Chapter 10 Mother's Thoughts

Zhang Ruifeng paused for a few seconds as she swung her hoe. "You're right," she said. "No one can do without us."

She straightened up, leaned on her hoe, thought for a moment, and said, "During the autumn harvest, let's not save eggs. Let's boil three every morning and have one each. I have to live well and see you get married, and see Mumu get married. I wait for your two children to call me grandma and grandma. Your father won't be able to see all this, so I have to see it for him. When I get to the afterlife, I will tell him everything."

Zhang Ruifeng sniffed, lowered his head and hoeed the ground hard.

Actually, our family wasn't that poor. We had saved a bit of money. Every year, we sold a pig for 60 or 70 yuan, and we saved half of that. Altogether, we had saved close to 200 yuan.

The income from selling eggs and rabbits is about enough to cover daily expenses.

A few years ago, Xie Yun and Xie Shen both went to school and had to pay tuition. During the four years that Xie Yun was in junior high school and high school, the family also had to give her living expenses every month, so the family had to sell some grain. Since Xie Yun dropped out of school, they no longer needed to sell grain.

It turned out that she tightened her belt and saved money so that she could support Xie Yun and Xie Shen to go to college, so that they could both pass the exam and find a way out in the city in the future. So she didn't dare to spend a penny casually, and saved as much as she could. If the children were admitted to college but couldn't go because she didn't save enough money, she would definitely cry to death.

Now that the college entrance exams were suspended and Xie Yun was no longer in school, the family's expenses had suddenly decreased significantly. Logically, she could relax and unwind.

But then she thought again, Xie Yun was already 18 years old, almost at the age to get married. She had no father and her younger brother was still young. In this case, if she didn't save some money for her, she was afraid that the child would not be able to stand up straight when she got married.

Moreover, if the college entrance examination is not resumed, Xie Shen may have to do farm work at home for the rest of his life. Then he will have to marry a wife at home, and she will have to prepare a betrothal gift, right?

Therefore, she is still stingy and reluctant to eat or drink, and saving money has become a physical instinct.

But the child is right. If she ruins her health in order to save money, then wouldn’t it be meaningless for her to save money?

She has to change!

You need to take care of your health.

Money can be saved slowly.

Xie Yun's eyes also became sore from what she said. When Xie Tan died, the original owner was already 11 years old. She had a deep affection for her father and knew why her mother was so frugal.

Zhang Ruifeng had often told the original owner to study hard and get into university. "Don't look at our family being poor. If you pass the exam, I'll definitely let you go. I'm secretly saving money."

She also knew why Zhang Ruifeng was still working hard to increase revenue and reduce expenditure even though the college entrance examination was suspended. It was all for her and Xie Shen.

Xie Yun said to Zhang Ruifeng, "Mom, I won't get married. I will stay with you and won't go to anyone else's house. I will raise Xie Shen with you and let him take care of me in my old age. So, after the autumn harvest, let's buy some meat."

Zhang Ruifeng burst out laughing. "When did you become greedy?"

"I've figured it out now!"

"Okay, when I'm done, I'll go cut a piece of meat and come back to chop it up for dumplings. But don't say you won't get married. Just do what you have to do, and don't worry about Xie Shen. It's my responsibility to support him, not yours."

Xie Yun chuckled and said, "Mom, I've been thinking about it these past two days. I need to think of a way to change what I do."

Zhang Ruifeng perked up when she heard this and asked, "What's the solution? How do we change it?"

Xie Yun said: "My classes were suspended two years ago, and the county was in chaos. My classmates in the county town told me that the factories had stopped working and were busy with the revolution. Those units were not hiring anyone. None of us high school students could find a job. When I dropped out of school and went home, many people in the county were on strike and protesting.

But it's been two years now. Look at our village, there's not much trouble anymore. I think the situation in the county should be better too. After all, I'm a high school student. I can definitely think of a way to become a primary school teacher, or find a job in the commune or county. It's easier than earning work points by farming."

Zhang Ruifeng smiled and said, "As long as you can think of a way, I'll support you. If you need me to do anything, just tell me. I'm not well-educated and don't know much, but I know that if you can have an easy life, you shouldn't suffer. Go ahead and try. Even if it doesn't work out, it's okay. At worst, we can come back and farm. We can't be worse off than we are now."

"Hey, that's what I thought too. Mom, I want to submit an article to a newspaper first. If it gets published, it will at least prove that my cultural level is still good. I can use this article as a stepping stone to find a job. What do you think?"

Zhang Ruifeng said, "Okay. Go ahead and send it out. You'll need postage to submit your article, right? Mom will give you a dollar later. If you don't get accepted the first time, we can try again. If you can become a teacher in a school, you can just stand on the podium and talk, which is much better than working hard in the fields. Besides, even if you can't become a teacher, it would be a great honor for my daughter to publish an article in the newspaper. Your father would be very happy if he knew about it."

She smiled with her mouth wide open and swung the hoe vigorously, as if she had already seen her daughter standing on the podium teaching students.

Although students criticized teachers at school frequently in the past two years, that mainly happened in high schools. It was less serious in junior high schools, and there was basically no problem in elementary schools. Moreover, junior high schools and high schools have not resumed classes yet. If her daughter were a teacher, she would probably be an elementary school teacher in the brigade, and there would be nothing to worry about.

Xie Yun also laughed. This era is indeed difficult, but there are also many cases of grassroots counterattacks.

Xie Yun feels that in such an era, she can still achieve great things.

Her Xie family had been poor peasants for eight generations, and with a good family background, they were not afraid of anything. They just wanted to make some trouble and try their luck.

The two of them worked together to finish digging the ground and returned to the front yard to have dinner.

Xie Yun only ate one house sparrow and gave the rest to Zhang Ruifeng and Xie Shen. His excuse was ready: "After all, I had a fever yesterday. I'm afraid this kind of food won't be easy to digest."

Zhang Ruifeng and Xie Shen didn't insist after hearing her say that. However, the next morning, they both gave her half of the egg white from their boiled eggs.