Chapter 21: National Day (Before, During and After) Part 2
National Day celebrations, people on holiday at home can't miss various national day art performances and popular dramas. After a whole day of TV drama baptism, when switching channels at night, you'll find that most channels have similar phrases: "Respected guests, dear friends, good evening! The grand National Day ceremony is coming to us again. In this fiery October, let's swing our magnificent emotions across the land!" or "Vast Kunlun Mountains, majestic Great Wall, tonight we will create an autumn story in our own way, using our wisdom and hands to write a new chapter. Tonight, let's sing with abandon, tonight let's dance with joy! Let's dedicate our songs to our great motherland, and our dances to a beautiful tomorrow!"
These songs praising the motherland's blessings, despite this, still evoke people's unparalleled enthusiasm. Just like my dad and mom sitting on the bed leaning against the headboard, watching and talking about which program is good, even sighing that the motherland has changed a lot in recent years, I listened to them thinking: The big changes are yet to come, these are just small rain showers, the stock market frenzy and the storm of buying houses have not landed yet. In this life, I must help you become rich!
The phone rang a while later, and it was my aunt calling to say that she would be bringing my cousin over to our house tomorrow to play. I quickly asked my mom to ask my aunt if my grandmother was coming too, and as expected, the answer was the same as always: "Sister, there's no one at home, Mom is worried, so this time she won't be coming. We'll wait for another opportunity." My aunt said this, and my mom couldn't say anything else because saying more would only make things harder for my grandmother. This "opportunity" was just an empty promise. Thinking back to the past, my grandmother had come to our house less than twice a year, and there was even one year when she didn't come at all because of the busy harvest season and then selling chickens and pigs. My grandmother was basically the old servant of the family. Not only did my aunt bully her with words, but she would also hit her. My grandmother was afraid that the family would fall apart, so she always endured in silence. Over time, this had formed a knot in her heart, which made her sick and even affected her brain. When my uncle wanted to take her to the city for medical treatment, my aunt said that she was old and could die anytime, which was not something a daughter-in-law should say. My uncle was afraid of causing more stress for my grandmother, so he sent her to our house to rest. There was one time when my grandmother ran away, and my mom was so anxious that she almost called the police. Luckily, someone brought her back in the end. I won't let something like this happen again in this lifetime.
I ran over to answer the phone and said sweetly, "Auntie, Grandma isn't coming this time, but this time Yongle Supermarket is opening, seniors can get a free bottle of salad oil and buy some cheap food, limited to one per senior, with ID. If Grandma doesn't come, then...
I didn't say anything, but my aunt understood. She's always been greedy for small advantages. My aunt changed her tone and said: "Xiao Xiao, I'll persuade your mom to go with us. After all, she doesn't have many chances to visit her daughter's home in a year, and there's a dog at home, so it's okay to stay for one or two nights. Your cousin also hopes that your mom will follow us."
Mom took the phone and said, "Xiao Qin, we'll wait for you to have lunch tomorrow." After hanging up the phone, Mom smiled and said, "Baby, how come I haven't heard that Yongle Supermarket has such a good thing?"
"Hehe, mom, I was just kidding. You know aunt loves to take advantage of small benefits. She brought grandma over, and later we can buy her more stuff, she'll be happy about it, isn't that a win-win situation?"
"Bad girl, no wonder grandma likes you so much. Alright, let's finish watching this show and go to bed early tonight, we still need to go to the market to buy vegetables tomorrow." "Mmm, mom, I want to go to the big market with you."
The next morning at 7 o'clock, my mother took me to the big market on her bicycle. There were a lot of people and the vendors' calls filled the air. We had to park our bicycles outside. My mother seemed to have a clear plan, so we first went to the chicken meat stall and bought some chicken breast and thighs. Looking at this bustling scene, I couldn't help but think that soon this market would be my second uncle's domain. Later, we also went to the pork stall and bought some pork liver and waist meat, and then we bought some vegetables like tomatoes and potatoes. With all these groceries in hand, we happily headed home.
At noon, of course, it was Dad who cooked, and who made delicious dishes. Dad made eight dishes, including pig liver soup, Kung Pao chicken, fried chicken legs, potato scrambled meat, and cold mixed vegetables. I couldn't help but want to dig in, you know, the charm of fried chicken legs never fades! Around 11 o'clock, my grandma and others finally arrived, and I went up to hug her and said: "Grandma, you're finally here, I've missed you so much."
Grandma smiled and said, "I miss you too, little girl." I also called out to my aunt and cousin, and Mom invited us to eat. Before long, Dad's last dish was ready, and we all ate happily. I kept serving Grandma food, and she told me to eat some too. I said, "Don't worry, I won't get full at my own home!" My cousin was eating with greasy hands and mouth, but Aunt wasn't full yet - she had eaten a lot of meat and was saying to herself, "Sister's cooking is really good, I'm not full yet! Mom, let Xiangfeng eat some more too."
In the afternoon, I went to the mall and walked around. On the way back in the evening, I saw colorful fireworks exploding in the sky, which was really beautiful. My cousin was very excited, running and jumping around. But suddenly, a car came from the side, and my cousin was so scared that he stood still. The car also stopped under emergency braking. We rushed over to find that my cousin had fainted into his grandmother's arms. The driver could only take us to People's Hospital, where we did some checks and found nothing serious, just a fright, but it seemed that the heartbeat was a bit abnormal, with a lack of sound. Of course, there was nothing wrong with the driver, and the doctor suggested doing a specific examination.
Two days later, the examination revealed that my brother had congenital atrial septal defect, which was a condition he had since birth. It was just discovered earlier than expected. I wasn't very surprised, and I knew that soon my uncle would come back to take my brother to the children's hospital for surgery. However, my grandmother looked worried, my mother couldn't smile, and my aunt felt disbelieving and confused. Fortunately, the doctor said that the success rate of this disease's surgery was very high, and the best age for surgery was around 10 years old, which would not have a big impact on daily life. That's why my brother didn't discover it until he had his physical examination in the first year of junior high school.
After the report came out, Auntie immediately called Uncle to come back. Uncle handled the relevant matters and finally returned from Wenzhou after a day. After inquiring about the situation, Uncle decided that Tabo should have surgery. However, Auntie had some doubts and whispered: "Huqing, this surgery is too expensive, and even if it's successful, he'll still be different from normal people. My mom said we're still young and can have another child."
Uncle was furious and said: "Li Xiaoying, Zhan Feng is your son, how can you say such a thing? How could Lu Huqing marry a woman like you? I've long heard that you're not good to my mom, my mom told me to turn a blind eye, otherwise the family would fall apart. But you're so ruthless to your own son, how can I spend the rest of my life with you? I want a divorce, I must get a divorce."
Aunt naturally was not dependent, scolding uncle must have been someone outside, saying how hard she was at home, scolding my mom for stirring up trouble, scolding my grandmother for not speaking normally but urging her son to divorce, even threatening to let her two younger brothers come and make a scene, so that uncle's reputation in the village was ruined.
"Li Xiaoying, you're just causing trouble. You think our family has no one to stand up for us? When my dad died, your family didn't make a big deal out of it, did they? Our reputation was already ruined back then. Do you think the people in Pingtou Village are all fools and can't see that you've been bullying my mom at home? This marriage is definitely off."
Aunt cried and cried, grandma looked worried, and said to my mom: "Daughter, this family is really going to fall apart, you'd better persuade your brother to get a divorce, or else people will point at his nose and scold him..." Mom comforted grandma, telling her not to worry about it, the children have their own blessings, there's no use in interfering. Uncle has his own ideas anyway. I was also comforting grandma on the side.
As expected, this time it was very fast. My aunt returned to her parents' home with her two brothers, and her father and mother came to make a scene again and again, even running to my house to cause trouble. This only accelerated my uncle's disgust. In the end, my aunt's mother demanded that my uncle compensate her daughter with 20,000 yuan, or else she would not agree to divorce. My uncle borrowed money from all sides and finally came up with 20,000 yuan. Of course, my mother also took out the money she had saved for opening a shop, because she saw my uncle's determination. You should know that my uncle is a very strong person. Even when his father and wife passed away, he was not so helpless and desperate. This time, he even said that if they didn't get divorced, he really felt like life had no meaning.
Finally, my uncle and aunt got divorced, and my uncle was freed. Soon after, the money from Wenzhou's business came down, he repaid the external debts, and the remaining money could only be used for my cousin's surgery, it was impossible to go back to Wenzhou to operate again.
In November, my uncle took my cousin to the children's hospital for surgery. My mother accompanied him throughout the whole process. Fortunately, my cousin's mother usually takes good care of him. After busy running back and forth for over a month, my cousin was finally discharged from the hospital.
At this time, Uncle waited for an opportunity to go to the Shenyang office to sell deep well pumps. He entrusted his brother and grandmother to his mother and promised to return the money to open a store as soon as possible. His mother said that one family does not speak two families' words, and naturally would not shirk taking care of her brother and grandmother. His father also accepted it very openly, hoping that Uncle could triumphantly return home.
This divorce will bring great changes to Uncle's family, and everything will develop in a better direction, it's just that everything seems a bit gloomy for now.
