1987 My Era

Chapter 113, Happy Event, Strange Letter (Subscribe!)
It is about ten miles from Qianzhen to Shangwan Village, most of which is mountain road and very steep. The three of them walked for nearly an hour and a half to reach the village entrance.

By this time the sun had already set and the sky was already dim.

Passing by the stone arch bridge at the entrance of the village, a father and son were stealing down the mountain nearby, dragging a tree. When they saw Li Heng and his companions, they obviously dodged. Needless to say, they must have been guilty and stole someone else's tree.

The foolish man immediately shouted, "Master Liu, whose fir tree did you guys cut down? It's so big, it can be used as a coffin!"

Mr. Liu was so frightened that he looked around and hurriedly stopped him, "You stupid guy, this is our own tree, don't gossip about it."

"Bullshit! There are no mountains here, do you think I'm stupid?" He is so stupid that he has no idea what it means to respect the elderly and love the young, and he doesn't know what etiquette is.

With such a loud shout, several scattered families at the entrance of the village poked their heads out of their houses.

One of the boys had sharp eyes and screamed loudly, "Dad! Dad! Big brother, second brother, third brother, fourth brother, come out quickly, Liu Mazi stole grandpa's coffin book."

Before Liu Mazi could react, he saw five or six strong men, some holding knives and some holding carrying poles, swarming around him.

The so-called coffin board refers to the fir tree used to make coffins. These trees are usually decades old, very rare and very valuable. If anyone has bad intentions to take it, that would be terrible. They would fight you to the death!
There was shouting and killing all over the place, and the scene was extremely chaotic.

The fool stood at the bridge with his hands on his hips and laughed wildly, making Li Heng and Yang Chengdu laugh so hard.

Li Heng didn't mean to blame him for being stupid. Liu Erye and his son were habitual offenders. They not only stole trees in the mountains, but also stole things in the fields, soil, and even in the house. Eight pieces of bacon were lost from the Li family. Fortunately, a neighbor saw it and testified, so they got it back.

With the help of the faint light, an old man was picking up dog poop with a hoe and a dustpan on the roadside, and a villager was leading a yellow cow out of the ditch.

There was also a group of young boys rolling hoops on the road, laughing and shouting, chasing each other, it was very lively.

The further we walked into the village, the more people we saw on the road. By the time we reached the crossroads, it was already crowded with people. Families had finally had some free time and were gathering together to chat and gossip.

"Hey! The celebrity of our village is back."

"College students, are you still in need of a wife? Third aunt's eldest daughter is planning to get married."

"Great writer, why are you empty-handed? You have so much money to spend, why don't you bring back some wedding candy?"

"."

Li Heng met many neighborhood elders and grinned all the way until his mouth was almost stiff from laughing.

I finally got away and returned home, and when I walked in, I ran into my second sister eating melon seeds:
"Second sister, when did you come back?"

Li Lan sat on the doorstep with her arms and legs spread out. She looked at him and said, "You look a little rosier than last time. You came back with Xiao Han, right?"

Li Heng looked into the room, but no one was there. He immediately asked in a low voice, "What's going on?"

Li Lan interrupted, "You two are not at the stage of talking about marriage yet, I won't tell anyone."

Li Lan's idea was simple. Her brother's personal morality was already flawed because of Chen Zijin. If it was reported that he had a falling out with the Xiao family girl in the future, his reputation would probably be even worse. So she didn't even have time to spread the news, and she was trying to conceal it.

after all!

After all, this playboy brother kept calling out Song Yu's name in his dreams, and she felt that Xiao Han might not be able to become his sister-in-law in the future. So, she had to be prepared in advance.

Li Heng nodded appreciatively, reached into his pocket, took out two Mao bills, and stuffed them into her pocket.

Li Lan looked disgusted.

Li Heng said, "No more, that's all I have. Can't I buy two bags of spiced melon seeds?"

Li Lan put the money in her pocket and said, "It's better not to give it to the beggar."

Li Heng stretched out his hand, "Then give me back the money."

Li Lan turned her head aside and continued eating melon seeds.

After putting down his luggage and walking around the house, he asked, "Where are my parents? Why aren't they home so late?"

Li Lan said, "My eldest sister just gave birth and went over there to help."

Li Heng looked at him strangely: "Give birth? You are educated, how can you use such a word?"

Li Lan disdained to answer and asked instead: "Have you eaten?"

Li Heng sat down on the other side of the threshold, shook his head and said he was very hungry.

Li Lan didn't respond. She cracked more than 20 melon seeds before clapping her hands and getting up to cook. But she had nothing nice to say:
"You didn't even get to have dinner at the Xiao family. You wasted the face that the old lady gave you. You're useless!"

Li Heng was speechless: "I came back from eating wontons."

Li Lan seemed not to have heard anything. She climbed up to the stove with a kitchen knife and started cutting the bacon, choosing the best part, the pig's hind legs.

Li Heng felt dizzy, he finally understood what was going on. He guessed that this girl was greedy again and was trying to get the bacon under the pretext of cooking for him.

While his second sister was cooking, he took out a hundred yuan, wrapped it in red paper, and prepared to go to his eldest sister's house.

Before leaving, he asked tentatively: "Did my eldest sister give birth to a son or a daughter?"

Li Lan didn't even turn her head: "Boy."

Is the first child a boy?

The historical trajectory did not change, and he was disappointed again.

Li Heng asked: "Have you been there? Do you want to go and see it together?"

Li Lan didn't reply. It was obvious that she looked down on her eldest brother-in-law and didn't want to go to the eldest sister's place.

Come to think of it, it seemed that she had only visited her eldest sister's house five times in her previous life. The first three times were when her eldest sister's three children got married, and the other two times were when her eldest sister was sick.

Anyway, this second sister is a weirdo. She didn’t even go to the eldest sister’s wedding, so there’s no expectation that she can go now.

Sometimes he thought that this second sister was obviously born in the wrong family. If she was born into the Chen family, she would be very similar to Chen Xiaomi and the others.

My eldest sister’s house is not very far away, about 700 meters away, next to the village office, and she and the women’s director are neighbors across the road.

This is also the reason why Comrade Tian Run'e often came up and gradually became good friends with the women's director.

"Li Heng is back."

"Hey, Auntie, you are busy."

Although being famous satisfies his vanity, it also brings real troubles. If someone greets him enthusiastically on the street, he has to stop and respond.

After walking and stopping for a while, I finally walked this mile and a half like I was on the Hollywood red carpet. It was such a waste of time and energy.

As soon as I arrived at the village office, I saw Liu Juan. The girl was washing loaches with her head down.

Li Heng leaned over to take a look and found that the bottom of the bucket was covered with black. He immediately asked, "Did you catch them yourself in the fields?"

Liu Juan, who was concentrating on her studies, was startled when she suddenly heard the voice. When she looked up and saw it was him, she was startled again.

Look, the bucket has turned over, and hundreds of loaches are all over the road, gurgling along with the water flow.

Seeing this, the female director who was picking long beans nearby quickly dropped the beans and went to fish for loaches. While doing so, she scolded her daughter:
"You can't do anything, and you're afraid of seeing a man. What use are you?"

Seeing Li Heng laughing beside her, the director of women's affairs said jokingly, "Li Heng, since you like teasing her so much, why don't you just marry her home? I won't even ask for your betrothal money, I'll just give it to you for free."

"Mom!" Liu Juan stomped her feet, angry and anxious.

"What the hell? I finally caught some loaches and you can't even wash them. You want a dowry for someone like me? I don't have the face to do that."

The director of the women's department had no sympathy when she scolded her daughter, and she directly scolded her to death.

Liu Juan couldn't stand it anymore and hid back in the house.

It took Li Heng a long time to help catch the loach before he said goodbye and went into his brother-in-law's house.

My eldest brother-in-law’s surname is Zou, and his full name is Zou Shusheng. I don’t know how he got this name, but it sounds weird anyway.

The Zou family's house was like most of the houses in the village these days, with three wooden houses, the main room in the middle, bedrooms on both sides, and the kitchen behind the main room. Behind it was the yard, and a row of pig pens and cattle pens were built with wooden fences against the mountain, and dogs, chickens, ducks and geese were raised next to them.

As soon as he walked into the yard, Li Heng smelled the aroma of chicken. It seemed that it was the food his eldest sister had for her confinement after childbirth.

Although the Zou family's financial situation was not very good, the parents-in-law never treated the eldest sister badly. Whether it was chicken, duck, goose, or meat, they would first satisfy the eldest sister's appetite, and the old couple would at most pick up some soup from the side to eat.

Therefore, even if cultured people like Li Jianguo and Tian Run'e met them, they could not find any fault with them and accepted these in-laws from the bottom of their hearts.

Seeing Li Heng coming, Zou Shusheng hurriedly moved a stool over and greeted him stiffly:

"Third brother is back from vacation."

He called himself the third brother because of Li Yan.

“Well, brother-in-law, don’t bother me. I come here often. Don’t be so polite.”

I don’t know why. Even though the other person is five or six years older than me, I can’t let him go when he sees me.

This is the case in this life and in the previous life, and the situation did not improve until I was in my 40s.

The Zou couple were very warm and busy serving tea and water, and taking out precious melon seeds, peanuts and candies from the drawer to entertain him.

Can you please treat this brother-in-law from your mother's family well?
This guy is going to be a college student soon. He is also a famous writer who is well-known in the surrounding area and can earn a huge amount of money.

Of course, the most important thing for the Zou couple is that this brother-in-law is not arrogant. Li Lan did not come on the wedding day, but this brother-in-law did, and every time he came back from school, he would come to their house for a stroll, which gave them enough face.

Li Heng called the other party "father-in-law" and "mother-in-law". After a few pleasantries, he finally met the eldest sister Li Yan in the bedroom. Li Jianguo and Tian Run'e were waiting nearby to tease their grandson.

"Sister, how do you feel after giving birth?" Li Heng asked with concern.

"Your little brother is here. You look better than before. Has the school food gotten better?" Li Yan's words were always fanciful. Her focus was on whether her little brother had gained weight, lost weight, become darker, or became whiter.

Her face was rosy and she seemed to have gained a lot of weight. Li Heng thought that the elder sister must be living a comfortable life. He took out a red envelope from his pocket and handed it to her, saying:

"Sister, I came home too late and didn't buy anything. This is a small token of my appreciation. Please keep it and buy some diapers and clothes for my nephew."

He didn't say he wanted to buy milk powder, because this concept doesn't exist in rural areas these days and it's not popular at all.

If a mother's milk supply is insufficient, the first thing she does is to look for goats to milk, or to get some from other mothers in the village. The eldest sister and the Zou family felt embarrassed to receive red envelopes again after they were asked to pay last month. But in the end, they put the money in their pockets after being persuaded by Li Jianguo and Tian Run'e.

But the mother-in-law was not shabby. She had just recovered from a serious illness and immediately ran to the backyard and caught a big goose and an old duck for Li Heng, saying that he had finished the college entrance examination and needed to catch up.

The old ducks are so precious nowadays and are laying eggs. Li Heng didn't take it. Finally, he couldn't refuse anymore and took the urea bag containing the goose with reluctance.

Maybe it’s due to his personality, Li Heng is naturally not interested in babies and always thinks they are a bit ugly. He likes children over one year old.

But in order not to disappoint my elder sister, I still put in enough effort and chatted with her in the bedroom for two or three hours before going home.

It was already very late when they got home. The bacon on the table was very eye-catching. Encouraged by his second sister's eyes, Li Heng picked up his chopsticks and ate a bowl of rice.

If he eats, the second sister can eat with him openly.

Glancing at the large bowl filled with fried pork with peppers, Tian Run'e said nothing. She just looked up at the bacon hanging on the stove for a long time while going to the backyard to check on the pigs and cows.

Finally he sighed: This damn girl is such a spendthrift, she cut off at least one and a half kilograms, and she only cut the best ones.

In fact, ever since Li Heng started making money by writing, the life of the Li family has undergone tremendous changes, and he has become the envy of everyone in the village.

Tian Run'e was born into a wealthy family and had plenty of money. She no longer lived a restrained life and spent her money generously.

But she was a little helpless about her second daughter's behavior. If she guessed correctly, the bacon in the bowl should have been reduced in production, and it was estimated that a small half of it had been eaten before it was served.

After dinner, Li Heng picked up a bucket and took a good bath in the well in the backyard. It was hot in summer, and it was really enjoyable to have this kind of mountain spring water poured over his body. He took more than ten buckets of water before he was satisfied.

Around 11pm, Tian Run'e called her second daughter and youngest son over and told them something important:
"You are all grown up and need your own room. In ten days or so, your grandmother and your second aunt will come back and our house will be too small to accommodate you. Your father and I have been discussing building a new house. What do you think?"

Li Lan had long been fed up with the cramped wooden compartment on the second floor and was most interested:
"Mom, is the new house made of red brick or wood?"

Tian Run'e said: "If we are going to build a house, of course we should build a red brick house, so that it is not afraid of fire and it also looks good."

It was the first time that the word "face" came from my mother's mouth. She had lived in poverty in the past few years and rarely mentioned the word "face".

Now that her son and daughter are doing well, her mental outlook has undergone a drastic change. She speaks and acts like the daughter of a wealthy family again. She is very serious and very different from an ordinary peasant woman in the village.

Li Heng asked: "How big should it be?"

Tian Run'e looked at her husband, signaling him as the head of the family to speak up as well. The latter understood, shook his wife's hand and said:

"We plan to build two floors with four rooms on each floor, so that your two aunts will have a place to live when they come back. Your mother and I have already inquired about it. It will cost about 2000 yuan to build a kiln and burn red bricks."

There are only 8 rooms. My parents take one, the study takes one, and my grandmother and my second sister each take one. That leaves rooms. It's too few! It's too few! When my wife comes back, my aunt and the others will have no place to rest.

Li Heng happily fantasized about it in his mind and immediately raised both hands in agreement.

Li Lan agreed more readily than he did and agreed to stay over the summer to help make adobe bricks.

The so-called adobe bricks are the original appearance of red bricks before they are fired in the kiln.

Nowadays, few people buy bricks to build red brick houses. Instead, they build their own kilns and burn them. After hollowing out the mud in the fields, they can use it to make ponds to raise fish.

After spending half an hour talking about building a house, the topic then turned directly to the major event of the college entrance examination. When they learned that he had filled in Peking University as his first choice, Li Jianguo, Tian Run'e and Li Lan were stunned for a long time.

Tian Run'e thought for a moment and then asked her son, "Manzi, are you really going to Beijing during the summer vacation? To see Chen Zijin?"

Li Jianguo and Li Lan looked over.

Li Lan even pouted and choked him: "Be careful not to choke yourself to death."

The second sister is playing guessing games, mocking him for keeping Chen Zijin hanging and flirting with Xiao Han. Be careful that one day the truth will be exposed and he will die without knowing how he died.

Li Heng ignored the girl's words and nodded, saying, "I have to go there and give Chen Zijin an explanation. I have already bought the train ticket."

Li Jianguo agreed to let him go, as it would be a manly thing to do, so he asked, "Which day's ticket?"

Li Heng said: "No. 15."

Seeing that she couldn't stop her son, Tian Run'e didn't say anything more even though she felt a little unhappy. She was just worried about his safety, fearing that he would suffer if he ran all the way to the capital alone.

But later, when she found out that she was taking Simpleton with her, she finally calmed down a little and wasn't so resistant anymore.

After thinking it over, Tian Run'e stood up and took out a letter from the box, and said softly: "Zhao Jing's family is dying, and may not survive this summer vacation.

Manzi, since you have Quxinyan to accompany you, why don't you go from Beijing to Gansu to visit on behalf of your father and I? I will contact them and ask them to pick you up at the station."

He was familiar with Gansu. He had been to Zhao Jing's home several times in his previous life, also on behalf of his mother. He took the letter, read it, and agreed.

Li Jianguo originally wanted to go and visit, but when he thought of Zhao Jing's feelings for him in the early years and thought about all the things he had to do at home, he gave up the idea.

The family meeting lasted until the early morning. When they returned to the second floor, Li Heng asked his second sister, "Have you found a job?"

Li Lan hummed confidently: "Got it."

"where?"

"Don't ask, you'll know when the time comes."

Li Heng was speechless: "When do you go to work?"

Li Lan said, "I'll leave in September."

September?

Li Heng tried to recall it, but it was a little vague and he couldn't remember it. He also didn't know which month his second sister went to work.
But he was worried about his second sister.

This girl is very smart and cunning. None of the boys who pursue her come from simple families.

Of course, she had already screened out the simple ones.

If I'm not mistaken, the reason why she is not in a hurry to go to work during the summer vacation is probably that she wants to use this time to think clearly about which one to accept?

Because once you accept it, you can't regret it, and she is not the kind of person who would regret it, so she must get married in one go.

Facts have proved that in her previous life, she had been keeping her husband hooked and torturing him in various ways, but once she agreed and got married, she was quite loyal and they loved each other all their lives.

When they were about to separate, Li Lan called out to him from behind, "What on earth are you thinking? How dare you mess with both Chen Zijin and Xiao Han?"

Li Heng blinked: "Didn't I learn it from you? Aren't there a lot of people following you?"

Li Lan habitually raised her fist, subconsciously wanting to hit him, but she pulled it back halfway through, "You want to compete with me? Compare with me? Am I as despicable as you?
Before I agreed to the relationship, I never accepted a red silk from them, never ate a meal for free from them, and never had any ambiguous relationship with anyone. Otherwise, with my skills and looks, why would I have to worry about the 16 yuan clothes money? I would have been wearing gold and silver long ago. "

Hmm, that seemed to be the case. Even though he didn't want to admit it openly, he still admired her in his heart in this regard.

Li Heng stretched lazily: "My matter is quite complicated, and I can't explain it to you in a few words. Just leave it alone. It's getting late, go to bed early."

Li Lan glanced at him, pushed the door and walked in.

Coming to his compartment, Li Heng sat quietly for a while. Although the space inside was a bit small, it was not stuffy because it was located in Xuefeng Mountain.

After his mind was blank for about ten minutes, he took out a stack of letters from his schoolbag.

There are love letters written to myself, letters written to Song Yu, and a reader's letter from Huang Zhaoyi.

I put my love letter aside and I’m too lazy to read it.

Song Yu had more than 20 love letters. He opened them one by one and looked through the names of the writers without reading the contents. After finding that they were all trivial matters, he put them aside.

Well, he just saw these for the sake of novelty and didn't take them seriously because she had enough confidence in Song Yu.

Reader's letter
Li Heng muttered to himself as he opened the registered letter from Huang Zhaoyi.

As usual, there were still three pages of letter paper, and the other party seemed to have deliberately preserved this tradition.

What’s different from usual is that there is a photo mixed in.

This is the first time.

The woman in the photo is probably in her 30s. She is dressed very fashionably and exquisitely, and has a very ladylike demeanor and temperament.

Come to think of it, he is a teacher, a Peking Opera performer, and a part-time literary critic. He probably has an extraordinary family background. How could he not have good temperament?
The first two pages of the letter were still the same as before, sharing my literary thoughts with him.

On the third page of the letter, in addition to sharing daily trivia, she also specifically explained the reason for sending the photo: she was going to perform at the Chang'an Grand Theater and the Mei Lanfang Grand Theater in Beijing in July, and if he was interested, he could remember her appearance and look for her.

Li Heng read the third page of the letter carefully twice, and always felt that something was wrong. Suddenly, an idea popped into his mind: Could the other party be testing the waters with a photo?

Could it be that after exchanging more than ten letters, he has unconsciously developed strange thoughts about me?

There were not many entertainment activities in this era, or even almost none, and most women had a very pure view of love. They did not care about material things but instead pursued spiritual resonance.

Therefore, it is not uncommon for people to fall in love through letters. He was not sure at first, is this really the case?
Or am I just being sensitive?
Worrying too much?
But no matter what, after weighing the pros and cons, he decided to cut off contact in time to avoid unnecessary trouble.

After thinking about it, he decided to write a reply for the sake of Editor-in-Chief Liao.

In the letter, he tactfully told the other party that his wife was in poor health and his youngest daughter was about to get engaged, so he had to stay by her side to take care of her during the summer vacation. He did not have time to go to the capital to enjoy her performance, which was a real pity.

Well, we are all people of taste and status, and he wrote this letter as his last letter.

If Huang Zhaoyi really had other thoughts, I believe the other party would be able to figure out her intention and automatically cut off contact with her.

After writing the letter, Li Heng had time to tidy up the compartment.

Actually, there is nothing much to tidy up. His mother helps him clean the house regularly, so it is very clean.

It’s just that he has his own hobbies and habits, and he knows where certain books and certain items will be more comfortable and easier to use.

2:02
It's getting late.

Li Heng sighed that it was still good to have a watch. He took it off and put it aside, then fell asleep.

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(besides…)
(End of this chapter)