When the weekend was over, the teacher said that the next holiday would be National Day, so we might have to study for twenty consecutive days. The time saved would be given as a three-day holiday for National Day. Although the students were unhappy, they didn't say anything.

She had already told her family when she arrived that it started raining before the bus even reached the stop. In this day and age, not many people can afford rain boots and raincoats. Even if they can use an umbrella, it's usually a very large black one, which is hard to carry and a bit cumbersome.

So when Xiao Jiu appeared in everyone's sight with a folding floral umbrella, she not only attracted a lot of attention, but also many fashion-conscious girls asked her questions.

"Little girl, where did you buy this flowery umbrella? It's so pretty!"

Xiao Jiu smiled innocently, "The capital city was sent back by my older sister who's in college."

"Wow, the capital city, no wonder, your sister has great taste, that umbrella is very beautiful."

Upon hearing that it was the capital city, many people gave up their plans, thinking that only a place like the capital could rightfully offer such an umbrella.

When she arrived at the entrance of the winery, the old man guarding the gate recognized her at a glance.

"Hey, Xiao Jiu, you've come to see your parents? Come on in, come on in! It's raining so hard, why are you still making such a fuss!"

"Grandpa, I'm going to L City in a bit. I just wanted to tell my parents that you're doing well lately."

"Okay, okay, then you should go quickly. Oh, it's raining so hard. Every autumn rain brings a chill, so remember to bring some warm clothes."

"Yes, yes, I brought them with me last time."

...

The old man's almost nagging greetings made Xiao Jiu feel very warm.

She first went to her third sister's and mother's dormitory. Knowing that they were both on the day shift, she waited in the dormitory. The workshop was a restricted area, and unauthorized personnel were not allowed to go there. She didn't want to cause them any trouble. Fortunately, her roommates were very hospitable and immediately went to the workshop to tell Zhao Lingli.

Upon hearing that her youngest daughter had arrived, Zhao Lingli quickly greeted the director and rushed to the dormitory.

"Jiu'er, what brings you here? Haven't you eaten yet? It's almost lunchtime, and there are fewer people around now. Why don't you go eat first?"

"Mom, it's okay. I ate well at home and I'm not hungry at all. I just came to let you know that I have to go back to school in a little while."

"Even if it's urgent, you still need to eat first. Let's call your dad and sister for lunch today, and we'll all have lunch together. You stay here for now, and we'll come over after get off work to get our lunchboxes and go together. Did you bring your lunchbox?"

Seeing Xiaojiu nod, he patted her head, took her lunchbox, and arranged for her to rest in the dormitory before hurriedly returning to the workshop.

"Jiu'er, I remember you used to call her 'Mother,' when did you start calling her 'Mom'?"

Zhao Lingli's roommate teased her, and Xiao Jiu scratched her head a little embarrassedly.

“I call both ‘Niang’ and ‘Mom’. Sometimes I even lose track of which one to call in different situations. Outside, people talk about how your mother is, but no one asks me how my mother is. Maybe in the city, more people call me ‘Mom’.”

Her answer did reflect the reality. "If what you're saying is true, it really is. Let alone in the city, even in the county town, nowadays when people ask children, they all say 'Your mother, how is your mother?' Very few people call her 'mother' anymore. If you go back to the village, will you call her 'mother' too?"

Xiao Jiu immediately chimed in, "Yes, yes, that's right. I call Mom 'Niang,' it seems to change randomly based on how people around me address her. Maybe it's a change in mindset? Like in the city, more people call their father 'Die' than 'Ba,' and I have many classmates who call their father 'Bai' and their mother 'Niang'..."

Xiao Jiu sometimes gets confused about the way people address each other, but at least she can understand who they are being addressed by, even though they are from the same city. Their dialects are different, but luckily she didn't come here halfway through her life. She can understand the dialect of the place where she grew up to some extent, and some of her pronunciations are very authentic, so they can't tell that she used to be from out of town.

Lying diagonally on Zhao Lingli's bed, while moving her pillow, she noticed a well-worn dictionary under her mother's pillow.

"My mom can actually read."

"That's right, you don't know yet, do you? Not only does she know the most characters, but she also writes the best. She's already a group leader. Your sister Cuilian is also quite good. Just like your mother, she's always carrying around a dictionary and flipping through it. No wonder your family has produced so many college students. Even you, a ten-year-old high school student, have shocked the whole factory. Maybe it's because of this that your mother and sister are under a lot of pressure? Haha!"

Xiao Jiu's lips curled into a smile. "Maybe, haha, perhaps my dad is secretly flipping through dictionaries too!"

"Oh, you mean Master Tao? Needless to say, he's a skilled worker and a model worker in our factory now. He has seven or eight apprentices under him. The factory manager values ​​him highly. Everyone else can take time off, but he can't. He's always working overtime."

Xiao Jiu wasn't surprised that his father was valued. After all, his family had been brewing wine for so many years, and his father had become a master brewer in his teens. He had learned the craft from a young age through observation and experience. Now that he was working in the factory, it would be a bit unreasonable if he hadn't become a skilled worker.

At 11:30, the first group of workers went off to eat, and another group went off at 12:00. This was mainly to reduce the burden on the canteen and prevent it from being too crowded to carry. The night shift workers had to go to eat at 11:00, so they just missed the peak period.

Sister Cuilian was originally supposed to be on the 12 o'clock shift, but because of her arrival, she specially switched shifts with others. She went back to the dormitory with Zhao Lingli and Tao Changyi, grabbed her lunchbox, and went to the cafeteria to buy food. Zhao Lingli then came over to call her "old girl".

After hearing her explanation, Zhao Lingli frowned. "If you come to the factory too late after school, you can do this now because it gets dark late, but after National Day it will get dark much earlier. Taking the bus and walking home is too much of a hassle. You're a girl, you need to consider your safety, you know? If it really doesn't work, have your dad take you home the next day, or you can send a telegram in advance and have your sister pick you up. Either way is fine."

What could Xiao Jiu say? He obediently nodded. When they arrived at the canteen, Cui Lian had already taken four seats. Tao Changyi bought four dishes, two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes, and two lunch boxes. He also bought one lunch box each of sweet potato buns and sorghum rice. Everyone used their lunch box lids as plates.

"Look, you finally come back, but the cafeteria is like this. My daughter has to make do with what she has."

Eggplant with minced garlic, green pepper noodles, steamed egg with minced meat, and stir-fried pork slices with onions.

It's supposed to be meat slices, but there are only a few scattered pieces; most of it is onions that don't look appetizing.

Overall, only the steamed egg with minced meat looked somewhat decent.

But to be able to get such food in the factory is really good, especially considering that there are still many people who can't afford to eat these days. With meat, what more could you want?

So Xiao Jiu quickly said, "Dad, this food is already very good. The food at our school rarely has any meat, and even if it does, it's just minced meat like this."

Upon hearing this, Tao Changyi felt extremely distressed and quickly picked up the small wine spoon and scooped a large spoonful of steamed egg for her.

"This is something your dad snatched from you. Come on, eat more to nourish yourself. Don't skimp on food at school. Let us know if you run out of tickets."

As he spoke, he reached into his pocket to give Xiao Jiu a whole bill, which excited Xiao Jiu so much that he quickly raised his hand to stop him.

"Dad, Grandpa and my brother already gave me some when I arrived, please don't give me any more, you need to eat too,"

Cuilian then slipped five yuan into her hand when she wasn't looking.

"I don't have many tickets, so I'll just give you some money. Buy whatever you want to eat, don't be stingy."

Xiao Jiu was deeply moved, but still tried to return the money, saying, "Don't bother, Third Sister, you should keep this money for yourself. You all have it tough, and besides, you have to give your family living expenses. You don't need to give it to me, really, I have some here. I even received a scholarship."

She quickly mentioned that she had received a scholarship for her excellent grades. Although it was true, the award amount was only one or two yuan, not five or six yuan, or even seven or eight yuan, as she claimed. Is that possible?

But she couldn't find a better reason than this, and luckily they believed her, which saved her a lot of trouble.

This meal cost Tao Changyi almost one yuan, eight ounces of grain coupons and four ounces of meat coupons. It wasn't very cheap, but it was still quite affordable, and at least all four of them were full.

After dinner, we chatted for a while in front of the dormitory building. Around 1 p.m., Xiao Jiu suggested that we go catch a bus.

"The weather is bad today, and the roads are difficult to travel on, so I have to leave early."

Tao Changyi offered to see her off, but Xiaojiu refused: "It's still raining, Dad. You don't need to see me off. Look, I brought an umbrella. I can walk a few steps with it. My brother sent me this umbrella. It's small and convenient to carry."

Tao Changyi and Zhao Lingli looked at the umbrella in Xiao Jiu's hand with considerable surprise.

"That's true. This umbrella looks quite convenient. I never knew your brother could be so thoughtful. Not bad."

Because riding a bike while wearing a raincoat is indeed inconvenient, and Xiao Jiu didn't have much luggage, Tao Changyi didn't insist anymore. They escorted Xiao Jiu to the factory gate, watched her walk to the intersection, and then reluctantly returned to the factory.

"Godfather and Godmother, Jiu'er is quite self-reliant, so don't worry, she'll be fine."

Zhao Lingli shook her head, "I just feel sorry for her, being all alone at such a young age. Even though she's doing well in school, it's still a lot of trouble. Look, she's so young, while her older brother is still in elementary school. She's already surpassed him once she started. She's a natural-born scholar."

Tao Changyi chimed in, "I've always seen how clever she is. When her brother was in school, she had a good memory. I never expected her to achieve such great academic results. Just wait and see, our family's fourth college student might just be your youngest daughter, not your youngest son!"

Zhao Lingli couldn't help but rub her forehead: "Our family is too popular in the factory right now. Let's keep a low profile, otherwise so many people will be jealous. Let's hurry back, we still have to work this afternoon!"

——

Xiao Jiu arrived at the bus station at 1:30 PM. She had bought a ticket for the 2 PM bus, but the weather was turning bad; it was raining even harder. She was worried that the bus might not be able to leave on time. The only good thing was that there were very few people around because of the rain.

As fate would have it, when it was 2 o'clock, there were only seven or eight people on the bus, all of them students. The driver probably felt it wasn't worth it and said he would have to wait until 4 o'clock, which meant that she would likely be late for school.

The students were unwilling, but the people at the bus station were forceful. They simply said, "If you want to sit, sit; if you don't, we'll give you a refund."

The children sullenly returned to their seats. What could they do? When you encounter someone who doesn't keep their word, you can only suffer in silence.

Xiao Jiu had no choice; she knew she wouldn't make it to evening self-study. So she simply relaxed. But she had already waited for half an hour; waiting another two hours would be agonizing. So she found a secluded corner, entered her space, put on a transparent raincoat, hid the things she wanted to sell under the raincoat, and slowly walked towards the family compound of the bus station.

It's autumn now, and normally there should be plenty of ripe fruit and a good supply of fruit on the market. However, due to drought and famine, many fruit trees have had their bark stripped and roots dug up, so there isn't as much fruit available for sale.

Xiao Jiu tentatively went to the family compound to sell her salted duck eggs and pickled vegetables, and found that they sold much better than her fruit.

Come to think of it, if people can't even afford to eat, who would want to eat fruit?

After selling the duck eggs and pickled vegetables, she also sold some grains and oil.

Most of the cooking oil she sells comes in large 50-liter containers, but there are also smaller containers of 5 or 10 liters. She also makes a point of finding some small 1-liter bottles as freebies to resell. She only sells the oil and doesn't give away the bottles. One liter of soybean oil weighs about 1.875 jin (0.98 catties), but she sells it as 1.8 jin (0.04 catties).

According to market prices, including oil coupons, peanut oil costs 69 cents per pound, while soybean oil is slightly cheaper, but still fluctuates around 60 cents. This is the price with oil coupons included. Without oil coupons, it wouldn't be unreasonable to sell it for 70 cents. Moreover, even with coupons, you might not be able to buy it even if you queue up, because there is a monthly purchase limit. So, for her, one liter of oil costs 1.2 yuan if she has a coupon, and 1.5 yuan if she doesn't.

If you think it's too expensive, you don't have to buy it.

So in this situation, these customers may complain, but they still rush to buy, and are even worried that she will shortchange them.

"Don't worry, it'll be more than enough," she said. She filled all her bottles before selling them, so even including the weight of the bottles, it would be about the same.

But usually, people who buy her things don't just buy oil. In cases of larger purchases, she will round down the price, leaving a few cents or dimes. So when you calculate it this way, everyone stops caring about the difference.

Actually, Xiao Jiu is a fairly honest kid. If this were on the black market, the price would definitely be around one yuan per pound, but here it's only a few cents more, and it's practically a free sale. If she didn't want to kill time and not get entangled with them too much, she probably wouldn't have wanted to sell it so cheaply.

People today are not only lacking oil, but also grain, meat, and eggs; they are lacking basically everything that can be eaten.

However, Xiao Jiu also had to sell according to her own capabilities. She had a lot of meat in her space, but the target audience was too big, so she didn't sell it.