Chapter 3 Night Talk
After the Lin family finished sharing the canned food, it was completely dark.
Turning on the light, the warm yellow light appears particularly bright and warm in the night.
Zhou Qing carried four bowls that had been used for canned food and went into the kitchen with Lin Ping to prepare dinner.
"Zhou Mei, don't prepare dinner tonight. You two can just eat with us!" Lin Ting bent down and took Wang Shan's hand and walked around the room in circles, while instructing Zhou Mei who was carrying Lin Cong back to the front room.
"good!"
Lin Qiu looked at the grandfather and grandson who were circling under the lamp. The father was in his prime with a straight back, and the daughter was walking unsteadily and learning to speak. An inexplicable emotion surged in his heart. He felt his nose sour and his eyes gradually moistened.
"Daddy, Shanshan can walk now, let her walk by herself! Be careful of back pain if you bend your body like this!"
"What's that? How can I tire my waist if I walk a few steps with my back bent? I'm not old or eighty years old!"
Lin Ting waved his hand casually, ignoring his daughter's reminder.
"It's up to you! I'll help Mom light the fire!"
After saying that, Lin Qiu stood up and walked towards the kitchen.
"Mom, let me help you light the fire!"
As soon as he arrived in the kitchen, Lin Qiu sat down directly under the stove, picked up the fire tongs, and added two pieces of firewood into the burning stove.
"What are you doing here? You'll get covered in dust and your clothes will get filthy!" Zhou Qing poured oil into the pot while reminding, "Pingping, wash two more cloves of garlic so that we can fry the bacon later!"
"Okay!"
Lin Ping, who was washing vegetables at the water pressure well in the back, answered loudly.
With a "sizzle", the bacon was put into the pot. Soon, the room was filled with the salty fragrance as the spatula flew around.
How long has it been since you last had your mom’s cooking? Lin Qiu couldn't remember clearly. Ever since his mother had a stroke, his father had taken over all the chores at home, and Lin Qiu had never tasted his mother's flavor again.
Lin Qiu's fair and smooth face was reflected red by the fire in the stove. She looked at the fire in the stove with a little unfamiliarity, adding a few sticks of firewood from time to time, and watched her mother who was cooking almost greedily in the light of the fire.
Healthy Mom! Young Mom!
very nice!
Lin Ping ran in holding a winnowing basket that was still dripping with water. In it was a basket of cabbages with a few green garlic leaves on top.
"Sister, come sit over here! Let me warm my hands!" Putting the dustpan on the chopping board, Lin Ping squeezed over and stretched his hands to the stove to warm them.
The two sisters sat close together on a bench, whispering to each other from time to time.
When eldest brother Lin Hui came back, the family sat together and prepared to have dinner.
The good thing about going back to my mother's house is that I can pick up chopsticks to eat. My daughter has her dad and mom to feed her, so I don't have to worry about it.
Lin Hui played outside until dark before returning. She was probably prepared by Zhou Mei in the room before dinner. While she was feeding Lin Cong in a flattering manner, she picked up a piece of bacon with chopsticks and put it into Zhou Mei's bowl.
"Qiuqiu, why are you going back to your parents' home alone?" Lin Hui asked casually.
"What's wrong? Brother is unhappy?" Lin Qiu joked with his elder brother.
"Happy, happy, who wouldn't be happy?"
"Stop talking and eat! The food will get cold soon!" Lin Ting finished his meal in a few mouthfuls, took the egg custard from Zhou Qing, scooped a spoonful, and said gently to Wang Shan: "Ah, Shanshan, open your mouth and eat the steamed egg! Have a competition with Congcong to see who can eat faster?"
Lin Hui also hurriedly put the steamed egg into Lin Cong's mouth, and took advantage of the opportunity to put rice into her own mouth. The others also silently quickened their eating, otherwise they would get diarrhea if they ate cold food.
After a while, everyone finished eating. Zhou Mei didn't need anyone to call her and cleaned up the dishes on her own. The others quickly scooped hot water from the pot to wash their faces and feet.
After everyone had tidied themselves, the Lin Hui family returned to their own rooms, and Lin Ping and Lin Qiu took Shan Shan into the room of the old couple Lin Ting and Zhou Qing.
There are two beds in the room. Lin Qiu has been sleeping in this room since she gave birth to Shanshan and returned to her parents' home.
"Sister, I'm going to share a bed with you tonight!"
Lin Ping turned on the TV on the chest of drawers, adjusted it, and found the "News Broadcast". Then he quickly took off his coat and got into the bed on the right. He made a face at Wang Shan: "Shanshan, do you want to sleep with your aunt?"
Zhou Qing helped Wang Shan take off her heavy cotton coat and trousers, carried her to the bed, and stuffed her into the bunk bed on the left.
"If I sleep with you, you will feel like you are doing boxing when you sleep at night. Don't squash Shanshan!"
"That's not so exaggerated, Mom!"
…
Lin Ting did not join in the conversation between the mother and daughter, but focused on watching the news. This was his old habit since he bought the TV, and he still did so even thirty years later.
After the news broadcast was over, Lin Ting turned off the TV and went to bed. He was wearing a thick cotton jacket, leaning on the railing at the head of the bunk bed, with a pillow behind him.
Wang Shan in the bunk bed had closed her eyes and was sleeping soundly.
Lin Ting closed his eyes and said calmly, "Qiuqiu, I didn't ask you in detail this afternoon, what was going on? I don't think you look okay."
"Dad, it's nothing! I just miss you guys!" Lin Qiu pretended to be relaxed: "What can happen to me!"
"Did your parents-in-law cause trouble?" Zhou Qing didn't believe that it was okay. He knew his own daughter well. If she was really okay, she wouldn't be crying so sadly!
Lin Ting opened his eyes and looked to the right.
Lin Qiu huddled in the quilt, with his forehead exposed, so his facial expression couldn't be seen clearly.
"There is nothing you can't say about your parents!" Lin Ting said in a gentle but firm tone.
"That's right!" Lin Ping interrupted.
"Pingping, stop talking! Listen to your sister." Zhou Qing blocked Lin Ping's mouth.
Lin Qiu slowly sat up and put on the cotton jacket hanging on the railing of the bunk bed.
"His parents are so mean. They only ask their son and grandson to eat when they cook, while their daughter-in-law and granddaughter can only watch from the side. How can there be such a family!"
Listening to his daughter's complaints, Lin Ting consoled her: "Who cares about a meal at his house? It's not like you don't have rice or vegetables, just make some for yourself. There's no need to get angry with such a person."
"If you don't want to cook, just walk a few more steps and come back to my place to eat. Your mother and I have two acres of land, so we're not afraid of you coming to eat!"
"Dad, this is not just a matter of a meal. His parents are patriarchal and look down on Shanshan. The key is that Wang Xiuren is a soft-hearted guy who always listens to his parents' instigation. Every time I go to his old house for dinner, I come back and argue with me!" Lin Qiu got angry when he thought of the evil things Wang Xiuren's parents did in his previous life.
"When I went to the school near the Wang Family Ancestral Hall, I passed by his house. His parents would politely invite everyone they saw to come in for tea. I thought he was a good family, generous and sensible. I didn't know they were just trying to save face!" Lin Ting was also annoyed after hearing this.
"Do you know what his family is holding a meeting tonight?"
Lin Qiu was furious: "His boss is very cunning. He wants his parents to ask Wang Xiuren for money to build a new house!"
"How do you know? Didn't his eldest son occupy two large houses before he got married? After you got married, you took advantage of the division of the family property and occupied more land to build a utility room?" Lin Ting sat up straight.
"He has great ambitions and wants to build a red brick house to live in!" Lin Qiu replied unhappily: "Don't worry about how I know this, I don't agree to lend you the money anyway. Lending this money is like throwing meat buns at a dog, it will never come back! Besides, I want to tear down the two side rooms I live in now and build a new one!"
Zhou Qing also sat up, nodded and said, "Yes. Your parents-in-law gave you a house like that. If the weather changes, I will be worried, for fear that the house will collapse and crush you and your daughter to death!"
Lin Qiu thought back to her past life, when it was windy or rainy, her father would come to pick her and her daughter up and take them back to her parents' home, until he built a new house on the new land and then he stopped taking them.
"Dad, how about I use the money to build a new house?" Lin Qiu thought again, why should I lend money to others to build a new house while I live in a shabby house myself? This time, even at the risk of his life, Wang Xiuren is not allowed to lend the money!
Hearing this, Lin Ting thought for a moment and said, "It's not impossible! We have to build a new house anyway, so it's better to do it sooner rather than later. But do you have enough money to build the house?"
"We have saved 3,500 yuan, but I don't know if it's enough." Lin Qiu explained the family's financial situation to his father.
"There's still a long way to go." Lin Ting made a rough calculation in his mind.
Here we have to talk about Lin Ting’s situation. He is considered a well-known figure in his hometown and has been very smart since he was young. In order to learn to read and write, when he saw that his family had to ask someone to write for him on July 15th every year, he immediately argued with his family, saying that since he was going to school and knew how to write, there was no need to ask someone else to write for him every year. So naturally I studied until I graduated from junior high school, but later I had to drop out because I couldn't afford the tuition. Because he could write and calculate, he was chosen as the village accountant. After the reform and opening up, he secretly partnered with a friend to open a prefabrication factory to make cement floor slabs. Everyone thought he was working in a prefabrication yard, but no one knew about it until 2005, when the prefabrication yard closed down.
"If I don't use this money, Wang Xiu Ren will definitely lend it to his brother, and I don't know when I can get it back!" Lin Qiu thought about how he lent money to Wang Xiu De in his previous life, and it took him many years to pay it back. By then, three thousand five hundred yuan was no longer worth it.
"Don't be anxious, listen to me!" Lin Ting interrupted Lin Qiu: "It's a good thing that you want to build a new house, and Daddy will always help a little. But have you decided where to build it?"
"Your father is right! Don't think that building a new house is as easy as drinking water." Zhou Qing also added: "You definitely can't keep the room you have now. It's not suitable to build a new house there. It's sandwiched between the old house and his eldest brother's house. It's so narrow, it's like living under someone else's roof!"
"We have to move out anyway. His parents are partial to each other. They have four children, the other three got the big plot of land, but he got a small corner. And he thinks his parents are okay. What a pig-head!" Lin Qiu was furious when he thought of the house he lived in now.
"Oh, I told you not to be anxious! What's the point of being anxious now? This matter cannot be rushed. As long as you plan to build a new house, I will definitely make plans for you!" Lin Ting comforted.
"Isn't there a piece of land to the left of his old house, the one where tea trees are planted? I remember his father pointed it out to me when you went to his house to check on him before you got married." Lin Ting picked up the enamel teacup on the wooden box beside the bed and took a sip of water. The cold tea gave him a shudder.
Lin Qiu also remembered that in his previous life, the land was still a wasteland until his parents-in-law passed away, and the tea trees died at some point in time.
"Yes, there is, but his parents probably wouldn't agree!" Lin Qiu sighed.
"Don't worry! I'll tell you when the time comes!"
"Then I feel relieved."
"Alright, alright! Don't worry about your dad worrying about you. We can talk tomorrow if there's anything else!" Zhou Qing pulled the rope hanging from the switch: "Is anyone going to the toilet in the back? If not, I'll turn off the light!"
"Mom, please turn off the lights!"
"Well! Go to bed early!"
"Um!"
…
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