Chapter 33: Cornmeal every meal
Those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes. Liu Honghe acted like a dead pig that is not afraid of boiling water, so that his family members did not dare to offend him.
His going to the countryside has not been decided yet, and not only Liu Laohei, but also Hu Meili is worried.
Before, Hu Meili didn’t care much about building the house, but after Liu Honghe’s fuss, she couldn’t sleep well at night.
As soon as Lin Xiangnan graduated, she urged Lin Xiangnan to find out information from his classmates and quickly complete the procedures for building the house.
Du Aihong has taken over her mother's job and infiltrated the Housing Authority. When Lin Xiangnan asked about this, she said directly, "Don't worry, it's not a big problem. We had a meeting yesterday to talk about the people who came to our house this month and wanted to build a house. Your grandfather has been waiting at the Housing Authority for more than a week, so he is indispensable in this matter."
"So fast." Lin Xiangnan said excitedly: "I thought it would take at least half a month."
Speaking of this, Du Aihong became interested and gossiped, "You don't know. Yesterday there was an old man who was really terrible. He cried and made a scene. He was so old, but he knelt down and kowtowed to our director, begging him to be kind and approve a permit to build a house because his home was too full. Our director was really scared."
Meeting such a selfless person, the director had no choice but to compromise.
But this is also because everyone's situation meets the requirements. Otherwise, no matter how loud the noise is, the director will not sign, no matter how much money is spent.
The land is not valuable now, and no one is aware of that. So the Hu family got a fairly spacious site, and when the staff of the Housing Authority come together to confirm the location, they can start construction.
Building a house is always a big event at any time. Even though feudal superstition is opposed now, Old Man Hu still secretly asked a blind man to help him choose an auspicious day for breaking ground.
Then the whole family showed their talents, going to the brick factory to order bricks, and going to the sand field to order river sand and cement...
Because of this incident, Hu Meili was in high spirits for several days. Even when the factory leaders came to talk to her, she didn't take it to heart.
Deducting her bonus this month and not allowing her to be selected as an advanced worker this year will have no effect on her.
The role of advanced workers and model workers is to have more money and be in the front of the queue when housing is distributed. But now Lin Xiangnan is lucky enough to get a thousand yuan from somewhere, and all his problems are solved.
In the past, she was worried that she would not be able to support her family on her own with a low salary. Now, she has no worries at all.
If her boss wants to talk to her, she will talk. If she is criticized, she will listen. If her bonus is deducted, she will accept it.
She was just an ordinary worker, with no job title, and there was no place for her to be demoted. She had worked in the factory for so many years and had not made any principled mistakes, so the factory would never fire her. She was the economic supporter of her family of four, so who would dare to fire her?
I was talked to every other day, and although the mental pressure was great, it was not unbearable.
Hu Meili was mentally prepared, but Liu Laohei was not. After being interviewed by his superiors twice, he could no longer hold it in.
But Liu Honghe at home is not someone who would give in. Even when the deadline for registering to go to the countryside arrived, he refused to give in.
Lin Xiangnan doesn't even go to the countryside, so why should he go?
The double pressure from home and the factory forced Liu Laohei to compromise. The next day after talking with the factory leaders, he agreed to let Liu Honghe take over his job.
The leader originally disagreed, as one was a strong laborer and the other was a young apprentice, so they could not be compared. However, Liu Laohei pretended to be sick and even paid a doctor to issue him a certificate. The leaders of the factory had no choice but to help him complete the formalities.
Hu Meili didn't expect that Liu Honghe actually got the job done. She was afraid that Lin Xiangnan would follow her example and want to take over her job, so she specifically scolded him loudly in front of Lin Xiangnan.
"Retiring at such a young age. Sooner or later he will regret it."
"Not to mention that the family income has been cut in half. Just considering that he won't be making any money for the next ten years, and he won't have a pension, life won't be good. It won't be easy to ask the children for money."
"Anyway, I, Hu Meili, will never live such a frustrating life."
Lin Xiangnan hadn't been thinking about her job at first, but seeing Hu Meili like this, he couldn't help but deliberately asked: "Didn't you say before that you planned to give your job to your eldest brother in two years and let him return to the city? How is this different from Liu Laohei?"
"We can't let your elder brother stay in the countryside forever."
Hu Meili said confidently: "Among the three of you, Xiaodong has suffered the most. I can't just consider you and Xiaoxi and not Xiaodong."
If possible, she would like to keep every child in the city and keep them by her side.
At this point, Hu Meili couldn't help but sigh, "I didn't expect Liu Laohei to be so careless at ordinary times, but at the critical moment, he still took a step back for the sake of the child. After all, he has a kind father's heart."
But this time Liu Honghe was satisfied, and Liu Hongshan was unhappy again.
Why should Liu Honghe pay back the money he paid for the job just because he got it for free?
If it is fair, then this debt should belong to the family, not just him.
Liu Laohei thought about it and realized that this was indeed the case. "Before, when your Aunt Hu was still alive, she was dissatisfied when I asked her to pay the money back for you. Now, under the current circumstances, your whole family should help you pay the money back together."
Liu Honghe had been making trouble for so long and finally got a job and stayed in the city, so he had a very low bottom line in his heart.
He spread his hands and said nonchalantly: "Anyway, I am an apprentice now and I make 18 yuan a month. I keep 1 yuan of my monthly salary for pocket money. The rest I give to my family."
Liu Hongshan said, "We still owe a little over a hundred dollars in total. We agreed to pay it back within two years and even wrote an IOU. Now there is only one year left, and we can't let down those relatives who are willing to lend us money."
In order to buy a job, the Liu family borrowed a total of 300 yuan. Last year, Liu Hongshan only paid a few yuan for food expenses to his family, and used the rest to repay the debt. Together with Liu Laohei's secret subsidy, he paid back a total of 100 yuan.
This year, the Zhao family compensated Liu Hongying one hundred yuan. Liu Laohei decided to pay that money back first, so there is still a debt of one hundred yuan to be settled.
Liu Honghe was young and had never been a household tycoon, so he said directly, "Just pay back what you owe."
"All in all, our family has to pay back about 20 yuan a month. My salary is used to pay back the debt, and the money you give to the family is used for living."
"Okay." Liu Honghe agreed immediately.
What can you do with 17 yuan? After paying the rent and utilities every month, it is only enough for a family of four to eat for a month.
On average, each person in their family has a monthly food quota of 28 kilograms. Flour costs 1.7 cents per kilogram, rice costs 1.4 cents per kilogram, cornmeal costs 8 cents per kilogram, and the cheapest seasonal vegetables cost 3 cents per kilogram. Even if they only eat cornmeal and the cheapest vegetables for every meal, this money is enough to cover their food needs.
Whether it is Liu Honghe or Liu Hongshan, they both do physical work, and something bad will definitely happen if they eat like this for a long time.
But in order to pay off their debts, they can only tighten their belts to make ends meet.
Seeing the Liu family's living standard plummet, everyone in the yard couldn't help but shake their heads.
"Every day it's either corn paste or corn tortillas, without any oil or water. Just looking at them makes me hungry." Hu Meili said to Lin Xiangnan cautiously, "When we eat at home later, close the door so that they don't smell the food."
After so many years, Liu Laohei and Hu Meili's salaries are at an upper-middle level, and they have never been so poor when it comes to food.
The food quota on the food ration book was not enough in most cases. In the past, for the sake of her children’s health, Hu Meili even secretly spent money to buy expensive food.
Who would have thought that Liu Laohei would lose his job just after the divorce and has to eat corn paste for every meal. His life is so miserable.
Hu Meili was terrified after seeing this, "Luckily we left quickly, otherwise I would be one more sad person who has to eat corn paste and corn tortillas every day."