I used rebirth to bury his captivating gaze.

Chapter 33 The Big Dining Table

After the heavy snow in the yard was cleared, the whole family sat at the dining table in the large kitchen on the west side of the yard, eating pork dumplings.

Everyone sat around a large dining table to eat. The large dining table was big enough to seat more than twenty people. When there were not many people, they used a small dining table. When there were more people, they used a large dining table. Each wooden table used to have four short legs. Later, Yang Yuhan drew a paper diagram for Yang Zhannan, which is the pattern of the four tall legs dining table of later generations!

At the time, he didn't believe it; he had never seen such a dining table before. Despite his disbelief, he eventually had a small table made according to the design. Later, when there were more people eating and it wasn't big enough, the old lady asked him to make a larger one.

The design of this large dining table quickly spread throughout the North and South Villages, and people came to him to make similar four-legged wooden dining tables.

A wooden dining table with four short legs was placed on the heated kang (a traditional Chinese bed-stove). Those sitting inside the kang had to cross their long legs first, making it uncomfortable to eat a meal. Those who couldn't cross their legs simply stood in front of the table and made do with their food.

There were about a dozen people eating in the main kitchen, all happily eating dumplings. Each person was watching the uninvited guest while also eating their own pork dumplings.

Everyone ate and chatted.

"Auntie, the night you arrived, the female director and two others searched the entire compound but couldn't find your family. There were no trunks or vegetable cellars. So where did your family go?"

Liu Shuzhen slowed down her eating of dumplings, paused for a moment, looked at Yuqiu and said, "I don't know what happened. We were in the east room of the east wing of the eldest sister's house when we heard people outside urgently looking for us. I was scared. I thought we were doomed and that she would take me away to abort my baby."

"Pfft!" The sound made the young people laugh.

"Continue, Auntie."

"We originally planned to hide the children in two big yellow boxes, but when those three people stepped into the house, it felt like the six of us entered another world. There were flowers and grass, and the warmth of summer. Before we could even enjoy the beautiful scenery, the whole family fell asleep. We don't know how long we stayed in this big courtyard."

Yang Yuhan watched her aunt talk, secretly pleased. Her aunt was still talking with great interest, and her aunt and her family were sleeping in the same positions as Liu Ying had before.

"Auntie, you're amazing. If something like this happens again, and you still have dreams about it, the bad things will be gone."

"Dazhi knows how to talk. This Xiao Wu is quite lucky!" After saying that, she put down her chopsticks and patted her big belly. Suddenly she exclaimed, "Oh dear, why can't we say anything about Xiao Wu? It must be a boy. Those girls in my belly before weren't this strong."

"Yes, the boys are all amazing. Auntie, don't you think I'm better than these girls?"

"You're so great, you'll probably be henpecked once you get married."

"How come you're better than me? All you do is eat and you don't help Mom with housework. You're too lazy."

"piss off."

Then Yu Mei pointed to another spot and said, "Auntie, your stomach hurt just now. Don't give birth to Xiao Wu in our Yang family compound, it's bad luck."

Liu Shuzhen had just picked up a dumpling from the plate with her chopsticks for her fourth daughter when "plop!" it fell to the ground. She quickly bent down to pick it up, wiped it off with her other chopstick, and popped it into her mouth, her stomach rumbling.

Yang Yuhan couldn't stand her aunt's behavior and said, "Yumei, how can you talk to your aunt like that?"

"Yu Han, you're the one who misspoke. She's your aunt, not mine, okay? If I had an aunt who was constantly on the run just to have a son, I wouldn't acknowledge her."

“You silly child, Shuzhen didn’t ask you to acknowledge her.”

"Second Sister-in-law, don't be angry. Don't act like a child. Besides, Shuzhen looks like she's about to give birth. Yumei is right. No matter what, this Yang family compound is Shuzhen's maternal home. What if she accidentally gives birth to Xiao Wu here..."

"Alright, all of you stop worrying. After the New Year, everyone will go back to their own homes. Besides, we can't leave now anyway. Look at the heavy snow outside; the roads are probably all closed. How can a pregnant woman with several children walk?" The old man finished eating, put down his chopsticks, and started smoking his pipe.

The others continued eating dumplings.

"Alright, all of you shut up!" The old lady said with a smile to the pale-faced scholar who was eating delicious white dumplings in front of her. "Xiao Jun, your parents just wrote to us. They mentioned your current situation in the letter. I didn't expect you to actually come. However, they didn't say in the letter that you could come so soon. But what I didn't expect was that you would come in this way."

“Grandma, Xiaojun walked more than fifty miles and he was exhausted. He just recovered. After he finished eating, let him rest. This child hasn’t been here for several years. At first, I didn’t recognize him, but when you called me, it reminded me. In any case, Xiaojun still recognizes this home.”

"Brother Xiaojun, you walked such a long way without taking a car the whole way? Why did you get dizzy when you got home?" Yang Zhi asked curiously.

"Hehe! Yes!..." Yang Jun put down his chopsticks and began to tell everyone how he came.

Just as Yang Zhandong described in that letter, Yang Jun, in the first semester of his second year of high school, went to the countryside in Northeast China with the main group of teachers and students from his school and became an educated youth.

I've been in Northeast China for over a year now. Every day I work in the fields, and when there's no work in the fields, I go hunting and mushroom picking in the mountains. Then, I hand over what I hunt to the authorities. Once, while picking mushrooms with my comrades in the autumn, we were almost eaten by a black bear that suddenly appeared.

"Ah! Is that so? Is there anything else?" Yang Zhi exclaimed in surprise!

"My comrade and I were high school classmates. When we saw that things weren't going well, we took off running without saying a word."

"Running won't work. Do you think your alliance can outrun a big black bear?"

"We were really too tired to run anymore, so when the big black bear got close, we immediately lay down on the ground and pretended to be dead. It worked!"

"So? You're letting me go like this?"

"Brother, you're just talking nonsense. If this trick didn't work, would he still be sitting in front of you and talking to you?"

"Ha ha!"

"Yu Mei, get out of here. We're just two guys talking, don't go around changing things."

"Guess what that big black bear said to me?"

"What did the black bear say? Hurry up, stop keeping me in suspense."

"The big black bear told us that we are not allowed to talk to the school beauty anymore."

"Ah! Brother Jun, you like the school beauty? Wait, how did that big black bear know you like the school beauty?"

"No, I don't like the school beauty at all. Of course, Big Black Bear doesn't know that I like the school beauty!"

"It's all because you fell for the school beauty, and you still say you didn't."

Yu Mei raised her lips at the two of them.

"No, I misspoke. How did you get me into this? I wanted to tell you guys that the 'big black bear' thing was fake. It was a prank by some boys. Our captain punished them, and the next day, the boy who played the fake black bear did all the work for me and my buddies."

"Oh my god! This is so difficult!"

"Alright, everyone, let's leave. Let Xiaojun rest." Yang Hong said, then pulled the old lady away.

Everyone dispersed, leaving only a few women to clean up the dishes!

As evening fell, the heavy snow continued to fall from the sky. It had been falling for two days and two nights, and gradually dissipated before sunset, accompanied by a northwest wind of force six or seven.

No wonder they say: even the strongest winds can make people fear the arrival of night!

Yang Zhanbei, Yang Jun, and Yang Zhi slept together on the heated kang (a traditional Chinese bed-stove) in the west room of the north wing. Yang Jun then recounted his journey there...

He had already asked Captain Zhang, the educated youth leader, for leave to return to the educated youth team in Lijia Village after the Spring Festival to do farm work and hunt. Since the New Year was just around the corner, Captain Zhang smiled and immediately nodded in agreement.

He started by getting into a yellow horse-drawn cart driven by the village's brigade owner to go to the commune for business. The yellow horse-drawn cart had only gone less than a tenth of the way when he got off.

He walked several miles, then waved and hitched a ride on a hand-operated tractor belonging to a production team in another village. He rode for another ten miles before getting off.

In the distance, he turned around and saw a large red four-wheeled vehicle speeding towards him. Excitedly, he stopped and raised one arm to signal the driver to stop. However, the driver didn't stop but instead drove past him. The driver turned back and said, "Young man, if you want to give me a kick, put your foot on the ground! Haha!"

"After that, I didn't encounter any vehicles again. The remaining half of the dirt road could only be walked on my own two feet. As I walked, my body warmed up."

"At first I had a lot of energy, but the more I walked, the less energy I had. Later, the snow fell heavier and deeper, the wind started to blow, and the gravel road began to accumulate snow, which increased the resistance to walking."

"It was getting dark, and I had only walked two-thirds of the way when I continued walking. As I walked, I saw this familiar village and then the familiar Yang family courtyard."

"Last night, in the latter half of the night, I knocked on the front door with all my might, but no one came out. Later, I dazedly jumped into the courtyard and struggled to the door of the south wing room..."

"Brother Jun, when you were eating, you mentioned going hunting in the mountains. Isn't hunting fun? What did you catch?"

"Hunting also depends on the season. Hunting rabbits, wild boars, and pheasants. The best weather for hunting pheasants is like this, when you can catch them."

"Ah! Really? Brother Jun, how about we go hunting in the mountains tomorrow?"

"Alright, Xiao Jun hasn't fully recovered yet, why are you going into the mountains to hunt?"

"Fourth Uncle, how about we go hunting in the West Mountain tomorrow to catch pheasants? We can also invite Yang Chong from the East House, and the three of us can go to the West Mountain and catch a few big pheasants to take home for the New Year, to nourish the two elders and Brother Jun."

"I'm not going. If my parents find out, they'll scold me to death. The year I ran away from home, it snowed heavily like this. Two other boys from the village and I secretly went to the village's primeval forest to hunt pheasants without telling our parents. We came back with two pheasants, and each of us caught two. But as soon as we left the forest, a big black bear suddenly jumped out and almost ate all three of us."

"Fourth Uncle, you're a big black bear too, and Brother Jun is a big black bear too. Fourth Uncle, what happened to you later? Were you eaten by the big black bear?"

"This child, your fourth uncle has been eaten, yet he's still lying here talking to you. Go to sleep and stay quiet, you're just getting scolded by your parents for free."

"Fourth Uncle, I'm not afraid of the big black bear. No matter how powerful the big black bear is, it didn't eat you two. I'm smarter than you two, so it can't eat me either."

"Xiao Zhi, you're smart, so don't go. The west side of the village is a primeval forest. Nobody in the village dares to go there unless they have to. There are not only big black bears, but also big tigers in there."