Habit

The next morning, Wu Mei came to open the store at noon as usual, but there was no one in front of the door today.

After opening the shop and cleaning it up, there were still no customers, so she sat aside and played with her phone as usual.

She gradually grew bored with swapping animal heads, so she took down the chessboard and started playing against herself.

A cold wind blew in, and Wu Mei looked towards the door. It was Zhou Qianling's aunt.

"Hmm..." She pursed her lips and looked at the menu on the wall, twisting her hands and ordering unskillfully. "Um, a small and large bowl of mutton noodles and a small bowl of spicy chicken noodles."

The somewhat nervous woman sat down by the door and added, "We're not eating here."

Wu Mei came into the kitchen and asked, "Would you like more chili peppers?"

"Put more spicy chicken noodles. Did Zhou Qianling want her bowl spicy before?"

Lin Yue's words were incoherent, but Wu Meilai understood, "She doesn't want spicy food or onions."

It seems that he is really angry, and his fans are asking others to lead him.

"Oh, then no chili and onions." Lin Yue repeated.

The atmosphere was somewhat silent, so she tried to find a topic to talk about. "When does your family visit the graves? I see many families in Yuxianwan have already done so."

"That's not popular in my family." Her father's foot was useless, and as for her brother...

"It wasn't popular in our family before, but Sister Fang and her daughter came over to visit the grave, so we women all joined in the fun."

Lin Yue spoke with some excitement, and the nervousness disappeared.

"The mother and daughter were willing to spend money. They hired a craftsman to repair the tomb and bought a lot of things for visiting the tomb. I'm afraid they will be exhausted carrying all those things tomorrow."

Having said that, the smile in her eyes revealed her pride and eagerness to try.

Wu Meilai packed up the two portions of noodles, and handed them to her along with two portions of pickled vegetables and a portion of dried chili peppers.

Lin Yue counted out 15 yuan in banknotes and gave them to Wu Meilai. Before she left, she looked at the two bowls of noodles and muttered, "Oh, if Pi Houer hadn't put out the fire... these two bowls would have cost nearly twenty yuan."

Wu Meilai had heard such sighs many times and didn't take it seriously. Instead, she felt relieved when she found out that it wasn't Zhou Qianling who asked her to bring it.

But will she come back again in the future?

The answer is of course yes.

Yesterday, Zhou Qianling saw Lin Yue's hands were cracked and she was still washing clothes for the siblings, so she ordered a washing machine. She originally wanted to buy it secretly so that Lin Yue wouldn't refuse it, but her cousin saw her and asked what it was. Zhou Qianling told her, and told her not to let her mother know.

Then I was pestered by my excited cousin and whispered to her all night long. When I woke up, it was already 11 o'clock in the morning.

She washed her face and as soon as she opened the door, she saw Lin Yue coming in with two boxes of powder.

"Are you awake?" Lin Yue smiled and placed the noodles on the plate surrounding the stove. "The fire was put out by the youngest. Eat some noodles first to fill your stomach. I'll light the fire and then we can have dinner."

"Thank you..." Zhou Qianling untied his scarf and sat by the fire.

When I opened the lid, I heard Lin Yue calling the youngest child over.

"It smells so good." The youngest child opened the lid of the box, drank a mouthful of soup first, and then used chopsticks to pry out the powder in an unskillful manner.

The two cousins ​​also spontaneously jumped onto the bench by the fire and sat opposite her, lying on the plate with their eyes wide open and their mouths slightly open, watching the youngest slurp the noodles.

The siblings were all still young, the oldest one was less than seven years old, and the two sisters' short legs were not even half the length of the stool legs.

"Is it delicious?" The second brother asked with a smile, staring at the chicken inside.

The youngest one picked it up and chewed it, bones included, and swallowed it. "Delicious! Fragrant and spicy."

Zhou Qianling saw the boss swallowing, but he said nothing obediently. He was probably used to it.

Habit is a chronic infectious disease.

My mother told me that Lin Yue was picked up. Her adoptive mother had not been able to conceive for several years after her marriage, so the two of them decided to pick up a girl and take her with them.

In those days, it was easy to pick up girls.

For the first two years, the couple treated her well. But when her adoptive mother became pregnant and gave birth to a son, her life became difficult. She didn't go to school, and every day she was either doing housework or working on the farm in the mountains. To this day, she still can't read a single word.

She was only 15 years old when she married her uncle, who was nearly 30 years old at that time.

Eight thousand yuan in exchange for a crying sedan chair.

Zhou Qianling couldn’t tell whether her current life was good for her. If given a choice, probably no one would choose such a life.

Despite this, Lin Yue persevered. Of course, she wasn't an exception, or even a woman who had suffered. She was just another ordinary woman in the mountains.

People always say: It’s just a habit, you’ll get used to it.

Lin Yue is used to working hard and doing her best to care for the children.

For example, even if her fingers were cracked, she would still wash clothes for several children. When she was cooking, her seven-year-old daughter would sit next to her and watch TV with a smile on her face. If the youngest child wanted candy, she would buy three pieces, and so on.

But when resources are limited, she is used to giving priority to the youngest one, just like she always gives in to her younger brother.

When one generation of women is forced to contract a disease like "habit", it will be passed on to the next generation of women, and so on and so forth, endlessly.

Zhou Qianling asked his eldest daughter to bring two bowls.

Lin Yue guessed what she was going to do and quickly explained, "We'll have dinner soon, and they don't like this."

"I can't eat so much. I was full after eating half a bowl before." Zhou Qianling replied with a smile. He picked up a piece of food with chopsticks and put it into their bowls, and poured soup into them.

Seeing this, the youngest also wanted some. The eldest daughter pushed her bowl over, but was blocked by Zhou Qianling. She looked at the youngest's half-finished lunch box and said, "There's still so much left. If you don't finish it, you'll get a spanking."

The youngest whined. Zhou Qianling looked at Lin Yue and said with a smile, "Mom has to enforce the law impartially. Whoever is left standing will be spanked."

"Yes, yes, enforce the law impartially." Lin Yue responded with a smile, and this little matter was just over.

--

On the day of ancestor worship, several adults and four or five children set out for the mountains. Even my fourth aunt who married in another town came.

Zhou Fang and her third aunt led the way with sickles, while Zhou Qianling, her fourth aunt and Lin Yue carried wreaths, paper banners, incense sticks, paper money and other items for ancestor worship. The younger ones either carried food on their backs or in their hands.

They attracted quite a bit of attention along the way, with many people standing in the fields to join in the fun, spitting and whispering to each other. Some familiar villagers also came forward to joke: "Zhou Fang is still more capable than Xiao Laoliu. The glory of the family still depends on the eldest sister."

Zhou Qianling couldn't tell the truth from her words, but seeing his mother was just smiling, he didn't say anything more. Fortunately, after leaving Laowa Village, the crowds of onlookers gradually died down.

The craftsmen had just walked the road into the mountains two days ago, so it didn't take much effort. They just had to chop down some dead branches and weeds and symbolically throw a few strings of firecrackers.

There is a mountain of graves behind my aunt's house, but in the early years, people lived on the top of the mountain to avoid bandits, so most of the ancestral graves are deep in the mountains and forests.

The sisters lit incense and candles in front of the stone tablet, placed offerings, kowtowed a few times, and then began to build a stove and cook.

Zhou Qianling didn't understand these things, so he just helped out by passing things around.

Third Aunt chopped some dry firewood, pulled Zhou Qianling aside, and whispered, "Don't worry about it. Go and accompany your mother."

Zhou Qianling looked back and saw Zhou Fang kneeling in front of a renovated tomb. After lighting the incense, she bowed solemnly several times, then crawled on her knees to the old stone tablet and carefully inserted the incense into the incense burner.

Zhou Qianling went up, knelt beside her, lit incense and kowtowed.

The year of death on the tombstone is: 2009.

He died at the age of 54.

This is her grandmother, but Zhou Qianling calls her Grandma.

"I'm 54 years old, and my mom..."

Zhou Qianling took his mother's hand and patted the back of her hand as if she was comforting herself.

Zhou Fang doesn't like to talk about her own affairs. The only information Zhou Qianling knows is what he heard from his father. He only knows that his mother was able to go to college thanks to his grandmother.

Zhou Fang sighed deeply, "Your grandmother probably lost her health because of me. It's a pity that she couldn't enjoy her life."

"I've never met anyone so stubborn. We asked her to move in with us so we could take care of her, but she refused to listen, saying she was used to the countryside and couldn't adapt to life in a big city."

"Actually, I'm just afraid that your grandfather will rely on me and suck my blood."

"Your grandmother is truly a good mother, hard to find in this world."

Zhou Qianling listened quietly, occasionally offering some words of comfort and advice.