After eating a bowl of delicious chicken noodle soup, the two boys quickly fell in love with the Li family. They kept calling the sharp-tongued but kind-hearted old lady Li "grandma". After holding the two boys for a while, she sent Ming Nan to play with them. Ming Nan and Ming Bei were very outgoing and soon became close friends with Ming Shu and Ming Xin, like real brothers who grew up together.
Mingbei enthusiastically recounted his experiences of climbing mountains and swimming in rivers, and Mingshu listened with great interest. The four-year-old Mingxin was simple-minded and said whatever he wanted to say: "My mother said that my grandmother's family is poor and there is nothing fun."
"Nonsense!" Mingbei rolled his eyes. "Let me tell you, we have everything at home. Even though it's cold now, sometimes you can catch some pheasants or rabbits in the mountains. Didn't you just eat two pieces of chicken?"
Although pheasant meat is not easy to chew, the soup made from it is very fragrant. Mingxin, who had not eaten chicken for a long time, licked his lips and smiled innocently: "The chicken is delicious!"
Mingbei touched Mingxin's head and couldn't help laughing: "What fun things did you guys do in Ice City?"
Ming Xin tilted his head and thought for a while, but couldn't come up with anything, so he could only shake his head honestly. Ming Shu was older and had some experience in playing: "It's interesting to go to the Songhua River to watch ice fishing, but it's too far from my home, and my mother doesn't want us to go."
"That's nothing. There's the Yongcui River in front of our house. My brother and I have fished a lot here this month. I'll take you there tomorrow." Mingbei patted his chest confidently.
Mingshu and Mingxin nodded repeatedly after hearing this. Mingbei then said, "There's something interesting at my house." Seeing the curious looks from everyone, Mingbei proudly puffed out his chest and said, "My mother just gave birth to a sister for me!"
"Wow..." Mingshu and Mingxin looked at Mingbei with admiration: "Second Aunt is so amazing, I don't even have a little sister in my family."
"My third uncle's house doesn't have any either." Mingbei said proudly. He looked inside and saw that the adults were sitting in the west room talking, so he waved to the two new brothers and said, "I'll take you to see my sister."
The four boys tiptoed to the door of the east room. Mingbei carefully opened the door and took a look inside. Zhenzhen had just finished her meal and was moving her hands and feet vigorously.
In fact, Wang Sufen heard the noise when Li Mulin and others returned home, but Zhenzhen was sleeping and feeding at that time, and Wang Sufen did not dare to move for fear of waking Zhenzhen.
But the noise outside was so loud that Zhenzhen was finally woken up. Seeing that she was having fun without crying or making a fuss, Wang Sufen thought of changing her clothes and taking her outside to meet some people. Just as she changed her clothes and opened the bolt on the door, a few boys came in.
"Mom, these are Mingshu and Mingxin from our fourth uncle's family. They want to see their sister." Mingnan and Mingbei pulled the two children in and greeted Wang Sufen with a smile.
"He's so handsome." Wang Sufen heard the old lady Li cursing in the west room, and decisively took the children into the room: "Hurry, go sit on the kang, your sister just woke up." Then she put Zhenzhen on the mattress.
Seeing this, Mingshu hurriedly took off his shoes and went to the kang to see Zhenzhen. Mingxin was still a little shy and stood under the kang and refused to go up. But soon the three brothers surrounded Zhenzhen tightly and he could not see anything from below. In his hurry, he did not care about being shy anymore. He took off his shoes, went to the kang and squeezed in between Mingnan and Mingbei.
Because the baby grew fast and Zhenzhen couldn't crawl or sit, Grandma Li didn't make new clothes for her. She just found two half-worn clothes that Mingnan wore when he was a child, altered them slightly, and gave them to Zhenzhen.
The kang was constantly burning all day, and there was a fire wall on the west side, so the room was very warm. Zhenzhen was lying on the kang wearing only a single layer of clothes and still felt a little hot. Mingxin looked at the white and soft baby curiously, and couldn't help but touch her little hand, grinning at Wang Sufen: "Sister is so pretty."
"That's right!" Mingbei smiled proudly and told him seriously: "My sister's name is Zhenzhen. That character is very difficult to write. My dad said that my sister must cry when she writes her name in school."
Mingshu is already in the second grade of elementary school. Hearing this, he was shocked: "Why did you choose a name that is difficult to write? Second Master doesn't like his sister?"
"Because it sounds nice and is easy to raise." Mingnan lay on the kang with his feet dangling in the air. He glanced at Mingshu and said, "My dad and my grandma both like my sister very much. Grandma said Zhenzhen is the only girl in our family for five generations."
Mingshu and Mingxin didn't quite understand what Mingnan meant, but that didn't stop them from expressing their admiration: "That's amazing, my mom just can't give birth to a sister."
Mingbei raised his little head proudly, and those who didn't know would have thought that he was being praised. Although Zhenzhen could understand what everyone said, she was not even a month old after all, so she didn't dare to speak. She could only babble a few times to show her enthusiasm.
Mingshu looked at Zhenzhen, who was so cute with her big black eyes open, and tried hard to recall what Mingxin looked like when he was a child. He could only vaguely remember the general idea: "Mingxin was not as well-behaved as his sister when he was a child. At that time, he did nothing but pee and cry. He was not fun at all."
"My sister doesn't cry." Mingbei said immediately: "She smiles every time she sees me. Grandma told me to catch fish for her every day when she grows teeth. Then she will love me the most."
Zhenzhen couldn't help but frown: Silly boy, grandma is just trying to trick you into doing the work.
Mingbei was immediately happy when he saw Zhenzhen's smile. He turned around and asked Wang Sufen, "Mom, look, my sister smiled at me. Does she like me the most?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Wang Sufen echoed, not forgetting to dig a hole for her silly son: "When you go fishing, hunting rabbits, and picking hazelnuts and pine nuts for your sister, your sister will like you more."
Li Mingbei was anxious: "Mom, why did you say that in front of my third brother? What if he finds out and tries to snatch it from me?"
Li Mingnan rolled his eyes deeply, resisted the urge to complain, and tried to force out a cordial smile: "As an elder brother, how can I not give in to my younger brother? I won't compete with you. By the way, you have to put in more effort when collecting firewood next autumn, otherwise what will we do if our sister is frozen?" Seeing Mingbei looking at Mingnan with gratitude, Wang Sufen couldn't help laughing.
In the east room, Wang Sufen led a group of children with great affection, but the atmosphere in the west room was a little awkward. Zhang Chunhua considered herself a city dweller, and places like Beicha were like the countryside in her eyes. She married Li Mulin because his family lived far away, and he had several brothers, so there was no burden of supporting his parents.
Zhang Chunhua's mother was injured when she gave birth to her, and she was hiding from place to place due to the war, and she didn't take good care of herself after giving birth. Since then, she has never gotten pregnant again. Zhang Chunhua is the only girl in the Zhang family, so the old couple thought about recruiting a son-in-law to take care of them in their old age.
Nowadays, there are many families who can't afford to eat. Although the Zhang family is not rich, they are registered in the city, and Zhang's father works in the power company, which is more than enough to support a family of three. Although Zhang Chunhua has no job, she is very picky. She thinks those who come from the countryside are unsophisticated, and she thinks some of the city people are not good-looking.
At that time, Li Mulin had just arrived in Bingcheng and happened to catch the Electricity Bureau recruiting workers. Li Mulin had studied for a few years, was young and strong, and had nimble hands and feet, so he was successfully recruited as an apprentice by the Electricity Bureau, and Zhang's father was assigned to be his master.
Li Mulin was smart, and when he hadn't learned any professional knowledge at work, he would go to Zhang's house to help with the work during his breaks and ask his master to teach him more. As time went by, Zhang Chunhua fell in love with Li Mulin. When Zhang's father found out, he tried to test Li Mulin's attitude, but Li Mulin gritted his teeth and refused to accept the idea of marrying into the family.
Zhang's father originally wanted to let it go, but Zhang Chunhua fell in love with Li Mulin and was determined to marry him. Zhang's father thought that the Li family was far away and Li Mulin was working alone in Bingcheng, which was actually similar to a live-in son-in-law, so he gritted his teeth and agreed.
Originally, Li Mulin had to go home to talk to his parents about marriage, and then Li Mulin's parents would come to propose marriage. But the Zhang family secretly wanted Li Mulin to change his surname, so they were not willing to let him go home at this time. Seeing that Li Mulin insisted on taking leave to go home, Zhang's father thought of a way to coax Li Mulin that if he took leave at this time, it would affect his future job promotion. It would be better to get married first and go back during the Chinese New Year.
The salary difference between an apprentice and a regular worker was more than three times. Li Mulin hesitated again and again, but in the end he was reluctant to give up the salary after being converted to a regular worker, so he wrote a letter home and got married in a daze.
Li Mulin lived in a single dormitory before getting married, but after getting married, he couldn't get a house for a while. The Zhang family quickly took the opportunity to let the young couple move back home, hoping to gradually establish the son-in-law.
In the year of their marriage, Li Mulin, who had successfully become a legal wife, planned to take his wife home to meet his parents during the Spring Festival. However, Zhang Chunhua was pregnant at that time and vomited all over the place. Naturally, Li Mulin could not take his wife home at that time. When the child was born the following year, Zhang Chunhua said that she was afraid that the child was too young and would get sick, and said that she would go back when the child was older. When Mingshu was four years old and his body was strong, Li Mulin thought that he should be able to go home this time, but Zhang Chunhua was pregnant again...
If Li Mulin hadn't been afraid that his neighbors would gossip and relatives would laugh at him if he went home alone, he would have come back to celebrate the New Year. This year, Mingxin was finally old enough and Zhang Chunhua was not pregnant, so he finally made it to his hometown to celebrate the New Year.
Although Zhang Chunhua came back with them, he was still very reluctant. He had a gloomy face as soon as he got on the train, and privately spoke bad things about Li Mulin's hometown to his two children. He thought that since the children were not close to the Li family, Li Mulin would definitely not want to return to his hometown in the future.
Unexpectedly, after Zhang Chunhua taught secretly for ten days, a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a newborn daughter made the two sons forget what she said.
Seeing Li Mulin being scolded by Old Lady Li and hit with a cane from time to time, Zhang Chunhua suddenly felt uneasy and subconsciously wanted to find her son for support. Then she realized that she seemed to have not seen her son since dinner.
"Hahaha..." Mingshu and Mingxin's happy laughter came from next door. Zhang Chunhua was extremely sad and angry: You heartless kid, you forgot everything your mother taught you? ? !
Old Lady Li cursed to her heart's content, took out her pipe from her waist, stuffed some tobacco leaves into it, lit it, took two deep puffs, and exhaled a string of smoke. Old Lady Li was a very shrewd old lady. Although she knew that her son's absence from home for many years must have been due to his wife's "contribution", in her heart, her daughter-in-law was someone else's daughter and she couldn't teach her, so she just had to take care of her own son.
Mrs. Li took a few puffs of her cigarette, and her anger was mostly gone. When she heard the noise and laughter of the children next door, she told Li Mulin, "On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, your second brother's family had a baby girl, and she named her Zhenzhen."
Li Mulin immediately smiled: "Second brother is so lucky, mother, have you told our relatives?"
"They all went there." When talking about Zhenzhen, all the wrinkles on Mrs. Li's face were filled with smiles: "Your aunts are all envious. Your third aunt even said that she would bring her daughter-in-law to our house in the spring to hug Zhenzhen and see if she could share in the good fortune and give birth to a daughter."
Zhang Chunhua, who thought she was extra important because she had two sons, felt very unhappy and couldn't help but mutter, "What's so good about being a little girl? She will have to marry someone else in the future."
Mrs. Li took one look and thought, "Oh, I ignored you, but you're so proud of me." She immediately responded with sharp words: "Girls are cute and caring, but boys are much better." She picked up the cane and hit Li Mulin's butt twice: "What's the good of having a boy? He will stay away from home when he grows up. He hasn't come back for ten years. How can he be as caring as a girl?"
Li Mulin was standing by the kang obediently, trying to cheer up her mother for a while, when she was beaten again for no apparent reason, and she almost cried. Zhang Chunhua saw that Li Mulin's butt was so painful that she could hardly sit down, and she wanted to cry without tears: having a mother-in-law who could beat people and not forget to bully them was really scary.