping soundly on the floor. Sighing, he thought - You’re sleeping so soundly, and because of you, your mom has shut me out."

Lu Zhanguo sat on the edge of the floor and began to wonder - Am I spoiling Xiaopang too much? Thinking carefully, he felt Gu Xiaobei was right, both should be on the same page when it comes to raising a child and good habits should be cultivated from an early age.

Having thought it through, he glanced at his sleeping daughter then sneaked into Gu Xiaobei’s room.

Gu Xiaobei was already sleeping when she was awakened by the weight on her body. Between gritted teeth she whispered: "Get off, you’re too heavy."

"I won’t. You were already choosing to sleep separately, we need to handle things, why lock the door?" Lu Zhanguo spoke, feeling wronged.

Gu Xiaobei laughed: "Our daughter takes after you. I saw you hadn’t thought things through, wasn’t I giving you time to reconsider?"

"I have thought through it, you’re right. Next time you educate them, I’ll firmly stand by you," Lu Zhanguo promised and passionately kissed Gu Xiaobei, silently apologizing in his heart to his children, placing their mother’s matter above everything else.

Because of Lu Zhanguo’s compromise, the following days saw Gu Xiaobei bringing Xiaopang back, and the two adults would calmly handle Xiaopang’s tantrums whenever she was throwing things. Once Xiaopang was done with her fit, Gu Xiaobei would patiently explain to her that it’s okay to vent out, but it’s not okay to throw things.

Xiaopang did get rid of her habit of throwing things but she still resorted to crying when she was unhappy. Gu Xiaobei felt there wasn’t a big issue in that, as it’s normal for a child to vent out their dissatisfaction by crying.

...

Lu Zhanguo asked Liu Hongbing to keep an eye on Guo Huaqiang’s recent news, which soon produced results.

Guo Huaqiang was indeed dealing in lumber. Among the people he frequently kept in touch with, there was Yang Tianhua - a man who had served in the army as a scout for three years and was dealing in some small businesses in the provincial capital after being discharged from the service.

After hearing Liu Hongbing’s words, Lu Zhanguo frowned - Was he overthinking? He said, "Can you look more into Yang Tianhua for me?"

Not knowing why Lu Zhanguo was interested in these people, Liu Hongbing asked: "These people are honest and have never done anything illegal. Why are you so interested in them?"

Lu Zhanguo didn’t hide anything: "I’m afraid they might be a threat to Xiaobei’s business."

Hearing this, Liu Hongbing almost spit out his drink. He’s been pleading on behalf of people for so long only to find out it was to protect his wife’s business. Isn’t he really blurring the line between professional and personal? He teased: "Worried? It means it hasn’t happened yet. Plus, business is always about competition, even if someone takes away a deal from you fairly and squarely, what can you do?"

Lu Zhanguo leaned back on his chair and looked at Liu Hongbing, raising an eyebrow: "If it’s fair, we’ll accept our fate. If it’s foul play, I will ruin him."

Liu Hongbing looked at Lu Zhanguo, amused, and said: "Don’t worry, at most they’ll be fighting for deals. They won’t do anything illegal. But in the coming days I will be quite busy, so help me with investigating Yang Tianhua after a while."

Lu Zhanguo nodded, pulled out a stack of documents from the drawer and threw them to Liu Hongbing: "With the veterans retiring and newcomers joining soon, we’ll be very busy. This is about the joint military exercise between the X military region and our region. We’re taking the lead, so review those documents and come up with a feasible intelligence plan."

Liu Hongbing flipped through few pages then muttered: "This seems all wrong. How can we be asked to propose an intelligence plan?"

Lu Zhanguo raised an eyebrow: "We must surprise them to win."

Liu Hongbing went quiet. This task was easier said than done.

By the end of October, the first snowfall had arrived in the provincial capital, and amidst it, Gu Xiaobei’s tea shop grandly opened, even inviting a lion dance team and a drum team to create a festive atmosphere.

Ou Ruoshui took over her tea shop and started selling similarly packaged tea leaves as Guang Xiaobei. Ou Ruoshui personally hired two smart young women to look after the shop. As agreed earlier, the provincial capital’s market was handed over to Yang Tianhua.

The tea factory didn’t have enough staff, so Zhao Honghe was entrusted with production management. Although this was torturous for Zhao Honghe as it didn’t allow him to make extra money on the side, he found joy in supervising the young women who worked there.

Zhao Honghe, being able to talk his way out and blow his own trumpet, spent his days relentlessly flirting with young girls and teasing the young wives. His days were therefore comfortably busy.