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Chapter 3: Clothes Patch
You also know that being a bachelor isn't a good look?
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
My son is a playboy.
This reason convinced Old Qin.
"Having a partner doesn’t mean having children," the old man reminded her. "You’ve forgotten that the crime of hooliganism has existed since 1979?”
Madam Zhou: "The crime of hooliganism doesn’t apply in foreign land."
Old Qin was left speechless.
Based on the little monk's age, his mother must have been abroad when she had him.
The old man had a new question, "Is Miaomiao a real monk or a fake one?"
The little monk looked up, with a grain of rice on the corner of his mouth, his round eyes filled with confusion.
— What does real monk, fake monk even mean?
Madam Zhou wiped his mouth and said, "Don’t listen to your grandpa, just eat your food." She glared at her husband. "He's home now, does it matter if it’s real or fake?"
Does it matter!
Whether real or fake, once in the mundane world, one must return to secular life.
Old Qin: "Then this robe can’t be worn anymore, right?"
The little monk hurriedly clutched the lapel of his robe.
— What is this bad grandpa going to do?!
Madam Zhou glared at him, "Can’t you just say less? Eat your food!" She turned to Miaomiao and said gently, "Let’s not listen to him. Later, Grandma will get you a new outfit, and I’ll wash this one for you."
Miaomiao knew what washing clothes meant.
He nodded vigorously.
Madam Zhou couldn’t help but touch his head.
His little bald head immediately made Madam Zhou feel uneasy. Her poor grandson.
Such a good child became a little monk.
Madam Zhou felt so upset that she wanted to cry but didn’t want to do so in front of the child. She blinked hard, wiping away the tears, and moved her hand to the child’s back. "Grandma didn’t know Miaomiao was back. Tonight, Grandma will make you egg custard."
"Monks eat vegetarian food," Old Qin couldn’t help but say.
Qin Feng and his two adopted sons quickly lowered their heads, pretending they weren’t there.
"Can’t food shut your mouth?!" Madam Zhou yelled.
Old Qin wilted.
Madam Zhou turned to her son, "Go to the big market later and buy two pounds of shrimp for Miaomiao. Fry the shrimp in oil to get rid of the fishy smell."
"I'm busy."
Madam Zhou: "Take out the money, let your father go buy it."
Qin Feng immediately handed over all the large bills from his pocket to his father.
Madam Zhou snatched them away, giving him five yuan. "Why give him so much? Is it so he can go play mahjong?"
Qin Feng honestly put the remaining money away, not daring to say a word.
He looked nothing like the ambitious Engineer Gu. Instead, he resembled a grandson relying on his parents for food.
The two brothers couldn’t help but feel sympathy for their adoptive father.
Madam Zhou caught their expressions. "What are you looking at? Hurry up and eat. After eating, go do your homework." Seeing her little grandson eating in large bites, she added, "Miaomiao, eat slowly. You don’t have to go to school, we're not in a hurry.”
The four men of the Qin family—old, young, and middle-aged—simultaneously made faces.
— Double standards, really.
The child looked up. "Why don’t I have to go to school?"
"Because you’re still small, and you can’t see the blackboard sitting at the big desk."
"Then what should I do?"
Madam Zhou: "Grandma will take you to play."
The child couldn't help but pout.
"Don’t you want to be with Grandma?"
The child hesitantly said, "I want to be with Daddy."
Madam Zhou instinctively wanted to say, I’ve spoiled you.
But as the words reached her lips, she remembered that her grandson had just returned and was brought back by her son. It was completely normal for him to be close to his father.
This child is her son’s son. When he grows up, he will have to support her son in his old age, so she must bond with him now.
"You can play with Daddy for a while. Daddy has to work this afternoon to earn money to support Miaomiao. After that, you can spend time with Grandma, okay?"
Qin Feng couldn’t help but glance at his old mother.
She had never spoken to him in such a gentle tone before.
A relative of a different generation, honestly, I'm not fooled.
"Qin Feng, say something!" Madam Zhou shouted.
Qin Feng just wanted to roll his eyes. "Alright. Miaomiao, are you full?"
The child’s eyes shifted to the basket of buns. "Daddy, what is this?"
Qin Feng followed the direction of his little hand and asked in surprise, "It’s a steamed bun. Haven’t you ever had one?"
"Aren’t steamed buns yellow?" The child was confused.
Madam Zhou felt a lump in her throat.
The old man couldn’t swallow the steamed bun in his hand.
The two brothers couldn’t help but stop eating. There were children in the world who were even more pitiful than they had been.
Qin Feng felt uncomfortable as well. Seeing his younger self's face in the child’s innocent expression, he couldn’t help but pull the child into his arms, break half of the plain steamed bun, and tear a small piece off to put in his mouth.
"Sweet?" The child asked in disbelief.
Qin Feng: "Yes. This is made from wheat flour we grew ourselves. The wheat flour you used to eat was not as good as ours.”
"Why?"
Qin Feng couldn’t bring himself to say it, but it might be because the temple was poor, or maybe because no one was willing to sell flour to the monks. "It’s because Grandpa is great at farming, and the wheat he grows is good."
"Grandpa is so powerful!" The child looked up at the old man in admiration.
Old Qin felt embarrassed. "If Miaomiao likes it, eat more. Later, let Grandma fry some bun slices for you, using rapeseed oil."
"Is it delicious?" The child asked curiously.
Madam Zhou wondered whether she should explain. Fried bun slices with lard in the rapeseed oil would taste good, but pure rapeseed oil wouldn’t.
Gu Er spoke first, "It’s delicious. I can eat a big bowl in one sitting." He glanced at Madam Zhou, "Though we don’t make it often."
"You don’t even think about how troublesome it is," Madam Zhou couldn’t help but say, "You four big men, half a basket of buns wouldn’t even be enough for you."
Gu Er couldn’t help but look at his adoptive father.
Half of them were eaten by this unreliable father.
Qin Feng ruffled his head, pressing it back down. "Eat your food!" Then he turned to his mother, "Later, make some sesame salt for me."
Madam Zhou understood her son’s intention.
All the food in their house was fried with lard. If Miaomiao had eaten vegetable oil all his life, he would have trouble adjusting to lard and might spit it out. Pure rapeseed oil wasn’t something they were used to either. The child couldn’t just keep eating buns.
"I’ll fry a bowl of sauce for you later, with some green onions."
Old Qin asked, "Should I buy two more pieces of tofu?"
Madam Zhou nodded and turned to her son, "Does Miaomiao only have this robe?"
"I have lots of clothes. Clothes I’ve never even seen before," the child replied in a sweet, childlike voice.
Madam Zhou looked at her son.
— You bought them?
Qin Feng explained, "His master bought them and it's at my house. After eating, I’ll take him back to change clothes."
Madam Zhou thought for a moment and decided to go with her son to the staff residence to see what her grandson might still need, planning to buy it all in the afternoon.
The staff residence were separated from the village of Wuli Village by just the main road.
The Northern Railway Factory and the staff residence were on the west side of the road, while Wuli Village was on the east side. Although the Qin family lived in the middle of the village, the small Western-style house where Qin Feng’s family lived was only about a mile away from the old couple’s house.
It was so close that they didn’t need to rest when they got home. Madam Zhou placed the package on the tea table and immediately began unpacking.
When she took the clothes out, Madam Zhou couldn’t believe her eyes—there were clothes that Miaomiao was wearing now, and also a few larger sizes that Miaomiao could wear in a couple of years.
Old Qin couldn’t help but ask, "Are you sure these aren’t the wrong ones?"
Qin Feng replied, "His master said they’ll fit Miaomiao until he’s six."
Madam Zhou couldn’t help but ask, "What does his master mean? Is he worried that we can’t afford to buy clothes for the child?"
Of course, it meant that the child could be sent to first grade when he turned six.
The clothes were prepared for him until six. During that time, all he needed to do was provide shelter for the child and feed him.
Raising a child was so simple, and since the child resembled him so much, what reason did he have to push the little monk away?
But he couldn’t say this, as it would involve Miaomiao’s origins.
Given how much the child looked like him, his parents would be ninety-nine percent sure they didn’t believe him and would suspect that he had wronged the child’s mother.
Qin Feng said, "Maybe he thought I don’t have a wife and wouldn’t buy clothes for Miaomiao."
"You also know that being a bachelor isn't a good look?" Old Qin immediately couldn’t help but say.
Qin Feng wanted to roll his eyes. His father really had a way of turning everything into a dig at his unmarried status.
"This is what you all think, but it’s not like that for me."
Old Qin fell silent.
Madam Zhou said, "Stop arguing." She directed her husband, "Take out the clothes and sort them by season and size." Then she turned to her son, "Are you sleeping with us tonight, or with your own family?"
The child quickly hugged Qin Feng’s neck.
Qin Feng was caught off guard and almost stumbled forward as the child tugged on him.
The two brothers hurriedly helped steady him.
Madam Zhou quickly said, "Miaomiao, let go. Grandma is just asking your dad; it's not that you have to stay with Grandpa and Grandma."
The child looked at her warily.
Madam Zhou helplessly said, "Sleep with your dad tonight."
The child loosened his grip slightly and turned to his dad, still uneasy.
Qin Feng said, "Put the clothes in my room's wardrobe."
Madam Zhou then looked for a set of clothes that would fit.
However, Binhai is located in the north, and as a coastal city, it was just past the spring equinox, in mid-February on the lunar calendar. Both day and night were very cold, but it wasn’t the harsh cold of winter. The cold at this time was mainly due to the strong winds. In the morning and evening, wearing a sweater with a light coat was enough. By noon, you could take off the sweater and just wear the light coat, as long as you wore a hat.
The old monk had prepared clothes for the little monk, including both light and thick coats, but there were no sweaters or hats.
The largest department store in Binhai didn’t even sell children’s sweaters because there was no demand for them—almost every household's women knitted their own.
Madam Zhou gestured for a while, but it seemed that the smallest red coat was still a bit loose. "Get me a needle and thread, I need to take in the waist, or the cold wind will get in."
Qin Feng asked, "Is the clothes too big?"
Madam Zhou nodded. "These clothes clearly came from a store. They’re never as well-fitted as something homemade."
Gu Er hesitated, glancing at the little monk, then couldn’t help but look at his grandmother.
"What do you want to say?" Madam Zhou asked.
Gu Er tentatively suggested, "How about you try mine?"
"Yours?" Madam Zhou couldn’t help but look him up and down.
Gu Er Gu quickly clarified, "I mean, clothes from when we were little."
Madam Zhou turned to her son.
This child is already nine years old; do they still keep clothes from when he was little?
Qin Feng nodded.
A month ago, when Engineer Gu passed away, Qin Feng went through his clothes and turned the house upside down. Not only did he find the children’s clothes, but he also found things belonging to their parents.
Not even a single pair of torn socks from the two kids was thrown away.
The good clothes of their parents were also burned along with Engineer Gu's clothes, all completely disposed of by Qin Feng.
"It seems there was," Qin Feng asked, "Did I dry them for one day or two?"
"Two days. Uncle said that way they won’t mold." At that time, the school hadn’t started yet, and Gu Lao’er helped with the drying. He remembered it clearly.
Madam Zhou said, "Go find them."
Gu Er hesitated, glancing at his older brother.
The brothers had relied on each other for many years, and the elder one knew his younger brother well. "The clothes we wore when we were little already had patches."
"So what?" Madam Zhou looked at her eldest grandson. "Does the patch on the clothes he’s wearing right now look very big?"
It didn’t.
Gu Da shook his head.
Gu Er immediately went upstairs.
A moment later, he came down holding a pile of clothes.
Old Qin took them. "Why so many?"
Qin Feng explained, "Master didn’t have that much time, so when changing seasons, he would buy four or five sets at once, to avoid going to the city. Over the course of the year, he would have at least ten sets."
The brothers nodded to confirm this.
Madam Zhou couldn’t help but say, "Children still need a mother."
The faces of the two brothers changed slightly, and they hurriedly said, "We have Uncle Qin, that’s enough."
Madam Zhou saw how anxious they were, feeling both heartache and amusement. "Are you worried that with a stepmother, there will be a stepfather too?"
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