In the military compound in Beijing, Liu Mengmeng was packing her youngest daughter Liu Mingyue's luggage for her trip to the countryside. In two days, her daughter would be going to the countryside with the people from the educated youth office, to her mother's hometown, Liujiatun.
Liu Mengmeng knew it would be very cold there in winter, so she was packing warm clothes for her daughter. She had also planned to pack a thick quilt for her, but her eldest son wrote back saying that all of those had been prepared for her younger daughter. From her eldest son's letter, she also learned that her brother's younger son, Liu Mingfeng, and his wife were doing well, which put her mind at ease.
While Liu Mengmeng was packing her things, her youngest daughter and son returned together. Her youngest son, Liu Mingyao, was carrying a telegram and called out to Liu Mengmeng as soon as he entered the door.
"Mom, my older brother sent a telegram. Take a look. It seems to be urgent. They delivered it directly to the neighborhood office for me."
It turned out that because of her youngest son's health condition, Liu Mengmeng gave him her job at the neighborhood office. She had originally planned to spend money to find a job for her youngest daughter as well, but her daughter said that Liujiatun was her mother's hometown, so it didn't matter. Besides, her second brother was still there, and with her uncle and aunt around, what was there to be afraid of? She refused to let her family spend money to buy her a job, since there were so many people in the family and there must be many expenses. Even when Liu Mengmeng disagreed, she secretly went to the educated youth program to apply for a job.
Upon hearing her youngest son's voice, Liu Mengmeng immediately wiped her hands, stood up, took the telegram, and opened it. She was afraid that something had happened at her parents' home again. After opening it, she saw that there was only one line of text on the telegram.
"We've found a job for the children of our employees; please come quickly."
Liu Mengmeng was puzzled by the sentence. Later, her youngest daughter, Feng Mingyue, noticed that her mother was not moving for a long time. She took a closer look at the sentence and, being a quick-witted young woman, understood its meaning in just a few moments. She immediately shook Liu Mengmeng.
"Mom, has my brother found someone? Does this mean he's getting married? He wants you to go quickly!"
"What? Your brother has found someone! He's finally getting married! I don't have to worry about my eldest son being a lonely widow for the rest of his life anymore. Yes, that must be it. I need to hurry up and pack my things to prepare for my son's wedding and bring my daughter-in-law into our family as soon as possible."
After saying that, she hurriedly prepared to go upstairs to pack her things, but Liu Ming'an stopped her.
"Mom, don't worry. You see, my second sister is going to the countryside in a couple of days. You can go with her and look after each other. Besides, my eldest brother is getting married, so you should prepare some things for him, right? Even if it's inconvenient to carry on the train, you don't have to buy them. Just prepare more money and tickets for him."
Feng Mingyue said, “My brother is right, Mom. Don’t worry. I’ll go to the neighborhood office now and try to get them to help us buy a ticket. You can come with me. Sleeper tickets are hard to buy right now. We’ll try to get you a sleeper ticket after we get on the train. I’m not comfortable with you sitting in a hard seat with me.”
When Liu Mengmeng heard her daughter say that, she originally wanted to say that it was not necessary, but thinking about her own health, she knew that she could not push herself, so she nodded. After all, she was going to help her eldest son with his wedding, and she didn't want to get sick from exhaustion when she got there, and her daughter-in-law would say that she did not like him.
While Liu Mengmeng was frantically searching for someone to exchange items for her son's wedding supplies in Liujiatun, someone at a steel plant in Luzhou City also received a bombshell.
In the workshop of Hu's Hongxing Steel Plant, a man who looked about 60% like Lin Yuwei was working at the control panel.
Suddenly, a woman's scream came from the workshop.
"Dayang, Dayang, Weiwei sent a telegram saying she's getting married and we need to hurry over."
The man, Lin Ningyang, Lin Yuwei's brother, looked up when he heard the familiar voice. He knew it was his wife Yuehong's voice, but he couldn't make out what she was saying. However, although he couldn't hear clearly, some of his coworkers did, and they immediately laughed and teased him.
"Engineer Lin, it's a telegram from our sister. She's getting married."
When Lin Yuyang heard his coworker say that, he thought the man was joking with him, so he laughed and cursed, telling him to get lost.
"My sister is still young, why should we get married? I want to keep her here for another two years. These past two years in the countryside must have been tough for her."
While Lin Ningyang was joking with everyone, Xiong Yuehong had already walked up to him and held out the telegram in front of him. Lin Ningyang glanced at her hand, and the wrench on his hand fell to the ground with a clatter, almost hitting his big toe. Ignoring the wrench on the ground, Lin Ningyang pulled Xiong Yuehong and ran towards another machine that was working. When they reached a 50-year-old man, they called out to him.
"Master"
As soon as he cried out, Lin Tingyang's heart skipped a beat. He knew he had made a mistake again. Sure enough, he felt a piece of flesh being pinched in his lower back and then rotated 360 degrees. He was in so much pain that his mouth twitched, but he dared not cry out in front of his master and father-in-law. His facial expression was distorted.
The man opposite him was Xiong Shu, his master and also Xiong Yuehong's father. Seeing the distorted face of his son-in-law and apprentice, he knew that his daughter had used the unique skill she learned from her mother. Looking at his distorted expression, he didn't have much of an objection to his son-in-law calling him master again.
"What's wrong? Why are you in such a hurry?"
Seeing his master's knowing look, Lin Yuyang could only scratch his head and chuckle foolishly, while reaching behind him with one hand to grab the hand his wife was pinching.
“My sister sent a telegram saying she’s getting married. I’m worried, so I want to take Yuehong with me to see her.”
When Xiong Shu heard his son-in-law mention his daughter's classmate, he recalled the day the girl had dragged his simple-minded brother to their house and offered to sell him a job on the condition that he take the boy as his apprentice and not take him for granted. Thinking of the girl's calm and wise eyes, and looking at his seemingly shrewd but actually simple-minded son-in-law, Xiong Shu couldn't help but think, "You don't trust her? She doesn't trust you either. She has to make sure you're taken care of before going to the countryside."
Xiong Shu looked at the two holding hands again, and his face darkened. He suspected that the clever girl had long been eyeing his daughter and wanted her to be her silly brother's wife. Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence that the job was sold to his daughter, and then his brother took her away to be his wife?
"Alright, go ahead and go if you want. I'll have your mom come with you. You don't have any adults in your family, so what do you need for a wedding? You don't know. You haven't taken a day off in all these years of work. This time, you and Yuehong will bring your mom along."
Lin Yuyang was very grateful to hear that his father-in-law had asked his mother-in-law to help him, and he and his wife immediately went to ask their boss for leave.
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