A young man of medium build, dark-skinned and thin, who looked very intelligent, came in.
"Sit down and warm your hands, they must be freezing." Su Xueli could only treat Wei Mingshen's comrade-in-arms with the tone of a hostess.
The young man glanced at Su Xueli, sweetly called her "sister-in-law," and took out a bottle of perfume from his bag, handing it to her and saying, "This was brought back from the south, sister-in-law, please don't mind it."
Su Xueli glanced at Wei Mingshen and said, "Take this as a token of Xiao Luo's goodwill."
Su Xueli smiled and accepted it, "Thank you so much, Xiao Luo, then I'll take it."
Feeling she should reciprocate, she took a woven vase from the table and handed it to Xiao Luo, saying, "Xiao Luo, this is a little thing I made for fun. You can take it home and play with it; you can even put a fake flower in it."
Xiao Luo exclaimed upon seeing it, "Wow, sister-in-law, did you make this yourself? It's practically a work of art, so exquisite!"
Wei Mingshen listened with a proud look and said, "It wasn't your sister-in-law who made it herself; she's very skillful."
Su Xueli rolled her eyes at him, "How can you be like this?"
It means who is praising their own wife.
Xiao Luo was so engrossed in looking at the vase that he kept praising how beautiful it was. Then he asked Su Xueli earnestly, "Sister-in-law, where did you learn your craft?"
Su Xueli laughed heartily, "I just made it for fun, it can't be called a skill."
Xiao Luo looked incredulous. "Sister-in-law, you're not kidding me, are you?!"
Su Xueli said seriously, "Why would I lie to you? By the way, you need to talk to your Brother Wei, right? You two talk, I'm going out for a walk."
He must have come to see Wei Mingshen about business. It's so cold outside, she can't let Wei Mingshen take his guest out to talk, so she might as well take some time to visit her second aunt and get to know her.
It's the weekend today, so she must be at home, since she doesn't go to school and stays indoors all the time.
She knew her second aunt's house very well; it was the only place she frequently visited in her past life: a small, square courtyard, a passageway, two wooden doors, three mud-brick rooms, an east room for storing miscellaneous goods, and a west room used as a kitchen.
The yard was kept very clean, and the chickens were kept in enclosures, so there was no chicken droppings or sheep droppings in the yard.
The garden in the center of the yard, enclosed by a fence, is now overgrown with weeds. But in spring, it will be a riot of color, with impatiens, night-blooming jasmine, roses, crabapples, and peonies all vying for attention. The air is filled with the fragrance of flowers as soon as you enter her yard.
On the west side of the courtyard was a vegetable patch where my second aunt grew all kinds of seasonal vegetables. Of course, she couldn't eat them all herself, so in addition to her brothers' families, the neighbors also ate as much as they wanted.
However, the courtyard was demolished a dozen years later. One of my aunt's nephews built a two-story house for her to live in, but his wife treated her badly, saying that the courtyard should have belonged to them and that my aunt had taken over her nephew's courtyard because she didn't get married.
My second aunt was strong-willed and proud her whole life, and of course she wouldn't be subservient to others. She used the money she had saved up for most of her life to buy a small apartment in town. But after she passed away, the apartment was fought over by her nephews. When she fell ill, no one took good care of her. They just gave her a bowl of rice, dug a hole in her bed, and didn't care if she needed to use the toilet.
Su Xueli was also burdened with illness and injury by life at that time, but she still dragged her sick body to take care of her second aunt. She watched her second aunt pass away with her own eyes.
She would never forget her second aunt's dying act: the woman, barely alive, suddenly sat up in bed and cried out, "Jinpeng! Jinpeng!"
Then he lay straight down on the bed and died.
Yes, Jin Peng was that educated youth from back then, and she was still thinking about him even on her deathbed.
"You must be Ming Shen's wife!" Second Aunt saw Su Xueli standing in her yard, lost in thought.
Although she had never met her new niece-in-law in person, she had seen her from afar and could still recognize her.
Su Xueli's thoughts were pulled back. She looked at her still young second aunt with great joy, walked up to her, took her hand, and called out affectionately, "Second Aunt."
The second aunt was taken aback: she had never met this niece-in-law before, but her attitude towards her seemed very close and familiar.
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