Their family returned to the county town early on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year.
Because they could not agree on their marriage, Li Minghua and Liu Chunzhi had been gloomy. The affairs of the Wang family had made them very depressed this year.
Before Li Wei entered the house, he smelled the pungent smell of smoke coming from Li Jianping's house. Even Li Wei couldn't tell how much initiative and passivity her eldest brother had in this marriage. She stood at the door and thought for a moment, then knocked on the door. After a while, a decadent voice came from inside: "Who is it?"
"Brother, it's me!"
Li Jianping then came up and opened the door. As expected, the room smelled of cigarette smoke and a lot of cigarette butts were thrown on the ground. Li Wei frowned and said, "The doors and windows won't open. Do you want to choke yourself to death?" She said and hurriedly went to help open the window.
Li Jianping sat back on the chair where Jian Bo often sat, with his legs placed high on the desk and crossed together, and his furrowed brows seemed to be able to trap a fly.
Li Wei opened all the windows and didn't close the door. The outside air could flow in and dissipate some of the pungent smell in the room.
"Close the door, I don't want them to come in." Li Jianping ordered his sister, but he sat still.
"My parents are out, don't you know?"
How does Li Jianping know
Seeing her eldest brother's dejected look, she couldn't help but think of her second brother. Recalling Li Jianbo's abnormality during that period, she felt a little regretful that she could not accompany her second brother and talk to him properly when he was confused. Now that her eldest brother is like this, she can no longer leave him alone.
Li Wei picked up a stool and sat down in front of Li Jianping.
"Brother, you can't let go of Magnolia, can you?" Li Wei felt that this opening statement was a bit bad.
Li Jianping glanced at his sister and said, "Can't let go? What can't be let go of? Is there only one Wang Yulan in this world? I can't find a wife without her?"
"If you can think about it, why do you lock yourself up and hide in the house and smoke?"
"I..." Li Jianping was speechless for a moment, but he still said stubbornly: "It's not a big deal."
"Brother, although this is your business and it's not appropriate for me to interfere too much as a younger sister, I don't want to see you frustrated. My second brother once had such a situation. Now I regret it when I think about it. Why didn't I give him more? I can’t even talk to him now.”
After hearing this, Li Jianping turned his head and glanced at his sister. He reached out and touched his sister's head and said, "You and Jianbo have always been very close. After he left, besides mom, you were the most miserable in the family, right?"
"But I know this is the result of his careful consideration. It's a good thing to go out and explore the world. I'm not sad."
Li Jianping smiled and said: "He will come back again. He is not the white-eyed wolf our father said. But no one can say when he will come back. We just have to wait."
"I also always firmly believe that the second brother will come back."
Li Jianping finally smiled: "Jianbo is a smart man and sees the long term better than any of us. Thinking about it, he spent the New Year with us last year, and he should be happy now that he is back with his biological mother."
He was obviously here to enlighten the eldest brother, so how could he bring it up to the second brother? Li Wei added: "Brother, please cheer up earlier. You are making your parents feel even more sad. In my opinion, marriage still depends on fate. If brother really... If he can't let go of her, then find another opportunity to see her again." She, please say what you need to say clearly, I don’t want my eldest brother to have any regrets in the future.”
Don’t leave any regrets in the future. Li Jianping listened to these words. He put out the cigarette butt in his hand, and he didn't want to regret missing someone in the future.
Taking advantage of the fact that the shop hasn't opened yet in the past few days, Li Jianping planned to go back to Yongning again and come back the same day. The next day, he didn't tell anyone. He put on his favorite dark brown cotton jacket and white-painted traveling shoes, and got on the car back to Yongning.
When he was in the car, he suddenly felt a little uneasy, so he went straight over without saying hello, not knowing whether he could see anyone. The Wang family has no phone number. He had planned it in his mind. Now that the two families had fallen out, he would go directly to the door. He was afraid that even if Yu Lan was at home, he would not be able to see her, let alone talk to her. He already had an idea.
After swaying in the car for nearly forty minutes, the car finally stopped in Yongning Town. He didn't go directly into the village after getting off the car. He walked around the street and quickly found an acquaintance, Dalong, who drove a tractor in the village.
He handed Dalong a pack of cigarettes and briefly explained the situation to Dalong. Dalong, who had been brothers to Jianping before, immediately agreed after hearing what Jianping said.
"Okay, I'll help you bring the message. As for whether she will come, I can't guarantee it."
Jianping said to him gratefully: "Can you please help me run all the way?"
After Dalong left, Li Jianping went into a small teahouse at the crossroads of the town. He ordered a pot of crude tea and a plate of fried peanuts and slowly waited for Wang Yulan to come over.
Li Jianping looked at the watch on his wrist from time to time, and the hands moved little by little. To him, this hour seemed as long as ten years.
An hour later, Wang Yulan finally appeared at the door of the teahouse. Seeing that she had finally arrived, Li Jianping came over and pulled her into a seat inside and sat down opposite him.
"We have no chance anymore, why are you still coming to see me?" Wang Yulan had a straight face from the moment she walked in. She was very unhappy now.
"The things between us should be put on the table and made clear. I don't want to regret missing it in the future."
Wang Yulan's heart moved slightly after hearing this. She raised her eyes, which were shining and full of expectation.
"Brother Li, can we still be together?"
Li Jianping was silent for a short time. He is twenty-one years old this year. He is late in understanding the love affairs between his children. Li Jianping cannot describe well what it feels like to like someone. He just felt that he and Yulan owed an explanation, and this matter had not yet come to a satisfactory conclusion.
"Yulan, do you like me?"
Wang Yulan nodded without thinking.
Li Jianping asked again: "How much do you like it?"
It was hard for Wang Yulan to let a girl answer these words. She became a little shy, blushed, and did not dare to look into Li Jianping's eyes: "I just want to live with you for the rest of my life."
"what do you like about me?"
"..." Wang Yulan thinks Li Jianping is good, but she really can't tell what she likes about him.
"I haven't read many books, my education level is not high, I don't have any skills, and my sense of responsibility is not that strong. In fact, I am a very bad person."
"So do you like me?" This was probably the second time Wang Yulan asked Li Jianping this question. Last time, Li Jianping answered that he didn't dislike me. This time, Li Jianping hesitated. He thought for a long time and said, "Maybe."
"Then you take me away. We can go anywhere. If we come back in two years, even if they don't agree to our marriage, they will have to agree to our marriage." Wang Yulan stood up and expressed her thoughts.
(End of chapter)