Chapter 189 My Family

Time flies, and it's already the eighth month of the lunar calendar.

This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day are consecutive. Zhang Pengfei had started planning how to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival long ago, but unexpectedly, an accident occurred just before the festival.

—His cousin, Zhang Pengju, the eldest son of his uncle Zhang Tianmin and aunt Liu Jin'e, arrived.

Several years ago, Zhang Pengfei broke off contact with his uncle's family in a fit of anger because Liu Jin'e abused Huahua.

As the eldest son of his uncle's family, Zhang Pengju was different from the second son, Zhang Pengchao, and even from his parents. In fact, he was very close to Zhang Pengfei.

Zhang Pengfei is five years older than Zhang Pengju. Because his uncle and aunt were always fighting, Zhang Pengju basically grew up in Zhang Pengfei's house.

When Zhang Pengfei was in elementary school, he would go home to take care of his child as soon as school was over, and he would hug him more often than he hugged Huahua.

However, Zhang Pengju's grades were average and he had no interest in studying. When Zhang Pengfei's father passed away, 15-year-old Zhang Pengju had already graduated from junior high school and was working at a brick and tile factory in the county to earn money.

Upon learning of the troubles in his family, the child secretly offered Zhang Pengfei the 800 yuan he had saved up over several months, showing far more conscience than his parents.

Although Zhang Pengju was unaware that Zhang Pengfei had broken off relations with his uncle and aunt, he has wisely never contacted Zhang Pengfei over the years.

Therefore, Zhang Pengfei was very shocked when Zhang Pengju came to him.

"Brother!" As soon as Zhang Pengju saw Zhang Pengfei, he knelt down and kowtowed, his eyes filled with tears, and choked out, "My parents... are gone!"

Zhang Pengfei was shocked!

Kneeling to express condolences is a custom in their hometown for announcing a death. When he announced the death, he knelt down to each house in this way.

After all, he was the child he had raised, and with the deceased being the most important person, no matter how much dissatisfaction he had before, now that Zhang Pengju had come to report the death, it was neither reasonable nor moral for him to drive him away.

"Pengju!" Zhang Pengfei helped him up.

Zhang Pengju is over twenty years old and about the same height as Zhang Pengfei. They have some resemblance in their eyebrows and eyes, but due to years of exposure to the wind and sun, his skin is dark and he is very thin, making him look older than Zhang Pengfei.

"What happened? What's going on?"

Zhang Pengju sniffed, his voice muffled: "My mom..."

He frowned, lowered his head, and slowly exhaled, seemingly finding it very difficult to speak: "My mother went to steal sweet potatoes from someone else's farm at night and accidentally fell into the river. My father went to rescue her, but neither of them made it back up."

Zhang Pengfei: ......

This is really hard to judge.

Liu Jin'e certainly lived up to the saying "what goes around comes around."

“Brother, I didn’t want to come looking for you…” Zhang Pengju wiped away his tears, “but Second Master said we can’t let the villagers laugh at us anymore, after all…”

His voice was mournful, and after only a few words, tears streamed down his face again: "My parents are also to be buried in the ancestral grave, right to the right of my eldest uncle's grave. My second uncle said that since you are the eldest grandson of the eldest son, it wouldn't be proper for me to lead the worship of my grandparents if you weren't present..."

He sobbed again, bent his knees, and kowtowed: "Brother, I know that my parents did something wrong to you. I apologize to you on their behalf and beg you to forgive them!"

Zhang Pengfei sighed silently.

Ancestral graves—this might be a kind of obsession among the older generation. Dou Qiaoyun would sometimes say out of the blue, "When I die, bury me in the Zhang family's ancestral graves with your father."

With her uncle and aunt gone, only Dou Qiaoyun remained from the previous generation, and the next generation consisted of only four people.

Zhang Pengfei was a broad-minded person. If Liu Jin'e hadn't gone too far back then, he wouldn't have broken off their friendship.

Now that the man has passed away, and Zhang Pengju is kneeling before him, refusing to get up, if his father were alive, he probably wouldn't want to see the Zhang family fall apart after only three generations.

"Get up," Zhang Pengfei said, pulling him along. "Let's go inside and have some water."

Zhang Pengju's face lit up with joy, and tears streamed down his face even more profusely: "Thank you, brother."

Upon entering, Zhang Pengju stood frozen at the doorway, unsure which foot to step with.

"Brother, your house is so big!"

Zhang Pengfei chuckled. The house wasn't actually that big, just over 90 square meters, a one-bedroom apartment. It was rented by Chen Jingyang. Their villa was still under renovation, and they planned to move in at the end of the year.

"Oh, by the way, how did you know I lived here?"

“I asked Liu Xin,” Zhang Pengju said honestly. “He told me your address.”

Liu Xin was his childhood friend, who lived at the east end of the village. The two were very close when they were young. Whenever his uncle and aunt came to his house to "take over" his place, he would go to Liu Xin's house to sleep.

Although Liu Xin didn't go to high school, the two kept in touch. He was wondering why Liu Xin suddenly asked him where he lived yesterday; it turned out he was asking Zhang Pengju.

"Please sit down, don't be shy."

Zhang Pengju still didn't dare to move: "Brother, I think I shouldn't go in, my shoes are dirty..."

He scratched his head, embarrassed: "My feet... also smell bad. I have a lot of things to do at home, I have to go back right away."

Zhang Pengfei clicked his tongue and grabbed his hand: "Come in!"

Zhang Pengju involuntarily tiptoed onto the carpet, awkwardly placing half of his bottom on the sofa, with the majority of it dangling in the air.

"You're doing a horse stance!" Zhang Pengfei laughed. "Make yourself at home here, don't be shy."

He poured a glass of warm water and handed it to Zhang Pengju, then sat down and asked, "What time is your train ticket?"

"Three o'clock in the afternoon."

"Then what the hell are you talking about? It's only 11 o'clock now."

Zhang Pengju smiled meekly.

Zhang Pengfei felt a little sad. Was this really the same kid who used to follow him around calling him "brother" all the time?

Just as he was about to speak again, the phone rang suddenly. It was Chen Jingyang: "Baby, what are we having for lunch today?"

Law firms don't require fixed office hours; you only need to go there when there's something to do. So Zhang Pengfei spends a lot of time at home, but Chen Jingyang can't. He spends about 10 hours a day at the company.

In order to "balance" his work and life, this person rented the house 300 meters away from the company so that he could go home for lunch.

"My brother is here. Let's go to Yaoshui Banquet next door for lunch today."

Chen Jingyang was clearly taken aback: "Your brother? Where did you get a brother?"

"My cousin, Zhang Pengju."

Chen Jingyang said thoughtfully, "Okay, you guys go first, I'll be there by midnight at the latest."

Like a bewildered little lamb, Zhang Pengju opened his eyes wide and asked him, "Brother, is someone coming?"

Zhang Pengfei really wanted to say "your sister-in-law," but he was afraid of scaring him, so he just mumbled, "Yeah, friend."

After saying that, he felt that the word "friend" was too inadequate, so he added three more words: "family."