The next day at dawn, Dongqing woke up from his dream, got up and went to the outer room. He saw that his wife was not at home. Could it be that she really went to work at the brick factory?
No matter how much Dongqing messed around, he couldn't stay at home while his wife went to work at the brick kiln. He found some tattered clothes and went out the door.
Dongqing rode his bicycle to the brick factory, changed into old clothes, asked the factory for a pair of cotton gloves, and turned to walk into the brick kiln.
He walked into the brick kiln, where the temperature was so high it felt like it would kill him; sweat instantly poured from his forehead.
He saw his wife loading bricks onto a cart. The woman he saw now was unrecognizable; her clothes were soaked with sweat, her shirt clung to her body, and the dust obscured the color of the fabric.
Dongqing walked to the side of the cart and, together with his wife, loaded bricks onto it.
Li Yuzhu looked at her husband, who hadn't said anything, and thought to herself, "As long as you come to this family, there's still hope."
A brick costs three cents, and a brick costs two thousand.
Although the pay is higher, this kind of work is really inhuman. In no time, their faces are covered with dust, and sweat flows down their faces, leaving streaks of white and black. Before long, their clothes are soaked with sweat, and like his wife, Dongqing's shirts are clinging tightly to his body.
The brick factory provided lunch. After lunch, Li Yuzhu lay down under a big tree to rest. She was so tired that she couldn't even lie down anymore. She sat up and pounded her back with her hands.
Dong Qing sat up and started massaging his wife's back. Li Yuzhu didn't say anything and tacitly allowed her husband to massage her back.
After a two-hour lunch break, Li Yuzhu remained silent with a gloomy face, not saying a word to her husband. She stood up and walked towards the cave dwelling. Dong Qing stood up, picked up the cart, and followed his wife into the cave dwelling.
The couple worked until 6 p.m. before getting off work. Dongqing looked at his wife, who was covered in mud, and said, "Don't come tomorrow. You really can't take this kind of suffering."
With tears in her eyes, Li Yuzhu said, "Wouldn't it be a waste for you to do it all by yourself if I didn't?"
Dongqing said, "I really can't do anything with you. Let's wash up and go back."
With tears in her eyes, Li Yuzhu said, "Neither of us can do anything about the other. I should be the one saying that. How could I have met a man like you in my life? You're hopeless. If things continue like this, our family will be ruined by you sooner or later."
After listening to his wife's words, Dongqing shook his head helplessly, took out a towel and soap from his bag, and handed them to his wife.
They went to the men's and women's bathrooms to shower. The bathrooms were actually just two simple rooms with asbestos roofs and cement floors. They carried buckets of water from outside to wash themselves.
Dongqing helped his wife carry the bucket to the door, and then carried the bucket of water himself to the men's bathroom to take a shower.
After taking a shower, the couple went into the accounting office to settle their wages. The work of making bricks was too dirty, too tiring, and too hot, so no one wanted to do it. Wages were settled daily. The couple made 120 bricks that day and received 36 yuan. In 1983, 36 yuan a day was really a lot for the two of them.
Li Yuzhu dared not let her husband take the money; if he did, he would take it to the gambling table that night. She took the thirty-six yuan and put it in her pocket, then rode her bicycle home with her husband.
Li Yuzhu specially bought a pound of pork that night and finally got to eat braised pork, a meal she couldn't even have during the Chinese New Year.
Dongqing couldn't stand the hardship and quit after three days.
Li Yuzhu didn't even ask, telling her to go or not if she wanted, but she never stopped. After working for a while, she found out she was pregnant and was forced to leave the brick factory to rest at home.
No matter what Li Yuzhu said to him, he wouldn't listen. Later, she simply stopped talking to him and stopped sleeping with him at night. The couple started having a cold war, to the point that they cooked and ate separately and barely spoke a few words to each other for a month.
Dong Qingye still went out gambling, and in the end, he gambled away his wife from his previous life, causing her to die during her postpartum period.
Dong Qing thought of his wife from his past life, which played incessantly in his mind like a slideshow. Looking at his wife in this life, he felt guilty towards her in his past life. He hadn't cherished such a good wife in his past life, and had let her and their son die in their postpartum period.
The more Dong Qing thought about it, the more upset he felt. Tears welled up in his eyes as he reminisced. Watching his wife drive away, he drifted off to sleep.
When Dong Qing woke up, the morning light shone into the driver's seat through the car window. He sat up and said, "Wife, you go back to sleep, I'll drive."
“Okay.” Li Yuzhu parked the car on the side of the road, took off the steering wheel, walked to the sleeper berth, lay down, and fell asleep soon after.
When they arrived back in their hometown county at 11 a.m., Dongqing parked the car in front of the bank and nudged his wife, saying, "Yuzhu, wake up! We're home. Let's get out of the car and deposit the money in the bank."
Li Yuzhu sat up, put on her shoes, and got out of the car with her husband.
They went into the bank, deposited 10,000 yuan, and returned to the car. Dongqing said, "Let's go back and pay back the money to our three older sisters first."
Li Yuzhu said, "Okay."
Dongqing drove to his second sister's residential area, parked the tractor by the roadside outside the gate, got out with his wife, and locked the car.
When Dongqing arrived at her second sister's house, she raised her hand and knocked on the door.
Dong Ermei immediately opened the door, and Li Yuzhu said, "Second Sister is off work. I was really worried you wouldn't come back for lunch."
Dong Ermei said, "I come home for lunch every day. I just got home from get off work. Come on in."
They entered the living room, and Dong Ermei said, "Please sit down and rest for a while; dinner will be ready soon!"
Li Yuzhu said, "I'll help you."
"I don't need your help!" Dong Ermei said. "Little brother, I didn't know you were coming, so I didn't buy that many noodles. Go downstairs and buy another pound."
Li Yuzhu said, "I'll go get it. Put the noodles in the fridge; we're not having noodles for lunch today. Just stir-fry two vegetable dishes, and I'll go downstairs and get two meat dishes!"
Dong Ermei said, "You must have made a fortune, right?"
Li Yuzhu smiled and said, "I guess so."
After Li Yuzhu finished speaking, she turned and walked towards the door.
He returned from outside not long after, carrying several food bags, all of which contained cooked food: two pig trotters, a piece of beef, a pound of pork intestines, and a pound of cooked mutton.
Dong Ermei was surprised to see what her younger siblings had bought. She asked, "You really made money?"
They were siblings, and Dongqing didn't hide anything from his second sister. He told her about the cargo hauling business, but didn't go into detail about how much money he made.
Dong Ermei took the things Li Yuzhu bought, took them to the kitchen, sliced and plated them, stir-fried a pork intestine, and then stir-fried two vegetable dishes.
After lunch, Li Yuzhu took out four hundred yuan from her bag and handed it to Dong Ermei, saying, "Second Sister, this is the money I borrowed from you when I gave birth. Please give it to Eldest Sister and Third Sister."
Dong Ermei took the money with tears in her eyes and said, "Okay, I'll take it. I said before that I hoped you could pay me back, and I also said that I wasn't stingy with your talent. The fact that you can pay me back means that my brother has grown up. He really has grown up, and as his older sister, I'm so happy for him."
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