Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

Li Xiangdong squatted at the door of the main house, eating peanuts, and waited until the lights in his parents' room were turned off before he got up and went back inside.

Li's father knew exactly how much alcohol he could drink. He had been a son for so many years across two lifetimes, how could he not know?

He wouldn't object if we just talked to him directly, but he could understand why his parents did it, unless his dad was really addicted to acting...

Li Xiaohai, who was still awake, saw him enter the room and take out a handful of peanuts from his pocket and put them on the table. He then stood on the kang (a heated brick bed) and said, "Dad, I want to eat."

"Eat my ass! What time is it? Why aren't you asleep yet? If you want to eat, you can eat when you wake up tomorrow."

Li Xiangdong doesn't indulge his son at all, who always asks for food whenever he sees it and doesn't sleep when he should.

"Mom, I still want to drink milk powder."

Unable to get peanuts, Li Xiaohai started pestering others for something else.

"No drinking!"

Zhou Yuqin would never spoil her son, not because the milk powder was too expensive to afford, but because the coupons were extremely difficult to obtain.

The milk powder bought with the two tickets Aunt Hou gave us has long been finished. The milk powder we have now was something her husband went to great lengths to get.

I've already given my daughter and son a drink, so why would I let him have another one?

"Go to sleep now, you can drink it tomorrow if you want."

After finishing his sentence, Li Xiangdong went to the yard to wash up, then returned to the house and sat on the kang (heated brick bed) to soak his feet.

"What are you doing? Come to bed with your brother."

Li Xiangdong felt someone tugging at his clothes. He turned around and saw his daughter lying behind him, playing with his clothes.

"Play...play..."

Li Xiaozhu rolled around and crawled to the very back of the kang (a heated brick bed).

Zhou Yuqin used a combination of threats and intimidation to finally get her daughter and son to lie down and go to sleep.

Li Xiangdong poured out the water for washing his feet, went back to his room, lay down on the kang (a heated brick bed), and planned to rest after turning off the light.

He had just closed his eyes when he suddenly remembered Li's mother's instructions. He turned to his side, put his arm under his head, and whispered to Zhou Yuqin, who was lying next to him, "Don't sleep yet, I have something to tell you."

Zhou Yuqin opened her eyes, turned her head to look at him and said, "What is it? Tell me."

"Take some egg coupons to your eldest and second sisters-in-law tomorrow. If they give you money, just accept it."

"Isn't this bad?"

Zhou Yuqin wasn't bothered by the idea of ​​receiving egg vouchers, but she felt a bit awkward about accepting money from her two sisters-in-law.

"What's wrong with that? We should collect the money we're owed. Otherwise, all the effort the elders put into dividing the family property would have been for nothing."

Li Xiangdong felt that his mother was right. It was fine to help his two older brothers deal with some receipts, but they should charge whatever amount they were entitled to.

Zhou Yuqin hesitated for a moment and said, "But when we were in the countryside, and for more than a month after we returned to the city, the four of us ate and drank for free at home, and my brother and sister-in-law didn't say anything. How am I supposed to collect this money tomorrow?"

Hearing his wife's words, Li Xiangdong felt he had no choice but to give her a good talking-to.

“The money we spent before was our parents’ money, not our older brothers’ money. You need to understand this first, and then I’ll explain why our family has to cook for each other.”

“I’ve brought back quite a lot of things recently, haven’t I? But my eldest and second eldest brothers only give the family five yuan a month for food. My parents are worried that over time, the three of us brothers will fall apart because of money issues, and they are also afraid that Li Xiaojiang and the others will go astray. That’s why this happened today.”

After listening to her husband's long-winded explanation, Zhou Yuqin laughed and said, "Why don't we just say it directly? My brother and sister-in-law are reasonable people. There's no need to put on this show, is there?"

Li Xiangdong sighed and said, "It's true that my brothers and sisters-in-law are reasonable, but my eldest and second brothers are also blindly filial. The elders in the family are still alive. If we were to speak frankly, the family would definitely not be divided. In the end, there are only two outcomes: I will give the family whatever amount of things they can, and they will give our parents a certain amount of money."

"Or they'll lecture me and tell me not to spend money on food anymore. If I don't listen, they won't eat what I buy, and they won't let Li Xiaojiang and the others eat it either. Wouldn't that hurt the friendship between the three of us?"

"You might not believe it, but my two older brothers are just that stubborn. They would rather not separate the family and everyone still sit at the same table to eat. They eat cornbread and drink cold water while we eat braised pork."

After listening to her husband's words, Zhou Yuqin thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "I thought Grandpa, Grandma, and Mom and Dad were biased towards you."

Li Xiangdong reached out and slapped her on the bottom. "You're not right. I admit that my grandparents are biased towards me, but that's because in my grandmother's heart, I'm someone she prayed to the gods for."

"Pfft!"

Zhou Yuqin quickly covered her mouth, worried that her laughter would wake the child, and could only try her best to hold it in.

Li Xiangdong said awkwardly, "What are you laughing at? What's so funny? We're talking about serious matters!"

He felt this was normal; it wasn't that Old Lady Li was being superstitious. His birth was a kind of spiritual sustenance for Old Lady Li.

Let alone in this day and age, even decades from now, when people's minds are more open, the older generation will still be biased when faced with a situation like his!

Zhou Yuqin took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. "Okay, I'll stop laughing. Please continue what you have to say."

Li Xiangdong waited until Zhou Yuqin stopped laughing before continuing, "I admit that Grandpa and Grandma are biased. They said they would save the money they had saved for me, but our family's renovation of this yard has almost used up all of Grandpa's money. They haven't saved much money at all."

“Now that the family is divided, Dad’s salary will no longer be used to cover household expenses. In order to balance the relationship between the three brothers, Dad’s money will definitely be divided between the eldest and second eldest brothers in the future.”

"The most important thing is the house. Just now, Dad pretended to be drunk and grabbed me, not wanting me to leave. He used his drunken words to give me a heads-up, telling me that if we move out in the future, the house will be left to my eldest and second eldest brothers."

He had something else he didn't say. The house was bought with money that Old Man Li had spent, and Old Man Li must have known about his father's decision.

His grandparents' favoritism towards him was only based on affection; financially, the three brothers actually received roughly the same amount.

Now that he thinks about it, even though his eldest and second eldest brothers were tricked into separating from the family by the elders' act, did they really suffer a loss?

Old Li's family lives within the Second Ring Road of Beijing. What do you call that?

That's what you call being completely clueless and then having a windfall fall from the sky and land right on your head!

"Ah~! This...?"

Zhou Yuqin was somewhat stunned when she heard her husband's words.

Li Xiangdong waved his hand in front of her eyes, "Come back to reality. Do you still feel like they're favoring me? Are you feeling a little uncomfortable after hearing this news?"

Zhou Yuqin didn't hide her feelings. "I am a little uncomfortable, but I can understand. After all, you are much more successful than my eldest and second eldest brothers now. When the younger generation in the family grows up, my eldest and second eldest brothers will not be able to afford houses. Parents are doing this to plan ahead for their grandchildren."

"You're right, we don't need to focus on just these few things at home. Your man has plenty of ways to make money in his head."

Li Xiangdong was speaking from the heart; he didn't care about the house at all, nor did he ever think about the little money his parents and grandparents had.

Putting everything else aside, even if it's still not safe to do business in two years, at least you can trade in clivia.

He then encouraged his two older brothers and brother-in-law to stock up on dozens of pots of clivia in advance, without much effort.

The money will just flow in like water!

For a family like Old Li's, buying ten or eight courtyard houses wouldn't be a problem at all.

He agreed to separate the family property only to go along with his elders' wishes and not want them to worry.

Just as the young couple finished their bedtime chat and were getting ready to sleep, a heart-wrenching cry reached their ears.

Is Xiaotao crying?

"It should be. I'll go check."

Li Xiangdong got up, dressed, and got off the kang (heated brick bed). Zhou Yuqin followed him out after she finished dressing.

When Li Ersao, Li's mother, and grandparents heard Li Xiaotao crying, they all came to the door of Li Dage's house.

"Eldest daughter-in-law, open the door."

Hearing Li's mother's voice, Sister-in-law Li opened the door and let everyone in. Brother Li was drunk and lying on the kang (a heated brick bed) asleep. Although Li Xiaojiang wasn't asleep, he knew he absolutely couldn't cause trouble for himself at this time, so he obediently lay on the kang and pretended to be asleep.

Grandma Li, leaning on her cane, asked, "Why are you hitting the child in the middle of the night?"

Sister-in-law Li explained with a wry smile, "Grandma, I didn't hit him."

Li Xiaotao sat at the table, wiping the snot and tears from his face. "Great-Grandma, I'm sleepy. My mom won't let me sleep."

Suppressing her temper, Sister-in-law Li questioned, "School starts tomorrow, have you finished your homework?"

Seeing his mother's look, Li Xiaotao fell silent and continued doing his homework.

When Grandma Li and the others heard that this was the reason, they decided not to interfere anymore and turned around to go back to sleep.

Before leaving the house, Li Xiangdong turned back to his second nephew, who was doing his homework, and called out, "Xiaotao."

Li Xiaotao looked up, sniffled, and asked, "What's wrong, Uncle? Are you worried about me and want to help me with my homework?"

Li Xiangdong laughed and said, "What are you thinking? Do your own homework. Your third uncle just wanted to tell you that it's very late now, so keep your voice down when you cry."

"Oh, Uncle, I understand."

Li Xiaotao, looking dejected, nodded with a pitiful expression.