After hanging the washed clothes on the wire outside to dry, Xie Zhuo composed himself.

The main reason was that he had other things to do. Otherwise, he wouldn't have skipped work at the educated youth settlement entrance before, where he would spend an entire afternoon weeding just five centimeters of grass.

He used to not have to worry about household expenses. As long as he had something to eat, he was fine. He didn't have any particular preferences when it came to food. In his mother's words, he was both easy and difficult to raise. He was easy to raise because he would eat whatever was given to him and never picky. He was difficult to raise because he had a big appetite. Whether it was a steamed bun made from two kinds of flour or a dumpling made from coarse bran mixed with wild vegetables, he could eat five or six in one go.

Perhaps for this reason, he is one of the very few people in the countryside who are tall and strong but not overly thin.

I measured my height with the rope the brigade used for measuring land before, and it's about 1.86 meters.

Zhao Jisheng and Liu Mancang said the rope was inaccurate; he needed to be at least two meters long, while they were only 1.86 meters tall. Xie Zhuo kicked each of them in the buttocks.

Get lost.

Are there people who are two meters tall?

I haven't weighed him, but anyone with eyes can see that he's strong and muscular. He's been doing farm work for the past few years, so he still has noticeable muscles in his arms.

Now……

Now he is the pillar of the family. Although there are only three people in the family who need to be fed, and two of them are still young children, Xie Zhuo wants them to eat better.

In his previous life, all he knew was to bury himself in the fields and work hard every day. However, the amount of food and money he received throughout the year was limited, barely enough to fill his stomach.

When his two nephews grow up a bit more and go to school, the various expenses will overwhelm him.

In this lifetime...

Xie Zhuo quickly walked back into the house, closed the door, and then took out a small box that was under his pillow.

If anyone else saw this, they would be astonished. He opened the small box, inside were six or seven men's watches, all of them Shanghai brand watches.

Each piece was polished to a shine, clearly brand new.

Putting aside the fact that a Shanghai brand watch costs over a hundred yuan, even industrial invoices aren't easy to come by.

Normally, only workers who had stable jobs in state-owned enterprises could obtain industrial tickets, and even then, the tickets were only issued in fixed quantities.

This is why city girls need three turns and one sound for their wedding, while village people only need some money, sugar, cloth, eggs, and fine grains to give as a wedding gift, because they simply don't have the means.

Now Xie Zhuo not only has watches, but also six or seven!

Xie Zhuo opened the small box for a short time, and after confirming the number of watches, he closed the box again and locked it.

Then he went out and got a basket. He didn't put anything in it to line it, but just put the small box inside. Finally, he went out again and covered it with some wild mushrooms and wood ear fungus that he had picked in the mountains. Then he carried the basket out with one hand.

"Third Uncle!"

Da Bao and his younger brother were playing with the wooden horses that their grandfather had made for them when they saw Xie Zhuo about to leave. They ran to the door and called out to him.

Xie Zhuo turned to look at him.

"Third Uncle, are you going out?" Da Bao looked at him eagerly, clearly wanting to go with him.

“Yes, we’re going to the city,” Xie Zhuo said. “When we get back, I’ll take you fishing.”

“Okay,” Da Bao nodded obediently, hearing that he hadn’t forgotten about taking them to the river. “My brother and I will behave well.”

Although it's not safe to leave two five-year-old children alone at home, there's no one in the Xie family to look after them, and Xie Zhuo can't take the two children with him for everything.

All we can do is prepare everything we can think of, and try our best to ensure they don't go hungry if he can't get back in time.

He had previously hired someone to help take care of the child.

He was paid four cents a day to stay with her from nine in the morning until he came home from work in the evening. Later, he discovered that the woman not only frequently beat and scolded his two children after taking his money, but also stole the ten yuan he had left at home.

They stole it, and then blamed it on two children who were not even four years old.

Xie Zhuo was furious, but he couldn't bring himself to hit the woman. In the end, he beat up the woman and her husband instead.

They eventually got the money back, but they dared not send their children to outsiders again.

Xie Zhuo felt a warmth in his heart at Da Bao's words. He strode over, patted the two children on the head, and pointed towards the kitchen. "Each of you is allowed to have a piece of candy, but not too many, or your teeth will rot."

As soon as he finished speaking, the two little brats in front of him jumped up happily, "Okay, we definitely won't eat too much!"

Seeing them run towards the kitchen, Xie Zhuo quickly walked back towards the door.

Qingshan Brigade has over a hundred households. The Xie family lives in the south, very close to the river, but still quite far from the road to the city. He walked quickly, and as he passed a house, the old woman inside peeked out of the yard and glanced at him.

"Where is the third brother going?"

"Go to the city for medical treatment," Xie Zhuo blurted out, making things up as soon as he opened his mouth.

"Huh? What illness do you need?" The old woman didn't realize he was talking nonsense. She shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand and scanned him with her eyes.

“Internal injury,” Xie Zhuo said, “It’s not visible to the naked eye; we need to go to a city hospital for a checkup.”

"ah?"

The old woman was completely frightened. Very few people in the countryside would go to the city for medical treatment. There were doctors in the village. If Qian Yong couldn't cure her, it was basically a serious illness. Not to mention whether it could be cured, it would cost a lot of money.

Before the old woman could figure out what to ask Xie Zhuo next, Xie Zhuo had already strode away.

There's nothing wrong with this, is there?

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