Chapter 122
As the old saying goes, the best and happiest time in life is the wedding night
Yan Li never thought that his wedding night would be sitting on the bed, watching his daughter-in-law count the red envelopes
The east room of the main house is the young couple’s new room, in which there is a simple wooden bed, the cabinet and table are all of the same style, Lin Minjun is sitting in front of the table, unwrapping the red envelopes and counting the money
It’s not that she loves money, forgetting that today is her wedding day, but it’s because all this money has to be written down, and she will have to pay back favors in the future
So she counted each red packet, looked at it against the paper on which the favor had been paid, and then wrote it down in her favor book
After counting for a while, she felt a person standing beside her
Yan Li said, “Ah Jun, stop counting, go to sleep”
Lin Minjun raised her head to look at him and saw that he was avoiding her eyes, and suddenly understood what he meant
Lin Minjun felt that Yan Li’s look was strange and funny, he had never shown this kind of expression before, like a puppy begging to be petted
She intentionally counted the red envelopes and said, “But these are not yet counted, who knows what will happen tomorrow morning, it is better to count them early and write them down”
“I’ll get up early tomorrow morning to help you count” Yan Li said
Lin Minjun: “But these money still have to be counted, depending on whether it’s your side or my side of the favor”
Yan Li is actually a bit drunk, his brain is dizzy, and the breath he exhales when he breathes carries a faint odor of alcohol
“Don’t need to remember this, I’ll give you all mine, and you can settle the score together” He said
When he finished speaking, he pinched Lin Minjun’s little thumb
Lin Minjun was originally very shy, but when she saw him like this, she suddenly stopped being shy
She put her wallet down, walked over to close the doors and windows, pulled the curtains, and specially locked them, and pulled Yan Li to the bedside, “You go to sleep first”
She sat down in front of the dresser and removed the jewelry from her body one by one, and poured water in the basin to wash the powder off
As she wiped the water droplets from her face, she glanced towards Yan Li in the mirror and innocently said, “I thought you were going to sleep, why aren’t you sleeping yet?”
By this time she had already finished wiping her face, her skin was whiter and more translucent after removing her makeup, and she looked into the mirror to remove her earrings, her eyes just innocently looking at Yan Li in the mirror
Just after removing the earrings, she suddenly saw Yan Li get up and walk towards herself
Then, pulled her over
The two of them fell onto the bed in unison, and before Lin Minjun had time to react, she was held down by Yan Li coming over, and he leaned down to kiss her, first a tentative kiss, and soon pried open her lips and teeth
Gradually, Lin Minjun felt that it was less like a kiss and more like a nibble
She was amused and laughed, saying in a delicate voice, “What are you doing? Aren’t you going to sleep?”
“Not sleeping” Yan Li was drunk and said slowly, “Sleeping you”
The tailored red dress came off and kicked it to the bed, and soon a layer of wariness rose on Lin Minjun’s body
“Wait, wait” Lin Minjun nervously clenched her fists and subconsciously went to push him
It didn’t matter if she pushed, she didn’t know how, but she suddenly felt a sharp pain coming through
Lin Minjun hadn’t even screamed out yet, Yan Li panicked first, he froze at once and immediately got up and said, “I’ll go get something”
“Get what?” Lin Minjun said in confusion
“Condoms” His voice sounded especially eager, “I went to the hospital earlier to get them, and the doctor said to carry them the whole time”
“But I can’t have a baby, I don’t need to bring it” Lin Minjun reminded in a resigned manner
Yan Li then reacted, turning around and going back to the bed again, he asked, “Does it hurt?”
“It hurt at first, now it’s okay”
“Does it still hurt now?”
“Just like that, it doesn’t hurt too much-”
The words were knocked out of tune before they were finished
After a while, the goosebumps that had just subsided rose again in a dense layer *
The first morning after the wedding, Lin Minjun opened her eyes when the sky was already completely bright, beige curtains pulled tightly, there is sunlight from the curtains through the cracks, that beam of sunlight can be seen in the dust floating upwards
Lin Minjun forcefully opened her eyes and muttered, only to realize that her side was cold, and no one was there
She got up in a daze, got out of bed, and sat down again after a moment of unsteady standing, “Brother? Brother?”
Yan Li went out so early? Not right ah, although he has to work today, but the leader approved that he can arrive a little later
After a while, the room door was pushed open, Yan Li walked in, he said, “You got up?”
“Where did you go just now? I woke up with a start and the quilt was cold” Lin Minjun’s voice carried an aggravation she didn’t even notice, and when she said it was a complaint, it was more like a petulance
She hadn’t worn any clothes last night, and now she was only haphazardly draped in a garment, and as soon as the door opened and the cool wind blew in, she couldn’t help but shiver, and hurriedly burrowed back into the quilt again
After thinking about it, she simply lay down and stay in bed, “Where did you go?”
Yan Li looked at her childish appearance, lips with a smile, “Make breakfast, I boiled eggs, rice porridge, also went to buy fritters, what do you want to eat?”
“I don’t want to get up for now, I’m so tired” She rolled up on the bed and buried her head in the quilt
Yan Li had to remind her of this, and went up to pick and pull, peeling back the quilt layer by layer, and holding out his new wife from inside with red cheeks and a thin layer of sweat all over her body
“Don’t you still have something to do today?”
“What is it?” Lin Minjun could no longer remember at all
Yan Li prompted, “The restaurant”
Lin Minjun climbed up with a grunt, “Right oh, the tavern still has to be open today, I have to get up in a hurry, there’s still a lot of things to do today”
On the first day of the wedding, according to convention it should be the day when the groom accompanies the bride back to the door, Lin Minjun didn’t have a mother’s house, so she skipped this process, she decided to give this time to making money
Lin Minjun didn’t wear the red skirt from yesterday, but put on the sweater and jeans she bought with the coat, with leather boots, and the coat on the outside, so it looked good
After dressing on the bed, she got out of bed and took a step out and suddenly stopped
Lin Minjun felt that muscle in her inner thighs hurt as if she had done the splits all night, followed by her knees, she stumbled and almost fell
Fortunately, she was held up by Yan Li, or else she would have definitely fallen
The first time she stabilized, Lin Minjun turned around and pinched Yan Li, “It’s all your fault! Last night I said don’t don’t, you promised on your lips and immediately came over again!”
Yan Li’s earlobes were red, he was very studious, “Then I’ll go back and read the book to find out if there’s any way to make you feel better”
Lin Minjun was dumbfounded, “There are books about this? What book are you going to read?”
Could it be a little yellow book? He also reads little yellow books?
Yan Li gently patted her on the head, “What are you thinking, my mother left behind books on medicine to see if there’s any medicine that can make your knees and thighs feel better”
His suspicious gaze falls on Lin Minjun’s face, “What kind of book did you think it was?”
Lin Minjun looked up at the ceiling and played dumb, “I also thought it was a medical book, don’t think so badly of people, okay?”
She looked at the ceiling and then at Yan Li, and suddenly couldn’t help but giggle as well
Being married, the feeling after experiencing fish and water together was completely different
Lin Minjun herself felt blushing, pulling Yan Li’s hand and walking out, “Let’s not talk about this, let’s hurry and go out to eat, I’m starving, I want poached eggs, rice congee, doughnuts, a little bit of each, try them all”
Eat breakfast, the rice is still steaming hot, eat down after the body also follow together warm up
After breakfast, it was time for Yan Li to go to work, and Lin Minjun rode out
She had to go to purchase raw materials first, riding her bicycle in the cold wind to the food market
From setting up a stall to opening a store to opening a restaurant, Lin Minjun had always come this way
In the past, she used to ride a tricycle, but now the tricycle was given to Auntie Cao, and she followed behind on her bike
The purchasing job could actually be given to someone else, or a person could be recruited specifically to do the purchasing, but Lin Minjun had always done it herself
Because she knew that there was no way to give this kind of work to someone else, and within three months of giving it to someone else, she would realize that the procurement fees were getting higher and higher
Lin Minjun bought a lot more vegetables today, and asked for more chicken and fish, she guessed that after yesterday’s bustle, today’s business in the store should be very good
When she arrived at the store, Auntie Xu had already arrived, and they first went to the back kitchen to prepare the dishes, cleaned the cleaning, blanched the blanching, and after all the raw materials were processed, it was also just the right time for lunch
Today the business of the restaurant is really good, as soon as the door opens a guest comes over, comes in and asks, “Is the boss of your place got married yesterday, saying that there is a discount for today’s meal”
“Yes, there will be a discount for dinner today” Auntie Xu immediately served the menu
Once they heard that there would be a discount, the guests did not hesitate to take the menu
The lunch stall opened not long ago, the store was already full, Lin Minjun was busy in the back kitchen, originally married and tired, but also stood in the back kitchen to cook, so tired that she could not wait to get rid of and quit, but thought about it and insisted on it
When she was busy, Mrs Xu came in, she was responsible for entertaining the guests outside, and usually only took food at the window, not into the back kitchen
Seeing her walk in, Lin Minjun asked, “What’s wrong? Did something happen outside?”
“Nothing happened” Auntie Xu smiled and said, “Didn’t you say you wanted to recruit a cook before? Now there are Yunnanese people coming to the store, a man and a woman, and I heard them talking when they were ordering food, and it sounded like they were dry cooks”
After all, Auntie Xu had a bright mind, and then said, “I thought I’d ask them if they were willing to work in the restaurant, and if not, they must know a few peers who are chefs, and ask each other, and there’s always one who is willing, don’t you think?”
Lin Minjun’s eyes lit up, she had wanted to go out and ask herself, but the guest’s dish hadn’t been made yet
She asked Auntie Xu: “Are you free to talk to them?”
Auntie Xu spread her hands, “There are other guests waiting to be served and ordered”
Lin Minjun thought about it and called Auntie Cao out of the back kitchen, so she said, “Let’s not wash the dishes now, you go to the front to help entertain the guests, mainly there is a table of guests from Yunnan, go and get close to them, ask for a contact information, and find out what they do”
At this time, there was no such thing as paid touching fish, but Auntie Cao’s favorite thing in life was to chat with people, and when she heard this, she happily went out
Lin Minjun was busy in the back kitchen and didn’t see what was going on in front of her, but she felt that with Big Aunt Cao’s chatting skills, asking this wasn’t a problem
She had once seen Auntie Cao ask a young man where his ancestors were in order to make a match
After a while, Auntie Cao didn’t come back, and Auntie Xu came in, she was here to serve the dishes, and with her plate she had to make a special detour to tell Lin Minjun, “Wu Xiuhua is unreliable!” Wu Xiuhua is Cao Auntie
In the past, Auntie Xu and Auntie Cao didn’t deal with each other and couldn’t see eye to eye, but since Auntie Cao went to jail, the relationship between the two has eased a lot
Now that they work together at the restaurant and commute in pairs, the relationship is even better
Big Aunt Xu actually said this and was full of helplessness
Lin Minjun stir-fried the vegetables and said suspiciously, “Did she mess up?”
“That’s not true” Auntie Xu’s expression cried and laughed, and deliberately sold a lie, “You’ll know when she comes back and you ask”
After saying that, she carried her plate out, and Lin Minjun stood in the back kitchen truly bewildered
When the lunch stall was busy, the three women were also busy and deflated, Lin Minjun made three bowls of thin bean noodles, and the three people sat in the front hall and ate slowly
When she finished eating the thin bean noodles, she remembered what she had just explained down
Leaning back in her chair, she turned her head to ask Auntie Cao and said with a smile, “Auntie Cao, did you talk to those two people just now? What did you chat about?”
“Why not?”
Auntie Cao was not sleepy when it came to this, and immediately sat up straight and said, “I asked just now, those two people are husband and wife, the man is a great chef, and the woman can cook as well”
Lin Minjun’s eyes lit up and asked again, “Then have you asked? What are they here for? Interested in doing work at the restaurant?”
Asking this, Auntie Cao suddenly got stuck and was a bit embarrassed, “I forgot to ask this, they seem to be saying that they’re coming to the North City to participate in some kind of competition, quite an important competition”
“Who’s coming? Are the men coming? What about the women? Do they know any other cooks willing to come over and work? The wages are all negotiable” Lin Minjun followed up with another question
But Auntie Cao couldn’t give an answer to any of these, she rubbed her two hands together, her face full of embarrassment, “I’m sorry, Xiao Lin, I forgot about all of this”
“Then what were you chatting about for half a day?” Lin Minjun and lazy back, but also not angry, is a little helpless
Cao Auntie said gossip two eyes in the light, diluted bean flour are not eaten, put the bowl, “I get close to them ah, the relationship set close, ask what can be, I talked to them for half a day, only to know that the couple before the birth of a little girl, but the man felt that there must be a son, it is hard to chase after a child”
“Now is not to talk about what family planning, they sent the little girl away, really sinful, more sinful is still behind, they later got pregnant once, sent to the hospital to see whether it was a man or a woman, saw that it was a little girl on the abortion, and now the woman got a what a uterine prolapse, this time to come over is looking for someone to see a doctor, said they have been to the big hospitals, the prolapse is not good to see, and also difficult to get pregnant again, they husband and wife want to find a prescription to see if they can have another son”
As Lin Minjun listened, she suddenly sat up straight, she saw herself from this woman in her previous life
Of course she hadn’t had a miscarriage in her last life, she just felt that this running around was particularly similar
She opened her mouth to say something, but ultimately didn’t, after all, she still didn’t know what the woman’s situation was, did the woman herself want a son? In other words, did she herself want to get out of that quagmire?
She didn’t have that realization in her last life, and she didn’t know where she could go after leaving the quagmire, and whether she could survive
Lin Minjun’s mind was wandering about these things, and she soon heard Aunt Cao say, “Just now I recommended a medicine for them, this medicine is not to mention how brilliant it is, corns and feet and gray fingernails, facial paralysis and psoriasis can be cured, and this prolapsed uterus of hers can surely be cured as well”
Auntie Xu frowned and asked, “What medicine is so smart? Where did you get it?”
“It’s posted on the pole at the entrance of our hutong Didn’t my family’s Cao Bin get crohns before?” Speaking here, Mrs Cao glanced at Lin Minjun before continuing, “Then I found a medicine seller and bought some medicine, Cao Bin didn’t eat it, but I couldn’t afford to waste it, so I ate it, and don’t tell me, my cold really got better during that period of time”
Old people from the old society are always like this, they can’t afford to waste a single thing, even medicine, they would rather eat it than let it expire
Of course, Lin Minjun came back to her senses and advised, “How can you take medicine indiscriminately? In case you eat a bad body, going to the hospital will cost you more money”
“How can it be eaten indiscriminately, people sold it to me when I said, any disease can be eaten, this is their ancestral secret recipe, easily is not sold to others, it is with me to sell it to me” Auntie Cao was convinced when she said this, “If it didn’t work, how could my cold get better so fast”
“A cold would have gotten better, you would have gotten better even without medicine” Lin Minjun reminded, and asked her, “How much is the cast price?”
“Twenty dollars” Auntie Cao thought it was worth it, twenty dollars for a miracle cure
Auntie Xu let out a “heh” next to her, laughing and shaking her head, laughing at her for being duped
Lin Minjun then said: “That medicine is not proper, I do not know what ingredients, in the future can not be eaten indiscriminately, have a disease or go to the hospital”
Aunt Cao is very stubborn in this regard, she firmly said: “That is a good medicine, can cure the good medicine, Xiaolin you do not understand can not talk nonsense”
Lin Minjun simply didn’t talk about it, “What about the contact information I asked you to get? Did you ask for that couple’s contact information?”
“Forgot ,” Cao Auntie stared at both eyes, dumbfounded
Lin Minjun became anxious, “Then what should we do, they are here to compete, maybe they will leave after the competition”
Auntie Cao immediately said, “It’s fine, don’t worry, they’ll come again, I made a deal with them to come over and find me next time, I’ll take them to see a doctor and buy medicines, the man of that family had the final say, he said he’ll definitely come, he’s dreaming of having a son”
“Still buy medicine, that medicine ” Lin Minjun heard that this is a lie, but Cao Auntie is convinced
Seeing Cao Auntie’s stubborn face, Lin Minjun simply did not say anything, she thought that when the couple next time over, she quietly said, that is a fake drug, pitiful
Before leaving work at night, Lin Minjun saw Auntie Cao taking her medicine again
A small paper bag was folded up, and when she opened it, inside were several white pills
Auntie Cao cherished and pinched a pill and stuffed it into her mouth, swallowing it down with boiled water, with a pious look as if she was taking a panacea
“What kind of medicine is this? Where is it uncomfortable?” Lin Minjun said helplessly
Auntie Cao turned around, seeing that it was Lin Minjun she said, “It’s the medicine I told you about, it wasn’t raining a lot two days ago, my legs are starting to hurt again, so I’m taking it to see if it’s going to be okay, anyway, this medicine isn’t expensive”
“Your leg ”
Lin Minjun wanted to say that your leg is likely to be rheumatism, it is best to go to the hospital to take a look, but Auntie Cao firmly disagreed, mentioning that it is to take medicine, to eat her that panacea
Lin Minjun thought or did not say it, sharp shut down the restaurant, went home, to the home only to find that today Yan Li brother from work early, he has long been home
Yan Li will also cook, but the taste is very general, used to eating Lin Minjun’s cooking, he made the taste is always in the mouth
So when Lin Minjun arrived home, she found that in the renovated kitchen, the vegetables had already been washed and cut, and the meat had been cut and blanched, so she only needed to take the helm of the spoon to cook the meal, and then put the dishes on the plate
When the food was on the table, Erwa rushed over when he smelled the smell
In the past, he was too embarrassed to always rely on Lin Minjun’s house to eat, but now that Lin Minjun’s house was also his brother’s house, he came over with a straight face
Erwa ate and rushed back to do his homework, only Lin Minjun and Yan Li were left at the table, and Lin Minjun mentioned to Yan Li about taking the medicine
“The medicine that Auntie Cao took, I always feel that something is wrong, where is the medicine that can cure all diseases, if there really is such a medicine, then who would talk about the big price to develop new medicines, why don’t we just all eat that” Lin Minjun frowned and said
She picked up a chopstick of green vegetables and asked while eating, “Brother, I don’t think it’s okay for Aunt Cao to go on like this, how can she not go to the hospital when she’s sick and take this kind of medicine from an unknown source, do you have any good ways to persuade her? She doesn’t believe me no matter what I say, she just believes that that medicine is good”
This kind of situation Lin Minjun in his past life has not rarely seen, the elderly were selling health care products a fool, hate to give away their saved pension money, just to buy a little elixir, in fact, are cheating
What’s even more annoying is that these fake medicine sellers are more truthful than one another, and the old people listen to their coaxing and don’t believe in what their children say, but only believe in what the fake medicine sellers say
Cao Da-ma is all alone, and now her children don’t care much about her, so it’s only a matter of time before she gets cheated out of the money she’s managed to earn for her old age
Only Lin Minjun was close to her
The two of them have been close since the time they opened the small store, Aunt Cao is never lazy in her work, in the morning when she goes to the vegetable market to purchase, Aunt Cao will offer to ride for a while by herself as well, so that Lin Minjun won’t be too tired to ride a bicycle, when she washes vegetables in the store, she does it by herself and doesn’t allow Lin Minjun to catch the cold water
“It doesn’t matter if I’m old, it’s different for you young people, touching cold water at a young age will make your stomach hurt when you’re old later” Auntie Cao said, “I didn’t have the conditions then, but now that you have the conditions, you must take good care of your body”
Lin Minjun received this love, she thought, she can help a hand, can not stand by and watch her being cheated out of money
This is not to find Yan Li to discuss ways