House Dad's Literary Life

Chapter 363: How Can This Be Considered Proper?

“Let’s go!” Xixi, who was sitting in the car, was very excited. She raised her little arm in the back, and her clear voice eased the tension of the adults.

Yang Yi stepped on the accelerator, and the Tyrant Wolf drove out of the already empty school gate, heading towards the direction of the highway.

“Don’t be so excited, it will take a long time to get home.” Yang Huan turned her head and said to Xixi with a smile.

“How long will it take?” Xixi, who was looking at the scenery outside the car window, turned her head and asked curiously.

“Um, I don’t know exactly how long it will take.” Yang Huan was stumped by that question. She thought for a moment and said, “We have to go back to Anqing, then to Pei County, and then drive a long way on a mountain road to get home. Maybe it will take a day?”

She came by train, which took half a day. Although the train was very slow and stopped at many stations along the way, the journey was indeed very far, so it should take a day to drive.

“It won’t take a day with navigation,” Yang Yi said with a smile as he drove, glancing at his daughter in the rearview mirror. “But now the phone can’t locate, can’t navigate. We can only rely on maps and maybe ask for directions. So, be prepared to sleep in the car tonight!”

Yang Yi set off at noon, and he wouldn’t be able to arrive by evening. He couldn’t leave his car outside because it was loaded with so many things. If he left it for one night, he estimated everything would be gone! Therefore, Yang Yi simply decided to drive overnight, striving to return to his hometown by the next morning.

“But, but what should I do?” Xixi furrowed her brows and said anxiously, “Papa, I didn’t eat a lot, I will starve to death!”

Xixi has started to regret it now. Not long ago, during lunch, the little girl was so excited that she couldn’t sit still. She took a few bites of her meal, then jumped down, carrying her backpack, and turned around, urging the adults to set off quickly. It was Mo Fei who later chased her with a bowl and fed her a few bites.

“Pah, pah, children’s words are not counted, blows away by the wind!” Yang Huan quickly waved her hand and exclaimed, “Xixi, you can’t say that about yourself!”

Mo Fei was originally nervous and didn’t talk much. Now, she was amused by Xixi. She reached out and hooked her daughter’s nose, smiling and saying, “How could we let you starve? We can also go to a restaurant to eat on the road!”

“That’s good! Then I’m relieved.” Xixi patted her chest like a little adult and breathed a sigh of relief.

……

“How is it?” Dong Yue’e sat on the side, watching Yang Qing talking on the phone, making “Oh, oh” sounds for a while. After he hung up the phone, she couldn’t wait and asked eagerly.

“They have already set off, but they won’t be able to arrive tonight. They’ll probably get here early tomorrow morning.” Yang Qing replied honestly.

“Then I’ll let the chicken out. We can’t be in such a hurry to kill it. Let it roam overnight; otherwise, it won’t be fresh tomorrow!” Dong Yue’e put down the cloth in her hand, saying as she stood up.

“Mom, you sit down, I’ll go.” Yang Qing quickly stopped his mother and got up to walk into the yard.

Dong Yue’e was not at ease. She followed him to the door, watching Yang Qing went into the yard, grabbing out the big capon (castrated rooster) locked in the chicken coop, and then untied the rope on its feet.

The big capon was still a little frightened and restless. After being free, it flapped its wings in a panic and ran into the flock of chickens before it calmed down.

“Qingzi, sprinkle some grain for it. It hasn’t eaten anything all day, it’s starving.” Dong Yue’e directed.

Yang Chonggui walked over slowly with his hands behind his back, but he didn’t look hunched at all. Instead, he walked over with a strong and imposing demeanor. He glanced over and said somewhat dissatisfied, “It’s always been the daughter-in-law who is afraid of the mother-in-law. When has it ever been the mother-in-law who gets nervous first?”

“Setting yourself as an example, of course, you wouldn’t be nervous. I don’t know what possessed me back then, and I took a fancy to you, an old man who is almost forty years old. Hmph, I don’t know if you were fooling around outside before, and if you have any other women…”

The revelation of his wife made Yang Chonggui’s face a bit unbearable. He interrupted Dong Yue’e’s words and glared at her, saying, “”What fooling around? Our Yang family has been loyal and virtuous for generations since the previous dynasty. During the War of Resistance, we rose up and fought. Three generations of family owners have shed blood for the sake of the country. I am also…”

If it were Yang Qing, seeing Yang Chonggui’s fierce and fiery look, he would have been so scared that he wouldn’t dare to lift his head. But it really was “One thing suppresses another”. Despite Yang Chonggui’s imposing manner, he couldn’t scare Dong Yue’e.

Dong Yue’e waved her hand and interrupted his words in the same way, “Okay, okay, you’ve been telling me the same thing for over 30 years, and I’m tired of hearing it. I may not be literate, and I don’t know what your Yang family was like before, but I do know that in the years before you came to our Wudaokou, our country wasn’t at war at all… Okay, let’s not talk about your old matters. Anyway, Tiezi is not young anymore, he’s 32 this year. I don’t want him to end up like you, nearly 40 and still unmarried.”

Yang Chonggui had no objection to this, and he remained silent.

“Tiezi’s wife should be from the city. I don’t know if she is used to the hard life of our rural area. So, this first meal should leave a good impression on her, don’t scare her away!” Dong Yue’e said with a smile.

“They haven’t gotten married yet, why call her his wife?” Yang Chonggui furrowed his brows.

“Nowadays, young people are different from us before, who cared about having a matchmaker come for introductions and gaining parental approval. Maybe, Tiezi has already gotten a marriage certificate with her in the city…” Dong Yue’e said with a smile.

“Bang!”

Yang Chonggui slapped the table next to him, making the cups on it clatter. He raised his eyebrows, and said angrily, “He dare? The orders of the parents, the words of the matchmaker, even if they now pay attention to freedom, but marriage is a big deal, leaving the parents aside, how can this be considered proper?”

Yang Qing had already finished his work and was about to return, but when he heard his father’s roar, he shrank his neck and carefully took back the steps he had taken. Then, he turned his head, smiled bitterly and continued to look after the chickens in the yard, not letting them run into the nearby ancestral hall. He silently mourned his big brother in his heart.

While it was called an ancestral hall, it was essentially just a house built separately in a corner of the yard for ancestor worship, but Yang Chonggui attached great importance to these.

In the main house, Dong Yue’e didn’t indulge Yang Chonggui and scolded, “Hey, Yang Chonggui, why are you getting worked up? I was just talking casually, not being serious. Look at you, the older you get, the more confused you are!”

Only then did Yang Chonggui realized that he had made a mistake, but he couldn’t bring himself to lower his face and apologize. He walked to the side with a sullen face and unhappy expression, pretending to tidy up the weapon rack on the side.

The weapon rack was originally placed in the yard, but it was moved inside because the house was being renovated and the yard had not yet been tidied up. On the rack, there were nine-ring knives, three-point knives, crescent halberds, and a chiseled golden spear prominently displayed, and even a long horse-cutting knife! All these weapons were made of pure iron on a one-to-one scale, but they weren’t sharpened. If they were sharpened, they would become lethal weapons, making it unsafe to have them displayed at home.

Even so, every weapon was shining and polished, and the grip of the long spear was even more smooth as a mirror. It could be seen that Yang Chonggui and Yang Qing had spent a good amount of time practicing with these weapons at home.

“Yang Chonggui, let me tell you, I didn’t say anything before, but these few days, you need to put aside your bad temper. Don’t scare your daughter-in-law away, I won’t spare you!” Dong Yue’e reminded him uneasily.

“Okay, I know!” Yang Chonggui was impatient, but he couldn’t get angry with his wife. He could only waved his hand, turned around, and stride towards the inner room.