Chapter 223: Discussion?
“Older brother, no…”
“Where do you have so much nonsense? Give it all to Ning Ning!”
“……”
Zhang Qi was amused and repeatedly said okay. Anyway, it was for his own younger sister, so he had no reluctance. Asking this wasn’t also because he was afraid that the yatou Ning Ning wouldn’t accept too much?
However, since his own old dad had spoken, Zhang Qi no longer thought much about it and took out a passbook from his pocket and forcibly stuffed it into her hand.
“The password is 987654.”
“No, older brother, this…”
“Ning Ning, be obedient. Your older brother is a thirty-something old bachelor, where does he have any place to spend money?”
“Yes, yes, yes, you old man are right about everything.”
Raising his hand to block the hand that was pushing back, Zhang Qi turned his head to look at her anxious face flushed red, and the smile at the corner of his mouth became even more brilliant.
“We agreed on it yesterday, take it. If you keep being polite with older brother, I’ll get angry.”
A light sentence, as if the passbook inside wasn’t tens of millions of yuan, but just a big black ten yuan.
This was real and genuine, savings from how many years of his nest egg.
Fine then, waiting for future eldest brother’s wife to appear, she would return this passbook, treating it as keeping it for him.
Thinking this in her heart, Su Ning no longer tussled with him and helplessly put away the passbook in her hand.
“Aiya, that’s right. Older brother raising younger sister is only natural and right. The extra can be considered older brother’s engagement gift to our Ning Ning.”
“Ah?”
What… just an engagement gift?
How did she not know she was getting engaged?
Blown dizzy by these words, with mosquito coil circles rising, rarely showing a stunned silly expression.
“You talk too much!”
Raising his hand to give him a knuckle on the back of the head, Zhang Fu originally planned to wait until seeing the person tomorrow, consider it, and then discuss this matter with Ning Ning.
It hadn’t even started yet, and this big mouth had shouted it out.
However, since it was mentioned, Zhang Fu thought about it and decided to discuss this matter properly with her.
“Ning Ning, come over, let’s go inside to talk.”
“Ah, um, okay.”
Still dazed, Su Ning subconsciously followed him to the main hall.
By the time Hu Yingtao brought Xiao Qiu out from the room after seeing Jin Hua and Wu Meng’s mother and daughter, and excitedly joined this topic, she still hadn’t come back to her senses.
“Ning Ning, don’t blame godfather and godmother for meddling too much. It’s really that a girl’s reputation is too important.
We know you don’t care what outsiders say or think, but we can’t bear for you to suffer even half a bit of criticism.”
Nowadays, it’s no longer the old rigid ways of parents’ orders and matchmaker’s words, with the couple seeing each other for the first time on the wedding night.
Now everyone emphasizes love freedom, marriage freedom.
After confirming the partner relationship, both parents meet, and if there’s no problem, they should discuss engagement, then jointly pick a good day to get the certificate and marry.
It’s basically this process.
Ning Ning’s situation is special, elders not by her side, alone in Xiangnan.
Now that she’s dating, and the partner’s elders are here, if these aren’t settled, the longer it drags, whether it happens or not, the girl will suffer the loss.
“Godfather and godmother, I know you’re all doing this for my own good…”
But how to tell them that she has no plans to get married yet?
Could she say she wants to be a hooligan who only dates without marrying?
Scratching her palm, Su Ning looked troubled on the surface, with a trace of annoyance in her eyes.
Standing beside holding Xiao Qiu, Zhang Qi looked down from above and saw all her expression, couldn’t help wondering in his heart: Why does it feel like… his own younger sister seems a bit unwilling to take responsibility?
Chuckling, Zhang Qi shook his head to shake off the strange thoughts in his mind. Who would think of dating for a lifetime without marrying?
If it’s a scumbag who wants to step on several boats, that’s possible, but how could Ning Ning be that kind of person?
Probably the little girl is thin-skinned, or perhaps the two just started dating, and haven’t thought these things through clearly.
“Ning Ning, if you haven’t thought it through clearly, then let us examine him first. If he passes, and the person is indeed reliable to entrust, then we can discuss the engagement later.”
“……” Anyway, once dating, can’t avoid engagement and marriage, right?
Pulling up a helpless smile, Su Ning could only nod and agree.
If he knew about this, the happiest would be Yan Bei.
Thinking of the two-plus months of getting along after confirming the relationship, their tacit understanding…
That pair of eyes that light up all the stars and seas in her eyes just by looking at her.
Quietly covering her chest where her heartbeat unconsciously sped up: If it’s him, in the end, her heart doesn’t have much rejection.
Then, let nature take its course.
She shouldn’t deny Yan Bei because of someone like Xu Zixin, tarring all with the same brush.
This isn’t fair to him.
“Aunt!”
“Hm?”
Not knowing when the little one climbed down from Zhang Qi and instead clung to her leg, blinking big eyes and shaking hard.
Putting away her thoughts, she picked up the person and placed her on her lap, poking her perky little nose with her fingertip and smiling indulgently, “What’s up, Xiao Qiu?”
“Aunt, Granny said tomorrow you’ll have time, and will take Xiao Qiu to play, right?”
“Yes, tomorrow aunt will take Xiao Qiu to the countryside to play, there are still many, many…”
……
The next day, the family got up early, finished breakfast, Zhang Fu and his wife packed and sorted the things needed to bring back to Team One, while Zhang Qi acted as labor to accompany Su Ning to the post office to mail things.
By the time the two returned, the home was already packed properly.
After greeting the two grannies next door and leaving word for Zhang Ze, the group set off grandly to the bus station.
This is where the convenience of having a telephone in the brigade showed.
They had just arrived in Yong County, and Su Jianqun was already waiting at the roadside with the ox cart.
“Young man, you’ve worked hard!”
“Psh, what’s hard about it? Staying home doing nothing, I’m about to grow mushrooms. Being out and about feels great!”
Grinning mischievously, Su Jianqun looked like a silly boy who hadn’t grown up, making everyone laugh heartily.
After simply introducing them, and a few polite pleasantries, Su Jianqun carefully drove the ox cart back.
Unlike the first snow in the city that hadn’t come yet, several high-altitude teams around Yong County had already had quite a few heavy snows, causing the mountain roads to ice over, making the path even worse than before.
“The temperature in the mountains and outside, uphill and downhill, are all different! So much snow!”
Adjusting Xiao Qiu’s thick cotton-padded jacket in her arms, then pulling her scarf up to cover mouth and nose, only after finishing did Hu Yingtao tightly hug the little one back into her arms.
Winters in Shanghai City rarely see snow, and it’s common to wait years for even one.
Suddenly seeing this vast white snow and the mountains still green within it, a trace of surprise and joy welled up in her heart.
“It’s okay now, but in a few more days, mid-Lunar December, there’ll probably be several blizzards, then it’ll be mountain closure.”
“Mountain closure? How long will it be closed?”
“Hard to say, depends on how heavy the snow is. Last year it was closed for over half a month.”
Everyone sighed a couple times, didn’t think much of it. After all, there were still over ten days until the mid-Lunar December he mentioned. No one expected to be so unlucky as to run into a big blizzard and mountain closure early.
……
Taking one or two times longer than usual, the ox cart slowly drove into Team One, finally stopping steadily at the Su Family Ancestral Home.
After helping move the things from the ox cart into the yard and place them, Su Jianqun sniffed and was about to drive the ox back to the cattle shed, go home early to warm his nearly frozen body, when he saw Su Ning running towards him with something.
“Young man, wait!”
“What’s up, Ning Ning?”
“Take this candy back to the kids, sweeten their mouths, and by the way, tell old man and old woman that in a bit I’ll bring godfather and godmother and them over.”
“Okay, I’ll pass the message, but this candy…”
Su Jianqun swallowed, not that he wasn’t tempted, but his grandpa had spoken.
Said it was for some small things Ning Ning did for him, what precious thing dared to stuff in his pocket, just give him a good meal of bamboo shoots fried meat!
“What’s wrong?”
“Grandpa will hit me!”
“Pfft~”
Thinking of that cute old man Su Qingshan, Su Ning laughed until her eyes curved, and upon seeing the young man’s features scrunched in pain, she couldn’t help laughing even more happily.
“Cough, young man, won’t you hide it well and quietly share with everyone? Rest assured, you don’t say, I don’t say, old man won’t know.”
In the end, Su Jianqun couldn’t resist the temptation of the candy…
Ah, no, according to him, it was for the happiness of his brothers and sisters’ little mouths. Even if discovered, sacrificing him one is worth it, with an expression of heroic martyrdom as he drove away.
That look made her laugh endlessly, until two shouts one after another interrupted her laughter.
“Ning Ning!” “Su Ning!”
