Chapter 241
In the middle of the night, braving the wind and snow, Jiang's father and mother walked for a long time on the snowy road on the embankment, and returned home slipping all the way.
The whole village was silent, not even the sound of summer frogs croaking. The inky darkness finally dispelled the inky night when they turned on the dim corridor lights, bringing in some light.
They saw several pairs of shoes placed in the corridor, one of which was obviously the big feet of an adult male.
The first reaction of Jiang's father and mother was that their eldest son Jiang Song had returned. Then they noticed a pair of women's leather shoes and elderly leather shoes clearly visible next to them.
When the few pairs of leather shoes came back, they were covered with a lot of mud. Jiang Ning washed the mud off in the ditch, applied shoe polish, and placed them at the door.
Jiang's father and mother felt a sense of loss in their hearts, but they soon cheered up because unlike previous years, when they returned home, they were faced with an empty and deserted house. This year, it was obvious that all their children had returned.
Father Jiang felt a little happier.
Because it was raining and snowing at night, their feet were covered in mud. Fortunately, they went to Aunt Jiang's house in Shuibu Town to change into long boots, otherwise the pair of shoes they brought back would have been ruined.
They knocked on the door and shouted, "Song Nut! Bai Nut! Lemon Nut!"
The door was an iron door and it made a banging sound when I knocked on it.
When Jiang's father knocked on the door, Jiang's mother had already unlocked the door and entered the house.
Dad Jiang went to turn on the light, and they saw that the snow-white floor tiles were cleaned spotlessly. Dad Jiang walked down the steps of the waterproof layer and went to the ditch to simply place his rain boots in the ditch. Mom Jiang changed into clean cotton shoes first, and put the muddy rain boots on the corridor outside, intending to wash them tomorrow morning.
When Jiang's father saw it, he took it and put it in the ditch.
It was dark, damp and cold, so Jiang's father didn't wash much. He simply wiped the mud off his rain boots and threw them outside the corridor before going in. After changing into slippers, he shouted loudly as he changed his shoes: "Songzi! Baizi! Ningning! Are you guys home?"
Grandpa Jiang, who was sleeping downstairs, was the first to be awakened. He turned on the light in the room, put on a thick down jacket, and walked out in slippers: "Why are you back in the middle of the night? It's so cold at night? Just stay at your sister's house for one night, and it would be great to take the boat back tomorrow morning."
He walked to the kitchen wearing his down jacket: "I'll boil some water for you."
Grandpa Jiang's decades of experience patrolling the mountains has made him habitually wear a lot of clothes when he sleeps, including a cotton-padded shirt, a sweater, and a cotton vest in the middle. His pants are very thin, just a layer of cotton-padded trousers.
Jiang Bai had a light sleep and was awakened by the slightest noise. Jiang Ning had a heavy sleep, but after hearing the noise, he still woke up with a startle, and then heard Jiang's father shouting.
Dad Jiang has always been a father with no sense of boundaries. Perhaps this is a common problem among rural parents. They don't have the concept of knocking on the door before entering the child's room, nor do they have the concept of coming back in the middle of the night and tiptoeing so as not to wake up the children. Therefore, knocking on the door loudly and waking up the children in the middle of the night is really a routine operation.
Jiang Bai immediately put on his trousers and zipped up his down jacket, then went downstairs. Jiang Ning didn't want to get out of the warm bed, but she knew Grandpa Jiang's character. Grandpa Jiang would definitely get up and boil water and cook for Jiang's father and mother.
She didn't want Grandpa Jiang to get up so late and be busy, so she got out of bed, put on her clothes, and went downstairs with a cold face.
If she didn't sleep well, she would be very irritable when she woke up. Just like now, she was suddenly awakened from a deep sleep and was in a bad mood.
When I saw Grandpa Jiang wearing his coat on his back without zipping it up, and sitting under the stove in his cotton trousers, starting a fire to boil water, the fire started up in an instant. "Grandpa, it's so cold, why don't you put on your clothes before coming out? What if you catch a cold?"
She really admires this old man!
"Your legs hurt when it's cloudy and rainy, and you still don't put on your clothes properly!" Jiang Ning was really mad.
Grandpa Jiang had already lit the fire. The dim warm light from the stove shone on Grandpa Jiang's face. Grandpa Jiang said nonchalantly, "There's a fire under the stove, how can you get cold so easily? You go upstairs and go to sleep. I'm fine."
Grandpa Jiang really doesn’t think it matters. If you were to ask where the warmest place is in winter, it would undoubtedly be under the stove, with the warm firelight.
But as the time of Grandpa Jiang's death in the previous life got closer, Jiang Ning became more and more cautious and nervous about Grandpa Jiang's health.
She hurried over and forcefully zipped up the down jacket that Grandpa Jiang had draped over his back, then dragged him back to the room. She didn't do it until Grandpa Jiang was lying on the bed, covered with two layers of thick quilts with the down jacket on top of the quilts. Then she stood in front of Grandpa Jiang's bed with her hands on her hips and sulked.
Grandpa Jiang moved in his quilt and called Jiang Ning, "Hurry up and take off the thick cotton-padded jacket. These two thick quilts are so hot at night!" He complained, "I'm just boiling some water. There's a fire under the stove to keep me warm. How can I be cold? Hurry up and go to sleep. It's still so cold."
Grandpa Jiang sighed.
He knew that his eldest granddaughter cared about him, and sometimes she took care of him like a child. But how could he really be that serious? It’s not like I’m old and can’t move my legs.
Mr. and Mrs. Jiang came back feeling very relaxed this year. Not only were their children at home, the house was clean and tidy, but their children also helped them boil water for a bath and eat a mouthful of hot noodles.
Finally, I don’t have to go to my brother and sister-in-law’s house to eat noodles this year.
In fact, they are not willing to go, but every time they go, they have no choice because their children are not at home and the house is empty and there is nothing.
Even though Jiang Ning came downstairs with a cold face and angrily pulled Grandpa Jiang, who was boiling water behind the stove, back to the room and forced him to lie down, and she ran out without boiling water, but sat on the chair with a cold face and sulked, Jiang's father was not angry. Instead, he opened the box in a good mood and called Jiang Ning: "Ningning, come and see what I brought you back!"
Dad Jiang took out a brand new set of clothes for Jiang Ning, a pink sweater with a doll collar and a cat pattern, a new pair of jeans, and a long thick pink coat with a fox collar.
Just by looking at the color of this suit, you can tell how pink it is. In the eyes of dad Jiang, doesn’t she look as pink and tender as a little princess when she wears it?
But Jiang Ning hasn't worn pink clothes for many years. She has become accustomed to simple, elegant and comfortable styles and no longer pursues these pink and tender little girl things.
The only pink clothes she remembered wearing were bought for her by her aunt. She liked them very much and thought she could wear them forever. However, she grew too fast and even though they were too big for her, after two or three years they became too small for her to wear at all.
"Try it on quickly. This is the new clothes your mother and I bought for you to wear during the Chinese New Year. See if you like it!" Under the light, Jiang's father's eyes were sparkling and full of anticipation.
Father Jiang took out a neatly folded black coat and called out to Jiang Bai: "Baizi, Baizi, come and see the new clothes your mother and I bought for you!"
These two sets of clothes really cost Jiang's father a lot of money.
The clothes were bought by Jiang's father using his own private money and a little public funds. He lied to Jiang's mother that the price was only over 100 yuan. But during the years that Jiang's mother worked with Jiang's father, she was not always on the construction site. She herself had worked in a garment factory. Jiang's father's words were simply fooling fools. She could tell the price of the material just by touching it and asking at the wholesale market.
But she didn't say anything, didn't argue with Jiang's father, just pretended not to know and went home in silence.
She looked upstairs and saw no one coming down.
She went upstairs and found her eldest son's room door was still tightly locked. She opened the door and saw a thick layer of dust inside. It was obvious that no one had ever lived there.
Her tears suddenly fell and she stayed in her eldest son's room for a long time before going downstairs to eat the noodles cooked by Jiang Bai.
Jiang Ning took the clothes upstairs and hung them in the closet.
When she was a child, looking at the new clothes on her older brothers, she knew that her "new clothes" for the Chinese New Year were all old clothes left over by her cousins. But when she wore them out and played with her friends, she would still say that these were her new clothes.
Children don't have so many scruples when talking, so they pointed at her trouser legs that were rolled up in several places and joked with her, "Hahahahaha, Ningning, why are your new pants so long?"
What she wanted most at that time was to have a real new set of clothes like her brothers.
Later, she no longer looked forward to buying new clothes for the New Year.
She can buy herself new clothes anytime.
When Jiang's father and mother woke up from a nap, it was time for Jiang Jun's engagement party.
It is called an engagement banquet, but in fact it is just the matchmaker bringing the girl's family to the boy's house for an engagement banquet, where the betrothal gift and the three golds are explained clearly and decided on the spot. Then the boy has to give money to the two young people to go to the gold shop in the town or neighboring city to buy the three golds.
Usually the three golds refer to earrings, necklaces and rings.
Jiang Ning and Jiang Bai also accompanied them.
After lunch, Jiang Jun took his girlfriend and her sisters to pick gold. Jiang Bai and Jiang Ning returned to the Jiang family to write couplets.
Unlike last year when all the older brothers, sisters-in-law, uncles and aunts from the village came to the Jiang family to ask for a couplet from Jiang Ning, this year in addition to the older brothers and sisters-in-law, a group of young men and women also came to the Jiang family. They were all girls who had returned from working and were dressed very fashionably and shyly.
If they were not all passed down from the same ancestor, there would still be a custom in their village not to marry people with the same surname, even if they were already five generations apart. Even the people of Jiangjia Village and the smaller Jiangjia Village that was separated from it did not intermarry, because the elders in the village knew very well that the ancestors of their Jiangjia Village were four full brothers.
These young girls who stared at Jiang Bai were still very shy and their hearts were pounding.
There were also people who wanted to be a matchmaker for Jiang Bai. One said he had a cousin, and the other said he had a cousin. They stared at Jiang Bai's face hard.
Because it is winter, Jiang Ning and Jiang Bai have dry skin. When autumn and winter come, if they don't apply skin cream, they will feel a cutting pain when blown by the biting winter wind.
The same goes for Jiang's father. When they were young, Jiang's father would buy clam oil in bulk in a small black pottery jar. He would buy a whole jar of clam oil and use it to apply on the faces, hands, and heels of the whole family. Everyone in the family would get their hands and faces covered in oil.
Jiang Ning also needs to use a very thick moisturizing facial cream in winter to ensure that she can smile in winter and her skin will not dry out and crack and hurt like in the cartoons. The same goes for Jiang Bai. On the surface, he dislikes using facial cream because it is too sissy, so he won't apply skin care products. But when his skin, ears and lips are really dry and painful in winter, he can't help but apply Vaseline not only on his face and ears, but also on the back of his hands. After applying it, the back of his hands in winter don't seem to be frozen and cracked like in previous years, but only a little redness and swelling.
The main problem was the itchiness from frostbite, which he couldn't stand.
His skin was originally good, and he applied skin cream on his face every day to prevent it from drying out and hurting due to frostbite. His skin became softer and smoother, and his lips did not become dry and flaky like in previous winters because of the lip balm. In addition, his eyelashes were as long as crow feathers. When he was concentrating on writing couplets, his face looked serious and focused, and he kept looking at the girls in the main room of the Jiang family. They pulled each other, and were so excited that they didn't know what to do.
It's not that no one had thought about it, but since they were really brothers from the same clan, the idea just came up, but was dispelled by the words of the sisters in their own room: "Alas, the three brothers and sisters of the Jiang family are so good-looking, who knows what their wives will look like in the future!"
"Why are you thinking so much? It definitely won't be us! She's a college student. Even if she doesn't want a college student, she should at least be a high school student, right?"
Just one sentence made these little girls feel sad.
Among them, the families who loved them the most only let them go to junior high school, and most of them only graduated from elementary school.
"Forget it, don't think about it. It has nothing to do with us anyway. Let's just take a look!" A girl whispered with a smile.
They kept lingering at Jiang's house until around four in the evening, when they had to go home for dinner, and then they slowly dispersed.
Dad Jiang has been anxiously waiting for Jiang Song to come back. Even if he doesn't come back, at least a call from him would be helpful.
Unfortunately, Jiang Song still hasn't come back.
Just when Jiang Song was happily about to bring his girlfriend back to meet his parents, the girl who worked in a dance hall, with whom he had a brief affair before and whom he gave five thousand yuan to let her leave, found Jiang Song and his girlfriend holding a little boy.
She knelt down on the street where they were going to watch a movie, holding the child and begging Jiang Song's girlfriend, crying with tears all over her face, "The child can't be without a father. I'm just a weak woman with a child and no way to support her. Please, give the child's father back to me~!"
Jiang Song’s girlfriend is just a little girl who has been well protected by her parents since she was a child. She still lives in an ivory tower, and her heart is full of trying pink bubbles and enjoying love. She has never experienced any setbacks. How could she have experienced such a situation?
Her first reaction was naturally disbelief. She turned to look at Jiang Song's expression. Jiang Song's first reaction was: "What are you doing here? How did you find this place?"
No, this child is not mine!
Moreover, it has to be said that Jiang Song has strong genes. The little boy who is wrapped tightly looks at least 60% like Jiang Song, and 40% like the kneeling girl.
The woman who was kneeling and begging her held the child in front of them. The baby, who was only half a year old, was so scared that he cried loudly.
Jiang Song has been very popular since he was a child. Everyone, from old men and women in their seventies and eighties to babies a few months old, likes him very much. Of course, there is a reason for this. He himself likes children very much. From childhood to adulthood, whenever he sees a child, he will patiently hold the child in his arms and coax him, and he will hold the child for a long time without letting go.
When he saw the baby, who was suspected to be his son, being wrapped in a blanket by the girl kneeling on the ground and looking like it could fall at any time, Jiang Song's first reaction was to quickly hug the crying baby in the girl's arms, and coax the baby softly with skillful movements, while looking at the woman kneeling on the ground with a frown.
When the woman saw him holding the child, her eyes lit up with joy. She quickly burst into tears and stood up with the help of Jiang Song. She snuggled up to Jiang Song, just like a couple.
When Jiang Song’s girlfriend saw Jiang Song’s actions, her face turned pale and tears welled up in her eyes, as if she had met her for the first time.
Jiang Song was about to explain, but his girlfriend slapped him hard on the chin.
But she didn't leave, she wanted to hear Jiang Song's explanation.
During the two years she had been with Jiang Song, he had treated her like a princess and always responded to her requests. At this moment, her heart felt like it was stabbed by a knife. Her mind told her that all this was true, but emotionally she still wanted to give Jiang Song one last chance. She wanted to hear his explanation and tell him that he had nothing to do with this woman and that the child was not hers.
Even though this woman had gone to the gate of their school to look for her before.
She just felt like her heart was being cut by a knife.
There were a lot of people around, all pointing and talking about them. The woman who snuggled up to Jiang Song, but was avoided by Jiang Song as if he were the plague god, strode to his girlfriend's side, but didn't mind Jiang Song's avoidance of her at all, and even smiled at Jiang Song with tears on her face: "A Song, look, our son looks so much like you!" She cried to her girlfriend: "I'm sorry, the child really needs a father. If possible, I don't want to disturb you, but I really can't support the child by myself. Please, give my child's father back to me!"
This sentence was like a slap in the face to his girlfriend. His girlfriend was so angry that she slapped the woman who worked in the former dance hall. The woman was slapped by his girlfriend and fell to the ground, covering her face and crying uncontrollably.
The child in Jiang Song's arms started crying loudly again. Jiang Song instinctively wanted to comfort the child and help the woman who had fallen heavily to the ground.
His girlfriend looked at him in disbelief, and just when he reached out to help the woman who had fallen to the ground, she had already run away crying and wiping her tears.
Jiang Song tried to chase after the child, but the child's mother hugged her thigh and cried, "A Song, A Song, it hurts so much, I think I broke my leg, help me up~!"
If Jiang Song was a man who knew the difference between men and women, he would not have mixed up with the girls in the dance hall when he already had a girlfriend, even though he knew in his heart that his girlfriend was more important. But seeing the girl hugging his thigh crying so sadly, he actually softened his heart and pulled the girl up, half dragged and half carried her to a chair in the mall, stuffed the child into her hands, and then ran after his girlfriend.
When he half-hugged her, the girl couldn't help but reveal a smug smile at the corners of her lips. She thought she had kept Jiang Song, but she didn't expect Jiang Song to run away to chase his girlfriend. She was so angry that she got up and chased him, but how could she catch up with Jiang Song who was tall, long-legged and highly developed in motor nerves?
But she was not worried. She had already found out where his girlfriend lived. At worst, she could go to his girlfriend's house and make a scene. She didn't believe that her girlfriend and her family could tolerate him.
Jiang Song is the best person she has ever met in her impoverished twenty-one years of life, the one who treats her the best, spends money on her the most generously, and is the best person she can hold on to. Even if she tries her best, she will hold on to him and will not let go.
Jiang Song originally planned to bring his girlfriend back home to celebrate the Chinese New Year this year, but his plans to return home were blocked again because the girl he had been involved with before showed up with a baby.
On the 29th day of the lunar year, almost all the young people, whether they made money during the New Year or not, come back. After going out and seeing the world, they began to look down on their hometown, which was remote and poor, and felt that they had seen the world.
Many girls find partners outside, and their partners are also workers who work together in the factory. They face each other day and night in the factory, and after a long time, it is difficult for them not to get together.
Many of them are from rural areas of other provinces, thousands of miles away from their hometown. In some places, their lives may be even harder than those in Linhe Brigade.
But girls who have not received much love since childhood, at the age of youth and lack of love, are particularly likely to be taken advantage of by men with the slightest benefit, and then follow them back. From then on, they will give birth to children for them in places thousands of miles away, and it will be difficult for them to come back for several years. Some of them even disappear.
This was also one of the reasons why Grandpa Jiang was so angry that he wanted to take Jiang Ning away and live separately when Jiang Ma beat Jiang Ning. He was afraid that the granddaughter he raised would run away like some girls in the village and never be found again, and would be lost in the vast sea of people without any news from then on.
There are also girls who have been brainwashed since childhood and think that in order to get married, they must have a betrothal gift of 8,000 to 18,000 yuan. The girls who get such a high betrothal gift are very proud, and they will be prouder when they marry into their husband's family. And her husband's family does not dare to be too excessive to such girls, because the cost of silence is too high.
Unless the girl's parents are too mean and don't treat her as a human being at all, and she is completely unable to stand on her own.
Girls who want a high bride price cannot be coaxed into going back with boys simply by a few words, so they all return to the village for the New Year.
Originally, the village decided to divide the land by drawing lots during the day, but Jiang Song had not returned on the 29th of the year, so Jiang's father asked Mayor Jiang, Jiang Guotai, and Village Chief Jiang if they could wait another day.
Village Chief Jiang was somewhat unhappy, but for the sake of Jiang Ning and Jiang Bai, and because Jiang Guotai and Mayor Jiang both had a good relationship with Jiang Guoping, he nodded and agreed, saying, "Then we'll wait until 7 o'clock tonight and hold the lottery ceremony in the cinema."
The cinema and the ancestral hall are very close to each other, both in the center of the village. The space inside the ancestral hall is not as big as the cinema and cannot accommodate so many people. Now it is raining and snowing outside, and it is impossible to let everyone stand outside to draw lots, so they can only hold the event in the cinema.
The drawing ceremony alone would take at least three or four hours to complete, because after the drawing, the location had to be determined. On New Year's Eve, when the ancestor worship was over, it was just noon in the city. Everyone would go to their individually marked tea plots to claim their tea plots. In the afternoon, every household had to put up spring couplets and prepare New Year's Eve dinner, so there was no time to organize the drawing ceremony.
After the time was confirmed, the brigade's loud speaker called out in the village: "Hello! Hello! Hello!"
"Let's make a public announcement! Tonight at 7 o'clock, all the four families in Jiangjia Village, as well as the unmarried girls and those who have not received tea plots, will gather at the cinema to draw lots to share tea plots and the girls will receive homesteads!"
"Hey! Tonight at 7 o'clock, the fourth house in Jiangjia Village, the families who have not yet received the tea land... will have their daughters divided into residential plots!"
The broadcast was called three times in a row. Not only the people in Jiangjia Village heard it, but also the people in the entire Linhe Brigade. The head of the brigade heard the broadcast of the brigade headquarters. People from other villages also heard the broadcast. Some people who were working outside and didn't know the situation in their hometown suddenly heard this broadcast and were stunned for a moment: "Mom, what is the broadcast talking about? What about dividing the tea land? And what about allocating homesteads to girls? Girls can also get homesteads?"
The middle-aged woman who was called "Mom" was also confused for a moment, and hurried out of the kitchen, wanting to listen carefully to what was being said on the brigade's broadcast, to see if they had heard it wrong.
Why did Jiangjia Village allocate residential land to girls?
Many girls from various villages heard the broadcast, came out of their homes, and listened carefully, hoping to hear it more clearly, but the broadcast ended quickly after three times.
But this broadcast was like dropping a huge rock into a calm lake, causing waves.
This wave is not only affecting unmarried girls, but also women who are deeply troubled by domestic violence but have nowhere to go, no one to rely on, and have become despair and numb with life.
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