Five years of marriage, always separated [1970s]

At this moment, Geng Zhiye deeply understood why Ye Fan reminded him to "stay out of it." He said unhappily, "Go and serve the dumplings."

"Would you like some soup?"

Geng Zhiye asked back: "The original soup turns into the original food. What do you think? Serve them separately!"

Geng Zhiqin went to the main room to get a cup: "I'll use this."

"He can't possibly not have a water cup. Go to the hospital and pour it into his cup." Geng Zhiye knew that his sister was deliberately trying to annoy him. As expected, Geng Zhiqin's face changed as soon as he finished speaking, as if to say, "Is this still possible?"

Yu Wentao: "Can you hide your little trick from your brother? Don't waste time, it's nine o'clock."

When Geng Zhiqin saw that even her mother was impatient and worried about being attacked by the whole family, she didn't dare to hesitate and just followed her brother to the hospital.

When they reached the door of the emergency room, Geng Zhiye stopped and Geng Zhiqin went in carrying a water cup and a lunch box.

When Geng Zhiqin came out, Geng Zhiye instinctively wanted to ask him what his reaction was, but suddenly he remembered Ye Fan's warning, so he swallowed his words and took Geng Zhiqin home.

Geng Zhiqin was puzzled. Before she came, her brother was more anxious than anyone else. Now that the dumplings were delivered, her brother didn't ask anything. Then she thought it was getting late, her brother must be anxious to go home, so she would ask again when she got home or tomorrow morning.

The next day, Geng Zhiqin got up early, but Geng Zhiye was busy playing badminton with Erbao in the alley.

Geng Zhiqin suspected that he had forgotten to enter the house after sleeping all night.

Ye Fan was washing clothes in the yard, Geng Sensen helped her pour water into the washing machine. Geng Leilei and Geng Huihui washed men's and women's underwear respectively, while Dabao squatted beside her and brushed his shoes.

Everyone was busy, so Geng Zhiqin went to the kitchen and saw her mother cooking eggs and heating up steamed buns, so she asked if she needed help.

Yu Wentao gave her five yuan and asked her to buy tofu pudding and spicy soup. Dabao shouted, "Grandma, Brother Sen Sen and I will go. Brother Sen Sen has never eaten tofu pudding and spicy soup."

Ye Fan glanced at his son: "You speak as if you have eaten it."

Dabao: "I have eaten it before. You and dad took me to the store to eat it."

Ye Fan asked: "Have you ever eaten two kinds of food?"

Dabao has never eaten it: "I didn't say I had eaten it either."

He was so unreasonable that Ye Fan didn't want to pay attention to him. "Sesen, when does school start?"

"You can report to the school during the last three days of the month. It's not too late to go there on September 1st." Geng Sensen was admitted to the School of Finance and Economics, but not accounting. Yang Mengxia was worried that he would be rejected, and he was worried too. Considering that accounting was popular these days, he applied for finance, which he himself was confused about.

Geng Sensen was confident in every exam, and his scores were always lower than he expected. The college entrance examination was no exception. When the scores came out, he thought he would have to repeat the year, but the day before Dabao came to his house, Geng Sensen received an admission letter.

Geng Sensen suspected that he was admitted through supplementary enrollment. His major was not accounting, but finance, which most people had never heard of. He felt embarrassed when he thought of his major. "Aunt, what do you think I can do after graduation?"

Ye Fan was confused by the question: "What?"

"Yeah. What is finance?"

Ye Fan opened her mouth, asking as if she knew something about finance: "After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was almost all planned economy, I can't give an example. There was a period of time during the Republic of China when money was worthless, a sack of paper money could be exchanged for a pound of rice. Go to the library and look up the economy of that period, you should be able to find the answer."

“But it’s also a semi-planned economy now.”

Ye Fan: "There was a gap of two or three years between the first and second special economic zones? When you graduate, maybe the capital will be able to set up a factory. In a few years, there will be more private enterprises, and foreign investors will come in, and they will definitely need the knowledge you have learned."

"But I don't want to work for a state-owned enterprise, nor do I want to work for a government agency."

Ye Fan asked: "Did you plan to join a research institute?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, my score is not high enough. If I review, my dad will be transferred at the end of the year and I will move with him. I will waste time on the road and may not do as well as this year." Geng Sensen told the truth, "So I think if I can't go to the research institute, I will help you."

Ye Fan: "You can take accounting as an elective."

Geng Sensen pointed at his head and said, "Do you think I can do it?"

Ye Fan said, "Find out what the professor of accounting likes. If he likes food, give him the morels and bamboo fungus that Dabao brought. If he likes antiques, pick anything from my antique shelf. It's not worth much, but it's a token of my appreciation. If he doesn't understand in class, ask him to give you extra lessons after class. He won't be able to refuse."

Geng Sensen: "Can I find someone to tutor me in college?"

Ye Fan nodded: "Although the teacher is annoyed by having his personal plans disrupted, he also likes to be a role model and answer questions for students."

The depression between Geng Sensen's brows disappeared.

Geng Dabao wrapped his white sneakers in toilet paper, washed his hands, and said, "Brother Sensen, go get the pot."

Ye Fan: "Family members can take two more."

Yu Wentao gave Dabao the two small pots that were used to hold green bean soup and white fungus soup yesterday. Each pot could hold ten bowls of porridge. Geng Zhiqin gave them five yuan.

Dabao ordered half a pot of tofu pudding and half a pot of spicy soup. There were seven bowls in each pot. The old man waiting for the fried dough sticks asked, "Dabao, can you finish all this?"

Dabao nodded: "I can eat one and a half bowls, my father can drink two or three bowls, and my brother can drink two bowls. These may not be enough." Smelling the aroma of fried dough sticks, "Master, give me four to six fried dough sticks."

The old man was anxious: "Little Dabao, do you understand first come first served? Go home!"

Dabao curled his lips at him and went home with his cousin.

Ye Fan's classmate asked: "I seem to have heard the name 'Da Bao' somewhere before. Who is that boy from?"

The man who was in a hurry to go to work wiped his mouth and said as he walked away: "Ye Fan's eldest son. The second child is a daughter, named Erbao."

The classmate suddenly realized: "The eyes and nose really look like Ye Fan! I didn't even notice it just now. What the hell is going on?"

The old man said, "Dabao may not know that you are his mother's high school classmate. However, I feel that Dabao is more like his father."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard footsteps. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw Geng Dabao coming back. He subconsciously asked, "Where's your pot?"

"It's mine, right?" Dabao pointed at the fried dough sticks he had just fished out.

"Mine!" The old man picked up the food with long chopsticks and stuffed it into the paper bag before he felt relieved. "Eat less."

Dabao: "My mother can afford it. You can think of this because you are used to being hungry when you were young?"

The old man was holding the pot and the fried dough sticks with his hands free, "I'm going to kick you, kid!" He raised his foot and kicked.

"Take it easy. If anything happens, you'll be held responsible." Dabao dodged smoothly and picked up a paper bag. "Is it my turn now?"

A few people who were in a hurry to get to work said, "Ours."

Dabao was too embarrassed to compete with them, so he waited for five minutes before it was his turn.

The spicy tofu soup at home is ready to drink after it is cooled for a few minutes. Dabao took a bite of spicy tofu soup and a bite of fried dough sticks. The more he ate, the more he wanted to eat. He drank two bowls and ate two fried dough sticks without realizing it.

Dabao looked at the clean bowl and said, "Mom, did this spicy soup contain something special? Otherwise, I can't explain why I want to eat more even though I'm full."

Geng Zhiqin wanted to say that the man selling spicy soup was your mother's classmate, but she heard her sister-in-law say, "The soup is bone soup with shredded chicken in it."

"No way?" Dabao brought the pot over. There was still half a bowl of it. He poured it into his own bowl, scooped a spoonful and stared at it for a long time and saw a few white dots. "Is this chicken?"

Ye Fan: "Try it."

Dabao picked one out with chopsticks and tasted it: "Is it really chicken? Is it worth the money?"

Ye Fan: "The meat pieces are so small, so maybe only one chicken is used in a pot of spicy soup. But since it is used, it cannot be completely ineffective."

Yu Wentao heard this and said, "If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten. I bought chicken and duck. Let's cook them all for lunch."

Erbao looked outside: "Where is it?"

Yu Wentao pointed at the refrigerator: "In the cold and fresh section."

Ye Fan: "Are you done packing?"

Yu Wentao smiled.

Ye Fan was surprised: "Didn't they ask for money?"

"It's not that good." Yu Wentao couldn't help laughing as she spoke. "Now there are more people selling meat and vegetables. When the vegetable market business is not good, they reform and help to clean up the live chickens and ducks. They are completely different from a few years ago. In the past, when I went to buy meat from them and asked them to cut an extra half a pound for me, they ignored me even after I paid them. Now they call me auntie as soon as they see me. It's too late!"

Geng Zhiqin: "It's too late, so why are you buying it?"

"It's not that it's hot and I don't want to clean up, I bought them?" Yu Wentao pouted, "I spend money on restaurants instead of going to the vegetable market."

Ye Fan: "If you don't want to clean up, how about hiring a nanny?"

Yu Wentao said without hesitation: "I have money to burn!"

Ye Fan choked.

Dabao pushed the bowl to his mother: "Ignore grandma. Drink the spicy soup!"

"I won't drink yours!" Ye Fan glared at him, "Don't mess with me!"

Dabao turned to his father. Geng Zhiye took it and added another half bowl of tofu pudding for himself: "Geng Dabao, who is better, mom or dad?"

Dabao wanted to roll his eyes. How could his father be more childish than him when he is already in his forties?

"Do you mean that mom is not well?" Dabao asked.

Geng Zhiye: "——You must have got full marks in reading comprehension!"

"Of course!" Dabao stood up, "Dad, do I have to live in the school dormitory?"

Geng Zhiye: "You live on campus!"

Yu Wentao couldn't help but say, "Since it's close, he can go to school as a day student. Sen Sen has to live on campus." Geng Zhiye shook his head, "He's unstable and goes to his classmates' houses to play after school in the afternoon. How can you find him?"

Dabao: "Comrade Geng, I am sixteen years old, seventeen in age, not a two or three year old child."

"You didn't dare run around when you were two or three years old." Geng Zhiye said.

Dabao snorted: "I can answer your question now. You are not as good as your mother!"

"I can be even worse. Do you want to broaden your horizons?" Geng Zhiye asked with a straight face.

Dabao's heart was beating fast, and he felt like something was going to hit him: "I'm busy. Brother Sen Sen, let's go pack our luggage."

When Geng Sensen was full, he stacked his bowl with Dabao's and went to Dabao's room - his luggage was in Dabao's bedroom.

Geng Leilei whispered, "Dabao is so young, it's easy for him to learn bad things from classmates who are three or four years older than him."

Geng Zhiye: "I will accompany him to register in two days to see if he can get along with his roommates."

Ye Fan: "I'll go too."

Geng Huihui: "Geng Dabao should be embarrassed if you two try to save face."

Geng Zhiye snorted: "He was afraid of the injection and cried in the hospital, but he didn't show any shyness."

Speaking of Dabao's fear of going to the hospital, Geng Huihui wanted to laugh: "Why is he still afraid of going to the hospital when he's this old?"

"Maybe the needle was too thick before and scared him." Geng Zhiye saw Zhang Xiaoming coming in, "His business is so good? How often does he come here?"

Ye Fan: "He went to the vicinity of the school these days, and his clothes sold very well. In a few days, the new students will report--" His eyes lit up, "You guys clean up the dishes." He wiped his mouth and went out.

Geng Huihui was surprised: "What happened to my aunt?"

"I guess he's thinking about money-making business again." Geng Zhiye wasn't surprised and asked Erbao if he had eaten enough.

Erbao patted his belly.

Geng Zhiye was furious. This was his daughter, but how could she be so unrestrained like a boy? "Second baby, stop patting your belly! Don't learn everything from your brother."

Erbao put down his hand and said unhappily, "I'll go find my mom, you clean it up yourself."

At the gate corridor, Erbao heard her mother discussing with Zhang Xiaoming about going to Jinshi to pick up two carloads of daily necessities, because many factories in the capital directly supply supply and marketing cooperatives and state-owned stores, and it would be better to go directly to Jinshi if they could not get a full supply in the capital.

Zhang Xiaoming asked: "When are we going?"

Ye Fan: "Early tomorrow morning."

Erbao held his mother's hand and said, "I haven't been there yet."

"It's close, so mom can take you with her. But we might have to stay in Tsu for a night, or we might go in the morning and come back in the afternoon. It's very tiring to go back and forth on the same day. Can you handle it?"

Erbao nodded: "Only those who endure the most hardships can become the best."

"Come on." Ye Fan said unceremoniously, "You are just asking for trouble."

Zhang Xiaoming smiled and said, "It's just asking for trouble."

Erbao pretended not to hear and let go of his mother to ask his brother for money.

Since he was going on a business trip and might be gone for two days, Zhang Xiaoming asked Ye Fan to get him three packages of clothing.

Ye Fan helped him carry it to the car. A boy who was facing Ye Fan hurriedly turned his back to her. Ye Fan frowned, as if she had never seen this person before. "Xiao Ming, who is that?" he asked in a low voice.

Zhang Xiaoming looked again and again, "It seems that the next door to me is your classmate's neighbor."

"Come to see my classmate?" Ye Fan asked in a low voice, "Then why is he hiding? Isn't he here to scout the place?"

Zhang Xiaoming pondered for a moment: "It's hard to say. I heard that this child has no parents and lives in a slum with his grandfather. His grandfather used to be a railway worker, but he retired after only a few years and has no pension. I have seen him a few times, and his clothes were patched and dirty. He doesn't look like a good kid."

Seeing that he didn't move, Ye Fan said, "I'll go over and ask. Can you keep an eye on him for me?"

Zhang Xiaoming was shorter than Ye Fan, but he was stronger than her: "I'll go. He's seen me, I'll go over and test him." After saying that, Zhang Xiaoming was ready to chase him if he ran away and shouted: "Guangming, why are you here?"

The boy shuddered.

Zhang Xiaoming stopped when he saw this, "Guangming, don't you know me? I'm Zhang Xiaoming, who lives next door to you. I also told your grandfather that we are destined to be together since we both have the word 'Ming' in our names." In fact, Zhang Xiaoming went out early and came back late, and had never spoken to Chu Guangming's grandfather.

The two families were close to each other, so they could see each other even if they looked up. Chu Guangming believed it and turned around.

Seeing his flushed face, Zhang Xiaoming couldn't help but glance at Ye Fan. What was going on?

Ye Fan relaxed and winked at him. Zhang Xiaoming called the man over, looked at the entrance of the alley and asked him if he was looking for a neighbor.

Chu Guangming shook his head subconsciously.

Zhang Xiaoming suddenly had an idea and asked, "Are you not looking for me?"

Chu Guangming wanted to shake his head and nod at the same time.

"Speak!" Zhang Xiaoming added, "If you don't, I'll go find your grandfather."

Chu Guangming looked at Ye Fan and said he was looking for her, then explained that the reason he knew Ye Fan's house was here was because he followed Zhang Xiaoming's car.

Zhang Xiaoming was immediately horrified: "You, you followed me? I didn't even notice!"

"When you're driving, you look ahead and forget to look back." Seeing him clasping his hands nervously, Ye Fan asked with a smile, "You're not looking for me, you want to play with my Dabao?"

Chu Guangming shook his head.

Ye Fan was puzzled as to why the young boy was looking for her. "Then tell me why you were looking for me."

Chu Guangming looked embarrassed and spoke hesitantly. It took Ye Fan a while to understand, "You want to sell clothes, but you don't have the capital, so you want to pay me after you sell them?"

Chu Guangming hung his head and nodded a few times.

Zhang Xiaoming and Ye Fan looked at each other. This kid definitely didn’t know that he could help Ye Fan sell the items, and he would get a guaranteed profit of two dollars after selling them.

Ye Fan was not afraid that Chu Guangming would not admit his mistake, but he did not dare to ask this boy to sell out. He was far away and could not see clearly just now, but now that he was closer, he felt that he was shorter than Dabao and not as big as Dabao.

Dabao is only sixteen, and he looks like fourteen or fifteen. Ye Fan doesn't dare to use child labor: "How old are you?"

"Seventeen." Chu Guangming said.

Zhang Xiaoming couldn't help but say, "You're not being honest! You won't be in the first year of high school until autumn, and you have seventeen?"

"I-I am Seventeen!"

Ye Fan: "If you are dishonest, I dare not give you the things."

Chu Guangming said hurriedly: "I, I am not yet sixteen. But I will be soon. I was born on the winter solstice, just a few months ago."

"That won't work either." Ye Fan said.

Chu Guangming was so anxious that he almost cried.

When Ye Fan thought about the fact that he was the same age as Dabao, he felt sorry for him. "Is your grandfather at home? Ask him to come over. I'll hand the things to him. If your grandfather tells you to sell them, it has nothing to do with me if anything goes wrong."

"But my grandpa is sick." Chu Guangming said.

Zhang Xiaoming asked: "Is it serious?"

Chu Guangming: "My aunt said it's not serious. I need to have a good rest. Aunt Ye - Aunt Ye, I can write you a letter of guarantee and I won't blame you if anything happens." His eyes were full of pleading, and he wished he could kneel down to Ye Fan.

Zhang Xiaoming couldn't help but think of himself being rejected by his blind date a few years ago: "Give me the things, I'll take him there."

Ye Fan frowned.

Zhang Xiaoming: "I'll keep an eye on him, and he can help me watch when I go to the toilet."

"What about tomorrow?"

Zhang Xiaoming thought about it and said, "Ask him to go to the store tomorrow. No one will cook lunch when I'm not home. He can go over and look after Dong Ying so she can buy groceries and cook. She's eating alone now and she won't be hungry for two people."

Ye Fan wanted to say, your daughter can cook too. But she saw Zhang Xiaoming begging her, "I'll take a bag." She went into the house to take a bag of clothes, and Zhang Xiaoming wanted to pay. Ye Fan glared at him and said to Chu Guangming, "I'll give it to you at the wholesale price, and pay me after you sell them."

Chu Guangming quickly bowed and thanked him.

Ye Fan: "Xiao Ming is kind-hearted, please don't cause him trouble. Otherwise, even if you don't pursue it, it won't stop your aunt from causing trouble for him on behalf of your grandfather."

Chu Guangming suddenly thought of his heartless father and troublesome stepmother: "I, I will never cause trouble for Uncle Xiaoming."

Zhang Xiaoming smiled and said, "Don't worry, Sister Ye. Guangming, get in the car. I told you that we are destined to be together."

Ye Fan couldn't help but sigh as he watched the car leave the alley.

Erbao came out of the yard: "Mom, Chu Guangming has parents. Xiaoming is a fool and doesn't know the truth."

Ye Fan's heart skipped a beat: "Say it again!"

"Really. Chu Guangming is my schoolmate. My classmate said that his father didn't want to go to the countryside, so he found a powerful daughter to marry into the family. After the revolution, his grandfather was persuaded to retire because of some radical things he did during the revolution. His father divorced his mother when he saw that his father-in-law had lost power. I heard that because he is good-looking and married a powerful man. I don't know how his father coaxed her, but his stepmother must have his father. His mother was angry with him because of his father's immorality, and she didn't allow him to take his mother's surname, and threw him to his grandfather." Erbao said, "Mom, if something happens to him, his father will be enough to make Xiaoming, who is kind-hearted, drink a pot of water!"

(End of this chapter)