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Chapter 398: Chapter 388: An Extra Helper
Ma Liang was scolded by Shen Yunfang so severely that he wished he could burrow under the desk. In the end, seeing that his attitude of recognizing his wrongdoings was not bad, she finally stopped berating him and let him off the hook.
Ma Liang secretly let out a sigh of relief, swearing to himself that he would absolutely, definitely not show his sketchbook to anyone without Shen Yunfang’s permission ever again—not to anyone.
"Now, tell me what’s going on with your so-called ’senior sister,’" Shen Yunfang said, as if humoring him.
"Yunfang, my senior sister is a good person, she would never disclose the contents of your sketchbook to anyone else," Ma Liang replied, panicking because he thought she was going to hold his senior sister responsible. He just wanted to help his senior sister but had inadvertently caused her trouble instead.
Shen Yunfang glanced at Ma Liang, noting his professional skills were impeccable, but his social skills were somewhat lacking. She hadn’t said a word about troubling his senior sister, so why did he bring it up himself?
"That’s not what I asked. I asked how all of a sudden you have a ’senior sister.’ I’ve never heard you mention her before," Shen Yunfang said.
Ma Liang gave her a rough overview of his family’s and his senior sister’s past grievances, concluding that she was a good person who had been secretly helping him over the years. It was only last year that she emerged from behind the scenes, and they began to have contact again.
Ma Liang was able to attend this university because his senior sister paid for his travel expenses.
He knew that his senior sister’s life had not been easy either. Due to being implicated by Old Master Ma, she was forced to marry a man fifteen years her senior.
That man was abusive and would do anything when drunk. Three years ago, he went out drinking and didn’t come home at night. The next day when the senior sister went looking for him, he had already frozen to death.
With her husband’s death, the senior sister was freed from her suffering, but her life became even harder. She was left alone with a five-year-old child, and Ma Liang wanted to help her.
Just then, Ma Liang had found the job of drawing for Shen Yunfang’s sketchbook, and in less than a month, he had made over a hundred yuan, so he thought of letting his senior sister join in the drawing, to earn some money for her child’s support.
After listening to him, Shen Yunfang looked at Ma Liang and asked, "It’s fine for you to introduce your senior sister to come and draw, but I only have so many sketches to be made. If I give them to your senior sister, you will have none left to do, do you understand?" In other words, if your senior sister earns money, you won’t.
Ma Liang’s face crumpled like a steamed bun, but in the end, he replied haltingly, "My senior sister has a child to support, she needs the money more than I do. Besides, haven’t I already earned more than a hundred yuan? If I spend it frugally, it should last me until graduation." After he graduated, he would have a job and a salary, so his senior sister needed the job more than he did.
Shen Yunfang was speechless, Ma Liang was just as kind-hearted as Ma Liang.
"Alright, quit acting so pitiful. I’ll give you a few more sketchbooks in the future to work on with your senior sister," Shen Yunfang said, sounding somewhat reluctant.
In truth, Shen Yunfang was inwardly amused. She trusted Ma Liang’s character; if a person was wholeheartedly vouched for by him, they were likely trustworthy in character as well.
If she could have two people helping her paint, the speed would double. Thinking about the money she was going to earn, Shen Yunfang felt like running to a deserted place to laugh out loud three times. Indeed, being the exploiter was the happiest.
Ma Liang was tearfully grateful for Shen Yunfang’s generosity and assured her more than once that the painting albums would be completed with guaranteed quality and quantity, and that no third person would see them.
Shen Yunfang nodded with satisfaction, collected the fifteen painting albums Ma Liang handed over, and gave him twenty more, ten for him and ten for his senior sister.
She also put the service fee for the fifteen albums he had just delivered into an envelope and handed it to Ma Liang.
Ma Liang happily ran off with the painting albums and the envelope.
The next day, Shen Yunfang packed and sent the first two Transformers albums to Joseph’s publishing company in Germany, and also mailed her proposal in the form of a letter to Joseph. She did not plan to sell the Transformers series to Joseph per piece; instead, she intended to collaborate with Joseph to launch the comic series because she believed the story had more potential. After all, Transformers were so classic, and her adaptation was thrilling. Even her two kids were very willing to read it, so it should be popular once released.
Of course, Shen Yunfang had also considered the possibility of failure. To her, the loss would be the service fees paid to Ma Liang and his senior sister, which totaled just a few hundred yuan. But if it succeeded, she might need to add several zeros behind that few hundred. Therefore, Shen Yunfang felt no pressure about the cooperation she was about to discuss. 𝚗𝚘v𝚙𝚞b.𝚌𝚘m
Besides, if it really made money, she would be earning from foreigners, which always felt more fulfilling than earning from her own country.
After taking care of this significant matter, all that was left was to wait for Joseph’s reply. Communication between foreign countries and domestic was not very convenient, and it would definitely take a couple of months for a round trip. Shen Yunfang was in no hurry; life had to go on, and she would just keep doing what needed to be done.
Although there was no news from Joseph yet, Shen Yunfang had already made preparations. She asked Ma Liang and his senior sister to continue painting Transformers systematically, turning in and settling accounts for every ten albums completed.
Shen Yunfang initially thought it would take a long time to finish, but Ma Liang’s senior sister proved to be even more enduring than him. She could basically produce an album every three to four days, which, to Shen Yunfang, seemed like a blazingly quick pace only achievable without rest or nourishment. This revealed the senior sister’s urgent desire to earn money.
While busy with her small business, her teaching career was also back on schedule. Every other evening, she would ride a bike to school with her two kids to teach English to her classmates. This time, not only students from her class came, but Shen Yunfang also spotted two from other classes who had heard about her English class and came to audit.
Shen Yunfang had some reservations about students from other classes attending, not out of luck but because she did not want to expand the matter further. She was there to study, not to become famous on campus again, especially since her English knowledge came from her previous life. If someone delved deeply into it, it would be hard to explain.
After communicating with the class monitor, students from other classes didn’t show up the next day. She didn’t know how the class monitor had talked to them, but no unfavorable rumors about Shen Yunfang spread afterward, which pleased her.
The English class lasted an hour, and after finishing, Shen Yunfang would take her two children home under the starry sky. Since her home was far from the school, she couldn’t ask her classmates to escort her back.
Oh, and about the bike, she didn’t buy a new one; Li Hongjun mailed her the old one from home. Although she wasn’t satisfied with its appearance (at the time, utility mattered when choosing a bike, but now only the look mattered; Shen Yunfang had already set her sights on a 26-inch ladies’ bike in the store), having it meant there was no need to waste money on a new one, so she made do with it for the time being.
Every Wednesday afternoon and on weekends, Shen Yunfang would visit Li Xianglian and her daughter in the hospital. Seeing Jiajia getting better day by day, she shared in their happiness.
