Chapter 429

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Li Xiulan boarded the minivan home.

The minivan was crowded, the passengers chatting and laughing, talking about family matters and idle gossip.

Li Xiulan looked out the window, appearing absent-minded.

She was still thinking about the Shenpo.

The Shenpo was actually a fake; should she tell Wang Zhanggen about this?

After thinking it over, she finally decided it was better not to tell him.

Should they still continue with the grave relocation?

Relocate anyway.

Although the Shenpo was a fake, the grave site likely affected their family's water division; it was probably true.

Better to believe it exists than to believe it doesn't.

Anyway, relocating the grave to change the feng shui couldn't be wrong.

Before she knew it, the minivan returned to the village entrance of Shangou Village.

Li Xiulan carried some items she had bought at the market into the house.

Wang Zhanggen was guarding the old television set, watching TV.

"What did the Shenpo say?"

Seeing Li Xiulan return, he immediately asked.

This showed how much he valued the matter.

"The Shenpo said to find a Geography Master to look at the grave site."

Li Xiulan told the truth.

However, as she spoke, a hint of strangeness appeared on her face.

It was the expression of guilt caused by her concealing part of the facts.

Fortunately, Wang Zhanggen did not notice this.

"I said it must be a problem with the grave site's feng shui!"

Wang Zhanggen slapped his thigh, as if confirming some major matter.

Then he hurriedly said:

"Someday we'll invite that Geography Master we hired before to come, and ask him to help find a feng shui treasure land; if that really doesn't work, even moving back to the original place is better than this place!"

Li Xiulan nodded in agreement:

"Alright, I'll go handle it someday, but..."

"But what?" Wang Zhanggen asked.

"We have no money left; our savings are all spent. Now I only have fifty-odd yuan left on me."

Li Xiulan took out the wrinkled fifty-odd yuan from her pocket.

Years of savings, one illness, sent them straight back to before liberation.

Fortunately, they had two sons working outside, and they even ran companies and made a lot of money; otherwise, the treatment costs for Wang Zhanggen's illness would probably not be affordable even if the two old people sold themselves and their land deeds.

"Why not ask Dashan and Erhai for some?"

Wang Zhanggen said with a serious expression.

At this moment, he really wanted to light a cigarette for himself.

But all the cigarettes at home had been hidden by Li Xiulan.

He had just had surgery not long ago and couldn't smoke or drink.

"During the days you were hospitalized, they gave quite a lot of money."

Li Xiulan said this sentence, clearly unwilling to ask their two sons for money again.

"How much did they give?"

"The money at home is used up; the rest was provided by them."

Li Xiulan answered like this.

Deliberately blurring the amount.

She was afraid that if Wang Zhanggen learned that their eldest son and second son had contributed over three hundred thousand yuan in total, he would be shocked enough to have a recurrence of his cerebral infarction.

"Then forget it, don't ask them, lest they say we are a burden to them." Wang Zhanggen said this, then added: "Besides, I care about face; where is the principle of parents asking their children for money? If they truly have filial piety, they will surely take the initiative to send money home."

Wang Zhanggen indeed cared very much about face.

To ask his own sons for money by lowering his pride, he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Last year, Wang Dashan and Wang Erhai promised to send back three hundred thousand yuan for the Spring Festival; that wasn't something he asked for, but rather Wang Dashan took the initiative to propose it himself.

"Then should I go borrow some from someone else?"

Li Xiulan cautiously proposed this suggestion at this time.

"Borrow from whom?"

Wang Zhanggen was unwilling.

They had three sons at home, and two of them were working outside.

If they still needed to borrow money from others, wouldn't they be laughed at?

"Go borrow from Zhang Zhongtian — he's got money, and he's easy to talk to," Li Xiulan said.

Wang Changgen shook his head:

"Don't we still have several bags of rice straw at home? Mill it into rice, take it to town to sell in a few days, should fetch a hundred yuan or so."

He also said:

"Borrowing money from others — that's absolutely out of the question!"

Li Xiulan had no choice but to accept.

Because she knew Wang Changgen cared deeply about face.

His illness hasn't healed yet; she mustn't upset him.

Otherwise if his condition relapses, the three hundred thousand plus in medical expenses spent before would all go down the drain.

"Fine then, I'll go mill the rice in a bit."

After eating lunch, Li Xiulan pushed a handcart from the construction site.

She used the handcart to haul three bags of dry rice straw to the rice milling house to mill rice.

The rice milling house was in the Shangwei section of the village.

It's not Spring Festival or a holiday now, so not many people come to mill rice.

The rice milling house's machine wasn't even turned on.

Li Xiulan went to call the rice milling house's owner over; only then did she start the machine for her.

The sound of milling rice was loud, just like a tractor, chug-chug-chugging.

Dust filled the interior.

Dry rice straw was poured into a large hopper of the rice milling machine, and through vibration slowly sifted downward; at the bottom two outlets, one sifted out white rice, the other pale yellow broken bran.

Freshly milled rice carried a hint of warmth; sticking a hand into the rice bag felt quite comfortable.

Three bags of rice straw yielded one and a half bags of rice, one bag of bran.

Li Xiulan paid the rice milling fee, then loaded the rice and bran onto the handcart and pulled it home.

Back home, she unloaded the bran but left the rice on the handcart.

The bran would be used to feed chickens, not sold.

The rice would be taken to town to sell tomorrow morning, so she didn't unload it — because tomorrow morning she'd still have to move the rice out to the highway side to wait for a ride, and keeping it on the handcart made transport easier.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Wang Xiaohua had long since arrived at the county town.

He was still looking for a rental.

He hadn't even eaten lunch, just kept viewing houses.

He didn't have high demands for the housing environment; his only requirement was that it be as cheap as possible.

So far, most of the rentals he'd seen wanted four to five hundred yuan a month.

Don't be fooled by this small county town's size — rental costs and such are about the same as Guangzhou's urban villages, pretty expensive.

The rentals Wang Xiaohua had viewed all had decent space and good lighting — just a bit pricey.

He actually just wanted to find a cheap one; environment and such, no demands.

Three hundred yuan a month was his budget ceiling; if he could find a two-hundred-yuan rental, even better.

After all, he only had a hundred-odd yuan on hand — a hundred-plus was his own, another five hundred his mother gave him.

"This room, two hundred fifty yuan a month — what do you think?"

Diligence is rewarded.

Wang Xiaohua finally found a rental under three hundred yuan.

This rental was very old, on the first floor, just a single room, tiny, under ten square meters — put a bed in and there's hardly any space left; no air conditioner or anything, so in this scorching summer he'd have to buy a small electric fan himself to cool down.

"Not bad. I'm only renting for two months, okay?"

Wang Xiaohua said frankly.

"Only two months..."

The landlord was clearly not too willing.

He hoped for a long-term lease to save a lot of trouble.

"Uncle, I just finished the college entrance exam; when summer vacation ends I have to go to university — can't do a long lease. Please cut me some slack, okay?"

Wang Xiaohua sincerely explained his situation.

"Alright, alright."

In the end the landlord uncle agreed.

He could tell Wang Xiaohua was an honest kid from the countryside.

Besides, this room is actually hard to rent out — in this small county town, unlike big cities, such a tiny single room generally no one would rent.

Getting a little something is better than leaving it empty all the time.