Yu Rujia: "Sister Hui, let me tell you, a woman must be reserved before marriage. She should never do chores if she doesn't have to. If he dares to treat you badly before he has even married you, he will definitely not take you seriously after he does."
"A woman can only have a few good days before marriage. After marriage, she has to go to another unfamiliar family and get along with a bunch of strangers. You have to treat his parents as your own."
“If I speak too loudly, people might accuse me of being unfilial. A woman’s life is too difficult, so we must enjoy as much of our happiness as possible while we can.”
"Men are naturally more advantageous than women. There are some things that women can't do, but men can do at will."
"Even if you get married, you don't have to leave your own home or find a way to integrate into the new family. If he is still unwilling to put in more effort to make life easier for the woman who marries him, then it's better not to marry such a man."
Xu Huiniang: "What will you do if your family tells you that you're no longer willing to marry Officer Gao?"
Yu Rujia: "I had four sons through painless childbirth. Even if I don't get married, I will have someone to take care of me in my old age. If I wasn't sure that a man would really treat me well, I wouldn't want to go through that pain to get married."
Thinking of the well-behaved and sensible Duofu and the others, Xu Huiniang was speechless.
If it were anyone else, she would definitely advise her that you can't raise a child properly if it's not your own, and encourage her to get married, have children, and have someone to rely on in her old age. But Duofu and the others, at such a young age, already knew how to care for Yu Rujia, and were quite adept at taking care of their younger brother and doing chores.
She often came over to chat with Yu Rujia, and she had seen Duofu washing dishes and vegetables several times. The little girl looked so serious, without any sign of reluctance. She was raised much better than biological children.
Yu Rujia makes the children do chores, but they can't say she's deliberately exploiting them. She's seen the meals they eat; they eat huge chunks of meat as they please, more meat in one meal than their family eats in a month. The weight on the kids' bodies proves it all.
Hua Zi in their family not only doesn't eat meat freely, but even if you give him just two pieces of meat and ask him to do a day's work, he will fight to do it. There is no question of exploitation.
Therefore, Duofu and the others must have been working voluntarily.
If things continue like this, their biological children may not be blessed with filial piety, and they will have given birth to children in vain.
Thinking of this, Xu Huiniang felt a little heartbroken. Other unmarried women with children would be seen as a burden, but Yu Rujia's child became her source of confidence. And judging from the current situation, this confidence was indeed real.
Xu Huiniang: "People all hope to raise children to support them in their old age. Duofu and the others are not even four years old yet, but they have given you enough confidence. This is all thanks to your kindness back then. It's not a loss."
"If the people in the team saw how filial Duofu and the others were, they definitely wouldn't say you were just making trouble."
Yu Rujia: "I am confident and not flustered. In short, I will definitely not marry a man who is not good to me before marriage."
With several well-behaved and filial children, Yu Rujia certainly had the confidence not to get married, and Xu Huiniang, having thought it through, stopped trying to persuade her.
Xu Huiniang: "Okay, as long as you have a plan in mind, tomorrow is the 27th of the lunar year, the day for the annual market day. Do you want to come to the town market with us tomorrow?"
Yu Rujia: "Isn't buying and selling prohibited? Why is there still a market?"
Xu Huiniang explained, "Since speculation and profiteering were banned, the 27th of the year was designated as market day to facilitate the exchange of goods among ordinary people."
"On this day, people from all the brigades can bring their own goods to the specially designated area in town to buy and sell without worrying about being arrested."
Yu Rujia: "On such a good day, I definitely have to go. What time does the market run from day to day?"
Xu Huiniang: "From seven in the morning to five in the afternoon, it's settled then. I'll come to find you at six-thirty tomorrow morning."
Yu Rujia: "You go ahead, don't wait for me. My kids might want to come along, which would take up your time. We're only buying, not selling, so there's no rush."
"Hey, Sister Hui, what are you planning to sell tomorrow? Why don't you tell me first? Maybe I can buy some. That would be convenient for both of us, a win-win situation."
She considers 7:30 a.m. to be early; she definitely can't get up before 5 a.m. Since she can do business all day, she doesn't want to get up so early in the morning.
Xu Huiniang: "What are you selling? These are just chestnuts we picked up on the mountain. They're not worth much. Many families in the village have them. We're just trying our luck selling them. They're hard to sell. If you want them, we'll give them to you. We won't talk about money."
Yu Rujia: "Sister Hui, if you say that, I won't dare to speak. Friendship is friendship, and business is business. If you mix friendship and business together, does Sister Hui not want to be with me for the long term? Does she look down on me that much?"
Xu Huiniang patted her: "What nonsense are you talking about? Let's not even mention how you helped us find Hua Zi before. Just look at your medical skills. I'll need your help a lot in the future."
"It's a rare opportunity to build a good relationship with you by offering some worthless chestnuts. You can't even ask for such a thing. Why would you say something like that?"
Yu Rujia: "I want a lot, at least several dozen kilograms. How much do you have? If you give me the market price, I'll buy it. Otherwise, I'll buy it from someone else and make you furious."
There are many ways to cook chestnuts. Whether you stir-fry, stew, or braise them, they are all delicious. The flesh is delicate, sweet, and has a lingering aftertaste. When she has free time, she can crack open a pound of stir-fried chestnuts at a time.
She can eat more if someone peels it for her.
These things don't break easily, so she planned to have Gao Guojing take some with him when he went back.
Seeing that she really wanted a lot, Xu Huiniang didn't insist anymore. Dozens of kilograms of dried chestnuts, including the time spent picking them and peeling off the spiky shell, would take several days, and her hands would get many holes from being pricked.
Xu Huiniang: "Okay, I'll listen to you and give you the market price." She was determined to give Yu Rujia a few extra pounds later.
This stuff is difficult to obtain, and even more difficult to sell; in fact, it's extremely difficult to sell at all.
There are wild chestnuts on the mountain. Not only Shangfen Brigade has them, but other brigades also have them. Except for a few people and people from the town, most people in the brigade will go up the mountain to get some to enjoy.
Dozens of kilograms are hard to get, but a few kilograms are easy to get.
So chestnuts are nothing special in this area, which is why she hadn't thought of sending them to Yu Rujia before.
After all, Yu Rujia was already in Shangfen Brigade when the chestnuts ripened. She thought that since she often went up the mountain to collect herbs, she would have some to bring back herself and wouldn't lack these things.
Yu Rujia did manage to get some back, but because the shells had too many thorns, she pricked her hands several times and then gave up.
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