Before Li Long went to Wu City, when he was living at his eldest brother's house, he often heard his brother talk about the different places in Ma County.
But he hadn't paid much attention then, always feeling those were old stories that weren't worth bothering with.
Now that he thought about it, Yongfeng sounded familiar, so his brother was the first person he thought of asking when he wanted to find the place.
Early the next morning, after breakfast, he drove Mingming and Haohao to the preschool class in the Jeep, greeted Mom as she arrived, then went to his brother's house.
Mom now came to the preschool class every day to watch Mingming and Haohao, almost as though she were going to work. It was rather amusing.
Li Long had no objection to this; in fact, he supported it. Before leaving, he left Mom a cloth bag containing three canning jars filled with warm tea.
Mom stayed there for much of the morning and wouldn't go home for a drink even when she was thirsty. That wasn't good.
Of the three jars, one was for Mom and two were for Mingming and Haohao. The two children had identical screw-top canning jars. The labels hadn't been peeled off, and Mingming's and Haohao's names had been written on them respectively.
Insulated cups weren't on the market yet, so Li Long used these as substitutes for now. At the time, canning jars and beer bottles were the standard way to send children off with water.
Most canning jars sold at the time had disposable pressed-tin lids; screw-top ones like Li Long's were relatively rare. Li Juan and Li Qiang had previously taken water to school in beer bottles, filling them with tea from home and adding two or three saccharin tablets.