May 1976.
Sun Aiju had just returned from the supply and marketing cooperative, carrying a basket in her hand. She walked hurriedly, and the basket covered with blue cotton cloth swayed with her steps.
"Aiju, where does this come from?"
Under the big banyan tree at the entrance of the village, there stood two elderly women, one with slanted eyes and the other with high cheekbones, and it was obvious that they were not easy to get along with.
Sun Aiju took a quick look and found that the people who called her were none other than the two gossipy old women in Shangang Village.
Sun Aiju kept walking and laughed with a forced smile, "Just taking a walk."
After she finished speaking, she disappeared from the path.
The woman with droopy eyes rolled her eyes. "Tsk, what are you pretending to be? Carrying a big basket and heading in that direction, you can tell at a glance that you're coming back from the supply and marketing cooperative."
The woman with high cheekbones spat out melon seed shells from her thin lips and said, "Sun Aiju is so lucky. She married the village chief. The village chief's family is so wealthy."
A woman in a gray jacket came over and said, "Of course not. Otherwise, who would buy these old things from the supply and marketing cooperative when it's not a festival?"
Speaking of this, the woman with droopy eyes rolled her eyes again, "Tsk, lucky? Lucky? The two daughters of the Ning family are so lucky that they can't get married at this age?"
"You're talking about Ning Xue and Ning Tang, right?" The woman in the gray jacket said excitedly, "Ning Xue is divorced once and has trouble getting married, but what's wrong with Ning Tang? She's a virgin, so why can't she get married?"
The gossipy glint emanated from the small black bean-like eyes of the slanted-eye woman. She stretched out her voice and said, "You don't know this, right? Ning Tang's daughter has a good family background and is also good-looking, but there are two points -"
"Which two points?"
"Lazy and greedy," the woman with high cheekbones brushed the melon seed shells off her hands. "She's 24, can't cook, and can't even wash her own clothes. Tell me, which woman in Shangang Village could do such a thing? If this reputation gets out, who would be willing to propose marriage?"
The woman with drooping eyes said, "That's right. What's the point of just being pretty? The men in our Shangang Village are all cunning and cunning. Marrying Ning Tang is like marrying a giant Buddha to worship."
"What about her cousin Ning Xue?" The old woman in the gray jacket happened to have a son who was about the same age as the two Ning sisters. She couldn't help but ask a few more questions.
"Ning Xue, Ning Xue is a good person. Apart from her appearance, she is very capable at home and outside, and her cooking is also very delicious. It's a pity that she is divorced. Whoever marries her will be the first to get married."
These gossips are like fallen leaves, blown by the wind, turn a few corners and disappear without a trace.
At this time, Sun Aiju had already returned home.
The Ning family's house is six large tiled houses put together, with a yard in the front, the four middle rooms are living rooms, and the outer two rooms are the kitchen and bathroom.
Sun Aiju walked straight to the second house from the front, which was built with blue bricks, and lifted the cotton curtain. "Girl, are you up yet?"
Ning Tang sat up from the kang, stretched out his body, and said lazily, "Just got up, Mom, you're back."
Sun Aiju was both angry and amused. She put the basket on the table and said, "It's already so late. How could I not come back? But you, you didn't get up until the sun was shining on your butt."
Ning Tang jumped out of bed and walked over to Sun Aiju in his cotton slippers. "It's so warm today, I couldn't help but sleep in a little longer."
Sun Aiju looked at Ning Tang's pretty little face, and her love was deep in her heart.
Sun Aiju wasn't exaggerating, but there was no one in this area who was more beautiful than her daughter.
Ning Tang has an oval face, porcelain-white skin, curved willow-shaped eyebrows, almond eyes and rosy cheeks, especially the red mole between her eyebrows, which is the finishing touch. Sometimes Sun Aiju would be stunned when looking at Ning Tang's face, wondering if the golden boy and jade girl under Guanyin's seat were reincarnated into her family.
Sun Aiju was stunned for a moment before she remembered what she was going to say. She patted the back of Ning Tang's hand and said, "Your brother introduced those two blind dates to us. They will come to our house tomorrow. Mom will help you choose between them. You should choose carefully and don't get angry and drive them away like before."
"Blind date?" Ning Tang's mouth was wide open enough to fit an egg.
Sun Aiju couldn't help but pat her. "Didn't I tell you before? Your brother has two comrades-in-arms serving in the army on Hailang Island. Before the New Year, your father wrote a letter asking your brother to introduce you and your cousin to someone. Your brother agreed, but they were both busy serving in the army. It took a lot of effort for those two to get their vacation time and come to our Shangang Village to see each other."
Ning Tang thought about it and it seemed that Sun Aiju had indeed told her about this, but at that time she was thinking about doing a small business in the city. Although she heard Sun Aiju's words, she didn't remember them in her mind.
Ning Tang is actually not from this era. She traveled from 2024.
In 2024, she was an ordinary office worker, dominated by the 996 schedule every day, getting up earlier than the chickens and sleeping later than the dogs.
But it was not until 1976 that Ning Tang realized that there was a second sentence to this sentence, which was that they ate worse than pigs.
In those days, material things were scarce, and food and clothing were definitely not better than in later generations. The corn grit porridge, steamed corn bread, and dishes cooked without oil would all get stuck in the throat.
So after Ning Tang came here, she has been thinking about doing business to improve her family's life. She wanted to start from scratch and strive to become a new generation of female billionaire. Maybe she can even be on a rich list in the future.
But after trying several times, Ning Tang found that it simply didn't work.
She wanted to resell things, but even if you dig three feet deep in the ground in this mountain village, you can only find agricultural products such as chickens, ducks, and goose eggs. And no one knows what's going on. As soon as Ning Tang wants to set up a stall, there will be people coming to clean up the streets.
Want to make delicious food with your own cooking skills and sell it? Haha, Ning Tang used to order takeout for three meals a day, and could only cook instant noodles at most. She couldn't even knead noodles, let alone cook snacks.
After trying a few times, Ning Tang gave up and decided to lie down.
She's been so exhausted in 2024, and now she's in her seventies, so let her have some fun.
After traveling for a while, Ning Tang discovered that she had traveled into a novel she had read before.
She no longer remembered the name of the novel, but she remembered that it was a period novel and the heroine was none other than her cousin Ning Xue.
Ning Xue is simply the typical female protagonist. She is beautiful, a good cook, can make clothes, and graduated from high school.
——These days, graduating from high school is considered very educated.
The only pity is that she met the wrong person and got divorced once.
But soon a top man appeared and brought Ning Xue a good life.
According to the content of the novel that Ning Tang read, this top student surnamed Su seemed to be the person for this blind date.
According to the description in the novel, Ren Jianzi is very handsome and is extremely kind to Ning Xue. Apart from being divorced and having two children, he has no shortcomings.
Ning Tang went on a blind date with her cousin Ning Xue, and married another widowed mother of three who was stationed on the island with Ren Jianzi, becoming a stepmother to them.
She is a particularly bad stepmother, in stark contrast to Ning Xue, the good stepmother.
However, she only read the novel briefly and could not remember the specific plot.
I only remember that the entire novel basically describes how good Ning Xue is to her two step-sons, and how bad Ning Tang is to her three step-sons and step-daughters.
After realizing that he was in a novel, Ning Tang finally came to his senses.
No wonder she encounters numerous obstacles no matter what she does. This is probably the irresistible force of the plot. There is always a force that pulls the plot back on track.
Could it be that she really is going to be a stepmother?
Ning Tang shook his head, throwing all these thoughts out of his mind, and said to Sun Aiju, "No wonder, Mom, you went out early in the morning and came back with a big basket. There must be a lot of delicious food in it, right?"
After saying that, Ning Tang went to lift the blue cotton cloth on the basket in a mean manner.
Sun Aiju patted her hand gently. "These are all for entertaining guests. Besides cigarettes and alcohol, if you're feeling greedy, I'll give you two yuan later and you can go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some cakes."
Ning Tang playfully took Sun Aiju's arm and said coquettishly, "Then it's a deal."
The mother and daughter were talking when they suddenly heard a gentle female voice coming from outside the house, "Aunt, cousin, the meal is ready, come out and eat."
——It was Ning Xue’s voice.
Sun Aiju quickly responded, "I'm coming."
Sun Aiju put the basket in the chest of drawers and left the house with Ning Tang. Sun Aiju went to the main room where they ate, while Ning Tang went to wash up first.
After she finished washing up and entered the main room, she glanced at the dining table and saw that everyone in the Ning family was there except her.
"Ning Tang, you're so accurate in guessing this. The food arrived just as it was placed on the table." said a woman wearing a floral dress, with dark skin, triangular eyes and high cheekbones.
The person who spoke was none other than Ning Tang's second aunt, Zhou Yin, the younger brother of Ning Tang's father Ning Weiguo and the wife of Ning Weidang.
Ning Weidang hunched his back and tapped the bowl in front of Zhou Yin with his chopsticks, "Stop talking."
The Ning family is a simple family with a total of eight people.
There are two brothers in the Ning family, the eldest is Ning Weiguo, and the second is Ning Weidang. Ning Weiguo and Sun Aiju had Ning Tang and Ning Tang's brother Ning Jun, and Ning Weidang and Zhou Yin had Ning Xue and Ning Xue's brother Ning De.
Ning Jun went to serve in the army, so there are only seven people living in the family.
Ning Tang ignored Zhou Yin's words. If her second aunt didn't say something sarcastic to her one day, she would feel that the sun was rising from the west.
But if Ning Tang didn't say a few words to Zhou Yin, he would feel awkward all over again. He turned to Ning Weidang and said, "It's okay, Second Uncle. Second Aunt has probably had her period these past few days and hasn't been in a good mood. You can comfort her later."
"Bullshit!" Zhou Yin spat. "I'm already this old, why would I have my period?"
Ning Xue, who was sitting next to him, pulled Zhou Yin's sleeve and said, "Mom—"
The Ning family has only these two precious daughters. Zhou Yin treats Ning Xue with the same feeling that Sun Aiju treats Ning Tang.
After being pulled by Ning Xue, Zhou Yin lost her temper. She rolled her eyes and finally stopped.
No matter what Ning Xue and Zhou Yin did, Ning Tang was really hungry, so he sat down and started to eat.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com