Chapter 23.3

After breakfast in the morning, Li Xiao went out with Zhou Jian. There were many things to do at the wedding, and since they were Zhu Qiang’s brothers, they naturally had to go early to help.

After breakfast, Li Xiao and Zhou Jian went out. With so much to do for the wedding, and as Zhu Qiang’s brothers, they naturally needed to get there early to help.

Jiang Rou stayed behind, as An An was still small, and it wasn’t suitable for her to go out and meet so many people.

As soon as they left, Jiang Rou took the child outside to bask in the sun, told a few stories, and regardless of whether the child understood or not, managed to get her to fall asleep. Afterward, she carried her back inside, placed her in the cradle to sleep, and then picked up a book to read.

At noon, she made dumplings at home and gave the little one a small piece of dough to play with. But the child took one look and stuffed it directly into her mouth. Jiang Rou was so startled that she quickly took it out, exclaiming, “Why are you so greedy? You’re just like your dad.”

Don’t think she doesn’t know that Li Xiao often steals her snacks.

Around 4:30 in the afternoon, Jiang Rou started preparing dinner. She thought Li Xiao would probably come back in the middle of the night, so she didn’t cook many dishes; she only made one meat and one vegetable dish and steamed a bowl of egg custard.

Unexpectedly, she heard voices outside just after she finished eating her meal.

She took the child out and saw Li Xiao and Zhou Jian walking into the yard with grim faces. 

Jiang Rou was slightly stunned. “You’re back so early?”

Li Xiao didn’t answer her but asked, “Is there any food left?”

Jiang Rou didn’t know what had happened—she handed the child to him and said, “I’ll make you a bowl of noodles.”

Li Xiao shifted the child in his arms and said, “No need to trouble yourself. Just something simple will do.”

“It’s no trouble. It’s all ready-made. The dough from the dumplings this noon is still left.”

So Li Xiao didn’t say much, and he walked tiredly to the main room and sat down.

There were not many vegetables at home; only a few vegetables were left, so Jiang Rou made a simple bowl of oil-spill noodles.

It didn’t take much time, and soon it was ready.

Li Xiao placed the child in the cradle, filled a basin with hot water, and then he and Zhou Jian washed their faces and hands. 

After a busy day of entertaining guests and moving things, their hands and feet were frozen stiff.

When Jiang Rou brought out the noodles, Li Xiao and Zhou Jian ate ravenously; clearly, they were very hungry.

She picked up the child again and couldn’t help but ask, “What happened? ”

Zhou Jian was not as quiet as Li Xiao and directly recounted what had happened that day. It turned out that after a whole day of hard work, Zhu Qiang’s wife had refused to let them enter the new house and had them blocked outside.

“There are so many people around watching us, sister-in-law; don’t you think we’re humiliated?”

Then he continued angrily, “Boss didn’t want me to make a fuss; fine. Today is Zhu Qiang’s wedding, so we gave him a face. But when we went downstairs to eat, do you know what happened? There was no place for us.”

Zhou Jian’s face reddened with anger. “I even brought Xiao Yan and the child with me. Xiao Yan helped in the kitchen all afternoon. So, we were just there to do the work, right? The helpers get paid, but what about us? We worked for nothing.”

“Wang Tao’s wife is smart. She didn’t even let Wang Tao go. We ended up spending another 30 yuan. Oh, and Xiao Yan contributed twenty yuan as well. Is it easy to earn money? I’d rather buy some meat for my son with that money.”

“Xiao Yan has a good temper. If it were someone else, wouldn’t they have quarreled with me? ”

“Damn it, I’ve never been so humiliated in my life.”

Even Li Xiao’s face darkened. He couldn’t even eat there, so he directly took the two away. Wang Yan took her son to Zhou Jian’s house, and while Zhou Jian went with Li Xiao, they still had to prepare and buy goods later.

No matter what happened, they had to continue earning money to support their family.

Jiang Rou frowned after hearing this, feeling that Zhu Qiang’s wife had gone too far. She asked, “Does Zhu Qiang know? ”

Zhou Jian sneered, “Even if he didn’t know before, he can’t know now. I won’t consider him my brother in the future. He’s a rich man; we’re not in his league.”

The more he thought about it, the more upset he became. When Zhu Qiang was a child, he was thin and weak and was often bullied. If he hadn’t had Boss to protect him, could he have grown up safely?

Li Xiao remained silent throughout, and after finishing his meal, he took Zhou Jian’s bowl and went straight to the kitchen to wash it.

After washing the dishes, he called Zhou Jian to go out to buy some goods.

Before leaving, he told Jiang Rou, “I’ll be back later. You should go to bed early.”

Jiang Rou nodded.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The next morning, Jiang Rou and Li Xiao went out with An An to register her household.

The registration process was more flexible in this era. Jiang Rou recalled that her brother and sister-in-law had registered their child a week after birth, while here it was within three months.

So they had delayed it until now.

They took the necessary documents to the local police station and registered the child under Li Xiao’s household registration book.

Since there weren’t many people at the police station, it was all done in just over half an hour.

Afterward, Jiang Rou dragged Li Xiao to a nearby photo studio.

Li Xiao was reluctant to go and said, “What’s so fun about that?”

Jiang Rou ignored him. Whether he would go or not, she and An An could go and take a picture in the photo studio.

She didn’t have a phone; otherwise, she would have wanted to take a photo every day. An An was so adorable; how could she not capture every moment of An An?

Moreover, since it was An An’s first time going out, Jiang Rou had dressed her up nicely. She had put on a pretty thin jacket and a large red woolen cape on top. The cape was made from fabric she had designed and asked someone to sew. The bright red outfit made the little girl’s skin look even whiter, and her eyes were sparkling. Her head was adorned with two small tufts of hair, each about an inch long, standing upright.

Li Xiao had a habit of pinching the little tufts of hair every time he saw them.

The colorful hair ties Jiang Rou used for An An were bought by Li Xiao, and were originally meant for Jiang Rou to use. Besides the hair ties, there were also large flowers—wide white elastic bands sewn with circles of tulle, which came in various colors, including bright red.

Jiang Rou had used such headbands when she was little, bought by her mother for stage performances, but she hadn’t worn them since second grade.

She didn’t know why Li Xiao thought these would be suitable for her. Jiang Rou had no intention of using them but kept them for when her daughter was four or five years old.

-o-o-o-o-o-

There was no one in the photo studio. Jiang Rou carried An An inside and said she wanted to take a few pictures.

The owner immediately led them upstairs. There was a large room with a camera in the center and racks of clothes hanging on the walls on either side, divided into children’s and adults’ clothing.

Opposite the camera was a background board with various designs to choose from.

Jiang Rou didn’t change clothes, and she didn’t want to use any of the clothes on the racks, so she rummaged through some props in the corner. She found a small child’s hat and put it on her daughter’s head.

Li Xiao, who looked uninterested just now, couldn’t help smiling when he saw it. He adjusted the hat on An An’s head and took her from Jiang Rou’s arms with a begrudging tone, saying, “Let’s take a picture then.”

He took the initiative to sit on the bench in front of the background wall.

“……”

‘I have never seen a man change his face so quickly.’

Jiang Rou went to look for the background board in silence, found a background board with a blue sky and white clouds full of childishness, and said, “I want this one.”

The owner came over to help change the background.

They took a total of twelve photos, changing the little one’s headpieces several times—flowers, lanterns, and animal hats.

An An just let Jiang Rou do whatever she wanted to do; she would just be curiously looking around. It was probably because it was her first time going out, with her eyes darting everywhere.

When she got tired of being fussed over, she kicked her legs in frustration.

After the photos were taken, Li Xiao looked at them and was relatively satisfied. He asked, “When can we pick them up? ”

The owner was also pleased and thought these photos could be used to attract business. “You can pick them up the day after tomorrow.”

Li Xiao thought it was a bit long and frowned.

Jiang Rou was more accommodating: “Remember to laminate them for us.”

Without lamination, the photos could easily get damaged over time.

“Sure.”

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

On the weekend, Zhou Jian brought his girlfriend Wang Yan over for a meal, and they were accompanied by a three-year-old boy.

Wang Yan looked a few years older than Zhou Jian. She had thick black hair tied into a braid that fell to her waist. She had a round face and thin eyebrows, slightly darker skin, and a somewhat plump figure.

She wasn’t conventionally beautiful, but she had a pleasant and friendly appearance that made her seem very approachable.

The little boy looked very much like his mother, with a round face and skin that was dark and slightly red.

He seemed rather quiet, standing by his mother’s side, clutching the corner of his mother’s clothes, and didn’t speak.

A few days earlier, Wang Yan had set aside her own work to help Zhou Jian, and they had conveniently picked up their marriage certificate. Although Zhou Jian was younger, his registered age was actually two years older due to an error when his household registration was processed.

With the certificate, Wang Yan could live in Zhou Jian’s house with a clear conscience.

Wang Yan also took the opportunity to change the child’s name. Now, the child had taken Zhou Jian’s surname and was called Zhou Hong, whereas he had previously been named Wan Xing. According to Zhou Jian, she was a fan of the film “Huang Feihong.”

That was also the first film Zhou Jian had taken her to see at the movies.

Because of this, Wang Yan’s ex-mother-in-law went to her mother’s house and caused a scene.

Jiang Rou took out the pork jerky she had made especially for them, but he refused and shook his head vigorously.

However, the way he swallowed his saliva still gave him away.

Zhou Jian, on the other hand, was not so polite to Jiang Rou. He took a plate of pork jerky and shoved it directly into his son’s arms, saying, “Your aunt made this for you. Just take it and eat it.”

Seeing Zhou Jian behave this way, Wang Yan hurriedly refused and said with a strong accent, “What are you doing? Just take a couple of pieces. Don’t take so much! Are you crazy?”

She blamed Zhou Jian for not knowing how to be polite.

She now felt uneasy around Zhou Jian’s friends, afraid that she might offend them again.

Zhou Jian didn’t understand and continued to give the food to the child, saying, “Sister-in-law is a good person; don’t be so formal.”

Wang Yan, feeling a headache coming on, pulled him back and said, “Take it back quickly! How can you behave like this?”

The two of them murmured to each other. While Jiang Rou could understand Zhou Jian’s speech, which only had minor issues with pronunciation, she couldn’t make out a single word of Wang Yan’s rapid and heavily accented speech.

Jiang Rou looked around and couldn’t resist poking Li Xiao beside her, quietly asking, “What is she saying? ”

Li Xiao, holding his daughter and feeling content, shrugged. “Who knows? ”

He then turned and went inside.

Jiang Rou shot him an annoyed look but still smiled at Zhou Jian and his family and said, “Come in and eat. Half of today’s lunch was cooked by your big brother.”

“Really?”

Zhou Jian was thrilled to hear this and immediately shoved the pork jerky into his son’s arms, saying, “Then I must try it properly. When I was a kid, my brother cooked for me and almost burned down our kitchen.”

Wang Yan, feeling a bit troubled, smiled apologetically at Jiang Rou. “I’m really sorry to trouble you.”

Jiang Rou still couldn’t understand what Wang Yan said but continued to smile. “Come on in and eat. We’ve been looking forward to having you here.”

During the meal, Wang Yan and Zhou Hong were quite reserved, especially the boy, Zhou Hong, who only ate what the adults put on his plate and didn’t dare to serve himself.

An opposite them didn’t have such worries. She had already been fed, and now no one knows why, but she liked being held while awake, so during the meal, Li Xiao held her in one arm and ate with the other hand.

Having been fed milk for over a month, her weight was steadily increasing, and Jiang Rou found her arms sore from holding her for too long.

Maybe she became greedy for food when she saw Li Xiao eating, so she put her hand in her mouth and sucked on it.

Li Xiao didn’t like her sucking her hand and thought it was unhygienic. He would occasionally pull her hand out of her mouth and then wipe them with the bib on her chest with a skillful movement.

Then he would continue to eat his own food with a calm expression.

Zhou Jian was already used to this. A few days ago, he saw his big brother cutting An An’s toenails.

In his eyes, his brother had always been the cool type, like a gangster in those Hong Kong movies. While those actors were just playing roles, his brother was naturally that impressive.

Who would have thought that such a cool person would cut his daughter’s toenails and even kiss her while doing so?

It was almost unimaginable.

So, seeing him wipe his child’s drool now, Zhou Jian was quite unfazed.

However, the little boy sitting next to Zhou Jian secretly glanced at him with envy.

Jiang Rou noticed and reminded Zhou Jian to serve more food to Zhou Hong and not just focus on himself.

Zhou Jian then realized this and served a lot of dishes to his son, as well as some to Wang Yan.

Wang Yan looked at the bowl piled high with food and felt a bit embarrassed, thinking Zhou Jian had served too much.

The meal lasted until after two o’clock in the afternoon.

After they left the gate of the Li family’s courtyard, Zhou Hong, who had been silent, took Zhou Jian’s hand and whispered, “Dad.”

Zhou Jian heard it and couldn’t help but be stunned. Then, with excitement, he hugged his son and said, “Say it again? ”

Zhou Hong, a little embarrassed, still called out, “Dad.”

Zhou Hong actually knew everything.

The children in the village would say that he had no father and that his mother had married a stepfather and would have other children in the future. But he had little memory of his biological father; he only knew that this stepfather treated him very well.

Zhou Jian smiled broadly and, full of joy, lifted his son onto his shoulders for a piggyback ride. When he was a child, he didn’t have a father and was always envious of the other kids who could sit on their father’s shoulders.

Zhou Hong was shy, but his eyes sparkled with happiness.

Jiang Rou, standing beside them, smiled happily.

Not far behind, Li Xiao stood at the door and saw that scene. He couldn’t help but smile.

Jiang Rou came over with An An and asked, “Aren’t you going to wash the dishes? What are you doing standing here?

“…” 

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Oil spill noodles

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