Five years of marriage, always separated [1970s]

Dabao saw his mother's anxious look and immediately realized that his mother didn't want Chen Xiaohui to continue talking. Dabao shook his head and said, "I don't know. We gave our New Year's money to mom."

Ye Fan was stunned for a moment by Dabao's words. Fortunately, Chen Xiaohui was staring at Dabao and didn't notice her loss of composure. Ye Fan smiled and said, "Yes, it's here with me."

Chen Xiaohui couldn't help but say, "Why give it to your mother? Once it's in your mother's hands, it won't come back."

Dabao wanted to roll his eyes. He knew nothing but dared to stir up trouble: "I'm not buying anything, why do I need money?"

"Buy snacks and toys." Chen Xiaohui continued to instigate, "Ask your mom and bring them back for yourself."

Erbao glanced at Chen Xiaohui curiously and asked, "Aren't you tired of riding in the car?"

Chen Xiaohui is not tired, otherwise she would not have the energy to calculate Dabao and Erbao's money.

Ye Fan said: "You can go and rest now."

Chen Xiaohui frowned: "You believe me——"

Ye Fan interrupted: "Answer me a question, are you in a hurry to buy or is he in a hurry to sell?"

"I—" Chen Xiaohui wanted to say that she was in a hurry to buy it, because things have changed so rapidly since the reform and opening up. If she didn't buy it now before the price went up, she wouldn't be able to afford it in two years. "How can I say I'm in a hurry? How can he say he's in a hurry?"

Ye Fan: "Do your classmates know that you are anxious to buy antiques?"

"I don't know." She didn't dare to talk about antiques with her classmates, fearing that they would collude with outsiders to set her up. Chen Xiaohui said, "When he said his relative was planning to go abroad, one of my classmates asked him when his relative would leave. He said he would leave once the visa was approved and the things at home were almost dealt with. That's how I know."

Ye Fan: "He is more anxious than you? Then why don't you wait a little longer?"

"What if someone buys it?" Chen Xiaohui asked.

Geng Zhiqin could not help but nod: "Good things will never be hard to sell."

Ye Fan glared at her: "Drink your water!"

Geng Zhiqin picked up the enamel pot.

Dabao leaned on the bench to watch the fun: "You're getting scolded, aunt."

Geng Zhiqin: "Do you still want the New Year's money?"

Dabao shook his head.

Geng Zhiqin: "You don't even want what your grandparents give you?"

Dabao nodded: "Yes. If you don't give it to me, I will tell grandpa and grandma that you spent Erbao and me's New Year's money."

Geng Zhiqin forgot that this was possible and failed to scare her nephew. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at him and took out two small red envelopes from the interlayer of her bag.

Dabao took it with a smile: "Thank you, auntie." He handed one to Erbao.

Erbao opened it and took a look before putting it in his brother's hand. Dabao got up out of habit and went back to his bedroom to put it away, but as soon as he saw Chen Xiaohui, he put the New Year's money in his mother's hand.

Chen Xiaohui couldn't help but complain: "Silly."

Dabao: "Are you smart? Are you as smart as my mom?"

Chen Xiaohui had a headache: "Ye Fan, your son——"

"I can educate my son." Ye Fan interrupted, "Let me ask you another question. Why are your classmate's relatives in a hurry to go abroad?"

Geng Zhiqin blurted out: "It's good abroad."

Ye Fan sighed. Geng Zhiqin immediately stood up: "Is there hot water in the kitchen? I want to wash my face, brush my teeth and go to bed!" Without waiting for her sister-in-law to speak, she hurried to the kitchen, fearing that she would be scolded if she was slow.

Dabao couldn't help laughing when he saw this.

Ye Fan glanced at his son, and Dabao covered his mouth and laughed.

Liao Miaomiao felt that it was not suitable for her to stay there, so she found a reason to go home.

Ye Fan was not afraid of her listening, but he did not stop her from going home. Ye Fan waited until she left and continued, "It is a fact that foreign countries are developed, and I cannot deny it. But why didn't your classmate's relatives who have overseas connections leave earlier? Because they didn't want to leave their hometown. They are so anxious now because they are worried that the Cultural Revolution will revive."

Chen Xiaohui couldn't help but say, "So he is more anxious than me?"

It's nonsense, isn't it? Ye Fan complained in his heart, "I don't know when the visa will come out. Your classmates and relatives still have the patience to bargain. Once the visa comes out, he will definitely sell everything he can. He may give you something from the late Qing Dynasty as a gift."

Chen Xiaohui: "Even if he sells it in half a year, I still won't have any money."

Ye Fan: "Not even a cent?" Chen Xiaohui: "About two or three hundred."

"That's all right, isn't it?" Ye Fan asked, "Buy one or two fine products first. During this time, take classes to enrich yourself. I will definitely lend you money when you need it again."

Chen Xiaohui couldn't help but mutter: "I can ask someone else to help me take a look."

Ye Fan asked: "Don't you have to owe anyone a favor?"

Chen Xiaohui suddenly thought that debts are easy to repay, but debts of favor are hard to repay, "Well, then, I'll listen to you this time."

Ye Fan rolled his eyes at her and stood up to put away the food that his sister-in-law had bought for the two children.

Geng Zhiqin listened to the two people talking in the kitchen, and came out with a kettle to ask Chen Xiaohui if she wanted to wash her face and brush her teeth. Chen Xiaohui subconsciously looked at Ye Fan, who laughed: "Why are you looking at me? If I don't lend you money, how can I not let you wash your face and brush your teeth?"

Chen Xiaohui walked into the room carrying a handbag.

Dabao covered his mouth and said, "Mom, Auntie is angry."

Ye Fan whispered, "No. She was embarrassed to pretend to be angry because of what I said. Just like you sometimes like to put the blame on someone else."

"I didn't!" Dabao got so angry that he stood up and stomped his feet, "Give me a piece of honey fried dough twist!"

Ye Fan was stunned for a moment. He was angry and still wanted to eat? Ye Fan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He gave him a piece and his daughter a piece. "Mom is washing vegetables and cooking. Are you two here or going to the kitchen?"

Dabao asked, "Do you want me to light the fire?"

Ye Fan shook his head: "Mom, wash the vegetables first."

Unexpectedly, Geng Zhiqin came over today. Ye Fan didn't go to the vegetable market this morning because the vegetables in the yard were enough for her and Dabao and Erbao to eat. Ye Fan came to the yard with a basket of vegetables and saw Geng Zhiqin busy washing his hair. She asked, "Xiaoqin, can you make do with what you eat today?"

Geng Zhiqin: "Whatever. I have no appetite because I feel uncomfortable sitting in a car."

Ye Fan looked at the man who had come out at some point and was brushing his teeth by the water pump: "What about you?"

Chen Xiaohui was speechless and nodded and looked at Geng Zhiqin, meaning that he was the same as her.

Ye Fan picked up a handful of green vegetables and a handful of spinach.

After washing the vegetables, Ye Fan went to the kitchen to cut rice cakes.

In the past, when Dabao and Erbao wanted to eat rice cakes, Ye Fan could only go to the production team to exchange them with members. Since the people of Ningbo went to the island to buy vegetables, they always bought them as if they were free, so the fishermen tried to make some rice cakes and rice noodles and sent them to the vegetable market for consignment. When they found that people were buying them, the fishermen often made some. Ye Fan's family bought the rice cakes at the vegetable market this year.

The market not only has rice cakes and rice noodles, but also Chinese sausages and bacon, so Ye Fan bought some. Ye Fan blanched the bacon in hot water, then sliced ​​it and fried the rice cake with the bacon and vegetables. But before frying, Ye Fan asked Dabao to come in and boil water for spinach and egg soup.

Lunch was a portion of rice cake and a bowl of spinach and egg soup for each person. The egg soup was light, and Chen Xiaohui and Geng Zhiqin drank it to their heart's content, and they ate up all the vegetable rice cake.

Seeing this, Ye Fan felt that the rice and flour at home were not enough for dinner, so he went to the vegetable market in the afternoon to have a look.

All the chickens, fish, meats and eggs that should be purchased before the New Year have been bought. The manager of the vegetable market predicted that business would be bad after the New Year, and there would not be many fishermen going out to sea, so there were not many fresh things in the vegetable market.

Fortunately, there were some hardworking fishermen who were reluctant to take a break and went out to sea on the second day of the New Year, allowing Ye Fan to buy a big fish and a bunch of crabs.

When Ye Fan got home, Chen Xiaohui frowned when she saw the fish and crabs: "These again?"

Ye Fan wanted to say, eat if you want to, get lost if you don't want to! However, this person is her mother's daughter. For the sake of Comrade Tao Chunlan, Ye Fan endured and patiently explained: "There was a seafood meeting at the market before the New Year. Today is the third day of the New Year, everyone is busy visiting relatives and friends, and has no time to fish, so don't be picky if you have something to eat."

Geng Zhiqin nodded: "Crabs are good."

Chen Xiaohui muttered quietly: "I've never eaten anything good."

Geng Zhiqin couldn't help asking, "What have you eaten?"

Chen Xiaohui was speechless because she was reborn into a time of material scarcity in this life. In her previous life, she had no money but had to be strong-willed and would not eat "charity's food". As the child of a high-ranking official, she lived exactly like an ordinary citizen.

Thinking of the past, Chen Xiaohui felt unhappy and said unhappily, "What does it have to do with you?"

Geng Zhiqin was too lazy to agree with her: "This is my brother's house."

"It's also Ye Fan's family."

Geng Zhiqin smiled and nodded: "Geng Zhiye is my brother, Ye Fan is my sister-in-law, who are they to you?"

(End of this chapter)