Chapter 293 The old man could still walk a few steps a couple of years ago

“That old man could still walk a few steps a couple of years ago, but his condition has worsened in recent years, which is why he went to live in a nursing home,” Yan Liti said with a complicated expression.

She didn't get along with Old Master Shen, and since he had difficulty walking, she naturally wouldn't take care of him personally.

There are maids and nannies at home, but in this situation, it would be better to go to a nursing home. There are professional doctors there, as well as many of the old man's comrades-in-arms. It would be much better than living at home staring at each other.

Shen Qingyan then recalled what Dou Yufeng had told him when they were in Cishui Village.

If Shen Lu died before her daughter was born in this dream, then she died four years ago.

Shen Lu was about six years old at that time.

It was exactly the time four years ago when Long Yijun saved Shen Lu.

Is it a coincidence that the timelines match perfectly?

Does this dream mean anything?

Shen Qingyan felt that Qiao Qiao's dream gave him the feeling that her letters hadn't been stolen by Shen Qingrong, but had been seen by him, and that everyone's lives were turning towards another possibility.

But this feeling was vague and hazy, and Shen Qingyan couldn't grasp it for the time being.

He felt something was off, as if there was something very important that he had overlooked.

They couldn't figure it out by just thinking about it, so they had to put the matter aside for the time being.

Let's see if Qiao Qiao has this dream again. Perhaps this dream is hinting at something to them.

——

In Qiaojia Village, people don't go out to pay New Year's visits on the first day of the Lunar New Year; they only visit relatives within the village. They start visiting relatives outside the village from the second day onwards.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, it is time for married daughters to return to their parents' home.

Meng Zihuan clearly preferred his mother's relatives to his father's relatives.

As soon as it was dawn, he couldn't wait to follow Qiao Xiaoyun to the Qiao family home.

As for the Qiao family, apart from Li Wenyan, who was not a local and did not return to her parents' home, Fang Zhengnan and Mo Wenpei both took their sons back to their respective parents' homes.

Qiao Xiaoyun also gave me five yuan as a New Year's gift.

She was also surprised to see that Yan Liti's New Year's money was 888.88 yuan.

She wanted to refuse, but before she could even utter the words, Yan Liti stopped her with her own.

Qiao Xiaoyun had no choice but to let Meng Zihuan accept it.

Of course, Meng Zihuan didn't get to enjoy the money either. He was even worse off than his cousins. Apart from the 88 cents that belonged to him, the rest was kept by his mother.

Meng Zihuan tried to hold onto the eight yuan he had already stuffed into his pocket, not wanting to give it away, but Qiao Xiaoyun snatched it from him.

Qiao Xiaoyun even pulled out a bunch of firecrackers that she had taken off the firecrackers from his pocket, making her so angry that the veins on her forehead bulged.

She looked at Meng Zihuan coldly.

"Meng Zihuan! Don't blame me for not warning you, if you dare to blast a hole in your new clothes like you did last year, I'll make sure you get a good beating in the second year of junior high, the kind where I tie you up and hang you on a millet trough to whip you!"

"Or, you can be smart and take off these clothes now and put on the old clothes I brought for you, and the smock your grandmother made for you."

The down jacket that Qiao Xiaoyun dressed Meng Zihuan in today was the same one that Qiao Changdong bought from Baoyi City last time. It cost several hundred yuan, which was more than she could afford with a year's salary.

If it weren't for the fear that the child would grow up too fast, and it being the Lunar New Year, she really wouldn't have wanted Meng Zihuan to wear it.

The smock she mentioned was a bib-like garment made by Grandma Qiao from a dark-colored floral fabric.

In rural areas, almost every child under six years old has one of these smocks.

Besides keeping you warm, the most important thing is that it can keep you clean.

Especially in such damp and extremely cold winters, poor families would need to wear one winter coat for the entire winter.

This way, you can wear an outer layer of clothing, and if it gets dirty, you only need to wash the outer layer, while the inner layer can still be worn, which is very convenient.

The Meng family was certainly not that poor.

Meng Zhengcheng's parents doted on this precious grandson, spoiling him rotten. He had the most clothes and shoes among all his brothers, and many of his toys were imported goods that required foreign exchange certificates to buy.

But no matter how many clothes he wore, they couldn't stop Meng Zihuan from being so skinny, so he would usually wear an overcoat when he was in the countryside.

But it's Chinese New Year now.

Seeing Qiao Qiao and Fu Yu dressed so beautifully and cleanly, he had no desire to wear the ugly smock.

She mumbled in a low voice, protesting, "I, I don't want to wear a smock... Mom... I..."

He looked at Qiao Xiaoyun and thought of the time last year when he burned a black hole in his new clothes while playing with firecrackers, and he couldn't help but feel guilty and short of breath.

She looked at Meng Zhengcheng, who was sitting to the side, as if pleading for help.

Meng Zhengcheng helplessly shrugged, indicating that he had no choice. Qiao Xiaoyun had already warned him several times when he put on this new outfit.

Tell him to be careful when he smokes, and make sure he doesn't accidentally let a spark fall.

He kept talking about it so much that he wanted to take off his new clothes.

But when he actually took it off, Qiao Xiaoyun was unwilling.

Not only did they make him wear it, but they also made him stroll around the Meng family's house in it several times.

It wasn't until someone from the Meng family asked him if his clothes were very expensive, where he bought them, and why the supply and marketing cooperative had never seen such a style before... that he stopped asking.

Meng Zhengcheng found this both amusing and somewhat heartbreaking.

What's funny is that Qiao Xiaoyun has a childlike nature; if she has something nice, she has to show it off to everyone. She's proud that her younger brother bought it for her, and she finds it especially cute.

He felt sorry for his wife because he knew very well why she was acting this way.

He is a policeman; his parents used to work in the same line of work and are now retired.

The Meng family's relatives are also mostly government officials.

Although Qiao Xiaoyun herself is a doctor at the county hospital with a stable job, she has a younger brother who is a hoodlum.

In his younger days, when he was still immature and often caused trouble, some of Meng's relatives would put on an arrogant attitude and make sarcastic remarks, saying that Qiao Changdong needed to be disciplined more, otherwise things would turn out this way or that.

Qiao Xiaoyun is strong-willed and intolerant of any wrongdoing. She has argued with her relatives many times because of this, and the most serious time was when she almost got into a fight with a relative.

The only thing that comforted Qiao Xiaoyun was that her husband and in-laws didn't say anything and even spoke up for her.

Ask those gossipy relatives to say less, or if that doesn't work, cut off all contact altogether.

Meng Zhengcheng had no problem with his brother-in-law; the man was fine, just a little rude in his speech.

His parents, in particular, adored Qiao Changdong.