Lu Baichuan nodded and said, "We certainly support your desire to go out, but your second sister-in-law is currently pregnant. I suggest you wait until she gives birth before you go."
"Okay, I'll do as you say!"
Lu Lao Er was persuaded. Although he felt that his wife had already given birth twice and there shouldn't be any problems this time, he was still willing to listen to his third brother and wait until she gave birth before going.
Lu Baichuan then said, "Second brother, I remember your personality; you're not the type to love adventure. Why do you suddenly want to go out?"
He could roughly guess the specific reasons, but he still wanted to hear Lu Lao Er tell him himself.
Sure enough, when this topic came up, Lu Lao Er's face darkened, and he looked annoyed.
“You’re right. I’m not the kind of person who likes to go out and explore. I’d rather be content with the status quo. I even think our family is very comfortable right now. I don’t want to go anywhere else in this life. I just want to stay by our parents’ side, eat and drink as usual, do my chores and be just like before.”
He composed himself and spoke with a wry smile.
Lu Baichuan thought there was nothing wrong with it and nodded, saying, "Yes, this is the real you. So why do you suddenly want to go out?"
“Because our family is doing better now, everyone can do what they want to do. My third sister-in-law once asked us what our dreams were. My eldest brother wanted to be a goldsmith, and he's already apprenticed. My eldest sister-in-law wanted to open a restaurant, and she's apprenticed to a head chef. And you and my third sister-in-law, needless to say, each have your own skills. But our second branch of the family seems to have made no progress, and we don't have any dreams. I'm worried…”
“My third child is about to be born, but I’m still a failure, not as good as my older brother, and even less so as you. I feel like I’ve brought shame to the family, and I’ll bring shame to my children in the future…”
At this point, Lu Lao Er wiped his face, sighed, and felt that life was really hard.
When we were poor, life seemed tough, but we thought it wouldn't be so hard when things got better.
But now that life is better, people have other pursuits. It seems that people's hearts are never satisfied and are always greedy.
If he doesn't strive for improvement, he'll be left behind by his brothers.
“I don’t understand,” Lu Baichuan interrupted him, “You are clearly a person with dreams, so how can you say that you don’t have dreams?”
Lu Lao Er didn't understand and turned his head to look at him.
Lu Baichuan continued, "Your dream is to be content with the status quo, stay at home, accompany your parents and wife, and take care of the fields. You should just follow your heart. Why worry about so much? Even if you go against your heart and go to the grasslands, you won't be happy in the process. You might even feel more pressured. What's the point of living like that?"
“Everyone has their own ambitions. I want to be a goldsmith, I want to be a great general who protects our country, and you just want to be yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
"Besides, my brother and I will both be leaving home for our own reasons, leaving our parents without anyone to care for them. Wouldn't it be a good help for my brother and me if you stayed at home?"
At this point, Lu Baichuan patted his shoulder with a gentle expression and continued, "Being a role model for your child doesn't necessarily mean you have to achieve something great. In a child's eyes, your every word and action can become something they imitate. You are their father. As long as you love your wife, respect your parents, take on the responsibilities of a father, and raise them to adulthood, you can already be their role model."
"Take me as an example. I was absent from four of the most important years of Gou'er's life and did not participate in his growth, but he still regards me as his father and still regards me as a role model. Of course, this is inseparable from Jiu Niang's teachings, which is beyond doubt."
He knew that his second brother had gotten himself into a dead end and was starting to doubt himself, which was normal. Once he figured it out, he would find that it really wasn't a big deal.
Lu Lao Er was indeed surprised by his words. He had always thought that people had to be like his eldest brother and third brother, with dreams and aspirations, in order to become role models for their children. But his third brother told him that it was not like that. Doing one's own thing well can also make one shine.
These few words brought clarity to the matter that had been troubling him for some time. His eyes welled up with tears, but he wiped his face to hide them. How could a grown man shed tears so easily? Wouldn't the children laugh at him if they saw him?
"Okay, I understand now. It turns out I was the one who hadn't figured it out all along!"
He grinned and said, "I'm not afraid of being laughed at, but I'm actually quite scared. Like you said, the journey is difficult, and we might even encounter bandits. I'm neither good at literature nor martial arts, so I'd just be a burden to others when I'm out and about. I don't want to go out and drag people down with me."
Just as the two brothers were getting emotional, Madam Sun walked over from a distance, pointed at them, and started yelling, "Didn't I tell you to go buy mutton? Why are you still dawdling here? Don't you want to eat tonight?!"
The two brothers exchanged a glance, quickly jumped up from the ground, grinned at Sun, and then scurried outside, saying, "Okay, okay, we'll go buy it right away!"
"Third brother, you stop right there! You shouldn't go out and scare people looking like that. Stay home and slaughter chickens and ducks!"
After arriving home, Lu Baichuan took off his mask, and was naturally surrounded by his family for a while. However, he looked much better than before and was not so scary. Everyone said a few words of comfort and didn't think much of it.
But Sun was still worried that if he went out like that, he would scare the villagers, and they would start gossiping again. She was too lazy to explain to them one by one, so she tried her best not to let him run away like that.
Lu Baichuan, who had run all the way to the door, glanced at his second brother, met his brother's silly grin, touched his nose, and slunk back.
"Mom, how many chickens and ducks do we need to kill?"
As he spoke, he started looking for chickens and ducks in the yard, only to find that the yard was spotless, with not even a piece of chicken droppings, let alone chickens or ducks.
Sun felt annoyed by his appearance and wanted to curse him, but since it seemed he was back for the first time and not very familiar with the house, she said, "The chickens and ducks are kept outside. Let Leizi take you to catch them. There will be many people at home tonight, and your brother Fugui and the others will be coming too. Four chickens and four ducks should be enough."
Lu Baichuan nodded repeatedly and called Lei Zi to go catch chickens and ducks together, while Lu Lao Er drove the horse-drawn cart to buy mutton.
Having resolved his inner conflict, Lu Lao Er hummed a little tune all the way. He had made up his mind that this was how his life would be. He would listen to his third brother, stay at home with his wife, take care of their parents, and keep an eye on the family businesses, just as they had originally planned.
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