Chapter 24 Sister Yaya
Chapter 25 Sister Yaya
After my aunt finished her work in the main room, she went into the house and started chatting with my parents. When talking about the recent situation at home, the two women seemed to have endless things to say. My uncle went to the outer room to light the kang and prepare to boil some hot water. "Chunxia, tell your sister-in-law about this first. I'll boil some hot water for you. Yanzi, hurry up and find some snacks for the children. Don't let them sit there."
Uncle Fang Zheng's skinny face was full of wrinkles as he smiled. After filling the kang, he hurried into the house, stood at the door, leaned against the door frame, and started chatting with Fang's mother.
Seeing Fang Qing sitting on the kang and warming her hands, she has grown up so much. The uncle was filled with emotion, "I didn't expect that in a blink of an eye, the child has grown up so much! When I came back that year, she was still a little kid, and she was scared to tears by the geese in the yard. Now she has grown into a big girl in the blink of an eye!"
After saying that, the uncle looked at Fang Qing again, "Do you remember your elder sister? She will be back from get out of class soon. Wait for her to come back and ask her to take you out for a walk."
Fang Qing smiled and nodded, grabbed a handful of peanuts from the plate and stood in the yard to get some fresh air.
My aunt's yard wasn't big, but it had a lot of stuff. To the west was a row of straw sheds, with wooden blocks more than a meter tall neatly stacked inside, and some hay piled next to it, with a few hens hopping around on it, clucking, looking for a place to lay eggs;
Further forward, closer to the door, was a pigpen where two pigs, one big and one small, were sleeping together. Next to it was a small shed. Fang Qing knew without even looking that it was the toilet at her uncle's house. Although Fang Qing was not used to it, everything about it coincided with her memories of her previous life, which made her feel emotional for a moment.
There was a small vegetable garden on the east side, which was now covered by the university and was bare. Fang Qing stepped on it a few times out of boredom and was about to take a step forward when he heard a woman's shout from behind.
"Don't go any further, that's a cellar!"
Fang Qing retracted his foot and turned around, only to see a thin girl in a red cotton-padded jacket standing at the door, carrying a common green canvas bag. Her face was red from the cold, and she was looking at him with her head tilted.
"Who are you? Why are you in my vegetable garden? Get out now, or we won't compensate you if you break anything!"
Fang Qing was amused by the girl's accent. Looking at his cousin in front of him with her pretty face and bright eyes, he finally found a sense of familiarity.
"Sister Yaya, I'm Qingqing, don't you recognize me?"
As soon as Fang Qing finished speaking, the girl was visibly stunned. She took a few steps forward to look at him carefully. The more she looked, the bigger her smile became. Suddenly, she hugged Fang Qing and stomped her feet with joy.
"So it's you, you naughty girl! I was wondering whose child is so unruly that he even stepped into other people's gardens and trampled on them. Haha, it turns out to be you, you bad boy. You are still like a child, always causing trouble!..."
Fang Qing was infected by her cousin's smile. Seeing that her hands were cold, she quickly pulled her back into the house to warm them up.
The two sisters always have endless things to talk about when they are together. My aunt knew that they had not had lunch, so she quickly prepared a table of food and asked Daya to go next door to tell the second sister's family to come back for lunch at noon.
My second uncle's house is next to my eldest uncle's, but during the day both of them go to work at a nearby brickyard, so there is usually no one at home.
But when they heard that my sister and her family had returned, my second uncle and his family rushed back before my aunt had even finished cooking.
There was another exciting gathering. Fang Qing watched his mother and uncle wiping tears and felt more and more guilty. If it weren't for him, his mother might have come back to see his uncle every year...
My eldest and second uncles were very happy and drank two cups of wine while eating, but my second uncle had work to do in the afternoon and refused to have more after two cups.
"Xia, where are you staying tonight? If you haven't decided yet, you can stay in our courtyard. The second oldest is out working, and the oldest is helping out in the county. There's an empty room here. If you don't mind, I'll go back and clean it up in a while."
But the uncle waved his hand and said, "No, it's all right here. You two must be tired after a busy day, so don't fight with us..."
In the end, Fang Qing and his family stayed in the eldest uncle's courtyard. After dinner, the second uncle left a few dollars, saying that he wanted to buy some food for the children, and then hurried out.
The sky suddenly became cloudy in the afternoon, and soon heavy snow began to fall.
Daya wrapped Fa Qing up like a ball, and then took Fang Qing to the yard to make a snowman.
Fang Qing seemed to have not laughed so hard in many years. A group of children were chasing each other in the yard, and then they chased each other into the village, playing snowball fights around the jujube tree...
Instead of building a snowman, they rolled themselves into snowmen. In the end, they returned home with red noses and were chased around the yard by their aunt with a broom...
That night, Fang Qing slept particularly soundly.
The cotton bedding, the hot kang, the late-night conversations between my aunt and mother, the big cat curled up at their feet, and the reflection of the heavy snow outside the window, everything seemed exceptionally warm.
The next morning, Fang Qing was awakened by a chill on her neck. When she opened her eyes, she saw her cousin slyly putting her hand under her quilt. "Why don't you get up quickly, lazy cat? The sun is shining on your butt!"
Fang Qing woke up with a start, turned around and saw that he was the only one still sleeping on the kang. Everyone else's luggage was folded and piled on the kang.
He sat up embarrassedly, but then lay down again because of the cold air in the room.
The cousin looked at her movements and covered her mouth with her hands, laughing, "I knew you were feeling cold, I just lit the kang, and your cotton pants and cotton jacket are already warm for you, hurry up, put them on while they're still warm!"
Fang Qing was touched, as if his cousin had always been so considerate and caring. In his previous life, after he got into trouble, his cousin volunteered to go to the city overnight to take care of his sick mother. She also often counseled him and encouraged him to get out of the dark.
But at that time she really couldn't get over it and didn't listen to many of the words. Then something happened to her eldest brother, which shattered her last bit of strength.
Fang Qing watched his cousin busying around, his eyes dazed for a moment, he slowly sat up and put on his clothes, then let his cousin get him a basin of warm water so he could wipe his face.
Such a good cousin must have a good ending. In her previous life, she heard that her cousin was married far away and the man was an alcoholic who seemed to treat her very badly. Now that she has come back to her life, she will not let her cousin suffer any more grievances in this life. She must see that her cousin lives a happy life.
"Thank you, Sister Yaya."
"Hey, thank you to me, that's too formal! Hurry up, breakfast is ready, I'm waiting for you..."
The aunt had coarse grain porridge with pickles, and she cooked a few eggs to share with Fang Qing and the others. She herself ate some corn porridge, smiling happily.
Fang Qing couldn't bear to see his relatives treating him so harshly, so he said the doctor forbade eating eggs and forced the egg into his aunt's mouth.
"This child, you are really... Okay, let your aunt eat it for you. Which doctor said that you can't eat eggs anymore..."
After dinner, the mother packed up and went out with Fang Qing and the others, preparing to go up the mountain to visit the old man's grave. Ancestor worship in the village is a major clan event, and people are not allowed to move around during those days, so they have to burn incense in advance to comfort their ancestors.
Walking on the mountain road, Fang Qing looked into the distance and suddenly remembered his previous life.
(End of this chapter)
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