Three or Two Things about Rebirth

Qiu Jiashu was very worried about his sister who was alone abroad this year. He was worried all day long, even more worried than his parents. He patted his sister on the back and sighed, "It's good that you're back. I've been through so much this year that my hair is turning white. You really make me worry!"

Qiu Luming cried in her second brother's arms for a while. When she heard someone whispering, she finally remembered that this was not Russia. She quickly stood up and wiped her tears. "Why are you here? I can go home by myself."

"Can you really do this? A little girl has so much luggage. If you can't carry it, just mail it back! Have you spent all your money?" Qiu Jiashu said a lot in one breath. Only then did he see his sister's haggard look and sighed again, "How did you do this? Are you studying abroad or exiled?"

Qiu Luming burst out laughing, "You are the one who is exiled! I have exams recently and have no time to cook, and I am too lazy to buy food outside."

"No cafeteria?"

"No. There are lots of restaurants outside the school."

"There's no cafeteria in the university? This is unbelievable!" Qiu Jiashu waved for a taxi and picked up the two heaviest bags. "Don't worry about it, I'll carry it later!"

Qiu Luming still carried the bag and followed Qiu Jiashu.

Qiu Jiashu put the two large bags in the trunk of the taxi, turned around and took the bag from Qiu Luming, "Get in the car."

"Going to Big Brother's house?"

"Yes, sister-in-law prepared a table of delicious food!"

"That's great! I'm dying of greed!"

Qiu Luming originally intended to buy a train ticket and return to Jiayang as soon as he got off the train. After buying the ticket, he would call his second brother and ask him to pick him up in Tang County. His eldest brother had become increasingly busy in recent years, sometimes scheduling three surgeries in the morning. His eldest sister-in-law was at work and had to take care of Dabao, so she never even thought of disturbing their family.

Of course, if her second brother's family was in Harbin, she would not be polite.

Qiu Luming sat in the back seat of the taxi and leaned his head on Qiu Jiashu's shoulder. "I will never go abroad again."

"Oh, as if you can go abroad whenever you want!"

Qiu Luming closed his eyes and said, "But if I don't go out once, how can I know the goodness of my motherland!"

"Yes, you won't be satisfied unless you go out once." Qiu Jiashu patted her head, "You will feel at ease after going out and showing off for a while. From now on, just stay with Brother Ge. The house has been allocated, and we are waiting for you to come back to decide the color of the floor. After that, find a good partner and live a stable life!"

Qiu Luming raised his eyelids but said nothing.

The driver was a chatty person, he interrupted with a smile and said, "Hey, buddy, this is your sister, is she going abroad?"

"Yes, I just came back from Lao Maozi."

"You are so good, Lao Maozi. Are these bags all the goods you brought back? My neighbor Ge has a stall in the basement of the railway station. He just teamed up with someone to go to Heihe last month. He made a fortune by trading both ends!"

Qiu Jiashu knew his sister best. He smiled and said to the driver, "My sister is going to college. How can she have the time to be a dealer? Those bags of hers are all her own clothes!"

Qiu Luming blushed. Even if Sergei's incident had not happened, she would not have thought of making money by selling goods. She felt that she had no business talent at all.

The driver saw her expression in the rearview mirror and laughed, "It's great to go to college. You'll have a bright future! It's also right to buy more clothes. You should dress up more while you're young!"

The taxi stopped downstairs of his second brother's house. As soon as Qiu Luming got out of the car, he heard someone shouting above his head, "Luming!"

She looked up and saw her sister-in-law sticking her head out of the third-floor window and then retracting it.

After a while, Liu Xiaomei ran downstairs and snatched the bag from Qiu Luming's hand, sighing, "Oh my God, Luming, what's going on? Those who know you said you were going abroad to study, but those who don't know thought you were in prison! Come on, go upstairs, wash your face, call mom and dad first, and take a good rest for two days before going back, otherwise mom will cry when she sees you."

In just one year, my eldest brother's living room was replaced with a 25-inch imported color TV. A VCD player and an amplifier were placed in the TV cabinet, and there were speakers more than a foot high in each corner.

——It seems that big brother has quite a lot of extra income!

Qiu Luming put down her backpack and went to help in the kitchen. Liu Xiaomei pushed her away and said, "Go away. You are not needed here. Call home!"

Qiu Luming noticed that the watch on his sister-in-law's wrist was golden and seemed to be inlaid with diamonds on the dial.

She sighed inwardly and went to make a phone call.

The phone rang only once and then was picked up, as if someone was answering the phone.

"mom!"

"Your dad." It was his father's voice. "Your mom is watering the radishes in the back garden. This is the second crop, planted especially for you. The persimmons are ripe too, so you can enjoy them when you come back."

"Dad! Do you miss me? I'll be back tomorrow and will be home the day after tomorrow morning. Tell mom I want to eat oxtail stewed with eggplant and pork rind stewed with beans!"

"The beans haven't grown very well yet..."

"Then stew the dried beans and add some vermicelli!"

"Yo yo!" He Manshu snatched the phone away, "You've arrived at your eldest brother's house? Did you have a smooth journey?"

"I'm fine, don't worry. I'll be home the day after tomorrow. I won't say much. Long-distance charges are quite expensive." Qiu Luming hung up the phone hastily without even daring to call her mother. As soon as she heard her mother's voice, tears started to flow.

Qiu Jiashu pretended not to see it. In his heart, his sister was always a crybaby. She couldn't do anything well and was almost unable to take care of herself.

Qiu Luming took a bath in the bathroom of her eldest brother's house and felt refreshed. After a while, she heard Dabao's cheerful voice in the corridor saying, "Dad, can you pick me up from school tomorrow?"

"No, I have surgery tomorrow."

"Okay then." Dabao's voice sounded so pitiful.

Qiu Luming ran to open the door, "Brother! Dabao!"

"Aunt!" Dabao ran upstairs happily and threw himself into Qiu Luming's arms. "Are you back from Russia? Did you come back by plane?"

Qiu Luming rubbed his hair, "I came back by train. Auntie brought you a gift!"

Dabao cheered.

Qiu Huaixin rolled Qiu Luming's wet hair between his fingers and said, "I've been gone for a year. I haven't eaten or slept properly for at least three hundred days, right?"

Qiu Luming chuckled, ran to Dabao and got him a gift.

The meal prepared by the eldest sister-in-law relieved Qiu Luming of half of her homesickness. She was so full that she walked around holding her stomach. Liu Xiaomei's eyes were red. "Look at how harshly we Luming treats you. Wait, I'll get you some stomach-strengthening and digestion-promoting tablets."

***

The train from Harbin to Tang County departs at nine o'clock in the evening. Qiu Luming had the whole next day free. In the morning, she took her eldest sister-in-law to take Dabao to school. The school was not far away, only ten minutes' walk away, but it had to cross two intersections, and there were a lot of cars and people, so an adult had to take the child there.

The aunt and nephew played the idiom chain game while walking. Dabao's vocabulary is so large that Qiu Luming is surprised. Qiu Luming has never heard of many idioms, but Dabao can clearly explain the meaning and give correct examples. It is obvious that his sister-in-law pays close attention to his studies.

"Aunt, I'm reading the Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Chinese Idioms. It has no illustrations and is thicker than a brick. I memorize one page every day and now I'm up to page 411!"

"Dabao, you are really amazing now. I didn't expect you to be so determined and persistent. From today on, I have a new understanding of you!"

Dabao is very happy. "I also took part in the Mathematical Olympiad class. On Sundays, I took a two-hour bus ride to learn piano. My mother said that teacher was the most famous! I also learned English. We started English classes in the third grade. My mother said it's better to learn it in advance!"

"Are you tired then?"

"I am not tired!"

Qiu Luming rubbed his nephew's hair and said, "If you feel tired, tell your mother the truth. You should also pay attention to protecting your eyes and spine. Remember?"

"Remember this, aunt!"

Dabao put two pieces of Russian chocolate in his pocket, ready to give them to his good friend. His schoolbag was very big, and Qiu Luming carried it for him and found it not heavy.

Dabao explained that summer homework books were being distributed today and that we had to mark the homework questions. I didn’t bring many books with me, so I asked, “Auntie, remember to pick me up at 11:30 in the afternoon!”

Qiu Luming took his little hand and crossed the road, "Okay."

At noon, Qiu Luming went to pick up his nephew again. At the school gate, an aunt in her sixties approached Qiu Luming and said, "Girl, you look so young, are you picking up your nephew or your niece?"

"nephew."

"I'm here to pick up my granddaughter!" The aunt looked at her watch. "My last name is Wang, you can just call me Aunt Wang. Let's go under the shade of the tree, it's cool there!"

"Okay, my last name is Qiu, you can call me Xiao Qiu."

That's how the two of them got to know each other and had a very pleasant chat.

Aunt Wang speaks slowly and softly, and her Mandarin is very standard, with the typical tone of an intellectual woman from Harbin.

"Auntie Wang, are you a professor?" Qiu Luming asked with a smile. She felt that this Auntie Wang was a teacher and that she was very similar to her mother in some ways.

"I'm not a professor, I'm just an elementary school teacher." Aunt Wang's round face was full of smiles, and she gathered her curly gray hair.

The two of them had already told each other their children's class names, and it turned out that the two children were in the same class.

"Qiu Xiuji, I know! My granddaughter is Sun Jianing, she said she likes Qiu Xiuji the most, saying he is a good student!" Aunt Wang was immediately happy when she heard Dabao's name. "But usually his mother comes to pick him up, rides a bike and takes him away, and we never chat."

"My eldest brother and sister-in-law are busy with work, and they have to cook when they get home."

"Understand, understand."

After school, Qiu Luming and Aunt Wang picked up the children, and the four of them walked home together. They found that the two families still lived in the same community, separated only by one building.

Aunt Wang said, "What a coincidence! My daughter is also a doctor at the Second Hospital! I was planning to take Jianing to the big market outside Jile Temple this afternoon. Do you want to go?"

Before Qiu Luming could say anything, Dabao shouted, "Auntie, I want to go!"