Although Xu's mother said this, she was no less worried than her granddaughter. It was not until today that she truly realized the seriousness of the problem.
Normally at home, there is no shortage of food and drink, and her husband is making more and more money. She still cannot connect the life in front of her with the increasingly severe drought.
I always think that drought is only temporary and may end after a while. The world is still the same and not much will change.
But reality is often so cruel and ruthless, regardless of human will.
"Grandma, I want to stay in Yanjing, please agree." Ma Lingling said pitifully.
Some things are better believed to exist than not believed to exist. Once people encounter unknown risks, they always want to find a safe haven.
Therefore, she thought it would be better to stay in Yanjing, where her grandmother's house was the harbor.
Xu Ma hesitated and said: "Grandma also wants to keep you and Xiaoxu, but after all, this is not your home. Besides, you two have to go back to Luyang to continue school?"
"Grandma, do you think it would be okay for our family to move to Yanjing?" Ma Lingling quickly expressed her thoughts.
Xu Ma was stunned for a moment, weighed it for a while and then said:
"Okay, okay, the house problem is easy to solve. At worst, we can rent a house first, but your parents' jobs are not easy to solve."
Asking her daughter and son-in-law to resign and come to Yanjing to start over again, based on Xu Ma's understanding of the two of them, would most likely not work. Unless the disaster was truly irreversible, forcing them to come to Yanjing to seek refuge with her.
"Grandma, don't worry! Leave this problem to me, and I will definitely be able to persuade them to come over."
Ma Lingling took her grandmother's arm and looked confident.
Xu's mother was a little suspicious. She didn't know where her eldest granddaughter got her confidence. The world of adults is very complicated and cannot be left by just saying "leave".
"Tell grandma, how are you going to persuade your parents?"
Ma Lingling finally felt much better and smiled: "The mountain man has his own clever plan. Grandma, don't ask, just wait for my good news!"
Xu Ma smiled and didn't ask any more questions. It didn't matter if it was jujube or not, let's hit it first. If we weren't prepared, there would be an unexpected surprise!
Back in the courtyard, Ma Lingling was pulled into the vegetable garden by Yang Lina again. The beans she planted some time ago have grown very fast recently and a climbing frame needs to be built.
The climbing frame is very simple. Just use the leftover hardwood strips from Xu’s father’s carpentry work to build a rough frame. After all, there is no need to consider strong wind factors, and the requirements for sturdiness are not that high.
"Lingling, thank you for your hard work." Yang Lina finished tying the last rope and thanked her casually.
"It's not hard work." Ma Lingling shook her head and said, "I just put up a few airs, and this little work is nothing."
Yang Lina looked at the flowering watermelon vine and said, "When the watermelons here mature, my aunt will send you two to try."
Vegetables have a short shelf life, the weather is hot, and express delivery is inefficient. Xu Ma had sent vegetables to Luyang once before, but they were all rotten.
Watermelons can be stored for at least two weeks, so there won't be this problem.
"Thank you, auntie." Ma Lingling thanked her sincerely. She hasn't eaten watermelon this year!
Yang Lina waved her hand: "We have already said that we are a family, so there is no need to say thank you all the time."
…
After finishing the work in the vegetable garden, Ma Lingling went back to the living room to watch the news.
The country is still the same as before, and the reconstruction work is still in good order.
All cities across the country have basically restored power supply; the steel industry has restored 3% of its production capacity; the shipbuilding industry is growing rapidly; relevant import and export data are showing an explosive trend...
In addition, "national drought relief" is also a major social hot spot.
Leaders went to various places to direct drought relief; desertification in the northwest continued to worsen; a complete set of the most advanced seawater desalination technology was introduced from the European Union...
As for international news, there is quite little space. It only briefly reports on the situation in several neighboring countries in the south, focusing on concerns about the refugee crisis caused by them.
After watching TV, in the evening, Xu's mother started to prepare dinner again. Dinner is the most sumptuous meal of the day.
Ma Lingling followed her aunt to the vegetable garden to pick some vegetables, cleaned them up, and sent them to the kitchen for later use.
Normally, grandma would cook two hard dishes for dinner, and today was no exception.
One is a large plate of chicken, and in order to cater to my uncle's taste, no potatoes are added; the other is fried bacon, with a little garlic seasoning.
At seven o'clock in the evening, my uncle came back in his big Mercedes, and this time he bought some good things as usual.
Ma Lingling stepped forward to take the bag and opened it. It turned out that there were three chickens, two males and one female.
"Uncle, how much did this chicken cost?"
"The package price is 7,000 yuan for three pieces, which is much cheaper than last month." Xu Dong replied with a smile.
Ma Lingling was still a little stunned, but her brother-in-law's family was really rich.
During the more than half a month since she came, not only had chickens been available at home every now and then, but her grandmother also made more than thirty additional air-dried chickens, saying she wanted to make up for the previous losses.
After dinner, Ma Lingling called her younger brother into the room. She hadn't called home for two days and was planning to make a video call tonight.
"Mom, my sister and I had dumplings for lunch. Grandma made them. They were delicious. I ate a big bowl by myself."
Ma Xu is young and likes to show off good things when he has them.
"Really, that's great!"
Xu Ting asked with a smile: "Then have you helped grandma's house with housework?"
"I did it. I helped my sister wash the vegetables, and I also helped my grandpa rub his back." Ma Xu said proudly.
"Baby, you're so good. By the way, have you ever bullied Coco and Lele?"
Ma Xu shook his head quickly: "No, grandma said that I am a boy and cannot bully girls. Well... but they all fight together, and I can't beat them both."
"Keke and Lele are your sisters, you must get along well with them, you know? Otherwise your grandma won't make delicious food for you." Xu Ting said "threatening".
"I know!" Ma Xu looked frightened as expected.
After sending her little brother away, Ma Lingling talked about business with her mother.
"Mom, I have something to tell you." Ma Lingling said straight to the point.
"What's going on?"
Xu Ting didn't care at all what could happen to the kid's family.
Ma Lingling hurriedly repeated what she heard at afternoon tea in detail, and finally said that she wanted to move, which immediately attracted Xu Ting's attention.
"There is no rush to move. When your father comes back, I will discuss it with him."
"Mom, is there anything else we can discuss? Let's get this done sooner rather than later." Ma Lingling said anxiously.
Xu Ting waved her hand, "It's useless to rush it. Our family doesn't have the money to buy a house in the capital, so we should wait first!"
"Can I rent a house first?"
"It's not that simple. We don't have a Yanjing household registration, and we can't even buy food. There are also the problems of you and Xiaoxu's schooling, including my and your dad's work. Which one is not a big problem." Xu Ting said earnestly.
“If that doesn’t work, why don’t we take out a loan to buy a house?”
"Buying a house is not just playing house. It doesn't mean you can buy it just because you want it. You are still young and don't understand."
"Grandma also agrees with our family moving here." Ma Lingling moved out of the big backer.
"Grandma doesn't know everything. You'd better stop thinking so much and wait until your dad and I have discussed it."
In the end, mother and daughter broke up unhappy.
At night, Ma Lingling lay in bed, tossing and turning, thinking about the phone call just now, and she didn't fall asleep until midnight.