Chapter 121: Family Memories (Xiao Xiu) After a few blows, the child almost...
Chapter 121 Family Memories
In the minds of Chinese people, the Chinese New Year is not over until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
These days, everyone has paid their New Year's greetings, and everyone has nothing else to do except chatting about Hexi Village.
Very idle.
With so many people coming to the house to chat, the couple hardly had the chance to take care of the two little ones, as many people were vying to look at them.
Zhuangzhuang also spent the whole day playing with his uncle, his aunt, and several cousins of similar age, playing ice hockey, pulling ice sleds, having snowball fights, hitting crutches, and sticking sickles in haystacks...
Zhuangzhuang and the others were too young to be useful, so the older kids split up into groups and had no choice but to give them the rest of the group just to make up the numbers.
Even though they are disliked by others, Zhuangzhuang and his friends still enjoy doing it and think about where to go for fun every day when they open their eyes.
It’s much more fun in the village than in the city.
***
Chen Yin stood at the door with her hands on her hips and said loudly: "Zhuangzhuang~ Come home for dinner~"
After shouting, he said with a smile: "I feel like my mother calling me and my younger brother to go home when I was a child."
Yan Jiuru smiled and said, "At least you and your brother-in-law can be called back. Zhuangzhuang has been eating out at hundreds of restaurants these days. Believe it or not, he may not be able to come back for this meal."
He was right.
Not long after, my cousin Dashun's son came running over to tell me, "My dad told me to let Zhuangzhuang eat at my house. My mom cooked pork elbows, and they're so delicious."
After saying that, the kid turned around and ran away, covering his crooked hat.
Yan Jiuru laughed out of anger, his food is not bad either.
Grandma Yan said, "Children are all the same, they just smell better when they're cooked from another pot."
After saying that, he picked up a bowl of pork ribs and asked Ruyue to send it to Dashun's house.
Although life has improved for each family in the past two years, it is not to the point where they can eat meat to their heart's content.
If Zhuangzhuang hadn't been playing over there, Dashun's wife might not have stewed the pork elbow.
***
Their family's meal today was not as sumptuous as during the New Year holidays. They only had a stewed fish and a plate of homemade sausages and pork skin jelly.
During the meal, the old man didn't see his great-grandson. When he heard that Dashun's family had left some food for him, he said, "This kid takes after his father."
Yan Jiuru was confused.
Why just let him do it?
Yan Niang laughed and said, "Have you forgotten? When you were this age, it was only a few years after the liberation. Life was not bad at that time. You were a good-looking child. You were running around at the age of three or four and were not at home all day.
I came back with a bloated stomach.
When the adults asked, they would either eat cornmeal pancakes at this place or steamed cakes at that place.
Grandma Yan also said, "Sometimes when I'm tired from playing, I sleep at someone else's house. I slept at your Grandma Jiang's house in the front yard several times. At that time, I thought you would become someone else's son-in-law when you grew up."
Yan Jiuru really didn't remember.
He quickly glanced at Chen Yin and said, "Grandma, please stop joking."
Chen Yin pursed her lips and smiled, "You know what? When we were planning to get married, my mother was still grumbling, saying that when you were little you loved going to Old Jiang's house. If his daughter wasn't two years older and married earlier, it's hard to say for sure."
"That's all nonsense. I've been sitting at the same table with you since first grade, and we agreed back then that you'd be my wife when you grew up."
Ruyue interrupted curiously, "Brother, you are older than sister-in-law, so how come you are in the same grade as sister-in-law?"
"Your sister-in-law's family is well-off, so she started school early."
***
Speaking of Dashun, Yan Jiuru said, "I heard that Dashun has applied for a foundation and plans to build a new house in the spring?"
His father snorted, "What else can we do if we don't build it? They're living in an old house in the village now. It's been there for years, and the beams are almost broken. It leaks in the summer and is drafty in the winter."
Then he asked, "Why? Did he mention it to you?"
Yan Jiuru shook his head. "I heard it from others at the village office. Dad, is Dashun going to do it himself?"
His father sneered disdainfully, "Don't even mention your second uncle."
The younger generations at the dinner table looked at each other without saying a word, but their eyes were full of gossip.
"Ahem," Yan Jiuru said aloud after feeling a pinch on his waist. "Dashun is his eldest son after all. Not only did he give him away for marriage, but he also didn't help with such a big thing as building a house?"
Father and son, what happened?!
Wouldn't he be criticized to death?
Yan's father didn't respond.
***
After dinner, Yan Jiuru and Chen Yin took a bag of walnuts and persimmon cakes and went to pick up their son.
Dashun's house is at the old house at the west end of the village.
The yard is not small, but the wooden screen is very dilapidated and the gate is made of wooden strips put together casually.
The village has resumed having two meals a day, with the afternoon meal usually around four o'clock in the afternoon.
"Is Dashun at home?" Yan Jiuru shouted outside the gate.
He had rarely visited this cousin's house, mainly because his grandfather had ignored his second uncle's family for a few years and they didn't stay close to each other.
Dashun didn't go to high school and got married early. He was a student at that time. He was only seventeen or eighteen years old when his cousin got married. He was busy with the ceremony. Now when he thinks about it, he doesn't know what he was busy with so much and it didn't leave any deep impression on him.
Dashun came out to answer the door, and seeing that it was his cousin and his wife, he quickly let them in.
As soon as Yan Jiuru entered the house, he saw Zhuangzhuang holding his bowl and eating with big mouthfuls. His cousin's two children were also scrambling for food with him.
Dashun's wife was sitting at the dining table, holding a little girl and looking after her.
"Brother and sister-in-law are here. Have you eaten? Come and sit down and have something to eat together." Dashun's wife hurriedly stood up and offered her a seat.
Chen Yin put the things she brought into the basket on the kang and said, "Hurry up and sit down to eat. We came here after dinner."
When Zhuangzhuang saw his parents coming, he looked up and called them, then continued eating without feeling embarrassed at all.
Dashun stopped eating and sat aside to talk with the two of them.
***
"I heard you're building a house in the spring? Have you prepared all the materials?"
Yan Jiuru had discussed with Chen Yin on the way that his cousin and his wife had come to help when they built the house, and since they couldn't make it this time, they would help with money and materials.
Consider it a return gift.
Dashun sighed softly and said, "It's still a little short. I'm thinking of making preparations as I go along. Otherwise, how long will it take to be fully prepared?"
Yan Jiuru nodded. Their family had been thinking about building a house for several years but never started construction. It was only because of the reward he received for his meritorious service that they were able to do that.
Dashun's wife continued, "I didn't intend to build it so soon, but look at this roof. Last year, there was a heavy snowfall and the west room almost collapsed. This main room is also weird.
It’s really unbearable to live here.”
Yan Jiuru and the other person looked up and saw that the roof of the house had no ceiling, and all the rafters and other things were exposed.
To put it bluntly, this is only in winter. If it were summer, all kinds of small insects would probably fall into your food bowl.
The couple looked at each other, and Yan Jiuru said, "We're family, so we shouldn't have different opinions. We definitely can't come back if you're building a house. Let me see what materials you're missing. I know a few people, and I'll try my best to help you find some."
Dashun and his wife were extremely happy and said quickly, "Thank you, brother and sister-in-law."
The homestead will not be approved until after the Chinese New Year. Yan Jiuru asked them, and Dashun didn't have any particular place in mind, he just wanted to build the old house.
Yan Jiuru thought for a moment and said, "If you are willing to listen to me, I suggest you build it on the east side, as close to the old house as possible. It doesn't matter where you build it."
He lowered his voice and said to Dashun, "The feng shui is better in the east."
Dashun nodded quickly to indicate that he had taken note of it.
The two discussed it again and agreed that Yan Jiuru would get him the bricks and tiles, and he would prepare the beams and other wood, as well as the labor.
After bringing Zhuangzhuang back home, Yan Jiuru told his grandfather and his father what he had seen.
***
"That house is simply unsafe, how can anyone live in it? Dashun is his biological son, and his uncle and aunt didn't even go to see him?
There's not even a suspended ceiling, and the beams, rafters, and purlins are all broken. I don't know if it collapsed when the snow fell that day."
"If we bury our whole family in there one day, what will people say about our family?
After all, we are now a well-known and respectable family."
Yan Jiuru couldn't help but feel a little angry when he said this.
It's really a disgrace to the Demon Lord.
The old man was so angry that he knocked on the pipe and snorted, "Your second uncle is a weakling. He has no idea what to do when Wang Sanya talks nonsense.
Do you think he doesn't know?
If you, who have been away from home for several years and just returned, know this, how could he, who lives on the same street, not know it?"
The old lady rolled her eyes and said to the old man, "They almost beat Dashun to death back then. In my opinion, you shouldn't have spared him.
Even though the second child is my own, I still despise his frail appearance."
Oh my God!
There was actually an incident in their family where a child was almost beaten to death?!
Now, not to mention Chen Yin, even Rushan and Rushong were staring with wide eyes waiting for what would happen next.
***
Speaking of this, it's also a secret of the Yan family.
The children were still young at the time, and apart from Yan Jiuru who had a vague idea about it, no one else knew about it over the years.
Seeing that the children were grown up and knew right from wrong, and mainly because the old man had no objection, Yan's father brought it up to the children.
It turned out that when students graduated from Dashun Primary School (grades 1 to 4), they had to go to senior primary school (grades 5 to 6). At that time, there was no senior primary school in the village, so they had to go to other villages to go to school.
Back then, studying in the village basically didn't cost any money.
The tuition for primary school is only a few cents per semester, which is basically covered by work points. The children can also earn some work points by working during the busy farming season, which is basically enough to pay the tuition.
But since Gao Xiao went to another village, he could no longer use the work points from his own village there and had to pay for it.
The tuition for primary school is a bit expensive, one dollar per semester, which is two dollars a year, and you also have to buy books and so on.
Second Aunt was reluctant to spend money on Dashun's education, saying that he was already a teenager and might as well work in the fields and earn work points.
My second uncle was also a soft-hearted person. Even when my second aunt started to fight and beat him, he was shaken.
But Dashun wanted to study.
He was very happy to be admitted to a senior primary school. There were only seven or eight children in the village who passed the exam.
His parents refused to give him money, so he had no choice but to go to his grandfather as school was about to start.
The old man was literate, so he was naturally happy for his grandson to study, and gave him two dollars.
As a result, the night before he was due to pay tuition, his mother took away the money.
The next day, when he found out the money was gone, Dashun was furious and yelled at his mother, asking if she had given his tuition to the Wang family as well.
Second Aunt did not admit it.
Dashun cried and told her grandfather that she had sent the tuition fees her grandfather had given her to her mother's home.
Second Aunt will definitely not let you go.
While the mother and daughter were pulling each other, Second Aunt sat on the ground, slapped her thigh and said that Dashun was unfilial and hit his own mother.
When the second uncle came back, he picked up a stick and beat Dashun without asking any questions.
That was just after the disaster three years ago. If the ten-year-old children didn't starve to death, how could their bodies withstand more beatings?
The second uncle didn't stop either, and after a few hits, the child almost died.
The neighbors thought it was not right, so one of them helped to stop them while the other ran to the old house to call for help.
When the old man passed away, Dashun exhaled more and inhaled less.
Dashun was nursed at his uncle's house for a whole month before he was able to go to school.
At this point, Yan Jiuru and Chen Yin both had some impression. No wonder Dashun went to school a month late that year.
At that time, they were not very smart. When the adults said that Dashun was sick, they believed it without thinking about why he would be recuperating with his grandfather.
Alas, I was really not very smart back then.
In short, from then on, the father and son, and the mother and son, had a knot in their hearts.
****
Later, I had to go to Dashun Junior High School in the commune and live there.
The tuition fee is not two dollars a year, it is three dollars and fifty cents, plus there is accommodation fee, and you have to get food from home.
His family didn't support him, so he dropped out of school after just one year.
Later, when I was a little older, marriage became a trigger.
Because Second Aunt fell in love with a girl from her mother's family, who was one year older than Dashun, Dashun refused to do anything.
Dashun said that his mother would rather sell all the money she earned back to her parents' home than use it for her son's studies, and he would never marry a girl from the Wang family even if he was beaten to death.
The mother and daughter started making noise again.
Later, the old lady came over and scolded the second aunt, and asked the old man to take the second son to Wang's house.
The old couple declared in front of the whole village that they could not afford a daughter-in-law who would spend money from her parents' home every day and even use up the money her grandfather gave to her grandson's tuition.
Either divorce her or let her son become a son-in-law of the Wang family.
So I don’t have to miss my parents’ home every day.
The Wang family was now embarrassed.
There are still several unmarried women in their family.
If you really admit this, it will be difficult for the next few people to find a partner.
In short, Dashun was completely alienated from his parents.
Later, the old lady found someone to introduce her to her current partner. Before the marriage, my second uncle and second aunt said that they would separate after the marriage.
So, it would be strange if this couple cared about it.
***
At home, everyone was stunned.
In the past, they always thought that their family was good and that the best things belonged to other people.
I never expected that my home was just well concealed.
Ruyue came over quietly and said, "When I was little, I felt that my second uncle's family was not close to us, and my grandparents didn't like to pay attention to them. I also know a secret, sister-in-law, you can't guess it."
Chen Yin smiled: "Do you want to tell me?"
Ruyue couldn't help but want to gossip with someone, so she couldn't hold back her words. "When I was a kid, I couldn't fall asleep for a while, and my parents thought I was asleep. I heard them whispering that my second uncle found my second aunt himself, but my grandparents didn't agree, and my second uncle was still suicidal, saying he was going to hang himself or something."
Chen Yin: ……
***
Lying in bed at night, Chen Yin couldn't help gossiping with her husband.
"I was wondering why Dashun stopped studying when he was supposed to be a good student. He had good grades back then. Do you think my uncle and aunt are stupid?"
Yan Jiuru sighed and said, "Alas, it's not stupid, it's just that my brain is full of water. You said that I didn't know what I was thinking about every day at that time, and why didn't I hear any rumors?
If I had known that he dropped out of school because he had no money to go to school, I would... "
Actually, there is no way to know.
During those years, there were many brothers and sisters in the family, and several children were also studying, so his parents were under a lot of pressure.
Besides, such embarrassing things must be told behind the children's backs.
My grandparents were able to support Dashun to finish high school and another year of junior high school, but their private savings were probably almost used up. In addition, the school was not peaceful during those years and classes were often suspended.
Dashun just dropped out of school and didn't become a famous or a soldier because his grandfather was strict with him.
"Hey," Yan Jiuru nudged Chen Yin, "Dashun is in such a difficult situation, can I give him a few hundred tomorrow?"
Dashun was clearly his cousin, about the same age, living in the same house, and their fathers were brothers, yet Dashun and his fate were so different.
At such a young age, he was almost beaten to death for wanting to read. It’s simply...
Yan Jiuru felt that he could no longer meet his uncle and aunt as if nothing had happened.
"well!"
Chen Yin asked, "Why are you sighing? If you want to take it, just take it. Are you afraid that I won't agree?"
Yan Jiuru rested his head on his hands and looked at the ceiling: "I feel like I won't be able to remain calm if I see my uncle and aunt again."
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