“Jinbao23JinbaoYan Chu's nickname, refers to valuables in general; precious; darling; sweetie, my dear, come out for dinner.”
After Yan Chu absorbed the memory, he heard a knock on the door and soft words. He responded and got up from the Kang79Kanga heatable brick bed.
The room was relatively simple. The portrait of the chairman pasted on the wall was yellow and damp. It seemed that it had been for some years. The simple wardrobe had a Chinese antique brass lock. In addition to the wardrobe and Kang, there was still a desk with several books on it. The books seemed to be a junior high school curriculum.
He put on the new blue and white striped Breton shirt at the bedhead and a pair of jeans with extra-wide trouser legs. There was no mirror in the room. But according to the original self’s memory, Yan Chu knew what he looked like now. Even if he wore such ordinary, rustic clothes, he was a handsome child carved from white jade.
Speaking of which, except for the Honest Man’s world, the appearance of the original self he possessed seemed to be not bad.
He did not know if this could be considered as a comfort, thinking about the problems the world had to face and the request made by the wisher, who was the original self, Yan Chu felt that he was not old yet, and he had a migraine again.
“One by one, this is going to be against God. Your little uncle hasn’t got up for dinner yet, and you dare to stretch out chopsticks. Brats, be careful to let the wolf take it.”
Jin Zhanhua stared at her grandchildren on the table and said fiercely.
“Why hasn’t Little Uncle got up yet?”
The little granddaughter, who always remembered to eat or not, sucked her drool. The family ate chicken today, and Grandma started stewing it last night. It was delicious and looked appetizing.
The three-year-old girl was not very sensible. If scolded, she cried, and if praised, laughed. She wanted to eat when she was hungry and wanted to sleep when she was sleepy. That was a normal reaction. Even if she was scolded by the old lady several times, she often forgot after sleeping.
“Bah, your little uncle is so tired from studying every day, you think he is just as idle as all of you, just open his mouth and wait for dinner?”
The old lady reached out and gently hit her granddaughter on the forehead. The little girl covered her head and pouted. She waited for dinner without opening her mouth. She still remembered to help her eldest sister and second sister pick up the waste paper and empty bottles every day.
When Yan Chu came out of the room, he saw such a scene.
The old lady sat at the head of the table, and the seat on her left was still vacant. In addition, one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven breastfed babies, with the oldest nine years old and the youngest three years old, all were sitting in their seats waiting for dinner. Their eyes lit up when they saw Yan Chu coming out.
“Mom’s Jinbao, darling.”
The old lady had a stern face. When she saw her little son coming out, a smile bloomed across her face. She was as benevolent as she wanted to be.
“The toothpaste is squeezed for you. Mom will pour you water. When you finish brushing your teeth and washing your face, we’ll have dinner. Mom will keep the chicken drumsticks for you.”
Jin Zhanhua looked at her little son, who she loved dearly. This son was the child she got with her life. In other words, her son also earned her life. Among the three sons, who could love him if she didn’t?
The old lady’s bias towards little uncle’s children had become a common occurrence. Their parents did not say anything, and the children could not even say anything.
Yan Chu looked at the loving old lady in front of him, feeling a little moved.
“Mom, you give it to the big eggs and the big girls. Let them eat first.”
There were four grandsons and three granddaughters in the family. The grandsons were respectively called Dadan21DadanBig Egg, Erdan20ErdanSecond Egg, Sandan19SandanThird Egg, and Sidan18SidanFourth Egg, and their granddaughter was called Dani17DaniBig Girl, Erni16ErniSecond Girl, and Sanni15SanniThird Girl. Of course, each child’s full name was not this. These were nicknames. It was a convenient way to call them.
“That’s not right. You didn’t even sit down to eat, so how can the little rascals use chopsticks? There’s no such rule. Besides, we’re not hungry.”
The old lady stared at her grandchildren, and the older one swallowed their saliva and nodded. The little granddaughter Sanni wanted to say that she was hungry, but her eldest sister covered her mouth and nodded her head.
“Look, they are not hungry.”
The old lady lied with her eyes open.
Their life was so easy now. The food consisted of white rice, rice noodles, and many steamed buns. When there was a famine, she had only one meal a day, and she never starved to death. She just fed them one meal in the morning, so how could they be hungry so fast? It was not that the greedy worms in their stomach were fighting and wanting to eat chicken. She could not get used to this bad problem.
Yan Chu knew that the old lady could not change her temper at once. He had to go out with a mouthwash cup and make a quick decision.
“Jinbao has gotten up? It’s almost noon, but it’s indeed early enough.”
The old-fashioned quadrangles also did not have a bathroom. Every household used a toilet, which was at the quadrangle’s corners. They had to go to the bathhouse dozens of meters away to take a bath. Usually, once a week and a half months, the whole family went together and helped rub each other’s backs. As for washing their faces and teeth, they went to the open space of the yard with a basin and mouthwash cup. The water for brushing teeth and washing their face also be used to water the flowers and plants.
When Yan Chu went out, he met the young woman of another family who lived in the quadrangle. The other party watched him get up and wash after lunch. She said with a smile, but the disgust in her eyes was evident.
Yan Chu knew that he had a bad reputation. He took a mouthwash cup and smiled at the young woman. He went straight to the small vegetable field distributed to the Yan family in the yard. It was quick and small. He planted some green onions, ginger, garlic, also chili, and such.
“Such a child, the old lady shouldn’t spoil him. Old Yan’s eldest son and second son are better than him.”
The young woman whispered to her mother-in-law with her mouth curled.
“You’re not wrong. Don’t let Old Lady Hua hear you, or do you think she’ll give you a face? Besides, it doesn’t cost you money to spoil her son. Do you want to be the boss?”
The elders were more or less biased. The mother-in-law wondered whether the little daughter-in-law was beating her. She stared at her, taught her a lesson, robbed the stewed noodles in her hand, and walked towards the house. Every family had eaten at this point.
The little daughter-in-law, who got scolded by her mother-in-law, did not think she was wrong. She indeed spoiled her son. The fashionable jeans Yan Chu wore today cost more than 30 Yuan in the department store, nearly half a month’s salary. Whose family was to lose money like that? She also wanted to buy one for her son, but she was reluctant to give up the money.
The little daughter-in-law thought bitterly, her son was more intelligent than Yan Chu, but Old Lady Hua spoiled him. Look at her little son now. What virtue was she able to indulge in the future?
She spat at the Yan family and looked at nobody around. Then she closed the door and entered her own house.
Six families lived in the small quadrangle, each with their own thoughts. It was inevitable to have contradictions in living together. Such things were a common occurrence.
The protagonist of the matter, Jin Zhanhua, might not know what others say about her behind her back, but she felt that she did it right and had her own reason. When it came to the source, you had to start when the original self was not born yet.
Jin Zhanhua’s parents died early and brought a younger brother to live with her uncle. It was the same in the city and countryside, and every family could not eat enough at that time. In that environment, Jin Zhanhua had to be tough to protect herself and her brother. It was hard to avoid the reputation of being a shrew. Half of it was true, and half of it was her aunt who wanted her to work for the family for a few more years, which corrupted her.
But Jin Zhanhua grew up well. Many young guys could not walk straight when they looked at her. Among the candidates, Jin Zhanhua chose Yan Huacheng with the best family financial situation, the original self’s father.
Yan Huacheng also had no father or mother, but his parents left him three big tile-roofed houses. His father also left him a job in a machinery factory. These days, the workers’ positions are “hereditary.” Each had their own task, and there was nobody to spare, passed on to the son and grandson, secure employment with a good salary.
Yan Huacheng ate to his fill, and his family was not hungry. In addition, his house was empty. He agreed to bring Jin Zhanhua to raise his brother-in-law and pay for his brother-in-law’s study, pampering him like his own son.
In the second year of marriage, they had a son named Yan Dabao, and in the fourth year, they had their second son named Erbao. After that, Jin Zhanhua did not give birth again. The family of five lived a beautiful life.
Unfortunately, after more than ten years, Yan Huacheng passed away because of an accident in the factory. At that time, Jin Zhanhua felt that her sky had collapsed and immediately fainted. She was sent to the hospital and found to be pregnant.
At that time, Jin Zhanhua was thirty-eight, and her oldest son was seventeen. That night, Jin Zhanhua had a dream about her husband, who died early. He told that her son in her stomach would protect her on his behalf in the future.
Jin Zhanhua finished her dream, wiped her tears, stood up, took care of Yan Huacheng’s funeral, and discussed Yan Huacheng’s pension and the handling of his job with the factory.
Yan Chu was born prematurely. In the middle of the night, one month before the due date, Jin Zhanhua suddenly felt a stomach ache. It was raining heavily that night. Initially, she thought it might be prenatal pain. She planned to go to the hospital after the rain was light. Who knew that the pain did not stop. She immediately called her brother and two grown-up sons and took her to the hospital in the rain.
The whole family just helped her put on her raincoat and supported her on the bicycle, then the roof of the room where Jin Zhanhua lived had collapsed. If she had not come out at that time, she would have died.
At that time, Jin Zhanhua thought that her son in her stomach was indeed here to protect her, as her husband said. With this idea, Jin Zhanhua could not help but be biased. Jin Zhanhua felt that her bias was very reasonable. If the youngest son had not come out at the right time, she would have died long ago, and her money was honored to him. Did she need to ask others for advice on how to spend it? Including the chicken sent by her brother, she wanted to give two chicken drumsticks to her son. What’s wrong with that? If the daughters-in-law refused, they should ask their brother for chicken drumsticks for their children.
Anyway, with her brother as her backbone, Jin Zhanhua’s bias was justified.
Besides, the job left by Yan Huacheng when he died was filled by the eldest son Yan Dabao. Her brother also worked in a machinery factory after graduating from high school. After going to sea, the position was given to his nephew, Yan Erbao.
Both sons had a job and did not worry about food and drink. Jin Zhanhua felt sorry for her youngest son, who had not caught anything. So she treated the youngest son better, and who’s in the way.
Yan Chu came back after brushing his teeth and washing his face. What he faced was a pair of spoiled eyes and seven pairs of eyes eager to eat meat. He was helpless.
