Chapter 47 Parents Arrive
When the bus finally stopped at the factory gate, Chen Yun's breathing almost stopped along with the engine that had been turned off.
I'm very nervous... but also feel a sense of unfamiliarity.
People got out of the car one after another, and Gao Ming was the first to walk around the car and appear in front of Chen Yun.
He simply smiled at Chen Yun, then took a step back.
“Yunyun”.
Chen Shu stretched his neck out, his figure seemed to stiffen for a moment, and he stopped pushing up his glasses.
"dad."
Chen Yun's smile was more like a grimace; she tried hard to turn her lips up, but the discomfort made her want to press them down.
Chen Shu had aged considerably; his pine-like figure had become somewhat hunched, and he no longer possessed the air of a scholar reciting poetry to the moon. Instead, he resembled an old man who had toiled for half his life.
His face, torn between two conflicting emotions, became a forced, insincere smile, looking extremely strange.
"Mom," Chen Yun called again.
Xu Cuihua, who walked out from behind Chen Shu, had a full head of white hair and a very thin figure. She was wrapped in a faded dark blue cotton-padded jacket.
"Yes!" Xu Cuihua replied heavily, her eyes quickly welling up with tears, her vision blurring as she looked at Chen Yun's prominently protruding belly.
When she left home, she was a little girl who would tremble with fear if she spoke too softly; now, her daughter is about to become a mother.
The emotions and complex feelings in my heart are beyond words.
"mom."
Chen Yun was already in tears. Wiping away her tears, she rushed over and instinctively reached out to support Xu Cuihua. But just as her fingertips touched her rough fingertips, she suddenly opened them and hugged her instead.
"Be careful of your stomach." Xu Cuihua, her eyes also brimming with tears, gently touched Chen Yun's back with a choked voice.
The mother and son embraced and wept, which also brought tears to the eyes of the two men standing nearby.
"Let's go back inside and talk about it slowly," Gao Ming interjected after looking around.
Today is Saturday. After dinner, some people finished eating early and took their kids out for a walk to cool off. There were already quite a few people chatting and relaxing under the big banyan tree at the factory gate.
Chen Yun sniffed and quickly took Xu Cuihua's arm as they walked home.
The mother and daughter talked a lot along the way. Xu Cuihua noticed that her daughter had become so plump that she even had a double chin. The worry that had been hanging over her when she heard that she was pregnant finally subsided.
"Mom, Gaoming arranged a desk for you and Dad a few days ago, and also applied for a library card at our factory library. You can borrow books to read whenever you have free time."
Besides carving, Chen Shu's only hobby is reading. Gao Ming was worried that his father-in-law would be bored at the factory, so he even thought of something as simple as a library card.
“Your dad and I will never have nothing to do in the future.” Xu Cuihua’s gaze fell on Chen Yun’s belly again, and she reached out her right hand to touch it: “You two are busy with work, so we will have to do all the cooking and childcare at home in the future.”
"I really miss Dad's lard and egg rice. I dreamed about it every day when I was pregnant." Chen Yun softened her voice and gently shook her mother's arm, her voice full of coquettishness: "From now on, you can eat as soon as I open my eyes."
clever:"……"
We've been married for almost two years, and every day, except when he's not home, I either brush my teeth, wash my face, and eat right after waking up.
Not wanting his parents-in-law to misunderstand him as an old man who did nothing, Gao Ming suddenly coughed twice as he walked.
Chen Yun chuckled inwardly, then quickly blinked and said, "Gao Ming used to cook, but I think Gao Ming's cooking isn't as good as Dad's."
Xu Cuihua laughed: "Lazy girl, you're still lazy even after getting married."
Chen Shu smiled and shook his head.
She may be called a lazy girl, but her parents spoiled her since she was little, and only taught her how to do laundry when she was fifteen.
The group chatted and laughed as they walked up the stairs.
"Little Chen, these are your parents?"
Old Ma waited from the moment Chen Yun went out to pick someone up. Even after dinner, the person still hadn't arrived, so she simply moved a straw stool to the doorway and sat down while sewing shoe soles and waiting.
After the heavy rain, the straw was soaked and moldy, and there was no straw to make hemp rope.
Old Ma had nothing to do, so he cut down a bamboo stalk from somewhere and whittled it into strips.
"Auntie, these are my parents." Chen Yun happily introduced them, then glanced into the Ma family's house: "Guixiang took the children out to play?"
“Take Cuifen and Cuixia out for a walk.” Old Ma answered hastily, then looked at Xu Cuihua: “You look younger than me, so call me Sister Ma from now on.”
"Big sister," Xu Cuihua greeted her readily.
Since Gao Ming's trip to Taicheng, Chen Shu and Xu Cuihua's lives have visibly improved, and their complexions have noticeably improved in the past two years compared to when they first met.
"You can tell from Comrade Chen and the girl that they are cultured people. No wonder they can raise such a capable girl as Xiao Chen."
"People have been on the train all day and are so tired, and you keep talking on and on with your big mouth," Old Ma said, smacking his unlit pipe. "You'd be better off taking out the clothes your little sister Fei Xiaochen made."
"Look at my memory!" Old Ma slapped her thigh and scurried into the house.
"Brother Ma, are you planning to weave a bamboo basket?"
"A schoolteacher knows this?" Old Ma looked quite shocked.
A few days ago, I learned that Chen Yun's parents were both educated people, and that they used to teach at a university. Old Ma thought that Chen Shu was just like that old scholar in the brigade, looking up at the sky with his eyes down, and couldn't even tell the difference between millet and wheat.
“Being a teacher is just a job, much like being a factory worker… Besides, I haven’t taught for a long time!” Chen Shu chuckled, then sat down and skillfully scraped the bamboo strips from Old Ma’s hand with the small knife in his hand: “I used to carry manure, and that bucket would leak after a while…”
"Let's go inside and put our things away, don't worry about your dad," Xu Cuihua said with a smile.
The neighbors in Taicheng were worried about being implicated, so they usually ignored the Chen family. Chen Shu hadn't had a proper chat with people his own age for many years.
Chen Yun felt a lump in her throat, and to avoid bursting into tears, she quickly rubbed her nose and followed Xu Cuihua into the house.
"The house is quite spacious...it's really nice."
The room was bright and clean, even the cloth covering the refrigerator was spotless white.
Xu Cuihua was unaware that these pieces of furniture had only been moved from the carport into her new home a few days ago, and the cloth used to cover the furniture had just been bought from the store yesterday.
So the house lacked a sense of home and looked overly tidy.
“Mom, you can paint here from now on.” Chen Yun first pulled Xu Cuihua to the window of the small bedroom: “When Gao Ming goes to the provincial capital, I will ask him to buy some brushes and ink on the black market for you to practice calligraphy.”
Xu Cuihua used to teach traditional Chinese painting in the Department of Fine Arts at Taicheng University. Chen Yun grew up surrounded by the fragrance of ink since she can remember. At that time, her family also collected many ancient paintings.
Unfortunately, all the paintings were burned or torn during the struggle sessions, and no more brushes or ink appeared in the house.
“From now on, you and Dad will sleep in this room.” Chen Yun paused, then, remembering how spacious her parents’ home was, she immediately smiled and wrinkled her nose: “It’s much smaller than ours, but you’ll have to make do.”
“The lighting in our house isn’t this good.” Xu Cuihua stroked the surface of the desk, finally settling on the brush holder in the upper left corner: “And the view isn’t this good either.”
For the first two years, those people boarded up the windows of our house with wooden strips, and the house was so dark that we could only light candles.
Unlike this house, which has a small courtyard outside the window that hasn't been tidied up yet, and family members who are always on my mind.
No house is as good as this one...
“Dad always says that we want to plant a lot of fig trees in our yard, which he loves to eat. Now that we have a yard, let Dad plant a few fig trees.”
"Your dad will be very busy then."
"hey-hey,"
"Little Chen," called out from the doorway as Old Ma went to get something, "Come and take a look."
Old Ma made two hats for Chen Yun to wear during her postpartum confinement, as well as two shawls, saying they were for blocking the wind during her confinement period.
"You have to take good care of yourself during your postpartum period, otherwise a lot of health problems will come out when you get old. Look at me..." Grandma Ma patted her shoulder and talked about her health problems with great enthusiasm.
Xu Cuihua also strongly agreed with this.
"My wrists hurt terribly whenever it rains. They were finally getting better... but they came back up again recently while I was washing diapers for my two kids," sighed Grandma Ma.
Xu Cuihua asked a few questions with concern.
Chen Yun was also worried that Xu Cuihua, who used to talk about ink grinding techniques all the time, wouldn't be able to get along with Old Ma.
It seems she was just overthinking it...
Years of hardship had changed Xu Cuihua completely. Coupled with her naturally gentle personality, she could easily win over Old Ma's face with just a few words.
"Mom, you're talking... I'll go cook some noodles." Gao Ming sat there for a long time, watching, and seeing that it was completely dark, he could only helplessly interject, "Just eat whatever you like tonight."
Gao Ming's interruption immediately shifted Ma Lao Niang's topic from her postpartum illness to the fact that the Chen family had a good son-in-law.
Seeing that the two were chatting amiably, Chen Yun pursed her lips and silently stood up to follow Gao Ming out of the room.
They set up a cement platform at the entrance for cooking, and later the factory added a person-high cupboard for each household.
There are also locks on the cupboards; each household just needs to buy a lock to lock it.
Gao Ming skillfully removed the honeycomb briquette lid to increase the heat, and then skillfully took out four large enamel bowls from the cupboard to put lard and chop scallions.
Seeing Chen Yun leaning against the door with nothing to do, he took out a small bamboo sieve from the cupboard: "Didn't you say you wanted to eat oranges yesterday?"
"Did you buy this this morning?"
“I saw oranges at the market and bought a few. You can give one to Dad to try.”
Chen Shu and Old Man Ma talked very intently about how they had been criticized and denounced in the past.
Relying on his history teacher's eloquence, he vividly described that thrilling experience, so much so that Old Man Ma was so shocked that he didn't even notice his cigarette holder had fallen out.
Chen Yun thought for two seconds, then put the basket on the table and leaned it back against the door frame.
"It was the right decision to bring my parents here."
They peeled the orange, broke off two segments, and popped them into their mouths. Then, they quickly stuffed two more segments into Gao Ming's mouth. The couple squinted their eyes at the same time because of the sour taste.
"The sales clerk at the vegetable market also said the oranges were sweet."
Chen Yun frowned, unwilling to waste it, and stuffed the remaining half into her mouth.
The old saying goes that sour foods indicate a boy and spicy foods indicate a girl. After Chen Yun became pregnant, she especially liked spicy food, but she couldn't touch any sour food at all. Gao Ming bet with Li Huguo more than once that the family would have more daughters.
Chen Yun was also curious about whether the old saying was accurate or not.
"You're back?"
Just as Chen Yun was about to bring the oranges inside, Ruanqiu and Li Huguo came down the stairs, and Chen Yun grabbed two more oranges and handed them over.
After greeting Mr. and Mrs. Chen, Ruanqiu peeled the orange.
"The oranges are quite sweet."
"It's so sour."
Chen Yun: "..."
The couple, one grimacing from the sourness, and the other smiling broadly as they ate, seemed to be eating completely different foods.
Li Huguo didn't believe it, so he snatched a petal from Ruanqiu's hand and put it in his mouth. As soon as it entered his mouth, he squinted his eyes because of the sour taste.
"Is there something wrong with your tongue?" Li Huguo asked.
“Some people can eat sour food and some people can eat sweet food. Everyone’s taste is different!” Ruanqiu glared at Li Huguo, but surprisingly, she wasn’t angry at all. “I’ve loved sour food since I was a child.”
Li Huguo clicked his tongue twice, then sidled up to Gao Ming to chat about work.
Chen Yun gave Ruan Qiu a wink, and when they got closer, she asked in a low voice, "Is something wrong?"
"No." She said that, but her eyes, narrowed into slits with a smile, didn't quite believe it. She continued, "It's just that my period hasn't come this month..."
Chen Yun immediately understood and was happy for Ruanqiu.
The two got married more than half a year earlier than Chen Yun. According to Ruan Qiu, the two had not used any contraception, but there had been no news for almost three years.
Chen Yun wanted to persuade the young couple to go to the hospital for a checkup, but Ruan Qiu felt it was too awkward to have a friend care about their sex life, so she put it off and more than half a year passed in the blink of an eye.
"Don't tell Li Huguo yet," Ruanqiu said mysteriously, winking.
Chen Yun raised an eyebrow and beckoned to her: "Let me take your pulse first, and then we'll go to the hospital for a test tomorrow."
"No need." Ruanqiu took an orange from the basket and tossed it into the air. "I'll come see you again next month."
Despite her relaxed demeanor, Ruanqiu was so nervous that she couldn't sleep for several days, fearing that she was just imagining things.
Otherwise, letting Chen Yun take his pulse would also be out of worry, which is essentially a kind of escapist mentality, thinking that he can delay it for one day at a time.
"It would be best to go to the hospital for a check-up in the next few days." Chen Yun was still uneasy and wanted to persuade him further.
Suddenly, a commotion arose again from the stairwell, and soon several people carrying bed boards approached.
"Dr. Zuo?"
Zuo Lingling, whose face was mostly hidden by the bed board, suddenly revealed her profile, and Chen Yun immediately exclaimed in surprise.
Zuo Lingling stopped and waited for the people carrying the bed board to pass before exclaiming in surprise.
"Dr. Chen."
"..."
Chen Yun quickly turned his head to look and indeed found that the person carrying the bed board was Gao Cheng. When he passed Li Huguo, he nodded with a forced smile as a greeting.
Li Huguo was promoted from an ordinary employee to deputy section chief, while Gao Cheng was promoted in the opposite way.
The two men's states of mind at this moment were probably worlds apart from their positions. The fact that Gao Cheng didn't show any coldness meant that he didn't regard Li Huguo as an enemy.
"You live next door to Aunt Ma's house?" Chen Yun asked.
“Exactly.” Zuo Lingling and Gao Cheng had completely opposite expressions. Zuo Lingling’s eyes curved into crescent moons as she smiled. “From now on, we’ll be neighbors.”
"What are you doing...?"
Chen Yun wanted to ask how Gao Cheng, who had been punished, could still be allocated a new two-bedroom apartment, but then she realized something.
Gao Cheng was demoted, but Zuo Lingling performed outstandingly in treating patients during the flood and had just received a raise two months prior.
"You want to know why you can live in such a nice house?" Zuo Lingling smiled and let go of her daughter's hand: "Let's go see our house first."
After Gao Xue happily ran into the house, he walked to Chen Yun's side, raised an eyebrow, and spoke.
"It's all thanks to me, and also because of my brother-in-law... that I got a good apartment." He then turned to Ruan Qiu and smiled: "Gao Cheng is Gao Cheng, and I'm me. Don't be distant, sister."
"Definitely not." Ruanqiu laughed: "We were neighbors for several months a few months ago, weren't we?"
Before the house was allocated, Zuo Lingling and her daughter also lived in the hospital office, and the three of them did live next door to each other for a full six months.
"Is it just your family of three moving in here?"
Chen Yun was a little surprised not to see Zuo Lingling's stepson, stepsister, and mother-in-law.
When the heavy rain came, Granny Gao left her daughter-in-law behind and took her two grandsons to Gao Cheng's office to take shelter. She not only took all the valuables but also carried away all the grain in the house.
Even though she hadn't eaten for a day and a night, Zuo Lingling didn't go to her mother-in-law to beg for mercy. Instead, she took her daughter to the hospital.
If things escalate to the point of complete breakdown, it's understandable that they wouldn't live under the same roof anymore.
"Look... here we come." Zuo Lingling leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, sneering as she raised her chin toward the stairwell: "It's not so easy to peel off a leech once it's stuck on."
No sooner had she finished speaking than Granny Gao, supported by a graceful young woman, walked over very slowly.
Granny Gao was a typical woman raised under feudal education. She wore a dark blue diagonal-fronted jacket with the buttons fastened up to her chin, and her hair was styled in a neat bun.
No wonder Zuo Lingling once jokingly referred to her stepson Gao Jianfeng as her eldest grandson. Chen Yun could almost picture the haughty look on Gao's face when she said that.
How can an eldest grandson and a granddaughter be on the same level...?
Gao Xiu, the granddaughter who was helping Granny Gao, had a pretty face, but her eyes were shifty and she shrank her body, giving off a petty and narrow-minded vibe.
"snort!"
As she passed Chen Yun, Granny Gao suddenly let out a cold snort.
It's impossible to know how much disgust was contained in that cold snort, but Gao Xiu's resentful glance was enough to show the attitude of the grandfather and grandson towards Chen Yun.
Do they hate themselves?
Chen Yun felt confused. She had no connection with Granny Gao at all, and if she remembered correctly, today should be the first time she had met her.
Soon, Zuo Lingling explained to Chen Yun why Granny Gao disliked Chen Yun.
"She thinks you're the one who led me astray."
Chen Yun: "..."
“I used to have a job, but people thought it was because of my elevation work. But now it’s different… I won’t need to rely on anyone anymore.”
This flood is the best proof that Zuo Lingling has already stepped into the ranks of real doctors. Chen Yun said that with a few more years of hard work, she will be able to handle basic medical conditions on her own without any problem.
Oxytetracycline hasn't appeared on her prescription slip for a very, very long time!
"Think about it, Gao Cheng's demotion didn't affect me at all. Dean Liu even let me participate in this year's outstanding individual selection..."
The meaning was already very clear even before the words were finished.
Previously, Liu Baoguo only hoped that Zuo Lingling would do nothing wrong, but now he has gradually acknowledged her obvious progress and is willing to give her more encouragement.
Zuo Lingling felt refreshed and invigorated, and recently Gao Cheng and his mother have not dared to provoke her at all.
"Before, you were afraid I'd stubbornly refuse to leave; now you're afraid I'll get a divorce!"
Chen Yun gave her a thumbs up and then handed her the bamboo basket, saying, "Keep up the good work, and from now on they'll all have to live at your mercy."
Zuo Lingling picked up an orange and raised an eyebrow at the two of them: "I believe that day will come soon."
"Dinner's ready." Gao Ming carefully brought the bowl closer, his face full of a smile. "Shall we talk more after you finish eating?"
"Looks like you've managed to make the men live at your mercy." Zuo Lingling patted Chen Yun's shoulder with a smile: "Look how scared Captain Gao... now you should call him Section Chief Gao, he's really become."
Gao Ming wasn't annoyed at all; he even nodded with a smile.
The group laughed and went home.
Gao Ming placed the noodles on the table, and only then did Chen Yun urge Chen Shu to wash his hands and eat.
"Brother Chen, I'll come and wake you up first thing tomorrow morning."
Before entering the house, Old Ma reluctantly reminded him that he hadn't had enough of chatting with Chen Shu yet.
"Dad, where are you and Uncle Ma going tomorrow?"
Chen Yun was happy that her parents made friends as soon as they arrived, but she didn't expect the two of them to agree to go out so soon.
"Old Ma said there's a reservoir nearby, and someone sells fish there." Chen Shu wiped the water off his hands, took the chopsticks, and said, "I'll buy some fish to make soup for you to nourish your body."
“The money is all in the drawer. You can take it from there if you need to spend money in the future,” Gao Ming immediately replied.
Chen Shu nodded and took a bite of noodles: "After you finish eating, put the money we brought into the drawer as well."
Xu Cuihua quickly put down her chopsticks and lifted the hem of her clothes: "Get me a pair of scissors. I sewed all the money inside before I left."
In his letter, the son-in-law said that this time he would take them to Panshui and they would not return to Taicheng. From now on, the elderly couple would live with their daughter's family. He also asked his comrade-in-arms to transfer their household registration to their daughter and son-in-law's.
Aside from the house and other belongings she couldn't take with her, which were all entrusted to Xiao Mu, all the money and banknotes were hidden in Xu Cuihua's clothes.
"Mom, Gao Ming and I have enough to live on, you..." Before Chen Yun could finish speaking, Chen Shu waved his hand at her: "We have our own savings, and we'll give this money to my grandson in the future."
“It’s not born yet! How can Dad be sure it’s a son?” Chen Yun laughed.
“I told you to read more books, but you wouldn’t. Don’t go out and say you’re my daughter, Chen Shu.” He shook his head and smiled helplessly. “Grandson doesn’t just refer to boys. Girls can be called grandsons too. If I wanted, I could even call her grandson-in-law.”
Gao Ming ate his noodles much faster instantly... Luckily, he didn't say it first.
"But you," Chen Shu pushed up his glasses, his tone serious, "you're not unhappy because you had a girl, are you?"
Gao Ming swallowed the noodles he hadn't even had time to chew, his throat bobbing, and repeatedly assured her, "I cherish my daughter even more. I'll make sure she becomes a doctor like Chen Yun in the future."
Chen Shu was satisfied and picked the fried egg out from the bottom of the bowl and put it into Chen Yun's bowl.
"You're carrying two babies now, so eat more."
"Dad, I already have two in my bowl." Chen Yun picked out two round fried eggs: "Too much supplementation is not good. In unofficial histories, there are always stories of women in the inner quarters framing their concubines by making them over-supplement, resulting in the baby being too big and causing a difficult birth."
Chen Shu frowned.
Then Chen Yun continued, "Besides, I delivered a baby last year whose fetus was too big and suffered from oxygen deprivation, so I wouldn't dare to eat anything recklessly."
Chen Shu frowned even more deeply.
The next moment, he took an egg from Chen Yun's bowl and put it into Gao Ming's bowl, and then took another one and put it into Xu Cuihua's bowl.
"Then you should eat less."
Chen Yun: "..."
Is this what they call going too far or not going far enough?
"Dad, you eat, I have some in my bowl." Gao Ming quickly picked it back: "I'll have to cook less in the future."
“Bring back a few cans of milk powder from the provincial capital in a few days.” Chen Shu didn’t refuse anymore, but then he thought of something else: “Before I left, I asked someone to exchange two milk powder coupons. Your comrade Xiao Mu also asked me to bring you some things, but we left in a hurry and didn’t have time to look at them.”
Then he stopped eating the noodles, put down his chopsticks, and started rummaging through the luggage he had brought.
Only Chen Yun and Gao Ming remained at the table, staring at each other in bewilderment.
The noodles had all been soaked and turned into pieces, but Chen Shu and Xu Cuihua didn't have time to eat. They started dragging their luggage bags to the table to check them.
The little clothes and hats I made for my grandson, the knitted sweater I crocheted for Chen Yun, and some cut-up old clothes that I'll use as diapers later.
Gao Ming has woolen pants and a pair of double-layered woolen gloves, which are both slip-resistant and keep his hands from freezing while driving in winter.
"..."
That night.
The lights in Building 10, Unit 10, stayed on very late.
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