thought
During lunch, Xu Nian was called out by her eldest nephew.
At first she was struggling to decide whether to eat or not for the sake of her reputation, but she was hungry and the mental work she had done in the morning made it impossible for her to be proud.
When I got to the dinner table, I realized that no one realized I was sulking, which made me even more depressed.
Xu Nian told herself that filling her stomach was the most important thing, and the suggestion worked very well. Look, her hands were moving the rice so mechanically!
But Mrs. Xu and Mrs. Xu seemed to be against her. They wouldn't let her have a meal in peace, and they were so concerned about Xu Hongqi's well-being that Xu Nian suspected that they were possessed by other spirits.
She looked surprised, and Third Brother Xu saw through it clearly. After all, the two of them were the eldest and youngest in the family, and Father and Mother Xu were partial to them, which occasionally dissatisfied the two sisters-in-law.
But this time, he really felt that his two sisters-in-law were very supportive, so he said at the dinner table: "Hongqi, when your leg injury is healed, I will take you to meet more people in our village."
Xu Hongqi didn't think he could stay here for long. If he came again, his arrival might bring rumors to the family, so he whispered, "No, I'll go back after the wound heals."
When Xu Fengcheng heard him say this, he seemed to understand his concerns and said with a bit of credit: "Don't worry, are you afraid of people gossiping?"
Then he pointed at his two sisters-in-law and said with a smile: "My two sisters-in-law have explained everything to others this morning. Now if you go out, I guarantee that no one will dare to say anything bad about you."
Father and Mother Xu were very satisfied with their two daughters-in-law's work, so they nodded with a smile and said, "Hongqi, you can live here without any worries."
If Xu Hongqi said he was not moved, that would be a lie, but people's hearts are fickle, and who knows how long the current good things can last.
After dinner, everyone prepared to take a break so that they would have enough energy for the afternoon. Only Xu Fengcheng was not ready to sleep. He dropped his bowl and ran to Xu Nian's next door.
Xu Nian was slowly washing the dishes. Seeing him like this, he looked down on him and said, shaking his hands, "Brother, are you tired? If you're not tired, others will support you, but you're still tired. What will you do if you scare them away?"
Xu Fengcheng turned his leg as he was about to leave, walked over to Xu Nian and stretched out his hand to flick her head, "Brother, it's okay if I don't understand, but I can't think of anything else until this matter is resolved. I have to try my best to see if this works or not."
Xu Nian felt quite sad when he heard this. Nowadays, everyone dreams of having a job. Who would have thought that the job market would gradually decline after the 1990s, and that private and self-employed businesses would spring up like mushrooms after a rain and become the main force.
But that was the way it was in the seventies, so it was perfectly normal for his brother to have such thoughts. "Third brother, it's hard to tell Mom and Dad now."
Xu Fengcheng was also worried. "That's right. If we bring up buying a job now, what will people think? I'm afraid my parents will beat me up too."
The two siblings each had their own worries, and Xu Hongqi, who was lying on the bed, naturally had no idea. Looking back now, he felt that he was too harsh on Xu Nian. He flipped through the textbooks and found that Xu Nian had already learned well. After all, he had not even started junior high school yet!
He was not a person who liked to interact with others, but he would not get angry with a little girl. He just remembered that he saw Xu Nian eating a popsicle happily last time, and thought that if he heard someone shouting in the afternoon, he would buy her one.
After all, he did take advantage of the Xu family a lot. Take food, for example. Every household watched it very closely, but in the Xu family, he would be served a second bowl as soon as he finished the first one.
Xu Fengcheng had a heart-to-heart talk with his sister, and his anxiety subsided a lot. However, he still went to Xu Hongqi's room to chat for a while. "Hongqi, are you hot? I have a new fan in my room. I'll give it to you later."
Xu Hongqi always felt that Xu Fengcheng was too enthusiastic towards him, a bit like how Xu Nian was when they first met him, but there was really nothing about him that could attract anyone's attention.
He said to the person, "It's okay. I don't move much, so it's not too hot."
Seeing someone talking to him, Xu Fengcheng became more active. "If you have anything to say, just tell me. Don't be polite. You and Feng Kai are the same. You are both my younger brother."
The words were heartwarming. Xu Hongqi had just wanted to buy a popsicle for himself, but Xu Nian might not want it, so he might as well give the money to his brother and let him buy it for Xu Nian.
When Xu Fengcheng heard this, he thought that Xu Hongqi wanted to eat it. He was currently asking for help from someone and had ulterior motives, so he naturally didn't say anything and was ready to run out to buy it without asking for money.
But it didn't work, and Xu Hongqi still stuffed the money into his hand.
After the others took the money away, Xu Hongqi looked at the remaining money with a gloomy expression. He didn't have much money, but it was "precious" and he usually carried it with him.
It is difficult for people who don’t know what lies ahead to cheer up, so gloom becomes their normal state.
He would be able to collect his report card in a few days, but he twitched the corners of his mouth in self-mockery. Whether he could go or not seemed to be a foregone conclusion now...
Xu Fengcheng walked around the village in the middle of the day, sweating all over his forehead. He remembered that the peddlers had been coming quite frequently recently. After all, his village was relatively wealthy, so naturally they sold a lot of things. However, the peddlers' coming times were not fixed, depending on where they came.
Xu Fengcheng looked for a while but still couldn't find it, so he had to go back.
He was too embarrassed to go see Xu Hongqi, so he found Xu Nian and stuffed the money into his sister's pocket. "Hongqi's money is probably too hot. He wanted to buy a popsicle, but I couldn't find any. I have to go to work this afternoon. Remember to buy it for him."
Xu Nian had been lying on the bed, almost falling asleep, when his brother's whisper woke him up. He felt unhappy and couldn't help but pout and say, "I'm not going."
Xu Fengcheng had a way of dealing with his sister. He knew that waking her up at this critical moment would be annoying, so he whispered, "I'll give you ten cents, and you can buy her a milk ice cream later." He said with a look of pain on his face.
But Xu Nian was satisfied. She calculated that she could eat two more popsicles. Her unhappiness immediately disappeared, and she stretched out her little white hand towards her brother.
Xu Fengcheng patted her hand, but still reluctantly put the money in his sister's palm, fearing that he would regret it after seeing it. After giving the money, he left quickly.
Xu Nian took a nap in the afternoon. Because she was thinking about what her third brother had told her, she focused her attention outside, listening to whether there was any hawking sounds.
She didn't want to pay any attention to Xu Hongqi anymore, and her face was still stern!
But he didn't care. His injured right hand made it inconvenient to hold the pen, so he used his left hand and did it very well.
Xu Nianxiang thought, apart from anything else, just this attitude towards learning, no wonder her cousin, who is praised by everyone, admires her so much.
She didn't know what was wrong with her. Logically, getting close to the warm Xu Hongqi was what she should do now, but sometimes it was strange. She would feel sad when she saw Xu Hongqi injured, and would want to help him fight back when she saw someone bullying him.
Even when I see him feeling lonely sometimes, I want to cheer him up, but I can't help wanting to have the upper hand over him, and I feel like I'm getting worse and worse.
She was thinking about all sorts of things here, and Xu Hongqi saw that he really didn't understand. After he was seven years old, his only thought in life was to have enough food to eat and go to school, and the only person he had close contact with was Qi Meiyue.
Meiyue is not like Xu Nian who has endless things to say every day and acts like a spoiled child anytime and anywhere. When they are together, it is more like they reminisce about the past and keep each other warm.
When he grew up, he mostly helped Qi Meiyue drive away the hooligans who harassed and bullied her.
Just as he was thinking about it, he saw Xu Nian stand up and run out. He didn't want to care about her too much now, so as not to get more emotional. He really had no experience in dealing with her.
Xu Nian went out to see, and sure enough, he saw the peddler pushing his bicycle over. He hurriedly called out, "Uncle, give me two red bean popsicles."
When people saw her, they smiled and said, "It's you again. It seems that the girl's family is well-off."
Xu Nian was greedy and didn't know what to say, so she just played dumb and said, "I bought this for someone else, I have to hurry, they're still waiting."
When Xu Nian returned home with a popsicle in one hand, he pretended to be cool when he entered Xu Hongqi's house and said, "Here, my third brother asked me to give it to you."
Xu Hongqi asked curiously, "Is it for me?"
Xu Nian felt his hands were a little cold, but he was eager to eat his portion, so he said, "Yes, I bought this specifically for you. Please take it quickly, my hands are cold."
Xu Hongqi took it reluctantly and said to Xu Nian, "He might have misunderstood. I'm not buying it for me, I'm buying it for you."
Xu Nian was surprised to hear this, "Ah, you actually bought it for me?"
She was thinking about her brother, that big idiot who didn't even understand what the employer meant.
But in front of Xu Hongqi, he still said: "My brother likes you, so he only thinks about you, that's why he misunderstood."
"But why did you buy it for me?" Xu Nian knew that he was... poor!
Xu Hongqi rubbed the wound on his right hand. "Isn't someone sulking? I was afraid of offending her, so I apologized."
Xu Nianshi had never expected to hear such words from Xu Hongqi, so he mumbled, "Who's sulking?"
After she finished speaking, she saw Xu Hongqi looking up at her and chuckling. Xu Nian felt embarrassed but had to save face, so she covered it up by saying, "Eat quickly, it will all melt in an instant. After you finish eating, I'll take a look at the question you told me this morning."
Xu Hongqi paused for a moment while peeling the popsicle bag. It seemed that she had not paid any attention to him while sitting at the table in the afternoon. She was just sulking. He took a bite of the popsicle and felt the coolness spread throughout his body. He thought that fortunately she was still easy to coax.
Xu Nian watched TV dramas of the period and saw children licking popsicles, which seemed to be very delicious. She was adopted into a wealthy family and there were etiquettes for eating. Now she wanted to try it when she was a child again.
It's not bad to eat while licking the food, and it can also kill time, which makes me feel happy.
In the afternoon, Xu Hongqi adjusted the teaching plan, and Xu Nian finally felt that it was not so difficult, and the two reconciled.
In the middle, Xu Fengkai came to Xu Hongqi to ask about the situation, and Xu Nian took the opportunity to be lazy again. Xu Hongqi glanced at him and pretended not to see it.
When Xu Nian's mood improved, he stopped pretending to be mute during dinner and ate more with his nephews, nieces and Xu Hongqi. He spoke sweetly as if he had been smeared with honey, making the Xu family smile happily.
After dinner, there was nothing to do, so everyone went to the yard to enjoy the cool air. Only Xu Fengcheng was a little hesitant in front of Xu's father and mother, as if he wanted to say something but was holding it back.
Seeing this, Xu's father got angry and said, "You are a man, not a girl. If you want to say something, just say it. If you don't want to say anything, go away."
After hearing this, Xu Fengcheng felt worried and annoyed. He saw Xu Hongqi going to the toilet and quickly got up to support him, leaving the rest of the people confused.
That night, Xu's mother said to Xu's father, "There's definitely something fishy going on with that third kid. He hasn't been like himself these past few days. When you get back, you should ask him what's going on. Don't make any mistakes."
However, before the couple could ask, they heard noises coming from the door in the middle of the night when they were sleeping soundly. They both woke up in a daze.
Finally, Father Xu wiped his face and frowned, saying, "Come in."
"Mom and Dad, are you asleep?" Xu Fengcheng asked cautiously?
Xu's parents were helpless. "Tell me, what's going on?"
Xu Fengcheng didn't want to come at this time, but he couldn't fall asleep after tossing and turning in bed. He impulsively came to find his parents. He didn't dare to tell his father about this, so he could only face his mother and say worriedly, "Mom, I can't sleep."
Being a mother, it’s natural for her to be soft-hearted. She thinks something serious has happened to her child, so she doesn’t dare to make a fuss. “What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you sleep?”
Father Xu couldn't bear to see him like that. "You can't sleep or you're not tired during the day. You do less work, but you only get six centimeters. If it were me, I wouldn't be able to sleep either."
Xu's mother patted her husband and said to her son, "Then tell me what's bothering you?"
Xu Fengcheng had been brewing this idea for a few days, and finally said, "I don't want to go to work. I want to work in the county."
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