Hold His Hand - Chapter 31

Lu Yanzhou was in a hurry to take his quilt to cover Xie Chengze, so he didn’t say much to the educated youths.

He picked up his quilt and left: “I still have to take care of Xie Chengze over there, so I’ll go there first.”

“Okay.” The educated youths nodded one after another.

Seeing Lu Yanzhou disappear from their sight, everyone started discussing: “If Lu Yanzhou is going to live with Xie Chengze, let’s help him move later.”

“Xie Chengze has encountered such a thing, should we go and see him?”

“I’m going. He’s also quite unlucky. How many eggs shall we send him?”

…

Lianfeng Village is located on a plain, without natural resources such as mountains and forests, but there are many fertile lands that can grow food, so the life of the villagers is not bad.

If it weren’t for this, Lu Yanzhou’s parents would not have sent their two sons here in this countryside.

It is impossible for the educated youth here to eat and drink well, but it is still possible to fill their stomachs and occasionally eat an egg — they raise chickens per person.

Now that something like this happened to someone in the village, everyone decided to collect a few eggs and send them over.

There was also the village chief who was going to see Xie Chengze and give him something by the way.

The village couldn’t afford Xie Chengze’s medical treatment, so the village chief thought about taking a hen from the village to Xie Chengze later as a condolence from the village.

Then give Lu Yanzhou another hen, and treat it as Lu Yanzhou’s reward for taking care of Xie Chengze.

Thinking of this, the village head felt a little guilty.

He was afraid that Lu Yanzhou would go back on his word, so when he returned to the village yesterday, he told everyone about Lu Yanzhou’s willingness to take care of Xie Chengze.

When the educated youths and the village chief were thinking about going to see Xie Chengze, Lu Yanzhou had already replaced all of Xie Chengze’s bedding, and replaced his own bedding with Xie Chengze’s.

Xie Chengze was a little dazed: “What if I dirty your bedding?”

“If it’s dirty, it’s dirty, I’ll watch over you. I’ll definitely get you the chamber pot in time.” Lu Yanzhou acted calmly, which reassured Xie Chengze a lot.

Xie Chengze couldn’t help asking, “Why are you so nice to me?”

Lu Yanzhou opened his mouth and said, “I like you.”

Xie Chengze covered his head with a quilt. Lu Yanzhou smiled and began to remove Xie Chengze’s quilt.

Rural people really don’t mind it. After the children in their family wet the bed, they basically use it after drying it in the sun.

This is something people can’t do anything about, most people do not have extra bedding.

But Lu Yanzhou didn’t plan to just dry it out, he planned to remove Xie Chengze’s quilt cover and wash it clean, and then find someone to change the cotton inside again — this quilt is too hard, how can it be used as a blanket?

Ordinary families, with several family members, can always save some money to make some clothes throughout the year. Their village can raise silkworms to grow cotton, so they can get cocoons and cotton to make new cotton clothes and quilts.

But Xie Chengze has nothing. In the past few years, he has been wearing the old clothes left by his parents and used the old quilts left by his parents. Now more than ten years have passed, these are all worn out!

The hardened quilt can’t keep warm anymore.

After Lu Yanzhou unpacked the changed bedding, he went to the kitchen and drank some porridge with pickles.

This is Xie Chengze’s food, but he will bring his food later. There is no need to distinguish so clearly when the two eat together.

He has a lot of food.

The original owner’s family was relatively wealthy, with good living conditions, and his body is healthy.

When he first came to the countryside, he didn’t know how to do farm work, so he suffered a bit, but after getting started, he gradually got used to it.

In order to have a good reputation, he worked very hard. He was always given full work points, and the food he got was far more than Xie Chengze.

The original owner’s parents also sent him some money, although most of it was used by him to do good deeds, but he kept some, otherwise he would not have the money to buy brown sugar and pastries yesterday.

As soon as Lu Yanzhou finished eating, the educated youths came over. They looked at Xie Chengze, said a few words of comfort, left ten eggs, then went to work.

Lu Yanzhou didn’t go and asked them to ask for leave for him.

Xie Chengze’s situation has not stabilized yet. He still has things to do, so he has no time to go to work today.

After they left, Lu Yanzhou took the chamber pot and came to the bedside: “AZe, you drank porridge in the morning, let’s go to the toilet, okay.”

Xie Chengze drank a big bowl of brown sugar porridge in the morning, so it’s time to release.

Xie Chengze froze: “I’ll do it myself…”

“I’ll do it. You have to get used to it slowly,” Lu Yanzhou said, “And I’ve seen it before, so what are you afraid of?”

Xie Chengze was stunned, so Lu Yanzhou untied his pants.

Lu Yanzhou helped Xie Chengze release, then put down the chamber pot and said, “You sleep for a while, I’ll go and bring my things here.”

Xie Chengze asked: “Do you really want to take care of me?”

Lu Yanzhou replied: “Really. You wait for me at home. Eat some yunpian cakes if you are hungry.”

After Lu Yanzhou finished speaking, he fed the grass he cut last night to the two sheep, then walked to the educated youth spot.

The original owner didn’t have many things, at least much less than his younger brother Lu Hongxing, after all he always helped others.

But his things are of good quality, so Lu Yanzhou still packed them up.

At the same time, some people came to Xie’s house.

There are no secrets in the small village. Everything that needs to be known, even Xie Chengze’s paralysis, is known.

It’s just that they don’t know him very well, so they’re too embarrassed to come to the door. If they know him well…They’re afraid that they will be trapped after they come to the door, they have to take care of him.

Although the village chief said yesterday that Lu Zhiqing was willing to take care of Xie Chengze, maybe after a few days of taking care of him, he wouldn’t want to anymore?

At that time, the village head will definitely find someone who has a good relationship with Xie Chengze to take care of him.

It wasn’t until the village chief discussed with the villagers and confirmed that Lu Yanzhou would take care of Xie Chengze with two hens, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and then followed the village chief to see Xie Chengze.

Unlike pigs, every household has chickens, that is, they are not allowed to raise more too, so they have no objection to giving the chicken to Xie Chengze.

By the way, if Xie Chengze doesn’t raise chickens, he won’t have any food.

When they arrived at Xie Chengze’s house, the village chief was a little worried when he saw that Lu Yanzhou was not there, but he felt relieved when he saw the quilt on Xie Chengze in a blink of an eye.

It was Lu Zhiqing’s quilt. When the two brothers came here with brand new and beautiful quilts, everyone went to watch it.

What’s more, there was an unpacked yunpian cake next to the bed.

“Xiao Xie, we’re here to see you.” The village chief greeted him, then asked, “Where is Lu zhiqing?”

Xie Chengze whispered: “He went back to get his things.”

“I see! Did you have breakfast yet?”

“Have.”

“It’s good that you did. Lu zhiqing will live with you in the future and take care of you by the way, you understand? Don’t worry, Lu Zhiqing is a good person and will take good care of you. Yesterday he asked me to buy brown sugar and yunpian cake again…it costs a lot of money, but he is willing to do it.” The village head talked a lot. He also talked about giving Xie Chengze two chickens.

In fact, the village chief wanted to give Xie Chengze the lowest point in the beginning, so that he could share some things with him at the end of the year, but many people in the village disagreed, saying that there are old people in their family who can’t work too. If Xie Chengze can get these benefits, then they also want it.

So the village chief didn’t mention it.

But the village will also distribute some food according to people. Xie Chengze should…not starve to death?

Alas, Xie Chengze didn’t get to live for long. Throughout the ages, which paralyzed person didn’t just lie in bed for a few years before lying down to death?

The village chief had spoken, so the people who followed him said a few more or less words.

Xie Chengze was lying on the bed, seeing some of them showing sympathy and some gloating.

He has never had a sense of presence in the village.

When his mother passed away, it happened to be a time of serious natural disasters. Many people in the village starved to death at that time, so no one wanted to raise such an incompetent oil bottle like him.

His grandparents said everywhere that he was a restrained family person, so everyone in the village avoided him. Even if someone felt sorry for him and gave him something to eat, they would put it at the door of his house at night, not daring to be seen or let him see them, afraid of being entangled with him.

It was not so difficult later on, but everyone was used to it, so they kept him at a respectful distance.

This is the first time that so many people have come to him, ‘caring’ about him.

After all, these people came to see him, so they left some things behind. However, when they left, Xie Chengze only looked at the yunpian cake by the bedside.

He took it in his hand, tore a piece and put it in his mouth.

This cake is very sweet, the sweetest thing he has ever eaten.

Lu Yanzhou is unlikely to take care of him for a lifetime, but he is someone who once cared about him, his life is not in vain.

As soon as Lu Yanzhou came back, he saw the two chickens and learned of the village head’s decision. He was a little happy: “With these two chickens, we will have eggs to eat in the future.”

Nowadays, there are regulations that won’t allow them to raise too many chickens. Two people are only allowed to raise one.

For example, a family of six people is only allowed to raise three chickens, and if there are seven people, they can raise one more chicken making it four chickens.

The educated youths in the educated youth house raised a few chickens together, but most of the chickens were not available to him…He was planning to buy one and keep it for Xie Chengze to eat eggs.

“Not enough food…”

“I’ll figure it out. Next year, we can catch two ducks to raise.” Lu Yanzhou said.

Although there are many regulations in the village, Xie Chengze’s situation is special. He has talked with the village chief about it, they should be more accommodating.

He isn’t going to go too far, is he?

As Lu Yanzhou spoke, he began to tidy up his things, and said, “I brought most of my rations. Some of them were put together with other people, I’ll share them later in the evening.”

The educated youths at the educated youth canter were divided into men and women separately. They handed in the same amount of food at the beginning of each month, weighed it for cooking, and divided it equally after cooking.

Cooking together in this way can save firewood. As for why men and women are separated, one pot cannot cook for everyone, and secondly, female educated youths eat less than male educated youths.

The original owner has already handed in this month’s grain, so he can go get it back later.

In addition, when the village collects food, sweet potatoes, etc., it will be divided at that time. At the end of the year, some things will still be distributed, and money will be distributed according to work points.

The original owner worked hard this year, so he should be able to get quite a lot…After Lu Yanzhou settled the score, he felt a lot easier.

After tidying up, Lu Yanzhou went to cook again.

The lack of firewood is really a big problem. It’s no wonder that in ancient times, big families liked to live together — so many people cook and eat together, a lot of firewood can be saved.

Lu Yanzhou took enough rice for two meals and put it in the pot, then cut two slices of the original owner’s bacon and threw it in.

Then, he took a bowl, put four eggs in it, added a little water and put it on the steaming rack, then pulled two radishes from the private area by the door, cut them up, and steamed them with the pickles.

As for the radish leaves, he throws them directly into the sheep pen.

After the water boiled for a while, Lu Yanzhou stopped — the residual temperature in the stove was enough to cook the rice.

When Lu Yanzhou was cooking, he put the leftover porridge soup from the morning on the lid of the pot. The porridge soup is already warm now, so he took it to Xie Chengze: “The meal will take a while before ready. Here, drink some water first.”

Xie Chengze shook his head: “No need.”

“Have a drink.”

“I don’t want to drink.” Xie Chengze refused to open his mouth.

Lu Yanzhou thought for a moment, then he knew why Xie Chengze refused to drink. It was most likely because he was afraid that he would want to use the bathroom after drinking.

Otherwise…Xie Chengze drank some porridge in the morning, and ate the dry yunpian cake in the middle, so he should be thirsty by now.

If he had boiled water, he wouldn’t be giving Xie Chengze porridge soup right now.

“If you don’t drink, I’ll go out and tell others that I like men.” Lu Yanzhou said again, it doesn’t matter if it’s old, as long as it works.

Xie Chengze looked at Lu Yanzhou with a complicated gaze.

Lu Yanzhou said: “Drink it, I didn’t boil water, so you can drink some of this first.”

Xie Chengze still slowly drank it.

After he finished drinking, Lu Yanzhou took the chamber pot and let him release it, and then went out to fetch water.

There is a well in the temple that is used as the compound of the village committee. Most of the villagers go there for drinking water.

As for laundry or something, just go to the river to use it.

Lianfeng Village can also be regarded as a water town in the south of the Yangtze River. This is a place where there is no shortage of water.

After Lu Yanzhou brings back drinking water, the food is ready. He set down a bowl of rice with two slices of bacon on the rice to Xie Chengze. He also peeled two eggs for him and put them in the bowl altogether for him.

“If I eat this, how about you?” Xie Chengze asked.

“I can eat the meat, but the eggs were given to you by the others.” Lu Yanzhou answered.

Xie Chengze looked deeply at Lu Yanzhou: “Why are you so kind to me?”

“I’ve said it before, I like you.” Lu Yanzhou emphasized again.

Xie Chengze, holding the bowl, stared blankly at the oily white rice and the two eggs, a little dazed.

Is there really someone…who likes him so much?

Lu Yanzhou is such a good person, why did he like him?

“Eat, eat more, so that your body can get better early.” Lu Yanzhou urged him to eat.

At the same time, the villagers had already left work and were going home for lunch.

There is not much work in winter, only weeding the wheat and rapeseed in the fields, so this morning, everyone is talking about new things in the village.

Xie Chengze was paralyzed, and Lu Yanzhou is going to take care of him!

“This Lu zhiqing is really nice.”

“You just found out today?”

“Lu Zhiqing is a big man, I don’t know if he can take good care of him.”

“Lu Zhiqing is also very careful, and with Xie Chengze like this, it’s already very good to be alive, don’t be too particular.”

“Xie Chengze is lucky to have Lu zhiqing to take care of him.”

“Oh, Lu Zhiqing can’t take care of him forever. Lu Zhiqing is not young, and he will one day get married. Now he can still look after him, but when Lu Zhiqing gets married, he will no longer be able to take care of him.”

…

Lu Hongxing was very unhappy to hear people around him praise Lu Yanzhou so much.

He knew that although his fourth elder brother could pretend, he never wanted to suffer. In their house before, every time his parents wanted to give him something because he was the youngest, his fourth brother would resort to tricks and ask his parents to share half of what was originally intended for him alone.

Lu Hongxing said: “My brother is not that kind. He went to take care of Xie Chengze, maybe because he wanted the chicken and eggs that the villagers gave Xie Chengze. When he eats up all the food, he will definitely ignore Xie Chengze.”

The male educated youth who was about Lu Hongxing’s age and called Lu Yanzhou ‘Brother Lu’ was Liu Tongming. He was annoyed when he heard the words: “Lu Hongxing, you are too much. Brother Lu is so good, yet you still speak ill of him behind his back!”

Lu Hongxing said: “I’m telling the truth. If you don’t believe me, let’s go to Xie Chengze’s side now. My brother must be eating Xie Chengze’s eggs.”

His brother is greedy. He used to help others, and he only gave them bad food…He didn’t believe that his brother would not eat the eggs!

Liu Tongming said, “Let’s go then!”

Going to Xie Chengze’s house was on the way, so the few educated youths went together.

People in the village don’t close the door during the day, so if they want to go through the door, they can go in directly. When they went in, they saw Lu Yanzhou coming out of Xie Chengze’s house.

Xie Chengze leaned on the bed and was eating. The snow-white rice was covered with two slices of bacon, there were two eggs in it, which looked very tempting.

The educated youth swallowed subconsciously.

Lu Yanzhou asked, “Why are you here?”

“Lu Yanzhou, didn’t you say you want to move? Do you want us to help?” an older educated youth asked. They couldn’t say that they came to see if Lu Yanzhou was eating other’s eggs.

“I’ve already packed,” Lu Yanzhou smiled, then filled himself with a bowl of rice, mixed it with pickles, “but I’ll go to see you at night, um, I’ll have my share of the rations I pay for.”

“Of course.” The educated youth immediately replied.

The educated youths came and went with a whoosh.

They didn’t know whether Lu Yanzhou had eaten Xie Chengze’s eggs.

However, they saw just now that Xie Chengze was covered with Lu Yanzhou’s quilt, and his bowl of rice was full of good food.

Besides, the village doesn’t kill pigs now, so the villagers don’t have bacon, but Lu Yanzhou has…

Everyone looked at Lu Hongxing wrongly!

Lu Hongxing was in a hurry. On the way to work after eating, he couldn’t help but say: “My brother, that guy, likes to be clean. He can cook for Xie Chengze, but he will definitely not wash Xie Chengze’s clothes. With Xie Chengze paralyze on the bed, I just don’t know what he’s going to be like.”

Liu Tongming just went to the countryside this year. When he first came, he knew nothing. It was Lu Yanzhou who taught him little by little, so he respected Lu Yanzhou very much.

At this moment, Liu Tongming pointed at Lu Yanzhou who was not far away by the river beach and sneered: “You said your brother won’t wash Xie Chengze’s clothes? Look who that is!”

On the edge of the river beach, Lu Yanzhou was washing clothes and quilts.

Those things are obviously not his.

Lu Hongxing: “…” What happened to his brother? Possessed by a ghost?

Lu Yanzhou didn’t know what Lu Hongxing was thinking about him in private.

He had seen the original owner’s memory. The original owner didn’t like this younger brother much, and he also didn’t plan to have more contact with Lu Hongxing.

The original owner’s two elder brothers and one older sister were three to five years apart in age. The original owner and his younger brother were said to be two years apart in age, but in fact they were only one and a half years apart.

The original owner was only eight months when she was pregnant with the original owner’s younger brother. After that, she had no time to take care of the original owner, and left the original owner to the elders.

The original owner returned to his parents when he was six years old and started going to school. Seeing that his younger brother, who was about the same size as him, was close to his parents but he was left alone and even asked to give way to his younger brother. Naturally, he was not happy.

However, the original owner did not suffer materially. When he was with his grandparents, he ate well. After returning to his parents… he learned to pretend to be good without a teacher. When his younger brother didn’t go to school, he said: “Little brother is so brave. I dare not fight.”

His younger brother did not pass the exam, so he said: “Little brother is so smart, he can do so well in the exam without doing homework. I have to worked very hard to get a good grade in the exam.”

He will also rush to do housework: “Mom, dad, I feel sorry for you!”

…

Even going to the countryside…The original owner’s younger brother quarreled and refused to go to the countryside. After the original owner knew that he had to go to the countryside, he was very positive, making his parents have a good impression of him.

The original owner’s behavior will be called ‘green tea’ in future generations. But no matter how tea is, the original owner’s parents were actually partial to their youngest son. The original owner’s younger brother is a bit bearish, so he doesn’t have a good impression of the original owner. He will find trouble with the original owner from time to time.

Lu Yanzhou would not fight for favor with Lu Hongxing, but it was impossible to praise Lu Hongxing. As for the original owner’s parents, he would definitely repay the favor of nurturing in the future.

In the previous life, his parents lived a good life in their later years.

It’s quite interesting to say that after Xie’s company was acquired in his previous life, his cousin Xie Chengyun actually changed. Later on he was quite promising. His aunt also changed her personality and was kind to them.

It was only later that he learned that Xie Yuan was not very close to his aunt. Xie Yuan wanted to kill Xie Chengze, that scared even his aunt and his cousin. The two felt that Xie Yuan had always used them as a shield. In the future, maybe the whole company will be given to An Chenyuan. They were ‘greatly enlightened’.

But even so, Lu Yanzhou still had very little contact with Xie Chengyun in his previous life, so in this life…he didn’t plan to befriend Lu Hongxing either.

Back at Xie’s house, Lu Yanzhou dried his clothes and quilts, then went to take care of Xie Chengze to go to the toilet. At night, he even boiled a pot of water.

While the water was boiling, Lu Yanzhou stopped by to heat up the noon meal on the steamer. After the meal was over, he used the hot water in the pot to wipe Xie Chengze’s body.

Xie Chengze didn’t stop him this time. He watched the man who had been busy all day wipe his body clean and massage his legs, he couldn’t help but say: “Are my legs ugly? My lower body is still completely unresponsive…Even if you like me, you don’t want me like this, do you? Can you bear it?”

Although Xie Chengze was young, he heard a lot of nasty talk from the men around him when he was working, so he was very clear about the things between men and women.

He was paralyzed, Lu Yanzhou couldn’t do anything with him, could Lu Yanzhou really accept it?

Lu Yanzhou looked at Xie Chengze, very calmly: “It’s okay, I actually…can’t stand up.”