In the second half of the month, during the break, Lin Wei, Deng Xiangyun and Chen Bamei, no, now she should be called Chen Lihua, went to the agricultural brigade together. Their main purpose was to see the house where Chen Lihua would live in the future.
Regarding his future residence, Chen Lihua has three options. One is to live in a youth sent to the countryside. Although Ya County is remote, there are also youth sent to the countryside. However, there are not many youth sent to the countryside in the agricultural brigade. There are only about ten people in total, mostly male and only five female.
Because there was not enough housing at the educated youth site, five female educated youth were squeezed into one room and slept on a dormitory bed. If Chen Lihua moves in, she can get an extra bed. The conditions are relatively poor, but she doesn't have to pay for it and can eat with the educated youth, which is an advantage.
The second option is to rent the house of the brigade secretary. The rent would not be too expensive, only two yuan a month, which Chen Lihua could afford. In this way, she can live more comfortably and eat with the brigade secretary's family. The disadvantage is that she is an outsider after all, and it may be awkward to get along with them.
The third option was to buy a house. There were two houses she could buy. One was the one that the brigade secretary's family was going to rent to her. She could open a door from the side door and go out independently. The other was the house of a widow in the village, which also had a door that could be opened independently for her.
The advantage of the former house is its good location, being located in the center of the brigade. Its disadvantage is that it is more expensive and the owner is unwilling to transfer the house. The brigade secretary has a powerful family, so there will be no problem while Zhou Jianhai is in Ya County. But if he is transferred or changed jobs one day, it is unclear whether the brigade secretary will change his attitude.
The latter house is relatively remote, but there are people living nearby, so she won't be bullied and no one will know. The advantages of this house are also obvious. First, it is cheap. Second, the owner is willing to transfer the ownership. Third, the other party is an orphan and a widow. Even if Zhou Jianhai is gone in the future, Chen Lihua will not be bullied if he can stand on his own.
So, in comparison, the first thing that was unanimously ruled out was buying the brigade secretary's house, which was expensive and risky, and not worth it.
Among the remaining three options, Zhou Jianhai prefers the first two options. In his opinion, Chen Lihua is at the age to get married, and there is no need to buy a house because she won't be able to live in it for long.
Deng Xiangyun felt that each had its own advantages. Although it was a rural house, it was better to have a permanent property than to have nothing at all. The question is whether Chen Lihua can stand on her own feet. If she can't, it's useless to have a house. It's not that she can get some money from it.
After learning about Deng Xiangyun's concerns, Lin Wei said, "I think you can ask her opinion and let her make her own choice."
"Let her make her own choice?" Deng Xiangyun was stunned. "She is still so young, how can she think so far ahead?"
Lin Wei disagreed with her point of view and said, "Being young doesn't mean she has no ideas. If she had no ideas, she wouldn't have learned to read from the other children. Even if she had learned, she might not have been able to stick to it. This girl is very tenacious."
In Lin Wei's opinion, if Chen Lihua was weak and unable to stand on her own, she would never choose to leave the Zhou family, even to avoid dragging down her cousin and his wife.
Life in the Zhou family is so comfortable. Although she is a nanny, Xiao Shitou is almost five years old and has a well-behaved personality, so it is easy to take care of him. All she had to do was prepare three meals a day and clean the house every two or three days.
No one in the Zhou family would bully her. With Zhou Jianhai's protection, she didn't need to face the wind and rain outside. People who are not strong enough in character will not take this step easily.
What's more, in the original novel, Chen Lihua did live a good life after leaving the Zhou family. A person's character is often determined early on and will not change drastically in an instant.
Since Chen Lihua in the original novel was able to persuade the brigade to set up a factory and engage in breeding in the late 1970s, Lin Wei believes that she can now make the best choice for herself.
Because of Lin Wei's suggestion, Deng Xiangyun finally let Chen Lihua make his own decision.
After careful consideration, Chen Lihua decided to buy the widow's house.
Because she is a girl, she has been treated differently by her parents since she was born. She has a home, but it seems like she has no home. Later, when she moved to Zhou's family, her cousin and his wife treated her very well, but living under someone else's roof always made her feel uneasy, so she was obsessed with the house.
She did not buy the house blindly. The widow's house was made of adobe and was quite old, so the price was not expensive. Also, because the house had been occupied for a long time, she didn't need to do too much renovation after buying it. The house even had a bed frame, and all she needed to buy were small items such as a wardrobe and a table.
All in all, after calculating all the expenses, her salary was still a little over a hundred yuan. As for grain, she could buy it on credit from the brigade and have the work points calculated at the end of the year. If it was not enough, the money she had on hand should be enough to pay off the debt.
As long as we get through this year, things will get better next year.
Seeing that Chen Lihua did have an idea, Deng Xiangyun and his wife didn't say anything else. Zhou Jianhai went to negotiate the purchase of the house, which was also a way of telling the people in the agricultural brigade that although Chen Lihua was alone, he was not unreliable.
Zhou Jianhai also asked someone to help with the house renovation, but Chen Lihua was not idle either. He often went to the new house to supervise the work during this period to avoid being fooled.
Because it was just a matter of repairing and opening another door, the house was almost finished in less than half a month. Zhou Jianhai helped find someone to buy some second-hand furniture to move in. After Chen Lihua cleaned the house and made it habitable, she invited them to see it.
The agricultural brigade is not far away, only about twenty minutes' walk away. The brigade is not large, with only about seventy households in total.
The widow's house was at the end of the village, with four or five houses scattered nearby. It was not too close, but not too far away either, so she could hear any noise.
The widow's house was not big, it was a structure of three rooms in a row, the two rooms on the left and right were bedrooms, and the middle one was the main room. The room on the left that was sold to Chen Lihua originally had a door leading to the living room, but now the door to the living room is blocked and the door opens outwards, so that she does not have to pass through the yard to enter and exit, and the house is relatively independent.
The house was very clean. Chen Lihua was a hardworking person, and this was her new home, so she was naturally enthusiastic about cleaning it up.
Lin Wei stood at the door and looked inside. She saw that the small house was divided into two halves. On the left hand side of the door was a bed and a single-door wardrobe. Next to the bed was a small table with a few books on it. It was her desk. On the right is the bedroom, which has a cupboard, a small coal stove, and two small pots.
Lin Wei asked: "Are you planning to cook for yourself later?"
"It's more convenient to cook by yourself." Chen Lihua said that although it is good to share a meal with others, you cannot be independent in terms of food, so it is definitely better to cook by yourself.
"That's fine."
After looking at the house, they didn't stay long and prepared to go home. Before they left, the sister-in-law next door came back. She was stunned when she saw them and asked, "Are you Xiao Chen's relatives?"
Deng Xiangyun smiled and said, "I am Lihua's sister-in-law, you are Sister Zhao, right?"
"Oh, yes, why are you here today?"
"We just came to see how Lihua's house is tidy. As you know, since she is a girl living here, we, the Dang brothers and sisters-in-law, will inevitably pay more attention to her. When Lihua moves in next time, I would like to trouble you to help take care of her."
Sister Zhao was also a smart person. After understanding what Deng Xiangyun meant, she quickly said, "Of course, we will be neighbors in the future."
Before buying the house, Zhou Jianhai asked someone about Sister Zhao's situation and found out that she was an honest and decent person, so he let Chen Lihua buy the house. So after getting her consent, Deng Xiangyun felt relieved. The two exchanged a few more words before saying goodbye and leaving.
…
At the end of the month, the two families had a meal together, which was considered as a practice for Chen Lihua. Actually, it wasn't really a practice, after all, she had just moved out of the family compound, and it was easy for her to come back and visit.
The next day after the dinner, Zhou Jianhai helped Chen Lihua move.
After Chen Lihua moved out, Xiao Shitou was left without anyone to take care of him.
However, Deng Xiangyun's current situation has improved greatly compared to two years ago. Because she works in the hospital pharmacy, she is no longer as reclusive as before. In addition, she has a gentle personality. Except for some military wives who like to pretentiously talk about their background, most people will no longer make a fuss about her background. Her popularity has improved a lot.
The children basically followed the adults. Because Deng Xiangyun's popularity had improved, Xiao Shitou was no longer ostracized like he was before. Although his best friend is still Mingming Ruirui, when they are not at home, he will also look for other children to play with.
Now Deng Xiangyun no longer worries that Xiao Shitou will be bullied if she leaves him to someone else to take care of. Therefore, after Chen Lihua left, she sent her son to a military wife who specializes in taking care of children.
Because she had an hour and a half break at noon, she didn't ask the other party to provide her with lunch, which was relatively cheap, only three dollars a month.
Besides, it only takes a few months to send the child there. When school starts in September, Xiao Shitou will be able to go to school.
It's not only Xiao Shitou who will go to school in September. Lin Wei also plans to let Mingming and Ruirui go to school.
Although the regulations require that first-graders must be at least six years old, the school does not really care about age during the actual enrollment process. It’s just that children who are too young may not be able to keep up with the school life, so the school does not recommend that parents send their children to school too early.
But after the new semester started, Xiao Shitou, the youngest of the three children, turned five years old, which is not too young. Besides, they have taken classes with Lin Wei for two years. Even Mingming, the most careless one, can go directly to the second grade without falling behind. There is really no need to waste time waiting for another year.
Because Ruirui was going to school, Lin Wei made a small schoolbag for each of them during the summer vacation.
Military satchels are popular these days. Whether primary school students, middle school students or people who have already joined the workforce, they are proud to carry a military satchel. But military satchels are not something that ordinary people can get. Most people can just grab some army green cloth and make a satchel of similar style.
Zong Shao did have a military satchel, but he only had one, and there was not enough for the two children. So Lin Wei still tore some cloth and made a cross-body bag for each of the two children, and sewed a five-pointed star on it, which looked quite realistic.
But Mingming was not very happy when he received the shoulder bag. It was not because he didn’t like this model, but receiving this bag meant that he had to go to school.
As a poor student, he didn't want to go to school at all.
Although he had to go to school with Lin Wei every day before, he was not a student at that time and did not have to be trapped in the classroom every day. He spent most of his time playing with his younger brother in the office and taking care of his younger sister.
Moreover, Lin Wei only taught two classes, and he only went to school for half a day at most. Although he had to go to classes when he got home, there were not many classes, so he still had plenty of time to play every day.
Life is not so easy after going to school. Not only do I have to stay in school for seven or eight hours every day, but I also have homework to do when I get home. Most importantly, I only have one day off a week.
Just thinking about the bleak days ahead makes me feel heartbroken, so much so that I haven't been enjoying my meals so much lately.
Zong Shao soon noticed the change in his son. After dinner one night, he asked Lin Wei about this: "What happened to Mingming recently? I saw that he only had one bowl of rice in the evening."
As Mingming Ruirui grows older, his appetite has changed significantly.
In the past, they would only eat one bowl of rice at most at each meal, and would only ask for more rice occasionally when they had a particularly good appetite. But now they start with one and a half bowls of rice, and when their appetite is good, they will eat two bowls of rice.
It’s been half a year since I last had a bowl of rice.
Lin Wei said unhappily, "I know I have to go to school, so I feel depressed."
"He hasn't gotten used to school life yet?" Zong Shao asked helplessly. He felt that since he followed Lin Wei to school every day, he should have adapted to school life.
"He's not unaccustomed to school life, he's just not used to the days of going to school, he just wants to play around," Lin Wei waved her hand and said, "Let him be, he won't starve for a few days, just face the reality."
You must go to school. You graduated from university in your previous life. Even if you can't make further progress in this life, at least you can't be worse than your previous life.
Zong Shao wasn't the type of person who doted on his children, so after hearing what Lin Wei said, he stopped asking.
After being hungry for a few days, Mingming regained his appetite after facing the reality. He has to recover. He hasn't eaten much these days and he doesn't have the energy to go out and play.
There are only a few days left before school starts, and he must seize this last moment to have fun!
But it turns out that playing is never enough. On September 1st, Mingming, with a shoulder bag slung across his shoulder, walked to school with a pace that felt like he was going to be tortured.
Originally, Ruirui often went to school with Lin Jiushi and Du Jiawei, so the teachers were very familiar with them. As soon as they opened their mouths, they could easily recognize who was who.
But today, because Mingming was in such a depressed mood, he didn't talk as much as usual, so much so that the head teacher of Class 1, Grade 1 couldn't tell who was who.
But the head teacher was a smart person. When greeting, he called Mingming and Ruirui by their names, and then asked, "What happened to Mingming today? You look unhappy?"
Hearing what the head teacher said, Mingming looked up reflexively, looked at the teacher sadly, and then sighed deeply.
Noticing his little movements, the head teacher thought, it turns out that it is Melancholy Mingming who is the one today.
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Second update
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