Chapter 29 - 029 Tian Manlan
Sisi knew that Man Lan was still quite fortunate; although the man she married was unreliable, the three sons she bore all turned out to be very promising—two with post-doctorates and one with a doctorate. Later on, they all settled in the United States and brought Man Lan over with them. Jizu, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky and didn't live to see his sons' success. It seemed he passed away due to some incident, which should have occurred within the last decade or so. However, Sisi couldn't recall the exact year.
Man Lan also had significant wealth in the form of a large arborvitae forest that had been allocated to Jizu during the household division of responsibilities. Arborvitae was a major local product of Huangkeng Village, only this piece of land could cultivate it. In later years, this nut has become extremely popular, fetching nearly two hundred yuan per half kilogram. The people of Huangkeng Village enriched themselves by growing arborvitae, with every household affording cars and houses.
But now that everyone lacked food to eat, arborvitae was no longer valued—people would only use it as a snack for their children or to give relatives a taste. Sisi's house had plenty of fried arborvitae that Man Lan had sent over, which tasted exceptionally good. Besides arborvitae, the mountains of Huangkeng Village were also abundant with tea trees and bamboo, which could be converted into money. Dealers from the purchasing station in the town would often come to buy them.
Therefore, when Jizu's parents divided their property, the financially valuable tea and bamboo mountains were given to the eldest and youngest sons, leaving Jizu, the middle son, with the least valuable arborvitae forest. Jizu never worked and was too lazy to fuss over it, so he agreed to the division. Man Lan knew the true value of it, but she was naturally meek and dared not object, so she accepted the short end of the stick without complaint.
However, this arborvitae forest started to become trendy by the late 1990s. Jizu's eldest brother and younger brother wanted to reclaim it, but by that time, although Jizu was gone, Man Lan's three sons had all accomplished great things. Though they didn't care for the profit from the forest, they didn't want to let their uncle and younger uncle benefit from it cheaply, so they asked their second uncle, Man Yin, to look after it, with all earnings going to him.
As soon as Sisi and Xinhua entered the village, they saw a group of kids bullying three little ones. The oldest protected the two younger ones under him, shielding his head with his hands, while a rain of punches fell on him. Yet, the child was resilient and didn't utter a sound, his eyes staring defiantly at the children hitting him, as if committing their faces to memory.
Upon seeing the child's face, Xinhua hurriedly ran over to chase the children away. The bullies, merely seven or eight years old, scattered in fright upon seeing the tall and sturdy Xinhua. Only then did Sisi remember that the three children on the ground were indeed her little aunt Man Lan's sons. The eldest was Jianguo, aged 9; followed by Weiguo, aged 6; and the youngest, Baoguo, aged 3.
At the moment, little Weiguo and Baoguo were crying with faces covered in tears and snot, nowhere near the appearance of future elite socialites. Sisi felt a bit like laughing—if only she had a camera to capture the little ones' expressions, to show them when they make it big. It would definitely be amusing.
But she didn't have the mood to dwell on that now. Why were the village children bullying Jianguo and his brothers? Sisi wiped the little ones' faces clean with a handkerchief and then took out some cookies given by her fourth aunt's husband to share with the three of them. Weiguo and Baoguo, fascinated by the cookies, stopped crying and began to eat eagerly. Jianguo, however, did not eat but put the cookie into his pocket, intending to bring it back for Man Lan to eat.