Chapter 218: Aunt and Her Family
"You're Li Tang?" The old man's wrinkled face lit up with delight.
With a series of metallic clanks, the iron gate swung open from the inside.
The elderly man stepped aside to make room and gestured warmly. "Come in, come in! I was just thinking you looked familiar. It's been years—you've grown so much!"
As he ushered Li Tang inside, he called toward the living room, "Dear, Li Tang's here to visit us! Hurry up!"
Li Tang could clearly feel their warmth.
The feeling of reuniting with family after a long time apart was both a little awkward and deeply touching.
The apartment was a modest two-bedroom unit with a living room. It had clearly been lived in for decades, filled with various items accumulated over the years—old clothes, worn furniture, a sewing machine, and a number of timeworn household objects no one had the heart to throw away.
The lighting was a bit dim, making the already tight space feel even more cramped.
Still, despite the clutter, everything was neat and well organized.
The scene before him matched his childhood memory of visiting this place—nothing much had changed.
The only odd thing was the heavy scent of traditional Chinese medicine in the air.
His father had mentioned before that both his aunt and uncle were getting older and had health issues. They must have been taking herbal remedies for treatment.
"Have a seat, have some fruit first!"
His uncle washed an apple, dried it, and handed it to Li Tang. "It's late—have you had dinner yet?"
"I have." Li Tang took a bite of the apple without hesitation. It was ripe—not crisp, a bit mealy—but he still ate it with great appreciation.
"Eat more. I'll whip up a few dishes—just a late-night snack," his uncle said, already opening the fridge and pulling out ingredients.
The bedroom door opened, and when Li Tang saw the woman who stepped out, he recognized her immediately—it was his aunt, Li Xiuhui. She looked fuller than he remembered, either from weight gain or swelling.
"Auntie!" He stood up quickly.
Li Xiuhui immediately recognized him too. Her face beamed with joy as she clutched his hands, eyes full of affection. "Li Tang! Look at you—so grown up! The last time I saw you, you were still in college, all skinny. Now you look much more mature and strong. But your face—why is it so dark? Is it because of work?"
"I've been working for two years," Li Tang replied with a smile.
"Working so hard? I told you back in college not to major in geology! Your grandfather and father both studied that, always running around in the mountains, never home, sun and wind every day—how's that better than an office job?"
She sighed as she held his hand and launched into family talk. When she heard that the relatives in Qianzhou were all healthy, she looked visibly relieved.
"How's your health been?" Li Tang asked, still smelling the strong herbal aroma.
"We're getting old—these nagging ailments come with age. But nothing too serious," she replied with optimism.
"And life? You doing okay?"
Before coming, his dad had told him that if his aunt's family was struggling, they should help out. After all, their own situation was now much better than in the past.
"Wages have gone up in recent years—we don't worry about three meals a day. Things are okay."
She'd lived through harder times, and compared to the past, life now was steadily improving.
She wasn't one to ask for much. Contentment was happiness.
Li Tang scanned the apartment. Despite being old and a little cramped, it had all the necessary furniture and appliances. Life didn't seem too hard.
He finally felt reassured—at least they weren't in dire straits.
"Auntie, are you still working at the geological bureau?"
"I've been working there since I got married and moved here decades ago. Back then, your dad's old colleague helped me get a transfer letter from the Qianzhou bureau. That's how I got in."
She spoke with nostalgia. "In a blink, retirement's almost here."
"Still in the office?"
"Always in the admin office—arranging meetings for the leaders, organizing union activities, things like that. Not too busy."
She kept talking about her own work, then realized she didn't know much about Li Tang's. "Where do you work now? Did something urgent happen back home?"
"I work in Yanjing."
"Yanjing? Wow! That's the big city. I thought you joined the 101 Geological Team and worked with your dad."
"The company is in Yanjing, but geology work still requires travel. I'm here on business—and to visit you and uncle while I'm at it."
"What business? A geology project here?"
"Yes, I need to talk to the geological bureau. Funny enough, you work there—what a coincidence."
As soon as she heard that, her eyes lit up like she'd struck gold. "You're looking for our bureau? Do you need some project documents?"
The past several decades of Huizhou's geological data were all stored in the bureau's archive.
Any geological team from around the country would inevitably stop by the bureau to borrow data when starting a project.
She had seen it happen countless times.
"Something like that," Li Tang nodded.
"I can help with that. Tomorrow, I'll take you to the bureau, ask for permission from the leadership, and then we'll get the files from the archive."
"Okay, sounds great."
After chatting for a while, Li Tang realized he'd only seen his aunt and uncle. "Is cousin out?"
"Uh… yes, he's out," she replied, but her voice faltered, and she avoided eye contact.
Li Tang felt confused. "Did he get into another fight?"
He'd heard before that his cousin, Lin Feiming, used to hang out on the streets like a delinquent, always pretending to be some mobster from a Hong Kong movie. He'd dropped out of school before finishing middle school.
Just then, his uncle brought over a few dishes and set them on the coffee table. Sensing his wife's hesitation, he stepped in. "There's nothing to hide. Feiming has calmed down a lot since getting married—he's more responsible now."
He laid out the utensils and plates for Li Tang as he spoke. "My health's not great anymore, so I sold our small cargo van and used the money to buy him a secondhand ore-hauling truck. In the past couple of years, he's made good money hauling ore. But not long ago, he was on a mine road, trying to pass another truck, and his vehicle tipped off a soft shoulder and rolled down a slope…"
"What about him?" Li Tang's heart clenched. "Is he okay?"
"He broke his lower leg. Had surgery and has been in the hospital for over ten days. He's recovering well and should be discharged soon."
His uncle seemed calm, but his aunt looked visibly upset.
"I only just found out. My dad's going to be really worried when he hears. You should've told us sooner. He has a mobile phone—call him anytime. You could've called me too."
Li Tang understood how brutal accidents could be. Thankfully, the damage was relatively minor and wouldn't affect his cousin's long-term mobility.
"It's just a leg break. With surgery, he'll be fine. We didn't want to trouble you all the way across the country."
His uncle smiled, then urged Li Tang, "Eat up. Don't just talk."
"Okay." Li Tang hadn't eaten much on the plane, and after arriving in Huizhou, he'd skipped dinner. He was genuinely hungry.
Perhaps talking about their son's accident had dampened her mood. His aunt sighed. "Your uncle drove trucks his whole life—hauling cargo everywhere, sometimes out of the province, gone for weeks at a time. I was always worried. Then Feiming wouldn't study. Didn't learn anything useful. Driving a truck is the only job he could do, and now look what happened—just started, and already had a wreck. I'm constantly worried."
She spoke like a mother who had seen too much hardship.
Looking at Li Tang, she recalled her youth. "Your grandfather and father did geology work. They were gone for months at a time, deep in the mountains. I used to pray every day for their safety, especially in summer when there were snakes everywhere."
"Don't bring up sad things while Li Tang's here."
His uncle chuckled. "Eat more, and no matter how busy you are with work, stay a few extra days. We didn't prepare much today, but tomorrow I'll cook your favorite—braised pork ribs."
"Great!" Li Tang replied happily.
He was enjoying the meal when he suddenly smacked his forehead. "I almost forgot—my friends are downstairs."
"Friends are here too?"
"Yeah. I'll go bring them up."
He hurried downstairs and called up Alice, He Runqi, and the others.
They had rented a van, and the trunk was stuffed with gifts brought from Yanjing—mostly items Li Zaiqiang had purchased and asked Li Tang to deliver.
They huffed and puffed their way upstairs, fortunately only to the second floor.
The small living room quickly filled with boxes and bags.
"These are my colleagues," Li Tang said briefly.
"Come, join us for dinner," his uncle called out, eyes widening when he saw Alice. "A foreign friend too!"
"Hello!" Alice bowed politely with a smile. She had learned this etiquette in China—bowing to elders was always right.
"Li Tang, we're going to skip dinner—we ate on the plane," He Runqi said, feeling awkward about dining in a stranger's home. He and the technicians politely excused themselves and waited in the van.
Looking at the mountain of gifts, his aunt smiled with joy, but her eyes also carried reproach. "You didn't need to bring all this. Wasn't it exhausting?"
"It's all from my dad. Oh, and here's a phone. Just get a SIM card and you'll be able to call."
Li Tang pulled out a brand-new mobile phone from his bag and handed it over.
Phones weren't as expensive as they had been two years ago—this one cost just over two thousand yuan.
In Li Tang's eyes, it was a compact model suited for elderly users.
"This must have cost a lot," his aunt said, turning the phone over in her hands, clearly feeling the expense. "You didn't need to spend so much."
"It's from my dad—a gift for you. Now we can stay in touch more easily."
With the gifts delivered, Li Tang had fulfilled one of his goals for the trip. After dinner, he politely declined their offer to stay over and returned to the hotel.
He had planned to visit the geological bureau early the next morning to quickly negotiate the mining rights.
But after hearing that his cousin was still in the hospital, he changed his plan.
Instead, he arranged for a car and headed to the hospital.
The ward was filled with the smell of disinfectant.
Lin Feiming's left leg was wrapped in a thick white cast. He was eating breakfast in bed, looking energetic and cheerful.
When he saw Li Tang enter, he lit up with joy. "Hey hey hey! Li Tang! Man, look at you—black as coal! Just back from Africa? You look like a slab of smoked meat!"
Li Tang's strongest memory of his cousin was from childhood. He remembered a New Year's trip to the countryside when his cousin, newly an adult, had jumped on the back of a free-range black bull and rode it wildly for several hundred meters before tumbling down a slope, covered in thorn scratches.
Seeing him try to sit up, Li Tang rushed over. "Stay put! With a leg injury this bad, you should've let us know. I wouldn't even know if I hadn't come here by chance."
"It's nothing—just a small injury."
Feiming laughed it off. "We were actually planning to visit you guys this New Year, to see Grandma and Grandpa. But now with this leg, I won't be healed in time. Since you're here, help us bring some gifts back for them—and for your parents too. I've got a surprise planned. And while you're here, make sure to have some fun. How long are you staying?"
"If all goes well, just a few days." Li Tang gently knocked on the plaster cast—it was hard as a rock. "How's it feel? Hurts?"
"When it broke, it hurt like hell." He shuddered at the memory. "Now it's just numb."
Seeing his sister-in-law cleaning up the breakfast dishes, Li Tang greeted her with a smile. "Hi, sis-in-law. Where's the baby?"
"With my folks. I can't take care of him right now." She shot Feiming a glare, then smiled at Li Tang. "You two chat. I'll go wash these—the room smells like food."
"Go ahead."
Li Tang pulled up a chair beside the bed. "I heard your truck flipped off a mine road. Rolled down a slope for hundreds of meters? And you only broke your leg? You're lucky as hell."
"This little injury's nothing!"
Though he acted tough, Feiming was clearly shaken. He was more heartbroken over his truck. "My truck's totaled. Damn it. No more driving for me. Maybe it's for the best. That job's too dangerous."
For him, the truck had been his only source of income. Losing it hurt more than breaking a leg.
You could heal a leg. You couldn't replace a truck that easily.
Unless you had the money.
Just as they were talking, a group of men walked in. The leader was a middle-aged man carrying a black leather briefcase, oozing a "boss" vibe.
"Feiming, you feeling better?" he asked.
Feiming's face darkened when he saw them. "I'm alright."
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