Chapter 258 Returning to Zhoucheng for the New Year
The first thing Xu Zhaoyuan picked up with chopsticks was beef tripe, which he didn't find very amazing. The second thing he picked up with chopsticks was mushrooms for soup. The delicious flavor exploded on his taste buds, and his eyes lit up instantly.
Xu Zhaoyuan ate all the mushrooms in the soup pot, and then the meat. He found that except for the beef, the other meats were very delicious. Even the chicken in the soup was different from the chicken he had eaten before, and it was very sweet. The vegetables were even better, and every one of them was very delicious.
In the second half of the meal, he tasted a glass of mulberry wine and a glass of wine. After drinking his son's wine, Xu Zhaoyuan suspected that he had drunk horse urine before. In his opinion, even the famous foreign wines were not as good as the wines from his son and daughter-in-law.
"Where did you buy this wine?" Xu Zhaoyuan asked.
"It's home-brewed and sold in our store." Zhao Shu did not miss any potential customer.
"Whose craftsmanship?" Xu Zhaoyuan remembered that the Xu family did not have such a good wine recipe.
When this question was asked, no one answered.
Xu Zhaoyuan was bored and changed the subject, "I'll buy some and take them away later."
"Ten yuan per catty. The jars come in 5-catty, 10-catty, 20-catty and 50-catty sizes. Which one do you want?" Xu Hexiao said indifferently.
Zhao Shu looked at his godson in surprise. Isn’t it five yuan per pound?
"I want two jars of 50 kilograms each, and ten jars of 10 kilograms each. I only drove one car here, so I'll take some of it back first, and I'll take the rest when the car comes tomorrow."
The next morning, Xu Zhaoyuan and three of his subordinates brought the car over.
Xu Hexiao liked the car the first time he saw it. He and Xu Zhaoyuan drove the car to go through the formalities. After the formalities were completed, Xu Zhaoyuan suggested going out of the city to learn how to drive, and Xu Hexiao agreed.
Xu Zhaoyuan thought that teaching his son to drive for a few days would help him build a good relationship with him. But his son was able to drive very smoothly in just one hour, just like an experienced driver who had been driving for many years.
"It's not much different from the truck. I already know how to do it. Let's go back."
"............"
After Xu Hexiao learned how to drive, he taught Lin Qi how to drive the next day. After Lin Qi mastered the skill, the couple drove to the school to pick up the four older children and took them home for dinner. After dinner, they sent the children back to school.
"Dad, are you going to recognize your biological grandfather?" asked the second son Xu Zhonghui.
"I don't admit it." Xu Hexiao's tone was emotionless.
The second brother said, "Then we won't recognize him either."
"Whether you want to recognize him or not is up to you. It's dad's business if he doesn't recognize him." Xu Hexiao did not ask the children to be on the same side with him.
After listening to their father's words, the four children fell into deep thought.
Xu Hexiao went to see the house that Zhao Shu bought. It was a one-story bungalow with an area of 300 square meters. It was not too big, but definitely not small. The house was not far from their home. He planned to tear it down and rebuild it into a five-story shop. The top two floors would be used as warehouses, and the bottom three floors would be used to buy rice, flour, grain and oil. The first floor would sell daily necessities. Brother Cao said that clothes and electronic watches in the south were selling very well, so he planned to buy some goods. The first floor would sell vegetables and fruits. Now that he had a train, once the carriage shed was built, no one would know if he went to buy goods. No one would know if he transported fruits and vegetables from home to the store.
Xu Hexiao said he wanted to go south, and Cao Zheng said he wanted to go too, so the two of them could go together. Cao Zheng rented a car, and the two of them set off from Lin Qi's house early in the morning.
It took Xu Hexiao and Cao Zheng five days to return. There were some minor setbacks along the way, but Xu Hexiao managed to resolve them all.
"There are opportunities everywhere in the south, which is very exciting." Xu Hexiao said.
"You want to go south?" Lin Qi was surprised.
"I really want to go. But my family has settled down in the capital, and my children will go to school here, so we can't go. Brother Cao also wants to go to the south, and he said that wherever we go, they will follow us."
Zhao Hanshuang gave birth to a son, who was weak at birth. Zhao Hanshuang's own breast milk was not enough, and her son did not like to drink milk powder. The couple was so anxious that their mouths were bubbling. After Lin Qi heard about it, she asked Cao Zheng to come to her house every day to squeeze goat milk. After taking the goat milk back, the child ate it very happily. After a month, he gained eight kilograms.
Now, making money is important to Cao Zheng, but the health of his family is equally important. With Lin Qi around and eating the food from Lin Qi's family, he can feel at ease.
The things Xu Hexiao brought back from the south were very popular. Every day after Zhao Shu sold all the things he brought from home, he would start selling the goods Xu Hexiao brought back from the south. He would sell until six or seven o'clock every day before closing the shop and going home.
Xu Hexiao had to watch the workers build the house, so he stopped going to the south after two trips. It was winter, and the weather was getting very cold. The three little ones came back from the special training camp and took turns to help in the store every day. The four big ones went abroad, saying they were going to some tropical rainforest for training. They had been there for half a month and should be back in another half a month.
Xu Zhaoyuan originally wanted to visit the house in Fuxing Lane more often, but he found that his son was not at home all day long, and most of the time, only Lin Qi was at home. As a father-in-law, he felt embarrassed to go after going there once or twice.
It wasn't until half a month before the New Year that the four older ones came back.
Xu Zhaoyuan visited the family again and finally saw the four older children. He learned that they had already gone to college. He changed his gifts for the children to books, many original editions of foreign classics.
Several large boxes of books, including literature, natural sciences, astronomy, geography, chemistry and physics, as well as several foreign military science books.
Xu Boxi and the other three couldn't refuse these boxes of books.
"Take it. If you take his book, mom and dad will give you a gift in return." Xu Hexiao said.
"Don't be so formal. This is a gift for the children." Xu Zhaoyuan said. He was very happy that the children liked his gift.
Xu Hexiao glanced at him calmly, "Qiqi raised her own chickens, ducks, geese, sheep, pork and fish. Are you sure you don't want them?"
Xu Zhaoyuan: “….”
There is no way to refuse.
"I want some more wine."
It's Chinese New Year, and he wants to give his subordinates Chinese New Year benefits. He wants to give them things from his son's family. They will definitely like it. The last time he gave them wine, they liked it very much. But his subordinates are too busy and don't have time to queue up at the store, so they haven't bought anything from his son's family.
"I want some rice and noodles, too."
“Enough is enough.”
"I'll pay twice the price."
"OK."
In the spring of 1981, Xu Hexiao went to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to apply for a business license for an individual business owner.
The Xu family's shop also moved from the previous small shop to a newly built five-story shop. As the shop became bigger and the goods became more, Zhao Shu could not handle it alone, so Xu Hexiao considered hiring someone.
He posted a job advertisement outside the store, and more than 30 people came for the interview on the first day. Considering the need to move goods, Xu Hexiao hired three young men who looked relatively strong, and also hired the grandson of Zhao Shu's comrade, who was in his twenties, had only attended junior high school, and had been doing odd jobs for years. When the comrades learned that the store was hiring, they turned to Zhao Shu, who was one of the few comrades with whom Zhao Shu had a good relationship.
Looking at his comrade's gray hair, wrinkled old face, and the way he trembled after walking a few steps, Zhao Shu could not say no.
"If you don't work hard, you will be fired." Zhao Shu said seriously.
"Of course. If he tries to be sneaky, I can deal with him myself without you having to do anything."
This year, Xu Hexiao made several trips to Yao County and transported all the things from Yao County to the capital. The storage rooms on the third floor of the children were full.
Xu Zhaoyuan wanted to go to Yao County several times, but there were too many things to do in the company and he was never able to leave.
At the end of November, Lin Qi received a letter from her eldest brother Lin Mo, asking them to bring their children home to celebrate the New Year this year.
"It's my fault. The child is so grown up now, but apart from sending things back every year, I have never thought of visiting my parents-in-law. I forgot about this, why didn't you remind me. Have you missed your parents a lot in these ten years?" Xu Hexiao looked apologetic and distressed.
Lin Qi: “….”
"If I say I forgot about this, would you believe me?"
Xu Hexiao shook his head. "Don't be so accommodating to me. This year we have a car, each of us can drive one, and we can take the seven children back together. This time we go back, we'll stay a little longer."
Xu Hexiao considered that this was his first visit to his father-in-law and mother-in-law, so he could not be careless about the gifts. He started preparing gifts in early December.
He visited several department stores and bought toys for Lin Mo and Lin Miaomiao's children, two sets of warm cashmere autumn clothes for his mother-in-law, two cashmere coats, and a few packs of high-end cigarettes.
In addition, he also found a bright green jade bracelet and a pure gold bracelet from the storage room at home and planned to give them to his mother-in-law.
"From this perspective, dad's gift seems a bit light." Xu Hexiao said.
"Bring a pound of Dahongpao tea, he will definitely be very satisfied." Lin Qi reminded that her father has been much freer in the past two years, likes to drink tea, and has made several tea friends.
The Dahongpao tea tree has grown from one to three, and the annual income from selling tea leaves is tens of thousands of yuan. Ning Yu introduced them to several wealthy businessmen who love drinking tea. As for Lin Qi's Dahongpao, these wealthy businessmen would buy as many as they could, thousands of yuan at a time, without blinking an eye.
"What about your brother and sister-in-law? What gifts should I prepare for them?"
"Give me a cashmere blanket from the capital. It's very practical."
On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, at four o'clock in the morning, Lin Qi and Xu Hexiao drove from the capital to Zhoucheng with their seven children.
The car drove all day and only stopped twice, once at 10 a.m. to have breakfast and once at 2 p.m. to have lunch. The rest of the time we were in the car.
After driving for more than ten hours, they finally arrived in Zhoucheng at eight o'clock in the evening. At half past eight, two cars stopped outside Lin Qi's yard.
The children, who had been sitting in the car all day, couldn't wait to get off.
Lin Qi lagged behind the children and had not been back for more than ten years. She thought she would not miss this place and the Lin family that much, but when she really stood here, Lin Qi felt a little excited in her heart.
She took her things and walked in front. The children also took their things and followed her obediently. Xu Hexiao was the last one and he took the most things.
Boom boom!
Lin Qi knocked on the door twice.
"Here it comes~" It was Lin's mother's voice.
The door opened and the yellow light shone on Lin Qi's face, making her look more beautiful than real.
Mother Lin was stunned and didn't dare to call out, "Old Lin, more than ten years have passed, how come there is someone outside the door who looks exactly like our Qiqi?"
"You are stupid. She looks exactly like Qiqi. That person is Qiqi." Dad Lin came out of the room while talking. Then he was also stunned.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
