Since they had agreed to leave, Zhou Jiao went out to the street with her mother and her husband the next day.
When my parents-in-law returned home, I had to bring them some local specialties as gifts. There weren't many local specialties in the capital, but the candied fruits and pastries were pretty good.
And when Zhang Laoer came this time, she thought he might have brought more than just the supplies in his house. Such kindness could not be repaid with just some small gifts.
Although this ancient city has begun to change with each passing day, and the streets can be seen to have obvious changes every once in a while, supplies are still in short supply, and tickets are still king.
Fortunately, four people in her family work, and she is too lazy to queue up, so she exchanged expiring tickets with relatives and friends, and now she has accumulated quite a few.
If you want to give a return gift, you should always send it to what the other party needs most, and a family's needs revolve around the four aspects of "food, clothing, housing and transportation".
Eat? It’s spring now, and with Lin Juhua’s skillful hands, she’s not worried.
Living and traveling are not things that can be taken care of at the moment.
The only thing about it is clothing. Seeing that Shitou and his wife and Mai Sui were carrying three thick quilts and mattresses, as well as new clothes, it seems they didn't even have any cloth coupons left at home.
Zhou Jiao considered herself a common person, so she spent all the cloth coupons she had - she would take them back to Zhang Laoer and exchange them for anything.
If there weren't any regional restrictions on cloth coupons, she would have given the tickets directly.
As for the most fashionable Dacron fabric, it is a non-controlled commodity and a bit expensive. Not only was I reluctant to buy it, but it was also snatched away by a group of young girls.
It was a rare opportunity to go shopping, and her mother was determined to buy everything when she got home. When she got home that day, it was already night, and the whole family was craning their necks in anticipation.
"Actually, fabrics and such are a small matter. My second brother has uniforms, and there are also homespun and some high-end fabrics on the market that don't require tickets. What's most in short supply is cooking oil. It doesn't have to be very good; cottonseed oil is very popular."
Zhou Jiao blinked, "The worst ones I have are soybean oil."
Zhang Guoqing chuckled when he heard this, "I didn't ask you to give him oil. The ten kilograms that Dad and Mom gave him is already the limit. It's not safe to bring more on the train."
Unsafe? Inspection or fire prevention?
Zhou Jiao didn't ask. Anyway, if it was revealed that their family had so much oil, the first person to be suspected would be Zhang Guoqing. Who put you in the logistics department?
Zhou Jiao glanced at him speechlessly. Isn't this nonsense?
"I borrowed some military notes from my comrades, so you should stop pretending. My second brother is a hypocritical person, and if he gives too much, he will say I don't know how to live."
Zhou Jiao immediately joked, "Didn't I say you're stupid?"
She had already overheard Zhang Laoer pointing at him twice, calling him stupid...
Well, the first time Zhang Guoqing bought a roast duck, he was like, "How could you be so stupid? And you bought three at once! Why don't you think about how many people died of starvation in the disasters in the past?"
The second time was probably when the two brothers mentioned the elderly support money - how could you be so stupid? Your parents gave it to you, why not your father-in-law? Even if Uncle Zhou didn't take the money, didn't he still appreciate the thought?
In short, it is all kinds of disgust and contempt.
Hahahaha…that’s so funny.
Zhang Guoqing patted his wife, who was paralyzed with laughter, and shook his head speechlessly. He knew his second brother had good intentions, and was simply worried that he, the son-in-law, would be looked down upon by his father-in-law.
But his family is really different from others.
He couldn't say it because his wife managed the family's money, so it made no difference whether he gave filial piety money to his father-in-law or not. He was even more embarrassed to say that his father-in-law wished he would change his surname to Zhou.
And he wasn't praising how good his father-in-law and mother-in-law were.
His parents favored him, but they had three sons in their hearts, and his father-in-law and mother-in-law treated him as their own son and gave him 100% love.
Who among outsiders wouldn’t say that his father-in-law loves his daughter the most and trusts himself the most?
"I took them to school after get off work today."
"Oh, how are the kids?"
Zhang Guoqing said disapprovingly, "How can it be bad? They're not like others. Not only do they receive government subsidies, but they're all wealthy."
"Where's your roommate?"
"It's hard to get into the girls' dormitory, but it's said to be pretty good. There's no need to worry about the younger generations of the Yuan and Shi families sharing a dormitory over at Shitou. Our Wuyi is very much like his father back then."
Zhang Guoqing mentioned his son, his eyebrows beaming as he whispered to her, "This kid is quite cunning. He became acting class monitor in just two days. He gave a speech on behalf of the freshmen at the opening ceremony, and it's said the auditorium applauded for five minutes straight."
Zhou Jiao never worried about her three sons' abilities, especially Wuyi, who was naturally cunning. But Ping'an and Liuyi, on the other hand, were not sure how they were doing at school these past two days.
How could Zhang Guoqing not know the worries in his daughter-in-law's heart?
He laughed cheerfully and said, "It's a pity that I can't see Ping An and Liu Yi for a while, but I've already called the old instructor. I have to visit him more often, right?"
Zhou Jiao was delighted when she heard that and looked at him with shining eyes.
Zhang Guoqing burst out laughing: "Silly wife! Have you forgotten that your husband took first place in all events back then? Just because Dad is not suitable to show up doesn't mean I can't meet the instructors."
"Last time, before the eight of us in our dorm got together, we went to school. Do you think your man is just bored and wants to miss military training?"
Zhang Guoqing said with a proud gesture, "In shooting, I'm still first. In agility, I still defeated the old instructor in ten moves. Even though I'm a civilian, I still have this."
"And Liuyi is usually on par with me, not to mention Ping'an is several years older than him. If we really compare them, the three brothers are just lacking in experience."
"But they are better than me in one respect: they received a different education. When I was five years old, I was still racking my brains in the orphanage trying to figure out how to please the adults, but they had already learned how to deal with people.
When I was 10 years old, my world was all about studying and studying. As for the children, studying was easy for them. They would even go to the military camp for training during the holidays.
At 15, I was smugly putting on a false front to deal with everyone, but Ping An, at 7, could tell everyone's weaknesses. The same was true for Liu Yi, but our Wu Yi was even better, giving a lot of advice.
Zhang Guoqing smiled gratifiedly after saying this, "So don't worry about the kids. It's a good thing if they can suffer setbacks under our watch. I'm just afraid they'll become arrogant."
Zhou Jiao pursed her lips and smiled: "I'm fine, no need to comfort me so carefully. How about I accompany you to visit your parents?"
"It's my honor." Zhang Guoqing pulled her up and walked out with her in his arms, laughing softly. "I asked Dad if I should take some seeds back. Guess what he said?"
"have no idea."
Zhang Guoqing pinched her nose and said, "You wouldn't believe it, but last year my father had already planted fruit trees in the yard of our village. He even planted two jujube trees in the yard of the county town."
Zhou Jiao smiled at him.
It was rare for him to be happy to show off, so she just treated him like a mother-in-law and didn't tell her.
In fact, it wasn't just her house that was filled with fruit trees; she knew of three other families whose backyards were also planted with fruit trees. It was said that fruit harvests were more valuable than grains and required less labor.
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