Chapter 111

It was about ten li from Qian Town to Shangwan Village, mostly mountain roads and steep. The three of them walked for nearly an hour and a half before reaching the village entrance.

By this time, the sun had already set, and the sky was already dim.

Passing the stone arch bridge at the village entrance, a father and son were dragging trees, sneaking down from the mountain nearby. When they saw Li Heng and the others, they clearly dodged a bit. Needless to say, they must have been guilty of stealing someone else's trees.

The blockhead immediately shouted, "Uncle Liu Er, whose cedar tree did you ruin again? It's so big, it could be used to make a coffin!"

Uncle Liu Er was scared to death, shrank his head, looked around, and hurriedly stopped him, "Blockhead, this is our own tree. Don't talk nonsense."

"Bullshit! You don't even have mountains on this side. Do you think I'm stupid?" The blockhead never knew what it meant to respect the old and love the young, nor did he know what etiquette was.

With such a loud shout, a few scattered families at the village entrance poked their heads out from their houses one after another.

A boy from one of the families had sharp eyes and immediately screamed loudly, "Dad! Dad! Big brother, second brother, third brother, fourth brother, hurry out, Liu Mazi is stealing Grandpa's coffin money."

Before Liu Mazi could react, he saw five or six strong men, some holding knives, some holding shoulder poles, swarming over like a swarm of bees.

The so-called coffin board refers to the cedar tree used to build a coffin. These are usually old trees of several decades, very rare and valuable. If anyone has bad intentions and targets them, that's a big deal; people will fight you to the death!

For a time, there were shouts of fighting and killing, and the scene was extremely chaotic.

The blockhead stood at the bridgehead with his hands on his hips, laughing wantonly, which made Li Heng and Yangcheng's hair stand on end.

Li Heng didn't mean to blame the blockhead. Uncle Liu Er and his son were repeat offenders. They didn't just steal trees in the mountains; they also stole from fields, soil, and even houses. The Li family once lost 8 pieces of cured meat, which was their handiwork. Fortunately, a neighbor saw it and testified, so they got it back.

With the help of the faint light, there were old men by the roadside carrying hoes and winnowing baskets to pick up dog poop, and villagers leading yellow cattle up from the river ditch.

There was also a string of half-grown boys laughing and rolling iron hoops on the road, shouting and chasing each other, which was very lively.

The further they walked into the village, the more people they saw on the road. By the time they reached the crossroads, it was already bustling with people. Every household had finally cleared up and was gathering together to chat and gossip.

"Yo! Our village celebrity is back."

"College student, do you still need a wife? Third Aunt's eldest daughter is planning to get married."

"Great writer, why are you empty-handed? You have so much money you can't spend it all, bring back some wedding candy or cakes."

"..."

Meeting many neighbors and elders head-on, Li Heng grinned and laughed all the way, his mouth almost stiffening.

After finally getting away and returning home, he bumped into his second sister eating melon seeds as soon as he entered the door:

"Second sister, when did you get back?"

Li Lan sat on the threshold in a grand manner, looked him over, and said, "Your complexion is ruddier than last time. You came back with Xiao Han, right?"

Li Heng poked his head into the house. No one was there, so he immediately asked in a low voice, "About this...?"

Li Lan interrupted, "You haven't reached the point of marriage yet, so I won't talk about it outside."

Li Lan's thinking was very simple. Her younger brother already had a flaw in his private morality because of Chen Zijin. If it were to spread in the future that he had broken up with the Xiao family girl, his reputation would probably be even worse. So, not to mention spreading it outside, she was too busy helping to hide it.

After all!

After all, this fickle younger brother had been shouting Song Yu's name in his dreams. She felt that Xiao Han might not necessarily become her sister-in-law 100% in the future. So, she had to guard against it in advance.

Li Heng nodded in appreciation, reached into his pocket, felt around, and only found two small bills, which he stuffed to her.

Li Lan looked disgusted.

Li Heng said, "That's all there is. Isn't it enough to buy two bags of five-spice melon seeds?"

Li Lan put the money in her pocket, "Then it's better not to give it. You're dismissing a beggar."

Li Heng reached out, "Then give the money back to me."

Li Lan turned her head to the side and continued eating melon seeds.

Putting down his luggage and walking around the house, he asked, "Where are Mom and Dad? Why aren't they home so late?"

Li Lan said, "Eldest sister just gave birth, they went over there to help."

Li Heng had a strange look in his eyes, "Gave birth? You're an educated person, how can you use that word?"

Li Lan didn't bother to answer, but instead asked, "Have you eaten?"

Li Heng sat on the other side of the threshold and shook his head, saying he was so hungry.

Li Lan didn't react when she heard this. She ate another 20 or so melon seeds before clapping her hands and standing up, ready to cook, but she didn't have anything nice to say:

"You didn't even get a free meal at the Xiao family's house. It's a waste of the face Mom gave you. Useless!"

Li Heng was speechless, "I ate wontons on the way back."

Li Lan acted as if she hadn't heard, took a kitchen knife, climbed onto the stove, and started cutting the cured meat, and she picked the best part of the pig's hind leg to cut.

Li Heng felt dizzy. He finally understood. This sister was probably greedy again, using the excuse of cooking for him to target the cured meat.

Taking advantage of the time his second sister was cooking, he took out one hundred yuan, wrapped it in red paper, and prepared to go to his eldest sister's house.

Before leaving, he tentatively asked, "Did eldest sister have a son or a daughter?"

Li Lan didn't look back, "A boy."

Was the firstborn a boy?

Then the historical trajectory hadn't changed, and he felt relieved once again.

Li Heng asked, "Have you been there yet? Do you want to go see together?"

Li Lan didn't answer. It was obvious she didn't like her brother-in-law and didn't want to go to her eldest sister's house.

Thinking about it, it seemed that in his previous life, she only went to her eldest sister's house 5 times in total. The first three times were for the weddings of her eldest sister's three children, and the other two times were when her eldest sister was sick.

Anyway, this second sister was a weirdo. She didn't even go to her eldest sister's wedding, so he didn't expect her to go now.

Sometimes he pondered that this second sister was clearly born into the wrong family. If she had been born into the Chen family, she would have been the best match for Chen Xiaomi and the others.

Eldest sister's house wasn't particularly far, about 700 meters away, next to the village committee, and a neighbor across the road from the Women's Director.

This was also the reason why Comrade Tian Run'e often came over to walk around and slowly became good friends with the Women's Director.

"Li Heng is back."

"Hey, Auntie, are you busy?"

Although becoming famous satisfied his vanity, it was also a real hassle. Neighbors greeted him enthusiastically on the road, so he had to stop and respond.

Walking and stopping, this one-and-a-half li distance was walked out with the feeling of a Hollywood red carpet. It was so damn time-consuming and saliva-consuming.

Just as he reached the village committee, he saw Liu Juan. The girl was lowering her head to wash loaches.

Li Heng poked his head to look and found the bottom of the bucket was pitch black and full, so he immediately asked, "Did you catch them in the field yourself?"

Suddenly hearing a voice, Liu Juan, who was fully focused, was startled. When she looked up and saw it was him, she was startled again.

Look, the bucket flipped over, and hundreds of loaches ran all over the road with the water.

The Women's Director, who was picking long beans nearby, saw this and hurriedly threw down the beans to scoop up the loaches. While scooping with both hands, she scolded her daughter:

"You can't do anything right, and you're afraid when you see a man. What else are you good for?"

Seeing Li Heng laughing on the side, the Women's Director joked, "Li Heng, you like teasing her so much, why don't you just marry her and take her home? I don't even want your bride price, I'll give her to you for free."

"Mom!" Liu Juan stamped her feet, both angry and anxious.

"Mom what? I finally caught some loaches and you can't even wash them right. You want a bride price looking like that? I don't have the face for it."

The Women's Director didn't feel sorry for scolding her daughter; she scolded her to death.

Liu Juan couldn't listen anymore and hid back in the house.

After spending quite a while, Li Heng helped catch the loaches back before saying goodbye and walking into his brother-in-law's house.

His brother-in-law's surname was Zou, full name Zou Shusheng. He didn't know how he got that name, but it sounded weird anyway.

The Zou house was like most in the village these days: three wooden rooms, the middle one was the main hall, the two sides were bedrooms, and behind the main hall was the kitchen. Further back was the courtyard. In the direction of the mountain, a row of pigsties and cattle pens were built separately with wooden fences, and dogs, chickens, ducks, and geese were raised nearby.

Just walking into the courtyard, Li Heng smelled the fragrance of chicken, which looked like the food his eldest sister was eating during her confinement.

Although the Zou family's economic situation wasn't great, his parents-in-law never treated his eldest sister badly. Whether it was chicken, duck, goose, or meat, they always prioritized his eldest sister's appetite, and the old couple would at most pick up some soup and water on the side to eat.

So even if intellectuals like Li Jianguo and Tian Run'e saw it, they couldn't pick out a single fault, and they recognized this in-law from the bottom of their hearts.

Seeing Li Heng visit, Zou Shusheng hurriedly moved a stool over, greeting him cautiously:

"Third brother is back for vacation."

This "third brother" was what he called him following Li Yan.

"Yeah, brother-in-law, don't worry about me. I come here often, don't be so polite."

He didn't know why, but even though the other party was clearly five or six years older than him, he always felt uneasy when seeing him.

It was like this in this life, and it was like this in the previous life. This situation didn't improve until he was in his 40s.

The Zou couple was very warm, busy serving tea and water, and busy finding precious melon seeds, peanuts, and candies from the drawer to entertain him.

How could they not entertain this brother-in-law from the wife's side well?

This person was about to be a college student, and he was also a great writer who was rumored to be god-like in the ten miles and eight villages, the kind who could earn huge sums of money.

Of course, for the Zou couple, the most critical thing was that this brother-in-law didn't put on airs. Li Lan didn't come on the wedding day, but this brother-in-law came, and every time he came back from school, he would come to the house to walk around. For them, he gave them enough face.

Li Heng called the other party "in-law father" and "in-law mother." After exchanging a few pleasantries, he finally saw his eldest sister Li Yan in the bedroom. Li Jianguo and Tian Run'e were guarding the side, teasing their grandson.

"Eldest sister, how do you feel after giving birth?" Li Heng asked with concern.

"Younger brother is here. You've become better-looking than before. Is the school food better?" Li Yan's speech was always unrestrained. Her focus was on whether her younger brother had gained weight, lost weight, tanned, or whitened.

With a ruddy complexion and seemingly having gained quite a bit of weight, Li Heng felt his eldest sister should be living quite comfortably. He took the red envelope out of his pocket and handed it over:

"Sister, I came home too late and didn't buy anything. This is a small token of my heart. Keep it and buy some diapers or clothes for my big nephew."

He didn't say buy milk powder, because people in the countryside these days didn't have this concept and didn't do this at all.

If a mother didn't have enough breast milk, the first thing she would do was find a sheep to squeeze milk to drink, or share some from other mothers in the village.

Having received money last month, now they had to receive a red envelope again. The eldest sister and the Zou family felt quite embarrassed, but finally, under the persuasion of Li Jianguo and Tian Run'e, they stuffed it into their pockets.

However, the mother-in-law wasn't stingy. Having just recovered from a serious illness, she immediately ran to the backyard, caught a big goose and an old duck for Li Heng, saying that he had finished the college entrance exam and needed to nourish himself.

How precious were old ducks these days? They were laying eggs. Li Heng didn't take them, but in the end, he couldn't refuse and reluctantly accepted the urea bag containing the goose.

Maybe because of his personality, Li Heng wasn't naturally interested in babies and always felt they were a bit ugly. He liked children over one year old.

But in order not to chill his eldest sister's heart, he still did his best, chatting in the bedroom for two or three hours before going home.

It was already very late when he got home. The cured meat on the table was very eye-catching. Under the instigation of his second sister's eyes, Li Heng still picked up his chopsticks and ate a bowl of rice.

If he ate, his second sister could eat openly.

Glancing at the big vegetable bowl full of chili-fried meat, Tian Run'e didn't say anything, but while going to the backyard to look at the pigs and cattle, she looked up at the cured meat hanging on the stove for a long time.

Finally, she sighed: This dead girl is really a spendthrift, she cut at least a jin and a half, and she cut the best part.

In fact, ever since Li Heng earned money by writing, the Li family's life had undergone earth-shaking changes, and they had become the object of everyone's envy in the village.

Tian Run'e was originally the daughter of a wealthy family, and she was generous with money, so she wouldn't live a frugal life anymore. She spent money generously when it was time to spend it.

It was just that she was a bit helpless about her second daughter's style. If she wasn't mistaken, the cured meat in the bowl just now should have been reduced in production. It was estimated that a small half had already entered her stomach before it was served.

After eating, Li Heng took a bucket and took a refreshing shower by the well in the backyard. It was hot in summer, and this kind of mountain spring water was really damn satisfying to pour on his body. He poured more than ten buckets before he was satisfied.

Around 11 o'clock at night, Tian Run'e called her second daughter and youngest son to her side and said a big thing:

"You are all grown up and need independent rooms. In more than ten days, your grandmother and your second aunt will be back, and the house won't be able to accommodate them. Your father and I have discussed it and plan to build a new house. What do you think?"

Yangcheng subconsciously asked, "I know him. He's also a handsome guy that everyone loves and flowers bloom for. How could I not know him?"

"Mom, is the new house red brick or wooden?"

Tian Run'e said: "If we build it, of course we'll build a red brick house. That way we won't be afraid of fire, and it will be more respectable."

"Respectable" was the first time it was mentioned by his own mother. In the past years, she had lived in embarrassment and rarely mentioned the word "respectable."

Now that her son and daughter were promising, her spirit and appearance had undergone earth-shaking changes, and her speech and actions had returned to the style of a daughter from a wealthy family, which was worlds apart from ordinary rural women in the village.

Li Heng asked: "How big will it be?"

Tian Run'e looked at her husband, signaling him, the head of the family, to say something. The latter understood, held his wife's hand, and said:

"We plan to build two floors, four rooms on each floor. That way, when your two aunts come back in the future, they will have a place to stay. Your mother and I have already inquired. If we build a kiln to burn red bricks ourselves, about 2,000 yuan will be enough."

Only 8 rooms? Mom and Dad take one, one study, Grandma and Second Sister take one each, that's four rooms gone. It's too few! Too few! In the future, when my wife comes back, my aunts won't have a place to rest.

Li Heng happily fantasized in his heart and immediately raised both hands in favor.

Li Lan agreed even more readily than him and promised to stay during the summer vacation to help make adobe bricks.

The so-called adobe brick is the initial appearance of red brick before it enters the kiln for firing.

In these years, few people buy bricks to build red brick houses. They all build kilns to burn them themselves. After emptying the mud in the fields, they can also be used to make ponds to raise fish.

After spending half an hour talking about building the house, the topic went directly to the big event of the college entrance exam. When they learned that he had applied to Peking University as his first choice, Li Jianguo, Tian Run'e, and Li Lan were stunned for a long, long time.

Tian Run'e thought for a while and asked her son again: "Manzai, are you really going to the capital this summer vacation? To see Chen Zijin?"

Li Jianguo and Li Lan looked over.

Li Lan also curled her lips and choked him: "Be careful not to be able to eat and walk around, and choke yourself to death."

Second sister was speaking in riddles, satirizing him for hanging onto Chen Zijin while flirting with Xiao Han. Be careful that one day the truth comes out, and you won't even know how you died?

Li Heng ignored his sister's words and nodded, saying: "I have to go once. I have to give Chen Zijin an explanation. I've already bought the train ticket."

Li Jianguo agreed with him going. Only then would he have the responsibility of a man. He asked: "What day is the ticket?"

Li Heng said: "The 15th."

Seeing that she couldn't stop her son, Tian Run'e, even though she was a bit unhappy, didn't say anything more. She was just worried about his safety, fearing that he would suffer if he ran to the capital alone.

However, when she learned later that he was taking the blockhead with him, she finally relaxed a bit and wasn't so resistant.

After thinking about it, Tian Run'e got up, took a letter out of the box, and said warmly: "Zhao Jing's family is not doing well. She might not make it through this summer vacation.

Manzai, since the blockhead is going with you, why don't you go to Gansu from the capital? Represent your father and me to visit her. I will contact them and let them come to the station to pick you two up."

He was familiar with that place in Gansu. In his previous life, he had been to Zhao Jing's house several times, also representing his mother. He took the letter, read it, and agreed.

Li Jianguo originally wanted to go and visit, but when he thought of Zhao Jing's feelings for him in the early years, and then thought of so many things at home to be busy with, he gave up the idea.

The family meeting lasted until the early morning before dispersing. When returning to the second floor, Li Heng asked his second sister: "Is your work settled?"

Li Lan said confidently: "Yes."

"Where?"

"Don't ask, you'll know when the time comes."

Li Heng was speechless: "Then when are you going to work?"

Li Lan said: "I'll leave in September."

September?

Li Heng recalled it, but it was a bit blurry. He couldn't remember which month his second sister went to work.

However, he wasn't worried about his second sister.

This sister had a hundred hearts in her body, she was smart, and none of the boys who pursued her had simple family conditions.

Of course, the simple ones had already been screened out by her.

If he wasn't mistaken, the reason she wasn't in a hurry to work during the summer vacation was probably that she wanted to use this time to think clearly about which one to accept?

Because once accepted, she couldn't go back on her word, and her personality wasn't the kind to go back on her word. She definitely wanted to get married in one step.

Facts proved that in her previous life, she was various ways of hanging onto her licking-dog husband and torturing him, but once she agreed and got married, she was still quite devoted, and the two loved each other for a lifetime.

Just as they were about to separate, Li Lan called him back from behind, "What on earth are you thinking? How dare you provoke both Chen Zijin and Xiao Han?"

Li Heng blinked: "Didn't I learn it from you? Didn't you also have a bunch of people following behind you?"

Li Lan habitually raised her fist, subconsciously wanting to hit him, but she retracted it halfway, "You compare yourself to me? Compare yourself to me? Am I as despicable as you?

Before I agreed to anyone, I never took a red thread from anyone, never ate a free meal from anyone, and never had any ambiguity with anyone. Otherwise, with my means and appearance, would I have to worry about 16 yuan for clothes? I would have been wearing gold and silver long ago."

Hmm, it seemed to be the case. In this regard, even if he didn't want to admit it openly, he still admired her quite a bit in his heart.

Li Heng stretched: "My business is more complicated. I can't explain it to you in a few words. Don't worry about it for now. It's getting late, rest early."

Li Lan squinted at him, pushed the door, and walked in.

Coming to his compartment, Li Heng sat quietly for a while. Although the space inside was a bit small, it wasn't stuffy because of the Xuefeng Mountain.

After emptying his head for ten minutes, he took out a stack of letters from his backpack.

There were love letters written to him, love letters written to Song Yu, and a reader's letter from Huang Zhaoyi.

He put his own love letters aside, too lazy to read them.

There were more than 20 love letters for Song Yu. He opened them one by one and looked at the names of the letter writers, but didn't read the content. After discovering that they were all small fries, he put them aside too.

Well, he just read these for novelty and didn't take them to heart, because he was confident enough in Song Yu.

Reader's letter.

Li Heng muttered and opened Huang Zhaoyi's registered letter.

As usual, it was still 3 pages of letter paper. The other party seemed to have deliberately preserved this tradition.

What was different from usual was that there was a photo mixed in.

This was the first time.

The woman in the photo looked to be in her 30s, dressed particularly fashionably and exquisitely, with the demeanor of a wealthy family and a very elegant temperament.

Thinking about it, it made sense. She was a teacher, a Peking opera performer, and a part-time literary critic. Her family background was probably extraordinary. How could she not have temperament?

The first two pages of the letter paper followed the old rules, exchanging literary insights with him.

On the third page of the letter paper, in addition to sharing trivial matters of life, she specifically explained the reason for sending the photo: saying that she was going to perform at the Chang'an Grand Theater and the Mei Lanfang Grand Theater in the capital in July. If he was interested, he could remember her appearance and could find her.

Li Heng read the third page of the letter paper carefully twice and always felt something was wrong. A thought suddenly popped into his head: Is she using the photo to test the waters?

Could it be that after more than ten letters, she had developed strange thoughts about him invisibly?

There were not many entertainment activities in this era, or almost none, and most women's views on love were particularly pure, pursuing spiritual resonance rather than material things.

Therefore, it was not uncommon for feelings to arise through letters. He couldn't be sure for a while if this was really the case.

Or was he being sensitive?

Overthinking?

But no matter what, after weighing it, he decided to cut off contact in time to avoid unnecessary trouble.

After thinking about it, for the sake of Chief Editor Liao, he still wrote a reply.

In the letter, he tactfully told the other party that his wife at home was in poor health and his youngest daughter was about to get engaged, so he had to stay by her side to take care of her during the summer vacation and had no time to go to the capital to appreciate her performance, which was a pity.

Well, everyone was a person of taste and status. He wrote this letter as the last one.

If Huang Zhaoyi really had other thoughts, he believed the other party could also figure out the meaning and automatically cut off contact.

After writing the letter, Li Heng took the time to tidy up the compartment.

Actually, there was nothing to tidy up. His mother helped him clean regularly, and it was very clean inside.

It was just that he had his own habits. Certain books and certain items were more comfortable in certain positions and easier to use.

2:02.

It was getting late.

Li Heng sighed that it was good to have a watch. He took off the watch, put it aside, and fell asleep.

PS: Seeking subscriptions! Seeking monthly tickets!

(More to come...)

(End of chapter)