The dogs knew their owner was cooking for them, and they sat neatly at the kitchen doorway, watching inside.
These dogs know exactly which rooms they can enter and which they are forbidden from entering; the kitchen is one of the rooms they are not allowed to enter.
Li Chu stood in the kitchen watching the dogs outside, their tongues lolling out and drool dripping all over the floor, which made him laugh.
Dogs are smart too; they know their owners are laughing at them, so they all shut their mouths in unison and look resentfully at their owners who are squatting on the ground laughing.
"Ding-dong, ding-dong," the doorbell rang.
Li Chu thought it was Ding Qiunan returning, so he didn't even move and directly directed Maoqiu to open the door.
The barking came from the front yard, and he knew it couldn't be his wife coming back, otherwise the dog wouldn't be barking.
Just as I stood up to see who it was, I heard a shout from the front yard: "Brother Chu, Brother Chu, it's me, Da Mao!"
? ?
Why is this guy here at this hour?
Stepping out of the kitchen and into the front yard, he saw Maoqiu sitting inside the gate, glaring at Xu Damao. He stood outside, not daring to take a single step inside.
"What's wrong, Da Mao? Why are you here now?"
Li Chu walked over and patted Maoqiu's head. Maoqiu raised its head and rubbed against him before running back to the central courtyard.
"Brother Chu, I've come to tell you something and I'm leaving now. The old lady in the backyard over there is passing away today. If you'd like, you can go back and take a look."
What's going on? Why have you been going to so many funerals these past two days?
"Da Mao, please drive in and have a seat."
"I'm not going in, Brother Chu. I just got off work and haven't eaten yet."
"You, Damao, you're here. Why don't you come in and sit down? What are you doing standing at the door?"
Outside the door, Ding Qiunan also returned.
"Sister-in-law, I'm just here to tell Brother Chu something and then I'll leave. I need to go back for dinner."
"Alright, I won't keep you from eating. Bring Xiao'e over for a bit when you're free. I'll check on her later, or I'll come over if I don't have anything else to do."
"Okay, I'm off then, Brother Chu, sister-in-law, I'm leaving!"
"What's wrong? What did Da Mao say?" Ding Qiunan came in after seeing Xu Da Mao ride away on his bicycle.
"The old lady in the backyard passed away today. I said I'd go visit her if I had time."
Ding Qiunan also opened her cherry-like mouth wide, looking at her husband in surprise: "What's going on these past two days? Why is this happening every day?!"
"Who knows? Let's go for a walk after we finish eating."
Back in the courtyard, Li Chu went into the kitchen, lifted the pot lid, and touched the steamed buns; they were almost done.
He extinguished the fire in the stove, then picked up the buns and put them in a large basin, carried them to the yard, and placed them on the stone table.
Several dogs followed behind him, obediently lining up.
Li Chu picked up the steamed buns and fed them one by one, letting them finish one before asking for the second.
Ding Qiunan washed her hands at the sink and saw her husband feeding the dog. She said, "I'll go over there first. Come over when you're done feeding the dog. Don't let anyone call you."
"I understand, you can go ahead now."
After feeding them the steamed buns, I opened two cans of meat and shared them with them. Once I finished, I washed my hands and went to my sister's place for dinner.
As darkness fell, Li Chu and Ding Qiunan walked out of the courtyard. After having dinner at their sister's house, they came over to offer incense to the old lady, as a way of sending her off on her final journey.
The old lady was over ninety years old, a very old age. When she passed away, there was an old man and his family of three, as well as He Yuzhu, who dressed her in mourning clothes. That was quite a lot.
When Li Chu and his wife came over, the neighborhood committee members were also there. The old lady probably already sensed that she didn't have much time left, and she even left a will before she passed away, with the neighborhood committee members acting as witnesses.
The old lady ultimately left her house to an old man.
No one knew about this will. When the neighborhood committee members read it aloud in front of everyone in the courtyard, the reactions on everyone's faces were truly a diverse display of human emotions!
There were joyful faces on the faces of an elderly man and woman, as well as He Yuzhu's astonishment, and Qin Huairu's face full of disappointment and disbelief.
The people in the courtyard couldn't hide their jealousy.
Li Chu stood aside, observing coldly.
The elderly couple must be very happy. The fact that the old lady was able to leave the house to their family means that all their years of taking care of her have not been in vain.
An old man's son is already over eighteen years old. At the beginning of the year, he swallowed his pride and went to the factory leaders to get his son a job at the factory.
The old lady said her son would be getting married in a few years, and she would leave the house to his family so that her son would have a place to live after his marriage.
He Yuzhu's astonishment wasn't because he wanted the house; he simply hadn't expected that the old lady would change her will before she passed away, when she had previously told him she wanted to leave it to him.
Actually, he didn't remember the old lady's exact words. The old lady did say that she would leave the house to him, but there was a condition: if he got married and had his own children, then the house would be given to him.
It is clear that he did not meet the old lady's requirements.
Qin Huairu simply thought that if the old lady left the house to He Yuzhu, then she could take the house and move it into her own home, let her son move in, and get married and have children there.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned, and all the arrangements fell through.
In the end, He Yuzhu asked someone to help her son, Banggeng, get him a driving lesson.
I'm currently driving in the factory's fleet and I've started dating someone.
Based on this alone, neither Aunt Jia nor Bang Geng objected to their marriage.
However, Qin Huairu is now hesitant. If there is no house, where will her son live after he gets married?
She had originally considered taking a liking to He Yushui's house, thinking that since Yushui was married, the house should belong to He Yuzhu. However, she found out that He Daqing had told her before he left that the house belonged to Yushui and had nothing to do with He Yuzhu.
Moreover, Yushui firmly refused to let anyone else stay in her room.
After the neighborhood committee members finished reading the will, Li Chu took advantage of the commotion in the courtyard and quietly left with his wife.
This was Ding Qiunan's first time back in all these years. After leaving the courtyard, she looked back one last time.
"Li Chu, why did they build the courtyard such a mess? It doesn't look like a traditional courtyard house at all."
"They have no choice. There are too many people in their family, and one room is no longer enough. If they don't try to make the space in the house bigger, how will they live?"
After listening, Ding Qiunan nodded: "What you said is right. Right now, only the Intermediate Court looks relatively clean and tidy."
"Hehe," Li Chu chuckled, "The Intermediate Court will be building soon too, just you wait and see."
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