Double Life: My whole world is you

The fourth sister is the fourth child of the neighbor’s aunt next door. Everyone calls her the fourth child. Because she is a few years older than Cheng Qiao, they call her the fourth sister. There are five children in their family, two boys and three girls. The eldest and the second are married, the third and the fourth are working, and the fifth is in high school. No one knows what the neighbor’s uncle Cheng Qiao does. They live in the city all year round and only come back during the Chinese New Year. The aunt died in an accident when Cheng Qiao was in the sixth grade.

I heard that there was friction between the two families when they first built their houses together. At that time, they argued about the yards of the two families, and finally Cheng Qiao's yard was moved back half a meter. Cheng Qiao's family only occupied more than 100 square meters on the left, while the fourth sister's family, including the front and back yards and the orchard, had 400 to 500 square meters. The house was divided into the front yard and the back yard. The front yard was a three-story house with four bedrooms and a living room. There was also a large kitchen and three storage rooms in the back yard. There was also a closed yard between the front and back yards. In front of the front yard, in addition to a two-meter-wide flat ground, there was also a large vegetable field. In front of Cheng Qiao's house, they planted peach trees, plum trees, apricot trees, and pipa trees in the nearly 200 square meters, and also left a piece for watermelon.

The houses of the two families were almost built at the same time. In the first year, Cheng's mother and the aunt next door were both at home. Although there were frictions at the beginning, they got along well later. At that time, the third sister, fourth sister, and fifth brother were all studying. The two families were close and often went out together. In the second year, Cheng's mother went to work in the city and only came back during the Spring Festival. However, the aunt next door would give them some homemade things every Spring Festival. Whenever she was free, she would come to their house to chat with Cheng's mother. The fourth sister and fifth brother would also invite them to his house to play. But since the aunt next door passed away, the fourth sister graduated and worked in the city, and the fifth brother also went to the city to study and rarely came back. Every time they met, they only met briefly during the Spring Festival. Later, the relationship became more and more estranged until they each stopped coming back. In the previous life, the fourth sister married in the city and met several times. The third sister married in another place, and the fifth brother also stayed in the city. Their generation did not attach as much importance to neighborhood feelings as the previous generation. Later, except for a few words when they saw the fourth sister, they would pretend not to know others when they saw them.

The fourth sister is pretty and always has a kind smile, which makes people want to get close to her. At this time, she has long straight black hair, a black cotton jacket, dark blue jeans, and short leather shoes.

"Qiao, when did you come back?" Fourth sister climbed up from their yard. Cheng Qiao's house was one meter higher than theirs, and the yard was only two or three meters wide and not fenced.

"Fourth sister, we got home around four o'clock yesterday." Cheng Qiao answered and then asked, "How about you?"

"I just got home a while ago." The fourth sister said, "Where's your mother?"

"My mother..." Chengzhu was about to answer. Chengqiao answered first, "She is a little tired these days and is taking a nap in the afternoon."

"Fourth Brother, come back for the New Year's Eve dinner." At this time, a fair-skinned woman with yellow curly hair, wearing stockings, a short skirt and a fur coat came out and shouted.

"Third sister." Cheng Zhu shouted when he saw someone coming out.

"Yeah." The third sister nodded lightly and walked in.

"I'm going to eat first and will come to play with you later." The fourth sister smiled at them gently and walked back.

Cheng Qiao grabbed Cheng Zhu and said, "Come on, brother, we need to go upstairs and shovel the snow."

They came to the second floor, passed through the two and a half-story house, and there was a platform. The platform was above the long room. The two men first opened a wooden door, and then an iron door. The iron door was a bit heavy, perhaps because no one had opened it for a long time. The two men pushed hard for a long time before it opened.

Although the platform of more than 20 square meters was also covered with snow, it was not as thick as when they came back yesterday. Cheng Qiao tried it with her feet and found that it was only halfway up her rain boots. It was estimated that half of it had melted into water. The platform was only 20 centimeters high with bricks on three sides. Cheng Qiao first used a cattail to shovel a path in the middle. The two of them worked half of the way each. Cheng Qiao used the cattail, and Cheng Zhu took the iron basin that Cheng's mother had used when she got married. Cheng's mother hid these things in the innermost part of the firewood upstairs, and those shameless thieves did not find them.

"Haha, sister, I will definitely finish before you." Cheng Zhu took the basin and shoveled forward to fill a large basin.

"Come on, brother! After you finish your work, you can watch TV well." Cheng Qiao also threw down big shovels of garbage.

The two of them had just worked for two minutes when firecrackers rang out from next door. The sound lasted for a long time, almost ten minutes. Chengzhu said while working, "Sister, when we make money in the future, we will buy such big firecrackers. No, bigger firecrackers."

[By the time you earn money to buy firecrackers, they will probably be banned.] Cheng Qiao complained in her heart, but replied with a smile, "Okay! I still have to buy fireworks."

"Yes! I want to buy a hundred fireworks and set them off until dawn." Cheng Zhu said proudly.

"Okay!" Cheng Qiao stopped the shovel in her hand, turned around and saw that he had almost finished shoveling half of the dirt. She walked to his side and said solemnly, "Cheng Zhu, starting tomorrow, work hard! We have had no one to rely on since we were little, and we have to rely on ourselves for everything."

Chengzhu looked at her serious expression, he stopped what he was doing and nodded, "I understand, sister."

"Hurry up, it'll be done soon." Just as she finished speaking, firecrackers rang out not far away, and they also stopped for a while. After she shoveled the last cattail, she looked into the distance. There were people everywhere, and it was very lively. They were like aliens in this bay, standing here alone. Although this was her birthplace, she never felt a sense of belonging, because this place never gave her warmth.

After they shoveled the snow, they opened two water pipes to drain the accumulated water, locked the two doors and returned downstairs. They saw that Cheng's mother was still asleep, so Cheng Zhu said, "Sister, let's go get some water. We can't go get water for two days starting tomorrow."

"Okay." The two took the big bucket and the shoulder pole and went to the well at the aunt's house. The door of the aunt's house was closed. It was probably because the family was having the New Year's Eve dinner. The two did not disturb them. They scooped up the water and carried it home.

The two of them carried four buckets, and the small water tank at home was full. When they were panting and preparing to carry the fifth bucket of water, Cheng's mother got up. Seeing that they had taken off their cotton jackets and were sweating profusely, she quickly snatched the bucket from their hands and asked angrily, "Why don't you call mom?"

"Mom, it's okay. We are 25 years old in total." Cheng Qiao said with a smile.

"Don't lift it." Cheng's mother put the things aside and said, "Take a break. Let's put up the couplets."

Cheng's mother asked them to sit for a while, and then quickly handed them a cotton-padded jacket to put on. She then found the couplets she had bought in her bag. Cheng Zhu moved the high chair at home and stood outside to paste the couplets. Cheng Qiao took two "Fu" and pasted them on the two doors, and the remaining "Fu" was pasted on the door where they slept. At this time, Cheng's mother had also pasted "Chairman Mao" in the middle of the living room. She smiled and said, "It's done, let's go make dumplings."