Chapter 670: 670
In the evening, everyone still ate together. Lin Jiajun suggested that the n and won split up for so fun—karaoke and foot massages. Initially, no one agreed, but Lin Jiajun roped in Lin Rui, managed to convince Yu Zheng, and finally, Lin Feng consented.
Sister Yan joked half-seriously, "Drink less, and don’t ss around with all that nonsense. We’re all getting on in years; health cos first."
Over the years, Lin Feng had heard from Zhou Cuilan that Lin Rui had started to have a wandering eye again. Recently, Sister Yan had caught him dining with a young girl. The girl was in her twenties, young and beautiful, and said she had just recently started college. Sister Yan was so angry she wanted to make a scene and break up on the spot, crying for a long ti in their house.
If it had been the old days, Sister Yan would have divorced him without a second thought. But now their children were grown, and their life had improved. After being married to Lin Rui for over twenty years, she found herself hesitating when it ca to divorce, lacking the decisiveness of her youth. With age, she found herself wanting to just let things slide.
The matter ended with Lin Rui apologizing and swearing it wouldn’t happen again; it didn’t turn into a big fight. Lin Rui’s two sons knew about it and had a serious talk with their father, and the matter was dropped.
"Your Brother Rui told us not to ntion it to you, so just pretend you know nothing about it," Sister Yan said, her words clearly carrying a deeper aning.
Lin Rui gave his assurance. "We’re just going out for drinks and singing, to enjoy a guys’ night out."
Sister Yan didn’t trust him. In fact, aside from Lin Feng, she didn’t trust any of the other n not to fool around.
She smiled and said to Lin Feng, "Keep a close eye on your Brother Rui. Have fun, but don’t do anything reckless."
Lin Feng picked up his black jacket. "Don’t worry, Sister Yan. I won’t let Brother Rui get out of hand. I’ll look after him."
With Lin Feng’s promise, Sister Yan felt reassured enough to let them go out.
Yu Zheng, Lin Feng, Lin Jiajun, and Lin Rui eventually decided to go out and see where the night took them.
"My shoulder has been killing
lately, and it’s even worse when it rains."
"Isn’t that an old problem of yours? My legs are the sa..."
Lin Jiajun used to work on a construction site and had injured his leg. It didn’t bother him back then, but as he aged, old problems like these began to surface. Lin Rui knew just the place for these sorts of aches and found a shop. He had a VIP card there. "We’d better use this before it expires," he said.
The n got washed up to ease the day’s fatigue, then lay down together to chat.
"Yu Zheng, does your son have a girlfriend?"
"He does. They’re dating right now. They think I don’t know, but his mother and I have known for a while."
Lin Jiajun had two children; his eldest was a year or two older than the Four Treasures.
"My son recently started dating a girl who’s quite pretty," he said. "She’s a content creator, though I don’t really understand what that involves... The girl’s father passed away a year ago, and now she lives with her mother. We all had a al together, which I guess counts as eting the parents."
Why does what Lin Jiajun is saying sound so odd?
Yu Zheng asked, "What’s wrong? Are you not satisfied with your future daughter-in-law?"
Lin Jiajun scoffed, "Dissatisfied? That girl smokes and drinks, and she’s quite adept at both!"
Yu Zheng laughed. "Wasn’t Wang Lu the sa back then? Young people these days love to have fun; you shouldn’t act like so old fossil."
Lin Rui agreed. "Exactly. The girl will be living with your son, not with you. The most important thing is that he likes her."
Lin Jiajun fell silent for a mont before saying, "Fine, let it be then."
The three of them sat down together again to play cards and drink tea.
Lin Rui smacked his lips. "I never liked tea before, but now I think it’s good stuff. It’s more pleasant than drinking alcohol."
Lin Jiajun laughed. "I’m brewing goji berries now, haha."
Lin Rui chuckled. "Jeez, are you already at the goji-berries-in-a-thermos stage?"
Lin Jiajun glanced at Lin Rui’s bulging belly. "Haha, you can’t talk. Look how fat you’ve gotten... Eat less of the good stuff and watch out for the three highs."
Lin Rui sighed helplessly. "I’m eating less now, but I still keep putting on weight. I really can’t help it."
As they were talking, Yu Zheng stopped playing cards and lay down on one side, already asleep. The heating was on, and after having quite a bit to drink, he was rather groggy. With him out of the ga, Lin Jiajun and Lin Rui didn’t think of asking Lin Feng to join. That guy could count cards; they were sure to lose.
Lin Feng laughed. "You guys are all too stingy."
Lin Rui laughed back. "It’s not being stingy, it’s being self-aware. Who can outplay you and your wife at cards?"
Lin Jiajun added, "The Four Treasures are pretty good at cards too. My son lost quite a bit today, hahaha!"
As they chatted, everyone except Lin Feng started to feel sleepy and decided to take a short nap. Lin Feng, feeling fine, sent a ssage to Zhang Yuxi before deciding to get so sleep as well. If not for Sister Yan’s phone call, there’s no telling how long they would have slept.
Sister Yan demanded the mont the call connected, "What ti do you call this? Where are you?"
Lin Rui looked at his phone, groggy. "It’s almost one in the morning."
"You know it’s almost one, and you’re still not back? We finished dinner and got ho a long ti ago!"
"Oh," Lin Rui said. "I’ll be back in a bit."
"No, co back now."
"How can we co back now... We haven’t even gotten our things together!"
"Did you go out to ss around?"
"No! I’m still with Lin Feng and the others."
Sister Yan was skeptical. "Really? Don’t lie to . Put Lin Feng on the phone."
At this, Lin Feng also woke up. "Sister Yan, um, I’m here with Brother Rui. Yu Zheng and Lin Jiajun are here too... Right, we fell asleep... Um, we’re about to leave. We’ll head back as soon as we’re packed... Okay, um, alright, you get so sleep."
He handed the phone back to Lin Rui.
Lin Rui muttered, "Always checking up on
whenever I go out. A man has no dignity left."
Lin Jiajun teased him, "Good grief, you’ve beco such a sot and glutton. Just go ho and wash up."
"At our age, we can’t afford to stay up late."
Yu Zheng stood up. "I need to head back. Do they offer designated driver services here?"
"They do."
They each called a designated driver to take them ho.
After getting into his car, Lin Feng called Sister Yan. "Sister Yan, we’re heading ho now. Brother Rui is on his way back too."
Although Brother Rui and Sister Yan had already gone through divorce proceedings, they still lived together. Even so, Sister Yan was still worried about Brother Rui fooling around outside, sothing that hadn’t been an uncommon occurrence in the past. She said she didn’t care, but what woman truly wouldn’t? Sister Yan was always anxious, her only consolation being that their children were grown.
Lin Feng drove Lin Rui ho. Sister Yan asked him to stay for a while, but he declined.
"No, I need to get back too!"
Incidentally, the only reason they were returning so late was that they had all fallen asleep.
Sister Yan naturally trusted Lin Feng. "Thanks for your trouble. You should head back."
It was the New Year, a rare chance for everyone to get together. According to Lin Dashan, they would probably see less and less of each other in the future.
Among the four original siblings—the eldest sister had passed away, and Lin Dahu was gone—only the two brothers, Lin Dashan and Lin Daan, remained. When the two of them sat together, they felt most sentintal about their eldest sister—Yu Zheng’s mother and the aunt of Lin Feng and the others. She had passed away too soon and found blessings too late. After a lifeti of hardship, she only got a taste of sweetness at the very end, a truly lantable fate.
When one gets old, it’s inevitable to reminisce about one’s youth and the things one did. But if they could do it all over again, they knew this life was already the best choice they could have made.
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