Siheyuan: Sizhu starts blindly and takes a new path

The days passed one by one, and the New Year of 1964 was approaching. This year, every family had improved a lot compared to the previous year. Even Hu Feng, Song Ming, and Chao Tiangang had their own partners, and good things were about to happen.

An old man passed by the welfare home to pick children. Qin Huairu and Banggeng jumped back and forth. He was getting more and more uncertain and anxious about taking care of the elderly, especially when he saw the old lady teasing Xiao Liuyi every day, smiling from ear to ear, eating better and better, living more and more easily, and getting younger and younger. It would be a lie to say that he was not envious. He felt that he had favored Shazhu several times, and he should be able to make up for his previous mistakes. While Shazhu was at home that night, he ran to discuss with him about spending the New Year together.

"Zhu Zi, the New Year is coming soon. Your aunt and I are the only two of us, and it might be a bit lonely during the New Year. I wanted to ask you if our families can celebrate together?" It was the first time that the uncle spoke in such a humble manner.

Shazhu was a little uncomfortable. Was this the preachy old man? He almost wanted to reach out and touch the old man's forehead to see if he had a fever.

Seeing that Sha Zhu didn't say anything, the uncle thought that he disagreed, and continued, "Zhu Zi, your aunt and I are old. The older we get, the more we fear loneliness, especially during the New Year and other holidays. When we see other families sitting together with their families and children running around, we, we..."

After all, both sides have watched each other grow up and grow old. Sha Zhu felt a little uncomfortable watching the uncle like this. He just wanted to celebrate the festival together, so let's celebrate it. Eating won't make us poor, so he nodded and said, "Uncle, we were supposed to go to my master's house to celebrate the festival this year, but my master's son happened to go home to visit his family for the festival, so we don't want to disturb their family reunion. This year we will celebrate the New Year at home. When the time comes, we will pick up Uncle Guan from Yu Li's unit, and you two can have a few drinks together."

When the uncle heard that Sha Zhu agreed and that he had arranged for someone to drink with him, he was very happy and said, "Thank you, Zhuzi, thank you."

"What are you thanking me for? You watched me grow up, too." Sha Zhu wanted to say something, but then closed his mouth.

The uncle knew that he had not been very nice to Sha Zhu in the past. He was very satisfied that Sha Zhu could now let bygones be bygones. He said, "Then I will go back and tell your aunt if there is anything else you need to prepare. You must tell me if there is more. If there is less, I can still handle it."

Sha Zhu smiled and said, "Okay, uncle, if you need anything, I'll be at your service."

When the aunt heard that Sha Zhu agreed to celebrate the New Year together, she happily took out a set of children's clothes from the box and said, "I just made this set of clothes. It will be just right for Xiao Liuyi to wear during the New Year."

"When did you make the clothes? Are they specially made for Liu Yi?" an old man asked while looking at the clothes in his hand.

"No, we wanted to adopt a child before, so I started to do it slowly. Now it's not like there's no one suitable, so it's the same if we give it to Liuyi first."

Yu Li asked Sha Zhu who was lying on the bed: "Why did you agree to spend the New Year with the old man? I didn't see you talking to him before. Have you forgiven him?"

"It's not a question of forgiveness or not, I just don't want to make so many enemies for myself. Besides, he only helped the Jia family and not me before, and he didn't actively harm me. We are just celebrating a festival with them, which doesn't mean anything, and I didn't agree to any other requests from him. Don't you think so?"

Yu Li thought about it and said, "That's right. After all, it's not good to make things too awkward with the neighbor next door. If you don't respond to him this time, he will probably be really angry."

"It doesn't matter if he's upset or not. The main thing is that it may affect your work. I can't just care about my own feelings and ignore you."

Yu Li hugged Sha Zhu's face and kissed him, saying, "Thank you for thinking of me. You have changed a lot this year."

"What has happened to me?"

"You don't seem to care as much about the people in the yard as before. You used to say hello to people from time to time, but now you rarely talk to them. The neighbors say that you got promoted, and your temper and arrogance have become bigger, so you don't like to talk to people anymore."

Sha Zhu said helplessly: "Do I have a bad temper? I'm just tired. I work during the day, and I don't often cook for him at night. I can't rest on weekends. I'm just tired. I don't have the energy to waste time with them. I'd rather take a break and earn more money to buy you and the kids some good things."

"But now you have been promoted. If you continue like this, people will say you are out of touch with the masses. Why don't you just try to cope with it?"

"Okay, men who listen to their wives' advice are blessed. Starting tomorrow, I will try to say hello to them and say a few more words to them." Sha Zhu agreed.

Yu Li walked to Liuyi's bedside, looked at her son who was sleeping soundly, and said, "Speaking of changes, the biggest change this year is in the Jia family. Things were getting better and better, how come it has become like this all of a sudden?"

"At first, when Banggeng became more and more polite following the old gentleman, I was also surprised. That kid is rebellious, not like his father at all. It's good that he can be influenced by the old gentleman. If nothing else, at least there will be one less thief on the ground in the future, and the reputation of our courtyard will not be ruined by him. But who would have thought that he would do such a big thing later and almost stabbed someone to death."

"Didn't he use the knife to defend himself because he knew someone was going to hit him?"

Sha Zhu said: "If you are afraid of being beaten, just take a knife. Can't you take a brick? Didn't he prepare a brick the first time? He didn't know about the second time? Carrying a sharp weapon is to kill people. He was going to kill. It's just that both of them are lucky. The other one didn't die, and Bang Geng didn't go to jail. Otherwise, the Jia family would have to break up now.

"But Qin Huairu and Aunt Jia both have unshirkable responsibilities for Banggeng's current situation. First of all, Aunt Jia spoiled her grandson too much. She always gave Banggen everything first, and she didn't allow adults to teach Banggen a lesson when he made mistakes. This is why Banggeng is so disrespectful and lawless all day long."

"I heard that Mrs. Jia raised Jia Dongxu herself, and Jia Dongxu is a good person, he is decent. How come Bang Geng has become like this?"

"They are close to each other. When Jia Dongxu's father died, he was already in his teens and understood a lot. In addition, the society was turbulent at that time. She was always thinking about what to eat in the future, so she had no time to spoil her child. Now life is much better and she doesn't have to worry about life, so naturally she wants to find something to do."

"I saw Qin Huairu often teach Bang Geng a lesson before, and sometimes even hit him."

"That's all for show. I beat him a few times to show others. Do you think if I beat him too much, Mrs. Jia will be willing? Will Qin Huairu feel bad? Just because Banggeng dared to take advantage of my blindness to steal things from my house, Qin Huairu cannot escape responsibility. I don't believe it. She didn't suspect Banggeng when he came home full and didn't cry for hunger. She didn't have any thoughts when Banggeng had money to buy things from time to time. She didn't think there was anything wrong with that. She must think that it's a bastard who doesn't take advantage of others, especially the blind Shazhu." Shazhu became more and more angry as he spoke. He still found it hard to let go of what happened before.

Yu Li quickly rubbed his chest and said, "Alright, let's not talk about him anymore. Anyway, he deserves what he got now."

"No, it's actually quite good to have him around."

Yu Li stood up suddenly and kicked the silly pillar and asked, "What do you mean?"