dtnovels Chapter 229 Cousin
Chapter 229 Cousin
"Alright! We've picked most of the peaches. Let's take stock, pick up the good ones under the tree, and then we'll head back!"
After teaching An'an and Zhuangzhuang how to choose good peaches and seeing the two children off, Lu Junxing walked to the tree and discovered that Wang Jinbao had somehow ended up there alone, sprawled out.
Noticing that Wang Jinbao seemed somewhat downcast, Lu Junxing picked up a basket and was about to leave when he heard Wang Jinbao's weak voice, accompanied by the occasional chirping of birds and the sound of the wind, drifting naturally to Lu Junxing's ears:
“My cousin is actually my biological brother, and my current parents are my second uncle. Years ago, my parents worked in a coal mine and injured their bodies, making them unable to have children. My grandparents and the elders in the clan discussed it.”
"They gave me up for adoption to my current parents. They didn't say anything, and I just pretended not to hear. My cousin is five years older than me. When he was a teenager, his parents passed away."
“He went out to work as a car repair apprentice. When he came back for holidays, he would stay with my parents. At that time, I was still in school. My parents were in poor health and couldn't do much work, so he brought his wages back to pay for my schooling.”
“I’m just not cut out for studying. In the countryside, no matter how much you study, getting into university isn’t easy. I absolutely refused to go, so he stopped going to work, didn’t get a single penny, and beat me up when he got home.”
"In the end, he didn't become an apprentice. At that time, I didn't want to stay at home and didn't want to toil in the fields like my parents every day. So I secretly took the money from home and ran away to Haicheng to work!"
"During those years, I did all sorts of jobs, from washing dishes to running internet cafes. During the hardest times, I would pick up leftover water from trash cans and sleep at train stations and sneak into restaurants to eat leftovers. I was determined to make something of myself before going home!"
"Seven or eight years passed like this. I made a fortune by reselling clothes with others. Back then, I would dream of walking the road home over and over again every night."
“Back then, when I got to my doorstep, I saw my parents, who were in poor health, sitting there picking peanuts. For the past few years, my cousin had been carrying loads and hoes on his back, taking care of all the land we had, including our few acres of land.”
“My cousin’s shoulder was hunched over, he was wearing shoes made from tattered sacks, and his face was so tanned from the sun that I couldn’t recognize him. I was too scared to go in then, so I left my things and money in the doorway and ran away.”
"I cried all the way back to Haicheng. Every year I would leave things for them and then slink back to Haicheng in shame. I just don't know when I stopped crying."
Lu Junxing put down the basket he was carrying. Although it was the first time he had heard someone speak so frankly like this, he felt no discomfort. Perhaps his heart had grown flesh and blood. Lu Junxing raised his hand and touched his chest.
Without even checking whether the ground was grass or mud, he simply sat down and listened quietly without saying a word.
"Later, I heard that my cousin was finally getting married. His family wasn't well-off to begin with, and my cousin wasn't tall or skilled, so finding a wife was already difficult. That's why he was still single at 35 when he finally married a divorced woman."
“The other party had a child who was about to grow up. They were worried that the child would suffer if he stayed with my cousin, so they asked for a dowry of 100,000 yuan. My parents also felt sorry for my cousin, who had no parents to support him.”
“In our rural area, it’s normal for people to help raise the children of their deceased siblings and help them get married. My parents already felt indebted to me… and my uncles and aunts were genuinely worried that if my cousin didn’t get married soon, he would be a bachelor for life.”
“My parents borrowed money to help him get married. When I found out, I secretly went back to give them the money, but my cousin blocked me at the door. It’s not that I couldn’t beat him, but somehow, he, who was shorter than me, just pulled me into the house.”
"That was the first time I had returned home in 15 years. When I saw them, they didn't complain at all. So I've been going back home several times a year since then."
“After my cousin got married, he didn’t want my money anymore. He worked hard to return the bride price to me. Later, when I became successful, he didn’t want to benefit from my success. He refused the job I offered him and even helped take care of my parents in the village.”
"Those years were pretty good. My cousin's wife was also good; she helped my parents out from time to time, and the child she brought with her changed her surname and was added to my family genealogy."
"A few years later, I brought my parents to a sanatorium in Haicheng to recuperate, and he started an orchard in the area around our home. That's when I met Zhuangzhuang's mother, and my parents would occasionally go back to our hometown for a few days."
“Our family enjoyed a few good years, but it didn’t last long. My cousin’s wife died of illness, and the child she brought with her wouldn’t listen to my cousin. Everyone advised my cousin to just let the child be!”
“My cousin is an honest man. When people call him Dad, he uses his connections to get that kid into high school. But that kid isn’t cut out for studying and has caused him a lot of trouble!”
"Before the college entrance exam was over, he had a child with a girl in his class. The two young people were clueless and kept arguing about getting married and having children. After the child was born, they left it with my cousin and ran off to Haicheng."
“My cousin is a grown man, and he doesn’t know anything about the finer things in raising children. He just knows that as long as the child has food to eat and isn’t cold, that’s enough. That’s how we grew up, wild and untamed.”
"When that child was seven or eight years old, he was naughty and ran up the mountain to play. He stole some fruit that someone had sprayed with pesticides on. When the person brought him to the hospital in Haicheng, he vomited blood and was almost dead."
"At that time, my parents were afraid that Zhuangzhuang would also get into trouble, so they took him to the hospital. Zhuangzhuang probably remembered it at that time. He probably doesn't know what happened yet, but when he sees someone vomiting, he thinks that person is going to die!"
Lu Junxing then understood why Wang Jinbao's cousin had been so concerned about Zhuangzhuang's safety. There was a reason for it; the child could be quite tenacious at times, crying a lot, but at other times she was so weak that a single poke with a finger could knock her over.
Lu Junxing glanced up again. The sun peeked through the branches, and a beam of light shone on the two children who were engrossed in picking peaches. As if sensing something, An'an looked up at him, holding a peach, and smiled:
"Daddy~, look! My big peach~, you can have the biggest one~"
Even though Lu Junxing knew she was just saying it casually, and that she would probably use the big peach to curry favor with everyone in the old mansion, a slight warmth still stirred within him.
Perhaps, flesh and blood have truly grown in his heart!
"After this incident, those two young men resented my cousin for not taking good care of the child. Since the child wasn't even his biological son, their relationship was severed just like that!"
"This village is very conservative. When something happens, they say all sorts of nasty things, like my cousin is a jinx. So my cousin eventually moved to live in the orchard and only keeps in touch with a few elderly people in the village."
"I've partnered with a city businessman to run a manor, which is pretty good. It's just that sometimes, he's such a nice guy, I always feel like God owes him something."