The old house is at the last house deep in the alley. A wall opposite is the Nanqiao County Party Committee Family Courtyard. In the noisy county town, this area is rare and quiet.

The door was mottled, and the locks on it were also rusty. Li Rui took out the key and inserted it into the keyhole. It was very awkward, but it opened after turning it twice.

After my grandfather passed away, no one lived here for more than three years, and the yard was in chaos. Halfway through the grape trellis, the vines were still alive. Due to the lack of pruning, the dense rattans were climbing in a mess. The cracks were covered with grass on the ground paved with blue bricks, and there were more than one person tall around the wall.

This is a typical courtyard house with three main rooms with two ear rooms, and two wing rooms on both sides. There are three rear rooms behind the main room against the back wall, one of which is left with only ruins, and the other has half the roof.

Although the yard was dilapidated, it was much better than when Li Rui came. The house repair was basically all over the place. At least the doors and windows of the main room and the wing room are still intact, but the paint was just lost.

"Who are you?"

Li Rui turned around and stood at the door, Aunt Fang next door. When his grandfather lived here, Aunt Fang took good care of her, and usually helped clean and buy vegetables and other things. Later, after Li Rui renovated the house, he hired Aunt Fang to look at the house. He occasionally came back to live for three or four days a year, and it was clean inside and out.

At this time, Aunt Fang was only in her early forties and still looked a little charming.

"So it's Xiao Rui! You haven't come back for several years, and I almost can't recognize you. The door is open, I think who is here?" Aunt Fang stared at Li Rui for a while, clapped her hands and said in surprise.

When Li Rui was in college, he basically lived with his grandfather during the winter and summer vacations. The last time he came was after his grandfather passed away, he came to sort out the relics.

"Aunt Fang, it seems that there has been no change in you if you haven't seen you for a few years?" Li Rui smiled and said hello, and habitually complimented.

"You kid, you have become so good at talking after years of going out. I'm old." Aunt Fang touched her hair with a little embarrassedly. The smile on her face became stronger. Women of any age like to be flattered by others.

"Xiao Rui, I heard that you work at Yanjing University. Who is coming back this time?" Aunt Fang then asked curiously.

"Oh, I've been transferred back to Pengcheng to work. This time I'm here to come and have a look and renovate the house." Li Rui said.

"After Dean Li left, you didn't see you come back. It rained heavily last time, and there was a rumbling sound in the middle of the night, which scared me very much. The next day, I found out that the house behind your house collapsed. I also asked someone to bring a letter to your uncle." Aunt Fang patted her chest, looked like she was still scared, and then pointed to the yard and said regretfully: "It turns out that the house is good because it is not popular. If you rent it out, it will cost at least a few hundred yuan a month."

Aunt Fang is a widow, and her husband was a state-owned coal miner. In the 1980s, she suffered a mine accident. She lived a life of tight life with her son alone. However, her son was not good and idle. Li Rui remembered that he was sentenced to life due to a fight a few years later. However, Aunt Fang is a good person and is enthusiastic. Li Rui later hired her for this reason and helped her by the way.

"Yes! I'm going back this time to renovate the house and come back to live when I have time." Li Rui nodded. Every time he came back to live for a few days, he would feel a rare feeling of peace of mind.

The two were chatting, and a sound of "twist..." came from outside, and the sound of a motorcycle went out from far to near, and the fire was turned off at the door next door.

"It's my kid who is back." Aunt Fang said.

"Fang Qiang came back from the army?" In Li Rui's impression, Fang Qiang was a thin boy. Later, he learned that he had joined the army after graduating from high school. When Li Rui came back again, Fang Qiang had already been sentenced and arrested.

"I'm back, I've been demobilized last year. I haven't found a decent job. Now Jiantian is mixed with a group of young people in the county, not doing their jobs, causing trouble, and sometimes I don't even listen to my words. I really don't know what to do?" When talking about his son, Aunt Fang's face suddenly showed a hint of worry, and she shook her head helplessly.

"Mom! Mom, where are you?" Fang Qiang, next door, stood in the yard and shouted loudly.

"I'm here, your Grandpa Li's house." Aunt Fang responded loudly, looking at Li Rui apologized, "Xiaorui, you look at it rare, I won't invite you to come home to sit. It's time to have dinner at Aunt Fang's house today."

Li Rui raised his hand and looked at the time. It was already past eleven o'clock, and he didn't smile politely with Aunt Fang, "Okay, I haven't tasted Aunt Fang's skills for a long time, so I'm not polite."

"I happened to kill a chicken today, and I would stew it on the stove in the morning. Otherwise, my kid wouldn't come back for lunch in a hurry." Aunt Fang also smiled.

While we were chatting and laughing, we walked out of the courtyard. At the door next door, there was a burly man, who was about 1.8 meters tall, with a black vest on his upper body, beach pants on his lower body, big slippers on his feet, his arms were thick, his chest muscles were bulging, and there was a sharpness and rebelliousness between his eyebrows.

"Qianzi, do you still remember it? This is your brother Xiaorui, your grandson of Grandpa Li."

When Li Rui saw Fang Qiang, he was stunned. The thin boy in his memory was difficult to associate with the burly man in front of him.

"You haven't seen each other for about five or six years, right? I was shocked when Fang Qiang came back for three years as a soldier. He was already late and seemed to be like a pole before joining the army. However, he was just tall but not brainy. He was in his twenties and had no girlfriend." Although Fang Qiang was not good, he could hear that Aunt Fang was still full of pampering with this son.

"Mom, are you talking about your son like that?" Fang Qiang was embarrassed by his mother's words, and said in a muffled voice in his throat.

"Hello, Fang Qiang! If it weren't for your mother's introduction today, I would definitely not recognize it." Li Rui stepped forward enthusiastically and greeted her.

Faced with Li Rui's enthusiasm, Fang Qiang seemed a little at a loss. Although the two families lived next door, the economic conditions and social status of the two families were one world at the beginning. Besides, Li Rui was very noble in the past, and the two rarely communicated. Fang Qiang had only envy Li Rui's family background and good study.

"Xiao Rui... Ao, Brother Rui, I've disappeared in this year. I heard that you are now a teacher in college?" However, Fang Qiang is now a stumbling figure on the street. He is no longer the young boy he used to be. He immediately came to his senses and smiled.

"Teacher? I'm not a teacher. After graduating from university, I stayed in the Youth League Committee and did some administrative work. But now I've been transferred back and I'm working in Pengcheng." Li Rui explained with a smile.

"Qianzi, why are you doing blocking the door? Xiaorui is having dinner at our house today. You go to the entrance of the alley to buy a few bottles of ice beer, and you two have some drinks." Seeing that the two were not as distant as they were when they were young, Aunt Fang was very happy. She just worried that her son would not learn well, and she wanted Fang Qiang to have more contact with Li Rui. But now she certainly doesn't know Li Rui's "glorious deeds" in Yanjing and Pengcheng, otherwise Fang Qiang would probably be a simple and good boy.

Although Aunt Fang's family is also a single family, it is much smaller. There are two rooms in total, and a kitchen of five or six square meters is built on the east side. The loofah racks are made of bamboo occupying half of the yard. Across the well table are planted with bowl-sized acacia trees, lush and green, and they block the scorching sunshine of summer with the loofah racks.

Aunt Fang moved out a folding table from the house and spread it out under the shade of the tree. Then she carried two small chairs out and picked a few loofahs casually. "It's cool outside, you sit first. I'll fry two more vegetables."

"Aunt Fang, stop busy, eat whatever you have." The yard was quite cool. Li Rui pulled a small chair and sat down. He took out a cigarette and lit one. It was very comfortable.

Fang Qiang came back soon, bought a box of beer and a few cooked dishes, put four bottles of ice on the table, and put the rest into a net bag and sink into a well. In the era when there is no condition to buy a refrigerator, the well is a natural refrigerator in summer.

"Pu, pu." Fang Qiang opened two bottles with his teeth without using his head.

"I have told you so many times, don't open a beer bottle like this. It's too hurt! You'll know when you get old." Aunt Fang complained from the kitchen with a full pot of chopped white-cut chickens.

"It's okay!" Fang Qiang laughed indifferently: "When I was in the army, everyone asked me to pull the head."

With two full glasses of beer, Fang Qiang picked up one and sipped in a whisper: "Brother Rui, we have grown up together since we were young. We have met for the first time in so many years. I respect you first!"
Chapter completed!