Chapter 9: A Beautiful Dream

Lunch was tomato and egg stir-fry, and they also made garlic chives stir-fried with leftover bacon from the New Year.

This was the first time they had seen tomatoes and eggs stir-fried together, they stared at the strange combination on the table for a long time.

“Can you really eat this?”

“It’s not salty or sweet, how do you eat it?”

Ye Xiaozhen picked up a piece and put it in her mouth, she smiled at them and said, “It’s delicious.”

Xie Linli rolled his eyes, thinking, how can you believe a fool?

Even if she wasn’t a fool, she shouldn’t put tomatoes and eggs together.

Ye Xiaozhen saw her younger brother’s little action, she ignored him and directly put some in Lin Xinghua’s bowl.

“Grandpa, eat.”

Lin Xinghua happily said, “Okay, Grandpa will eat.”

Lin Xinghua took a big bite, then gave a thumbs up and said, “Hmm, Xiaozhen’s cooking is good, it’s really delicious.”

“Really? I’ll try it too.” Xie Linqi also picked up a chopstick.

He put it in his mouth and tasted it, surprised, “It’s really delicious, sister-in-law, you’re amazing.”

Ye Xiaozhen smiled foolishly at him.

Xie Linli pouted, “Can this really be delicious?”

“Second brother, you’ll know if you try it.”

Xie Linli picked up a chopstick with suspicion and put it in his mouth, the taste was actually quite good, not the sweet and salty mess he had imagined.

Xie Linqi looked at him expectantly, “Second brother, how is it? Isn’t it good?”

The taste was good, but Xie Linli was stubborn and wanted to save face, so he just said lightly, “It’s alright, it’s sour.”

He said that, but he didn’t eat any less, he even soaked his rice in the sauce.

…

Sun Qing heard that Xie Lin’an had left, and she quickly told Ye Zhengguo.

“Xie Lin’an went to the dam, come on, let’s go get the disability certificate back while he’s not here, we need to use it to get subsidies next month.”

“Wait, aren’t his two younger brothers still at home?”

Sun Qing thought for a moment and said, “The two younger ones have to go to school, I’ll go see if they’ve left.”

“Okay, you go see first, we’ll go when they’re gone.”

“Okay.”

Sun Qing hurried to the head of the village to find out.

She had just left when Ye Xiaoqiang came in, “Huh? Where’s my mother?”

“Your mother went out, what do you want her for?”

Ye Xiaoqiang smiled and said, “Dad, give me some money, I want to go play with Cuiping.”

“Didn’t I give you one hundred yuan the day before yesterday? It’s only been three days, and you’ve already spent it?”

“One hundred yuan doesn’t last long, me and Cuiping, we’re two people.”

Ye Zhengguo was unhappy, he said, “That’s too much money, I think this Cuiping is not a good choice.”

“Oh, Dad, Cuiping is from the city. One hundred yuan is a lot for us, but it’s nothing to Cuiping. Cuiping’s parents both have jobs, her brother is a college student, her relatives and friends are all in the city, they’re all rich.

If I marry her, what won’t I have in the future? A job, money, a city hukou, a city house. Not only will I become a city person, but my future sons and grandsons will all be city people. I’ll take you and Mom to the city to enjoy life, and make you city people too, it’s a win-win situation.”

Ye Zhengguo was confused by his big picture, he grinned and kept praising his son for being capable, and gave him another hundred yuan.

“We’re not afraid of spending money, but you have to hurry up, get the marriage settled quickly, and get the marriage certificate.”

“Oh, Dad, how can I hurry this up? I’m only twenty-two, they won’t give us the certificate if we’re even a day short.”

So he still has to coax her for a year? Ye Zhengguo didn’t smile anymore.

“Then you have to save money, your older sister’s one thousand yuan dowry is gone, you only got one hundred, we don’t have much money left.”

Ye Xiaoqiang rolled his eyes, “Can a dowry just disappear like that? It was agreed upon as one thousand, but you only got one hundred, there’s no such thing in the world. You and Mom go to their house and make a scene, if Lin Laogui doesn’t give it to you, you sit at the entrance of their courtyard and cry. Although Xie Lin’an is not easy to deal with, Lin Laogui is a coward, they won’t dare to not give it to you.”

Huh?

Ye Zhengguo thought it made sense.

He couldn’t just go to their house to get the disability certificate, he had to make them pay the rest of the dowry.

…

After lunch, Xie Lin’an’s two younger brothers packed their schoolbags and change of clothes and were about to go to school.

Lin Xinghua called them over and gave each of them a bag of rice to exchange for meal tickets, and another five yuan for vegetable tickets, which was their weekly allowance.

This was considered a good condition in this era, and they also had a jar of pickled radish from home in their bags.

After giving them the things, Lin Xinghua kept reminding them, “You must study hard, your older brother dropped out of school to support you, he never had the chance to go to college, it’s always been his regret. He’s working hard to make money, just so you can go to college.”

“Grandpa, we know, you don’t have to say it every week.”

“Okay, okay, I won’t say it, you just know. Come on, Grandpa will walk you to the main road.”

“Don’t send us, you have a bad leg, we can go by ourselves.”

“It’s not even a mile, it’s nothing, come on.”

He wouldn’t feel at ease until he saw them get on the bus.

The two were helpless, they couldn’t persuade him, so they could only follow him.

After they left the village, Sun Qing hurried to find Ye Zhengguo.

“Here’s our chance, the old man sent his two grandsons to school, now only that dead girl is at home, this is the perfect time to go find her.”

Ye Zhengguo nodded repeatedly, “Let’s go, let’s go now. Not only do we have to get the disability certificate back, we also have to get the nine hundred yuan that Lin Laogui owes us.”

Sun Qing was startled, “He owes us nine hundred yuan?”

“Of course! Didn’t you say it? He promised to give one thousand, but he only gave one hundred, doesn’t he owe us nine hundred?”

Ah?

Is that even possible?

“This… you’re right. Since we still need to get nine hundred yuan, let’s go later.”

“Why later?”

“Lin Laogui sent his two grandsons to school, he’s not home, who are we going to ask for money from? That dead girl is a fool, how could she have money?”

Ye Zhengguo: “…”

“That’s true, let’s go first, wait under the big locust tree, and when we see Lin Laogui coming back, we’ll go.”

“Good idea.”

…

Ye Xiaozhen took advantage of the fact that no one was home and went to her bedroom to lock the door, then went into the kitchen to tinker around.

Everything here was too advanced except for the steamed buns and buns, it wouldn’t be appropriate to take them out, she couldn’t find anything with a suitable excuse, so she could only eat them herself.

It was good, this body was too thin, she needed to replenish herself.

She was afraid that the water would go bad, so she had to eat it quickly.

She started with the lychees, which were the easiest to spoil.

Ye Xiaozhen devoured a box of lychees and drank a box of iced tea, then she heard a noise outside.

It sounded like Grandpa was coming back.

She quickly put the things she had taken out back in the kitchen, then opened the door and went out.

“Xiaozhen, why are you out again? Didn’t I tell you to stay in bed and rest?”

Ye Xiaozhen said, “Grandpa, I’m already better, I’m not tired.”

“Oh, you child.”