Chapter 188: Jiang Xiaoyan Goes Berserk

At the Dongshan Provincial Capital Station, Li Ye carried two luggage bags on his back, held three handbags in his hands, and even had a satchel hanging around his neck, looking like a bloated snowman as he exited the sleeper carriage.

Watching Wen Leyu arranged it quite well when she sent him to the train, letting Li Dayong and others share a little for Li Ye, and he would arrive in Dongshan easily.

But the hard-seat carriage where Li Dayong and the others were was crowded and difficult to get on, so it was better for Li Ye to carry it himself, and he handled it himself.

However, after getting off the train, Li Ye naturally wouldn't be stupid enough to handle it himself. Carrying more than a hundred pounds on his body not only made him sway when walking, but if he bumped into a thief, he would be disgusted to death.

"Dayong, Dayong, come over and help me, eh eh, here! Where are you running?"

Li Ye saw the one-meter-nine-tall Li Dayong from afar, but after shouting twice, the guy ran faster and faster, and ran out of the gate in a blink of an eye.

"Damn it~"

Li Ye just cursed, and Fu Yingjie and Yan Jinbu and others came over. Two boys took one luggage bag from Li Ye each, and three girls worked together to carry Li Ye's two handbags, leaving only the lightest satchel on Li Ye's neck.

Han Xue spoke quickly and teased: "Li Ye, stop shouting, Li Dayong went to chase that Lin Qiuyan. You didn't see her look just now, looking at us as if looking at enemies."

Li Ye said unhappily: "Why is she giving you guys a cold face? Do you owe her?"

Han Xia smiled and said: "You are the one who lit the fire and didn't care. The foreign exchange certificate was given by you, right? Lin Qiuyan was bought a coat by someone, and she was shivering in just a sweater, can she not be angry?"

"What? I bought a mink coat and still have to look at her face?" Li Ye mocked: "Is he, Li Dayong, a fool? Won't he take off his cotton jacket and give it to the girl to wear?"

"Dayong did take off his cotton jacket, but she wouldn't wear it! I think Dayong will suffer in the future!"

"Suff

"Hahahaha~"

Everyone was laughing and looking down on Li Dayong, but Hu Man, who wasn't at the scene, said: "If it's like you all say, and Lin Qiuyan doesn't think she's in the wrong, then she must think we are the ones in the wrong. Wouldn't she just vent all her anger on Li Dayong?"

"Is she not in the wrong?"

"That's hard to say. That piece of clothing of hers might really be quite expensive."

A few of the classmates couldn't easily judge whether Lin Qiuyan was right or wrong.

But Li Ye said indifferently: "Reasonably speaking, she isn't wrong, but from a human perspective, she lacks human warmth."

Li Ye had never thought Lin Qiuyan's actions were wrong, but he didn't identify with her style of conduct from the bottom of his heart.

Li Ye and the others followed the crowd out of the train station, just in time to see Lin Qiuyan climb into a jeep, while Li Dayong stood dejectedly by the roadside, eating a mouthful of the jeep's exhaust.

Li Ye smiled and leaned over to Li Dayong's side, laughing: "Yo, that's quite the refined young lady! Dayong, you've picked up a treasure!"

Li Dayong glanced at Li Ye, lowered his head, and said in a muffled voice: "Brother, stop making fun of me. I feel really terrible right now."

"If it hurts, hold it in," Li Ye said coldly. "Did I not tell you that you have the confidence to choose a girl? How did you end up picking something like that?"

Lin Qiuyan had put on airs of official authority at the beginning, and later gave Li Dayong the cold shoulder in public; it really made Li Ye feel disgusted.

This is 1983, after all!

A grown man is still standing and hasn't knelt down yet!

In this day and age, girls rarely lose their temper with young men in public.

Watching Wen Leyu's background is good enough, right? Better than Lin Qiuyan's, right?

But when Li Ye is with Watching Wen Leyu, eighty percent of the time he is enjoying her gentleness and consideration. In Watching Wen Leyu's own words: "I've never even spoken loudly to you, what are you afraid of me for?"

Even a girl like Watching Wen Leyu thinks it's wrong to lose her temper with the boy she likes at will. Lin Qiuyan is four years older than her—has she lived all those years in vain?

But Li Dayong said: "Brother, she's actually quite good usually. Today's incident isn't her fault either; that piece of clothing was her absolute favorite..."

Li Ye looked at his best friend, who was feeling dejected yet still defending Lin Qiuyan, and could only let out a helpless sigh.

The person involved is confused, while the bystander is clear. Actually, it's not that the person involved doesn't want to be clear; it's just that he isn't willing to jump out of the situation.

"..."

"Beep beep beep~"

A burst of horn sounds suddenly rang out not far away, startling the silent brothers.

Li Ye and Li Dayong looked up and saw it was actually that familiar Dongfeng 140 truck. The driver was Old Huo, and in the passenger seat was Li Ye's cheapskate father, Li Kaijian.

The 140 truck stopped in front of Li Ye. Old Huo jumped down from the driver's seat and said cheerfully: "I had a flat tire on the way here, I almost missed the time!"

Li Kaijian looked Li Ye up and down twice, then nodded with satisfaction.

He hadn't lost weight, and had even grown a little taller.

A satisfied Li Kaijian waved at Jiang Xiao and the others: "Hurry up and get in the car, I'll take you home."

"Thank you, Uncle."

"What's there to thank? It's on the way."

Several students climbed into the truck bed and found that it was lined with straw mats and two quilts. They were immediately happy, spreading them out and covering themselves, huddling together for warmth.

The Dongfeng truck drove all the way back to Qinghe County. They had to drop off Li Ye and Li Dayong in the county town first, before going to deliver Han Xia, Yan Jinbu, and the others to the countryside.

When they reached the entrance of Li Ye's house, his two younger sisters, Li Ying and Li Juan, cheered and ran up from far away.

In the half-year Li Ye had been gone, the two little girls had missed this brother very much.

Because when Li Ye was home, the family could improve their meals every few days, but after Li Ye left, they could only improve them once a week.

Although this standard of living was still much higher than that of the neighbors, if there's meat to eat, who would want to eat vegetables?

More importantly, Li Juan's pocket money had plummeted.

Their mother, Han Chunmei, was really too stingy; she was stingy even with five cents a week. How could she be as generous as their brother?

With Li Juan's pocket money reduced, her younger sister Li Ying was also miserable, because she had to constantly change where she hid her money, racking her brains to outwit her sister Li Juan. Otherwise, who knew when the pocket money she saved up would be "stolen by a mouse."

"Brother, you're back! Was it cold on the road?"

"Not cold, not cold. Come help move things. That gray handbag is a gift for the two of you! Don't take the wrong one."

Li Ye saw the eager looks in the two girls' eyes and quickly let them move the things. A big bag of gifts should make up for the hardship of the two girls waiting at the door in the middle of winter for a long time.

Their grandmother, Wu Juying, also came out from the door, staring at her eldest grandson, looking him over. Only when she saw he hadn't lost weight or gotten darker did she set her mind at ease.

The two girls busied themselves taking Li Ye's several bags of luggage into the house, and then waited for their grandmother to come and distribute them.

Even though Li Ye said the gray handbag was theirs, the two girls didn't dare to act presumptuously without their grandmother's word.

Li Ye touched the two girls' heads with heartache and opened the luggage to distribute it himself.

"This is for Grandma from Teacher Ke, this is for Grandfather... this is for my two sisters..."

"Hmm, this brother of yours really dotes on you. There's so much stuff here you could open a grocery store. Go divide it yourselves!"

Once Wu Juying gave the word, the two girls happily began to divide their new clothes, new shoes, and various small gifts.

However, when Li Ye took out that mink coat, before he could say it was for their eldest sister, Li Yue, Li Kaijian snatched it up and said: "At least you have a heart, buying your mother such a good thing."

Li Ye: "..."

Grandmother Wu Juying said faintly: "Kaijian, why are you in such a rush? Are you afraid I'd fight your wife for it?"

【Not... didn't you all ask for my opinion?】

Jiang Xiao jumped off the Dongfeng truck, waved to Master Huo to thank him, then turned around, shouldered her bundle, and walked quickly toward home.

The reason she was often distracted on the way was that she had been worrying about her mother, Chen Jinhua.

More than a month ago, Chen Jinhua said she had learned enough characters and would go to the capital to see Jiang Xiao. As a result, Jiang Xiao waited and waited but didn't see her.

Jiang Xiao found it a bit strange, because according to her understanding of her mother, since she had written to her, she should have been able to go to the capital before the new year.

Although Chen Jinhua couldn't read, she had a plan in her heart, and she had never failed to keep her word.

So in the last few days, Jiang Xiao had been feeling restless.

Jiang Xiao passed by the entrance of the village and saw a few old men hiding in a sunny spot to keep warm. She quickly greeted them politely.

"Second Uncle, Third Grandfather, are you keeping warm here?"

"Oh, is that Xiao back? Oh my, you're finally back! Your mother is sick!"

"Pfft~"

The bundle on Jiang Xiao's back fell to the ground.

"When did my mother get sick?"

"More than half a month ago," an old man said. "In the last half-year, in order to save money to see you, your mother wove baskets at night and went to the market during the day. She walked fifty or sixty miles a day. Even a person made of iron couldn't hold up..."

Jiang Xiao asked anxiously: "Didn't I entrust someone to buy a bicycle for my mother? Why is she still walking to the market?"

"Oh, you child, you don't understand. You bought a bicycle, but would your mother get a turn to ride it? If you had told her you had money, would your mother still need to save up? Wouldn't she have gone to see you long ago?"

"..."

Jiang Xiao felt the world spinning. She ran toward home stumbling, falling twice, and didn't even notice that the skin on her palms had been scraped off.

"Hey, girl, your bundle."

Jiang Xiao's Third Grandfather shouted, but how could Jiang Xiao hear him?

The old man had to walk over to pick up the bundle for her. Curious, he opened it and sighed: "This child has a good heart, she even knew to bring new clothes for her family. Sigh..."

"Mother~"

"Mother, I'm back."

Jiang Xiao ran all the way home. She didn't even have time to greet her grandparents in the house. She pushed the door open and entered Chen Jinhua's room, only to see her mother curled up on the kang, motionless. Tears immediately flowed down.

"Mother, I'm back! Why aren't you answering?"

Jiang Xiao was so scared her soul was almost gone.

When she threw herself onto the kang and touched Chen Jinhua's forehead, it was burning hot.

"Hoo~"

Jiang Xiao felt a sense of relief, but immediately after, the anger in her heart exploded uncontrollably.

She turned around and roared at her grandparents: "My mother is like this, why didn't you send her to the hospital?"

"..."

Jiang Xiao's grandparents were stunned. Having lived to such an old age, when had they ever been roared at like this at home?

Her grandmother glared and said: "You dead girl, who are you talking to?"

Jiang Xiao's momentum didn't diminish: "I'm talking to you! She's burning up like this, why didn't you take her to the hospital?"

Her grandmother was forced back a step by Jiang Xiao's toughness and defended herself: "Who doesn't have a headache or a fever? Just endure it, sweat it out, and won't it be fine? When I was young, that's how I..."

Jiang Xiao was so angry she wanted to curse, but she felt she didn't even have the strength.

Country folk don't go to the hospital for a headache or fever, that's true, but she's already delirious from the fever, why are they still so stubborn?

Chen Jinhua is the pillar of the family! If Jiang Yougui were sick like this, just see if they'd go to the hospital or not.

"Xiao, Xiao is back!"

Chen Jinhua on the bed finally woke up faintly.

Jiang Xiao couldn't care about being angry with her grandparents anymore. She turned back, grabbed Chen Jinhua's hand, and said: "Mother, I'm back. Let's go to the hospital now, okay?"

Chen Jinhua forced a smile and said: "No need, I'll just sweat it out. Don't waste money..."

Jiang Xiao didn't say a word, dragged her mother over, and started putting clothes on her. Her grandparents were rambling on outside, but she couldn't hear a word of it.

At this moment, Third Grandfather arrived at the Jiang house with Jiang Xiao's bundle.

"Take a look! These are the New Year's goods your granddaughter brought for you. If you ask me, for the child's sake, don't go too far..."

But before Third Grandfather could finish, Jiang Xiao rushed out of the house.

She snatched the bundle, tore it open in a few movements, then stepped over to the stove used for heating in winter, lifted the stove lid, and threw the scattered clothes onto it.

The bundle was too big and the stove opening too small, but once good clothes are ignited, how could they remain intact?

(End of this chapter)