Aunt Li Mei's house is a common flat-roofed house in the north in the past, at the intersection. There are three rooms on the left, middle and right, there are bedrooms on the left and right, there is a kang in it, the middle is a place to sit when eating or guests come, a small square yard in front of it, digging a cellar used to store vegetables in winter, the corner is pasted with yellow mud wall, and a hut for cooking and bathing is made, and a piece is pasted out on the side, and the window is dug out in the direction of the intersection, which is the place where the commissary is opened.

When she came on the road just now, Anna inquired sideways, and basically figured out the situation of Aunt Li Mei's house.

Li Mei's uncle and Li Mei's father used to be forest farm workers. More than ten years ago, there was an accident in the forest farm, and the two were unfortunately killed at the same time. Aunt Li Mei, who had no husband and brother, went to the forest bureau to cry twice in three days, and the bureau leaders couldn't stand it, so they arranged for her eldest daughter Chen Li, who was only 16 years old at the time, to enter the county textile factory as a female worker, and contacted the district to approve her to open this commissary.

Chen Li got married many years ago. He still works in the county textile factory. The son-in-law's surname is Song, he has no formal job, he is a mason, and he goes to do work wherever he has work. Daughter Song Xiaoni is now following Aunt Li Mei.

Aunt Li Mei's son, Chen Chunlei, is 17 years old this year, and is in his third year of high school at Luoping No. 1 Middle School, and will take the college entrance examination next year. I usually live on campus and only go home on weekends.

"Meimei, this is the room where your sister used to sleep, I knew you were coming, and I would have cleaned it up for you a long time ago. Wait until the kang is burned, and then you will stay. Chunlei only goes home every week for one night, anyway, just build a bunk for him in the middle room!

This room is not big, but it is neatly cleaned. On the wall, there is a comic strip of bright Mu Guiying's battle against Jin Wushu, a kang against the wall, the old-fashioned national printed bed sheets are spread on it, the quilt is neatly folded, and a pink embroidered pillow with mandarin ducks playing in the water is placed on the top.

"It's good. Thank you, Auntie!" said Anna.

"You kid, I don't know how many thanks I've said since we met. I'm your aunt, why are you so polite to me! Auntie, I'm going to make dumplings for you!"

Li Hongle went out happily.

Anna packed up the box a little, embarrassed to eat for nothing, and went out of the house to help.

Aunt Li Mei mixed the pork and green onion filling, put it aside, skillfully mixed the dough, picked it into a uniform small dough, took a rolling pin to roll out pieces of dumpling skin, and finally began to wrap it. Xiao Ni also knelt on the stool to help with the bag.

Anna washed her hands and began to pack. It's just that the bag is very ugly, and it can't stand on the table. Especially compared with the beautiful dumplings they put out, they are even more dwarfed. Seeing Xiao Ni staring at the dumplings she wrapped out and pursing her lips and smiling, Anna herself smiled embarrassedly.

"Little girl, what are you laughing at!" Aunt Li Mei hurriedly saved face for Anna, "Your aunt is a secondary school student!" After speaking, she asked Anna, "Meimei, your mother sent a letter last year, saying that you were substitute teaching in primary school, and you have not been regular?"

Anna didn't know much about Li Mei's past experience, and vaguely replied.

Aunt Li Mei didn't care, and by the way, she told Anna about her son Chen Chunlei's college entrance examination next year.

“…… I look forward to it day and night, hoping that your brother can be admitted to university and come out of the country in the future. He has a good job, and I can be regarded as letting go of my heart in my life. Your brother is also competitive, his grades have always been good, and he used to be in the top three in his class in exams. Bad luck, since last year, the state has stipulated that there must be one more English in the college entrance examination. There are so many homework, and your brother can't speak English! Now when he takes the exam, his ranking will fall backwards. But it makes me sad. I'm afraid that English will lag behind when the time comes. What do you say the country thinks! We Chinese are good, why do we want to test foreigners?"

Anna said, "Auntie, I also know a little English. If there is anything you don't understand when Chunlei comes back, you can ask me. ”

Aunt Li Mei was pleasantly surprised, "Is that great! Meimei, if you really want to be able to help your brother's English, that will help me a lot!"

Anna smiled and nodded: "Auntie, I'll try my best." ”

Aunt Li Mei was very happy. I said some other gossip, and soon, the dumplings were wrapped up in a large table. The honeycomb coal stove also burned early, lifted the lid of the pot, poured dumplings into the boiling water, and after a while, the white and chubby dumplings floated up. Aunt Li Mei served a big bowl to Anna, put out her own spicy sauce and sesame sauce, took out a few pickled garlic from the pickling vat outside, washed them on the plate, and the three of them served them to eat.

Anna didn't eat garlic originally. But Aunt Li Mei is very good at craftsmanship, tried to eat one, and unexpectedly found that the taste was very good.

"Meimei, I know that you can't eat spicy sauce with your mother, this is the sesame sauce that my aunt specially made for you a few days ago, you dip it and eat it. ”

"Thank you, auntie!"

Anna smiled and thanked her.

After eating the dumplings, Anna has begun to like the atmosphere of Aunt Li Mei's family. After arriving here inexplicably, the depressed mood that had been accumulated in her heart was also diluted a lot.

After eating the dumplings, Anna helped Aunt Li Mei clean up and returned to her house, and opened the suitcase to pack up her things under Xiao Ni's curious gaze. After a while, Aunt Li Mei also came to see her packing her boxes. Every time I see the same, I am amazed and touch a brightly colored Hermes silk scarf. Seeing that she liked it, Anna remembered that she cried and soiled the scarf around her neck when she hugged her in the police station in the afternoon, and said, "Auntie, I'll give you this one!"

Aunt Li Mei hurriedly shook her head, "How can this work! Besides, the color is so bright, I'm so old, I'm embarrassed to wear it. ”

Anna smiled, "It's not expensive. Besides, the color of the winter clothes is dark, and the bright silk scarves are used to lift the spirit. I'll tie it for you. As he spoke, he tied her around her neck and tied a beautiful bow.

Aunt Li Mei no longer refused, looked in the mirror happily, and reproached beautifully: "You kid, look at what you have dressed me up in!"

It was dark and cold outside. But the kang in the house was very warm, and the laughter continued, and Anna spent her first night at Aunt Li Mei's house.

……

Pretending to be Li Mei is just expedient, and Anna also knows in her heart that it is impossible to always treat herself as Li Mei and settle down here. But now that I have just followed Aunt Li Mei home, it is impossible to leave immediately, so I decided to talk about it for a while.

Anna was also embarrassed to eat white food. Xiaoni is in the kindergarten of the Forestry Bureau, quite far from home, Aunt Li Mei has to pick up and drop off sooner or later, and she has to take care of the commissary alone, she is very busy, so I will help her watch.

Li Hong's niece who returned to the south when she was a child came. The news quickly spread among the neighbors. In the first few days, people came to the commissary every day to see Li Mei talk about her and her mother. Seeing that Anna was beautiful, sweet-mouthed, educated, and had no object yet, many seven aunts and eight aunts began to enthusiastically introduce objects to her, which made Anna cry and laugh.

However, since Anna came, Aunt Li Mei's shop, which had a dismal business, has seen a lot better than before, which is true. Many forest farm workers, especially young men who have no object, would rather take a long detour to Aunt Li Mei's place after work to buy a pack of white hibiscus for three cents. So much so that within a few days, Aunt Li Mei's white hibiscus, which could have been sold for three months, was out of stock last month, and by the way, other things were also sold quickly. Aunt Li Mei was so happy.

One of the most diligent regulars is the round-faced public security officer Qiu Gaohe. Come and buy a pack of cigarettes almost every day. And I bought a pack of Spring Festival cigarettes for one dollar.

The first few days were counted, and after a few days, Anna saw that he had been buying like this. On this day, he came again on his bicycle and reminded him that it was not good to smoke too much.

Qiu Gaohe didn't dare to look at Anna, and said hesitantly: "Didn't Aunt Li ask me to take care of the business that day...... I bought ...... for my dad."

Many people here, especially the elderly, smoked fiercely, and Anna saw many old ladies smoking pipes too. Seeing him say this, he smiled, took the money and gave him a pack.

Qiu Gaohe took the cigarette, turned around and pushed the bicycle and hurriedly left.

"Hey, I'm looking for you!"

He had just given a two-dollar bill. Anna shouted at his back.

"Remember first, and deduct it next time!"

Qiu Gaohe pedaled the bicycle hard, and in a blink of an eye, he disappeared.

Anna shook her head and added a note to the credit book hanging on the wall: "Qiu Gong'an, I owe him a piece." ”

……

A few days later, Aunt Li's son, Chen Chunlei, returned home from middle school.

Chen Chunlei looks very generous, and when he saw Anna shouting "sister", he was very polite. Aunt Li Mei said that Anna knew English, and asked him to ask Anna if she didn't understand. Chen Chunlei agreed.

When it gets dark at night, Anna tutors Chen Chunlei in English, and Xiao Ni draws at the table. Aunt Li Mei looked at the commissary.

High school English is actually quite simple at this time. But Chen Chunlei's foundation is really poor. It is estimated that English was not included in the college entrance examination before, and he did not study it very well.

When Anna was counseling Chen Chunlei, Aunt Li Mei opened the curtain and walked in with the account book, "Meimei, Qiu Gong'an owes a piece here, what do you mean?"

Aunt Li Mei was originally illiterate. But after opening the commissary for so many years, I also recognize some commonly used words in bookkeeping.

Since Anna reminded him to smoke less that day, Qiu Gongan hasn't been here for the past two days.

Anna said: "The last time he came to buy a pack of cigarettes, he gave two yuan, I looked for him for one, and the others had already run away, so I wrote it down and forgot it." ”

Aunt Li Mei pursed her lips and smiled. Turned around and went out.

At ten o'clock, Chen Chunlei and Xiaoni went to sleep. After Anna finished washing, she climbed onto the kang and was about to sleep, when she saw Aunt Li Mei coming, she hurriedly got up.

Aunt Li Mei sat on the edge of the kang and said with a smile: "Meimei, my aunt seems to be interested in you when she looks at that enemy. This Qiu public security work is good, the spirit of the elder, and the family is also a dual-income family. Why don't you get a match for the two of you?"

Anna was startled and quickly shook her head, "Auntie, don't!"

"It's good!" Aunt Li Mei persuaded, "It's not that my aunt is in a hurry to marry you off. It's that you're also in your twenties. If you have the right person and a partner, you will have a place for life. ”

"Auntie, I know you mean well. It's just that my mother just passed away not long ago, and I really don't have the heart to think about it now. ”

Aunt Li Mei nodded, "Alas, that's what I said, I didn't expect this layer. Forget it then, I'll talk about this later. He smiled and said, "Meimei, in fact, my aunt still has something good to tell you." You're an intellectual, so it's not like that's for me to look at the store. I went to find someone today and asked you at the District Works Agency Primary School to see if I could arrange for you to become a teacher. I can take care of the commissary myself. It's better for you to substitute teach than to help me look after the store, isn't it?"

Anna was stunned.

Aunt Li Mei thought she was pleasantly surprised, and said with a smile: "It may not be possible." Wait for a reply. Don't expect too much just yet. I wanted to wait until I told you, but I couldn't help it. It's not early, you go to sleep. I went back to the house, too. ”

Aunt Li Mei pressed the corners of the quilt for Anna, touched the kang Wen again, and walked out satisfied.