Three or Two Things about Rebirth

"Yoyo, what kind of book do you want to read? Dad doesn't have any Qiong Yao novels here." Qiu Jiye said with a smile.

Qiu Luming raised the book in his hand and said, "I want to read modern history."

"Oh? Tell me about it." Qiu Jiye became interested and patted the edge of the kang to ask his daughter to sit down.

"That's right. After my second brother took me to the Martyrs' Memorial Hall, I felt that I should learn more about that period. I have forgotten everything I learned before."

"Then you can read all these books as long as you like them, but you must take good care of them, don't scribble on them, and don't lend them out." Qiu Jiye looked at his bookshelf and said, "It's not that Dad doesn't want to share knowledge with others, it's just that too many people borrow them and never return them, and throw them away at will."

"Remember, Dad, I will be very careful." Qiu Luming sat down on the kang, where there were two large wooden boxes with several quilts stacked on top.

Nowadays, few people stack their bedding outside. Most of them are placed in large wardrobes. However, in the south bedroom of the Qiu family, because there is a large bookshelf, the large wardrobe is placed in the living room. Usually, only Qiu Jiashu's bedding is placed there. In addition, guests will not enter the bedroom, so the bedding is just stacked on the box.

Qiu Luming leaned against the box, rested his head on the quilt, and read the book with his head slightly tilted.

She had two sets of characters in her mind, one was traditional Chinese and the other was simplified Chinese. This did not hinder her from reading. She quickly found the period of the Anti-Japanese War and started reading.

On the surface, Qiu Jiye was listening to his eldest grandson Qiu Xiuji's recitation, but in fact, most of his attention was on his youngest daughter. The speed at which she turned the pages was beyond his expectation. If she hadn't frowned, shed tears, and been excited from time to time, he would have thought she was pretending.

"Grandpa, grandpa, is Dabao carrying me well?" Dabao asked, holding Qiu Jiye's hand.

"Good, that's great!" Qiu Jiye smiled sincerely. What could be better than seeing the daughter he had been worried about for eighteen years suddenly become sensible and motivated!

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Dabao woke up from a nap and kept yelling that he was hungry. He Manshu got up and made half a cup of malted milk, tested the temperature of the cup with her hand, handed it to her grandson, and went to the kitchen again. "You insisted that you didn't need me. What's going on? When is dinner ready? My grandson fainted from hunger and woke up from hunger, and the meal is not ready yet!"

Qiu Huaixin pushed his mother back to the living room, "Let's have dinner soon, close the door quickly, the smoke is coming into the house!"

He Manshu returned to the living room and took Dabao to the bedroom. Seeing that the father and son were each reading a book, she couldn't help but wonder, "Wow, you're actually reading your dad's book?"

Qiu Luming put down the book and stood up, "Dad agreed."

"That's not what I meant...Oh, okay, okay, read more books." He Manshu received her husband's gaze and immediately changed her words. After watching Dabao finish drinking the malted milk, she wiped his mouth and said, "Come on, Dabao, tell grandma an idiom chain!"

"Okay, but grandma, you can't play tricks anymore!"

"When has grandma ever cheated?"

"Let me first say, walking is better than driving."

“It’s very busy.”

"Dragon Horse Spirit."

"Psycho!"

"Oh, that's not right! Crazy is not an idiom, it's an insult!"

"That's amazing!"

"God...Ah! No, grandma is cheating again!"

"Grandma is not kidding. Miraculous is also an idiom!"

"Ah! Reflex!" Dabao shouted.

"Hahaha! I have reflexes too!"

Qiu Luming listened to the noise in the living room, and the corners of her mouth rose. She had finished reading two books, and now she was holding the Complete Works of Lu Xun. As far as she could remember, the photocopied version of the Complete Works of Lu Xun was about to be published. Another memory was that she and her classmates were most afraid of Lu Xun's texts, because every semester's Chinese textbook had at least two essays or novels by Lu Xun, and the last line of the homework was often "recite the whole text", which everyone found difficult to read and could not recite at all.

When reading these vernacular texts at this moment, Qiu Luming felt more familiar with them and read them smoothly.

Compared to yesterday's dizziness, today she was much clearer, and her reading speed and comprehension were much better than in the Republic of China. She suddenly remembered that since her family thought she was stupid, she should not change too quickly. She carefully put the book back to its original place, rubbed her neck, and pinched the Jingming acupoint.

Turning around, she saw Qiu Jiye sitting on the edge of the kang, bending over a small desk and writing furiously. His focused expression was very similar to that of her father during the Republic of China. She almost cried and hurried out of the bedroom.

When Dabao saw her, he clamored to compete with Xiaogu in idiom chain. He Manshu took her sweater and sat on the sofa next to the fire wall, "You two should go to the window to play the Rubik's Cube, don't let the needle prick you in front of me!"

Dabao had just defeated his grandmother and wanted to take advantage of the victory to defeat his aunt. He just wanted to continue the idiom chain. He Manshu was concerned about his daughter's face and advised him, "Dabao, you are not a new Rubik's Cube student. Why don't you show it to your aunt!"

"Hey!" Dabao jumped up and took out a Rubik's Cube from the glass cabinet next to the TV cabinet. His fingers spun rapidly and in a moment he turned the messy side into red. He held it up high and showed it proudly to Qiu Luming.

There had been a Rubik's Cube at home for a long time, but Qiu Luming had never paid attention to these things before. She seemed to have no interest in anything that required logic and reasoning.

Following Dabao's example, Qiu Luming twisted the Rubik's Cube and finally pieced together eight green pieces. However, she couldn't put the last piece together. Dabao demonstrated it to her again. This time she understood it and gave Dabao a thumbs up, "Dabao is really amazing!"

Dabao smiled with two deep dimples, "Just average, third in the country! Dad said that we should not be too proud!"

He Manshu laughed out loud.

Qiu Jiashu knocked on the living room door, "Put the table!"

Qiu Luming quickly put down the Rubik's Cube and tried to move the folding dining table standing by the window to the center of the living room. Dabao helped and said, "Auntie, let me help you!"

He Manshu dropped her sweater and ran over, "Hold your hands, ancestor, I'll do it! Don't scratch the paint on the floor!"

The mother and daughter carried the heavy dining table to the middle of the room, propped it up, and placed the chairs and stools in a circle.

The door to the living room opened, and Qiu Jiashu handed over a pile of plates and a pair of chopsticks. Qiu Luming quickly took them, and Dabao shouted anxiously, "I'll divide it, I'll divide it!"

"Okay, you divide it." Dabao, who was only slightly taller than the dining table, walked around the table a dozen times and finally divided the plates and chopsticks.

At half past one, the New Year's dinner officially began.

There were twelve dishes on the round table with a diameter of 1.5 meters. They were delicious and included chicken, duck, fish and meat. The staple food was dumplings. There were not many vegetables in the winter, so the vegetarian dishes were fried eggs with garlic sprouts and cold shredded cabbage.

Everyone sat down, and there was a glass of fruit wine or drink in front of each person.

Little boy Qiu Xiuji was sandwiched between his parents. A small stool was placed on his chair, and when he sat on it, the height was just right for half of his upper body to be exposed. He sat upright and waited for his grandfather to finish speaking before eating.

Qiu Jiye said, let’s eat and stop talking.

Qiu Huaixin said: "It's the New Year, Dad should say a few words."

"Then say a few words?" Qiu Jiye usually talks about his profession eloquently, writes articles with ease, and chats with friends and family, but he finds it difficult to make a formal speech. "The 1990s are here. I hope the children can make further progress, I hope Dabao can grow up healthily, and I hope Director He can retire smoothly!"

Everyone laughed when they heard the last sentence.

He Manshu raised her glass and said, "Let us wish our motherland prosperity, our families good health, and wish Yoyo a smooth registration tomorrow! Cheers!"

"cheers!"

The warm and harmonious family atmosphere made Qiu Luming feel very happy. She ate a lot and kept smiling with her eyes curved.

The one who dominated the atmosphere at home was undoubtedly the mother, He Manshu. On weekdays, as long as she smiled, the whole family would relax. But if she got angry with a student one day and had a blank expression on her face, the whole family would be silent.

She always said, "There is a new term called menopause. At my age, endocrine disorders and emotional out-of-control are normal. You have to be mentally prepared. No one can mess with me. No one can go against me. Do you understand?"

That being said, she would just have a stern face at most, and I've never seen her really lose control. Instead, she always loved to laugh.

It was the kind of smile where you open your mouth so wide that you can see your back teeth. In the Republic of China, no woman would laugh up to the sky like this. But when my mother laughs like this, people don’t feel that she is rude or disrespectful. Instead, they feel that she is unrestrained and generous.

My mother likes to educate her children most when they are eating. Maybe it is her professional habit. No matter what the matter is, she can find an entry point, extend it, draw inferences from one instance, and speak out some profound truths.

Qiu Luming used to hate these things the most. She had poor grades and naturally hated all the criticism and teachings from the teachers. Usually, when her mother spoke, she would just bury her head in her food, listening with one ear and letting the other out. Those principles flowed through her mind like a stream, leaving no trace. When she got angry, she would just talk back.

Today's New Year's Day dinner at the Qiu family lasted a bit long, more than two hours, and sister-in-law Liu Xiaomei even went to heat up the dishes in the middle.

Mother was particularly happy today. She pointed out the precautions for Qiu Luming to report to the library tomorrow, and reminded her that although the position in the reading room was not very important, the working attitude must be correct. The less important the position, the less mistakes can be made. If you can't do the simple things well, who would dare to give you the important work! You are also not allowed to show your face to readers. If you encounter unreasonable people, you must not tolerate it. Girls must fight back immediately when they are harassed, otherwise there will be endless troubles...

His mother had said similar things before, but this time Qiu Luming listened to it and nodded seriously.

The mother was even happier. She drank half a glass of fruit wine in one gulp. Her face immediately turned red. She smiled and said to Liu Xiaomei: "Xiaomei, let me tell you, even though everyone in this family has the surname Qiu, in the end, they still have to listen to us!"

Liu Xiaomei just smiled and didn't dare to respond.

"What are you afraid of, Xiaomei? You are the daughter-in-law that both my parents like, the person Huaixin loves the most, the mother of Dabao, and in the future, you will also be the mistress of the Qiu family! A family with a good mistress will at least keep three generations safe! Mom is optimistic about you!" She pretended to lower her voice, "Don't look at their men being rampant. In fact, this world is still a matriarchal society after all!"

When Liu Xiaomei heard her mother-in-law say, "Mom is rooting for you," all the hard work she had done for half a day suddenly disappeared. She raised her glass and clinked it with her mother-in-law's. "I can't compare to Mom. I listen to Huai Xin in everything." After saying that, she also drank the wine in the glass.

He Manshu liked to hear this. She gave her daughter-in-law a thumbs up and turned to Qiu Luming and said, "See? Although your eldest brother fell in love prematurely, he really knows how to find a wife. Look at the eldest daughter-in-law in our family. How great! Your eldest brother is the best! A top student, a recommended student, a knife! A model husband! The pillar of our family, and the support of you brothers and sisters!"

Qiu Luming nodded repeatedly in agreement, thinking in his heart, this mother is so cunning, she pretended to be drunk after only drinking a few sips of fruit wine, and look how she fooled her elder brother and sister-in-law, the couple are now completely lost!