Three or Two Things about Rebirth

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Qiu Luming woke up as usual to the symphony of pots and pans from his mother.

She groaned, covered her head with the quilt, and soon fell asleep again.

Until a cold little hand reached into her quilt. She shuddered and threw back the quilt. She screamed, pulled Dabao onto the kang, and tickled his armpits, "You little rascal!"

Dabao laughed and twisted his body around.

After enough laughter, Qiu Luming took out a red envelope and said, "Here, auntie forgot to give Dabao a red envelope yesterday. I wish you healthy growth in the new year!"

Dabao took the red envelope and said loudly: "Thank you, auntie!"

Then he rolled off the kang, put on his shoes, ran to the kitchen, and stuffed the red envelope into Liu Xiaomei's trouser pocket, "This is for you, Mom!"

***

Today, Qiu Jiashu finally stopped going out and not coming home. He delivered food to Zhou Lina in the afternoon and returned home soon. However, he was very silent, which made the atmosphere at home bad.

Just after lunch, Han Meifen came to pay New Year's greetings. Seeing that the Qiu family was full of people, she felt a little uneasy. She greeted them in a low voice and hid in Qiu Luming's small bedroom with a blushing face.

"There were too many people coming to your house yesterday, so I came today," Han Meifen explained.

"Oh, I didn't even have time to visit you for New Year's greetings. It was all because of that guy yesterday who had his neck chopped off. He ruined our family's New Year."

"My dad said that the man was very lucky. If it weren't for your dad, he would definitely not have survived. He also said that the people of Jiayang are lucky to have intellectuals like your parents come to support the border areas."

"That's true!" Qiu Luming said a little proudly.

"Um..." Han Meifen glanced outside the door, gently closed the door of the north bedroom, and asked nervously, "I heard that there is a woman from another place who came to Jiayang to see your second brother?"

"It really spread." Qiu Luming sighed, "That person is my second brother's college classmate."

"Ah, I thought she was your second brother's girlfriend!"

"My second brother has no partner."

"Oh." Han Meifen seemed relieved and her mood improved a lot.

There was a noise outside the door. Qiu Luming lifted the curtain on the glass door and saw Qin Huifang and Yang Dawei standing at the side entrance. He smiled and greeted He Manshu, "Teacher He, I'm here to find Luming to play at my house. I'll be back at 4:30. Is that okay?"

Han Meifen suddenly looked nervous and whispered, "Why is she here again?"

Qiu Luming opened the door and said, "You are angry with me, aren't you? You come to me now to trick me into going out for a fight, right? I won't go!"

Qin Huifang stamped her feet in anger, "You have no conscience!"

He Manshu chuckled and said, "Hey, there are guests here. I won't go to your house today."

"Teacher He, I really have something to say. I must explain it to Luming today, otherwise I won't be able to eat or sleep well. She must have misunderstood me!" Qin Huifang's face turned red with anxiety. She knew that Teacher He didn't like them coming to play with Qiu Luming. After all, she was a grown girl of eighteen or nineteen. It would be embarrassing to be rejected in person.

Yang Dawei said with a thick face and a grin, "Teacher He, except for our poor grades, everything else about us is pretty good, not bad, hehe."

"The most important task for students is to study. How dare you say that your grades are not good?"

"Uh..." Even a thick-skinned person cannot withstand the knife.

Qiu Jiashu came out from the living room and said, "Mom, I know these kids. They don't have any bad problems. Just let Youyou go out and play for a while. If not, I'll send her out and pick her up later."

"Your little thoughts... Yoyo just said she's not going out."

Qin Huifang walked to the door of the north bedroom and pulled Qiu Luming out. "Why are you hiding? I just want to explain to you that Lu Jiaming and I are good friends. Don't misunderstand me in the future!"

Qiu Jiashu pushed his mother to the living room and said, "Mom, don't worry about the little girl's affairs."

Early in the morning, Qiu Jiye went to the hospital to be on duty and keep an eye on the injured. He Manshu was always upset with the four children that day. Qiu Luming could see that although his mother kept saying that she had let it go and didn't mind his eldest brother going to Harbin to develop, she actually believed in her heart that his eldest brother wanted to leave Jiayang because it was his eldest sister-in-law who instigated him.

If it weren’t for the Chinese New Year, I’m afraid I would have had a big outburst.

——You see, academic qualifications and the like cannot affect a person from becoming a shrewd mother-in-law.

Qiu Luming didn't want to stay at home, so she immediately grabbed her down jacket and said, "Let's go!"

He waved to Han Meifen again, "Meifen, come together!"

Han Meifen shook her head repeatedly, "My mother told me to go home quickly."

After leaving the Qiu family, Qin Huifang looked at Han Meifen's back as she hurried home, "What if I could eat her?"

"Have you forgotten that you bullied others before?"

"Didn't I just block her in the toilet and slap her in the face in the first grade?"

"Isn't that enough?" Qiu Luming poked her chest with his cotton-gloved hand. "She is timid to begin with, and you still bully her. Her father is your father's subordinate, and she dares not say a word. There is no one in the family who can vent her anger for her! What, do you still want her to smile?"

"Why is no one venting their anger? Didn't you fight with me?"

"Haha. No fight, no acquaintance."

Qiu Luming and Qin Huifang met at that time. They were not in the same class, but they just knew each other.

Because there were rumors that Han Meifen from Class 3 of the first grade liked Xu Zhenhua, Qin Huifang blocked her in the toilet. Without saying a word, she slapped her in the face and then warned her to stay away from Xu Zhenhua.

Han Meifen was so frightened that she didn't even dare to cry and almost fell into the toilet. Qiu Luming happened to see her and he started fighting with Qin Huifang. They fought from the toilet to the playground. They rolled in the dirt, their pigtails were messed up, and the buttons of their clothes were torn off.

This alarmed the elder brothers of both parties who were in high school, and they started fighting. In the end, Qiu Moshi beat Qin Erge so hard that his nose bled and his little finger was fractured. The Qin family even reported the case to the police.

Finally, Han Meifen's father kowtowed and bowed to both sides to mediate, and the matter was barely resolved.

So until today, the two families don't have much contact. When the Qin family sees Qiu Luming, they just dislike him, just like He Manshu sees Qin Huifang.

The misunderstanding between Qiu Luming and Qin Huifang was resolved, and they actually fell in love with each other.

But Han Meifen was extremely scared. Even though Qin Huifang had sincerely apologized to her and slapped her in public, she was still afraid and would not dare to get close to Qin Huifang no matter what.

Qin Huifang's eldest brother's home is in the ten buildings behind the No. 2 Middle School. Those buildings were donated by various forestry bureaus after the flood in 1989. There seem to be eleven buildings in total, but everyone is used to calling it Building Ten.

There are twelve households in each building, which are so densely packed that each house has a narrow yard. If two bicycles pass across, people cannot pass through.

The house is only about 40 square meters in total, and it is not very convenient to go up and down the stairs, but most young people are willing to live here.

Brother Qin and his wife have returned to his parents' home. Qin Huifang usually goes to school, and often comes to eat at noon. Sometimes when the weather is bad, she stays upstairs as a light bulb. So she has the key to Brother Qin's house, and now she has brought her friends to play here without any hesitation. None of them carelessly come here, and they don't have much sense.

After walking through the long and narrow courtyard, there is a small kitchen at the entrance. The kitchen is very clean, the stove is polished to a shine, and there is not even any coal ash in the stove pit.

Inside was a bedroom with red floors and a half-heated kang. Three young men were playing poker on the kang. They grinned when they saw Qiu Luming. Zheng Wei also shouted, "The Six Weirdos of Jiayang have assembled!"

Qiu Luming threw the peanuts, melon seeds, candies, and a bag of ice cream he brought onto the kang and changed his shoes.

A few people cheered, and each of them took an ice cream, sat on the warm kang, and started eating it.

Along the way, Qin Huifang and Qiu Luming had already talked it out. She solemnly asked Qiu Luming to make one thing clear: she and Lu Jiaming are closer than brothers, and Qiu Luming is not allowed to desecrate this brotherhood again!

Qiu Luming apologized immediately and said he was just joking.

Qin Huifang forgave him immediately and said okay, and the matter was over.

Qiu Luming and Qin Huifang sat on the kang and ate an ice cream each.

She found that Lu Jiaming ate very fast. His teeth seemed not to be afraid of the cold. He took bites and chewed them one by one. After a while, he finished one ice cream and picked up the second one. Qiu Luming had just eaten half of it when he picked up the third one.

In this way, Qiu Luming brought ten popsicles, Lu Jiaming ate four of them himself, and Zheng Wei ate two.

The most disgusting thing was that when Lu Jiaming ate the last one, he stopped biting and chewing, but kept licking it, making a rustling sound.

After eating the ice cream, the six of them played poker on the warm kang, playing 50K.

Qiu Luming, Ma Mingjun and Yang Dawei teamed up and beat the other side to a pulp.

Qin Huifang was very unconvinced, "Luming, your cards are too good today. How much money did you spend on New Year's Eve?"

Qiu Luming laughed, "Just one."

Yang Dawei rolled his eyes and said, "Let's try something new. Have you heard of Truth or Dare?"