Looking at the dilapidated village, Lin Ying couldn't help but turn to Zhao Qinghuai: "Is this your hometown?"
Zhao Qinghuai nodded: "Yes, the village is getting old. That's why I told you to be mentally prepared."
Lin Ying swallowed hard: "I'm ready!"
Seeing Lin Ying's "heroic sacrifice" appearance, Zhao Qinghuai couldn't help but laugh again: "Let's go, this is just the entrance to the village. Although the houses in the village are not very good, they are not this dilapidated."
Further in, Lin Ying saw that although the village houses were made of blue bricks and tiles, they were earthen walls and tiled roofs, making them better than the family compound.
When Lin Ying got here, she saw an old man sitting at the entrance of the village, basking in the sun.
This place is different from the Northeast. It's not yet autumn harvest and winter planting season, so people who have nothing to do after a good meal often sit here and bask in the sun.
As two people with no patches on their clothes walked towards the village entrance, everyone's eyes turned to them.
Suddenly, one of the old ladies said:
"Oh, isn't that so-and-so, so-and-so?"
Everyone looked at her. The old lady was eager to show off because she was the first to recognize her, but even though the name was on the tip of her tongue, she couldn't say it.
The anxious old woman slapped her thigh. Suddenly, she remembered: "Zhao Si! The fourth son of the Zhao family, adopted by Zhao Xiaotian!"
Upon hearing the old lady's words, everyone suddenly realized, "Oh, that's right. Zhao Si is back? And that woman next to him is his wife?"
"Oh my, didn't Guo Qiaoling say before that she was going to make quilts and cotton-padded jackets for her daughter-in-law? Then it must be her daughter-in-law."
"I guess he came back because of that matter."
"That can't be right. Zhao Daming's family treated Zhao Si very badly before. After Zhao Xiaotian died, Zhao Daming's family insisted that Zhao Si had been adopted out and wouldn't even give him a bite to eat."
"It's just a family matter; maybe they've already made up. Otherwise, why would Guo Qiaoling be wearing cotton-padded clothes and coats with Zhao Si's wife?"
"But I heard that Zhao Si paid money for all of these things."
"What? You charge money for making quilts and cotton-padded jackets for your daughter-in-law?"
As they spoke, Zhao Qinghuai and Lin Ying had already walked up to them.
Everyone pretended nothing had happened and greeted Zhao Qinghuai with smiles: "Zhao Si, you brought your wife back?"
Zhao Qinghuai pretended not to have heard their conversation and nodded with a smile: "Yes, my mother called the army earlier to say that something had happened at home. I was on a mission, and my wife doesn't know much about these things, so I came back to check on things."
Everyone nodded: "Oh dear, you've come because of Er Ya. You should all hurry back and check on her. Sigh, that girl, she's just unlucky."
Lin Ying and Zhao Qinghuai exchanged a glance, then said goodbye to everyone and continued walking forward.
Lin Ying thought Zhao Qinghuai would take him directly to his parents' house. Unexpectedly, Zhao Qinghuai led him to a small courtyard that looked desolate.
"Let's put our luggage down first, and then go take a look over there."
Now that we're here, we'll naturally listen to Zhao Qinghuai's every word. Lin Ying nodded: "I just don't know if this house is still habitable."
After all, the outer wall has collapsed.
Zhao Qinghuai raised his hand and felt around for a while before finding the key.
Although he could have gotten in by jumping over the wall, he chose to open the door and walk in.
As we walked, we cleared the grass to both sides.
Lin Ying followed him along the path he had cleared.
Upon arriving at the house, Zhao Qinghuai looked around to make sure the house hadn't collapsed and seemed relatively safe before opening the door and going inside.
Sure enough, the roof was leaking. There were traces of the leak on the ground.
Lin Ying looked around the room. Besides a dirty, messy earthen bed, there was only a dilapidated table and two old-fashioned stools. There was nothing else. Not even an oil lamp.
Zhao Qinghuai also realized that the place was somewhat dilapidated. He coughed and said, "I was only a teenager when I left. It's been more than ten years since then. I didn't have the means to buy anything back then."
Lin Ying didn't know what he was embarrassed about: "These things aren't important. What's important is, where are we going to eat? Do we have any cooking utensils here? And should we buy some food?"
Zhao Qinghuai was genuinely happy to see that Lin Ying didn't seem to care at all.
In Zhao Qinghuai's heart, he felt somewhat inferior in front of Lin Ying. All along, Lin Ying had been that rich young lady, while he was just an orphan from the countryside, abandoned by his parents.
Although capitalists are now seen as targets of criticism, Lin Ying's image in his heart will always remain beautiful.
Therefore, he rarely mentioned his hometown in front of Lin Ying, and he kept preparing her mentally on the way there.
Now that he could see that Lin Ying didn't care about these things, Zhao Qinghuai's long-standing inferiority complex finally disappeared.
Because the villagers' comments bothered Zhao Qinghuai and Lin Ying, after putting down their luggage, they disregarded the fact that they had walked for over two hours and went straight to Old Zhao's house.
Lin Ying could smell the herbs from afar. The closer she got to the Zhao family's house, the stronger the smell became.
Zhao Qinghuai led Lin Ying to Old Zhao's house.
Zhao Qinghuai opened the door, and Lin Ying followed him inside. She saw that the house was not much better than the one they had just seen.
The house, built of adobe bricks, had a thick thatched roof and walls that were mottled and showed the marks of time. The doors and windows were simple, and the wooden window frames had faded and looked very old.
There is also a small yard in front of the door, where some vegetables are grown.
"Who is Jiaxin?"
Lin Ying didn't understand and looked at Zhao Qinghuai.
In fact, she was also very curious about what Zhao Qinghuai's dialect sounded like.
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