Chapter 79

Arriving at the gate of Shen's house, Xiao Ning stopped the car and said to Old Lady Lin, "Grandma, we're at your granddaughter's house."

Old Mrs. Lin used her hands and feet to get out of the car. This military vehicle was a bit high for her as it was her first time riding in a car. The way she got out of the car was like a gecko climbing a wall.

As if she was afraid that Xiao Ning would deceive her, she pulled a passerby over and asked, "Let me ask you, is the person living here surnamed Lin, and called..."

Seeing that Old Lady Lin was still asking questions so impolitely, the man asked without waiting for Old Lady Lin to finish her question: "Your surname is Lin, what's wrong?"

The last name must be Lin, thought Mrs. Lin.

Seeing that Mrs. Lin believed her, Xiao Ning smiled and drove away.

Old Mrs. Lin walked to the door and knocked on it vigorously: "Lin Tao, open the door quickly, open the door quickly! I am your grandmother. If you don't let your grandmother in, you are a traitor and the thunder god will strike you. Do you know that?"

Inside the house, Shen Jiahao and Shen Jiayi had gone out to play, leaving Shen Jiaping alone at home reading a book. He heard a knock on the door and was about to open it, but after hearing the sound, he sat back down.

After a while, Lin Hui came back.

She went to catch seafood. When she first came, she looked down on those who went to catch seafood, thinking that it was not worth it just for such a small amount of money.

Later, when she was short of money, she also went to the sea. Now she has been tanned a lot. When Mrs. Lin saw her for the first time, she almost didn't recognize her.

Lin Hui was also very surprised to see Old Lady Lin. She was so frightened that she knocked over the bucket in her hand. The clams fell to the ground. She picked them up and asked, "Grandma, why are you here? What are you doing here?"

Lin Hui was surprised and a little annoyed by the arrival of Old Lady Lin.

The last time Old Lady Huang came to cause trouble, Shen Guobin's attitude towards her became much colder. During this period, she didn't dare to provoke him. She cleaned up the house inside and out, and the children were close to her. Shen Guobin's attitude became slightly better, but that was all.

Old Mrs. Lin recognized the voice as her eldest granddaughter's, but she also got angry when she heard it, and said back: "Why can't I come? This island belongs to you alone? You got married and you don't even recognize me as your grandmother, right? I really loved you in vain!"

Logically speaking, Old Lady Lin really loved Lin Hui. Lin Hui quickly explained, "Grandma, that's not what I meant. Forget it, let's go inside and talk about it first."

As she spoke, Lin Hui called out, "Shen Jiaping, open the door quickly. Why are you locking the door in broad daylight?"

Old Mrs. Lin was confused: "Shen Jiaping? Is this your home? Isn't this the home of Lin Tao, the deceased?"

Lin Hui was speechless: "Who told you this is Lin Tao's house? This is my home."

Mrs. Lin thought of Xiao Ning and slapped her thigh in anger: "Oh, that brain-chopping guy lied to me!"

At this time, the door was opened from the inside. Shen Jiaping stood there with sleepy eyes and said, "I just fell asleep."

Lin Hui glanced at him and said nothing, but her eyes showed dislike.

Shen Jiaping didn't care about that and went back to do his own thing.

Lin Hui brought Old Lady Shen in and told her about how Old Lady Huang had come to the island last time and made things very ugly, how she had brought people to beat him up and caused Shen Guobin to be unable to go to the artillery school.

"Damn Huang family, they dare to hit you? I haven't settled the score with them for the last time, and she dares to come and trouble you? Ah Hui, just wait, grandma will definitely teach her a lesson when she gets back." Old Mrs. Lin gritted her teeth and said viciously.

Then she said, "I'm not here to see you this time. I'm here to see Lin Tao. Lin Tao has given Fang Min so many things. How can I, your biological mother, be inferior to Fang Min, an outsider?"

Lin Hui rolled her eyes and said, "Then, grandma, let's just do this. I'll send you to Lin Tao's house now."

Old Mrs. Lin thought so and followed Lin Hui out.

When they arrived at Lin Tao's house, the door was locked. Lin Hui said, "She may still be in school. She will probably be back soon. Grandma, you wait here. I have to go back to do the laundry."

Lin Hui said that Lin Tao would be back soon, but Old Mrs. Lin waited outside for at least two hours, from around two in the afternoon to around four in the afternoon, but she didn't even see Lin Tao. Instead, she was so thirsty and hungry from waiting.

The steamed bun I had at Lin Hui’s house before didn’t make me hungry at all, but it made my mouth dry.

After waiting for a while, she felt the urge to pee and wanted to go to the toilet. She asked a child and was told that she had to go to the public toilet. Mrs. Lin could not read a word and did not know that there were male and female toilets. She ran directly into the men's toilet. There happened to be a gay man using the toilet inside. He was almost scared to death by Mrs. Lin.

After going to the toilet, Old Lady Lin went back to wait. She guessed that the damn girl Lin Manman must have gone to inform Lin Tao, so she hadn't come back yet so late.

But can Lin Tao stay away forever? She has to come back to cook and sleep, right?

She just didn't believe that if she kept waiting here, she wouldn't be able to see Lin Tao.

However, Lin Tao did not come back, but Zheng Hongxing did.

Zheng Hongxing is over four years old this year. It is too early to send him to primary school, and he is too naughty at home. After going out for a day, his clothes were covered with mud and sand. He is at the age where people hate him and dogs despise him.

Zheng Hongxing noticed an old lady squatting at the door of Lin Tao's house, so he walked over and asked, "Who are you? Why are you sitting here?"

Old Lady Lin glanced at him. She was annoyed after waiting for so long and said unhappily, "You want to interfere even though I'm sitting here? I'm Lin Tao's grandmother. Do you know where Lin Tao is hiding? Did she know I was coming and deliberately avoid seeing me?"

Zheng Hongxing said "I don't know" and went home.

When she got home, Chen Shuifen was feeding the chickens. When she saw Zheng Hongxing, who was like a savage, she was so angry that she got a headache.

Zheng Hongxing said, "Mom, there's an old woman sitting at the door of Aunt Lin's house. She speaks very fiercely and looks like a bad guy. I want to use the gun my dad made for me to knock her down and put a foot on her."

Chen Shuifen rolled her eyes and said, "I think you want me to put one foot on you. Why do you care so much about things like a kid? Why don't you go wash your face and hands? Do you want me to beat you up?"

Zheng Hongxing snorted and ran to wash his hands.

Not long after, Zheng Youde also came back. Seeing Mrs. Lin sitting at the door of Li Chengxi's house, he was very curious. After entering the courtyard, he asked Chen Shuifen: "Are the relatives next door coming again? Didn't they leave the island and come back in two days? Why didn't you tell them to come to your house and have a seat?"

Chen Shuifen said unhappily, "I won't ask her to come in and sit down. That person is Teacher Lin's grandmother. This old hag is not a good person, she is particularly evil-hearted. She almost strangled Teacher Lin to death when she was a child, and she was not nice to Teacher Lin afterwards. This time, she must be here to take advantage of me. Why would I ask her to come in and sit down after I've eaten my fill?"

Zheng Youde was choked by this sentence and was speechless. He stopped talking and muttered, "This woman is really a jerk. She can do this to her own granddaughter."

"Isn't your mother almost the same?" Chen Shuifen said sarcastically.

Zheng Youde was speechless and went back to the field to pick beans obediently.

When Zheng Hongxing was washing his hands, he heard these words, gritted his teeth, snorted, ran into the house, grabbed a handful of sea cockroaches from a small jar, put them in his pocket, and ran out.

Putting his hands behind his back, Zheng Hongxing walked to Mrs. Lin and asked her, "Are you thirsty?"

Old Mrs. Lin's mouth was dry, and she said quickly, "I'm so thirsty, go get me a glass of water."

Zheng Hongxing said "Oh", and then, while Mrs. Lin wasn't paying attention, he threw the sea cockroaches in his pocket onto Mrs. Lin's body and shouted, "Wow, why are there so many bugs on your body! I'll help you get rid of them!"

As he said this, he punched Old Mrs. Lin a few times.

Although Zheng Hongxing is still young, he is very strong. He usually fights with kids who are two or three years older than him. He may not win at first, but he will eventually knock the opponent down.

Mrs. Lin was an old woman, and Zheng Hongxing beat her so hard that she started to scream. It was not known whether she was screaming because of the beating or because she was scared by so many insects. She tripped and fell while running away, and almost fell to the ground. She also hurt her old waist.

Old Mrs. Lin returned to Lin Hui's house with a pale face and swearing. Lin Hui had just finished cooking, and Old Mrs. Lin was so hungry that she couldn't wait and started eating first.

Shen Jiahao and Shen Jiayi were a little unhappy, but they didn't say anything for Lin Hui's sake.

Lin Hui was afraid that Shen Guobin would be angry, so she told him about this when he came back.

Shen Guobin glanced at Lin Hui, then at Old Lady Lin who was eating in the living room, and said, "It's normal for grandma to see her granddaughter. Lin Tao hasn't been back to Xiangcheng for such a long time since she got married. It's not a bad thing for grandma to go and see her if she misses her. Let grandma sleep at our house tonight and go tomorrow."

Shen Guobin didn't know that Lin Tao had also left the island with Li Chengxi. He thought that Li Chengxi had been attending a meeting outside the island for the past two days and should be back tomorrow.

Lin Hui was stunned for a moment, as if she didn't understand, and then she understood something.

Due to Shen Guobin's rank as deputy battalion commander, the house he was allocated was ordinary, with only two rooms in total. Before, the three children slept in one room, and Shen Guobin and Lin Hui slept in another room. Now that Old Mrs. Lin has come, Shen Jiayi has to sleep with them, and Old Mrs. Lin sleeps in Shen Jiayi's bed.

The already small bed seemed even more crowded.

Shen Jiayi was squeezed in the middle and asked with a pouty mouth: "Mom, when will that grandma leave? I'm almost being squeezed to death."

Lin Hui comforted her, "She won't sleep at our house tomorrow, Jiayi, go to sleep quickly."

They would just make do with it tonight, and tomorrow it would be Lin Tao's turn to be tortured. In fact, she hadn't seen Lin Tao for a long time recently. Although Shengshan Island was not very big, their home was not very close either.

Although she couldn't see Lin Tao, she often heard about her from other military wives. They all envied her and envied her for having the good fortune to marry Li Chengxi.

By the next day, Mrs. Lin had rested well and her face was not as pale as yesterday, so she set off for Lin Tao's house.

When we got there, we found the door was still locked.

Old Mrs. Lin was confused, wondering why Lin Tao went out again so early in the morning? Or was it that Lin Tao was actually still at home to guard against her, but asked someone to lock the door from the outside to make her think that Lin Tao was not at home?

Old Mrs. Lin thought of what Lin Hui had said to her this morning, and she sat down on the ground and started crying and making a fuss: "Oh my God, I never thought that my granddaughter would be so heartless. I had to run all the way here, but she just hid at home and didn't even open the door for me to come in, and she wouldn't even let me drink a sip of water...Oh my God, please take a look at this unfilial daughter Lin Tao, and see how she treats me, her own grandmother..."

Early in the morning, Old Mrs. Lin was crying and howling at the door of Lin Tao's house.

Today is a holiday and everyone doesn't have to go to work. When they heard someone crying, they couldn't help but come over to see what was going on.

Lin Tao was not at home. Xu Yuting had made an appointment with Chen Shuifen to go to the non-staple food factory to buy things today. On the way, she asked Wang Yuanliang to take the things home. She came to Chen Shuifen's house to sit for a while, but she didn't expect to see such a scene as soon as she arrived.

When Lin Tao told her about her identity as a coffin boy, she also mentioned Old Lady Lin. Xu Yuting knew Old Lady Lin's true identity.

In addition, when they were on the way, Chen Shuifen told Xu Yuting that Old Lady Lin had gone to the island. Now seeing Old Lady Lin splashing Lin Tao's dirty water, Xu Yuting was so angry that she wanted to stuff little Qingming into Chen Shuifen's arms on the spot and go to argue with Old Lady Lin.

Xu Yuting said loudly, "Don't talk nonsense here. When did Ah Tao hide at home? She went out of the island with Captain Li two days ago. You said she was hiding from you, so let me ask you, did you write to her before you came? Did she know you were coming?"

The question stumped Old Mrs. Lin for a moment. She had originally wanted to carry Lin Tao here, but she was so stupid that she wrote a letter to Lin Tao.

Xu Yuting knew what was going on when she saw her like this: "You didn't even write a letter, and Ah Tao didn't know you were coming, what are you talking about here?"

Chen Shuifen pulled Xu Yuting back and stepped forward: "Who did I think you were? You are Teacher Lin's cruel grandmother, right? When Lin Tao was at home, you called her a deadly omen and told her to get out, saying that she was not a member of your Lin family. You strangled her to death when she was just born. Was it you? God, you must open your eyes and see who is the bad guy. Everyone present, tell me what kind of person Teacher Lin is in normal times?"

Xu Yuting and Chen Shuifen left Old Mrs. Lin speechless.

In addition, everyone was speaking up for Lin Tao, especially the parents of the students, who wished they could drown out Old Lady Lin with their spit. They all spoke up for Lin Tao, accusing Old Lady Lin of being disrespectful and shameless.

Old Mrs. Lin simply continued to howl and lay on the ground pretending to be dead: "Oh, I can't take it anymore. Who are you? You bully an old lady like me. My health is not good to begin with, and you still make me angry. I won't live anymore..." Pointing at Chen Shuifen, "You made me faint with anger. Pay me money, pay me money!"

The people watching the excitement were speechless. This old lady was really annoying. She just lay on the ground without saying anything.

When Chen Shuifen saw this move, she was familiar with it. Her mother-in-law used to like to use this trick.

She simply lay on the ground: "Oh, I can't do it anymore. I was in poor health when I was young and almost died of illness. The doctor said I can't stand being bullied..."

Old Mrs. Lin was so angry that her face turned green. She acted for a long time but no one came to help her. She was hurt by the stones and just got up by herself with a shameless face.

Chen Shuifen snorted and got up. The key point was that when she lay down, she chose to lie on the grass, unlike Old Lady Lin who was in pain from being burned by stones.

Who doesn't know how to play this trick on her?!

This farce finally ended with the arrival of the Yang Ai Party.

Yang Ai Dang took Old Lady Lin back and asked her what happened. Old Lady Lin insisted that Lin Tao was unfilial. She knew her grandmother was coming but she didn't entertain her. She even locked the door and pretended she wasn't there.

Yang Aidang said, "Old lady, it seems that you don't like your granddaughter from the bottom of your heart."

Old Mrs. Lin muttered, "Who said that! Don't you like me coming all the way to see her? She is unfilial. As a leader, you should go and find trouble with her!"

Yang Aidang continued, "If you like this granddaughter, you wouldn't make such a fuss without knowing everything. I'm telling you clearly that Teacher Lin is not on the island. But your other granddaughter, Lin Hui, is here. I'll send her over to you."

After all, Yang Ai Dang had been doing organizational work for decades, and his stern face looked quite intimidating. No matter how fierce Old Lady Lin was, she was afraid of the team leader and others when she was in the countryside. Now seeing Yang Ai Dang like this, she felt a little scared.

Yang Ai Dang sent Old Lady Lin back to Shen Guobin's home and told Lin Hui: "Your grandma has come all the way here, you should treat her well. How can you let her mess around at her age? There are so many people here, what if she gets sick from anger? Lin Hui, I have educated you many times, you still need to make more progress."

"Director Yang, it's not that I don't care about my grandma. She stayed at my house last night. She didn't come here just to see me, her granddaughter. Isn't Lin Tao also on the island? Director Yang, why don't you send my grandma to her house? I know I made a lot of mistakes before, but you can't do this on purpose, Director Yang?" Lin Hui said.

After experiencing the previous few events, Lin Hui was no longer so impulsive in her words. She thought that what she said was quite reasonable and well-founded. She did not believe that Yang Ai Dang could still favor Lin Tao.

As a result, he was educated by Yang Ai Dang again because Lin Tao was not on the island.

I never thought that Lin Tao would actually leave the island. In the end, Lin Hui was criticized and Old Lady Lin was forced to stay with her.

Lin Hui didn't see the torture that Old Lady Lin had imagined for Lin Tao, but instead she was tortured quite a bit by Old Lady Lin.

Old Mrs. Lin also had a hot temper. When she was in Taohua Village, few people could scold her, and she never suffered a loss in an argument. She didn't expect to meet a rival this time, and with so many people speaking for Lin Tao, Old Mrs. Lin was completely defeated.

This is Shengshan Island, not Taohua Village. Lin Tao is a good person, and everyone here likes her. It's not like when they were in Taohua Village, when Old Lady Lin scolded Lin Tao, everyone would follow suit.

Old Lady Lin cursed and scolded Lin Tao for being a bad person. She was furious and when she saw Shen Jiayi eating peach cake, she scolded her for eating such a good thing. Shen Jiayi was no longer the timid girl she was two years ago. She told Old Lady Lin to get out of her house.

Old Mrs. Lin wanted to punish her: "You little girl, I can't punish you. This is my granddaughter's house, why can't I come? Your grandmother came to bully my granddaughter last time, so I'll punish you first."

There was another commotion at home. Shen Jiahao and Shen Jiayi teamed up to beat up Old Mrs. Lin, drove her out, and threw her luggage on the ground.

At night, Lin Hui had to persuade them hard before they agreed to let Old Mrs. Lin sleep at home for another night.

At night, when they went to bed, Shen Jiayi kept complaining that it was crowded and asked Old Lady Lin to go back quickly. As soon as Lin Hui said this, she started crying and made a scene all night. Lin Hui didn't sleep well for several nights, her face was pale, and she bought a boat ticket the next day and sent Old Lady Lin away.

Old Mrs. Lin stayed on the island for two days. On the first day, she waited at the door of Lin Tao's house for most of the day. Not only was she hungry and thirsty, but she even went to the wrong toilet. On the second day, she went to the door of Lin Tao's house to cause trouble, and was almost drowned by everyone's saliva.

On the third day, she had to ask Lin Hui to prepare more things for her. Lin Hui also prepared a bag for her to take with her as she wished. Old Mrs. Lin was old, and the way Lin Manman took when she came was very roundabout, so she couldn't remember the way at all, so Lin Hui personally sent her to the train.

Besides, after Old Lady Lin returned with a big bag, it was the gathering day. She got on the ox cart and boasted to others about her trip to the island. When others asked her about Lin Tao and Lin Hui, Old Lady Lin bared her teeth and scolded Lin Tao for being ungrateful. She also said that her granddaughter Lin Hui was very filial and had prepared so many good things for her.

Last time, Lin Hui got married, which made many people in the village laugh. This time, Old Lady Lin wanted to be proud of herself: "I will open your eyes and show you what good things there are."

When they opened the bundle, they found that it was filled with cheap goods such as salted fish and dried seaweed, and nothing valuable. The salted fish had a strong stench, and the people waiting to "open their eyes" on the oxcart covered their noses, with either contempt or schadenfreude on their faces.

Someone who was usually bullied by Old Lady Lin spoke up: "Third sister-in-law, this is the good stuff you were talking about? You're letting us open our eyes. Isn't this just dried salted fish and kelp? I thought there was something good, but this is it... I heard that Fang Min brought it back, it's really good stuff. Third sister-in-law, are you insulting us or yourself?"

"So much salted fish, sister-in-law, this is good, you can eat it for a year. My grandson-in-law is not as smart as you. Every time he comes back, he just cuts some meat for me, and it's finished in two days. He's not as good as you at managing life."

"How can it be the same? Your grandson-in-law is just a worker in a meat processing factory. He can only buy meat at a discounted price. What else can he give you if not meat? Can he also give you a bag of dried salted fish like my third sister-in-law's grandson-in-law?"

These people have all been ridiculed by Old Lady Lin. Although they don't say it openly, they have long hated Old Lady Lin in their hearts. This time, they will give her a good humiliation if they get the chance!

Old Mrs. Lin looked at the bundle of dried salted fish and dried kelp, her face turned green with anger, and she almost vomited blood. When she left, Lin Huike didn't tell her that the bundle was filled with these things!

She had been sitting on the train for days and nights, her old bones were almost falling apart, and she got these in return! These were prepared by her most beloved granddaughter Lin Hui!

As she was thinking, Old Mrs. Lin fainted before she could even catch her breath.

***************************************

But that's all for later. On the day that Old Lady Lin left the island, Xiao Ning called the guesthouse. Li Chengxi answered the phone and heard Xiao Ning say, "Captain, the mission was successfully completed. The enemy has been driven away."

Li Chengxi hung up the phone, returned to the room on the second floor, and told Lin Tao about it: "Xiaoning just called and said that grandma has returned to Xiangcheng."

Lin Tao was feeding Yueyue, leaning on her side, revealing half of her round breasts. When Li Chengxi saw this, his eyes darkened. Living outside, it was not convenient for him to touch Lin Tao, and he had been holding it in for several days.

"Then shall we go back later?" Yueyue had already fallen asleep, Lin Tao asked softly.

Li Chengxi shook his head: "Don't worry, the organization has granted me two days off this time, and today is just one day. When I went out this morning, I went to see my comrade-in-arms and got two tickets for the circus from him. I'll take you to see the circus later. Stay here for one more night and go back to the island tomorrow."

"Acrobatic troupe?" Lin Tao had never seen acrobatics before, but when she heard Li Chengxi talk about it, her eyes were filled with curiosity.

Li Chengxi smiled and said, "It's for the afternoon. When Yueyue wakes up, we'll go have lunch first, and then we'll go watch it."

The circus was on tour and would only stay in a city for about a week at a time. They were lucky enough to happen to meet the circus coming to the mountain city to perform.

Such internal tickets were hard to get, and basically only those with some connections in their families could get tickets. Li Chengxi's comrades got the best tickets, and many people could only stand at the back and watch, but they could sit in the front.

After watching the entire performance, Lin Tao and Yue Yue both had their eyes wide open and their mouths opened in astonishment.

Until she went out, Yueyue was still excitedly on Li Chengxi, waving her arms and legs, obviously very happy.

Lin Tao exclaimed: "This is so exciting. The person just now was clearly in the box, but he disappeared in an instant. And the tightrope walker is so amazing. It takes ten years of practice to get one minute on stage. They must have practiced a lot."

When I talk about these, the expression on my face is still full of aftertaste. The acrobatic performance is really wonderful, more interesting than watching a movie.

"That's a magic trick. I've seen it before. The secret lies in the box. There is a secret compartment in the box. The person inside goes out of the box through the secret compartment. The magician then opens the curtain, and naturally we can't see the person." Li Chengxi explained.

I chuckled at the second half of Lin Tao's sentence. This is Lin Tao. Others watch acrobatics just for fun. No one would think about the stories behind the performers, how much effort they have put in, and how much hardship they have endured.

But Lin Tao is different. She is a person who can easily empathize with others. She always thinks about problems from a deeper perspective than ordinary people. This is a very rare shining point in Lin Tao.

After watching the acrobatic performance, the family of three strolled around the street, had dinner, and then returned to the guesthouse. They had to go back to the island tomorrow, so Li Chengxi packed his luggage first to avoid being too busy tomorrow.

Yueyue was tired from playing today and fell asleep early.

Lin Tao was also tired, so she lay down on Yueyue's left side and soon fell asleep. Li Chengxi looked at his wife and daughter beside him. The days of having a wife and children and sleeping on the warm bed were really comforting.

The guesthouse was quite peaceful in the past two days, but unexpectedly it became noisy in the second half of the night today.