Chapter 131
After Jiang Ning and Song Peifeng won the first prize in the provincial competition, they came to Grandpa Jiang's shop to write for two hours every day for the subsequent training.
Now Grandpa Jiang's store business has basically stabilized. In the past, there were people whose business had been robbed and wanted to cause trouble in Grandpa Jiang's store, but when they saw Grandpa Jiang's old and frail appearance, they became worried, and they just pushed Grandpa Jiang to death.
Grandpa Jiang was really too thin. He was afraid of the heat in the summer, so he wore a torn vest and big shorts every day and sat on a bamboo recliner, rocking back and forth.
The torn vest was stretched very long after he washed it, and the holes under the armpits allowed people who came to make trouble to clearly see Grandpa Jiang's ribs under the vest, as well as his two skinny and bony legs exposed.
This is all the result of him staying here with Jiang Ning for a year, eating the food from the school cafeteria and the small restaurant across the street. He was even thinner before.
In addition, Wucheng's crackdown has never stopped. There was even a more severe incident where a gunfight broke out with people from an underground casino, and many people were shot. Although they were shop owners and not gangsters, they did not dare to do anything to Grandpa Jiang, and only found some verbal problems with him.
Unfortunately, Grandpa Jiang just sat there like an old monk, lying on the recliner, swaying and looking at them quietly. Then, in his most unfashionable Shuibu dialect, he asked them if they were here to buy clothes. He smiled and said to them, "If you want to buy clothes, choose them yourself. This part is 29.9 yuan, this side is 19.9 yuan, and 12.9 yuan."
The person who came to pick a fight: ...
They didn't understand what Grandpa Jiang said and were looking for trouble in a very aggressive manner. Grandpa Jiang didn't seem to understand either, because there was a police station on the street not far from the school. They didn't dare to smash and cause trouble in Grandpa Jiang's store. Finally, they saw that the clothes in Grandpa Jiang's store were indeed cheap, and two of them bought a piece of clothing each. They then left after making some harsh words.
Grandpa Jiang took the money and continued to lie on the recliner, rocking happily, and did not tell Jiang Ning about this.
After the provincial competition, Jiang Ning was arranged to join the provincial training team. The location of this training was a private high school that had been opened only two years ago in the provincial capital. The hardware conditions were very good in this era, with a brand new boarding dormitory building.
There are still a few people from Wuzhong who have entered the provincial training team this time, but only Jiang Ning is left from No. 1 Middle School.
After that came the national competition, and then she and Song Peifeng entered the winter camp again.
This competition is the best result ever for both Wuzhong and No. 1 Middle School.
Even Jiang Ning himself did not expect that he could reach such a level.
She always thought that she was not very talented in mathematics, physics and chemistry. She thought she had a correct enough understanding of herself, but after her rebirth, she refreshed her understanding of herself again and again.
However, she was very happy to accept this change, accepted that this was a completely different path from her previous life, and enjoyed it.
So in the eyes of others, she has to participate in competitions and write besides studying, and almost all her time is packed with things, leaving her with no time for herself at all, as if there is no fun at all. But she herself enjoys it, enjoying this simple environment, enjoying learning new knowledge every day, and enjoying experiencing a life that is completely different from the rest of the city.
She always felt that people come to this world to experience all the different things in this world: sadness, pain, happiness, family, friendship, love, and everything in this world. This realization also made her completely accept her past. If it weren't for these happy, sad, painful, and dark emotions, perhaps the words she wrote would be even paler.
Because she is willing to accept all the good and bad things the world imposes on her, her eyes are always bright and her aura is always upbeat and cheerful. Whenever you see her, she looks up and glances at you with a smile.
When Song Peifeng was still a teenager, he met such a person. He studied with her every day in the training team and felt the positive energy brought by her magnetic field. It was hard not to be attracted by such a person. Just seeing her every day would make him smile unconsciously and his mood would improve unconsciously.
You can't sense any negative energy from her.
When it was windy, she enjoyed the wind; when it rained, she enjoyed the rain; when it was clear, she enjoyed the sunshine; when it snowed, she looked up at the snowflakes in the light with a smile in her eyes. When she heard a voice and turned to look at him, the orange light seemed to cover her whole body with a layer of warm color, making him unconsciously approach her and walk towards her.
At the end of the year, Shuibu Town was as prosperous and bustling as ever. Many young and middle-aged people who worked outside returned to their hometowns, making Shuibu Town many times more lively than usual.
As soon as Jiang's father and mother got off the minibus from the neighboring city to Shuibu Town, they heard the sound of a loud speaker not far away: "Everything is on sale for thirty-nine, forty-nine, fifty-nine!"
As soon as he arrived in the neighboring city and heard the familiar local accent, the intimacy of returning home filled Jiang Dad's whole body, making him overflow with joy.
Mother Jiang was also very happy. The two got off the car and walked towards Aunt Jiang's shop. The further they walked, the clearer the sound of "Jiangnan Garment Factory, Jiangnan Garment Factory" became. They squeezed through the crowds on the street and saw many people gathered in front of the shop in front of Aunt Jiang's house.
Last year they had heard about the closure of the Jiangnan Garment Factory. Knowing that clothes were sold cheaply here, they stopped buying clothes from the shops on the street below and came to Aunt Jiang's house.
As for why the Jiangnan Garment Factory, which closed down last year, still has clothes to sell this year, why do you care so much? As long as the clothes are good and the price is really cheap, that's fine.
However, this year's clothes are not the backlog of inventory from last year. Although they are also left over from this year's order meeting, if they are not sent to Jiang Ning this year, they will also be backlog of inventory next year. But after all, they are new models this year. The price is slightly more expensive than last year, but when it is distributed to each piece, it is not much more expensive.
The clothes were all shipped by train. Although it took a longer time, the freight was much cheaper than going to Guangzhou to pick and choose the goods and then having them sold through middlemen in the wholesale market. Therefore, Jiang Bai and his friends still made some profit.
Yes, Jiang Bai also had a holiday. After the holiday, he did not stay in Shanghai for a single day. He and Tong Jingang went to various market towns to sell clothes at the end of the year.
Now he has grown to 1.83 meters tall, almost catching up with Jiang's father's height. In this southern city, he is considered a rare tall man. He and Tong Jingang stood in the crowd. Even though they were surrounded by people buying clothes, Jiang's father still spotted Jiang Bai in the crowd at a glance.
He and Jiang Ma walked to Aunt Jiang's yard and put the things in the middle of Aunt Jiang's stairs to prevent guests from outside from sneaking in and stealing things.
When Aunt Jiang saw Jiang's father and mother, she shouted enthusiastically, "Second brother and second sister-in-law are back? When did you arrive? Are you tired? Come over here and have a drink of water!"
The end of the year is also the busiest time for Aunt Jiang.
Aunt Jiang had a gentle personality. During those years when the Jiang family was in debt and had no money even for the New Year, Aunt Jiang often gave money secretly to Jiang's mother.
Therefore, Jiang Ma and Aunt Jiang have a very good relationship. When she came back this time, she forgot to buy anything for Aunt Jiang. Now when she saw Aunt Jiang, she remembered that she should buy a piece of clothing for Aunt Jiang as well.
Jiang Ma has always been hardworking and simple. She quickly stood up to stop Aunt Jiang and said, "You just do your thing. We can just pour the water ourselves. You've been so busy during the New Year, and you still want to entertain us. We don't need you to worry about us. Just do your thing."
Aunt Jiang set up a small table under the corridor of the yard and put a small bowl of young ginger, coriander and dried radish that she had pickled herself. The coriander and dried radish were wrapped in red oil and black sesame seeds, which looked fragrant.
She took two pairs of chopsticks and gave them to Jiang's father and mother, asking them to drink tea and eat some food here. She went to the front to busy herself again, and even took the time to shout: "Baizi, your parents are back!"
Jiang Bai was busy selling clothes and collecting money. He just looked back and replied, "Oh." Then he continued to work.
Jiang's father and mother ate a few bites of food, drank a sip of tea, and then returned to the shop in front. From the back, they could not see Jiang Bai's appearance in front, but they could see from the back that Jiang Bai was wearing brand new clothes and shoes, a woolen hat on his head, a scarf around his neck, dark blue jeans on his legs, and a thick long down jacket. He stood straight, and calmly and composedly did business with the people surrounding him.
He looked at her awkwardly for a while and asked Aunt Jiang, "What's going on? Is Baizi helping you sell clothes?"
Aunt Jiang took a break from her busy schedule to answer Jiang's father, "How could they help me sell? They helped him sell his own clothes! I don't know where these two kids got a batch of clothes from, and they had nowhere to go, so they came to my door to sell them." She smiled from ear to ear and said, "They even helped boost the business of my store."
Her shop is located a little lower at a four-way intersection, so business is usually not very good. Everyone prefers to go to the street leading to the river pier, and few people come here.
Now, because Jiang Bai sells clothes here, it attracts a large wave of traffic.
Father Jiang looked at the crowds of people coming and going and asked in surprise, "Business is so good?"
He sold lunch boxes himself, and he knew that his net profit for each lunch box was 30 cents, and 30 cents for 100 lunch boxes. He even raised the price to 1.5 yuan per box at the end of the year, but he added a piece of greasy pork sliced with pickled mustard greens that was neither too thin nor too thick. He and Jiang Ma sold the boxes separately, and they could sell more than 2,000 lunch boxes at the train station every day. They still had business at 9 or 10 o'clock at night. Although it was a bit tiring, the two of them made a net profit of 800 to 900 yuan a day. During the Spring Festival travel rush at the end of the year alone, he and Jiang Ma made nearly 20,000 yuan.
He looked at Jiang Bai's clothing business and thought that even if he sold fifty pieces of clothing a day, that would be a lot.
She smiled helplessly and said, "How can these two kids know how to run a business? They only make 50 cents or 1 yuan for a piece of clothing, and they clearly mark the price. If you don't pay, you won't return it. Look at which store on the street doesn't list 100 or 200 yuan at the end of the year? They are honest, otherwise how could their business be so good? With them around, fewer people go to that side of the street to buy clothes."
Which family doesn’t want to buy clothes during the Chinese New Year? Especially the people from the villages below, word spread like wildfire, and after arriving in the town, they no longer bought clothes on that street, but directly crossed the street to come to her shop.
Her place is easy to recognize, as it is opposite the bus stop for Wucheng. Many people coming back from Wucheng, after getting off the bus and hearing the shouting from the loud speaker, go straight to her store.
Jiang's father and mother did some calculations and found that the clothes sold by Jiang Bai were only a few yuan more expensive than those they bought at the wholesale market in Shenzhen. The purchase price here was probably much higher than that in Shenzhen, so they only made fifty cents or one yuan for a piece of clothing.
Father Jiang thought that if he also brought a bag of clothes back from Shenzhen to sell during the Chinese New Year, plus the shipping fee, his clothes would have to be twenty yuan more expensive than Jiang Bai's in order to make a profit.
It’s not that he didn’t want to bring back clothes to sell, but the biggest thing he had to do this time was to build a big building, and he had no time to do anything else.
Moreover, he and Jiang Ma earned nearly 100,000 yuan in Shenzhen this year. In that era, nearly 100,000 yuan was not only the only one in the village, but also a very good fortune.
Like Uncle Jiang's family, four strong laborers work hard to build houses for others in their hometown, working in wind and rain. If they can save 20,000 yuan a year, it is considered a lot.
He had earned so much money this year, and he had thought that when he came back he would be greeted by his children's admiring gazes and the joy of getting new clothes. However, his youngest son was busy selling clothes to make money and didn't even look at them. This feeling of being left out made Dad Jiang feel lost.
He wanted to talk to his youngest son, but he was too busy to talk to him. He finally squeezed in and wanted to say a few words, but his youngest son looked at him coldly and said, "I'm busy with business. Can't we talk about it when we get home?"
His cold eyes and words were like a bucket of cold water poured on Jiang's father's head.
At this time, he and Jiang's mother missed Jiang Song more and more.
Unlike Jiang Bai, who was quiet and unsociable since childhood, Jiang Song always gave them the most enthusiastic response. If it were Jiang Song, he would come over and hug them enthusiastically at this time, and then comfort them with a smile while hugging them, saying: "Dad! Mom! You go home and have a rest first. When I'm done here, I'll go back and cook a big meal for you and buy you new clothes and shoes!"
There must be a bold, confident and enthusiastic smile on the face.
Although he had never cooked a big meal for them or bought them new clothes or shoes, they believed that as long as Jiang Song earned money, he would buy them those things.
Jiang's mother didn't care about Jiang Bai's indifference. She just thought that since Jiang Bai knew he could earn money this year, could they pay less for next year's tuition? He can already earn money on his own, so do they no longer need to give him living expenses?
She didn't feel the emptiness in Jiang's father's heart at all. When she saw that the time was almost up, she went to the middle staircase upstairs and took out a bag of cured chicken legs and duck legs weighing about four or five pounds in a plastic bag and gave it to Aunt Jiang.
Aunt Jiang thought it was something else, but when she opened it, it turned out to be several kilograms of bacon. She looked at Jiang Ma in surprise: "Where did you get so much bacon?"
These bacon can be steamed or fried, and can provide Aunt Jiang's family with several meals.
In the early stage, the bacon was pickled by Jiang's mother herself. Later, Jiang's father thought her pickling was not fragrant enough, so he did it himself. When Aunt Jiang opened it, a salty and fragrant smell came to her face.
Aunt Jiang was also very happy. Although her family lived in the town, her parents-in-law bought chickens, ducks, geese and fish to sell every day, so her family never lacked meat.
Because they were reluctant to throw away any sick or dead chickens, ducks and geese, and they all ate them themselves. Aunt Jiang was really scared of eating the meat, but she was kind to her brother's family, and her sister-in-law appreciated it and was willing to give her something in return, so of course she was happy.
Mother Jiang told Aunt Jiang how she cut a piece of meat from the chicken legs and duck legs every day, saving up little by little until she made these pieces of salted bacon.
Aunt Jiang has long known that her sister-in-law is stingy, but she has never heard of anyone being so stingy. She doesn't think there is anything wrong with Aunt Jiang's behavior. Her brother spends money lavishly, and her sister-in-law happens to be in charge of him. Only someone who knows how to manage life like her sister-in-law can help her brother's family get through the most difficult and hard times.
Aunt Jiang sighed, "It's really not easy for you. My brother is lucky to have you around, so the family doesn't break up."
If it were another woman, she would have run away long ago if her husband owed so much debt. She would never have been willing to accompany Jiang Dad through so many years of hardship.
She said to Jiang's mother with emotion: "It's fine now, I've gotten through it." She also asked about how her life was outside this year.
Jiang's father and mother have been in debt and looked down upon over the years, and have been very depressed. They may not tell others about the money they earned, but they all trust Aunt Jiang very much, and they all whispered to Aunt Jiang about their income for the year.
Jiang's father wanted to say directly that he earned nearly 100,000 yuan, but Jiang's mother was still cautious and did not say the specific number. She just said that business was good at the end of the year and he earned tens of thousands of yuan.
Twenty thousand yuan is also tens of thousands, thirty thousand yuan is also tens of thousands. Aunt Jiang only thought that the couple earned twenty or thirty thousand this year, which is not a small income. Uncle Jiang and Uncle Jiang only earn five or six thousand yuan a year from building houses for others. This is the income from the construction of the new street this year. In previous years, it was considered good to have two or three thousand yuan.
Aunt Jiang advised Jiang's father: "Hurry up and build the house when you make money. The two children are grown up now. Songzi will get married in the next two years, right? If you have a house at home, it will be more attractive for other girls to come and see it."
Father Jiang said, "Why do you need to tell me that? We came back this time to finish building the house before we leave." He then asked Aunt Jiang, "Has Songzi come back this year?"
"I don't know yet. Songzi hasn't come to me yet." Aunt Jiang looked at Jiang's father and mother in surprise: "Has Songzi not been found yet?"
Jiang's father and mother, who had been happy about making money this year, now had a look of sorrow on their faces and sighed, "Alas, I don't know where this child has gone. He didn't come home and didn't even call. I don't know if he doesn't know the phone number of the brigade headquarters."
At this time, Jiang's father did not know that Jiang Hehua was arrested by the police because of spreading obscene rumors about Jiang Ning and because Jiang Ning was verbally humiliated by a classmate from No. 1 Middle School. She was caught in the crackdown and sentenced to three years in prison.
He thought the matter had been resolved long ago.
Seeing that Jiang Bai was busy and not very friendly to him and Jiang Ma, Jiang's father and Jiang Ma went home by boat.
They all secretly hoped that Jiang Song had already returned home. They had been looking for him for a year and now it was the New Year. He didn't go home for the New Year last year, so he couldn't possibly not come back this year, right?
Because he made money, he felt confident. When he met people from the same team on the boat, Dad Jiang regained some of his youthful vigor and vitality, with a genuine and bright smile on his face. Everyone knew at a glance that the big guy must have made money this year.
Mother Jiang was afraid that Father Jiang would show off and tell others how much money he earned, and then people would inevitably come to borrow money from them.
Fortunately, Jiang's father was not stupid. When others asked him how much money he made, he laughed and said, "How can I earn money? I just do hard labor to make a living. It's just that I have debts from previous years. Now, whatever money I earn is my own."
Everyone thought it made sense and stopped asking questions.
The boat finally arrived at Xujia Village. After getting off the boat, Jiang's father carried a load of things on his shoulder and hurried home. Jiang's mother also carried a large box.
When I finally got home and looked at my house, I was dumbfounded.
The waterproof platform in front of their house was covered with wormwood and weeds more than one meter tall, so dense that it looked like a wasteland. The door knocker was rusty. Probably he had hardly been back for the whole year. He found the key and pushed open the door. There was a thick layer of dust inside. Because no one lived there, the broken tiles on the roof were cracked and no one had repaired them. The rainwater had dripped onto the ground, forming a small puddle.
They thought that even if Jiang Song hadn't come back yet, Grandpa Jiang and Jiang Ning were at least there, right? Jiang Bai will come back during the winter vacation, right? No matter how good the home was, it was clean and had food and hot water. However, they never knew that when they returned home, what greeted them was not the surprise and enthusiasm from their children as they had imagined, but such a cold and dilapidated scene.
After they put down their things, Mother Jiang took two pounds of cured chicken legs and went to Uncle Jiang's house.
Uncle Jiang's family has three sons and a daughter-in-law. This year they also had a granddaughter. Aunt Jiang, who had always wanted a daughter, was so happy that she held the little granddaughter tightly and refused to let go. The whole family was teasing the little granddaughter and making her babbling.
She has a gentle and kind personality, and she never bullies her daughter-in-law. Although her eldest son and daughter-in-law have separated, the two houses are connected, and even the stairs in the middle are shared. The family is lively and the house is full of the atmosphere of home, which is in sharp contrast to the coldness of Jiang's father's house.
When they saw Jiang's father and mother, they shouted in surprise: "Guoping and Ailian are back?"
Father Jiang looked at his eldest brother's house full of children and grandchildren. It was New Year's Day, so he should have smiled, but he couldn't. He asked Aunt Jiang, "Sister-in-law, where are Dad and the others? There's no one at home. Didn't Dad and Ningning come back?"
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