The early spring wind was still chilly. Li Guifang was wiping the sweat from her forehead. The commotion just now had worn out her voice and exhausted her mind.
She caught a glimpse of Li Mingyu standing aside, rubbing his hands, hesitant to speak. The bruise on his forehead was particularly conspicuous in the morning light.
After struggling for a while, I finally managed to say, "Mom, what should I do?"
Li Guifang took out two one-yuan bills from the inner pocket of her blue cloth jacket and stuffed them into Li Mingyu's hand: "Here, go see a movie, and then go for a stroll in the Cultural Palace."
She looked up at the sky and said, "We need to put away the newly arrived sugar in the store quickly. It's getting humid."
"That's it?" Li Mingyu stomped his feet, clutching the money. "Was my meal all for nothing?"
I've been beaten, my job has been lost, what's the point of just apologizing? What's the point of having the police?
Li Guifang was too lazy to pay attention to Li Mingyu. She ran to the store without looking back. It was a close call. She almost had to take out the 180 yuan she had just earned!
Li Mingyu stood there holding two dollars, watching his mother leave in a hurry, his mouth open so wide that an egg could fit in!
He clearly saw Manager Ma stuffing a thick envelope into his mother's pocket, but in the end, he was left with only two crumpled bills?
"Okay, two dollars is two dollars!" He curled his lips and stuffed the money into his trouser pocket. "What movie are you going to watch? Go home and sleep!"
As soon as I entered the yard, I saw my father Li Jianghai sweeping the yard with a broom.
"Wow! You're back so soon?" Li Jianghai raised an eyebrow and craned his neck to peer out the door. "Where's your mom? Did she tear down the state-owned restaurant?"
Li Mingyu scratched his head: "My mom asked them to apologize to me..."
He deliberately didn't mention the compensation. What if his mother wanted to use the money to help him get married?
If I tell you this, I might not get married, and the two dollars will have to be confiscated to buy a washboard!
"That's it?" Li Jianghai slammed the broom into the ground. "Your mother has a fiery temper. Can you just let it go like this?"
"Oh, Dad!" Li Mingyu suddenly covered his forehead with his hands. "My wound hurts. I need to lie down for a while..."
He then scurried into the house, leaving Li Jianghai staring at his back, rolling his eyes. "How much are you worth? Just like your mother, full of tricks..."
——
In the evening, Li Mingyuan led the two children into the yard. When Li Shuduo saw Li Guifang, her eyes lit up like little lights: "Grandma! I missed you so much!"
The dinner table was full of joy, with everyone chatting while eating.
"Grandma! I got a perfect score on my math test today!"
"Oh, my Hanghang is so smart!" Li Guifang happily put three pieces of braised pork into her bowl, and the oil splashed onto the cuffs of Li Mingyuan next to her.
Li Mingyuan was picking at the rice in his bowl, and suddenly lowered his voice mysteriously:
"Mom, Director Zheng at our company hasn't come to work for several days. He hasn't shown up since the New Year."
Li Guifang paused, "Wow, you know all this? You've only been working for a few days!"
"The whole unit is talking about it!" Li Mingyuan put down his chopsticks, his eyes shining. "I've been recuperating for a few months, haven't I? As soon as I got back, everyone came to see me and talked about it. They said there were going to be personnel changes..."
Li Guifang narrowed her eyes: "You kid...are you up to some evil idea again?"
If this careless person wants to take some crooked path to climb up...
Then Li Guifang didn't mind and just let him go back to school for retraining!
The tip of the chopsticks in her hand was pointed at Li Mingyuan's forehead. As long as Li Mingyuan said something, she would give him a "wake-up call".
"How could that be!" Li Mingyuan shrank his neck and waved his hands. "How could your son be that kind of person? He was just telling you a funny story to entertain you!"
He lowered his voice slyly, "So you don't have to worry about Director Zheng all the time and introduce me to some weirdos..."
Li Guifang's chopsticks slammed onto the table, and she finally realized what was happening. Director Zheng? The Director Zheng who was flirting with Hu Meiling?
She suddenly clapped her legs and laughed, "Oh my! Ji's fifth son came to see me a few days ago and said that Hu Meiling, that vixen, had gone back home for the New Year and hasn't come back yet... So even the matchmaker ran off with her?"
At the dinner table, the only sound left was Li Guifang's loud smile.
Li Shuduo bit her chopsticks and asked, "Grandma, what does a vixen look like?"
"Go away! Don't ask about these things, kid!" Li Guifang put a piece of egg into her granddaughter's bowl.
——
It was late at night and everyone was asleep. Li Guifang was drowsy and about to fall asleep when the old wooden bed beneath her kept creaking.
"Why are you still making pancakes in the middle of the night?" She kicked Li Jianghai, almost kicking him off the bed. "If someone didn't know, they would think you were chopping wood!"
Li Jianghai couldn't sleep to begin with, and seeing Li Guifang being woken up, he said, "Wife, are you awake? I have a good idea..."
"Here we go again!" Li Guifang rolled her eyes. "Didn't I just assign you some work a few days ago?"
"Sweeping the yard, feeding the chickens, cooking, taking out the trash," Li Jianghai counted on his fingers. "Even the dog at Aunt Wang's house at the corner of the street bows to me now—I feed it more diligently than my own father..."
Li Guifang laughed in anger: "Who was it that complained every day that 'the boiler room is not a place for people'?
Weren't you happy when you were selling your job? Now, you are allowed to enjoy a leisurely life as a boss, and you are not happy again?
"That's different!" Li Jianghai wrapped herself in a quilt as she approached him. "I'm so free now that I could even give a literacy class to the hens! Yesterday, the hen even learned to cluck!"
"Okay!" Li Guifang rolled her eyes, "Let's set up a pancake stall at the street corner tomorrow. I see your pancakes are really good!
I guarantee you'll be so busy you'll be running around!"
Li Jianghai began to think seriously: "First, I need to find Zhang the carpenter to call a taxi... Then I need Liu the blacksmith to weld the furnace... And then...
"You're such a blockhead!" Li Guifang pounded the bed in anger. "If you're really that bored, go out more often during the day and take a look around. See who's looking to sell their house, and take note..."
"Why look at houses?" Li Jianghai muttered, and suddenly his eyes lit up.
He sat up straight and asked, "Wife, are you going to open a branch?"
"What are you talking about?" Li Guifang slapped him on the thigh. "You keep talking about opening a store. Doesn't it require capital? How much money do you have? Why are you so arrogant?"
"Then..." Li Jianghai scratched his head, "Do you want a shop facing the street, or an ordinary house?"
"We want them all!" Li Guifang shouted, silencing the cicadas outside the window. "The more the better! It would be best if we could take over the entire alley!"
Li Jianghai opened his mouth, wanting to ask more questions.
"Go to sleep!" Li Guifang picked up the buckwheat pillow and threw it at him.
"All you do is chatter all day long. If you keep talking, I'll have to wash all the family's summer clothes tomorrow!!"
The pillow hit Li Jianghai's face with a bang, and buckwheat husks were scattered all over the bed.
Li Jianghai was lying on the bed, wondering who was the one with the louder tone!
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