Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

The children's cheers and shouts startled Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan, Mu Xueqing and Huang Li who were putting their children to sleep, Shen Wei and Zhao Cuiyun who were working, and Wang Daliang and his wife who came over for a stroll.

One by one, everyone put down what they were doing and ran over to watch TV.

Wang An noticed that Mu Xueqing and Huang Li had also run to the back room, and immediately asked with displeasure:

"Where's the child? Is nobody taking care of the child? How can you two be so careless?"

As he spoke, Wang An ignored the relatives who rushed over and the television that was only half-set up, and headed towards the east room.

For Wang An, happiness and joy are his most precious possessions. Although the two children can't even crawl yet and can be left on the kang (a heated brick bed) without any problems, Wang An still can't rest easy if there are no adults watching over them.

Ever since Happiness and Joy were born, Wang An hasn't even allowed the two lynxes into the east room of their house.

The main reason is that the two lynxes were ferocious beasts brought back from the mountains. Although they had been raised as cats by Wang An's family since they were young, and perhaps because they had been eating spirit-opening powder, they were now quite human-like.

But in Wang An's heart, a ferocious beast will always be a ferocious beast. Wang An was genuinely worried that they might suddenly regain their wildness and ferocity, thereby harming his two little darlings.

There was no way around it; happiness and joy were the continuation of Wang An's bloodline from his two lifetimes, so he truly cherished them like precious gems.

Sometimes, Wang An felt that he was being a little too nervous about the two of them; to be precise, he was being overly nervous.

However, whenever it involves the two of them, Wang An simply cannot control himself.

Seeing that Wang An was unhappy, Mu Xueqing quickly grabbed Wang An's sleeve and said:
"The kids are all asleep in the car, sleeping soundly. Besides, I'll just take a quick look and then go back."

Upon hearing Wang An's words, Huang Li didn't even bother to glance at the television before quickly replying:
"Brother, don't be angry. I'll go back to my room right now. I'll go back to my room right now."

As she spoke, the oriole immediately ran back to the east room.

Wang An realized he had overreacted, because Mu Xueqing, as a mother, was no less concerned about her child than Wang An, and in fact, she cared about her child even more.

Therefore, Mu Xueqing could not possibly abandon her child's safety.

After a moment's pause, Wang An looked helplessly at Mu Xueqing, frowned, and said to everyone:
"The TV isn't fixed yet. I'll call you all once it's done. You all go do what you need to do."

Everyone had noticed Wang An's displeasure earlier. Even Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan didn't say anything. After Wang An finished speaking, everyone glanced at the TV before going back to their own business.

After everyone dispersed, Wang An stopped adjusting the television and couldn't resist walking into the east room.

When Wang An entered the room, Huang Li was sitting between two cradles, gently rocking them with her hands, while the two little babies were sleeping soundly inside.

The cradle mentioned here is actually a cradle that can sway from side to side.

In Northeast China, the normal way to raise a child is to tie a rope to a beam in the house, attach a basket to the bottom, and then put the baby who can't crawl yet into the basket and sway it around.

In this way, the mother watching the child could do needlework while swinging the basket, which is the origin of the Northeastern saying "the child hangs from the roof beam".

To put it bluntly, this is actually a kind of wisdom of the people of Northeast China. Of course, it is also a way of doing things out of necessity, since someone has to look after the child and someone has to do the needlework. As for why Wang An's family used a cradle instead of a hanging frame, it's because the roof of Wang An's new house was plastered with lime, so there was nowhere to tie the rope. Therefore, Comrade Wang Dazhu made two cradles that were very similar to cradles.

Seeing Wang An enter the room, Huang Li looked at him with a hint of fear and said:

"Big brother, I...I...I just took one look, I'll never do it again."

Before Huang Li could finish speaking, Wang An interrupted her with a smile:
"Oh, it's alright, you've done a great job. I'm just going inside to check on the child. I'll put the TV in the east room, then you and your sister-in-law can watch TV and soothe the child at the same time."

To be fair, Huang Li is indeed a very nice girl. She doesn't talk much and gets up early every morning to cook. Besides helping Mu Xueqing take care of the children, she also does all the other housework.

Overall, the Wang family was quite satisfied with the oriole.

Of course, the Wang family treated Huang Li and her brother very well. They ate whatever the Wang family ate and were never treated differently.

Therefore, for the siblings, life at Wang An's house was a thousand times better than life at their own home.

Hearing Wang An's words, Huang Li's anxious heart finally calmed down. She said in a slightly tearful voice:
"I thought you were going to kick me out, big brother."

Wang An was taken aback upon hearing this, and said with a mix of amusement and exasperation:
"Why would I kick you out? It's such a small thing, why would I make such a fuss? What kind of person do you think I am?"

Huang Li glanced at Wang An furtively, then fell silent.

Wang An ignored Huang Li's thoughts, and instead gazed quietly at the two little ones for a while before turning around and leaving the house to continue fiddling with the television.

After adjusting the TV to its optimal state, Wang An had Wang Li and Mu Xueli fix the TV stand in place.

The "fixing" mentioned here actually means inserting other pieces of wood into the hole to firmly hold the TV pole in place.

You can't fill the hole with soil, because if the TV signal gets bad later, or if there are other relay stations, you'll have to pull the wood out of the hole and keep turning the TV pole to find the signal.

After the first color TV and its corresponding TV pole were installed, installing the second color TV and its corresponding TV pole was much easier, and it only took less than ten minutes to complete.

It simply requires that the two TV poles be perfectly parallel.

Finally, without bothering to make an amplifier, Wang An led Wang Li, Mu Xueli, Wang Dazhu, Huang Zhong, and Wang Daliang and his wife, carrying the TV pole and TV, to Wang Li's house to install the TV.

With the experience of installing a TV at Wang An's house, it became much easier for everyone to cooperate.

Of course, because the ground was frozen too hard, digging holes was still the most time-consuming task.

After fiddling with Wang Li's TV, it was already past noon.

After a simple meal at Wang Li's house, Wang An and the other two, carrying Mu Xueli's color TV and TV pole, hurriedly headed back to Mu Xueli's house. (End of Chapter)