mtl008 Chapter 223 Old Zhang
Chapter 223 Old Zhang
The recycling station was farther than Lin Xi had imagined; it took her twenty minutes to get there.
Lin Xi got out of the car and glanced around. There were mountains of waste everywhere, and the air smelled terrible.
"Grandpa, where do they live?"
There's nowhere for people to live here.
"follow me."
Stepping over the plastic bottles and cans scattered on the ground, they went around to the back of a small garbage dump, where there was a rusty tin shed.
A small iron pot sat on a pile of firewood at the entrance of the shed, bubbling and steaming.
"Old Zhang!" Lin Guojun called out. A rustling sound came from behind the pile of scrap, and an old man with a hunched back peeked out.
His face was covered with wrinkles, like ravines etched by time, and his cloudy eyes revealed weariness.
But when he saw Lin Guojun, his eyes lit up. "Old Lin, what brings you here again? Didn't I tell you not to bring me food anymore?"
The old man spoke with a strong Shaanxi accent, which sounded very simple and honest. As he spoke, he walked around from behind the pile of scrap metal and then saw Lin Xi and Lin Guiying. He asked in surprise, "This, this is?"
"These are my wife and granddaughter," Lin Guojun introduced.
The old man's face lit up with joy. "I've heard you talk about it so much, now I've finally met you in person!"
Upon seeing Lin Xi, his affection was palpable. "This child must be Xiao Xi. She's so bright and lively, you can tell she's very clever at a glance."
He took a few steps forward, wanting to touch the child's head, but then awkwardly withdrew his hand, which was covered in dirt and cracks.
Lin Xi took his hand and said, "Hello, Grandpa Zhang."
His hands were rough and even rougher than his grandfather's, and his clothes were worn out with the cuffs worn shiny.
The old man beamed with joy, "Oh, good, good!" He then turned and called inside, "Xiao Hua, come out and greet everyone!"
A small, thin figure emerged from behind the pile of junk.
She was a little girl, about five or six years old, with a crooked ponytail.
Although the daughter was dressed in worn clothes, she was clean, which showed that the old man took good care of her.
She clutched her grandfather's clothes tightly with her little hands and timidly called out, "Hello, Grandpa Lin, hello, Grandma, hello, sister."
After calling out to the person, he lowered his head and looked at the ground.
Lin Xi noticed that her shoes were coming unglued, and her toes were sticking out of the holes, gripping the ground nervously.
I feel a little sour in my heart.
Their family had also struggled before, but compared to this grandfather and grandson, they were much better off.
Just then, a burnt smell wafted over, and everyone sniffed at the same time.
The old man suddenly realized, "Oh dear! I forgot I was cooking rice!"
The little girl ran to the iron pot first, extinguished the fire, and skillfully picked up the spatula to scoop out the rice.
At first glance, it looked like an unknown mixture of food and vegetables. But upon closer inspection, Lin Xi felt it looked familiar. The meatballs and spinach seemed to be the spinach meatball soup that her grandmother had made the night before, only with some rice added to it.
After serving, barely managing to fill a bowl, the girl scraped the bottom of the pot with a spatula, managing to scrape out half a bowl of burnt rice.
She handed the good bowl to the old man, then picked up the burnt rice bowl herself and squatted down to eat it.
"Little Flower, eat this bowl. Grandpa loves the mushy stuff, it's so delicious."
The girl dodged the old man's hand, saying, "Grandpa, I also like to eat mushy food."
As if afraid the elderly would snatch it, she hurriedly ate her rice, looking quite pleased with it.
Lin Guiying looked at the bowl of mushy rice, her eyes welled up with tears, and she ran over to snatch the bowl away, saying, "Don't eat this!"
Perhaps her tone was a bit harsh, because the little girl froze on the spot, her hands clasped in the air, her big, watery eyes staring at Lin Guiying.
Lin Guiying's tone softened, "Here, eat this. Children shouldn't eat mushy food."
She opened the lunchbox in her hand, and the aroma immediately spread out. Inside were glistening rice, braised pork in red oil and soy sauce, stir-fried green beans, and braised shrimp.
The little girl swallowed hard and glanced at the old man beside her.
"Why are you looking at your grandpa? Come on, eat quickly, it'll get cold soon."
Lin Guiying directly stuffed the lunchbox into the little girl's hand, then took out a spoon from the insulated bag, scooped some food into the old woman's bowl.
"I won't eat it, give it to the child."
The old man tried to take the leftovers back, but Lin Guiying stopped him, saying, "You should eat them too. There's plenty of food. My husband brings you meals every day. Why are you eating leftovers? They won't keep in this weather. Aren't you afraid of getting sick?"
"Hehe, it's fine, it's fine. I'm keeping it chilled with ice water. Your dishes smell so good, we don't want to finish them all at once."
"It's really hard on Lao Lin, bringing us food every day. Thank you. Actually, we have our own food, but I was afraid of troubling you, so I always told Lao Lin not to bring any. But Lao Lin wouldn't listen. He said he has leftovers at home that he can't finish and has to feed to the dog, which is such a waste."
Lin Xi and Lin Guiying glanced at Lin Guojun at the same time.
Lin Guojun gave an awkward smile and winked at the two men, signaling them not to expose him.
Lin Guiying chimed in, "Hehe, right, anyway, if we can't finish it, we'll just have to feed it to the dogs, so you can eat it without worry, don't be stingy."
The little girl innocently asked, "Grandma, after we ate the dog's food, will the dog have anything to eat? What does it eat?"
Lin Xi: ...
Lin Guiying: ...
He eats instant noodles.
"It...it eats dog food."
"Oh, as long as there's food, it's fine. It's really uncomfortable to be hungry."
No one who has never been hungry would say such a thing.
Lin Guiying turned her back, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and said, "My dear child, eat up."
The old man was very talkative, chatting with Lin Guojun and the others while eating. Although they were poor, they were tenacious and optimistic.
The girl didn't eat much before putting down her chopsticks and putting the remaining food into the toothless bowl.
Then he ran to the side, washed the lunchbox, and handed it to Lin Guiying, saying, "Thank you, Grandma."
Lin Guiying looked at the mostly uneaten food and asked, "Xiaohua, are you full?"
"Grandma, I'm full."
Lin Guiying took out a hundred yuan from her pocket. "Xiaohua, this is your allowance from Grandma. Buy whatever you want to eat."
Xiaohua took a few steps back. "I don't want it. Grandpa said we can't take other people's money."
"Take it, or Grandma will get angry."
"No, I can't have it."
The little girl quickly ran away and hid behind the old man.
Lin Guiying tried to give the money to the old man, but he avoided her as if she were a formidable enemy, dodging her here and there, as if accepting the money would cost him his life.
Lin Guojun stopped him, "Old Zhang, keep it, buy some good food for the kids to help them get better."
Lin Guojun thought the old man would accept the money for the sake of his child, but the old man broke free from Lin Guojun's hand and said, "We have hands and feet, how can we take your money? Although we live a hard life, every penny is earned by ourselves, and we live with peace of mind."
"You, you insisted I accept it, and I'm not happy about it. If you hadn't said you were feeding such good food to the dogs, I wouldn't even want the food."
The little girl peeked out from behind the old man and said, "We don't want it. Xiaohua wants to rely on herself and buy Grandpa lots and lots of delicious food in the future."
This was the first time Lin Guiying had ever failed to give money away. Stubborn as ever, she grabbed the old man's clothes and stuffed the money into her pocket.
"Hey, this money isn't just for free, it's for travel expenses. My garage has a bunch of junk that I can't keep up with, so you came to help out. I can't let you pay for your own travel expenses."
Lin Guojun looked at Lin Guiying in surprise. Wasn't she afraid of being sued for revealing her wealth? Why did she take her home directly?