Chapter 68: First Update: Digging a Hole and Filling the Ground

From the second day of the Chinese New Year to the Lantern Festival, it is the time for relatives and friends to greet each other.

This period of time is not long. In this era of having many children and raising them in large numbers, every family has quite a few relatives.

The same goes for the Ye family.

Not to mention those far away, one must definitely go to Uncle Ye Changcheng's place. Ye Changcheng's family starts receiving relatives and friends other than his children on the third day of the Lunar New Year every year. Ye Cuihua will also go there at this time, which is equivalent to a reunion of Ye Hongjun's generation of brothers and sisters.

Therefore, Ye Hongjun and his family often meet with Ye Cuihua's family first. When they meet, they say "Happy New Year" first, and then the elders give red envelopes to the younger ones one by one.

Because there are more younger people in Ye Cuihua's family, Ye Hongjun and his wife often bleed the most.

Several youngsters of the Ye family also received red envelopes from their aunt Ye Cuihua. Ye Yu did not expect that he also received one, and he received two more than Ye Baoguo and Ye Weiguo, for a total of four.

This is really not easy. In the past, the three sisters Ye Yu received fewer red envelopes than their younger brothers.

Ye Cuihua was so generous to Ye Yu this year because, firstly, her family conditions were indeed good and they could save a considerable amount of money every year. She had always been more generous to her brothers from her natal family and their children than to her own granddaughters, and Huniu was the one who received the least red envelopes from her. Secondly, Ye Cuihua felt how pitiful it was for Ye Yu to be forced to go to the countryside, especially when she heard that many educated youth were clamoring to come back, and some were sent back due to serious illness caused by unfamiliar climate.

A reason derived from the second point is that Ye Cuihua benefited from her own wise choice and felt that Ye Yu must regret not listening to her and marrying into the city.

The above is purely personal imagination.

After meeting Ye Yu, Ye Cuihua, unless she was blind, could not say anything about Ye Yu's hardship in the countryside.

Ye Yu looked so tall that even an elder like me had to look up when talking to her. Her appearance was completely different from the dark and simple farmer in my memory, and she seemed to be even more beautiful than before. Many young men and women were staring at her along the way, and even her old clothes that were washed so much that they looked bleached could not stop them from staring.

More importantly, Ye Yu does not show any trace of depression or sadness. She gives people a more casual and peaceful feeling, and her aura is stronger than many city girls.

Apart from other things, the sons that Ye Cuihua was so proud of were no match for Ye Yu. When Ye Yu was punishing her crying grandson, they actually showed their weakness first, allowing the other party to gain the upper hand.

"Is the countryside so good at supporting people?"

Ye Cuihua handed over the prepared red envelope in a daze, and received a "thank you, auntie" in return. She still didn't come to her senses. It turned out that Wang Laidie didn't send Ye Yu to the countryside to support her family. Her sister-in-law's family also took good care of Ye's granddaughter.

"Wangjiagou is a good place with mountains, rivers, outstanding people and beautiful scenery." Ye Yu replied.

When I arrived at Ye Changcheng's house, I happened to meet Ye Baoya, who had packed her bags to return to her parents' home on New Year's Day and whose aunt had not come to pick her up yet. I was even more confused.

According to Ye Cuihua, Ye Baoya should have lived a life of wealth and honor after marrying the son of a high-ranking official. She privately described her as "like a young lady in the old society."

But now Ye Baoya looks very haggard. Her chubby face is gone and her eyes are dull. It may be related to the fact that she is pregnant and looks ugly.

Not to mention Ye Yu, even Ye Chunsheng who just came back from the south couldn't compare to this look. Although Ye Chunsheng became a little darker and a little more irritable after going to the countryside, it was visibly clear to the naked eye that he was more energetic than before.

The combat power is particularly explosive.

It is a talent that Ye Chunsheng is able to make her parents so angry that they jump to their feet. He also forcibly deducted some child support from her parents, which makes people doubt her real purpose of going home for the Spring Festival.

At this moment, their family can be described as "sad and miserable" and "in chaos".

Ye Hongjun felt bad seeing that Ye Changcheng and his wife were so worried that their hair had turned white. Wang Laidie knew that her husband was soft-hearted, but it was difficult for a judge to judge family affairs, so she only advised Ye Baoya to take care of her health and not to hurt herself and the baby in her belly.

"It's not good to rush forward!" Ye Chunsheng is very good at being treacherous. I don't know what he learned in the production team. He has changed from being a taciturn person to being a bomb that can be ignited at any time. "If it were me, I would have turned the table upside down long ago."

Ye Baoya stabbed back:

"That's because people don't like you!"

Ye Chunsheng: "I waited for you? I waited for you until New Year's Eve, and I pushed you, almost pushing the child to death?"

“…”

Ye Yu could understand that they were targeting each other for old scores, but for a scumbag like Sun Shizhong, well, it was really boring to hear.

And he is a violent man at home.

“Tsk!”

Seeing Wang Lai Di glaring at him, Ye Yu yawned lazily and suggested casually: "It's better to sort out this hazardous waste. Of course, you can't just sort it out so easily. You dare to bully the family of a red-blooded worker. You should get a skin first. He can report his ex-wife's family. Why do you... schemes win over schemes? Be stronger. Finding a job is not a problem. Getting rich overnight is not a problem either."

Sun Shizhong almost tricked Ye Lan into a deep trap, so let's dig more traps for him. His first divorce was due to his ex-wife's "problems", so what about the second one? I don't believe it won't have an impact on the Sun family. It would be best if Sun Shizhong could also be sent to the farm.

"What nonsense are you talking about, kid?"

Wang Lai Di laughed awkwardly for her.

Ye Yu manually zipped up her mouth and closed it.

It’s a pity that Ye Baoya didn’t want to divorce. After all, life was not easy for women in this era. But she obviously took Ye Yu’s words to heart and began to think about it.

Ye Changcheng and his wife did not want Ye Baoya to get divorced, and they did not think that Ye Yu's words made sense. They believed that the family should live in harmony. They could get along with no quarrels, so they should just let Baoya pay the price like her son-in-law.

But Ye Cuihua stood up again at this time and supported Ye Baoya to make trouble. What about Gao Ganjia? How could he bully others? It was better to ask for more benefits. She was always far ahead in seeking benefits for the Ye family.

The scene seemed even more chaotic, but the previous "sad look" was much alleviated.

At least Ye Baoya is no longer depressed and lifeless, and now she has something to look forward to.

Although Ye Changcheng and his wife are good-natured people who prefer to mind their own business, the other people in the family are not pushovers, so it is very likely that a trap has been set.

There will be something fun to watch at the Sun family’s house.

Ye Yu caused chaos in the pond and raised the white flag of surrender to her mother Wang Laidi. She left the hospital and everything was quiet. Unexpectedly, Ye Chunsheng followed her out.

In the yard, Ye Chunsheng did not have the hostility he had in the house. Instead, he took the initiative to strike up a conversation and asked in an admiring tone: "Cousin, are you in Wangjiagou? Do you know the educated youth Xu and Hua? You Wangjiagou is very famous. Your production team is mentioned in many newspapers, and they say you are the benchmark for the educated youth who went to the countryside."

"know."

"Then can I write to you?" Ye Chunsheng asked excitedly.

Ye Yu looked up at her and asked, "I remember you picked the land of fish and rice? How much is your rice production team earning? Can you exchange some for it?"

Ye Chunsheng nodded: "Yes, yes, yes! I am near Hangzhou City. Every household in our production team grows rice. We have indica rice, japonica rice, and glutinous rice. We also have lotus root powder, bamboo shoots, pepper fish, tea, and many other good things."

She was relatively lucky, or rather, the first batch of educated youth in the countryside were quite lucky, as most of them were assigned to relatively wealthy communes, and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions were not called the land of fish and rice for nothing.

But life was really hard. For a northerner like Ye Chunsheng, the humid climate was already a big challenge, especially in the winter when there were no kangs. In the middle of the night, the biting cold wind would penetrate into the quilt. Some educated youth almost died of carbon monoxide poisoning from burning charcoal in closed doors.

It’s not that we can’t build a kang, but we have to wait until next year at least. We don’t even have enough firewood this year.

The second challenge is dialect.

The locals spoke four or five languages ​​in the same commune, and they couldn't understand them at all. They also couldn't understand Mandarin very well. Even some commune leaders spoke Mandarin so poorly that no one could understand them.

Because of this, it was more difficult for the educated youth to communicate with the local people.

Even a taciturn person like Ye Chunsheng was forced to become tough after having conflicts with the locals.

Because of this, the educated youth who were able to communicate with each other tended to live in groups more seriously than in the north, especially the female educated youth. There were actually some second-rate men who spied on the female educated youth and thought that marrying them did not require a bride price.

Because of this, Ye Chunsheng became even more disgusted with Ye Baoya, whom he already disliked. Compared with her life, what was Ye Baoya pretending to be?

In short, Ye Chunsheng and his people had a stronger sense of belonging and mission towards the word "educated youth". It is conceivable that they admired the Wangjiagou production team even more when they saw it in the newspaper.

Ye Yu answered her previous question: "Yes."

Of course, even in the south, potatoes, sweet potatoes, soybeans, etc. are also the main crops. Hybrid rice is currently being studied. The yield of traditional rice is not high, and even in the land of fish and rice, there are cases of people starving to death during famines.

Therefore, Ye Chunsheng couldn't exchange much rice, but he could stock up on more local specialties and exchange views on the scenery of different places.

This letter writing task can be assigned to Hua Feifei and others whom Ye Chunsheng admires.

Perfect!

For lunch, the dishes prepared by Ye Changcheng's family were quite good. Although there was no pork, there were chicken, duck and fish. However, many people did not pay attention to the food on the table.

Ye Yu was naturally not affected, and even volunteered to sit at the same table with other children who were also not affected.

Ye Hongjun Wang Laidi: "..."

After lunch, Ye Hongjun and his family said goodbye and went home.

Considering Ye Yu's ability to "stir up trouble", Wang Lai Di finally approved that she didn't have to follow them around to pay New Year's greetings. Although it was a bit of a pity that she couldn't eat and drink for free, it was still a good deal as it saved a lot of embarrassing formalities.

Wang Lai Di also said that there might be guests coming to their house to pay New Year's greetings. There won't be many, but there will be some too. According to the rules, they usually come after the fifth day of the first lunar month.

This estimate was wrong.

Their guests arrived the next day.

The next morning, just after finishing my meal, I heard an old lady outside shouting: "Red Army Laidi, your relatives are here to pay New Year's greetings."

Someone else chimed in: "How impressive! They came in a four-wheeled car."