The three kids had a great time at the zoo, and on their way home they met a toy seller. Both boys were attracted by the crudely made toy, and Shen Haiyang fulfilled the children’s wishes without hesitation. The two boys jumped for joy.
”What do you want Huihua?”
Huahua waved her hands at her stepfather: “I don’t want anything. I, I have to finish my homework when I get home.”
”Okay, if you like it, study hard.”
They originally planned to have dinner in the canteen outside, but when they got in, there were so many people. There are still too few private restaurants. People occasionally want to go out for a meal, but before they can taste the food, they can’t praise the environment. How long do they have to wait in line?
”Forget it, let’s go home and eat.”
The original plan was changed, and the children had enough fun, so did not object. They met a man selling maltose on the street, and Shen Haiyang gave each of the three of them five cents, and the little ones happily ran to buy candy.
After cleaning up in the evening, Li Xia kept muttering that Yi Yi had barely eaten dinner. She turned around and asked HuiHua: “How much candy did he eat? Is he full? He ate popsicles and candy this afternoon. He won’t get an upset stomach, will he?”
”he,…”
Huahua didn’t dare to tell her brother that he had eaten her share of candy. She smiled at her mother and didn’t answer. She hoped that her brother was fine. But the boy was very good. He ate so much and nothing happened. He went to school the next day.
————
Because Shen Haiyang promised to take them out to play during the summer vacation, the period before summer vacation was very difficult. After school in the evening, Shen Hui and Huihua went to the kindergarten to pick up their younger brother, and the three siblings went home together. They bought three popsicles on the way. These are a great way to cool off in the hot summer, and they are the children’s favorite.
”Huihua,”
Hearing someone shouting, Huihua turned around and saw a strange yet familiar face. Having been away from home for a long time, the child took a while to react before stepping forward.
”Grandpa, why are you here?”
”Oh my God, I finally found you.” The old man happily held his granddaughter, and then reached out to pull Yiyi: “This is Yiyi, he has changed a lot in a year. Isn’t he with his father? Why is he here too?”
”Yiyi also follows our mother now.” Huahua said, pointing at Shen Hui: “This is my new father’s son, his name is Shen Hui.”
Shen Hui immediately greeted him: “Hello, Grandpa.”
”Good boy, good boy.”
He took out a piece of candy from his pocket and gave it to Shen Hui first, and then to his two grandchildren. The child took him home, and as soon as she entered the door, she called for her mother. Li Xia came out of the house and quickly wiped her hands on her apron and came to greet him.
”Dad, why are you here? Why didn’t you tell me in advance so that I could pick you up at the train station?”
”Oh, don’t mention it.”
Huihua sensibly poured water for grandpa, and the old man drank some water before continuing: “The roof of our house is leaking, and your second brother accidentally fell down when he was repairing it. The county hospital said it was a fracture and there was something wrong with the spleen, so they asked him to come to a big hospital, so I hurried over.”
Upon hearing this, Li Xia immediately became anxious. “What about my second brother? Has he been sent to the hospital? What did the doctor say?”
”He was given traction for the fracture, and they said he have to wait until the swelling goes down before he can do surgery. His spleen also needs treatment, and he is receiving an IV in the hospital. Your second sister-in-law… I…”
The old man hesitated to speak. Needless to say, Li Xia also knew the dilemma her father was in. The second sister-in-law must have complained about everything. She would complain about everything. And there was money involved. The medical expenses were estimated to be quite a lot.
”Don’t worry about the money, I’ll take care of it. I’ll go cook first and go to the hospital later. Dad, go take a shower and have a rest, don’t worry too much. You’ve come to the provincial capital, I’ll take care of everything.”
She arranged for her old father to wash up and took out Shen Haiyang’s clothes from the closet for him to change. As she was taking them out, she ran into Shen Haiyang coming back. The man glanced at her and pointed at the clothes.
”My dad is here, let’s him change clothes first.”
So that’s it. The man nodded. “Why did he come here suddenly?”
Li Xia explained the situation to him, and the man said he understood. “I’ll go with you later.”
”Okay
”Give me the clothes, I’ll take them there. Hurry up and cook. Is there any meat at home? Ask the children to buy some cooked meat.”
It was the first time for the father-in-law to come to the house, and it was also the first time for the father-in-law and son-in-law to meet. Li Xia was very happy with Shen Haiyang’s enthusiastic attitude, and nodded and went into the house to cook.
Shen Haiyang originally planned to ask his children to run errands, but after thinking about it, he decided to go by himself. He asked Shen Hui to bring those clothes for grandpa. He rode his bike out and came back about half an hour later, carrying cooked meat and a bottle of Xinghua Village Fenjiu.
The old man had washed and changed his clothes. When he heard the children say that their father was back, he hurried over to the house.
He put away his smoke. His son-in-law is a city person and a cadre, so don’t let him look down on himself
Shen Haiyang came in carrying something, and the old man stood up. It was their first meeting, and he didn’t know what to say. He was looking for help, so he looked nervous.
”Dad, I’m Shen Haiyang, your son-in-law, you can just call me by my name.”
The son-in-law spoke kindly and relieved his anxiety. The old man smiled and nodded, and the father-in-law and son-in-law sat down on the sofa. The nature of Shen Haiyang’s work gave him a sense of authority. The old man was more nervous in front of him than in front of the commune cadres. He didn’t dare to speak for a while, but Shen Haiyang smiled and opened the conversation.
After asking about the family situation, he started talking about the crops in the fields. Speaking of this, the old man had a lot to talk about. He said that the land reform in the village had been carried out, and the land and the house were divided among the family.
”The house is not big enough and it’s old and leaky. I thought I’d smear the mud on the house after harvesting the wheat, but this happened. It’s bad luck. Old Feng’s son also fell before, but he just rested for a few days. But I don’t know how her second brother could have fallen so hard.”
”It’s hard to say. If the fall didn’t hit any important part of the body, it might be fine. But if it hits an important part of the body, even if it’s several meters high, it might be fatal. Fortunately, second brother’s injury was not serious. The fracture was can be fixed with a surgery and it won’t affect his future life.”
”Alas!” The old man sighed. Although he didn’t care about his life, he was upset when he thought about spending so much money. For the poor, money is life. A penny can make a hero fall, not to mention that he is not a hero, but just an ordinary old farmer.
”Dad, don’t worry too much. I’ll go to the hospital later. I have a classmate who knows someone in the orthopedics department. I’ll ask him to do a good job on second brother’s surgery so there won’t be any sequelae.”
Hearing that there was an acquaintance, the old man immediately grinned and nodded. This is the national situation, familiarity and unfamiliarity are two different things. This time the old man was relieved and had a drink with his son-in-law with pork head for dinner. Seeing the cooked meat and meat dumplings on the table, he looked at his daughter with disapproval.
”It’s too expensive. You have to be careful in your life. Have you forgotten what your father taught you?”
”You have to be generous when you treat guests.”
The old man was indeed angry and glared at her when she used his words to stop him. “What kind of guest is your father? He only needs to eat one bite of the home-cooked food. It’s so wasteful…” The old man looked back and continued when he saw that there was no one around.
”Be careful of son-in-law’s complaints. We were worried at home when you married a city guy again. We really couldn’t find you this time. In fact, Dad was worried all the time, fearing that it would cause trouble for you. I brought all the savings with me when I left, and I hope it will be enough.”
”He is not Fang Zhongcheng, you can rest assured.”
”It seems that they don’t look down on us. But we can’t go too far. We are from the countryside, so we can’t do anything that would make people look down on us.”
”It’s not unreasonable for a son-in-law to entertain his father-in-law. Dad, you are so cautious. Let’s go to the hospital and ask Shen Haiyang to ask his acquaintances to find a doctor with better skills to perform the surgery.”
”Hey. Sorry to bother my son-in-law.”
The old man thought highly of his son-in-law. Li Xia smiled and said nothing. The three of them went to the hospital with lunch boxes. Outside the ward, they heard the second sister-in-law complaining again. She complained that the man accidentally fell down, that he shouldn’t have been allowed to go up to the roof, why the father-in-law hadn’t come yet, and whether the sister-in-law was unwilling to help.
”How’s the second brother?”
Li Xia interrupted her as soon as she came in. The second brother on the bed saw them coming in and wanted to sit up, but was stopped by Li Xia. They introduced each other, and Shen Haiyang went out to find his classmates, leaving only their family in the room.
”eat first,”
The second sister-in-law’s words of complaint were blocked back, and she dared not say anything more to Li Xia. This sister-in-law is not a soft one, and she is not soft-hearted when she confronts people.
When she opened the lunch box, she found dumplings and cooked meat inside. She was so excited about the delicious food that she picked up her chopsticks and started eating.
After they finished their meal, Shen Haiyang came in with a doctor in a white coat. The doctor was Shen Haiyang’s high school classmate, and he agreed to find the director to perform the operation.
”The tibia is comminuted and needs internal fixation. Don’t worry, our director is an expert in this area and the surgical results are first-rate.”
”Thank you, thank you, doctor.”
The old man and his son couldn’t help thanking him, but the doctor smiled and waved his hand, saying it was nothing. “Haiyang and I are good friends, if you have any problems, just come to me.”
”Okay, thank you.”
The doctor came over to acknowledge her and then went out to do his own thing. Li Xia went out to inquire about the cost. Everything was cheap during this period, and the initial estimate was that one or two hundred yuan would be enough. She was relieved now that she was earning her own money, so this amount of money was nothing.
