"I'm not home, and you have to take care of four children. It must be hard for you," Sheng Xiping sighed.
At other times, he would take his wife and children back to his hometown for a visit.
But this trip is to go back for a funeral. There are many customs associated with funerals in our hometown, and Xin Yue and Xin Qi are still young, so it's not appropriate for them to go to such occasions.
Furthermore, going back home isn't just a matter of three or five days; it could easily take a month or two to get back.
Zhou Qinglan has a job, and Sheng Xinhua has to go to school, so they really can't take too long a leave of absence. Therefore, Sheng Xiping didn't even bring it up.
Sheng Xiping is the eldest son of the second wife, so he can accompany his parents back home.
It's understandable that others have their own things to do and can't spare the time.
“What’s so hard about it? My parents and Aunt Li are here. Xinhua and the others are all grown up and sensible. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything.”
Zhou Qinglan smiled upon hearing this and gently comforted her husband.
As they were talking, the announcement came over the loudspeaker that it was time to check tickets. Zhou Qinglan stepped forward and gently hugged Sheng Xiping.
"When you're out and about, be careful, take good care of yourself and your parents."
"Okay, you should take care of yourself at home."
When you have some free time, go to the post office and ask if you can get a telephone line at home.
"Don't worry about the cost, just install it if you can. That way, it'll be easier for me to call back later."
Sheng Xiping hugged his wife, gently patted Zhou Qinglan's back, and whispered some instructions to her.
The couple embraced briefly before separating. Sheng Xiping then carried the luggage and, along with Sheng Xi'an and the others, escorted their parents to the ticket gate.
During the Spring Festival, the station is strictly managed, and you have to buy a platform ticket to see someone off.
Zhou Mingyuan originally said he wanted to buy a ticket to go in and see her off at the station, but Sheng Xiping stopped him. It wasn't a big deal, and there was no need to make such a big deal out of it.
After having his ticket checked, before entering the station, Sheng Xiping turned around and waved to his father-in-law, mother-in-law, wife, and brother-in-law.
Then, the group followed the flow of people and quickly walked towards the platform. After the Spring Festival, there were many people traveling, and the station was packed with people.
As the train pulled into the station, everyone scrambled onto the train. Sheng Xiping and the others helped their parents, and they finally managed to squeeze onto the train.
There weren't many empty seats on the bus, and they finally found two. Sheng Liancheng and Zhang Shuzhen sat down, while the four siblings all stood.
This was an express train that only stopped at major stations and not at minor ones. Fortunately, after a few stops, some people got off, and Sheng Xiping and the others finally got seats.
On the other side, Zhou Qinglan and the others left the station after Sheng Xiping and his group entered.
"Dad, can you arrange a car for me? I need to take Xinhua and Xinyu back to the forest farm."
Xinhua needs to transfer to No. 1 Primary School, so she has to go back to complete the transfer procedures.
The two mischievous kids were still thinking about Hua Hua's tiger and wanted to go back to see it and say goodbye.
As they walked out, Zhou Qinglan spoke to Zhou Mingyuan.
It took Zhou Qinglan a lot of persuasion to convince Sheng Xinhua and Sheng Xinyu to transfer to Songjianghe.
The two children had no other requests, except that they had to go home for a few days before school started, at least to see Huahua and tell her.
Otherwise, they wouldn't agree to transfer schools.
Therefore, Zhou Qinglan planned to take advantage of the fact that high school had just started and the workload was not too heavy, so she asked the school for two days off and took Sheng Xinhua back to complete the transfer procedures.
While we're at it, we can stay at the forest farm for a couple of days. Maybe we'll catch Hua Hua when she comes back, and I can give her a few words of advice.
In case everyone in the family leaves at once, Hua Hua won't be able to find anyone when she comes back.
"Oh dear, if you go back with Xinhua and Xinyu, what will happen to Yueyue and Qiqi? Can they manage without you?"
Upon hearing this, Wang Chunxiu immediately became worried.
"It's alright, Mom. Yueyue and Qiqi are with Aunt Li, they don't look for me much."
Normally, Zhou Qinglan goes to school before seven in the morning and often comes back at eight or nine in the evening. The two girls are used to it and don't cry when they can't see their mother.
"Alright then, Lao Zhou, arrange a car for your daughter later."
Wang Chunxiu sighed. There was nothing she could do; everything had just happened at once.
And so, the Zhou family returned home, and Zhou Mingyuan arranged for a jeep from the bureau to take Zhou Qinglan and her two children back to the forest farm.
Wang Chunxiu was worried about her granddaughter, so she took two days off to go to her daughter's house to play with her granddaughter.
After returning to the forest farm, Zhou Qinglan went to the school first to complete the transfer procedures for Sheng Xinhua.
Then, taking his son home, they gathered everything out of the storage room. What could be put in the refrigerator was put there, and what couldn't fit in the refrigerator, they packed in buckets, wooden boxes, and other containers and buried them in the snowdrift in the backyard.
The backyard is shady and cold; it might not thaw completely by late April. By then, Sheng Liancheng and his wife will probably be back.
Sheng Xiping and his group got off the train in Tonghua, bought tickets for the next leg of their journey, and then found a place to have a meal.
That evening, Sheng Xiping, his parents, and his two younger sisters boarded the train to the capital first, while Sheng Xi'an later took a car to the provincial capital.
Sheng Xiping has been shipping goods back and forth for the past few years and has developed some connections with railway departments in various places. Through acquaintances, he bought a few sleeper tickets.
After boarding the bus, Sheng Xiping led his parents to their seats and they quickly settled in.
Sheng Liancheng and his wife slept in the lower bunk, Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei slept in the middle bunk, and Sheng Xiping slept in the lower bunk next door.
Many people travel after the Spring Festival. The hard seat area is crowded with people, and the sleeper area is just as noisy.
Sheng Xiping barely slept all night; at the slightest disturbance, he would quickly get up to check on the neighbors.
Fortunately, nothing went wrong along the way, and we arrived in the capital the following afternoon.
"Big brother, over here." "Brother Xiping, come over here quickly." They had just passed the exit when they heard someone calling them.
Sheng Xiping looked in the direction of the sound and saw Sheng Xikang, Wu Yuhua, Wu Yuqing, and Wu Yucheng waving at them from across the exit.
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