1987 My Era

Chapter 7: Heroic Characters
Rubbing his temples with both hands, Li Heng tried to calm himself down and continue writing.

About an hour later, Tian Run'e, who was helping in the kitchen at Chen's house, came back. Seeing a faint yellow light coming from the second floor, she went into her own kitchen.

After a while, Tian Run'e brought a bowl of egg custard and placed it on the desk:

"Manzai, eat it while it's hot, or it will get cold."

Li Heng knew his mother's temper too well. He said nothing and finished the egg custard in one breath under her gaze.

After he finished eating, Tian Run'e pointed at the臊子面 and asked, "Who sent it?"

Li Heng said, "Big sister."

This answer did not surprise her. In her opinion, the second and third sons were stubborn and would not bring themselves to do such a thing.

Only the eldest brother is heartless and cheerful all day long.

This made her wonder, whose son is the boss? Why is he so stupid?
Tian Run'e didn't ask him whether he wanted to eat the bowl of noodles, but picked it up and left.

When she opened the door and was about to leave the room, Li Heng couldn't help but look back: "Mom, my second sister should not be asleep yet."

The reason why he was so sure was that Li Lan studied even harder than he did, and was often still doing exercises and reading books at two in the morning.

In the countryside, there is actually no way around it. She has to help with housework during the day and can only squeeze out some time at night.

Tian Run'e glanced at her second daughter's single room and said unhappily, "She said she wanted to lose weight, so she won't eat!"

Li Heng's face twitched when he heard this, and he remained silent.

Maybe the second sister felt that her mother never made her midnight snacks when she was not at home, and that she had taken advantage of her mother to have the egg custard today, so she refused to eat it.

He had no watch and didn't know the exact time. When he was woken up in the middle of the night by the urge to pee, he found that the kerosene lamp was still on in his second sister's room.

Thinking that the girl must have fallen asleep because she was too sleepy and forgot to turn off the kerosene lamp, and the second floor was full of firewood, Li Heng, worried about the potential fire hazard, grabbed the door handle and pushed the door.

Huh?
Can’t push it open, is there a bolt inside?
With this thought in mind, Li Heng put his head close to the gap and looked inside.

Oh, what a guy!
It would be fine if he didn't look at it, but once he did, his eyes immediately bulged up to his forehead.

Guess what this second sister is doing?

She was actually eating secretly, drinking sweet wine secretly, and she used a vegetable bowl. It was such a big bowl, bigger than the plate on her face.

Probably having noticed the noise outside the door, Li Lan turned her head and glanced, then turned off the kerosene lamp.

Li Heng knocked on the door and whispered, "Second sister, don't you have a stomachache? The doctor told you that you can't drink sweet wine, why are you still drinking it?"

In his childhood memories, there were three things about his second sister that left the deepest impression on him:
One is fierce.

The second is greed.

Three are stomachaches.

Her stomachache seemed to have started in the second year of junior high school. Every morning when she woke up, she would hold her stomach and lie on the doorstep to vomit clear water, looking very painful.

In order to get her medical treatment, the whole family took great pains. They would carry her out before dawn every morning and visit doctors everywhere.

Including the town's health hospital.

Including famous barefoot doctors from all over the country.

This persistence lasted for more than a year, and it was a real pain in the ass for everyone in the Li family, leaving them mentally and physically exhausted.

Ironically, the doctors at the town clinic didn't know what disease she had. They couldn't find out what disease she had, so they randomly prescribed some medicine for her, but the pain got worse.

Later, a doctor who had retired from the army told them that it was probably a stomach problem and recommended trying ranitidine.

Li Heng remembered it very clearly. The retired military doctor prescribed him a dose of ranitidine for 3 yuan, which was very effective. After taking it for just over a week, the pain seemed to be gone.

Seeing that he had seen the sweet wine in the bowl clearly, Li Lan, who was still swallowing quietly in the dark, paused, and simply stopped pretending and started eating again in big mouthfuls.

Our family was very poor these days and there was not much to eat during our free time. Sweet wine and jar dishes were the few things we could eat as snacks.

But the doctor and Tian Run'e explicitly forbade her to touch these two things.

But she is a born foodie and is very greedy. What should she do?
I can only bear it.

If you really can't help it, you'll have to wait until everyone is asleep and then get up in the middle of the night to eat secretly.

Li Heng thought that he was also a foodie, but compared with his second sister, he was inferior and felt ashamed of himself.

He immediately threatened her tentatively: "If you keep eating, I will call my parents to come up..." "Bang!"

Before he could finish his words, she kicked the door with a clang.

The sudden vibration of the door scared Li Heng who was leaning against the door.

No one spoke inside or outside the door after that, and it was extremely quiet for a while.

After a moment, the door opened a crack, and a bowl came out with a clang in the darkness.

Seeing this, Li Heng felt inexplicably happy, thinking to himself that there really is always someone stronger than him. This fearless second sister could only be controlled by Comrade Tian Run'e.

But the next moment, his face fell. The bowl was empty, and the bottom of the bowl was even cleaner than if it had been licked by a dog.

Li Heng gave in and went downstairs with an empty bowl in a sullen manner.

That night, he slept very well as he was tired from writing.

If it weren't for the loud shouting and roaring outside early in the morning, he wouldn't have woken up and could still sleep.

Ok?
Why is it my second sister’s voice?

Looks like you're arguing with someone?
Li Heng, who was still a little dazed at first, lost all sleepiness instantly after confirming that it was his second sister's yelling and cursing, and jumped up.

Who is this blind person who dares to quarrel with our second sister?

Can you scold me?

Aren't you just looking for trouble?
After putting on his clothes and shoes, Li Heng hurried to the first floor. As soon as he stepped out of the door with his right foot, he saw rows of people on the street watching the show.

There were men, women, old and young, gathered in three layers, shouting and making noises.

A quick glance showed that almost everyone from the two nearby production teams was there, and all the people who had gone to Chen's house to help came out to watch.

After Li Heng struggled to squeeze into the crowd, he finally found out who the unlucky guy was.
It turned out to be Aunt Pang, the gossipy woman.

After listening to the neighbors' discussions, he finally understood what had happened:
Li Lan, who was picking pig grass early this morning, learned from others that Aunt Pang had gossiped about Li Jianguo and Li Heng behind their backs yesterday, and even contradicted Tian Run'e in person. She was immediately furious.

She immediately stopped cutting grass for the pigs, picked up a sickle, and went to find the fat aunt who was pulling radishes in the field and started verbally lecturing.

At first, Aunt Pang was not convinced. After all, she was a well-known expert in quarreling. She had lived for decades and had seen all kinds of situations.

Men, women, old and young who have been defeated by her can fill up rivers and build dams. How can they weaken in front of a little girl?
So the two of them greeted each other's ancestors in the field...

But when Li Lan came over and slapped her a few times without reason, the fat aunt with disheveled hair was so scared that she tried to fight back, but was grabbed by the hair and pressed into the dirt. She couldn't scold him, and she couldn't beat him in a fight. What should she do? She could only run home crying.

Li Lan had been used to being strong since she was a child. She would not give in when she had the upper hand, and she chased him all the way along the ridge of the field, all the way to the Liang family.

The cheating man named Liang wanted to help his wife, but he was at most 1.58 meters tall, while Li Lan was 1.67 meters tall. When they stood together, he was completely overwhelmed.

Seeing her husband so useless and cowardly, Aunt Fat screamed and was so scared that she quickly closed the door!
As soon as the door was closed, the fat aunt, who had just been like a lost dog, felt a little more confident. She danced through the window, pointing and cursing.

Li Lan was not going to tolerate her and kicked the window, causing three wooden window frames to break.

Seeing that neither the door nor the window could block the evil spirit, Aunt Fat was frightened again. She turned and ran to the bedroom, locked the door, and burst into tears.

This time, Aunt Pang was so scared that she didn't dare to scold Li Lan. Instead, she started swearing at her husband and daughter-in-law, scolding them for being unable to stop a young girl, scolding them for being useless and allowing outsiders to bully their home, and scolding them for only caring about having an affair and not caring about her life or death.

Seeing that the woman was indiscriminate, the cheating man named Liang, who had no feelings for Li Lan to begin with, became disgraced and immediately stopped caring about it, allowing Li Lan to break the door and windows. Amidst the laughter, he left the scene in disgrace.

After the father-in-law left, the daughter-in-law, who had always been at odds with her mother-in-law, did not stop him and followed suit and returned to her parents' home in the next village.

This was a great show, a great show! Half of the people in Shangwan Village were stunned.

Everyone knew that Li Lan was good at talking and no one dared to mess with her, but no one expected her to be so powerful that she even chased him home with a sickle.

The village cadres rushed over after hearing the noise.

Li Jianguo and Tian Run'e also rushed over, along with many other people, including Chen Gaoyuan. They all stopped Li Lan and said nice things to her to calm her down.

Although Li Lan was a vicious person, he had a very high emotional intelligence. When he saw that all the important figures in the village had arrived, after threatening Aunt Fat at the gate of the Liang family, he decided to take advantage of the situation and quit while he was ahead.

On the way home, Li Lan was like a god of war, and the surrounding villagers automatically made way for her amidst the sounds of admiration.

Chen Zitong came over and saw Li Lan looking over, so he hurriedly avoided her sight.

Chen Xiaomi was also there, but she was not afraid of Li Lan. The two women looked at each other meaningfully and then went home.

(End of this chapter)