Chapter 83: Chatting

Mo County was already a county seat before the founding of the People's Republic of China, so there are many houses with independent entrances and courtyards in the old city, similar to the courtyard houses in Beijing, which were once inhabited by the county residents.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, textile and wood processing factories were built in Mo County. Some of the workers were native to Mo County, while others moved from all over the country to support the construction.

The factory quickly built four or five-story resettlement buildings for the workers, giving priority to those who moved in. However, these new residences had running water, electric wires, and the like, which was different from the old houses where the workers had to draw water from the well and it was too expensive to install electric wires themselves, so the original inhabitants still wanted to live there.

The factory later built several more buildings and allowed the indigenous workers who wanted to move in to move in. Those who did not want to move in were given compensation.

As a result, many people left their houses vacant and moved into resettlement buildings.

As time went by, the resettlement building gradually became lively and turned into a new urban area, while the small courtyards here became less and less populated and somewhat deserted.

The county town is not big. Xia Juanjuan has been there several times and has already got a general idea of ​​the situation there. What she wants to buy is an old house with a private entrance and yard.

She is not afraid of desolation.

On the contrary, she would use that place as her base in the future, going in and out of the space, and it would be best if it was deserted and no one saw her.

On the other hand, most of the old houses are quite old. Although the carved beams and painted pillars are peeling and dilapidated, Xia Juanjuan likes the antique charm.

Moreover, some houses still have complete sets of mahogany tables and chairs from the Ming and Qing dynasties. In a few decades, the houses and these utensils will be priceless treasures that cannot be bought with money.

Xia Juanjuan decided that next time she went to the county town, she would go and ask around to see if anyone was interested in selling their ancestral home.

Not counting the allowance from Lizhan, she now has nearly a thousand yuan in her hand, which should be more than enough to buy a yard in the county town.

If the master doesn't want money but wants supplies like food, there's no need to worry, because she has more supplies than money.

After another six or seven days, the sweater for Lizhan was almost finished.

Zhou Qiuhe's application for a salesperson position in the supply and marketing cooperative through the commune was also finalized.

One month before the Chinese New Year, every household prepares for the New Year, so it is the busiest time for the supply and marketing cooperatives.

Zhou Qiuhe immediately planned to go to work the next day, and even ran over to thank Xia Juanjuan with a smile.

The last time she bought wool at the supply and marketing cooperative, Zhou Qiuhuo also weighed out three or two taels of wool. At that time, she thought that Zhou Qiuhuo was going to knit a sweater for her son, so she bought this little wool.

This time, Zhou Qiuhe came with three pairs of small and cute knitted gloves for the three little ones.

"Juanjuan, I really want to thank you this time! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have this opportunity! These three pairs of gloves are just right for the three little guys to use right away!"

Xia Juanjuan felt a little embarrassed: "You bought the wool for this? All three of them have gloves, you are too polite! What about your two girls? Give them some!"

She had originally intended to turn down the salesperson opportunity, so it didn't matter who she gave it to.

The most important thing is that Zhou Qiuhe also has the ability and has worked hard for it. What she did was just to do a favor.

Zhou Qiuhe pushed the gloves back and said with a smile, "I am my own daughter, how can I be so stingy and not knit for them? It's only three or two taels of wool. After knitting five pairs of gloves, there is still some left, so I knit a pair of socks for the kid..."

Seeing this, Xia Juanjuan no longer refused and accepted it.

Her parents would send her rabbit fur from time to time. A few days ago, they sent her the fur of an adult wild deer and almost half of the deer meat. She put half of the meat in the living room and ate it fresh. The other half was made into dried bacon and hung on the eaves.

As for wild deer fur and rabbit fur, she was planning to sew hats, scarves, gloves and socks for the three little ones.

If you say she is short of these three pairs of gloves, then she definitely does.

But this was the best gift Zhou Qiuhe could offer, and it would be very hurtful if she refused to accept it.

Xia Juanjuan asked: "Director Zheng agreed that you can bring Dongbao to work, right? If he doesn't agree, that's also a problem."

Zhou Qiuhe nodded: "I agree. When I proposed this, I was worried that if Director Zheng disagreed, I would have to give some money to my neighbor Aunt Li and ask her to help appease Dongbao."

When Xia Juanjuan heard this, she was stunned for a moment.

Why don't you call the ready-made grandma Liu Lan, but ask the neighbors to coax her? What's the logic?

In the countryside, when the grandparents are older, the grandfather will still go out to do farm work within his ability to earn work points.

As for my grandmother, unless the family was the kind that would starve to death if they didn't go out to earn work points, they would generally stay at home to take care of the children, cook, and so on.

Even for people like Li Jie and Zhou Qiuhe who have separated from Liu Lan and live on their own, it is only natural for their grandmother to take care of their grandchildren.

After all, the third wife still gave Liu Lan 100 work points of pension every month, so it was not as if they had completely cut off the relationship.

However, come to think of it, she seemed to have never seen Liu Lan coax Dongbao for Zhou Qiuhe even once. Even when the couple went out to work, Zhou Qiuhe always tied Dongbao on her back with a belt and coaxed him while she worked.

"Why don't you let your mother-in-law coax you? I see she doesn't work all day and night to earn work points. She is supported by her sons and has nothing to do."

Zhou Qiuhe lowered her voice and said, "Don't mention it! During the autumn harvest season this year, you hadn't married yet. I thought that it would be bad for Dadongbao, who was only five or six months old, to be exposed to the sun in the fields. So I sent him to her room and let her coax him for the whole morning.

As a result, when I arrived home at around 1:00 p.m. to pick up Dongbao, I saw her and her girlfriend sitting upright at the table drinking sweet potato porridge and eating pickled vegetables, leaving my Dongbao aside on the ground. Dongbao was crying like a trumpet because of hunger, and the two of them were like deaf people, not even trying to comfort him when they picked him up!

I told her in the morning that if I came back late at noon, I should feed Dongbao some rice soup. How much can a five or six-month-old baby drink? I'm afraid she didn't even give Dongbao a mouthful of water!

I saw Dongbao crying so hard, his face flushed and he could hardly breathe. I was so angry that my eyes turned red. I wanted to slap that old woman twice! Even so, when she saw me, she complained that I came back too late and that Dongbao was disobedient and making a fuss! I was really..."

Zhou Qiuhe couldn't help but raised her hand to wipe her tears, then she sighed and said, "Oh! I regret it now. I was too cowardly at that time and gave in everywhere! If I had learned from you earlier, I would have confronted her head-on and slapped her in the face! We wouldn't have let our Dongbao suffer for that hour! Every time I think about it, I feel aggrieved! Anyway, from then on, I took care of Dongbao myself and never let her touch him again!"

Xia Juanjuan was stunned when she heard this.

She knew Liu Lan was mean and selfish, but she didn't expect that she would be so cold and indifferent to a child who was only a few months old. That was her grandson!

However... thinking about Liu Lan's indifferent attitude towards Xiaowen, Xiaowu and Beibei when she first came in, she was not surprised.

"Alas! Sometimes, I even suspect that our Lijie is not her biological son! No, not only Lijie, but even the eldest brother who has passed away, and the fourth brother Lizhan, she treats any of them like her own son. Her heart is completely biased towards the second brother's family..."

The two chatted for a while, and when Zhou Qiuhe saw that it was getting late, he got up and went back.

Unexpectedly, not long after, there was a commotion in Zhou Qiuhe's room.

The three kids ran back and told Xia Juanjuan, "Mom, grandma is making a fuss in Auntie's room..."