A Letter That Has Been in the Dust for 24 Years

On August 7, 2020, my 24-year-old wife just gave birth to a baby. I had nothing to do and wanted to tidy up the old house. The old house is in front of our village and has been abandoned for 18 years. The beams have collapsed since it has not been used for a long time. However, there are beds, cabinets, and other unused old furniture inside, which are also rotting. During the process of tidying up, I wanted to see if there were any old antiques. Now I often watch videos on the Internet and see old antiques left behind when tidying up the old house. So I looked around and found a letter to me from December 23, 1996 (Little New Year's Eve) in the drawer of the old cabinet. It was written by my grandparents to me when I was young. Maybe they have forgotten it, but I opened the beginning of the letter with trepidation. Fuqiang (pseudonym), Wusun: You must be an adult when you open this letter. There is nothing in this letter. I just want to tell you the whole story. On the first day of the twelfth lunar month in 1995, your aunt brought your mother to our house and told her that her sister slept in a pig pen at home and wore autumn clothes during the winter. Even her shoes were sandals. There were five brothers and sisters in the family. She married the girl in our village. The story of our family being wronged made your grandma and I shed tears. We, the old couple, have no daughter. Your grandma is soft-hearted and thinks that she should not let the child go during the Chinese New Year. She will stay and have a hot meal, and ask your dad to ride his bicycle to the street to buy some clothes. At that time, our family's financial situation was 10,000 yuan. Our family was the richest in the whole village. What a good family, your mother's family is in shambles.