I'm going to the county town this time to buy a watch.
Yu Qiuying currently has over 1,700 yuan on her, but she doesn't plan to deposit it into her savings account. She'll keep it all in her spatial storage space. After all, she's going to Dongguan Province after the New Year, and if she deposits it now, she'll have to go and withdraw it later when she needs it, which is too troublesome.
She had already made up her mind. If she went to Dongguan Province, she would go to the place where she had worked in her previous life. She was familiar with that place. Once she got there, she would first rent a house to settle down, and then set up a breakfast stall.
She has skills, has run a business, and speaks fluent Dongguan dialect. Most importantly, she understands the tastes of different provinces, so she is not worried about her business failing.
The reason for waiting until after the New Year is that there is still land at home, and the rice at home will be harvested in a few days. Since we are going out to earn money, we must first arrange things at home.
Yu Qiuying was lost in thought the whole way, and the car swayed and bumped for more than an hour before finally arriving in the county town.
Old Qiu's full name is Qiu Xianghua. His home is a bit far from the station, about a 20-minute walk away. However, it was still early, so Yu Qiuying went to the department store in the county center as planned.
At that time, the department store only had four floors and gray-white walls. In this era of transition from a planned economy to a market economy, the department store was not only a place for shopping, but also a place for people to socialize and have fun.
So even though it's only a little past eight o'clock, the place is already packed with people.
Yu Qiuying remembers that the department store, which carried the collective memories of several generations, was renovated in 2005 and its name was changed from the original Xinfeng County Department Store to Haoyoulai Department Store.
At this moment, looking at everything around her, some long-blurred memories in Yu Qiuying's mind seemed to have been triggered, suddenly becoming clear and quickly overlapping with everything in front of her.
To the left of the department store lobby is the home appliance section. In the very center, an old-fashioned color TV is showing an advertisement for a shampoo. People who go in can't help but stop and take a look. The surrounding area is noisy and bustling.
However, Yu Qiuying had no interest in leisurely browsing. She first bought two cans of milk powder, five kilograms of bananas, two cans of oranges, and two bottles of Moutai before finally going to the watch section to look at watches.
Watches of that era were all very similar in style. Yu Qiuying bought a watch simply to tell time and didn't care whether it looked good or not. After looking around, she finally bought an ordinary women's watch for fifty-eight yuan.
It was exactly nine o'clock when I came out of the department store.
Yu Qiuying refused several motorcycle taxi drivers who tried to solicit customers and slowly walked towards Qiu Xianghua's house with her things in her arms.
It wasn't that she was unwilling to spend money on a motorcycle taxi; it was just that it was still early, and she wanted to walk there slowly.
At this time, the Qiu family had not yet bought a house and were still living in the old town.
Mr. and Mrs. Qiu have two daughters and two sons. Their eldest daughter is already married, and their two sons are also married with children. Their youngest daughter is only nineteen years old and is not yet married.
The old town is still a slum. Although the Qiu family are city dwellers, all eleven members of the family are crammed together, and their living conditions are far less comfortable than in the countryside.
Actually, the Qiu family's current situation is not bad. Both sons and daughters-in-law have jobs. The eldest son works with Lao Qiu on construction sites, and the eldest daughter-in-law cooks for the workers on the construction sites. The younger son went to university and got a job at the Land Management Bureau through his wife's family connections. His wife also works at the Women's Federation.
Including Lao Qiu, there are five people in the family who earn money.
The more money you make, the more mouths you have to feed.
Old Qiu's eldest son has three children, and his youngest son has one child. Old Qiu's wife and youngest daughter both stay at home to take care of the children and have no income.
There are eleven people in the family, so the expenses are high. After all, we don't have land, and we have to spend money to buy rice, flour, cooking oil, meat, vegetables, and so on.
The Qiu family is doing alright right now, but they can't buy a house yet, since their two sons haven't separated their households. How can they buy one?
If we can't afford two sets right now, which son should we buy one for?
Neither Mr. and Mrs. Qiu were biased people, and they didn't want to ruin the family's harmony over the house, so they simply decided not to buy it for the time being.
In their previous life, the Qiu family bought the house in 1999.
Yu Qiuying reminisced about the Qiu family's affairs along the way, and before she knew it, she had arrived at the old town where the Qiu family lived.
She walked through two alleys familiarly, then turned right and walked three houses to reach Old Qiu's house.
Coincidentally, just as she was about to knock on the door, it was opened from the inside.
The person who opened the door was Huang Xiaomei, Lao Qiu's wife.
Yu Qiuying smiled and said, "Sister-in-law."
"Oh, sister-in-law, you've finally arrived! I knew you'd have to come over these next couple of days. Come on in, have a seat. I was just about to go out to buy groceries. Luckily you arrived in time, otherwise you would have been waiting outside." Huang Xiaomei was taken aback for a moment when she saw Yu Qiuying, and then immediately invited her inside.
"Sister-in-law, isn't Cui Cui home?" Yu Qiuying put her things on the dining table in the living room and, not seeing her youngest daughter Qiu Xingcui, asked casually.
"Oh dear, Cui Cui is in the hospital. Jia Dong fell off the scaffolding at the construction site yesterday afternoon. I was just about to ask someone to pass on a message to you. The doctor said that Jia Dong has minor rib fractures and a fracture in his left leg. Fortunately, it's not too serious. You have no idea, I was so scared when I got the call yesterday."
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