Chapter 18 A doting mother often spoils her son, fearing she might laugh out loud in her sleep. ...
After dinner, the chubby boy just knelt at the door, and no one went to coax him. Qin Wutong and his wife were busy entertaining their son-in-law and asking him about his experiences over the past few years. Qin Xiangxiang, on the other hand, ate the dried longan and dried lychee that her husband had brought back, just like a little squirrel.
Qin Xiangxiang didn't like the food Qin Wutong cooked, so she just ate a few bites to get by. She noticed that Li Jianzhi had brought back a lot of longan and dried lychee. She took one out, peeled off the shell, and found the flesh inside to be sweet and delicious.
Her mother, Zhou Aodong, said that longan causes internal heat, and in the past, even if there was some at home, she was not allowed to eat too much; she could only eat seven or eight at a time.
No one was paying attention to Qin Xiangxiang at the moment, and she secretly ate a lot.
"Eat less, this is too spicy." Zhou Aodong finally noticed and glared at his daughter.
"It's alright, let her eat." Li Jianzhi guessed that even in Shanghai in the 1970s, the lives of ordinary citizens were simple and plain, and it was rare to eat good food on weekdays. His wife was so "thin" and his son was so fat, so the elders probably saved all the good food for the children.
That won't do; it will spoil the child.
At that time, a saying circulated: "Marry a man who is from the navy, army, or air force." In the 1970s, this referred to military personnel, specifically those in the navy, army, and air force. By the 1980s, it meant people with overseas connections, those who had been reinstated or received compensation, and those with empty houses at home.
Air Force mess halls are better than Navy mess halls, and Navy mess halls are better than Army mess halls. Li Jianzhi's Navy unit has a better daily food standard than most people. What's more, they are next to a famous fishing ground. In this era when wild large and small yellow croakers have not been completely caught, large and small yellow croakers are actually common food.
If we look at it fifty years from now, a single wild-caught large yellow croaker will cost several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan.
Leaving aside the large yellow croaker, let's talk about "ribbonfish." The domestic ribbonfish from the original East China Sea Thousand Islands fishing grounds is a small-eyed ribbonfish with delicate and delicious flesh. This small-eyed ribbonfish is what is supplied in Beijing and Shanghai, costing only a few cents per pound. Even the highest grade is only 55 cents per pound, making it an extremely cheap and common seafood. In the future, it will be difficult for ordinary people to eat this kind of pure wild ribbonfish.
Looking back now, it seems like we're eating high-end seafood every day; ordinary small fish and shrimp wouldn't even qualify for our mouths.
Li Jianzhi, who prefers "fitness meals," is quite accepting of his current diet. The fish is all fresh and high-quality, the wheat flour has a pure wheat aroma, and he also eats whole grains rich in wheat bran. The vegetables and fruits he eats are all pure organic and pollution-free products, without any high-tech ingredients, which is very much in line with the "health and wellness concept" of fifty years from now.
As for his wife, a true 1970s generation woman with little oil in her stomach, she devoured the vegetable cream cake without hesitation, which was heartbreaking to watch.
...I haven't eaten much good food.
Wait, that's not right either.
Fifty years later, fried chicken, fries, and Kaifeng cuisine have become the cheapest fast food, while wild seafood and organic fruits and vegetables are considered high-end food by many. For people in the 1970s, fried chicken and fries were the real delicacy, while wild seafood, organic fruits and vegetables, and whole grains were symbols of poverty.
Back then, when young people bought "organic whole grains" for their elders, they were scolded by their elders, who said, "I used to eat this stuff so much when I was young that I was sick of it."
At this time, the rice is not white, and there are still some husks left on the grains. The ordinary flour is also not pure. The steamed buns made from this are not refined white flour steamed buns, but have some coarse yellow wheat bran residue. They are considered coarse grains, but they actually taste quite delicious.
Li Jianzhi describes his current daily diet as: a high-protein, nutritious meal rich in dietary fiber.
After all, he was almost thirty-seven, no, thirty-six, and had reached the age where he needed to have a physical examination every year to be wary of high blood lipids, high blood sugar, high uric acid, etc. He had always taken good care of his health and was committed to being a healthy centenarian.
Qin Xiangxiang, the wife of this era, likes to eat "junk food," but she is only twenty-three or twenty-four years old. In the future, she will be just a college graduate. She loves to drink milk tea and eat sweets—what's wrong with that?
Li Jianzhi never imagined he would find such a young wife, but since things had come to this, he should take responsibility for her.
Men should treat their wives well.
After all these years... he finally has a wife like this.
Qin Xiangxiang ate some longan with satisfaction and found that her husband was quite nice when he came home. Although her husband was a bit cold and indifferent and sexually frigid, at least he didn't meddle in other people's business.
When asked to hit the child, he actually did!
terrific.
Qin Xiangxiang went to drink some water to cleanse her palate, then returned to her room, cut a small piece of cake, and took it out to the chubby little boy kneeling at the door, saying, "Here's a small piece of cake for you, do you want some?"
The chubby boy knelt there, his bottom swollen, tears and snot still wet on his face, looking utterly miserable.
His eyes were stubborn. He originally wanted to refuse to give in to his mother, but when he saw Qin Xiangxiang's beautiful face and the sweet cream cake, tears streamed down his face, and he couldn't help but burrow into his mother's arms.
"Mother……"
No wonder the song says "There's only one mother in the world who is good"; his military officer father is practically the big demon king from Journey to the West.
Qin Xiangxiang hugged him, looking at his choked and miserable appearance, feeling both heartache and wanting to laugh. If she laughed out loud, wouldn't that be too unfair to this little rascal?
—I'm really not a good mother, I'm so bad.
Qin Xiangxiang thought to herself.
"Don't cry, eat." Qin Xiangxiang gently patted the child's back, trying hard to suppress the smile on her lips. Because she felt that she was too wicked, she didn't dislike the warm, chubby little boy with tears and snot streaming down his face.
"Mmm." The chubby boy ate his cake with tears in his eyes.
Standing at the edge of the corridor, Li Jianzhi saw this scene, shook his head, and couldn't help but say, "A doting mother often spoils her son."
Qin Xiangxiang was confused: "...?"
loving mother?
Who is the loving mother being referred to?
Surely it wasn't her they were talking about.
After finishing his cake, the chubby boy was taken away and comforted by his maternal grandfather, Qin Wutong. His grandfather wiped his face, gave him a bath, and applied anti-inflammatory medicine to his swollen bottom. The chubby boy choked back tears and ate a few longans.
People started taking showers one after another. Li Jianzhi was still standing by the corridor. His face was stiff, and the more panicked he became, the more gloomy and terrifying his expression became.
In Shanghai, the average living space per person is small. The mother-in-law's family only has three rooms: one for the son, one for the father-in-law and mother-in-law, and one for Qin Xiangxiang. His wife's family is considered well-off. Many families live in a small room of only a dozen square meters. If that were the case, it wouldn't be so awkward.
Li Jianzhi originally thought that he would have to squeeze into his mother-in-law's house, but now that his wife has a room to herself, does that mean he really has to stay in his wife Qin Xiangxiang's room tonight?
A lone man and a lone woman alone in a room...
What if it's really like what Political Commissar Wang said, that after so many years apart, they're like dry tinder and a raging fire, and she throws herself into his arms and clings to him, refusing to let him get down?
Captain Li was so anxious he was practically fuming. He could accept suddenly having a wife, but things shouldn't be progressing this fast, right?
Why doesn't he sleep with the child tonight?
There is nothing shameful about running away.
After making up his mind, Li Jianzhi, with a calm and composed handsome face, strode to the door of his father-in-law's room. Looking inside, he saw his father-in-law holding the chubby little boy, applying medicine to his swollen bottom by the light of a lamp.
When the chubby boy saw the tall man at the door, he trembled in fear for a moment.
"It's Xiao Li." Qin Wutong, the father-in-law, was a gentle and good-tempered man. He wasn't wearing his glasses when he applied medicine to his grandson's bottom, and he spoke softly.
Li Jianzhi stated bluntly: "How about I sleep with the child tonight? We haven't seen each other for so many years, let's get to know each other better and build up our father-son relationship."
I can also teach him to memorize texts.
Qin Wutong was stunned.
The chubby little boy nestled in his arms shuddered, so frightened by those words that he almost peed himself.
His officer father wants to sleep with him. What for? To have a dream and get beaten up again?
How to cultivate a father-son relationship?
Does it mean making up for all the times we didn't have a chance to play before?
The little one was trembling like a leaf, and even Qin Xiangxiang, who was passing by, couldn't bear to see it. She tugged at her husband's sleeve, "Go wash up and go to bed early. I just added a new quilt to the room, and it's already made up."
Li Jianzhi's whole body stiffened.
There was no way to avoid it; his wife had already extended an invitation to share a room with him.
"Hmm." The man responded indifferently, his expression growing increasingly grim and cold as he became more nervous.
Qin Xiangxiang glanced at him, not at all surprised by her husband's indifferent face. This frigid husband seemed to have no desire for sex. Even she, before and after her period, would think about such things.
The man sleeping next to her was like sleeping on a piece of wood; he wasn't interested in sex, so Qin Xiangxiang didn't take it too seriously, treating him like an extra decoration on her bed.
Putting everything else aside, her husband has a very good sleeping posture, almost like a corpse covered with a white sheet.
Li Jianzhi went into the cement pool room, quickly took a shower, changed into a military green pullover training uniform as pajamas, and walked out awkwardly and stiffly despite being 1.8 meters tall.
He stood at the door for a long time before finally raising his hand to knock on his wife Qin Xiangxiang's bedroom door.
Qin Xiangxiang opened the door and let him in, then sat down at the dressing table to apply makeup.
The room, about fifteen square meters, wasn't large. With the window open, the night breeze brought a touch of coolness, and there was a faint fragrance in the air.
Although the furnishings were simple, the place was very clean and beautiful, spotless. There was even a piano in the corner. His wife could play the piano?
Qin Xiangxiang was wearing a polka-dot round-neck nightgown, with her hair tucked behind her ears, revealing her pretty face. After applying something to her face, she naturally used clam oil to moisturize her hands.
Textile workers' fingers don't develop calluses; on the contrary, from touching hot yarn and silky fabrics every day, even the fingerprints on their hands seem to be worn away.
Li Jianzhi sat on the corner of the bed, his body stiff as a rock. His fingers were interlaced on his knees, and he was worried that she might pounce on him like a wolf.
How should I react?
Wouldn't it be incredibly embarrassing if we couldn't handle it?
The more nervous he became, the stiffer and uglier his face became. He needed to think of a way to get through this difficult situation.
“Think about it, we haven’t seen each other for years and we don’t know each other well… How about we try to get along for a while? If it doesn’t work out, we can discuss divorce?” Li Jianzhi said these words tentatively. After he finished speaking, he couldn’t help but curse himself a few times as a scumbag.
He felt extremely guilty.
Li Jianzhi looked at the woman sitting in front of the dressing table and noticed that she had her back to him, and her shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
This made Li Jianzhi feel even more guilty.
"Don't worry, even if we really get divorced in the future... after the divorce, the child will continue to live with you. He can be sent to my place during the winter and summer vacations every year, and I will discipline him. I will still send you fifty yuan every month after the divorce." Li Jianzhi's current salary, plus the island allowance and the sea allowance, is about one hundred and one hundred and twenty yuan a month.
He felt deeply guilty, thinking that the money was still too little. He said that if he were to be promoted to the rank of regimental commander in the future, he would send her seventy yuan every month.
No matter what, even after the divorce, you must take good care of your ex-wife and children.
Li Jianzhi noticed that the woman was still facing away from him and refused to turn around. Could she be crying?
My behavior at this moment is just like that of a scumbag intellectual from the Republican era, who wants to divorce his first wife who bore him children. She was only eighteen when he married her. Now the social atmosphere is not open, and divorced women will be ridiculed... Sigh, I really feel sorry for her.
With her back to the man, Qin Xiangxiang tried hard to suppress the smile on her lips. This deadbeat, frigid husband was just too good. She was afraid she would burst out laughing in her sleep.
puff--
You can't laugh.
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