NOVPUB
Chapter 704: Chapter 694: Dashuan and His Family Came
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the Li children had pretty much settled on a plan regarding their father Li’s situation.
After the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Li Hongjun and Li Hongxing would visit Aunt Xue’s family together to see, lest they discuss their plans fervently on their side while the other party had no such intentions at all.
On the fourth day of the New Year, Li Xianghe and Sun Chengbin visited again. It turned out that Sun Chengbin’s leave was coming to an end, and he was preparing to return to the military after the fifth day. Since this year was the first time meeting his uncle Li Hongjun, he wanted to prepare a meal at home on the fifth day and invite Li Hongjun over for dinner.
Li Hongjun’s impression of his brother-in-law Sun Chengbin was rather mediocre. Without mentioning anything else, just the fact that Li Xianghe could make her life appear in such a state, he couldn’t bring himself to like this brother-in-law. As a man, Li Hongjun inevitably held others to his own standards. A man should first and foremost bear his own responsibilities. Regardless of one’s success outside, one must take good care of his wife and children at home. He believed this to be the true measure of a man’s capability.
And because of Li Xianghe, Sun Chengbin had already been labeled as unsatisfactory in his eyes.
So, he found an excuse to politely decline the invitation to the meal.
Sun Chengbin was quite gracious. Even after hearing his uncle’s refusal, he still smiled and said they would get together some other time. But Li Xianghe was not so composed. Her discontentment was plain to see. In front of old man Li, she threw a tantrum at her maternal home, and even took her anger out on Shen Yunfang, her sister-in-law, not sparing any barbed words.
Thus, the couple, having sat for only a short time, were coldly shown out by Li Hongjun.
Once Sun Chengbin left his father-in-law’s house, he frowned. Seeing his wife still muttering complaints, his gaze at her became even more disdainful.
He must have been blind back then, for marrying such a woman really brought disaster upon himself.
Sun Chengbin was quite an insightful person. That’s why he was able to rise from such a poor family to become a regimental commander at a young age. Similarly, owing to his insightfulness, over the years he had actively sought connections with people who could be helpful to him, which ironically made it difficult for him to progress from his current position within the military region.
From the letters his wife wrote to him, he learned that he had such a big uncle and that he was visiting his hometown during the New Year. He had gone through a lot of trouble to arrange a leave with his comrades and finally got the chance to come home for the New Year and meet this uncle. But evidently, his wife was dragging him down, making him feel very frustrated.
Why did it feel like a case of ’Xiu He brings both success and failure’?
Let’s not talk about how Li Xianghe and Sun Chengbin fought after returning. The life of the Li family continued.
On the morning of the fifth day, Li Hongjun and his wife got up very early. After breakfast, they began preparing for the noon meal.
Today they really had something to take care of: Dashuan had sent word long ago that he would come over for a visit on the fifth day.
By nine o’clock, there was a stir at the main gate.
Shen Yunfang went out to open the gate and saw Dashuan’s family of four standing outside, with their bikes laden with an abundance of goods.
"Finally, we get to see you all. You guys are really busy, having to make an appointment just to see you," Shen Yunfang hurriedly ushered them inside, joking as she did.
"You’re the one who’s got a joke for everything. Who could be busier than you?" Dashuan’s wife rolled her eyes at her.
"Come on, Juanzi, Huzi, get inside. You must be freezing after that trip," Yunfang called out, her tone warm as she ushered the children towards the heat of the house. "Warm yourselves up and go play with your brother and sister." It was clear the family had cycled there, braving the biting cold wind—tough for the adults, let alone the children.
None of the adults objected to Shen Yunfang’s suggestion; indeed, after more than an hour of cycling in the cold, they were frozen through and through.
Before anything else, Dashuan and his wife made a point of greeting Old Li—manners mattered, after all—then followed Li Hongjun to the room across the way.
By then, Shen Yunfang had brought in the ginger and date tea she’d been boiling.
"Here, everyone take a bowl; get rid of the chill and warm up," Yunfang said as she handed them out, though she couldn’t help but scold a bit. "Really, you should know better than to bike in this cold. Couldn’t you have borrowed a horse cart or donkey cart or something?"
In the dead of winter, biking through snow was far from ideal; battling through the snow and wind was pure suffering. Horse carts or donkey carts might be slower, but at least one could carry a blanket to fight off the wind—a vast improvement over a bike.
"We didn’t have any at home, and borrowing one would have been a hassle. We had the bike ready to go, so we didn’t think twice about it," Dashuan replied with a simple, sheepish smile.
"Don’t ride back this afternoon—wait a bit, and I’ll borrow a donkey cart to take you home," Li Hongjun said after seeing the children’s little hands and faces red from the cold, feeling a pang of sympathy.
Once the children had warmed up and run off to play, the four adults started discussing recent events.
Having thought things over since last year’s New Year, Dashuan had been eager to get into some kind of business, especially since Yunfang had decided to follow the military to Z Province and couldn’t just pick up any job anymore. Over the years, working with Yunfang had sharpened his own ambitions.
After months of research, Dashuan settled on the egg trade.
At first, balancing this with tending to their fields, he did business just within the neighboring villages, small-time. But after the harvest, he and his wife got everything on the farm in order and moved to the county to focus exclusively on the egg business. 𝓃ℴ𝓋𝓹𝓊𝓫.𝒸𝓸𝓂
"Yunfang, you wouldn’t believe it, but doing business earns you way more than farming," Dashuan’s wife said, beaming at the thought of their annual income. She turned to lecture Shen Yunfang, "Look at us, old farmers rushing into the cities, wishing we could get away from farming for good. And here you are, a college graduate, insisting on going back to till the soil. What are you after?" She couldn’t understand Yunfang’s choice.
Shen Yunfang took the criticism in stride, as she knew Dashuan’s wife meant well.
"That’s enough," Dashuan said quickly, cutting her off to avoid more nagging while company was present. "You start in on that as soon as you see her—it’s become a habit."
Yunfang had already leased her lands and made her investment, and mumbling about such matters wouldn’t change that.
Getting the hint, Dashuan’s wife realized she’d been nagging again. Even being called out by her husband in front of others didn’t bother her; she brushed it off with a laugh, saying, "Right, right, my mistake. I won’t say any more, okay? We should talk about happy things at New Year’s. Oh, and I haven’t told you yet—we bought an apartment in the city before the New Year, a real nice building. We talked it over with the kids’ grandmother, and we’re moving there after New Year’s."
"Is that so? That’s wonderful," Yunfang responded, genuinely happy for them. "Are you going to leave your fields unattended, or are you renting them out?"
"We’re renting them out," Dashuan answered. "Our kids aren’t little anymore, and compared to others in the village, we’re somewhat worldly. Like Yunfang said, we don’t want our children to lose at the starting line. So no matter how tough or tiring it gets, we have to create better learning opportunities for them."
