Chapter 54 [Second update]
From the faces of the girls in Dormitory 610, it is really hard to tell who is the thief. After all, their things were stolen and they were suspected. The atmosphere in Dormitory 610 should be very tense. But not only do they not look angry, but they all look quite happy?
The people in Dormitory 610 were of course very happy. Not only would they have a braised pork snack every week, but Liu Ping also said that she would be the one cleaning the dormitory for the next two months.
No. 1 Middle School not only manages study, but also has strict management over students’ dormitories. Every morning a dormitory manager will go up to check the rooms. The quilts in each dormitory must be neatly folded, just like during military training, and the floor must be spotlessly clean, otherwise points will be deducted.
Of course, if the room is cleaned very neatly, there will be floating red flags as rewards. At the end of the semester, the dormitory with the most floating red flags will also receive material rewards.
Every girl in the dormitory has to fold her own quilt, but mopping the floor before morning reading has to be done by the person on duty that day. If there is no time to mop the floor during morning reading, she will go back to the dormitory to mop the floor after the morning reading. At this time, the iron door under the dormitory is not closed yet and people can go up.
Now for two months, they don’t have to clean the dormitory or mop the floor. Of course, they are very happy and in a good mood.
This made the girls in other dormitories confused. They wanted to ask about it, but it was an internal affair of other classes or dormitories, so it was not easy for them to ask. Even the girls in dormitory 611 of Class 3 were very curious and wanted to know who the person who took the book was and how he solved the problem.
The girls in several dormitories exchanged glances, their eyes full of gossip that they couldn't hide at all.
There is no way. Life in No. 1 Middle School is just too dull and boring. Apart from studying every day, the most interesting thing is to hear their teacher say, 'There is a student in Class 3 who loves to study and only sleeps three hours a day.' But now, even this is no longer fresh.
Now something new has happened, and it happened around them, so isn’t it curious?
Everyone in Dormitory 610 kept their mouths shut and said nothing.
Because Jiang Ning was in a hurry to get the book and someone's book had just expired, Liu Ping took Lu Xuehua and Wang Xia to collect the books.
The others are still in the dormitory.
Lunch break time is limited, so everyone should try to take a short nap during the break. If you can’t sleep, you can just close your eyes and rest for a while.
There are also people who don't sleep during lunch break, but read and study.
In short, this is a period of time that can be allocated freely.
After Jiang Ning got the book, he went downstairs to give it to Jiang Bai.
Jiang Bai had been waiting for a long time downstairs. When he saw her finally come down, he asked her, "Why did you take so long?"
Jiang Ning also said lightly: "The book was borrowed by someone else."
Jiang Bai didn't ask any more questions and opened the book: "Which one did you write?"
Jiang Ning turned to the article she wrote with the words "Author: Lemon" marked on it. "Look, from now on, if you see this author, it's basically me. There are also my works in Youth Digest. If your dormitory has the latest issues of the magazine, you should be able to see my works."
It would be great if every dormitory could have two or three of these extracurricular books. It is unimaginable to have every issue.
Jiang Bai felt a little regretful that all the books containing his sister's works had been borrowed out, and said, "Remember to bring them back later."
He read his sister's work carefully, feeling a surge of pride in his heart.
After knowing that his sister's money had a legitimate source, he still handed the two coats Jiang Ning gave him back to Jiang Ning and said, "I'll keep the shoes, but I don't need any clothes, so you can return them. Don't spend the money you earn recklessly, save it in the bank."
He was afraid that she wouldn't even have enough tuition for next semester, so he spent the money recklessly.
Even though he didn't say anything, Jiang Ning understood his thoughts and said, "I know the tuition fee for next semester. I bought you some clothes, so you can wear them."
After the New Year, he was already an 18-year-old boy, at the age when he cared a lot about his reputation, and he always wore Jiang Song's hand-me-down clothes.
Seeing that she insisted, Jiang Bai took out a piece of clothing and put the remaining one back into Jiang Ning's hand, "Give it back." Without waiting for her to say anything, he ran away.
He was tall and had long legs. He was used to running more than ten kilometers to and from school in junior high school, so he soon ran far away.
Jiang Ning didn't force him. If he didn't want it, then he didn't want it. He could sell it in the store later.
Wang Yong also breathed a sigh of relief after moving to Jiang Ning's store.
In this era, many people have limited awareness of hygiene. Some people are too lazy to go to the toilet, and many of them urinate anywhere in the alleys. When they have to pee, they just dig out their hands and pee against the wall.
Wang Yong walked through such alleys every day. He could always smell the urine. There were also gossipy ladies who would come over to ask him what he was doing since he was from another place. On rainy days, the alleys were always filled with black, smelly dirty water.
He didn't have much stuff of his own, just a backpack.
Just as he and Jiang Ning had expected, this street was deserted on weekdays, with few people passing by. The only people passing by this street were the families of faculty and staff who lived behind the two schools.
Some of them heard from their neighbors who had come to buy clothes that day that the Jiangnan Garment Factory had closed down, the factory director owed more than 35 million yuan and had run away with his sister-in-law. The factory could not pay the wages, so they used the factory's clothes to pay the wages. The workers were also pitiful, so they took the clothes out to sell in order to pay back the wages owed by the factory. The clothes that originally cost more than one hundred, two hundred or three hundred yuan were now only twenty-nine or thirty-nine yuan, and they were all good clothes.
When have these neighbors ever heard such bloody gossip? They all came with their ears perked up and their eyes shining to find this legendary clothing store. When they arrived at the store, they didn't hear any horn sounds, and they asked Wang Yong curiously: "Young man, you are from the Jiangnan Garment Factory, right? I heard that your garment factory went bankrupt. How did it go bankrupt?"
Then they listened to Wang Yong's live version of the factory director running away with his sister-in-law. They were satisfied and went to look at the super cheap clothes. Everyone who came to listen to the gossip bought one or two cheap coats and went back satisfied. They told the gossip to more people. Even when they went to the vegetable market to sell vegetables, they couldn't help but tell a few words of gossip to acquaintances.
People who heard the gossip immediately asked curiously: "Are the clothes in that store really that cheap?"
"How can I lie to you? It's just over a hundred meters away from the main entrance of No. 1 Middle School, diagonally opposite the main entrance of Wuzhong. The material is very good. The price in the center of the street is over a hundred yuan, but it's only thirty-nine in that store. If their garment factory hadn't closed down, where else would you find such cheap clothes?"
Not to mention that it is the mid-1990s now, even in the 1960s and 1970s, you couldn't buy a good cotton jacket like this for less than 20 yuan.
"And that down jacket, my nephew bought one a few days ago, it cost more than 90 yuan, it's so expensive, I don't think it's better than the one in the store at No. 1 Middle School, the fabric is just ordinary."
Originally, there were just two familiar people chatting, but a lot of people started listening around them. After buying their groceries, they all ran towards No. 1 Middle School to see if there really was such a cheap store.
So in the afternoon, people came to the store to buy clothes again.
Shopping for clothes while listening to gossip.
Jiang Ning originally thought that there would be no business in the store on weekdays, so she asked Wang Yong to open the door if he wanted to, or go in and out through the small door at the back if he didn't want to. But on Friday, when the school access was open, Jiang Ning went to the store and found that there were actually fewer clothes.
Wang Yong took out a stack of money, counted it, and handed it to Jiang Ning: "In five days, I sold you a total of eighty-seven pieces of clothing, forty-two coats, and forty-five sweaters and pants. Here is the money. It's all here."
Jiang Ning was surprised: "There is still business from Monday to Friday?"
Speaking of this, Wang Yong had to talk about the video Jiang Ning recorded. He said with great excitement, "I didn't expect that the video you recorded was quite effective. Not many people came to buy clothes on Monday. They were all neighbors. They probably heard about the closure of the garment factory and came to ask about the gossip about the factory director and his sister-in-law. Then, when they saw that the clothes were of good quality and affordable, they spread the word. Many people were not from nearby. They heard that there were cheap clothes for sale here from the closed factory, so they all came to buy clothes."
Wang Yong sells about ten pieces of clothing a day, and he doesn't need to bargain with customers. It's very easy and not troublesome at all. It also helps Jiang Ning. He also has something to do. He has a lot of fun selling clothes and gossiping these days.
Plus, he himself was a journalism major and a professional with a press card. He had originally just been talking nonsense based on Jiang Ning's stories, but later he started to embellish and make his own changes. The more he talked, the more he told stories, even revealing details about the factory director having a tryst with his sister-in-law at the garment factory and being caught by his wife.
After being exaggerated by others, the gossip about Jiangnan Garment Factory was about to spread throughout Wucheng, and the business of Jiang Ning's store was also getting better and better.
Wang Yong said, "You can shout for two more days tomorrow and the effect will be better. If the trend continues, I'm afraid you won't be able to sell enough clothes. You'd better buy more." He has been selling clothes happily these days. "It just so happens that I have nothing to do recently, so I can help you sell clothes and you can concentrate on writing."
He is also experiencing life.
Jiang Ning laughed out loud, "Okay, I'll give you 16,000 tomorrow morning."
Wang Yong was a little hesitant, "Can you do it alone?" After all, he stayed in Wucheng and didn't go back because he was afraid that it would be dangerous for Jiang Ning to go to the Internet cafe to write alone, so he accompanied her every time. If Jiang Ning could go to the Internet cafe to write alone, there would be no need for him to stay in Wucheng, and he could just go back.
After thinking about it, he still felt uneasy and decided to go and accompany Jiang Ning.
It didn't matter to Jiang Ning whether he opened the store or not. He wanted to go to the Internet cafe to accompany her in writing, which was his current serious job, so he nodded and said, "Okay."
On the other side, Grandpa Jiang, who had rested for a week, finally put aside his reluctance and went down the mountain on a sunny day. He told Dad Jiang and Uncle Jiang that he planned to quit his job as a mountain patroller and go to Wucheng to accompany Jiang Ning to her studies.
Uncle Jiang thought it was ridiculous. "You said you didn't want such a good job as a mountain patroller. You want to go to Wucheng? You don't even have food to eat in Wucheng? Are you going to beg for food?"
Thinking that Jiang Ning had to worry about her own tuition at such a young age, Grandpa Jiang covered his eyes with his hands and wiped away his tears: "What will happen if I don't beg? Where will Ning Ning's tuition come from if I don't beg?"
"You can earn nearly a thousand yuan a year patrolling the mountains. Why don't you want to earn such easy money and go out to beg?" Uncle Jiang couldn't understand it. "If begging really makes so much money, everyone would go begging, so why would it be your turn?"
Father Jiang was also confused. "The family debts have been paid off, and life is about to get better. Why are you thinking of not patrolling the mountains and going out to beg for food?"
Grandpa Jiang wiped his tears and said, "The mountain roads are slippery. I'm old. If I slip and die on the mountain one day, no one will know. While I can still move, I want to go to Wucheng and stay with Ningning for two years." He said, "Which of you brothers wants this job? Come to the brigade headquarters and tell me. If neither of you wants it, I'll tell the brigade secretary to take it back."
The team leader is usually in charge of the production work of the team, while matters like the work of the forest ranger are usually the responsibility of the team secretary.
Uncle Jiang is a bricklayer. The 1990s was a period of high-volume construction in every village. Uncle Jiang had to take care of his three sons every day and was overwhelmed with work. How could he need Grandpa Jiang's job of patrolling the mountains?
Jiang's father works in another place, and the couple earns much more in a year than patrolling the mountains. He thinks he is still young and wants to start a big business like a quarry. How could he be willing to take over a retirement job like a forest ranger?
But they also didn't want Grandpa Jiang to give up such a stable job.
In rural areas, there is really no one else who has such a job with a fixed salary except primary school teachers.
They really didn't understand why the old man did what he wanted to do and suddenly didn't want to do it anymore.
Once Grandpa Jiang made up his mind, he actually got things done faster.
After he was sure that neither of his sons wanted the job, he asked his younger brother.
Grandpa Jiang’s younger brother is twelve years younger than Grandpa Jiang. Their father died not long after Uncle Grandpa was born. It was Grandpa Jiang who had to play the role of both father and brother at a very young age and raised Uncle Grandpa Jiang.
But after he was sixteen years old, Grandma Jiang, who had already married, didn't want to raise Uncle Grandpa Jiang anymore and separated him from his parents.
By that time, my uncle had grown up and was able to earn work points to support himself.
Later, for some reason, my great uncle fell in love with a female educated youth who came to work in the countryside, and they got married. I don't know if my great aunt cut off all ties with her mother's family, as she hasn't gone back for many years and has no contact with her mother's family. After marrying my great uncle, she no longer had any contact with Grandma Jiang, as if she was holding her breath and focused on raising her two sons, becoming the first college student in the village.
College students in those days were very powerful. The government would assign jobs to them. He was assigned to be a primary school teacher in their town. Less than a year later, he was transferred to Wucheng Central Primary School. He married the daughter of the principal of Wucheng Central Primary School, was given a house, and settled in Wucheng. He never came back, no matter during the Chinese New Year or other holidays, as if he had married into his father-in-law's family.
Everyone in the Jiang family is good-looking, and my uncle's eldest son is no exception. He has never done any farm work since he was a child, and he inherited the Jiang family's fair complexion. When he was young, looking at his fair and bookish face, no one could have imagined that he would never come back to the village again.
When he didn't come back, her aunt didn't say anything and continued to focus on raising her youngest son.
My great aunt's youngest son, who was only six years older than Jiang Song, had just graduated from university and was assigned to a primary school teacher in a town even farther away from Wucheng, in the suburbs of the provincial capital.
Later, this town was divided into the provincial capital and became part of the district under the provincial capital. Naturally, my uncle's treatment became better and better. He married a teacher in the same primary school. The couple did not have separate houses, but bought a house there with their savings. Who would have thought that their place would later be divided into the provincial capital, and they also became provincial capital residents and settled in the provincial capital.
Speaking of which, the Jiang family really has a lineage of inheritance. No matter whether it is the two sons born to Uncle Jiang or the three children born to Father Jiang, except Jiang Bai who is willing to stay in his hometown to accompany his parents, the remaining two children all run farther and farther away. Anyway, as long as they have studied and passed the exams, they are all like meat buns thrown at dogs, and they never come back.
My younger uncle was a filial man. He brought my grandparents to live in the city. However, the old couple couldn't get used to living in the city, so they returned to the village.
Maybe it was because my great-uncle had worked too hard when she was young. She was only fifty years old, but she looked like she was in her sixties. Half of her hair was white, and she had two braids hanging down her chest like a young girl. She smiled before she spoke, and called Grandpa Jiang in a foreign dialect that was still very different from their accent after more than 20 or 30 years: "Brother, is there anything you want to talk to Jincai about?"
Grandpa Jiang is from the third house, but Uncle Jiang lives with people from the first and second houses.
Grandpa Jiang's health condition didn't seem to be any better than that of his uncle and aunt. He said, "I came to ask Jincai if he wants to do the job of patrolling the mountains. I can't be a forest ranger anymore. If he wants to do it, I'll give him the job of forest ranger."
In their small place, the tradition from the 1960s and 1970s is still preserved, where parents' work can be passed on to their children.
If Grandpa Jiang has family members willing to take over, this job will most likely be given priority to the family members chosen by Grandpa Jiang.
My uncle and aunt had not expected such a good thing to happen. They laughed and said, "Yes, yes. It's such a good job, how could I not want to do it?"
When my great uncle was young, he carried coal in a coal mine to support his two sons to go to college. The work was tiring, heavy and dangerous.
Now that both sons have been supported, they can finally take a break and plant a few acres of land.
But if I no longer carry coal and dig coal, I will lose my source of income.
At this time, Grandpa Jiang was willing to give the job of forest ranger to Uncle Jiang. Uncle's grandmother was overjoyed and kept shouting, "Brother, come in and sit down. I'll make you a cup of tea." She also called Uncle, "Make money! Make money!"
My uncle was watering the vegetables in the field at the back.
He is a man who looks even quieter than Grandpa Jiang. He looks very similar to Grandpa Jiang, but he looks much younger than Grandpa Jiang.
After hearing what Grandpa Jiang said, he was still a little uncertain: "Brother, do you really want to give this job to me?"
Grandpa Jiang said, "I've asked Daping and Guoping, and they both don't want to do it. If you're willing to do it, I'll give it to you."
My aunt brought a cup of tea over and said, "Yes, yes. How could he not be willing to do such a good thing?"
Uncle Jiang also agreed, so Grandpa Jiang took him to the brigade headquarters to do the handover work.
His reasons were very good: "During the years when I was a forest ranger, my brother would patrol the mountains for me when it was inconvenient. He knows the job of a forest ranger very well and knows which mountains to patrol. After he took over my job, he was able to do it right away."
Although many people came to the brigade headquarters to inquire about the forest ranger work, those people were not relatives of the brigade secretary, so he didn't care about their work. Seeing that Grandpa Jiang had someone to take over, he naturally gave priority to the person chosen by Grandpa Jiang. In addition, Uncle was willing to take over immediately, so the two of them quickly completed the handover work. It happened to be the end of the year, so the brigade secretary simply called the accountant over and settled Grandpa Jiang's salary for the year.
Grandpa Jiang held the salary he received from the brigade and looked up at the mountains that seemed just around the corner, feeling melancholy and confused.
He missed the store opened by his eldest granddaughter. They went to the store that day and saw that there was no one on the street. He was very worried. Could the clothes in that clothing store opened by his eldest granddaughter be sold?
What if I can’t sell any clothes?
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