Chapter 8.2

“Come on, write your name again.”

Accompanied by Lin Shiheng’s patient and gentle voice, He Xuezhu picked up her pen and continued to write down her name carefully.

Looking at the words on the paper, Lin Shiheng sighed as if he had discovered a new continent: “Your memory is really good. It seems that it won’t be long before you finish the primary school curriculum.”

He Xuezhu nodded happily. Her husband held out his hand to her back. Her slender fingers fell on the words she had just written. She read: “Lin Shiheng … He Xuezhu.”

“Our names are next to each other.”

Listening to Lin Shiheng’s happy voice, her face turned slightly red. Looking at the two names she had written on the paper, a sweetness surged in her heart.

The man behind her raised his hand gently and touched He Xuezhu’s head: “Xuezhu, come to the army base with me.”

“I asked my mother. She said she would stay and supervise the building of the new house. We can go there first, and when the country settles down or my position is higher, we will buy a house and stay there.”

He Xuezhu looked up in surprise, “but leaving mom alone …”

“Of course, mom won’t be left alone, but the new house is being built here. Mom can’t help worrying. after a while, mom will come too.”

The couple were talking with tender feelings and sweet words when suddenly there was a woman’s cry outside: “Chunhua! Chunhua! Are you there?!”

He Xuezhu recognized the voice of Lins’ Third Aunt. The corners of her mouth, which had been tilted up because of her husband’s gentleness, fell down again. Her eyebrows twisted as she stood up slightly to see.

She has always known that her mother-in-law didn’t like the Lins, and even He Xuezhu, who has always been good-tempered, didn’t like the Lins; who always came to their door to taunt her mother-in-law with her three years of childlessness.

Seeing He Xuezhu frowning while getting up, Lin Shiheng gently pressed her shoulder and let her sit back down. He gently said, “I’ll go, you continue to practice.”

He Xuezhu was late to react. Her husband has already returned and she didn’t have to deal with those who she didn’t want to see.

Because of pregnancy, He Xuezhu; who’s brows somewhat looked more motherly and gentler in appearance, gradually relaxed and sat down on the stool again. Looking at her husband, she nodded trustfully: “Okay, call me if there is anything I could do.”

Lin Shiheng smiled softly and readjusted her grip on the pen before lifting the curtain and leaving out the door.

He didn’t have to go out to know why Aunt Lin came. It was just to make him visit the two elders.

It’s a fact that that their new house is being built in full swing right now. The old Lins waited for a few days before the dutiful Lin Shiheng came to visit his grandfather and grandmother as usual. In the end, they couldn’t wait anymore, so they sent Lin Shiheng’s third aunt to urge him.

Lin Shiheng somewhat knew what the Lins were like. Grandpa Lin and Grandma Lin gave birth to three sons. The eldest of them was his father, who died early. After that, Li Chunhua moved away with her son because of her bad relationship with the Lins, leaving the house with almost nothing on them.

Li Chunhua doesn’t like her parents-in-law, and the Lins’ don’t like their daughter-in-law, but they still love Lin Shiheng, the grandson. When he was a child, the two-old people were healthy and didn’t give Lin Shiheng a hard time. Because of this, when he grew up, he was filial to the two-old people.

After that, the two-old people were too weak to work, but the family treasures; such as land deeds, were held tightly in their hands. The other two sons and daughters-in-law had not separated from the family yet. No matter for those things or anything else, they held the old parents near their bosom.

He remembered that this pair of grandparents really had no bad intentions toward him. It’s just that, the older generation’s old ideas, thinking that a promising offspring has a duty to take care of the poor ones. Shiheng is a promising grandson, he has to take care of the others.

The ‘adopting a young relative’ talk, has always been from them. They never gave up on the idea.

But even so, Li Chunhua felt that; letting the other family gain benefits from Shiheng who never got anything from them? Impossible!

When her husband left, she had a difficult time with her child. She didn’t see the second branch of the family take them in.

Aunt Lin knew Li Chunhua’s temper, she was reluctant to come over. When she saw Lin Shiheng coming out of the house, she immediately showed a smiled on her face.

It wasn’t Li Chunhua! It was her nephew, who was very filial!

It seems that this time, she can get some benefits for her child and husband.

Lin Shiheng was as gentle and talkative as she remembered. When he heard Aunt Lin say that his Grandparents could not come to see him even if they wanted to, he immediately decided that he would go to see his Grandpa and Grandma.

Aunt Lin was so proud that she took her nephew all the way home and watched him enter his Grandparent’s room. She was expecting to wait for Lin Shiheng to come out and take the initiative to give the second branch something to take good care of the two-old people.

As a result, she waited for quite a long time.

When she saw the two men coming back from the fields, Aunt Lin rushed up and said, “Brother-in-law, Guo Wei, don’t forget, keep talking about the difficulties at home.”

“You are his biological Uncle and close relative. Shiheng would certainly give you some face!”

The two brothers had the same greed on their faces. “Don’t worry.”

While inside the room, all three faces were smiling, full of happiness and harmony.

After a while, a handsome young man came out of his grandparent’s room.

He looked melancholy. Before waiting for the two men to open their mouths, he went straight to Uncle Lin and clapped him on the back. “Third Uncle Lin! Really, I don’t know how to thank you for taking care of Grandpa and Grandma so well!”

“Don’t worry, your nephew is not the kind of person who does not recognize people when he has money. When I get a chance, I must also bring something for Third Uncle and Bin Bin with me…”

Bin Bin is Third Uncle Lin’s eldest son.

When Lin Shiheng finished, he flushed his eyes and moved his face and loosened his confused face. “Then I’ll go back first. Really, thank you Third Uncle and Aunt. I didn’t know before. You paid so much for taking care of my grandparents…”

When he finished, he turned to Second Uncle Lin who was standing at the door and said, “Third Uncle, I’ll go back first.”

Until Lin Shiheng left, he did not mention why he only thanked his Third Uncle but not his Second Uncle.

But there is no need for him to say it. Everyone’s eyes were on Third Aunt Lin, who went to the Lin’s house to call him over and was alone with him along the way.

Third Aunt Lin: “… Why are you looking at me? I didn’t tell him anything. ”

Hah!

Second Aunt rolled her eyes at her sister-in-law and said sarcastically, “Sure… it wasn’t you. Who else could it be besides you?”

Second Uncle Lin’s face was very gloomy and didn’t look good, but it wasn’t good to dispute things with his sister-in-law. He could only turn around with a black face, and Second Aunt Lin quickly followed him.

Third Aunt Lin was angry and anxious. She could only look at her husband and say, “Guo Wei, I really didn’t do anything!”

Third Uncle Lin waved indifferently: “Why still pretend with me? It’s OK. You’re doing it right. Of course, this benefit is better for one person rather than two. Go in and see if Shiheng had left any good things behind.”

After she entered the room, Third Aunt Lin quietly leaned out her head, looked sullenly at the closed door, stamped her feet angrily, and turned her face to look for her husband.

Li Chunhua happily came back from her neighbor’s house to have a good sleep after chatting on the next day, she heard that the two brothers of Lin family suddenly became distant from each other and almost fought.

“I heard that even the meals were eaten separately!”

“When they meet, they don’t even say hello to each other. Just ignoring each other.”

“Tsk Tsk… those two are biological brothers. But, Chunhua, you could relax a bit later. Now the two sisters-in-law of the Lin family are also butting heads, they wouldn’t have any time to come to your house to irritate you. As I see it; from how they look, they would butt heads for a lifetime.”

Great!

Li Chunhua feels absolutely refreshed!

The old Lin’s two sons only know how to get money from their fatherless nephew. The rotten eggs would always turn the nest!

(窝囊蛋还给窝里反了 [Wōnáng dàn hái gěi wō li fǎnle] = The annoying eggs would completely turn the nest/ annoying things would always cause internal strife.)

The news was enough for her to laugh all night. When she sent her son and daughter-in-law away, Li Chunhua couldn’t resist it. She secretly shared her happiness with her son.

After sharing, she couldn’t help but take pleasure in adding, “Tell me, what on earth could cause them to have a fall out?”

Lin Shiheng, took his bag. With a pure smile on he said, “I don’t know.”

“I guess so. How would you know about their affairs? Well, hurry up. And take care of Xuezhu.”

After waving goodbye to his mother, Lin Shiheng carefully helped his wife to get on the train; followed by He Xiaobao, who was full of excitement.

He Xiaobao’s heart is full of expectations for the future.

Three meals a day with meat, eating and drinking without work, a monthly salary without breaking a sweat…

So beautiful… Ha ha ha!

As soon as he finished his beautiful dream, he saw his brother-in-law sitting his sister carefully. Then, looking at him with his eyebrows raised slightly, and showing a good-looking smile.

Obviously, his spirit is still high, but his body is subconsciously trembling.

Strange, why does he feel like when his brother-in-law smiles, it harbors malicious intentions?