Zhou Xiaoxi looked at him and said, "Uncle Fang, all four of my uncles are here. My uncle also held me up high, and my second uncle even let me ride on his big horse."
Luo Qiaoling pulled Zhou Yumei and said, "Aunt, Xiaoxi just told Xiaodong from Grandma Li's house that all four uncles are here and are riding on big horses."
"Your cousin is just like him, showing off everywhere!" Zhou Yumei looked at her daughter who was giggling happily, "Okay, Xiaoxi, Uncle Fang just got off work and has to go home for dinner. You and mom go home. Uncle Yao and brother Jiuer are in the vegetable garden in the backyard!"
Zhou Xiaoxi said happily after hearing this: "Uncle Fang, I want to play with my brother Jiuer, do you want to come to my house too?"
Fang Dongming glanced at Zhou Yumei after hearing this, and put Zhou Xiaoxi down. "Uncle needs to go home to cook, as he has to work the night shift today."
"Oh!" Zhou Xiaoxi took Luo Qiaoling's hand and ran into the yard.
Fang Dongming watched the child enter the yard and asked, "When did you bring your clothes in?"
"My mom and her family went to the provincial capital..." Zhou Yumei told him what happened, then said after thinking for a while, "Dongming, don't wait for me. Find someone suitable if you find one!"
After hearing this, Fang Dongming took a deep breath, looked at her and said, "I won't force you until you want to get married, and don't chase me away to find someone else. Just let me watch you like this." After that, he turned and left.
Zhou Yumei watched him walk away, sighed, and went into the store with her net bag. Zhao Huifang asked, "Yumei, why don't you ask someone to come in and sit down?"
"He was still on duty. He received some apples from his work unit and passed by here to give to Xiaoxi." Zhou Yumei made up an excuse.
Zhao Huifang hesitated for a moment and advised: "Yumei, sister-in-law thinks Fang Dongming is a really good person. He is not the same as He Jianjun. Why don't you follow him everywhere? What do you think?"
Zhang Xiuxiang also said, "Yes, Yumei, we can't generalize. Look at your brothers and the youngest one, and the three villages around us. How many of them are like the He family and the Yan family?"
"I think so too. Look, I married into our family with only a few tattered clothes, and I'm living such a good life. People are different. You can't stop getting married just because of that jerk He Jianjun."
Li Qiuyue pointed in the direction of the He family across the street, "If you don't marry, the He family's bastards will think that you still can't let go of that bastard surnamed He!"
"How is this possible? I feel sick seeing anyone with the last name He!" Zhou Yumei thought of what Aunt Li told her at noon, that Mrs. He told others that she still couldn't bear to let go of her Jianjun, and that it was the Zhou family who were so cruel that they wouldn't let the two of them reconcile.
Yang Chunyan thought for a moment and said, "Sister Yumei, you and Fang Dongming have known each other for a long time. If you think he is trustworthy, find some time to have a good talk with him."
Zhou Yumei thought about what Fang Dongming had just said, and how happy Zhou Xiaoxi was every time she saw him. "Okay, I'll have a good talk with him when the clothing store opens."
Zhao Huifang patted her happily after hearing this, "That's right."
After the sisters-in-law finished hanging up the goods, Zhou Yumei turned on all three lights, and the shop was bright and clear. "I thought the shop wouldn't be full! I didn't expect that the shop would be full of goods worth only a few hundred yuan."
Zhang Xiuxiang smiled and said, "When you are successful, you can convert the yard next to it into a shop."
"Sister-in-law, I don't think this is a good idea." Yang Chunyan said to Zhou Yumei, "I think if we need to rebuild in the future, it would be best to do as Wang Zhen did. While the procedures are easy to approve now, spend some money to renovate the house and build a house on the land behind your house."
"Yes, just like Dr. Wang's house, it was converted into a building and the first floor is full of shops." Li Qiuyue said.
Zhou Yumei nodded and said, "Thanks to my sister-in-law and my brothers and sisters-in-law for their good words, I will work hard and try to rebuild the building in two years."
"Dinner is ready. Have you hung up the food?" Luo Haili shouted at the door.
"Okay, let's see the effect of hanging it up here!" Zhou Yumei waved at her, "Come and see it too."
Luo Haili walked up to the group and looked at them for a while, "It would look better if it was hung up."
"I think so too." Zhou Yumei pulled Yang Chunyan who was standing next to her and said, "Let's go and have dinner."
After they closed the door, they went to the next room. Zhou Huaian held the bowl and said to Yang Chunyan, "Come and see your son. He is not behaving well when eating."
"Isn't he your son?" Yang Chunyan walked over with a smile, and saw Xiao Jiuer holding a carrot in his hand with puffy cheeks. "Why is he not behaving well? He was quite well behaved!"
Zhou Huaian pointed at the bowl in front of him, "Look, I fed him the egg custard but he didn't eat it, so he pointed at the radish and ate it. Xiaoxi finished everything in his bowl."
Yang Chunyan looked at the table and found that it was oxtail bone stewed with radish. "It's good to eat the bone stewed with radish. He likes it, so let him eat it!"
"Eat, eat!" Little Jiuer reached out and fed the radish to her mouth. Yang Chunyan came forward and took a bite. "Jiuer is so good."
"Be good, Jiuer!" The little fellow learned a sentence and then went on to eat the radish in the bowl.
After dinner, seeing that it was getting dark, they said goodbye to Zhou Yumei, put their bicycles on the tractor, and returned to Ning'an together.
As soon as the tractor arrived at Zhou Yiding's house, he saw him standing at the gate. Zhou Huaian stepped on the brakes and asked, "Are you waiting for me?"
"You're not a grown-up girl, why are you waiting for me?" Zhou Yiding smiled and greeted the people in the truck bed. "I caught a lot of eels last night, and I saved some for you. You can take them home and keep them for tomorrow's meal."
Zhou Huaian: "I'll keep it here with you first. Wang Zhen will come over tomorrow afternoon, and we'll go bird hunting in the evening."
"Then go back and get your slingshot and headlamp. We'll be waiting for you here."
"Goodbye!" Zhou Huaian roared in a strange voice, released the brake, stepped on the accelerator, and the tractor rumbled with black smoke and swayed from side to side as it drove towards the grove.
Zhao Huifang grabbed the trunk and yelled at him, "Youngest brother, drive slower. You're almost making us vomit."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian slowed down and dropped Zhou Huairong and others off at the gate of the yard. Seeing Zhou's mother standing next to the gate with it wide open, he went straight into the yard and parked the tractor to the side.
"Yan'er, I'll take the bike down and go bird hunting!"
"The weather is getting warmer, and there are more snakes and insects in the woods. You should put on your high rain boots." Yang Chunyan carried Xiao Jiuer towards the room.
"Got it." Zhou Huaian quickly took down the bicycle and went to the main room to get the slingshot. Yang Chunyan came out holding her rain boots. "Wang Zhen said the TV will be back tomorrow?"
"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian took it and sat on the stool, "He said a batch of goods will arrive tomorrow, including a TV, and Yiding also wanted one."
"Have you told your elder brother about collecting mushrooms?"
"Mushrooms only come out after the Dragon Boat Festival. It's not too late to talk about it later." Zhou Huaian picked up his shoes and put them at the door. "I'll take the key with me. You go to bed early."
"Well! Be careful, don't hit anyone." Yang Chunyan went to the kitchen to pour hot water for Xiao Jiuer to wash up.
Zhou's mother came in after talking to Zhou Huairong for a few words and saw him pushing his bicycle out again. "You just got home, what are you going to do now?"
"Let's go to Yiding's house. He's waiting for me to shoot birds. I've locked the door. You guys go to sleep first and don't worry about me." Zhou Huaian opened the gate, and Lai Fu and Wang Cai followed him. He patted the dog, "Lai Fu stay at home and watch. Wang Cai follows."
Lai Fu had no choice but to retreat behind the courtyard gate and lie down obediently.
Mother Zhou looked at the closed gate and said, "You're still going out so late. You won't be allowed to stay at night."
Zhou Huaian arrived at Zhou Yiding's house and parked his bicycle in his yard. "Do we want to go to the riverside forest or the bamboo forest?"
"Let's go to the woods by the river. There are more of them there." Zhou Yiding picked up the urea bag and the two walked towards the river.
Walking to the river, Zhou Yiding turned his head to look at the other side of the river, and thought of Li Chuntao again, "Youngest, do you remember the last time we came here to hunt birds and Li Chuntao eloped?"
Zhou Huaian turned his head and glanced at him, "What's wrong? Did you find Li Chuntao?"
"No, I don't know where he went!"
When the two men walked to the edge of the ravine, they suddenly heard a "splashing" sound coming from the ravine. They hurried over and shone their headlights directly on the water, only to see a group of fish playing in the ditch.
The big ones are as wide as a palm, and the small ones are only two fingers wide. They are a group of crucian carps.
Zhou Yiding touched the headlamp and said, "This is a great buy. It was so good to catch an eel last night."
Zhou Huaian looked very proud, "When I saw it, I knew that this thing would come out at night to hunt birds and catch eels, so I decisively bought one for your family."
"Brother, you are wise!" Zhou Yiding picked up a stone and threw it into the ditch. The fish in the ditch made a "splash" sound and fled in all directions.
"You come join in the fun!" Zhou Huaian kicked Wangcai who had come to the ditch to watch the fun. "This is the spawning season. The fish in the river all come to this ditch to lay eggs."
Zhou Yiding regretted not bringing a scoop net. "The fish roe tastes delicious. I'll cast a net tomorrow."
"Get two big ones and go back to cook pickled fish." Zhou Huaian said as he remembered something, "The TV will arrive the day after tomorrow!"
"Okay! I also wanted to ask you, when will it arrive?"
"He sells TV antennas. We need to cut down two hard-headed spring trees and raise the antenna higher so that the signal will be better."
"My eldest brother-in-law said the other day that in their village, the courtyards of families with TVs are full of people at night, so there must be a lot of people watching TV at that time."
Zhou Yiding said with some annoyance, "Xue Jiao said that I am Zhan Lingzi, and I brought the TV back. The villagers came to watch it. If I don't let them watch it, they are all from the same village. If I let them watch it, it will cause unrest."
"My home is far from the village. When the time comes, everyone will go to your place. I will take care of those stingy old people in my family, as well as Erchun's family and Sister Ma's family."
Zhou Yiding stared, "Fuck! Big brother and his friends made so much money, but they can't even afford to buy a TV?"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Of course not, the three stingy people in my family have all learned the essence of thrifty thinking from my mother and husband. They saved money when they had no money, but now that they have money, they are still reluctant to spend it.
They say that buying a TV costs money, and you have to pay for electricity. It’s the same if you come to my house to watch it. Then everyone will crowd in my place, and I have to find a place to put the TV that won’t make noise." (End of this chapter)
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