CH 75.1

Oct 21 2022

Xu Qing was smart. He immediately looked at Li Changfeng, who was beside him with an unpleasant face, and smiled embarrassingly, “Hey, Changfeng, are you hungry?”

Li Changfeng raised his eyebrows, looking at Xu Qing’s fair skin that was exposed under the clothes, and replied, “I’m always hungry.”

After hearing this, Xu Qing’s face became hot, and he hurriedly looked at Xie Yu and Xie Ama. When he saw that they were teasing Tuan Tuan, he felt a little more relaxed. His hand under his sleeve slowly stretched out, went around from behind Li Changfeng’s waist, and pinched the other’s firm and elastic flesh gently, signaling Li Changfeng to not be too brazen in front of others. Li Changfeng took it without a change in expression.

“Yo hey, little fat puppy!” Hearing Xie Ama’s laugh, Xu Qing quickly took the blank-faced Tuan Tuan, put him on his lap, and opened the diaper.

“This child, you didn’t get it on you, right?” Xu Qing asked embarrassedly, it’s really not good to be covered with poop on a New Year’s Eve.

“No, I just felt that he was trembling and exerting some force, so I knew he was popping!” Xie Ama was also very experienced with children, so Tuantuan’s actions could not be hidden from him.

Li Changfeng gave Xu Qing a new diaper. He then went and brought back a bucket of hot water, wiped Tuantuan’s buttocks, and took the soiled diaper to wash.

Xu Qing wiped Tuantuan’s butt dry while listening to Xie Ama’s child rearing lecture. Xie Yu was also curious, “Ama, you know a lot.”

“That’s right, it seems that I can learn more from you in the future about things that Changfeng and I don’t understand.” Xu Qing wiped Tuantuan, and after changing, he kissed the little boy’s face and looked at Xie Ama.

When Xie Ama talked about raising a child, he became a chatterbox, and the words kept pouring out. Fortunately, the audience was all people who already has a child or was about to have one.

Xie Ama and Xie Yu left when it was time to start preparing dinner. The ingredients were all prepped already, so it didn’t take long for Li Changfeng and Xu Qing to cook. Just in a quarter of an hour, the food was already on the table.

Li Changfeng put a piece of bacon into Xu Qing’s bowl, and after seeing him eat it, he said, “tomorrow, let’s go to worship our parents, alright?”

Xu Qing chewed the bacon for a while, looked at Li Changfeng with a serious face, and said calmly: “Okay, listen to you.”

***

Early the next morning, after breakfast, Li Changfeng and Xu Qing took the food, cannons, and candles for the offering. With Tuantuan sitting on Li Changfeng’s back, the couple locked the courtyard door and walked to the left side of the house. The graves of Father Xu and Xu Ama are ten minutes away from home.

The two graves are covered in snow, and from a distance, they look like two large steamed buns lying on the ground. Xu Qing and Li Changfeng placed the things they brought, and lighted white candles and hanged cannons on a nearby tree.

“Father, Ama,” and the original Xu Qing, “I brought my husband and our child to see you. I’m sorry for being unfilial, it took so long to visit you.” Xu Qing squatted down and burned paper money on the grave. The snow was not too much, but the weather was quite chilly. The residue that burned to ashes was frozen into cold blocks after a while.

Xu Qing has been in this world for a year. During this time, he has gone from being uneasy and alert to having peace of mind and accepting the reality of transmigration. The cruelty of apocalypse had made Xu Qing cold-blooded, but that was because he was used to seeing ruthlessness of people and the violence nature of the end of days. This new world gave Xu Qing the sunshine and a new life, so he slowly recovered his true self. Originally, he was only a college student when the apocalypse arrived.

He didn’t know what happened to the others in the orphanage, whether they were still alive in that cruel and cold-blooded world, or in other word, dead. Thinking of this, Xu Qing couldn’t help but sigh.

At that moment, he was hugged by a pair of big hands. The voice of his innocent-looking man, who was actually black and aloof on the inside, was in his ears: “Tuantuan and I are here.”

Xu Qing leaned on Li Changfeng’s body relaxedly. There was nothing negative to say about how well this man treat him. What else could he be dissatisfied with?

Tuantuan was quietly blowing bubbles, and Li Changfeng was gently stroking Xu Qing’s shoulders. The family of three and the falling white snowflakes, the scenery was both beautiful and tranquil.

***

For other families, the first day of the first month is a busy day, but for Xu Qing and Li Changfeng, it is a day to stay at home, tease the baby, and enjoy *the day of the stove.

(T/N: googled what it meant and found that the day of the stove was simply people burning fire in a stove, gathering around, converse, eat food, etc.)

Li Changfeng has made it clear to Li family that he would not be visiting them on New Year’s Eve this year, so there is no need to go. In addition, Xu Qing has no relatives here, and no one is coming or visiting. As a result, the couple got to enjoy this day leisurely.

Being idle, Xu Qing started thinking about what to do after the new year, “we don’t have an elderly person at home, so we can only take care of this child. We will start farming in spring. After planting the land, there is nothing to do, but we can’t just sit back and eat.”

Xu Qing told Li Changfeng about his ideas, “I want to open a grocery store at home, what do you think?” There is no other shop like this in the village now. If the villagers are out of oil, rice, salt tea, or the children at home want to eat snacks, adults have to go to town to buy them. Some people just dragged on for more than a month before they went to town to buy what they lacked.

Li Changfeng thought about it and felt that it was a good idea, “Then let’s use the study room for Tuantuan as the shop.”

Xu Qing shook his head, “No, that room is too small. Besides, it will have to be cleared out for Tuantuan when he grows up.”

Li Changfeng laughed and said, “How can you be so smart but silly sometimes, maybe when the child grows up, our house will be renovated again, and his room will be replaced with a bigger and better one. At that time, I’m afraid that the child would not need this little study.”

Xu Qing was dumbfounded. Not to mention what Li Changfeng said is true, who can tell whether they would still live in this house a few years later, “You’re right, I’ll listen to you. I’ll go and clean up the place. As for the supply, salt, and some cooking condiments, we can go to the town and buy them in large quantities. I can make some snacks and sell at the shop too.”

So Xu Qing and Li Changfeng transformed the study prepared for Tuantuan into a small grocery store. Li Changfeng also built three large shelves, which can store and display the goods. The small window of the grocery store facing the courtyard door has also been changed to a larger one, so that when customers come to shop, they can see the products inside easily and conduct business directly through the window.