Chapter 23
"Why are you only just leaving? My New Year's Eve dinner is almost over."
The phone screen resembled a dashcam, with unfamiliar street scenes rapidly rewinding, accompanied by the whistling wind and Xiaoming's soft breathing.
But because this was where Xiaoming grew up, Jiang Lan looked carefully at the ordinary cement road and the buildings on both sides, and felt a soft feeling in her heart.
"We eat New Year's Eve dinner late here. If we go early, we have to deal with all the aunts and sisters-in-law, which is a real hassle. It's best to arrive right after the meal starts." Jiang Lan couldn't help but chuckle as she listened, a common problem among young people.
"What delicious food did you just eat?"
"During the Lunar New Year, with all that big fish, meat, and seafood, a few bites of rice, a few pieces of pastry, and a drink are enough to fill me up. I can't eat anymore."
"Yes, yes, there's so much delicious food during the New Year that we can't eat much. In recent years, my family has learned from our mistakes. Apart from a few symbolic main dishes, everything else is made to resemble street food, which the kids love."
"So, do you like it?"
"I'm not married yet, so of course I like sitting at the kids' table."
"Your description makes my mouth water. May I have the chance to try your family's New Year's Eve dinner sometime?"
"Don't try to climb up the pole."
"Just answer me whether I have a chance or not, don't bring up anything else."
"There should be...."
Jiang Lan was about to ask her girlfriend to remove the word "should" from her words when she saw someone waving at Xiao Ming at the intersection in front of the camera. Xiao Ming called out, "Auntie." Then he said, "Jiang Lan, I'm here. Bye."
Looking at the exited video interface, Jiang Lan smiled and sighed, then turned and walked back to the private room.
The elders have already gathered around the automatic mahjong machine and started playing mahjong, while the young people who love games are also teaming up to play together.
Jiang's mother is a seasoned mahjong enthusiast, and she doesn't know how late she'll play tonight. Jiang Lan went over to tell Jiang's father, and then prepared to go home.
"Xiao Lan, take your cousin and sister-in-law back first. The child should go back to sleep." Aunt Jiang Lan stared at the cards in her hand and instructed Jiang Lan without looking up.
Jiang Lan glanced at her cousin, who was playing games on his phone, and expressionlessly took the keys from her father's hand.
As they stepped out of the private room, his cousin asked him, "Brother Lan, didn't you drive your own car? Why did you take Uncle's keys?"
"My car can only seat two people."
My cousin's wife followed behind them carrying a baby carrier, remaining silent the entire time. Once inside the elevator, she stood beside him, head bowed, occasionally glancing discreetly at Jiang Lan.
After finding Jiang's father's car, Jiang Lan secured the baby carrier to the back seat, leaving only enough room for one person. Seeing her cousin instinctively trying to squeeze into the back seat, she stopped her, saying, "You sit in the front, and your sister-in-law can sit in the back to keep an eye on the baby."
My cousin turned around and called out to my sister-in-law, who was reaching for the passenger door, "Sister-in-law, why don't you sit in the back?"
My cousin's wife pouted, showing some reluctance, but didn't say anything. She opened the back door and sat down.
After getting together with Xiaoming, Jiang Lan also developed the habit of carrying a baseball cap and a mask with him. After fastening his seatbelt, he put on his hat and mask and drove off.
Once in the car, my cousin was engrossed in her phone. After driving for a while, Jiang Lan noticed in the rearview mirror that her cousin's wife was holding her phone up to the front row, seemingly filming something.
Upon arrival, Jiang Lan's cousin's wife, who hadn't spoken until now, invited him up for a cup of tea.
Jiang Lan's voice was a little cold: "No need, you should go back now."
After driving back to the hotel and returning the keys to Jiang's father, Jiang Lan drove her own car home alone.
It was already dark outside, and Xiaoming's family's New Year's Eve dinner was coming to an end. The children couldn't sit still any longer and ran out to the yard to set off fireworks.
Several of the older children had grown tired of what they considered a childish activity and had retreated to their rooms to play video games together. But for Xiaoming, this activity made her feel young, and she was happy to join in.
"Auntie, please order this for me."
"good."
After playing with the little ones for a while, my phone rang. It was Jiang Lan. I hung up.
"Auntie is going to the toilet, you guys play by yourselves. Sister-in-law, come out and watch the kids."
After entering the bathroom, Xiaoming turned on the light and locked the door. He then opened a video call. As soon as the call connected, Xiaoming hurriedly said to Jiang Lan:
"I'm still at my uncle's house. It's noisy everywhere. I'll call you when I get home."
Jiang Lan looked at the wall behind Xiaoming covered with towels and knew that she had deliberately found a place to return the call.
"Okay, if you can't answer the phone, just reply to me with a message. You don't need to call back."
Xiao Ming looked at his expression: "Are you in a bad mood? Did something unpleasant happen?"
"Yeah, unreliable relatives."
"It's okay. Everyone has a weird relative. We only see each other once a year during Chinese New Year. If you take it seriously, you'll lose."
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll hang up now."
"good."
The Zhou family has four brothers, with their father being the third oldest. Every year, the four families take turns hosting the New Year's Eve dinner, and this year it's the eldest brother's turn.
It's incredibly difficult for boys in rural areas to get married these days. Her second uncle's cousin is over thirty and still unmarried, and he gets criticized at the dinner table every year. This year, he got married to her eldest uncle's divorced cousin, so the criticism was diverted, and he's had a much better year.
Xiao Ming came out of the bathroom, hunched over, and was about to walk through the main room and out into the yard when he was stopped.
"Xiaoming has been working for several years now, he's not getting any younger, has he found a boyfriend yet?"
Xiao Ming chuckled a few times, glanced at her father, and remained silent.
Zhou's father puffed on his cigarette, and the smoke made the wrinkles on his forehead look even more serious.
"No rush, take your time. It's best to find someone from your hometown. If you marry far away, your family won't be able to take care of you, and no one will know if you're bullied. Find a young man from your hometown who is a good match in terms of education and talent. He should be a good person, and his parents should also be good. It's okay if he's a little younger, but don't find someone too old."
The aunts and sisters-in-law exchanged glances and pursed their lips, looking at Xiaoming with a half-smile.
Xiao Ming pulled up a stool, sat down in front of the heater, took out his phone, and started watching videos.
Aunt Zhou stopped arranging the melon seeds and candies and said to Zhou Ma, "A good girl like you shouldn't be held back. Look at the requirements of the third daughter, she's even thinking of finding a son-in-law to live with her. She'll be lucky to find someone like that when she gets married."
Before Zhou's mother could speak, Zhou's father continued, "Does anyone who's just a nobody want to be my son-in-law? It's okay if she can't find a good one and remains an old maid, I can afford to support her. Even if I die, there's still her brother."
Zhou Zaiming calmly cracked sunflower seeds as he listened. Zhou's mother didn't say anything either. The eldest aunt was speechless, not expecting that even though her daughter was so grown up, the third son's family still had the same ideas. "Oh dear, I'm just saying this to you all. Mind your own business."
At midnight, after the family set off New Year's fireworks, Xiaoming drove home with his parents and sister-in-law. Zhou's father had been drinking and couldn't drive.
Zhou Zaiming rode his electric bike and took Yuan Yuan back to town early at 11 o'clock to set off firecrackers.
In the car, Zhou's mother said to Xiaoming, "Don't listen to your father all the time, about finding a son-in-law to live with you. There are only so many people in our hometown, and we can only pick the tallest among the short. There are many talented young men in big cities. Pick a good one, date him first, and if it goes well, get married. If it doesn't, don't. There's no law that says anything about it. If you really can't find someone to marry, then have a child. You definitely need a child."
The eldest sister-in-law, sitting in the passenger seat, listened to this advanced talk and turned to give her mother-in-law a thumbs up: "Mom, you're amazing! Why am I not as lucky as Xiaoming to have such a mother!"
"Go away, I'm your mother now too. Aren't you doing well now? Everyone has their own good points, there's no need to envy anyone."
Mr. Zhou squinted and leaned back in his chair without saying a word, but silence was also a form of attitude.
After carefully considering her current situation with Jiang Lan, Xiao Ming felt that her mother's idea was very much to her liking.
Jiang Lan probably never dreamed that he might become the abandoned father in the new era's view of marriage, where the father is discarded and the son is retained.
It was so late when Xiaoming got home that he could barely keep his eyes open after washing up. He sent Jiang Lan a goodnight message and fell asleep.
Jiang Lan woke up early and lay in bed looking at the news on her phone. There was an accident at a fireworks show last night, with a stampede that resulted in three deaths and two injuries. There were also small news reports from various places about fireworks flying into balconies and setting houses on fire. However, the number of people involved in the accident did not match the Dream Cube.
It might not correspond to a major accident; it's hard to say whether the people inside were involved in various minor incidents.
Just when I was about to give up lying down, I finally received a message from Xiaoming: "Are you up? What are you doing?"
[I'm up, playing on my phone in bed.]
The video call started as soon as the message was sent.
"Happy New Year!"
"Happy New Year!"
"Tell me in detail why you were unhappy last night, and I'll cheer you up."
"You little rascal, Xiaoming, you're craving melons again, aren't you?"
"No, I'm just concerned about you. Tell me."
"It's nothing much. My aunt has a good-for-nothing son who asked me to find him a job. So I drove my cousin and his wife home. His wife sat in the back and took pictures the whole way. I don't know what she was filming."
"Why are you being so subtle? If you're angry, just yell. You don't need to maintain an image in front of me. With your personality, you wouldn't mess around with your company's affairs. You definitely rejected the work assignment. So what you're mainly angry about is your cousin's wife taking pictures of you without your consent. You suspect she took pictures of you secretly? Also, um, her whole family was there, including her husband. Why did you have to take her home?"
Seeing Jiang Lan's gloomy expression, as if he had been right, Xiao Ming guessed the reason why he had to drive her around without waiting for her reply. He instantly empathized with her; after all, with parents still around, who doesn't have some weird relatives they can't get rid of?
"Tomorrow, I see a lot of people going back to their hometowns and being set up on blind dates, especially the girls. Has your family made any arrangements?"
"No, my dad said a long time ago that he wanted a tall, rich, and handsome son-in-law to live with him, so no matchmaker has come to our door."
Jiang Lan was quite happy to hear that there was no problem, but when she heard the following "a rich and handsome man is coming to her door," her brows furrowed instantly. The "rich and handsome man" part was fine, but how to deal with the "coming to her door" part?
"And you, has your family arranged any blind dates for you?"
"Oh? No, no. My parents are so happy to know I have you, there's no need for them to arrange any blind dates."
He responded absentmindedly to Xiaoming's words, his mind filled with the words "come to my door".
Seeing her son eating only white rice without picking up any other dishes, Jiang's mother waved her hand in front of him and said, "What's wrong with you on the first day of the Lunar New Year?"
Jiang Lan hesitated for a moment and asked her mother, "Mom, do you have any objections if I become someone's live-in son-in-law?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
