Chapter 6

Jian Lu spent an egg to ask a matchmaker to find a good-quality partner for her, but she was also more cautious. If she felt that there was a suitable person, she would not alert the other party first and would inform herself first.

Naturally, this matter must not be heard by Jian Hualin and Zhang Cuixia.

After solving a big problem, Jian Lu prepared to go to the county town to buy cloth with Zhang Cuixia and Jian Xin tomorrow.

Because Jian Hualin was anxious to find a "good" son-in-law for his little daughter, he borrowed five feet of cloth coupons from the deputy captain of the brigade so that Jian Lu could also make a good dress.

There really weren't any decent clothes in the original body's house. All of them were patched and were basically passed down from her sisters after being worn for several years. But even though the clothes were worn out, they couldn't hide her good looks.

"Third sister, let's go grab some red cloth tomorrow. You must wear red when you get married. I've thought of a beautiful red wedding dress for you. Let's make a shirt with a baby collar and a waist, and a pair of tight-waisted pants. You will definitely look very beautiful when you wear them."

It was late at night and the house was quiet except for the sound of wind and snow hitting the windows. Jian Lu and Jian Xin lay on the kang, unable to sleep.

Jian Xin thought about her upcoming marriage, and couldn't suppress the smile on her face. She turned over and looked at her fourth sister with a smile on her face, "You still know all this?"

"Of course." After all, she came from the future, so if nothing else, she still had some insights into the aesthetics of fashion.

"Okay, I'll let you check it out then."

In the inky night, the two sisters were talking, their eyelids began to droop...

When I woke up the next day, there was a rare golden glow in the sky and the wind and snow had stopped.

Zhang Cuixia carefully put the precious eleven-foot cloth coupons into the inner pocket of her cotton jacket. Cloth coupons were rare items and without them one could not buy cloth.

After breakfast, the family went to the village entrance to drive the ox cart.

——

On the other side, Aunt Wang, who was some distance away from the Jian family, had already set out.

She held the letter that she had asked her next-door neighbor Tiezhu to help write and prepared to go to the county post office to mail the letter. She knew her son well enough and if she didn't force him, she wouldn't even know his last name!

Half a month ago, she asked someone to write a letter and sent it to him. She could not read or write, so she asked her neighbors for help when she needed to write a letter, so the letter was particularly short.

The last letter only had two sentences:

The first sentence has two words: All is good.

It is to let my son feel at ease at home.

The second sentence was longer, but it was very ruthless: If you don’t get married, we will end our relationship and you will have to live on your island for the rest of your life.

Now she can't sit still anymore and is ready to send another letter!

The Xingmin Production Brigade was 40 miles away from the county seat, and one had to take an oxcart to get there. In the past, when there were no oxcarts, one had to rely on foot, and the round trip was a torture.

There were already three people on the ox cart that set out early this morning. They were all familiar faces. As soon as Aunt Wang sat down, she saw three figures in front of her.

Still an acquaintance.

"Cuixia, are we going into the city?" All the people on the ox cart were from the same production team. They all knew each other and knew that the Jian family was going to marry off their daughter in half a month, so naturally they had to go to the county town to purchase some things.

Zhang Cuixia climbed up the crossbar and sat down. Then she spoke to the people on the ox cart, "Of course, our Xinxin is getting married, so we need to buy some cloth to make clothes."

Everybody nodded frequently, this was a great joyous event. After Zhang Cuixia got on the ox cart, Jian Xin and Jian Lu followed closely behind. The ox cart was full of people and they set off.

"Cuixia, look at the daughters of your family, how come they are all so pretty!" Aunt Niu spoke on the ox cart. She really thought the daughters of the Jian family were pretty, and she had never seen such pretty ones.

Aunt Wang beside him had a flash of disdain in her eyes, but she agreed, "Of course, Xinxin and Lulu are so pretty. If you ask me, Cuixia is still more fertile. She has four daughters, and each one is so pretty!"

When Zhang Cuixia heard the four ladies, her face almost turned pale, and she felt that the scar in her heart was being opened again.

Aunt Wang noticed that the atmosphere on the ox cart was not right, so she and Yi Xiao came out to smooth things over, "It's good to have a daughter-in-law. A daughter-in-law is considerate and caring."

Zhang Cuixia did not respond to the conversation, but just glanced at Wang Lianhua who was mocking her in front of her.

Wang Lianhua listened to Aunt Wang speaking, and turned her gaze towards her, "Aunt Wang, what are you doing in the city? To send a letter to your eldest son?"

Aunt Wang held the page of letter in her hand. Everyone knew that she often received and sent letters, which was to keep in touch with her eldest son.

"Yes, to the post office."

Wang Lianhua glanced at the letter and smiled slightly, "Your eldest son must be 26 or 27 years old, right? He still hasn't gotten married yet? Don't you want us to share in the good fortune?"

"That's impossible. He is busy now. After he is done with his work, he will have to worry about his own affairs." In front of outsiders, Aunt Wang still had to save face for her son.

Wang Lianhua smiled, but she was secretly complaining. She watched Aunt Wang put the letter in her cotton jacket pocket, leaving a corner of it exposed. She sat next to Aunt Wang and stretched out her hand as if she could pull out the letter...

When the ox cart reached the county town, everyone went their separate ways, and she then started to gossip with Aunt Niu beside her.

"Everyone knows that his son was injured before. It was very serious. He also broke his leg! I wonder which girl would be willing to marry such a cripple!"

Aunt Niu listened to Wang Lianhua's sinister complaints and glanced at her face with her triangular eyes, "Are you still resentful that Cheng Zheng didn't like your daughter?"

"Bullshit!" Wang Lianhua frowned and spitted, "Fortunately my daughter didn't marry him, otherwise she would have been ruined by following a cripple for the rest of her life."

Four years ago, Cheng Zheng, who was promoted to deputy head of the regiment, returned to his hometown to visit his relatives. It was a grand occasion and many people went to watch the excitement. Wang Lianhua and her daughter Erya were naturally jealous. They had ideas in mind: one wanted to be a military officer's wife and the other wanted to be a military officer's mother-in-law. They planned to have Erya fall into the water and be rescued by Cheng Zheng. Then they would claim that he had seen Erya naked and force Cheng Zheng to marry her.

Everything was planned well, but man proposes, God disposes. That day, Cheng Zheng went to the neighboring commune to visit the political commissar's family and did not go according to the original plan. Erya was finally rescued by a butcher in the village and married to him by mistake.

Wang Lianhua has always been upset about this matter, and feels that it was Cheng Zheng who ruined her daughter.

Aunt Niu didn't think much of it, but she didn't expose her. She just left her and went to the supply and marketing cooperative.

——

This was the first time that Jian Lu came to the county town in the 1970s since she traveled through time. She was actually quite interested in the quaint county town. Perhaps it was because she had stayed in the poor brigade for too long, so looking at the county town gave her the feeling of being in a big city.

Apart from anything else, she was fascinated by the supply and marketing cooperative that occupied four bungalows and was packed with people.

There is only one supply and marketing cooperative in the county, and it sells a wide variety of items, from cloth, thermoses, enamel basins, enamel cups to tooth powder, pillowcases... everything you can think of.

"Lulu goes to queue up at the cloth stall, and Xinxin and I will go buy things for the wedding first." Zhang Cuixia is a person who does things in a hurry, so she immediately arranged where they should go.

When San Yatou got married, she came with ten yuan in her pocket to buy the newlyweds an enamel basin and a four-piece set of bed sheets and quilt covers...

Jian Lu felt like she was in the city for the first time and found everything interesting. She squeezed into a group of women and prepared to queue up to buy cloth.

The supply and marketing cooperatives had a limited supply of cloth, and the colors were even more scarce. Most of the cloth was gray, white, navy blue, and navy blue, with very few bright colors. If there was a piece of red or yellow cloth, it would be a hot commodity.

Fortunately, they came out early, and when it was Jian Lu's turn, there were still a few feet of red cloth left.

The third sister used all her six-foot cloth coupons to buy red cloth, just for the sake of celebration. The price of red cloth was one cent more expensive than other colors, but it was still in great demand.

As for her own five feet of cloth, Jian Lu took great pains to pick out a blue that was not that dark.

After buying the cloth, Jian Lu took her abundant harvest to find the two people who were fighting elsewhere. However, there were too many people and they had to queue up and wait to buy anything. Zhang Cuixia just asked Jian Lu to wait outside and then went back to fighting.

Holding the red cloth and the blue cloth, Jian Lu stood outside the supply and marketing cooperative waiting for people. The streets of the county town were crowded with people. From time to time, workers from the city's state-owned factories walked by in uniform work clothes. Workers were the proudest profession of this era. They all held their heads high and were full of energy and spirit.

Jian Lu was observing the county town in the 1970s with great interest, and suddenly she saw Aunt Wang looking for something on the side of the road.

"Auntie Wang, why are you here? Did you drop something?"

Aunt Wang's eyesight wasn't very good, she squinted and looked at the ground. The letter she had asked Tiezhu to help her write to her son was gone!

Just now, it was in her pocket, but when she went to the post office to buy an envelope and stamps, she realized that her pocket was empty just as she was about to put them in. She went back the same way and searched for it, and just happened to walk to the front of the supply and marketing cooperative.

"Lulu, the letter I wanted to send to my son is missing. I don't know where it is. I can't read a single word, and I had to ask someone to help me write. Now that the letter is lost, I can't find a replacement."

Jian Lu saw that Aunt Wang was anxious. She had taken a two-hour ox cart just to send a letter, and it was really frustrating that the letter was lost. "I'll help you find it."

The two of them searched all over the street, but they didn't see any trace of the letter at all. Aunt Wang sighed, thinking that all her efforts today were in vain.

"Auntie Wang, how about I write a new one for you?" Jian Lu couldn't bear to see her aunt so sad. She must have something important to tell her son.

Upon hearing this, Aunt Wang immediately perked up, "Really?"

When asked this question, Jian Lu suddenly remembered her illiterate character and almost choked. "Yes, I studied with the educated youth for a while, and I can write a few words."

"That's great! Thank you." Aunt Wang went to the supply and marketing cooperative and spent money to buy a piece of paper. "My letter doesn't have many words. Please check if there are any words I don't know how to write. If there are any, I will change the way I say it."

"Okay." Jian Lu held the pen she borrowed from the post office and looked at the letter in front of her. She suddenly felt a little nervous. Could this be a listening test? "Auntie Wang, what do you want to write?"

"The first sentence has two words, both are good."

Quite concise.

Jian Lu held the pen in her right hand, and tried hard to make the words she wrote crooked. Looking at the words that seemed to be falling apart, she felt an indescribable feeling in her heart. It was not easy.

Aunt Wang was quite satisfied. As long as her son could recognize it, it would be fine. "There is only one sentence left. Just write: Son, please have some pity on your mother."

Jian Lu wrote the word "son" on the letter paper: "...?"

She hasn't even gotten married yet, and now she has a baby?