Chapter 368: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 368: Encountering Niu Chunsheng Again

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

The next day Li Xiulan rose early.

She washed clothes, cooked meals, fed the chickens and fed the dog, doing her daily chores as usual.

The family no longer raised pigs; ever since they secretly slaughtered those two pigs last winter, they hadn't raised any more.

She heard that getting caught privately slaughtering pigs really would incur a fine.

Fortunately, when they privately slaughtered last winter, no one in the village reported them.

It's also possible Zhang Zhongtian gave them a heads-up; after all, when they killed the first pig to make cured meat, Zhang Zhongtian came to buy several dozen jin of pork from them.

Later, when they slaughtered the second pig for the Spring Festival, Zhang Zhongtian came again and took several dozen jin of pork.

He said home-raised pork tastes fragrant, while pork from outside raised on feed is rank and unappetizing.

After finishing the housework and eating breakfast, Li Xiulan planned to go to town to buy some daily necessities.

As it happened, today was market day, so taking a vehicle was convenient.

Wang Zhanggen did not go along; he stayed home to start work.

Today was the day to dig the foundation; the excavator had already been hired, and he had to supervise on site — if they dug in the wrong place, that would be bad.

Li Xiulan took the opportunity to catch a few chickens to sell in town.

The family raised over a dozen chickens.

Now the eldest son and second son worked away from home, and the youngest son boarded at school, so the chickens at home couldn't all be eaten; that's why she caught some to sell.

It also counted as earning a bit of pocket money.

Wang Zhanggen had told her several times to stop raising so many chickens, but she refused to listen, saying that now they didn't raise pigs, if they didn't raise that many chickens they couldn't finish the leftover rice and dishes left at home every day.

Li Xiulan carried a cage of chickens and waited by the highway for a while, then a passenger minivan came driving up.

The driver was an old acquaintance; seeing Li Xiulan bringing live chickens to the market, he didn't mind at all.

He nimbly got down from the driver's seat, helped carry the chicken cage to the trunk, and stuffed the whole cage of chickens into the trunk.

"Won't it be too stuffy in the back? Don't let my chickens get suffocated!"

Seeing the cramped trunk space, Li Xiulan couldn't help but worry.

The driver flashed a brilliant smile:

"Rest assured, your chickens won't suffocate; if they do I'll compensate you. It's not a long trip — we'll be in town in a bit. Hurry up and get in!"

Li Xiulan got in the vehicle.

The driver drove forward and picked up a few more passengers.

A seven-seat minivan was crammed with over a dozen people before it headed for town.

Before long, the minivan arrived at the town street entrance.

The driver had just stopped the vehicle when passengers climbed out of the minivan one after another.

They were all middle-aged and elderly people.

Now the countryside has no young people left, and no children either.

So those who come to the market are all middle-aged and elderly.

Unlike before, when market day meant whole families dragging along, lots of children, bustling and lively.

The current market is far quieter than before.

Even on market day, after ten o'clock in the morning there are hardly any people left.

If it's not market day, it's even quieter — the whole day the street won't have more than a handful of people.

A small town is like this: population drains away, and vitality drains away with it.

Li Xiulan carried a cage of five chickens to the roadside to sell.

Every chicken was beautiful, clucking from time to time, full of spirit — at a glance they were fine chickens.

But there weren't many people coming to ask the price.

After all, in the countryside, which household doesn't raise a few chickens?

These purely natural, pollution-free farm chickens are a rarity in the city — one can sell for over a hundred yuan.

In the countryside they're not rare at all.

They can't even finish eating their own; who would come buy?

She squatted for a good while, and Li Xiulan only sold one.

And that was after dropping the price by twenty yuan.

Four remained, and they just wouldn't sell.

Watching the crowd at the market dwindle further, Li Xiulan didn't hold much hope anymore.

She planned to wait another half hour; if they still didn't sell, she'd stop selling.

She'd just take them back and keep raising them.

Right then, a middle-aged man, leading a young girl, appeared before Li Xiulan.

"Auntie, how much for your chickens?"

Li Xiulan looked up and saw the middle-aged man before her wearing a suit and leather shoes, somewhat portly, his figure run to fat, his face already plump.

But she still recognized him at once.

"Chunsheng?"

Li Xiulan blurted out that name.

The name she had been dreaming of these past few nights.

"You are..." Niu Chunsheng looked Li Xiulan up and down for a good while, only then recognizing her: "Xiulan?"

"It's me, Chunsheng, long time no see, almost didn't recognize you!" Li Xiulan's face broke into a simple and radiant smile.

As she smiled, her face was full of wrinkles, especially the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, which were as distinct as if carved by a knife.

"I almost didn't recognize you either, I haven't been back to Town in a long time, been busy working in County Town!"

Compared to Li Xiulan's aged and weathered appearance, Niu Chunsheng was beaming with vitality.

Although he was only a few years younger than Li Xiulan, in terms of image he seemed like two generations apart, the difference was too great.

One can only say, life's circumstances really make people vastly different, just like plants growing in different soils.

Good soil lets plants flower and bear fruit.

Bad soil, even if they barely manage to flower and bear fruit, it is extremely difficult and painful, even at the cost of draining their own nutrients, even at the cost of their lives.

"Is this your daughter? She's really pretty!"

Li Xiulan's gaze fell on the young girl beside Niu Chunsheng.

The girl's face was childish, judging by her looks she was at most twelve or thirteen.

But she was very delicate and tall, about 1.65 meters in height.

Her not yet fully developed body was very slight, her two legs thin like chopsticks.

"Yes, my daughter!" Niu Chunsheng replied with a smile, then said to his daughter: "Lin Xin, this is Aunt Xiulan, when Dad was young we did business together, counts as old friends, quickly greet Aunt Xiulan!"

"Hello Aunt Xiulan!" Niu Linxin greeted obediently, very reserved.

Li Xiulan hurriedly smiled and nodded, praising:

"Your daughter is really sensible!"

But Niu Chunsheng said:

"Don't be fooled by how sensible she is now, she gives me no end of worry at school, she's in second year of junior high this year, spent so much money on tutoring classes for her, and her grades still won't go up, if this continues, who knows if she'll even test into high school next year."

Li Xiulan then said:

"Let nature take its course, my three kids never went to any cram schools, but they all got into high school."

Niu Chunsheng disagreed in his heart, studies are so competitive now, how can you manage without cram schools?

But he didn't refute anything, just casually asked with concern:

"Are your three kids all doing alright?"

Li Xiulan replied with an honest smile:

"All doing pretty well, Eldest Brother returned from military retirement not long ago, started his own company, Second Brother stopped studying after high school graduation, followed Eldest Brother to work."

"What about Youngest Brother? I remember your Youngest Brother's studies were pretty good."

"He's in Senior Year Three now, taking the college entrance exam this year."

Niu Chunsheng then said: "Time flies, in a blink of an eye your youngest son is in Senior Year Three, but speaking of which, Senior Year Three is most critical, if conditions allow, still better to get him some cram school, with cram school he might test into a good university."

This was Niu Chunsheng's well-meaning suggestion, he sincerely hoped Li Xiulan's child could escape poverty and live a good life.

But Li Xiulan said:

"What cram school, no need, he ranks first in the whole school every exam, what cram school would he need?"

Niu Chunsheng immediately showed surprise:

"For real? That amazing?"

Li Xiulan's face was full of pride:

"Of course it's real, you can go check County No. 1 High School, my son is called Wang Xiaohua, the Honor Roll is full of my son's name."

Niu Chunsheng couldn't help but envy, if only his daughter's studies were this amazing!

But he only envied, didn't feel any jealousy.

He sincerely felt happy for Li Xiulan:

"Xiulan, your son studies so well, you'll have good fortune in the future!"