Chapter 309: Never burden the children
Yu Xiufen and Zou Mengcheng took a liking to Li Ye's yard and started cleaning it on the spot.
Cleaning the windows, sweeping the yard, and moving the few pieces of furniture around, I was busy all the time in the cold winter.
Li Ye only worked for half an hour before quitting.
It's not that he was lazy, it's just that these three people worked very carefully. After Li Ye finished cleaning, they had to clean again.
Especially Wang Zhiyuan, who hadn't said a word for a long time, wished he could wipe the cement floor until it was shiny and cleaner than his senior sister Yu Xiufen.
Li Ye himself is not a sloppy person, but compared with them.
[Why would I compare my neatness with theirs? I’m the landlord, I’m lucky enough not to wear big shorts or flip-flops.]
"Leave the key here. I'll contact the workers for you and have them come in a few days to renovate the bathroom and the toilet as well."
Li Ye threw down his keys and turned around to slip away. He would rather pull the rickshaw for two hours than do the cleaning for an hour.
"Where are you going? It's almost time for dinner."
"I'm not eating anymore. I ate too much at the lunch banquet and now I'm still feeling dizzy!"
Yu Xiufen threw down the rag and chased after him, saying, "Li Ye, don't bother me. Our company has a bathhouse, and there's a public toilet at the entrance of the alley outside. Even if you have money, you can't spend it carelessly."
"What do you mean by wasting money?" Li Ye said as he walked out the door, "This is called serving the tenant wholeheartedly, and it is the basic quality of a conscientious landlord. Okay, senior sister, don't see me off. I'm leaving."
After leaving the hospital, Li Ye drove to Zhongguancun.
Jiang Hong led a group of veterans, most of whom lived in the houses in Zhongguancun. There were a few talented people in that group.
There were carpenters, bricklayers, and even a paperhanger who could make paper figures. They took time out to build the bathroom in Zaojun Temple.
When Li Ye arrived at Zhongguancun, it was almost dark and the wind was freezing cold with few people on the road.
The car turned into the village and the road became narrow. In front of us, there was a short girl who was dragging a very thick dead branch forward with great effort.
The dead branch must have been blown down by the strong wind, with its branches and twigs, blocking most of the road.
The biting north wind was so cold that the little girl shrank her neck. She had no gloves, so she kept blowing on her hands.
But no matter how difficult it was, she had no intention of throwing away the big branch.
Firewood in winter is much more valuable than a cut on a child's hand.
“Ding Di~”
Li Ye honked the horn, signaling the other party to move to the side, otherwise he would drive over and break the other person's firewood, and he would inevitably receive some comments behind his back regarding the elders.
But when the little girl heard the sound of the car, she let go of the firewood and lay down on the side of the road like a frightened rabbit.
Li Ye expressed his apologies. The car horns in 1983 worked very well. Pedestrians would give way to you as soon as you pressed the horn. Unlike decades later, the more you press the horn, the slower the car will move. If you press it again, the car will lie on the ground directly. If you are sued in court, you will have to pay compensation.
However, just as Li Ye turned the steering wheel and tried to go around to the left as close as possible, he found that the little girl was waving her arms excitedly at Li Ye.
"Is it necessary to be so excited to see a car? This is not a remote mountain area."
Li Ye drove the car around the big piece of firewood in surprise, but after driving only a dozen meters, he suddenly stepped on the brakes, put the car in reverse gear and drove back.
Li Ye felt that the girl looked very familiar with the flowery cotton jacket she was wearing.
A few days ago, Li Ye seemed to see his sister making a cotton-padded jacket in Zaojun Temple!
Li Ye backed the car, opened the door and got out.
The little girl hurriedly stumbled and said, "I'm sorry, I recognized the wrong person."
As soon as Li Ye heard her Shanxi accent, he immediately guessed what she meant.
Yang Yumin is from Shanxi Province. Although he has been in Beijing for three years, he still has some Western influence.
So Li Ye smiled and asked the little girl: "Is your last name Yang?"
The little girl nodded timidly and glanced at Li Ye with doubt.
Li Ye pointed at his Volga and asked, "Do you recognize this car?"
The little girl nodded again.
Li Ye added: "I am your brother's classmate, my name is Li Ye."
The little girl's face suddenly lit up with joy: "Are you Xiaoyue's brother? Xiaoyue and my brother were talking about you yesterday."
Well, even Sister Xiaoyue has been called, what should I do?
Li Ye asked, "How far is your home? Let me help you drag the firewood back!"
The little girl quickly shook her head and refused: "Not far, not far, I can do it myself, don't dirty your clothes."
“I don’t use my hands to mop.”
Li Ye was wearing a custom-made tweed coat, which was obviously not suitable for working, but wasn't he driving a car?
He opened the trunk and saw the rope.
It is normal for cars these days to fail to start on the road, so most cars have a tow rope.
Li Ye took out a rope, tied one end to the firewood, and hung the other end on the tail hook of Volga.
"Come on, get in the car and show me the way."
"Yeah, okay."
The girl opened the door and got into the car. When Li Ye saw the way she got into the car, it was obvious that she had ridden in this car many times.
"Turn left at the next intersection, turn right at the third alley and it's the third house."
"My sister came to your house yesterday?"
"Yeah, Sister Xiaoyue brought us a lot of food yesterday."
"When did you come to the capital?"
"We have been here for more than a month. My brother said that it was Xiaoyue who helped us buy this house. My mother asked my brother to invite you to our house several times to thank you, but Xiaoyue said you were very busy."
The little girl was not wary of Li Ye. She answered whatever Li Ye asked and soon she understood the situation.
She is Yang Yumin's younger sister, named Yang Yujiao. This time she came from her hometown in Shanxi Province with her mother Yang Huaihua.
Sister Li Yue comes over about once a week, so she is already very familiar with Yang Yujiao.
"Alas~"
Li Ye looked at Yang Yujiao who was chattering, and couldn't help feeling a little regretful.
It would be great if Yang Yumin looked similar to Yang Yujiao.
If Yang Yujiao's appearance is rated 8.5 points, Yang Yumin can only get 7 points at most.
Li Ye's sister Li Yue looks similar to Li Ye and is a 9.9-point beauty. Otherwise, why did she fail in blind dates in Qingshui County and was scolded by her grandmother Wu Juying for being "picky"?
In addition, as Li Ye's sister, Li Yue is definitely the most beautiful and rich girl among them.
However, Li Ye actually knew that if he really judged rationally, Yang Yumin, a Peking University student of the class of 1980, was actually a "rich son-in-law" with unlimited potential.
. . . . . . .
Yang Yujiao's home is not far from Li Ye's house in Zhongguancun, just over 200 meters away.
When they arrived at the door of their house, Yang Yujiao untied the rope and dragged the big branch towards the door without waiting for Li Ye to take action, shouting as she did so.
"Mom, my brother's classmate is here. He's Xiaoyue's younger brother."
When Li Ye helped Yang Yujiao move the branches into the yard, he saw a middle-aged woman in a gray cotton jacket coming out of the main room. She should be Yang Huaihua, Yang Yumin's mother.
Seeing Li Ye, Yang Huaihua hurriedly smiled and called him: "Kid, stop it, stop it, come into the house and have a bowl of knife-cut noodles to warm up, it's cold outside!"
Li Ye smiled and said, "No, Auntie. I just came here to get to know the place. I'll come with Yang Yumin another day!"
"How can that be possible? We don't have such a rule in our family if we come in and don't eat and leave."
Yang Huaihua walked over in three or two steps, grabbed Li Ye's arm and led him into the main room.
Li Ye couldn't persuade Yang Huaihua, so he had to follow her into the main room.
The furnishings in the house were simple, far less elegant than Li Ye's Zaojun Temple courtyard, but it was very clean.
The noodle soup on the stove was already boiling, the kneaded noodles were placed aside, the mushrooms, peppers, and green garlic were ready, and Li Ye arrived at the right time.
Yang Huaihua picked up the dough and started to cut noodles into the pot, and a "crackling" sound was heard in the yard. It was obvious that Yang Yujiao was trimming the thick branch.
Li Ye wanted to go out to help, but Yang Huaihua refused to let him.
"It only takes a little firewood, and Yujiao finished it in no time. She's very efficient!"
When Li Ye entered the room, he saw a pile of firewood neatly stacked in a corner of the yard. It was probably what Yang Yujiao, the little squirrel, had saved up day by day.
The mother and daughter worked quickly, and in less than ten minutes, the sliced noodles were out of the pot. Yang Yujiao also came in to wash her hands and sat upright at the small dining table.
Three large bowls of sliced noodles were served, and Yang Huaihua prepared all kinds of condiments for Li Ye.
"Kid, why don't you try it? People say that people in Beijing eat exquisite food, but we are particular about value for money. Can you give me some suggestions?"
Li Ye couldn't be pretentious anymore and gulped down a big bowl of rice, feeling really good.
Especially the taste of the old vinegar from Shanxi Province is really authentic.
"Auntie, your bowl of noodles is really good. If you open a noodle shop in Beijing, I guarantee that business will be booming."
"It doesn't matter if it's prosperous or not, as long as we can earn enough to feed my daughter and me, it's fine. If we can't, we will go back home and I promise not to ask Yumin for a penny of salary."
Li Ye listened to Yang Huaihua's words and felt that something was wrong, so he smiled and said, "Auntie, what you said is true. As the saying goes, raising a son is a way to prepare for old age. You raised Yang Yumin as your son, so isn't it reasonable for you to spend some money on him?"
"No, no," Yang Huaihua waved her hands repeatedly and said, "It is a blessing for Yumin to be admitted to the capital. We women are not jealous, but we cannot let the child down."
“.”
Looking at Yang Huaihua's somewhat nervous eyes, Li Ye figured out what was going on.
Yang Huaihua is expressing her attitude towards herself!
This is the same as the marriage conditions in some areas decades later - a car and a house are required, but not parents. Once the son gets married, the mother will divorce him.
But in the 1980s, this kind of thinking was very rare, and there were many cases of mothers-in-law dominating their sons and daughters-in-law.
If you ignore this, your son and daughter-in-law will be criticized.
Li Ye smiled and said nothing, and asked Yang Yujiao to serve him a bowl of noodles. After eating it happily, the nervousness on Yang Huaihua's face completely disappeared.
After finishing his meal, Li Ye stood up to say goodbye, and the young girl Yang Yujiao saw Li Ye out.
When getting into the car at the door, Li Ye suddenly asked her: "Yujiao, why didn't you see your father?"
“.”
Yang Yujiao was stunned for a moment, and whispered, "I'm farming in my hometown!"
It was a little dark at night, and Li Ye couldn't see clearly what was in Yang Yujiao's eyes, but he could sense that something was wrong with her.
"Oh, that's good too."
Li Ye quickly got into the car, started the engine, and sped away.
(End of this chapter)
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