After finishing the meal, it was already dark when they returned. The family hurried home under the faint starlight, taking one step forward and one step back. It was already midnight.
Qiu Yuling was carried back to the house by her brother. She woke up as soon as she touched the kang.
"Ah? Are we home yet?" Squeezed in between the crowd, the shaking of the donkey cart made her drowsy, and she dozed off without realizing it.
"Pretending. Are you too lazy to even take a step?!" Qiu Dahe looked as if he saw through her.
"God knows, second brother, you have wronged Dou E's death." How can the lack of sleep be fake for a child's body?
Second brother's trust in her is really precarious and shaky.
"Go to sleep quickly. Before I left this afternoon, my mother filled the kang hole with coal and kept the fire going all day. I just touched it and it's warm. Cover yourself tightly with the quilt. I'll light the stove for you tomorrow."
Qiu Dahe was just teasing her sister. He settled everything before closing the door and leaving.
"Second brother, what do you think about me joining the army too?" As soon as Qiu Dahe returned to the house, he was pestered by the third brother.
"You're not going to take the technical secondary school entrance exam?"
"Take the exam, I mean if you fail."
"It's too early to say that now. You should study hard first, and then you can say that when the time comes."
Qiu Dahe dared to guarantee that their mother would never agree to have another person in the family join the army.
Take him for example. This time when he came back, his mother would pull him out into the wind and cry no matter what. She would count the family assets on her fingers every day and persuade him to return from the army and stay with them so that she could take care of them.
In fact, being a soldier was never something he felt forced to do, and now that he was enjoying it, he tried his best to tell his mother that he was not the one who would sacrifice himself for the family.
On the contrary, it was his other two brothers who gave him the opportunity to realize his ambitions.
Mother Qiu could listen to it at that time, but after she fell asleep, she felt that the world was so far away and she was suffering from having no one to take care of her.
Now the third child wants to go down this path again, and their mother will not give in easily.
In a blink of an eye, the day to return home arrived. Qiu Dashan and Huang Duoer got up at five in the morning and harnessed the car.
The car was filled with food, meat, vegetables, and the candies that Qiu Dahe had bought that day. The two of them set off quietly without disturbing anyone else.
Huang Duoer was extremely satisfied.
The mother-in-law asked them to stay for two more days and go back before New Year's Eve.
Because after the Chinese New Year, her brother-in-law will go back to the border defense force, and the time between the two is short, and her parents' home is far away, so she will have to go there once before and after the New Year, and she will just be traveling.
"It's my eldest sister, my eldest sister's husband, my father, my mother, come and see, my eldest sister is back." As soon as Huang Xiaorui spoke, Huang Xiaowei came over and saw that it was indeed her.
"Sister, sister, I'm here..." The brother and sister ran towards the elder sister.
He quickly got on the cart and asked, "Brother-in-law, did you bring us any delicious food?"
"Eat some candy first. There are meat buns and vegetable buns. Come into the house and fry them in the pot before eating." Qiu Dashan is very patient and is about the same age as his daughter Yuling.
Mother Huang was holding her two children and waiting anxiously at the door of the dugout.
They are not authentic herdsmen and are not used to living in yurts. They are used to making a cave wherever they go. They can burn cow dung and sheep dung, and they can also use firewood.
Not only do they eat natural pastures, they also clear land and grow alfalfa themselves, unlike herders who move from place to place.
"Son-in-law is here, come into the house quickly." Although it was a dugout, it had been lived in for a long time and had become big enough. The top was raised half a meter and had beams and windows.
Qiu Dashan is finally one of us today, so I have time to watch it slowly.
The dugout of his father-in-law's house was like a sunken courtyard, with steps and a slope for livestock to go down. The left side was for people to live in, and the right side was full of livestock sheds.
No wonder the area is filled with branches of saxaul and poplar trees, as this is to remind anyone who comes carelessly to be careful and not to rush into the pit.
In order to dig so many animal sheds, the soil that was scooped out was used to build a low wall outside. During the day, the animals did not return to the pens, but moved around inside the walls.
When the eldest daughter and son-in-law came back, Zhang Xunfang first made milk tea, and then brought out dry food and bags. While entertaining them, she asked her daughter how things were going in the production team.
"It's nice, there are a lot of people, it's lively, but it's also very annoying. Those women talk in a roundabout way, it makes my head hurt." Huang Duoer blew on the milk skin, took a sip, and sighed, "I want this taste."
"You've only been away for a few days, and you're already thinking about me! When the spring comes and there are dairy sheep, come and get one and take it home so you can boil some goat's milk and drink it."
"Sure, let's go back and have a drink with my sister-in-law. She's about the same age as Xiaorui and Xiaowei."
Zhang Xunfang laughed. Girls are extroverted, isn't that the case with her family? It hasn't been long since she started thinking about her husband's family, and she doesn't even bother to bother with her own family.
"You are my mother, why should I beat around the bush with you?" Huang Duoer remembered the two rolls of cloth she brought from her grandmother's house and the cotton given by her mother-in-law.
"Mother, make cotton-padded clothes for the little ones. They're lighter than leather and more convenient for moving around the house."
"Son-in-law, eat a little more and don't laugh at Duoer. She has been following our pastoral area and settled down only a few years ago. She has learned the habit of speaking loudly from the herdsmen." Seeing Qiu Dahe wipe his mouth and sit down, Zhang Xunfang hurriedly urged him to eat.
They were not sure whether the woman would come back today or after the New Year, so they made some preparations in advance, but not much.
Someone just came in, and her mistress went out to cook the meat. It will take a while before we can eat.
The two youngest ones now recognized their eldest sister. They were less than two years old and were at the age of being naughty. They lay on their heads and faces and did not dare to bully their eldest sister, so they bullied their kind-looking brother-in-law.
After Qiu Dashan picked up Xiaoyu, he caught Xiaomin. The older twin boy and girl were laughing happily.
"What are you laughing at? Go over and bring those two little ones over here, so they don't bully your brother-in-law." Zhang Xunfang came back with a basket of cow dung to add fuel to the stove, and was worried about seeing his eldest son-in-law in a panic.
I couldn't help but pat the older twin on the butt and chased them over to let them take care of the baby.
"Can my son-in-law drink? Let's drink as much as we want today and won't go home until we are drunk." Huang Youfa originally wanted to find a herder family for his daughter, but his wife and daughter both fell in love with Han people. Although he is also a Han Chinese, he has already mixed himself with the herders. Now he wants to see what his son-in-law can do.
"I can drink a little." Qiu Dashan gestured with his hand, a little bit.
The father-in-law simply asked whether I could drink or not. If I didn't drink at all, he wouldn't make a fuss. But as long as I could drink, how much I drank would depend on my performance on the spot.
"Dad, drink less. It will give you a headache." Huang Duoer snatched the wine jug from her father. Isn't this just nonsense? Didn't she see that her son-in-law's eyes were wide open.
"You, the head of the family, are no exception. While I was taking care of the kids, you already got your son-in-law drunk. He hasn't even eaten a bit of the meat yet. You're really capable."
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