Suddenly heard the bad news
Huizi opened the brand new household registration booklet, and the first page of the household registration book read "Li Huizi".
She read it over and over again with great care, as if she could never read it enough. After a long time, she held the household registration booklet to her chest and swallowed the sob that rose in her throat.
"Come on!" She encouraged herself silently in her heart.
The first thing to do when becoming the head of a household is to move.
Yes, the yard has been sold, and the rooms in Gou Ernai's house that were originally locked should also be opened to make room.
For this purpose, Huizi took two days off and did not ask for help from Yang Xiu and the Qin family. When Huizi's aunt heard about this, she called her husband to help.
On the first day, the three of them watched the Gou family members moving in and out, and on the second day, they cleaned and decorated the main room and bedrooms.
Seeing that their niece had gone from being penniless to owning a house and land, Aunt Huizi and her husband were filled with emotion. After thinking it over in private, I took the things to Lao Qin's house and expressed my sincere gratitude.
Now that Huizi was settled, Hu Yufeng focused her efforts on developing the market.
Yang County has been completely taken over, and the next step is to clear the plateau adjacent to Yang County.
For this reason, Hu Yufeng and Qin Wenli held a meeting, but no sparks came out. The main thing is the market. It’s not that you will succeed just because you have formulated a strategy. You still have to bend down and look at it. The best strategy is to adapt to local conditions.
It's October now, the weather has turned cold, and there is not much work to do in the fields. The mother and son simply left the tasks at hand to Yang Xiu and Huizi, and drove a three-wheeled vehicle carrying fried dough twists deep into the major towns and villages of Qingyuan, strolling around as they went. The two of them acted separately, not picking any big stores, but entering any store, taking their fried dough twists to each store to give to the owners for free samples. Some bosses refused directly, but there were always some who didn't hit anyone who smiled at them. I felt embarrassed to refuse, so I tried it tentatively and found that the fried dough twist from this restaurant tasted really good.
Moreover, these types of fried dough twists are not available in the wholesale market, so I couldn't help but become interested.
Business, after all, starts with interest.
Of course, the two of them are very patient with such willing bosses. Afraid that people would not believe him without any evidence, Qin Wenli found an advertising shop to take photos of the factory and the operation room and made them into promotional brochures.
I took out the promotional brochure and started explaining to them everything from variety to price, from raw materials to hygiene, from delivery to payment collection, anyway, Yufeng Mahua is the only one in the market. Some bold bosses decided on the spot to order a box as a trial. If the sales were good, they would consider formal cooperation.
Hu Yufeng smiled so hard that her teeth were showing when she saw this. She was afraid that you wouldn’t sell it. As long as you sold it, the next step would be formal cooperation.
Not to mention that this method is quite good. Before the snow fell, the two of them traveled to all the towns in Qingyuan and found one or two partners in each town.
"What is this? This is the countryside surrounding the city!"
Hu Yufeng was very proud and determined. The next step was to break into Qingyuan City!
However, things are unpredictable. Before the mother and son could officially march towards Qingyuan City, a piece of bad news came from Qingyuan: Qin's second brother, Qin Wenlin, had passed away.
…
Qin Wenli was stunned when he received the call. How could this happen? His second brother was just over 40 years old, in the prime of his life, how could he just die?
He couldn't believe it and didn't want to believe it.
But no matter how unwilling you are, the facts are right in front of you.
Hu Yufeng had no choice but to step forward and call Yang Xiu first. The two children needed to ask for leave, and the four members of their family had to go back to send them off.
Yang Xiu was also very sad when he heard this, so he asked for leave, and the mother and her two children returned in tears.
After seeing his wife and children, Qin Wenli could no longer hold back and turned around and cried silently.
Hu Yufeng and the old lady were in tears when they saw this. The old lady even howled and said that if God wanted to take someone away, it should be her. Wenlin was only forty years old, why did he have such a miserable life?
Yang Xiu packed up her things, changed her two children into plain clothes, and then the family of four was packed up and sent on a bus to Qingyuan.
Qin Wenli became more and more sad on the way to get off the bus. He had just met his second brother last month and he had no symptoms. How could he pass away so suddenly?
Seeing the white flags flying outside their home from afar, the whole family was overwhelmed with grief.
The two children couldn't help sobbing when they recalled how their uncle had taken them out for fun on his motorcycle in May and had given them various storybooks.
When they arrived at the door, Qin Wenping and Qin Wenjun came out to greet them. When the brothers met each other, their eyes were red and swollen.
Qin Wenjun choked up and said, "Go ahead and burn some paper for your second brother first!"
In Qingyuan, everyone who comes to a funeral must burn incense and paper in front of the mourning hall first.
Qin Wenli knelt in front of the spirit money with his wife and children. As the paper money started to burn, the women on both sides cried loudly and he couldn't help but burst into tears.
After the memorial service, the family of four put on mourning clothes and went to visit their parents.
As soon as I entered the door, I saw Old Man Qin smoking silently with his head down. His dark and thin face was shrouded in the lingering smoke, as if even his sadness was covered up.
Mother Qin was lying on the kang. She slowly stood up when she saw her youngest son and said in a hoarse voice, "You are back..."
Tears started flowing before she finished her words. Qin Wenli took a few steps forward, and the mother and son hugged each other and cried bitterly.
As one gets older, no matter how sad one is, one has to take care of the living. Yang Xiu wiped her tears and walked forward to comfort the two people, and the crying gradually stopped.
The mother and son talked for a while, and then Yang Xiu went to the kitchen with her sister-in-law. Qin Wenli and his two children knelt beside the coffin to mourn.
"He was fine, except that he said he was a little sleepy yesterday afternoon. The store hasn't been busy recently, so I let him go in and rest. He slept until almost four o'clock and didn't wake up. I called him twice but he didn't wake up, so I touched him... woo woo woo..."
The second sister-in-law couldn't help crying bitterly, and her two children, Qin Chong and Qin Yao, also leaned on their mother on the left and right, crying bitterly.
"Sister-in-law, my second brother has passed away. You and the children should take care of your health..." Qin Erjie advised.
"It's probably a heart attack. My mother has a bad heart..." Qin Wenxiu whispered.
"well……"
At noon, the fortune teller came to check the date and decided that the funeral would take place three days later. You need to dig a tomb, ask for help, invite guests from outside the family, order paper work, hire a chef, buy cigarettes, alcohol, and vegetables... The deceased lies silently in the coffin, while the living are busy arranging the funeral.
Qin Wenli didn't even have time to feel sad as he was busy with various matters.
After two days of non-stop work, at seven o'clock on the third morning, a loudspeaker cleared the way, and the filial men carried the coffin, and the filial women carried mourning sticks and wailed as they carried the body into the dug tomb.
It was not until this moment that Qin Wenli had time to cry out loud.
He is his second elder brother and also his mentor. Knowing that he loves books, he always brings back piles of them. Whenever he had troubles, his second brother would always be there to help him relieve his unhappiness. After this farewell, we will never meet again, one on earth and the other underground!
Mother Qin's tears had long dried up, and she was supported by elder sister Qin as she stared blankly at the scene.
My son, I have been with you since you were born, but now you are left alone. Mom will come and give you a ride. Please wait a moment. Mom will stay with you.
Many bystanders wiped away their tears sadly.
…
After the funeral, Qin Wenli stayed for another day and helped his second sister-in-law to pack up her things with his three brothers.
My second brother's family had bought a house in the city and only returned to their hometown during the holidays. When my second brother left, my second sister-in-law prepared to move the whole family to the city. Their old house was already very dilapidated, and apart from some food stored in the main room, there was nothing else worth remembering.
Several people were chatting while putting the food together.
Yao Yun talked about their plan: "We originally wanted to find a janitor, but the house is leaking, and someone will have to renovate it when they come. It's not worth it."
Qin Wenping also agreed that it would not be worthwhile to renovate the house if his second sister-in-law and her family did not come back. Without popularity to support it, the house will quickly become dilapidated.
Qin Wenjun disagreed: "No matter what, these are your roots. Besides, there are still eight acres of land, and you have to plant it every year."
Yao Yun laughed bitterly: "Who will plant it? In previous years, it was all up to Wenlin. I can't even take care of the store, and I have two children to take care of..."
Qin Wenjun replied: "I will plant it, I will help plant it, and I will keep the harvested wheat for you."
However, Yao Yun was unwilling: "You and your eldest sister-in-law have a whole family... I plan to rent it out. Chong Chong eats at school usually, and these old grains are enough for Yaoyao and me." She was not as unsatisfied as the third son's wife. The two old people depended on the eldest son to take care of them year after year. Would it be reasonable to ask others to farm for her?
Qin Wenjun wanted to say something else, but Qin Wenping pulled him back.
Although there weren’t many things in the past, it took time to put them away. Lock up all the food, lock the furniture in another room, and throw away unused items. When the door was locked, only a cardboard box was left in Qin Wenli's hands. Inside was a box of books, all of which Qin Wenlin often read in his hometown. The brothers knew that the younger brother loved books the most, so they tacitly left them to Qin Wenli.
The door was locked, and what was locked in everyone's hearts was the past and Qin Wenlin's vivid yet short life.
After staring blankly for a while, they returned to Qin Wenjun's house with heavy steps.
Qin Wenjun called Yao Yun and his three brothers together. The second brother was gone, and they had to help take care of the orphans and widows left behind, so they had to have a set of rules.
Yao Yun was listless and waved his hands listlessly: "Every family has its own difficulties. Wenlin is gone but I'm still here. I'll speak up if you have any problems. You just take care of your own family."
Qin Wenjun disagreed. When his brother passed away so suddenly, what he cared about most was his wife and daughter. They were Wenlin's closest relatives, so how could he just stand by and watch?
After discussing it, they decided that during the bookstore's busiest season, Qin Nian and Qin Yue from the eldest family and Qin Jian from the third family would go to the bookstore to help out. Whenever books were delivered from other provinces, the fourth brother would accompany them throughout the process. As for Wenli, Qin Wenjun was in a dilemma. If she arranged for him, Wenli would feel like a huge burden on his head. If she didn't arrange for him, she was afraid that Wenli would be worried.
Qin Wenli also saw his eldest brother's dilemma and took the initiative to say, "I can't help you with anything. I'll take care of the food for my second sister-in-law and her two daughters."
Yao Yun disagreed, and Qin Wenli did not argue with her. Anyway, he would grind the wheat into flour and deliver it directly to her home at a certain time every month, so his second sister-in-law had no choice but to refuse.
As for home? Qin Wenli didn't even think about telling his family.
He had some private money and bought some wheat, which Yang Xiu ground into flour in the town. If the couple hadn't told him, no one would have known about it.
The matter was settled, and Yao Yun felt mixed emotions. After her husband left, she saw the true colors of some people and gained a lot of true love.
He took his two children and said goodbye to the two elders sincerely, telling them to stay healthy and watch their grandchildren grow up and get married. Only then did he go to the city under the escort of his brothers.
The final exams are approaching, and this is the busiest time for bookstores. One day of closing means one day of lost revenue.
The dead are gone, but the living must go on with their lives.
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