On August 29th, it was still Chen Lao Er who took Chen Jinhua to Jiangshi Degao to register.
Chen Jinhua originally thought that with her eldest sister taking care of her, and since Jiangshi Middle School and Degao High School were not far apart, she didn't need her father to send her. However, Chen Lao Er said he was worried about it.
Actually, Chen Lao Er wanted to take a trip to Jiang City. He heard that Zhou Family Private Kitchen was going to open a branch in Jiang City, and wondered if their pastry shop could also open a branch in Jiang City!
At this moment, at the entrance of the textile factory's residential area, Chen Lao Er was rushing to the bus stop with his two daughters, and Li Yumei was also heading out to the pastry shop!
At the entrance of the residential area, several elderly men and women were chatting. Among them was Li Juan, the daughter-in-law of the Wang family, who lived on the left side of the second floor of Chen Xihua's house. When she saw Li Yumei come out, she said something with ill intent.
"Oh my, Yumei, your family has made a fortune! The pastry shop must be making a lot of money. You have five daughters, and you've sent them all to school. They're in high school now, and you're still sending them. It must cost a lot of money for two daughters to go to high school."
"Yu Mei, didn't you always say that daughters are a money-losing burden? Aren't you contradicting yourself now? You're practically treating your daughter like a treasure, not even letting her help out at the pastry shop. She's a real pampered young lady! Your Xiao Bao can't even compare to her!"
Li Yumei was already upset because she was worried about the money she had to spend to send her daughter to high school, and when she heard Li Juan's words, her anger flared up.
Just before Li Yumei was about to unleash a torrent of abuse, she suddenly remembered that she was, after all, the boss's wife, and couldn't be so unrefined.
But if she didn't retaliate, she couldn't swallow her anger; it would be too embarrassing. A thought flashed through her mind—wait, how does Fifth Sister usually talk back to her? Li Yumei immediately smiled and said very patiently,
"Oh, Sister Juan is here too. It's not that I particularly value my daughter. There's a reason why I sent her to high school, and even to university."
If all five of my daughters graduate from high school or university, they will definitely be able to marry into wealthy and good families.
If you marry into a family in the county, or even the city of Jiang or the provincial capital, you can expect a dowry of ten or twenty thousand yuan.
Unlike your eldest daughter, Shuifang, who didn't finish elementary school and got married last year from our hometown, the bride price was eight hundred yuan, right? I don't know if I heard correctly!
Li Yumei's eyebrows twitched, and she finished speaking triumphantly. Seeing Li Juan's face turn dark and ugly, she felt instantly pleased and walked away with a smug look on her face. No wonder Wu Yatou liked to tease her!
"Pah! Tens of thousands of yuan in bride price? What a pipe dream! Listen to this, everyone! I knew it! How could Li Yumei, that stingy woman who favors sons over daughters, be so kind as to send her daughters to school? Turns out she's even more shameless, trying to get a bride price? I'll see which family will marry her daughter in the end!"
Li Juan stared intently as Li Yumei walked away, cursing angrily. She couldn't stand Li Yumei either, even at the textile factory.
That wretched woman always brings up her junior high school graduation to claim she's an educated person, even though she didn't even finish elementary school.
After getting married, didn't Li Yumei still give birth to five daughters and not be well-liked by her husband's family? Meanwhile, she has two sons and two daughters, so what's so great about her?
She had previously wanted to introduce her younger sister to Chen Lao Er, but who knew that after he returned from his rural assignment, he would marry Li Yumei, a village girl.
Later, both of them became employed, which served them right. Li Yumei and her husband are now both laid off, while her husband is still working in the factory.
Li Juan always thought she was doing better than Li Yumei, but now, Li Yumei's family opened a pastry shop, made a lot of money, and I heard they even bought the pastry shop.
Moreover, Li Yumei's two daughters went to high school in Jiang City. Even her second daughter, who often got into fights and dressed like a boy, was admitted to a high school in Jiang City.
Chen Jinhua used to be in the same class as her youngest son, Wang Xiaoqiang. The two often got into fights. Xiaoqiang couldn't get into the high school and could only study at a high school in the county that only admitted poor students. How could Chen Jinhua have gotten into the high school?
Several women watching nearby nodded in agreement, pointing and whispering. Chen Xihua, who was on the second-floor corridor, witnessed the exciting scene and couldn't help but give Li Yumei a thumbs up.
This person's thought process is truly bizarre. With Li Yumei speaking so arrogantly outside, how will the Chen sisters ever be able to find partners in the future?
However, there's no use dwelling on it now. If a guy really cares about these things, it's better not to date him. Chen Xihua stood there for a while, then, finding it pointless, went inside.
"Little Six, you'll be going to elementary school by yourself from now on. You need to study hard. But you're in third grade now, you're getting older, and your older sister won't be able to take care of you anymore!" Chen Xihua said to Chen Baohua, feigning sadness.
"Fifth Sister, it's not like we can't see each other, what are you doing?" Chen Baohua was speechless. Why was this Fifth Sister acting like a drama queen? The term "drama queen" was coined by Fifth Sister herself, who said that Third Sister sometimes acted like a drama queen!
"See? Now you don't like me anymore. Oh well, I was thinking that if you could get first place in all your grades in third grade, I would buy you a basketball. But now it seems that someone doesn't care anymore!" Chen Xihua said, pretending to be regretful.
"Sister, Fifth Sister, you're my real sister. I'll definitely study hard. Basketball, you promised, you'll buy me a basketball!" Chen Baohua grabbed Chen Xihua's arm. Fifth Sister is quite the little rich girl!
"It's settled then. If I find out you're not behaving well at school, you're out of basketball!" Chen Xihua found his fawning and obsequious manner somewhat amusing!
"Fifth Sister, I'm a model student, okay!" Chen Baohua glanced at her sideways. Who was Fifth Sister looking down on?
After school started in September, Chen Xihua also began commuting to school, sitting on the back of her fourth sister Chen Xiuhua's bicycle every day.
Chen Xiuhua always rides the bike. She's too quiet and a bookworm. She doesn't exercise much except for studying, so Chen Xihua reluctantly helps her get some exercise!
After evening self-study, they still had to go to No. 2 Middle School to pick up Chen Meihua, who was working hard in the third year of junior high school. The third year of junior high school had half an hour after class, so Chen Xihua and Chen Xiuhua would ride their bikes around the area near No. 2 Middle School. They were very familiar with the whole area around No. 2 Middle School!
The end-of-year exams were fast approaching, and because Zhang Xiaolan had knitted another ten jin of cotton yarn, the Chen sisters only needed to knit ten jin.
After a semester, I finally finished knitting the remaining batch of bags, a total of forty-one.
On the second day of the holiday, Chen Xihua called Wang Jun and delivered the goods the next morning, receiving 2,665 yuan!
"Little Wu, there are other people selling these bags in the provincial capital now, but their designs and weave are not as good as yours."
"So the price won't go any higher. I don't know how difficult it is to weave. Will you continue weaving in the future?" Wang Jun asked tentatively, wondering if the young girl could explain the weaving method.
"I can weave, but not much; I only make high-quality pieces!" Chen Xihua said after thinking for a moment, clearly dissuading him from asking about weaving techniques.
"Okay, let's cooperate again if there's a chance!" Wang Jun didn't mind not getting the result he wanted. As long as the family was still weaving, he was willing to come and buy their products!
Back home and in his room, Chen Xihua calculated the money he had: four hundred for Xiaolan and four hundred and ten for what he had spent, leaving him with a total of nine thousand six hundred and fifty yuan!
"Still a little short of ten thousand!" Chen Xihua felt a surge of obsessive-compulsive disorder upon seeing the number; she had to reach ten thousand! Should she write a few more children's stories to earn royalties? She felt like she was running out of ideas!
"Sisters, we're still short 350 yuan, less than 10,000 yuan. We can't divide the money this time. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make money? I want to raise 10,000 yuan!" Chen Xihua asked her sisters to think of a way.
"Fifth Sister, what do you plan to do with the ten thousand yuan you've saved up? When do you need it?" Chen Xiuhua, with her keen intuition, was the first to ask the question!
"Next year, May 1995! I'm going to Haishi!" Chen Xihua said truthfully, because her eldest sister absolutely had to go with her this time!
"Big sister, you'll be eighteen after the New Year, right? Go to the bank and open a savings account! Deposit all our money into it!"
"Next May, eldest sister, you need to take a week off to come with me to Haishi! Let's all think of an excuse to ask for leave so that Dad and Mom can agree!" Chen Xihua's biggest headache is figuring out how to travel far away.
"Fifth sister, the final of the 'Nanjiang District Junior High School English Speech Contest' seems to be in Haishi, also in May."
I haven't seen the notice yet. My English teacher mentioned it briefly: students interested in participating should consider it during the Spring Festival and register after school starts. The preliminary round will be held in Jiang City at the end of March!
Chen Xiuhua is considering whether to sign up. Although she feels that her spoken English has improved a lot in the past two years, she is still a little insecure!
Chen Xihua paused for a moment, then turned to her fourth sister, "Why didn't I receive a message? Are you looking down on us who are just starting junior high? Then let's register together. And then there's you, eldest sister. How do we ask for leave?"
"Xiao Wu, what are you going to Haishi for?!" Chen Chunhua was immediately worried when she heard that she was going to Haishi. Neither she nor her fifth sister had ever been to such a far place!
"I can only say that it's the Shanghai Stock Exchange. You can find out the rest yourselves by listening to the news on the radio!" Chen Xihua didn't intend to go into details.
"It's alright, big sister. You're in your second year of high school now, almost eighteen, and you'll be taking the college entrance exam in a little over a year. You'll be going out into the world eventually!" Chen Xihua comforted her.
"Then I'll just say I'm going to accompany my sister to the English competition!" After hearing her sister's words and making the decision, Chen Chunhua felt there was nothing to worry about!
"It's settled then. We're short by a little over three hundred. What do you ladies think we should do?"
“Can’t we just knit more bags to sell?” Chen Meihua didn’t understand what was so interesting about that; wasn’t it already readily available?
"San San, how many do you want to knit? If it's seven or eight bags, who will you sell them to? Brother Jun buys in bulk, and he also buys cotton yarn, two or three kilograms at a time. You can only get it retail at the department store, where it costs about forty yuan per kilogram. If it's a bulk order, we don't have the time!"
Chen Jinhua rattled off a whole bunch of things that she could understand, but what was going on in San San's head?
"I can't think of anything else. How about we each ask our parents for an extra fifty or sixty yuan for pocket money? Yes, that's it!" Chen Meihua's eyes lit up, and she suddenly had a brilliant idea!
Chen Xihua gave Chen Meihua a thumbs up, figuring she wouldn't lose out anyway. "Third Sister, if you can find out, I won't object!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com