Chapter 10 Chapter 10 If anyone asks, just say we eat...
The secretary's wife nodded and said, "I forgot about that. I heard there was such a policy. I'll ask Lao Jiang tonight. If you meet the requirements, I'll definitely get it done for you."
Su Yan hesitated before saying this. "Aunt, did my grandfather's rich peasant affair have any impact? He was already dead when I was born. If it's really because of this that I can't take my father's position, then I really died unjustly."
The secretary's wife thought for a moment and said, "You can keep the things. You can go to Shanghai to study at university. Your family background is clean, so don't worry."
Su Yan got the promise and saw that she had collected her things, so she said goodbye. She bowed solemnly to her as she left, "Thank you for your kindness, Auntie!"
Seeing her like this, the secretary's wife felt a little sad for her. She hadn't even finished college yet and had to come back to raise her nephews and nieces. Her own parents, brothers, and sisters-in-law had all abandoned her. A girl suddenly had no one to rely on. She waved her hand and said, "Hey, we've been comrades for decades, neighbors for decades. Can't you lend a hand?"
Su Yan came out of the secretary's wife's house. Although the sun was very strong and she was sweating all over, she felt extremely relaxed. She felt some advantages of this era. At least the sky was bluer and the air was better. She touched her nose and it seemed that her nose was no longer uncomfortable here.
When Su Yan returned home, the two children were still awake, energetically reciting their lessons in the living room, one teaching the other. Su Yan called them over and said, "Let's clean the house this afternoon and wash the clothes and sheets. Can you help your aunt with some small chores within your ability?"
Xiaogang straightened his chest and said, "Aunt, I'll do the laundry. I know how to do it. After grandma went to the hospital, I washed my sister's and my clothes."
The six-year-old child had already started washing clothes. Su Yan said, "You are still young and your arms are not strong enough. You can't wash the big clothes clean. Just wash your socks and your sister's socks."
The family took out the big basin for washing clothes, and Su Yan took off the sheets, quilts and other things. It took more than an hour to wash everything clean. When she finally stood up, her waist was sore from exhaustion. Su Yan sighed: "The washing machine is really a great invention. It's summer now. If it were winter, my hands would be rotten." Her hands were red from rubbing the clothes. When she took the basin outside to dry, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon. At this time, it was still early. It would not be dark until after seven o'clock in the evening. After Su Yan hung up the clothes and sheets, she turned around and saw the older sister next door greet her: "Yingzi is back!"
Su Yan nodded: "I came back today and cleaned the house. It was all dusty."
The eldest sister asked, "Have you been to see your mother?" She said with a click of the tongue, "You didn't see it. She pooped at home at first. When I went in, her face was covered in feces and piss. Poor mother, someone who wanted to be respectable, but in the end, she ended up like this, making others laugh at her."
Su Yan was convinced. What kind of quality do these people have? Lu Yingzi is already so miserable, and they still want to rub salt into her wounds. She picked up the basin and snorted: "What's so funny about this? People should be laughed at when they are sick? Everyone gets sick, and everyone gets old. Those who laugh at others now are heartless people. Can't they see that there will be such a day in the future?" As she said that, she picked up the basin and walked towards the house. When she reached the door, she turned back and said: "Sister, I forgot, those who laugh at my mother may not live to her age. If she doesn't accumulate virtue, will God give her a long life?" After that, she walked into the corridor, took out the key to open the door, and slammed the door with a bang.
The older sister was startled by the slamming door and muttered quietly, "Lu Yingzi, who can't even be beaten with three sticks, has become so fierce after attending college?"
Her husband, who was sitting at the doorway repairing old furniture with a small hammer, cursed at her, "Come back quickly! You've been gossiping all day about other people's affairs, and now you've been insulted. Go home and cook, and don't embarrass yourself by leaning against something."
The older sister smiled, completely unconcerned, and continued, "Lu Yingzi, your ambitions are high, but your life is fragile. Does she think that just by going to college she'll be able to fly to the branches and become a phoenix? Bah! She's a grown woman now, raising two five- or six-year-old nephews and nieces, and a crazy old mother in the hospital. I don't think she can have a good future. What good family would be interested in her? After all, she's almost thirty years old, isn't she?"
Her husband stood up and said, "Why do you care if anyone likes her? Why do you care if she can get married? She won't eat your rice. Come back and cook! Even if she's thirty and still can't get married and becomes an old maid, she's still an old maid who went to college!"
The elder sister snorted: "Oh, why are you protecting her so much? She went to college, what does it have to do with you? Look how proud you are. What's wrong with going to college? Even if she went to college, she still lives in this family compound just like me who didn't even graduate from junior high school. You, ask the one who went to college to cook for you. I, an uneducated country bumpkin, won't cook today." After saying that, she left angrily.
The sound insulation of the building was not very good at that time. Even after Su Yan entered her house and closed the door, she could still hear the couple quarreling. She frowned and listened for a while: "How annoying!" Su Yan in the 21st century extremely hated this kind of neighborhood relationship. It would be great if everyone kept their distance and was polite to each other!
When it was time to eat, Xiaogang went to the cafeteria and got a steamed bun. He said, "One steamed bun is better than nothing. Although it's not as good as noodles, it can be eaten as a midnight snack!"
Su Yan smiled and told them to play in the living room. She went into the kitchen alone and locked the door. When Su Yan was cooking, she didn't allow the two little ones to watch. Firstly, she had to have them keep watch outside to prevent anyone from knocking on the door. Secondly, Su Yan had to take things out of the space while she was cooking, and she couldn't let them know.
There was plenty of rice, but Su Yan only knew how to cook it in an electric rice cooker, not the iron pots of this era. She had no choice but to take noodles out of the container and continue eating. Su Yan searched the space and, in addition to the thirty pounds of alkaline noodles she'd bought from a market vendor, she also found several boxes of dried noodles. These noodles were a local specialty given to her by her mother's business partner. She only remembered trying them once and finding them so unpalatable that her mother urged her to throw them away. Su Yan was playing games that day and didn't have time to go downstairs, so she moved into the space.
By this calculation, I can eat noodles for several months, and I have time to learn how to cook.
There was also a large basket of free-range eggs in the space. Su Yan had paid for the students' school meals, a token of gratitude from the students' grandmothers. However, since she didn't cook, they hadn't eaten them. She took out three and fried them until golden brown. She had eaten almost three taels of noodles at noon, and since she wasn't particularly hungry at this point, she took out six taels of noodles, two taels per person, to avoid overeating.
She cooked it and asked the two of them to bring it into the bedroom to eat. The two little ones looked over and saw that there was an egg under the noodles. They cheered, "Auntie, Auntie, it's a fried egg, it's a fried egg!"
Su Yan waved her hand: "Keep it down, keep it down, the people next door can hear it."
The two children covered their mouths and quieted down. Yan Zi looked at Su Yan and said, "Aunt, it's great that you're back. It would have been better if you had come back earlier." She almost cried as she spoke, "Aunt, these noodles and eggs are so delicious, so delicious."
Su Yan touched her cheek. She was not good at comforting people: "From now on, you can have more than just egg noodles. You can also have braised pork and sweet and sour fish, okay?"
Xiaogang smiled and nodded vigorously: "We have everything to eat, but we can't tell anyone outside. If anyone asks, just say we eat cornmeal steamed buns and green leaves."
After dinner, the two children washed the dishes as usual. Su Yan cleaned up and went outside to bring in the sheets. It was the hottest time of the summer. After an hour or two, the sheets and quilt covers were completely dry. The quilt covers at this time were not the ones with zippers or straps like today. They had to be sewn with needle and thread. She had seen the elderly sew like this when she was young.
There was already needle and thread at home, so she took the thickest one and tried to sew it like the old one, but her hands were unfamiliar and her stitches were crooked. The quilts and furniture in this house were all 80% new. Besides the lack of food, they even had a radio and a bicycle. So, with three working people in their household, Lu Yingzi's family was quite well off.
After arranging for her two children to wash and brush their teeth, Su Yan lay down on her bed, the quilt fragrant with the scent of laundry detergent left in the sun. She closed her eyes and silently said to herself, "Starting over, Su Yan, starting over here." Soon, her mind turned to her mother. She knew she had disappeared inexplicably, and she must be terribly worried. Would she stay in that small county town looking for her? Fortunately, she was still alive, but unfortunately, she would never see her loved ones again in this life.
The next morning, Su Yan was awakened by the radio broadcast from the machinery factory. It was playing yesterday's news. After the news, a female voice began to read Chairman Mao's words, Quotations from Chairman Mao. Su Yan had no memory of some of the words, but had read some of them before.
It was still time to eat in the morning. Su Yan had a headache, not knowing what to make. It wouldn't be good to eat noodles three times a day, right? She rummaged through her space and cut off a small piece of meat. She fried it until golden brown, mixed it with the steamed bread from the previous meals and the potatoes Uncle Xu had brought, and fried them. Seeing that the amount was still a little small, she took out a small roll of noodles, soaked them for a few minutes, and mixed them together to make fried noodles.
However, these fried foods tasted delicious. Even Su Yan thought they were delicious, not to mention the two children, whose mouths were full of oil. Although it was not good to eat too much greasy food in the morning, Su Yan considered that the two of them had not eaten meat for a long time. Although it was okay to eat such greasy food occasionally in the morning, it was not good to eat such greasy food every day.
After finishing the meal and cleaning up, they sent the younger one to the kindergarten at the company. The little girl was very happy today. She held Su Yan's hand all the way, jumping and skipping, and told Su Yan about her kindergarten life. She said that she had memorized a new poem and the teacher would definitely praise her.
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