Chapter 120
April 16th was a double-digit day, sunny and windy. The only downside was that it was a Monday. Bi Chunliu had already taken leave this month, so it was difficult to ask for more this time. So, she hurried back to the compound for lunch.
Most of the meat at the banquet hosted by Li Musheng and Yu Jingjing was obtained by the Yu family. Bi Chunliu saw several aunts at the banquet winking at Yu Jingjing, and she had no idea what they were whispering about.
Nie Xiangbei also sat steadily at a table, his expression bleak. He hadn't expected Yu Jingjing, his former blind date, to be so persistent! He was already married, yet she still married into their compound. Did she know he'd picked his nose in front of her on purpose?
Years ago, he'd been quite happy to hear his second brother say Yu Jingjing had a boyfriend. He'd hoped that this fat girl wouldn't bother him anymore. He hadn't expected Yu Jingjing to actually find out and marry Li Musheng! Luckily, they were living in the Third Hospital. Liu Juan had been acting strangely lately. If she found out her date was living in the same courtyard as her, wouldn't she be in a fight? Nie Xiangbei felt a little irritated thinking about it.
Li Musheng doesn't have many friends, and the few who come are all colleagues from the security department. However, his mother, Aunt Wang, is a talkative person, and has good relationships with people nearby. To a certain extent, this makes up for Li Musheng's shortcomings in this aspect.
The banquet was very rich and the wedding was lively. Everyone enjoyed the meal to their heart's content, with everyone's mouths glistening with grease. Although it was not long after the Chinese New Year, it was still a rare opportunity to eat meat with such open arms.
After dinner, Bi Chunliu followed Aunt Liu to the Hou family's house. She also wanted to see Hou Yue, who was eventually nicknamed Liuliu. Aunt Liu had just said at the table that Liuliu was like a child who had come to repay a favor. He was so well-behaved, never crying or making a fuss, and just loved to sleep.
With Liuliu as a comparison, Aunt Liu even quietly complained to her that Liu Juan's son Niu Niu looked like he was out for revenge. Aunt Liu planned to ask Liu Xiaoyue to visit Liuliu more often when she had time, hoping that Xiaoyue could give birth to a plump daughter like Liuliu.
Bi Chunliu smiled. Aunt Liu's idea was quite similar to that of the people she had seen in videos before. When she was pregnant, her house was covered with posters and the TV was filled with videos or photos of handsome men and beautiful women. She hoped that her own child would grow up to be as outstanding.
Aunt Liu walked ahead and knocked on the door, "Xiao Hou."
The two waited for a while, and Hou Zhiqiang came over to open the door, "Aunt Liu."
When they entered the house, Aunt Liu said, "Hey, Chunliu is here for the feast today too. I praised your daughter Liuliu for being so obedient. I brought her here to see you. Oh, I'm so happy just looking at this fat girl."
Bi Chunliu greeted Hou Zhiqiang and Wu Sanmei, and then he stretched his head to look at the sleeping little Liuliu, and whispered, "How cute, isn't he?"
Hou Zhiqiang was content with having a daughter. He said with a smile, "Chunliu, there's no need to be so quiet. Liuliu is sleeping soundly. We won't wake her up by talking."
"Okay," Bi Chunliu replied, continuing to stare at Liuliu. Liuliu was only a week old, and Hou Zhiqiang was afraid the child would be cold, so he kept the room warm. Liuliu's little hands were raised next to her face, and the sight of them melted anyone's heart.
Seeing that Chunliu was looking at her daughter all the time, Wu Sanmei asked her to touch Liuliu's little hand.
"very nice."
Bi Chunliu carefully touched Liuliu's hand. It's true, looking at this cute child, Bi Chunliu also wanted to have one like him.
Although Wu Sanmei is a socially anxious person, she is just like any other mother. She is happy to see others like her daughter. In addition, she went out a few times during her pregnancy to exercise herself. She clenched her left fist to encourage herself, and with her right hand, she grabbed her pants under the quilt. She shared with effort and calmness, "Lao Hou and I can't sleep well now. Liuliu is fine. No matter how noisy Niu Niu is over there, she can sleep soundly. Lao Hou and I woke up several times in fright. When we woke up, we had to touch her to see if Liuliu was still breathing."
Aunt Liu laughed. "It's like this for every first-time parent. Xiaoyue was like this when she gave birth to Shuanzi. You're already much better off than her and her husband. Back then, Xiaoyue didn't even dare to turn over in her sleep, for fear that the child would be crushed by her. That's called watching intently."
After playing at the Hou family for a while, it was time to go to work. Before Bi Chunliu left, she saw Wu Sanmei giving her a shy, grateful smile. Knowing that she was thanking her for the sauce and kimchi she had made during her pregnancy, she smiled back and turned to go to work.
Not long after Li Musheng got married, one day at the end of April, Bi Chunliu heard Qiuguo say that Deng Hong had given birth to a daughter, and that Uncle Qi was unhappy.
Bi Chunliu has always disliked Uncle Qi Dashan, whose patriarchal ideas have been deeply imprinted in his bones.
It happened that Xing Fei was on a business trip, and there were only four sisters at home. He asked Wei Guo and Xia He to look after the house. Bi Chunliu took Qiu Guo and a bag of brown sugar for Deng Hong. She was going back to the slum. She wanted to know if Qi Dashan had done anything weird.
She remembered that in her previous life, Qi Dashan had been dissatisfied with having a granddaughter and had pressured Qi Chao and his wife, as well as Qi Guang and his wife, to continue having children, and that they would not be satisfied until they had a grandson. It seemed that in 1972, Qi Chao and Qi Guang could no longer bear it. They heard that men could also undergo sterilization, so they both had sterilizations without telling Qi Dashan.
Qi Dashan, knowing he would never have a grandson again, fainted from anger and started making a scene when he returned from the hospital. Qi Guang was fine, as he still had his mother and was only Grandpa Qi's nephew.
Qi Chao was miserable. He was often scolded by Qi Dashan, saying that being a son was useless and that he was still a man after getting a sterilization. Sometimes he was even beaten by Qi Dashan. Then some people said that Qi Dashan was crazy because he wanted a grandson.
Bi Chunliu reacted, "Bah! Why didn't he hit himself when he was going crazy? Why didn't he hit others? It seems Qi Dashan's crazy was targeted, so he was purely targeting Qi Chao. He didn't dare to hit others, so he could only take it out on his son."
…
The one who took care of Deng Hong during her confinement was her second sister Deng Xing. While washing diapers for her niece, Deng Xing sighed and said that her mother-in-law was very troublesome and her eldest sister was also very troublesome. People who didn't know would think that her Qi family had many good things to pass down. Her eldest sister had just given birth a few days ago, and she was already muttering that she had to give birth to another grandson, as if giving birth to a child was as easy as farting.
"Aunt, I'm hungry..." Qi Yalan ran into the yard from outside and said while touching her stomach.
Deng Xing shook the water off his hands and asked, "Didn't I just give you a piece of peach cake? Are you hungry again?"
Qi Yalan clasped her hands, glanced at Grandpa's room, and muttered softly: "Grandpa won't let me eat it, and he took my peach cake away."
Deng Xing gritted her teeth and glared at the doorman, cursing Old Man Qi. "This old man is so stubborn. He even took his own granddaughter's things. Did he really think he was so stubborn as to not eat?" She took Qi Yalan's little hand and said, "Come on, how about Second Auntie make you a bowl of noodles? And a fried egg."
"Okay!" Qi Yalan jumped up happily, "Then I'll eat half, and the other half will be given to my mother."
"Okay, Yalan is really sensible."
After arriving at the compound, Bi Chunliu and Bi Qiuguo did not go directly to Deng Hong's house, but went to Liu's house first. If they wanted to know something, they would of course ask Aunt Liu first.
Aunt Zhang and Aunt Wang were also at Aunt Liu's house. They were sewing shoe soles together with Aunt Wang. Aunt Zhang wanted to make shoes for Haohao, and Aunt Liu wanted to make tiger-head shoes for her unborn baby.
Aunt Liu saw Bi Chunliu coming and quickly asked her to sit down. Then she saw the brown sugar she brought and realized it was for Deng Hong. She winked at the east wall of her house and said, "Do you want to ask about that?"
Bi Chunliu nodded and sat next to Aunt Zhang. She found that since it was confirmed that Zhang Jianyuan could not give birth to Pan Juan to take charge of the Zhang family, Aunt Zhang seemed to have calmed down a lot. When she saw her about to sit down, she even took a stool for her.
"Don't even mention him. It's really hard for a young wife to meet an old man like that. Ever since the second child was born, he's taken another leave, lying in bed groaning and saying he's upset. Now during the day, it's her younger sister who takes care of her after the confinement, and at night, when her husband comes back, she has to take care of him, and she also has to take care of the old man. I don't know what he's thinking. You said you want a grandson, so you have a grandson. But the daughter-in-law just came back from the hospital and came into the house and said there was nothing to raise for a little girl, and asked her to find a family to send the child away, and then hurry up and have another one. The young wife was so angry that she started arguing with him and her milk was gone."
Aunt Zhang also whispered, "Not only that, I also heard that old man instigating his son to divorce last night, saying that he wanted his daughter-in-law to take the daughter away so that he could find another daughter-in-law who could give birth to a son." Aunt Zhang thought to herself, "The old saying that women are the most vicious is bullshit! I can't compare to that old man Qi's cruelty. I completely forgot that when I quarreled with Pan Juan, I also wanted my son to divorce his daughter-in-law and remarry."
Aunt Wang, like Bi Chunliu, listened in amazement. She had thought only people in the countryside were so anxious to have grandchildren, but she hadn't expected to see them in the city. Then she realized she might soon become a grandmother, too. If Jingjing also had a granddaughter, she definitely wouldn't be like Old Man Qi. She'd understand when Old Man Qi got older. He was creating so much trouble for his son and daughter-in-law now, and if he fell out of bed and ate dirt, they wouldn't even notice.
Bi Chunliu probably knew what Qi Dashan had done, so she asked, "Aunt Liu, what did you give me?"
"Well, it's just brown sugar or a few eggs. You brought half a pound?" Aunt Zhang shook the oil-paper bag Bi Chunliu had brought. Tsk, when Lin Xiang gave birth, she gave eight eggs. She only had four. Haohao was her only child, so even though she gave sixteen, her family still lost out. Chunliu would probably have a baby in the next two years, so she would have to give more then.
Aunt Zhang secretly resented that she had lost out on having only one child. She would demote them to a lower grade if she got more money. Alas...it was a pity that it was difficult to have a son.
"Half a pound is enough, please send it to him quickly. Who knows when there will be a quarrel in his family in the next two days." Aunt Liu suffered a lot from this, this old man Qi is really annoying.
Bi Chunliu turned around and asked Qiu Guo, "Would you like to come with me or stay here and chat?"
"I'll go with you!" Bi Qiuguo quickly stood up. It was interesting to chat with the aunts, but she also wanted to see what the newborn baby looked like.
As the two of them walked to the door, they heard a voice from inside, "You old fool!"
Well...to advance or to retreat, that is the question.
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