Three or Two Things about Rebirth

Qiu Luming choked up, what does it mean to learn to be hypocritical? This is basic courtesy!

Qiu Jiye sat on the brown leather sofa and said with a smile: "Yoyo has been out training for half a year and has made more progress than when she was with us."

He Manshu picked up the half-knitted sweater and sat on another sofa. "Yoyo, tell mom what you learned in Harbin. Show us your graduation certificate later." At this point, she gently pushed away her grandson who was leaning over, "Dabao, go find grandpa. Grandma has needles here."

Qiu Luming sat awkwardly at the dinner table, biting his lips. He racked his brains but couldn't remember what he had learned in the past six months. He couldn't help scratching his hair.

Qiu Jiye held Dabao on his lap and helped his daughter out. "Yoyo, you're tired today. Eat more at the New Year's Day dinner tomorrow. You will report to the library the day after tomorrow. You should prepare well." He turned around and asked Qiu Jiashu, "Jiashu, what about you?" His tone towards his son was obviously much more serious.

Qiu Jiashu finished the last mouthful of noodle soup and put down his bowl and chopsticks. "Mom and Dad, I have really learned a lot in the past six months. My major was not suitable before. When I was writing materials in the secretarial department, people complained that my wording was unprofessional. They said that even if I was a college student, I was still an outsider. This time, I brought back a set of their two-year textbooks. I learned trace examination, document examination, and photography. I can even develop photos!" After saying that, he went to look through his bag. "Look, these are all legal books. These are the notes I made. Our trace examination teacher likes me very much. These are the books "Night Boat" I bought for my parents. I went to the Heilongjiang University Bookstore and finally found them. Take a look and see if they are correct."

"Yeah." Qiu Jiye took a few thick books and nodded, "Very good. You are still young, so don't be proud. What you lack most now is work experience. You can't look down on the old police officers just because they have low academic qualifications. You have to learn from them with an open mind."

"Yes, everyone has strengths worth learning from," He Manshu added.

"Mom and Dad, I get it." Qiu Jiashu turned around to clean up the dishes. Qiu Luming also picked up his bowl, but Qiu Jiashu snatched it away and laughed teasingly, "Let me do it. You can tell mom how you bullied and robbed your brother in the past six months!"

Dabao unzipped the other bag beside the fire wall and took out a book. "Six... Grandma, what do you read?"

He Manshu looked up and sighed, "Dream, six dreams."

Qiu Luming blushed and didn't dare to look at the flash of disappointment on his parents' faces.

At night, lying on the warm kang in the north bedroom, Qiu Luming tossed and turned. She turned on the light, looked through the small bookshelf on the desk, and finally took out a history book, climbed onto the kang, wrapped herself in the quilt, and began to read against the fire wall.

The next morning, Qiu Luming woke up early, looking dazed.

She touched the kang under her and her long hair, thinking of the history textbook she read last night. Her memory was broken, and she was not very clear about the history after 1938. So when she read about the death toll of the massacre and the hardships of the eight-year war of resistance, she couldn't help crying.

That thin chapter carried a heavy burden of suffering, and she cried for a long time.

The house was very quiet. She quietly got up and went to the washstand at the kitchen door to wash her face with cold water. When she looked up, she saw her mother coming out of the living room and quickly lowered her head. Her mother cried out, "Why are your eyes still swollen?"

Qiu Luming hummed randomly and covered his face with a towel.

The TV in the living room was turned on. The volume was not loud, but Qiu Luming could hear it clearly. It was an inspiring piece of music. She took off her towel and sang along subconsciously: Rise up, those who do not want to be slaves...

She had sung this song with her classmates during parades, and had cut out the simple music score from newspapers and carefully inserted it into the pages of books. Even during the few months she spent in Changsha, she had heard illiterate Hunan grandmothers singing "Get up, get up!" and "Forward, forward!" And now, it is the national anthem!

She lived in an era of peace and prosperity, and no longer had to wander around. Qiu Luming choked up and scooped up a handful of water on his face.

He Manshu felt strange, "Didn't you just wash your face? Why are you washing it again?"

Qiu Jiashu, who was sleeping in the living room, had already stuffed his bedding into the three-door wardrobe, and then took the folding bed out and put it in the side room. When he came back, he also picked up a bunch of wood and put it next to the stove, and started to light the fire, "Mom, let me make breakfast."

Qiu Luming covered his face with a towel, returned to his room and closed the door.

I moved my ears and heard my mother whisper, "What's wrong? Why is your sister always crying? She has always loved to laugh since she was a child. Did she suffer some kind of trauma in Harbin, or is she in love?"

"I don't know what happened. She started crying as soon as she saw my dad after getting off the bus. You saw her when she got home. She fell down by herself and cried. I didn't do anything to her! She was happy every day in Harbin, eating and drinking. She was so happy. She read romance novels, but she definitely didn't have a boyfriend! I took her all over the city, to Sun Island, Central Street, and the Martyrs' Memorial Hall. We went to Beijing on National Day, climbed the Great Wall, visited the Forbidden City, and ate Peking duck. We did everything you said so that she could broaden her horizons! Mom, I swear, I didn't bully her. She was the only one who bullied me in the past six months. She spent all my money!"

"Mom believes you. You are a good brother and you always love your sister the most. Tsk, it's just that after not seeing her for half a year, I think she has changed a lot. She looks a little strange."

"Really?... It seems to be the look in the eyes! As an old policeman, I can tell that it is the look in the eyes!"

"Okay, old policeman, go watch the news with your dad. You don't have to cook."

"Okay, then my brother and I will prepare the lunch!"

Qiu Jiashu entered the living room, and He Manshu squatted by the stove and muttered: Humph, you little bastards, you guys are cooking, you know it’s because you’re afraid that my cooking won’t taste good and will ruin the ingredients, but if you don’t know, you’d think you’re all filial sons…

***

During the New Year's Day holiday, at around nine o'clock in the morning, my eldest brother Qiu Huaixin and my eldest sister-in-law Liu Xiaomei came with half a rack of pork ribs and a net bag of frozen pears.

As soon as the second door opened, Dabao happily shouted "Mom" and rushed over, hugged Liu Xiaomei's thighs, looked up and said, "Mom, long time no see! I missed you so much!"

Liu Xiaomei laughed and pinched her son's face, "Yes, yes, it's been a long time, it's been a year!"

Liu Xiaomei works in a bank. The last day of the year is the traditional year-end settlement day. It was already one o'clock when she got home. She went out to buy spare ribs saved by a friend early this morning, and also bought some pear trees on the street. After Qiu Huaixin got off the night shift, the two of them went to her parents-in-law's house together.

She handed the ribs to her brother-in-law and said with a smile, "Jiashu is back."

Then, while taking off his coat, he asked his son, "Did Dabao behave himself yesterday? Did a flood wash grandma away at night?"

Dabao snorted and turned his head away, "No!"

Qiu Luming came out of the bedroom and called out, "Brother and sister-in-law are back."

Liu Xiaomei immediately smiled and said, "Hey, Luming! You see, sister-in-law was so busy yesterday that she didn't have time to pick you up. Your elder brother was on the night shift and couldn't get away either. How was it? It snowed yesterday, so you must have been delayed on the road, right? Are you tired? Did you sleep well last night?"

Qiu Huaixin threw his and his wife's coats on the sofa in the living room, turned around and walked to Qiu Luming, lowered his head and touched the back of her head, "Wow, you've grown taller!"

Liu Xiaomei added, "Yes, it's getting prettier and prettier!"

Qiu Luming was treated like a child and felt a little embarrassed. "Second brother took good care of me along the way, so I wasn't tired. You two are busy, so you don't have to pick me up."

"Wow!" Liu Xiaomei quickly glanced at her husband, "Our Lu Ming is really sensible!"

Qiu Luming sighed, wondering how bad she was. They were just normal greetings, but she kept surprising and delighting her family.

The eldest brother and his wife came into the house and started working. Each of them tied an apron. While kneading the dough, the eldest sister-in-law asked He Manshu, who was cutting garlic sprouts on the windowsill in the living room, "Mom, are we going to make garlic and egg dumplings today? How many eggs should we beat?"

He Manshu came out with a handful of garlic sprouts, put down the kitchen knife and said, "Here, this is just a handful, not enough for us to eat, let's pack pork and cabbage, and put more lean meat in it."

"Okay, Luming doesn't like to eat fatty meat, I'll remove all the fat later." Liu Xiaomei said while kneading the dough.

The eldest brother was chopping pork ribs with an old Russian machete, the second brother was squatting in a corner of the kitchen peeling potatoes, the father was reading to the eldest son in the bedroom, and only Qiu Luming was standing at the door of his bedroom, doing nothing, like a fool.

She wanted to go back to her bedroom to read, but she was too embarrassed to do so because the room was right next to the kitchen. She went in, but couldn't open the door or close it, but it didn't work. She scratched her nose in distress.

He Manshu glanced at her and handed her a head of garlic, "Hey, help mom peel the garlic."

Qiu Luming immediately took it happily, squatted beside Qiu Jiashu, and began to peel the garlic. After a while, she found that her nails were burning with pain. She shook her hands in annoyance, and the remaining garlic cloves were taken by Qiu Jiashu, "Go, go, wash your hands with soap."

Over there, Qiu Huaixin had already finished chopping the ribs and started to chop the slow-frozen rooster. He swung the machete high, and the thick chopping board jumped up, and the kitchen was full of clanging sounds.

Qiu Jiashu washed the peeled potatoes in an enamel basin, saying with a smile: "Why use a butcher knife to kill a chicken? My elder brother is a surgeon with a knife. It's a waste of talent to use this knife to chop chicken pieces!"

Liu Xiaomei also said: "Huai Xin, be careful, your hand is holding a scalpel, forget it, just leave it alone, let me do it!"

Qiu Huaixin smiled and said, "I'm not that delicate." He continued chopping.

After Qiu Luming washed her hands, she felt less hot. She took off her shoes and walked into the living room, putting on a pair of cloth slippers made from old clothes. He Manshu was sitting on the sofa, knitting a sweater while watching TV. She only knew how to knit the simplest plain stitches. She once knitted a red cardigan for herself, which looked best when paired with an Indanthrene skirt.

She looked at the intricate pattern on her mother's hand and went to the south bedroom. Dabao was reciting Tang poems to his grandfather, and then the Hundred Family Names and Tangtou Song. Qiu Luming walked to the bookshelf against the wall. The bookshelf, which was one and a half meters wide and two meters high, was full of books. There were two piles of books on the sewing machine by the window, and there were books, paper and pens on the small desk next to the kang.

There is a shelf full of medical books, including Chinese and Western medicine, and English editions. In the rest of the shelf, there are books in various fields, including the Four Books and Five Classics, Mao's Selected Works, the Four Great Classics, psychology, logic, poetry, songs, foreign classics, etc.

She reached out and pulled out a copy of "Modern Chinese History" and heard Dabao shout, "Don't move, little aunt! Grandpa won't lend his books to anyone!"

Qiu Luming suddenly remembered that most of his father's books were carried back from Hebei when he supported the border areas, and they have been preserved to this day with great difficulty.

The books he cherished most were locked in a box on the kang. When guests came to his house, he never invited them into the bedroom. Even the books on the bookshelf were never lent out. Only his eldest brother could borrow medical books.