Siheyuan: Relieve stress and relieve worries

Chapter 510 Visiting the Li Family
August 1st was the second day after Yan Jiekuang returned. He did not even go to his parents' house, but took his daughter to Xizhang Hutong in Xizhimen. Li Chenggang's family lived in the west wing of the front yard of a large compound there. When he was in school, Yan Jiekuang came to his house.

Yan Jiekuang bought some Daoxiangchun cakes, some tonic gift boxes and canned food. He placed some under the stroller and held some in his hands. He sorted out his thoughts and then stepped into the courtyard. There were not many people in the yard, probably because it was working hours.

Yan Jiekuang went straight to the west wing. The door was half open. Yan Jiekuang knocked on the door and asked, "Is anyone home?"

"Who is it?" At this time, an old lady with white hair came out. She looked at Yan Jiekuang who was pushing the stroller and felt that she didn't know him, so she asked, "Who are you looking for?"

She didn't know Yan Jiekuang, but Yan Jiekuang recognized her as Li Chenggang's mother at a glance. How could she age so fast? She was skinny and her face was full of vicissitudes. More importantly, her hair was mostly white, and her black hair was almost invisible. If he remembered correctly, Li Chenggang's mother should be less than 70 years old. At that time, he envied him for having a young mother. After not seeing her for so many years, he thought she had aged so fast.

"Aunt Li, don't you recognize me? Take a closer look, I am Yan Jiekuang. When I was a child, I came to your house for dinner." Yan Jiekuang said in a trembling voice.

Aunt Li frowned and tried hard to recall. After a while, she said, "Oh, I see. You are Cheng Gang's classmate, the one who often brings fish to me. Haha, come in quickly."

Aunt Li finally remembered him and quickly asked him to come in and sit down. Yan Jiekuang pushed his daughter in and placed the things one by one on the eight-immortals table. Looking around, the Li family's home furnishings were still in the style of the 1960s and 1970s, without any change.

Aunt Li went to pour tea for Yan Jiekuang, who was sitting at the side of the eight-immortal table. After a while, Aunt Li came over with a teacup and placed the tea in front of Yan Jiekuang. She looked up and saw the things on the table, and complained, "You said you would come, but why did you buy so many things? They must have cost a lot of money."

Yan Jiekuang smiled and said, "Aunt, don't be polite to me. This is what I should do. By the way, where is Uncle Li?"

Aunt Li sat opposite Yan Jiekuang and said, "He works as a security guard at a nearby elementary school. He can make some money by doing this as a make-up job."

Yan Jiekuang frowned. He knew that Li Chenggang had more than one child. He remembered that Li Chenggang had two older brothers. He then asked, "Don't the eldest and second brothers live here anymore?"

Aunt Li smiled and said, "Yes, the children have all started their own families and careers, and they seldom come back. We have a lot of things to do now, so we old couple live here by ourselves and rarely bother them."

Yan Jiekuang asked hesitantly, "So are you and Uncle Li still doing well?"

Aunt Li chuckled and said, "Don't worry, we both have pensions, and we also have the money your uncle Li makes up for his work. He's just going to kill time. He can't stay at home."

Yan Jiekuang heaved a sigh of relief, but began to hesitate again. Aunt Li seemed to see what was on his mind, so she said, "Jiekuang, you want to talk about Li Chenggang, right? It's been more than 20 years now, and we didn't say anything at the time. We were confused at the time, but it's good. That kid is a hero, and we gradually let it go. When did you know about it?"

Yan Jiekuang had an urge to cry, but he held back and said, "Aunt, I only found out about this a while ago, otherwise I would have always thought that he was serving in the army somewhere. It's a bit hard to accept this all of a sudden, but Cheng Gang wrote to me, saying that he had to come to see you no matter what."

Aunt Li said, "Jie Kuang, don't get excited. Drink some tea first. Don't worry about it. Didn't you see the sign at the door? We never took it down. He is the pride of our family. Because of him, the eldest and second sons have also gained a lot of benefits. It's worth it. You don't have to come to see us. You still have your own life. Don't worry about our family."

Yan Jiekuang took a sip of tea and nodded mechanically.

Aunt Li saw her daughter in the stroller, and the daughter also saw her grandmother and smiled. Aunt Li liked her immediately, teased her a few times, and asked, "This is your child, can I hold her?"

"Yes, of course. Please feel free to tell me about this child." Yan Jiekuang responded, and then recounted the child's life story and the process of his raising him.

Aunt Li hugged her daughter and said, "This is a blessing to meet you. Not bad, not bad, live a good life."

Yan Jiekuang chatted with Aunt Li for a while, but before Uncle Li came back, Yan Jiekuang said goodbye. Aunt Li sent him out of the yard. Just as Yan Jiekuang was about to turn around, Aunt Li said, "Jiekuang, I'm sorry. When we first received the news of Cheng Gang's sacrifice, his eldest brother and second brother blamed you and scolded you, saying that you, once their best friend, had never shown up. It's really hard to remember you since you've been gone. Today I found out that you didn't know about this. I'm sorry." Yan Jiekuang smiled and waved his hand, then turned around and walked out pushing the stroller. He didn't take the matter seriously, although he really didn't know. He kind of hated himself for not taking the initiative to ask and inquire, so that he wouldn't have known about this more than 20 years later.

Yan Jiekuang pushed the stroller and walked slowly. His mind flew to himself when he was in junior high school. Unconsciously, he walked to the riverbank of Shichahai again. It was not until he heard his daughter's babbling voice that Yan Jiekuang's mind was brought back.

Yan Jiekuang looked at Nannan. Nannan glanced at Yan Jiekuang, then pointed and babbled something. Following the direction Nannan pointed, Yan Jiekuang looked and saw four children there, appearing to be fishing in an orderly manner.

Yan Jiekuang thought back to the time when the four of them went fishing. At this moment, a few people who looked like staff members, wearing red armbands, were running towards the four children. It seemed that fishing was not allowed in Shichahai now. Yan Jiekuang quickly shouted, "Fishing boys, someone is coming to catch you, run!"

The four boys stood up, a little flustered, and when they saw the person with red armbands running towards them in the distance, the children hurriedly picked up their things and ran in the opposite direction. The fishermen were dumbfounded, it seemed they could not catch up. At this time, Yan Jiekuang was pushing the stroller, whistling, and continued to walk forward slowly.

However, when he passed by the people wearing red armbands, he clearly felt that they were glaring at him angrily. Yan Jiekuang pretended not to know and continued walking.

When Yan Jiekuang walked to the intersection of Nanchizi Street, he hesitated for a moment and then walked towards Mrs. Wanzhi's house. He hadn't been there for several days, so he had to go and take a look. He knocked on the door of Mrs. Wanzhi's house.

Sister Lu Si asked, "Who is it?"

"I'm the fourth sister, Yan Jiekuang." Yan Jiekuang replied.

Fourth Sister Lu opened the door and saw Yan Jiekuang pushing the baby carriage. She hurried forward to take the carriage and said with a smile, "Oh, our lovely daughter is here. I missed her so much. I was wondering why she hadn't come for so long."

Two people pushed the stroller into the yard. Yan Jiekuang closed the gate and turned around. Sister Lu Si had already pushed the stroller into the backyard. Yan Jiekuang walked to the backyard and saw Mrs. Wanzhi was listening to the radio under a tree and enjoying the cool air. At this moment, she had sat up and was looking at her daughter.

Mrs. Wanzhi seldom holds a baby, which Yan Jiekuang knows. Mrs. Wanzhi means that she is half buried in the ground, so it is better for her not to come into contact with these babies.

Mrs. Wanzhi said with a bit of complaint at this time: "Come on, why haven't I seen you for a long time?"

Yan Jiekuang smiled foolishly and told Mrs. Wanzhi what had happened in the past few days. Of course, he glossed over all the parts that made him sad.

Sister Lu Si said with emotion: "Alas, this matter, the children are good children, you should not be too sad, it is over, just miss them from time to time, after all, you still have to live your own life."

Mrs. Wanzhi said, "It's rare to have a close friend in life. It's normal to be sad when a close friend passes away. Okay, it seems that you have gotten over it and have let it go a little. That's good. Just keep it in your heart and don't always show it."

When Yan Jiekuang heard this, he felt that Mrs. Wanzhi had touched his heart, so he nodded and said, "What do you want to eat tonight? I'll cook it for you."

Mrs. Wanzhi smiled and said, "That's great. Fourth sister bought a stupid chicken at the market this morning. You can cook it as you like. You don't have to do too much."

Yan Jiekuang went to the front yard and went straight into the kitchen. He looked at the ingredients on the shelf, thought about it, and started cooking.

(End of this chapter)