Mother Ji handled the pheasant well. Touching the wings after they were de-feathered, and almost couldn’t resist cutting off some meat and saving it for her own family.
But thinking about what her youngest son told her.
Between son and pheasant, she could only choose son.
When she packed up the pheasants and looked around for things to pack, Ji Changze in the house was also teaching Ji Changguang how to pack these mountain goods.
There are quite a few fabrics available at home, thanks to Mother Ji’s temperament of hiding all the good things. When she bought new fabrics, she was reluctant to use them, so she kept them in the cupboard waiting to make new clothes for the New Year.
As a result, a mouse entered the cabinet, and the good cloth was bitten, getting several big holes. Not to mention making clothes, when they were made into sheets, it was necessary to find another cloth to fill those big holes.
At that time, Mother Ji hated it so much her teeth itch, and she took the whole family to rummage through the boxes to find the mouse. If the mouse had been caught, they would roast it with fire. However, she just couldn’t catch it, and finally she could only fold these fabrics against the bottom of the box angrily.
Now, Ji Changze and Ji Changguang tore them into small strips of cloth, and tied them together to make beautiful bows.
Ji Changguang had never seen this packaging method before, and asked him curiously, “Changze, what’s this for? I thought we were going to wrap these mountain goods?”
“Yes, I thought there weren’t enough for bags.”
Ji Changze started quickly, and quickly gathered up these bows: “Just wait until we go to the city and buy a box.”
Although Ji Changguang still didn’t understand the use of doing this, he thought about when his younger brother told him that the packaging was better so that his older brother could have face in the Liu family, so he kept his mouth shut and continued to help.
The two brothers folded the bows and prepared the mountain goods before putting everything on the flatbed and setting off.
Before departure, Ji Changguang, who has never been given a ride before, was enjoying it.
Mother Ji took his hand, eyes full of reluctance, and kept telling him: “Hurry up on the road, it’s so cold these days, don’t freeze to death.”
It’s rare for her to pull him to talk instead of his younger brother. Ji Changguang was so excited that he nodded repeatedly: “Mom, don’t worry, Changze and I have long legs, we’ll be there soon, we won’t freeze.”
Mother Ji still didn’t feel at ease. Her pheasant, which has just been cleaned, would be frozen.
She took her eldest son’s hand again and said, “Next time you come to see us more often, don’t always come once in a while.”
Send more things and make up for her pheasant.
Ji Changguang looked at his mother’s face, and nodded his head again, showing guilt in his eyes.
He is really unfilial. When he went to the city, he couldn’t spend time with his parents, and complaining that they only love Changze.
Now that he’s leaving. Seeing that his mother was so unwilling to let him go. It was only when she looked like she wanted to hold him back from leaving, but had to let go, that he realized how much she didn’t want to let him go.
“Mom, I’ll be back often, don’t worry, go back.”
Ji Changguang really had the urge to stay at home, but he couldn’t. He needed to continue to work tomorrow and can’t help but leave.
So, he could only endure his heart, and slowly let go of Mother Ji that was holding his hand firmly.
“Older Brother, let’s go.”
Ji Changze with a piece of hay in his mouth, saw Ji Changguang coming, got up from the crate, threw the piece of hay, and called him along.
Ji Changguang nodded, looked back and saw that his parents were standing at the door, and their faces were unwilling.
He felt distressed and happy in his heart.
Mother Ji was still standing fixedly in place, and had been watching their figures disappear around the corner before she wiped the corners of her mouth with a face full of reluctance.
“Oh, my big fat chicken, damn it.”
Although the road to the city is not too difficult, it is also long and off the beaten track. There are three rivers on the road. Although there are sporadic residents around, they were far away from the river.
Ji Changze looked out while passing a river, and then said to Ji Changguang, who was pulling his car: “Brother, stop for a while.”
Ji Changguang stopped doubtfully, then watched with a dazed face as his brother pulled a curved hook made of a needle out of his pocket.
“Changze, what are you doing?”
“I don’t think there are many people near this river, and the water isn’t shallow. Maybe there are fish.”
Ji Changze rummaged in his pocket as he spoke, took out a mass of cotton thread, skillfully tied it to the hook, folded a small dead branch next to it and tied it on the rope all as a fish float, and hooked a small piece of meat down from the pheasant, threw the hook into the water, and tugged on the cotton yarn, and looked down.
The series of actions were flowing, the whole thing took absolutely no more than three minutes.
He just stood in place for a while, Changze looked like a leisurely fisherman.
“Changze, stop that now. We have to go to your Sister-in-law’s house, or we’ll miss lunch.”
Ji Changze never looked up from the water and said without looking back, “I’ll catch another fish and take it to Sister-in-law’s house.”
Ji Changguang scratched his head helplessly. “Changze, some time ago, the fish were almost caught to death. It’s fine anyway, how would you even catch one?”
The young man sitting by the river jerked up the line in his hand, and a large, fat fish was lifted straight to shore with it.
He watched as Ji Changze picked up the fish and tossed it onto the crates then covered it, with a full face of befuddlement.
Before, he listened to his parents say that everyone didn’t have enough to eat, so they tried their best to get food. The fish in these three rivers had already been caught and disappeared.
On the way to continue his journey, he couldn’t help but ask Ji Changze.
“Hey, isn’t it simple? The river is surrounded by weeds, and it doesn’t look like someone stepped on it, which means that no one has been fishing in the river for a long time. No one can fish except children in our area. If we look at the river below, the current is strong, and the water under the bridge is surging, the small fish must have been washed away. If there is a fish, it would be a big one, so I tried it.”
Ji Changguang was even more dumbfounded.
What Ji Changze said he actually knew all of this, he just never thought of combining them and never thought that combining them would result in a big fish at the bottom.
“Changze, why are you so smart? People would never think of that.”
“Haven’t I always been so smart?”
Ji Changze shrugged his shoulders, as if he was ignorant: “As for the others who can’t think of it… You either are planting or farming every day, and go to bed when you finish your work. How can they be flexible and know how to think about food?”
Ji Changguang came to a sudden realization.
Yes, everyone else works hard every day, but his brother, who doesn’t work every day, wanders here and there and lays around.
But isn’t there time to think about something else?
It seems that there are advantages to not working.
There were fish and there were poultry, and listening to Ji Changze droning on about how he definitely couldn’t be embarrassed this time, Ji Changguang’s heart swelled with pride.
Although his wife’s family is very kind to him, Ji Changguang was not the kind of person who eats soft rice, and his heart will definitely be uncomfortable, feeling that he has taken advantage of his wife.
(TNote: eating soft rice= eating for nothing / taking advantage of the family.)
But now, his family was gifting poultry, fish and mountain products.
The family has to buy meat and also meat tickets. They hadn’t eaten meat for a long time. His wife would be happy.
Ji Changze lazily lagged behind, looking at his big brother’s excited face as he wondered what he had thought of, and slipped away to buy a small box from the supply and marketing shop.
The mountain goods were put in and tied with a bow.
Ji Changze was crafty, and with this arrangement, this ordinary little box looks upscale all of a sudden.
He patted the little box and put it away.
The end result was pretty good.
When Ji Changguang knocked at the door, it was his wife Liu Huifen who opened the door.
“You’re back. ” The smile on Liu Huifen’s face hadn’t fully spread before she saw Ji Changze, who was waving his hand behind her husband, greeting her.
The smile on her face froze at once.
How did this rascal get here?
Ji Changguang didn’t see that his wife didn’t welcome his younger brother. Because he was imagining beautiful scenes all the way here, his face was full of smiles, and he turned to his younger brother in a good mood and beckoned:
“Changze, come and greet.”
Ji Changze immediately slipped forward and smiled very brightly: “Hello Sister-in-law.”
Liu Huifen nodded with a quick smile: “Changze is here.”
“Yes, it seems that I have never been to Sister-in-law’s house, so I said this time I should have a look. I was exhausted along the way. By the way, Sister-in-law, have you started cooking yet? Make some good food.”
Watching the younger brother-in-law who was not at all out of place, stretch his legs and swagger into the house, Liu Huifen almost smashed the door.
She hadn’t seen Ji Changze much, but she was all too familiar with his scoundrel behavior.
Isn’t that what he justifiably asked for, that bicycle?
As a result, the bicycle was bought but the promised money was not paid.
Does he know how difficult it is to get a bicycle ticket?
Do you know how much it costs to buy a bicycle?
How can there be such shameless person in the world!
If it weren’t for Changguang’s face, she couldn’t wait to drive the person out with a big broom.
Seeing Ji Changze enter the house, Liu Huifen took a deep breath and looked at her husband, “Changguang, what’s going on? Why did he come? Did he return the money to us?”
Ji Changguang was now able to see that his wife didn’t like his brother and quickly explained: “Huifen, in fact, Changze is not what you think. He’s quite nice, and he’s especially nice to me as his brother, so maybe it was really a misunderstanding on our part before.”
Liu Huifen: “… what do you mean?”
Ji Changguang thought she didn’t hear clearly, and smiled and repeated: “I said Changze, is actually very kind to me.”
In the room, Ji Changze poked his head out and shouted to him: “Brother, why are you still at the door? Come in quickly and pour me water to drink and find some food. I’m starving.”
Afterwards, perhaps feeling a little bad about that, the little bastard added, “And it’s so cold out, you don’t want to freeze to death.”
“Look how nice Changze is.”
Liu Huifen watched his own man smile happily, and showed off to her: “How sweet, and how grown up to worry about me freezing to death.”
Husband! What’s wrong with you, husband? Did you selectively ignore those words that instructed you to work?!!!
Have you forgotten what we said about Ji Changze being an asshole who only wants money and stuff from us and doesn’t remember us, have you forgotten?!
Seeing that Ji Changguang walked into the house with a face full of happiness and waited on his younger brother.
Liu Huifen’s face went blank.