Jiang Dahai stayed at Gu's house with his wife and children for a day. The children had enough to eat and drink, and their pockets were filled with candies, cakes and thick red envelopes. Because they had to hurry to see Jiang Dazhen's family before they left, Zhao Hong considerately prepared dinner early and asked them to finish dinner and hurry on their way.
Before leaving, Zhao Hong carefully gave the jar of crab sauce to her grandson.
"Your eldest sister said that this crab paste won't last long. Now that it's cold, and a lot of salt has been added to the crab paste, it can still be kept for a while. But it's better to let the children eat it up as soon as possible. If the weather gets warmer, the crab paste will go bad."
The crab paste was not enough, so Zhao Hong tinkered with a lot of other things in her room. So when they went back, they had more things on them than when they came.
Zhao Hong handed the things to her daughter and son-in-law, and gave her daughter a few instructions. Gu Dongmei looked at her elderly mother and her second brother who was still sloppy at his age, and responded with a heavy nasal tone.
"Okay, let's get going."
Zhao Hong straightened her daughter's collar. In her mother's eyes, no matter how old a child is, he is still a child: "Think about what I said to you today when you go back."
Zhao Hong leaned close to Gu Dongmei's ear and whispered in her ear. To others, it seemed that Zhao Hong couldn't bear to part with her daughter, and the two of them were talking about something private.
Gu Dongmei nodded, lowering her eyes as she looked at her son, who had grown to the height of her armpits, with complicated thoughts in her mind.
******
"Wow, my uncle gave us two yuan as New Year's money, and grandma also gave us one yuan."
As soon as they left Daqian Village, Sanni and Sini couldn't help but open the red paper package containing their New Year's money and started looking at it. When they saw the huge sum of money, they both exclaimed.
Adding the one dollar each given by Grandpa Ruan and the others today, except Xiaobao, who also received New Year's money from grandparents, the rest of them now have a total of six dollars and fifty cents. For a rural child, this is a huge sum of money.
Judging from the Jiang family's situation, Jiang Dahai and Gu Dongmei may not have so much money.
"Your uncle gave you so much money!"
Gu Dongmei frowned. Two yuan per person, that would be twelve yuan for six children. This was not a small amount. In previous years, her second brother and mother had always given fifty cents in red envelopes to the children. Why were they so generous this time?
My second brother didn't earn many work points, and he liked to hang out in the county town on weekdays. Where did he get so much money? Gu Dongmei was a little flustered, wondering if her second brother had done something bad outside. She suddenly wanted to turn back and ask her second brother for clarification.
"Where are you going?" Jiang Dahai saw his wife turn around and walk towards Daqian Village, and stopped her in confusion.
"I'll ask my second brother to find out where he got all that money from. Did he do anything bad? You see, Xiaobao is taken to the county town by him every now and then. I don't know what they do. They are so secretive."
Gu Dongmei said anxiously that private transactions were not allowed now. As a farmer, if one wanted to make money quickly, one could only secretly take the rations allocated to one's family to the county town to sell them. Isn't that what the second son of the Jiang family did? But if this was discovered, he would be shot.
Gu Dongmei was worried that her second brother would go astray and that her son would be taught a bad lesson.
"Okay, what are you thinking about?"
Jiang Dahai pulled her clothes speechlessly: "How much did Dachuan get from the sweet potatoes he stole? If my second brother wants to make money from this, he will have to sell all the food for the whole family. Even if my mother-in-law agrees, your smart sister-in-law will agree. She will scream and cry if there is one grain of rice missing in the house."
"I think you are worrying too much. How could such a smart man like my second brother make such a mistake?"
Jiang Dahai dispelled Gu Dongmei's original concerns with just a few words. Yes, you have to have grain to sell, and the Gu family does not have any extra grain for the second brother to do such a thing.
But, in this case, how does my second brother make money?
Gu Dongmei was a little depressed, thinking that she would ask her son about it when she got the chance. This was a big deal, so she couldn't hide it.
"Children can't hold so much money. Mom will help you hide your uncle and grandma's New Year's money."
In previous years, the children only received two or three yuan in New Year's money, and Gu Dongmei never thought of confiscating the money. However, this year the children's New Year's money has increased, and it is obviously inappropriate to put such a large sum of money in the hands of children.
"One, two, three, run."
The children looked at each other, no one paid any attention to what Gu Dongmei said, and they ran away without a trace. Before Ruan Ruan could come to her senses, Jiang Sini and Jiang Yiliu held her hands on her left and right, and ran away together.
It's rare to have so much money, they don't want to hand it to their mother. Look at the children in the village, which one of them wants it back after handing it in?
"Where did these kids learn these bad habits? And Dani, she has always been the most sensible, but why does she follow her brothers and sisters to act up?"
Gu Dongmei saw that the children ran away as soon as she finished speaking. She patted her chest angrily and gasped for breath.
"Alright, alright, that's New Year's money for the kids, just let them keep it and spend it on Huabei."
Jiang Dahai looked at his daughters' lively appearance and secretly felt relieved. He ignored his wife's complaints and walked slowly behind them, carrying the things given by his mother-in-law.
"Okay, okay, you are the baby's biological father, and I am the stepmother."
Gu Dongmei was still very relaxed in front of her husband. She yelled at Jiang Dahai angrily, her brows twisted into a "川" shape.
"Since you said so, I will find the baby's biological mother someday."
Jiang Dahai was in a good mood, grinning and joking as he looked at his wife.
"You dare!" Gu Dongmei pretended to pull Jiang Dahai's mouth.
This back and forth also made Gu Dongmei forget her unhappiness just now, and the New Year's money for the children was temporarily saved. As for returning home, as long as Mrs. Miao did not say anything, Gu Dongmei probably would not dare to bring up this topic again.
What a joke! It's better to put the money in the hands of my daughter than to have it taken away by the old lady.
*******
"Aunt."
When they returned home, it was already getting dark and lights were on on both sides of the main road in the village.
At this time, Jiang Dazhen and her husband Meng Pingchuan were about to take their son back home, and they happened to meet Jiang Dahai and his group who were returning from Gu's house.
As soon as the children met Jiang Dazhen, they called her "Auntie" in a sweet voice and surrounded her affectionately.
"Okay, auntie won't miss your New Year's money."
Jiang Dazhen opened the cloth bag she carried with her, took out the red envelopes she had prepared long ago, and distributed them to the children one by one. Jiang Dahai also took out the red envelopes he had prepared long ago and gave them to his nephew.
"Aunt, I had a dream last night. I dreamed that you had a little sister in your belly."
Jiang Yiliu took the red envelope handed over by his aunt and put it in his pocket without even looking at it. He put his hands on Jiang Dazhen's belly and said solemnly.
In her previous life, my aunt didn’t find out she was pregnant until a month later. At that time, Jiang Dazhen didn’t realize she was pregnant. She thought it was just because she was too busy during the New Year period, which led to menstrual disorders. This was also an old problem for Jiang Dazhen, so she didn’t take it seriously.
At that time, Meng Pingchuan's friend sent a turtle to her home. Perhaps because of her pregnancy, Jiang Dazhen's appetite increased a lot during that period. She not only ate a lot of turtle meat, but also chewed the turtle shell carefully.
Turtle is cold in nature and has the effect of promoting blood circulation and dispersing blood stasis, especially turtle shell, which has a stronger abortion effect than turtle meat. Generally speaking, pregnant women cannot eat turtle.
After eating the soft-shelled turtle that day, Jiang Dazhen began to feel a little uncomfortable and had a dull pain in her lower abdomen. Meng Pingchuan sent her to the hospital, and after examination he found out that Jiang Dazhen was pregnant.
The Meng family was so happy. Jiang Dazhen had only given birth to Meng Xiangxue in all these years. The old couple of the Meng family wanted their daughter-in-law to have more children, but Jiang Dazhen never got pregnant again. Now Jiang Dazhen is pregnant again, and the Meng family wants to worship her as a bodhisattva.
After the turtle incident, Jiang Dazhen stayed in the hospital for more than ten days. However, she was too old after all, and the fetus could not be restored. As a result, Jiang Dazhen's life was extremely difficult afterwards, and she was always worried about the safety of the fetus.
Jiang Yilu had seen with his own eyes how much the Meng family and his aunt cared about the baby in her belly, so when his aunt came home crying and said that she had aborted the baby for family planning reasons, he didn't believe it at all.
Not to mention that the family planning inspections are not strict at all nowadays, even if they were as strict as in later generations, it is impossible for my aunt to abort the baby so casually.
The reason why Jiang Yilu informed his aunt about this matter in advance was to let her realize her pregnancy as early as possible. In this way, she would not eat turtle because of her greed and cause an unstable pregnancy.
It is more difficult to artificially remove a healthy fetus than a weak one. Jiang Yiliu thought that if something unexpected happened to the child in his aunt's belly in his previous life, the only uncertain factor would be Meng Xiangwen.
"If it's really like what Xiaobao said, your uncle will give you a big red envelope."
Meng Pingchuan heard his nephew's words and touched his wife's belly with a smile. The older generation said that children's eyes are the clearest. Maybe his wife is really pregnant at this moment. Meng Pingchuan thought that he had been working hard, and he should have a third child.
"What nonsense are you talking about." Jiang Dazhen hit her husband's lower abdomen with her elbow and said coquettishly.
However, after hearing what Xiaobao said, she couldn't help but feel a little moved. Her menstruation seemed to be irregular recently. Why not go to the machinery factory workers' hospital some other day? After all, as a family member of a machinery factory worker, she wouldn't have to pay for such a minor illness.
Jiang Yilu was relieved when he saw that his aunt and uncle seemed to have heard his words.
He didn't notice that his elder sister had a strange look in her eyes.
Xiaobao said before that she dreamed that she would get into trouble, and gave her a can of pepper spray for self-defense, but nothing happened. Now Xiaobao said that he dreamed that Xiaogu was pregnant.
Jiang Dani was worried, wondering if her younger brother had learned some nonsense and wanted to change his career to become a god.
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