Chapter 493 - 507: At Home
"Books!"
"Hey, no need to call me ’uncle’," Jiang Xia teased, deliberately mishearing. "Just ’brother’ is fine."
An Guoping shot a sideways glance at Jiang Xia, who was clearly trying to get one over on him. He decided to play along. "It’s fine. Calling me ’uncle’ is okay too. I don’t mind."
The tables now turned on him, Jiang Xia saw the challenge in An Guoping’s eyes: ’You dare?!’
’This damn kid, has he gotten smarter?’
That was Jiang Xia’s first reaction. Before he could even reply, he heard An Ning say unhappily, "Why should he? I refuse to be a generation younger than him."
"Wait, is this whole bag full of books? What are you doing with so many books?"
An Ning carried one bag inside. Jiang Xia grabbed the other, and An Guoping didn’t press his advantage. He just walked into the courtyard with his own backpack on and another bag in his hand.
"To study, of course. It’s a long vacation."
An Ning put down the bag of books, stared at it for a moment, then looked at An Guoping and asked doubtfully, "Can you even read all of these?"
"I can! I definitely can!"
An Guoping said it with such conviction that An Ning didn’t press the issue. She just said, "Carry them back yourself, then. Get a good feel for the power of knowledge."
"No problem!"
An Guoping agreed readily. He had already made a plan for himself: he would definitely study hard when he got back. His medical school coursework was too heavy, and he couldn’t afford to waste time.
With An Guoping’s arrival, everyone was there.
Yu Zheng arrived right on time. With him were Li Chengze, Anna and her child, and Qiu Rui, whom they had just met yesterday.
Everyone gathered at Anning’s house, and two cars took them to the train station.
Jiang Xia had arranged for a driver. He sat in the passenger seat with An Guoping and Li Chengze. An Ning rode in the car Yu Zheng was driving, along with Anna and her child. The psychologist, Qiu Rui, was in the passenger seat of that car.
After loading the luggage, the two cars set off, one after the other.
While they were driving, Qiu Rui seized the opportunity to give Yu Zheng a quick psychological evaluation.
Sitting in the back, An Ning asked, "How is he?"
"He’s okay. After two sessions, he just needs to eat more calming foods. He’ll be fine."
After hearing this, An Ning said to Qiu Rui, "Thank you for your help, then."
"Of course, it’s my job. But are you sure you don’t need me to go back with you?"
Qiu Rui asked again, and An Ning refused again.
"I really don’t. For me, going home is the best medicine for everything. Besides... I’m really not scared."
Qiu Rui studied An Ning carefully, but she couldn’t detect anything unusual.
In a situation like this, there were two possibilities. One, An Ning was truly fine. Two, she had an antisocial personality, making her impossible to read and extremely dangerous.
An Ning met Qiu Rui’s gaze and asked quizzically, "Are you wondering if I’m some kind of... high-IQ deviant?"
PFFT—
Qiu Rui was amused by An Ning and didn’t deny it. "A little bit. You should add ’humorous’ to that list."
"Thanks. That’s the first time anyone’s called me humorous. They usually say my way of speaking is... hmm... what’s the word?"
An Ning couldn’t find the right adjective for a moment. Beside her, the child, who had been sitting quietly, raised a small hand, their eyes sparkling.
"Oh, you know, little one? Go on, tell us."
"Sister Anning is always right! Everything she says is right!"
The child’s voice wasn’t quiet, and it was amplified in the small space. The innocent, childish words made everyone break into a happy smile.
Soon, the cars arrived at the train station. Yu Zheng and the other driver first took the luggage inside. Da Huang and Xiao Lang, who had come along, were also boarded onto the train first.
An Ning and the others also used a special passageway, boarding the train under the envious and jealous gazes of a crowd.
Jiang Xia had arranged for a private compartment.
This was also the first time An Ning knew that trains even had private compartments.
Inside the compartment, there was a sofa, seats, bunk beds, and of course, a restroom.
The group of six settled in. Some lay down, some played with toys, some read books, and some were simply bored, all waiting for the train to depart.
WHOO WHOO— WHOO WHOO—
The train began to move with a CLACK-CLACK, CLACK-CLACK. An Ning sat leaning against the window, gazing outside, and started to feel homesick.
’It turns out the journey home is when you miss home the most.’
「At that same moment, in Shili Gou」
Lin Cuihua was running the whole family ragged.
In the nearly six months since An Ning had left, the house at the front, which had been unfinished, was now complete. The family had added more greenhouses. The eldest, An Guoqing, had expanded his farm and, as planned, moved it up the mountain and started hiring workers.
Next door to the An family, the Jiang family’s original, dilapidated little stone house had been torn down and completely rebuilt.
The new house was as tall as the An family’s and had the same layout. Besides not having the two front buildings, everything else was identical.
In the An family’s courtyard, An Guoqing was beating a quilt with a peeled stick.
"Eldest, did you not eat?! I’ve seen you put more force into spanking Hei Dan’er than that!"
Lin Cuihua came out nagging. The aforementioned Hei Dan’er, trailing behind Lin Cuihua without any sense of danger, copied her and pointed at An Guoqing.
In a tiny, milky voice, he said two words: "Dad, dumb!"
"You little brat! Spare the rod for three days, and you’ll be tearing the roof tiles off!"
An Guoqing brandished the stick to scare Hei Dan’er, but the boy, still looking like a little lump of coal, wasn’t scared at all. He pointed his little finger at Lin Cuihua.
"Grandma, said!"
The meaning was clear: Grandma said it, not him. At such a young age, he was already a master at passing the buck.
"That’s right, I said it! What about it? What’re you gonna do? Just get back to airing out your quilt!"
"Mom— I’ll help— BLEGH—"
His wife came out of the house, but she had barely spoken before she started to dry heave, and soon she was actually throwing up.
"Honey!"
"Go away! Stay away from me!"
His wife turned her back on An Guoqing and steadied herself against a wooden post, her stomach convulsing as she gagged.
Seeing this, Lin Cuihua quickly went up the steps and patted her back a few times, saying worriedly, "How are you still throwing up? What are we going to do?"
"What are you doing out of bed? You should be staying inside."
"Mama— pat pat."
Little Hei Dan’er came over too. Unable to reach his mother’s back, he copied his grandma and patted his mother’s thigh.
His wife took out a handkerchief to wipe her mouth and said weakly, "It’s so stuffy inside, I feel sick."
"Honey—"
"Don’t call me— BLEGH—"
His wife, who had just stopped vomiting, immediately started throwing up again the moment she heard An Guoqing’s voice.
Furious, Lin Cuihua aimed a kick at An Guoqing.
"You little bastard, get lost!"
"Dad, go!"
An Guoqing hung his head and shuffled far away from his wife. He found an empty spot, squatted down, and started drawing circles on the ground in self-pity.
"She could still talk to me yesterday. Why does she start throwing up the second she hears my voice today?"
"I don’t smell bad or anything!"
Squatting on the ground, An Guoqing sniffed himself all over but didn’t find any problem.
Master Tang from next door came out to get some firewood. Seeing An Guoqing squatting by the entrance, he asked knowingly, "She’s throwing up again?"
"You can say that again. Now she can’t even stand the sound of my voice. Brother Tang, tell me, why does the baby in her belly despise me so much?"
"Uh... I’ve never given birth, so I wouldn’t know."