Chapter 29 Chapter 29 (Inverted v) [VIP]

Shortly after Zhao Lixin left, Grandma Bai and Grandpa Bai came to Bai He's house holding umbrellas.

Seeing the two elderly people's noses and hands were red from the cold, Bai He quickly pulled them over to the brazier to warm themselves. He couldn't help but say, "Don't come out and suffer in such cold weather. I'm such a grown-up, can't I take care of myself? Why are you worrying about me for nothing?"

Grandpa Bai puffed out his chest and said with full energy, "Thinking back to when I went to Northeast China to build the railway, the snow fell up to my waist and my hands were frozen and cracked, but I still had to work. It was no hardship at all."

Grandma Bai said, "Yesterday's hailstorm was pretty severe. It even crushed our garage. We came here to see if you're okay."

Bai He brought two bottles of hot milk to the elderly couple. "It's okay here, just a few broken glass pieces. But the tiles on the house are all damaged. There's no way to fix them now, and I'm worried that the water from the snowmelt will soak into the house."

Grandpa Bai really likes pure milk; it's not sweet and provides calcium, so he often drinks it like water. Grandma Bai, on the other hand, prefers the sweet and sour blended milk with juice. Seeing this, she pushed it directly to Bai He, "You drink it."

"I've already drunk it." Bai He forcefully stuffed the milk into her hand.

The wrinkles on Grandma Bai's face deepened a little, and she held her nose and took a sip as if she was drinking Chinese medicine.

"It's a problem. All the tiles are broken over here. The weather's been weird this year. I've never seen hailstones as big as bricks. Let's put down a tarp on the roof as a last resort! Your uncle has plenty. I'll have him send you a few bundles later."

Bai He did not refuse his grandfather's kindness. "Grandpa, can you take a look at the wind turbine here?"

"Of course it's good!" Grandpa Bai said without hesitation, his face full of admiration. "I don't know where you got this good stuff, kid. With all this snow, the power company won't be here to fix the wires for months. You're the only place in the village with regular electricity." Grandpa Bai was a man of novelty. Even though he was nearly seventy, he loved all sorts of new things and loved to explore. If he hadn't been denied education as a child, he might have been an inventor.

"I bought two at the time, and you can take the other one back later."

Hearing this, Grandpa Bai's eyes lit up. Without electricity at home, many things became difficult to do.

"How much is it?" Before Bai He could reply, Grandpa Bai rushed in and said, "Don't say you don't want money. As a grandfather, am I supposed to take advantage of you?"

"Don't worry, I only have two of them. How can I bear to give them to you? I'll just lend them to you first."

Grandpa Bai thought for a moment and nodded, "Okay, I'll keep it safe."

After they finished their conversation, Grandma Bai, who was peeling sweet potatoes, said slowly, "Zhou Deliang's house downhill was destroyed by hail and snow yesterday."

Bai He casually asked, "How are the people?"

"When we dug them out this morning, the bodies were frozen solid."

Grandpa Bai snorted and said, "It's better to die."

It’s not that Grandpa Bai has a distorted outlook on life, but that Zhou Deliang was a useless person when he was young.

In the 1960s and 1970s, taking advantage of the unique national conditions at the time, Zhou Deliang led his men in a village persecution. He labeled two genuine peasant families rich peasants simply because they had a small amount of savings, and eventually persecuted them to death.

It was karma! In his middle age, his only son went to school and never returned. His wife later died of illness, leaving him alone in his old age.

In his sixties, Zhou Deliang applied for collective support, receiving monthly cash and supplies. He had hands and feet, yet he still relied on the government's support. This behavior was looked down upon by Grandpa and Grandma Bai, who had worked hard their entire lives. The older generation, having experienced hardship, understood the difficulty of achieving a stable and secure life today. They were too busy expressing gratitude to the government to even consider taking advantage of it.

"Should I go then?"

The brothers Bai Tiancheng and Bai Changqing separated after they reached adulthood, each managing their own relationships with friends and relatives. With Bai and his father gone, he had to represent their family.

People from the same village usually give gifts of money, but it's a give-and-take thing. If you come to my house for a birthday party, I'll go to yours for a wedding banquet.

"Why go? This old guy spends all his money on meat and drinking. The village has to subsidize his funeral. You still expect to have a feast?" The money in the village is the villagers' money. Grandma Bai was very unhappy that it was spent on such a lazy old man.

"Don't his relatives care?" Bai He had a deep impression of Zhou Deliang. When he was in school, he always had to pass by his house. He would lean on a cane, with a kind face, and smile at the sight of children. On several occasions, he would give Bai He some sugar cakes he bought at the market.

"His parents and brothers all died a long time ago, and I haven't been in contact with my nephew in Shui City for more than ten years." Grandpa Bai said casually.

…

While roasting by the fire, Bai He thought about what happened in the morning. "Grandpa, Uncle Li Xin must have gone to your house too!"

"Here she is! My cousin had a miserable life too. She finally waited until her grandson got into college and was about to enjoy her life, but she passed away in the end."

"She has never been in good health. She has been hospitalized from time to time in the past few years. It feels like there is a cat living in her throat. Every time I see her coughing, I worry that she will cough out her lungs." Grandma Bai had a sad look on her face.

As we age, we fear illness; it's not only painful for us, but also for our families. Grandma Bai, who lives in the same village, and this cousin are very close, often chatting about family matters. This past year, every time they chatted, the other would hug her and cry. Wu Qiu lost her husband at a young age, and raising her children alone was a difficult task. Chen Lixin was a sensible person, having started working as a laborer at the age of fifteen or sixteen. Despite her limited education, she performed manual labor and earned only hard-earned money.

Wu Qiu felt sorry for her son, so she worked hard, doing cleaning, farming, raising chickens and pigs. After a lot of effort, her family's conditions improved and the house was renovated, but her health deteriorated and she needed medicine.

On several occasions, Wu Qiu held a tissue in his hand and said to Grandma Bai in despair that he would rather die of cancer than be half-dead and a burden to his descendants.

Chen Lixin and his wife were very filial and never gave up on her, which only made her even more miserable. She didn't want her son's hard-earned money to go to such a bottomless pit. Especially since her grandson was growing up and needed to get married and buy a house, another huge expense. Her heart was filled with bitterness.

Wu Qiu couldn't withstand the sudden change in weather. Grandma Bai thought that part of the reason was that she herself had no will to survive.

This cousin has lived her whole life for others. Grandma Bai felt very upset.

"Your aunt loves you very much. Come with me to pay your respects to your aunt later."

Bai He nodded. He was deeply influenced by this aunt who always gave him red envelopes and snacks during the Chinese New Year.

We chatted and talked about some other things in the village. We have Uncle Bai, the village secretary, at home, and he is well-informed about all kinds of news in the village.

Last night's sudden hailstorm and heavy snowstorm caused suffering for many families. Not only did houses collapse and become damaged, but people—especially the elderly, who are already weak and have passed away in their sleep—were killed. Children suffered too. The village clinic and Mr. Liang's family are now overcrowded. Oh! Mr. Liang is a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and a former barefoot doctor.

The snow was up to my knees and kept coming down. The road that was finally opened was blocked again, and people had nothing to repair their broken or collapsed houses.

Bai He stayed at home with his grandparents for a meal. They had hot pot, which was perfect for this kind of weather. It was piping hot while being cooked. If it were any other stir-fried dish, it would probably be cold before it was even cooked.

We had a shabu-shabu hotpot, one with mushroom soup and the other with spicy hotpot. Snow was falling outside, and inside, the pots were bubbling, steam rising up—a truly delicious experience. Bai He made himself a super spicy dipping sauce with chili peppers and garlic, so spicy it made you want to spit your tongue out after taking a bite.

The thinly sliced ​​beef changes color after a few seconds of tumbling in the pot. Then, I dip it in the red chili sauce and stuff it into my mouth. My tongue sounds an alarm, but soon after swallowing it, my whole body warms from the inside out.

Grandpa Bai also loves spicy food. Our province is humid, and to remove the moisture, our ancestors have been accustomed to eating chili peppers. It's no exaggeration to say that adding chili peppers to cooking is as normal as adding salt.

Grandpa Bai chewed the mutton in his mouth with difficulty. "This mutton is old. It feels like a rubber band when you bite it."

Grandma Bai has lost a lot of teeth and can only eat soft and sticky foods like mushrooms and tofu. Grandpa Bai picked up a piece of meat with chopsticks and put it in her bowl, "Look, you are so thin that you are just a bag of bones. You should eat more meat to replenish your body."

Grandma Bai opened her chopsticks, quickly dodged with the bowl in her arms, glared at her husband, and said unhappily: "I can't bite anything you pick up. If I want to eat, I'll pick it up myself." As she spoke, she scooped up a piece of meat from the pot and chewed it slowly. Grandma Bai was very thin, and the flesh on her cheeks was sunken. As she had lost a lot of teeth due to grinding, her mouth was very empty, which made it look even more sunken and a little scary.

I said it many times before, "Grandma, when the road is open, I will take you to get a pair of dentures."

Grandma Bai's eyes widened, and she shook her head like a wave drum. She said stubbornly, "What do you want to pair it with? It's not like I can't eat it."

Grandpa Bai saw through his wife's true reason and said, "You just can't bear to spend it. I'll pay for it. It just so happens that I haven't withdrawn enough from my pension in a few months, so you can get a good set of teeth. With dentures, you can bite things. Otherwise, you won't eat anything. If one day your Xu family comes looking for you, you'll think I'm abusing you."

The two have been married for decades and have a special relationship, but they are still stubborn in their words as they grow old, and their words of concern are also sarcastic.

Grandma Bai couldn't stop talking to Grandpa Bai, so she glared at him, but she was determined not to leave. Her sister-in-law had spent two thousand yuan on four dentures in town, and she had to spend four or five thousand yuan to get nine more. It wasn't worth it. She was already half buried in the ground, and just being able to eat was enough.

After lunch, they headed out to Chen Lixin's house. Outside, not only was there heavy snow, but there was also a strong northerly wind. Umbrellas were useless, so they all wore raincoats.

Chen Lixin's home is also in the village. It usually takes only fifteen or sixteen minutes to walk there, but today it took twice as long.

Every time you step on the ground, a hole is created, which is laborious and time-consuming.