Chapter 226
In front of the guests, Jiang's father couldn't say anything, so he took his cousins to other rooms. Beds were already placed in each room. When Jiang's father was in Shenzhen, there was a flood in his hometown. Uncle Jiang was idle at home and asked Jiang's father if he wanted him to make beds and cabinets. He happened to be idle at home and could help him: "Otherwise, such a big and good house will be left there empty and no one will live in it. It will be abandoned in two years."
Because of the flood this year, all the surrounding plants were drowned. If you want to plant any tree or flower seedlings, you have to go back to the mountain to dig them up or buy them.
So during that time, Uncle Jiang completed the installation of the bed and cabinets in Father Jiang's house. Now all they had to do was put on the quilts and sheets.
The family makes new quilts every year because Jiang Hongbing, Jiang Jun, Jiang Song, and Jiang Bai from the Jiang family are all at an age where they can bring their partners home to get married at any time. Especially this year, Jiang Ning brought her partner home. Jiang's aunt and her family think that Ning Ning will be able to get married after graduating from college, so they have to prepare a big quilt for her as a dowry.
Families in rural areas who value girls would usually give a dowry of eight quilts weighing 8 to 10 kilograms. Even the least they could give was two large thick quilts.
Starting from a few years ago, my aunt has been planting cotton every year, and now all the cotton has been turned into quilts.
When Aunt Jiang's wife was making the quilt, she helped Father Jiang's family collect cotton and make the quilt.
After the Jiang family built the cabinet, Aunt Jiang put brand new quilts in the top cabinet after drying them in the sun. When guests came to sleep, they just had to take out the new quilts.
It is impossible to sleep on a big new quilt used for a wedding, but it is possible to sleep on it by putting straw and an old quilt underneath and covering yourself with the new quilt between the sheets.
Such a quilt is big and warm, and no one will find it rude.
Why would you need a bicycle when you have such a big and nice house to live in?
Dad Jiang wanted to show off, but Mom Jiang felt sorry for the new bed sheets she brought back from Shenzhen.
The wholesale prices of clothing and four-piece suits in Shenzhen are very low. Jiang's mother bought four sets wholesale and brought them back. She originally planned to keep one set for her room and one set for her eldest son's room. However, her little girl directly put the set she gave to her eldest son on her own bed.
Jiang's mother wanted to get angry at that time, but thinking that she had made it now and that her eldest brother might still rely on her in the future, she swallowed her anger and silently agreed to her using new sheets. When she came back this year, she bought four new ones. In addition to the original two new ones, she now has six new ones. When the eldest son and the youngest son get married, they will give two sets. Jiang Ning will also have to give two sets of quilts and sheets as a dowry when she gets married.
Jiang Song's room was furnished with new bedding and sheets. Because Jiang Ning had a history of taking Jiang Song's bedding from his room to sleep in her own room, she now locked Jiang Song's room tightly and didn't allow anyone in.
This is the eldest son’s wife, how can anyone just sleep with her?
Of course, she couldn't bring new sheets for the guests to sleep on, so she took the old sheets that she had washed and put away.
After settling the relatives, Jiang's father came to Jiang Ning's room, wanting to have a heart-to-heart talk with her.
Jiang Ning lay on the bed, looking at the night scene outside the window.
The moonlight shines on the thick snow, bringing some light to the rural night, making it no longer pitch dark.
Jiang's father said: "Actually, they like you, that's why they want to sleep with you."
Jiang Ning glanced at Jiang's father, "Have you asked me whether I agree or not, whether I like it or not? Why do you agree on my behalf and transfer my rights to someone else?"
Father Jiang was stunned for a moment. He had never thought about this question before, as if he had tacitly accepted that everything about his children was at the disposal of their parents.
Jiang's father said, "Then how about this, next time if you don't want to, I won't do it, okay?" He said dejectedly, "It's really not a big deal, isn't it just sleeping in your room? Those cousins want to sleep with you because they like you."
Dad Jiang really didn't know why his daughter would make such a fuss and get angry over such a small matter.
Jiang Ning was speechless and asked Jiang's father: "They said they like me and want to sleep with me, so I have to sleep with them? Have you asked me if I am willing? Why do you make decisions for me and agree for me?" Jiang Ning knew that if she said this, Jiang's father would not be able to empathize with her. Jiang Ning asked: "If my cousin said he likes your phone, would you be happy if I gave it to him?"
Father Jiang immediately frowned and said in disapproval, "How can that be possible? It's ok to borrow it to make calls, but how can you give it away when it's so expensive?" He frowned and said, "I'm not giving your room away, I just want to borrow it to sleep for a while, what's wrong with that?"
Jiang Ning felt that communicating with Jiang's father was really tiring and she didn't want to talk to him anymore.
She lay on the bed, looked at Jiang's father and said with a smile: "Dad, you go out, I'm going to sleep."
Dad Jiang was also very depressed. He really thought it was just a very small matter.
Jiang Ning became depressed quickly, but also let it go quickly, because she didn't consider this place as her home. She had no expectations in her heart and only considered herself as a guest and a passerby. The depression in her heart suddenly dissipated.
Why was she angry with them? They were born and raised here, and their values are deeply rooted and cannot be changed. They have formed their own logic. This is actually a collision of different values between two generations.
Jiang Ning felt that she was very lucky to be born in this era.
This is the best era in history and the most inclusive era for women. Although there is still a long way to go and we need to continue to work hard, this is a hopeful era.
Jiang Ning opened his eyes, with many thoughts in his mind.
After hanging up the phone, Song Peifeng, who was in Wucheng, took a piece of paper and simply wrote that he was going to play with friends and would be back tomorrow. He put it next to the phone, picked up the long down jacket hanging on the wall, tied a scarf around his neck, picked up some gifts, took a flashlight from the drawer, and hurried out.
It was already late at night. There were many tricycles in Wucheng, but few taxis. He stood on the roadside and made a phone call in a telephone booth. Soon someone called a taxi over.
The taxi driver was very talkative. Seeing that he was still going to Tan Shan so late, he smiled and asked him, "Why are you going to Tan Shan so late? Are you going to see your girlfriend?"
Song Peifeng smiled but said nothing. The taxi driver drove the car while saying, "Alas, when I was young, I was just like you. In order to meet my girlfriend, I rode for several hours to Wucheng. There were no cars at that time..."
Talking about his youth and his wife, the taxi driver seemed to recall the past and said: "Only when I was young did I have such drive, willing to ride for several hours just to see someone! Now I can't ride anymore!"
He looked at the calm expression on Song Peifeng's handsome young face and said teasingly: "I can't believe you are so handsome and passionate..."
The truth is, Song Peifeng doesn't look like the kind of person who would impulsively run out to look for his partner late at night.
However, Song Peifeng thought of what Jiang Ning said on the phone: "I miss you, I want you to be by my side immediately."
An impulse arose in his heart at that moment, and he immediately came to her side.
He thought about it and did it.
This is certainly impulsive, but who isn’t frivolous when young?
Below the Tanshan Mountain is the embankment road section. Taxis cannot go down or drive, so he has to rely on his own legs to walk.
Song Peifeng had never walked this road, but he had vaguely seen it in the flood in June and July.
When Jiang Ning and the others arrived at Tanshan, they stood on the high mountain and looked at the mountain on the other side of the river and the village beside the mountain. They pointed at the village over there and said, "See? Follow this dam straight ahead, and the largest village on the other side of the river is our Jiangjia Village."
The taxi driver saw him carrying the bag and holding a flashlight, and asked him with some concern: "Can you do it alone?"
Song Peifeng made the snow crackle under his feet and waved to the taxi driver with a smile. The taxi driver did not rush to leave, but turned on the headlights to light the way for Song Peifeng for a long time. Only when he thought that Song Peifeng had left and he could no longer see him did he turn around and go back to Wucheng.
After all, it was his brother-in-law who called him personally to ask him to deliver the item.
It was the first time that Song Peifeng walked along this section of the embankment, but what he was thinking about was Jiang Ning walking along this section of the embankment day after day for years, going to and from school every morning and evening.
Jiang Ning said that she has been running to and from school like this since she was in junior high school. Because she had to read early in the morning, she would usually start running with a flashlight while it was still pitch dark. On rainy or snowy days, she sometimes even had to wade across a river.
As he walked along the embankment where Jiang Ning was walking, he seemed to be meeting the thirteen or fourteen-year-old Jiang Ning in some time and space.
He was walking the path she had walked countless times.
So even though the road was pitch black and the winter wind was freezing, he never felt afraid or retreated. He just felt warm all over and wanted to walk to her side.
He looked at the lights on the other side of the river that had not yet completely gone out, and his eyes became a little warmer, but it was really cold. He went out without wearing gloves, and his fingers holding the New Year gifts were frozen red.
When they reached the ferry, he put down the gift, cupped his palms into a trumpet shape, and imitated what Jiang Ning had said: when they came back at night and it was very dark, the other side couldn't see the people on this side, so they shouted, "Ferry~!"
Shout a few times and the people on the other side will hear you and pull the ferry over to take you across the river. If the ferryman on the other side is asleep, it doesn’t matter. You can use a rope to pull the ferry over and then pull the ferry across the river yourself.
Because there are people who go to the charcoal mountain on the opposite bank to drill coal holes and dig coal all year round, leaving early and returning late. Those coal miners have long been accustomed to the ferrymen sleeping at night, and they have to do the work of providing for themselves.
Fortunately, Song Peifeng was lucky. When he shouted for the fifth time, a voice came from the other side of the river: "Here they come! Here they come~!"
The ferryman is not always sound asleep. Usually when someone shouts "ferryman is here", it is usually young students or people who go out to work and come back in the middle of the night. These days, there are often midnight trains coming back and people coming to ferry people in the middle of the night.
He would also listen to the accent. If someone like Song Peifeng spoke standard Mandarin with a slight Wucheng accent, the ferryman would know that he must be an outsider who couldn't pull the boat by himself, so he would quickly get up and pull the boat to the other side to pick up the person.
Even though he couldn't see his face in the dark, he could still tell from his tall and straight figure that he was a very energetic young man. The ferryman chatted with him while pulling the boat: "Where are you going? Why are you here so late?"
He didn't think Song Peifeng was a bad person. Judging from Song Peifeng's temperament, he didn't think he was a bad person.
Song Peifeng also responded with a smile: "Go find my boyfriend."
The ferryman laughed, "I knew it! Only young people like you are so enthusiastic. Luckily it didn't rain, and the snow on the road has frozen, so the road is not difficult to walk on. Otherwise, you would be covered in mud and you wouldn't even be able to see your partner!"
Then he asked, "Which village are you going to? Who is your date? Maybe I know him or her!"
The ferrymen are a middle-aged couple from Xujia Village. The ferryman used to be an old man, but now it is their young son's turn to ferry people across the river.
Song Peifeng didn't say anything, but his eyes looked towards Jiangjia Village.
The ferryman couple stays in this deserted place all year round. The only things that keep them company are an old buffalo, a few chickens and ducks. Their favorite thing in daily life is to chat with all kinds of people passing through. There is nothing gossip in the surrounding villages that they don't know.
Song Peifeng sat on the small ferry and felt again the feeling of ferrying that Jiang Ning had described.
As for ferrying, people who have watched the movie "Border Town" by Shen Congwen may have a beautiful imagination about ferrying, thinking of the boatman ferring the young girl Cuicui.
The boat swayed across the river, and Song Peifeng climbed up along the snowy path that had been trampled by people.
The ferryman held the bamboo pole and said, "Slow down, slow down, when you slide down, grab some wormwood to help you slide down!"
Both sides of the embankment were covered with tall wormwood and wolfberries with all their leaves fallen off. In the dark night, only the light from the flashlight in his hand could penetrate the deep wormwood.
I don't know when, but a light snow fell again.
Since it was the first time for Song Peifeng to walk on such a snowy road, he slipped several times because he was not familiar with the road conditions. Fortunately, he did not fall. Even the most embarrassing time, he was blocked by wormwood that was taller than a person, so he did not have to worry about rolling down the trapezoidal embankment.
There is a fork in the road halfway, one side leads to Xujia Village, and the other side leads to Jiangjia Village. But from here, you are already very close to Jiangjia Village. Walk forward for more than 200 meters and you will reach the hydropower station of Jiangjia Village. After crossing a rice field that has been abandoned this year, Jiang Ning's home is across the ditch.
After receiving Jiang Ning's call in the evening, he immediately got up and rushed over. He drove for nearly three hours and walked for another hour and a half. When he arrived under Jiang Ning's window, it was already past ten o'clock in the evening.
The light in Jiang Ning's room was still on. She went to bed at 10:30 every night and would read for another half an hour before going to bed.
The last time Song Peifeng followed Jiang Ning to Songjia Village, he was brought back by Jiang Ning, and she also told him which was her room. At this moment, he looked at the lights so close, and the chill brought by the wind and snow seemed to be dispelled by this warm yellow light.
He shone his flashlight on her window several times.
When it flashed for the first time, Jiang Ning thought it was some curious young man holding a flashlight and shining it into her house. But the light kept flashing in front of her window, especially after she deliberately turned off the lights. The light was still flashing in front of her window. Jiang Ning felt something was wrong. Even if it was a thief, there would be no thief who would commit a crime so early in the morning.
She couldn't help but put on her down coat and open the window to see which blind thief was not sleeping so late. She shone the flashlight at her window. As soon as she opened the window, she saw a young man holding a flashlight and waving at her in the moonlight and snow.
She couldn't see his expression clearly, but she knew he must be smiling.
Because she was laughing too.
She burst out laughing and immediately turned around and ran downstairs. Because her slippers had foam soles and were not non-slip, she almost slipped and fell when she walked down the waterproof steps in the corridor. Song Peifeng who came over caught her.
"Comrade Xiao Song!" She was as happy as a 17 or 18-year-old girl in love. She hugged Song Peifeng who was hugging her, stretched out her hands very swiftly and jumped onto him. Her whole body then hung lightly on him. She wrapped her arms around his waist in an extremely ambiguous posture, held his face, and kissed him very passionately.
Jiang Ning had never experienced such a thrill before.
Of course, she liked Song Peifeng before, loved his youth and calmness, loved his inner soul, but she was always calm and composed, never like she was at this moment, as if she had returned to her youthful and tender girlhood, with her eyes as bright and shining as stars.
Song Peifeng quickly reached out and caught her steadily, holding her warm body which had just emerged from the quilt. Her passionate breath filled his face.
This period of time did not last long.
Because Jiang's father, who was still watching TV, heard Jiang Ning open the door and called out, "Who is it?"
He drew aside the curtains and opened the window a little.
The glass windows were all covered with a thin layer of mist. If you didn't open the window, you couldn't see outside from the inside, and of course, outsiders couldn't see inside.
Dad Jiang opened the window a crack and the cold wind blew in.
Jiang's mother was so cold from the wind that she shuddered and shouted, "Why did you open the window? You're freezing to death!"
Father Jiang said, "I seemed to hear Ningning open the door and go out."
He was afraid that Jiang Ning would be unhappy because of what happened that night, and it would be dangerous for him to run out in the cold and snowy night.
Jiang's mother said speechlessly, "She just left. Where else could she go? She must have gone to her sister-in-law."
Aunt Jiang has loved Jiang Ning since she was a child. Every time she holds Jiang Ning in her arms, she will not let go and will feed her all kinds of delicious food. Jiang Ning has been closer to Aunt Jiang than to her since she was a child.
She doesn't mind her sister-in-law helping her raise her daughter. Won't the daughter still be hers when she grows up? She would be stupid to care about this.
But when she thought about Jiang Ning still running to her sister-in-law's house and not wanting to call her "Mom", she couldn't help feeling unhappy.
Father Jiang shouted outside: "Ningning, is that you?"
The corridor outside the Jiang family's house was equipped with street lights, but Jiang Ning ran too fast and too anxiously just now, so he didn't have time to turn on the street lights.
It was pitch black, with only a faint light coming from the TV in Jiang's father's room.
Jiang Ning finally pushed Song Peifeng against the wall and kissed him enough, then she jumped off him briskly, her voice still a little hoarse as she said loudly, "Dad, it's me! My boyfriend is here to give me a New Year's gift!"
Jiang's father and mother were both shocked when they heard this. They quickly put on their clothes and walked out of the room.
Jiang Ning held Song Peifeng's hand, and before Jiang's father and mother came out, she stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the face. Then she happily held his cold fingers and walked into the house.
When Jiang's father returned to the village before, he heard that Jiang Ning had brought a girlfriend back, but he heard that because of something, he did not stay long and left Jiangjia Village the next day. Jiang's father wanted to find someone to find out more information, but he couldn't get any.
Who knew what kind of holiday gift Jiang Ning's boyfriend would send at this late hour?
Entering the main hall of the Jiang family, the fire barrel in the main hall was still covered with a thick quilt, and it was still warm inside. Jiang Ning hurriedly took cloth shoes for Song Peifeng to change into, and pushed him into the fire barrel: "Come in and warm up, why did you come so late? The road is dark and you can't see, it's so dangerous, you should have told me before you came."
Jiang Ning poured him some hot water while speaking, rubbing Song Peifeng's cold fingers with her warm palms.
Song Peifeng only had time to say to Jiang's father and mother apologetically: "Uncle, aunt, I'm sorry to bother you so late."
Jiang Ning was just as happy as she was when she saw him just now, and now she was just as worried. She said, "You also know it's late? You didn't even call to let us know before you came, so we could have sent someone to pick you up. Why are you alone..."
Jiang Ning, who was originally rubbing his fingers out of worry, suddenly thought of what she had said to him when she called him in the evening: "I miss you, I want you to be by my side immediately."
Jiang Ning couldn't help but widen his eyes, with doubt in his eyes: "Is it what I think?"
Song Peifeng just sat in the fire barrel, his fingers rubbed in her warm and dry palms, and he looked at her and smiled.
That smile was like an arrow piercing her heart.
For someone who has lacked love and longed for love since childhood, she can feel the slightest kindness from others and give back and give twice as much.
Even after her experience in the system in her previous life, she believed that her heart was as hard as a rock and not easily touched. But at this moment she couldn't help but soften for a moment. She couldn't help but get into the fire barrel and put his hand into the fire barrel, and their hands were held tightly together.
Mother Jiang just couldn't bear to watch her daughter's cheap smile at the boy.
She doesn't know yet that her elder son licks even more vigorously at other people's homes.
Later she will realize that her three children are all love-brained and cannot be cured.
Seeing Jiang Ning sweeping the snow off Song Peifeng, Father Jiang asked curiously, "Why are you here so late? Is there something wrong? Have you had dinner yet?"
Jiang Ning thought about the time it took to get from Wucheng to their Jiangjia Village, and combined it with the time she had called Song Peifeng in the evening. He was afraid that he would set out for Jiangjia Village as soon as he hung up the phone, so he immediately said, "Dad, Peifeng must not have eaten dinner, go and make Peifeng a bowl of noodles!"
Thinking of him coming here so late just because she said she missed him, Jiang Ning immediately stood up and said, "Forget it, I'll go!"
Seeing her lively and active daughter, who looked so cunning and full of spirit, totally different from the cold and desolate daughter at night, Jiang's father stopped her and pressed her into the fire bucket, saying, "Let me go. You stay in the fire bucket and don't come out. You don't even have cotton pants on. Don't get cold or your legs will hurt in the future."
Jiang Ning was not polite at all, and immediately sat back in the fire barrel, smiling brightly: "Thank you, Dad!"
The hand under the quilt was still holding Song Peifeng's hand.
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