After the morning meal, Zhao Cheng, Wang Cuihua, Zhong Ziqi & Zhao Zheng’an went to Li Zheng’s house. Li Zheng was a man in his early fifties who was sitting in the courtyard talking with his grandson in his arms. When he saw them come in, he was only slightly surprised and asked his family member to take his grandson away.
The family members were busy in the kitchen. When they heard the shout, they came over and saw Zhao Cheng and his family. He immediately understood, there were rumours that Zhao Cheng’s family was going to split up but he didn’t expect the children to be split up the day after they started a family. That was really black-hearted of them. He was a sharp person, so when he was bored, his face was not so nice yet he didn’t care, so the two of them picked up their little grandson directly: “Come, my dear grandson, Grandma will take you to eat something delicious!”
As the child was carried away, Li Zheng got up, flicked his clothes and turned around: “Let’s talk inside!”
Zhong Ziqi took a look around, secretly remembering the location of Li Zheng’s house so he was the last to go inside.
“Li Zheng, today we are here to make a note.” Wang Cuihua said impatiently.
Li Zheng lifted his eyes, gave him a look: “To divide the family?”
“Yes ah! Our Zheng’an is not young anymore,his brother is also getting married in a couple of years, so we don’t have enough room in our house ah! I don’t need Zheng’an to raise us old, so let’s split it up ba! ”
Ignoring Wang Cuihua’s mutterings, Li Zheng asked Zhao Cheng, “Do you agree?”
Zhao Cheng nodded indifferently.
As soon as Zhong Ziqi saw Li Zheng looking towards him, he nodded, “Uncle Li Zheng, I agree too.”
Since both sides agreed, Li Zheng didn’t say anything else.He took out a pen and paper to write down everything they wanted to divide, according to Zhao Cheng’s instructions. Before signing, Zhong Ziqi suddenly spoke up, “Amu, is it true that you said you don’t need us to take care and support both of you?”
Wang Cuihua was in a hurry to sign so he waved his hand impatiently, “No, you don’t need to. ” It would be nice if the money didn’t pour out.
“Oh, Uncle Li Zheng, you should put that in too,also write that after the separation of the family, we will not interfere with each other’s finances, and we will not have to take out money for their retirement. They will have no right to interfere with anything in our family in the future too.”
“This…” Li Zheng didn’t expect Zhong Ziqi, this skinny ger to be quite sharp in mind, not as weak as the villagers had made him out to be.
“Uncle Li Zheng, as you can see, Zheng’an is an idiot, our family doesn’t even have a labour force,only rely on me, a Ger. Therefore I can’t give them money for their retirement.Both of us already have problems with our daily living.” Zhong Ziqi looked at Li Zheng helplessly, trying to arouse his pity, not knowing whether he looked exactly the same as Zhao Zheng’an’s usual aggrieved look or not.
Sure enough Li Zheng’s heart softened and took pity on him, “Ok, do both of you have any objections?”
Zhao Cheng frowned, Wang Cuihua did not satisfied, he still has some brains, verbally and written is not the same, he thought in case one day, these two people have money, then they —
But Zhong Ziqi didn’t give him a chance to open his mouth: “It’s fine if Dad and Mum don’t like it, can we share more money by dividing the family? We can’t really support ourselves.”
The two men who were really small-minded, immediately shut up, agreed not to take any money from them.
Both parties signed the agreement in triplicate,then it became effective.
When they returned home, Zhong Ziqi didn’t even need to be rushed by Wang Cuihua. After they went back home, he packed up his things and left. In fact, there was nothing to pack, he had not brought many things with him, only two or three pieces of clothes, Zhao Zheng’an had even less. The clothes he was wearing were good ones because on the day of the wedding, Wang Cuihua was afraid of bad reputation, so he had them altered the cloth in a hurry, yet it was still old cloth. The rest of the clothes, however, were basically in tatters and rags. Zhong Ziqi wanted to throw it away, but thought that he didn’t know what kind of life he would face, so he kept it.
Zhao Zheng’an saw Zhong Ziqi packing his things, he pulled his sleeve with some uneasiness: ” Wife, don’t leave, okay? This fool will listen to you.”
Zhong Ziqi didn’t expect him to be quite sensitive, so he put down the things he was doing and coaxed him warmly, “Didn’t I tell you that your name is Zhao Zheng’an and not a fool? Let’s go live somewhere else, okay? It’s just the two of us living together.”
Zhao Zheng’an tilted his head. “Aren’t we going to stay with Mum and Dad?”
“No, it’s just the two of us.”
Zhao Zheng’an clapped his hands happily, “Good, good, only with my wife.”
Zhong Ziqi was helpless, let him call it what he wanted, looking at his happy face he remembered the scars on his body, when he undressed him on bed last night, he lifted his clothes to inspect him, many long red marks, obviously from a beating with a stick, plus some cuts or scars that had scabbed over, thus showing how hard his life had been in this house.
Zhong Ziqi is a man of easy-going nature, somewhat bashful, deep down in his heart he likes this kind of cottage life, free from rivalry and sorrow. Although his life now is not what he had imagined it would be but life must go on.Now he had another person who depended on him,they would starve to death if he didn’t work hard. Yet, he doesn’t have any regrets and he doesn’t mind the trouble, these kinds of same emotions. Thanks to Zhao Zheng’an’s face which gave him a good feeling in the first place, plus his obedience and his unintentional adorableness (silly behaviour), how could his heart be as hard as the stone?
Shaking his head off, Zhong Ziqi packed his things, wrapped them into a parcel to carry on his back. After coming out of the room, he saw Wang Cuihua sitting in the hall so he went over to him and called out, “Amu, we’re leaving!
Wang Cuihua said impatiently, “Go! go on! Take the food, dishes and chopsticks! You could also take the vegetables in the courtyard until you have gotten your own but after that, don’t pick any more.” This was what had been agreed upon at Li Zheng’s house, even if Wang Cuihua had a hundred and twenty dislikes, it would not work, so he turned his head, walked away while muttering something that would not be anything good anyway.
Zhong Ziqi didn’t care, looking at the small bag of coarse food, speechless, this Wang Cuihua is too stingy, enough to eat a few meals? Very well, he will keep this in his account, in the future, if you have the ability, try and don’t beg him.
When he squatted down, Zhong Ziqi wanted to carry the coarse rice on his back, but his sleeve was pulled back: “What’s wrong?”
Zhao Zheng’an reached out to snatched the coarse rice and carried it on his back: “It’s heavy, I’ll carry it.”
Then he lifted up the strap that was used to carry the household goods.
Zhong Ziqi was stunned, some emotion flashed through his heart, so fast that he couldn’t catch it.
After leaving the door, he pulled Zhao Zheng’an towards his ancestral home. As they walked there, some people asked him what he was doing, he didn’t hide it, saying that he was going to the ancestral house, as the family was split up.
While walking past the village,he looks behind and sees a few houses not far from the foot of the hill at varying distances.
It is said that in the past the village was more populated than it is today, so the houses were built closer to the mountain.
Later on, some people moved away and some died. The ancestral house was quite close to the mountains,because of safety reasons, it was gradually abandoned, the people moved forward collectively.
The Zhao family’s house is still in good condition, at least it has not collapsed or leaked, because the Zhao family moved in late and came to live here later, so this house is still in good condition, while the other houses are in a miserable state, some have collapsed halfway, and some have even turned into dust.
It was a relief to Zhong Ziqi that the houses were not all connected and not many of them stood.Otherwise if there are people hiding here then it would be really scary.
When he pushed the gate of the compound, there were wooden stools and benches scattered all over the place, it looked like a mess. Zhong Ziqi sighed and asked Zhao Zheng’an to put down the things he was holding first, dragged him into the house to have a look, it was much better than he expected, the main room was a not too big room. Just inside was the hall, with a door on each side connecting the two large bedrooms. The kitchen was next to the main house,it was built separately.
Apart from being old and dirty, it was at least habitable,looking upwards at least, there was no light penetration, with a good clean it would be fine. They just needed to get through this first difficult period now so he would not let himself get into this predicament, good days were just around the corner.
“Wife, where is this place?” Zhao Zheng’an looked at the unfamiliar place with some unease, reaching out to quietly pull the corner of his wife’s coat.
Zhong Ziqi patted his head and said with a smile, “Zheng’an, this is our home, we will live here from now on, don’t be afraid.”
Zhao Zheng’an was no longer frightened after being reassured by his wife. He was immediately excited to see his new home.
Zhong Ziqi shook his head, he was really easy to coax, he walked into the bedroom on the left side with his nose pinched, luckily the table and chairs were there, he found a rag to wipe the dust off the table then he put the package on the table.Unwrapping the package he found a rather tattered shirt and tore it open to use as a rag.
Not very far from their front door, there was a well – after all, people used to live here, so there was a well. The well was still there, but when people moved to where they live now, it was too far away so the villagers had a new one built. Zhong Ziqi found a wooden bucket in a corner and saw Zhao Zheng’an still running around, so he said, “Zheng’an, I’ll go out to fetch water and come back soon, wait here for a while.”
Zhao Zheng’an immediately ran over and took the bucket from Zhong Ziqi’s hand, saying.”Wife, Zheng’an will carry it.”
After saying that, he ran happily towards the well.
Zhong Ziqi noticed that Zhao Zheng’an had already reached the well and he was pushing the stone covering the well to one side. “Zheng’an, don’t move! I’ll do it, be careful of falling!”
Zhao Zheng’an gave him a puzzled look, nimbly put a bucket of water in his hand, after that he looked at Zhong Ziqi with a look that begged for praise.
Zhong Ziqi: “……”
You’re not worrying too much, are you?
He was so skilled, he probably had done it a lot. But still, looking at his glowing eyes, he silently said, “Zheng’an is really good, but you have to be careful not to fall down, okay?”
Zhao Zheng’an foolishly giggled with satisfaction at his wife’s compliment. “No, I do it all the time, I’m sure I won’t fall off.”
Sure enough, it was just as he expected.
Zhong Ziqi sighed, “Then be careful too, if you fall in, I won’t want you.”
“This idiot will be careful,wife don’t do not want me.” Zhao Zheng’an immediately tugged on his arm in panic, fearing that he would abandon him.
Zhong Ziqi held his forehead, he really wanted to smack himself, why is he saying something like this? but it is quite useful: “Do not worry, I will not leave you, but you have to listen to my words, understand? If you say you’re a fool again, I would not want you.” Every time this guy gets anxious he calls himself a fool, somehow he doesn’t want to hear it come out of his mouth at all.
Back in the courtyard, Zhong Ziqi began to clean the house, wiping the dust, Zhao Zheng’an also followed suit, that serious look caused Zhong Ziqi a burst of amusement.
“Is Ziqi here?” A familiar voice rang outside the door, it was the same Zhao Ning that he had met that day.
“Yes, I’m here!” Zhong Ziqi hurriedly put down the work in his hand and went out. In the courtyard, Zhao Ning was standing there looking around with a boy holding something in his hands.