Chapter 5: Family Reunion

【1】

Zhang Guangming's younger brother works in Beijing, and his brother told him about his father's fall. As soon as Zhang Guanghua heard this, he and his wife Jia Junye immediately asked for leave from their respective units. I specially took a pair of twin daughters, bought gifts, and took the train to visit my seriously injured father.

When I returned to my parents' house, I saw that everyone in the family was smiling and waiting for their family to arrive. The couple first presented the gifts, and began to ask about their father's recovery, and then asked how their mother's health was......

When the couple saw their sister-in-law holding a little doll in her arms, they knew that her sister-in-law had given birth to a beautiful girl again.

Li Yue'e had a stick next to her.

Zhang Guanghua saw that his sister-in-law was lame, and the couple was surprised:

My brother called me and told me that my dad broke his leg while repairing the roof of my uncle's house. But he didn't tell my sister-in-law that you had a daughter again, nor did he tell me about your injury. Why did my sister-in-law's legs end up like this?" Zhang Guanghua asked eagerly.

"Sister-in-law, why are you hurt?" the younger sibling also asked anxiously.

Li Yue'e briefly told her brothers about her injury.

"Tut-tut, what is our family doing? Why do you let our good family have so many unlucky things?" Jia Junye is a fast-talking woman. She added, "There is a patient in the family, Yan'er, and now she ......

Jia Junye's twin daughters are more than three years old, and the two children are rolling up with their mother, like two foreign children.

Zhang Guangyan and the three nieces of the eldest brother's family were in charge of picking leeks. The three nieces asked their aunt to tell her fairy tales. Zhang Guangyan began to tell her nieces the story of the Monkey King vs. the Red Child in Journey to the West. When she spoke of the red child, who had gotten carried away, was going to sit on the lotus throne with teeth, she frightened the children and exclaimed:

"Red boy doesn't dare to sit!"

"There's a thorn in it!" the adults giggled.

Zhang Guangyan giggled twice and said, "That's Guanyin Bodhisattva's domineering spirit of wanting to kill the red child." ”

Li Yue'e pinched the wild vegetables with her left hand and cut them with a kitchen knife with her right hand.

Jia Junye tied a black coarse cloth apron made by her mother-in-law around her waist, and pulled the wild vegetables cut by her sister-in-law into a vegetable pot. She said, I'm in charge of stir-frying.

The sister-in-law approached the ears of her younger siblings and said: "Our mother-in-law is afraid of cooking with oil, so she usually eats raw and drowned vegetables, so if you want to eat cooked vegetables, blanch them with water, and then use salt and vinegar and add some minced garlic to adjust and eat." I asked Wenya to bring rice, noodles and oil to our mother-in-law. Our mother-in-law was reluctant to eat it, saying that she would eat it during the New Year. ”

"Isn't it going to be bad in the New Year?" "Sister-in-law grabbed her brother and sister's arm and said, "You ......."

But my brother and sister were fast-talking, and before my sister-in-law finished speaking, she said, "Mom, the family is finally reunited today, I'll fry a few dishes and let everyone taste my craftsmanship, okay?"

The mother-in-law looked embarrassed and said, "I originally planned to wait until the New Year to eat, so let's do as you say." Jia Junye and his sister-in-law tightened their mouths and looked at each other, but the two of them didn't hold back, and laughed "poof".

Li Yue'e said: "Leave the cooking work to me, Junye, you can do it." ”

The mother-in-law said she was in charge of rolling the noodles. Li Yue'e said, "Mom, you always rest, just leave everything to me and Junye." ”

Jia Junye began to light the fire and burn the pot, and Li Yue'e began to fry wild vegetables.

Zhao Tonghua's face was happy, and she remembered the old saying: "A daughter-in-law of more than 40 years has become a mother-in-law." She said to mix the white noodles with good noodles for a while, and the noodles that are rolled out like that are smooth and tough, and the taste will be good.

Jia Junye went to the chopstick cage and brought a handful of chopsticks and put them on the table, she said, "How about I taste the wild vegetables fried by my sister-in-law?"

Zhang Guanghua didn't wait for his wife to eat, so he pulled her clothes and whispered: "Don't eat yet, wait a minute, brother, have a reunion dinner." Jia Junye hurriedly put the chopsticks on the table.

【2】

Zhang Guanghua asked everyone to sit at the table. He held one of his father's arms, and with the other he was on a crutch, and walked to the table and sat down.

Li Yue'e also walked over with a stick, and her younger siblings jokingly asked her two children, "Our family used to be a lame man, but now we have two more lame people! How many lame people do you two count?"

The two children crossed their fingers and counted, "One plus two, Mom, I calculated it, it's three lame." Zhang Guangyan, who was originally smiling, heard what her second sister-in-law said, and she thought that the word lame said by her second sister-in-law was simply eating her heart, and her face became gloomy.

Zhang Guanghua saw that his sister's face changed greatly. He dragged his wife aside unhappily and whispered criticism of her for being open-mouthed and talking nonsense. His daughter-in-law asked loudly, "Am I wrong?"

The sister-in-law laughed a few times and said to her sister first: "Guangyan, don't blame your second sister-in-law, she doesn't have any bad intentions, but she speaks a little too straight." My sister lowered her head and the corners of her mouth twitched, but she didn't say anything. Li Yue'e said to Brother Guanghua again, "Guanghua, Junye, she has the same personality as her sister-in-law, she speaks straightforwardly and never detours. The sister-in-law looked at her younger siblings and criticized her, "Junye, it's not wrong to speak straight, but sometimes you can't speak too straight, and if you are too straight, it will hurt people." You'll have to pay attention to that in the future. Jia Junye listened to his sister-in-law's words, and couldn't help but glance at his sister. When she saw her sister's unhappy face, she quickly apologized to her.

The children sat down next to their parents. Zhao Tonghua walked out with a smile from the back room with the gift her eldest son bought. The aroma of roast chicken, the aroma of chestnut pastries, and the fragrance of fruits, how can people not be refreshed? Everyone stared at the paper bags in Zhao Tonghua's rough hands with hungry eyes, and she put the paper bags on the table one by one, and said: "This is the roast chicken bought by the boss, and the golden chestnut crisp with the word Fu on it. Zhao Tonghua pointed to the new clothes on her body and the new shoes on her feet, and said with a smile, "This is the second child who bought me this dress and shoes." and my grass bead bracelet and necklace, all of which were carved and processed by my daughter herself. My children are more filial than the other!"

Adults and children are sniffing all kinds of objects, emitting different aromas and swallowing saliva, and the children show impatience. The old lady opened a large yellow paper bag and asked, "Kids, guess what's in there?" The children stared at the yellow paper bag. Grandma said again, "Oh oh, oh! Look what this is?" Zhao Tonghua opened the yellow paper, and everyone saw that it was chestnut cake from Shandong. Adults and children are all staring at each other.

When Zhang Wenya saw that her younger siblings were about to reach out to pick them up, she shouted, don't eat it yet! The younger siblings were stunned when they looked at the eldest sister. Wen Ya told her younger siblings a story about Kong Rong Rang Pear. The younger siblings understood what the eldest sister meant, so they let the adults eat first. Zhang Maoyuan smiled and said, "Then just wait for the light to come back, let's eat together as a family." ”

Zhang Maoyuan saw that each paper package was printed with the words thank you and tasted it, and said, "If you look at the words on this package, you can see that Shandong is the hometown of etiquette, and it is quite influenced by the Confucianism of Confucius and Mencius!" Zhang Maoyuan said unhurriedly in his deep voice, "These are all bright for him, and he used his spare time to buy Chinese medicinal materials for some money! As the old man spoke, Zhang Guangming walked into the door with a smile.

The children were so happy that they clapped their hands and whispered excitedly, "You can eat it!"

"Let's eat, let's eat, what are you paying attention to at home?" said the straightforward Jia Junye immediately. Zhang Guanghua immediately pulled his wife's clothes, meaning to tell her to shut up.

【3】

As soon as Zhang Guangming entered the door, he said, "The old branch secretary and the commune cadres have respectively explained some work matters to me, and I have just sent the two commune cadres away. As soon as he sat down, his father hurriedly said, "I see that everyone has been waiting for a while, are you hungry? The younger siblings all looked at the eldest sister's elegant face, and the elegant waved her hand to mean that it was not time to eat. Zhang Maoyuan's son, daughter-in-law, and daughter toasted the two old men one by one, but the two old men smiled happily, and their hearts bloomed.

Zhang Guangming poured a cup of sorghum aged wine brewed by his mother into the cup of each adult. Let's raise a glass and celebrate for the father and daughter!" The children playfully toasted with candy that looked like a wine glass, instead of wine, and toasted as a sign of celebration. Jia Junye asked the children to eat the vegetables first, and the children shook their heads. Zhang Maoyuan said with a smile, "That's right, children, our family is a family that values morality, courtesy, and goodness." This is also the old tradition of our Chinese nation! If there is something delicious, we must let the elders eat first, this is gratitude, it is also respect for the elders, and this is also a courtesy. When Jia Junye heard her father-in-law say this, her face turned red. Zhang Maoyuan continued, "What about the children, do more good deeds!" The grandsons and granddaughters nodded solemnly. Zhang Maoyuan and Zhao Tonghua picked up the chopsticks and said, "Let's start eating." As soon as they moved their chopsticks to eat, their son and daughter-in-law, and their daughter, they picked up the chopsticks and ate them. The children did not hold chopsticks, but looked at the chestnut cake on the table with greed. The adults hurriedly brought it to the children.

【4】

Zhang Maoyuan is an old man who cares about the big things in the village. He told his eldest son in every possible way: "Bright, you see that many villagers in our village have the idea of fleeing the famine and asking for food, you must do everything for the villagers to make everyone rich! You must lead the villagers to work hard and dig up the poor roots as soon as possible! You must not live up to the trust of the old branch secretary! You must not live up to the expectations of the whole village for you!" The son nodded solemnly in agreement.

The mother said, "Yes, my father is right. Eldest son, you have to find a way to let the villagers of our Muyehua Village jump out of the pit of poverty! Otherwise, how many mothers in the village have given birth to babies because they have no food to eat, and the milk will be pitiful! If the dolls are not full, they will be weak and sick! Look at how many young children have died in the village!" Zhang Guangming nodded with an extremely heavy heart. After listening to the gentle and drizzly instructions of his father and mother, Zhang Guangming suddenly felt that the burden on his shoulders was not light!