Chapter 186 Wooden Sign
Jiang Hai saw that nothing was wrong and didn't plan to stay any longer. "Mom, I have to go to work too. I'll take Dongdong with me. If you have any problems, come find me."
Liu Cuihua waved her hand and walked into the house. "I see. Go ahead. Come back early for dinner. The Chinese New Year is just two days away. I don't know how your father is doing at home. Give him a call this afternoon to ask."
Jiang Hai: "Okay, I'll call you when I get to the office."
Liu Cuihua was preparing New Year's goods in the kitchen. Just as she took out a pot of steamed rice cakes, she heard a knock on the door.
When Shi Luo opened the door, he saw a woman holding a child, followed by an old lady holding something square. "What can I do for you?"
Liu Mei held the child in her arms and said, "Hey, we live next door to you. We even met your old lady at noon. Now that we have nothing to do, we came to visit. My mother brought some homemade sweet potato fern cakes. They are delicious whether fried or steamed."
Liu Cuihua heard the voice and hurried out to greet them, "Come in quickly, Haohao, go and pour them two cups of brown sugar water."
When Liu Mei entered the house, she saw Huhu sitting on the sofa in the living room and smiled. "Oh, I heard from my husband last night that your family wanted to adopt Huhu. I didn't expect that you would take him in today."
Liu Cuihua pulled the two of them to sit down. Jiang Hao put the poured water on the table and said with a smile, "It's urgent. We will live together anyway, so the sooner the better. Besides, the New Year is almost here. If we take it over, the child can spend another New Year with us."
Liu Cuihua looked at the child in Liu Mei's arms and said, "Is this child a boy or a girl? It looks like they are about five months old. They can almost sit up."
"Boy, more than four months old," said Mrs. Bai, turning her head to look at the two men in the room, "These two are your sons, they look quite small."
Liu Cuihua nodded. "Yes, the one pouring the water just now is my youngest son, Jiang Hao, who is twenty years old this year. The one who opened the door is my godson, Shi Luo, who is nineteen years old. They are both young."
Old Lady Bai said, "Sister, look at your children. They are all so handsome. Especially your teacher Jiang. Not only is he handsome, he is also very capable. He became a teacher at such a young age. He is really amazing."
Liu Cuihua sighed, "It's all earned through hard work time and time again. Take the scars on my eldest son's body, one next to another. I don't even know how many scars he has. He even stayed in the hospital for a long time before being transferred to Beijing. Every time I receive a telegram or letter from the army back home, I have to read it with my heart, afraid that there will be news I can't accept."
Liu Mei felt the same way. "Who says it's not like that? They're soldiers who risk their lives for military merit. Outsiders think the officers are all powerful, but only we, the military families, know the hardships. My head of the family is fine. The ones in the logistics department don't go out much. It's people like you who have soldiers who are often on missions in your family that make your family members worry."
Huhu walked in front of Liu Cuihua and looked at the baby in Liu Mei's arms, "Auntie, why is the baby chewing on the wood?"
Liu Mei touched the muddled head and said, "My little brother is about to grow teeth, and his mouth is itchy, so he wants to chew on the pepper wood."
After saying that, he looked at Jiang Hao and continued, "I see Huhu seems to be sleepy, rubbing his eyes constantly. Why don't you take him into the house and let him get some sleep."
Jiang Hao nodded. "I think the child is sleepy too. Sister-in-law, you guys continue chatting with my mother. I'm going to coax the child to sleep first. Luoluo, come with me. I'm afraid I can't do it alone."
Shi Luo: "Well, sister-in-law, aunt, you stay here, we'll go and coax the child first."
Liu Mei smiled and said, "Go ahead, go quickly."
After seeing the three people enter the house, he turned to Liu Cuihua and said in a low voice, "I came here today to tell you something else."
Liu Cuihua nodded in confusion, "What's the matter?"
Liu Mei took out a wooden sign strung with a red string from her pocket and handed it to Liu Cuihua, "Aunt, this is something our head of the family asked me to give you. It was left by Huhu's father before he died. It's not a valuable thing, just a wooden sign.
Huhu's father Yue Tuan and our Tang Kai are brothers from the same village.
When Yue Tuan was a child, he and his family fled famine to Tang Kai's village, and only he and his father were left. Later, the father and son lived in their village for nearly ten years. When Yue Tuan's father died, Yue Tuan was only fourteen years old. After that, Yue Tuan lived alone in the village for several years. When he was old enough and the army was recruiting soldiers, he signed up to join the army.
Old Tang was four years younger than Yue Tuan and naturally joined the army later than Yue Tuan. Unexpectedly, they ended up meeting in the same division by chance.
After Huhu was born, every time the Yue group went on a mission, they would give this wooden sign to our Lao Tang for safekeeping. Lao Tang also understood what it meant.
He asked me to bring the sign to your house during lunch today. Don't worry, there's nothing special on it, just the blurry birth date and the words "peace and happiness".
Please keep this for Huhu first. As for when to give it to Huhu, you can decide. It has no other meaning, just leave it as a souvenir for the child."
Liu Cuihua picked up the sign and looked at it. "Why didn't you think of giving it to Xiao Yu? I heard from my son that it was already a done deal for his family to adopt Hu Hu."
Liu Mei patted the child in her arms,
"My old man Tang said that things haven't been finalized yet. Regarding Yu's sister-in-law's family adopting Hu Hu, the organization is still investigating and hasn't made a final decision.
Also, even if it is finally confirmed that Yu's wife adopted the child, Huhu grew up in a military compound after all, so I can give this badge to the child at any time.
But your family is different. Huhu has been adopted by your youngest son and might leave the compound at any time, so it’s better for me to give you this sign as soon as possible.”
Liu Cuihua saw that there was indeed nothing else on the sign, so she stuffed it into her pocket with confidence.
Old Mrs. Bai grabbed a handful of pine nuts from the table and cracked them open. "Big sister, where did you buy all the dried fruits on the table? I went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy New Year's goods a few days ago and didn't see any of them for sale."
Seeing that Liu Mei was having trouble eating while holding the baby, Liu Cuihua handed her a piece of dried sweet potato. "Every year, our brigade organizes members to go up the mountain to pick mountain products. We allow members to keep some for themselves. Most of the mountain products are collected by the purchasing station. I picked all the ones my family eats myself."
Mrs. Bai nodded and said, "It is better to live in the countryside. We have spacious houses and no worries about food. Look at the city.
I've been here for almost five months now, and I really have to buy everything. It's not so bad in the summer, as I have a little more than an acre of land and can grow some vegetables, which is barely enough to eat. If I take good care of the land, I can even dry some vegetables for the winter. But now in the winter, even eating a scallion costs money."
Liu Cuihua couldn't agree more with this. "That's what I mean. My son Haohao works in Beijing, and I worry every day that he doesn't have enough to eat. If he were in the village, even though there wouldn't be enough meat, I could still plant some seeds to feed him what vegetables he wants to eat in the summer."
Liu Mei chewed on the dried sweet potatoes and couldn't help but smile, "Mom, you say that the city is not good at all, but why are you still asking people to find a job for my brother?"
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