To make up for the debt owed to Lin Qingping and Gu Juncheng

In this era without cell phones and where telephones are inconvenient, everything in the future seems like an accident.

Even now, Lin Qingping is not used to this kind of life.

For example, if she could, she would love to call Gu Juncheng by phone and ask him if he was coming home this weekend.

However, we can only hope for the future while remaining in the unknown.

However, she also felt that such anticipation had a unique charm, giving rise to a more lingering flavor in the unpredictable longing.

On Friday, she began preparing for Gu Juncheng's return.

The house next door that she bought had flowers planted in the yard; the original owner had given her the flowers along with the house.

Now that the flowers are in full bloom, she brought a few bonsai trees into her home, and the breath of spring and summer instantly rushed in, filling the house with the joy and liveliness of this season.

She only had classes in the morning on Saturday, so she went to the store first.

If Gu Juncheng came back and found she wasn't home, he would naturally come to the shop. However, he didn't show up until the afternoon, so it seems he's been busy this week.

Lin Qingping picked up Zhiyuan and Xiaomai from kindergarten after school, took them to the store, had dinner, closed the store, and then they all went home together.

However, to her utter surprise, instead of Gu Juncheng returning home, she was greeted by an uninvited guest.

As the three adults and two children were walking home, passing by a row of two-story bungalows, a voice suddenly came from a neighbor's yard, "Look, isn't that Lin Qingping back?"

Lin Qingping looked inside in surprise and found her mother and brother sitting in someone else's yard!

Her mother was overjoyed to see her and said to the neighbor, "My daughter is back, thank you!"

After saying that, she ran over and waved to Lin Qingping, "Pingzi! Pingzi! Mother missed you so much!"

Lin Qingping: ? ? ?

She absolutely believed that what her mother said was true, that her mother really missed her, but being missed by her mother was not a good thing.

The neighbor was very polite and even saw her mother and brother out. She smiled and said to Lin Qingping, "The old lady has had a hard life. She came all this way to see you. She wouldn't have eaten with us, she insisted on waiting for you to come back. She even gave us a bag of local specialties. Thank you!"

Lin Qingping thought to herself, "Has the sun risen in the west? Her mother is actually so generous? Willing to give away local specialties?"

Upon closer inspection, wow, it was a bulging bag; it looked like it contained either potatoes or sweet potatoes.

In front of outsiders, Lin Qingping really couldn't bear to lose face, so she had to thank the neighbors and then watch her mother happily lead her brother into her own yard.

Lin Qingping didn't open the door. She had Gu Youlian lead Sister Zhao and the two children to the next house. She stood in her own yard and asked her mother, "What are you doing here?"

"Of course I came to see you!" Her mother chuckled, as if nothing had happened between them. "You and your second sister have made something of themselves, and I'm so happy for you. We didn't bring much, but you used to love roasted sweet potatoes, so I brought you two big bags! Jia Gui carried them all the way here; his shoulders are all red from carrying them! When I was home, I told him he couldn't carry that much and should carry less, but he said no, that he hadn't seen his sister in so long and wanted to bring her lots of good food..."

As her mother spoke, she pushed her brother, "Jiagui, tell me, you were all talk at home, weren't you? Why are you so quiet in front of your sister?"

After saying that, seeing that her brother didn't react and even struggled a little, her mother smiled apologetically and said, "He's shy. He thinks about his sister every day at home."

Lin Qingping would never believe her!

I wonder what they're up to this time!

"How did you find this place?" Lin Qingping remembered that she had not told her family her current address.

Her mother said with great enthusiasm, "Hey, just ask around at the Capital Railway Station and you'll find out! My daughter and son-in-law are so capable and famous, how could we not find out about them? Everyone in the capital knows you!"

Lin Qingping: ...

That's a huge boast!

Does her mother think the capital is the village's general store? She just sits there after eating, and everyone in the village knows all the gossip?

Seeing her daughter's ambiguous smile, Wu Axiu realized that what she said wasn't quite right. But she couldn't very well say that she had pretended to visit relatives at the Gu family's house, saw the letter Lin Qingping had sent there, and then stole the envelope and followed the address on it, could she? She had gone through a lot of trouble asking her way here from the train station with the envelope in her hand!

Lin Qingping nodded. "Let's go eat first."

"Eat...eat? Okay!" Wu Axiu hadn't eaten all day. She cooked a few sweet potatoes and eggs to eat on the way, and she also took care of her son. She was already so hungry that her stomach was sticking to her back. As soon as she heard about eating, she prepared to crawl into the house.

Lin Qingping stopped her, "We haven't cooked at home, let's go eat at a restaurant." That was true, they had eaten at a restaurant today, and there really wasn't any food at home at this time.

Wu Axiu was delighted to hear this. She had come all this way, and her daughter was treating her to a meal at a restaurant—how kind of her! In fact, she had never eaten at a restaurant before!

"Let's go." Lin Qingping led her and her younger brother outside.

There are hotels and restaurants around the corner on this street.

Lin Qingping led them into the restaurant, gave the menu to her mother, and let them order their own food.

Her mother then gave the menu to her brother.

Lin Qingping didn't say anything.

Her brother wasn't a good student, but he could still read the characters to order food. He ordered roast duck, stir-fried mutton with scallions, braised meatballs, braised pork knuckle, and shredded pork with sweet bean sauce...

We ordered eight dishes in total, all of which were meat dishes.

The shop owner was honest; he even asked how many people were eating.

Her mother said, "Two of us, just the two of us. She's already eaten."

Pointing at Lin Qingping, he spoke in dialect.

The uncle said that the two of them had ordered too much food and couldn't finish it.

Lin Qingping smiled and said, "It's alright, Uncle. My mother and brother came from our hometown. Let them try the food in the capital. If they can't finish it, I'll take it back with me."

The older man gave her a thumbs up and praised her for being filial.

Wu Aixiu became smug again, "Of course my children are filial."

Lin Qingping smiled but didn't reply.

As the dishes were served one by one, Wu Aixiu was stunned. Not to mention the village, even the richest family in the county didn't eat meat like this.

She became completely unreserved, constantly urging Lin Jiagui to eat more, "Eat, it's your sister's treat, eat as much as you want!"

Wu Aixiu herself didn't hold back either, eating heartily and burping continuously even after she was full.

Although Lin Jiagui was also a glutton, he only ate the good stuff. He would eat until he was stuffed and then he wouldn't want to eat anymore. Wu Aixiu kept putting food into his bowl, saying, "Eat! Eat quickly! It's a waste if you don't eat."

"Didn't we say we'd take the leftovers home?" Lin Jiagui really couldn't eat anymore.

"Are you stupid!" Wu Aixiu whispered. "If we take it back, won't it just be leftovers for tomorrow? If we eat it all today, your sister will take us to eat something even better tomorrow!"

Lin Jiagui had never gone hungry since he was a child. Everyone else in the family could go hungry, but Lin Jiagui never suffered a loss. So he didn't listen to his mother and refused to eat anymore once he was full. Only Wu Aixiu ate until the food was up to her throat.