Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

In the evening, Yu Chuntao went to visit her grandmother and wanted to ask Yu Qiutang to go with her, but Yu Qiutang refused.

The musk I made last time still needs to be dried in the sun for a few days and it is not completely dry yet.

He planned to go see his grandmother after he had prepared the food.

The main thing is that he is very confused now and doesn't know how to face his grandmother. When he thinks of his grandmother's appearance, his heart aches.

It's so contradictory.

He waited until Yu Chuntao returned from his third uncle's house in the evening before leaving the new courtyard.

After Yu Chuntao came back, she was in a very bad mood, apparently affected by her grandmother's illness.

I actually felt a headache.

Went to bed early.

There is a shortage of houses here, and the new house is not yet habitable. Yu Chuntao has to squeeze in here, while Yu Qiutang still goes back to sleep in the troglodyte courtyard.

When he came back, Yu Xiaowei and Yu Xiaoyun were both asleep.

The sound of the motorcycle rumbled in the dark night, waking up my father, who asked from inside, "Where's the second child?"

"Ah."

"Your second sister didn't come back?"

"I saw my grandma and she said she had a headache, so she went to sleep at my brother Jiang's place."

"Oh."

In the darkness, his father did not ask anything immediately. Yu Qiutang was about to enter the house when he saw his father open the door and come out.

His legs were bare, he wore shorts and a cotton jacket.

"I heard from your third aunt."

"Ah, what?"

Yu Dejin looked at him, reached into his cotton-padded jacket pocket, and took out a few bills. "Here."

Yu Qiutang could vaguely see in the moonlight that they were several ten-yuan bills, and judging from the thickness, there were about five of them.

"Why are you giving me money?"

"Why are you hiding it from me? Your mother is gone, and you don't even want to tell me about something as important as proposing marriage?"

Yu Qiutang lowered his head.

Don't want to reply to this.

He faced the same problem in his previous life. At that time, his relationship with his father was very strained and he never paid any attention to him from beginning to end.

Even when he finally got married, his father did not attend his wedding.

Naturally, he had always been holding a grudge in his previous life, but after he grew up, when his father passed away and his own children started getting married, he suddenly realized what was going on when he saw the newlyweds were so happy.

The reason why he was so resentful was not purely out of hatred.

But regret.

A marriage without the blessing of parents can be happy, but there will definitely be regrets.

The conflict with his father at the beginning was related to his father's arbitrariness and brutality, but it was also due to his stubbornness and his inability to adapt.

My father is rude and stubborn, and he is not the kind of person who would easily give in.

As father and son, it was their common misfortune to end up in such a situation.

Now, he lowered his head, not wanting to look at the money in his father's hand, but he could just see his father's bare legs.

My father's left leg is obviously much thinner than his right leg.

About the thickness of an adult's arm.

This is because when my father was young, he was working for others and fainted in the snow when he returned home at night. His left leg was frozen in the snow for too long, causing muscle atrophy.

Later, this leg became like this.

It’s not noticeable now as I’m young, but after a few years, I’ll basically be walking with my right leg dragging my left leg. When it’s windy or rainy, it’ll be very painful. In the worst times, I won’t even be able to move.

A cold wind blew.

Yu Qiutang's neck shrank as the northwest wind blew into his neck, which was really uncomfortable.

It was as if a bucket of ice water was poured over you from head to toe in an instant, chilling you to the bone.

He couldn't let his father stand there with bare legs, so he continued, "I have money."

"I know you have money and you are very capable. You built such a big yard. This is what I give you. It's only fifty dollars. If you want more, I don't have it either."

Yu Dejin didn't know whether it was a statement or a mockery.

Because it was too cold, his voice was trembling and Yu Qiutang couldn't tell what he was saying for a moment.

"Take it. There's something for your mother in here. I promised your mother..."

"Ok."

When Yu Qiutang heard about his mother, his heart softened, knowing that this was the last resort his father could offer.

If he doesn't step down, there will be no way forward.

He took the warm money, put it in his pocket, and subconsciously said "thank you."

Suddenly I felt that the tone was a bit silly.

But the words were out, and he was too lazy to change them, so he said, "You should go in quickly. It's cold, don't you know how your legs are?!"

"Ok?"

Yu Dejin was stunned.

He had never heard Yu Qiutang speak in this tone before.

The point is not the content of the sentence, but the way the son spoke, as if someone of his peer had said something casually to him.

"I'm going in."

Yu Qiutang didn't want to continue. Talking further would only make the atmosphere colder.

He and his father both knew that there was a huge chasm between them, and that their relationship was maintained by nothing more than a shaky cable bridge. Don't think about exerting force, as that would cause the bridge to break.

Maintaining it carefully like this may be the future.

He pushed the car into a sheltered alley and heard his father closing the door behind him. The moment the door creaked shut, his body relaxed.

"Whoo~"

"Uncle, you're back."

Yu Xiaowei, who was half asleep, turned over and saw that it was Yu Qiutang. He asked casually, but before Yu Qiutang could answer, he fell into deep sleep again.

This age is the time when people are sleepy.

Yu Qiutang helped him cover the quilt that had been kicked aside, and touched the kang, which was as hot as the bottom of a pot.

He sat on the edge of the kang and thought silently for a while.

My mind is very confused.

Too many things have happened recently, one after another, and it is impossible to put them in order, and to tell which one is important and which one is less important.

After thinking about it, he finally let out a long sigh.

I thought that after my rebirth, I would live a carefree life, but in the end, I was still tied up by trivial matters. I can say that I feel stressed, but not entirely. But I just feel exhausted.

"It may be the old age mentality."

Before going to bed, he summarized this state, as if he could not find any other reason besides this.
.
Thinking about what would happen the next day, Yu Qiutang did not sleep well at night. Moreover, the kang was too hot, so he was in a daze all night. He woke up several times, but the sky outside was still not bright enough.

I finally saw a vague white light outside the window. I couldn't lie down any longer, so I got up, did some boxing, washed up, and rode my motorcycle to my new home.

By then, Yu Chuntao and Yu Chunmei had both gotten up, so she took Yu Chuntao to Yu Deshui's house to pick up Gao Meilan.

He first brought the two of them to the town and bought some things. Even if he wanted to propose marriage, it would be embarrassing to go empty-handed.

I originally planned to buy it at a small shop in the village, but when I ran over to take a look, not only were there very few items, but many of them were not fresh and were not worth buying.

My mother-in-law particularly likes to drink tea and she simply can't live without tea, so Yu Qiutang specially bought some tea for her.

As for my father-in-law, he likes to smoke old dry tobacco, and his favorite is naturally shredded tobacco.

There is no need to buy anything for the rest of the people for the time being. After all, it is just a marriage proposal, and being too attentive to those people you are not “familiar” with would make you seem unstable.

Of course, he didn't forget to put some fruit candies in his pocket.

There are two younger children over there, namely Miali's youngest sister and brother, that is, his sister-in-law and brother-in-law.

Probably about the same age as Yu Xiaowei and Yu Xiaoyun, maybe a little younger.

Mijiazhuang is a small village compared to Wangjiazhuang. Both its area and population are much smaller than Wangjiazhuang. It is probably the size of one or two teams in Wangjiazhuang.

There are historical reasons for this.

Mijiazhuang was not here originally. Its original location was a depression, lower than the surrounding areas. It was often flooded and could not be lived in safely. At the request of the town leaders, the entire village was moved west to its current location.

However, because the planned area was too small to accommodate all the people in the original village, part of it was distributed to other villages, and the remaining area was equivalent to half the size of the original village.

Because the relocation took place only more than a decade ago, Mijiazhuang looks newer than the surrounding villages, including the paths in the village, which are wider, flatter and better than those in other villages.

Looking at the specific location, Mijiazhuang is closer to Qingquan Town, and is only seven or eight miles away from the town center. At that time, people's pace was fast, and if they walked faster, even if they pushed a cart, they could reach the town in an hour.

Moreover, the road from here to the town is also very flat. Unlike Wangjiazhuang, the road to Qingquan Town is bumpy and full of potholes, which is not so easy.

Otherwise, Yu Chuntao wouldn't have been complaining about being thrown around.

The road is well built and relatively close to the town, which gives it an innate advantage in development.

Therefore, although Mijiazhuang is a small place, people there live much better than those in Wangjiazhuang as a whole.

Of course, this does not include Miali's home.

There is naturally a reason why Miyali's family is poor.

The problem lies with my father-in-law Mi Youtang, who is not a normal farmer.

Mi Youtang actually fled to Rongcheng from other places.

Or maybe not.

He originally had no name. He was a child that Miyali's grandfather snatched from the mouth of a wild dog. He was only three or four years old when he was snatched away, and his accent sounded a bit like someone from Shanxi.

But for a child of this age, there is no way he could escape thousands of miles from Shanxi to Rongcheng, so we can only guess that he either came here with his family and got separated due to an accident.

Or they were trafficked here by people with bad intentions, and then abandoned for unknown reasons.

Regardless of the reason, he had become an unwanted vagrant. This was an indisputable fact.

Later, when he grew up, he went back to look for his roots, but Shanxi is so big that he went to several important places but couldn't find anything, so in the end he just let it go.

At that time, Mi Yali's grandfather felt sorry for him and adopted him. He also gave him a name, and his surname was Mi.

Although he was adopted, the old man had always been very good to Mi Youtang and never let him suffer. In some ways, he was even better to him than his own son.

So, although his family was not rich, Mi Youtang had never suffered much.

Later, the mountain of the times crushed the Mi family, and Mi Youtang also got married and married Mi Yali's mother Tuo Runxiu.

The surname "Tuo" is very rare and originated from Mongolia, so the Tuo family has no roots in Rongcheng.

The only disadvantage of a successful marriage between a young man of unknown origin and a girl of Mongolian descent with no roots is that they are both weak and powerless.

In the past society, family power was very important. The bigger the family, the greater its power, and ordinary people did not dare to bully it.

If you have no roots and no foundation, it is equivalent to having no backing and you will easily be suppressed by others.

But Mi Youtang is a person who doesn't care about anything, a bit like the free and easy mentality in Taoist teachings.

He is not lazy, but he is definitely not hardworking.

He never competes with others for things. If others take advantage of him, he won't get angry, but he never takes advantage of others.

His family was poor, but he didn't think about getting richer. He thought that as long as he was poor, he would just be poor.

Even when the other brothers of the Mi family called him to go out with them to find a job and make a lot of money, he would not go and was willing to stay at home.

In Miali's words, she had never seen her father and mother quarrel.

My mother, Tuo Runxiu, was a very virtuous, gentle and kind woman, and my father was the kind of man who would never get angry with anyone, so it would be strange if they ever quarreled.

The disadvantage of getting these two people together is that the mother cannot make a fortune on her own, but the advantage is that the family atmosphere is very good.

The children all have cheerful personalities. Compared to other fathers who often scold their children, Mi Youtang has never scolded them, let alone beaten them.

Whenever Yu Qiutang thinks of his father-in-law, he thinks he is a very magical person.

In his previous life, until his father-in-law died, he felt that he had not properly understood this person.

Even my father-in-law's death was silent.

On his 70th birthday, after lunch, while his younger generations were still drinking and chatting inside, he said he wanted to bask in the sun at the door.

As he was sunbathing for a while, he became quiet.

When everyone went to see, they found that he was gone. The whole point was to catch everyone by surprise.

That day happened to be the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

From the perspective of ordinary people, my father-in-law is actually not very responsible. He does not have the sense of responsibility that is common among men of this era, nor does he seem to be the pillar of the family.

When he came into this world, he was just like a passer-by. He didn't care about anything and didn't have too many concerns. It was as if he was here to complete a mission, and after completing it, he would leave freely.

Relatives, friends and neighbors were quite dissatisfied with his behavior.

But my mother-in-law never...

At least in Yu Qiutang, she had never heard her say anything bad about her husband.

Every time my mother-in-law mentioned her man, she just smiled and said that he was born to enjoy a good life and was not the kind of person who would endure hardship.

He must have accumulated a lot of blessings in his previous lives, and he wants to get them back in this life. I must have owed him something in my previous lives, and I want to pay him back in this life.

My mother-in-law has suffered a lot in her life.

No matter big or small things at home, she has to worry about them and is busy inside and outside. But she is just a thin woman who is only 1.55 meters tall and weighs no more than 80 kilograms all year round.

Yu Qiutang lamented many times that he had met many people in his life, but in terms of breadth of mind, few could compare with his father-in-law and mother-in-law.

One of them is completely free from the world and is not affected by anything.

The other one is clearly in suffering, but always finds a way to resolve it. He is never overwhelmed by suffering and faces it calmly with a smile.

It is precisely this kind of family that can produce children like Mi Wenzhong and Mi Yali, and that can make Yu Qiutang try his best to relive his past emotions even if he were to live his life again.

The morning sun was scattered in the withered wheat field. At the end of the wheat field was a row of bare poplars. Below the poplars was a farm with smoke rising from the sky. That was Miyali's home. (End of this chapter)