Xu Yan glanced into the room.
Xie Zhuo quickly put the repaired watch back into the box, then put the boxes back into the camphor wood chest behind him, covered them with his clothes, locked them, and then turned around and came out.
The people outside waited for a long time without anyone opening the door, so they banged on the door twice more.
Xie Zhuo frowned.
Xu Yan had already stood up to open the door, but before her hand could even touch the large wooden door, Xie Zhuo pulled her aside, saying, "I'll do it."
The door opened.
There were three people standing at the door, two adults and one child.
The smaller one looked slightly smaller than Da Bao and Xiao Bao, and was very thin. Its eyes were constantly darting around.
The two larger ones...
Judging by their age, they were probably in their fifties or sixties. Their skin was very dark from the sun, and their faces were covered in deep wrinkles. The woman looked a little better, but the man's clothes were dirty and tattered, and his hair was covered with bits of dry grass from who-knows-where. One of his front teeth was sticking out from between his lips, probably from smoking too much tobacco, which had turned his teeth yellow.
The three of them smiled as soon as Xie Zhuo opened the door.
"You must be the third child, you've grown so much," the woman said, starting to walk towards the house. "I used to hold you when you were little."
Indeed, culture is passed down through generations.
This saying is often heard in later generations, as if any slightly older elder has indeed held all the younger children.
Do you really enjoy holding children?
Xie Zhuo reached out and stopped her from entering.
The woman's expression froze instantly.
"Who are you?" Xie Zhuo asked.
“We are your uncle and aunt,” the woman said, still somewhat displeased, shoving the silent man beside her forward. “This is your second uncle.”
"You can't possibly not recognize him, can you? Didn't he come to your house when you were in school?"
Xie Zhuo recognized the man next to him, of course.
It was precisely because she recognized him that her complexion looked even worse.
He hadn't forgotten what his so-called uncle had come to their house for back then.
They've come to ask for money.
He said his mother had died and he had no money for her burial, so he wanted Xie Zhuo's mother to pay ten yuan for the funeral expenses, otherwise he would stay at their house and not leave.
Xie Zhuo was not very old at that time, and I don't know if his parents gave him any money, but it was the first time he had ever met his mother's relatives.
I only found out then that my mother had an older brother and a younger brother.
He had clearly heard before that his mother's entire family had died, so where did this uncle come from?
Later I found out that he wasn't his biological uncle, but his cousin. His mother's family had been gone since she was fifteen or sixteen, and she had lived with her aunt for a few years.
Xie Zhuozhuo has finally come through this. I guess his mother's life at her aunt's house wasn't good either, otherwise why would she have never returned to her parents' home even once during the long time she was married to his father?
These two people suddenly showed up at their house...
Xie Zhuo glanced at them coldly a few times, "What are you doing here?"
“We,” the man with the big yellow front teeth mumbled, but in the end he couldn’t utter a complete sentence.
The woman next to him cursed at him in her local dialect, then shoved him a few times with her elbow. Xu Yan understood the last part of her sentence: she called him a good-for-nothing who didn't know how to talk.
Xu Yan raised an eyebrow.
“We just came to see you,” the woman smiled at Xie Zhuo. “You know, such a big thing as getting married, you didn’t even send a message to your family so we could have given you some advice.”
Hey!
Xu Yan watched the show with his arms crossed.
The woman's gaze darted back and forth a few times before settling on her.
The news of Xie Zhuo's actions over the past few days has spread throughout all the production brigades. When Wang Cuilan first heard about it, she didn't believe it and pulled people aside to ask.
"The Xie family you're talking about, is it the Xie family from Qingshan Brigade?"
The man said, "Yes, it's from Qingshan Brigade. I heard that the young man's family saved up a lot of money, and he used it all to marry a city wife."
Then, the person embellished the story, saying that Xie Zhuo took five or six hundred yuan to get engaged, and not only did he buy his new bride a bicycle, but he also bought her a radio.
"It's a pity his wife is a bit spoiled," the man sighed. "If he had married a girl from our village, their life would definitely be prosperous."
Wang Cuilan also felt a little sorry after hearing what she said.
“We’re all from the same village,” the man said again. “I heard that your family and the Xie family are related by blood. Although you haven’t visited each other much in recent years, you are still close relatives.”
Wang Cuilan felt a little guilty.
She has been married into this family for decades, and she knows most of what happened in the past. She understands why the two families no longer keep in touch.
“I’m just chatting with you,” the man said. “It’s a pity that such a good young man didn’t have an elder to take a look at him and married a troublemaker.”
Seeing that Wang Cuilan's expression was not good, the man did not continue speaking and changed the subject, talking about this year's crops.
Wang Cuilan pondered for an entire afternoon, and then told Zhao Daman that she wanted to visit the Xie family in Qingshan Brigade.
Zhao Daman definitely didn't want to go. The two families had been estranged for many years. Back when his fourth brother got married, his family was so poor that he had to swallow his pride and go to the Xie family to ask for ten yuan.
These past few years, he's felt uneasy whenever he thinks about this.
But there's nothing we can do.
He talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.
The next morning, right after he finished chopping the hay with a guillotine, covered in grime, Wang Cuilan dragged him directly to the Xie family's gate, without even having lunch.
I was so hungry that my stomach was practically touching my back.
But his wife said that as long as Xie's third son listened to her, he would definitely bring out steamed buns or something similar to eat.
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