Chapter 8
Chapter 8
The crowd gradually dispersed.
The lollipops hanging from the motorbike had long been taken, but my Adoptive Father pulled two large ones out of his pocket like a magic trick.
He handed them to me and my brother.
“Good thing I kept an ace up my sleeve!
“Sit tight, we’re heading out!”
My Adoptive Father sat at the front, I sat in the middle, and my brother sat at the back.
The motorbike roared to life, shaking loose the powdery snow from the trees.
It fluttered down, dusting our shoulders.
Clinging to my Adoptive Father’s waist, I asked, “Dad, haven’t you been home yet?”
His luggage was still strapped to the back of the bike.
The cold wind carried back my Adoptive Father’s indignant reply: “I went back, but there was no one there! The whole place had been cleared out!
“I thought I’d walked into the wrong house!”
Once we arrived at the new house, my Adoptive Father started complaining about how my Adoptive Mother hadn’t even given him a heads-up about the move.
My Adoptive Mother rushed out of the kitchen brandishing a spatula.
“How was I supposed to tell you? Could I even get a hold of you?
“Do you have any idea how much I went through? My hair was practically torn out, and I even got slapped in the face!”
Tears welled in her eyes as she turned back toward the kitchen. “What use is having a man around anyway!”
My Adoptive Father froze, his face clouded with guilt.
Ignoring her protests, he shamelessly followed her inside.
The two of them entered the kitchen one after the other, and the door was promptly locked.
I felt a bit anxious.
“Brother, Mom and Dad aren’t going to start fighting, are they?”
Chu Qi grabbed me and scoffed, “Don’t worry about them. My dad has a silver tongue. My mom is a total pushover; he’ll have her calmed down in no time.”
Chu Qi was four years older than me.
He was likely in the middle of his rebellious phase back then.
His general outlook was that everyone was annoying and everyone was an idiot.
He turned on the bulky color TV and watched it with complete composure, while I sat on pins and needles, smelling the scent of burnt food coming from the kitchen.
About half an hour later.
The door finally opened.
My Adoptive Mother’s face was flushed, and her eyes still looked a bit watery. She gave my Adoptive Father a few light whacks with the handle of her spatula. “Hurry up and go take a shower. You could scrape three pounds of mud off yourself.”
My Adoptive Father grinned mischievously. “Going, going! I wouldn’t dare disobey the Lady of the House!”
Chu Qi rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, “Told you not to worry. He’s a smooth talker.”
As my Adoptive Father passed through the living room, he reached out and clicked off the TV, his face turning stern. “Is your homework done? All you do is sit here watching TV!”
***
That Lunar New Year.
I wore a brand-new red padded coat and new boots, with a red hair clip my Adoptive Mother had bought me. I received a lot of red envelope money.
Grandparents, Uncle and Aunt, Aunt and Uncle, Maternal Grandparents, Uncle and Aunt, Aunt and Uncle…
Everyone gave me fifty yuan.
To me, it was a fortune.
Back in the countryside, I never got any New Year’s money.
The relatives would give it to my sister, but she never actually got to keep it either.
It was just for show; she had to hand it over to our parents almost immediately.
But now, they gave a share to both me and my brother.
When we got home that evening, I tried to give the money to my Adoptive Mother.
She shot me a look. “What are you giving that to me for? Keep your own money. I’m not looking after it for you. If you lose it later, I’ll end up having to pay you back!”
Chu Qi took me out to buy a piggy bank-the kind where money goes in but can’t come out.
I tucked all my New Year’s money inside.
He looked at me with a serious expression. “You’re putting all of it in there? What if you want to buy something?”