Back to 90s

Compared with the dull but warm year of Zhu's family, Li Rui's Chinese New Year in Beijing is tense every day.

It was December 26th of the lunar calendar when he followed his mother to his grandmother's house. When he got off the plane, he saw Zheng Tianqi who came to pick him up, and there was a driver waiting outside.

In his previous life, he was very repulsive to Beijing. They didn't like him, and he didn't want to put his face on others' cold ass, so at most he came to live for two days during the Chinese New Year.

The more people like the Zheng family, the less likely there will be an uneducated next generation. Li Rui didn't get involved in Zheng Tianqi's circle in his previous life, but he still knows something, and he dares to play with anything in that circle. There are those who are lawless and morally corrupt, but even if they give people the feeling of dudes, they know a lot. After all, the elders may not take care of the psychological problems of the next generation, but educating them is very important, just say Zheng Tianqi , he may not be good at learning, but he knows a lot, and he has dabbled in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.

He used to have no special skills, and he often couldn't understand their chats, no wonder he was despised...

It was already evening when we arrived at Zheng's house. Zheng's house was a small single-family building. It could be seen that the people living nearby were not simple. There were guards outside the small building. I really can't see any difference.

Zheng Xiaoqing hasn't been home for a long time, this time she brought her husband and son back, her expression is naturally a little excited, when she entered the house, she saw her parents and elder brother were there, even though she was almost 40 years old, there was some little girl's expression on her face .

Li Rui and Li Yue had never paid attention to this before, they only thought that Zheng Xiaoqing was a very strong person, now seeing Zheng Xiaoqing's demeanor when talking to her parents, they felt very complicated.

However, all the attention of the two old people was on Zheng Xiaoqing, and they clearly ignored them, but it made people feel uncomfortable.

"This is Li Rui, right? He's so big in the blink of an eye..." Zheng Xianghong is over 70 years old, but he looks tough. He looks at Li Rui with scrutiny, although such sharp eyes make Li Rui subconscious He wanted to avoid it, but the thought was fleeting, and Li Rui still met the other party's eyes.

If the timid and fearful child raised by Li Yue's parents in the past, he might be scared to cry now, but after 20 years of experience, Li Rui was not scared.

Zheng Xianghong was quite satisfied with Li Rui's reaction, with a slight smile on his face: "This kid is growing up pretty well, isn't the illness from half a year ago not a problem?"

Hearing him mention Li Rui's illness half a year ago, both Zheng Xiaoqing and Li Yue's expressions were a bit unnatural, but it was Zheng Xiaoqing who said, "Dad, Rui Rui is recovering now."

Zheng Xianghong couldn't be more clear about what kind of daughter he is, so he "hummed" and stopped talking. He would mention this just as a warning to the incompetent parents.

He was dissatisfied with Li Yue, and he was also dissatisfied with Li Yue's family, but after all Li Rui was his grandson, it was impossible for him not to care.

"Come on, Ruirui, show grandma." He Qiao glanced at Zheng Xianghong, then waved to Li Rui.

Li Rui's relationship with his grandmother in his previous life was not bad, but He Qiao was not young, he died when he was 12 years old...he didn't have much memory.

When he walked to his grandmother, Li Rui was scrutinized. He Qiao also looked at his hand. After finding that there was no serious problem, he pointed to an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl and said, "This is your cousin. 13 years older than you."

Then he pointed to a young man in his 20s: "That's your cousin, I can ask him to help you with anything in the future."

He Qiao finally pointed to the middle-aged man standing aside: "That's your uncle, your mother was most afraid of him when you were young. And your aunt is not here now, you can see him in two days."

Uncle Zheng Zhenhua, cousin Zheng Tianyang, cousin Zheng Tianmin, and Li Rui all know each other, but they also don't have a deep friendship.

In his previous life, no one paid attention to him, and he didn't know how to build a good relationship with his grandparents. He was even afraid of his grandparents and father because of some words from them. Naturally, he couldn't get close. In this life, everything can be done. Has it changed?

The dinner was quite sumptuous, and when the nanny brought out all the dishes, Li Rui saw that many of them were Zheng Xiaoqing's favorites.

When he was young, because he couldn't understand a lot of adults' words, he always listened impatiently and thought about his own affairs, but now he pricked up his ears to listen to every word they said, secretly paying attention to their expressions.

It can be seen that Zheng Xiaoqing has a good relationship with her parents and brother, but Li Yue has been a little at a loss. As for her cousin and Zheng Tianqi, the three of them seem to have a good relationship.

The Zheng family has some unwritten rules. When eating, Zheng Xianghong always has to move his chopsticks to start eating. Now that the dishes are almost ready, it's time to eat.

"What does Ruirui like to eat?" Zheng Xianghong suddenly asked Li Rui. They have always been paying attention to Zheng Xiaoqing. They naturally knew about the child's incident. They originally wanted to bring the child to Beijing. Li Yue didn't want to, so he didn't plan to intervene, but now seeing the child's performance, he suddenly became interested.

Originally thought that Li Rui, who was treated badly, would develop a cowardly and cowardly character. Zheng Xianghong thought it was not bad. Zheng Xiaoqing made a lot of money by being proactive and earning a lot of money. As long as her son can keep his achievements, and if his personality is like Li Yue... In fact, it is also good for the next generation of the Zheng family. A few days ago, he also hinted that Zheng Tianqi should have a good relationship with this brother of the same mother. Now that Li Rui's performance is different from the results of the investigation, he will have to re-evaluate. .

"Grandpa, I'm not picky about food." Li Rui knew that he couldn't sit down like Zhu Yunxuan, who was sweet-mouthed and acted like a baby, but it was okay to be a polite child.

"Come on, let's have a roasted duck leg." Zheng Xianghong moved his chopsticks, but picked a duck leg for Li Rui.

Zheng Xianghong usually doesn't bring food for others, this move is quite surprising, but then he stopped talking and started eating, and everyone else fell silent.

Li Yue was a little uncomfortable with the current situation. He really wanted to ask his son what was going on, but he didn't dare to open his mouth. He could only eat in silence, his appetite lost a lot.

Li Rui was treated differently, and he felt a little uneasy. He was more cautious in the days to come, and at the same time tried to follow Zheng Tianqi, hoping to know more about the situation of the Zheng family and leave a good impression on Zheng Xianghong.

However, Zheng Xianghong seemed to have forgotten him, and the rest of the Zheng family did not show any abnormality. Her cousins ​​were too old to be with him, her uncle was very busy, and her aunt hadn't seen her yet. home...

Although Li Rui is tense all the time, he pays attention to everything around him and wants to know more, but his shell is just six years old. Adults will not regard him as a child who hears everything differently, nor will he be treated as a child. Adults who can participate in their conversations often give him something to eat and let him go...

In a blink of an eye, it's New Year's Eve.

Everyone in the family got busy, and Li Rui's aunt also came back the day before. She was a somewhat silent woman who didn't talk much.

"Brother, is my handwriting good?" In the morning, other people were busy, but Li Rui and Zheng Tianqi were driven upstairs to play by themselves. Li Rui didn't like watching TV, so he simply wrote a big picture.

"The writing is very good. I can't write so well at your age." Zheng Tianqi is not a difficult person to get along with, but he has taught Li Rui a lot these days.

"Brother, my cousins ​​are all out to play, why didn't you go out? Is it because of me?" Li Rui asked again.

"It has nothing to do with you." Zheng Tianqi's face changed slightly, and he spoke.

In fact, it's not a big deal, it's just that his biological father came back for the New Year.The Yang family is not much worse than the Zheng family, and the Yang family has always been high-profile. There are a lot of people clinging to the Yang family at the moment, not to mention that he doesn't go out, even Zheng Xiaoqing doesn't go out...

Li Rui also saw Zheng Tianqi's slightly changed face, but he couldn't figure out why. Looking at the rest of the Zheng family, none of them felt strange about it...

The nanny has already gone back. At noon, it was Li Rui's aunt Liu Yun who was cooking. Li Yue's expression was a little strange, as if he was struggling, and he stood up suddenly. He volunteered to go to the kitchen. After a while, Liu Yun came The face comes out easily.

Because of his self-esteem, Li Yue used to let Zheng Xiaoqing do things, not to mention cooking in Zheng's house, but now he has changed a lot...

Li Yue's cooking speed is still very fast, and there are a lot of ingredients in the kitchen, and he brought out several dishes in a short time, such as braised pork, fried tofu with garlic, fried mushrooms with green vegetables, chicken wings with salt and pepper, stir-fried shredded pork, sweet and sour fish Duan, fish head tofu soup.

The portions of the dishes are very generous, after all, there are quite a few people, Zheng Xianghong and other dishes are finished, Li Yue also sat down, and then stretched out his chopsticks to pick out the biggest piece of braised pork, which attracted He Qiao's eyes.

However, for the old man who is restricted from eating meat, what is a supercilious look?For those who celebrate the New Year, he always has to have a good meal to satisfy his hunger!Speaking of which, Li Yue can't do anything else, and his cooking skills are still very good, much better than his daughter-in-law. If Li Yue and Zheng Xiaoqing were gender-swapped, he would definitely not say anything.

At the end of the meal, there was nothing left. Zheng Tianyang and Zheng Tianmin looked at their mother from time to time while eating. Liu Yun's face changed and did not change. After dinner, he took the initiative to wash the dishes.

Li Rui was sitting next to Zheng Tianqi, when suddenly Zheng Tianyang came over and patted him on the shoulder: "Your dad's cooking is very good."

Is this a special way to praise yourself?Li Rui watched Zheng Tianyang leave again, and then looked at Zheng Tianqi beside him.

"My aunt's cooking skills are very poor..." It should be said that Liu Yun has no cooking skills at all.

Putting things together and cooking them can at best ensure that the saltiness is suitable, but the taste is really not that good.

"Then why did my aunt cook?"

"Others are even worse at cooking..." Zheng Tianqi said helplessly. Both Zheng Xianghong and He Qiao were born poor, and when they were young, it was during the war. Even if they were not poor, they cooked their own food. It's hard to make a white flour steamed bun, and you still expect to be able to cook with cooking?And those who are really hungry, think that it is enough to cook things well, so there is no need to pursue delicious food...

It is said that He Qiao is very good at making multigrain cakes or steamed buns. He can make each steamed bun with the same size by hand alone. The old lady can't do anything at all.

Zheng Tianqi grew up, and his grandmother could count on one hand the number of times he cooked, and compared to those stir-fried dishes, the steamed bread made with cornflour actually tastes the best, even if it tastes the best when you bite into it. The steamed buns that are rough and hard to swallow don't taste very good.

In the afternoon, Zheng Zhenhua took his wife out, and everyone else gathered together to make dumplings. Originally, He Qiao made the fillings, but this time Li Yue took over.

One is stuffed with cabbage and pork, and the other is stuffed with pork and leeks. After the stuffing is done, it is just to roll out the dough to make dumplings.

Zheng Xianghong didn't do anything, but talked about some of her experiences when she was young, and lamented that young people today are living a good life...

"Dad, when I was young, because my birthday happened to be Qingming Festival, my mother gave me a bacon bone to gnaw on. The bone was marinated before Chinese New Year. I gnawed it all day and it was still salty and fragrant. No way." Li Yue didn't dare to talk to Zheng Xianghong at first, but when it came to the poor days he had lived, he felt the same way.

Even if Zheng Xiaoqing and others lived a good life when they were young, they would not be short of food and clothing, but he, Li Yue, was different.During the Cultural Revolution, the cadres of the brigade asked people to pull up the rice from two paddy fields that were about to mature and plant them together for the people above to watch. If you weigh the millet with less stalks, you can barely yield a thousand catties per mu.

Originally, in a place like Jiangnan, even if there were no hybrid rice and not enough fertilizers at that time, everyone could still eat enough to grow the land, but the people above tossed like this, which made the production in the field decrease, not to mention the food that had to be handed over. Too much, who can let go of the stomach to eat?

"In some years, it's really not easy. Many people died of starvation in many places." Zheng Xianghong said in a daze. He also knew a lot of things.

"Yeah... I remember that at that time, everyone could only raise half a chicken, and a family of four could only raise two chickens. Anyone who raised too many chickens would be practicing capitalism. One time, the hens that laid eggs in my family were not good enough. Be careful to eat the poisonous rice that was sprinkled around the ripening crops, and my mother cried all night... However, I picked up many sparrows that were poisoned to death."

"Uncle, was it really that hard at that time?" Zheng Tianmin asked. She grew up in Beijing, and even though she had heard about the hardships of going to the mountains and going to the countryside and the suffering of being criticized, the things Li Yue said about these country people I've never heard of it. Pulling rice that is about to mature and planting it together. Does anyone really do such a stupid thing?

"Some things are hard to say. It was a very different era. In the first class I took, the teacher taught the five characters 'Long Live Chairman Mao'. One of my classmates took a knife and carved the word 'year' on the bamboo. It doesn’t look like the word “fa” is engraved, but our local dialect has the same sound of “wanfa” and “violation of the law”. He was taken to criticize him when he was only eight years old..." Li Yue opened his mouth, and then closed it suddenly Mouth, these things, it’s okay to talk to Zheng Xiaoqing in private, at this time...

"There were indeed many wrong decisions at the time." Zheng Xianghong was very calm. He had experienced a lot, and what Li Yue said was really nothing.

But in the past, he always looked down on Li Yue, and Li Yue avoided him, even if He Qiao asked him to improve the relationship with Li Yue, it didn't matter, now...

"At that time, I really wanted to be brainwashed, and I couldn't blame others..." Li Yue smiled, and said while making dumplings: "When I was in elementary school, my mother had to pay countless one and two cents for tuition fees. Dime coins count for half a day. I often fry vegetables without putting oil in a dry pan and frying them first. Wipe the pan with oil first, let alone eat meat. People can’t get enough to eat, and pigs can’t get fat. For a long time, I only weighed [-] to [-] catties. If I look good, I will be taken away to support other countries... In big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, life is easy in the past [-] years, and the countryside was poor ten years ago. How many families have savings? When I was in high school in the [-]s, I carried leeks on a pole at three or four in the morning and walked long distances to sell them in places where leeks were not grown. I was not good at farm work. The load can only be half of what my elder brother picks..." He remembered those hard times in his heart, and he also remembered the relatives who stuffed a handful of pocket money into his hands when he went to college and the people who were punished for not having money. The eldest brother who retired... At that time, he always wanted to let everyone live a good life when he was successful. He is indeed living a better life now, and the life of the eldest brother and the second brother is not bad, but they people, why? Did everything change?

Li Rui remembered that even in his previous life, his family would come to Beijing during Chinese New Year, but Li Yue would definitely take them to his grandparents' house on New Year's Eve, and then grandparents would deliberately let Zheng Xiaoqing do it...

His father still remembers his grandparents, but it's good that he alone remembers them. Even if he wants to treat them well, he shouldn't drag his mother and him.

Li Yue should have figured it out now that he can stay in Beijing for the New Year. He should have figured out these things.