Chapter 007 Neighbors
After drinking some water to moisten his throat, Shi Yue finally spoke.
"The compound we live in is divided into two courtyards, front and back. There are eight households in each courtyard. The ones we need to interact with most often are the seven households living in the front courtyard with us."
"First of all, there's Grandma Yang next door. Actually, your Grandma Yang's last name isn't Yang, it's her husband's. When she was a child, she was sold to the Yang family as a child bride while fleeing famine, so she took the Yang family's last name. As for her name, I don't know. As far as I can remember, even people of the same generation only called her Yang's. But you don't have to worry about that, just call her Grandma Yang."
Shi Qiushui: "Oh oh."
Shi Yue: "Besides Grandma Yang, she also has a son. He is two years older than me and is thirty years old this year. He runs a shop and is very busy, so you don't usually see him in the yard. If you see him, just call him Uncle Yang."
Shi Qiushui: "Okay."
Shi Yue: "There's nothing to worry about with this family. Your Grandma Yang and Uncle Yang are both kind people. They're the good guys in our courtyard and they generally don't get into conflicts with anyone."
After talking about the Yang family, he continued, "Then there's the west wing on the left side of our house. There are four west wing rooms, and there are two families living there. The two rooms closest to ours belong to Li Xiuying, who works in the machinery factory cafeteria. She and her daughter, Li Fangfang, are the only ones in her family. The reason she took Li Xiuying's last name was because of the incident when Gao Cuifen instigated the rift between them. Although Gao Cuifen later apologized, she was still worried that someone would go around and say something bad about her daughter, just like Gao Cuifen did. So she changed her daughter's last name to show everyone that she would never get back together."
"When dealing with Li Xiuying, just remember not to mention Cuifen in front of her. Apart from Gao Cuifen, she's a pretty easygoing person, but as soon as you mention Cuifen, she'll immediately explode. As for her daughter, Li Fangfang, I don't know her very well either, because Li Fangfang is six or seven years younger than me. By the time she grew up, I had already gone out to serve in the army. In my memory, I only remember Li Fangfang as a strong-willed little girl. Knowing that her mother was facing a lot of criticism because of her divorce, she worked hard to study, wanting everyone to know that she could also be a support for her mother."
Shi Yue's eyes flashed with admiration as he said, "That girl is really amazing. She graduated from high school two years ago and was admitted to Peking University. Peking University is a top-notch university, even better than the Imperial College back then!"
"I know, I know!" Shi Qiushui raised his hand: "Little Qiushui also said that he wanted to apply to Peking University when he grew up."
Although it was said casually by Xiao Qiu Shui, a six-year-old child, even she knew that Peking University was a good school, which was enough to show the value of Peking University.
Shi Yue nodded and continued, "Well, now that we've talked about Li Xiuying's family, let's talk about Gao Cuifen's family, who live next door to hers. There are only three people in Gao Cuifen's family now: her, her husband, Old Zhang, and the Zhang Peng you saw today. He's Gao Cuifen's youngest son. In addition, she has three other sons. However, because the other three sons have all moved out and started their own families, you don't usually see them."
"Speaking of Gao Cuifen, we have to talk about her four sons. In fact, the reason Gao Cuifen has become so stingy now is because of her four sons. After all, when the four sons grow up, whether it is finding a job or marrying a wife, it costs money. The family fortune that Gao Cuifen and Old Zhang have saved over the years was emptied by the eldest and second sons. By the time it was the third son's turn, Gao Cuifen's family was already in debt and starving. The third son was also cruel. Seeing that the family had no money to find a job and marry him, he directly found a wealthy family to marry into. Now both the job and the wife were secured. As for the fourth son, Zhang Peng, he found his own job and worked in sales in a private factory."
Shi Yue curled his lips. "Actually, of the four sons of Gao Cuifen, only Zhang Peng is okay. The other three are really not. The eldest and second sons emptied out Gao Cuifen and Old Zhang's family assets to start their own families, but after they got married and moved out, they only came back during the New Year and other holidays, and when they came back, they were empty-handed. The third son didn't even come back. To put it simply, he had already married into the father-in-law's family and was his father-in-law's family member, not Gao Cuifen's family member anymore."
Shi Qiu Shui also curled his lips. This was just in the 1990s. If it were in the Dayu Dynasty, where filial piety was the guiding principle, the four sons of Gao Cuifen would have been scolded to death long ago.
Shi Yue noticed Shi Qiushui's expression and smiled. "But as far as I remember, apart from the third son who married into the family without informing his family, Gao Cuifen was quite satisfied with her other two sons. Although she and her husband handed over their jobs to the eldest and second sons, they would set up stalls when they had nothing to do, and take on odd jobs like repairing cars and making clothes. They would also subsidize the eldest and second sons' families with the money they earned."
Shi Qiu Shui pursed her lips, somewhat speechless.
In fact, when Shi Yue recalled this incident, he was also a little speechless. He waved his hand and said, "Alright, alright, let's not talk about her family anymore. Let's talk about the next family. The next one is the old Niu family with four rooms in the front, that is, Grandma Ma Yulan's family. Her family has a lot of people. First of all, there is your Grandma Ma and her husband, Old Niutou. Then there are their four children, two boys and two girls. The eldest son, Niu Xiaodong, married Deng Xia and had a boy named Niu Yong. The eldest daughter, Niu Xiaonan, is married. The remaining second daughter, Niu Xiaoxi, and the second son, Niu Xiaobei, one is in college and the other is in high school and is still in school."
"The Niu family is also relatively easy to get along with. They, including their daughter-in-law Deng Xia, are all cheerful and generous. They are usually very warm-hearted. If anyone in the courtyard needs help, they will lend a hand. The Niu family is also the best-off family in our courtyard. The old Niu himself is a seventh-level skilled worker in the machinery factory, with a monthly salary of nearly 300 yuan. His eldest son is not bad either. Although he is young, he is already a fifth-level intermediate skilled worker. There is also the Niu family's eldest daughter, Niu Xiaonan. Niu Xiaonan is beautiful and currently works as a salesperson in a department store. Her husband is the manager of the department store."
"Although the remaining two, Niu Xiaoxi and Niu Xiaobei, are still studying and not earning any money, they are both good students, especially Niu Xiaoxi. I heard that although she is still a year away from graduation, because she frequently contributes to the newspaper, the newspaper has specifically asked Niu Xiaoxi to join the company after graduation."
In fact, even if Shi Yue didn't say it, Shi Qiu Shui could tell from his interactions with Ma Yulan over the past two days that her family was not poor.
"Finally, there are the four rooms on the west side." Shi Yue took a sip of water and continued, "Don't think that there are three families living in the four rooms on the west side. In fact, those four rooms all belong to Kong Jian, who lives next to our room. That's you. He's about ten years older than me, so you should call him Uncle Kong."
He sighed, "Your Uncle Kong has a miserable life too. In fact, in the early years, your Uncle Kong had a good life. He was the factory director's driver, which was quite glorious. But who knows what will happen? Just four or five years ago, your Uncle Kong was traveling with his parents, wife and daughter when they had a car accident. Except for him, all the other five people in the family died. Since then, your Uncle Kong's spirit and energy have been gone. He has been drinking all day long, never sobering up."
"Because he was drinking all the time, he definitely couldn't continue working as the factory director's driver. The factory moved him to logistics to do odd jobs, but he rarely worked when he was drunk. He mainly relies on rent now. After the other members of his family died, he rented out the remaining three rooms. The monthly rent is not bad."
Shi Yue pointed to Shi Qiushui and said, "Look, those three rooms. The middle one is rented to a young couple named Liu. The two rooms near the main gate are rented to a family of four from the countryside. The man's nickname is Guo Lame because he's lame, and his wife's nickname is Wang Qiaoshou because she's very skillful at work. They also have a pair of twin sons."
"Actually, the two families who rented the house rarely appear in our courtyard. The Liu couple work at the machinery factory. They leave home all day in the morning and only see everyone when they get home from work. The family of four is even rarer. Even though the man surnamed Guo is lame, he's smart. He bought a tricycle and spends all day soliciting customers outside tourist attractions and shopping malls, making a lot of money. His wife runs a small snack stall and works there until dark around 8 or 9 every day. As for their son, he's sent to kindergarten early and picked up when they get home."
Shi Yue concluded: "The eight households living in the front yard are probably in this situation. Generally speaking, these people are usually quite easy to get along with."
After talking about the front yard, he turned to talk about the situation in the backyard: "There are also eight households living in the backyard, but because there is a back door in the backyard, those people in the backyard don't come to the front yard very often, so they don't interact with us very often. If we meet in the future, I will introduce you to them."
He paused, as if thinking of something, and then spoke, "The only place we need to pay attention to is Zhao Hui's family in the backyard. Zhao Hui is my colleague and my boss. I've been assigned to the Security Department as deputy chief since I retired, and Zhao Hui is the chief. Zhao Hui has a child named Zhao Ran who's in the last year of kindergarten, just like you. I guess my daughter and I will have to deal with him a lot."
"Ah? I still have to go to kindergarten?" Shi Qiu Shui widened his eyes.
She knew what kindergarten was. In her memory, Qiu Shui had also attended a kindergarten in the army when she was little. In her opinion, kindergarten and private school were similar, but private school was for students who had not yet started to learn.
Or is it a simpler version of a private school?
After all, in my memory, when Qiu Shui was in kindergarten, he spent most of his time playing games, eating snacks, and sleeping. He only had a very short period of time in class, and the classes he learned were all about singing nursery rhymes and the like.
Shi Qiu Shui wrinkled her face. How could she, a woman of marriageable age, have to go to kindergarten with a group of children who couldn't even control themselves when going to the toilet?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
