"Is Jiaojiao blaming Uncle Four for not buying her candy? So she doesn’t like Uncle Four anymore, is that it? Uncle Four is really heartbroken," Jianmin said with a laugh, joining the conversation.
Jiaojiao’s Uncle Four was a rather stern person who had served as the accountant in the village years ago, often seen with a pair of glasses that made him look shrewd. Of course, he was fond of his niece as well, but being accustomed to seriousness, he never joked with Jiaojiao like her other uncles did.
This time, perhaps because the village was about to get electricity and he was in high spirits, he also started to joke around.
Jiaojiao didn’t know much at the moment, but she was the best at flattering people; she immediately said, "Uncle Four is wrong."
"Jiaojiao likes Uncle Four too, but Uncle Four isn’t in first place," Jiaojiao declared seriously.
"I know, it’s Dad who’s in first place, right?" Jianguo said with a smile, sounding a bit proud.
"No!" Jiaojiao shook her head, stood up from her stool, ran to the Ruanlin Family’s side, hugged her thigh, and looking up with a smiling face, she said, "Grandma is first, Dad and the uncles are all in second place!"
"..." Even the recently sullen and unusually somber Uncle Two couldn’t help but laugh.
Jiaojiao laughed along and was given a big kiss by the Ruanlin Family.
"..." A certain someone who had been completely forgotten due to the Ruan Family’s appearance was left out of mind, all the way in Java.
Indeed, he needed to work hard, so hard that he could support her without needing any help from the Ruan Family!
Feeling good, the four brothers who usually didn’t drink at noon went to a local ruffian’s house and exchanged for over a kilogram of rice wine. The brothers talked and laughed nonstop at the dining table about the better life they would have in the future.
They probably drank a bit too much.
Jiaojiao had just put down her bowl and chopsticks when she saw Uncle Two, changing from his recent silence, talking nonstop at the dining table.
"Big brother, Third, Four, I’m sorry, I’ve wronged you all," Uncle Two said after gulping down his cup of wine, his voice hoarse and choked.
"You drink some cat piss and forget your own name, is that it?!" Jianguo scorned angrily, reaching out to take the cup in his hand, but Jiandang avoided it.
Looking at his three brothers sitting beside him, his voice became choked, "I actually know, these years, you all have been accommodating us. I know everything, I just..." He was just weak, just unwilling to make a fuss.
Their father had died early, and it was the Ruanlin Family who raised them.
Even after they all married, they never really thought of separating households. It was Liao Zhaoji who stirred up trouble, made the home restless, and kept pulling the family’s things back to her parents’ home, making it impossible for the Ruanlin Family to manage, resulting in the complete separation of the household.
He knew, he just never brought it out into the open!
Sometimes he thought, if he had stopped it from the beginning instead of indulging it, would things have turned out differently?
He didn’t care much for Liao Zhaoji.
He just felt so regretful, so sorry to his brothers.
His leg was injured, and the doctor said it could recover to normal, but he knew, even if he did recover, he could no longer do odd jobs, especially since his previous work was all manual labor.
No construction site would want him.
For the past two months he had been penniless. His family couldn’t even afford oil and salt, they all ate at the eldest brother’s place, and the Ruanlin Family even gave a large sum of money to Ruan Jun; he himself relied on this brotherly affection, working at Jianguo’s and getting the highest pay.