As expected, Zhu Qiu Yue went off to play with her friends, while Zhu Yun Xuan, who used to have many playmates, now…
Back then, only he went to the town to attend school, while his childhood companions all went to the village school. As time passed, they hardly interacted anymore. Over the years, he had a vague impression of his old friends, but he couldn’t remember exactly who he was close to. Besides, now that he was older, he didn’t want to hang out with little kids anymore.
Speaking of school, Zhu Yun Xuan suddenly remembered that Zhu Qiu Yue had never gone to school before because of the family’s financial situation. In his previous life, his grandfather had insisted that the children go to school in the town. Zhu Qiu Yue, who had attended kindergarten in the village, would go to the town’s elementary school next year, just like he did back then. He had adapted well after one year of kindergarten in the town, but Zhu Qiu Yue couldn’t even speak standard Mandarin. Back then, the elementary school was strict, and whenever she spoke in the local dialect, she would lose points. As a result, she was very introverted for a long time…
If possible, should he find a way to let Zhu Qiu Yue attend kindergarten in the town? Of course, in rural areas, kindergarten was only for the year before primary school, so Zhu Qiu Yue hadn’t attended yet. It seemed unlikely for her to start primary school directly without attending kindergarten first.
Zhu Yun Xuan thought a lot, but by the time he got home, it was already lunchtime.
There was steamed eggplant with a sauce, stir-fried cowpeas, and stir-fried water spinach. In the center of the table, there was a small bowl of braised pork, which, if nothing went wrong, would be his special portion, his grandfather had brought it over for him!
Zhu Yun Xuan’s grandfather, Grandpa Zhu, was in his fifties but still very strong. When he was younger, he used to butcher pigs. A few years ago, he took several knives to the town and started a small meat stall. These days, there were fewer people in the business, but he made more money than his two sons, and the family often had meat to eat. However, the person who ate the most meat was definitely Zhu Yun Xuan.
Grandpa Zhu had two sons and one daughter. His eldest son, Zhu Cheng Gong, was Zhu Yun Xuan’s uncle. He was very skilled in farming, but since he was the eldest son and had to help with the family work, he never went to school or learned any trades. Apart from working in the fields, he would occasionally do odd jobs for seven or eight yuan a day.
Zhu Cheng Gong’s wife, Zhu Qiu Yue’s mother, was named Feng Xian. She worked in a textile factory, and while she was diligent, she had a straightforward personality. Unfortunately, she only had daughters and refused to have more children, so she was not favored by her mother-in-law, Zhu Yun Xuan’s grandmother.
The second son, Zhu Cheng Cai, was Zhu Yun Xuan’s father. He learned to repair bicycles and motorcycles and opened a small stall. Although he didn’t make much money, it was far better than his elder brother. Jiang Yue Xiu, his mother, worked as a seamstress and earned about the same as Zhu Cheng Gong’s wife. She had only one child, so her expenses were relatively low.
Finally, there was the youngest daughter, Zhu Chengying, who also worked in a textile factory and had a daughter. In the countryside, if a first child was a girl, the family could have another child, but her daughter was still young, so she hadn’t had any more children yet.
Among the grandchildren, only Zhu Yun Xuan was a boy, which made him extremely spoiled!
Since Zhu Yun Xuan’s grandfather was still in good health, the Zhu family had not yet split up. Back then, his father and his uncle married around the same time, and Zhu Yun Xuan’s grandfather had allocated land and built a two-story house with six rooms in the village. Each son got two rooms, and the couple, along with Zhu Chengying, who hadn’t married yet, lived in the two middle rooms.
At first, everyone ate together in the middle room, but Zhu Yun Xuan’s grandmother had a very strange temper and was extremely picky about her daughters-in-law. Zhu Yun Xuan’s aunt couldn’t take it anymore and insisted on eating separately. Now, everyone ate their own meals without much trouble. However, because of his grandfather’s meat-selling business, the food he ate was always the best. Zhu Yun Xuan’s grandmother never allowed Zhu Qiu Yue to have a piece of meat, but she always prepared some nice dishes and put them in a small bowl for Zhu Yun Xuan.
For example, at this moment, Zhu Yun Xuan had braised pork to eat.
Braised pork was made from pork ribs, also known as belly pork, which was very greasy. When Zhu Yun Xuan saw it, he couldn’t help but wrinkle his brow.
“Xuan Xuan, eat the meat, but make sure you eat more vegetables, okay?” Jiang Yue Xiu spoke as she brought the only dish among the three vegetarian dishes that Zhu Yun Xuan could eat a few bites of, eggplant, and placed it in front of him.
When he was young, he seemed to be very picky about food… Zhu Yun Xuan glanced at the three pieces of braised pork, but he had no appetite. In the countryside at that time, an ordinary family could only eat meat once a month. If it weren’t for his grandfather selling meat, he probably wouldn’t have any meat to eat. But now, his six-year-old body carried the soul of a twenty-six-year-old. Maybe because he ate so much meat when he was younger, he grew up preferring vegetables. Even when he ate meat, he only ate lean meat…
“Mom! I’m eating vegetables today. You can have the meat!” Looking up at his mother, Zhu Yun Xuan couldn’t help but feel a lump in his throat.
After losing contact with his family, Zhu Qiu Yue once showed him some photos of their home on her phone. At that time, his mother’s hair had already turned half white…
“Mom doesn’t want to eat… Did you eat too many snacks and not want to eat your meal?” Jiang Yue Xiu furrowed her brows as she looked at her son.
“No, I didn’t!” Zhu Yun Xuan ate the rice quickly, mixing it with the eggplant, cowpeas, and water spinach. Before long, he had finished the full bowl of rice, prompting Jiang Yue Xiu to hug him and kiss him several times, praising him for being good.
Normally, such affectionate behavior would be something adults might resist, but Zhu Yun Xuan only felt happy. To be pampered by his mother again was enough to make him feel content!
Jiang Yue Xiu didn’t eat any meat, saying she was saving it for Zhu Yun Xuan to eat later. But after thinking for a moment, she asked, “Xuan Xuan, would you be willing to give a piece of the meat to your dad?”
“Let him have all of it!” Zhu Yun Xuan immediately replied. He knew that his father left early every morning to set up his bicycle repair shop in the town and didn’t come back until late in the evening. During lunch, Jiang Yue Xiu would prepare a lunchbox and bring it to him.
“There are three pieces! Your dad can have just one!” Jiang Yue Xiu took a slightly deformed aluminum lunchbox, filled it with rice, and added a dish and a piece of meat in a enamel cup.
Perhaps Zhu Cheng Cai was very hungry as a child because he had a large appetite. He ate at least two big bowls of rice each meal. Maybe it was because of this, combined with genetics, that Zhu Yun Xuan’s father was diagnosed with diabetes when Zhu Yun Xuan was in high school. Diabetes and high blood pressure ran in the family, both Zhu Cheng Cai and Zhu Cheng Gong, as well as Zhu Yun Xuan’s grandfather, Grandpa Zhu, all had them. If it weren’t for these health problems, Grandpa Zhu wouldn’t have had a stroke after Zhu Yun Xuan confronted him…
Zhu Yun Xuan really wanted his father to eat less, but Zhu Cheng Cai had diabetes and still refused to cut down on his food. If he brought it up now, he’d probably just get scolded, right?
“Mom, I’ll go with you to deliver the food!” Zhu Yun Xuan saw Jiang Yue Xiu take the same kind of lunchbox and cup from his grandmother’s house next door, then get on her bicycle. He immediately spoke up.
Zhu Cheng Cai spent the whole day in the town, and so did Grandpa Zhu. Jiang Yue Xiu was the one who delivered the lunch to them at noon.
Although his mother rode steadily, sitting on the backseat, Zhu Yun Xuan felt very uncomfortable. The bike was bumping along the small road, and it really was quite jarring.
The Wende Town of today was completely different from the future, there weren’t as many shops or people. When Zhu Yun Xuan arrived at the market entrance, he saw his father, who was repairing someone’s bicycle tire.
Zhu Cheng Cai didn’t rent a shop, but instead had set up a small shed himself. He was covered in dirt from head to toe.
When Zhu Yun Xuan was younger, he was very proud of his parents’ work because they earned more money than most people in the countryside. But now, he felt a little bitter about it.
“Dad!” Zhu Yun Xuan called out loudly.
“Xuan Xuan!” Zhu Cheng Cai smiled with his eyes squinted, but his hands were filthy, and he still had work to do, so he could only continue working.
The inner tube of the bicycle had already been removed. It was being inflated, and then placed into a basin of water to slowly move it around. When bubbles started to appear, that was where the puncture was.
Once the puncture was found, he used a rasp to smooth the area and then applied a square patch, and the tire was fixed.
“I’m starving! How come Xuan Xuan came today?” Zhu Cheng Cai pulled out a small plastic box and pinched out a little bit of laundry powder to wash his hands. But because he had been in contact with grease for so many years, no matter how much he washed, his hands never seemed to get completely clean, they were always black.
“This child insisted on coming. He even saved a piece of meat for you to eat!” Jiang Yue Xiu said with a smile, watching Zhu Cheng Cai eat while also preparing to deliver food to his father-in-law.
Grandpa… Thinking of the grandfather who had always pampered him, Zhu Yun Xuan’s heart skipped a beat. “Mom, I’ll go too!”
“Okay, but if you think it smells bad, you can leave quickly,” Jiang Yue Xiu said with a smile, rubbing her son’s head. The smell inside the market wasn’t pleasant, and Zhu Yun Xuan had never wanted to go in before.
The market now was completely different from what Zhu Yun Xuan remembered.
In his memory, the market was built with bricks and covered with white tiles, with each stall neatly arranged. But now, the market looked quite messy.
Moreover, there used to be about fifty or sixty stalls selling pork alone, but now there were only about ten.
The ground was wet, scattered with rotten vegetable leaves and some small pieces of pork skin or something, making Zhu Yun Xuan, who was used to clean and tidy environments, feel uneasy about where to step. No wonder he never wanted to come here before…
It was summer now, and Zhu Yun Xuan was wearing slippers. With one careless step, his toes got wet, which made him feel very uncomfortable. But thinking about soon seeing his grandfather, he didn’t care anymore.
Zhu Yun Xuan’s parents belonged to the generation that favored late marriage and childbirth, with strict family planning rules. Men and women had to be at least 24 and 22 years old respectively before marrying. So when Zhu Yun Xuan was born, his father was already twenty-six. However, Zhu Yun Xuan’s grandfather married Zhu Yun Xuan’s grandmother when he was only nineteen and she was sixteen. Now, Grandpa Zhu was only fifty-three years old. Since selling meat, he had become a bit more well-off and looked younger compared to peers who still lived off farming.
“Oh, it’s Xuan Xuan!” Grandpa Zhu wiped his hands and came out when he saw Zhu Yun Xuan, then picked him up. He could easily lift a pig weighing over a hundred pounds, so he could definitely toss around the small and thin Zhu Yun Xuan for fun.
The smell of sweat mixed with a foul odor hit Zhu Yun Xuan’s nose, but he didn’t mind at all, instead, he reached out and hugged his grandfather.
More than ten years later, before even reaching seventy, his grandfather died from the stress caused by him…
This life, he would no longer go against his family. He hoped every one of them could live long and healthy lives! Because during those days without family support, he would toss and turn all night, repeatedly recalling his childhood experiences, crying each time.
In the past life, he couldn’t go back, nor could he return home. But in this life, he would no longer be the spoiled, selfish Zhu Yun Xuan who relied on his elders’ favor. He would be a good kid and make sure everyone lived a good life!