96.096 Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Su Yu was taking notes when the dormitory supervisor called her from downstairs. She looked out the window and saw three people of different sizes standing below.
"My wife and child are here, so I won't be back tonight," she said to the two people in the dormitory as she opened the door, picking up her already packed clothes.
After she left, the two people in the dormitory went to the window and saw Su Yu run towards her husband, only to be surrounded by two young men. Lin Xin said, "Sister Su seems to have a good relationship with her husband. As soon as she saw him, the things she was carrying were immediately taken away."
"She's beautiful and smart; what man wouldn't like a woman like that? Besides, her husband hasn't even gone to college yet, so don't cling to her too tightly."
Lin Xin frowned subconsciously upon hearing these somewhat harsh words, and stopped talking. She walked away from the window, went to the bedside to gather her fabric and needles, and said, "Wenwen, I'm going to find Xiaomu to learn how to sew clothes. Are you coming?"
"No, I want to read."
"Then I'll go by myself." She opened the door with the cloth tucked in her arm and went out. Standing in the corridor, she breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't married yet and didn't like hearing people associate love with material conditions.
"Ping An, how come you've gotten so fat?" Su Yu looked at her eldest son, who had thick arms and legs, incredulously. "I've only been gone for half a year. What have you been eating at home? Did your grandma feed you pig feed?"
Ping An touched the flesh on her chin, a little embarrassed, and pretended not to care: "It's a blessing to be able to gain weight. Grandma said I'm not ugly even if I'm fat, and I look lucky."
Ning Jin scoffed from the side, patted his belly, and said disdainfully, "You were such a fine young man, and now you're so fat you've lost your shape. You walk so slowly. If I didn't come home at least once a month, I would suspect that someone switched my son with someone else in the last six months."
"How did he get so fat?" Su Yu asked, linking arms with Xiao Yuan.
“He eats a lot, and he likes meat and sweet soup. Basically, he eats whatever my grandma likes. In the morning, he has fried dough sticks soaked in brown sugar water, sweet soup with eggs, and he takes a pancake with him to school. He eats it as soon as he gets there. He eats meat every day, fried meat strips, stewed pork belly. There’s never any money left over from the money you give him each month.” Xiao Yuan said, grinning. Just thinking about it made him feel sick. The brown sugar water was too sweet and made him lose his appetite, and his grandma’s stewed meat was too oily for him to eat. Moreover, his dad brought back a big bucket of cooking oil, and it was like his grandma had fallen into an oil vat. There was always fried dough sticks and pancakes at home every day, and even the pancakes tasted like they were deep-fried.
"You're doomed, Ning Ping'an. Police academies have physical requirements for admissions; someone like you won't pass the physical exam." Without waiting for his reaction, she asked the man, "How many days can you stay?"
"At most three days, I might have to leave tomorrow afternoon."
"We can explore the school tomorrow." Su Yu stopped and looked at the sky. She said considerately, "You must be tired from driving and traveling. Come on, I've rented a place. Let's go back, have a meal, take a shower, and get a good night's sleep."
She released Xiao Yuan's arm, glanced at the man, and walked towards the school gate with a smile on her face.
Calculating their arrival time, Su Yu rented a house off-campus for half a month, preparing everything including a basin and bedding. The house was the same layout as her home, with two bedrooms and a living room. After putting her things in, she asked, "Shall we take a shower first or go eat first?"
"Let's eat first, I'm hungry," Ping An said quickly.
Su Yu tapped him, "Kid, you need to lose weight. Starting tomorrow morning, you'd better get up and go for a run. How can you be so undisciplined at such a young age?"
She took them to a state-run restaurant to eat Northeastern specialties. The two naive young men looked at the large soup bowls filled with food and asked, "This must cost a lot, right? It's more than two dishes back home."
"For about the same price, the portions here are bigger and more affordable. Try this braised pork knuckle, it's not greasy." She recommended her favorite dishes to the two of them, and also put one on Ning Jin's plate, watching him eat.
The man took a couple of bites, wiped the grease off his mouth, looked up and couldn't help but laugh, "Don't stare at me, eat yours."
"Who's staring at you? I'm just checking if you've gotten any uglier." Su Yu's smile hadn't stopped since she saw the three of them; she seemed to be floating on air. She ate a piece of pork rib and asked, "Is Old Wang going to join you for a meal?"
"Yeah, don't worry about him, he likes to wander around by himself." He replied in a moment. He was really hungry. It was lunchtime and he was about to enter the city. He was in a hurry to see Su Yu, so he hurriedly ate a couple of mouthfuls of noodles and continued driving. When he arrived at the unloading point, he was busy rushing to school with his two sons. At that time, he was so eager and excited that he didn't feel hungry. But when he got to the restaurant and smelled the aroma, his stomach started to rebel.
Su Yu didn't say anything more. After she finished eating, she served the three of them food, and removed the chili peppers, scallions, garlic and other vegetables from their plates and put them aside.
Are you full?
"I'm full." Xiao Yuan yawned, rubbing his stomach, and said, "The food was delicious. I want to take the entrance exam for a university here next year."
"We'll talk about next year's issues next year. Once we've eaten, we'll head back." She stood up and walked out. The four of them chatted as they walked back, surrounded by people who had finished their meals and were out for a stroll.
Back at the house, Su Yu pulled Ning Jin aside and whispered, "You'll bathe with them later. Keep an eye on your son's baby and see if there are any problems with its growth."
The man looked at her suspiciously and asked, "What problem could there be? He's with Xiaoyuan every day. If there was a problem, he would have said so already."
“He’s not even seventeen yet, which is the time when he’s developing. If a boy suddenly gains weight at this age, it will affect the development of his lower body. Generally speaking, if a boy gets fat in his teens, his penis will usually be shorter and smaller than that of his peers when he grows up, and he will be disliked by his wife,” Su Yu said without any hesitation.
"Nonsense." Ning Jin frowned. "I'm his father, he takes after me. Mine wasn't small, so how could he be small?"
"Then don't worry about it, I'll talk to you tomorrow." Su Yu pinched the stubborn donkey's waist.
"The water's boiled, time to take a shower!" Xiao Yuan called out, going inside to get a towel. Ping An scooped water from inside, and Ning Jin watched. After they carried the water into the bathroom, he followed them in, carrying only his shorts.
"Dad, are you going to shower with us?" Ping An asked.
"Hmm, saves water." He went inside to take off his clothes, glancing at the two boys' crotches from time to time.
Xiao Yuan coughed, crossed his legs, and exchanged a glance with Ping An, both looking somewhat uncomfortable.
"Hey Dad, you have everything we have, and yours is growing even better. You shouldn't be envious of us, right?" Ping An couldn't stand the cold stare and couldn't help but speak up.
Ning Jin looked at the comparison carefully again with a serious expression, and said to Ping An, "Don't clench your legs, they're going to be buried under the fat." He walked over and slapped his son's arm twice, gritting his teeth and saying, "I want to slap your mouth, you glutton. If this really affects you, you'll cry to death when you grow up."
The more he looked at Ping An, the smaller he seemed, especially with the contrast of his fat. He pointed at Xiao Yuan and then at him, saying, "Ping An, you need to lose weight quickly. Look at Xiao Yuan, yours is smaller than his, and you're a year older than him. If you gain weight for another year or two, you'll be so small."
Ping An opened his eyes wide in surprise, glancing back and forth between his father and Xiao Yuan's legs, and asked somewhat fearfully, "Gaining weight affects this?"
"Yes." Ning Jin nodded affirmatively.
"Then why didn't you tell me before? Did my mom tell me?" He realized after a moment's thought that if his dad had known about this effect, he would have told him from the beginning when he was fat. The fact that he only told him now meant that his mom had told him.
Ning Jin stammered a reply, then added worriedly, "Starting tomorrow, get up early and go for a run. Lose weight quickly. Eat less sweet and oily food, or you'll be living with your little sparrow for the rest of your life, you..." He swallowed the words "your wife will dislike you" that were on the tip of his tongue. He was only sixteen or seventeen; it was better for him to know less about that kind of thing.
Ping An blushed instantly, his face turning bright red. He nodded awkwardly and said to his father, "Don't mention this to my mother, not even a little bit."
Even if he didn't tell Ning Jin, he wouldn't say anything. "If you don't tell me, I won't mention it again. Anyway, I've delivered the message. You can decide what to do yourself. You're not young anymore. If you can't control your cravings, you'll have to bear the consequences yourself." After saying that, he rubbed himself in the water in the basin, put on his clothes, opened the door, and went out.
The two people left in the room were as quiet as chickens. Xiao Yuan curiously looked at Ping An's thighs and then at his own, and chuckled, "I told you not to eat so much, but you wouldn't listen. Now you regret it, don't you?"
Ping An spread his legs and stretched. "I'm going to lose weight tomorrow," he said painfully, looking confused and helpless. "It's better when Mom is at home. My dad is unreliable. He's a man, but he doesn't know as much as Mom does."
"My mom is knowledgeable, well-read, and a college graduate, so she must know a lot." No one could beat him when it came to praising his mom, and Xiao Yuan was filled with pride.
Hearing the two boys pour water, go inside, and close the door, Ning Jin endured it for a while. When there was no more noise from the other side, he blew on the condom and checked it repeatedly to his ear. With his other hand, he busied himself unbuttoning his clothes, throwing the thin garments onto the chair. The two men, like stranded fish, clung together and moved into the water. From eight o'clock until midnight, the man was covered in sweat. He collapsed onto the bed and mumbled, "I've finally handed over all the public grain I've saved up for half a year."
In the past, Su Yu would fall asleep first afterward, but this time Ning Jin fell asleep on the bed and closed his eyes. Su Yu recovered, sat up, put on her clothes, went out to fetch water, washed herself, and came back to wipe him down, but he didn't even feel it.
Ning Jin woke up around six o'clock the next morning. He looked at the woman in his arms, pinched her nose, and touched her ear. Seeing that she was about to wake up, he leaned closer and said energetically, "Get up early to exercise, don't sleep anymore."
When Su Yu was fully awake, the bed was shaking. She grabbed his hair and asked in a shaky voice, "Are Xiao Hei and Xiao Hua alright? I just dreamt about them."
"Have you ever dreamed about me?"
Su Yu frowned, her face scrunched up, and gave a soft "hmm," not in the mood to say anything more.
"Did any men at school show interest in you?" he asked again.
"No, I'm the oldest one here." Su Yu rolled her eyes. Her son was about to take the college entrance exam, and everyone who had been sending and receiving letters over the past six months knew about her family situation.
"you……"
"Don't talk. Focus on delivering the grain. Don't shortchange me." Su Yu interrupted him and kicked his butt with her heel.
The two of them held their breath silently. In the yard, two children were washing their faces and brushing their teeth. Hearing footsteps approaching, Ning Jin immediately picked them up from the bed, and the creaking stopped instantly.
"Mom, are you up yet?" Xiao Yuan asked from outside the door.
"You're awake. Go for a run with Ping An and make sure he doesn't slack off. We'll go out for dinner when you two get back." Ning Jin cleared his throat and dismissed the two clueless kids.
"Oh, okay, I thought you two had already left. The sun's already high in the sky." As soon as he finished speaking, the door opened, and the two children came out. The man glanced down at the woman in his arms, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Back to bed?"
Su Yu ignored him, and he didn't need her to reply. The old wooden bed stopped complaining under its own weight. After another ten or twenty minutes, the door opened, and the man came out barefoot with a satisfied look on his face. Soon after, smoke rose from the kitchen, and he carried a basin of water back into the room.
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