Chapter 144 Country bumpkin
Lin Shu quickly pushed his younger brother and sister aside and went into the house to find some clothes to wear. The three adults in the family also ran out. Lin Guoqing was holding a kitchen knife in his hand. He saw that his son had no other external injuries except that he was not wearing any clothes and was sweating profusely. It did not look like he had been robbed.
"Where are your clothes?"
"Give it to Sister Wu Ni."
Liang Shengdi: "Why did you give your clothes to Wu Ni? Her clothes were stolen?"
Lin Shugan wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, "No...it's just...Sister Wu Ni's pants are dirty, so I gave her some clothes to cover them up."
Chen Chunhua understood immediately. Wu Ni was about the same age as Shu Ying, so she must have had her period too. "Then where is Wu Ni?"
"Uh..." Lin Shugan ran back as soon as he gave her the clothes. "I bought her the menstrual pad and toilet paper, and then ran back. They went back to school to wipe their pants, so they should be on their way back now."
"That's good, that's good." Chen Chunhua finally felt relieved. The crackdown had started recently, and if Wu Ni was walking down the street with blood all over her pants, she'd probably be taken away. "You kid, you're not bad!" She even knew how to take care of her cousin.
Lin Shugan chuckled twice, feeling a little embarrassed. "Dad said that a real man should take care of a girl when he needs it... Um, Mom, I'm going to go in and get dressed first..."
With that, he slid back into his own chicken coop, leaving the three big and two small ones staring at each other.
Lin Shumei looked at her mother with round eyes, "Mom, when will my period come?" Why did all her sisters get their period, but not hers? She was already in the third grade, hadn't she grown up yet?
Chen Chunhua: "...Come on, go in and wash your hands and eat!"
Lin Shuchao: "Dad, I..."
Lin Guoqing waved the kitchen knife in his hand and said, "Shut up, wash your hands and eat. Are you going to watch the movie later?"
…
The children ate their meal today like they were at a market, shoveling rice into their mouths frantically and finishing it in less than ten minutes. If there hadn't been meat on the table today, these three children would probably have just stuffed an egg into the rice and ran away.
This was despite Shen Chunhua's strict order that people were not allowed to run after dinner, but they still managed to rush out without any hurry, despite the shoving and pushing of each other.
In just a short while, the threshing ground was opened, and from a distance, two thick poles seven or eight meters high were erected there. They would be used to support the curtain later.
I didn’t see the projectionist’s bicycle, so I guessed he hadn’t arrived yet, but there were already several children running around in the threshing ground.
"Lin Shuchao, are these stools from your family?" Jia Wenchang, the eldest grandson of Master Jia, asked, pointing to the two small stools with "Lin Wenxuan" written on them.
Lin Wenxuan, the name of Chen Chunhua's father-in-law and Lin Guoqing's father. This bench was left over from that time, so it was inscribed with Old Man Lin's name. Lin Shugan and Lin Shuchao were also holding two small bamboo chairs, with Lin Guoqing's name written on them.
"Yes, yes, it's mine! Don't move it away! We occupied the seat first!" Lin Shuchao quickened his pace and ran over, placing the small bamboo chair in his hand next to the bench.
Jia Wenchang curled his lips and said, "Who wants to move your stool? I have a seat here too!"
The children basically sat in the front, one reason being that they were short and the others gave way to them, and the other reason being that these little kids came quickly. After a while, the area in front of the big white curtain in the threshing yard was already full of children, ranging from fourteen or fifteen or sixteen years old to three or four years old.
Ba Ni and Jiu Ni also came running with two stools in their hands to reserve seats. Lin Shumei had already marked out the empty space behind her for them, which was just enough to fit four stools.
"Hey? Where's Sister Qi Ni?" Shu Mei asked when she didn't see anyone.
Ba Ni: "Fifth sister and the others just got home. Seventh sister said she would go to the farm to check on the animals. They had just fed them and see if there were any eggs to pick up. Then Fifth sister and the others will be able to come and watch the movie directly."
Everyone sat quietly on their own stools, waiting for the projectionist and chatting about today's movie news.
"Do you know what movie is playing today?"
"Tunnel Warfare, huh? That one's good!"
"Didn't we see that last time? Shouldn't we change it today?"
"I know, I know. The projectionist was in my grandmother's village the day before yesterday. I saw it. It was 'Shaolin Temple'!"
"Shaolin Temple?"
"You don't know, you country bumpkin! This movie was released at the provincial cinema last year. My aunt's father-in-law's cousin's daughter was selling tickets there. They sold every single ticket at ten cents! 160 million tickets sold nationwide!"
"How many?"
"One hundred and sixty million?"
The little brats were in an uproar.
"Second brother, how much is one hundred and sixty million?" Lin Shumei tilted her head and looked at Lin Shugan, who was the most educated person in her family besides her eldest sister. She counted on her fingers.
"I only know ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands... How much is one hundred million?"
Lin Shugan: "... after hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions, and tens of millions, there is a billion."
"How much is that? How many eggs can I buy?"
Lin Shugan: ...Why don't you change the object of comparison?
Jia Wenchang looked at the boy with his mouth open, saying that his aunt's father-in-law's cousin's daughter worked as a ticket seller at a cinema in the provincial capital. "With that much money, moviemakers can eat meat every day, right?"
"The movie was made in a film studio, so everyone in the studio should be able to eat meat every day!"
"Look at your achievements. How much is the meat worth? That's 160 million!" A slightly older girl sneered.
"The film studio is in the capital! Right here at the foot of the imperial city, I guess everyone in the studio can have white rice and braised pork three times a day, and a cup of malted milk in the morning. Everyone has a bicycle, and they can watch movies right at home!"
"How can you watch a movie at home? How big would your house have to be to accommodate the screen?"
Seeing that the person asking the question was a little kid, the girl looked at him sideways.
"Watch it on TV! You really are a country bumpkin!"
"What you watch on TV is TV, not movies! You are the country bumpkin!"
"You sound like you've watched TV before? Who says movies can't be shown on TV?"
"Have you ever watched TV? All you know is nonsense!"
"I saw it at my grandmother's uncle's house! You're just bragging! You country bumpkin!"
"We are from the same village. I am a country bumpkin. Are you not a country bumpkin?"
"That's a redneck too!"
…
Lin Shugan saw a small truck driving towards here from a distance.
"Stop making noise! The projectionist is here!!"
The scene suddenly became quiet. Those who were arguing, those who were trying to stop the fight, and those who were watching the fight all looked in the direction of the small truck. The person who was still carrying a stool and walking towards it from behind saw the small truck and hurried to the threshing ground.
Here it comes, it’s finally here!
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