In the kitchen, Cheng Hongli was with Zhao Yuanyuan, serving food and setting chopsticks.
Zhao Yuanyuan secretly nudged her, leaned close to her ear, and said, "Mom, have you noticed that Grandma Jiaojiao is very strange? I’ve seen her several times looking a bit off. I can’t quite describe the feeling."
Cheng Hongli shushed her forcefully. She glared at Zhao Yuanyuan and said in a low voice, "Don’t talk nonsense. Uncle Zhou is a smart person. What doesn’t he understand? Keep quiet."
Zhao Yuanyuan pouted. She just felt Grandma Jiaojiao was different from her own grandmother.
After a while, Cheng Hongli heard a noise and looked out. Seeing them come in, she smiled and greeted Mrs. Zhou, "Aunt, please sit down. Your daughter-in-law has prepared everything, worried that you might find it too hard to eat, and specially made an egg cake for you."
Mrs. Zhou nodded approvingly, smiling at Zhao Yuanyuan, saying, "I’ve seen this girl before, she has quite a good relationship with our Jiao Jiao. Has the little girl come to play with our Jiao Jiao recently? Truly didn’t expect our families to be old friends through Ah Zheng. We really are destined."
Cheng Hongli, beaming, gestured and said happily, "Indeed, it’s destiny. We met Brother Zheng when my husband and I were stationed at the East North Military Zone. At that time, Yuanyuan was as old as I was, and Brother Zheng was quite influential; everyone in the Military Zone knew him. This unexpected reunion made us extremely happy. Thank goodness Brother Zheng returned safely."
"Heaven’s blessings indeed. Seeing him return, my heart is at ease. Our Jiao Jiao often relies on your couple’s care. Even if you hadn’t known Ah Zheng, I would still want him and Shanshan to visit. Now it’s all good, everyone already knows each other. You should treat Ah Zheng as a brother, no need for formalities."
Zhao Dashan cheerfully looked at everyone, pulling out a chair for the old lady to sit, "Aunt, please sit. Brother Zheng is already like a brother to me. I won’t be formal with him. Seeing him buy so much seafood, we all visited without hesitation, already treating this as our own home. Why be formal in one’s own home, right?"
Zhou Xiaozheng saw they were engaged in conversation and headed towards the warehouse.
He looked around and saw Xiao Wu had tidied it up quite neatly. Apart from a few baskets, the rest of the seafood was all placed in large bamboo baskets, and the burlap bags were cleaned and hung outside.
Seeing there wasn’t much he needed to clean up himself, he leaned against the wall, secretly pondering, planning to arrange everything during this holiday, wait till Ping’an’s full-month celebration is done, and leave, he couldn’t delay returning to the team anymore.
Shanshan had only a few days off, he still needed to go to Zhao Chuang Guang for a phone call to Beijing to see if it could be postponed, need to wait until the full month celebration is finished before going back.
Zhang Guoqing entered the yard after getting off the car and heard the laughter coming from the kitchen.
He noticed the warehouse door was open, looked in, and found his father-in-law inside. He paused in his steps, thought for a moment, and decided to go in.
He approached and greeted softly, "Dad, everything is delivered. I gave two yellow croakers to a few elders as a return gift. Zuo Lin’s couple weren’t home, so I let his daughter-in-law receive it. I sent two bamboo baskets to my eldest and second sister, they wanted to give me return gifts, but I didn’t accept, just drove back."
Zhou Xiaozheng looked playfully at the bamboo basket he put down and said, "You gave two fish, and gained a bunch of gifts, still profited. What’s going on with Mrs. Zhou today? I saw the things in the car brought back."
Zhang Guoqing looked at the walnuts, red dates, and some brown sugar in the basket, smiled. Hearing him mention the Zhou family’s matters, he sighed quietly.


VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space