Chapter 257

Yang Xuhe hid in the shadows of the building, which used to be the place where the garbage cans used to be, but now the garbage cans have disappeared, just leaving a space as big as the palm of his hand.

He hid here, cowering, restless, fearful, hoping that the door will open.

…… Though all the windows had been blocked with wooden windows, and he had been wandering here for four days.

There was no one else in the building.

He knew this well on one side, and on the other, he unrealistically longed to be back in that big, warm, happy, rich, fancy house.

His home was in the countryside not far from the city.

His grandfather was a Xiucai, who once scored two hundred and forty-seven places in the Golden Palace. However, because of the election did not send heavy gifts, was categorized into a famous poor countryside as a government official, the grandfather fled back to his hometown on the pretext of illness.

His grandfather was truly talented, and his father was truly gifted.

His mother, on the other hand, was an adulteress.

His father left home to pursue his studies after a few years of being away and returned home only four or five times, while his mother stayed at home to raise her children and support her parents.

He was the eldest son in the family and had an older sister above him.

He saw his mother having an affair with the family’s eldest laborer in his father’s study.

After that, his second brother was born, looking exactly like the eldest worker, with a square head and a wide mouth.

Grandfather and grandmother did not find out about it.

The father found out when he came home, and he argued with the mother several times, but in the end he did not repudiate her, nor did he do anything to the second brother, as if he had acquiesced in the affair.

But after the father left home again, the mother resumed her old ways and had an affair with a village shopkeeper.

So, the third brother was born, and the cargo man was born exactly the same. The cargo man is handsome, slender, high nose and deep eyes, third brother also good-looking, mother is not ashamed, since childhood, love to hug the third brother that this is the most good-looking among several brothers.

Grandfather slightly realized, but also did not report this matter, probably because of fear of the father.

After that, grandfather died, grandmother also died soon, father went home to mourn, saw the fourth brother.

In front of the family and friends who came to the funeral, my father kept silent, and the only thing he did was to hug his elder sister and him, and he never showed any respect to his second and third brothers, and he refused to even take their names.

After the death of his grandfather and grandmother, his father did not go out again, and stayed at home to run the family business and teach him and his elder sister.

The second and third brothers did not know the reason, just thought that their father disliked them, always trembling when they saw their father, never dared to get close to him.

Since the father came home, the mother is no longer outside to hook up.

He was relieved, thinking that nothing would happen again.

However, his father refused to touch his mother again. He moved to another house on the pretext that he wanted to study and make friends. At that time, Mr. Tan was in the process of preparing a petition, which was often heard about even in the countryside. His father had been away for many years and had made many friends, and from time to time people came to visit his father, and he realized what a great man his father was.

Soon after, the countryside conscription, his father learned of this, first married off his eldest sister, and reported for him to be exempted from the draft. He is the eldest son of the family, to undertake the family business, according to the rule is indeed exempted from the draft. However, my father did not care about my second and third brothers, so the magistrate came to record the name of my second and third brothers, and soon after, both of them were drafted away.

Mother was originally restless character, only fear of father know her scandal only a few years do not dare to make trouble, the second and third brother was drafted away, she did not have any reaction.

But not a few years later, my father suddenly became seriously ill, my mother abandoned the usual doctors at home not to see, but to ask the gods to ask for divination, I do not know where to ask for medicine, my father was bedridden for several months, and finally died.

After his father’s funeral, he left the house and never went back.

Grandfather erudite, father has great talent, but finally was played by the mother in the palm of the hand, visible in the world who first move, who will have the upper hand.

The father is sentimental and righteous, concerned about the family reputation, concerned about their siblings, but shall not die.

He can’t open his father’s eyes, he can’t say anything about his mother’s scandal, because he is his mother’s child, and if his mother has a bad reputation, it will eventually involve him.

When mother killed father, it wasn’t for the sake of revenge for second and third brothers, but she was afraid that father would eventually retaliate against her, that’s why she struck first.

If he had done something wrong to someone, that person was bound to retaliate against him, and no matter how long had passed, it was only impossible to forget this hatred.

Unless that person was a good person like his father.

After he came out from the village, he met with his mother’s general people to avoid, met with his father’s talent to socialize.

He knows that he is not as talented as his father, but he can pretend to be talented.

The first time he saw the Zhu family building, it was like seeing a king’s palace.

Inside the palace lived Master Zhu, who was as wise as his grandfather but not too kind, and Miss Zhu, who was beautiful and not too proud of her family.

This was a family of good people.

They were tolerant because they were rich, not worldly, not complacent, not proud.

He then lived in the Zhu family building with peace of mind.

…… From when did he want to pursue Miss Zhu?

Yang Xuhe looked at the empty streets outside.

The streets here were as white as new even if no one cleaned them. Not far away, in a street away, the streets there are full of sewage, urine and poop just lying in the puddle, flies and rats everywhere.

Miss Zhu, who had lived on such streets since she was a little girl, in and out of automobiles, served by a dozen maids in her home, had just been featured in the pictorials on American bicycles, and she had bought one the next month, and had learned to ride it by being held up by her friends on the seat of the car, shaking it, on this street.

There were no sons in the Zhu family, and there were no gateways in the Zhu family; Miss Zhu didn’t care about other people’s family backgrounds, or if they were rich; she fellowshipped with everyone on an equal footing.

Ambition began to grow in his heart.

He is not without possibilities isn’t it?

He and Zhu big miss age similar, he also had in father’s teaching reading and practicing literature, he is also bookish family origin, if not father died early, he is not unworthy. He came to Zhu family building after practicing hard English, is to give familiar with English poetry, can sing with Zhu big miss.

As expected, Miss Zhu did not look down on him, and did not despise him when she noticed his intention to pursue him.

He began to pursue her.

Although Miss Zhu did not meet his requirements for a wife.

After seeing a woman like his mother, he preferred his wife to be a traditional woman who took her husband for granted, who didn’t leave the house, who didn’t step out of the door, who didn’t need to be literate, who didn’t need to have knowledge and ideals, who only needed to serve her husband quietly, and give birth to and raise her children.

Miss Zhu is beautiful, flamboyant and rich. He could be attracted by her beauty and yearn for her wealth, but could not truly fall in love with her.

She was by no means a good woman who put her husband first, she was too opinionated.

He had thought she might change after marriage, but he was disappointed. After marriage, he still had to tout her and flatter her as he did when he was passionately in love. He did not act like a man of the house in his own home, but like a flunky; the house belonged to the Zhu family, and so did the servants, and Miss Zhu only liked to dance and go shopping, or else read the English newspaper, and she never served him like a wife, boiling a bowl of soup for him, serving him a bowl of rice, washing his clothes for him, and so on.

And she even had two daughters in a row.

His mother at least the second child was a boy.

Could it be that the Yang family will not have a male child to carry on the family name in the future?

Another thing that disappointed him is to wish the old man is really high life expectancy, when people but fifty or sixty years old is high life expectancy, wish the old man lived to seventy years old before he died, his second daughter was born, he has been wasted for half a life, nothing accomplished.

The old master Zhu refused to recommend him, outsiders mention him, just Zhu family son-in-law.

The most annoying thing is that before he passed away, Mr. Zhu donated most of his family’s assets, leaving only this building for them.

After the funeral passed, Zhu Yanshu dismissed all the servants, and after half a year, he even had to rent out all the houses in the Zhu family building to cope with the expenses.

He then realized that Miss Zhu, who had lost her wealth and youthful beauty, was no better than those poor women who would go to the laundry to earn a share of hard-earned money.

This was because Miss Zhu only had one servant left behind, who was to serve her. Even now, she refuses to do laundry and cook, and only goes out to play mahjong.

He finally died to this marriage, to this wife. He realized that he didn’t get any benefits from the Zhu family, and now that the Zhu family was broke, he still had to rely on himself.

He studied the newspaper and wrote articles that could be sold for money. Finally, people no longer called him Zhu family son-in-law, but Yang Da Wenren!

He finally raised his eyebrows.

If there was one thing he regretted in his life, it was that he shouldn’t have moved out of the building. He should have stayed and persuaded Zhu Yanshu to let him take a concubine, as she was already old and the Zhu family had fallen into decline, while he was becoming more and more famous! He felt that if he had been willing to persuade Zhu Yanshu properly at that time, she would have agreed to let him take a concubine.

Yang Xuhe leaned against the wall, which was smooth and neat, without even a brick seam.

The inside of the Zhu Family Building was even more beautiful than this, the floors were all paved with marble with beautiful patterns. He had never seen anything so beautiful, it looked better than the most expensive table he had ever seen, but it was just something for people to step on.

He really regretted it ……

He shouldn’t have moved out.

He wanted to start his life over. He carefully selected a beautiful, simple and kind woman to be his wife, and after she got pregnant, he immediately thought of leaving the Zhu family, leaving this already rotten family.

But he only regretted it after he left.

Although he earned a lot of money from writing newspaper articles, he could only afford to rent a small courtyard in a remote place. There were no shopping malls, no tidy roads, only sewage-strewn alleys.

The single house, plus a maid, plus the cost of going to an American hospital to give birth to a child, had emptied his internal pockets.

He could no longer be as comfortable and at ease as he was in the Zhu family.

There was no good tea or water here, and the only way to get water was to fetch it from a nearby well or buy it.

It never occurred to him that after he left the Zhu family home he would need to calculate how much it would cost to buy a load of coal, and how many articles he would have to write before he could afford a load of coal.

And in the Zhu Family House, gas was used for heating and cooking, and gas pipes and water pipes, things that could only be used in official residences of royal palaces, were used in the Zhu Family House all the time.

Still, because of the rental house, Zhu Yanshu sealed the main gas pipeline, Zhang Ma also pretends to put a coal-burning stove in the house, but usually just hot water.

While the tenants of Zhu Jia Lou were free to use the tap water in their rooms, he now had to eat a can of water that cost 10 cents. He had always used a flush toilet in Zhujia Building, and had long forgotten what it was like to use a toilet in his old home, but now that he had moved to a new home, he had to put up with the stench of a toilet in his home.

He had long regretted it, but he couldn’t come back on his own, he needed Zhu Yanshu to invite him back in order to do so.

He had it all figured out, Zhu Yanshu was going to marry his daughter sooner or later, and when his eldest and youngest sisters got married, the position of father would be his! He was also a Yang Da Literati, so it was unreasonable not to invite him. As long as Zhu Yan Shu opened her mouth, he was sure to persuade her to let him come back, and then it would only make sense for him to bring his concubine and son together to move back and re-marry Zhu Yan Shu.

Just never thought that he would suddenly be caught in prison.

Now that he has found his way back, even for the sake of his two daughters, Zhu Yanshu can’t keep him from entering the door.

As for that woman and son …… when he settled down, go to find them back is, just to first convince her to volunteer to be a concubine, for the sake of the son, I think she will not not agree.

Wait until the two daughters are married, only his son at home, she is a concubine and wife are not separate, in the future, maybe Zhu Yan Shu will have to look at her face.

Yang Xuhe pondered in his mind for a long time, after all, he still preferred her, she is obedient and understanding, will not oppose his idea.

He tightened his clothes and shivered in the evening breeze.

He didn’t have any money, and everything in his house had been robbed, so in order to convince Zhu Yanshu, he only wore the single coat that had been in prison.

However, it had been many days, and he hadn’t been able to wait for Zhu’s family to return.

Will they come back?

Yang Xuhe didn’t want to believe that answer. He could only wait here, there was no other way.

The newspaper has closed down, now no one accepts his articles, he has no money, no way to make money, except to come back to find Zhu Yanshu and his two daughters, there is no other way.

As night fell, the wind became colder and colder, gradually like a knife.

Yang Xuhe is freezing and hungry, really can not help, had to stand up, slowly walking home. He walked along the roots of the wall, hiding from people, walked most of the night before returning home.

The door of the house was already broken, and the windows were also broken.

All the cabinets inside had been turned upside down.

The teapot on the table, the quilt on the bed, and the rice bowl in the kitchen were all gone.

The whole house looked like it had been stripped of its flesh and bones, leaving only an empty shell.

He only drank a little water in the past two days and rummaged through the garbage cans for some food. If he couldn’t find Zhu Yanshu again, he was going to starve to death.

Yang Xuhe laid down on the bare bedpan, hiding from the cold wind coming from all sides, and fell asleep.