"Yes, yes! I think about you all!"
Chu Yi stared at his wife's pious little face. If she hadn't played so much with Yuan Shuang every day, he would have believed it!
Then he shook his head, took the basin aside, and started the couple's usual evening routine, soaking their feet together.
Seeing that Chu Yi didn't respond to him, Shen Luzhu quietly moved his foot that was soaked in hot water forward. His big toe moved to Chu Yi's foot bit by bit, and he stepped on it lightly: "You Don’t believe me? I really miss you!”
"Well, our Atake fell asleep thinking about everything I thought about!"
Um? Forget it if you don’t believe it, why do you feel that there is a hint of ridicule in these words!
Shen Luzhu raised his handsome eyebrows, narrowed his eyes, and suddenly slapped the water with his foot. The water in the basin was impacted and splashed everywhere. Chu Yi was frightened by this sudden situation. Suddenly, Shen Luzhu laughed so hard that he lay on the kang behind him without caring about his appearance!
Chu Yi helplessly wiped the water stains on his wife and himself: "Naughty!"
The business in the shop has not been busy recently. Apart from the occasional buying and selling of paper money, and sorting out the new paper money sent from the workshop and various stores, it is not a strenuous task. Chu Yi spends most of his time by himself recently. In the shop, Chu Li has to go to school, and Uncle Chu has to stare at the workshop from time to time. Shen Luzhu himself accompanied Yuan Shuang to make wedding clothes almost every day, so he simply took Xiu Xiu with him.
Firstly, it is convenient for Xiuxiu to ask about any words she doesn’t know when she is reading. Secondly, Xiuxiu is already thirteen or fourteen years old this year. There are some early people in the village near them, and they have already made an engagement at this age. , Uncle Chu Chu is not in a hurry. Shen Luzhu also thinks that it is better for girls not to get married too early, but it is better for her to follow them around such as making clothes and embroidery. After all, no matter whether they get married or not, When you get married, these skills will be useful later.
Chu Yi was staying in the shop that day, chatting with Chu Ping and his father who came over to kill time when he saw an aunt who seemed familiar opened the door of his shop.
After the visitor entered the shop, he stared at Chu Yi behind the counter for a long time, and then asked uncertainly: "Is this the Chu family's shop? Are you...Chu Yi?"
Chu Ping's father turned his head and glanced at the person who came, feeling that he looked very familiar. Then he frowned, as if he was recalling who this person was: "Mr. Wu?"
The person who was called Mrs. Wu also turned to look over, as if she finally saw a familiar face, and seemed to be relieved: "It's Xiuxiu's cousin who lives next door, right? It's me, Mrs. Wu!"
Only then did Chu Yi remember who this Wu was. She was not the former wife of Uncle Chu San, Chu Xiuxiu, her mother-in-law!
After Mrs. Wu exchanged greetings with Chu Ping and his father, she turned to Chu Yi again, who was still dazed: "You are Chu Yi, right? I am your third aunt!"
Chu Yi paused for a moment. He still couldn't say "third aunt", so he just called "aunt."
"You have grown so big. If I were to meet you while walking in the village, I would really not recognize you!"
After Wu said that, she had no reaction when she saw Chu Yi, so she could only talk to herself again: "Xiu Xiu is at home, right? I came here today to see Xiu Xiu..."
As usual, Chu Xiuxiu stayed with Uncle Chu in the workshop for a while, then walked from the backyard to the guest room in the front yard. As soon as she arrived in the front yard, she caught up with Chu Yi and opened the back door of the shop and entered the yard.
When Chu Yi saw Chu Xiuxiu, he stopped and said, "Xiuxiu, come with your cousin, someone wants to see you."
Chu Xiuxiu was stunned for a moment, wondering who wanted to see her, but it was impossible for her cousin to lie to her, so she shook the travel book in her hand: "Cousin, let me put the book with my cousin first. Go aside."
Chu Yi took two more steps forward: "It's okay, just give it to me and I'll send it to you."
Chu Xiuxiu nodded noncommittally, handed over the book in her hand, and then stepped forward to push open the back door of the shop, but was stopped by Chu Yi again.
"Xiuxiu."
"What's wrong cousin?"
"It's your mother-in-law."
"Auntie?" Chu Xiuxiu
The hand that was about to push the door was suddenly withdrawn as if being electrocuted. She was only five years old when her mother and father left. Over the years, her mother-in-law has never come back to see her biological daughter. Except in the first days, Chu Xiuxiu also made trouble to find her mother-in-law. Later, she gradually never mentioned it again. Now she even The memory of what she looked like was very vague.
When that incident happened, Chu Yi was already fourteen years old and a big boy, so he still remembered many things deeply. Seeing his cousin behave like this, he didn’t know what to say for a moment. After all, even he had just They were all shocked by the sudden arrival of the third aunt Wu!
"Cousin, I...did she say what she wanted to do with me? Doesn't my father know yet?"
Chu Yi shook his head. Just now Wu made it clear that he didn't want to meet his third uncle. Chu Yi originally planned to wait for Xiuxiu to go to the shop and then go to the backyard to inform his third uncle. But now she didn't seem to want to see Wu. , then changed his mind, who said that if a mother-in-law wants to see her child, she must see her!
"I'm going to call my third uncle right away. Xiuxiu, you go find your cousin-in-law first."
After hearing Chu Yi's words, Chu Xiuxiu breathed a sigh of relief as if she had put down some burden. Then she thought about the shop in front of her that no one was looking at, and became a little confused: "Cousin, where is that shop?".
"It's okay, my uncle is here."
"Then I'll go find my cousin sister-in-law and Sister Yuan Shuang first!" After saying that, Chu Xiuxiu trotted into the guest room in the west wing.
Shen Luzhu and Yuan Shuang were putting the final touches on the wedding dress. Seeing Xiuxiu push open the door and come in, she casually asked, "Which travel book are Xiuxiu going to read today?"
"Cousin, my mother-in-law is here and she is in the front shop now!"
Shen Luzhu didn't react to this title that appeared for the first time. He was obviously stunned for a moment, and quickly put down what he was doing and asked, "Xiuxiu, who do you think is here?"
Shen Luzhu had heard about Uncle Chu's marriage before, but he only knew that it was a long time ago when Uncle Chu broke his leg and they were divorced. He didn't know anything else. He had been married to Chu Yi for so long. , I haven’t heard anyone from the Chu family mention it, let alone come to see Xiu Xiu. No wonder she almost forgot about the existence of this person!
"Did she say what she wanted to do at home?"
"My cousin said she wanted to see me."
Upon hearing this, Shen Luzhu knew that Xiuxiu had not met her mother-in-law yet. After looking at Chu Xiuxiu's expression, she probably had a guess in her mind. She stretched out her hand to pull the little girl in front of her to her side, lowered her head and asked her softly. : "Then Xiuxiu wants to see her?"
Chu Xiuxiu hesitated for a moment, then lowered her head and shook her chest: "I don't know..."
Shen Luzhu gently stroked Chu Xiuxiu's back and comforted her: "It's okay, Xiuxiu, you can see me if you want to see me, and if you don't want to see me, I can't see you. It makes no sense for parents to see you if they want to see you. The decision is yours." In your hands, it doesn’t matter if you can’t think of it right now, just wait until you think about it, don’t think too much, and don’t think about others!”
Just as he was talking, Chu Yi knocked on the door and walked in: "I just told my third uncle."
Shen Luzhu looked back and saw no one in his third uncle, so he asked, "What did your third uncle say?"
"The third uncle said that he won't come over. As for whether Xiuxiu can see her or not, just listen to Xiuxiu herself. If she wants to see her, she can see her. If she doesn't want to see her, she can't see her."
Shen Luzhu smiled and touched Chu Xiuxiu's hair: "Does Xiuxiu want to take a look?"
Chu Xiuxiu hesitated for a long time, then nodded vaguely: "Will my cousin accompany me?"
"OK!"
The young couple took Xiuxiu and pushed open the back door of the shop. When Chu Ping and his father saw that people were back, they stood up and said goodbye: "Ayi, you guys are busy first, I will go back first!"
"Okay, thank you uncle for helping us look after the shop!"
"Why are you being so polite?"
At this time, Mrs. Wu was already impatient with waiting. There seemed to be a girl hiding behind the young woman who came out. She hurriedly stepped forward to grab Chu Xiuxiu's arm, trying to pull her out from behind Shen Luzhu!
"Xiu Xiu, is this Xiu Xiu? I am your aunt!"
Chu Xiuxiu was somewhat resistant to meeting Wu at first, but Wu's sudden arrival frightened Chu Xiuxiu even more and she refused to come out from behind Shen Luzhu.
Shen Luzhu noticed that Chu Xiuxiu was obviously stiff, and quickly reached out to stop Wu's hands that were still making trouble: "Auntie, how about we sit down first?"
Wu looked at the young woman standing between her and her daughter, and said in a somewhat unkind tone, "Who are you?"
Shen Luzhu naturally noticed the other party's bad intentions and said proudly, "The mistress of this house!"
Then he ignored Wu's reaction and took Chu Xiuxiu and Chu Yi to sit down at the counter first.
Mrs. Wu choked and turned around to sit back on the chair she was sitting on: "Oh, you are Chu Yi's new daughter-in-law, right? You came to Chu's house late, so you probably don't know about me. I am your third..."
"Third uncle's ex-wife, Xiuxiu's aunt, I know."
Seeing that this junior was having trouble communicating, Mrs. Wu curled her lips quietly and focused her attention on Chu Xiuxiu, who was holding Shen Luzhu's sleeve over there: "Xiuxiu, I'm your aunt! Why don't you recognize me? Me? Come here quickly, let me take a good look at you! My Xiuxiu has become a big girl now!"
Chu Xiuxiu turned to look at Shen Luzhu, as if she didn't know what to do. Shen Luzhu gave her a comforting look, then patted her arm and cheered her up.
Xiuxiu turned to Wu again and pursed her lips, but still couldn't say anything. But in Wu's eyes, all this turned out to be Shen Luzhu controlling and threatening Chu Xiuxiu to prevent her from getting close to him!
She secretly thought that just like what her sister-in-law Wang said, her daughter was almost becoming someone else's puppet! He has been hanging around an outsider all day long, and now he has even forgotten about his mother-in-law!
"Hey, why has my Xiuxiu become so timid? She doesn't even dare to recognize her. She has suffered so much after not being by her side for so many years. Wuwuwu..."
