Chapter 67 Chapter 67 Past Events

In two days at most, the bad things happening in Shi Xiangming's family would spread throughout the entire Haizhuang Factory living area.

After this, he could do many things without causing any gossip, but Wang Nianjian would never do anything that would make him suffer the consequences.

But after all, they are family, and it is not to the point where we will never have any contact with each other again. After the quarrel, we have to have this reunion dinner as a token of our respect.

“…”

As time went by, Shi Guoqiang's drunkenness gradually dissipated, and Shi Xiangming's eyes finally became clear from being dazed.

"The third one?"

"It's me, Dad!" Shi Xiangming smiled.

"Why did you come back?" Shi Guoqiang narrowed his eyes slightly, and there was still a hint of alcohol in his breath: "Why didn't you bring my two grandchildren back with you when you came back?"

Shi Guoqiang and Luo Xiangyun said the same thing. It seemed that neither their daughter nor their granddaughter existed in their eyes, let alone in their hearts.

"Our family is here to wish you a happy new year." Shi Xiangming didn't respond. He smiled and asked the children to go and wish you a happy new year in front of Shi Guoqiang.

Shi Wan refused to leave Wang Nian and held her waist tightly.

Wang Nian patted them gently and bumped his shoulder against the side. Shi Xiangming nodded and let the two boys go forward.

If my daughter doesn't want to go, then she doesn't have to go...

Shi Shuwen repeated the auspicious words just now.

Shi Feiying walked over with a toy gun in her arms, looking serious, and then unexpectedly raised her hand to touch Shi Guoqiang's chin.

"Grandpa, is your beard real?"

When the adults were arguing, his eyes never stopped moving. He ran back and forth in the yard and looked at every corner of the house.

Finally, there was nothing to see, so he started to observe the drunken grandfather and grandson out of curiosity.

First, he angrily reached out his hand to touch Shi Yuehua's nostrils to see if she was still breathing, and then ran to Shi Guoqiang and raised his hand to touch his beard.

In the end, Wang Nian quickly grabbed him and saved him from having a few whiskers pulled out and getting beaten.

Shi Guoqiang was startled by the sudden appearance of a chubby hand on his chin. He rubbed his temple and looked at Shi Feiying with a blank expression.

"Grandpa, Happy New Year!"

A tender child's voice came from a round face, big eyes blinked, and he shook his head while saying some auspicious words.

"You are..." Shi Guoqiang turned his head and looked at Shi Xiangming: "Is this Shi Feiying?"

Before she finished speaking, Shi Feiying actually grabbed Shi Guoqiang's clothes and tried to climb up to his knees. She was so familiar with him that Wang Nian couldn't bear to look at her.

"The third child Feiying was born in Changshenggou." Shi Xiangming smiled and wanted to reach out to pull Shi Feiying back. Unexpectedly, Shi Guoqiang patted him down as soon as he stretched out his hand. He even helped to carry the child to sit on his lap.

Shi Feiying winked at her parents proudly, and deliberately snuggled into Shi Guoqiang's arms, swinging her legs vigorously.

"Grandpa, did you drink this morning?"

After a moment, Shi Feiying pinched her nose and frowned, and advised like a little adult: "Our teacher said that drinking alcohol is harmful to the body, and neither the elderly nor children can drink alcohol."

Wang Nian: “…”

The brat was so proud of himself that he thought he was talking to his parents at home.

"Children should not drink alcohol." Shi Guoqiang did not look angry at the child's lecture. He stroked the hair on the back of Shi Feiying's head with a smile and said, "Grandpa, drink less alcohol in the future. Drinking is harmful to your health."

"Use the money you would have spent on wine to buy meat, and you will grow tall and strong."

"Okay, Grandpa will buy meat for Feiying from now on."

The people sitting in the room cast all kinds of complicated looks at him, some were surprised, some were puzzled, but no one was happy.

Shi Xiangqian suddenly sat up straight from his previous dejected state, and suddenly turned to look at Wang Nian, as if he wanted to find out something wrong.

As a child, he probably knows the old man's personality best.

Although the parents favored the eldest child, they were not very caring towards their grandchildren. Shi Xiangqian had never seen his father let his grandson sit on his lap.

There was such a loud noise at home just now. Shi Feiying is already six years old, how could she not understand what was happening?

Seeing that he was so close to the old man, Shi Xiangqian could hardly help but suspect that Wang Nian had taught him this at home!

But when he turned around and saw that Wang Nian and Shi Xiangming also had shocked expressions, he instantly had another unbelievable thought... Could it be that there really is such a thing as blood relationship?

Wang Nian was also puzzled.

The father is smart and steady, the mother is gentle and generous, but how come the biological son did not inherit any of these advantages?

I don't know where Gui Jijing learned this, but he figured out so quickly that Shi Guoqiang was the one who spoke arithmetic in the family. He was just trying to get close to him on purpose.

"The third daughter-in-law and Guizhi, the two of you come out and help your eldest sister-in-law make lunch."

"I'll come right away." Shi Guizhi stood up reflexively. Wang Nian smiled and held Shi Wan without moving: "I only know how to light a fire. If mom doesn't mind, I'll help light the fire."

"We burn beehive coal here, not firewood like you guys in the countryside."

The third daughter-in-law is a rural girl. Apart from being young and pretty, she has not contributed anything to the family. No one knows who introduced them to each other.

Disgust, contempt, and impatience flashed across Luo Xiangyun's face.

"Then it seems I'm of no use."

"There is no woman who doesn't know how to cook. Otherwise, your whole family will have nothing to eat!" Luo Xiangyun sneered with her hands on her hips.

Shi Xiangming took the conversation slowly: "Usually I cook and Wang Nian buys the groceries."

"A grown man..." Luo Xiangyun glared at Shi Xiangming fiercely, and finally stamped her feet: "How come he raised two useless guys who are afraid of their wives?"

After the figure turned and left the door, another sentence was uttered through gritted teeth.

"Then come and help pick the vegetables. Are you really planning to be a hands-off manager and wait for food?"

"Okay." Wang Nian smiled nonchalantly and stood up. Shi Xiangming carried Shi Wan over and whispered, "Call me after you pick the vegetables. I'll wash them when the well water is cool."

"Don't let Feiying get into trouble." Wang Nian just said this.

Shi Guoqiang's unit was allocated three public housing units, the smallest of which was next to the door and was used as a kitchen.

Hu Xiumei and Luo Xiangyun had just had such a fierce quarrel, but I didn't expect that they could still cook together in the kitchen without changing their expressions.

Shi Guizhi was not lying when she said Hu Xiumei was not a simple person.

Wang Nian was thinking about this when he just walked into the house and Luo Xiangyun handed him a basket.

A basket of green beans

"Do you want to make green beans for lunch?"

"Please help me pick out the rotten green beans that people gave me, so that I don't have to pick them up when I need them."

"Aren't you supposed to pick vegetables?"

"Just let Guizhi pick the vegetables, and you can sit outside and pick green beans. You can eat after you finish picking them."

Is this the mother-in-law's way of showing power to her new daughter-in-law?

"I injured my eyes when I was in confinement after giving birth to Feiying. My eyesight isn't very good. If it's not picked up cleanly, you can just use it for now." Wang Nian smiled, picked up a bench and sat in the yard.

No matter whether it is a show of force or not, Wang Nian will take whatever comes. It is just picking mung beans... and she has the final say on how the picking turns out.

The older sister from the next door neighborhood had just joined in and cursed Wang Nian when she made the Shi family's misdeeds known to the public. Seeing her leave the house again, she immediately scratched her wound and threw the melon seeds at her.

"This is the rule for a new bride to set when she enters the house."

The eldest sister's surname is Shen. She has a baby face. Although she is always smiling, she can be very unpleasant when she scolds people.

"Ah!" Wang Nian just sighed, looking aggrieved and throwing the green beans into the sieve without even looking at them: "Who made me a country girl... Shi Xiangming and I were about to get married, and my mother-in-law wanted to find a new daughter-in-law."

Sister Shen clicked her tongue twice, the melon seeds tapped lightly between her teeth, and the shell flew out in the blink of an eye.

"She still looks down on rural people. Isn't she also from the countryside? If she hadn't had an accident... she wouldn't have been able to marry Uncle Shi at all."

Sister Shen's parents-in-law and Shi Guoqiang have lived in the same alley since they were young. Later, the factory recruited workers and they went to work in the same factory. They are very familiar with the situation of the Shi family.

Grandpa Shi was a famous war hero in the alley. After he died on the battlefield, Grandma Shi committed suicide for love, leaving behind only Shi Guoqiang as a child.

The old house of the fatherless and motherless man was destroyed in the war. Under such conditions, no one was willing to introduce a matchmaker.

At this time, Shi Guoqiang accidentally saved an old man.

The old man was a former teacher at An Huai University. After learning about Shi Guoqiang's situation, he wanted to match his daughter with this kind young man.

Wang Nian raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"You mean my mother-in-law's father is a college teacher?"

"How is that possible!" Sister Shen's expression was full of disgust. She spat silently at the kitchen door and picked up the melon seeds and put them into her mouth.

"Just think about it! How could a university teacher teach someone like Luo Xiangyun..."

Shi Guoqiang and the girl got along quite well, but unexpectedly, the beauty was doomed to a tragic death. Not long after they confirmed their relationship, the girl died in an accident.

Coincidentally, at that time, after much effort by Grandma Luo, the pension was delivered, and the organization also arranged for Shi Guoqiang, a relative of a martyr, to work in a food factory.

Now Shi Guoqiang instantly became a hot commodity in the eyes of many matchmakers.

He had no parents to support, a large pension, and most importantly, a stable job.

After hearing that Shi Guoqiang worked in the factory, Luo's younger brother was determined to introduce his daughter to Shi Guoqiang.

Then Luo Xiangyun went to the city to get married.

After the child was born, Shi Guoqiang insisted that the eldest son, Shi Xiangqian, recognize the deceased girl as his godmother. Luo Xiangyun's biological father refused to agree, and the matter was left unresolved.

When Shi Xiangming was born, Shi Guoqiang brought it up again, and this time Luo Xiangyun agreed.

"Guess why Luo Xiangyun doesn't like your lover?"

Wang Nian shook his head.

"He almost died at home when he gave birth to Shi Xiangming. My mother-in-law said it was because Luo Xiangyun was reluctant to go to the hospital, so she found a midwife to give birth at home. But... the birth was difficult."

As soon as the child was born, Luo Xiangyun barely looked at him and insisted that Shi Xiangming was born to bring bad luck to her.

When Shi Guoqiang mentioned the idea of ​​recognizing him as her biological child again, Luo Xiangyun agreed immediately. She didn't even hold Shi Xiangming many times during the confinement period, as if she had already determined in her heart that this was not her biological child.

Luo Xiangyun hated him, but Shi Guoqiang loved the young Shi Xiangming very much.

Then, because his sister was sent away, the young Shi Xiangming became estranged from his parents, and Luo Xiangyun did not even hide her dislike for her third son.

After hearing about it from a friend, Grandma Luo rushed to pick up Shi Xiangming, instead of Wang Nian hearing from Shi Guizhi that his parents took the initiative to send him away.

From then on, Shi Xiangming lived with his grandparents.

"You don't know, my mother-in-law just said that if Shi Xiangming continued to stay at home, he would definitely grow up crooked..." Sister Shen was very emotional.

So how a person looks like is determined by God.

Luo Xiangyun values ​​sons over daughters and places all her hopes on the eldest son, Shi Xiangqian.

But growing up in an environment where his mother made all the decisions on everything, Shi Xiangqian's marriage partner always had to be carefully selected by his mother.

He thought he had married a fairy into his home, but he actually brought back a giant Buddha.

"Don't you realize that Hu Xiumei and Luo Xiangyun look exactly the same?" Sister Shen raised her eyebrows. From the angles they were looking at, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law even had similar chins on their side faces.

Wang Nian suddenly understood.

I found out why the two of them could still cook in the same kitchen despite the quarrel...

No wonder Luo Xiangyun fell in love with Hu Xiumei before marriage. Isn’t it because she saw another side of herself?

Before marriage, the mother is bossy, but after marriage, the daughter-in-law hits people when she is unhappy.

The mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law competed in torturing Shi Xiangqian, and they tortured this introverted person into being like a quail, shrinking her hands and feet all day long.

"You say... what good children can such parents raise?"

The consequence of Hu Xiumei being the head of the family was that she almost followed the same path as Luo Xiangyun, placing all her hopes on her son, only to raise a street urchin who was even more profligate.

"You mean..." Wang Nian grabbed a handful of green beans and threw them back into the sieve without even looking at them: "Shi Jun?"

"It's that bastard." Sister Shen's teeth itched with hatred whenever she mentioned him.

Shi Jun has been lazy and gluttonous since he was young. Relying on the coaxing of Hu Xiumei, the eldest grandson, Shi Jun has been a bully in the factory since he was young and has bullied other children.

After he became an adult, Shi Jun got involved with some ruffians in society and did a lot of stealing in factories.

"He hasn't been doing any bad things in the factory in the past few years. I heard that he found some lousy big brother and is now guarding the door in a billiard room."

Seeing that Damen's words sounded nice, Sister Shen felt that he was actually just a lackey, following others around.

"Where is Shi Yuehua?"

The girl had been drunk since they arrived and began to doze off in the living room. Later, Hu Xiumei called her to her grandparents' room to continue sleeping.

Wang Nian was surprised at the time.

Not only did an underage girl drink, she also got drunk, and her family members seemed to be used to it.

"Shi Yuehua has a bad temper and her mouth is much more powerful than her mother's. No one in our courtyard can win an argument with her."

Shi Yuehua failed to get into high school and technical secondary school. After graduating from junior high school, she worked in a video store in the city.

This girl has two major hobbies.

One is drinking, and the other is singing.

He went to work in a music store just to listen to music, and the first thing he did after getting his salary was to buy clothes to dress up. He said he was preparing to become a singing star.

With the increasing popularity of television and the rise of cultural and entertainment activities, Hong Kong singers became popular all over the country, and singing competitions began to emerge in the country.

Shi Yuehua wanted to be a singer all her life.

But...Sister Shen feels that as long as you encounter Hu Xiumei's family, everything has a problem.

But Shi Yuehua not only looks ordinary, her singing is also bad. It's bad... not bad.

Shi Yuehua had no idea about her singing voice, but she would participate in every singing competition in Anhuai City.

Huihui, Huihui was eliminated in the first round.

"It's not that he took too many days off. He was fired from the video store two days ago... He's been drinking every day these days." Sister Shen raised two fingers and shook them gently: "There are two drunkards in their family."

The grandfather and grandson got drunk with just a bowl of noodles early in the morning. After getting drunk, Shi Yuehua ran barefoot into the yard and revealed that Shi Jun had stolen money from her grandfather.

This is why Wang Nian heard the quarrel between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law.

"Luckily you don't live with them, otherwise it would be a lot of trouble every day."

"Who said it wasn't?"

Wang Nian felt his scalp tingling just by listening to Sister Shen's words. If he really had to live with such an in-law family every day, no matter how outstanding Shi Xiangming was, he would never consider marrying him.

"I asked you to pick green beans, not to gossip with others."

Suddenly, Luo Xiangyun, who was facing away from the yard, gave a cold reminder as if she had eyes.

Wang Nian shrugged, grabbed a handful of beans and threw them back into the sieve, not even bothering to go back.

"I have something to ask you, elder sister." Wang Nian continued to talk to elder sister Shen as if she hadn't heard him: "Why are elder sister-in-law and elder brother's family living here?"

I heard from Shi Xiangming before that Shi Xiangqian was at least a clerk in a government agency and had already been allocated a house.

But today, after the quarrel, Hu Xiumei went into the next room, changed her clothes and came out again. Through the gap in the door, you could see that there was a bed and something inside.

"Shi Yuehua lives here." Sister Shen said in a low voice.

"She's alone?"

"That's right. Didn't I just say that... Hu Xiumei and Luo Xiangyun are exactly the same. They both value sons over daughters."

Shi Xiangqian's unit had allocated him a two-bedroom, one-living room apartment. Hu Xiumei was seeing that her eldest son was about to reach adulthood, so she was already making arrangements to find him a daughter-in-law.

It is impossible for the wife to sleep in the living room after getting married... The house must be occupied by Shi Jun and his wife, so Shi Yuehua will have to be arranged to live in the grandfather's house.

But Sister Shen had another idea: "I think Hu Xiumei wants to occupy these three rooms of your father-in-law."

Haizhuang Food Factory has been poorly managed and has suffered losses for years. In the past two years, it has been reduced to selling the factory land to offset the losses.

Recently, some units have been experimenting with converting public housing into private properties. From what I hear, the factory seems to be planning to follow suit to make up for its losses.

As soon as the news came out, factory employees borrowed money from everywhere, hoping to buy it immediately as soon as the policy was announced.

It's not that Sister Shen has a mean heart, it's really... this is something that Hu Xiumei would be able to do.

"Public housing converted to private housing!"

As Wang Nian continued to listen to Sister Shen's accusations against Hu Xiumei's various evil deeds, his mind had actually already flown back to his own big house.

Will the Design Institute transfer the public housing to private property? If so, how much more money will No. 15 Guanghua Street need to pay?

If the house is taken back, will they have to prepare to buy their own house? Will they have enough savings?

I was trying to do two things at the same time: I grabbed the beans and threw them into the sieve. As for how many rotten beans there were, I couldn't see because my eyesight was poor.

"Xiang Ming, do you still remember your elder sister?"

Wang Nian's attention was instantly drawn back to when Shi Xiangming led Shi Wan out of the house with a very strange expression on his face.

"How could I not remember? I had to ask you to help Shi Wan put on her clothes and pants when I picked up the child that day."

The situation that day was too chaotic. Shi Xiangming, a grown man, had no experience in taking care of children, let alone a little girl.

With no other choice, he could only ask Sister Shen to help change Shi Wan's urine-soaked pants.

"Shi Wan, come sit here with Auntie."

"Auntie." Shi Wan smiled sweetly, sat down next to him, subconsciously leaned against Wang Nian and began to act coquettishly: "Mom, when can we go home?"

"Let's leave after dinner." said Wang Nian.

"You really know how to raise a child. Look how beautiful Shi Wan is. She will be so beautiful when she grows up."

If Shi Wan hadn't stepped forward today, Sister Shen would never have recognized that such a pretty girl was Shi Wan.

When she was little, Shi Wan was as timid as a mouse. She would cry if she was scared even if her voice was loud. She looked pitiful with two clear snot hanging from her nose all day long.

The person Shi Xiangming married for the second time must be good to the children, otherwise Shi Wan wouldn't have acted like a spoiled child instinctively.

Sister Shen wanted to find out more about Shi Xiangming, but before she could ask, her sister-in-law and her family went back to her parents' home and the conversation was interrupted.

Shi Xiangming was able to sit on the stool that she did not take away.

"Where's Shuwen?"

"He's talking to his grandfather... and Feiying."

"Shuwen?" Wang Nian was surprised.

"Who do you think Feiying looks like between us...I have to admit that she is better than him with her mouth." Shi Xiangming felt amused when he mentioned it, and then described to Wang Nian what had just happened in the room.

Simply put, it is about how Shi Feiying used her mouth to make Shi Guoqiang smile.

The boy first picked out some jokes that his older brothers and sisters played at home and told them vividly, and then read a story and explained the moral of the story.

Slowly, I transitioned to how many awards my eldest brother won in school, how my second sister was selected as an office cadre, and so on.

Even Shi Shuwen's participation in the city's speech contest was "taken advantage of" to show off.

"You didn't see the look on my dad's face after Feiying said she would get first place in the grade in the literary exam. I've never seen such a look of surprise in his eyes." Shi Xiangming sighed.

With Shi Feiying interjecting, Shi Guoqiang asked about Shi Shuwen's situation, which was rare.

"Let's let Shi Feiying watch less TV in the future. She must have learned it from TV series." Wang Nian thought about it and only thought of one possibility, and emphasized: "Especially TV series from Hong Kong."

"Feiying learned this from Uncle Mengcheng." Shi Wan suddenly interrupted.

"Meng Cheng?"

"It's Uncle Meng Cheng. Feiying likes to listen to stories about solving crimes and fighting in the past. Last time, I heard Uncle Meng tell a story about pretending to be a bad guy in order to go undercover."

Although Shi Wan also found it very interesting, she was not as obsessed as Shi Feiying and wanted to know all the details of the story.

Wang Nian: “…”

Meng Cheng: “…”

“Let Meng Cheng tell some children’s stories suitable for six-year-old children in the future!” This was all Wang Nian could say.

Shi Xiangming smiled: "You still expect to hear fairy tales from Meng Cheng..."

"Let's not talk about him. I have something to tell you." Wang Nian looked towards the kitchen and heard a cough that was deafening from the smoke. He lowered his voice and continued, "My parents' house is going to be transferred from public to private..."

Wang Nian is not interested in her husband's house, but many problems will surely arise in the future, so the couple needs to communicate in advance.

Shi Xiangming pondered for a moment, then whispered into Wang Nian's ear.

Wang Nian nodded repeatedly, agreeing almost without any hesitation.

"I'll mention it later when we're having dinner. Just listen. If I don't tell you now, you probably won't have the chance to tell you later."

In fact, everyone knows how much money their parents have. If they want to convert the public housing into private housing, the shortfall will definitely have to be made up by their brothers.

Shi Xiangming didn't want the house and could even pay for it.

What he wanted... was a few words from his sister-in-law.

As long as Hu Xiumei can make a promise and write a document, many subsequent troubles can be avoided.

As for whether she will fall into the trap, it depends on how greedy Hu Xiumei is.