Chapter 17 Proposal

Old man Li loves the backyard, just like a chef loves the kitchen.He spends most of his time tending the trees and flowers in the backyard.The backyard used to be like a garbage dump, but since Mr. Li started taking care of it, everything seemed to have come back to life.The dying peach trees sprouted buds, and the few clumps of bamboo planted by the former owner, Mr. Pan, stopped shedding their leaves. The lawn began to turn from yellow to green, and the magnolias, camellias, and rhododendrons planted along the incomplete fences were all in bud. ready to bloom or already in bloom.Old man Li watered them every day and cared for them as if they were all sick babies.He got rid of all the weeds, mended the fence and painted it crimson.He thought it would be good to turn this place into a small tea garden. While drinking a cup of jasmine tea with a few friends in a comfortable wicker chair, he could smell the fragrance of flowers and hear the singing of birds.The sun was warm and bright, and the bamboo leaves rustled with the breeze.It was just like General White's garden in China. Everything in the garden was so clean. At this moment, he seemed to see General White sitting there again, drinking tea and smoking a pipe.

While old man Li was working and imagining the garden he was about to build, he suddenly heard Mama Liu's noisy voice, and the beautiful illusion in front of him suddenly disappeared.He straightened up and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "Really," he said to himself, "as long as she's around, this place can only be a fish market." Li Mei ran into the garden and said excitedly, "Father, Liu Long begged his wife again!" "Hey," said old man Li, "if an honest husband meets a domineering wife, it becomes commonplace."

"But I don't know why this time." Li Mei said. "Maybe Liu Long didn't give her his salary. Maybe he wanted his flagon back. Remember this, Li Mei, there are many kinds of unhappy marriages—the couple throwing each other's jobs at each other is one; There is one who begs behind his wife; another who beats her husband with a broom handle. I have seen them all: but a wife who is too good for her is worse than any of them. " He sighed deeply, shook his head and said: "If you let this kind of wife make you crazy, you will think about her day and night, and when she dies, she will break your heart..."

"Oh, Dad," Li Mei said quickly, "it's been fifteen years since my mother passed away, why are you still torturing yourself like this? From now on, I will never mention anything that might remind you of my good mother. Go , let’s knock on Mr. Wang’s door and tell him I’m back.” "It's still too early, Li Mei." Old man Li said, "Mr. Wang won't get up until the sun shines on the head of this peach tree, see?" "I want to wake up Mr. Wang so that I can ask him what he thinks I kidnapped his son?" "Don't be busy, don't be busy." Old man Li said, "We can ask him later, right? Well, you, you act like an ant on a hot pot."

"It hurts when people think I'm a bad girl," Li Mei said. "Let's wait until he wakes up. He will be in a good mood after washing his face and drinking ginseng soup. Then we will politely tell him where you went and what you did last night." Li The old man snorted and sat down on the steps of the corridor. "Hey, what did you do yesterday, you haven't finished telling me. Come here, and continue to tell about your business." Li Mei sat beside him, "Okay, where did I end?" "You've already described the soup in that delicious foreign dinner. Don't talk about the main meal, Li Mei, it won't do me any good if you talk about it, it'll just make my mouth water. Tell me where you guys went after dinner."

"We went to a dance hall where we met many foreigners in the United States." "A foreigner in America? Who is that?" "Oh, they came from other countries. One of them danced with me. He had a nice smile. They packed the ballroom to the brim. They were very friendly. Mr. Wang also met a man there. good friend." "Also a foreigner in the United States?" "No, he is Chinese, but his wife is a foreigner in the United States. She can only speak the Chinese word 'I love to eat', which is the only Chinese word she can speak. She spoke to Mr. Zhang twice in one night. Time." Li Mei giggled.

"Oh, maybe it's an American custom for wives to say that to their husbands. What else did you do?" "We danced until late into the night," Li Mei said, "and then we said goodbye to Mr. Zhang and his wife. Then Mr. Wang took me to his car, and we... oh, I forgot to tell you before going to the cinema that we went to Where did he go. He took me to a university in a foreign country and showed me what he had been studying. Dad, have you ever seen an animal invisible to the naked eye?" "Animals that are invisible to the naked eye? I've never heard of them."

"That's an animal you can't see without a magic mirror." "Magic mirror? What is it?" "It's a mirror that looks like an anti-aircraft machine gun. Through this mirror you can see animals that are invisible to the naked eye. Oh, I saw hundreds of animals, swimming in a drop of water on a small plate. They were different shapes, and they had no eyes. No mouth, no legs, but they can walk and swim. I can swear, I have never seen such a strange thing before! Mr. Wang said, they are everywhere, maybe there are thousands of them in this yard." Old man Li looked around secretly, as if there were many such animals crawling around him. "I didn't see anything," he said.

Li Mei giggled, "Oh, Dad, if you don't have a magic mirror, you can't see them. Let's go see Mr. Wang. Maybe I'll have to tell the whole thing when I see him." She jumped up Just go to the door. "Wait, wait." Old man Li hurriedly stopped her, "Let me go first, you are too unruly." He rushed to the front, and when he entered the middle hall, he told her, "Li Mei, don't forget, yesterday's Mr. Wang is very angry. Don't talk back to him. You have to be polite and follow him more, understand?" "I don't need to be so polite." Li Mei said, "He called me a hijacker."

"Li Mei, our old sage said it well..." "Yes, Dad, our ancestors said, don't sail against the current." "The old ancestor never said he missed it." Old man Li said, "You wait here, and I will knock on his door." He walked to the door of Wang Qiyang's room, raised his hand but couldn't knock. "Li Mei," he whispered to her, "can't we wait until he coughs?" "Oh, Dad." Li Mei said disappointedly, "Why are you like a mouse that wants to see a cat..." "What are you two doing here?" Mama Liu, who walked into the middle hall from the restaurant, asked while looking at them suspiciously.

"Mother Liu," Old Man Li said, "my daughter is here. Do you know where she has gone? Mr. Wang took her to his school, then to a movie, and to a foreign restaurant..." "Am I a hijacker?" Li Mei asked, "Am I?" "Begging girl," Liu Ma said, "stay away from the young master!" She snorted and walked towards the kitchen. "Go and tell your master that the hijacker is back." Li Mei chased after her and shouted, "Tell him..." "Li Mei, Li Mei!" Old man Li quickly stopped her, "Don't yell like that!" Li Mei walked to the door imitating Liu Ma's tone, "Beggar girl, stay away from the young master." After speaking, she stuck out her tongue at the door. "Li Mei, Li Mei," said old man Li, "don't do this! Oh, you are a bad-tempered woman just like your mother." "That hag! Always telling me what to do!" "Li Mei, if I saw you yesterday, I would have to tell you what to do. You should really see Mr. Wang, he is really furious! Remember, good medicine is good for the disease, and good advice is good for the ear..." "Her finger pointing is not good advice." "Li Mei, words of advice from others are like grandma's peanuts. Some are good and some are bad. But in terms of politeness, you have to accept them. If you find them good, eat them; if you find them raw If you get worms, throw them away. When people ask you how your peanuts are, say they are delicious. If you learn this, you won't run into trouble with those curmudgeon hags. Let's go now See Mr. Wang." Wang Da entered the middle hall.He slept very soundly last night.As soon as he woke up, he thought of Li Meilai.The "perfect kiss" last night made him feel happy, and Zhang Lingyu's marriage helped him draw a beautiful picture of his married life in his heart.This morning he intends to propose.He walked into the atrium, whistling merrily.As soon as Li Mei saw him, a red cloud immediately flew up on her face.She immediately forgot about meeting Mr. Wang and greeted Wang Dalai happily. "Big, you got up early today!" "Don't you get up pretty early too?" Wang laughed. "I usually get up very early in China. My room is right next to my father's, and his coughing is a very accurate alarm clock. " Old man Li was very happy to see that Li Mei's interest had changed.He walked up to Wang Da and said, "Mr. Wang, your father's cough is too severe. Hey, even Liu Long can hear it in the backyard. You should persuade him to get a cure." "He has been cured many times." Wang Da said, sitting on the kang, "In China, he drank ginseng soup all day long, washed his chest with hot water every afternoon, and asked Liu Ma to treat him whenever he was free. Beating his back, he has eaten pills made of various materials—from rice noodles to fishbone...he has tried everything, but he didn’t go to a western doctor to have his lungs checked.” "He didn't take effective medicine." Old man Li said, "I have a special medicine for cough called Bagua Pill. Last year, Li Mei had a cough. She took this medicine, and the cough was blown away like a strong wind blowing a candle." It's cured. Is that the case, Li Mei?" "Oh... oh... that's what happened, Dad." Wang Da laughed loudly, "Old man Li, if there is such a pill that can cure coughs like a strong wind blowing out candles, many doctors who specialize in treating coughs will have to change their careers." "That's right," said old man Li, "according to old Chinese medicine practitioners, a cough is caused by a cold throat, dryness and heat in the heart and lungs, and an imbalance of yin and yang..." "Modern doctors have a different view." Wang Da interrupted him, "We believe it is caused by bacteria, bacteria that are invisible to the naked eye." "Dad," Li Mei said excitedly, "I told you! That kind of animal is invisible to the naked eye!" "Yes, animals that are invisible to the naked eye." Wang laughed and said, "You can only see them with a microscope." "Oh, it sounds like a ghost," said old man Li. "They are ghosts," Wang Da said, "but they are the kind of ghosts that are not afraid of Taoists." "Father," Li Mei said, "I also saw some other things..." She suddenly covered her mouth with a handkerchief, and she didn't catch her breath for a while. "I saw something else..." "what?" "A corpse soaked in a large cabinet cut into pieces..." She paused, some noise in her throat behind the handkerchief. Wang Da fumbled in his pocket for a while, then took out a bag of dried chili and handed it to her, "Here you are, fortunately I still have this." "The corpse, cut into pieces and soaked in the cabinet?" Old man Li said, "This is the biggest cowhide I've heard people blowing in the early morning!" "What she said is true, old man Li." Wang Da said, "We cut it into pieces." "you?" "It's us. If we don't dissect the human body, we can't learn how to be doctors." Li Mei made a strange sound, and she quickly threw another dried chili into her mouth.Tears started welling up in her eyes as she chewed on the peppers.Suddenly, she jumped off the kang and rushed to the kitchen.Wang Da followed behind her.As soon as she rushed into the kitchen, she pushed the cook aside, turned on the cold water switch in the sink, and pointed her mouth at the faucet.Wang Da opened the refrigerator.Pull out an ice tray.He knocked off the ice cubes from the ice tray in the sink and stuffed one into Li Mei's mouth.Li Mei put the ice cubes in Spicy's mouth. "Do you feel better?" Wang Da asked her. Li Mei nodded. "That's good. I have something to tell you. Let's go to the backyard and talk alone." He took Li Mei's hand and sat down in the corridor of the backyard. "Li Mei, will you marry me?" Wang Da asked. Li Mei swallowed the ice cube in one gulp, almost choking. "Oh, you shouldn't be swallowing ice cubes!" Li Mei coughed a few times, her face flushed. "When I was about to say 'yes,'" she said breathlessly, "I didn't want to spit anything out of my mouth." Wang laughed. "Okay!" He said while patting her on the back to help her swallow ice cubes, "I like a wife who speaks and does things quickly."