Chapter 71: Stupid
"Why is it different? And why is it different all of a sudden?"
Lu Dongping said: "I find that you are very open-minded and generous now."
Zhang Hongying was stunned for a moment and snorted, "I used to be very calculative and stingy?"
Lu Dongping raised an eyebrow but didn't respond, because it was true in the past. There was nothing wrong with it, after all, all the women in the team were like this. To make a living, they naturally had to be frugal, otherwise how could they get by?
Zhang Hongying leaned against the wall. "I don't think I'm being generous. It's because of you. You're attracted to a girl from outside whose family is so well-off. If you want her to stay, you have to have a reason to make her stay. Otherwise, she's not blind or crippled, so how could she be with you? Besides, people interact with each other in a give-and-take manner. Wen Wan herself is a generous person who doesn't like to take advantage of others or care about things, so naturally I can be more generous with her. If I met someone who cares about things, I wouldn't be able to do that. Otherwise, how can I live my life?"
Raising a child for a hundred years means worrying about him for ninety-nine years. Children are a debt to you!
Lu Dongping smiled and said, "I'm sorry for causing trouble for you and Dad."
Zhang Hongying was stunned for a moment, then looked impatient: "Go away! Go away! What are you singing about?"
Are you not used to this? It's hard to be a good person. I'd better be a bit of a jerk in the future.
He touched his nose and was about to leave the kitchen when Zhang Hongying called him back: "Hey! I told you about that thing in heaven, did you ask?"
Lu Dongping was stunned for a moment and didn't understand what she meant.
Seeing that everyone was asleep and that they were the only ones in the kitchen, Zhang Hongying simply said to him, "You're so clueless? Are you worried about Wen Wan teaching?"
"Oh, I've let it go. How can I not let go of my partner's affairs? God has asked me about this. I have to find time to go and have a thorough discussion with him about this matter."
Study it, that is, you have to give cigarettes and alcohol, no matter when, when asking someone for help, these things are always indispensable, just for the sake of face and greeting? How much is face worth? He is just a small clerk, and greeting is useless. Only by putting benefits into practice can things be done.
"Just keep in mind what's going on. If we don't find a way to give her some easy work, I'm worried she won't make it past May or June."
Lu Dongping raised his eyebrows.
Zhang Hongying continued, "Today, I went with Chun'e and the others to collect pig grass. She used that basket and worked all afternoon, carrying a full basket of pig grass. We almost didn't make it to the pig farm. She said she sat down on the ground as soon as she got there, gasping for breath and retching."
Lu Dongping stood at the door for a while with his lips pursed. "Tomorrow, ask her tomorrow. If she still wants to pull it, let her carry the big backpack at home. When she's done, I'll come back and give it to her."
"Then it's up to you. I don't want to bother with your business."
Lu Dongping smiled but said nothing. He walked back into the house, his mind already at the educated youth camp. Being unmarried was always inconvenient, but if he were married, he'd be right in front of her, and he'd be able to see at a glance whether she was a good person or not.
The next day he got up very early, but no one was there. Wen Wan and the others were halfway through their meal when he came back.
Zhang Hongying called out to him, "Where have you been so early this morning? Aren't you going to the commune?"
"Go, why not?" Lu Dongping scooped up some rice and carried it to sit in front of Wen Wan. He asked her in a low voice, "Are you still going to pick pig grass today?"
Wen Wan nodded, "I'll go." Work points were a minor matter, but face was a major one, and the two were incredibly closely related. If work points didn't meet the standard at the end of the year, and you had to pay the team back for the extra rations you received, you would be laughed at by the entire team.
She never thought of being an advanced activist, but she couldn't be at the bottom either!
"Can you carry it?"
Wen Wan spoke frankly: "It's quite heavy. I feel like the backpack is rolling around on my body. It's not stable at all."
Lu Dongping smiled, took two mouthfuls of rice, and then said, "Did my mother tell you that I'm carrying our big backpack today?"
"What?" Wen Wan suspected that she had heard it wrong. She couldn't even carry the small one, how could she carry the big one?
Lu Dongping continued to talk to her, "I'm telling you, your backpack is a little small, so one work point isn't worth it at all. After dinner, you can come with my mother and carry our big backpack. Pull it hard, and when it's full, leave it there. When I come back from the commune, I'll carry it for you."
"Ah?" Wen Wan bit the spoon and looked at him, shaking her head: "No need, just do your thing. I'll just carry as much as I can!"
Lu Dongping: ——Rejected?
After dinner, he continued to try to persuade Wen Wan: "You've been busy all day, exhausted, and only got one work point. You might as well do what I say today and take a day off tomorrow. Don't you still have to write a letter home? You've been out all day, and it's dark when you get home after dinner. How will you have time to write a letter? We're going to the county town on Sunday."
"Writing a letter is such a simple thing, why do we need to choose a special time?"
Well, I still can't convince you.
It doesn’t matter whether she is old or young, I will try to come back early in the afternoon to help her deliver pig feed.
There was no time to delay any longer, as he had other things to do. He took a bag from the house and called out to Zhang Hongying, "Mom, I'm leaving!" He waved to Wen Wan and left the yard.
After leaving the yard, he did not take the usual route, but ran to the woods behind the house. After staying in the woods for a while, he slid down from the beam. His pockets were bulging with things, and he was moving them around. It was obvious that he had gotten something good.
On Saturday, Lu Dongping wrote a letter of introduction and helped Wen Wan wrap the bacon in two parts. In addition to the bacon, Zhang Hongying also gave some bamboo shoots and wild mushrooms that were dried in the previous year, and some radishes that had been frosted before the New Year and pickled after the New Year to make them tasty, which were also packed in a large bag.
After packing it, she waited until Lu Dongping took Wen Wan away before she realized, "It costs money to send a letter, and it also costs money to send a package, right?"
Lu Mingjiang was walking out with his hoe on his shoulder. Upon hearing this, he said, "How would I know if you ask me? I haven't given anything to anyone."
Zhang Hongying thought about it and decided that it would be better to ask Gao Xiulan than Lu Mingjiang. Lu Dongcheng was in the army, and she had to send packages to him every year.
It would have been fine if I hadn't asked, but once I did, I realized that the stuff was sold by weight, and it was a real pain in the ass. Not to mention the meat, she stuffed so many radishes and bamboo shoots into it, and that stuff wasn't worth much, so how much postage would that have been wasted!
The postage was indeed quite high. It was Wen Wan's first time sending a package, so she filled in the address carefully and sent a separate registered letter to Lao Wen before leaving the post office.
Lu Dongping was waiting for her on the side of the road outside the post office, pushing the cart.
When she got close, he asked her, "Is there anything you need to buy? Do you want to go to the department store?"
Wen Wan nodded: "Go, I'm going to see if there is a radio!"
Lu Dongping:!!
"Radio? That thing is hard to buy, right?"
Wen Wan didn't tell him that her uncle had given her the ticket, and nodded: "It's hard to buy, I just want to see if there is any and how it is sold."
"Okay, let's go take a look." The two crossed the street. Lu Dongping found a place to lock his bicycle, and then they went into the department store together.
The department store, which usually doesn't have many people, is now extremely crowded. It's as crowded as during the Chinese New Year, and it looks like a fight is about to break out.
Even the salesperson's impatient roar couldn't drown them out.
"Don't push, what are you pushing for?"
"Queue, queue, do you know?"
"Fuck you, who the hell pushed me?"
Wen Wan had never seen such a violent scene before. She stood far away and didn't dare to approach. After staring for a long time, she couldn't figure out what was going on. She reached out and grabbed an old lady who was trying to squeeze in and asked, "Grandma, what's going on? Are you fighting?"
Old people like girls like this the most, with a sweet voice and good looks.
The old lady squeezed in and spoke to her in a fluent and rich Ganling accent: "It's not a fight! It's a robbery. A batch of inferior goods came in. These are good things, none of which require tickets. You can't buy them even with money normally, so people are scrambling like crazy. There's never been such a good thing before." After that, she followed the crowd in and squeezed in. Her voice was still loud despite her old age and hunched back: "Hey, watch out, you can't let me step on you, an old woman."
Wen Wan was stunned to see her successfully squeeze through the crowd by relying on her age. She rolled her eyes and called out, "Grandma, Grandma, please slow down. Wait for me!" Right? Old people here call each other "Grandma"? She wouldn't be wrong.
In the blink of an eye, Lu Dongping watched her follow an unfamiliar old lady into the crowd.
Wen Wan did not follow the old lady in, but followed her all the way to the counter without any obstruction.
The brick counter was quite high, reaching Wenwan's chest.
The people outside were squeezed so hard they couldn't breathe. The shouting and cursing were so noisy that it made their ears buzz and they couldn't make out what was being said.
She was too lazy to listen. Anyway, she had already squeezed to the front and took a look. There really was something there, black corduroy, black and white floral cloth, and colorful pompoms. There was a pile of them under the counter. In addition to this, there were also enamel basins and enamel bowls.
The cloth had stripes or was stained, and the enamel basins and bowls had their paint chipped or dented during transportation.
Wen Wan handed the money over and spoke to the salesperson inside at the top of her voice: "Sister, I want two basins and six bowls, and I also want cloth, the army green one -"
"I want the floral one too, yes, I want both!" Wen Wan stood on tiptoe, staring intently inside the counter, completely unaware that there was a hand behind her gently pulling her backpack.
Lu Dongping relied on his height to push his way in for a long time. Just as he got close, he saw a hand reaching into the little girl's backpack. The little girl hadn't noticed yet and was still moving around, shouting, "Don't push me, don't push me, you're stepping on me!"
Lu Dongping suddenly felt a toothache. How foolish! Didn't he even look back? What else was so important? Was it more important than himself?
He reached out and grabbed her backpack, looked at the person behind her, and sneered: "If you're not shopping properly, where are you going to put your hands?"
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