Chapter 249
Ji Wanmei opened the car door, jumped out lightly, and saw a group of children from the village gathered around. She took out a bag of White Rabbit milk candy from her bag and handed it to the children.
"Come here, come to your sister and get some candy!" Ji Wanmei smiled warmly and waved to the children.
Children who grow up in the mountains and countryside are not afraid of strangers. They can go anywhere, climbing trees to raid bird nests, or moving stones to catch crabs in the river.
When they first met Ji Wanmei, they weren't afraid. They knew that this beautiful older sister had come back with Brother Lei Tingjun, so she must be a good person. They all gathered around and reached out to Ji Wanmei for candy.
Ji Wanmei squatted down and bent over to look the children in the eye.
She handed out a few candies to each of them, watching the children unwrap the wrappers, carefully put the candies in their mouths, and then give her a satisfied, innocent smile, which made her smile too.
“I really like it here,” Ji Wanmei said to Lei Tingjun as she straightened up.
Lei Tingjun's face also showed an unprecedented level of relaxation and ease.
Perhaps returning to his hometown, away from the hustle and bustle of big cities, would make him feel comfortable.
Although he has rarely returned in recent years.
When the children got candy, they sweetly called Ji Wanmei "Big Sister." One little boy looked at her and Lei Tingjun curiously and asked, "Big Sister, are you going to be Big Brother's wife?"
Ji Wanmei was speechless at the child's innocent question. She glanced at Lei Tingjun and blushed deeply.
Although the children are young, they are not completely ignorant.
Seeing that Ji Wanmei blushed, he scratched his cheek with his fingers, clapped his hands and laughed, "Oh! Big brother is getting a new bride!"
"Go away, little guys, stop talking nonsense and go home." Lei Tingjun's face darkened, deliberately making a scary face.
But the village children weren't afraid of him at all. They laughed and swarmed around him, climbing into the back of the pickup truck to play.
Seven or eight children sat in a row in the back of the truck, all looking on with great interest and amusement.
There was a little kid among them, only five or six years old. He was wearing a thick cotton-padded coat in the winter, and all the other older kids had climbed up, but he was the only one who hadn't climbed up yet.
His two short legs were flailing around, trying to climb up, but he was still holding the two candies that Ji Wanmei had given him earlier, so he couldn't free his hands and started crying loudly.
Lei Tingjun frowned helplessly upon seeing this.
He walked over, grabbed the little guy by the collar with one hand, lifted him up, and tossed him into the car.
The little guy wobbled and fell into the truck bed, then smiled through his tears at Lei Tingjun.
Ji Wanmei discovered that Lei Tingjun seemed to really like children.
Although he seemed impatient and fierce, his eyes were actually constantly watching the children on the bus, making sure no one fell off.
"Go back after playing for a while. Don't overturn here; it's dangerous if you fall off," he said with a stern face.
Ji Wanmei opened the back seat and took out some small New Year's gifts she had bought for Lei Tingjun's neighbors and villagers. There weren't many things, but it was a token of her goodwill.
"Let's go, I'll take you back to my yard first." Lei Tingjun carried the things and led Ji Wanmei forward.
Upon arriving at Lei Tingjun's courtyard, Lei Tingjun pushed open the fence and went inside.
"Be careful, there's moss growing on the ground, it's a bit slippery," he said, turning to Ji Wanmei.
Ji Wanmei looked up and saw that Lei Tingjun's hometown was a typical rural mud-brick and tile house in southern China.
The walls are made of loess mud, the roof is covered with black tiles, and the attic and windows are made of wooden planks.
It has two entrances and two exits. In front is a spacious courtyard where crops can be dried, and in the back is a chicken coop and a drainage ditch.
However, because no one has lived here for several years, the area behind the drainage ditch is covered with moss.
But it is precisely because of this that the house has a rustic and original feel.
Ji Wanmei looked around curiously.
Lei Tingjun stood still, looking at Ji Wanmei.
In that instant, he felt a sense of déjà vu, as if he had dreamt of such a scene countless times in his dreams.
But it also feels a bit unreal.
It's because it's so much like a dream.
He never dared to imagine that his dream would one day become a reality.
Ji Wanmei also turned her head, smiling at Lei Tingjun, and said, "I feel like I've been here before, it feels so familiar."
Could it be that the two of them actually have the same feeling?
Lei Tingjun's anxiety instantly subsided by more than half. He walked to the door, stood on tiptoe on the door frame, and touched the wooden key.
He used his key to open the door to the main room, brought out a stool, and offered it to Ji Wanmei.
Ji Wanmei didn't want to sit down. She walked inside and asked him with a smile, "You actually hid the key by the door like that."
Lei Tingjun said, "Sometimes the neighbors will come over to help check the leak in the house."
He casually remarked, "There's nothing of value at home. Everyone in the village knows me, so no one would come to take it."
Ji Wanmei entered the main room of the Lei family home and saw a memorial tablet placed directly opposite the main room. Ji Wanmei was stunned and asked Lei Tingjun, "This is...?"
Lei Tingjun said, "The one in the middle is my grandma, the one on the left is my dad, and the one on the right is my mother."
When he said this, Lei Tingjun spoke calmly and his expression was serene; there was little trace of sorrow on his face.
But Ji Wanmei was deeply shaken.
She understands what it feels like to see the memorial tablets of one's loved ones.
Every time she saw her father wiping her mother's memorial tablet clean and placing it in his study, she felt very sad, but she didn't dare to show it in front of him.
Because if she gets sad or upset, her father will feel even more guilty.
But Lei Tingjun, he was facing three of his closest relatives all by himself.
Ji Wanmei could hardly imagine how melancholy and sad he felt every time he returned alone and saw the memorial tablets of his parents and grandmother.
There were incense sticks and candles placed next to the memorial tablet. Ji Wanmei said, "Let me light some incense for my uncle, aunt, and grandma."
She took a stick of incense and asked Lei Tingjun to light it for her with a lighter.
Then, he sincerely stood before the memorial tablets of Lei Tingjun's parents and relatives and bowed three times.
Lei Tingjun stood to the side and behind, looking at Ji Wanmei's serious expression, his brows full of tenderness.
He turned to the ancestral tablet in front of the main room and silently said in his heart, "Mom and Dad, Grandma, do you see this? This is the girl I like."
“I brought her back to see you. Her name is Ji Wanmei. She is a very good and kind girl. With her by my side, I no longer feel lonely and lost. I love her, I want to marry her, and I want to spend my life with her. I will treat her well.”
"Mom and Dad, Grandma, you'll definitely like her too, right?"
A gentle breeze blew across the courtyard, as if answering Lei Tingjun's inner thoughts.
Yes, they must like the girl he likes too.
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