bookrebus Chapter 221 A Joyful Lantern Festival in the Village
Chapter 221 A Joyful Lantern Festival in the Village
Li Ju'an remained neither humble nor arrogant, and found it amusing to meet the female secretary's disdainful gaze.
Women in the world of fame and fortune, isn't that exactly what they want? They'll follow a man who's rich. But a man's money is for these kinds of women to see, not for them to use.
He glanced down at the contact name and phone number on the paper and smiled, "Then I'll have to trouble Miss Wang."
Wang Jiao snorted, turned her head away arrogantly, and refused to look at these country folk anymore, as if looking at them any longer would taint her eyes.
Before Li Ju'an left, Boss Wang called out to him, "Boss Li, come to Shanghai more often in the future!"
Li Ju'an responded, took the money, and led the hunting dog back to the Li family courtyard.
We're worlds apart; I'm in the Xing'an Mountains, and you're in Shanghai. It won't be easy for us to meet again.
Along the way, Song Desheng held the thick wad of money in trembling hands, too nervous to even take it out to count, and said, "Brother Li, hurry back inside. This looks like more money than I listed. Tsk tsk, city bosses really know how to be generous. Brother Li, you have to take me with you next time you go to Shanghai. If you don't, you don't consider me a brother, and I'll make a scene."
Li Ju'an laughed and said, "You probably don't want to go to Shanghai to do business, you want to go there to pick up girls. What, you've got your eye on that woman surnamed Wang?"
Song Desheng was humiliated, but he remained defiant, shouting, "We're all brothers, no one should pretend. Men should be true to themselves! Such a beautiful woman, fashionable and well-dressed, looking like a vixen, so what if I'm attracted to her? Attracting her is one thing, but marrying her as a wife is another. I still need to marry a decent and honest woman."
Li Ju'an teased him, "Let me tell you, you've really gotten a bit too smug. Going to Shanghai, look how pleased you are with yourself, dream on. Get back and wait to get your face scratched."
Song Desheng burst into laughter.
Good women are meant to be cherished at home, but bad women shouldn't be wasted either.
……
Li Ju'an escorted Song Desheng to the village entrance, gave him the money for his share of homemade wine, and then returned to the Li family's old house.
He went inside, warmed himself by the fire, and counted the goods. Boss Wang was truly generous. He had bought the mountain produce for 800 yuan, with Boss Wang paying an 800 yuan deposit upfront and then another 800 yuan later. By doubling the price, he made a clean profit on the second 800 yuan, pocketing it all.
He earns 800 a day, counting money until his hands cramp, and he grins with delight, feeling a sense of satisfaction.
These days, an average family might earn only four or five hundred yuan a year, but he earned in a single day what an average person would earn in two years. He suppressed his smile and carefully calculated the cost of the red bricks used to build the house, the cost of the materials paid to Foreman Chen, and the money he had arranged for the old timber to be delivered.
He included all the money he had in his Postal Savings Bank account, and with this sum, he could just afford to build a new house.
He was full of enthusiasm. Construction would begin after the Lantern Festival. The new house would be built on the allocated farmland, which, although dry land, would be connected to the village by a main road in three years, and the road would pass right in front of the allocated farmland. Then he could wait for the land price to rise.
His mother, Song Lanhua, asked him to go to the convenience store to buy some glutinous rice balls in preparation for the Lantern Festival.
He responded, put the cash into a brown paper bag, carefully wrapped it up, placed it in a hidden spot on the roof beam using a wooden ladder, sealed it with tape, and then called his sister Li Xiao to go to the convenience store.
The convenience store sells glutinous rice balls around the Lantern Festival, but there are not many varieties. They only have sweet fillings with white sugar. If you want other fillings, you have to buy red bean paste, sesame, hawthorn, etc., and make them yourself.
He bought a pound of sweet rice balls with white sugar filling. Li Xiao excitedly carried them herself, humming a lighthearted tune, and followed behind him back.
“Brother, when you went out these days, Auntie came again and asked Mom for money.”
Li Ju'an perked up immediately; lending money was a sensitive matter, especially since it was a relative, and his mother was a soft-hearted person. He asked, "How much did Mom give?"
Li Xiaole chuckled and said, "Mom didn't say she'd give it to me. She asked about my cousin. She said he went to Shanghai to do business these past few days and even exchanged his Heilongjiang province grain coupons for national grain coupons. He asked my aunt for money. My aunt had no other choice but to borrow from Mom. Later, when Mom saw my aunt off, she didn't mention the money."
Li Ju'an felt much more at ease and was pleased to hear this.
It still has to be Mom. Mom looks gentle and weak, but she's as sharp as a mirror. She knows that if Aunt borrows money, she'll make trouble and won't pay it back. If the sisters-in-law had a good relationship, it wouldn't be a problem, but Aunt used to bully the third son's family, and Mom suffered a lot of grievances.
Now that his mother knew he was planning to build a house and needed the money, how could she side with a relative and use her son's urgently needed funds? She quickly dismissed the old woman with a few words, even finding out what Li Changqing had been busy with lately, offering the old woman a few words of comfort, and then coaxed her away. He mentally gave his mother a thumbs up; after all, it was his mother who did a great job.
Li Ju'an and Li Xiao returned home carrying a pound of sweet rice balls filled with white sugar. Their mother, Song Lanhua, was cooking the rice balls when she told them about it with a smile.
“Our son is doing well now, saving money to build a house. As his mother, we can’t hold him back. If my sister-in-law needs to borrow money, tell her to borrow from your second aunt. The three of us just need to live our own lives.”
The warm words filled Li Ju'an's heart with comfort and a sense of security. He knew the nature of his aunt and stepmother's family from his previous life; after he went south, their relatives had made things difficult for his mother while he was away. His mother may have looked frail, but she was very perceptive. Now that he remained in the mountains, he would surely protect his mother and sister.
The pot of glutinous rice balls boiled, and my mother let it simmer for two minutes. When the lid was lifted, a burst of steam, carrying the unique aroma of glutinous rice, wafted into my nostrils.
The Lantern Festival is the most lively day of the first month of the lunar calendar. People from all walks of life are making dumplings and eating glutinous rice balls, and visiting each other's homes.
The elderly in the village say that this is called "visiting a hundred homes," meaning that the more homes you visit, the less likely you are to get sick.
Aunt Zhang's grandson came to visit, as did Sun Hao, the chubby boy from the Sun family, and Lu Wenqian from the Lu family. Lin's nephew also came to visit... A pound of glutinous rice balls was scooped out, and Li Ju'an, his mother, and his sister buried their heads in their food, munching away, their mouths filled with the delicious aroma. His mother even shared some with the visiting children.
A pound of plump, white glutinous rice balls was devoured in no time, leaving the pot empty.
After the children had eaten, they played on the ice, skating, spinning tops, and there was also a special activity called ice cutting.
As evening fell, lights came on in every yard. After dinner, the children ran to the other side of the river to cut ice before it got completely dark. Sun Hao, the chubby little boy from the Sun family, was the most mischievous. He carried the family axe and smashed it down, sending ice shards, chunks, and ice flowers flying everywhere.
The children laughed and picked up the small ice cubes they had chopped off; they looked crystal clear and quite adorable. Taking a bite, the coolness was so intense it went straight to their hearts—both refreshing and delightful.
Lu Wenqian looked down on Sun Hao and a group of boys eating ice cream, and pulled Li Xiao to stand far away, saying, "Our brother said that eating this ice cream will make you have diarrhea, and your butt will hurt later."
Sun Haocai wasn't afraid. He crunched the ice cubes loudly and laughed heartily: "Bullshit! My uncle said that if you eat chopped ice, you won't have a toothache for a year. He also said that if you roll around on the ice, your back won't hurt anymore."
After he finished speaking, he actually led a group of little boys to lie on the ice and roll around laughing. Enraged, Lu Wenqian stomped her foot and dragged Li Xiao back to the Lu family to tell on him.
“Brother, Sun Hao said his uncle told him that if we want to roll around on the ice, we have to eat the ice that has been cut off. If we don’t eat it, he’ll bring a bunch of people to laugh at us.”
Sun Hao's uncle is Sun Weimin.
The Lu family and the Sun family had just resumed their relationship. Taking advantage of the Lunar New Year and the Lantern Festival, Lu's second aunt and Sun's youngest aunt gradually started seeing each other again, which also indicated that the Lu family patriarch wanted to reconcile with the Sun family.
Aunt Sun was chatting with Aunt Lu, recounting all the gossip about the mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law in the village. Suddenly, she heard Lu Wenqian shout, jumped up, and strode out, yelling, "It's Sun Weimin's doing again. That little brat is finished. I'll tell my sister and break his legs."