When the three siblings were getting their hair cut, the barber bluntly said that all three siblings had lice on their heads. I heard that the barber had medicine, so I immediately asked him to apply the medicine to all three of them. The city people who were waiting for a haircut immediately ran away with their children.
The maid and Qin Xiaomi both looked ashamed, but Qin Huai remained calm and said, "What's so strange about lice? Emperors used to have them on their heads."
His attitude eased the girls' embarrassment.
Nowadays, almost all the country folk have lice. Qin Huai didn't think it was a big deal to be despised. The barber's lice medicine was the most effective. Qin Huai bought some from him and prepared to come back to clean up the house.
On the way, Qin Huai turned into a grocery store and bought a bag of cakes and two kilograms of sugar. The cakes were for Old Man Qin.
The sugar must be returned to Sister Hong.
She was a widow with only one son, Goudan, and a child of six or seven at home. She hadn't eaten the candy for almost a year, and she wanted him to be grateful. She gave the cake to the two little girls, each of whom took two bites, and then explained, "This is for grandpa."
The two little girls said, "Brother, no wonder everyone likes to go to the city to attend the market. It turns out there are so many delicious foods in the city."
Only when these two girls grew up did they realize that the city and the countryside are two different worlds.
Qin Huai said, "I'll bring you here often in the future."
The three siblings came back and saw the old man still sitting at the door. He seemed to have not moved for such a long time. Qin Xiaomi put the cake in the old man's arms and said, "Grandpa, my brother bought this for you."
The old man came back to his senses and immediately said, "I'm old and I won't waste good things. You guys eat them." As he spoke, he saw the shoes on the two girls' feet and smiled with satisfaction.
Qin Xiaomi told him, "Grandpa, we've already eaten. You can eat this without any hassle."
Qin Huai also walked into the room with a smile, put the fallen bed board in order, and covered it with straw and cotton. When he touched the quilt and thought of the lice, he suddenly felt itchy all over. He took the cotton outside and saw that it was covered with many lice moving around, which made his scalp tingle.
They called the maid over and they caught lice for a while, but the more they caught, the more lice there were.
He immediately fetched water, boiled it, and cooked the cotton wool in the pot.
When they parted their hair again, the lice had fallen off.
Qin Huai said, "When the new clothes are made, iron the old clothes in this way, and the lice will be gone."
Qin Xiaomi said, "Brother, you are really like Dad. No, you treat us better than Dad."
"Silly, you are my sisters. If I don't treat you well, who will?"
It took a full day and a half to clean the lice, and the cotton wool was hung on a rope to dry. I couldn't sleep under a quilt for two days. When the villagers saw me, they all asked, "Qin Huai, what are you doing?"
He answered honestly, "Scalding lice."
The villagers said, "I think you have horns on a dog's head, pretending to be a sheep. Everyone has lice, but no one has them the way you do."
"I'm afraid of lice bites. They keep me awake all night."
"Farmers are not that pampered. When we were working on the river, the whole village was crowded together. You cleaned it up yourself, and others still had some." He suddenly remembered something and said, "Oh, by the way, the village will be working on the river this winter. You are 17 years old, I guess Qin Laoshuan will count you in."
Qin Huai shuddered when he heard the word "river engineer". Northern Anhui is an area prone to waterlogging and floods often occur. The county is digging artificial rivers to facilitate flood discharge in the future.
River work in this era was all carried out on shoulders and backs, working from dusk to dusk. A common slogan at river work sites was: "Carrying on shoulders and backs, rearranging the mountains and rivers." River work began during the slack season every year, and projects often had to be carried out for many years. During large-scale intensive work, more than 100,000 people lived and ate at the construction site.
What’s even more terrifying is that this kind of work is purely voluntary and does not provide meals.
It is conceivable that even the strong and healthy people could not bear the heavy physical labor every day, let alone the weak. The farmers had no food to eat at home, and when they came to the unfamiliar construction site, the support from the production team was limited. They just wanted to keep them from starving to death, but it was impossible to have enough to eat. Qin Lao's brother, Qin Laoer, died while working in the river. He was only 21 years old when he passed away and did not leave any descendants.
"For there are sacrifices, there are great ambitions." was the slogan at that time. The younger brother sacrificed, and the older brothers and sisters took over. In the context of the great era, it was the selfless dedication of so many people that made the future happy.
Qin Huai was not afraid of being a river worker, but what would he do if his two sisters left?
No, I have to find a way to stay at home.
How can a powerless and lame peasant resist the trend of current affairs?
For several days, he was at a loss.
Along with this came the threat of food shortages. Team leader Qin Laoshuan was eyeing chemical waste, and making soap in the village was many times more dangerous. They had to do it only when absolutely necessary.
Over the past few days, he had tried many ways to get close to Qin Laoshuan, but their status was very different, and Qin Laoshuan always looked down on him.
Life seemed to have returned to the starting point, but this time I felt much more at ease. With soap as a way to make money, at least I was no longer in danger of starving to death at any time.
Qin Xiaomi came back at noon that day and said, "The commune posted a notice at our school saying that they're going to hold literacy classes for the entire commune this winter. They can't find a suitable teacher for the class, and the teacher said that if that doesn't work out, the school wants to pair up with students and provide one-on-one guidance."
The speaker may not have intended it, but the listener may have taken it to heart. Qin Huai was listening casually at first, but after listening, he felt his eyes brighten. This was actually a good idea.
But how could he demonstrate his talent for reading and writing so that the village and the commune would notice him and invite him to be a teacher?
When it got dark, a man quietly walked into the house and called him, "Qin Huai."
"you?"
It was Qin Dashu. After greeting them, he squatted in the corner and smoked silently. Maybe he was not concentrating on smoking, as he choked and started coughing loudly. When Yaya and Xiaomi saw their father, they could only watch from a distance and could not come over.
Qin Dashu looked at the children in the room, put down his pipe and said, "Qin Huai, I didn't know she was coming back."
"oh......"
Qin Huai didn't know how to face this man who was only a few years older than him. Qin Dashu was only forty-two or forty-three years old. In his previous life, he was already thirty-five years old. The age difference between the two was not that big. Qin Huai could fully understand the difficulties this man had faced, but he could not forgive him for not caring about his daughter.
"You don't believe it, do you? It was the old lady's idea to sell the millet. What do you think she's going to do with the money from selling the child?"
Qin Huai raised his head and said, "I know you have difficulties, but you shouldn't just stand by and watch others bully us."
Qin Dashu coughed loudly again and said, "Even if you don't want to know, I have to tell you. Your uncle wants to marry a wife. He said he has married a girl, and the girl wants 200 yuan as a gift. The Li family is very poor, so they set their sights on our family."
After hearing this, Qin Huai felt an inexplicable resentment towards Qin Dashu and shouted, "So you know everything? You knew it but you didn't care and let the traffickers arrest people at home. Are you worthy of being Xiaomi's father?"
Qin Dashu stood up and said, "I didn't do that, Qin Huai. Xiaomi is my biological daughter. Even if I'm not a human being, I can't do that kind of thing."
Qin Huai said bluntly, "But you just watched and did nothing, which is even more hateful."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
