Chapter 22 Part 2

Jiang Ma was choked up. "How could I know it was such a dirty place? You knew what kind of party it was, but you didn't tell us!"

Father Jiang said, "How would she know what a nightclub is? How old is she?"

Jiang Ma stopped talking and hated Jiang Yueqin to death.

She spat fiercely at the gate of Jiang Yueqin's yard, then dragged Jiang Ning away.

The others also quickly dispersed and went back to their parents' homes to tell the story: "Why are people so evil nowadays? She is just a little girl, it's ok for her to end up in that place, but why did she harm her family? She is harming everyone in the same village."

"Some people cheat the villagers, especially their relatives."

"You should also quickly talk to your parents. You must be accompanied by your own elders before you can leave. Don't go with these little girls. We don't know how many people have been taken away by them. This time they come back to harm people again."

Everyone was talking privately and speculating about who else in the first wife's family was making dirty money outside.

"Yue Ping's family has also built a large building. Isn't it said that her daughter is good at making money? Maybe..."

The four branches of Jiangjia Village have always lived and played together, and followed the elders in the same branch when going out to work. Now there is a girl working as a prostitute outside in the first branch, everyone can't help but wonder whether all the girls in the first branch are there, especially the girls who have built houses in the past two years and are good at making money outside.

The people in the first house didn't hear it, but they were also very angry and pointed at Jiang Yueqin's family and cursed them at home.

"If we don't handle this well, our entire village will lose its reputation, and it will be difficult for girls in the village to get married."

"It's really a bad apple that spoils the whole barrel."

This concerns their vital interests. If the reputation of the girls in the village is ruined, it will be hard to say whether they can get married, let alone the gift money.

Jiang's father was also terrified and got angry at Jiang's mother: "You asked her to go to work every day, and you almost pushed the child into the fire pit!"

Jiang Ma was also feeling guilty and short of breath at this time, and asked, "How could I know that Jiang Yueqin was harming people like that?"

"Nowadays, the wages of workers in the city are only about 170 or 80 yuan. How can a waiter earn 200 yuan?"

Jiang's mother also ridiculed Jiang's father: "What's the point of talking about it now? I told her to go to work before, and you didn't stop her!"

"Why didn't I stop it?"

"I told her to go work, but you didn't say anything. Don't think I didn't know what you meant. Now that there's a problem, you're pushing it all onto me!" Mother Jiang was very angry at the moment, and she spoke in a harsh tone.

Jiang Ning was standing behind them, watching the couple blaming each other.

Mother Jiang was thinking about what to do now.

I would definitely be worried if she goes out to work alone without anyone to take care of her. If she gets sold, she would have no place to cry to.

But now it’s the middle of the year, is there anyone in the village who would go out to work? We all come back together for the Chinese New Year and then go out together.

Jiang's mother really doesn't want Jiang Ning to study anymore.

"Fortunately Ningning asked us, otherwise if she took Ningning away like this, it would be too late to cry later." Father Jiang sighed, "Let Ningning continue to study, she is still so young."

"What do you mean by young? You're already fifteen!" Jiang's mother glared at Jiang's father. "All you do is study. I told you to call Songzi, but did you? School is about to start in a few days, and Songzi hasn't come back yet. You don't worry about Songzi, so why do you care about whether she studies or not?" She turned and looked at Jiang Ning. "Since you can't get a job, go to the kiln factory and move bricks!"

Her sister works in a brick factory in the next township. It's a very hard job, but so many women do it, so why can't she?

"I will talk to your aunt tomorrow and ask her to take you in!" Jiang's mother made the final decision.

She originally wanted to get up early in the morning and take Jiang Ning to her sister's house, but Jiang Ning got up early in the morning and cooked crayfish with Jiang's father, and then rode a bicycle to the neighboring market to sell them. Selling crayfish was also a business, so she didn't take Jiang Ning with her. She took some dried ferns and pickled fish that she had dried at home and went to her sister's house in the neighboring village.

Without a bicycle, she had to walk for more than two hours. Mother Jiang was sweating all over when she arrived at her sister's house. But her sister was not at home but at the brick factory, so she hurried back to the factory.

After talking to her sister, Jiang's mother came back and informed Jiang Ning, who had caught another basket of lobsters, "I've already made an agreement with your aunt. You'll go to work after breakfast tomorrow morning and come back for dinner. The brick factory will provide you with lunch, which is three yuan a day."

That’s ninety yuan a month, which is a little less than what Jiang Ma had expected.

The girls in the village who work in garment factories can earn 150 to 160 yuan a month, and those who are quick and efficient can earn more.

The next morning, before daybreak, Jiang Ma came over and knocked on the door. Jiang Ning had breakfast and left the house after being urged by Jiang Ma.

The sky was still dark, with stars twinkling all over the sky. Jiang Ning was wrapped in the night, gradually blending into the inky black night.

Jiang Ning went to catch crayfish.

School is about to start in a few days, and she wants to take advantage of these days to earn more money to pay for the first semester of high school tuition.

In the past few days, Jiang Ning had been keeping an eye out for replies from various magazines, but it was not until two days before school was about to start that she received the first reply.

It was a reply from Zhiyin magazine, saying that the manuscript she had sent was accepted and the royalties had been transferred to the bank account she left at the end of the letter, asking her to check it out. It also said that since she was a newcomer and the quality of her manuscript was high, the royalties would be fifty per thousand words.

The total number of words in her shocking article is less than 5,000, so it will be counted as 5,000 words.

Jiang Ning had long known that the royalties from Zhiyin were very high. After all, in her previous life, she had an author friend who received a royalty of 600 yuan per thousand words from Zhiyin in 1998.

But she didn't expect that even though she was a newcomer, "Zhiyin" would pay her such a high fee. You know, many workers now earn less than 200 yuan a month, and many are facing a wave of layoffs.

She originally thought that twenty pages would be good enough.

She hurried to the bank to check and found that not only this payment had arrived, but also two other payments, one for forty and one for sixty.

The royalties from these three alone totaled three hundred and fifty yuan.

Together with the money she earned from selling lobsters these days, she finally raised enough money for the first semester of high school tuition.

As soon as the tuition fees were collected, Jiang Ning felt relieved. She went back to the mountain and told Grandpa Jiang about it, asking him to go down the mountain and help her go to the brigade headquarters to keep an eye out for any letters from her when he had time. If there were any, he should take them up the mountain and give them to her when she came back.

Grandpa Jiang cooked for her a large can of salted fish pieces and a plastic bag of rice crusts. The fish pieces were pressed tightly and the rice crusts were roasted until crispy.

Jiang Ning wanted to leave the salted fish for Grandpa Jiang to eat, and she could just take the salted beans, but Grandpa Jiang insisted that she take the salted fish, and he looked very disgusted: "I don't like eating fish. I was afraid of eating fish when I was young. Take it away quickly!"

In fact, Grandpa Jiang likes to eat fish the most.

In the end, Jiang Ning did not refuse and just said, "Grandpa, don't always eat rotten radishes. Eat more fresh vegetables. They are more nutritious. Take good care of yourself at home. I will come back to pick you up soon. I still have to take care of you in your old age."

In her previous life, Jiang Ning's grandfather passed away just after she graduated from university. She didn't have the chance to be filial to him, and she didn't take him to Leifeng Pagoda or Yuewang Temple.

Grandpa Jiang was lonely in the mountains, so his father bought him a radio. This radio was Grandpa Jiang's treasure. He would take it out and listen to it every day. His favorite thing to listen to was the story of Yue Fei and Yue Family Army told by storytellers, which he never got tired of.

Grandpa Jiang cries easily. When he heard this, his eyes turned red, but the wrinkles on his face smoothed out with his smile. He smiled with great satisfaction: "Okay, okay, I'll just wait for my eldest granddaughter to come back and take care of me in my old age!"

In the sunshine, Jiang Ning smiled brightly: "Of course! So Grandpa, you must eat your vegetables well. Don't just eat rotten radishes to save trouble. I will check when I get back!"

After being fed by the various dishes cooked by Jiang Ning every day these days, Grandpa Jiang is still very thin, but his complexion has improved a little.

Grandpa Jiang wanted to see Jiang Ning off, but was stopped by Jiang Ning.

The double harvest season is over, and Grandpa Jiang cannot leave the mountain easily. He has to patrol the mountain every day.

When Jiang Ning returned home to pack winter clothes, quilts and rice, Jiang's parents were not at home. They had gone to the provincial capital to look for Jiang Song. They originally thought that Jiang Song would come back before school started, but they called him again and again and Jiang Song just didn't come back. School was about to start, and Jiang Song still hadn't come back. The couple could no longer sit still, so they hurried to the provincial capital to look for Jiang Song, swearing that they would drag Jiang Song back to repeat the year even if they had to delay.

Before leaving, he gave her 800 yuan and asked her to deliver it to Jiang Bai, who had been in classes throughout the summer. It was his tuition and accommodation fees for this semester. As for the food coupons, they would send him food when they returned.

Therefore, Jiang's mother's focus has not been on Jiang Ning these days. She sees her go out before dawn every day and come back after dark at night. She thought she was working peacefully in the brick factory, but she didn't know that she had never been there for a day.

There was no telephone at home, and my aunt had to go to work every day. When she saw that her niece had not come, she had no way to ask. They were not from the same township, and Jiang Ning's village was separated by a river. She couldn't even find anyone to bring a message. She just wanted to wait until it rained and she didn't have to work, and then she would go to her sister's house to ask what was going on.

Until Jiang Ning went to register for school, Jiang's mother still thought her daughter worked in a brick factory.

Their county is very large and has a large population. More than ten years later, their city was downgraded to a county, and their county was promoted to a city, and housing prices soared.

At this time, Wu County had already become as prosperous as it would be more than a decade later. There were so many people that as soon as they got off the bus, someone kept shouting, "Shanghai! People from Shanghai, come here and get on the bus!"

"Hangzhou! The people from Hangzhou are gone!"

"Chaochi! People from Chaochi, follow me!"

Because it was before school started, there were many tricycles near the station shouting, "No. 1 Middle School! Anyone going to No. 1 Middle School? One dollar for No. 1 Middle School!"

The boys and girls who appeared at the station were all freshmen who were admitted to middle schools in various towns under Wu County. They were all unfamiliar and confused about Wu City. When they heard the shouts of the tricycle drivers, they all hurried over to get on the tricycles.

Jiang Ning was carrying a quilt, ten kilograms of rice, several large cans of snail meat sauce, and a large bag of other miscellaneous items in his hands. Like a turtle with a shell on its head, he walked with difficulty in the direction of the vehicle shouting No. 1 Middle School.

Seeing someone else driving in the same direction as her, she immediately pulled over a girl who was also signing up by herself, saying, "Want to carpool? I'm going to sign up at No. 1 Middle School."

The tricycle is very small and can seat four people facing each other, but most of the students who came to register brought a lot of items with them. For example, Jiang Ning brought a quilt, a straw mat, rice, snail meat sauce, etc.

The girl she called was also wearing a junior high school uniform with Yaoba Junior High School written on the chest. The pants and clothes of the uniform were a bit short. She was carrying a very thick quilt on her back and holding a straw mat and other bundles in her hands.

The two of them shared a car and squeezed in with difficulty after putting down the things.

The girl was a bit quiet and didn't talk much, so Jiang Ning was the first to introduce herself to her with a smile: "My name is Jiang Ning, and I'm from Shuibu Town. What's yours?"

The girl was surprised at Jiang Ning's familiarity and pursed her lips nervously: "My name is Yao Wenjuan, and I'm from Yaoba Township." As she spoke, she kept looking out of the car, memorizing the landmark buildings and roads.

It was her first time in Wu County and she was a little nervous because she was afraid of encountering bad people.

"Then maybe we can be assigned to the same class." Jiang Ning smiled.

Perhaps it was because her smile was too kind, her temperament was friendly, and she looked young, Yao Wenjuan relaxed a little and gave her a faint smile.

There were a lot of people registering at the school gate. Jiang Ning got off the car and was still looking up at the sign at the gate of No. 1 Middle School when a person in the school uniform of No. 1 Middle School strode towards her.

It’s Jiang Bai.