Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

"Giggle...giggle..."

Hearing his sister's laughter, Li Xiaohai curiously poked his head out. Seeing that his sister was having more and more fun, he couldn't resist getting up and walking over, and plopped down on his father's stomach.

"I want to ride a horse too!"

Li Xiangdong grunted, "Li Xiaohai, cough cough cough, you should have told me!"

Li Xiaohai sat down hard on his stomach, causing his stomach acid to rise up, and the smell of alcohol made him cough incessantly.

"Are you OK?"

Zhou Yuqin heard the commotion in the yard and went back into the house to find Li Xiangdong coughing with his mouth covered, unable to speak, his face flushed red.

She put down the basin of water and the cloth she was holding, and hurried over to shoo the two children off him.

She grabbed Li Xiaohai's butt and slapped it twice hard. "Look what you've done to your dad! How could you be so naughty!"

"What about my younger sister? Mother, you can't just hit me!"

"Beat... de de..."

Seeing her brother screaming and yelling after being beaten, Li Xiaozhu joined in the commotion.

"Don't you even know what time it is? You all better go to sleep."

Zhou Yuqin urged the children to go to sleep quickly while patting Li Xiangdong's back to help him catch his breath.

"Mother...play..."

"Mom, I can't sleep. I want to play with my little sister."

"What are you playing? I'll spank anyone who disobeys."

Seeing Zhou Yuqin's anger, the two children obediently lay down and closed their eyes.

Seeing that Li Xiangdong was much better, Zhou Yuqin went over and picked up a small blanket to cover the two children's stomachs. When she saw her daughter staring at her with her big eyes, she tapped her daughter's head with her finger.

"What are you staring at? If you don't go to sleep, I'll spank you."

"Giggle...giggle..."

"Let me see who's not sleeping properly! Those who misbehave will get a shot!"

After Li Xiangdong recovered and stopped coughing, he knew that his daughter was afraid of injections, so he tried to scare her.

"...Mother...hug me"

When Li Xiaozhu heard about the injection, she shook her head in fear and reached out for a hug.

"Don't scare her."

Zhou Yuqin lay down on the kang (a heated brick bed) and gently patted her daughter, saying, "We're not afraid. You go to sleep quietly, and Mom won't give you a shot."

"Mom, I'm hot."

Li Xiaohai mischievously kicked the small blanket away.

"understood."

Zhou Yuqin was not impatient. She got up, picked up a palm-leaf fan, lay down on her side, propped her head up with one hand, and held the palm-leaf fan in the other hand, gently fanning the two children.

She turned to Li Xiangdong, who was lying next to her, and said, "Turn off the light."

'Bap'

Li Xiangdong pulled the light cord tied to the head of the kang (a heated brick bed), and the room immediately went dark.

The kang (heated brick bed) in the room was quite large, and the four of them could lie on it without feeling cramped. The son slept on the innermost side against the wall, followed by his daughter, his wife, and he slept on the outermost side.

"Mother, I can't sleep."

"I fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes."

Li Xiaohai made a condition: "Mom, sing me Little Swallow. I can fall asleep when you sing Little Swallow. Sister Xiaomei sings it so well."

Seeing that her daughter had opened her eyes, Zhou Yuqin put down her palm-leaf fan, closed her daughter's eyes, and began to hum softly, "Little swallow, wearing a flowery dress, comes here every spring..."

Li Xiangdong lay on the bed close to his wife, his nose filled with her scent, a scent that was both familiar and comforting. Slowly, his eyelids began to droop.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, Zhou Yuqin patted him. He asked groggily, "What?"

Zhou Yuqin turned to look at him and said, "Don't sleep yet, you still have something to tell me."

"what's up?"

"What did you say?"

Li Xiangdong has come to his senses after being questioned by his wife.

"You mean those pieces of furniture? The table is an old mahogany piece from the Ming Dynasty, and the stool I brought back is part of a set with this table in our house. They're all good pieces, heirlooms."

"Are they really treasures? How much are they worth? Should we sell them?"

Zhou Yuqin's tone was filled with excitement and enthusiasm.

"No, it's worthless."

Seeing his wife like this, Li Xiangdong couldn't bear to hurt her.

"Why are you bothering with all this stuff if it's worthless! How come you're always so idle? You even said you wanted to keep it as a family heirloom, but who wants your junk?"

Zhou Yuqin thought it was some real treasure, but it turned out to be just worthless junk. Her mood fluctuated, and she angrily slapped Li Xiangdong twice.

"Why did you hit me? Just because it's worthless now doesn't mean it won't be worthless in the future. Don't worry about it. I'm not that stupid. If it were really junk, would I go to all this trouble?"

Li Xiangdong grabbed his wife's hand and stroked it repeatedly, refusing to let go.

"If you say it's not junk, then keep it. I don't care anymore."

The room was pitch black. Although Zhou Yuqin couldn't see Li Xiangdong's eyes, she could hear his rapid breathing. She quickly struggled to free her hands from his grasp, turned her back, and ignored him.

"What's wrong? Are you sleepy? Can we chat some more?"

Li Xiangdong turned over and moved closer.

"What are you doing? I'm sleepy. Let's talk about it tomorrow."

Having already given birth to two children, how could Zhou Yuqin not understand what he meant?

But she couldn't act too much; she still had to maintain her composure.

Li Xiangdong forcefully turned his wife around, smiling as he asked, "What do you think I'm going to do?"

"I'll take a family planning product first."

Just as Zhou Yuqin reached under the bed sheet to pull out the family planning supplies, she felt Li Xiangdong, who was pressing her down, tremble as he held her.

She quickly turned on the light and looked at Li Xiangdong, who still had his pants on, with surprise. "What's wrong with you?"

What the hell!

Li Xiangdong cursed under his breath, got up from his wife, and angrily took off his shorts and threw them on the ground!

Zhou Yuqin couldn't hear what he was muttering, but she wasn't stupid enough to not understand the situation.

"What kind of look is that? I've been drinking, yes, I drank a bit too much tonight!"

Li Xiangdong was extremely embarrassed. Why did he have to be so provocative? Now he'd made a fool of himself in front of his wife!