Stepmother Reborn: Dad, my mom hasn't hit me for three days

On the second day, we had a dinner in the courtyard where Zhang Xiuhua and Li Jianguo lived.

Jidong and Xiangxiang settled in Pengcheng. Youcai and Zhenzhen have always lived in the capital, Baolin and Ergou also live in the capital, Jilin and Shuyu live in Jiang Province, but Lele likes the capital and held the exhibition in the capital this time.

Ergou was surprised to learn that Lele had sold one of his paintings. "It was sold in the first exhibition? It seems that this kid has a bright future."

Businessmen are all profit-seeking. It is impossible to make a loss in business. The collector must have bought the painting to make a small profit. When Lele was not famous, he bought it at a cheap price. When she became famous, the profit might increase by dozens or even hundreds of times.

Ji Lin began to drool, "We have suffered a lot over the years to support this child's painting studies."

Lazy children are the most difficult to teach because they are not self-conscious enough and adults have to keep an eye on them all the time.

Tong Shuyu also looked relieved, "Yes. Now all the hard work has paid off. It's all worth it."

Zhuzhu found it a little funny to see the two of them giving acceptance speeches, "Is it that difficult?"

Seeing that his sister didn't take it seriously, Jilin asked Zhuzhu, "Your child is also in school, how are his grades?"

Zhuzhu spread her hands and said, "My grades are average."

"Aren't you in a hurry?" Ji Lin looked at her in surprise.

"She now speaks three languages, English, French and Chinese, and she's so pretty. I'm not worried about her future." Zhuzhu feels that teaching children is not difficult at all.

Comparing people to others will make you die, and comparing goods to others will make you throw them away. Zhuzhu's children are so well-behaved, why do his children have such difficulties? Jilin does not envy Jidong's twins, he envies Zhuzhu's good fortune.

He turned his head to look at Baolin and Ergou, "Where are your children?"

"Xiao Rui is doing business. I'll give him one million and let him go out and make his own way." Ergou spread his hands. "I'm a businessman. Xiao Rui has never had artistic talent since he was a child, and he's not cut out for scientific research. So let him do business. Let him try. Once he's tried enough and finds out he's not cut out for it, he'll stop."

Ji Lin was speechless. Giving him one million to start a business? He couldn't afford it.

"Okay. Like parents give birth to like children. You troubled me a lot when you were a child. Now the situation has changed. Your mission is over. It's up to Lele to succeed from now on." Zhang Xiuhua was afraid that Jilin would continue talking, so she got depressed first.

Ji Lin thought that was right. No matter how hard it was in the past, it was over now. The future was bright.

After talking about the children, Zhang Xiuhua asked Yaoyao how her work was going.

Yaoyao remained silent, "Very good."

Li Jianguo couldn't help but said, "If you don't want to get married, I won't force you. But you can't live without children. What will you do when you get old?"

"Dad, what era is this? Why are you still raising a son to take care of you in your old age?"

Li Jianguo waved his hands, "It's not about raising a son to provide for your old age. It's about when you're old, lying in bed, unable to move. You'll feel lonely. Life is so long. When you're healthy, everything is fine. But once you can't move, there's no point in you."

"Dad, if that day really comes, it will be my retribution. I have lived a carefree life for so many years, and it is only right that I suffer a little before I die." Yaoyao has always had her own ideas and will not change them once she has made a decision.

Li Jianguo couldn't do anything to her. He had stopped urging her to get married and give birth to a child. But this child was stubborn. The dowry he saved for her was completely useless.

Zhang Xiuhua patted Li Jianguo on the shoulder and said, "Children and grandchildren have their own blessings. Children can decide their own affairs, and we just have to enjoy our lives."

Li Jianguo didn't care at all. "Okay. You decide for yourself."

After the children finished their meal, they went back home. Li Jianguo and Zhang Xiuhua went for a walk in the garden. They met Li Xingjia and Wang Honghua, who were dancing.

Li Xingjia went for a physical examination some time ago, and the doctor said he was too fat and asked him to lose weight.

Zhang Xiuhua also asked Li Jianguo to lose weight, "Now that I don't farm anymore, I still eat as much as before. I have a big belly."

Wang Honghua waved her fan, "Yes! If you want to lose weight when you get older, you have to control your appetite!"

Zhang Xiuhua also danced along.

Li Xingjia asked Zhang Xiuhua, "Where is Youcai at home? I want to ask him how to eat to lose weight."

Zhang Xiuhua laughed, "Youcai went abroad. He opened a restaurant abroad in August and he went with him to improve the taste. The business is not on track yet. It will take some time for him to come back."

Wang Honghua envied, "Your children are all very promising, and even your grandchildren are very capable."

Zhang Xiuhua praised her in return, "Your son Tiedan is doing well too. He is a manager in a real estate company. His grandchildren have all been admitted to universities. You two can just wait to enjoy a peaceful and comfortable life."

When talking about his grandchildren, Li Xingjia couldn't stop smiling. "They have the same brains as me. In fact, my son Tiedan was very smart when he was young. It was just me who held him back."

If he hadn't gone to college at that time, with his tutoring, Tiedan might have been able to get into college.

Zhang Xiuhua also laughed, "Yes."

Wang Honghua asked Zhang Xiuhua, "Where is Shiyue in your family? What is she doing now?"

Li Jianguo was a little complacent, "October is now a diplomat."

"Wow! So awesome!" Wang Honghua didn't expect her child to be so promising.

"When I first joined, I was just an ordinary employee. I just spoke fluently." Zhang Xiuhua waved her hand modestly. Shiyue is the only child in the family who is in politics.

"That's also remarkable." Li Xingjia gave her a thumbs up, "You guys really know how to raise children."

As they were talking, they met An Rou and Li Jianxin again.

The couple are also retired.

In 1998, An Rou's father passed away. Before his death, he transferred the house in Shanghai under his name to Xiang Xiang.

Because of this incident, An Rou and her brother broke up completely and never saw each other again.

A few years ago, Li Jianxin bought a combine harvester to make money to pay off his son's mortgage. He used to feel that a few hundred yuan was a lot of pressure, but then the housing prices rose sharply, and that little money was only enough for two meals, and his pressure was gone. He felt that he had no worries, so he started to travel around.

In his words, he was more than 20 years late for this trip.

If he hadn't had twins, he would have been the happiest man in the world.

Zhang Xiuhua and Li Jianguo also formed a team with him. After the three of them played around for a while, they returned to the capital to settle down.

The house Li Jianxin lives in now is the courtyard house he bought. Ruirui lives in a welfare house allocated by Anrou. Although the house is not big, it is more convenient to work in politics and go to school there, and the teachers are strong.

When she saw Li Jianxin, Zhang Xiuhua asked him where he was planning to go recently.

Li Jianxin had really thought about it, "Let's go to Zhangjiajie. I heard the roads there are easier to travel."

They went there for tourism before, but the road was not repaired and it rained, so they returned without much fun. This time they must make up for the regrets of the last time.

Zhang Xiuhua nodded, "That's good. Walk more while you can still walk."

Li Jianxin remembered something, "How long has it been since you went back to your hometown?"

Zhang Xiuhua was slightly startled. "My mother-in-law was buried a few days ago, and we just came back."

"I heard that there is going to be a tourist village in my hometown." Li Jianxin didn't know the details. "Your eldest brother and his wife should know. I also heard some rumors, but I don't know if it's true or not."

Zhang Xiuhua took note of this and when she got home, she called her hometown.

Now we use mobile phones, so it’s not as troublesome as before.

Li Jianshe answered the call and said with a smile, "Yes. That's what the higher-ups said. I heard that the higher-ups want to build a tourist village on our border, and then call the village cadres over to discuss it. See which village is willing to pay, and tourism will also be a source of income. Other villages have no money, only our village has some money. The villagers all agreed. The higher-ups want to demolish all the houses here, and then rebuild better-looking houses. The land area was just measured some time ago, and you don't have to rush to come back after it is finalized."

Zhang Xiuhua agreed, "Okay!"

In a blink of an eye, this matter was implemented, and those who settled outside returned to Lijiatun.

The demolition policies are different. Some places are based on household registration, and some places are based on land area. According to household registration, those who have moved their household registration are not happy. If it is based only on land area, those who have less land will be unhappy. Everyone quarrels.

Zhang Xiuhua asked Xu Chunying, "You don't look very well. Have you been to the hospital for a checkup?"

"I've checked it." Xu Chunying obviously didn't want to talk about this topic.

Zhang Xiuhua didn't ask any more questions, but she turned around and asked the villagers.

Aunt Wang died of an illness five years ago. Uncle Wang also passed away less than a month later. Zhang Xiuhua could only ask the new daughter-in-law in the village.

I learned from the villagers that Xu Chunying had diabetes and her family didn't have enough money, so she wanted her three children to give her living expenses and medical expenses. But the three children were stingy and each family was only willing to give 500 yuan.

"When your sister-in-law told me about this, she was weeping. So pitiful."

The villagers all sympathized with Xu Chunying. All her children were successful, but none of them were filial.

Zhang Xiuhua sighed and felt sorry for her sister-in-law.

In fact, it is not just the children of Li Jiandang and Xu Chunying who are unfilial. There is another family in the village who is even worse off than them. That is the Zhang family.

"The Zhang family didn't treat their daughters as human beings. The only son went straight to Zhejiang Province to be a live-in son-in-law. When his parents came to visit, he drove them away. Later, his mother asked her daughters to support her. But even though they won the lawsuit, the daughters refused to comply. Later, he fell ill and couldn't pay the money, so he was dragged to death."

The villagers all used the Zhang family as a negative example. But Xu Chunying and Li Jiandang were exceptions, because they loved their children very much, and their children were promising, but they were only willing to pay a few hundred yuan a month, which was somewhat unfilial.

“They are afraid that they will suffer a loss.”

Zhang Xiuhua told Li Jianguo about this.

Li Jianguo hadn't been angry for a long time, but this time he was completely angry.

Zhang Xiuhua was afraid that his blood pressure was high, so she tried to comfort him, "It's all right now. The house has been demolished. This money is enough for big brother and big sister to live on. You should persuade big brother and big sister to keep the money this time and not give it to anyone else!"

Li Jianguo nodded, "That's right!"

So after the demolition compensation came in, the unfilial sons in the family all became filial sons and grandchildren.

But Li Jiandang and Xu Chunying were heartbroken by their children. No matter how they complained, the old couple refused to give them a penny.

Xu Chunying also told Zhang Xiuhua privately, "I now understand that it is easy for parents to give money to their children, but it is harder than climbing to the sky for parents to get money from their children. I am too old to work in the fields. I will focus on myself first."

Zhang Xiuhua nodded and said, "You are right to do this."

Maybe the compensation for the demolition was too tempting. All the children who had not come home for the Chinese New Year before came back before the New Year.

Xu Chunying was going to hold a celebration for Li Jiandang's 80th birthday. Li Jianguo and Zhang Xiuhua also came back early. They were old and didn't help, they just wanted to share in the joy.

Zhang Xiuhua and Li Jianguo asked all the children to come back.

August and October came into the village carrying large and small bags. They had flown back from abroad and brought many gifts. They also bought a landscape fish tank for Li Jiandang and Xu Chunying.

"Wow, this thing is really good." Xu Chunying looked at it in surprise, "Will this fish not die?"

"No!" August taught it how to operate it.

"People in foreign countries still know how to enjoy life." Li Jiandang liked the fish tank no matter how he looked at it.

The naughty Liu Liu started to spoil the story, "Grandpa, this must be made in China. If you don't believe me, look at the logo below."

Li Jiandang took a look and thought, “Made in China”, it is really made in our own country, but he was still happy, “It’s okay! This is the children’s thoughtfulness. I like it!”

Then the children presented their gifts one by one. Although they were not very expensive, the old couple appreciated their children’s kindness.

During the meal, Hongwen and Hongwu helped to entertain the guests. When the villagers said they were unfilial, they just pretended not to know.

For the first time, Li Jiandang and Xu Chunying experienced the joy of entertaining their parents with colorful clothes.

When the older generation saw this, they advised each other, "See? Until the day you die, you must keep your money in your own hands."

As night fell, the word "demolition" was painted on the walls of each house, and Lijiatun also ushered in the last reunion year. All the migrant workers returned, and the town was more lively than ever.

The sounds of firecrackers, talking, laughter, and children running bring a strong sense of vitality to the village.

Zhang Xiuhua and her group walked along the village path, carefully observing the village in the faint moonlight.

The snowflakes fluttered down like New Year's cards.

The roof was covered with snow, which looked like a large piece of cheese and softened the edges of the house, giving it a fairy-tale purity.

They memorized the image of the village, and from then on it could only appear in their dreams.

(End of the book)