"Xiaobao, where have you been? I couldn't find you for a while. Next time you leave for something, tell me, okay?" Jiang Dani was standing at the door of the supply and marketing cooperative. She and Meng Xiangxue looked around. When they saw Jiang Yilu, they happily went to greet him.
Jiang Dani rubbed her brother's head and gave him instructions with concern.
"Big sister, I'm hungry, so I went to buy three fried dough twists. You can have one too."
Jiang Yilu was holding a pack of butter paper in his hand, which contained three fried golden and crispy twists. The surface was covered with white icing, which looked very appetizing.
"Didn't you just finish breakfast? Why are you hungry again? Did you not eat enough?" Jiang Dani touched her brother's stomach, which was flat and shriveled. It looked like he really didn't eat enough this morning. Jiang Dani blamed herself a little. Why didn't she pay attention to her brother when he was eating breakfast in the morning? Instead, he was hungry.
In fact, it was all because Jiang Yilu was so busy thinking about Xiang Qianjin, a man he had never met before, that he only ate a bun and drank a bowl of soy milk. This was not enough to fill his stomach as he exercised every day and his appetite was gradually growing.
"The state-owned restaurant is still selling fried dough twists today. I have to ask my mom to buy some more for lunch." Meng Xiangxue didn't bother to be polite with his little cousin. He took a fried dough twist and started to chew it happily.
Oil is a very precious substance these days. Mahua (fried dough sticks) consumes a lot of oil, and state-owned restaurants only sell it two or three times a month. Whether you can buy it depends entirely on luck.
"I'll put this one away for you. If you get hungry later, tell me." Jiang Dani did not eat the remaining fried dough twist. Instead, she carefully wrapped it in butter paper and put it in the cross-body bag she was carrying.
Jiang Yilu did not object to his elder sister's action. Anyway, neither he nor his cousin would eat the fried dough stick, and it would end up in his elder sister's stomach.
"Sister, have you chosen your clothes?" Jiang Yilu looked at his sister's empty hands and asked curiously.
"No, my elder sister said to wait for you to come back and choose." Meng Xiangxue said vaguely with a mouth full of fried dough twists.
"Why don't we not go in? Didn't my uncle buy us some cloth?" At the last minute, Jiang Dani hesitated. The fierce and cunning look of the supply and marketing cooperative member just now left a big shadow on her.
"Sister, if you don't buy something for my mom, your aunt will definitely be angry. Now that we're here, how can we not go in?" Meng Xiangxue finished the fried dough twist in his hand in a few bites and pulled Jiang Dani into the supply and marketing cooperative.
As the year draws to a close, the supply and marketing cooperative has a much richer variety of goods, with all kinds of candies and melon seeds piled high on the shelves. Three middle-aged women stood at the counter, one of whom was the woman who had just yelled outside. I don't know what they were talking about, but the three of them covered their mouths, giggled, and didn't pay any attention to the people who came in.
In addition to the neatly stacked cloths, there are also a few ready-made garments hanging on the wall, all of which are the most common styles.
In the 1970s, almost everyone’s wardrobe only contained blue, black and grey clothes. During this period, Chinese workers’ uniforms were also mostly blue, and some Western media even reported this phenomenon, describing the Chinese as “blue ants”.
However, no matter what the outside world thinks, in the hearts of the Chinese people during this period, being able to wear dark blue work clothes and grass green military uniforms was a matter of great honor and pride.
Jiang Dani is simple and kind, but she still has some thoughts of a little girl. As soon as she entered the supply and marketing cooperative, all eyes were captured by a set of army green women's military uniform hanging on the wall.
"Comrade, how much is that suit?"
A mother and daughter who came in earlier than them also obviously liked the dress and asked the teller who was standing inside chatting.
"Four feet of cloth coupons, plus twenty-five dollars." After saying that, he turned his head away and continued the conversation they had just had.
The middle-aged woman who asked the question took a deep breath and said, "My goodness, it's so expensive. Forget it, let's not buy it. Mom will go back and use your brother's old military uniform to alter it for you."
The woman hesitated for a moment and said to her daughter standing beside her.
"No, I want that dress. Xiaohong next door has it, so I want one too." The little girl said to her mother beside her in a coquettish manner.
The woman couldn't resist her daughter's nagging after all, and since the family was not short of the cloth coupons and cash, she gritted her teeth and bought it.
"Comrade, please help me pack up that piece of clothing. I want it."
"Are you annoying? You can't finish talking about something all at once. Is there an end to it?" The woman who was interrupted grumbled a few words in annoyance, but she didn't stop her hands. She took down the clothes on the wall, folded them casually, and threw them into the woman's hands. She tapped her fingertips on the counter a few times and frowned impatiently: "Give me the money."
The woman had obviously become accustomed to the teller's temper. She handed the clothes to her daughter and quickly took out the cloth coupons and cash from the cloth bag across her body. She counted them carefully twice before handing the bills to her under the teller's increasingly unpleasant look.
Jiang Dani watched this scene until the mother and daughter disappeared at the door of the supply and marketing cooperative. Now all that was left hanging on the wall was a dark blue cotton jacket and a gray woolen coat.
Just when Jiang Dani was disappointed, the teller took out a set of military green clothes from nowhere and hung them on the wall, which made Jiang Dani's eyes light up. But after touching her wallet, Jiang Dani was still a little worried about the price of the clothes.
"Comrade, how much does it cost to buy a three-foot-five piece of cloth?" Jiang Dani estimated that she was relatively small, and if the cloth was cut carefully, the three-foot-five piece of cloth would probably be enough for her to make a set of clothes.
"Do you have any cloth coupons?"
The woman glanced at Jiang Dani's cotton jacket, which was washed so white that it looked bleached, and asked.
"Yes!" Jiang Dani responded. She took a look and found that her aunt had given her five feet of cloth coupons.
"Plus fifteen dollars."
Jiang Dani was delighted. Forget it. If she made the clothes by herself, she could save half a foot of cloth plus ten yuan. It was a great bargain.
"Comrade, please help me tear off a three-foot-five piece of cloth, thank you." Jiang Dani said with a blushing face.
Jiang Yilu tugged at the corner of his elder sister's clothes: "Elder sister, can you sew clothes?" Jiang Dani was okay at sewing a hole, but Jiang Yilu had never seen her sew clothes. In the past, these easy tasks were done by Old Lady Miao alone, with Gu Dongmei helping out.
"I learned a little from Grandma Bai in the factory, and I can save a lot of money by doing it myself." Jiang Dani leaned over and whispered in her brother's ear.
Jiang Yilu frowned, wanting to know who the old lady Bai was that his elder sister mentioned, but Jiang Dani obviously didn't want to talk more about that old lady Bai outside.
It takes some time to cut the cloth, and the clerk has to carefully measure the size of the cloth to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the public. Jiang Dani followed, and Jiang Yilu stayed in front of the counter with his cousin.
"I heard that the county's junior high school is going to resume classes. Will your eldest son still go to school?"
"Are you telling the truth? Weren't all the teachers and principals arrested and criticized? Are they going to be released again?"
Jiang Yilu listened attentively to the conversations of the two remaining women at the counter.
"I heard that it was the Chairman's order to stop the fighting and return the campus to the students. Schools outside have resumed classes a long time ago. My old man just mentioned it yesterday. He said that he wanted to call back those bad elements first, give them classes during the day, and let them do labor reform at night." The woman said mysteriously, and a hint of pride flashed across her face when she mentioned the old man she was talking about.
The other woman obviously lived up to her expectations, and looked at her with envy in her eyes: "I hope everything is as your old man said. You know, my eldest son has reached his age and can only work as a temporary worker. I will let him go to school as soon as junior high school starts. He will be assigned a job after graduating from junior high school. It is better than being a temporary worker anyway."
"Don't worry, our old man said that the notice will be sent soon."
.......
Jiang Yilu didn't pay attention to what the two of them talked about afterwards. He kept thinking about the fact that the county junior high school had resumed normal classes.
The eldest sister is unlucky. She was in school during the most chaotic years in school. If junior high school classes resume now, she can go back to school. Jiang Yilu was thinking about how to talk about this with his family. In his opinion, studying has more advantages than disadvantages. The eldest sister is not like the fierce second sister, and the third and fourth sisters who have been changed by him. Her personality has long been formed. She is gentle and non-competitive. It is unrealistic to ask her to go out and strive for a big career. The eldest sister's personality is more suitable for a stable job.
But the biggest problem now is the age of the eldest sister. She is already seventeen this year, and will be twenty when she graduates from junior high school. In his opinion, twenty is the best age for a woman, but the eldest sister may not think so. After all, in the eyes of the public, twenty is the age to get married and have children.
Jiang Yiliu thought about going to his elder sister's room tonight to find out what she would say and see what choice she would make. In his heart, Jiang Yiliu still hoped that his elder sister could continue to study, because he could see that his elder sister really cherished the knowledge she learned in school. In the cabinet of her room at home, the books from that year were neatly stacked, with dense notes on them.
There was another thing. Jiang Yiliu was thinking whether he could also go to the county to study. The knowledge in primary school was too simple for him. Every day in school, except playing with Ruan Ruan and the others, there was almost nothing else to do. This was too boring for an adult. Moreover, he had his own plans for the late 1970s. Staying too long in school was obviously not in line with his plans.
"Xiaobao, we should go now."
Jiang Dani happily held the cloth in her arms, as well as the silk thread and buttons of the same color.
Jiang Yilu's thoughts were interrupted, and he looked at his elder sister with a beautiful smile and smiled.
Not long after they left, a woman who looked to be in her forties and had an old face appeared at the door of the supply and marketing cooperative. She stared at their backs as they left and gritted her teeth.
This person was Fan Xiaojuan, who had not appeared for several years.
A few years ago, she was introduced by her eldest sister-in-law to marry a city man in his fifties. When the matchmaker introduced the family, he praised them highly, saying that they had a house (30 square meters) and a car (bicycle), and that the children in the family were already adults and did not need their elders to take care of them. Fan Xiaojuan was annoyed by the rumors in the village at the time, so she inquired about the man's salary and married him without thinking.
Who knew that everything was a lie? The old man loved to drink and beat people. His previous wife was beaten when she was pregnant, which caused her to die of dystocia. Fan Xiaojuan had been injured many times in the past one or two years since she got married. Moreover, she had been divorced once and her reputation was long gone. If she divorced again, she would probably have to live in her parents' home for the rest of her life.
This family has many children, all of whom are married. The two oldest sons are not much younger than her, and they married powerful women. Since she got married, the couple moved into a small house of only 30 square meters, with more than a dozen people living together. Even if she wanted to give birth to another child for the old man, she couldn't find a chance. The two daughters-in-law would report her to the old man every now and then, and the two of them kept a close eye on the old man's salary, so she couldn't get a penny.
Marrying into that family, working like a cow or a horse, there is no benefit at all. Fan Xiaojuan has lived a really hard life these years. She has regretted it before. Compared with her current husband, her life of barely making ends meet seems so happy. She has a husband who loves her and lovely children. But when she thinks of Jiang Dachuan who is still undergoing reform in Heilongjiang Province, she feels that her choice is right. She can only spend her days in torment day after day.
Just now, Fan Xiaojuan was forced by the old man to come to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy wine. She was wearing a large scarf to cover the bruises at the corners of her mouth. Naturally, she did not miss the Jiang siblings coming out of the supply and marketing cooperative, and she also saw the army green cloth in Jiang Dani's hand.
Why was her life so miserable while the former bullied girl was living a good life? Fan Xiaojuan gritted her teeth and a vicious idea flashed through her mind.
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