Chapter 202: Father and Son Meet for the First Time in the 1980s

Li Juan returned from cutting pigweed, but Li Long didn't let her cook the pig feed; instead, he told her to take the rubber band and go play with friends. He could understand Li Juan's anxious mood at this moment, so he decided to handle the cooking of the pig feed himself.

Li Juan looked at the complete rubber band in her hand, smiling happily, yet she still wanted to finish cooking the pig feed before leaving, until Li Long ordered her to depart. A little girl should have the joy and happiness of a little girl; although most children in this era were like this, Li Long felt that since he wasn't working in the fields, he should do more chores around the house.

Moreover, what did this small amount of work amount to for him?

After Li Long repeatedly instructed Li Qiang not to use the slingshot to hit people, Li Qiang took the slingshot to show off to his friends; this was their moment of glory.

Li Long chopped the pigweed Li Juan had cut, poured it into the pot, added bran and oil residue (the leftover from pressing oil sunflower seeds, not the residue from rendering pork fat), brought it to a boil, stirred it evenly, extinguished the fire, and then poured it into a bucket.

Actually, in his previous life, feeding piglets this large wouldn't have been so troublesome; one would simply mix pig feed, cornmeal, and oil residue directly with boiling water, stir evenly, and feed them.

Now, boiling was necessary mainly because if the pigweed wasn't cooked thoroughly, the piglets might get sick after eating it.

Next was waiting for the pig feed to cool down, then feeding the pigs while simultaneously preparing dinner.

Over the next few days, Li Long continued going out with Tao Da in the afternoon to set nets and selling fish in the morning. A week later, he sold the hides in the big courtyard, half of the deer antlers, and most of the fritillaria bulbs, including the water rat skins and musk pods, ultimately giving Tao Da another forty yuan.

He himself ended up with over three hundred yuan.

He was one step closer to becoming a ten-thousand-yuan household.

He kept some deer antlers and fritillaria bulbs for medicinal use; after all, deer antlers were considered a sentient substance in medicine, providing great tonification, while wild Northern Tianshan fritillaria was an excellent remedy for relieving coughs and asthma.

A week later, Li Jianguo received a telegram from their hometown.

"Calculating based on this date, Father and Mother will arrive in Wucheng the day after tomorrow, reaching there at six in the morning," Li Jianguo said.

"Then I'll go to Wucheng tomorrow to wait; after picking them up the morning after tomorrow, we'll return to our county town, and you can bring the horse cart to the county to meet us then," Li Long decided immediately, deciding not to catch fish today.

"But do you still recognize Father and Mother?" Li Jianguo asked somewhat puzzled, "Should I go pick them up while you wait with the horse cart in the county?"

"No need, no need, how could I not recognize them?" Li Long smiled; although in this life he hadn't seen his father for over ten years, in his previous life he had actually met him several times later on, so the old man's image remained firmly in his mind.

"Alright then, how will you get there tomorrow?"

"Ride the bicycle," Li Long said very naturally.

"Then where will you leave the bicycle once you reach Wucheng?"

"There's a place on the street to park it; remember that big courtyard I'm still managing? I'll just leave it there," Li Long explained, "Tomorrow morning I'll tidy up the room here, air out the quilts and such, and once Father and Mother arrive, I'll move to live at the horse stable."

"Fine," Li Jianguo said while rolling a Moho cigarette, "It's not far anyway; just come over for meals at mealtime every day."

"Good," Li Long thought of eating and immediately turned to Liang Yuemei, saying, "Sister-in-law, don't throw away those pickled vegetables in the jar. In a while, I'm going into the mountains and will need to take those pickles with me; I'll be staying there occasionally, and living only on wild vegetables isn't good..."

"Alright," Liang Yuemei was naturally happy that Li Long liked her homemade pickles, "Now that we have a hand-pumped well at home, we don't need the jar for water anymore, so the pickles won't be discarded."

In previous years, at this time annually, any unfinished pickled vegetables would be dumped out, the jar scrubbed clean to hold water; since fetching water was quite troublesome each time, people usually prepared two jars of water to save effort.

Now that there was a hand-pumped well in the courtyard, using water was very convenient, available whenever needed by pumping, so naturally there was no need to store so much water.

Li Long went to the front of his own room and said to Liang Yuemei again:

"Sister-in-law, when Father and Mother come to stay here, they might say some unpleasant things—some matters will become clear gradually. Don't take it to heart initially..."

Liang Yuemei thought Li Long was worried about potential mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts arising in the family, so she smiled and said:

"Without Xiao Long, rest assured, they are my father-in-law and mother-in-law; naturally, I will treat them with filial piety..."

"Sister-in-law, I'm not talking about that; I know you will definitely treat Father and Mother well, it's just that Father and Mother will likely favor me, and then... you'll understand when the time comes; some things they aren't clear about either, so there might be misunderstandings; I'll try my best to explain clearly..."

Feeling that the more he explained the less clear it became, Li Long gave up explaining and said to his elder brother instead:

"Big Brother, I'm not being overly suspicious, but if Father and Mother really do anything inappropriate at that time, please say something."

After saying this, he returned to his own room.

Both Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei were somewhat baffled.

Only because Li Long had experienced his previous life did he know that his father and mother felt guilty toward him, which was why they would "spoil" him and displace their anger onto others.

Fortunately, living conditions in this life were now better, so perhaps no misunderstandings would arise?

Li Long specifically informed Tao Da as well, asking to pause the fish-catching for two days.

Tao Da had received a considerable share of money and wasn't so eager to catch fish anymore; he smiled and said that once Li Long's parents arrived, they would catch some big fish to honor the elders.

Li Long rode his bicycle to the county town, stopped briefly at the middle school, and when Gu Gu Xiaoxia finished her class, he told her about this matter.

"Then... when the weekend comes, I'll go see your parents," Gu Gu Xiaoxia said after thinking for a moment, "As a junior..."

"Then think it through clearly," Li Long smiled, "If you go see them, they will definitely treat you as their daughter-in-law; as long as you can accept that, it's fine—I'm telling you in advance, my father and mother are very traditional rural people."

Gu Gu Xiaoxia blushed deeply and said nothing.

Li Long arrived at the big courtyard, put down his bicycle, then went to the station to buy a ticket, and took a bus to Wucheng.

Li Jianguo had already told Li Long which train number to look for; he inquired at the station and learned he needed to arrive early to wait, so he booked a room at the Bayi Guesthouse and went to sleep early.

The next day, he got up before dawn; seeing it was only just past five o'clock according to the guesthouse clock, he went to eat breakfast, checked out of the room, and came to wait at the exit gate.

Li Long had grown somewhat taller, nearly one meter eighty; standing at the exit gate now, he felt somewhat like a crane standing among chickens. At least most of the people waiting here weren't as tall as him.

At this hour at Wucheng South Station, daylight hadn't yet broken, and the wind was quite strong; Li Long didn't feel particularly cold, but nearby others walked back and forth, occasionally stamping their feet.

By past six o'clock, the sky had begun to lighten slightly; first, a burst of noisy sounds came from inside the exit gate, causing nearby people to immediately crowd toward the railing. Li Long stood right beside the railing, stepping on the horizontal bar beneath it, ensuring he could get a first glance at anyone emerging.

He merely glanced at the first people squeezing out and ignored them; the combination of his father and mother was easy to recognize—one nearly one meter eighty tall, the other one meter fifty—and none of those ahead matched these heights.

When more than half the passengers had emerged, Li Long immediately spotted his parents' figures: his father carrying a large canvas backpack on his back, his mother with a cloth bundle slung over her arm, the two walking slowly through the crowd, with a hint of confusion and fear visible on their faces. A surge of sorrow rose in Li Long's heart—the images in his memory did not include his father and mother at this age; they were always older, more aged.

Although his father and mother were around sixty years old at this time, in Li Long's impression, they were indeed still "young."

Li Long squeezed his way to the exit gate and shouted toward his parents:

"Father! Mother!"

In his memory, he had always called them this way.

Hearing the voice, Li Li Qing Xia suddenly lifted his head, scanned around, and saw Li Long.

"Without Xiao Long, is that Without Xiao Long?" Li Li Qing Xia responded; seeing Li Long nodding vigorously, he immediately lowered his head excitedly and said to Li Long's mother, Du Chunfang:

"Chunfang, Without Xiao Long has come to pick us up!"

Du Chunfang, who had been walking with her head lowered, suddenly heard that her youngest son had come to pick them up; she abruptly lifted her head, and the moment she saw Li Long, tears flowed from her eyes.

Seeing his mother crying made Li Long feel uneasy as well; he squeezed through the crowd to reach his parents, first taking the bag from Li Li Qing Xia's hand to carry, then taking the bundle from his mother, saying:

!.

"Dad, Mom, let's go; I'm taking you to get breakfast."

"What breakfast? That costs money. We brought sesame cakes, the kind you like best from Old Wang's shop in Chen Market..." Mother reached for the bundle to take out the cakes.

"No, no, no," Li Long said, taking both the bag and the bundle in his hands as he walked outward. "You've been riding for several days; you must be tired. You need to eat something hot right now..."

"We drank hot water on the bus. Those seats were spacious enough to sleep in at night. Don't worry about us..."

Along the way, his father, usually so "mischievous," hardly spoke a word, while his mother talked continuously, and everything she said was about preventing Li Long from spending money.

Li Long ignored his mother's protests, leading them to a breakfast shop west of the station. He ordered four meat buns and a plate of pickled vegetables. Knowing his parents did not drink milk tea, he also ordered two bowls of rice porridge.

Millet porridge is good for the stomach, but in this era, it was not suitable.

Seeing they could not stop their son, Li Li Qing Xia and Du Chunfang obediently sat down to eat—they had never eaten in such a place before and felt somewhat restrained.

Li Long had already eaten, but seeing the two of them eating somewhat uneasily, he ordered a bowl of porridge for himself to eat along with them, asking about their journey and the situation back home as he ate.

In truth, he knew very little about the situation in their hometown; once he asked, Li Li Qing Xia proudly opened up:

"The land was allocated long ago. We planted wheat on our few plots, so we'll be eating white flour by autumn. Your eldest sister and second brother also have their own land; they planted sweet potatoes, cabbage, and lots of wheat. We can eat our fill, but there's no way to make money... Those relatives back home, seeing the money you remitted, are wondering how you struck it rich!"

"What riches? Just catching fish to sell," Li Long said vaguely after taking a sip of porridge. "In Xinjiang, we certainly have enough to eat. With the land allocated this year, we'll harvest plenty of grain by year's end. We have enough white flour for a year, plus rice, and there are fish in the reservoir. But making money? That's definitely not easy."

Du Chunfang stopped eating after one bun, pushing the other toward Li Long, and suddenly said:

"You don't look thin, so I'm relieved. You didn't suffer any hardship at your eldest brother's house, did you?"

Hearing his mother ask this, Li Long knew she was again worried that his sister-in-law might treat him poorly. He smiled and said:

"What hardship could I suffer? My eldest brother and sister-in-law wouldn't even let me work. The family was allocated ten mu of land, and I only went out there once. They raise eight pigs, and I only fed them once. I ride the bicycle alone, running off to the street whenever I'm free. We eat meat every day. What hardship could there be?"

The waitress behind the counter rolled her eyes: Keep bragging.

But Li Li Qing Xia and Du Chunfang believed it. Du Chunfang nodded and said:

"That's good then... As long as you didn't suffer..."

Li Long thought to himself that this doting knew no bounds. He was such a grown young man, yet not working in the fields or feeding pigs was considered "good"?

Well, there was no way to change his mother's mindset for now, so Li Long said:

"My eldest brother and sister-in-law treat me extremely well; don't let your imaginations run wild. Now that life at home has finally improved a bit, I brought you here just so you could enjoy some leisure for a few days, wander around the house, spend some time with your grandchildren, and see what rural life is like here in Northern Frontier."

"We aren't imagining anything," Li Li Qing Xia said cheerfully. "Seeing you've grown so big, we know life must be better. If only we'd known, we would have brought those few cousins of yours along..."

"Bring them here for what? This is also the countryside. Bring them to farm? Would they be willing to farm?"

"Well... no, they wouldn't be willing. If it's just farming, they might as well do that back home," Li Li Qing Xia said with a dry laugh. "They want to work as laborers."

"If becoming city dwellers through labor work were that easy to find, my eldest brother and I would have done it long ago," Li Long whispered. "My eldest brother even spent money to get me a job at a candy factory, but I didn't do well, and they sent me back..."

"Did your sister-in-law blame you?" Du Chunfang asked urgently.

"No," Li Long said, feigning ease. "My sister-in-law said that if I couldn't do the work, I should just stay at home; we don't lack for food."

"That's good then."

... Li Long was truly speechless.

After breakfast, Li Long wanted the two of them to rest at the guesthouse, but Li Li Qing Xia and Du Chunfang adamantly refused. So, Li Long bought tickets for three people, and they took a bus all the way to Ma County Bus Station.

Upon exiting the bus station, Li Long saw Li Jianguo waiting there, holding the reins of a horse-drawn cart.

"There's even a horse-drawn cart?" Li Li Qing Xia asked with some surprise. "Is this cart borrowed from someone?"

"No, it's our own," Li Jianguo said with a smile. "Dad, Mom, are you tired? Get on; there are bedding mats laid out on the cart. You can sit and rest, or even lie down."

"Our own horse-drawn cart?" Li Li Qing Xia beamed upon hearing this. "Farming in Northern Frontier is really impressive; you even have your own cart now. But this must have incurred quite a debt, right?"

"No, Without Without Xiao Long..." Li Jianguo started to speak, but Li Long cut him off:

"My eldest brother and I used the money we earned catching and selling fish this winter to buy the horse and cart from the production team."

"Good, good, good..." In those days, a horse-drawn cart was no less impressive than a car in later generations. Possessing such an asset made Li Li Qing Xia feel very proud.

Talking about this back in the hometown village would surely be something unprecedented!

Li Long winked at his eldest brother; Li Jianguo smiled, for he understood perfectly.

(End of Chapter)