As the old saying goes, the happiest and most proud moment in life is the wedding night.
Yan Li never thought that his wedding night would be spent sitting on the bed and watching his wife count red envelopes.
The room on the east side of the main house is the couple's new home. It has a simple wooden bed and the same style cabinets and tables. Lin Minjun is sitting in front of the table, taking out the red envelope and counting the money.
It's not that she loves money so much that she forgot that today is her wedding day, but because she has to keep a record of all the money so that she can repay the favor in the future.
So she counted out each red envelope, looked at the piece of paper that gave the favor, and then wrote it down in her own favor book.
After counting for a while, I felt someone standing next to me.
Yan Li said, "Ah Jun, stop counting and go to sleep."
Lin Minjun looked up at him, and seeing that he was avoiding her gaze, she immediately understood what he meant.
Lin Minjun thought Yan Li looked funny like this. He had never had this kind of expression before. He looked like a puppy asking for a pat on the head.
She deliberately counted the red envelopes and said, "But I haven't finished counting these yet. Who knows what will happen tomorrow morning? It's better to finish counting them early and write them down."
"I'll get up early tomorrow morning and help you count," Yan Li said.
Lin Minjun: "But these money still need to be settled. It depends on whether it is a favor from your side or a favor from my side."
Yan Li was actually a little drunk, his head was dizzy, and his breath smelled faintly of alcohol.
"Don't remember this. I'll give you all mine and you can settle the bill together," he said.
After saying that, he pinched Lin Minjun's little finger.
Lin Minjun was originally very shy, but after seeing him like this, she suddenly wasn't shy anymore.
She put her wallet down, walked over, closed the doors and windows, drew the curtains, and locked them. She pulled Yan Li to the bed and said, "You go to bed first."
She sat down in front of the dressing table and took off her jewelry one by one. She poured water into the basin and washed off her powder.
While wiping the water droplets off her face, she glanced at Yan Li in the mirror and said innocently, "You were supposed to go to bed, so why aren't you sleeping yet?"
By this time she had finished wiping her face. Her skin looked whiter and more translucent after removing her makeup. She took off her earrings in front of the mirror, looking at Yan Li in the mirror with innocent eyes.
Just after taking off the earrings, I suddenly saw Yan Li stand up and walk towards me.
Then, he pulled her over.
The two of them fell on the bed at the same time. Before Lin Minjun could react, Yan Li came over and held her down. He leaned over and kissed her, first tentatively, and soon pried open her lips and teeth.
Gradually, Lin Minjun felt that this was not like a kiss, but more like chewing.
She laughed and said in a coquettish voice, "What are you doing? Don't you want to go to sleep?"
"No." Yan Li was drunk and said slowly, "Sleep with you."
The tailor-made red dress was taken off and kicked to the head of the bed, and soon Lin Minjun began to shudder.
"Wait, wait." Lin Minjun clenched her fists nervously and pushed him subconsciously.
It was a good push, but I suddenly felt a sharp pain for some reason.
Before Lin Minjun could even scream, Yan Lixian started to panic. He froze for a moment, then immediately stood up and said, "I'll go get something."
"What to take?" Lin Minjun said confusedly.
"Condoms." His voice sounded particularly urgent. "I got them from the hospital earlier. The doctor said I had to wear them throughout the procedure."
"But I can't have children, so I don't need to take care of them." Lin Minjun reminded aggrievedly.
Yan Li finally reacted, turned around and went back to bed. He asked, "Does it hurt?"
“It hurt a lot at first, but now it’s okay.”
"Does it still hurt now?"
"That's it. It doesn't hurt too much—"
He was knocked out of tune before he could finish his words.
After a while, the goose bumps that had just disappeared appeared again.
****
On the first morning after her marriage, when Lin Minjun opened her eyes, it was already completely bright. The beige curtains were drawn tightly, and sunlight shone through the seams of the curtains. In that beam of sunlight, one could see dust floating up.
Lin Minjun opened her eyes with great effort and muttered something, only then she realized that it was cold and there was no one around her.
She got up in a daze, got off the bed, and sat down again after a moment of uncertainty. "Brother? Brother?"
Yan Li left so early? No, that's not right. Although he had to go to work today, his boss allowed him to be late for a while.
After a while, the door was opened and Yan Li walked in. He asked, "Are you up?"
"Where did you go just now? The quilt was cold when I woke up." Lin Minjun's voice contained a sense of grievance that she herself was not aware of. It sounded more like a coquettish act than a complaint.
She hadn't worn any clothes last night, and now she just put on a piece of clothing casually. When the door opened, the cool breeze blew in. She couldn't help shivering and quickly got back into bed.
After thinking for a while, he simply lay down on the bed, "Where have you been?"
Yan Li looked at her childish look and smiled: "I'm making breakfast. I cooked fried eggs, rice porridge, and bought fried dough sticks. What do you want to eat?"
"I don't want to get up for the moment. I'm so tired." She rolled up the quilt on the bed and curled up in it.
Yan Li had no choice but to remind her, so he went forward and peeled off the quilt layer by layer, and took out his newlywed wife from inside. Her cheeks were red and her body was covered with a thin layer of sweat.
"Don't you have anything else to do today?"
"What happened?" Lin Minjun couldn't remember anything at all.
Yan Li suggested: "The wine shop."
Lin Minjun got up with a grumble, "Oh, right, the restaurant still has to be open today, I have to hurry up, there are still many things to do today."
According to custom, the first day of the wedding should be the day for the groom to accompany the bride to her parents' home. However, Lin Minjun did not have a parents' home, so she skipped this process and decided to use this time to make money.
Lin Minjun did not wear the red dress from yesterday. Instead, she put on the sweater and jeans she bought with the coat, paired with leather boots, and then put the coat on the outside. It looked very good.
After getting dressed in bed, she got out of bed, took a step outside, and suddenly stopped.
Lin Minjun felt the muscles on the inside of her thighs hurt so much, as if she had been doing splits all night. Then her knees started to hurt too, and she staggered and almost fell.
Fortunately, Yan Li held him up, otherwise he would have fallen and got bruised and battered.
The moment she stood firm, Lin Minjun turned around and pinched Yan Li, "It's all your fault! Last night I said no, no, you agreed, but then you came over right away!"
Yan Li's earlobes turned red. He was eager to learn. "Then I'll go back and look at the book to see if there's anything I can do to make you feel better."
Lin Minjun was stunned: "There is a book that talks about this? What book do you want to read?"
Could it be pornographic books? Does he also read pornographic books?
Yan Li patted her head gently and said, "What are you thinking about? Look through the medical books my mother left behind to see if there is any medicine that can make your knees and thighs feel better."
He cast a suspicious look at Lin Minjun's face, "What kind of book do you think it is?"
Lin Minjun looked up at the ceiling and pretended to be stupid: "I thought it was a medical book, too. Please don't think of me as such a bad person, okay?"
She looked at the ceiling, then at Yan Li, and suddenly couldn't help but burst out laughing.
After getting married and experiencing the joy of love together, the feeling is completely different.
Lin Minjun herself felt her face turn red, and she took Yan Li's hand and walked out, "Let's not talk about this, let's go out and eat, I'm starving, I want a fried egg, rice porridge, and fried dough sticks, give them a try."
When I eat breakfast, the rice is still steaming hot, and after eating it, my body also warms up.
After breakfast, it was time for Yan Li to go to work, and Lin Minjun also rode out.
She had to buy raw materials first, riding her bicycle to the vegetable market in the cold wind.
From setting up a stall to opening a shop, and then to opening a restaurant, this is how Lin Minjun has come.
He used to ride a tricycle, but now the tricycle is given to Aunt Cao, and she follows behind on a bicycle.
The purchasing work can actually be handed over to other people, or someone can be hired specifically to do purchasing, but Lin Minjun has always done it herself.
Because she knows that this kind of work cannot be outsourced to others. If you hand it over to others, within three months, you will find that the procurement costs are getting higher and higher.
Lin Minjun bought a lot more vegetables today, and also ordered more chicken and fish. She guessed that after yesterday's hustle and bustle, the store's business should be very good today.
When we arrived at the store, Aunt Xu had already arrived. They went to the kitchen first to prepare the dishes, washing what needed to be washed and blanching what needed to be blanched. After all the raw materials were processed, it was just time for lunch.
The restaurant's business was indeed good today. As soon as the door opened, a customer came in and asked, "Did your boss get married yesterday? He said there's a discount for dinner today."
"Yes, there will be a discount on meals today." Aunt Xu immediately brought the menu.
When the customer heard there was a discount, he took the menu without hesitation.
Not long after the lunch stall opened, the store was already full. Lin Minjun was busy in the kitchen. Getting married was tiring enough, and now she had to stand in the kitchen and cook. She was so tired that she wanted to quit, but after thinking about it, she persevered.
While I was busy, Aunt Xu came in. She was in charge of entertaining guests outside and usually only took dishes from the window and did not go into the kitchen.
Seeing her walk in, Lin Minjun asked, "What's wrong? Did something happen outside?"
"Nothing happened." Aunt Xu smiled and said, "Didn't you say before that you wanted to hire a chef? Now there are people from Yunnan in the store, a man and a woman. I heard them talking while ordering food, and they sounded like they were chefs."
Aunt Xu finally had an idea and continued, "I thought we could ask them if they are willing to work in the restaurant. If they are not willing, they are chefs and they must know a few colleagues in the same field. If they ask each other, there will definitely be one who is willing. What do you think?"
Lin Minjun's eyes lit up, and she originally wanted to go out and ask herself, but the customer's dishes were not ready yet.
Then he asked Aunt Xu, "Do you have time to talk to them?"
Aunt Xu spread her hands and said, "There are other guests waiting to order their dishes."
Lin Minjun thought for a moment, called Aunt Cao out from the kitchen, and said, "Don't wash the dishes for now. Go to the front to help entertain the guests. There is a table of guests from Yunnan. Go and get close to them, ask for their contact information, and find out what they do."
At that time, there was no such thing as paid slacking off, but Aunt Cao loved chatting with people the most in her life, so she went out happily after hearing this.
Lin Minjun was busy in the kitchen and did not see what was happening in front of her, but she felt that with Aunt Cao's chatting skills, it was not a problem for her to ask these questions.
She once saw with her own eyes that Aunt Cao asked about a young man's entire family history in order to find a matchmaker for him.
After a while, Aunt Cao didn't come back, and Aunt Xu came in. She came to serve the dishes. She even came around with the plates to tell Lin Minjun, "Wu Xiuhua is unreliable!" Wu Xiuhua is Aunt Cao.
In the past, Aunt Xu and Aunt Cao did not get along with each other and looked down on each other. However, since Aunt Cao went to jail, their relationship has eased a lot.
Now that they work together in a restaurant and go to and from get off work together, their relationship is even better.
Aunt Xu actually said this, and her face was full of helplessness.
Lin Minjun was cooking and asked suspiciously, "Did she mess it up?"
"Not really." Aunt Xu looked at him in confusion, and she kept it a secret, "You'll know when she comes back and you ask her."
After saying that, she took the plate and went out. Lin Minjun stood in the kitchen with a confused look on her face.
After the lunch break, the three women were exhausted. Lin Minjun made three bowls of thin bean flour, and the three of them sat in the front hall and ate slowly.
After she finished eating the thin bean powder, she remembered what she had just said.
Leaning back on his chair, he turned around and asked Aunt Cao, smiling, "Aunt Cao, did you talk to those two people just now? What did you talk about?"
"Why not?"
Aunt Cao was no longer sleepy when she heard this. She sat up straight and said, "I asked just now. Those two people are a couple. The man is a chef and the woman can also cook."
Lin Minjun's eyes lit up, and she asked again: "Have you asked them? What are they doing here? Are they interested in working in a restaurant?"
When asked this, Aunt Cao suddenly got stuck and said awkwardly: "I forgot to ask this. They seemed to be coming to Beicheng to participate in some kind of competition. It's a very important competition."
"Who will join? Men? What about women? Do they know other chefs who are willing to come and work? The salary can be negotiated." Lin Minjun asked again.
But Aunt Cao couldn't give any answers to these questions. She rubbed her hands together, looking embarrassed, "I'm sorry, Xiaolin, I forgot all these."
"So what have you been talking about for such a long time?" Lin Minjun went back lazily. She wasn't angry, but just a little helpless.
Aunt Cao's eyes sparkled when she talked about gossip. She even stopped eating her bean powder and put down her bowl. "I tried to get close to them. Once we get close, I can ask them anything. I chatted with them for a long time and found out that the couple had a little girl before, but the man felt that he must have a son, so he insisted on having a child."
"Nowadays, we don't talk about family planning, but they just sent the little girl away. It was a sin. There's more sin to come. They got pregnant once, and sent her to the hospital to see if it was a boy or a girl. When they saw it was a girl, they had an abortion. Now the girl has uterine prolapse, and this time she came here to see a doctor. She said she had been to a big hospital, but the prolapse couldn't be cured, and it was difficult to get pregnant again. The couple wanted to find a folk remedy to see if they could have another son."
As Lin Minjun listened, she suddenly sat up straight. She saw herself in her previous life in this woman.
Of course, she had never had a miscarriage in her previous life, but she felt that this process of running around was particularly similar.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end she didn't say anything. After all, she didn't know what the woman's situation was. Did she want a son? In other words, did she want to get out of that quagmire?
She didn't have that awareness in her previous life, and she didn't know where she could go or whether she could survive if she left the quagmire.
Lin Minjun was thinking about these things randomly in her mind, and soon she heard Aunt Cao say, "I just recommended a medicine to them. This medicine is so effective. It can cure chicken eyes, beriberi, onychomycosis, facial paralysis, and psoriasis. It can definitely cure her prolapsed uterus."
Aunt Xu frowned and asked, "What kind of medicine is so effective? Where did it come from?"
"It's on the electric pole at the entrance of our alley. Didn't my son Cao Bin have epilepsy before?" Aunt Cao glanced at Lin Minjun and continued, "Later, I found a medicine seller and bought some medicine. Cao Bin didn't take it, but I couldn't bear to waste it, so I took it. You know what, my cold really got better during that time."
Old people who came from the old society are always like this. They are reluctant to waste anything, even medicine. They would rather take it than let it expire.
Of course this won’t work. Lin Minjun came to her senses and advised, “How can you take medicine randomly? What if it harms your body? Going to the hospital will cost you more money.”
"How can I take it randomly? When they sold it to me, they said it can cure any disease. This is a secret recipe passed down from their ancestors. They would not sell it to others easily. They sold it to me because we got along well." Aunt Cao said this with full conviction, "If it didn't work, how could my cold be cured so quickly?"
"The cold will get better, even if you don't take medicine." Lin Minjun reminded her, and then asked her, "How much is the price?"
"Twenty dollars." Aunt Cao felt it was worth it. She bought a panacea for twenty dollars.
Aunt Xu beside her uttered "Huh", and shook her head, laughing at her for being deceived.
Lin Minjun said, "The source of that medicine is not legitimate, and we don't know what it contains. Don't take it carelessly in the future. If you are sick, go to the hospital."
Aunt Cao was very stubborn about this. She said firmly, "That is a good medicine that can cure the disease. Xiaolin, you don't understand and you can't talk nonsense."
Lin Minjun simply didn't want to talk about this: "What about the contact information I asked you to get? Did you take the contact information of the couple?"
"Forgot..." Aunt Cao's eyes widened, dumbfounded.
Lin Minjun was anxious, "What should we do? They are here to compete, and they might leave after the competition."
Aunt Cao immediately said, "It's okay, don't worry, they will come again. I have agreed with them to come to me next time and I will take them to see a doctor and buy medicine. The man has the final say. He said he will definitely come. He dreams of having a son."
"You're also buying medicine, that medicine..." Lin Minjun knew it was a lie as soon as she heard it, but Aunt Cao believed it without a doubt.
Seeing Aunt Cao's stubborn look, Lin Minjun simply stopped talking. She thought that when the couple came next time, she would quietly tell them that it was fake medicine and a rip-off.
Before getting off work in the evening, Lin Minjun saw Aunt Cao taking medicine again.
A small paper package was folded up. When the package was opened, there were several white pills inside.
Aunt Cao carefully held a pill, put it into her mouth, and swallowed it with boiled water. She looked so devout as if she was taking a panacea.
"What kind of medicine is this? Are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?" Lin Minjun said helplessly.
Aunt Cao turned around and saw that it was Lin Minjun. She said, "It's the medicine I told you about. It rained a lot the past two days and my legs started to hurt again. Let's take this and see if it will help. Anyway, this medicine is not expensive."
"Your legs..."
Lin Minjun wanted to say that your legs might be rheumatism and it would be better to go to the hospital for a check-up, but Aunt Cao firmly disagreed and just wanted you to take medicine, her panacea.
Lin Minjun thought about it but didn't say it. She quickly closed the restaurant and went home. When she got home, she found that Brother Yan Li had got off work early today and he had already arrived home.
Yan Li can also cook, but the food he cooks tastes just so-so. After getting used to Lin Minjun’s cooking, the food he cooks always tastes unpalatable.
So when Lin Minjun got home, she found that in the renovated kitchen, the vegetables had already been washed and cut, the meat had already been cut and blanched. She only needed to cook and then serve the dishes on plates.
When the food was served, Erwa rushed over after smelling the food.
In the past, he was embarrassed to always stay at Lin Minjun's house for meals, but now Lin Minjun's house is also his brother's house, so he has the right to come here.
After dinner, Erwa went back to do his homework, leaving only Lin Minjun and Yan Li at the table. Lin Minjun talked to Yan Li about taking medicine.
"I always feel that the medicine that Aunt Cao takes is not right. How can such a medicine cure all diseases? If there really is such a medicine, then who would spend a lot of money to develop new medicine? We should just take that one instead." Lin Minjun said with a frown.
She took a piece of green vegetables with chopsticks and asked while eating, "Brother, I think Aunt Cao can't go on like this. Why doesn't she go to the hospital when she's sick? Why doesn't she take this kind of medicine that's of unknown origin? Do you have any good ideas to persuade her? No matter what I say, she won't believe it. She just believes that the medicine is good."
Lin Minjun had seen this kind of situation many times in her life. Elderly people were deceived by sellers of health products and were willing to give away all their retirement money just to buy some panacea. In fact, they were all scams.
What’s even more hateful is that what these fake medicine sellers say is more truthful than the other. The elderly people listen to their deceptions and don’t believe what their children say. They only believe what the fake medicine sellers say.
Aunt Cao is all alone, and her children don't care much about her. It's only a matter of time before she gets cheated out of her money. She has worked so hard to save some money for her retirement.
Only Lin Minjun was close to her.
The two of them have been close since they opened the shop. Aunt Cao never slacks off at work. When going to the vegetable market in the morning to buy groceries, Aunt Cao would offer to ride her bike for a while so that Lin Minjun wouldn't be too tired from riding. When washing vegetables in the shop, she would do it herself so that Lin Minjun wouldn't grab cold water.
"It doesn't matter if I'm old, but you young people are different. If you touch cold water when you're old, you'll have stomachaches when you're old." Aunt Cao said, "I didn't have the conditions at that time, but you do now. You must take good care of your body."
Lin Minjun accepted the favor and thought that she should help if she could instead of just watching her being cheated out of all her money.
So I came to discuss a solution with Yan Li.
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