People in the alley: A woman dressed as a man shouldn't be foolishly filial, Zhuang Chaoying

Zhuang Chaoying spent 1.8 yuan to select a washbasin for Xiaoting in the system.

When Xiaoting saw the brand-new washbasin, she was overjoyed. She almost slept with it in her arms. She finally had her own basin!

Huang Ling has been working the night shift for a whole week.

Every evening, as darkness fell, the two would exchange a brief glance before Huang Ling hurried off to work.

Early in the morning, Zhuang Chaoying had already gotten ready to go to work, while Huang Ling dragged her tired body home from get off work.

That day, as usual, Tu Nan led Xiao Ting and Dong Zhe home from school together.

As soon as she entered the house, Xiaoting smelled the enticing aroma and couldn't wait to run to the kitchen.

I saw Mom and Aunt Song Ying in the steamy kitchen.

"Mom, I'm back. Hello, Aunt Song Ying."

Aunt Song Ying responded warmly, "Okay, our Xiaoting is such a good girl!"

As Huang Ling stir-fried the shredded potatoes in the pan, she said, "Xiao Ting, today Mom is making your favorite shredded potatoes. Go do your homework first!"

Instead of starting her homework as usual, Xiaoting excitedly took out her exam papers from her schoolbag: "Mom, look, I got a perfect score on my final exams! And my brother got first place in the grade!"

Huang Ling quickly wiped her hands on her apron and took the toilet paper from Xiao Ting.

Aunt Song Ying also curiously came over to take a look. After seeing it, she was surprised and envious: "Sister Ling, Xiao Ting is so good at studying. I just wonder how many points my Lin Dongzhe got. Lin Dongzhe, Lin Dongzhe!"

Huang Ling smiled from ear to ear: "To reward you and your brother for doing so well on the exam, Mom will have Dad buy meat first thing tomorrow morning so we can have a good meal together."

Xiaoting jumped up excitedly: "Mom, I want to eat braised pork, and my brother wants to eat braised pork ribs!"

Huang Ling smiled and agreed. "Okay, Mom will make everything for you!"

Zhuang Chaoying returned from school; her winter vacation starts today.

Now I can stay home with my family every day.

After preparing dinner, Huang Ling took out the meat coupons she had saved up for more than a month from the cupboard and put them on the table. She said to Zhuang Chaoying, "Chaoying, these are the meat coupons. Our family hasn't eaten meat for more than a month. You and Engineer Lin go to the state-run store to see if you can buy some meat. The food is cooked and in the pot. Remember to eat."

"Sister Ling, let's go, it's time to go to work!"

"coming!"

Huang Ling picked up the scarf and prepared to leave.

Zhuang Chaoying quickly took the scarf from her hand: "It's cold outside, put this on before you go!" As he spoke, he carefully wrapped the scarf around Huang Ling's neck twice, making sure she was completely covered.

Huang Ling smiled sweetly: "I'm leaving now. Take good care of the children."

"Don't worry, nothing has gone wrong in the past week. Tu Nan and Xiao Ting have been very obedient."

After finishing their meal, Tu Nan and Xiao Ting sat down at the table to do their homework.

Zhuang Chaoying was also busy; he had already written about half of his novel, which was his labor of love.

He figured he would finish writing it soon. Now that he was on vacation, he planned to organize it within a week and mail it out.

A few days ago, Zhuang Chaoying touched Huang Ling's cotton-padded jacket and found that the cotton inside was stiff and hard, and the soles of her shoes were worn thin.

Zhuang Chaoying and her two children were all neatly dressed by Huang Ling, but she herself was dressed...

I felt a pang of sadness. I needed to make money quickly so that I could have a legitimate reason to buy new things for the house and make my family more comfortable.

Today was a bit strange. Lin Dongzhe, who usually came to play with Tu Nan and Xiao Ting, was nowhere to be seen today, which puzzled everyone.

Then they heard Song Ying's angry voice coming from next door, interspersed with Lin Dongzhe's aggrieved sobs.

"Lin Dongzhe, your mom and dad don't expect you to get perfect scores, but you can at least get an 80, right? Could you please let me go to the parent-teacher conference and not have the teacher criticize me by name?"

Lin Wufeng hugged Lin Dongzhe tenderly, trying to ease the tense atmosphere. "Alright, alright, let's work hard next semester, Dongzhe, hurry up and promise your mother!"

Song Ying rolled her eyes at Lin Wufeng, annoyed. "Wufeng, I'm disciplining the child, can you please not interrupt!"

She is now preoccupied with her child's studies and feels that her husband's behavior prevents Lin Dongzhe from truly realizing the seriousness of the problem.

Lin Wufeng sat down next to Song Ying helplessly, patted her shoulder, and then looked at Lin Dongzhe: "Mom is right! Dongzhe, get an 80 next time and show your mom."

Lin Dongzhe sobbed, his voice trembling with tears, "Mom, I want to go play with Brother Tu Nan and Xiao Ting."

"No, study at home!"

Song Ying refused without hesitation. She felt that Lin Dongzhe needed to focus on his studies now and could no longer be so playful.

They live in the same courtyard, so why is there such a big difference?

Hearing the noise from inside the room, Zhuang Chaoying looked up at the reflection of her two children in the glass. "Xiaoting, how many points did Dongzhe get on the test this time?"

Xiaoting stretched out her little hand, made a "six" gesture, and whispered, "Sixty points, just passing."

"Not bad, no failing grades." Zhuang Chaoying sighed softly. Every child has their own pace, and you can't force them.

Zhuang Chaoying glanced at the wall clock; it was already late. "Xiaoting, Tunan, it's getting late, time to sleep!"

The two children obediently got up, each took a basin, poured hot water from the thermos, and began to wash up.

After washing up, they soaked their feet in the basin, the three of them doing so in perfect unison.

"Knock knock!" The door was opened.

"Xiaoting, Brother Tunan, do you need to go to the bathroom?" Lin Dongzhe's little head peeked out.

Tu Nan dried his feet with a towel and stood up. "Dong Zhe, come in first!"

Dongzhe walked in, carrying a flashlight in one hand and toilet paper in the other. "Hello, Uncle Zhuang."

Zhuang Chaoying responded with a smile. "Hello, Dongzhe!"

The three little ones, dressed in thick cotton-padded coats and carrying flashlights, walked together toward the public restroom.

The night breeze was a bit chilly. Dongzhe walked in the middle, his arms linked with Xiaoting's and Tunan's. They chatted and laughed, and Lin Dongzhe forgot about Song Ying's scolding of him.

Back in the room, Zhuang Chaoying carefully covered Xiaoting with her blanket and tucked it in. He watched as Tu Nan climbed up to the attic and lay down before he lay down himself.

Zhuang Chaoying had gotten used to sleeping with Huang Ling. This past week, no one had been sleeping with her, and she felt empty inside. Besides, sleeping alone was rather lonely. It was much warmer to sleep together with someone else. She was looking forward to the day when Sister Ling's night shift would end.

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