"Then you don't have to use chopsticks at home." Professor Chu replied to her unhappily.
"No, that won't work. There are many dishes that require chopsticks, such as hot pot. Besides, I'm not so poor that I can't afford chopsticks. I just want to reminisce the feeling of stealing food when I was a kid."
"Mother."
"Mother?"
"Mother!"
Three calls with different tones and three pairs of eyes with different meanings made Zhou Xiang pause.
Uh, Zhou Xiang organized his words and told his three children about his childhood experience of being hungry.
"I know, I know," Ling Xiaotong raised her face, which was covered with watermelon juice. "Grandpa Chu said that when the work points were calculated, we worked hard all year and didn't get any money. The food we got was not enough, and some people even owed money to the village."
"Yeah," Zhou Xiang nodded, "but as far as I can remember, your mother has never experienced the era of collective communal dining. Because your grandparents both worked, we didn't have any land at home. I only occasionally went to other people's fields to pick up wheat ears during the busy farming season. But, although your grandparents had jobs, they couldn't support a large family. So, cough cough cough, your mother was hungry and secretly ate the cold steamed buns that grandma hung high up, and she also stole some raw onions."
"Mom, you're so pitiful," Ling Xiaotong stuffed half a watermelon with very little flesh left into her mother's hands, "Here, eat more."
"Use it to wash your hair and face!" Zhou Xiang slammed the melon rind on her head. "If you can't finish it, just find an excuse to stuff it back into your mother. I have enough food and clothes now, and I can even feed a bunch of picky eaters like you. Do I still need your pity?"
"Hahahaha," Zhou Yan, Haohao, Dangdang, and several other children burst into laughter, "Sister looks very beautiful in the watermelon rind hat!"
"Mom~" Ling Xiaotong, with a watermelon rind on her head, looked at her mother aggrievedly.
"It's for beauty," Zhou Xiang shamelessly fooled his daughter, "Rubbing watermelon peel on your face is for beauty. Women, you should learn how to take care of yourself from a young age."
Ling Ran was taking pictures of his wife and children, and of course he also took pictures of his daughter being bullied by his wife.
An unscrupulous mother bullied her daughter, and an unscrupulous father took a photo as a souvenir. It was not until she grew up that Ling Xiaotong discovered the photo. She complained for a long time and threatened her parents to apologize to her, otherwise she would run away from home. The unscrupulous parents even waved goodbye to her.
When they returned to the village to boil water for bathing, the unscrupulous mother forced the children to boil water for bathing themselves.
The wood stove for boiling water is a gas stove, used for work in rural areas. A hole is made in the iron bucket which is where you add firewood.
My mother's reasoning was, "Only those who endure the most hardships can achieve success. That's how your mother got through it. You can't go through the most hardships, but it's good to experience it."
Then, Lian Hanhan's head and face were covered in black dust, and the boiled water was not enough for the children.
Even though it was summer, a little hot water was enough for bathing, but the children were so dirty! The children in the village couldn't stand it anymore and came forward to help boil some hot water.
After finally taking a bath and changing into clean clothes, the children were hungry and tired, but their unscrupulous mother asked them what it felt like to be hungry.
Zhou Yan understood this time and secretly warned his younger brothers and sisters not to find fault with their aunt next time, because adults would not make mistakes.
Ling Xiaotong nodded repeatedly. It was all her fault. She was the one who dragged her two brothers into finding fault with their mother.
Haohao Dangdang comforted his sister, saying that as three siblings, they should share the difficulties.
This trip to Zhoujia Village has made the relationship between the three siblings even better. Zhou Xiang saw it and kept praising himself for being so good, and Ling Ran followed suit.
It was not until August 15th that the couple, who had almost forgotten that they had a daughter, finally decided to come back.
They were so tanned that they looked like Africans, and it took little girl Hanhan a long time to recognize that they were her parents.
Seeing that the two were in good spirits, Zhou Xiang felt relieved. "Third brother, can you finish the project this year?"
"No," Zhou Hua shook his head. "We can't work in the winter, and there's still road construction to do. It'll take until at least next autumn."
“Is the funding sufficient?”
"That's enough."
Xiao Chunmei told Zhou Xiang that Li Li and Zhang Ning had also gone. Li Li went when spring came and Zhang Ning went when her son was a hundred days old. After they arrived, they did not stay at home, but kept busy and gave advice every day.
No authentic garden designer was hired. All of them, half-baked people, followed Xiao Chen to make the renovations bit by bit. Various finished designs were slowly presented in reality under their hands. You can imagine how they felt, it was almost like they were having their own children.
Zhou Xiang glanced at Xiao Chunmei unhappily and said, "You don't love your own child, but you love that wild child."
"Hehe," Xiao Chunmei giggled, "Isn't her aunt here? I'm at ease leaving her in your care."
"Don't flatter me. I'll go and see it sometime."
Xiao Chunmei's face looked a little strange. "How about you wait until the end to watch it? Zhou Hua wants to give you a surprise, and we also want to give you a surprise."
"Really?" Zhou Xiang looked at her doubtfully. "Are you worried that once I leave, I'll criticize the 'child' you've conceived together?"
"Absolutely not," Xiao Chunmei shook her head. "We have confidence, but it's not finished yet. It's like a dirty child who hasn't had time to take a bath. No one wants to show it to the public, right?"
"Okay!" Zhou Xiang nodded. "I'll go and see it when it's finished."
Xiao Chunmei breathed a sigh of relief. Next time, she decided not to praise her "child" in front of Zhou Xiang.
After the holiday, the two returned to Xishan. Seeing their enthusiasm for work, Zhou Xiang couldn't help but look forward to the completion of the Xishan Health Park. Although the scenery was beautiful in the previous life, it was not very popular due to various reasons. He hoped that the third brother and others could create a miracle.
As the demolition and construction of the market town was in full swing, autumn passed and winter came again, and another Spring Festival was about to arrive. This time, because Zhou Xiang had said long ago that everyone would celebrate the New Year at Zhou's house in the future, Zhou's father and mother also went shopping for New Year's goods early.
Three years after an elderly person in the family passes away, firecrackers are no longer on the list of things to buy.
That's it. Because it was the first time that Zhou and Ling's families celebrated the New Year together at their children's home, Zhou's father felt that it had to be grand. Zhou Xiang also let his father take charge, and then his father bought thousands of dollars worth of New Year's goods.
Zhou Xiang didn't care. His mother didn't have much status in the family now. Ling Ran relaxed his control over the efficacy of the medicine. His mother was also relatively low-key and rarely came out to nag, so the issue of his father buying too much New Year's goods was ignored by everyone.
At the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, Zhou Xiang brought his parents-in-law to the Zhou residence. The villa was fully air-conditioned, and his parents-in-law were used to saving money and said they didn't like the dryness of air conditioning when heating. Zhou Xiang and Ling Ran forced his parents-in-law to pack up their clothes and move in.
In fact, Dong Yunrong was not being pretentious. She also wanted to come, but she just didn't want to face her mother-in-law.
When Dong Yunrong saw her mother-in-law becoming silent, she was shocked and secretly asked her daughter-in-law what was going on.
"Maybe because everyone is more distant from her, she has changed! Many times, you can't go back to the way it was just because you want to. A broken heart will still leave scars even after it heals."
Dong Yunrong stopped asking questions, as her only purpose was to expose her daughter-in-law's healed scar.
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