Chapter 75

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

The ceremony on stage ended, and the dishes began to be served.

A table full of delicacies — roast suckling pig, sea shrimp, braised fish, sweet and sour spare ribs… it was truly a sumptuous spread.

Li Xiulan's three children ate with relish, grinning wide, mouths greasy, happier than at Spring Festival.

Li Xiulan, however, had little appetite; she ate only a little before she could eat no more.

Niu Chunsheng and Lin Xiaofang began coming down from the stage to toast the guests.

The scene was bustling and lively.

After toasting for a long while, they finally reached Li Xiulan's table.

"Please forgive the poor hosting, everyone — today has been just too busy! Thank you all for coming to attend my and Xiaofang's wedding!"

Niu Chunsheng wore a beaming smile, raised his cup, and drained it in one go, looking immensely pleased with himself.

Li Xiulan, along with everyone else, raised a toast to Niu Chunsheng.

Niu Chunsheng's face was already flushed with drink.

After finishing this table, he hurried off to the next one without saying a single word to Li Xiulan, not even glancing at her once.

Li Xiulan felt a pang of disappointment, yet also a measure of relief.

This was for the best; if Niu Chunsheng had toasted her alone, she wouldn't have known what blessing to say, and feared her tears would disgrace her again…

Around nine in the evening, most people had eaten their fill and some began to leave.

Li Xiulan left with the villagers, departing alone amid the joyous, festive atmosphere.

She dared not seek out Niu Chunsheng alone to speak, afraid Lin Xiaofang would see and be unhappy, and afraid she herself would lose control and cry again.

Riding back on that rickety small four-wheeler with the villagers, Li Xiulan returned home to Shangou Village with her three children.

That night Li Xiulan suffered insomnia again.

Her mind kept replaying every moment of her past with Niu Chunsheng; she clutched the quilt and wept softly, tears soaking the pillow, yet she dared not cry out loud to release it, fearing she would disturb her three children's sleep.

Fate was cruel to her — so cruel that even grief could not be freely vented.

And come dawn tomorrow, life would have to carry on as usual.

Early the next morning, she had no choice but to rise as always, make breakfast, feed the pigs and chickens, water the vegetable garden, wash clothes… a string of trivial chores consumed most of her time.

She got up at five-something and didn't finish these trifles until seven or eight.

Then, when Lin Dajun and Zhou Hongwei arrived, she had to rush off to work without pause.

Still, staying busy wasn't entirely bad; for her it was another kind of release — it numbed her nerves and kept her from thinking so many idle thoughts.

Today Lin Dajun was in especially high spirits.

He chatted with Zhou Hongwei about yesterday's wedding while working.

"My niece married a good man — yesterday's wedding, you weren't there, if you had been you'd have broadened your horizons for sure. Forty-odd tables of fine food and wine, over four hundred guests — I haven't seen a scene this grand in ages!"

Lin Dajun's face shone with pride; Lin Xiaofang was his niece, her marrying a good man made him genuinely happy, and he also felt it added luster to his own face.

"That big a scene?" Zhou Hongwei looked surprised and envious. "How much money would that cost?"

Lin Dajun said:

"I don't know the exact figure, but it had to be at least twenty or thirty thousand!"

Then he added to Zhou Hongwei:

"Work hard, and when you get married later, throw a grand wedding too — make everyone look at you with new eyes!"

Zhou Hongwei gave a dry, awkward laugh:

"How could I earn that much? I make twenty yuan a day now — if I threw a wedding that big, wouldn't I go straight bankrupt?"

Lin Dajun shot him a contemptuous look:

"You're pigheaded. Once you've saved a stake, don't stay working for me — go into business yourself. You're still young; if you've got a sharp mind, business is sure to make money! My niece's husband used to be poor as a church mouse, and now he's struck it rich in business."

Zhou Hongwei grinned foolishly:

"I'm not cut out for business — I'll just honestly keep doing masonry."

Li Xiulan, mixing mortar nearby, listened to their talk and felt very ill at ease.

She carried the mixed cement and sand over to Lin Dajun and Zhou Hongwei, said not a word, and went off to sift sand.

Wang Xiaohua had been playing around the construction site — now in the sand, now among the gravel, now with the lumber; he didn't like playing with others, just liked trailing behind Li Xiulan.

"Ma, when are you going to change my name?"

Wang Xiaohua cared more about his name change.

As for the worries in his mother's heart, he didn't understand a bit of them.

"Change to what name?"

Li Xiulan blurted out the question.

The things Wang Xiaohua had said to her at the wedding banquet last night — she hadn't taken them to heart at all.

Wang Xiaohua was sensitive by nature, so seeing his mother's reaction, his face instantly fell with grievance:

"You promised me last night — said you'd let me change my name to Wang Xiaohua."

Li Xiulan didn't take this matter to heart and didn't much care.

She felt a name was fine as long as it rolled off the tongue; there was no need to fuss over it.

"Wait till you go to school to change it — changing it now is useless, you're not even registered in the household yet!"

Li Xiulan absentmindedly replied with a sentence like that, then said:

"Go play by yourself, don't bother me!"

Wang Xiaohua could only walk away aggrieved, unable to tell anyone about the depression in his heart.

Li Xiulan thought this was just a small matter, not knowing it would have a huge influence on Wang Xiaohua's future life.

It had a great influence on his character, his values, and his outlook on life.

Taking character as an example, the name Wang Xiaohua had already deeply influenced Wang Xiaohua; if not for this name, he would not have been mocked by the other children in the Village, he would not have been introverted and inferior, and he would not have played alone.

In Li Xiulan's eyes, Wang Xiaohua was especially well-behaved and much less trouble than his two older brothers.

But she had never considered Wang Xiaohua's inner feelings.

She simply did not know how much Wang Xiaohua longed in his heart to one day be able to play normally with other children...

The days passed one by one.

Li Xiulan's new house had already built the main frame of the first floor.

Next, a layer of roof needed to be poured.

Pouring the roof was a big project, harder to deal with than the foundation.

First, support frames had to be erected; erecting support frames required a lot of timber, then rebar had to be tied, the steel bar frame prepared on the roof, and finally the cement and stones poured.

Moreover, when pouring the cement and stones, it had to be finished within one day; it could not be half done and half left, the cement and stones had to solidify together so that the entire roof would form a single whole, making cracks less likely to appear.

"Xiulan, tomorrow two tractors of timber need to be brought in; why don't you go communicate with that person and have him open the road in front of the gate, so we can let the tractors transport the timber to the Construction Site; otherwise you would have to carry the timber in one piece at a time, that would be terrible!"

Lin Dajun came again to persuade Li Xiulan to communicate well with Yang Xiaocai.

He really did not want this matter to affect the project progress.

It was just a matter of a few sentences; why make yourself suffer and tire yourself out?

However, Li Xiulan was unwilling to communicate, and she also said:

"Just have the tractor driver unload the timber at the Village Entrance; I will carry it in myself!"

Lin Dajun immediately showed displeasure on his face, making a "tsk" sound, and couldn't help but mutter:

"Just communicate a little, it doesn't cost you a piece of flesh, why do you insist on being so stubborn!"