Chapter 74 Cui Niang
"The older women are sewing quilts!"
The woman was very thin, almost skin and bones, with her collarbone protruding high from her neckline, and her face was so thin it was unrecognizable.
Looking at the two children, they also appeared to be malnourished.
"Isn't the New Year just around the corner?"
Dong Qiaoying was gentle by nature, and seeing Cui Niang looking at her as she spoke, she quickly replied with a smile.
"My name is Cui Niang, and I am Zhang He's wife."
The little girl that Cui Niang was holding timidly peeked at the group, seemingly drawn by the aroma of food wafting from the kitchen, her gaze frequently drifting towards it.
"Have the two kids not had breakfast yet?"
The Gao family disliked Zhang He, but had nothing to do with Cui Niang and the two children. Dong Qiaoying saw the little girl swallowing hard with hunger and quickly turned to call out, "Chen Yun..."
"Okay."
Without even checking if the medicinal oil in the wooden box had spilled, Chen Yun quickly closed the lid and went back to the kitchen to bring out a plate of steamed buns.
The little girl looked up at Cui Niang, and seeing her nod with a smile, she took the bun and smiled shyly, saying, "Thank you, Auntie."
"good."
Chen Yun offered another steamed bun to the boy with the sunken cheeks, but the boy, even after swallowing hard several times, still waved his hand and said, "Auntie, I don't want to eat it. Steamed buns are too expensive. You can keep them for yourselves."
"You're quite polite for such a young age." Aunt Luo was standing up to look for a thread when she took the bun and stuffed it into the boy's mouth. "If I didn't want you to eat, your Aunt Chen wouldn't have brought out so many."
Chen Yun smiled and nodded.
The boy's bewildered expression gradually softened, and he cautiously took a bite of the bun skin.
"This is my eldest son, Changhe, and my second daughter is named Qiuxing."
"Cui Niang hasn't had breakfast either, has she?" Chen Yun handed the plate to Cui Niang, gesturing, "You should have something to tide you over."
"No need," Cui Niang declined with a smile. "You can eat by yourself, I'm used to not eating breakfast."
Chen Yun stopped trying to persuade him, took the last one and put it in his mouth, then quickly squatted down to check the wooden box.
"Is that a drugstore item the girl is holding?"
Cui Niang's voice was very gentle, and her speech was slow and steady, like a gentle stream that could quickly calm people down.
Chen Yun had a good first impression of her. The clothes worn by the mother and her two children were patched up quite a bit, but they were very clean, and she seemed to be a capable person.
“My dad has bad knees, so I bought some medicinal wine from a doctor at our hospital yesterday.”
Quite a bit of the medicinal wine spilled out, and a strong smell of medicinal wine wafted from the wooden box.
“Speaking of medicinal wine, my family has a bottle of ancestral medicinal wine that I heard is especially effective for leg pain…” Cui Niang patted Zhang Changhe on the back of the head: “Go pour some for Aunt Chen. We can’t just eat her big bun for free.”
"Okay." Zhang Changhe shoved the last bite of the bun into his mouth and ran into the house.
"Does Sister Cui Niang know traditional Chinese medicine?"
As the mother and her two children approached, Chen Yun smelled the medicinal herbs. Only through years of processing medicinal herbs could the scent permeate their clothing.
“My grandfather was a barefoot doctor,” Cui Niang said with a gentle smile.
"No wonder the clothes smell of medicine."
"Is Ms. Chen a doctor?"
"Xiao Chen is the director of the Workers' Hospital, and also the director of two departments," Aunt Luo said with a smile, answering for Chen Yun.
Cui Niang's eyes suddenly lit up, like ripples spreading across a lake after a pebble has been thrown in.
Aunt Luo didn't have time to care what Cui Niang was thinking. She patted the small stool next to her and said, "Cui Niang, sit down quickly."
The rest of the gossip time belonged to Aunt Luo and Dong Qiaoying, and Chen Yun could hardly get a word in edgewise.
I picked up the porridge and had only taken two sips.
"Gao Nian'an, you have to go inside and do your homework before you can go out to play."
Gao Nian'an, who was as proud as a little rooster, suddenly looked defeated and hung his head, sighing as he put his schoolbag back on.
The father and daughter stepped over the threshold and into the yard.
"Not going to school today?" Chen Yun asked quickly, then, not seeing her little follower, she peeked towards the door: "Where's Nianping?"
"Li Shuaishuai's family is watching Uncle Li Er fight crickets." Gao Ming chuckled, gently pushing Gao Nian'an forward with his large hand: "The school's water pipes froze and burst, soaking the coal for heating. The school is closed today."
"Mother!"
Her original desire to go out and play vanished the moment she saw Chen Yun, and she rushed towards her mother, whom she hadn't seen for several days, shouting loudly.
If the neonatal department was operating smoothly, Chen Yun was so busy taking charge of the second obstetrics and gynecology department that she forgot about the days.
Weekends are no longer weekends; they've become time for coordinating work and organizing materials.
Since returning from Cao Chunjuan's home, Chen Yun has seen her two children's awake faces for almost a month.
The little cannonball happily rushed into her arms, making Chen Yun sway slightly. She hurriedly poured the last mouthful of porridge into her mouth.
Aren't you going to work today?
"Mom is off today."
Gao Ming chuckled and shook his head, then stepped forward to take the empty bowl, making it easier for Chen Yun to pick up her daughter.
"Mom, I miss you so much!"
"Mom, our classroom is so cold. It's much warmer at home."
"Grandma stewed pork ribs for us yesterday, and Nianping and I both ate a lot of them!"
"Your little brother misses you too, I'll go get him!"
After expressing her longing, she finally remembered her younger brother next door and hurriedly struggled to get out of bed.
Chen Yun shook her head and chuckled.
Meanwhile, Aunt Luo started with the two children and subtly got to the point.
Chen Yun simply sat down at the door, picking vegetables while listening intently to Cui Niang's reply.
"Did you know that Zhang He got married and had a child in the city?"
Cui Niang nodded.
"So you're still willing to be with him?" Aunt Luo paused, then seemed to rephrase it more tactfully: "Life in the city is better than in the countryside, but it depends on who you're with."
The implication is... don't think that moving to the city will bring you a good life; neither Aunt Liu nor Zhang He are reliable people.
Cui Niang turned around and glanced at the Zhang family's rooms.
Aunt Liu tidied up the mother and her sons into the house and then said she had to go out. Zhang He didn't show up at all.
The mother and her children not only missed breakfast, but they hadn't had a hot meal since noon yesterday.
“I know Zhang He is a scoundrel,” Cui Niang said softly, gently stroking her daughter’s dry, yellow hair with her palm. “But for the sake of my two children, I have no choice but to come to Beicheng to seek refuge with the Zhang family…”
When Zhang He returned to the city, his daughter was only two years old. From that time on, Cui Niang knew that her husband would never take her and her children into the city. So even though she didn't need a letter of introduction to enter the city, she never thought of bringing her children to the north city to find her father.
Until... a few months ago, Cui Niang's father wanted her to remarry, to a lame widower who loved to beat his wife.
Moreover, the widower had a fifteen-year-old son who leered at Zhang Qiuxing the day of the marriage proposal. Cui Niang immediately decided to take the two children to the county town to make a living.
Just two days before his departure, a childhood friend from the same village returned home for the Chinese New Year. He mentioned meeting Zhang He in Beicheng and learning that Zhang He had married a girl from the city.
"I've thought about it for days. I can't let my two children suffer the same fate as me. The only chance to change their destiny is to go to the city!" Cui Niang sneered.
So she took a desperate gamble and led the children into the city to find their father, but... not to reunite with Zhang He.
“I found Zhang He’s second wife’s house at the address given to me by my fellow villager. If Zhang He doesn’t register the two children’s household registration in Beicheng, I will go to the police station to report him for bigamy.”
Cui Niang and Zhang He are a legally married couple, so if they take their marriage certificate to the police station, they can easily file a complaint.
The Cao family already wanted Cao Chunjuan to divorce Zhang He, and now they had an even better chance.
"The Cao family are good people. They were afraid that the Zhang family would turn their backs on us if we divorced first, so they forced us to register the two children's household registration under Zhang He's name first. During this period, the house where my mother and I lived was found by them!"
Aunt Luo's eyes nearly popped out of her head; it was the first time she had ever heard of a second daughter-in-law finding a house for the first.
Dong Qiaoying asked curiously, "Zhang He just agreed to the divorce like that?"
“The Cao family said they gave Zhang He 10,000 yuan,” Cui Niang said.
"Ten thousand!"
That explains why Zhang He went to such lengths to get money from the Cao family; the Cao family... is truly wealthy.
Chen Yun nudged Gao Ming with his elbow and asked in a voice barely louder than a mosquito flapping its wings, "Do you think this money... came from a legitimate source?"
Gao Ming shrugged.
He wasn't interested in these trivial family matters. Seeing that Chen Yun had been shaking the vegetable in her hand for a long time without picking it off, he simply snatched it and took the vegetable basket to the kitchen.
Cui Niang caught all the couple's subtle movements, her eyes flickering almost imperceptibly before she continued her story.
Zhang He happily took the money, got a divorce, and left. As for Cui Niang, he called over Aunt Liu to take her home.
"Zhang He and I actually got a divorce certificate!" Cui Niang then dropped an even more shocking bombshell.
Dong Qiaoying exclaimed in surprise: "Then why did you come to live in Guanming Hutong with Aunt Liu?"
“Zhang He and I signed… what Comrade Cao Chunjuan called a divorce agreement! Zhang He will give us, the three of us, fifty yuan a month for living expenses and provide us with a room to live in until Changhe turns eighteen!”
Cui Niang never expected that Cao Chunjuan would be the one to help her the most in the end.
In short, thanks to her help in coming up with ideas, the mother and her two children finally found a place to stay.
"Your situation is far too complicated..."
They were living in the same courtyard, yet they weren't divorced... so they got a divorce certificate.
The two generations present naturally had two opposing views.
Dong Qiaoying and Aunt Luo felt that Cui Niang was too stubborn. Since Zhang He and Cao Chunjuan had already divorced, she should just make do and live together, even if it was for the sake of the two children.
If Zhang He remarries in the future, Cui Niang's situation will become very awkward.
Chen Yun believes that beneath Cui Niang's gentle exterior lies immense resilience, and that it's better to work hard happily than to feign friendship with a scumbag.
"Fifty yuan is enough for you and your child to live on right now. What do you plan to do after your child turns eighteen?" Chen Yun asked.
Cui Niang smiled and said, "A living person can't be killed by holding in their pee."
"We still need to find a way to save more money." Dong Qiaoying was soft-hearted, so she stopped sewing the quilt and focused on figuring out how to help Cui Niang.
Then... she thought of Gao Lan.
"Our restaurant in Gaolan is looking for a waiter/waitress to wash dishes and serve food. Would you like to do it?"
"Mom!" Chen Yun reacted and tried to stop her, but before she could, Cui Niang nodded repeatedly: "Auntie, I'm willing. I'll do anything, even washing dishes and clothes."
"Okay, I'll talk to Gao Lan about it later." Dong Qiaoying smiled, then turned to Chen Yun and asked, "What's wrong?"
"I'm asking if you're cooking lunch?"
"We'll make do with the leftover rice from last night, and cook some fresh rice tonight." Dong Qiaoying answered hurriedly, then quickly turned around and pulled Cui Niang aside to ask her all sorts of questions.
Chen Yun stepped into the kitchen with a sense of helplessness.
"What's the matter?"
"What do you think of Cui Niang?" Chen Yun asked.
"How can you judge a person's character from the first meeting?" Gao Ming said, pouring the freshly picked vegetables into the bowl. "But don't forget who they are."
Chen Yun was taken aback, then chuckled softly.
Dong Qiaoying introduced Cui Niang to Gao Lan Restaurant instead of Gao Ming Company because she knew her daughter wasn't the type to suffer losses.
"Let's not talk about her." Gao Ming suddenly turned around, leaned close to Chen Yun, and blinked hard: "I have two good news for you."
"What good news?"
"Mother!"
"Mom, where are you...?"
The conversation was interrupted by the two children as soon as it began, and Gao Ming helplessly continued picking vegetables, swallowing back the words that were about to come out.
Gao Nianping hugged Chen Yun and cried sadly, refusing to get down from her mother's arms.
"Dad is going to kill the fish, let's go help."
While the mother and her two children were whispering intimately, Gao Ming had already finished picking the vegetables and then scooped out several grayish-brown crucian carp from the basin.
Seeing this, Chen Yun quickly led her two children to follow.
They called it helping, but actually they were just curious about the surprise that Gao Ming hadn't finished telling them.
The whole family followed each other to the well, all sticking together in a clingy manner.
"They're installing water pipes in the alley in a few days. How about we pay for one to go into the kitchen?"
Everyone in the courtyard relied on this well for their lives. During washing and cooking times, it was so crowded that it was impossible to squeeze around the well. Gao Ming would wash his clothes first after buying groceries to avoid being crowded with people at mealtimes.
"You can discuss it with Dad."
Chen Yun didn't even know when the drainage pipes were notified. She was more concerned about another issue: "The water pipes have been installed, when will the sewage pipes be installed?"
This involves two issues that are causing Chen Yun a great deal of trouble.
Going to the toilet and taking a shower.
Emptying the spittoon is a bit of a hassle, but I can tolerate it. Taking a bath is a real hassle.
In the summer, we would shower indoors, and after four people finished, the room would be almost flooded. In the winter, we could only go to the public bathhouse and squeeze in with a large group of middle-aged women who would look us up and down endlessly.
Chen Yun has been taking showers in the hospital dormitory before going back home lately, because she really doesn't want to be "naked" with the older women anymore.
"No news," Gao Ming replied.
The siblings were shoving each other over Chen Yun's knees. Just as Chen Yun was about to be pushed off the small stool, they had a sudden idea and quickly said, "Mom will give you two cents each. You can go with Li Shuaishuai to the alley entrance to buy candy."
"Aren't you going to work today?" Gao Nian'an asked nervously.
"Everyone's home today!"
"Alright then." Gao Nian'an got off the ground and stood up first, then waved to Gao Nianping: "Little brother, let's go buy some candy and come back later."
After tidying up her disheveled clothes, Chen Yun finally found a chance to ask about the good news she hadn't been able to say earlier.
"I have two pieces of good news. Which one would you like to hear?"
"I want to hear everything." Chen Yun moved her small stool closer to the dish, but Gao Ming gently pushed her hand back as soon as she reached out: "Your hands will freeze."
In winter, well water is almost like it's been in a refrigerator; your hands will turn bright red in just a few minutes.
Chen Yun chuckled twice and quickly put her right hand into the water: "Let's wash quickly, both of us."
To the onlookers at the Gao family's door, Gao Ming and Chen Yun appeared to be flirting.
The two leaned on each other's shoulders, chatting and laughing sweetly.
"Ming and Erming have such a good relationship, look at them," Aunt Luo said with a smile.
Dong Qiaoying glanced over there, smiled and shook her head: "It's Erming's good fortune to be able to marry Nian'an's mother."
“It’s a good thing that the mother-in-law thinks this way! Don’t listen to other people’s gossip and think that Erming is capable and Xiao Chen is not good enough for him.”
Aunt Luo's words had a hidden meaning, and Dong Qiaoying could easily understand it.
Living in the same alley means there are no secrets; if even one outsider knows, the news will quickly spread throughout the alley.
It's no secret in Guanming Hutong that Gao Ming runs a company and is a boss.
Some gossipy people were secretly speculating about when Gao Ming would dump Chen Yun and get together with someone else, and a lot of rumors even reached Gao Tiejun and his wife.
"Those gossipers better not get sick, or they'll know how formidable Nian'an's mother is!" Dong Qiaoying said, pursing her lips.
Cui Niang, who was helping to sew the quilt, looked up at the well.
"Really!" Chen Yun grabbed the cold hand in the water and asked again in disbelief, "You mean Grandma Ma and Sister Qiuju's family are coming to Beicheng?"
"Would I lie to you?" Gao Ming laughed.
Not only are Ma Zhigang and Hu Gangtie bringing their families to Beicheng, but Su Weiming from the Hongri Machinery Factory's motorcade is also bringing his wife and children to Beicheng.
"They all work at your company?" Chen Yun guessed the reason in an instant.
“The company has opened a new route and needs quite a few people.” Gao Ming lifted Chen Yun’s hand and shook off the water. “Once we’re settled, let’s go to Gao Lan Restaurant for a get-together and take a look at the company while we’re at it.”
"Speaking of which, I've never been to the company before. I hope your employees don't think you're still single."
"If you don't come to the company soon, people will start spreading rumors that I'm an old bachelor!"
"I'll go next week when I have time off, and I'll definitely help you clear your name."
The couple's eyes met in the air; one chuckled softly, while the other winked mischievously.
"And there's more good news?" Chen Yun pressed.
"Let's go house hunting this afternoon."
"Looking at houses?" Chen Yun lowered her voice even further: "When did you buy a house?"
"The last order was settled by the other party's boss with a house. I saw that the house was quite close to your workplace, so I agreed."
Moreover, Gao Ming had something weighing on his mind.
Before coming to Beicheng, I promised my wife that we would buy a house and move out to live separately. I can't let the promise go back on its word just because we're separating.
"Have you ever considered moving out?"
clever:"……"
"We'll talk about moving out later. We still need to go see a house, and then I'll go to my parents' place."
Chen Shu and Xu Cuihua have only had time to rest after a month and a half since they moved into their new home. Even though Gao Ming didn't mention the new house today, Chen Yun still planned to visit her parents this afternoon.
"Then I'll go with you this afternoon."
"After you've seen the house, go back to work. We'll talk about my parents when you have time."
"Mother."
The shouts grew louder as they approached, and Gao Ming quickly stopped chatting and pushed Chen Yun to a dry place.
Gao Nian'an, holding a colorful paper windmill, led his two younger brothers, who followed him around like little shadows, happily running into the courtyard.
"Why did you buy a windmill?"
“We didn’t buy it; it was a gift from Aunt Ma.”
Three children held up windmills and circled around Chen Yun, the windmills spinning around and around.
Gradually, the figure of the person entering the door became clearer.
"Cuifen".
"Sister Chen Yun."
Ma Cuifen took two quick steps, opened her arms, and gave Chen Yun a big hug.
The man behind her smiled and handed the fruit to Gao Ming, then greeted him warmly as well.
"Hello, Brother Gaoming. Hello, Sister-in-law."
Ma Cuifen is still the same Ma Cuifen, but her partner... seems to be a different person.
Chen Yun remembered that the young man she brought back to the machinery factory two years ago wore glasses, but the one in front of her... was a bit too trendy.
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