Xuemei watched the family's farce and wanted to add fuel to the fire. She pinched her nose and said in a grandmotherly voice, "Isn't there anyone to supervise this family? What if they get hurt in a fight on the bus? What if they damage public property? This family is no good. The older ones fight, and the younger ones curse. There are so many children on the bus. What if they learn to curse their parents when they get home?"
After Xuemei finished speaking, she pretended to be out of breath and coughed a few times, looking very weak.
Han Chen looked at Xuemei's lively performance, smiled dotingly, and reached out to touch Xuemei's head.
After watching the middle-aged man and his wife fight, Mingwu sat down to eat lunch without worry. Following Xuemei's instructions, Mingwu and He Jing broke open the corn bun and scooped up a piece of vegetable. Mingwu took a bite, and it made him sway with delight. The bun vanished from his hand within a minute.
After Mingwu finished eating, he smacked his lips, savoring the taste of the steamed bun.
While the feeling was still in his mouth, Mingwu picked up a corn cake and began to nibble on it. After a while, seeing He Jing wave her hand to refuse the food, he closed the lunch box Xuemei had given him and was about to hand it to Han Chen. He saw Xuemei's series of lifelike performances, and then saw Han Chen's actions. Mingwu rubbed his sore cheeks.
When Xuemei looked at him, Mingwu gave Xuemei a thumbs up with admiration, and Xuemei playfully bowed to Mingwu.
As soon as Xuemei said what she pretended to be an old lady, everyone on the bus started complaining about this family. Couples with children asked the driver and the conductor to take care of them, and the people who had just gotten on the bus and had no seats instigated everyone to kick the family off the bus.
Finally, the driver and the conductor had no choice but to get off the bus, call a few staff members from the station, and use force to force the family off.
After the family got off, everyone realized they had taken up two seats with their belongings, pretending they were for someone going to the restroom, and asked the family to help watch over them. In other words, each family member, including their child, had a seat. Because of this, the family was scolded by everyone on the bus after they got off.
As soon as the family left, those who had no seats squeezed into the four seats. Three adults and four children sat in the four seats, and the remaining three people who had no seats sat in the aisle with the small stools given by the driver.
When the driver saw that the bus was already full and time was almost up, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and immediately stepped on the accelerator to start the bus, fearing that the family would squeeze in again.
When the car left, Xuemei saw from the window that the family was still playing and fighting outside. She heard the sound of the car starting up and saw two adults holding something in front, shouting and chasing, with two children running behind.
The driver and the conductor ignored them. It was because their family had offended the driver and the conductor and was causing trouble on the bus.
When Xuemei turned her head, Han Chen took out a heated egg from his cotton coat, peeled the egg and handed it directly to Xuemei.
Xuemei took the egg and broke it in half, stuffing one half directly into her mouth and the other half into Han Chen's mouth. Afraid that if she ate too slowly, she would attract other people's attention, Han Chen looked at Xuemei's anxious look, patted her back with one hand, took the egg out of his mouth with the other hand and said, "Eat slowly, don't choke!"
Xuemei finished the egg in her mouth, opened the kettle in her hand and took a few sips of water. She patted her chest before replying, "You should eat quickly too. If you delay, something bad will happen!"
Han Chen nodded with amusement, then imitated Xuemei and stuffed half an egg into his mouth in one bite.
After more than six hours, the long-distance bus finally arrived at the provincial capital at 6:30. Xuemei had never been on a bus for so long before, and her butt was sore from sitting so long.
After getting off the bus, Xuemei and her group took their belongings and followed Mingwu out of the station. Mingwu had studied in the provincial capital for more than a year and was quite familiar with the provincial bus station, railway station and the surrounding area. He planned to go to the nearest state-owned restaurant to have a hot meal first.
The night after the village distributed grain and money last year, He Wenting and Mingzheng came to Xuemei with fifteen yuan and returned half of it to Xuemei as they had agreed.
Xuemei knew that the couple were going to Hai City this year and that they didn't have enough money, so she told them that if they didn't have enough money, they could pay them back slowly later.
He Wanting immediately shook her head and explained: In the second half of the year, Mingwen received a subsidy of 36 yuan from the commune primary school and a teaching reward of 5 yuan, a total of 41 yuan.
He Wanting also said that last night, Wang Shuihua and Liu Guanghui distributed money to their family according to their work points. She and Mingzheng received 15 yuan; Mingwu received 9 yuan each; Juhua was still in school, so she got nothing; Mingzheng and Xinyan gave Wang Shuihua and her family 5 yuan each month. After discussing with their families, Wang Shuihua and Liu Guanghui planned to use 18 yuan to buy food and meat for them in the village and take them to the county town to eat.
Xuemei heard that the couple had enough money, so she accepted the money without hesitation. When Mingwen and He Wanting divided the pork in the village, they also bought six pounds of pork and asked Liu's father for six pounds of roe deer meat. They also planned to make bacon with this meat and take it to Haishi.
Wang Shuihua and Liu Guanghui prepared the same New Year gifts for their two daughters-in-law's families: a salted fish and one dollar. If they wanted to bring something for their parents' homes, they could prepare it themselves.
However, because He Wenting's uncle and aunt had sent things to the old couple and Liu's grandparents several times, such as scarves and cloth, the four of them discussed and prepared some return gifts together: six pig blood meatballs, three pounds of glutinous rice cakes, a piece of dried bacon weighing more than one pound, five pounds of rice, ten pounds of millet, and two pairs of cloth shoes.
Mingwen and Xinyan understood the elders' intentions. This was a return gift from their mother-in-law, father-in-law, and grandparents, so they had no objections, nor did they dare to object. Mingwen and Xinyan often enjoyed the local specialties sent by He Wanting's uncle and aunt, and He Wanting also shared some fine fabric from Hai City with them. They also took the initiative to prepare gifts for Mingwen and his wife to take to Hai City: a pair of pillowcases Xinyan had sewn herself, and two bottles of the finest, Nanhu Province-renowned baijiu Mingzheng had bought from the county town.
Later, when Mingwu was about to leave, Wang Shuihua and his wife added another 20 kilograms of cornmeal, fearing that Mingwen and his friends would use up the other person's one-month supply in just a few days.
Mingwen and his wife had originally planned to cover Mingwu's round-trip travel expenses, but Mingwu refused, saying he'd already eaten a lot of food sent by He Wanting's family, and he hadn't prepared anything else. He decided to take advantage of his current financial situation and decided to cover the round-trip expenses himself. Besides, it would be a great opportunity for him to broaden his horizons. In fact, Mingwu was worried that this trip to Hai City would cost Mingwen and his wife all their savings.
Mingwu said this to Mingwen and He Wanting, and that night he went to beg for alms from Liu Guanghui. He took away all the three yuan, fifty cents and six cents that Liu Guanghui had saved for a long time and hid in the soles of his shoes. Mingwu's savings became seventeen yuan, sixty cents and eight cents.
Originally, Mingwu wanted to trick Juhua and earn some agency fees from her, but he didn't expect that Juhua was very smart. She gave the money directly to Mingwen and asked the couple to bring her some new things from Hai City, leaving Mingwu no chance at all.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
