Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 984 Generation after generation

As soon as the sponge cake was served, Xiao Xiaohui became very anxious, babbling and pulling Xiaowei's mother towards the kitchen.

Aunt Wang folded the steamed egg custard from one bowl into another, added some rice, stirred it well, and placed it on the table. Little Hui's eyes were fixed on the rice bowl, not blinking, and saliva was gushing out.

Chen Xiao, both amused and exasperated, reached out to take the child, intending to feed him herself. However, Xiao Xiao Hui refused to cooperate, backing away and saying, "No, I don't want to. I want to smell sweet." These past few days, Xiao Wei's mother had been taking care of him, and Chen Xiao had only been putting him to sleep at night. He seemed to remember this, probably thinking that Chen Xiao would put him to sleep as soon as she picked him up.

Chen Xiao pouted and tears welled up in his eyes, as if he had suddenly lost his son.

Xiaowei's mother laughed and said, "Look at you, why are you crying? A child this big will forget everything in just two days. Hold him for a few days and he'll be back to normal. You were all like this when you were little. Come on, let's feed him together. This child."

Xiaowei's mother sat down at the table with Xiaoxiaohui in her arms, while Chen Xiao sat on the other side, feeding him with a spoon. After a few bites, Xiaoxiaohui was happy and patted the table, laughing, "Mommy, it smells good, it smells good!" He even reached out to pull Chen Xiao's hand to urge her to hurry up, which made Chen Xiao happy.

Chen Hui stood to the side watching, sighing, "You don't know the love of your parents until you raise a child yourself. Thinking back to when we were kids, we felt the same way. Now that I think about it, it's true that it's hateful to make your parents angry. If little Hui makes me angry, I'll be devastated."

Xiao Hong said, "When he grows up, he'll definitely make you angry, and he'll be really angry."

Xiaowei's mother said, "It's all normal. People just go through generations like this. The process is the same, there's no difference."

Xiao Wei said to Chen Hui, "Why don't you beat him up now, once a day, to vent your anger beforehand so you can beat him later."

Everyone laughed, and Xiao Xiao Hui giggled along with them.

Aunt Wang and the cook brought out the food, including a half-basin of steamed, bright red crabs, which they placed in the middle of the table.

The auntie set the table and then packed up to go home. Xiaowei's mom said, "Take two crabs, Xiaowei, find a bag for me."

The aunt said, "No need, we've all eaten. There are so many of you."

Aunt Wang said, "They're from out of town, so they're fresh. We don't have many more, but take two back for your child to try." She found a plastic bag and put three large crabs in it. The aunt thanked her profusely and left with the crabs.

Xiaowei's mother said to Xiaowei, "Go and call Xia and Xiaohui down for dinner."

Xiao Wei walked to the stairwell and called out, "Old Xia, come down and eat."

Xiao Wei's mother glared at him, saying, "You're so lazy now, your butt can barely move. How can you lose weight by going upstairs?"

Xiao Wei said, "I can hear you."

A few minutes later, Xia Maosheng and Geng Hui carried Xia Gensheng downstairs, and everyone sat down around the table.

Uncle Wang said, "Does eating crab require some baijiu (Chinese liquor)? This stuff is too cold."

Xiao Wei's dad said, "Yellow wine would be best. We should get some good yellow wine and keep it at home sometime."

Aunt Wang said, "You two are so smug. One is fine, eat it or don't, it's up to you."

Chen Hui ran to the liquor cabinet, grabbed some baijiu (Chinese liquor), poured half a bowl for Xiao Wei's dad and Uncle Wang, poured some for Chen Xiao's mom, and asked Xiao Wei, "Would you like some?"

Xiao Wei shook his head. Chen Hui drank some himself and said, "I never thought a bottle of Lao Xuehua would be equivalent to two liang of baijiu. Looks like I can hold my liquor."

Uncle Wang said, "Old Snowflake? Beer? One bottle is equivalent to two ounces of baijiu? Who said that?"

Xiao Wei said, "They're technicians from Snow Beer Factory. We're setting up another brewery, so we hired three people from Snow Beer Factory."

Aunt Wang pointed at Uncle Wang and Xiaowei's father with her chopsticks and said, "Did you hear that? From now on, you're only allowed one bottle per meal."

Xiao Hong laughed and said, "Chen Hui, you've gotten yourself into trouble, haha."

Uncle Wang pointed at Chen Hui with his chopsticks: "You'll see what happens to you. I'll remember this."

Chen Hui handed crabs to Chen Xiao's mother-in-law, Xiao Wei's mother, Aunt Wang, saying, "It's alright, we'll have our own brewery in the future, we won't drink theirs anymore."

Xiao Wei said, "Actually, I feel that the alcohol content of Snow Beer is a bit too high for our costs. If we make it lighter, we can drink several bottles at once, which would be great. We can sell more products."

Xiao Hong said, "Do you think they don't want to? It must be a problem with the manufacturing process. Snowflake is famous for its foam, so that's probably the issue; the alcohol content just won't come down."

Chen Hui thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "It's possible, very likely. Draft beer doesn't have that much foam."

Xiaowei's mother said, "All you do all day is eat and drink. What's so good about that?"

Everyone is eating.

Xiaowei said to his mother, "Mom, Xiaohui and I are going on a business trip to Xidu the day after tomorrow, and we'll also visit my brother. We'll be back in about a week. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Xiaowei's mother said, "Take some photos of the child and bring them back. Leave some money for your sister-in-law; there's not much to take from this far away."

Xiao Wei's father said, "Let them come back for the New Year. Transportation is convenient in Fengtian now, and it will be lively for them to come back."

Xiaowei's mother said, "Yes, yes, let them come back. It doesn't take much time to travel by train, so they can come back and stay for a few days whenever they have free time. If your brother doesn't have time, you can come back, sister-in-law."

Xiao Wei said, "Mom, are you crazy? It's getting colder and colder, and the child is so small. You want my sister-in-law to carry the child back and forth all by herself?"

Xiao Wei's mother's expression froze, and she said sullenly, "Well, I was worried they'd come back more often, and in my haste, I didn't think about that." She paused, then slammed her hand on the table: "You traitor, are you trying to cause trouble?"

Little Hong was laughing so hard she was doubled over, and the two little ones were also dancing and giggling along.

Uncle Wang said, "When the children are older and can come back more often, things will only get better. Xiao Wei is doing well now, and things are more stable with the eldest son. What's the rush?"

Xiao Wei said, "The main problem is that it's still quite far, over 700 kilometers, and the road conditions aren't very good."

Chen Hui said, "It would be great if the highway to Dalian could be built there too. It would only take five hours to travel six or seven hundred kilometers."

Uncle Wang said, "It can be built in the future. The current plan is for a six-lane road in both directions in Andong. Building that road will bring in a lot of money; it's priced per meter, which is better than just paving a road with money."

Xiao Hong asked, "So you just take the money and lay it out one bill at a time, right?"

Uncle Wang nodded: "Yes, the entire road surface will be paved, and the cost will be about the same."

Geng Hui, who works in finance, is particularly sensitive to money. After a quick calculation, she said, "That would cost over 20 million per kilometer?"

Chen Hui asked Xiao Wei, "How far is it from Fengtian to Andong?"

Xiao Wei said, "More than two hundred kilometers, maybe two hundred and forty or two hundred and fifty."

Chen Hui said, "A road costs nearly 5 billion? Then it'll cost over 10 billion to get to Dalian, and nearly 20 billion to get to Xingcheng? Damn, this is like walking on money! No wonder it's taking so long to build."

Uncle Wang said, "The country is more eager for development than the people, but funds are limited. The country is currently planning several horizontal and vertical national highways. Do you think that will cost a lot of money? You young people always feel that the country does nothing. Look at the railways, look at the highways, look at the development of cities. It's all paved with money."

Chen Hui thought for a moment and said, "That's true, who cares about the road? It seems I misunderstood the country, and I have to apologize to the country."

Xiao Hong said, "You work for the power company, right? How much would it cost to connect the whole country to electricity? How much does a meter of that large cable cost?"

Chen Hui paused for a moment, then said, "More expensive than the road."

(End of this chapter)