◎ Second update ◎

Zhou Hu raised his little face with a look of innocence. He was a good boy; how could he steal money!

His father asked him to bring some money over, and he listened to his father. 

“What did you say?” Liu Nianhua was momentarily stunned when she heard Xiao Hu mention his father, “Your father came to see you? When did it happen? Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“Just last month, father was waiting for me at the alley entrance and asked me to come to the alley to talk.” 

That day, father was wearing a black coat, and he was covering his face tightly, with only a pair of eyes exposed. But how could he not recognize his father? 

He opened his mouth to call father, but Zhou Guoping shushed him. The two of them sneaked to the entrance of the alley to talk. 

“What did your father tell you?” Liu Nianhua was now worried that Zhou Guoping was doing something bad behind her back. Xiaolong was okay because he was a big kid, but Xiaohu was only five years old and was the easiest to be deceived. 

“Father said he had no money and asked me to get some from home for him.” Zhou Hu saw that his father looked hungry and shabby, so he immediately agreed. “I took money three times and give it to father.” 

Liu Nianhua counted and found that one one-yuan note and two two-yuan notes were indeed missing. It turned out that they were taken away by his son. 

“Xiaohu, what did your mother teach you? You can’t take money secretly, right?” Liu Nianhua squatted down and cursed Zhou Guoping in her heart. This man is really relentless. He even instigated the child to take the money. However, Xiaohu is still young and needs to be taught slowly. 

“Mother, but Father told me to take it. How can it be stealing if I give the money from home to Father? Taking the money from home and giving it to outsiders is stealing but giving it to Father isn’t.” In Xiaohu’s heart, his father is still part of his family. 

“But this is the money Mother earned. No matter who it’s for, it needs Mother’s permission, right?” 

Xiaohu blinked a few times, thought hard, scratched his head, and nodded, “Okay. Then, Mother, do you agree to give the money to father?” 

“I don’t agree.” Liu Nianhua said these three words with extraordinary firmness. 

“Not only do I not agree to give money to your father, but also in the future…” In fact, she had not figured out what to do. The child really missed his father. He often asked about his father in the past six months. Liu Nianhua did not want to destroy the image of his father in their hearts and she also didn’t want the chaos to make the children hate their own father. “If your father comes again in the future, you can talk to him, but you can’t give him money, and you can’t learn bad things from him, understand?” 

“Mother, what does it mean to be bad?” Xiaohu still didn’t quite understand. What does being bad mean? 

“You ask me, and if your father says something, you tell me everything.” 

“Oh.” 

*** 

At the entrance of the alley, Zhou Guoping, dressed in a baggy and worn out clothes, had most of his face covered as he waited for Xiaohu to bring money. But no one showed up no matter how long he waited. When he finally saw his son playing with cards at the entrance of the alley, he quietly signaled and called out, “Xiaohu, come here!” 

Zhang Rong was also at the entrance of the alley talking to Aunt Jiang from the next-door courtyard. She was arranging a matchmaking date for her son recently. Although Zhou Qingdang had always disagreed, could a mother just go along with him? Didn’t he realize how old he was? How could he not be anxious? 

“Aunt Jiang, please take care of this matter. Our Qingdang is a good-looking, dependable, and hardworking man. You have seen all of this. Our family is not picky. As long as the woman is reliable and good for married life, that’s all we want.” 

“Okay, I’ll definitely keep an eye on it for you.” 

“If it works, I will come to your house and give you a big gift.” Zhang Rong kept a glance at the children at the entrance of the alley and saw a sneaky man talking to the children. 

In the middle of summer, and someone is wrapped up like that? Looks suspicious! 

She crouched over and took the opportunity when the man in black was signaling at Xiaohu. She tore off his clothes and revealed his unshaven face. 

“Zhou Guoping?” Although she hadn’t seen this man for a long time, Zhang Rong recognized him at a glance. However, Zhou Guoping, who used to look like a respectable man, now looked like a homeless person! 

As soon as Zhang Rong shouted Zhou Guoping’s name, many people in the courtyard heard it. Wasn’t this the man who cheated on Liu Nianhua? 

“Zhou Guoping, how dare you come back?” 

“Well, well, we finally caught you! You used to be a decent person in the courtyard, but who knew you were the kind of person to fool around behind your wife’s back!” 

Everybody was talking at once and slandering Zhou Guoping, and Luo Hongmei was even more excited. She had been itching to talk nonsense lately. Whenever she scolded anyone, someone in the courtyard would always bring up the fact that her son was a cabbage thief, which is why she was afraid and would not dare to act rashly. But Zhou Guoping was different! 

His issues were much worse! 

If she couldn’t scold anyone else, she could definitely scold him. 

“Oh, fooling around behind your wife’s back, no wonder you had to cover your face. You knew you were shameful, didn’t you? Look at you now—disgusting! How can you still be the bus driver you used to be? Oh wait, I forgot, your arm is broken. You can’t drive anymore!” Luo Hongmei laughed twice, looking at this man with more and more disgust. “Having someone like you in our courtyard is a disgrace. If it weren’t for Nianhua’s kindness in keeping things quiet, you’d have been sent to the labor farm to be re-educated. And when that happened, I’d bring a whole basket of… ugh, rotten vegetables and throw them at you!” 

The neighbors who had been kind in the past were now saying hurtful words to him without any courtesy. Zhou Guoping clenched his fist and was about to say something back when he felt a pain in his right hand. His hand was broken, so he couldn’t use much strength and it still painful from time to time. 

He had no chance of winning if he fought here alone, so Zhou Guoping covered his face with his hands and ran away without saying a word. 

After running through several alleys and crossing two streets, he finally arrived at a large courtyard. The houses here were even more dilapidated. More than fifty people lived in the courtyard with two entrances. He rented a bed here from a man he met when he drove the bus. There was a large bunk bed in the room, which could accommodate eight people. Each person paid three yuan a month. 

His arm was broken by Wang Fang’s man and he could no longer drive. Fortunately, he had five hundred yuan in savings that he had secretly hidden, but Liu Nianhua didn’t know about this money. 

Divorce? Fine. Wouldn’t it be better to take that five hundred yuan and live with the younger, prettier Wang Fang? 

Wang Fang wasn’t tormented by her man in any way; she just got slapped a few times, and they divorced quickly, and Wang Fang got together with Zhou Guoping. 

Life was pretty good at the beginning, but Wang Fang was a spendthrift. In less than two months, she had spent one hundred eighty yuan of Zhou Guoping’s money and even bought two sets of clothes at the department store. With no job now, Zhou Guoping felt a deep pain every time she spent the money, but when he tried to complain, she scolded him instead. 

The two of them had a fight for the first time. Zhou Guoping couldn’t help but slap her, but Wang Fang scratched his face with her long nails. Because of this, the two of them were in a cold war for a week. Zhou Guoping then realized that this woman was not a person who could live a peaceful life. She only treated him well when he gave her money, but she was still very fierce and would not give in at all. 

What made him most angry was that when he woke up one morning a month later, Wang Fang was gone, and his money was gone too! The remaining two hundred yuan was gone! 

Lying on a crowded courtyard and sleeping on the thatched mat on the ground, Zhou Guoping gnawed on a dry and hard steamed corn bread and stared at the gray ceiling in a daze. 

*** 

Liang Baozhen came out of Liu Nianhua’s house and saw Sister Hua having a good talk with Xiaohu and giving Xiaolong some instructions. She was really worried about them. When she got home, Xiaoya had already taken a bath and was helping her grandmother cook dinner. 

While Xu Shengjie was dismantling the partitions at home. 

Originally, one room was divided into three bedrooms and a living room, and it was crowded everywhere, especially for Xu Shengwei and Xu Shengya, who could only sleep on bunk beds. This time, Xu Shengjie removed the wooden boards, moved the living room two meters away, and put another wooden bed inside. He hammered two nails in the front and put a wire up to hang a curtain on. The room was open during the day and closed at night. The original room for the two was extended one meter to the left to place Xiaoya’s wooden bed, and a wooden board was placed in the middle as a partition. Although the area was small, at least they were separated. 

Both Xu Shengwei and Xu Shengya were pleased. It was worth celebrating for a month to have their own small room. 

There was a pile of yellow wood left spread out on the ground, and Xu Shengjie was planning to make a new set of desks and chairs for his wife. 

Recently, Liang Baozhen had been reading at home every day. With the college entrance exams approaching, she needed to make the most of her time reading. 

The desk in the bedroom was a cabinet that had been built before, with a wooden chair on top. Liang Baozhen was sitting on it, reading a book and taking notes. From time to time, she adjust the chair since the desk was a little low. 

It wasn’t a big problem, just a bit uncomfortable. Buying a new set wouldn’t be cost-effective, so she made do with it. 

Xu Shengjie saw that his wife liked to move her chair from time to time when she was reading. When he saw her back bent, he realized what was going on. The desk wasn’t originally intended to be a desk; it had been a cabinet that could also serve as a table, and the chair height wasn’t appropriate either. 

Even the dining table and chairs were quite old and not very suitable. This time, Xu Shengjie planned to replace everything slowly, using the yellow wood to make all new furniture. 

“Try sitting on it.” He sawed the wood and made it into a wooden chair. He held a cigarette in his mouth and took a puff to let Liang Baozhen try the height. 

The yellow wooden chair was still new, with some splinters on it. He first patted it with his hand wearing work gloves, then smoothed the edge with his thumb, and then nodded his chin. 

Liang Baozhen sat on it and felt the height. “It’s a bit high.” 

The wooden chair had been intentionally made a bit long so he could saw it to the most suitable length for the chair legs. Xu Shengjie took a look at it, nodded, and asked Liang Baozhen to stand up. 

He noted the position himself, held the wooden chair upside down, and began to saw the legs. 

After a while, the wooden chair was ready and Liang Baozhen was asked to sit on it. “How is it this time?” 

“It fits perfectly. It’s quite comfortable.” 

The desk had been prepared earlier, with the joints fitted in, but the table legs hadn’t been sawed yet. The same table would be used differently by people of different heights, so he asked Liang Baozhen to try to measure the height and feel it for herself. 

He sawed the table legs bit by bit, then put them back for Liang Baozhen to feel. “What about this time?” 

“It seems to be fine.” Liang Baozhen sat on the wooden chair, straightened her back, and put her arms on the desk. She felt that there was nothing wrong with it and it was more suitable than the dining table at home. 

“Saw a little more.” He looked at Liang Baozhen’s back and straightened it, so he had to leave some more space. He sawed off two inches from the table legs, moved the original cabinet in the bedroom to the living room, and carried the table and chairs in and put them away. 

Xu Shengjie had measured the width in advance, and the table and chairs were placed in their respective positions. Next to it was a dressing table, on which there were Liang Baozhen’s mirror, dressing box, and a pair of enamel cups. On the other side was a large flat cabinet, which contained the two people’s winter quilts. 

Looking at the newly renovated home, Liang Baozhen felt that although it was small, it had everything and looked quite presentable! 

Xu Shengwei and Xu Shengya were so happy that they rolled around on their beds in the small room of a few square meters each. Liang Baozhen looked at the great contributor Xu Shengjie, who was soaked with sweat in the hot summer. He took advantage of the darkness to take a shower in the side room outside, with just three wooden boards blocking off the space. 

When he returned, Liang Baozhen, Xiaowei, and Xiaoya had already cleaned the house thoroughly. It was crowded, but each room was clearly separated. 

At night, Xu Shengjie lit a cigarette with a match and stood outside the house, ready to finish smoking before going back in. In the smoke, he watched Liang Baozhen walk towards him. 

“How many have you had today?” Liang Baozhen snatched the cigarette from him and said fiercely, “This is the third one!” 

“You know it better than I do.” Xu Shengjie smiled. He and Baozhen had agree on the limit before: no more than two cigarettes a day. Of course, one was better, but not smoking was the best! 

“I’m keeping count.” Liang Baozhen still has informants. Xiaowei and Xiaoya are very active in reporting. Smoking is not a good thing. However, she knows that neither her father nor Xu Shengjie can quit smoking. She can only limit the number of cigarettes. “This one is confiscated.” 

After saying that, she stuck the cigarette butt against the wall and put it out. 

“Okay, I’ll hand it over to you.”