"Let's go play with Grandpa Zeng. No one's following us today. You can play whatever you want."
Leading his great-grandchildren to a fenced pond, Yan Guofeng chuckled as he saw several old men fishing with fishing rods, looking contented.
"Laonian, Lao Fu, Lao Yuan, how long have you been here?"
"Hey, Old Yan is back. Didn't you go to Red Star Village?" The speaker was an old man with a ruddy complexion, a round face and a fat body. Because he was fat, there were fewer wrinkles on his face. He looked much younger than the two people next to him.
The old man on his left was thin but in good spirits. He glanced at him and sneered, "Old Yan came back a long time ago. I heard that Hongxing Village is a place with good feng shui, with beautiful mountains and rivers. He was reluctant to come back after living there. What? You're thinking of coming back now?"
"Or are you tired of living in Hongxing Village?" Another old man chuckled, and the fishing rod in his hand trembled as he laughed. It was obvious that the old man was very happy at the moment.
Yan Guofeng clicked his tongue twice, "Nian Zhuzi, Yuan Laoer, how much do you miss me? Look at how you're gloating over my misfortune."
"Is there?" The two old men put away their smiles and said seriously, "Don't talk nonsense, we are just asking!"
"Old Yan, come and sit down." The old man surnamed Fu, who was sitting in the middle of them, pointed to the stool next to him and took a closer look at the three fat boys following Yan Guofeng's legs. "This is your great-grandson, right? He looks so energetic. He will definitely be a handsome young man when he grows up."
Very fat.
Rare.
It's just... a little rare!
"Come on, little ones, come to Grandpa Fu. There are fun things here." Old Fu put down the fishing rod with a smile, turned around and waved to the three little ones.
Li Ji shook his head and said nothing; Li Zhen and Li Ming always followed their eldest brother, and if their eldest brother didn't go, they definitely wouldn't go.
Yan Guofeng took them over and sat down on the small stool next to Mr. Fu. This stool was not the wooden stool they brought with them, but a stone bench that had been there for a long time beside the pond. In the early spring, people were wearing warm clothes, so they didn't feel anything when they sat on it at first, but after sitting for a while, they felt cold.
This is nothing for the old men. They used to walk on snow-capped mountains and climb cliffs and high hills. They even slept in the snow, let alone this little bit of cold.
"Come on, this is Grandpa Fu, you can't call him Grandpa Zeng; otherwise, it will be confusing."
Old Fu pointed at Old Yan and laughed, "You old brat, you actually want to take advantage of me? If they call me grandpa, do I have to call you uncle? Don't worry, there is no compromise on matters of seniority."
"If you want to scream, I won't stop you." Yan Guofeng said it confidently, which made the other three people laugh.
The old man ignored the fishing rod and reached out to hug one of the fat kids; his target was Li Ming, who was closest to Yan Guofeng and the most convenient for him to hug.
Yan Guofeng glanced at Li Ming who didn't move, and saw that Li Ming walked away when the old man stretched out his hand, and even walked around to stand beside him; but he was really his good great-grandson, and only recognized him as his great-grandfather, and that was how it should be.
"Children don't go out much, so they're a little shy. You'll get familiar with them after playing with them more."
You can't argue with a child, right?
The old man stood up and walked to the three fat kids, squatted down, and stared at them; suddenly, Li Ji, Li Ming, and Li Zhen seemed to find it funny to look at each other, and grinned. It was this smile that made the fat kids grin, with their teeth not yet fully open; like soft and sticky little buns, they were particularly lovable and easy to make people soft-hearted.
No matter whether it was Nian Lao, Yuan Lao, or Fu Lao, none of them could escape this smile.
"Old Yan, look at you, you're not that good-looking. I wonder what kind of luck you had to have three such adorable great-grandchildren." The old man felt regretful. It was said that the eldest grandson's wife fell in love with the eldest son of the Yan family when they went to the countryside. Why didn't he send one of his grandsons of marriageable age to go with the eldest grandson? If they had gone together, wouldn't they have had a chance to compete?
Who knows, maybe the three fat kids now have the surname Nian.
"Aren't you envious? My Dashan has good vision and found a good granddaughter-in-law for our Yan family. The couple are successful in their careers and have three sons. Our Yan family is prosperous." A prosperous family is probably what every old person wants.
"You should be so proud," said Mr. Fu. "Your family's Dadashan is lucky. He actually found a wife who has everything going for him in the countryside. Your eldest grandson's wife is truly remarkable. We retired people have heard of her name. Nothing she produces is bad. My son said that anything that passes through Comrade Zhong Yuxiu's hands magically becomes several levels higher in quality. It's definitely not comparable to that valuable junk."
"Of course not!" Yan Guofeng was so proud that he raised his head and said, "My eldest grandson's wife can tell whether it is good or not just by looking at it."
"Look how proud you are, your tail is about to show out." Yuan Lao tilted his head with a look of disdain, but his eyes were full of smiles. "Don't think you are the only one with a great-grandson. I have one too, and the old Fu family has one too."
The old man’s great-granddaughter looked like a newborn.
In families like theirs, most of the children work in state-owned enterprises or enter the system; with the implementation of family planning, a couple can only have one child, regardless of gender.
The old man's family had a hard time in the past. Two of his sons died during the Anti-Japanese War; another one was sent down to the countryside. Now he has only one grandson and two granddaughters. His grandson works in an office in a state-owned enterprise. No one knows what the future will be like. When the old man really passes away, the Nian family will completely fade out of the system.
Among them, the most miserable are the elderly.
The Yan family sacrificed their eldest grandson to go to the countryside, preserving the family, their connections, and even their status. Who would have thought that their eldest grandson would not be devastated by this, but instead returned on the first Gaokao exam. Not only did he return, he even found a wife. How many years have passed? Their great-grandson is already this old.
"By the way, Old Yan, isn't it time for your eldest grandson and his wife to graduate? I heard from my useless little granddaughter that many of the first batch of college students have graduated." said Mr. Fu.
"They've graduated and received their certificates," Yan Guofeng said with a happy smile. "My eldest grandson and his wife have always been very hardworking. In fact, they could have graduated a long time ago. However, they didn't have the previous classes ahead of them, so they couldn't skip a grade. Instead, they kept delaying their studies. It's just that the school didn't let them stay in school so they could go out and start their own business."
Old Fu sighed softly. It would be a lie to say he wasn't envious. In the past, the Yan family wasn't very prosperous, and although there were many side branches, the only one that was doing really well was Yan Guofeng's branch, and that was still small. His eldest grandson had changed the shortcoming of the Yan family's small number of members. His great-grandson already had three boys, and once they grew up, got married and had children, it was conceivable that Yan Guofeng's branch would develop very well.
Look at him, he has a lot of grandchildren, but he can only have one, and it’s not certain whether it’s a boy or a girl.
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