"By the way, I didn't come here to talk to you about this pear tree." Wu Guifang slapped his forehead and almost forgot the main thing.
"What's wrong?" Liu Meiyu was curious.
"Isn't the school on this island going to be completed after the New Year? I heard that the school is looking for teachers everywhere, and you can get in as long as you pass the exam. Take Bai Ting on our island. Didn't she work as a teacher in the blind-elimination class before? I heard that she didn't even have to take the exam this time. She has been to high school, and she can directly become a teacher when school starts after the New Year, and the monthly allowance is not bad. I was thinking that since you are not bad in education, why don't you give it a try? This is different from the blind-elimination class. If you get in, it's a stable job and you can eat public food for the rest of your life!"
Wu Guifang hated her lack of education. If she could become a teacher in a school, she would receive a monthly allowance, which would mean she would never have to worry about food and drink for the rest of her life. Moreover, it would be a decent job! Although teachers are not very friendly outside, they don’t have such concerns on the island, otherwise they wouldn’t have spent so much effort to build a school.
"Sister-in-law, you can see that my three friends are crying every day. Even if you give me a golden rice bowl, I can't leave now!"
Liu Meiyun understands how rare it is for people on the island to have a formal job, but Liu Meiyun, who has worked for others all her life, does not want to work anymore. She just wants to wait for the reform and opening up, start her own business! Be her own boss!
And it is a fact that she cannot leave. Lu Wanjun was transferred from the military region to their remote island to help take care of the children, and Wu's mother came all the way from Beijing. How can she, the mother, go out to work?
"Yeah, you said my brain! It's just stubborn!" Wu Guifang was just chatting with someone in the compound, and when she heard the news that Bai Ting had been chosen as a teacher, she rushed over to inform Liu Meiyu without considering anything else.
I just feel that Bai Ting doesn't know as much as her sister Meiyun. If she can be a teacher, then isn't Liu Meiyun more suitable!
"Children are more important!" Wu Guifang looked at the three little babies sleeping on the kang, and quickly gave up her thoughts.
"Of course I did. I risked my life to give birth to this child."
With three children, she couldn't even leave home for a moment, let alone go to work.
Moreover, Liu Meiyun had not originally planned to work in the next few years. There were several banknotes at home, and Lu Changzheng also provided her with subsidies. Even if she spent her money lying down, she could still hold on until the reform and opening up to do business.
Besides, she had been a social animal all her life, and it was all for money.
She has enough money and tickets in this life to spend, so why should she go to such great lengths to make trouble?
The key is that there is nothing to do now. Apart from doing business, Liu Meiyun doesn't want to do any other job!
At noon, Lu Changzheng rode his newly bought bicycle home for lunch.
Bowen was also in the back seat of the car.
Ever since there was a bicycle at home, this kid would run to the island to wait for me every day when it was almost time for dinner. He insisted on sitting on the back seat to experience the ride, and sometimes he would bring that fat kid Song Jinbao along.
"Brother-in-law, when will you teach me how to ride a bike?"
Liu Bowen especially wanted to ride this big wheel because Brother Gangzi also had one at home on the island, and he could ride it. Sometimes when he was in a good mood, he would bring one or two people to play together, but he and Brother Jinbao were not included.
So Liu Bowen wanted to learn this trick himself, and then take Brother Jinbao to show off in front of Gangzi!
Lu Changzheng carried the man down from the back seat, put the bike in the yard, rubbed the boy's head and mocked him mercilessly: "Look at your height, you can't even fit on the seat, and yet you want to ride a bike? You wish!"
"Humph!" Liu Bowen was unconvinced. He stretched out his hand to block Lu Changzheng's arm, tilted his head back and pouted his lips, retorting: "I will grow taller soon!"
"Then let's talk about it after you grow taller!" Lu Changzheng grabbed the man's arm, lifted the kid up in the air and spun him around, then dropped him directly next to the dining table.
Liu Bowen grinned so hard that his gapped front teeth were showing, and he quickly covered his mouth with his little hands.
"My two gentlemen, please enjoy your meal!" Liu Meiyu put the chopsticks on the table and stopped the two from fighting.
With a table full of meat and vegetable dishes, as well as her extra postpartum meal of braised pig's trotters with soybeans, Liu Meiyun felt like she was facing a formidable enemy.
"Auntie Wu, I will be out of confinement in two days, please stop preparing those delicious foods for me. We agreed before that you should only prepare the delicious foods for Changzheng and the others. I only eat coarse grains!"
Liu Meiyun is determined to lose weight after the confinement period! She finally became beautiful after this transformation, and she can't let the birth of a child make her look like her original self again.
Although she is a little fat now, fortunately this body is still very young. As long as she controls her diet and keeps exercising, I believe she will be able to return to her previous figure soon.
Mother Wu put the tofu and crucian carp soup on the table and said, "It's not good to eat only coarse grains. Even if we want to lose weight, we have to do it slowly. Your body is used to eating refined grains. If you eat coarse grains all at once, your intestines and stomach will definitely not be able to handle it. Besides, you're not that fat..."
"Yeah, Meiyun, don't be too anxious." Lu Wanjun also echoed: "I think we should just go to the market for another check-up. Once we are sure that you are in good health, it won't be too late to talk about losing weight."
Lu Changzheng just felt that his suggestion made sense and was about to speak, but when he turned around and caught a glimpse of his wife's cold eyes, he dared not speak and just kept his head down and ate his meal.
“…”
There is a kind of "thinness" that elders think you are not fat...
Liu Meiyun saw her double chin two days ago and she no longer wanted to look in the mirror.
After finally making it to the day of her confinement, Lu Changzheng boiled two large pots of hot water for Liu Meiyun so that she could take a good bath and change into clean clothes.
When Liu Meiyu was changing clothes, she saw the white sweater that she had knitted for herself when she first arrived on the island in the closet. She couldn't put it on anymore. She put the clothes into the closet with grief and gritted her teeth.
She must lose weight in three months at most!
But what Liu Meiyu never expected was that the white sweater she had just put away in the closet two days ago was now coveted by someone else.
"Sister Meiyun, now that you have given birth to a child, you probably can't wear many of your clothes anymore. I'm going on a blind date next week. I heard the other party is a deputy group leader, but I don't have any decent clothes in my closet. I saw the white sweater you were wearing at dinner last time. It looked pretty good. Can you lend it to me for two days? I'll return it to you after the blind date. I promise not to get it dirty."
Zhao Lanlan stood at the door of Liu Meiyu's room with a fake smile on her face. She smelled a sweet milky fragrance in the room. She inexplicably felt that the smell was unpleasant. She was also annoyed by the sight of the triplets drooling on the kang.
Others spend a whole month in confinement, but Liu Meiyu spent almost two months in confinement. She had so much delicious food and drink every day, and her skin was even whiter than before giving birth. The more Zhao Lanlan saw this, the more unhappy she became. She always felt that if she could marry Captain Lu, she would be the one enjoying the good life now!
So every time she sees Liu Meiyun, even if Liu Meiyun does nothing, Zhao Lanlan feels like a knife is stabbing her heart!
"Sorry, I'm not used to wearing the same clothes with others." Liu Meiyu didn't even raise her eyes, she was busy wiping the saliva of the triplets.
If it was Bai Ting or Sun Pingting who came, she would have the patience to deal with them, but she was too lazy to even be polite to a low-level troublemaker like Zhao Lanlan.
Zhao Lanlan didn't expect Liu Meiyu to reject her outright and ignore her. Her face flushed red as she stared at Liu Meiyu, who had gained weight but whose skin was even more rosy and translucent than before. She suppressed her anger and thought that if she married into a good family in the future, she would be able to suppress Liu Meiyu and prevent her from being so proud.
Zhao Lanlan: "Sister Meiyun, why don't you give me the sweater and I'll turn it into cash for you? My aunt said she'd make me a new one, but it's too late. Otherwise, I definitely won't cause you any trouble. We all live on the same island. Can you do me a favor?"
Liu Meiyu raised her head and glanced at her: "Comrade Zhao, do you know how bad the impact of your words just now is? Helping and private transactions are two completely different things. If others hear what you said, not only you, but even your uncle and others may be implicated!"
"Go away. I need to wear the sweater myself. We don't have a very good relationship. Anyway, I don't want to lend it to you." Liu Meiyu rejected the customer impatiently.
Just kidding, the last time she treated her to dinner, this Zhao Lanlan was being weird to her and she didn't even say a word back. Now she has the nerve to come here to borrow clothes from her, what does she think of her?
"If you don't want to lend it to me, then don't lend it to me! What's the big deal?" Zhao Lanlan was so angry that her cheeks puffed up. She simply stopped pretending and glared at Liu Meiyu and said, "If Sister Bai Ting hadn't said that your sweater is beautiful, I wouldn't have come to you! It's just a tattered sweater, I don't care about it!"
After saying that, he stormed away.
Mother Wu came back from shopping and saw this. "Is this girl mentally normal?"
Liu Meiyu shrugged, "There's nothing wrong with him, he's just a little bit stupid."
Mother Wu's mouth twitched. How could this person be so stupid and not have any problem?
Zhao Lanlan and Liu Meiyu really didn't take her seriously. That girl wasn't very skilled in Taoism, and her little thoughts were all written on her face, as if people couldn't see through them. If such a maid were put in a palace fighting drama, she would be beaten to death and thrown into a dry well in the first episode.
On the contrary, Bai Ting was a bit annoying. She was wearing a light blue sweater that day, but she was reluctant to lend it and brought the trouble to her.
"By the way, Meiyun, I just saw your letter at the post office, so I brought it back." Mother Wu put down the vegetable basket and took out two letters from her pocket.
One was sent from the original owner's parents in Shanghai, and the other was sent from the Yulin Province Art Troupe.
Liu Meiyu first opened the letter from the original owner's parents in Shanghai. There were two pieces of paper with different fonts. The page with fewer words at the front was written by her father Liu Yongnian. He first scolded her for hiding the fact that she was pregnant with triplets, then he expressed some concerns and instructions, and finally asked Liu Bowen a few questions.
The back page was written by Zhou Huiru, and it was filled with instructions. The couple had a clear division of labor, one summarizing the statements and the other developing the arguments. Just by reading those two pages of the letter, Liu Meiyu seemed to automatically imagine the scene of the couple whispering in her ears.
Thinking about it carefully, October after the Chinese New Year should be the time when Liu Yongnian and his wife will be transferred to work on the farm. Liu Meiyu estimates that she will have to go back before then.
It would probably take a lot of effort to get people to the island. She had asked Lu Changzheng before, and he told her that the farm on the island might recruit a large number of educated youth from all over the country to carry out construction. Moreover, Sun Pingting had come to the island to "warn" her before. Later, she thought that the warning was not wrong. At this special time, even if she came to the island through formal applications, she would definitely be talked about.
She couldn't come over from the island, but she could try the farms near Liaoning Province. Actively signing up to support the construction was definitely better than "passive allocation." Liu Meiyu was thinking of going out to inquire after the New Year and finding a farm that she could feel more at ease with.
The other letter was from Song Hongying, the original owner's cheerful and lively best friend.
Good guy, he wrote five full pages of letter paper!
Liu Meiyu poured a cup of hot water into the teacup before sitting down and watching slowly.
That girl was really straightforward. She told her everything that had happened in recent days, including what packages her family had sent her. She also complained a few words about who in the group had quarreled, and who was always dragging the group down during practice. Liu Meiyu read the content of the letter and felt that she had aged a few years because of being tormented by these three little guys. At the same time, she seemed to have aged a little bit, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously lifted up.
But when she saw the last page, the smile on her face froze.
In the letter, Song Hongying said that she has now become the lead dancer in the troupe, but she and Qin Xiaoyue are becoming more and more incompatible. She did not listen to her several times and she couldn't control her anger so she had a big quarrel with her. Not long ago, she even got into a fight in the rehearsal room. Not only was she banned from performing for a month, she was also punished.
And recently there is a male comrade who is about to be discharged from the army. He is always concerned about her. She always runs into him no matter whether she goes to the cafeteria or the rehearsal room. She doesn't like that guy at all, but he sticks to her like a dog-skin plaster, which has a very bad impact on her. The rumor in the group is that they are dating.
Finally, she found her leader and calmed the situation down.
Song Hongying was very angry, and told Liu Meiyu very frankly in the letter that she didn't like the man, and even looked down on him. The man's hometown was in a place called "Dahe Village". She admitted that she could not endure hardship, and would rather not marry and be an old maid in the group for the rest of her life than marry into the countryside and be helpless.
At the end of the letter, Song Hongying's tone was very sad. She said that since she left, she felt more and more depressed in the troupe, especially after she became the lead dancer, Qin Xiaoyue became more and more aggressive in leading people to exclude her. Now there is no one around her to talk to, and her family is always urging her to get married. She feels unhappy and even wants to just quit the army and go home to find a blind date and get married.
She was unsure, so she wrote to ask Liu Meiyun for her opinion.
What can Liu Meiyun say?
When she saw the words "Dahe Village" in the letter, her scalp went numb.
The place called Dahe Village left a very deep impression on her.
The first scene I saw after I came through was the scene where the original owner died on the beach of "Dahe Village".
Moreover, in Liu Meiyu's view, everything Song Hongying said in the letter was simply a replay of the original owner's tragic experience and a failure at the hands of another person. This was also thanks to the fact that Song Hongying was much more clear-headed than the original owner.
Wasn't the original owner unable to make it in the group because of the bullying and exclusion by Qin Xiaoyue? Then the man took advantage of the opportunity, showed concern for the original owner, and pointed out another "bright road" to her? The big cake the man painted for the original owner almost killed her.
In the end, it was all the rumors in the group that forced the cowardly original owner to bear the pressure, so she believed the man's words, retired from the army and went home to get married.
In the first few years of marriage, the man's performance was actually quite good. However, the original owner never had children and was not good at farm work. The mother-in-law and sisters-in-law at home were difficult to get along with, and the man listened to his mother-in-law in everything. The family was in chaos day by day, and gradually the man no longer had the patience and sense of responsibility he had when he was drawing cakes for others.
The original owner was used to being bullied, so he just accepted everything and was not very smart.
If the original owner had been half as clear-headed as Song Hongying, she would not have made such a hasty decision.
And Qin Xiaoyue is just like a mad dog. She won't let go once she bites you. It goes without saying that all those rumors in the group were spread by her. Yet you haven't been able to do anything about her in the past few years.
It will only take a few years, Liu Meiyu thought. By the time this period of time has passed, Qin Xiaoyue and the Qin family will probably not have a good ending.
"Bowen, can you please get the letter paper and pen from the drawer for your sister?" Liu Meiyu sat down and felt too lazy to move, so she called Liu Bowen who was playing with Xiaohei in the yard.
"Sure!" Liu Bowen thought for a moment and quickly started running errands.
Liu Meiyu quickly wrote a reply letter to Song Hongying. The letter had two main purposes: stay away from scumbags and beware of Qin Xiaoyue. As for Song Hongying's question about her discharge from the army at the end of the letter, Liu Meiyu could not help her make a decision, but only helped her analyze the pros and cons of various options.
After all, you still have to make your own decisions on major life events.
But speaking of partners, Song Hongying is older than the original owner. According to the marriage age of that era, it is normal for her parents to urge her to get married.
Liu Meiyu sincerely hoped that Song Hongying could find a good home in the end, otherwise, with her straightforward and simple character, she would easily suffer losses.
At night, when she was putting the triplets to sleep, Liu Meiyun saw Lu Changzheng taking off his clothes after washing his diapers and getting on the bed. She couldn't help but ask him, "Do you have any high-quality single young men around you?"
Lu Changzheng paused as he was about to get on the bed and stared at Liu Meiyun in surprise: "What's wrong?"
"I'm just asking, on such a big island like yours, are there any young men who are of suitable age and unmarried and have good qualities in all aspects?"
Lu Changzheng thought for a moment and tried to speak: "Look, our island is short of everything, but the last thing we lack is single men, right?"
"I want someone you know inside and out, so you can trust him/her. It would be best if his/her family situation is simple and easy to get along with, without all the trivialities."
"What? Who are you introducing this to that you're so concerned about?" Lu Changzheng lifted the quilt and crawled inside. He first glanced at the triplets next to him, and then lay down with peace of mind.
"A comrade from my previous regiment." Liu Meiyu urged impatiently: "Think about whether there is anyone around you who is particularly reliable. Don't just give me a perfunctory answer. The girl is not bad either. The key is that she has a good personality. I treat her as my sister. Don't tell me about those who are unreliable."
Lu Changzheng didn't dare to be perfunctory about what Liu Meiyu had told him to do. He went over the list carefully in his mind.
I didn't know this, but later I found out that there are quite a few single people around him.
But few people are as lucky as him. He married a beautiful wife and even has three children!
However, if we talk about people with good conditions, apart from his childhood friends in Beijing, he actually has a comrade-in-arms with whom he has a good relationship, and Liu Meiyu has also met him.
"When we were relocating Bowen to Shanghai, I had a comrade-in-arms there. Do you remember him? He hadn't married yet, and his family was urging us to get married. When we got married, he envied me and wanted me to tell you to introduce him to a cousin or something."
Liu Meiyun thought about it carefully and gradually formed an idea in her mind. He was good-looking and had a good job. So, "How come we've been married for so long? Why is he still single?"
"Single!" Lu Changzheng nodded, "He's just a bit picky. His family has arranged for him to date several girls, but he didn't like any of them. He even asked me to find one for him on our island, but I ignored him."
"What does he want?"
Liu Meiyu felt that Lu Changzheng's comrade was not bad in terms of qualifications, and the person his family introduced to him must be a good match for him, which he did not like. The person was definitely not choosing based on family background.
"I don't know either," Lu Changzheng shrugged, with an attitude that he was too full to care about his brothers' lives. He only made a rough estimate and said, "He said he wanted to find someone who could talk to him and have a common language. I think it must be someone like us."
"Oh, and it has to be beautiful," Lu Changzheng added.
Liu Meiyu frowned and glanced at the man sideways, "Lu Changzheng, why are you men so superficial? Can being pretty be enough to make a living? Now that I've given birth to a child and am no longer pretty, do you still want to find a beautiful wife again?"
Captain Lu, who had just rolled up the quilt and was about to hug his wife to sleep, paused and explained with an innocent look on his face: "No, I was talking about other people's requests. I'm not such a superficial person. Besides, you are beautiful in every way. I see you as the most beautiful on the island every day! That guy is just jealous that I married such a good wife like you, and he is trying to compete with me. Otherwise, why don't you see me paying attention to him!"
Liu Meiyu pouted and insisted: "What if we leave this island in the future? There will be a lot of pretty girls out there. I will definitely not be able to compare with them by then. I also have three children and a body..."
Before she could finish her words, Liu Meiyu felt the man's strong breath pressing upon her, and her lips felt wet and hot.
It was not until a long time had passed that Liu Meiyu, with a red face and panting, kicked the man away.
"If you wake the child, you can comfort him yourself!" Liu Meiyu gathered her clothes and saw that the man was impatient and could not stand being teased. She said in a low voice, "Lu Changzheng, I just said that casually. Don't think I'm really afraid that you will fall in love with a pretty girl outside. When we leave this island in the future, I may be more popular than you, Captain Lu. If you don't perform well, I will kick you out and take the three kids with me to find someone more promising than you!"
Liu Meiyun was confident and determined, and recalled a popular saying of her sister on the Internet, "There are plenty of men!"
"That day won't come!" Lu Changzheng panted, looking at Liu Meiyun with eyes full of infatuation, as if he had lost his soul to her. "I will definitely perform actively and not give Chief Liu any chance to kick me!"
The man thought to himself: This is his fault because of the military marriage!
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