Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

Li Xiangdong walked into the main living room, fanning himself with a palm leaf fan, and saw his mother chopping vegetables and his two sisters-in-law kneading dough.

He exclaimed in surprise, "Pure white flour! Mother, you're so generous today!"

"When have I ever been stingy? Our family can afford to eat out occasionally."

Li's mother chopped vegetables without looking up. "We happen to have some 'two-eight' sauce at home. We had cold noodles for lunch today. This heat is making people feel uneasy. Your father and the others have been busy all morning, so this is a comforting meal."

Li Xiangdong nodded upon hearing this. The weather was too hot, so he had no appetite. Rinsing the noodles in cold water would help.

"Can I help you with something?"

"What can you do? Just wait to eat."

Li's mother looked up at him with a look of utter disdain, her tone filled with disgust.

Hey!

Seriously... they actually look down on him.

Li Xiangdong went into the west room where his parents were sleeping, opened a drawer, and rummaged through his father's stash of goods.

I never expected his dad to have Peony cigarettes; they're really good cigarettes.

These days, senior cadres smoke Peony cigarettes, mid-level cadres smoke Fragrant Hills cigarettes, workers, peasants, and soldiers smoke 23 cents, and rural cadres happily smoke Big Cannon cigarettes.

Since the reform and opening up began last year, in a few years, export cigarettes such as Yunnan cigarettes and Hongtashan cigarettes will become popular.

He stuffed the only two packs of Peony cigarettes into his pocket, and took a few more packs of Daqianmen cigarettes. He didn't take the remaining packs of Production cigarettes in the drawer; they were only 8 cents a pack and burned his throat. He decided to save them for his father.

Yeah, he'll give his dad some Zhonghua cigarettes when he makes money in the future!

He needed a fire to keep the cigarette burning, so he grabbed a box of matches.

He couldn't refuse; buying matches required coupons, and he had none.

He reluctantly smoked the peony cigarette, opened a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes, took out a match from the matchbox, struck it on the side, brought the cigarette in his mouth to the flame, lit it, and slowly took a puff.

It has a strong impact and chokes your throat.

Li Xiangdong hadn't smoked an unfiltered cigarette in a long time, and it took him two puffs to get used to it.

When Li's mother saw her third son come out of the house with a cigarette in his mouth and his pockets bulging, she didn't say anything. It wasn't a big deal for a son to smoke two packs of cigarettes that belonged to his father.

Times have changed; in this era, smoking is a sign of maturity for men.

However, Li Xiangdong didn't want others to inhale his secondhand smoke. He came out of the house and squatted on the steps by the door, slowly smoking.

Seeing his third uncle squatting on the steps smoking, Li Xiaojiang walked over and squatted down next to him, whispering, "Third Uncle, can I have a puff?"

"You can?"

Li Xiangdong glanced at him. His nephew had treated him like one of his own after they had talked about private matters, and now he dared to ask for anything!

Li Xiaojiang quickly explained, "Third Uncle, I don't know how. It's just that some of my classmates can smoke, and I want to learn too."

Li Xiangdong scolded, "You don't learn good things but bad ones! How old are you? You already want to learn to smoke!"

"Third Uncle, keep your voice down."

Li Xiaojiang was terrified, afraid that his mother would hear him.

But it was too late. They were squatting at the doorway, so close, how could his mother not hear them?

Sister-in-law Li stormed over, her flour-covered hands grabbing Li Xiaojiang's ear. She yelled angrily, "You little bastard, you're asking for it! I'll teach you to smoke, I'll beat you to death!"

Li Xiaojiang was squatting when his mother grabbed his ear and pulled him up, causing him to beg for mercy in pain.

"Mom, I was wrong. Please let go. I'll never do it again."

"Get back inside and stay there!"

As she spoke, Sister-in-law Li pinched him hard again.

Li Xiaojiang rubbed his red ears as he walked into his house, turning back halfway to glare angrily at Li Xiangdong. He never expected that his third uncle would betray him!

Li Xiangdong went back into the house with a smile, put the cigarettes away, and carried the already opened pack with him.

He saw that his daughter had stopped nursing and was now sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed), playing with an ice cream stick in her hand and occasionally putting it in her mouth to lick.

"Xiaoqi, let go quickly! You can't put this in your mouth to play with. What if you hurt yourself?"

Li Xiangdong wanted to take the popsicle stick from his daughter's hand, but she was holding it too tightly, and he didn't dare to use force.

As the two were arguing, Li Xiaozhu reached out with her other hand, grabbed his hair, and pulled it hard twice.

"You're bad... I'll hit you..."

Li Xiangdong was in so much pain that tears were almost streaming down his face, but his wife was watching with a smile.

"What are you laughing at? Come and help me!"

"You deserve it."

Zhou Yuqin came over and tickled her daughter's ticklish spot a couple of times, making her giggle. Only then did she let go of Li Xiangdong's hair.

Li Xiangdong rubbed his head and said, "Why do I deserve this? I was just worried about our daughter."

"I'm watching, what could possibly happen?"

Zhou Yuqin didn't care at all. This is how everyone raises their children, and she hadn't seen any other children do anything wrong.

Li Xiangdong said, "That's hard to say. She's so young, what does she know? Better safe than sorry. Anyway, I mean well."

Zhou Yuqin said irritably, "Are you implying that I had ulterior motives? I should have known better than to interfere in your affairs and let your daughter teach you a lesson."

"Hey, you're such a heartless woman. Oh, I see, you're holding a grudge."

Li Xiangdong slightly bent his five fingers and clenched them together.

"It was just a couple of touches, it's not like I've never touched it before."

Zhou Yuqin ignored him and asked in a consultative tone, "Could you watch the child for me for a while?"

Li Xiangdong leaned back on the kang (a heated brick bed) and said, "Okay, I'll play with my daughter for a while. You go ahead and do what you need to do."

"You agreed?"

Zhou Yuqin was slightly surprised; she hadn't expected her husband to actually agree.

"I don't have anything to do, I just want to help my mother and sisters-in-law with some chores."

She explained that since returning to the city, she hadn't been able to help with any household chores. She felt somewhat uncomfortable watching her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law busy themselves serving the whole family.

In the past, she wouldn't have said these things, but she felt that her man was acting differently today, so she tried asking him.

"Okay, you can rest assured that you'll have the child with me."

Li Xiangdong understood his wife's thoughts.

Zhou Yuqin nodded happily, and hurriedly went out of the house, afraid that her husband would change his mind.