**490. A Day in Grandpa’s House**
At lunch, Lin Nan spotted a McDonald’s bag sitting in the corner of the table.
Excitedly, she opened the bag and peeked inside; it was stuffed to the brim.
“They bought so much?” she looked up, wide-eyed, at Grandma.
“Whatever we can’t finish will be saved for dinner — late-night snacks!” Grandma replied, bringing in the last dish of stir-fried cabbage, “Even after hamburgers, you still need some rice.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Go upstairs and wake up your cousin.”
Lin Nan had no intentions of refusing. She sprang up and dashed upstairs like a little rocket.
Watching her scurry away, Grandma shook her head in resignation, settling down at the table to watch SpongeBob on TV. “Still watching that silly stuff at this age?”
With a loud bang, Lin Nan burst into the room upstairs, practically beaming as she approached the bed, where her cousin lay snoring away. Without missing a beat, she flung the blanket off him. “Get up for lunch!”
“Ugh, don’t bug me.” Wu Jiaming squinted open his eyes, noticed Lin Nan standing there, and immediately rolled over, ready to catch some more Z’s.
“Grandma says lunch is ready, and there’s McDonald’s! Really good!” Lin Nan clutched the blanket, sighed melodramatically, “If you don’t come down, I’ll eat it all!”
“Suit yourself.”
After just a few hours of sleep, Wu Jiaming’s eyes barely opened. He rolled over onto his side, annoyed and cranky. “Give me my blanket back!”
Startled by his fierce tone, Lin Nan quickly tossed the blanket back onto the bed. Mumbling under her breath, she grumbled, “It’s my blanket anyway. If you don’t get up, I’m going to gobble down all the hamburgers without saving you a single bite…”
Seeing Wu Jiaming still unresponsive, Lin Nan rolled her eyes and left the room.
When she returned to the dining table, Grandpa was back too.
He was sipping white liquor, and noticing Lin Nan across the table, he asked, “Where’s Jiaming?”
Still fuming a little about her earlier encounter, Lin Nan didn’t hesitate to rat him out. “He was up all night playing games, and now he’s still sleeping. Claims he doesn’t want to eat.”
“That rascal.” Grandpa paused with his drink but then shrugged it off. He looked at Grandma. “Boys don’t listen once they grow up. Just look at Lin Nan. Smart and well-behaved—she even came back to check on us.”
“Sure, sure,” Grandma nodded impatiently.
“You wouldn’t believe it! Last night Lin Nan went to the store, and this morning a couple of people asked me if she had a boyfriend!” Grandpa was practically glowing with pride. “She’s quite the catch!”
Lin Nan, taken aback, exclaimed, “A couple? Really?”
“Absolutely!” Grandpa was in top spirits, unfazed by Wu Jiaming’s sleeping habits.
Today, Grandpa smiled a lot more than usual — it was like he had swallowed a sunshine pill. But before he could take another swig, Grandma placed a small bowl of rice in front of him, whisking away the liquor bottle.
He blinked, shook his head in disappointment, and complained to Lin Nan, “Your grandma is the worst at this. Won’t let me drink!”
“Still hoping for a trip to the hospital?” Grandma shot him a look, rolling her eyes. “Your drinking got you hospitalized last time, and then you switched to binge eating seafood, which nearly gave you gout! Just had surgery to remove those stones a few days ago.”
“Back then, you had no idea what those stones looked like,” Grandma continued her tirade, “they were terrifying.”
Living by the coast, seafood was as common as rice for Lin Nan, and she was lucky enough to enjoy it almost every day.
While others cooked their seafood, Grandpa had a penchant for devouring raw shrimp and crabs — insisting vinegar could k*ll the germs. Apparently, soaking raw seafood in vinegar was completely fine in his book.
No problems means something’s up, right?
In recent years, however, the dark culinary experiments had been put on hold, probably due to the doctor’s stern warnings.
As Lin Nan watched her grandparents bicker, she couldn’t help but feel warm and fuzzy inside. Last time she’d visited, Grandma had been all serious and quiet; this time, though, Grandma was much more relaxed.
Pulling a hamburger from the bag and grabbing a bottle of cola from the fridge, Lin Nan sat down to savor her lunch.
Noticing Grandpa’s keen eye on her hamburger, she cheerfully offered, “Want a bite?”
“Not eating that stuff.” Grandpa waved his hand dismissively. “Only kids like it.”
Kids love it because they hardly get to eat it!
Growing up with little money, places like McDonald’s and KFC were like gourmet restaurants to Lin Nan. Only after getting a part-time job in college could she indulge occasionally.
As she munched away, footsteps approached from behind, and Lin Nan turned to see Wu Jiaming trudging down the stairs, his hair a complete mess.
“Didn’t you say you weren’t eating?” she asked curiously.
“Woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep after you bugged me,” Wu Jiaming said, yawning as he sat down and scratched his bird’s nest of hair. “What’s the plan for tomorrow morning? Hiking?”
“Tomorrow night.”
It was already Friday. Saturday morning meant late-night hiking!
Lin Nan suddenly felt like something was off.
“Hiking? Sounds great! Let’s see how much your cousin has packed on!” Grandpa pinched Wu Jiaming’s arm, “Soft as a marshmallow!”
Lin Nan instinctively glanced at her own arms — they might as well be twigs!
Wu Jiaming rolled his eyes at Grandpa, picked up his bowl, and lethargically started to grab some veggies. After a couple of bites, he spotted Lin Nan munching on a burger. “Get me one!”
Just then, Grandpa was still lecturing, “Aren’t you too old to be looking for a job? All you do is mess around on the internet. Why not find a factory job? I can help you…”
“I told you—NO FACTORY!” Wu Jiaming snapped, his tone clearly frustrated. “I’ll find something myself! Stop nagging me!”
Lin Nan nearly jumped from his sharp tone, lowering her head to cautiously gauge her cousin’s mood.
Looks like Wu Jiaming had been struggling to find work, and Grandpa was on his back about it.
“When are you going back to school? I’ll go with you,” Wu Jiaming grumbled. “It’ll be easier to find a job in a bigger place.”
“Sunday at noon.”
“Okay.”
He dropped his head and started booking tickets, while Lin Nan glanced back at Grandpa, who still wore that serious look. Any trace of the earlier smile was long gone.
This grandfather-grandson dynamic felt a bit stiff.
Lin Nan understood Wu Jiaming’s job search struggles — after all, with the pandemic just behind them, companies were either downsizing or shutting shop entirely, and this little town had barely any job openings to begin with.
After finishing lunch, Lin Nan dashed upstairs, fearing her cousin would steal her bed again.
