Chapter 67 Chapter 67
After Grandpa Guo left, Zhao Wuhe drove Qingmei into the house and she slowly cleaned up the barbecue.
Qingmei put Gu Zhaozhao in the cradle, which was hung on the roof beam. A gentle push would make the cradle rock for a long time.
She hummed softly to soothe Gu Zhaozhao to sleep, while Gu Qingzhou sat on the sofa, watching his wife as a mother. The more he watched, the more he thought the child pretending to be an adult was adorable.
When Gu Zhaozhao fell asleep, Gu Qingzhou brought some hot milk to Qingmei: "Would you like some?"
Qingmei took a sip and said with satisfaction, "The canned ones are still better."
Gu Qingzhou reached out and stroked her hair, helping her untie it. After being braided for so long, her hair spread out like a perm, making her even more charming and attractive.
Qingmei tilted her head and rubbed her hand against his. Gu Qingzhou said absentmindedly, "There's a dinner party tomorrow with relatives from my godmother's side of the family. I heard the kid got into Beiyan and wants me to help take care of him in Xinghai City. So, I'm kind of his uncle."
Qingmei said, "That's great. What's it called?"
Gu Qingzhou said: "I remember her name was Wu Dan, and her nickname was Dandan."
Qingmei: "...Are you sure you remember correctly?"
Gu Qingzhou smiled and said, "Why doesn't my aunt believe it?"
Qingmei said, "It's not that I don't believe it, there's something I want to tell you. Maybe it's a coincidence."
Gu Qingzhou withdrew his hand, sat beside her, took out the pine nuts from the iron box in the drawer, peeled them and gave them to his wife to eat with milk: "Go ahead, talk slowly."
Qingmei said: "Someone is pursuing me at school."
Gu Qingzhou had long expected his young wife to be popular, and this incident was all caused by her popularity and jealousy. He fed the pine nuts into his young wife's mouth, rubbed her lips and said, "Go on."
Qingmei was a little embarrassed to speak, so she bit her thumb and said, "There was a boy who was pursuing me, also named Wu Dan, and he was in the same class as me."
With a snapping sound.
Gu Qingzhou crushed the pine nuts on his fingertips, turning the pine nut kernels into powder.
Qingmei quickly leaned on his shoulder and said obediently: "Maybe it's just the same name."
Gu Qingzhou scratched her nose and said, "Then I'll take you to meet him."
Qingmei sat up straight and was embraced by Gu Qingzhou again: "I'm not angry with you. You are so nice. People who like you have good taste."
"You have the best vision." Qingmei saw that the cradle had stopped rocking and kicked it. The cradle started rocking again, and Gu Qingzhou was amused.
After kicking the cradle, Qingmei leaned in his arms and said, "I am also the most discerning."
On Sunday, the time-honored Northeastern Chinese restaurant in Hongxing Alley welcomed a mother and son as soon as it opened.
Wu Dan's mother was Wu Xiu'e. She had hair oil on her head and was wearing a gray autumn outfit as she brought Wu Dan inside.
There is no menu in the Northeastern restaurant. All the dishes available today are written on wooden signs hanging on the wall.
Wu Xiu'e ordered a dish of sweet and sour pork and a dish of shredded pork with Beijing sauce, and asked Wu Dan to order.
Wu Dan ordered a dish of braised Spanish mackerel.
The mother and son couldn't guess what the distant uncle's taste would be, so after discussing for a long time they decided to add a spinach and meatball soup.
There are four dishes, three meat dishes and one fish. Even if it is a treat, it is a huge expense.
Wu Xiu'e asked the waiter, "What's the best wine you have?"
The waiter said, "Yanghe Daqu."
Wu Xiu'e took out her wallet, took out the meat ticket and handed it to the waiter, asking with a pinch of her tongue, "How much is Yanghe Daqu?"
The waiter said, "Twenty-year-old wine is eighteen yuan, fifteen-year-old wine is thirteen yuan, ten-year-old wine is ten yuan, and eight-year-old wine is eight yuan. The cheapest is three or five years old, which is only three or five yuan."
Wu Xiu'e frowned and said, "Oh, you're quite generous, little girl. It's only three or five yuan. How much do you earn in a month?"
Wu Dan pulled his mother aside and said, "Don't argue with me here. It would be so embarrassing if someone comes and sees us."
Then he said to the waiter, "Give me a mid-range one for ten dollars."
The waiter curled his lips and wrote it down in his notebook.
Wu Xiu'e said, "He's had all sorts of good wines. If he's going to buy something, he'll buy the best. The most expensive one, the 18-yuan one."
The waiter crossed out and rewrote the words, too lazy to say another word to them.
A bottle of wine cost Wu Xiu'e a quarter of her salary. Although she felt the pain, she begged the waiter and insisted on getting some free pickles.
The pickled vegetables were placed under the menu in six large enamel bowls, including mixed ga de bai, mixed bean sprouts, and mixed kelp.
Wu Xiu'e asked Wu Dan to take the empty plates on the table and decorate the six pickled vegetables into six dishes, calling them "appetizers for drinking."
"Don't underestimate him because he's in the military. His family has a lot of connections in Beijing. When you graduate, you'll have to ask him to transfer your job there."
To be honest, Wu Xiu'e was very angry. She never expected that Wu Dan, who had spent a lot of effort to secretly hire five or six teachers and finally got admitted to Beiyan, was actually assigned to Xinghai.
Otherwise, it would be great to go to school directly in Beijing and be assigned as a capital citizen there.
By then, I will have a decent job, a house allocated by the company, and then I will find a female comrade from the same company to marry, and my life will be stable.
Wu Xiu'e wanted Wu Dan to handle the distant relatives' relationship properly. His father was the propaganda director in Haifang City and was about to retire. When he retired, his eldest brother would definitely take over.
She doesn't care what the second son does. She feels sorry for her youngest son and just wants to sacrifice her reputation to get close to him so that her youngest son can have a good future.
After waiting and waiting, the waiter came over and asked several times, and finally the appointed time arrived.
Outside the hotel, Xiao Jin parked the car.
Wu Dan looked at the Red Flag car outside and felt it looked familiar.
After Gu Qingzhou personally opened the car door for Qingmei and she got out of the car, Wu Dan's face turned red and white.
His mother had no idea he had offended someone. She looked at the Hongqi sedan outside and said happily, "There are only three Hongqi sedans in the entire Xinghai City. Look how impressive your uncle is. He'll be a sweet talker when we meet later."
Qingmei and Gu Qingzhou walked side by side. When they reached the door, Gu Qingzhou lifted the curtain and Qingmei entered the restaurant.
Wu Xiu'e rushed over, shook Qingmei's hand and said, "Hello, his aunt!"
Qingmei was startled for a moment, then smiled sweetly and said, "Sister, just call me Qingmei."
She smiled and looked behind Wu Xiu'e. Wu Xiu'e quickly pulled Wu Dan forward and pushed him, saying, "Look how young your aunt is. She and your uncle are a perfect match. Hurry and call for help!"
Qingmei tilted her head and said nothing, waiting patiently for Wu Dan to call her "Auntie".
Gu Qingzhou stood behind Qingmei and looked at Wu Dan. His rosy face was very striking. It seemed that a lot had happened between them.
Wu Dan's face was burning. He swallowed hard and opened his mouth with difficulty to shout, "Hello, uncle, aunt... hello, mom."
Qingmei cheerfully pulled out a red envelope from her pocket and handed it to Wu Dan, saying, "I didn't prepare anything special. Just a meeting gift for you."
Wu Dan's hands were nearly burned, and tears were pouring down his cheeks. He said to Qingmei, "No need for that, really! I'm sorry."
Qingmei asked in surprise, "Why are you saying sorry?"
Gu Qingzhou added quietly from behind: "I heard that you are also a freshman at Beiyan? So is your aunt."
Wu Dan said tearfully, "We were classmates."
Wu Xiu'e had no idea of the hidden agenda and even tried to get close to Wu Dan. "Oh, what a coincidence! No wonder his aunt looks so young and is such a top student. You two are actually in the same class. This is destiny, allowing you two relatives to look after each other."
Qingmei said with a half-smile, "Indeed, he takes good care of me."
He is about to become Gu Zhaozhao’s cheap father.
Wu Xiu'e affectionately took Qingmei's hand and beckoned the waiter to serve the food quickly. She also asked where Qingmei's home was, who else was home, how her child was, and whether she had enough milk. She was incredibly attentive.
Wu Dan and Gu Qingzhou sat face to face, their heads almost falling on the table.
When the Yanghe Daqu came up, he stood up and toasted Gu Qingzhou first.
Before Wu Xiu'e could praise her son for his ability to handle things, Wu Dan drank three glasses of white wine in a row, collapsed in his seat and began to sob.
Gu Qingzhou refused to accept his wine, saying that he had work to do in the afternoon and would not drink at all.
Wu Xiu'e persuaded Qingmei to drink, but Qingmei refused.
Seeing that they were not drinking, Wu Dan grabbed the bottle and drank the remaining half in one breath.
After eating, Wu Dan suddenly stood up and rushed to the toilet to vomit.
Wu Xiu'e felt both distressed and angry, not knowing what he was doing.
When Gu Qingzhou saw Wu Xiu'e leave, he leaned over to Qingmei's ear and said, "It seems you are still hiding something. This child is deeply in love with you."
Qingmei lowered her voice and said, "You were about to eat him. He didn't show much affection to me. Chunchun was scared by you."
Gu Qingzhou smiled briefly.
After a while, Wu Dan was helped by Wu Xiu'e to lie down on a chair at the table next to him.
Wu Dan shouted repeatedly: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Wu Xiu'e realized later that something might have happened between her son and Qingmei.
Seeing this, she didn't dare to ask. If she didn't ask, she would just pretend she didn't know. If she asked, and it got dragged into the adults' conversation, she might not even be able to be a distant relative anymore.
Gu Qingzhou helped Qingmei up and said calmly, "Since he's drunk too much, you should go back and rest early."
Qingmei also said, "See you at school later."
Wu Dan was obviously drunk, and he shuddered when he heard this, and then passed out.
In the end, Wu Xiu'e paid for the dinner.
Qingmei thought that it was just Wu Dan's treat as an apology.
When she got home, she took a shower and returned to the living room to find that Gu Qingzhou was the only one there.
He didn't know how he got Zhao Wuhe and Grandma away, and waited for his young wife to finish her bath before interrogating her.
Finally, Qingmei came out wrapped in a towel, her beautiful almond eyes glaring at him, and Gu Qingzhou was no longer angry. He hurriedly stood up, picked up his little wife and carried her to the bedroom.
Qingmei clutched the towel on her chest and said hurriedly, "Not yet."
Gu Qingzhou said, "I know. Let go of your hand and I'll kiss you. You're already an old married couple, why are you still so shy?"
Qingmei laughed angrily: "You are too shameless."
Gu Qingzhou said nothing, causing his wife to cry out softly.
......
Gu Qingzhou finally figured out what happened between his young wife and Wu Dan.
Qingmei snuggled in the quilt with tears in her eyes, calling him a hooligan several times in a row.
Gu Qingzhou chuckled and said, "You and I are a legitimate couple, so even if we act rogue, it's still within the rules. Actually, this is nothing. Do you believe that I can be more rogue?"
Qingmei looked at his abdomen and closed her eyes.
When the day came for him to be liberated, she felt that she would not survive.
Gu Qingzhou reluctantly squeezed into Qingmei's bed and finally got some benefits.
He looked at his young wife's eyes affectionately. She was so tired that she gave up, wrapped herself in the quilt, turned over and pretended to be dead.
In broad daylight, Gu Qingzhou, who had already taken a bath once, took another one.
These days really have to be counted on one's fingers.
*
In the teachers' dormitory.
Fan Shuling took out her daughter's 100-day-old photo from her wallet.
In the black-and-white photo, her daughter smiled at the camera, revealing her dimples. She was holding a pair of sunglasses and sitting on a table with a plastic flower basket beside her.
She still remembers the day her daughter took her 100-day-old photo. Her daughter was too young to sit still, so she hid behind a table at the photographer's request, holding her daughter's hand. This is how this precious photo came about.
The time she spent with her daughter was vivid in her mind. Fan Shuling wiped away her tears and regretted the illness countless times. If she hadn't fallen ill with a high fever, her daughter wouldn't have been taken away.
Now that her life or death is uncertain, she has been dreaming for several days.
She has always had an expectation in her heart, which should be considered a luxury.
Her daughter is still alive.
Fan Shuling doesn't ask her daughter to live a glorious life, as long as she is healthy and happy.
The image of Qingmei appeared vaguely in her mind. Qingmei also had a pair of dimples. If her daughter grew up, her smile would surely be as sweet and charming as hers.
If she had Qingmei's intelligence, alertness and a hint of pride that she never reveals, she would be more like her.
Boom boom boom——
Boom boom boom.
Fan Shuling's thoughts were interrupted.
Someone called her outside the dormitory door: "Professor Shen, someone is looking for you."
The dormitory has a dedicated administrator and not just anyone is allowed in.
Upon hearing this, Fan Shuling put her daughter's photo back into her wallet, then put on her coat and opened the door: "Who's looking for me?"
The administrator was a woman in her fifties. She told Fan Shuling, "She's in her twenties, holding a child, and claims to be your relative. But I remember you don't have many relatives here, so I didn't let her up. I told her to wait downstairs."
Fan Shuling thanked the administrator and didn't let the people downstairs come up: "I'll go down and take a look now. Thank you."
The administrator had a good impression of the returning professor. He was very friendly and not arrogant. He even helped her write letters home. He was a serious intellectual.
She said to Fan Shuling, "Professor Shen, don't worry. I'll have someone wait in the reception room."
Students often come to see professors, sometimes with opposite-sex relationships. To avoid any negative influence, each dormitory has a reception room with transparent glass opposite the administrator's office.
Fan Shuling smoothed her hair, put on her leather shoes and walked downstairs.
In your twenties, with a child?
Could it be Qingmei?
However, the school recently started studying Qingmei's heroic deeds, and her photo was also posted on the bulletin board. It is impossible for the administrator not to know that it was her.
So it's someone else?
She came down the stairs and saw the reception room on her left. She also saw the back of a woman with pigtails inside.
The other person seemed to be having a hard time. When she walked past the glass window, you could see her rough, yellow hair and the patches on her elbows from a few steps away.
Fan Shuling walked around to the front and looked at the young girl, who couldn't remember having such a student.
Before she could even sit down, the other person called out to her tearfully, "Mom!"
Fan Shuling was stunned. She asked in surprise, "Who are you? Why are you calling me mom?"
Zhong Anhua cried and said, "Don't you recognize me? My name is Zhong Anhua, and I'm your daughter. They lied to me and said you jumped into the river and died. Do you know how much I miss you?"
Fan Shuling frowned as she looked at the skinny baby girl in her arms.
Seeing this, Zhong Anhua placed the baby girl on the table and sobbed, "She is your granddaughter. Look, doesn't she look like me when I was a child?"
Fan Shuling frowned tightly. She lowered her head and looked carefully at the child's eyebrows and eyes. She didn't think that he looked the same as her daughter when she was a child. He even looked less like the boy from her childhood.
The baby girl looked malnourished, her hands shaped like chicken claws. There was snot stuck to the end of her nose, and her face was a mess. I couldn't tell if this was intentional, to make the child look pitiful, or if the adults simply didn't bother to clean up.
Fan Shuling shook her head and said, "I think you've got the wrong person. I'm really not your mother."
Zhong Anhua was prepared and pulled out a necklace from her neck, on which hung a silver safety lock. The safety lock had turned black due to age.
Zhong Anhua took it off and handed it to Fan Shuling: "Look, I heard from my father that you made this safety lock for me by beating your old silver bracelet when I was one hundred days old."
Fan Shuling took the safety lock and flipped to the bottom. She saw the signature "Fanfan," the nickname she had given her daughter.
"Are you really Fanfan?" Seeing that Zhong Anhua lived in such poverty, Fan Shuling should have felt distressed as a mother, especially one who missed her so much that she was sick. But for some reason, she felt no emotion in her heart.
Seeing that she was skeptical, Zhong Anhua simply told her sad past with tears in her eyes.
Naturally, many of them were Qingmei's experiences, and she brought them upon herself, causing the very vigilant Fan Shuling to sigh continuously.
Fan Shuling didn't recognize her rashly. Zhong Anhua was disappointed, but then she realized that Fan Shuling would need time to calm down after suddenly meeting her daughter. She regained her confidence and held the child in her arms again, praising her for being smart and looking like her grandmother.
"How many years have you studied?" Fan Shuling suddenly asked Zhong Anhua.
Zhong Anhua said: "I studied until the first grade of junior high school."
Fan Shuling was extremely disappointed.
If this really is her daughter, Qian Ying and Hao Fan would ruin the child's life if they don't let her go to school.
Fan Shuling asked again: "What's her name?"
Zhong Anhua said: "Her name is Mengmeng. When I gave birth to her, I dreamed that I became rich. When I woke up, I found it was all a dream, so I named her Mengmeng. Her full name is Jia Mengmeng."
Hollow, ignorant, superficial, and greedy.
This was Fan Shuling's impression of Zhong Anhua, a stark contrast to her imagination of her daughter.
In the end, Zhong Anhua successfully took five yuan from Fan Shuling, saying that she wanted to buy milk powder for her granddaughter.
"Mom, I'll come see you next time I have a break!"
Fan Shuling said coldly, "Don't call me mom, and don't come next time. I don't know where you heard this, but I'm sure... you're not my daughter. Take the five yuan, and don't come again."
Zhong Anhua said in astonishment: "But I have a safety lock."
Fan Shuling calmed herself down and took out another five yuan from her pocket and gave it to her: "Give me the lock."
Zhong Anhua was about to explain when Fan Shuling said, "Otherwise, don't even think about taking a penny."
Zhong Anhua snatched the money, threw the silver lock on the table and said, "No wonder Hao Fan grits his teeth whenever he mentions you. A man like you doesn't deserve a daughter. From now on, you'll have to kneel down and kowtow to me before I recognize you."
After Zhong Anhua left, Fan Shuling sat at the table and quietly examined the safety lock. Thanks to Zhong Anhua, her mind was in a mess at the moment.
Fan Shuling was in a trance when she saw someone walking in from outside the dormitory.
Qingmei was still hoping that Professor Shen would give her a chance to sign up when he started a small class. After classes resumed, she found out Professor Shen's address and brought her some homemade autumn pear paste and canned peaches. This was to repay the favor Professor Shen had given Gu Zhaozhao for the Vieux pen, and also to get closer to her.
"Qingmei!" Fan Shuling was happy from the bottom of her heart when she saw the girl who was full of energy after recuperating at home for a week.
"Hey! Professor Shen!" Qingmei agreed crisply and walked to the reception room to sit down: "Do you have guests coming?"
Fan Shuling looked at the dimples on her face and her sweet smile, and the more she looked at her, the more she liked her. She shook her head and said, "No. I just happened to be tired from walking, so I came over to sit for a while. What are you doing here?"
Qingmei placed the gift on the table with a smile: "This is a return gift for you. The canned yellow peaches were made by my grandmother, and the autumn pear paste was made by me. Try them, they are the best in autumn."
Fan Shuling felt the warmth in her words. This was the attitude of someone who truly cared about someone.
The unpleasantness of meeting Zhong Anhua was swept away.
She smiled and said, "I won't be hypocritical with you. You know that what you make at home is ten thousand times better than what you buy out there. I have an acquaintance who makes the most delicious canned yellow peaches. I was thinking about this when I got home."
When she and Hao Fan were divorcing, her mother-in-law stood by her without hesitation, which deeply touched her. Twenty years later, she didn't dare ask if Hao Fan's mother-in-law was still alive. After such turmoil, the old lady was in poor health, and the outcome was obvious.
Qingmei accepted her offer, feeling very happy. She sat in front of Fan Shuling and looked at her shyly.
Seeing her like this, Fan Shuling found it both funny and cute, so she simply said, "I think you wouldn't come here for no reason. Tell me, what's the matter?"
Qingmei giggled and said, "Professor Shen, I don't know why, but I feel so close to you the moment I see you."
Fan Shuling's heart skipped a beat, and she said, "Stop it." But her eyes were carefully observing Qingmei's eyebrows.
Qingmei shifted her hips and said with a smile, "Are there still small classes next semester? Can you let me sign up in advance? You also know that I was harmed by a villain this time, otherwise I would have become your student."
Fan Shuling wanted to refuse, but she held back. She herself felt puzzled: "I need to think about it."
She was going back to China next year and had originally planned to stay there for half a year. She probably had no hope of getting into the small class. But she didn't want to see Qingmei's disappointed expression, so she postponed it.
Qingmei thought that Professor Shen wanted to see her performance, so she was well prepared.
In her messenger bag were her homework, along with some thoughts on the Soviet Union. She handed the notes to Professor Shen, pursed her lips and smiled, saying, "Then you can see if I'm qualified."
Fan Shuling took her notes and looked at them carefully. She was indeed a good girl with a high level of thinking.
As she was flipping through the notes, she suddenly saw a photo of Gu Zhaozhao sandwiched between them.
When Qingmei saw Professor Shen close the notebook, she thought he was going to return it to her.
Unexpectedly, Professor Shen took the notes in his hand and said, "I'll go back and give you a good look when I have time. I'll give it to you tomorrow."
Qingmei was of course very happy and said quickly, "Then I'll treat you to a soda tomorrow!"
After the two of them agreed, they chatted a little more about Gu Zhaozhao.
The more Professor Shen listened, the more he wanted to hear.
Under the table where Qingmei hadn't noticed, Fan Shuling's clenched fist was trembling slightly.
After separating from Qingmei, she returned to the dormitory, took out the photo of Gu Zhaozhao and placed it on the table, and then took out the photo of her daughter when she was 100 days old from her wallet and put them together.
picture.
It looks like they were carved from the same mold.
There’s no mistake, absolutely no mistake!
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