Xiao Qi walked home while the sky was still bright.
The setting sun had already disappeared behind the mountains.
The time was somewhat like when she was holding her notification letter and walking home herself.
That time, Old Yu, the driver from the village, happened to be away for something that evening and came back late.
She walked on the stone paths in the village, passed by the bustling village auditorium and small shop, then ran into Uncle Li carrying a hoe.
"Oh, Xiao Qi's back. Did a car bring you just now?"
She felt somewhat strange that he called her Xiao Qi. Previously, he had always called her the Su Family's crippled daughter. Adults in the village didn't remember children's names. They usually called them someone's daughter or someone's son. She didn't expect that he would actually call her by name.
"Hello Uncle Li. No car. I walked back." Xiao Qi replied.
"It's too dangerous for a young girl to walk back herself like this. You should have asked your dad to come get you." Face beaming with kindness, the not-so-familiar Uncle Li said.
Xiao Qi: ......
She said she had to go back first and hurriedly left.
Indeed, no matter how confident or unconfident she felt, she was still no match for the uncles and aunties in the village.
She felt somewhat weird.
Li Zhicai wanted to chat some more and ask whether she really won the award and got so much money. Some people said it was just an honorary certificate and didn't necessarily come with that much money. There were still taxes too. But she had already run off, which was a pity. Still, he had just come back from the vegetable plots and could go over to the Su's house after dinner at home to gossip. Everyone in the village must be curious.
Xiao Qi got home with her backpack still leaving Sheng Juanhua and Su Youfu flabbergasted.
"I told you to go straight to your aunt and uncle's place tomorrow. Why did you come back again?" Sheng Juanhua asked in a worried and angry tone.
Her daughter's personality was a bit like her dad's. Stubborn at times.
Su Youfu also put down what he was weaving and came over to take her backpack.
"If you wanted to come back, you should have called dad to pick you up. Why did you carry such a heavy bag yourself?" Su Youfu was short and not very strong. He picked up his daughter's backpack and felt his hand sink.
The family went into the kitchen. Su Youfu put the backpack on the chicken coop.
Every household in Gumula Village had a chicken coop built into their kitchen, which looked like a hollow bench against the wall with a small door on its side. The chickens and ducks they raised ran freely outside during the day and were herded back into the chicken coop at night.
The coop could not only hold chickens. They could also bury ginger in it to dig out pieces to eat when needed.
It also served as a bench to put things on so they didn't have to get a separate long bench for their dining table.
Xiao Qi opened her backpack, took out the fruits her aunt had given her, and placed them on top afraid they'd get smashed.
Several big, beautiful bright red dragon fruits.
Then there was the liquor she'd bought for her grandma. Her grandma liked drinking and face. Xiao Qi didn't know much about alcohol, but she knew the Erguotou they usually drank at home was cheap. This one was bought at a proper supermarket, cost over 100 yuan, and came in a nice case. The bottle also looked nice. It should be fine as a gift for grandma.
She also took out the clothes she'd bought for her maternal grandparents and the shoes for her mom.
The not-so-big bag held quite a lot of stuff.
Taking out gifts truly felt great. Giving feels even better than receiving.
Sheng Juanhua didn't expect her daughter to be so thoughtful and had actually bought gifts for her parents.
To be honest, her family did not fully agree when she married into Gumula Village. They thought Su Youfu was short, had no money, was disabled physically, and his mother was hard to deal with. His only redeeming quality was being educated, but what use was education to a farmer.
However, she only gave birth to one daughter over all these years so her Sheng family couldn't say much either.
They could only say her son-in-law had good character. He didn't smoke, drink, beat his wife, or womanize. He didn't discriminate against their one and only daughter either.
Despite all that, over the years they didn't have much money left to support their daughter's education after living expenses. When she returned to her maternal home, she could only bring some vegetables. They'd buy a fish or something for New Year and festivals. They really didn't have any nice gifts, but whenever she came back from her maternal home, she carried large bags of stuff. Her sisters-in-law were never too pleased.
She looked again at the red leather shoes her daughter had bought her. The leather was so soft. She touched the shoes then touched her own face. Just as soft and smooth!
The soles were made of beef tendon too. The color was beautiful.
Sheng Juanhua broke into smiles even as she couldn't help but say, "I already have so many shoes. The closet is full. You wasted money again."
Xiao Qi knew her mom was referring to that closet full of shoes, many of which were several years old already.
There were only those few pairs that she kept wearing repeatedly. Even her wedding shoes were still around. Hard as wood and her feet couldn't even fit in anymore!
She didn't buy Dad a gift but gave him a bank passbook instead.
It contained her prize money and recent tutoring fees. She had deposited twenty thousand yuan total.
Seeing the money in the passbook, Su Youfu's eyes turned red.
He didn't have the habit of depositing money in a bank. Over all these years, they never had any extra money to deposit. At most they'd stuff some cash into corners of their suitcase. Dig it out when needed. Often not enough to use.
"When I make money in the future, I'll deposit into this account too. Isn't there also something called a card? You hold on to the card and can withdraw when I'm in college." Su Youfu had clearly tried to understand.
He still carefully put away the bank book into a corner of the suitcase.
Sheng Juanhua also tidied up and efficiently started a fire to cook dinner. She had been preparing pig feed earlier.
She poured the wash from the pigs' food back into the pot to recook it with some vegetables and rice hull. It helped pigs grow fat and their meat to be more compact and delicious. Real farm-grown pigs. You couldn't buy this quality in the city. Commercial pig farms also wouldn't raise pigs with such care and attention.
As Sheng Juanhua cooked, she told Xiao Qi to deliver the liquor to her grandma.
Her grandma had come over asking several times after hearing Xiao Qi was on TV. Trying to figure out exactly how much money was involved.
Sheng Juanhua told her to carry the liquor while getting Su Youfu to bring two of the dragon fruits over to her grandma's place together.
On their way over, they passed half the village. Word had already spread out that Xiao Qi was back and bought her grandma liquor.
Xiao Qi understood her mom's underlying intention but when it came to grandma, she really couldn't resist either and could only obediently listen.
After handing over the liquor, Xiao Qi rarely saw her grandma not frowning at her. She actually revealed a smile. Only then did Xiao Qi realize smiling, her grandma was actually quite a good-looking old lady.
Xiao Qi had heard her paternal grandma was the daughter of a landowning family who went to private school as a child to study the Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean and such.
However, her grandma had never looked kindly upon her before.
Money-losing goods. She had grown up listening to this title all the time. Her ears were calloused. She often wanted to ask why grandma was so harsh towards her as a fellow woman.
But she didn't dare to speak this out. Grandma could throw herself onto the ground bawling and cursing for over an hour without repeating herself even once.
Back when they still lived together, little Xiao Qi coveted the tasty dishes on grandma's table like braised fish or steamed minced meat rolls. She would hold her bowl wanting to eat only to get thoroughly caned by mom for it. The thin bamboo branches stung sharply in rapid succession but wouldn't seriously injure. She remembered crying herself hoarse but it was useless. She obediently stopped afterward. Even when grandma served appetizing dishes, she didn't dare go over holding her bowl anymore.
Only later did she realize the sheer injustice. Grandma wanting to pick fault would scold mom over anything. Really nothing better to use as an excuse, she'd accuse mom of inciting her to eat grandma's food. But she was the one drooling over those tantalizing smells of pan-fried fish. Eyes staring longingly, she'd just head over there herself without any egging on. Consequently little Xiao Qi still preferred meat over greens even now. Perhaps the deep-rooted childhood obsession ran too deep!
Looking at the currently affable-looking grandma before her, Xiao Qi was suddenly reminded of childhood memories as if merely yesterday.
Yet grandma seemed largely unchanged over time if not for the deeper wrinkles on her face.
After delivering the liquor, grandma unexpectedly asked Xiao Qi to stay for dinner!
Little Xiao Qi who had obsessed over partaking of grandma's table back then and got thoroughly whacked over it several times as a result felt somewhat honored and a bit shocked.
She hurriedly declined, saying mom had cooked dinner already.
Rather rattled, she dragged dad along to run back.
Su Youfu was also startled by his mother's unusual display of affection...He couldn't recall mother being so intimate ever since young when he was scolded all the way into adulthood...
Rather shaken, father and daughter simultaneously heaved in relief only upon seeing the broken wall in front of their house.
Xiao Qi said: "Dad, let's repair the wall when you have time. We can even build a small yard."
