Chapter 1231: Chapter 1231: Coming Home
The winter here is a bit warmer than in the Northeast, and Li Xue doesn’t feel very cold here.
"Guodong, when you first arrived in our place, did you find it particularly hard to adapt?"
"Wasn’t it? At that time, we were at the educated youth point, living together. When Aunt Jiang came to see us, she told us we must study and never drop our books.
And at that time, we were asked to live outside. We didn’t get along well with those educated youth.
Because it was our first year there. We hadn’t prepared much firewood, and it snowed heavily, so we couldn’t go up the mountains.
Luckily, during the New Year, the three of us went to Aunt Jiang’s home."
"Were the chilblains on your hands from that time?"
"Yes, we didn’t have much to do and didn’t want to interact with them, so we went to a small room at the educated youth point to study. It was really cold at that time.
Aunt Jiang saw our chilblains and found some dry eggplant stalks for us to wash our hands with, which worked.
You see, this year they didn’t freeze. Xue’er, if it weren’t for Aunt Jiang, it’s not just Jing Chu who wouldn’t have been able to hold on, I almost couldn’t either."
Guodong recalled life back then and truly felt it was tough, a hardship beyond imagination.
Since I was the older brother, I had to set an example. Otherwise, who knows what would have happened to Jing Chu.
"Things will get better in the future."
"Yes, things will get better. We moved out to live in our second year, and by autumn, I had cut a lot of firewood, just afraid of the cold."
As the two talked about the past while walking, Li Xue listened with a special heartache.
His wife’s heartache made Guodong very satisfied. That feeling of being cared for, considered, and worried about was really wonderful.
When they got home, they saw Jing Chu making dumplings, hastily washed their hands, and the three of them joined in.
"Why didn’t you stay out a little longer?"
"We’ll go in the morning sometime soon and play for a whole day.
Jing Chu, where’s Dad?"
"He went to Aunt Wang to get the keys; we’ll tidy up Aunt Jiang’s place tomorrow. It hasn’t been heated for years, we must burn a lot, otherwise Feifei will be cold when she comes back."
"Alright, we’ll clean it up tomorrow.
Jing Chu, I met Mr. Qian today."
"Mr. Qian from the textile factory?"
"Yes, he was at the club today. I told him Aunt Jiang is coming back."
"Hehe, Dad and I are going to see Aunt She, she left us some meat for tomorrow morning." Jing Chu changed the subject.
"Sure, I’ll fetch it tomorrow. How’s Aunt She doing?"
"I feel she’s still the same. She invited us to have dinner at their house tomorrow night, but Dad declined."
Once the three finished making dumplings, Lv Beiguang came back and brought two big yellow pumpkins, which were grown by Chen Guoliang’s parents back in their hometown.
"Tomorrow we’ll steam pumpkin buns, if we had some red beans, we could make bean buns."
Lv Beiguang looked at his daughter’s expression, which reminded him of Jiang Xinyu’s when they talked about food, very nostalgic.
"Your Aunt Wang said she’d help out tomorrow."
"Doesn’t Aunt Wang have work?"
"She works in the afternoon. I guess she’s just curious about Aunt Jiang’s situation."
"Yeah, we’re going to tidy up tomorrow, Dad, are you going to work?"
"Yes, going to work tomorrow, and I’ll take a longer leave during the New Year. We’ve been restocking too much lately, short of manpower."
The four of them ate the steaming hot dumplings, and Lv Beiguang ate quite a bit more than usual. It had been a long time since having such delicious food.
The original soup dissolves the original food. Everyone had a bowl of dumpling soup.
"Dad, consider what I said. I hope you can come with us, and if you really don’t want to. Can’t you remarry?"
Lv Beiguang smiled and shook his head. "I don’t want either. I’m used to living alone, don’t like the fuss now."
"Dad, that’s not okay. If I have a little nephew, don’t you have to come over to help look after him?"
Lv Beiguang’s eyes lit up at this. His biggest regret was not being able to watch his two children grow up.
Jing Chu saw that it seemed promising, quickly gave her brother and sister-in-law a look.
Li Xue blushed, not knowing how to respond to such words.
"Dad, I want to build a house next year. I want to get married."
"You and Xue aren’t old enough."
"Dad, could you talk to Xue’s dad, see if we can get married earlier and register when we’re old enough? Hardly anyone in the village registers, is that okay?"
Guodong felt embarrassed discussing this topic in front of his sister. But since the topic came to this, he had to say it.
Lv Guodong looked at his son’s embarrassed face, unsure of what to say.
He thought, if his daughter were taken away by a bad boy before reaching the legal marriage age, he’d definitely disapprove.
But as a boy’s parent now, it’s a bit difficult. Should he agree or not?
He glanced at his blushing daughter-in-law, the young girl completely following Guodong’s lead.
As the boy’s parent, he didn’t see much of an issue, but considering it the other way, if Xue’er were his daughter, he certainly wouldn’t agree.
He didn’t know how to answer his son’s question.
"I’ll call Li Xue’s dad tomorrow and see." It was really awkward to bring it up.
But also worried the young couple might lose control, leading to complications.
"Dad, say some nice words when you call Uncle Li tomorrow. My brother and sister-in-law have no objections; you should let them be." Jing Chu teased with a smile.
Li Xue glared at Jing Chu with a red face, unable to believe what she was saying.
She would never refuse Guodong. There were two times Guodong nearly couldn’t hold it in. But for her sake, he eventually stopped.
If he wanted, she would never reject, even somewhat hoped, but she would never say it out loud.
Guodong was happy upon getting his dad’s promise. Last time he wanted to talk to Li Yunqiao about it, but felt awkward, and didn’t want to bother Jiang Xinyu, so he decided to let his dad call.
"Dad, if Uncle Li agrees, you should come over, build a house, prepare for the wedding, these are quite bothersome. Besides, if you ask for more leave next year, it might not be approved?
My brother’s wedding, you can’t be absent, right?"
Lv Beiguang smiled, tapped his daughter’s forehead, "Still don’t know how things will go? What’s the rush? If I don’t have a job, we’ll have to tighten our belts."
"Dad, I earned almost a hundred yuan this year. Don’t worry, I can support myself and take care of you too."
Lv Beiguang loved his daughter’s proud little face. But he was really reluctant to leave his job.
"Dad, remember to check if anyone wants to buy a house, ideally selling Sister Xiaoli’s family house before we leave."
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