Mayor Liu’s mother was sent to the country side as an educated youth back in the days and made her acquaintance with Old Mrs. Chen at the marketplace.
Old Mrs. Chen was over at Old Mr. Chen’s family home back then and was raising her child alone. She was lonely. She met Mayor Liu’s mother when she purchased cotton from her. The two hit it off as Mother Liu was well articulated.
Liu Qin was still young back then. As much as he had played with the Chen’s children, he didn’t recall much about that.
Old Mrs. Chen, after she had returned to City Shun, continued to reach out her olive branches to his family.
Old Mrs. Chen had also helped out Mother Liu when she returned to her home town of Nanking.
Part of the reason of Mayor Liu’s transfer to City Shun was due to his accomplishment and the other part was him wanting to take his mother to City Shun to have an operation on his mother’s arthritis.
“We should have come and visited you years ago.”
Mayor Liu was very respectful to Old Mrs. Chen.
“But my mother said that you will want to help us out again if we come to visit. As such, I dare not come until I have established myself.”
Old Mrs. Chen was about to start crying. “What did she have to overthinking so much? Where is she now?”
Mayor Liu smiled. “I came here by myself first and have the house and everything settled first before we have her come over to meet me here. She will be here by next Wednesday at the latest. I will be booking a ticket for her.”
Old Mrs. Chen gave him a stare. “Stop worrying about all that. Have her stay here with me for the time being! She will stay in my room with me!”
Mayor Liu chuckled without responding.
The Chen family were wealthy businessman and his job was to take care of the ordinary people.
He must tread carefully so others wouldn’t say that he was in cohort with the wealthy.
Besides, with his mother’s illness, her joints ached all the time and moving around was difficult for her. She stayed home most of the time.
Nevermind about coming to City Shun, she rarely even left the house.
Ever since he had graduated college and worked for the government, the two families had not been in contact very often.
Mayor Liu, after presenting the gifts, exchanged some pleasantries and was about to get up and leave.
He understood that Old Mrs. Chen only enjoyed chatting with his mother. The two of them didn’t have much in common to talk about.
Nevertheless, Old Mrs. Chen stopped him as soon as he had put down his tea cup.
“Liu Qin, I am an elder to you, right? There is something that I have been meaning to talk to you about, even if you didn’t pay me a visit today.”
Old Mrs. Chen lowered her voice all of a sudden.
Mayor Liu paused a little. “Of course. If there is anything that you didn’t see fit, please do lecture me on it.”
He didn’t recall much from his childhood but, from what his mother had told him, if it wasn’t for Old Mrs. Chen, he wouldn’t even have the chance to attend college. He would still be farming during the best years of his life.
They owed a lot of the Chen family.
Old Mrs. Chen acknowledged him slowly. “I recalled your mother telling me that you just transferred here a week ago. Why was that it I had already heard rumors about you in the chat groups already?”
“Rumors?”
Mayor Liu’s hands shuddered and his chest tightened.
He quickly thought through everything that had happened in the last few days.
That didn’t make any sense!
He might make a mistake here and now but he never did anything shady. During his few days here, he never responded to anyone who tried to slip him gifts or get information from him. He had turned them all down!
“What have you heard?”
He was truly baffled.
