Chapter 163: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 163: Returned

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Because of his eldest brother's matter, the estrangement between Wang Xiaohua and his father deepened another layer.

He sometimes even wondered, if he didn't have such a father, what would his life become?

When one's father's generation not only fails to become a guide, but becomes a stumbling block obstructing at every turn, and one sees the situation clearly yet is powerless to change anything — what a powerless, what a desperate feeling that is.

However, Wang Xiaohua did not become discouraged because of this; on the contrary, he became even more full of drive. He urgently needed to strive to break free from the various shackles of his original family, to change his own fate.

He transformed this hatred into motivation; he just thought, if in the future he had the ability, he must help his two elder brothers, help pull them out of this quagmire as well.

In the blink of an eye, the weekend quickly passed.

Wang Xiaohua and Wang Erhai both went to school to study.

The home once again became cold and quiet.

Every time they went to study, Li Xiulan would feel some reluctance to part.

Watching the children grow day by day, yet having less and less time to interact and communicate, she even began to feel the children had become somewhat strangers.

Especially Wang Xiaohua — he was always full of hostility toward his own father. She didn't know what the reason was. In Li Xiulan's view, Wang Zhanggen's treatment of the children, though somewhat simple and crude, had good intentions at its starting point. Sometimes there was truly no need to make the relationship this stiff.

Li Xiulan wanted to mediate between the father and son, but didn't know how to do it. Although she had lived a great many years, she simply did not know how to handle this kind of thing.

If she had the ability to handle this kind of thing, then back when she partnered with Niu Chunsheng to open a shop, she could have handled Wang Zhanggen's misunderstanding, could have continued partnering with Niu Chunsheng to run the shop, and fate would not have become as bitter as it is now.

Now she has to go do masonry work with Wang Zhanggen every day, while Niu Chunsheng, it's said, has recently expanded the catering business into the county town, and even bought a house and a car in the county town.

The gap in life has become wide as a chasm, unreachable — yet in reality, it was merely a small matter's handling method, a different notion in thinking about problems, a different perspective in viewing things — just these tiny gaps.

Just tiny gaps, gradually magnified by the passage of years — one year, two years, three years, ten years… finally expanding silently in between. By the time you suddenly awaken, abruptly look back, you only then discover that you and others have already fallen this far apart.

This is perhaps what is called fate.

Time, in the blink of an eye, passed another week.

This day was the great joyous occasion of Zhang Zhongtian's son's wedding.

The whole Shangou Village's villagers all came to Zhang Zhongtian's home to eat the wedding banquet.

Zhang Zhongtian's home was decorated red and bustling, incomparably festive.

They even specially invited a wedding host to come preside over the wedding ceremony.

It could be seen that Zhang Zhongtian had made full preparations, given full sincerity.

As the bride's parents, Li Jianguo and Zhang Huijuan were fairly satisfied with this.

This wedding was entirely handled by the adults.

As the protagonists, Zhang Zhiqiang and Li Xiaohe, instead did nothing much.

They put on wedding formal wear, and were arbitrarily arranged.

Whatever the adults told them to do, they did.

When it comes down to it, they are all still very young, and don't understand anything.

This marriage was contracted — bustling and bustling, muddled and muddled.

Perhaps they still don't quite understand the meaning of marriage now.

They only knew they needed to get married, and then they got married.

Wang Zhanggen and Li Xiulan ate below the stage, watching the temporary stage built above. Zhang Zhiqiang and Li Xiaohe, this pair of newlyweds, under the wedding host's guidance, bowed once to heaven and earth, twice to the high hall, husband and wife bowed to each other, drank the cross-cupped wine — the entire ceremony was carried out extremely well.

Wang Zhanggen felt deep envy at this; his eyes flashed with light as he said:

"If my son's wedding could also be held like this, I would die without regret."

Li Xiulan beside him poured cold water:

"Don't even think about it. How much money would this cost? Their family's Zhang the Party Secretary has money; our family is poor — we can't afford such a banquet!"

Li Xiulan's words were very reasonable.

The wedding Zhang Zhongtian arranged for his son — it's not something just anyone can afford.

Just the home's decoration alone, the stage built outside the courtyard — cost no small amount of real gold and silver.

Then there were the banquet dishes — all big, substantial dishes. A single table cost nearly a thousand yuan. In a rural flowing-water banquet, this already counts as extremely high-end!

Then hiring the wedding host, hiring the makeup artist, and purchasing the formal wear — also cost no small amount of money.

As for exactly how much was spent in total, only Zhang Zhongtian himself knows.

But one thing is certain: holding this wedding down, without several ten thousand yuan it couldn't be done.

"We're just poor right now. Who knows, maybe in the future our son can earn even more money than that Zhang Zhongtian!"

Wang Zhanggen said this sentence very unconvincedly.

In his heart, he felt somewhat unbalanced.

Why was it that when he was young he went to the city to struggle hard, yet in the end returned in a sorry state?

While Zhang Zhongtian never went to the city to work from beginning to end, yet just by being elected Village Committee Secretary, he took advantage of the situation to scoop up this much money?

He heard that Zhang Zhongtian is now also a Party Member, deeply valued by the Town Government. Sometimes the Town Government has meetings involving rural areas, they even invite him to attend — don't know if it's true or false.

But one thing is certain: his relationship with the leaders on the Town Government side is indeed not bad.

This banquet — several people from the Town Government came to attend.

Additionally, he also invited Niu Chunsheng to attend.

Li Xiulan's corner of her eye's peripheral light looked toward the left front.

That familiar back figure — on his left sat a woman with a very well-maintained figure, and by his hand he led a little girl.

That is Niu Chunsheng.

Niu Chunsheng seems never to have aged; he still wears a face full of spring breeze, just as young and vigorous as in those days.

His wife Lin Xiaofang is also very young, completely unable to tell she is already thirty-plus years old.

And their daughter Niu Linxin, counting carefully, is now around ten years old, already a pretty and lovely little girl.

When Niu Chunsheng first came here, he merely exchanged polite greetings with Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen, then he and his family were arranged by Zhang Zhongtian to go sit at the table with the Town Government leaders.

Wang Zhanggen and Li Xiulan, on the other hand, were at a table with other villagers.

The distance between the two tables seems not far, but in reality it is separated by a chasm.

Li Xiulan watched Niu Chunsheng's family of three talking and laughing, happy and warm, and her inner heart could not help but feel some emotion.

However she also comforted herself in her heart; actually these years she has also lived not bad, at least no longer as bitter as before.

Most important is that her three sons, among them two have become promising; the eldest son went to be a soldier, the youngest son tested into the whole high school's fifth place — these are all very glorious things.

Other families don't have such promising sons.

Thinking it over carefully, aside from money where she cannot compare to Niu Chunsheng, in other respects she does not fall short by much.