Film and television started from Yan Jiecheng in the Siheyuan

Chapter 746 The Humble Old Father

"My daughter-in-law rushed to do all the housework, so you should knit me a sweater first. I don't have this one on, and you made Zhou Rong so much, what do you make my daughter-in-law think? "

While talking, Zhou Bingkun also pointed to Zheng Juan who was busy cooking in the outhouse.

"After finishing your sister's weaving, Mom will weave it for you." Li Suhua said with a little embarrassment.

"You may not be able to finish knitting this one by the time of the Chinese New Year."

"Well, Bingkun, wait until next year, and mom will knit one for you next year." Li Suhua promised sincerely.

Li Suhua said that, Zhou Bingkun couldn't say anything more.

However, trying to make Li Suhua realize the importance of Zheng Juan and talk to Zheng Juan better is a failure.

The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is not so easy to handle, and Li Suhua can't be said to be harsh on Zheng Juan.

It's just that for Li Suhua, no matter how filial a daughter-in-law is, there is no unfilial daughter, and she has status in her heart.

For Zheng Juan, marrying Zhou Bingkun is a tall order, but not much.

I don't feel that I owe too much to the old Zhou family.

Even if it was because Zhou Bingkun was helping Taiping Hutong, Zheng Juan would be filial to Li Suhua in the same way thanks to her gratitude.

But when Li Suhua has been eccentric for a long time, Zheng Juan is also an ordinary person, and it is normal to feel dissatisfied with her mother-in-law.

However, this problem cannot erupt within a short period of time. There will be plenty of time in the future, and we can play it by ear depending on the situation.

In the future, if Zhou Bingyi or Zhou Rong can take the responsibility of taking care of their parents, they don't need to get along under the same roof.

The problem of the mother-in-law being partial to her children will become completely non-existent for Zheng Juan.

...

At the end of November in the lunar calendar, when New Year’s Day in the Gregorian calendar was just around the corner, Zhou Bingkun came home from get off work and saw Li Suhua sitting listlessly on the kang, sighing, so he asked Zheng Juan:
"Juan'er, what's the matter, Mom?"

Zheng Juan dragged Zhou Bingkun to the outhouse again, and said in a low voice, "Sister wrote a letter, saying that she will stay in Guizhou during the Chinese New Year and cannot go home for the New Year."

"It's not a big deal, you don't have to be so cautious. Mom is someone who can handle things. Back then, Zhou Rong sneaked off to Guizhou to find a man to elope. Mom got over it not long after."

When talking to Zheng Juan, Zhou Bingkun was always seeking truth from facts.

I was afraid that what I said would not be thorough, so that Zheng Juan would misunderstand the people of the old Zhou family, and not understand what Zhou Bingkun's true attitude towards these people was.

Zheng Juan can't let Zheng Juan take the image of Zhou Rong who is beautiful, sensible, and well-educated in the mouths of her neighbors as real.

The image of Zhou Rong who chooses to go to the countryside to endure hardship is circulated among neighbors in the neighborhood, so that her younger brother can stay in the city.

It was Li Suhua who deliberately released the news for the face of the old Zhou family.

My daughter eloped with a wild man, no parent could tell.

"Kun'er, Bingkun, do you think your sister is still worried about your father being angry, so she dare not come back?"

After returning to the back room, Li Suhua looked up at Zhou Bingkun and said.

"That can't be done. How could my sister worry about my dad being angry? Everyone in the optical film knows that my dad loves my sister the most. My dad cuts me every now and then, and has she ever touched a finger? She is Simply not wanting to come back has nothing to do with whether my dad is angry or not."

Although it hurts the most when telling the truth, it is better than letting Li Suhua have unrealistic and illusory expectations for Zhou Rong.

"Then tell me, your sister has been away for four years, why doesn't she want to come back, doesn't she miss home and mother?"

"It's not that simple. Her husband, a five-category black poet, was sent to the countryside and must be put under supervision. Old Hei can't leave. My sister will spend the New Year with her husband there."

This is a logic that can be easily figured out, but as parents, when they think about their children, they are always willing to think about the good.

Li Suhua, who was in a bad mood when his fantasy was punctured, immediately got angry: "Fuck off."

"Good medicine is good for the disease, and good advice is good for the ear. If you recognize who your daughter is, you won't be so disappointed now if you don't expect her to go home for the New Year."

Li Suhua's psychological endurance needs to be exercised.

Otherwise, Zhou Bingkun was very worried. When he cleaned up Zhou Rong, Zhou Rong would do something that would drive Li Suhua to death.

"Bingkun, mom is in a bad mood, so stop talking." Zheng Juan said.

"It's okay. I know Mom is in a bad mood. I deliberately made Mom angry. It's better to vent my anger than to keep it in my heart." Zhou Bingkun fooled Zheng Juan.

As the daughter-in-law of the old Zhou family, Zheng Juan should get used to this kind of contentious life.

Now only Li Suhua and Zhou Bingkun are at home, and the disputes are very small.

It would be considered a lively event if the old Zhou's family could be gathered together.

...

After Zhou Rong also replied to the letter, Li Suhua's hope that the child would go home for the New Year was over.

Some time ago, how much I looked forward to and how happy I was, how disappointed and depressed this time.

The ups and downs of mood are so fast, faster than a child's.

It was the time before the new year, and it was time to prepare all kinds of New Year's goods.

Every year, the government will give more meat, oil, flour, vermicelli, fish, peanuts and melon seeds, candy and other rations based on reserves.

It is the time when the women in the family are needed to go to various supply and marketing cooperatives, non-staple food, grain and oil stores, and line up to buy various supplies.

Li Suhua also lost the motivation to rush to buy, and most of his energy was lost.

Seeing Li Suhua in this state, Zhou Bingkun naturally wanted to write a letter to tell Zhou Bingyi and Zhou Zhigang what state Li Suhua was in.

Li Suhua was happy for a while and sad for a while. It wasn't that I, Zhou Bingkun, didn't take good care of me at home, it was all you people outside who made troubles.

Writing letters to two people is also to confirm Li Suhua's position in their hearts.

It was useless for Zhou Bingkun to say whether the two of them should go home for the New Year, so they had to decide for themselves.

If Li Suhua is in this state, neither of them will come back.

One is not going home with his wife, and the other is not going home looking for his daughter.

Calculated in this way, these two people seem to be no better than Zhou Rong.

Li Suhua's status in Zhou Rong's heart is not high, but in the hearts of Zhou Bingyi and Zhou Zhigang, it seems that Li Suhua's status is not that high.

...

Li Suhua was sad alone, and didn't care about the family affairs, but Zheng Juan at home couldn't affect the old Zhou's family's various preparations for the New Year.

In the [-]s and [-]s, supplies were not so abundant, so in order to have a more prosperous Spring Festival, we had to start making various preparations from the beginning of the twelfth lunar month.

The main thing is to prepare the new year's goods, paint the house for sanitation, remove and wash the bedding, and rush to make new clothes for the new year.

What Zhou Bingkun did was to take advantage of the rest time on weekends to buy rice, large yellow rice, small yellow rice, white noodles, corn noodles, these relatively heavy rice noodles, grains and oils, and buy them home.

In the painting work of the adobe house of the old Zhou family, if any piece of soil on the inner and outer walls fell off, some mud was used to make up for it, and then the whole house was painted with lime.

The linoleum on the roof is about to break, and it is about to rot, so I bought a new one and replaced it.

Some Spring Festival specials, sesame oil, tofu, vermicelli, meat, fish, etc. These things are not many, not heavy, and you need to queue up to buy things.

It was Zheng Juan who spared time every morning to go shopping.

In the afternoon, Zheng Juan needed to remove and wash the bedding at home, and make a new dress for everyone.

Unpacking and washing bedding is also a very troublesome thing. It takes Zheng Juan at least two days for three sets of bedding.

Making clothes is also not an easy thing.In addition to the three members of Lao Zhou's family, Zheng Juan also has to make clothes for Aunt Zheng and Guangming.

That is to say, Lao Zhou's family has a sewing machine, and Zheng Juan learned it relatively quickly, so she was able to make these five sets of clothes within a month.

In the Northeast, there is still a big task in the twelfth lunar month, which is steaming bean buns and steamed buns.

It needs to be steamed enough for the twelfth lunar month at one time, and there are almost the staple food for the entire first month.

Now there are only three people in the old Zhou's family at home, and the steamed bean buns, steamed buns, flower rolls, and sugar buns add up to at least [-] catties of ingredients.

The good thing is that Li Suhua doesn't completely ignore these things.

It's just because my favorite sons and daughters don't come back, and I don't have the heart to take the initiative to raise these things.

Seeing that Zheng Juan was busy, Li Suhua would still help out more or less.

After I was almost busy with all these, it was the 25th of the twelfth lunar month.

It was also Zhou Bingkun's weekend rest day, and he was busy at home cooking pork.

Northeast pork is equivalent to cooking meat in other regions years ago. This year, Lao Zhou's meat is actually quite a lot.

It weighed about [-] catties in total, and Li Suhua didn't let Zhou Bingkun eat it when he saw Zhou Bingkun brought the meat home. After the meat was frozen, it was stored in an empty water tank outside.

Put pork, pork ribs, elbows, trotters, these things that don't have a smell, all in a pot.

No salt, add some onion, ginger, garlic, Chinese prickly ash aniseed, chili and so on to cook the meat.

In the Northeast tradition, these kinds of seasonings are basically added to the meat, and each family's meat may have some differences in spiciness.

The reason for not putting other seasonings may also be the reason why other seasonings are not so easy to buy.

After the meat is cooked, it will be convenient to make it when you eat it during the Chinese New Year.

If it is frozen, it is to make skin jelly. The process of making skin jelly is not much different, but it is simple and time-consuming.

"Ms. Zhou, your telegram."

While boiling the jelly, I heard the shout of the postman outside.

"Comrade Xiao Zhang, you have worked hard, please send me a telegram."

Zhou Bingkun came out and said to the postman.During this period, being a postman is still very hard. You need to ride a bicycle to deliver letters to every household.

This is still in the city. If it is in a rural area, there may be only one postman in a town.

I need to ride a bicycle every day and travel to every village in the township.

"Bingkun, the postman just came, didn't he?"

After Zhou Bingkun returned to the house, Li Suhua also put on his shoes and got off the kang and came out from the back room.

Li Suhua is not very energetic about other things, but Li Suhua still pays [-] attention to the letters sent home.

"Here he is, with a telegram."

"Who sent it?" Li Suhua asked anxiously. This time the anxiety was justified. The reason for sending a telegram was expensive, and the willingness to send a telegram was basically because of an emergency.

Zhou Bingkun tore apart the telegram: "Guizhou, Zhou Rong."

"What did your sister say?"

"Dad is with me. Just these four words, my dad went to Guizhou to find Zhou Rong."

Seeing this, Zhou Bingkun felt that Li Suhua was not worth it.

The husband and wife have lived together for nearly 30 years. As soon as the two got married, Li Suhua risked his life and followed Zhou Zhigang to the northeast.

We haven't seen each other for four years, Li Suhua misses her husband so much, Zhou Zhigang still doesn't go home to find Zhou Rong.

Of course, when Zhou Rong sent a telegram, he just sent these four words, which made Zhou Bingkun happy.

In the telegram, one word is three cents, and four words is ten cents.

The stinginess of sending a telegram shows that Zhou Rong's life is difficult enough.

"Okay, let's go to Zhou Rong, okay, your old stubborn dad has finally figured it out and is willing to forgive your sister."

Li Suhua held the telegram and burst into tears again with excitement.

"Yeah, my dad, an old father, lived too humblely in front of his daughter. It was the girl's fault that she eloped with someone. She didn't contact her father for four years after she made a mistake, and the old father asked him to find him personally. Go to the door and bow your head."

"This is a great event. Let's celebrate by eating meat tonight." After feeling better, Li Suhua pointed to the good meat in the pot and said, and everyone got excited. "Bingkun, you said your dad, can you bring Zhou Rong back for the New Year?"

"Mom, you shouldn't be thinking about whether Zhou Rong can go home for the New Year, you should think about whether my dad can come back for the New Year." Regarding Li Suhua's blind optimism, Zhou Bingkun continued to pour cold water on him: "Think about why Zhou Rong doesn't I'll know when I come back, maybe my dad won't be able to bring Zhou Rong back, and he will stay in Guizhou to accompany Zhou Rong for the new year."

Li Suhua's face suddenly turned cloudy. Li Suhua is just uneducated, but it doesn't mean he is not smart. He can give birth to two good students, Zhou Bingyi and Zhou Rong. Li Suhua's mother is also very smart, and it is easy to understand this logic: "Are you You can’t make me happy for a while, so don’t eat meat tonight.”

"I'm a big fool if I don't eat it when it's all done."

Zhou Bingkun shrugged, looked at Li Suhua who was back in the back room and said.

"Bingkun, don't be like this, why do you insist on confronting Mom." Zheng Juan said, pulling Zhou Bingkun's arm.

"I'm not fighting against my mother. I'm doing it for our family and for my mother. To avoid my mother's high expectations and empty joy. After the person who was looking forward to it doesn't come back, my mother will be depressed for ten days and a half months. Our family has had a rough year."

After the food is prepared, there is not much to do before the Chinese New Year.

The last thing left is to pay attention to personal hygiene and go to the bathhouse to take a bath.

The most suitable time, of course, is the 27th, [-]th, and [-]th day.

If you wash it too early, it will be the Chinese New Year, and the time has passed too long, so it can be said that it has been buried again.

If you wait until thirty, it will be too late, even the public baths will be closed, and it will be a holiday for the New Year.

(End of this chapter)