Siheyuan: Traveling through Cai Quanwu, pretending to be Uncle Shazhu

The next day.

Because it was a holiday, the yard was quite quiet early in the morning.

Cai Quanwu and his sister Sha Zhu got up early, dressed themselves and started to wash.

Today is a big day for Shazhu. Everyone takes it very seriously, so he dressed up specially.

After everyone finished washing up, Cai Quanwu told Sha Zhu:

"Zhu Zi, after breakfast, you will set off for Xiao Wu's house."

"You will set out from there to Donglaishun at around ten o'clock, do you understand?"

Sha Zhu changed into a more decent outfit today, with his hair combed to a shiny finish. He was looking at himself in the mirror on the washstand, seeming a little impatient with Cai Quanwu's instructions.

"I know, uncle. You've told me this so many times."

"Can't forget."

Cai Quanwu has been explaining things since last night, and Shazhu's ears are already callused from listening to him.

As Sha Zhu spoke, he bent down and brushed the dust off his shoes with a rag.

Seeing that Sha Zhu sounded a little impatient, Cai Quanwu wanted to scold him.

Finally, I thought about it and decided to give up. Without saying anything more, I went out to buy breakfast.

Passing by the front yard, I saw the old man standing under the eaves of his house and greeted him with a smile.

"Teacher Yan, it's so early."

“Now that I’m old, I can’t sleep.”

The third uncle replied to Cai Quanwu with a smile.

When Cai Quanwu heard this, he wanted to complain in his heart: I don’t believe you at all. You are not even forty years old, how can you be old?

But thinking about the current average age, Cai Quanwu kept his mouth shut and didn't say anything to the old man.

Before a large number of barefoot doctors were trained, the average age of the country's population was only 54 years old.

With the emergence of a large number of barefoot doctors, the average age has been reduced to 65 years old.

So, at this stage, the third uncle can indeed be considered old.

"Oh, then you take a rest. I have something else to do." Cai Quanwu was in a hurry to go out to buy breakfast and didn't want to chat more with the third uncle.

"Okay, you're busy."

Looking at Cai Quanwu's departing back, the third uncle muttered: The sun rises from the west, and a man named Cai actually gets up so early on his day off. In the past, he would not get up until the sun was shining on his butt.

After mumbling a few words, the third uncle turned and went into the house.

Cai Quanwu left the courtyard and this time did not go to the usual steamed buns shop. Instead, he went to a shop selling fried dough sticks and sugar-coated steamed buns and bought some.

When Cai Quanwu returned home with the breakfast he bought, Sha Zhu was under the eaves, wiping his bicycle with a rag.

He hummed a little tune while wiping it, and his attitude was so serious that he wiped the bicycle until it was shiny.

"It's time to eat."

When Cai Quanwu walked in, he shouted to Sha Zhu who was wiping his bicycle.

"okay."

Sha Zhu responded and stuffed the rag under the bicycle seat.

This is a common practice in this day and age so that the car can be cleaned at any time.

Just like how the whole country uses enamel jars to store lard, I don’t know why it is so uniform.

When Sha Zhu entered the house, Cai Quanwu and He Yushui had already started eating.

Looking at the doughnuts and sugar-coated fire cakes on the table, Sha Zhu smiled and joked:

"Wow, uncle, you finally changed your tactics this time."

No wonder Shazhu made the joke, whenever Cai Quanwu bought breakfast, it was basically buns, and he rarely bought anything else.

Not buying buns today was a bit surprising to Shazhu.

"I can't stop your mouth even if you have something to eat."

"When you get married, I'll have Xiao Wu sew half of your mouth shut to avoid annoying people."

After being confronted by Cai Quanwu, Sha Zhu, who was smiling at first, suddenly froze the smile on his face.

Sha Zhu didn't know how he had offended Cai Quanwu again, so he could only sit down and eat breakfast in silence.

After hurriedly finishing his breakfast, Sha Zhu said hello to Cai Quanwu and pushed his bike out the door.

……

In front of Donglaishun.

Cai Quanwu and Sister Zhao were waiting for Xiao Wu's family to arrive.

When the male and female elders meet, the male elders usually arrive first and wait for the female elders to arrive.

So, Cai Quanwu made an appointment with Sister Zhao and the others yesterday to come first.

Of course, there are special circumstances.

In that situation, the woman is usually trying to get ahead of the man and is in a humble position.

Cai Quanwu took out his watch to check the time, and said to Sister Zhao and Sister Liu beside him, "It should be soon."

"I told Shazhu to ask them to arrive around 11 o'clock."

Cai Quanwu felt a little guilty about letting Sister Zhao and Sister Liu accompany him and others, so he explained.

"Nothing, you're still being polite to us."

"Yes."

Sister Zhao and Sister Liu successively said they didn't care.

"Here he comes, uncle, my brother is here."

Cai Quanwu was talking to Sister Zhao and the others when He Yushui, who was standing next to Cai Quanwu, shouted.

Hearing He Yushui's words, Cai Quanwu and the others looked up and saw two bicycles riding towards them.

After Sha Zhu and Xiao Wu's parents parked the car at the entrance of Donglaishun, Cai Quanwu and others hurried to greet them.

"This is Wu Ge and sister-in-law, hello, hello."

"I am Xiao He's uncle. My last name is Cai, and my name is Cai Quanwu."

Cai Quanwu stretched out his hand from afar and shook hands with Xiao Wu's parents with a smile.

"Hello, hello, I'm Xiao Wu's father, my name is Wu Qiang, and this is my wife Zhang Cuiying."

After introducing each other, Cai Quanwu walked towards the store in a hurry.

"Come on, Angkor, let's talk in the store. It's too windy outside."

"Together."

Everyone exchanged politeness and walked into the store.

After entering Donglaishun, Cai Quanwu went to inform the waiter and asked him to serve the food.

After everyone arrived at the reserved seat and sat down, Cai Quanwu took out a cigarette and gave one to Xiao Wu's father.

The two men lit up cigarettes and started chatting while smoking.

He Yushui, Wu Chu and Wu Yue looked at each other, all curious about each other's identities.

Xiao Wu happened to see them looking at each other and immediately introduced them to each other.

"Wu Chu, Wu Yue, this is He Yushui, she's younger than you, so she's your sister."

"Yushui, this is Wu Chu and Wu Yue, your younger brothers and sisters. They are older than you, so you can call them brother and sister."

After Xiao Wu introduced both parties, He Yushui and the others continued to look at each other.

When they first met, they were still a little unfamiliar with each other.

Today's occasion was perfect for Sha Zhu to show his abilities. As soon as he entered the door, Sha Zhu started running around, pouring tea and water for everyone.

Sister Zhao and Sister Liu were talking to Xiao Wu's mother. They had met each other and had something to talk about.

He Yushui looked at Wu Chu and Wu Yue for a while, as if he remembered something, and quickly took out a few candies from his pocket and handed them to Wu Chu and Wu Yue.

"Here are some candies for you."

After He Yushui finished speaking, he stretched out his hand.

Wu Chu and Wu Yue looked at He Yushui who stretched out his hand, and didn't know what to do for a moment.

To answer or not to answer, that is the question.

Little Wu's mother looked at the bewildered Wu Chu and Wu Yue siblings and said unhappily:

"Sister gave you something, why are you just sitting there? Why don't you take it and thank me."

After hearing what their mother said, Wu Chu and Wu Yue stood up embarrassedly and took the candy from He Yushui's hand.

He Yushui probably didn't have many on him, so he only took out four, just enough for Wu Chu and Wu Yue to have two each.

Wu Chu and Wu Yue took the candy, said thank you to He Yushui and then sat down.

After Wu Chu and Wu Yue sat down, Wu's mother began to praise He Yushui.

"Your name is Yushui, right? You're really sensible."

When He Yushui heard the praise from Xiao Wu's mother, he lowered his head and said nothing.

Cai Quanwu saw this situation and explained:

"Her mother passed away early, and she hasn't seen her since she was a child, so she might be a little uncomfortable with it."

After hearing Cai Quanwu's explanation, Xiao Wu's mother hurriedly said, "Uncle Xiao He, it's okay, it's okay."

When Cai Quanwu heard Xiao Wu's mother call him Xiao He's uncle, he smiled and said:

"Sister-in-law, you can call me Xiao Cai or nothing."

"Okay then, I'll just call you Quan Wu. It feels weird to call you Xiao Cai."

"I call you nephew, everyone calls you Xiao He."

After Xiao Wu's mother finished speaking, everyone except the three little kids started laughing.

Indeed, if you call Cai Quanwu Xiao Cai or Shazhu Xiao He, it doesn't feel right.