The director had thought about this problem before he came to see Xia Juhua. He wanted Xia Juhua to help fry the sugar-coated peanuts. Preparing goods for the New Year was secondary. The main purpose was to increase his own performance. The commune supply and marketing cooperative was under the leadership of the county supply and marketing cooperative. Its daily tasks were not only to sell the oil, salt, sauce and vinegar needed by the farmers, but also to purchase the local products of the commune.
The director had been in office for several years. Due to supply problems, the sales task was limited to selling whatever was available, and the purchasing task was even more difficult: the production and planting tasks of all communes in Pingde County were similar, and there was no difference in the products produced. After the farmers had harvested the public grain, they did not have enough food, and there was no local product to sell to the supply and marketing cooperative.
Usually, only a few eggs can be collected. Ordinary people will exchange them with private individuals if they can, and are unwilling to go to the supply and marketing cooperatives. There is no other way. Who made the supply and marketing cooperatives' purchase price too low?
If we can't collect anything, it will be embarrassing when we hand in the tasks. The director is trying to transfer back to the county supply and marketing cooperative, and he is eager to come up with something different from other commune supply and marketing cooperatives.
After he tasted Xia Juhua's fried sugar-coated peanuts, he thought it was a good idea - although sugar-coated peanuts don't sound very new, it's not easy to cook them to Xia Juhua's level. The director thought that since the brigades had just handed in their rations, he could get some peanuts from the grain station chief based on his relationship with him.
Other supply and marketing companies sell raw peanuts, but Red Star Supply and Marketing Company sells frosted peanuts. Are they outstanding?!
The director, who was eager to get this done, listened to Xia Juhua's concerns and didn't take them seriously at all: "It's okay, I'll send someone to tell your team leader to tell your production team not to assign you work recently. Don't worry, your help will not be in vain. I'll give you a subsidy of 1.5 cents per kilogram of peanuts. How about that?"
Of course. Xia Juhua knew she had to take on this job without even having to calculate the bill. She smiled and nodded before she remembered, "Director, our family only got five or six kilograms of peanuts this year. Otherwise, don't calculate the money."
She was so honest that the director laughed: "You are so honest, what good are those peanuts of yours? You don't have to worry about the peanuts and sugar. You just have to make sure they taste the same when you fry them."
Xia Juhua nodded earnestly and assured the director again. Finally, the director told Xia Juhua that once the matter was settled, Wang Caixia would be responsible for delivering the raw materials to Xia Juhua.
Even as they sat on the bullock cart, Xia Juhua's smile hadn't faded away. Xia Long also found it a little unbelievable: "Sister, when did you learn how to cook this?"
When, when I was taking care of those little ancestors in my last life! When the land was first distributed to each household, the money was still tight, and the little ancestors were greedy, so Xia Juhua thought a lot about making snacks for them. Otherwise, Xia Juhua would not be so desperate because her eldest grandson pushed her out of the house.
The truth is that she has paid too much for those little ancestors, but the rewards she got are too disappointing.
Thinking of this, the smile on Xia Juhua's face had long disappeared, replaced by loneliness. Seeing that her sister had not spoken for a while and had stopped smiling, Xia Long said worriedly: "Sister, what's the matter? If you can't tell me, I won't ask. Anyway, it's okay to have some skills. You are not selling them yourself, you are working for the supply and marketing cooperative."
The clumsy persuasion could not hide the brother's genuine concern for her. Xia Juhua cheered up: "That's right, the craft is in my own hands. When can I let myself ..."
Xia Long was so scared that he wanted to cover his sister's mouth. Why did she say that again?
Xia Long's expression changed so obviously that Xia Juhua realized that she had said it too easily and tried to smooth it over with embarrassment: "When I am single, I will cook a few hot pots for you guys."
"Okay, there's nothing wrong with that." Xia Long didn't dare to ask any more questions, and Xia Juhua also began to think carefully about her future path.
The house cannot be divided for the time being, and the two daughters-in-law are estimated to be well behaved for a while. When they want to make trouble again, Xia Juhua thinks that she can earn some money just by frying peanuts. Then she can use the money to trick them, and maybe they will be well behaved again.
It's not that Xia Juhua looks down on her two daughters-in-law, but that's how those two behaved in their previous lives: when the two families were building a house together, everyone came to Xia Juhua and said that money was tight, and everyone was concerned about Xia Juhua and smiled at her.
Thinking of how her two daughters-in-law were thinking about her money but not daring to ask for it directly, Xia Juhua felt better again. Just then, a bullock cart passed by the state-owned hotel, and Xia Juhua hurriedly asked Xia Long to stop.
Seeing that his sister was about to go into the hotel, Xia Long quickly parked the bullock cart on the side of the road and said, "Sister, what do you want to eat? I'll buy it for you."
"No need, I'll buy it for you today." Xia Juhua touched the money in her pocket and wanted to treat her brother to something to eat.
"You've made a lot of money, enough to pay for a hotel, but why don't you remember to respect your elders?" An abrupt voice came at an inopportune time.
The voice was somewhat similar to Sun Hongmei's, and Xia Juhua knew who it was without turning around. What puzzled her was why this person appeared here.
Xia Long also recognized Sun Guizhi. He did not have a good impression of his sister's sister-in-law: Sun Guizhi played an indispensable role in his sister's separation from the old Liu family. So neither of the siblings paid any attention to Sun Guizhi. On the contrary, because of her appearance, Xia Juhua did not have to argue with Xia Long anymore and went straight into the hotel.
Sun Guizhi also spoke in such a weird tone in Ping'an Village, which always attracted some bored people to watch. She then used the mouths of the onlookers to squeeze out the people she was mocking so that they could not speak.
Who would have thought that none of the Xia siblings would pay any attention to her today. How is this different from when you're arguing and you jump up high while others don't even look at you?
"You are too guilty to speak?" Sun Guizhi was unwilling to give up and punched the cotton field. She raised her voice a few notches: "As a daughter-in-law, she runs her own restaurant but never supports her mother-in-law. She is not afraid of food going through her ribs."
When passers-by saw Sun Guizhi making trouble, they looked at her with some curiosity, which made Sun Guizhi feel like she was stirring up trouble in Ping An Village: "Everyone, look at this unfilial daughter-in-law. She is not afraid of being struck by lightning for eating alone!"
Several people stopped in their tracks. They were curious about the fact that the man in front of Sun Guizhi was a grown man, but he was cursing his daughter-in-law. Could it be that this man was the husband of the daughter-in-law she was talking about? That was not right. If this man was really the husband of the daughter-in-law, shouldn't he be cursed even more?
After all, a daughter-in-law is filial to her mother-in-law largely because the mother-in-law gave birth to and raised her husband. If the daughter-in-law is unfilial, the husband is the one who should take care of her the most.
Xia Juhua could also hear Sun Guizhi's scolding in the hotel, and knew that she would not be able to have a peaceful meal with Xia Long today. She counted the food coupons she brought with her and simply bought all of them as buns.
When Sun Guizhi came out with the buns, Xia Juhua asked before she stopped talking: "You keep saying that I am disobedient to my mother-in-law. Are you my mother-in-law?"
Her question was very calm, but everyone who stopped to watch the excitement laughed.
There's no way. Years of hard work have made Xia Juhua look older than her peers. She looks much older than Sun Guizhi. It's a bit of a stretch to say that she is Sun Guizhi's mother-in-law, but it's even less likely that Sun Guizhi is Xia Juhua's mother-in-law.
Sun Guizhi didn't expect Xia Juhua to ask such a tricky question, and she was choked up all of a sudden. She dared to make trouble for Xia Juhua in front of her brothers from her mother's family because she was sure that no matter what happened to Xia Juhua, she wouldn't need to speak to anyone to explain, let alone argue with anyone. Now Xia Juhua spoke up and asked such a wicked question.
Does she look that old?
Who is Sun Guizhi? She was used to making a lot of noise in Ping'an Village. She was choked and immediately found an excuse: "I am not your mother-in-law, but your sister-in-law. All these years, mother-in-law has been supported by our three families, but you don't care about her at all. You have never given her a grain of food and you don't even look at her. I finally met you, but can't I ask you for your mother-in-law?"
Seeing this woman confuse right and wrong, Xia Long put the buns on the cart and wanted to go up to her to reason with her, but was stopped by Xia Juhua. She looked at Sun Guizhi jumping up and down with a cold face, and when she calmed down a little, she asked again: "Why haven't I ever given a grain of food to my mother-in-law? Don't you know?"
Sun Guizhi choked again, and seeing the lively crowd, she discovered the trick: the person being scolded seemed passive, but a single word could make the scolder stunned for a while, as if he was not feeling guilty. Moreover, the scolder had been scolding for such a long time, and if you listened carefully, you could not find any more content, nor did you cite any strong evidence.
"You are just unfilial, so what else is there for me?" Sun Guizhi finally came up with this sentence.
Xia Juhua didn't even look at Sun Guizhi. Instead, she glanced at the people watching the excitement and said to everyone, "She can't explain why I haven't given a grain of food to my mother-in-law in all these years. I said."
"We are both from Ping'an Village, so maybe someone knows us. It doesn't matter if you don't know us, you can ask around and you will know if what I said is true. My name is Xia Juhua, and the man who died was Liu Dazhuang. When my husband died, I was just 30 years old, my eldest son was only 11 years old, and my youngest son was almost 9 years old."
"When my husband died, I felt like the sky had fallen and I wanted to follow him. But I still have two sons and I can't take them with me to die. I can't let my husband die without a family line. So I can only pull my children and move on with my eyes closed."
"Who knew that when my child and I held a funeral for his father on the seventh day, we came back to see that the house was completely washed out and everything was gone. It turned out that my mother-in-law and my youngest brother-in-law and his wife had moved all the things in our room away. How could we live like this? We had no choice but to ask the production team for help. They made the decision for me to separate from the Liu family."
"The family was divided, but the Liu family didn't give us any food except for our clothes and blankets. They also didn't allow us to live there anymore. We had no choice but to live in the shed of the production team."
"The three of us lived in a shack that was drafty in winter and leaky in summer for five years. Then with the help of my two natal brothers, we built three rooms, which gave us a place to stay."
"Over the years, people in Pingan Village have nicknamed me Xia Xiaohuo. I know this nickname doesn't sound good. But if I don't treat myself as a man, what will happen to my two sons? My sister-in-law said that I should give food to my mother-in-law, but should my sons starve to death?!"