"You're back so early? Let Grandma see my precious grandson!" Song Xuemei's face beamed with joy as she ran out the door, saying, "You must be freezing! Come inside and warm up, get on the kang (heated brick bed)!"
Even the snobbish Jiang Xiaohong hurriedly walked out, while Lu Feng followed behind at a leisurely pace. Observing the family's behavior, he thought to himself that it was better to be a little stern, especially in the village.
Everyone hurriedly took the things down; they were all miscellaneous items, but there were no vegetables or meat. The woman took off her scarf, revealing a slightly weathered face, and looked at the car next to her.
"Oh my, whose car is this? My father-in-law has made something of himself!" the sister-in-law asked.
Jiang Ergou looked embarrassed. He was already this old, what was there to be proud of?
“Xiaoyan’s family drove back yesterday,” Song Xuemei said.
"Oh ho?" The older sister-in-law's gaze fell on Lu Feng at the back of the crowd, and she said with a hint of disdain, "Looking all smug now? Where did you steal that car from?"
"Sister-in-law, what do you mean by stealing?" Jiang Xiaoyan said somewhat displeased, "Lu Feng is doing quite well now, he doesn't gamble anymore, and he's been working for a long time now."
"Who knows if it's been changed or not? We know in our hearts. My family is broke this year. We lost more than 20,000 yuan in business with this thing. They have a car but they don't even bother to pick us up. We're freezing half to death," the sister-in-law complained.
Jiang Fuqiao, the eldest brother, peered through the car window for a while before turning to Lu Feng and asking, "It wasn't stolen, was it?"
"It's kind of like a half-rent, half-loan, it's a friend of mine," Lu Feng said somewhat helplessly. "We're just going back to the village, so we need to save face!"
"What are you pretending for? What's there to pretend about? Half the people in this town know you're a scoundrel, and you're still pretending?" Jiang Fuqiao spoke without any reservations. As Lu Feng took the keys, opened the car door, and took half a pack of cigarettes from inside.
He didn't care at all. A few years ago, he was the most ruthless in a fight. He even told Jiang Xiaoyan to get a divorce because he knew a bachelor who could give her a dowry of over a thousand yuan. She would get money every time she married him. How great was that?
Moreover, having lost everything in business this year, he's become even more greedy for money.
"These two kids are really something!" The eldest sister-in-law clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction and said, "How were you raised at home? Hurry up and wish your grandparents, aunt, and uncle a Happy New Year."
The two children recited the script as if it were a book: "Happy New Year, Auntie! One hundred or two hundred is not too little!"
"Happy New Year! Auntie is giving you lucky money." Jiang Xiaoyan had already prepared it and took out two red envelopes from her pocket, one for each of them.
"Wishing your uncle a Happy New Year!"
"Huh?" Lu Feng was a little confused. Could it be done like this?
"Happy New Year, Uncle! One hundred or two hundred is not too little!"
Seeing that they were serious, Lu Feng stood there somewhat awkwardly and could only look at Jiang Xiaoyan, who handed him two red envelopes, which finally got him out of the predicament.
Lu Feng said to Duo Duo, "Give my New Year's greetings to my uncle and aunt."
"Never mind, the child is so young, what does he know? It's terribly cold, let's go inside." The older sister-in-law said as she went inside.
Everyone followed them into the house. Song Xuemei and Jiang Ergou were giving out food and red envelopes, treating Duoduo in a completely different way than they had treated her yesterday.
Duoduo looked at Lu Feng with a hint of grievance and whispered, "Dad, I want a red envelope too."
Lu Feng took out a dollar from his pocket, stuffed it into her hand, and whispered, "It's okay, a swan doesn't fight with a toad, sweetie!"
Half an hour later, another motorcycle stopped at the door. On the back sat a boy of six or seven years old and a woman of twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old. They were also wrapped up tightly, but unlike Jiang Fuqiao and his wife, their bundles contained some candy and vegetables.
My second brother's name is Jiang Fulu. He's around 28 or 29 years old. He sells rice, flour, oil, and other things in the next county. Sometimes he also does odd jobs. His life is relatively stable.
After everyone entered the house, they exchanged pleasantries. Like Jiang Fuqiao, Jiang Fulu also didn't look directly at Lu Feng, but only expressed some thoughts about the Santana.
In previous years, at most one family would come back, or no one would come back at all. It costs money to travel back and forth. This year, we were able to get together so well, thanks to Jiang Xiaohong.
Her son-in-law was said to be a wealthy man, and her sister-in-law was already sitting in front of Jiang Xiaohong, praising her to the skies.
“In our family, Xiaohong is the most beautiful. She’s as beautiful as a flower. When I first came in, I looked at her and said that she would definitely marry a rich man. With her looks, she deserves a rich man.”
"That's a must." The second sister-in-law chimed in, her eyes fixed on the red envelopes in the hands of the eldest sister-in-law's two children, and she quietly nudged Jiang Fulu.
Jiang Fulu immediately understood and started asking the child for New Year's money.
Where is he from?
“Baiyuan City is quite far from here, but it’s a good place for them. I work at a counter there, that’s how I know them.” Jiang Xiaohong said with an air of arrogance, glancing at Lu Feng, and added, “They drive cars too, very expensive ones, I heard they’re worth tens or even hundreds of thousands.”
"So expensive?" The two women looked shocked.
"That's probably a Mercedes. Those are all imported, they're very expensive." Jiang Fuqiao's face lit up as he spoke, it seemed that his brother-in-law was really rich.
"Why don't you get married next year? That would be wonderful. Your brother isn't very successful, so you, as his sister, should help him out more. When you were little, he protected you a lot. I heard he even fought for you at school; he was quite fierce." The sister-in-law turned her head and said, "Isn't that right, Fuqiao?"
"Ah! Yes."
"We'll see when the time comes; it depends on them," Jiang Xiaohong said casually.
“Xiaohong, the other party is so rich, they’ll definitely live in a big apartment building when they go there. I heard that you can buy a really nice apartment building now, the kind with property rights,” said the second sister-in-law standing to the side.
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