There were three woven bags in front of my grandfather. The smallest one contained ropes, the larger ones contained beads, and the largest one contained strung beads.
It looked like a bracelet, and the old man's movements were quite skillful. But when he saw someone coming, his dark and skinny hands stopped moving.
"Grandpa, I've brought my wife and children to see you. This is Xiangjuan, this is my daughter Guagua, whose full name is Zhou Yipei, and this is my youngest son Niu Niu, whose full name is Zhou Yilan." When Zhou Chengning saw his grandfather, a bright smile unconsciously appeared on his face, and he hurriedly introduced his family to his grandfather.
"Hello Grandpa, Guagua, call me great-grandpa." Xu Xiangjuan greeted Grandpa and reminded Guagua at the same time.
Before leaving, she told Guagua that he was great-grandfather, for fear that Guagua would follow her and Aning and call him grandpa.
Guaguanuonuo called out "great-grandfather".
"You're back. I'm glad that little Chengning is back. Guagua, right? Grandpa will get you some candied melon." The old man stood up, washed his hands and left.
Xu Xiangjuan always felt that there were tears in the old man's eyes.
Not knowing what this family had gone through, Xu Xiangjuan held Niu Niu in her arms without saying anything.
Guagua was not willing to be lonely, "Mom, what is a sugar melon? Is it also candy?"
"Well, Grandpa gave it to you, so just eat it. Don't say anything, understand?"
"Know."
"Aning, pour the fish soup and take the enamel pot home." She brought the enamel pot from her mother's house. It was just the right size. If she didn't return it, her mother would scold her.
Zhou Chengning no longer held Gua Gua's hand. He raised his empty hand to wipe the corners of his eyes, said "okay", and went to the thatched hut to pour fish soup.
"Mom, Dad is crying."
"Your father is not crying, he just has sand in his eyes."
Guagua didn’t ask whether his father was crying or had sand in his eyes, but asked his mother what the candy melon tasted like.
Of course sugar melon is sweet, Xu Xiangjuan replied.
Seeing that Zhou Chengning hadn't come out for a while, Xu Xiangjuan went in to check and said, "Just pour it in two bowls... Grandpa, there are only two bowls here?"
When Xu Xiangjuan came, she found the thatched cottage incredibly shabby. Now that she was inside, she could not believe what she saw.
It was a simple wooden bed with the quilt on it not even covered, so the blackened quilt core could be seen directly. The old man folded the quilt neatly, indicating that he would put it out to dry in the sun. The quilt was made of cotton core from decades ago.
The pillow was a buckwheat husk pillow. The room was in full view and there was no stove. I guess cooking was done on an old stove with a small iron pot next to the door.
There was no table in the room, but there were two large wooden boxes. One of the boxes was used as a table and was filled with dishes and chopsticks, two coarse pottery bowls, one of which had a chip on it, a small vegetable bowl filled with pickles, and a ladle. Next to the wooden box that served as the table was a small stool. In the corner were two woven bags, one large and one small, which seemed to contain clothes or quilts.
"When I was a child, my parents didn't let me go to school. They wouldn't let me study even after I finished my work. I liked to come to my grandfather's place. My grandfather taught me to read and write and enlightened me. Later, when I wanted to go to high school, it was also my grandfather who supported me and wrote a letter to my aunt. My parents let me go, but after I graduated from college, my parents didn't let me... Anyway, I came back, but I didn't go home. My grandfather was also heartbroken by my parents and asked me not to come back here, but I know that my grandfather wanted me to come back to see him."
Xu Xiangjuan listened to Zhou Chengning's words and didn't say much. She just asked about Grandpa's whereabouts, "Did Grandpa go to the next door to get some sugar melon?"
Zhou Chengning: "Yes, grandpa has nowhere else to go."
He handed the awakened Niu Niu to Zhou Chengning, "You haven't come back yet, have you been stopped? Come, hold Niu Niu like this while I go meet my parents-in-law or my younger brothers and sisters."
Xu Xiangjuan went out. When Guagua, with his short legs, saw his mother going out, he took steps to catch up with her.
Zhou Chengning was at a loss as soon as he held the soft Niu Niu in his arms, but his lover had already gone out, so he could only bite the bullet and hold Niu Niu in his arms and follow.
As soon as Xu Xiangjuan entered the yard, she heard Zhou Xiaomei's sarcasm towards her grandfather, "Grandpa, my eldest sister-in-law's family is very rich. My brother eats and lives by her side. He doesn't want our candy melons. Don't take them to embarrass yourself."
Xu Xiangjuan is not someone who will suffer a loss. "My family is rich, but not as rich as yours. Look at this yard. Wow, it's really luxurious. Why do you live in the big yard and grandpa lives in the small thatched house next to it?"
Grandpa already had two pieces of candy in his hands, but was stopped by his younger sister and younger brother Zhou who were at home.
Of course grandpa had to give the candy melon to his great-granddaughter, but he couldn’t give it away for free, especially since grandpa said the candy melon was for his little great-granddaughter.
Little great-granddaughter, Zhou Xiaodi just got married, Zhou Xiaomei is not married, where does the great-granddaughter come from? It's the cowardly big brother's family.
The whole family had witnessed Xu Xiangjuan's fierceness before, and it was impossible to reason with her.
Zhou Xiaodi's wife was quite quiet. She was cooking pig food. Their family also raised pigs. After she got married, all the work in the yard was handed over to her, and she did all of it.
Younger Brother Zhou: "Grandpa wanted to live in a thatched house himself, and he has lived there for 20 to 30 years. Why doesn't he want to live in a nice yard like ours?"
"Look at what I said. Of course I am happy. I didn't say I couldn't let you stay. Look at me, I'm just talking nonsense here. Why don't you let me and my daughter go in as guests? My daughter loves to eat at her age. She always complains that she is not full. Guagua, let's go in. There are delicious foods at my uncle and aunt's house. You don't have any little cousins yet, so all the delicious foods at your grandparents' house are yours."
Guagua is still young, and no matter how sensible he is, he is still limited by his age. When he heard about delicious food, he naturally cooperated with his mother and asked, "Are they all mine?"
"They are all from our family."
"I want to eat delicious fruits." Gua Gua has already set his eyes on the jujube tree in the yard.
"Aning, I'll hold Niu Niu later, and you can get a bowl of dates for Gua Gua to take home, as well as some candied melons. Don't just say one or two, we can even take a bag of them home when our parents come back. What do you think, little brother and sister?"
"Gua Gua, dad will give you as much as you want to eat." It was a rare occasion that Zhou Chengning showed his toughness in front of his younger brothers and sisters.
He would not curse at others, and out of filial piety he had always given in to his younger brothers and sisters. This time he finally got rid of his anger.
When the best meet the worst, the result is that Xu Xiangjuan and her family were angrily driven away by Zhou's younger brother and sister.
"Give melon, sugar melon."
Grandpa Zhou remained silent. He didn't want to make things too awkward, so he just let his grandchildren talk him down. Unexpectedly, they became more and more outrageous. This pair of grandchildren was completely ruined for him.
Back home, sitting on a small stool, the old man spread the sugar melon in his calloused palms.
Guagua stretched out his chubby little hands to take two candies, "Thank you, great grandfather."
Guagua’s hands are not very white, they were exposed to the sun, but even so, the contrast between the baby’s hands and the old man’s hands is still very obvious.
The baby's hands were chubby, but the old man's hands were dark and skinny. Xu Xiangjuan, who had already brought Niu Niu back, saw this scene and turned her eyes away while holding Niu Niu.
She had experienced the separation of life and death, but when she thought of the old man... Well, everyone will die, and she died once.
Guagua still remembered what her father had said about reciprocity, so she took out the remaining candy from her pocket and handed it to her great grandfather, "Great grandfather, candy."
"Guagua is such a good boy." Grandpa Zhou smiled kindly, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes became deeper.
Next, Zhou Chengning chatted with his grandfather. Xu Xiangjuan only interrupted occasionally, while Guagua licked the candy melon.
Seeing Guagua staring at the bracelet and trying to take it, Xu Xiangjuan stopped him and asked, "Master, where did you get this bracelet and how much do you charge?"
"My younger brother and sister's parents found this job for me. I'm too old to work in the fields. I get 1 cent for 50 strings of rice."
"Grandpa, you don't have to work so hard. Take a break once in a while." Xu Xiangjuan had never done this job before and didn't know how much it earned, but it was obvious that she was losing money at one cent for every 50 strings.
But what he said could only be put there, and the younger generations couldn't say anything else. Grandpa was not senile and he knew everything clearly.
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