"Xiao Xi, over here!"
Just as Lin Xiaoxi strained his way out of the train amidst the odd stares of the other passengers, he heard Lin Xiao’an’s call. He breathed a sigh of relief and immediately collapsed on the ground, refusing to move. He shouted hoarsely, "Older brothers, come over and give me a hand!"
"What’s the matter? What’s the matter?" Lin Xiaoping and his two younger brothers were startled by his state and quickly squeezed through the crowd to run over.
"Terrible, nearly worked myself to death!" Lin Xiaoxi shakily got up from the ground, pointing at the three large nylon bags beside him and saying, "You guys take care of this."
The brothers were puzzled by his comment, and Lin Xiao Le reached out to grab one of the nylon bags, nearly falling over from the unexpected weight, and widened his eyes, "What’s in this?" It’s so heavy.
"My younger sister packed them." Lin Xiaoxi rolled his eyes and said, "You know what she’s like, I couldn’t refuse at all."
Lin Xiao’an took hold of one of the nylon bags, couldn’t help but click his tongue and said, "No wonder our sister specifically called us to meet you at the train station." She was so vague on the phone, he thought something had happened to Xiaoxi.
"Okay, let’s get going, it’ll be late for the bus." Lin Xiaoping struggled to pick up a nylon bag and said, "Xiao Xi, you rest for a while, Xiao’an and Xiao Le, please bear with it."
Fortunately, they were all toughened up in the production team, this sort of labor was nothing to them.
By the time the four brothers returned home, it was already past two in the afternoon. There were restaurants along the way where they could have dined, but they were used to saving, and even though they had just come into a large sum of money, their old ways took some time to change, so they all went home on an empty stomach.
Upon arriving home, both families were waiting, and the four brothers panted as they entered Lin Xiaoxi’s house.
"What are these?" Zhou Fengqin asked, seeing the three huge nylon bags.
Li Fangmei and Lin Nianqiang also came over, looking at Lin Xiaoxi with puzzled faces.
"My sister asked me to bring them back, they are for everyone." Lin Xiaoxi said as he opened a bag and took out five boxes: "These are prepared by my sister for the kids, one box per child. Supposedly, it’s foreign goods, eating them is good for the children’s health."
"For us?" Lin Bo, Lin Hu, Lin Xiaocao, Lin Cheng all crowded around, and even Lin Xiaoxue, who was still unsteady on her feet, stumbled over.
"This isn’t candy." Lin Xiao’an rapped his son’s head and said to his wives, sister-in-laws, and younger sisters by his side, "Make sure to keep these things safe."
Without him having to say, Qin Xiaohua and her sisters-in-law had already put the things away.
Next, Lin Xiaoxi took out the items one by one, "These are for Mom and Uncle and Aunt, these half for Han Fang, the rest sister-in-laws, you can share, and these are cotton shoes made by my sister for Mom..."
When they saw the sheep and beef, Li Fangmei glared at her son with disappointment, "Why did you even bring this back?"
"My sister simply wouldn’t listen to me." Lin Xiaoxi lamented.
"Where did Wanwan get this whole sheep and whole beef steaks from?" Lin Nianqiang furrowed his brow.
Such items were hard to come by even in the city.
"I don’t know." Lin Xiaoxi shook his head: "At that time, I was busy looking for routes to sell tea, but she was running about constantly during those days, she must have gone through a lot of trouble to get them."
Upon hearing this, Li Fangmei felt both happy and worried - happy that her niece was thinking of them, and worried what if her niece’s husband became unhappy with all this moving stuff to her parental home?
"Xiao Xi, does your sister lead a good life?" she asked.
Everyone, who had been either happy or marveling at these things they had never seen before, turned their attention to him upon hearing the question.
"Yeah, Xiao Xi, does Shen Chi treat our sister well?" Lin Xiao’an inquired.
"Well, of course, he does," said Lin Xiaoxi with a beaming smile, "Their new home is so nice, with a television, washing machine, gas stove, bicycle, bicycle for mom, and even a stroller for the kids. Any of those items would be something if our family had just one, yet they have them all. Shen Chi is also good to my sister. You didn’t see, when my sister cooks and if Shen Chi is around, he’ll help out. He doesn’t even need to lift a finger for washing and preparing vegetables, slicing and dicing ingredients, and he’s even worried that she’ll get hurt from the hot oil pan, he insists on doing it himself. When he was off work, he even did the laundry. My sister packed these items for me right in front of him, and he didn’t even blink an eye. Also, I noticed, at their home, it’s mostly my sister who calls the shots."
He was genuinely happy, but he also harbored some worries. It was evident that Shen Chi really liked his sister now, but what about in the future?