"Captain, we don't want to embarrass you. After all, people who go to the countryside are here to build the motherland, and we are not picky about the living conditions."
Qian Zhiyi said the same thing: "But you see that the house is too dilapidated, and there is air leakage inside. People can't get sick while living there?"
"If we get sick, won't that mean we'll miss work in the fields?"
"Captain, do you think this will work? We will use the money to subsidize them and live in the homes of the people in the production team. This way we can take care of each other."
Lao Liu was not a very thoughtful person, so he was slightly moved by his words.
Qian Zhiyi continued: "Why don't you bother the captain to go and help us find out who has a vacant room and can let us stay for a while."
Lao Liu hesitated and said, "Then let me ask first?"
Unexpectedly, at this time, Du Tao pushed Du Ming, and the two brothers bowed directly and said: "Captain, please help them ask, we are fine, and it is good to live here."
Qian Zhiyi didn't expect that the educated youth would cause trouble. He frowned and asked, "Brothers from the Du family, have you thought about it?"
"If the house is broken and leaking, repair it. There is nothing you can't live in." Du Tao said.
Du Ming said with a smile: "Yes, what are we two grown men afraid of?"
In fact, they had no money in their pockets. Not everyone came from Beijing like Qian Zhiyi and Wu Mengting. The Du family simply sent them to the countryside to make room because there were too many sons in the family.
The two brothers, whose father does not care for their mother, can only join a group to stay warm. Instead of spending money just to live in a better house, they might as well obey the arrangements.
Seeing that they had made a decision, Lao Liu looked at Xu Zhenzhen again.
The little girl hesitated in her heart. She felt that she was here to do construction and had to endure hardships. She felt a little numb when looking at the dilapidated house. She thought about the inconvenience of living in other people's homes. At the same time, she was a little afraid of living alone.
Wu Mengting's eyes flashed, she reached out to hold her arm, and persuaded softly: "Zhenzhen, we are a girl's family after all. This house is too remote. It is not safe to live here."
"Don't say there are bad guys, but let's talk about rats, poisonous snakes, etc. getting in in the middle of the night. Are we going to be scared to death?"
Upon hearing this, Xu Zhenzhen also said: "Captain, I also want to stay at a member's house."
Lao Liu nodded and said: "Okay, then I will ask for you, but the conditions of the production team are poor, and everyone is a group of children, and there may not be an empty house for you to live in."
Seeing that they had decided on this matter, Gu Mingdong said: "Captain, if nothing happens, I'll go to the fields first."
After saying this, he turned around and left without looking at the educated youths.
The other two young men also said hello to Lao Lao Liu and followed him one after another.
As soon as the people left, Wu Mengting casually inquired: "Captain, did that big brother just now have any objections to us? He didn't even smile during the whole journey."
The old Liu comforted him: "A Dong was born like that, and he treats others the same way. Don't think too much about it."
Wu Mengting showed a bright smile, nodded and said: "Then I'm relieved. I thought he didn't welcome educated youth."
Lao Liu didn't want his production team to be accused of not welcoming educated youths, so he quickly said: "You can't say this nonsense."
"I was just kidding." Wu Mengting said with a smile.
Then he said casually: "Captain, how many people are there in their family? Is there any room available at home?"
"Are you talking about A-Dong's family?" The old Liu was stunned and secretly asked what was going on with this girl. Just now, he thought A-Dong's face was too bad, but now he asked about the situation at home.
Suddenly, the old Liu thought of a possibility. He secretly thought that good looks meant taking advantage, and they went to pick up the educated youth together. The most beautiful girl took a liking to Adong at a glance, just like Adong's wife back then.
Damn, it's all because of Adong's talent.
Seeing Wu Mengting's innocent smile, Lao Liu kindly reminded her, "He has already married a wife, and his wife left him a pair of twin sons."
Lest this young man, who knows how young he is, falls into it without knowing the depth, and it will cause an unpleasant scene.
"What, they have a son?" Wu Mengting's face changed slightly.
Seeing her frightened expression, the old man Liu thought he had struck a chord with her, and continued: "Isn't that right? There are two of them, a pair of twins. They are four years old this year. They are very clever."
"How is this possible?" Wu Mengting frowned.
The old man Liu smiled and said: "We get married early in the countryside. Don't look at A Dong as young, but he has actually been married a long time ago."
Wu Mengting wanted to ask again, but Qian Zhiyi interrupted her unhappily: "Mengting, why do you keep asking about him?"
Wu Mengting's expression changed slightly, she turned around and said with a smile: "It's nothing. I originally thought that if they have few family members, I could just live in their house. At least I still know someone."
Qian Zhiyi said impatiently: "Then let's forget it. It seems like the master is not easy to get along with."
He said so, Wu Mengting could only smile and said nothing.
Lao Liu glanced at them and said, "You put your things away first, and I will take you to a house with a small population in the production team to see if I can free up a house for you to live in."
Qian Zhiyi originally thought that old Liu was with him. They were educated youths from the city, and they were willing to provide a subsidy of one yuan a month. People from the production team would definitely rush to ask them to stay.
Who knows how many houses Lao Lao Liu took him to, but the commune members didn't agree.
Either the man looked at Qian Zhiyi and felt it was inconvenient, or the woman looked at Wu Mengting and Xu Zhenzhen and felt it was inconvenient. They all said they were not used to strangers living in the house.
There were some who were willing, but in the end, the house was not as good as the house provided by the production team for free.
Qian Zhiyi was dissatisfied and secretly felt that the old Liu was deliberately making things difficult. He couldn't help but ask: "Captain, isn't there someone more suitable?"
In the bottom of his heart, the depressed old Liu already felt that this educated youth had too many things to do, and he was not satisfied with this or that.
But considering that they were educated youths, he still smiled and said, "Otherwise, you can go back and live first, and I will ask after everyone gets off work in the evening."
"Everyone is in the fields right now. It's hard to delay production when planting rice seedlings, don't you think?"
Qian Zhiyi and three others had no choice but to go back dejectedly.
On the other side of the rice-planting field, as soon as Gu Mingdong and the others came back, the members of the commune started asking: "Have the educated youth arrived? What do they look like?"
Gu Mingdong rolled up his trousers and walked out of the field, saying, "Not everyone has two eyes and one nose."
"Hey, that's what you said." Aunt Gu next to her laughed, "It always depends on whether it looks good or not."
Gu Mingdong smiled: "Anyway, they look similar to me."
Third Aunt Gu smiled helplessly and secretly thought that her eldest nephew was in love, and she was only thinking about her dead daughter-in-law.
She stopped joking and said, "Axing and Achen are playing at my house. Remember to pick them up later."
"Your younger brother and sister went to work at the foot of the mountain. Xiaobei said that he brought food for them to save time from walking back and forth, so he won't go back to eat at noon."
"Okay." Gu Mingdong nodded.
At this time, someone else asked: "Do they really look the same? The educated youth in the city must be a little different, right?"
The young man who went together said: "They all look elegant, and their temperament is indeed different from ours. There are two girls inside, and one of them is very pretty, like a fairy."
"Fairy, what does that look like?"
"Anyway, she's just good-looking. She's different from our country girls."
"What's wrong with our girls from the countryside? Only girls from the countryside can do the work. In the city, they are all just showy and fancy, so they can't do the work."
"If I married a wife like that, I wouldn't be able to let her work."
"Hey, this is what I fancy..."
Everyone in the field started talking around the fairy.
Gu Mingdong was minding his own work, but he felt strange in his heart. Wu Mengting obviously didn't know him, but why was she surprised when she heard his name?
Does she know herself?
After looking through the memory of the original owner, Gu Mingdong couldn't find any evidence. He couldn't help but frown and suspected that there were still missing parts of the memory.
At noon, Gu Mingdong went home and heated up the meal before going to pick up Gu Jianguo.
After rejecting Aunt Gu's offer to leave food, Gu Mingdong led his two sons to the house.
Gu Liangxing and Gu Liangchen were wearing spring clothes and were sweating profusely from playing. They refused to walk honestly and jumped around endlessly.
The one on the left said: "Dad, can I come over to play again in the afternoon?"
The one on the right said: "We just played the game of catching traitors and we won."
Gu Mingdong touched their heads: "Go and play if you want, but remember not to fight."
"What if they bully us?"
Gu Mingdong pondered for a moment: "Then fight back. If you two join forces, you can't beat them?"
Gu Liangxing immediately said: "They don't dare to hit us. I said, if they dare to bully us, we will not give them any biscuits at home."
Yes, a piece of biscuit during the Chinese New Year can become their talisman.
The father and son were walking back talking and laughing, when suddenly a figure blocked their way.
Gu Mingdong looked up and saw Wu Mengting.
"busy?"
Wu Mengting lifted up the broken hair on her face and said with a smile: "Brother A Dong, can I say a few words to you."
Gu Mingdong raised his eyebrows slightly: "You say."
The twins subconsciously hugged their biological father's thighs. They were young, but they knew that many people would play matchmaker with their biological father first.
The mother-in-law in the village said that if dad married the stepmother, they would become pitiful little people with no one to love them.
Wu Mengting glanced at the twins and frowned slightly: "It's not good for others to hear this."
Gu Mingdong sneered: "My son can't listen to anything? Girl, we don't know each other well, right?"
"You can talk if you like. If you don't, I'll go home for dinner. I have to work in the afternoon." After saying that, he took the twins and left.
Wu Mengting's face turned pale. She turned around and saw the twins making faces at her while walking.
Feeling angry in her heart, Wu Mengting shouted subconsciously: "I want to talk to you about cousin Lijuan."
Gu Mingdong paused and looked at her in disbelief.
In the memory of the original owner, he took great care of Wu Mengting in the next ten years, but there was never any reason why he wanted to take care of her, let alone the relationship between Wu Mengting and Li Lijuan.
Gu Mingdong's eyes darkened, and he turned around and asked, "Are you Lijuan's cousin? She has never mentioned you, and she is from Daishan City. Aren't you from Beijing?"
Wu Mengting touched her hair, hiding the guilt in her eyes: "We are cousins. When I was young, my father's work unit was transferred to Beijing, so the two families had little contact, but cousin Lijuan and I have a good relationship, and we have always written letters. She told me about you."
Gu Mingdong didn't believe this at all. Li Lijuan was dead anyway, and he had no contact with the Li family. He didn't just let Wu Mengting say whatever he wanted.
Even if they were cousins, Gu Mingdong felt that Li Lijuan was very unlucky to have such a cousin.
However, he did not reveal his doubts and only said in deep thought: "Lijuan also mentioned me to you."
Wu Mengting nodded quickly: "Yes, she often mentioned you and the two children in her letters to me."
Speaking of children, Wu Mengting couldn't help but glance at the twins, with a hint of contempt and coldness flashing in her eyes.
She thought that after Li Lijuan couldn't stay in Daishan City anymore, she pretended to marry in the countryside to avoid the rumors. Unexpectedly, she surrendered and gave birth to two sons to a country man.
When she thought about what she had learned about Li Lijuan in the production team that morning, she felt happy in her heart.
Wu Mengting lowered her head, hiding the gloating in her eyes: "After so many years, I didn't expect her son to be so old. It's a pity that I came a little late and didn't get to see cousin Lijuan for the last time."
Gu Mingdong sneered in his heart, but said in his mouth: "Lijuan knows about it down there, and she won't blame you."
Wu Mengting's face changed slightly, and she concealed her embarrassment and said, "Cousin-in-law, in addition to acknowledging my relatives, I also want to ask if your family has any vacancies."
"As you know, I came all the way here as a girl. I thought that cousin Lijuan would be here and the two of us could take care of her. Who knows... Fortunately, although my cousin is gone, my cousin-in-law is still here. you......"
It sounds like she went to the countryside and came to the Shanghe Village Production Team all because of Li Lijuan.
She never thought that if Li Lijuan's relationship with her was so good, how could she not send a letter when they were on the sickbed.
Wu Mengting's cheeks were flushed, and she continued: "Cousin-in-law, do you have an empty room at your house?"
Unexpectedly, Gu Mingdong said calmly: "It's a pity, we don't have any room at home..."
"Ah?" Wu Mengting was stunned, "No room available?"
Gu Mingdong nodded and said: "Six people live in the first three rooms of the house, and I want to borrow a house to live in."
Wu Mengting's face looked a little ugly: "Hey, that's it. That's okay. I don't want to embarrass you, brother-in-law."
"That's good, I'll go home and eat first." After saying that, he took the twins and left.
Wu Mengting was still behind him, her face turned blue and white, and she didn't know how to react.
She had calculated everything, but she didn't expect that Gu Mingdong would not give him any face.
Didn't everyone in the production team say that Gu Mingdong had a very good relationship with his dead wife, and refused to remarry for her sake, treating his twin sons as jewelry?
Wu Mengting also found out that Gu Mingdong could hunt wild boars and often had meat at home, so she became interested in living in their house.
Who knew that all her calculations would come to nothing with Gu Mingdong.
Wu Mengting was unwilling to give in and couldn't help shouting: "Brother-in-law?"
Gu Mingdong turned around and asked, "Do you have anything else to do?"
Wu Mengting suppressed her dissatisfaction and said pointedly: "We are relatives, can you not tell it? You also know that the status of educated youth going to the countryside is embarrassing. I am afraid that if others find out, some people will say that I took a shortcut and defected." relative."
"Okay, let's pretend we don't know each other." Gu Mingdong agreed.
Tsk, kinship is not a shameful thing. If you mention it, you will get special care. However, Wu Mengting made a request not to let others know, which shows that there is something wrong in her heart.
Gu Mingdong once again doubted whether the cousin she mentioned was true.
He agreed so readily that Wu Mengting always felt that something was wrong in her heart.
She frowned and sighed. She originally thought that Gu Mingdong seemed to have a good status in the production team, had a good relationship with the team leader, and was a relative of the scorekeeper, so he could take care of her more. But now it seems that Li Lijuan has no such respect at all.
Gu Mingdong took his two children home. When they were eating, the twins glanced at their father after taking a mouthful of food.
Gu Mingdong knocked on their rice bowls: "What will I do if you don't eat?"
Gu Liangxing asked: "Dad, was that our aunt just now?"
In their memories, their biological mother's family had never appeared before, so they were so curious this time.
Gu Mingdong did not answer directly, but asked: "Do you still remember the last time you were captured by human traffickers?"
The two children nodded like chickens pecking at rice.
Gu Mingdong said: "There are many liars in this world. Some people look kind-hearted, but they are actually human traffickers."
The twins didn't understand.
Gu Liangchen asked: "Dad, is that educated youth a human trafficker?"
Gu Liangxing said: "Dad didn't say she was a trafficker, he just said she was a liar."
"Aren't liars just human traffickers?"
"It seems to be about the same."
Gu Mingdong knocked on their heads: "Eat quickly and remember to stay away from strangers."
The twins said oh and finally stopped discussing it.
Gu Mingdong thought that because of his straightforward refusal, Wu Mengting gave up the idea of staying in their house. Who knows that that night, just after the family had dinner, the old Liu came to the door with the educated youth. .