CH 16

On the Dragon Boat Festival, Wang Chunhua got a few salted duck eggs from somewhere. When they drank porridge in the morning, she gave half of them to everyone in the family, she then hung wormwood at the door. Apart from that, it was no different from ordinary days.

In the morning, He Xiaoyun walked home from the river after washing her clothes. She heard the loudspeakers at the entrance of the village announcing there. The commune's projection team will show a movie at the threshing ground tonight for everyone to watch.

During the slack season, the screening team would go to the countryside and take turns showing films in each brigade. This time, it happened to be the Qingshuihe brigade's turn during the Dragon Boat Festival.

Someone next to He Xiaoyun was on the same road. She heard the radio and asked, "Xiaoyun, are you going to the movies tonight?"

He Xiaoyun smiled, "I will, I'll take the child with me, he's restless. We will take a look."

"Yes, the three-year-old kid, chubby and naughty."

Entering the courtyard gate, she saw Wei Yuanhang sitting on a small stool gnawing on the rice dumplings. The rice dumplings at home had been wrapped a few days earlier, they were almost finished by now.

He Xiaoyun dried her clothes and was about to go back to her natal's home. Last time, her father had an injured foot. It's been several days. She didn't know if it was better. She want to go back to see if they needed any help at home.

He Xiaoyun talked to Wang Chunhua, then went to the bedroom and said to Wei Jianwei: "I'll go back to my natal home today, look at the child and don't let him play with mud." She intends to come back before lunch, bringing the child will inevitably slow her down, the kid has been a bit sticky to her recently.

"Is there something at home?" Wei Jianwei was reading in the room, when he saw her come in, he put the book down.

"No," He Xiaoyun combed her hair in front of the mirror and pulled her clothes, "Just going back to take a look."

"Do you need me?" He asked. He Xiaoyun didn't dare to ask him to go back with her, otherwise, her mother would cook eggs again when she saw her son-in-law come to the door, "I'll go alone."

After tidying up and going out, Wei Yuanhang wasn't seen in the yard. She listened to the voices and found the child was talking to his grandma in the backyard. He Xiaoyun quickly slipped away while he was distracted. 

When she got to her natal home, Li Yuegui had just finished her housework and had taken a breather. When she saw He Xiaoyun, she stood up again, "Have you had breakfast? I'll get you a zongzi."

He Xiaoyun pressed her down to sit again and said, "I already ate a zongzi." As soon as she walked in, she saw the rice dumplings hanging on the beams of the room, just a small bunch of them, probably about ten, just save them for the elderly to eat.

"What about Dad? How are his feet?"

Li Yuegui sat down again. Hearing her questions, she said with anger: "After having breakfast, he went out, saying that he was bored at home and everything was boring. He just goes as he pleases! Don't he dare come to me saying his feet hurt!" 

He Xiaoyun also moved a chair and sat down, she said with a smile: "If he can go out, it means nothing happened."

"Let's not talk about him, what about Jianwei? Why didn't he come back with you?"

"It's okay. If he came, it will cost you two eggs."

Li Yuegui playfully slapped her, "You kid, what are you talking about? Couples walk in pairs, no one will gossip about that."

He Xiaoyun curled her lips in her heart, she's afraid that when others see her walking with Wei Jianwei, there will be more gossip.

But she can also understand Li Yuegui's mood. In the beginning, how many people had read the jokes about her daughter's insistence on Wei's family, now that things are getting better, she wants her daughter to live a prosperous life and hit those people in the face.

"Is there any work at home? Is the vegetable field about to plant new seeds?" He Xiaoyun changed the subject.

"Your eldest sister came back the day before yesterday and has already done it for me."

He Xiaoyun nodded and remembered something, "I heard that uncle's family has already targeted a girl?"

Speaking of this, Li Yuegui sighed softly, "I'm still a relative of Jianwei and his sister-in-law. I heard from your aunt that the girl is very good, she looks good, has a strong body, and is hardworking. It's her house..."

"What's wrong with her family?"

"Oh, it sounds pitiful. there is an older brother above her. He was sick when he was a child, and one of his legs was broken. He's lame. I heard that their family wanted to marry their daughter out to give him more gifts and money."

He Xiaoyun frowned slightly when she heard this. They used their daughter's dowry money for their son to get married. This is a real thing, and it's not uncommon nowadays. There are even bad habits of changing relatives in some places.

"What did aunt say about this?" He Xiaoyun curiously asked.

Li Yuegui replied: "Your aunt really likes that girl. She's considering whether to let your cousin meet her first. If the two young people get along, other things are easy to discuss. After all, your cousin, that person, if he doesn't marry a better wife, how can she control him."

He Xiaoyun didn't have much impression of this cousin, she only remembered that he was a person that didn't talk much, but listening to her mother's words, it seemed that he became quite an uncomfortable individual.

Seeing everything is okay at home, He Xiaoyun talked to her mother for a while, and after seeing her father, she went back.

At the beginning of May, the scorching sun was shining, the vegetation was dense, and the Huangdi Road was covered with dog's tail grass. He Xiaoyun pulled a few sticks in her hand and planned to bring them to Wei Yuanhang for fun. She didn't tell him that she's going out and hoped that she would be able to appease the child. 

Just thinking about it, she suddenly heard the child shouting.

"Mother--!"

He Xiaoyun raised her head, the sun was shining brightly. While she built a small pergola with her hand on her forehead, she could see the chubby kid running towards her not far away. Wei Jianwei followed behind him.

The child stumbled when he was approaching, he tripped under his feet and almost fell. He Xiaoyun hurriedly stepped forward to catch him.

"Mom! Mom! Mom!" Wei Yuanhang threw his head into her arms and kept calling out with his head up.

"I heard, I heard." He Xiaoyun replied helplessly, wiping the sweat from his forehead with her hand, "It's such a hot day, why didn't you stay at home well, why did you run out?"

It would have been okay not to say it because as soon as she said that, the child stopped calling her mother, he immediately changed his tone and complained rather aggrievedly: "Mom left, you didn't tell me!"

He Xiaoyun expected such a complaint and said, "I'm here, right?"

She replied so readily that the child didn't know how to answer it for a while. He turned his head to think about it. Mom had apologized, it seemed that there was nothing to make trouble about, so he had to say: "Well then, mom can't do this in the future."

"Okay, I'll not do this again." After wiping his sweat, He Xiaoyun found that his eyes and nose were a little red, so she asked: "Were you crying and embarrassed just now?"

"No!" Wei Yuanhang immediately denied. Just as Wei Jianwei also came to the front, He Xiaoyun decided to ask him: "Did he make a fuss at home?"

Wei Jianwei glanced at his son. The kid was shaking his head vigorously at him. Before he could answer, He Xiaoyun saw a bit of sticky liquid on his chest and said to the child in disgust: "You must be crying. Look, there are still snots on your Dad's woolen clothes."

Wei Yuanhang hurriedly took a closer look, and it was indeed true that he can only hum and couldn't speak.

He Xiaoyun took him by the hand and said as they walked: "You can't do this in the future. Mom didn't tell you when I went out, that was my wrong was wrong. But you cried and made trouble at home and soiled your father's clothes. That's your fault. The next time you became this unreasonable, I'm going to beat you up."

"...I know." The child replied with his head hanging down and his mouth pouting. He couldn't understand in his little head. Before he went out, he was ready to criticize his mother, so that she would never leave him to go out by herself. Why was he criticized by his mother now?

The three of them walked home and passed by the door of a house. The other person was sitting at the door. When they saw them, they joked: "I just saw Jianwei holding Xiaoyuan. I thought about where he was going, it turned out he's picking Xiaoyun home. Jianwei, you can't stick to your wife too much. I won't believe this if I didn't see this!"

He Xiaoyun smiled, she didn't answer, and asked, "Did Aunt eat yet?"

"Not yet, how about you?"

"Neither did we."

After walking a short distance, Wei Yuanhang shook He Xiaoyun's hand and said, "Mom, it's not that Dad is coming to see you but I'm looking for you!"

The child feels very proud, he was ready to take credit. He Xiaoyun ignored him and glanced at Wei Jianwei. The snot on his chest was gleaming in the sun. He deserves it. She suddenly remembered a sentence: a bit of tofu in brine, one thing loses one thing.

Sure enough, the wisdom of the ancestors is endless. As if perceiving her gaze, Wei Jianwei looked at her, and He Xiaoyun immediately turned her head.

After doing this, she silently despises herself again, why did she turn her head, as if she's afraid of him?! But she really didn't dare to turn back and look at him again.

At the lunch table, Wang Chunhua mentioned the movie in the evening and said, "You'll go and watch it."

He Xiaoyun said, "I'm afraid Hanghang won't be able to sit still, so I won't go."

"Let him follow me then. It's rare to show movies and go lively." Wang Chunhua said, and then lowered her head to ask his grandson: "Can Xiaoyuan be with grandma at night?"

The child shook his head like a rattle, "I want to watch the movie!"

Wang Chunhua then said: "Then go take him. If he can't sit still, just come back early."

He Xiaoyun was to say something more when Feng Qiuyue said: "Xiaoyun, you can go, if the movie wasn't good, we can come back."

"Yes, Jianwei needs to go too. You were rarely at home. Go with Xiaoyun. I heard that young people in the city would eat and watch movies together when they weren't married yet. What do you call it?  An appointment—"

"Dating." Wei Jianwei added.

"Yes, it's a date! You two can also go on a date tonight." Wang Chunhua nodded.

He Xiaoyun was sipping on a soup and almost choked to death. She hurriedly swallowed, secretly staring at Wei Jianwei. The man took a mouthful of food leisurely as if nothing happened, he even hooked up the corners of his mouth!

He Xiaoyun became angry, this guy is absolutely being deliberate! She just made fun of the snot on his clothes, that's all! Meanie! I will remember this hatred!

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T/N: Wei Jianwei was surely having fun teasing someone.

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