Chapter 130
Jiang's father and mother were at the train station every day, looking for him anxiously, but they never expected that Jiang Song actually left on a long-distance bus.
Jiang Song's first love was very reluctant to let him go, but Jiang Song actually did not feel too sad. He was more sad about those brothers who did not come out with him, and he felt sorry for them.
But this time, if it wasn't for his first love helping him, he would have been stuck in there and couldn't get out. He was still scared at first, but after his first love came to find him, he was not so scared anymore. He was in his early twenties, at the age when he believed he could live his life well, but seeing his girlfriend begging her father for him made him feel distressed, and he coaxed his girlfriend by saying a lot of things like he was fine, asking her not to worry, and to take care of herself.
He was always good at saying sweet words. The more he told his first love not to worry too much about him and to take care of herself, the more she couldn't let him go and thought he was a big fool.
The few days of being arrested and detained not only did not diminish Jiang Song's handsomeness in the slightest, but instead made him look more decadent, making people feel sorry for him when they saw him.
She cried and advised him earnestly: "A Song, after this, you should stop hanging around out there, find a good job, you are not too old, go back to school to repeat a year and get into college..."
When she mentioned this, he was very impatient, but he did not show it, but coaxed his first love: "Well, I know."
He had always been used to being alone, and although he was a little sad about breaking up with his first love, he quickly cheered up.
He made a lot of money this year and had planned to return to his hometown at the end of the year to work hard with his brothers and build a house there. He had wanted to build a three-story building to be the most magnificent in the village. He didn't expect that this crackdown would not only kill all his brothers, but also take away all his money.
Jiang's father and mother are still selling lunch boxes at the train station. At this time, they no longer want to go to the construction site or work as migrant workers. They find that working is always working for others, and only their own business belongs to them.
Jiang's father originally wanted to rent a shop nearby and open a small store, but Jiang's mother disagreed, thinking that the shop rent was expensive and unnecessary. They were selling boxed lunches the same way now, and they could save the money on renting a shop.
Whenever the issue of spending money was brought up, Jiang's mother would make a big fuss, so Jiang's father gave up on the idea and just thought about earning so much money and building a big house when he returned home at the end of the year.
Originally, Jiang's father wanted to build a small two-story house like Uncle Jiang's. The whole building would be covered with white tiles, and there would be a large terrace on both sides where clothes, quilts, rice, flour, etc. could be dried. Some crops from the fields, such as mung beans, sesame seeds, rapeseed oil, dried radishes, etc., could also be dried on the large terrace upstairs. The terrace was made of cement and was much cleaner than the one downstairs. In the summer, you could also enjoy the cool air on the large terrace upstairs at night.
This is the most common building layout in the village.
But after spending a year in Shenzhen, he rode his bike to purchase supplies every day and saw many newly built small Western-style buildings on the road. Unlike the ones in his hometown which had only a main room in the middle and two main rooms on the left and right, the Western-style buildings here were very large. He visited the landlord's house, which had six or seven rooms downstairs alone, and two or three floors above. There was a yard outside with a cement floor, and some honeysuckle and roses dug from the mountains were planted there.
Although Uncle He Jiang built his two sons' houses together when he first built the house, they were indeed two separate houses.
Father Jiang had no idea of dividing the family. In his mind, the most perfect family was for his two sons and one daughter to live together, with many children and grandchildren. That would be perfect.
In the past, when the family wanted to divide up, there was no house to live in. So he built a small three-story house like this, with six or seven rooms on each floor. Then, not only the three children and the couple, but also Grandpa Jiang could live together. Even four generations living together could fit in the house.
They waited here enthusiastically for a whole year, but never got to Jiangsong. At the end of the year, business was even better. Every day, countless migrant workers waited here to buy tickets to go home. During the Spring Festival travel rush, the flow of people was extremely large, and there were long queues just to buy tickets every day.
Dad Jiang wanted to go back early, but Mom Jiang was reluctant to give up the good business these days, so she and Dad Jiang split into two groups every day. Each of them rode a tricycle, and each of them sold thousands of boxed lunches for two meals a day. The money they earned during this period at the end of the year alone was enough to make all of their previous hard-working earnings.
They lived near the train station, and although others could not buy train tickets during the Spring Festival travel rush, they had bought them in advance. In the last few days of the year, they could finally take a day off, and the couple bought a full set of clothes, from coats and down jackets on the outside to sweaters and sneakers on the inside.
The wholesale market in Shenzhen sells clothes cheaply, and the couple also bought a coat for each of their three children. Thinking about how surprised their children would be when they saw the new clothes they bought for them, Dad Jiang couldn't wait to go home.
Mother Jiang didn't have any feelings for her younger son and daughter, but she missed her older son very much.
Dad Jiang wanted to buy clothes for them, and Mom Jiang didn't say anything. After all, they were making money now, and the clothes in the wholesale market here were really not expensive. Dad Jiang also bought a pair of leather shoes for each of his three children.
Jiang's mother rolled her eyes at this: "It's good enough to have a pair of military sneakers to wear, why buy leather shoes!"
The military sneakers she was talking about are military green rubber-soled sneakers, which are relatively sturdy, durable and cheap. They are the shoes that rural people wear the most when working.
Father Jiang is rich now, and his temper has become much tougher. When he saw that Mother Jiang disagreed, he glared at her and said, "The children are all grown up. They have to visit relatives during the New Year. How can they do without a pair of good shoes?"
He was only wearing ordinary sneakers, but he bought Jiang Ma a brand new set from head to toe. Jiang Ma smiled a little, stared back, and complained: "You spend money recklessly when you have money. I tell you, forget it this time. Don't spend a penny more when you go back. There are many places at home where we need money!"
Father Jiang said, "Yes, yes, the money is all with you. I can't spend it even if I want to, right?"
In fact, he has now saved up two to three thousand yuan in private savings.
He thought about going back to give his parents two hundred yuan to pay for Jiang Bai and Jiang Ning's tuition and living expenses, as well as Songzi. After the New Year, he would be twenty-one years old, and now that he no longer needed to study, he could find a partner and get married.
Most rural boys get married at the age of 21 or 22, and some may become fathers at the age of 17 or 18.
In their rural area, such boys are said to be capable. They bring home a partner without spending a penny and also have grandchildren.
Dad Jiang also wanted to buy a coat for Grandpa Jiang and Grandma Jiang, but Mom Jiang had a big fight with him.
What Jiang Ma meant was, "The old man gets a lot of money every year, and he said he would give it to his brother, so he gave it to his brother. He himself doesn't care, so why do you worry so much about him?"
Speaking of Grandma Jiang, she was even more impolite: "Your mother has given all the land to your sister-in-law and her family. They will take care of it. We just need to take care of the land that we have!"
In the end, I only bought clothes for Grandpa Jiang, but not for Grandma Jiang.
The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in rural areas seems to be passed down from generation to generation. There is always internal friction between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. The mother-in-law herself was oppressed, and then when she became a mother-in-law, she began to oppress her daughter-in-law. It is obvious that she suffered such hardships when she was young, and the hardships were passed down from generation to generation, making her daughter-in-law suffer the same hardships as she did.
It was like this when Jiang Ma first married into the Jiang family. Two women with strong personalities, both wanted to be the boss. At first, Jiang Ma had the upper hand. When Jiang Ma first entered a new environment and felt uneasy and nervous, she said to the people outside: "I drew a circle on the ground and asked her to stand inside the circle. She didn't dare to stand outside the circle!"
This shows how strong Grandma Jiang's personality was at that time.
At first, Jiang Ma could still endure it, but after she became pregnant, she no longer wanted to endure it and started fighting with Grandma Jiang. However, a pregnant woman is the weakest and most powerless in her life, so how could she be a match for Grandma Jiang.
The biggest disparagement that the village could give to a daughter-in-law was to call her lazy and gluttonous, but Jiang Ma was strong-willed and never gave up. Even when she was seven or eight months pregnant, she still worked in the fields. Grandma Jiang could not say that she was lazy, and everyone in the village said that Jiang Ma was a gluttonous woman. At that time, there was indeed a shortage of supplies, little food, and little food. The only time the family could make some syrup to sweeten their mouths was during the New Year.
If Jiang's mother ate one more mouthful of syrup made from sweet potatoes grown at home during her pregnancy, Grandma Jiang would scold her from head to toe in the village, calling her greedy.
As the quarrels intensified day by day, Jiang Ma suffered a lot from Grandma Jiang during her pregnancy and confinement.
It is said that a woman can remember the grudge she felt during the confinement period for the rest of her life, and this is the case for Jiang Ma.
Even though her children are now grown up and in their teens and twenties, Mother Jiang still resents Grandma Jiang and is not willing to buy clothes for her.
Dad Jiang didn't understand Mom Jiang's hatred for Grandma Jiang. He even thought Mom Jiang had a really bad temper and was very mean to his mom. He just didn't want to argue with her because she had some private money. So the couple unhappily got on the train home with their bags.
To some extent, Jiang's mother was a simple and innocent person. For example, in her words and actions, she never concealed the fact that she gave birth to Jiang Ning so that she could help her two brothers, make money for the family, and provide for her in her old age. She was so frank that it was almost cruel.
She is also a person who unconsciously takes the code of conduct of "It is better to create others than to waste energy on yourself" to the extreme. If anyone makes her unhappy, she will quarrel with everyone who makes her unhappy.
Dad Jiang was also one of the people who was inspired by her every day. She quarreled with Dad Jiang until he finally stopped buying clothes for Grandma Jiang, and she was happy afterwards.
As for whether Jiang's father is happy or not, what does it matter? It's enough for her to achieve her goal.
Mother Jiang brought her along for the whole year, and she cut off two large bowls of chicken legs and duck legs every day. Although the amount left over was not much every day, she had accumulated half a snakeskin bag of cured chicken legs and duck legs over the course of the whole year. They were all the size of a thumb joint, and after drying they weighed about 50 to 60 kilograms. Thinking that she could use these as gifts to give to her relatives after returning home, which would be both decent and generous, Mother Jiang felt a great sense of accomplishment.
As they got closer and closer to their hometown, Dad Jiang's bad mood caused by Mom Jiang's anger improved. He imagined himself returning home and seeing his three children preparing meals at home. He took out the new clothes and shoes he bought for them, and his children's surprised reactions. They even announced that they would build a big house in their hometown during the Chinese New Year! When his children surrounded him with shining eyes and smiles on their faces, he became more eager to go home.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
