Chapter 384 The Poor Jiang Family
"Huh? How come there are still children? Two at that! I didn't hear that Xiaowu got married!"
"Who knows? Maybe he got married in the army?"
"But he was still alone when he came back two years ago. The child must be seven or eight years old?"
"Who knows?! The girl looks no more than twenty years old, she doesn't look like she has given birth to a child."
"..."
Amid the discussions of the crowd, the family of four entered the Jiang family with bags and bags.
The Jiang family has many children and is notoriously poor.
They live in the oldest and most dilapidated mud house, which doesn't even have a courtyard wall.
Lin Wanxia asked Jiang Sinian in a low voice, "You haven't helped renovate the house for so many years?"
She didn't mean to blame him, she was just curious.
Jiang Sinian doesn't seem like an unfilial person.
Jiang Sinian said helplessly, "I have received the renovation fee for five years."
He gave money to his family every year so that they could renovate the house.
However, after receiving the money, the house has never been moved.
Houses in the north usually face south.
In Lin Wanxia's personal opinion, southerners usually like to build high, while northerners like to build long.
For example, if you want to build six rooms, southerners build three two-story houses, while northerners build six bungalows in a row.
The Jiang family also has six rooms, five main rooms, and a small side room at the eastern end.
There are two side rooms in the east, one is a cowshed and the other is for storing grain and hay, the west is a vegetable garden, and the south is for raising chickens, ducks and a few goats.
Xingxing and Yueyue looked around curiously.
Yueyue pointed at the sheep and called excitedly, "Sheep, sheep!"
With such a loud noise outside the door, the people in the house could naturally hear it.
Lin Wanxia and her family of four had just walked a few steps into the yard when the door to the east hall opened and a line of people came out.
Lin Wanxia recognized the person in the lead, Jiang's mother.
The rest were all strangers, and Lin Wanxia felt that she was a step behind, half of her body hidden behind Jiang Sinian.
It was not because she was afraid of strangers, but mainly because there were too many people coming out, and the gazes were too direct, and she didn't want to be watched like a monkey.
"Da Nian, you're back?"
"Xiao Wu, is this your wife and children?"
"Your sister-in-law is so pretty, and the two children are so cute!"
"..."
A group of people surrounded the family of four in the middle of the yard in a familiar manner, chattering and greeting Lin Wanxia and the others.
Yueyue had never seen such a scene before, and she was so scared that she wanted a hug.
Jiang Sinian bent down and picked up Yueyue, and Lin Wanxia held Xingxing.
In the years since the two got married, they have only dealt with Jiang's mother once.
At that time, Lin Wanxia's impression of Jiang's mother was not very good, and she had no interest in Jiang's family.
Jiang Sinian probably sensed Lin Wanxia's thoughts and rarely mentioned his own family.
It was only on the way back that he made up the family members for Lin Wanxia and the two children.
His father was Jiang Dahai and his mother was Wu Xiu'e, whom Lin Wanxia had already met.
The eldest brother Jiang Lu Nian, 38 years old, married, with one son and one daughter.
The second sister Jiang Chunxiang, 36 years old, married, with one son.
The third sister Jiang Xiahe, 33 years old, married, with two daughters.
The fourth brother Jiang Wu Nian, 28 years old, married. Two daughters and one son.
The sixth sister Jiang Dongxue, 9 years old.
The seventh brother Jiang Sanian, 9 years old.
Jiang Dongxue and Jiang Sanian are dragon and phoenix twins, which can be considered as old-born children.
I don’t know if it’s like this every year, or if Lin Wanxia is too shy, so she thinks that maybe all the Jiang family members are here.
Jiang Sinian’s parents, six brothers and sisters, and their families and children, more than ten people in total, surrounded them.
Anyone would feel uncomfortable.
Jiang Sinian half turned and introduced Lin Wanxia, “This is my dad... This is my second sister... This is my third sister...”
Every time Jiang Sinian introduced someone, Lin Wanxia called out and motioned to Xingxing to call people together.
Lin Wanxia noticed that Jiang Sinian’s eldest brother and sister-in-law were not among this group of people.
Jiang’s mother didn’t have a good impression of Lin Wanxia. There was no smile on her face. Her eyes were roaming around the luggage bags in their hands. She didn’t forget to motion to her youngest son, “Xiaoqi, come on, take the things in your sister-in-law’s hand. How heavy is she carrying?!”
Jiang Sannian responded and came over to take the bag from Lin Wanxia’s hand.
Lin Wanxia refused with a smile: "Thank you, Seventh Brother, I'm carrying the children's clothes, which are not heavy."
This was also an indirect way to tell Jiang's mother not to think about these things, because they are all the children's things.
"Don't chat outside, it will freeze the children. Come in quickly." Jiang's father said.
There are six rooms. The two rooms on the west are occupied by the fourth brother's family. The three rooms on the east are occupied by Jiang's father and mother with the sixth and seventh children. The smallest room on the east is a warehouse, which is mainly used for food.
One of the three rooms where Jiang's father and mother live is a bedroom, next to the grain warehouse, and the remaining two rooms are connected to make a living room.
However, in the countryside, there is no separate living room. To be more precise, it should be called a comprehensive room.
The living room has the functions of both a dining room and a kitchen.
The stove is located in the northeast corner of the living room. The entire wall in the corner is blackened by smoke and hung with black fluff like spider webs.
To the west, next to the firewood, is a brown high square table with two wooden chairs, and further west is a single bed.
There is a row of cabinets on the west wall, and a sewing machine is placed under the large window on the south wall.
On the east wall next to the stove, a small table is built with stones and slabs, on which are piled oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, kitchen knives and cutting boards, and next to it is a sideboard.
According to the name of Jiang Sinian's hometown, it is a vegetable cabinet.
Further south is the door to the inner room. At the corner between the inner room door and the main room door, there is a washbasin rack, and a steel wire is pulled above it to dry towels.
In the center of the room, slightly to the east, is a coal stove for heating. One enters the inner room and then exits through the chimney on the east wall.
From Lin Wanxia's perspective, this living room that combines a bedroom, kitchen, sink, etc. is not really big.
More than a dozen people were crammed in.
Lin Wanxia stood near the door.
The reason was simple: the door had good ventilation.
The door was an old wooden door. The outside was originally a screen door to prevent mosquitoes and flies in the summer, and it was wrapped with thick plastic cloth in the winter to prevent wind.
However, Lin Wanxia could still feel the wind whistling behind her.
Xingxing had been eating at many different places since he was a child, and he was usually a social person, but now he was quietly leaning against Lin Wanxia.
Lin Wanxia guessed that it was probably because this family generally had high voices and spoke in dialect, which Xingxing could not understand very well.
Perhaps in Xingxing's ears, these people seemed to be arguing.
In fact, they were just greeting each other.
The dialect of Jiang Sinian's hometown is not that difficult to understand. Most of the time, it is similar to Mandarin, but some words are local dialects, which are difficult for outsiders to understand.
The Jiang family first surrounded Jiang Sinian and asked about his well-being. During this time, most people's eyes were on Lin Wanxia.
Several children, especially the older girls, looked at Lin Wanxia, especially Lin Wanxia's clothes with envy.
Lin Wanxia noticed their gazes and waved to them to come over, "Although I can't call out each of your names accurately now, I bought new clothes for you."
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