Chapter 13 Xie Zhongming protects Qiao Xingyue at the Xie family home
Qiao Xingyue heard someone calling her.
She didn't stop kneading the dough, but turned her head to look back. "Comrade Xie?"
The morning mist had not yet dissipated.
A fire was burning in the stove.
The chill of the air still drifted in through the window in wisps.
Comrade Xie, who was standing at the kitchen door, was wearing a grass-green short-sleeved shirt.
Early in the morning, he was drenched in sweat, his wet clothes clinging to his body, highlighting the firm muscles in his chest and abdomen.
Did this man go for his morning exercise before dawn?
Those soldiers really are physically strong!
Last night he got up in the middle of the night to empty the old lady's bedpan and then went to the washroom to clean up. How come he can still get up so early today?
Qiao Xingyue asked with concern, "Comrade Xie, has your wound healed? You're already doing morning exercises so soon?"
Xie Zhongming nodded, his eyelids remaining still, but his back was tense. "Much better."
By now, it should have been several days since the stitches were removed from his genitals, and Qiao Xingyue estimated that he should have recovered by now.
Xie Zhongming, standing at the kitchen door, still didn't look up; his gaze was fixed elsewhere.
A fire was burning in the stove, and porridge was boiling in a large iron pot. A steamer was set up on the honeycomb briquette stove next to it, ready to steam buns. Several more nails were added to the cement wall, with spatulas, spoons, dishcloths, and steamer racks hanging on them. Two wooden shelves were also added to the wall, neatly arranged with oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. Qiao Xingyue had reorganized the kitchen layout, making it clean and tidy.
Xie Zhongming thought of her clean white cotton underwear, and his earlobes flushed slightly. "Comrade Qiao, your clothes fell on the ground and were blown outside by the wind. Go and pick them up."
Qiao Xingyue had finished kneading the dough in her hands.
She straightened up and looked at him.
If the clothes were blown away, he could have just picked them up for her; it was a simple matter. Why did he have to come all the way to call her?
Despite her doubts, Qiao Xingyue simply said, "Okay, I'll go as soon as I'm done with my work."
Xie Zhongming's ears were getting hotter and hotter. "If you go now, it won't be good if people see you coming and going."
With that, Xie Zhongming turned and left.
Qiao Xingyue then walked out of the kitchen, passed through the main room and the small courtyard in front of the building, and came to the outside of the courtyard.
Her white cotton underwear hung on a short blade of grass beside the red brick wall outside the courtyard.
That location was right next to the Xie family's main gate, and it was very conspicuous.
People coming and going will surely see it.
No wonder Xie Zhongming told her to pick it up herself; it turned out that the clothes he was referring to were his underwear. Thinking about how his ears were burning just now, Qiao Xingyue found this tough and resolute man rather adorable. He also had a strong sense of boundaries when it came to relationships between men and women.
She picked up the underwear, washed it again, and hung it on the bamboo pole to dry.
...
The next day at midday.
In front of the Xie family's two-story house, An'an and Ningning were playing marbles on the muddy ground.
In a nearby vegetable patch, Qiao Xingyue was turning over the soil. She buried the fruit peels and rotten leaves she usually collected underneath, mixed with withered branches, leaves, and wood ash. She turned the soil over again and then covered it with another layer of soil.
"Aunt Lan, in a few days, I will transplant all the cucumber, green bean, eggplant and loofah seedlings I just grew into this open space. Then we will build trellises and have an endless supply of fruits and vegetables in the summer."
Huang Guilan had never farmed; she grew up in a wealthy family that combined intellectuals and businesspeople.
Her maternal grandfather was a mathematician.
My mother is an optics expert.
My eldest brother participated in the Two Bombs, One Satellite project; my second brother is a renowned geologist; and my third brother is a senior scientist in the rubber technology field who led his team in years of research and preparation, breaking the imperialist blockade of rubber production in China.
My father's side has been in business for generations. My grandfather was the "Match King," whose business covered multiple fields such as matches, cement, textiles, and coal mining. Later, in response to the national policy of joint public-private ownership, all the enterprises were transformed into state-owned enterprises and collectively owned enterprises.
Huang Guilan was the only girl in her family and was pampered since childhood. After marrying Commander Xie, she was always spoiled by him. She had never done farm work before.
Before Qiao Xingyue came, she would only grow scallions and garlic in the vegetable garden in the yard, and they didn't grow very well.
Seeing that Qiao Xingyue was very good at farming, Huang Guilan looked at her with admiration.
"Xingyue, you are so capable! You can cook, practice traditional Chinese medicine, perform surgery, and even farm. Just how many other things do you know that Aunt Lan doesn't know?"
"..." Qiao Xingyue couldn't answer.
Just then, the double wooden doors in front of the courtyard were pushed open, and someone carrying a leather suitcase walked in. It was a woman and a young woman. Both of them had standard oval faces, and their skin was not very fair, but their features were delicate. They looked like a mother and daughter.
Huang Guilan looked up and asked, "Chunyan, Yingying, what brings you here?"
"What's wrong? Aren't you welcoming us?" The speaker was Jiang Chunyan.
Jiang Chunyan and Huang Guilan grew up together, and Jiang Chunyan married Lao Deng, Xie Jiang's old comrade-in-arms, which brought the two families even closer.
However, Huang Guilan didn't seem particularly pleased with the arrival of Jiang Chunyan and her daughter. On the contrary, a look of worry appeared on Huang Guilan's face. "Chunyan, what's wrong?"
"I've come to seek refuge with you. I'm so thirsty, let me go inside and have a drink of water first." Jiang Chunyan carried the artificial leather suitcase and entered the main room.
The young woman who remained smiled politely at Huang Guilan and said, "Aunt Lan, it's been a long time! How have you been?"
Huang Guilan nodded. "Everything is fine. Yingying, you've grown even more beautiful in the two years since I last saw you. Come inside with your mother and have some water."
"Okay!"
The young woman's name was Deng Yingying. Before entering the main room, she glanced at Qiao Xingyue, who was carrying a hoe, and asked, "Aunt Lan, who is this lady?"
Could it be that Zhongming's wife from the countryside has been brought to the compound?
I'd only heard that Brother Zhongming married a country girl, but I didn't know what she looked like. How come this woman is so beautiful and eye-catching! Her skin is so fair it practically glows! Deng Yingying herself is a bit dark-skinned and has always envied those fair-skinned, eye-catching women. Feeling inferior in comparison, she felt quite bitter.
Huang Guilan introduced with a smile, "This is Comrade Qiao, Qiao Xingyue, whom Aunt Lan invited to help cook and take care of the old lady. From now on, you can call her Sister Xingyue. She's probably done it. The two kids over there are named An'an and Ningning. They are your Sister Xingyue's twin daughters."
oh!
She turned out to be a nanny, and she also had two children.
Deng Yingying immediately stopped feeling jealous. Being a nanny didn't pose any threat to her; at most, she could only cook and do laundry.
Deng Yingying had heard that Xie Zhongming was going to divorce his wife from the countryside, so she and her mother Jiang Chunyan came to Xie's house specifically for that purpose.
She greeted them with a smile, "Hello, Sister Xingyue!"
Qiao Xingyue nodded, "Hello!"
When Deng Yingying entered the main room carrying her leather suitcase, Huang Guilan let out a long sigh, "Sigh!"
Qiao Xingyue asked with concern, "What's wrong, Aunt Lan?"
"These two, mother and daughter, are not easy to deal with. I don't know how long they'll stay at our house this time," Huang Guilan said with a headache.
Qiao Xingyue tried asking, "It seems that Aunt Lan isn't very welcoming to them?"
Huang Guilan sighed again and said:
"Chunyan's first husband was your Uncle Xie's comrade-in-arms. Old Deng sacrificed himself to save your Uncle Xie. That's why Chunyan remarried. More than 20 years have passed, and she has used this incident to ask our family to do a lot of things for her. We arranged jobs for several members of her family, and she has brought her family to our house time and time again to ask for money, help, and even help her current husband... all sorts of things."
“If I refuse even slightly, she cries and shouts that our family is ungrateful and that it is our fault. She even wanted to marry Yingying to our fourth son, but he didn’t agree.”
"They've come to stay with us this time, but who knows what kind of trouble they'll cause this time. Sigh!"
Qiao Xingyue understood; in their later generations, this would be called moral blackmail.
However, the concept of moral blackmail didn't exist in the 1970s.
This era advocates mutual help and assistance.
Jiang Chunyan's first husband sacrificed himself to save Commander Xie, so she could indeed use this incident to morally blackmail the Xie family. However, Aunt Lan is beautiful, kind-hearted, soft-hearted, and an intellectual. If she were to deal with Jiang Chunyan, a white lotus who likes to use moral blackmail, Aunt Lan might really be at a loss.
"Xingyue, what kidnapping?"
"Moral blackmail".
What is moral blackmail?
"It's about standing on the moral high ground and forcing others to do things against their will. Simply put, if someone's family has been kind to you and you don't help them, they'll say you're ungrateful, even though you haven't done anything wrong."
Huang Guilan had never dared to mention this matter to anyone before. Even she herself felt that Chunyan's first man, Xie Jiang, had been kind to her and she should help him. However, after helping for more than 20 years, Jiang Chunyan still felt it wasn't enough and kept demanding more and more, which made Huang Guilan feel very aggrieved.
Huang Guilan suddenly confided these pent-up feelings to Qiao Xingyue, and her chest immediately felt much better.
For some reason, Huang Guilan trusted Qiao Xingyue a lot.
Moreover, Qiao Xingyue had just said that she was right, which made her feel like she had found a kindred spirit, and she felt a surge of relief. "Xingyue, you also think Aunt Lan is right, right?"
“Aunt Lan, of course you’re not wrong. What she’s doing is taking advantage of your kindness. It’s alright. If she tries to morally blackmail you, I’ll help you deal with her.”
Huang Guilan held Qiao Xingyue's muddy hand, her eyes filled with tears of relief, "Xingyue, I knew you could understand Aunt Lan's suffering."
"Aunt Lan, if you have anything on your mind in the future, just tell me. Even if I can't help you, I can at least cheer you up."
"good!"
Huang Guilan only blames herself for not being lucky enough to let her son marry such a good daughter-in-law.
However, she can treat Xingyue as her own daughter and An'an and Ningning as her own granddaughters.
evening.
The courtyard was dyed golden by the blood-red sunset.
Qiao Xingyue was cooking dinner in the kitchen, An An was playing in the yard, Huang Guilan was taking down the clothes drying on the bamboo pole, and Jiang Chunyan was sitting on a small bamboo stool in the yard, leisurely playing chess.
Sunflower seed shells were scattered all over the ground.
Huang Guilan, carrying clothes, passed by Jiang Chunyan and said, "Chunyan, it's hard to clean up these sunflower seed shells on the muddy ground. Why don't you spit them into the dustpan?"
As he spoke, he casually handed the winnowing basket to Jiang Chunyan.
Jiang Chunyan spat the sunflower seed shells from her mouth onto the ground. "What are you afraid of? Didn't you hire a nanny? Just let that nanny do these things. You've paid her, so even if the floor is hard to sweep, she wouldn't dare not sweep it clean."
As she spoke, Jiang Chunyan stared at An An and Ning Ning, who were playing marbles in the yard, and called out, "Hey, the nanny's two kids, come over here and sweep up the sunflower seed shells."
Then, looking at Huang Guilan, he added, "Guilan, that nanny is eating and drinking at your house, and she even brought two kids here to eat and drink for free. You need to make her do more work. These two kids also need to work, otherwise your family will suffer. Two kids, two mouths to feed, how much food do they need?"
Jiang Chunyan is the one who's eating and drinking for free.
But Huang Guilan, being soft-hearted, was afraid of offending people, so she couldn't bring herself to say it.
But when An An, Ning Ning, and Qiao Xingyue were mentioned, Huang Guilan's face darkened, and she couldn't bring herself to speak again. She also corrected him unhappily:
"How much can two kids eat? Our family is willing to take it."
"Besides, Xingyue works hard too, we can't let her do everything."
"If you don't want to spit the sunflower seed shells into the winnowing basket, then don't bother cracking them open. It'll save me the trouble of cleaning them up later."
As she spoke, Huang Guilan took all the roasted melon seeds from the glass jar on the chair.
Jiang Chunyan behind her chuckled: "Has Huang Guilan lost her mind today? Why is she preventing a nanny from eating sunflower seeds?"
A few minutes later, Xie Jiang and Xie Zhongming returned one after the other.
When Jiang Chunyan and her daughter Deng Yingying came to their house, both father and son knew that it was definitely not a good thing. However, Deng had saved Xie Jiang's life, and Xie Jiang always remembered this kindness. Therefore, he would agree to any unreasonable request the mother and daughter made.
Xie Zhongming disliked the mother and daughter to begin with. After greeting them with a cold face, he saw Qiao Xingyue cooking in the kitchen and walked straight towards it.
"Brother Zhongming, where are you going?" Deng Yingying hadn't even had a chance to speak to him yet.
Xie Zhongming's voice was as cold as ice, "Go help in the kitchen."
Deng Yingying stayed where she was, feeling a pang of jealousy: Why did Zhongming have to help that nanny?
In the main room, Jiang Chunyan sat on a long bench and said disdainfully, "Guilan, your husband is a division commander now, but you can't bear to buy a leather sofa. These benches are quite old, aren't they? I've seen you using these old furniture for twenty years. You should just replace them."
Xie Jiang didn't want to listen to Jiang Chunyan's nagging, so he took his enamel mug and went to the kitchen.
Seeing this, Jiang Chunyan whispered in Huang Guilan's ear, "Guilan, as soon as Commander Xie and Zhongming got home, they went straight to that nanny. Could it be that this nanny has bewitched the father and son? You have to be careful of this nanny, she might be a vixen who seduces men."
Huang Guilan is beautiful and kind-hearted, and even when she's angry, her voice is gentle. "Don't talk nonsense. Xingyue is of good character and kind. If you say anything more, I'll really get angry!"
"Hey! I'm doing this for your own good. She's just a nanny, why are you always defending her?"
"What's wrong with a nanny? Nannies deserve respect too."
“Huang Guilan, you… never mind. I won’t argue with you, let’s get down to business. I’m divorced from Lao Zhao, Yingying is coming back to high school, and she’ll be living at your house from now on.”
"What? You divorced Lao Zhao? Weren't you doing just fine?"
Deng Yingying's father, Lao Deng, was a platoon leader under Xie Jiang. When Lao Deng died, Xie Jiang was only a regimental commander. Less than half a year after Lao Deng's death, Jiang Chunyan remarried Lao Zhao. At the time, everyone thought that Jiang Chunyan was too impatient, but she said that since her husband had died, there was nothing shameful about remarrying. She couldn't stay a widow for the rest of her life for a dead man.
Jiang Chunyan said directly, "If Lao Zhao is to be sent to the countryside for reform, Yingying and I will have to go to the countryside with him even if we don't get a divorce. It's better for me to come back and be a martyr's widow. Guilan, why don't you recommend Yingying to Yingcai High School again?"
Deng Yingying is twenty years old this year. She was recommended to Yingcai High School by Huang Guilan, but for some reason she didn't go there later.
These are all minor issues. The key problem is that Jiang Chunyan and Deng Yingying will be living in their house for an extended period... This will cause them a lot of headaches in the future.
"What, Guilan? My husband sacrificed himself to save your Commander Xie. Otherwise, I wouldn't have remarried with Yingying. You won't even help with this little thing?"
Xie Jiang and Xie Zhongming were still in the kitchen when they heard what Jiang Chunyan said.
Qiao Xingyue heard it too.
This Jiang Chunyan is truly an extraordinary old green tea.
Xie Zhongming carried the two dishes that Qiao Xingyue had cooked to the table.
“Aunt Jiang, we can recommend Deng Yingying for high school. But it’s too crowded in our house. You are also families of martyrs. I will apply to the higher authorities to arrange housing for you. You and Deng Yingying should be able to have a single room.”
“That won’t do. In the compound, you have to use the outhouse to relieve yourself in the single dormitory room, and you have to go to the water room to shower and wash clothes. The kitchen is also shared. How can we live there? Your dad has a study, right? Make it available, and Yingying and I will just have to make do with living in the study.”
Moreover, living at the Xie family's house is very convenient.
She can eat and drink for free here, and the Xie family even has a maid to do her bidding. What a great thing!
Xie Zhongming said firmly, "No. The study is already occupied by Comrade Qiao and An'an and Ningning."
Jiang Chunyan was stunned when she heard this. "What? You're giving a room to a maid? She's your servant, she can just sleep on a mat in the main room. Make her vacate her room right now."
Xie Zhongming then said decisively, "..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com