Chapter 117

After showing off in the village for a day, Grandpa Jiang carried a small fish, a piece of meat, a chicken leg, and some homemade rice wine prepared for him by Aunt Jiang in a vegetable basket, and went to the old store at the entrance of the village to buy paper money and paper to be burned, and went to the mountain with Jiang Bai.

Uncle Jiang took the initiative to follow them, holding a shovel and a sickle in his hands, and took the initiative to help shovel the soil and cut the grass.

After not coming for a while, the wild grass on the mountain surrounded the graves again.

The graves of the great grandfather and great grandmother are not in the same place, and there is no custom of burying together here.

Grandpa Jiang stood in front of his great-grandfather's grave, his eyes wet unconsciously. He said to his father, "Baizi has been admitted to university, and our family has also produced a college student. Our family is now prosperous! We no longer have to walk with people stepping on our shoulders. Times are good!"

When his great-grandfather was young, he was a sedan chair carrier, carrying a landlord's sedan chair. It is said that he fell down while carrying the landlord's sedan chair at night, and he fell into the river. No one rescued him, and he drowned.

Grandpa Jiang smiled and said, "Laicai has taken over my patrol work and gets paid every month. This year, the salary has increased to 100 yuan a month. My two sons, Guoan and Guoliang, are both college students and are teachers in the city. They have stable jobs and are supported by the government."

He waved to Jiang Bai to come over and kowtow to Grandpa.

Jiang Bai took a piece of paper and put it on the ground, and kowtowed three times respectfully.

"This is my grandson, Jiang Bai. He comes to visit your grave every year. He was admitted to Shanghai University and stayed in Shanghai. He is a Shanghai citizen. Dai and Zhou Zhiqing from our village came from Shanghai and returned to Shanghai. How could they have imagined that I could go to the city and my grandson could be admitted to Shanghai University and become a Shanghai citizen in the future?" Grandpa Jiang thought of his yearning and curiosity for the city when he listened to Dai and Zhou Zhiqing talking about the city when he was young. He couldn't help but sigh for a moment. Time flies. In a blink of an eye, he is already over 60 years old.

He finally completed his mission, raising his younger brothers and sisters, arranging for them to get married, and raising children and grandchildren.

After paying respects to Grandpa, they turned to pay respects to Grandma.

Grandma was a woman with bound feet. She could not work and could only wash and clean at home. The farthest place she had ever traveled in her life was Shuibu Town. The

combination of Grandpa Jiang and Grandma Jiang, one with his younger brother and the other with his younger brother and sister, was like two reconstituted families with many conflicts.

Grandma Jiang had a strong personality and was not kind to Grandpa Jiang's younger brother and sister. Grandma Jiang and Grandma Jiang also had many conflicts. However, Grandma was a woman with bound feet and was still supported by her son and daughter-in-law. She had no choice but to move to the mud house below with her younger son and daughter. At that time, there were mud houses like this in the village. Now that mud house has become Jiang's mother's pigpen.

In the words of Jiang's father, great-grandmother was a person who had been immersed in bitterness all her life.

Grandpa Jiang had to support a family at the age of twelve and took on the burden of the entire family. He had tried his best. It was not until he became a forest ranger and became the only person in the village who received a salary, except for the brigade secretary, accountant, and scorekeeper, and lived separately from Grandma Jiang that the quarrels gradually decreased. After

Grandpa Jiang finished talking to great-grandmother, he wiped his tears and said to Jiang Bai: "Don't forget the graves of your great-grandfather and great-grandmother. Don't forget to visit the graves every Qingming Festival in the future."

Jiang Bai nodded: "I remember."

The matter of visiting the graves of ancestors has been passed down from generation to generation. After so many generations have been passed down, the children of the next generation can't remember who is whose at the graves of the ancestors of the previous generations, and they even have to go to the graves of the ancestors because of the old people. When the graves were covered by the dense vegetation on the mountain, they could not even find the graves. At this time, the villagers would draw a circle at the foot of the mountain and burn paper money in the circle, indicating that the paper money in the circle could only be collected by our ancestors. They would burn paper money while shouting loudly: "My ancestors are here to collect money! My ancestors are here to eat!" They

kept shouting and shouting.

Grandpa Jiang was afraid that after he died, when his sons were old, the younger generation would not remember the graves of their parents and would forget to bury them, leaving them hungry.

They had nothing to eat when they were alive, and they would be hungry again when they died.

Grandpa Jiang knows how it feels to be hungry. During the three years of famine, many people in the village died of hunger.

Thinking of how he had raised his younger brothers and sisters during the famine, Grandpa Jiang smiled again. When he went down the mountain, he put his hands behind his back, walked briskly, and smiled as if he had let go of a heavy burden. Uncle Jiang

and Jiang Bai cut the weeds around the graves of Grandpa Jiang and Grandma Jiang. Uncle Jiang said, "After the New Year, your father and I will buy two tombstones and put them in front of Grandpa and Grandma's graves. With the tombstones, it will be convenient to find the graves in the future."

Those graves gathered together for a long time, without tombstones, are really difficult to distinguish whose family they belong to. Every year, people go to the wrong grave.

Jiang Bai also kept this in mind.

They did not stay in the village for long. After visiting the graves, they went home to pound rice with a rice mortar, dragged a cart of food, and set off for Wucheng again.

These food were not only for Grandpa Jiang and Jiang Liu, but Jiang Bai also wanted to take some to Shanghai.

Obviously, there was no money left for food in the tuition and living expenses that Jiang's father sent him, so he had to pull food to Shanghai by himself.

Thinking about the fact that he would be in Shanghai in the future, such a long distance, and he had to carry food over, Jiang Bai felt that he would be hungry again. He

had just had a year of eating well, and the thought of going back to being hungry and unable to sleep, and having leg pain at night and unable to sleep, made him feel his legs cramp even though he wasn't hungry.

Perhaps because he had eaten and drunk enough, and had vegetables and meat every day, and was well-nourished, he hadn't felt growing pains for a long time.

The comfort during this period made him think that such a painful life was over, but thinking that he would have to go through it again in the next four years, he was a little scared and didn't want to leave his grandfather and sister. He turned his head and looked at his hometown, which was gradually getting farther away. He felt that if he returned to his hometown and guarded the few acres of land in his hometown, he would not be hungry. He still

had red envelopes in his pocket from the brigade headquarters, Uncle Jiang, relatives from his family, and his uncle's family.

It would be great if his sister's store could be opened in Shanghai. Then he could go to work in his sister's store after school every day. He liked such days. He felt comfortable in his sister's store and didn't have to look at other people's faces. As long as he made money well, his sister would not treat him badly. She would buy him meat, give him new clothes, and let him learn her computer.

Thinking of his life in the past year, he couldn't help but smile happily. But thinking of the upcoming life alone in Shanghai, he couldn't help but feel sad and resisted.

Thinking of this, he was not in a good mood all the way and was very depressed.

When they arrived in the town, Grandpa Jiang went to tell Aunt Jiang the good news that he had been admitted to university. Aunt Jiang was very happy and called her children over, telling them to learn more from Brother Jiang Bo, study hard, and be admitted to university like their brother in the future.

She took out another fifty yuan of wedding money and gave it to Jiang Bai. Jiang Bai was embarrassed to accept it, so Aunt Jiang stuffed it into his pocket: "This is wedding money, you should keep it quickly!"

Jiang Xi, who came back from the training team to have dinner in the evening, noticed that he was in a bad mood and kicked his foot: "What's wrong? Why are you not happy after getting the notice?"

Jiang Bai said sullenly: "I don't want to leave Wucheng."

Jiang Xi was a very sensitive person, and she guessed why at once. She widened her eyes: "You didn't ask your father for living expenses, did you?"

Jiang Bai ate silently: "I gave him living expenses."

"How much?"

"Ten yuan a month." Jiang Bai took a bite of the food. "My father gave me a hundred yuan alone."

Jiang Xi was speechless. She was so angry that she pointed at the phone in the store and said, "Call him now and ask for money!" She picked up the chopsticks again and asked Jiang Bai, "You don't think that when you go to Shanghai you can be like Wucheng, where you have no food coupons and can go back to get rice to exchange for food coupons during the holidays, right?"

She was in college in the 99th grade in her previous life. At that time, their school already used IC meal cards. She couldn't do such a long way to carry food to school, and she had to top up money on her meal card to eat.

She said to Jiang Bai, "A big city like Shanghai must have started using IC meal cards. You need money to eat, and bringing food with you may not be useful. Tell your father that it's too far and you can't bring food with you, and ask him to give you money."

Jiang Bai and Jiang Qing have been very sensible since they were young, and they care about their family members. So when they knew that their family was in trouble, it was difficult for them to ask for money with a clear conscience. First, they were afraid of being scolded, and second, they knew that they cared about their parents, understood their difficulties, and wanted to reduce their burden as much as possible.

But their understanding would make Jiang's father and mother take it for granted that they could not see them. They could not see that you had silently endured a lot behind you, and their eyes would always only see the one they were most worried about.

Jiang Xi said, "If you don't want to go hungry at school, you should tell your dad. You can't bring food to the university, you can only add money to your meal card. It's so far, how can you carry two or three hundred kilograms of rice? You also have a quilt, a mat, clothes and a lot of other things, and no one will take you there!"

She has to train at school, and after the results of the city competition come out, if she passes, she will have to go to the city for training

again, and she won't be able to take Jiang Bai there. Grandpa Jiang also has to look after the store. Even if he doesn't look after the store, she is worried if Grandpa Jiang goes there and comes back alone.

Fortunately, he is with Tong Jingang, and the two of them can take care of each other. Jiang Bai is already 18 years old, and she doesn't worry about how he, a big guy, will do in Shanghai.

She was afraid that she would have to go to the city for training soon, and no one would be there at that time, so she got up and took a key from her bag and gave him a key, put it on the table, and said to Grandpa Jiang Bai: "In fact, I also bought a house in the community where you bought your house, the one with zero down payment that you bought, but I bought it earlier and bought a ready-made house. Now it has been renovated and is being used as a model house by the money manager. When you go there, tell the money manager that the house will be taken back. After it is taken back, you can help me change the door lock. Replace it with a good one. Don't be reluctant to spend money.

" "After you arrive in Shanghai, if you have nowhere to go for the time being, you can live with Tong Jingang first. Everything inside is brand new. It has been installed for half a year and the ventilation has been running for half a year. It should be habitable."

Jiang Bai was stunned!

My sister has a house in Shanghai! It's all decorated! Will he have a place to live when he goes to Shanghai?

His eyes widened, he looked at the key, then at his sister, and pinched himself hard. It hurt, he was not dreaming!

Grandpa Jiang was also stunned. Before, his granddaughter said that she bought a big villa in Shanghai, but after all, it was in the wilderness of Shanghai. Although the house was delivered, it had not been decorated yet, and it was still rough inside. He didn't feel much, but now she actually said that she had another house in Shanghai, and it was decorated more than half a year ago!

For a moment, both the grandpa and grandson were shocked.

They didn't know what shocking thing Jiang Xi had done when they didn't know!

Before, it was shocking enough that they bought a villa in Shanghai, moved all their household registrations to Shanghai, and moved his school registration to Shanghai.

After all, the villagers were still struggling to build houses in their hometowns. If a family built a building, it would be a great event to bring honor to the family and invite all relatives and friends to the wedding banquet. Not only

did his sister buy a villa in Shanghai without saying a word, but now she says she has another one! It's been renovated!

A year ago, he was still struggling on the poverty line of not having enough to eat every day, but his sister bought two houses in Shanghai in just one year after coming to Wucheng.

He couldn't help but ask his sister doubtfully: "Xingxi, you weren't fooled, were you?"

He suspected that both he and his sister were fooled. Buying a house with zero down payment didn't sound credible.

Seeing that they both had an expression that they were definitely fooled, Jiang Xi turned around and went under the bed, pulled out a suitcase, reached in and took out a real estate certificate, and handed it to the two of them.

"I went to the Shanghai Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau to get the real estate certificate myself. Here, the government seal is here." Jiang Xi pointed to the seal on it, and the name of the household owner on the house certificate was clearly written: Jiang Xi.

Both Grandpa Jiang and Jiang Bai, the two old-fashioned people, saw the house certificate for the first time, and they flipped through it in amazement. It was hard to imagine that this was actually a house certificate.

"Is this true?" Jiang Bai, who had never seen the house deed, flipped through it again and again: "Does this house deed really mean I have a house?"

He really couldn't connect this thing with a house.

Self-built houses in rural areas don't have house deed.

Grandpa Jiang and Jiang Bai didn't have the habit of rummaging through Jiang Xiao's bag. The box had a combination lock, and neither of them knew how to open it. Even if they knew, they wouldn't rummage through her things without Jiang Xiao's permission.

At that time, very few people used combination boxes and suitcases. People's impression of suitcases still came from the suitcases in the hands of a group of fashionable stewardesses in the TV show GG.

Jiang Xi used to think that it was inconvenient to put a lot of things in the dormitory. The dormitory was too small, and there was very little space for individuals. Although there were people coming and going in the store, there was Jiang Bai. Moreover, the box she bought was big, and the house deeds were in a zippered net bag. It would be too noisy to drag the box out from under the bed. It was impossible for Grandpa Jiang and Jiang Bai not to notice.

Although Grandpa Jiang was not a meticulous person, Jiang Bai was the same as Jiang's mother. He was most concerned about the things at home and was meticulous. He stayed in the store every day and slept in the store at night. She was not worried that the house deeds in the box would be stolen.

No one would have thought that there would be house deeds in the suitcase under the old man's bed.

Jiang Bai couldn't help but look at the box below. If his sister took out a house deed from it, he wouldn't be surprised.

Because this feeling was too unreal. Even when he, Tong Jingang, and Tong Jingang's father entered Jiang Xi's house in Shanghai, he still had a sense of uneasiness, wondering if he had walked into the wrong house, and if others would mistake them for thieves and beat them up.

After entering, Jiang Bai was stunned by the luxurious decoration inside.

This, this, this...

He looked at the Qian manager who led them up with anxiety: "Qian manager, this... is this really my sister's house?"

Tong Jingang and Tong's father were also shocked.

The three people stood at the door with large and small bags on their backs, not daring to go in.