Chapter 348 is here.
The person who brought Zhang Cui and her two children was Wang Fu, a neighbor who lived nearby.
Song Lubai invited Wang Fu in for a drink of hot water, but Wang Fu waved his hand and said with a smile, "I still have work to do, I have to go back quickly."
Seeing that her mother and two younger brothers were covered in dried mud and looked quite disheveled, Song Lubai asked, "What happened to you? Did you fall into a snowdrift on the way?"
Song Lubai made brown sugar water for the three of them.
Zhang Jianshe exclaimed, "We ran into an old bastard on the way, who stole all the food we brought! Sister, we brought you two rabbits!"
Zhao Hongying asked, "Where did you rob it? What kind of vehicle did you take from the city to here?"
Zhang Cui took a sip of brown sugar water, still feeling lingering fear as she recalled the robbery she suffered yesterday.
Knowing there are robberies on the street, she would never take her child out.
“Yesterday afternoon, we met a young man driving a donkey cart by the roadside. He understood a little Mandarin and said he could take us to the 16th Regiment for five cents per person. After we paid, several other young men suddenly appeared halfway there and robbed us of our food and money. The young man driving the cart was in cahoots with them.”
Zhang Cui clutched her chest, feeling incredibly frightened.
Halfway there, she couldn't see a single person for miles around. The robbers had fled, and the road was covered in snow. She didn't know which way to go, so she could only take the child and return the way she came.
This morning, she dared not ride in Balangzi's donkey cart again. When she met Han people on the road, they traveled together, asking for directions along the way.
It took them more than five hours to reach their destination.
Song Lubai said, "You didn't even tell me you were coming. You should have sent a telegram in advance so I could estimate the time and have Wei Yang pick you up in the city."
Zhang Cui was reluctant to spend the money to send the telegram, and now she regrets it terribly.
The boy robbed me of about ten yuan.
Deng Hong said, "You were just unlucky. There are good ones among the barbarians. There were Han Chinese who robbed people in the Gobi Desert before. Fortunately, those barbarians only robbed money and food. It's good that they were safe."
Calling the police is completely useless in this kind of situation. In the wilderness, once someone runs away and disappears into a village, it's impossible to find them.
With guests arriving, Zhao Hongying and Deng Hong felt it was inappropriate to stay any longer and got up to go home.
After the outsiders left, Zhang Cui said, "You guys live really far away. It takes eight or nine days to come and go."
Song Lubai talked with her mother for a while and then brought out all the good food in the house to treat them.
There was also a chicken in the yard, and a rabbit and some smoked bacon hanging in the bathroom.
Song Lubai was planning to slaughter a chicken for her mother and brother. She went next door to ask Chen Shaohua to tell Wei Yang at the government office that he should come back as soon as possible today so that they could slaughter the chicken.
Zhang Cui felt chilly and couldn't warm up even after sitting in front of the stove for an hour or so.
Since the wood blocks burned faster than coal, Song Lubai went to the yard and carried a lot of wood blocks into the house to make the fire burn brightly.
The Zhang brothers weren't warm either, but they still followed her around happily.
The two of them strolled around the yard and their eyes lit up when they saw the meat hanging in the bathroom.
"Sister, didn't brother-in-law say that you guys are really poor here? How come you have so much meat at home?"
Song Lubai had the two men carry the sweet potato while she went into the bathroom to retrieve a piece of cured meat.
"The family slaughtered a pig for the Lunar New Year; we don't usually see meat."
Zhang Cui stood at the door looking at the courtyard across the street: "Although your houses are all made of mud bricks, most of them have courtyards, so it's quite comfortable to live here."
Song Lubai put the sweet potatoes on the stove to roast, and suddenly asked, "Mom, have you seen Zhao Dongmei?"
Zhang Cui instinctively exclaimed, "Ah!" "Who? Which Zhao Dongmei?"
Song Lubai said, "It's Lu Jianxi's wife, Zhao Dongmei."
Why are you bringing her up?
Song Lubai pointed in the direction of Zhao Dongmei's house and said, "Her house is over there, not far from mine. She just gave birth to a boy a while ago. She was already quite pregnant when she came to the 16th Regiment."
In her dream, Zhao Dongmei gave birth to a daughter, who was Lu Jianxi's child. Now she has given birth to a son, and Song Lubai thinks that it's possible that this child is Lin Dahai's child.
Zhang Cui didn't expect Zhao Dongmei to be here.
Since arriving in Xinjiang Province, all those messy things have been far removed from her life. When she thinks of Zhao Dongmei, Zhang Cui can't help but think of Lu Jianxi, that inhuman bastard.
She didn't care whose child Zhao Dongmei had; even if it was Lin Dahai's, it had nothing to do with her.
Is she married?
Song Lubai nodded and said, "She found someone who has a child and is about ten years older than her."
Zhang Cui said, "That's fine too."
There hasn't been much going on in the troupe lately, and Wei Yang came back with Chen Shaohua.
The eaves at the entrance were low, so Wei Yang had to bend over to enter each time.
The sound arrived before the person even went inside.
"Mom, you didn't even tell me you were coming so I could have picked you up."
Zhang Cui stood up and said, "We just came to see how you two are doing. I'm old enough to find a place myself, so there's no need for us to pick me up."
They talked until dark, and Wei Yang didn't even have time to slaughter the chicken.
Song Lubai stir-fried cabbage and cured pork, while Wei Zhao went to a restaurant and bought a plate of braised pork.
That means the pigs were slaughtered before the Lunar New Year, so restaurants will only be selling braised pork now.
There are three beds in the house. In the cold winter, Chen Yu and her daughter Wei Zhao squeeze into one bed.
Three people came to our house, so we had to sleep on the floor.
The Zhang brothers slept on the floor in Chen Shaohua and Chen Jingwen's room, while Zhang Cui slept in the outer hall of Wei Zhao's room.
Song Lubai and Wei Yang wanted to give up their beds, but Zhang Cui insisted on sleeping on the floor, so Song had no choice but to make that arrangement in the end.
There weren't enough blankets, so Wei Yang went to the Armed Forces Department and borrowed two more.
After settling in and lying down on the floor, Zhang Cui began to recall her daughter's attitude after she arrived that day.
Although her daughter was very thoughtful, she still felt a distance between her and her daughter.
Ever since that argument, her daughter hasn't been as genuinely close to her as before.
She had thought about it a lot in the past, and she felt that the problem still lay with Lin Dahai.
Lin Dahai ruined her daughter's college entrance exam, and many other things happened afterward.
After summarizing, Zhang Cui concluded that Song Lubai hated her for finding Lin Dahai as her stepfather.
Although life at the Yantai station was peaceful, Zhang Cui felt somewhat uneasy because she had no relatives to visit in Xinjiang province.
She can raise her two sons on her own, but if someone helps them in the future, their lives will be easier.
Now urban youth are all going to the countryside. She doesn't know how long this policy will last, but if it continues like this, one of her two sons will have to go to the countryside sooner or later.
Song Lubai married well, and she hopes that Song Lubai can help the twins in the future.
Zhang Cui thought for a long time before falling asleep, but Song Lubai didn't think that much. She just entertained her mother when she came and made sure she left. She could afford to pay for the food, and Wei Yang wasn't stingy either.
Zhang Jianshe caught fire early the next morning.
Yesterday I walked for about five hours and slept on a makeshift bed on the floor. It wasn't warm enough for an adult, let alone a child.
Song Lubai and Zhang Cui quickly took the person to the health center.
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