Chapter 89

This return trip.

There were about a dozen people in total.

If the men were not all cadres, they might not have been able to arrange so many sleeper berth tickets.

After finding the carriage and settling in, the group automatically divided themselves up.

For example, the men are in one group, and the children are in another group.

As for Li Ting, she took her elder sister, mother-in-law and Ning Yuwo to one of the carriages, where they laughed and gossiped, and the journey was not unbearable at all.

Two days later, when the train passed through HL City, the group waited for Lu Hong.

At the age of 24, Lu Hong, who just returned from military school two months ago, has become a company commander.

The once young boy has become a steady and resolute man after several years of military service.

Well, at least that's what it looks like.

Although Lu Wei is a little smaller than Huo Xiao and Xie Hao, he is not much shorter, also a little over 1.8 meters tall.

But at this moment, standing side by side with his brother whom he hadn't seen for several years, he was a little afraid to recognize him.

He walked around the man twice, pinched his broad shoulders, and said with emotion: "What did you eat, kid? How come you've grown so big?" He, a big man, looked slim.

Ruting was also shocked: "Xiaohong, you... must be 1.9 meters tall, right?" The middle school boy has become a tough guy, and this tough guy is his own younger brother. No matter how he looks at it, it seems incongruous.

Zhuo Sheng was also curious: "It seems to be taller than both of your brothers-in-law."

Li Hong smiled with his white teeth, and said with a proud tone: "I am 1.92 meters tall."

Well...everyone burst into laughter, it was that bad boy again.

victory brigade.

Li Taohong got up before dawn.

Hearing the noise, Shengli was awakened and half-sat up with his arms propped up, and asked vaguely, "What time is it?"

Li Taohong, who was bending over to put on her shoes, turned around and pushed her husband back, then covered him with a quilt and said, "It's only four o'clock, go back to sleep."

Zhu Shengli yawned: "What are you doing getting up so early?"

Li Taohong said happily: "The children will be here today. I will go kill two chickens and make soup."

Lu Shengli was about to squint, and was very confused when he heard this: "It's only a few o'clock now, they won't be home until at least three or four in the afternoon."

Li Taohong rolled her eyes at her husband and said, "What if she arrives early? Besides, the chicken is an old hen, so it will be better if it is stewed longer."

Hearing this, Lu Shengli rubbed his face, pulled the light cord at the head of the bed, and said, "I'll help you." As he spoke, he had already thrown back the quilt and sat up.

Seeing this, Li Taohong didn't say anything. She picked up a wooden comb, combed her hair a few times, and then pushed the door open and left the bedroom.

In the early years, the conditions of the Lu family were considered the best in the Victory Brigade.

In the past few years, all the children have done well, and the old couple has made extra income from raising rabbits. Their life can be said to be prosperous.

Just two years ago, the mud-brick house at home was demolished and rebuilt.

Today, the Lu family's house is a spacious courtyard built with red bricks, which is decent and elegant.

Of course, as the living standards of villagers improve, houses like this are not unique in nearby villages and are not eye-catching.

After Li Taohong tidied herself, she habitually went to the rabbit house with some hot water.

In recent years, as the demand for rabbit fur has increased, the government has encouraged people to raise rabbits at home.

Although the initial cost is a bit high, in the long run, the income is quite considerable.

Li Taohong and Lu Shengli were one of them. However, when she arrived at the rabbit house to clean it, she found that someone was already inside. She hurriedly called them out: "What time did you get up, kid?"

Lin Jiaojiao turned around, first glanced at the watch on her wrist, then smiled and replied: "I just can't sleep, auntie, why are you up so early?"

Seeing that the little girl didn't come out, Li Taohong opened the wooden door and went in.

She rolled up her sleeves and began to clean the trough: "Me too. The children haven't been back for many years. I'm so happy. I baked overnight pancakes last night."

Speaking of family, Lin Jiaojiao paused, and was silent for a few seconds before saying, "Auntie, I plan to go visit my mother during the Chinese New Year this year."

Hearing this, Li Taohong was not too surprised: "Okay, let your uncle take you there later. Auntie will prepare more food for you and have a good time with your mother." At this point, she looked at Xiaoyue, who had grown into a big girl with bright eyes and white teeth, and smiled to comfort her: "The situation is getting better and better now. Maybe in two years, your mother will be able to come out and celebrate the festival with us."

"I hope so." Lin Jiaojiao smiled. In fact, she was already very satisfied with her current life.

Five years ago, she and her mother came to this remote mountain village with the idea of ​​taking a gamble.

After arriving, Lin Jiaojiao, who was prepared to endure hardships, did not stay at the educated youth site for more than a few days. Her aunt and uncle were worried that she would be bullied because of her young age, so they quickly took her in to live with them.

Later, in order to make her life easier, I found her a job raising rabbits.

What made Lin Jiaojiao even more grateful was that in the second year after her mother went to the farm, she returned to her old job under the operation of several parties... teaching the children from ethnic minorities on the farm to learn Chinese, and she never suffered any hardship again.

Now, this piece of land has become a harbor in the hearts of the mother and daughter. Even if it remains like this in the future, Lin Jiaojiao will be grateful enough.

She was grateful for the protection of this landscape.

We are grateful to the team led by Ruiting who extended a helping hand to the mother and daughter.

She is even more grateful to the uncles and aunts who have treated her as their own children over the years.

Thinking of this, and remembering that Li Ting would be back today, his hands moved a little faster.

After she has finished cleaning up the rabbit hutch, she will have to tidy up a few empty rooms...

At 10:30 am on the third day, the train entered the Ice City Railway Station.

The temperature here is about twenty degrees lower than that in Tianjing.

Looking around, the sky is covered with white snow.

The little girl had never seen such a beautiful scene before. She was so excited that she jumped and danced holding her sister's hand, and kept shouting that she wanted to build a snowman and have a snowball fight.

Although she was still young when she left, Miaomiao still has deep memories of her hometown. Influenced by the joy of Mantian Yingbai and her sister, she also rarely showed some childish mentality.

She pinched her sister's rosy cheeks and said with a smile, "There are so many fun places in the north." Then she looked at her mother and said, "Mom, when we get to grandma's house, I'll take my brothers and sisters to go skiing."

Ruting touched the girl, happy with her lively appearance: "You have to let your father or uncle take care of you."

Li Hong climbed down from the window and stretched out his hand to the others: "There's no rush. You can stay at home for ten days. There are plenty of opportunities to play. Come down quickly. I've seen my brother."

Ruting looked around and saw no one, so he immediately said, "Then you go meet up with big brother first, we can go down by ourselves."

Hearing this, Lu Hong nodded and turned to leave.

Seeing this, Guoguo hurriedly shouted: "Uncle...Uncle, carry Xiaohei and me downstairs. I want to go with you to find my uncle."

"You little brat, you're almost 1.5 meters tall and you still need someone to carry you..." Having said that, Lu Hong turned around, easily carried his nephew down from the car window, and then led him and quickly blended into the crowd.

At this time, after a careful check to make sure that all his belongings were taken, Huo Xiao also climbed out of the car through the window.

Then reach out to pick up the luggage, the children, the wife...

After everyone landed, Ruming also came over with his brother.

Most of the troops gathered and first went to the state-owned hotel to visit the five holy temples before boarding a minibus to the county seat.

After arriving at the county seat, we immediately transferred to the town...

"...Secretary Wang was transferred last year. It was a promotion." The only way to get to the village from the town was on foot. When passing by the commune, Ming talked about Secretary Wang Chunling with his second sister.

Tingting glanced at the commune building, which had not changed much, and said, "I know that when Secretary Wang got promoted, he called me."

Although she proposed raising rabbits just to generate income for her family, Secretary Wang also gained real political achievements. She was a smooth person and it was just a matter of a phone call.

Another thing is that Huo Xiao is young and promising, and each of the Lu family members is even more promising than the other. It will only be beneficial to make friends with them.

Ming did not expect Secretary Wang to call his sister. He said sincerely, "Secretary Wang is not arrogant at all. He is a good person."

Hearing this, the corner of his mouth twitched. Only a nice guy would say that an old fox is a good person...

Zhuo Shuang nodded repeatedly: "Yes, Secretary Wang has done a lot of practical things for us ordinary people. He is a good person."

1. The...

Just when Tingting was speechless due to the laughter of her older brother and sister, she felt her husband gently pinching her arm.

She turned and looked at the people: "What's wrong?"

Huo Xiao approached his wife and whispered, "At the entrance of the alley on the right rear, that person looks like Zhao Kai's mother."

Hearing this, Ruting glanced at her smiling elder sister and saw that she didn't notice anything.

I deliberately slowed down my pace, and when I was a little distance away from the crowd, I turned around to look...

But perhaps because it was too long, she didn't see anything.

Huo Xiao: "We should hide in the alley."

Li Ting frowned: "Why is she here?"

Huo Xiao: "It's probably a coincidence."

Tingting: "Forget it, don't worry about her." As long as she doesn't cause trouble to my eldest sister, it doesn't matter who she is.

Huo Xiao also meant this, but... "Just in case, I should remind my brother-in-law later."

"good..."

I took two buses and walked for nearly an hour.

After four or five hours of torment in the ice and snow, everyone finally arrived at the entrance of the Shengli Brigade village at four o'clock in the afternoon.

A few years ago, Hu Xiu sold the house in his hometown because he was worried that it would fall into disrepair after being unoccupied for a long time.

It was not until last year, when my second and third uncles rebuilt their house, that I sent three hundred yuan home.

He did not build a single house, but asked two neighboring families to build an extra room each, so that they could use it as a place to stay when they returned home occasionally.

Logically, as a married daughter-in-law, Ruiting should first follow her husband and mother-in-law to her second and third uncles' homes.

But Hu Xiu and Huo Xiao didn't care about these formalisms, and they doted on their daughters-in-law/wives unconditionally.

It was decided back then in Tianjing that we would follow the main force to reunite with the Victory Brigade.

This explains why everyone showed up in the Victory Brigade...

"Hey hey! The big star is back! Is it Wei?!"

It was really eye-catching to see more than a dozen people entering the village together.

As soon as I passed the first house at the entrance of the village, I was recognized by an acquaintance.

Walking in front, holding his partner, Wei Wei's peach blossom eyes curved into crescents, and his voice was gentle: "It's me, Uncle Da Gen. I haven't seen you for a while. You still look so energetic."

The man called Uncle Da Gen didn't expect that Lu Wei, who had become a "big shot", was still so gentle. He was so happy that he stopped shoveling snow and walked forward with a shovel to pull everyone into the house for tea.

That enthusiastic old face turned red with excitement.

In the end, it was Lu Ming, who came back often, who stepped forward and persuaded his brother to escape.

But before he had taken a few steps, more villagers surrounded him.

Star chasing seems to exist in every era.

Seeing more and more villagers following behind her, Ting Ting was very disloyal. She winked at her elder sister, her brother-in-law, and her younger brother. After they reacted, she took her husband, mother-in-law, and children and ran away first...

In this room, Li Taohong came out after hearing the noise. When she saw the children, she cried and laughed with joy.

After a while, when the food and snacks were served, she realized that one was missing. She was a little disappointed: "Where's Xiao Wei? Didn't he say he would come back?"

Sitting on the warm kang, she drank malted milk in small sips until she was warm all over. Then she took off her thick clothes and said, "I'm back, but your son is a big star now. The villagers are talking about him."

Hearing this, Li Taohong's mood immediately soared, her face full of pride: "That's right, you don't know how popular the movies your second brother has starred in in recent years. People in the village come to me every day to ask when Xiao Wei will come back. Finally, they caught him..."

Seeing her mother like this, Ruishuang reminded her: "Why don't you go and help your second brother?"

Li Taohong waved her hands, looking nonchalant: "What's the big deal? We are all from the same hometown. It's Xiao Wei who is rare. If I drag him back now, everyone will think I look down on him."

Ruting, who was talking to Xiaoyue, turned to look at her mother: "But my second brother came back with his partner."

After realizing what the lady meant, Li Taohong slapped her thigh, stood up and ran out: "You little bastard, why didn't you say it earlier!"