Chapter 122 Preparing Dowry
As soon as the admission notice is received, grades become a topic that adults will inevitably talk about. No matter whether you understand them or not, whether you can read or not, everyone knows that if you study well, you will get a perfect score. If you don’t study well, you will fail and have to repeat the grade.
There are not many children attending primary school in Lujiazui, but there are quite a few if you add up the grades. There are three children from Wen Wan's class here. Among the three children, Zhou Dongmei performed the best, Liu Da'an performed in the middle, and Zhou Jianmin performed the worst.
Because he failed the exam and had to repeat the grade, Zhou Guicai and his wife were almost mad with anger. It was such a disgrace to their ancestors. He had to repeat the second grade of elementary school. What was the difference between him and that idiot Lu Donglin from Lu Mingjiang's family?
Zhou Jianmin was scolded to the point of tears and snot streaming down his face. Then he heard his mother ask him, "Where's Lu Donglin? Is he repeating the grade again?"
Zhou Jianmin cried and said, "No, he didn't stay. He's going to the fourth grade."
What?
Zhou Guicai's wife couldn't believe her ears. That idiot from Lu Mingjiang's family was promoted, but her own child was held back? Was he even worse than Lu Donglin?
No, she has always looked down on Lu Donglin in public and in private, gossiping about him all the time. How could her son be worse than him? Isn't this like slapping herself in the face?
He was so angry that he beat Zhou Jianmin severely with a bamboo stick.
After the couple went to bed, she muttered to Zhou Guicai, "Lu Donglin was able to pass the exam and get into the fourth grade. I heard that Wen Wan was the one who tutored him. Why did our Zhou Jianmin have to repeat the grade? This is a student in her class. She only teaches Lu Donglin and ignores the students in her own class."
Zhou Guicai said, "You can't say that. Having a teacher at home definitely has its advantages, and you can't say they're not dedicated to teaching the child. Didn't An Wazi from Liu Chaoxing's family do well in the exam? And Dongmei from Zhou Minghong's family, I heard she even got a perfect score."
His wife still insisted on her own idea: "Then why did our Zhou Jianmin pass the exams last semester and fail this semester? Can his brain still grow and change?"
"Why don't you say he didn't study hard this semester? What's in your heads, you women? There are only about 20 students in a class, how can anyone get 100 points? The teacher must have taught everything he should have taught. If you don't study well, just be strict and study hard. Why are you blaming the teacher? If you don't study well, then give me a good beating. Talents are born under the golden bars. If you can't become talented, then just quit as soon as possible. You can still earn a few work points when you come back. You're just wasting your time just slacking off in school all day long."
Zhou Guicai's wife remained silent, but she felt increasingly dissatisfied. She believed her son was her own son, and if he didn't learn well, it was because the teacher didn't teach him well. That was it, absolutely right!
Not to mention how she gossiped behind the team's back, since Lu Donglin planned to study hard, Wen Wan would naturally help him.
"Is there a lot of homework assigned during the summer vacation?"
Lu Donglin didn't want to say much, but thinking about the oath he had made before not to lie, he hesitated for a moment and answered honestly based on his feelings.
“It’s a bit much.”
He had to copy the new words at the back of the textbook, form words, and also excerpt some texts. It was his fault for not passing the exam!
He is a person who cannot sit still. What he fears most is copying over and over again. This homework is simply painful.
Wen Wan asked him while doing needlework: "Then make a plan and see when you can finish these homework if you work hard."
Lu Donglin looked at her with a puzzled look on his face. What was she doing? He had a bad feeling.
"I've finished my homework. I'll make you a study plan based on the remaining time. This will help you build a solid foundation and ensure a smooth transition to fourth grade."
Lu Donglin leaned over the table and nodded, his eyes fixed on the snow-white insole with flowers in her hand: "Sister, what is this?"
"insole."
Lu Donglin took another look at it, but couldn't figure out what it was used for.
It looks like a shoe sole, but it's very thin and nice looking.
Anyway, he has never seen it.
Everyone in his family wore thousand-layer cloth and straw sandals in the summer. He had never heard of insoles and had never seen anyone use them.
Wen Wan glanced at him and said, "Why are you always staring at my hands? Hurry up and do your homework."
"Sister, what are insoles used for?"
"It's just for padding inside shoes."
Lu Donglin was stunned for a moment. Wow, a shoe insert? How could he bear to walk with such a beautiful thing under his stinky feet? The insole in Wen Wan's hand was almost finished. The front of the insole was filled with a red double happiness cross, and the heel was the same. In the middle, a cluster of lotus flowers was carefully embroidered.
The colorful silk threads contrasted with the snow-white insoles. No one, not even a child like Lu Donglin, had ever seen such a method. Only the older generation, whose families were better off and more particular about their craft, had seen this.
By the evening, one was ready. Zhang Hongying took it and turned it over in her hands for a long time, then smiled and said, "Earlier, I thought it would be great to have two pairs of cloth shoes to wear alternately every year, so that my toes wouldn't stick out and my soles wouldn't touch the ground. But I never thought my feet would be so blessed now."
Even if this wasn't made for her, it still opened her eyes.
Wen Wan said, "I don't know how to make shoes, so I can only make this. I'll go to the county town and see if there are any suitable shoes to buy him another pair. Then I'll use this as a cushion so he can wear it during the banquet."
This is really exquisite. Zhang Hongying really doesn't know what to say. She can't say anything. She has to wear this thing on her son's feet anyway.
She thought about it for a few times before speaking: "Didn't you buy him shoes last time? It would be nice to wear them at the wedding. New shoes, bought from the county department store, and new clothes, very decent."
Wen Wan didn't take her words to heart. She took the insole from her hand and said, "That's just a thought. We'll talk about it later. But I still have to go to the county town. I can't be getting married without anything. You guys fixed up the house and made the furniture, so I have to buy one or two new things. When I left, the elders gave me a radio ticket, and my seventh brother sent me a sewing machine ticket a few days ago. My dad sent me some money, so I plan to go to the county town to withdraw the money and see if there's anything suitable to buy."
Radio? Sewing machine?
Zhang Hongying was stunned by what she heard. These two items were extremely valuable. She had never seen a radio before, but she had heard that it could produce all kinds of sounds. It was just a small piece of iron that ran on batteries, so you could listen to it whenever you wanted. She had seen a sewing machine before. She had visited the home of the brigade secretary, Zhao Ping'an, when he was looking for a daughter-in-law. There was already a sewing machine there, and he treated it like a treasure, saying it was incredibly expensive.
"Can you use a radio and a sewing machine?" Those things are good, but if you don't know how to use them, they will just be decorations!
Wen Wan nodded: "Yes, with a sewing machine, it's very convenient to mend clothes or do anything else. I can just press the pedal and it will sew straight away. There's no need to sew stitch by stitch. As for the radio, I've been using it since I was a child."
Zhang Hongying looked complicated after hearing this and turned around to discuss it with Gao Xiulan.
On the one hand, she knew that the family was about to get a very expensive item, and she was a little excited. She had to find someone to talk to. If she didn't, she would always feel uneasy. On the other hand, she wanted to ask Gao Xiulan if she knew how much the two items cost. She just heard people say how expensive they were, so she would have a rough idea of how expensive they were.
Gao Xiulan was stunned for a long time after hearing what she said. "Wen Wan is really something. I also heard that in cities nowadays, the fashion is to have something called "three turns and one ring, forty-eight legs". Bicycles, watches, sewing machines, radios. Forty-eight legs are furniture such as beds, wardrobes, dining tables, and chairs. Just saying this, it's not easy to buy all this. You know how tight housing is in the city. A family of ten or eight people squeezed together is not as spacious and comfortable as ours in the mountains. There is no place to live here, so how can we afford to accommodate forty-eight legs? We're lucky to be able to accommodate two legs for the family."
"Not to mention this three-turn, one-ring sewing machine. I heard that one cost over a hundred yuan. I saw Wen Wan had a watch, didn't she? Dongcheng also bought one for Shengxia when they got married. He asked someone to bring it back for him. I heard it cost over eighty yuan."
"Well, well, sister-in-law, what are you talking about? She already has a watch, and we don't understand it. Dongping didn't buy her one. And she bought a sewing machine and a radio. How much will it cost? I'm afraid we can't even afford to buy one of them if we just renovate the house and make furniture."
Originally, she thought that her family had done everything from renovating the house and making furniture to marry such a daughter-in-law, and they were the best in the area. No matter how good Wen Wan's conditions were, her family had done everything they should have, so she had nothing to complain about.
But at this moment, she suddenly felt unsure.
"Sister-in-law, why is my heart pounding? Didn't you say that in the city, men buy things for women? How come she bought it herself?"
They spent so much money, and if something goes wrong later, not only Lu Dongping, but the whole family will be speechless.
Gao Xiulan laughed at her: "Why are you beating so fast? Are you excited?" This really is a rich man she married.
"Should I talk to Dongping and ask him what he means?"
"What do you mean?" Gao Xiulan didn't understand.
"Wen Wan said that the adults in her family sent her money. What do you think? Should I also add some money? Otherwise, I will never feel at ease." I always felt like I had taken advantage of a huge opportunity and felt uneasy.
Gao Xiulan laughed: "Look at you, you're about to talk about your daughter-in-law, but why are you still the same as before, so naive and can't hold anything in your heart."
Zhang Hongying said, "That's because you're such a kind person, sister-in-law. You always think of us in everything. You always have an idea. Even if I don't have an idea, I feel more at ease when I talk to you. I'll discuss it with the father and son and see how to do it. It's our intention after all, no matter how much or how little."
Gao Xiulan nodded: "That's fine, this is how life is. If she is willing to give one cent, you can't be stingy with the other eight cents. It's better to have everything in place."
Zhang Hongying was a person who couldn't let go of the matter, so she told Lu Mingjiang about it in the evening.
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