Chapter 9 The Courtyard

After dinner, Luo Yan "hid away" in her room to read her newly bought book, "Chemical Analysis".

Liu Yinfeng roughly guessed what her daughter was doing, and helplessly cleaned up the dishes: "Other people's children don't like to study, and the adults worry about them. My daughter loves to study too much, and I worry about her too."

Does his younger sister love studying? Luo Hong doesn't think so. Just like he doesn't want to get married for the time being, the brother and sister each have their own worries.

Those were secrets her parents didn't know, and he shouldn't have been the one to meddle.

“Mom, it’s time to tell the truth,” Luo Hong said, not taking things seriously. “Which street did you pick up Luo Yan from? I’ll go pick one up too.”

Liu Yinfeng said irritably, "You're the one who was picked up. If I had known that picking you up would only make me angry, I wouldn't have wanted you."

Luo Hong stuffed a handful of peanuts into his pocket: "Alright, I'm leaving now."

Liu Yinfeng: "Where are you going to play again? It's so cold and windy."

Luo Hong put on his hat and said, "Come sit at Erpang's house."

Every household in the alley had his childhood friends. Liu Yinfeng sometimes wondered how two children with completely different personalities could have come from her womb, muttering to herself, "They're never home."

Luo Xinmin: "He's a boy, so let's not worry about him."

Liu Yinfeng: "I don't care, everyone has their own ideas, big and small."

She said that, but she still knocked on her daughter's door before going to bed as a warning.

Luo Yan said loudly, "Go to sleep right away."

She didn't try to fool anyone today. As soon as the light was off, she crawled into bed, her eyelids gradually becoming heavy.

I hadn't fallen asleep yet when the yard started to get noisy. There were children crying and adults shouting, and they were speaking some kind of dialect.

Luo Yan strained her ears but couldn't understand. Unexpectedly, she became curious and secretly peered out the window.

Her room was closest to the back room, and she could clearly see a pair of people who looked like a mother and daughter, each holding Li Jianjun by the left and right. The other members of the Li family stood by, some trying to persuade him, others completely bewildered.

Just by looking at it, you can almost guess some of the plot of the story.

After all, everyone in the alley knew that Li Jianjun had returned to the city after his divorce.

Luo Yan sighed for no reason and pulled the curtains closed, but it did nothing to block out the noise outside.

Lying in bed was no different from standing in a crowd. She could hear several elderly women, who were best at mediating disputes in the alley, saying, "Let's talk about it tomorrow. It's so late. Let's settle people down first."

This isn't just trying to smooth things over; it's adding fuel to the fire.

The Li family already had a housing shortage, and now everyone was talking at once.

Luo Yan's head was buzzing, and she didn't even notice that the outside was gradually getting quiet, making the knocking on her door seem particularly loud.

She hesitated whether to get up and check, when she overheard her mother speaking.

Liu Yinfeng opened the door, wearing a coat: "Sister-in-law is here."

Her tone was so normal that it was as if she hadn't been listening to anyone arguing.

Aunt Li didn't go into the details of the messy situation, but simply said, "Since people have come, there's not enough room at home. Do you think Jianhong and Yanzi could squeeze in together tonight?"

Liu Yinfeng felt it was difficult to refuse her neighbor of over ten years, especially given their circumstances. However, she couldn't agree on behalf of her child, so she didn't respond immediately.

Luo Yan came to her mother's rescue, peeking out from the room and saying, "Okay, Auntie."

Aunt Li: "Okay, then I'll have your sister Jianhong come over."

When Li Jianhong arrived, her eyes were red. Luo Yan thought that if she asked, she might pry into her feelings, but if she didn't ask, she would seem indifferent. After hesitating for a moment, she still handed her two tissues.

It was as if a switch had been flipped, and Li Jianhong's tears, which had been somewhat restrained, started falling in strings again.

Luo Yan was least prepared for this situation, so she pushed the chair towards her, sat on the bed herself, and clenched her hands tightly behind her back.

Li Jianhong didn't say anything, but after a while she sobbed, "I'm sorry, Yanzi, I just couldn't help it."

Luo Yan knew she had a lot of grievances, so she pushed the whole bag of toilet paper over to her, saying, "It's okay, it's okay."

Li Jianhong was clearly quite upset, but seeing her action made her want to laugh. Her tense emotions seemed to dissipate, and she wiped her face heavily with the back of her hand: "Do you still need to review your lessons? I won't bother you anymore."

Everyone in the courtyard knew that her room's light was the last to go out.

Luo Yan shook her head: "It's winter vacation, I'm going to rest for a few days."

Li Jianhong: "That's good. You should balance work and rest when you're studying."

The two were six years apart in age and hadn't seen each other for ten years, so they were never very close.

Luo Yan hummed in response, unable to think of anything else to say, and felt the atmosphere was rather awkward.

Li Jianhong seemed quite at ease, her gaze sweeping around the small room: "Yanzi, you're so lucky."

Luo Yan was even more at a loss for words, and even started to vigorously stir her toes, mumbling some interjections.

Li Jianhong just wanted to vent; it's better to say it out loud than to keep it bottled up.

She said to herself, "I'm just unlucky. I wasn't born into a good family. What hope is there for me in life?"

Everyone in the alley knew the whole story of the two Li children fighting over a job.

There was no point in Luo Yan pretending not to know, so she tried to comfort him: "Uncle Li will be retiring at sixty in a couple of years."

Li Jianhong: "That's just a lie. They said my mom's job would be given to Jianjun first, and then my dad's job would be given to me. Everyone knows that my eldest brother's eldest son will graduate from high school next year, and then it will definitely go to his eldest grandson."

Where can I find a job on my own?

Brother Li's family doesn't live in the courtyard. Luo Yan only sees them occasionally during holidays. She doesn't even remember the names of his children. She's only thinking about how she managed to stab someone in the heart despite all her efforts. She purses her lips and her eyes are practically darting out of her head.

Fortunately, Li Jianhong didn't need anyone to respond and continued: "They introduce me to potential partners every day, just hoping I'll get married so everyone can have an easier time. People with household registration and government subsidies look down on me, but they bring home daughters-in-law and granddaughters without household registration or government subsidies."

Luo Yan thought the last sentence was unlikely: "If they don't have household registration, they probably can't stay in the city."

Without a household registration, there is no supply. With one more person, the whole family will have trouble feeding themselves. Besides, the city is now strictly controlling the migrant population.

Li Jianhong also knew this: "It's hard to say, how shameless they are."

Luo Yan guessed that "the other person" probably referred to her brother, Li Jianjun, and that the two siblings had recently fallen out over work.

But she couldn't very well join in the cursing, so she was so embarrassed that she started picking at her nails.

Fortunately, Luo Hong returned just in time.

He heard voices coming from his sister's room and assumed it was his mother giving him another lecture, so he knocked twice as a token gesture before opening the door.

When Luo Yan saw her brother's eyes light up, she lost her grip and pushed him out the door, saying, "There are girls here, who let you in?"

Luo Hong was almost knocked down by her: "You ran around like that for a second, and I thought a wild boar was coming at me."

Who are you talking about! Luo Yan's gratitude vanished instantly, and she rolled her eyes slightly.

Luo Hong wanted to tease her a bit more, but noticing the outsider, he changed his tune: "Sorry Jianhong, I didn't know you were here."

Li Jianhong offered, "Someone's coming over, so I'll squeeze in with Yanzi tonight."

There's a line between men and women; she can cry in front of Luo Yan, but it's different if the gender is reversed.

Luo Hong wasn't oblivious; he could tell she was upset. He nodded to show he understood, and patted his sister on the back of the head: "Then you two should go to sleep early. I'm going back to my room."

Luo Yan wanted to get it done sooner rather than later.

But her bed wasn't very wide, and the two of them were lying close together. She felt a little uncomfortable, especially since the person next to her seemed preoccupied and would unconsciously sigh every now and then.

Luo Yan didn't sleep well all night.

However, she usually doesn't sleep much, and when she wakes up, she seems to be in pretty good spirits.

Li Jianhong seemed a bit dejected, sitting on the bed for a while with a gloomy expression before lifting the covers: "Thank you, Yanzi, I'm going home."

When she said "go home," Luo Yan somehow sensed the implied war and stood quietly in the room listening after she left.

Unexpectedly, the rear-facing room remained quiet, like the calm before a storm.

During breakfast, Luo Hong finally had a chance to ask, "Who came to Jianhong's house?"

Liu Yinfeng: "Jianjun's wife and children."

Li Jianjun and Luo Hong are the same age, and the two have a decent relationship.

He said, "Should I give the child a red envelope?"

This stumped Liu Yinfeng. She weighed the options in her mind: "Let's see if she'll stay."

Adults definitely couldn't eat; the neighborhood committee would be the first to object. But children don't eat much, so the father would squeeze a little out of the rations for her, and the police station would turn a blind eye.

Regarding interpersonal relationships, Luo Hong listened to his parents: "Okay, then you can inquire about it and tell me later."

Liu Yinfeng was always concerned with gossip and idle chatter.

She glanced at the seat again and said, "Strange, why is there no movement?"

The constant arguing has made everyone uneasy.

The silence only made everyone feel more uneasy.

The family of four looked at each other in surprise, and when they heard the person in the back room start shouting, they all breathed a sigh of relief and quickened their pace of eating.

The Luo father and son had to go to work, so they left as soon as they finished eating.

Liu Yinfeng tidied up herself and got red paper and scissors for her daughter.

Luo Yan knew without asking that she was going to cut paper snowflakes, so she tore up yesterday's calendar to practice.

Liu Yinfeng didn't see it and tore it off casually as she came out of the kitchen.

Luo Yan heard the sound but it was too late to stop them. She joked, "Our family is the first to enter the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month."

Liu Yinfeng then realized, "I can't make another mistake tomorrow, or we'll be celebrating the New Year early."

Luo Yan: "Then I can get my New Year's money in advance."

"This child," Liu Yinfeng said, "no wonder your brother always says you're a money-grubber."

Luo Yan gestured to indicate where to cut the paper-cut window decoration: "Well, I am a gentleman who loves money, but I acquire it in a proper way."

Liu Yinfeng: "There are three paths leading to your mother's, your father's, and your brother's pockets."

That explanation makes perfect sense, and Luo Yan couldn't help but laugh.

Liu Yinfeng didn't find it funny at first, but she couldn't help but laugh when she saw her like this.

The more the mother and daughter locked eyes, the more they couldn't hold back, and in the end, they both turned their heads away from each other.

Luo Yan was facing the door, and her eyes sensed someone coming before her ears did, so she reached out and touched her mother.

Liu Yinfeng pursed her lips and called out, "Who is it?"

A note from the author:

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