Chapter 006
When the Gu family accompanied Gu Mingde to peel edamame, Lin Siwei chatted with him about the family's shortcomings.
She looks small, and she hides her identity as a country bumpkin. No matter what she asks, it will not irritate anyone, and Gu Mingde will not think that she is inquiring.
An old man and a young man just sat under the corridor and peeled ten pounds of edamame. Lin Siwei had already gotten to know the Gu family clearly.
Six members of the Gu family, from three generations, live at No. 62 Yugu Lane.
Gu Mingde and Zhang Xiuqin participated in the revolution back then and are now retired cadres. Apart from being bad at playing chess, they are usually upright and respected figures.
Before liberation, they gave birth to a son named Gu Nianshen when they were working as an underground party member in Shanghai City. He is now the leader of a certain department in the city. Unfortunately, his wife lost his wife a few years ago, and his three children are all out of town. Gu Nianshen is alone and can only focus on work.
Gu Nianshen has three children. The eldest son, Gu Huai, has excellent grades and is a graduate student at a prestigious university in Beijing; the second daughter, Gu Lan, has outstanding appearance and was selected to join the art troupe since she was a child. She is now a well-known ballet dancer in Shanghai; the younger son, Gu Qia...
is what Zhang Xiuqin calls her. Xiaoqia.
When it comes to this little grandson, Gu Mingde's tone is obviously different from before. It's not all pride anymore.
Gu Mingde first talked about how naughty Gu Qia had been since he was a child and how he didn't like studying. He said that Gu Nianshen was often almost mad to death by his son. There seems to be a lot of disdain. But...
the topic changed and Gu Qia joined the army when he was eighteen!
Not long after joining the army, he went to southern Xinjiang to participate in the self-defense counterattack. During a general attack, he and his comrades braved a hail of bullets to seize the high ground. It is said that there were 350 people at the time of the attack, but only 15 people stood on the high ground in the end.
Gu Qia is one of the fifteen people.
According to Gu Mingde, those 350 people all wrote suicide notes and went to the battlefield.
Lin Siwei finally understood why Zhang Xiuqin put a pot of sunflowers in Gu Qia's window, because sunflowers are also known as "cannot die", and Zhang Xiuqin was frightened by Gu Qia's narrow escape.
Lin Siwei grew up in a prosperous age and had never experienced war, but she knew that the motherland fought a heroic battle in the 1980s. Now that I heard that such a heroic story happened right next to me, I couldn't help but feel in awe, and I also felt a little more respect for this Gu Qia, whom I had never met before.
When they finally finished peeling ten pounds of edamame, Zhang Xiuqin called them to eat.
I don't know if it's because of Lin Siwei's joining, but the Gu family's food is pretty good, and there's even a bowl of braised pork.
This was the first time Lin Siwei had eaten braised pork since he came to this world.
Hunger indeed cures all pretense. Lin Siwei, who never eats fatty meat, actually swallowed two pieces of pork belly. The rich sauce melted in her mouth like it was killing her, and she almost cried because of the deliciousness.
Zhang Xiuqin looked at Lin Siwei, who was busy moving food, as if he were seeing his own child.
Alas, her three grandchildren have not been back for a long time.
After eating the Gu family's meal, Lin Siwei was pulled into another round by Gu Ming. Gu Mingde finally realized that his level was indeed not as good as this little bumpkin from the countryside.
However, he was not angry at all. Instead, he was very happy and said that he wanted Lin Siwei to join his "Fishbone Alley Representative Team" to participate in the district chess competition.
Lin Siwei agreed immediately, but also added that if she were still in Fish Bone Lane at that time, she would definitely bring glory to the lane.
Gu Mingde did not realize the importance of this sentence at all, but instead waved his hand: "Where else would your Xiaolin children be if they weren't in Fishbone Lane? You have no relatives in the countryside."
About Su Hongmei's death from illness and Lin Siwei becoming half an orphan The news, through Aunt Feng's publicity, had spread throughout Fishbone Alley all morning.
Of course Zhang Xiuqin also knew.
I was already a little bit sad about this child's life experience, but I saw her wearing cramped clothes, open shoes, peeling edamame until her nails were full of mud without saying a word, which made her very distressed.
When Gu Mingde and Lin Siwei were discussing the "Fishbone Alley Team", Zhang Xiuqin went upstairs. After a while, I came down with a pair of red leather shoes in my hand.
"Look at your shoes, can you still walk? Try this pair."
Lin Siwei took one look and knew they were good things. Flat red cowhide leather, with a slender strap fastened to the side of the shoe. In later generations, they were called Mary Janes, and they were everywhere, but in this day and age, they were a precious commodity.
And the leather shoes are in very good condition.
"No, these shoes look very expensive. I can't take them. Thank you, grandma." Lin Siwei declined.
However, Zhang Xiuqin couldn't help but put them under her feet: "Xiaolan doesn't want to wear them anymore. She thinks they're too small, and they take up space at home. I think they should fit your feet."
Of course Lin Siwei wanted new shoes in his heart, so he put them on half-pushingly . , the size is completely suitable.
"Grandma, your eyes are a ruler, they are just right!"
Zhang Xiuqin said proudly: "When I was a child, I knitted sweaters for Xiaolan, and I didn't even need to measure them. They just fit me when they were knitted. You are right, my eyes are a ruler."
He added, "These shoes "I'm 36. I didn't notice it. You're so small, but your feet are quite big."
Are 17-year-old girls' feet big? Lin Siwei sighed secretly.
It's really because I'm too small that my feet look big.
After thinking about it, she became happy again. Having big feet means that I am not too small. Life in the country is really difficult and I haven't had time to grow yet.
17 is a bit late, but it’s not completely hopeless.
She became happy again: "Grandma, I can't wear sister Xiaolan's shoes for nothing. If you have anything to do in the future, just call me. I can do a lot of work."
Zhang Xiuqin felt distressed again: "You are so small, but you can do so much." What kind of work? If you are really free, come and play chess with my old man, so that he won't run away all the time and I can't find anyone to work with."
Lin Siwei understood that Zhang Xiuqin was actually lonely.
The son is devoted to his work, and the three grandchildren are not around. They are what later generations call empty nesters.
...
I had dinner at Gu's house and got a new pair of leather shoes.
Zhang Xiuqin was afraid that Lin Siwei would regret it, so she threw away her old shoes. What to do, Lin Siwei could only reluctantly put on the red leather shoes.
In the morning, everyone in the alley knew that Lin Siwei was half an orphan; in the afternoon, everyone in the alley knew that Lin Siwei had put on Gu Lan's leather shoes.
Because Lin Si is in a hurry.
The afternoon sun became fierce, and she didn't want to go to the park in the middle of the street to bask in the sun. Since the Lin family couldn't go back, she became a handyman in Fish Bone Alley.
Aunt Feng's house was drying radishes, and she helped turn them over; Grandpa Zhang had a bad waist and couldn't squat down, so she helped carry Grandpa Zhang's clothes and sheets to the river to wash them; Grandma Qian sat at the door mending clothes, facing the sun After shivering for a long time, Lin Siwei ran over to get the needle. Seconds passed...
Anyway, when Lin Zhengqing came home from work, all he heard was -
"Principal Lin, your eldest girl is a good girl."
"Weiwei is sensible. , help me with the work."
"I'll ask your Weiwei to come to my house for dinner tomorrow."
He was more thoughtful: "Principal Lin, this girl is very smart, we can't delay, we have to find a place for her to go to school."
Lin Zhengqing was confused and could only deal with it while he went home and wanted to ask Lin Siwei for clarification.
Unexpectedly, someone went home before him.
In Courtyard No. 43, Lin Jiale was confronting Lin Siwei with a livid face.
As soon as Lin Zhengqing opened the door and walked in, Lin Jiale screamed: "Dad, this person is wearing sister Xiaolan's leather shoes!"