The people who ca were Zhang Yan and her younger brother Zhang Hong.
'My father has been here these days, did you just get back today?' Zhang Yan took her younger brother's hand and walked over. Zhang Hong looked at the cars and people over here and was a little embarrassed, hiding behind her sister the whole ti.
'Hello, Uncle i!'
'Oh yes, you know each other,' i Yiliang said with a smile. "That's good, you haven't eaten yet, right? Let's go together, young people can talk together,'
Huang Jingping ca over with a smile, affectionately taking Zhang Yan's hand. "Long ti no see, let's go to our car, we can chat,'
'Sister,' Zhang Hong called softly, a little afraid to let go of Zhang Yan's hand.
Feng Yiping took his hand, 'Do you rember ? Let's get in this car, your sister and the others are in that car, all girls,'
This ti i Yiliang was a little confused. Not only did his nephew seem to be particularly concerned about Zhang Dongliang's family, but how did Jingping know Zhang Yan?
'Little brother, what's your na and grade?' Xiao Zhijie asked with a smile.
They had just watched Feng Yiping and the strange brother and sister seem to be quite familiar with each other, so they were a little confused and didn't get out of the car to cause trouble.
Zhang Hong lowered his head, wringing his hands, huddled next to Feng Yiping and didn't say a word.
'He speaks the local dialect, he understands it. He's from the next county,' Feng Yiping said.
'Don't be nervous, these two are both my good friends,' he patted Zhang Hong on the shoulder.
'Hm,' Zhang Hong finally grunted, but still didn't answer Xiao Zhijie's question.
'His na is Zhang Hong, he's in the second year of junior high school, and his father is the project manager of the engineering departnt of a decoration company,' Feng Yiping had to answer for him.
This guy was the sa later on. In front of strangers, he was like a silent person who didn't say much, but he happened to have a stubborn temper.
In an occasion like this, Zhang Yan coped much more easily. After being introduced by Huang Jingping, he greeted Zheng Jiayi and Huang Qinping, 'You guys just got back?'
'Yes, we just got here. In a few days, Yiping's family is moving to the new house, so we can't delay the day,'
'Yes, this is a big event, he can't miss it,' Zhang Yan also knew the significance of building a new house for a rural family.
Huang Qinping was like a bloodhound with a keen sense of sll. Of course, perhaps it was because she was highly distrustful and vigilant of all won who got close to her sister's boyfriend, she rudely butted in, "How did you et Brother Yiping?'
'My father is in the decoration company, and it was Yiping and Uncle i who ca to our county to find him in the first place," Zhang Yan said with a smile.
'I asked how you t?' Huang Qinping kept after her.
'When they were taking my dad ho,'
'Huang Qinping!' Huang Jingping gave her sister a tap on the head.
Huang Qinping shut up. She knew very well that her sister was really angry when she called her by her full na. But I'm doing this for your own good, right? She touched her head and looked at her sister with so grievance.
Her sister ignored her, however, and laughed as she talked to Zhang Yan and the others.
Seeing Zhang Yan, Zheng Jiayi felt like she had finally t a relative. Over the past month, she had been through the wringer at the hands of Huang Qinping, and she imdiately offered to help Zhang Yan. 'The Yiping family's house, it's only just been built? What did they live in before, a mud brick house?'
'Yes, his family used to live in a mud brick house, and my family still does. Zhang Yan, what about your family?'
'My family too,'
Zheng Jiayi really couldn't understand, 'Your families should all be in a good position, especially the Yiping family, which has bought houses everywhere. How co your new house is only just being built?'
Huang Jingping laughed, 'Haha, so you don't know the difficulties in the countryside. When Yiping was in his second year of high school, that was the winter of the year before last, the road to their village was only just built. When the road wasn't built, how could they build a house? It's more than ten miles up the mountain, how could they carry in the cent, bricks and steel bars?
Besides, building a house is not like buying one. From preparing the materials to laying the foundation and finally building and decorating it, it takes at least half a year, if not a year. Not to ntion the cost, it is also ti-consuming and laborious. anwhile, the fields still need to be cultivated and the livestock still need to be looked after. So this is really a major event for rural families.
Not to ntion anything else, as far as I can observe, no family has ever built a house without everyone in the family losing weight,'
After spending almost a month together, Huang Jingping understood Zheng Jiayi's temperant and realised that she was not soone who could joke around.
'Oh yes, that's right, I rember now, it seems that their village had to borrow money from Yiping's company to build that road,' Zheng Jiayi felt a little embarrassed.
She had ant to help Zhang Yan, who was in the sa situation, but she hadn't realised that she had asked a stupid question because she didn't understand the situation in the countryside.
'My ho is close to the county seat, and the road was built a long ti ago. But I had been saving for years, but there wasn't enough money to build a new house. I had a bit of money in the past two years, but after listening to Yiping, I bought a house in the provincial capital. I still don't have the money to renovate the old house,' Zhang Yan said.
Her words eased Zheng Jiayi's embarrassnt.
'Yes, I've heard that he's been advocating this,' Zheng Jiayi said.
...
The place i Yiliang had booked was a local restaurant, with authentic ho-style cooking. For the couple, who had been in the capital for a month, sampling all kinds of flavours, it really hit the spot.
The n's group and the won's group both ordered a lot of food at once. At the end, Feng Yiping asked the waiter, 'Do you have any braised dishes? Pig's ears,'
'Just the thing,'
'then I'll have so too,' Feng Yiping patted his younger brother-in-law Zhang Hong, who was still bowing his head and looking very awkward next to him, "You like it, don't you,'
he clearly rembered that his younger brother-in-law liked this dish.
Huang Xinping had another opinion when she saw it, "Brother Yiping, you still don't know what I like best,'
'You used to like chicken legs, now you like prawns, don't worry, there's so of both,' I didn't know before, how co I know now?
Huang Qinping actually wanted to say that Feng Yiping could not be so concerned about other sisters' brothers, but seeing that her sister and Zhang Yan were now talking quite well, she was afraid of upsetting her sister, so she turned her eyes around and imdiately focused her attention on Zhang Hong, who was lowering his head.
'Hey, what's your na?'
'Zhang Hong,' this ti everyone was a little more familiar, and it was a girl of the sa age who asked, so Zhang Hong finally opened his mouth.
'Zhang Hong, do you see Yi Ping often?' she asked in a low voice.
'This is the second ti. Why?'
'That's good! Nothing,' Huang Xinping finally felt a little relieved when she heard Zhang Hong say that.
Wang Changning, who was sitting next to Feng Yi Ping, touched him and whispered with a smile, 'Congratulations, you have a sister-in-law who cares so much about you,'
Feng Yi Ping had long been used to hearing this over and over again over the past month.
'We should congratulate Jingping for having such a caring and concerned sister,' Xiao Zhijie said with a smile, "Haha, it's a good thing that Qiu Ling is the only one in her family,"
'Well, let's not forget our strict and demanding principal Zhang,' Wang Changning knew Xiao Zhijie well and was able to hit the nail on the head with just a few words.
Everyone was relaxed, as they were all in their elent, and everyone had a drink, except for the two who were still in primary school.
Zheng Jiayi had been spending ti with everyone for a month, and was already familiar with them. Zhang Yan, who had just joined the small group, Zhang Qiuling, who was also studying to be a teacher, and Yu Lian, who was also from the countryside, all had things to say. Together with Huang Jingping, who took good care of her, the girls quickly beca friends.
Feng Yiping looked over there and saw them looking over here from ti to ti. The two were getting along well, and sohow he felt a little dizzy.
This was the first ti the three of them had been together.
One was his first love, now his girlfriend; the other was his wife, now his friend.
One was the most indelible mory of his youth, along with those rough toys from childhood: the slingshot, wooden pistol, spinning top, and so on, as well as those gas that seed ridiculous to the adults but that he loved dearly.
They were once inseparable, accompanying each other from youth to maturity, from acquaintance to blood ties, interdependence, and together they nurtured and raised a little one. The bitterness of just moving around together, the joy of finally having a nest, the warmth of the monotony after spending a long ti together, those ten years were the essence of his life.
The past, the future, and the present all intersected at that mont, and the past lives and the present lives of the two of them mingled together. Before he knew it, Feng Yiping felt drunk even though he hadn't had many drinks.
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