Chapter 18 18

It was already evening, and the sky was gradually getting darker.

Jiang Wu stretched his neck, went out and looked into the distance, and saw a large field of green seedlings, full of vitality.

Jiang's father and Jiang's mother had not returned yet, probably because they had gone to the fields.

Although the double harvest was over, there were still a lot of crops waiting to be harvested in the fields, such as cotton, red beans, mung beans, soybeans, cowpeas, etc.

In addition to harvesting these crops, there were also weeding and fertilizing.

In Jiang Wu's memory, the work in the fields seemed to be endless. Jiang's mother could find various things to do every day, and she could also find various things for you to do.

She went to the kitchen to wash the rice, and then sat in the pot, and went to the yard to pick vegetables.

Seeing that the gourd was ripe, she picked a long strip of gourd.

She hadn't eaten gourd for many years. She had eaten too much of it when she was a child.

In her memory, it seemed that she had a pot of stewed gourd cubes every summer. After eating it, she was afraid of gourd.

She cut the gourd into thin strips, added salt to kill the water, and then processed the river clams and snails.

The river clams and snails that Jiang's father had caught a few days ago had been raised for a few days, and the mud and sand had been spit out. Jiang washed a few river clams and snails, and prepared to make a dry pot of river clams and snails, river clams and winter melon stew, and then cold mixed gourd shreds.

It is best to use large snails for dry hotpot. Many people in their area cannot tell the difference between large snails and longevity snails, and rarely eat large snails. In fact, it is easy to distinguish between snails and longevity snails. One has a round and flat buttock, and the other has a long and pointed buttock. The latter is the snail.

Jiang Xi looked around and found that all the snails that Jiang's father brought back were snails, not a single longevity snail.

All the dishes she cooked were very large portions. Perhaps because of the lack of oil and water, everyone in the Jiang family was a big eater, including Jiang's mother.

She was afraid to take more food since she was a child, as if it was a sin for a girl to take one more chopstick of food at the table. Every time she ate less than two chopsticks, the food on the table had been snatched away. Later, she unconsciously developed a habit of cooking and liked to cook super large portions.

She was a good cook, and when she couldn't finish the dishes she cooked, she would bring them to the office and invite everyone to eat together.

After the dishes were ready, Jiang's father and mother hadn't come back yet. Jiang Gui was already hungry, so she scooped a bowl of river clam and winter melon stew and ate it first.

It wasn't until dark that Jiang's father came back with a large basket of crayfish and poured them into the water chestnut basin in the yard. Jiang's mother also carried a hoe and picked two full baskets of long beans.

If the long beans were not picked at this time, they would become old. These things grew quickly and in large quantities, so densely that a large basket of vegetables could be harvested every day.

"What delicious food did you cook today?" Jiang's father smelled the fragrance as soon as he entered the yard. He asked Jiang Xi impatiently while washing by the well. Without waiting for Jiang Xi's answer, he ran to the dining table and saw a large pot of dried clams and snails in a pottery bowl on the dining table in the main hall. The pottery bowl was garnished with green and red peppers, chili peppers, and garlic leaves, which made people's appetites whet.

Father Jiang immediately picked up a snail and started eating it. "How can snails and clams be cooked like this?" Jiang Xi's dry-pot snails and clams were so delicious that Father Jiang was not in a hurry to eat. He took two bowls and scooped out two bowls of homemade rice wine from the pottery jar. He called Mother Jiang, "Ailian, come and drink with me!" Mother

Jiang washed her hands and came over, saying, "You won't die from drinking!" She still sat down at the table, picked up the bowl, took a sip of the wine, and then asked Jiang Xi, "Where is the money you earned today?"

Jiang Xi ate the delicious clam and winter melon stew in the bowl, "I'm going to use the money to pay for my tuition."

"Take it out, I'll keep it for you, and I'll give it to you when school starts." Jiang's mother reached out to Jiang Xi, which scared him. He almost reflexively stepped back, and the long bench under him made a harsh friction sound against the ground.

Jiang Xi almost jumped away from the dining table, three feet away from Jiang's mother, and quickly jumped from the dining table to the front door. When he felt safe, Jiang Xi stopped and looked at Jiang's mother vigilantly. Jiang

's father and Jiang's mother were both stunned for a moment. Jiang's mother's face changed drastically: "Why are you running? If I'm a jackal, will I eat you?"

Don't you know whether you are a jackal or not?

Jiang Xi didn't want to anger her, so the fight ended and Grandpa returned to the cabin on the mountain. If she ran out so late, she would have nowhere to go at night.

Jiang Xi said, "I don't need you to keep it for me, I can keep it for myself."

Jiang's mother got angry and stood up to hit her

again, "You little thing, you dare to take the money yourself!" Jiang's father grabbed Jiang's mother and said, "Can you please stop hitting the child when eating? Look how scared Xi Xi is by you! She can't even eat peacefully!" He called Jiang Xi again, "Come and sit down to eat." Jiang

Xi ignored him and continued to eat at the door with her bowl in her hand.

She used a large blue-rimmed bowl. She had eaten river clam and winter melon stew the night before, so she also filled this bowl of rice very well.

After being scolded by Jiang's father, Jiang's mother turned around and glared at him fiercely, then sat back and said to Jiang Xi, "Come here and hand over all the money obediently later. I don't want your money. Don't you want to use it to pay the tuition? I will pay it for you then."

Jiang Xi said nothing and did not go over.

"Can you hear me talking to you?" Jiang's mother's voice became louder. "You are a little kid, how can you hold money in your hand? Don't lose it. Give me the money and I will keep it for you."

Jiang Xi looked up at her and said, "You keep my New Year's money for me every year, saying that you would give it to me when I grow up. Now that I have grown up, when will you give it to me?"

Jiang's mother's face darkened, and she was too lazy to talk to her anymore. She shouted directly, "Are you going to give it to me or not?"

Jiang Xi answered her and took a few steps toward the door.

Jiang's mother sneered and pointed at her, "Let's see where you can run to?" Then she turned around and went to eat.

Jiang's mother was of course not in a hurry. Even if Jiang Xi didn't eat at home, she would come back to take a bath and sleep later. She would settle the score with her then.

Jiang Xi knew what her mother was thinking when she saw her like this. After dinner, she kept wandering outside and didn't go back, just staring at the increasingly dark night in the direction of the ferry.

Grandpa's salary as a forest ranger was not paid monthly, but at the end of the year, it was paid in one lump sum by the brigade. The money was basically used by Jiang's mother to pay off debts.

The stack of banknotes that her grandfather gave her before added up to less than 50 yuan.

She sold crayfish twice, earning more than 20 yuan each time, bought a few magazines and some envelopes, stationery and stamps, minus more than 10 yuan, and had more than 30 yuan left, a total of about 80 yuan.

When she was in high school in her previous life, she rented a house outside the school. Six people lived in a small room next to the kitchen of her landlord. Four people squeezed into a 1.5-meter bed. The rent was 60 yuan per semester, which was the lowest. A room with fewer people would cost at least 100 yuan per semester.

She still remembers the high school tuition very clearly, 360 yuan per semester, and more than 300 yuan for miscellaneous fees and school uniforms.

That is to say, before the start of school, she had to have at least 700 yuan to pay for a semester.

This is also the reason why Jiang's mother didn't want her to go to school. For a rural family, this amount of money is really not small. Moreover, there are three children in her family who are studying in high school. The tuition for one semester alone is more than 2,000 yuan, which is more than 4,000 yuan a year, and this is not counting the living expenses of three children.

Before Jiang Xing was in junior high school, it was still within the nine-year compulsory education, and the tuition was not so high. Jiang Xing did not have to live in the school. He brought vegetables to school every day and only spent 20 cents on the ferry fee every day. But when he went to high school, it was obviously impossible to go home, and he had to live in the school.

Seeing that Jiang Xiao had been staying outside and didn't dare to go home even after dark, Jiang's father got angry at Jiang's mother, "Why do you have such a bad temper? Look how scared you are of Xiao Xiao, she doesn't even dare to go home. If you keep going like this, you'll chase her away sooner or later. If she really leaves one day and doesn't come back, you'll be happy."

Jiang's mother's heart sank when she heard this, but she still said stubbornly, "Where can she run to? If she dares to run, I'll break her legs!"

"You're just speechless." Jiang's father said, "She's already fifteen. How many more years can she stay at home? You can't tolerate her for just a few years? She is your daughter, why do you treat her like an enemy?"

These words made Jiang's mother angry at Jiang's father, "What do you mean I treat her as an enemy? Which kid doesn't give the money he makes to his parents? She is so bold that she dares to hide the money before she even has strong wings. Shouldn't she be beaten?" Jiang's mother felt that she was really wronged, "Which girl has a better life than her? We went to the mountains to chop wood and went to the river to fish since we were young. Who didn't live this way? Is she the exception?" Jiang's mother snorted and concluded, "I think we were too good to her, so she rebelled!"

Jiang's father didn't understand Jiang's mother's attitude towards his daughter, nor could he understand his daughter's rebelliousness.

But he and Jiang's mother had the same growth environment and growth path after all, so he still agreed with Jiang's mother's words, thinking that it was Jiang's mother who didn't let her go to school that made her rebellious.

He sighed, "She was also afraid that you wouldn't let her go to school. She wanted to go so much, so let her go."

Jiang's mother said angrily, "You let her go to school with just a few words. You can only talk, but where does the money come from?"

Jiang's father sighed, "I'll catch some crayfish to sell these days, and I'll catch some loaches and eels at night. If it doesn't work, I'll go to Tanshan to dig coal."

Tanshan is on the other side of the river. People from all over the country go to Tanshan to dig coal to earn money in their spare time.

Jiang's mother's father used to be a team leader in Tanshan.

Coal mining is a very arduous and dangerous job. Jiang's father claimed that he was a high school student. Even in the most difficult times, he chose to work outside the province instead of going to the coal mine.

Jiang's mother had a gloomy face. She took clothes to the bedroom and sat on the bed. She thought about the difficulties at home, her daughter's ignorance, the future college fees for her two sons, the small house at home, and the need to build a new house. The expenses for her sons' marriage and the betrothal gifts, the pressure of various expenses made Jiang's mother sit on the bed and cry: "Why am I so miserable?"

Jiang's father heard Jiang's mother crying and felt very uncomfortable.

He walked out, came to the stone under the locust tree, and advised Jiang Xi: "Xixi, you should be more considerate of your mother, she has a hard time."

In the dark night, Jiang Xi withdrew her gaze from the distance and looked at Jiang's father, seeming a little puzzled: "It's not my fault that my mother has a hard time." She asked in confusion, "Isn't that your fault?"