Aunt Qiuju is different from Aunt Li.
Aunt Qiuju had a son and a daughter. Her son was with her, but her daughter had married in another county, a good two hundred miles from Zhoujia Village, and she seldom returned to her parents' home. Aunt Qiuju's grandchildren were older than Zhou Jiasheng, so they were no need for Aunt Qiuju to worry about them.
It was winter and there was no work in the production team. Apart from cooking for the old couple and washing their clothes, there was nothing for Aunt Qiuju to do at home.
Aunt Qiuju's son and daughter-in-law are both filial. Sometimes when the daughter-in-law washes clothes, she will also wash Aunt Qiuju's clothes.
This made Aunt Qiuju's free time even more empty. Fortunately, Aunt Qiuju was not a talkative person and would not gossip with the old ladies in Zhoujia Village when she was free.
Zhao Yunxiang had a certain respect for Aunt Qiuju. When something happened, the first person Zhao Yunxiang thought of was Aunt Qiuju.
Judging from Zhao Guohui's demeanor today, the fish ball issue has already been on the radar of his superior, Manager Wang. As a subordinate, Zhao Guohui's only responsibility is to complete the tasks assigned by his superior as quickly as possible. In those days, when leaders promoted subordinates, hard work wasn't the only criterion; the most important criterion was the ability to complete the leader's instructions promptly.
Zhao Guohui had become the director of the Sanhe Town Supply and Marketing Cooperative at such a young age that he must have taken his work seriously. Manager Wang hadn't pushed Zhao Guohui to complete the task quickly, but Zhao Guohui wasn't stupid. Since his boss had spoken, completing the task as quickly and effectively as possible was the goal Zhao Guohui was striving for.
Zhao Yunxiang was no ignorant village woman, so she was naturally worried about her brother. Otherwise, she wouldn't have gone out to look for help after dark.
During the winter, many women in Zhoujia Village were free, but Zhao Yunxiang still wanted to ask Aunt Qiuju if she would be willing to help make fish balls. Aunt Qiuju loved cleanliness and cleaned up neatly herself. Fish balls are something you eat, so Zhao Yunxiang definitely liked someone as clean as Aunt Qiuju.
In those days, every household was busy all year round. Apart from the few extra cents from the production team's New Year dividends, every household was short of money. Zhao Yunxiang's original intention was to help Aunt Qiuju. If Aunt Qiuju was willing to help make fish balls, Zhao Yunxiang planned to pay her wages.
To be honest, Zhao Yunxiang really can't do it all by herself with hundreds of kilograms of fish to be killed and chopped every day.
As for the two sisters-in-law of the Zhou family and Wu Jinfeng, Zhao Yunxiang didn't dare to ask them for help. If the women of the Zhou family knew that Zhao Yunxiang had taken on this big business of fish balls, who knows what the consequences would be.
The Zhou family was all ruthless. If the sisters-in-law knew that Zhao Yunxiang was making money, they would definitely feel unhappy. Wu Jinfeng was even more so. Every day, she only thought about getting benefits from Zhao Yunxiang's family. If she asked her to help with things, it would be strange if she didn't spit in Zhao Yunxiang's face.
Aunt Qiuju's house is not far from Zhao Yunxiang's house, separated by three or four houses.
Aunt Qiuju's family lived at the head of an alley that crossed the east and west sides of Zhoujia Village, dividing it into the upper and lower villages. Zhao Yunxiang's family and Aunt Qiuju's family both belonged to the upper village.
Standing outside Aunt Qiuju's house, Zhao Yunxiang was about to knock on the door when she saw a vague figure at the other end of the alley, which made Zhao Yunxiang stunned.
The man's back looked very much like Zhou Zhigang, the eldest uncle of the Zhou family. He was seen walking slowly towards the east side of the alley and did not notice Zhao Yunxiang who was about ten meters away.
Is that my uncle? He's not walking towards the brigade headquarters, is he? Zhao Yunxiang was a little confused.
The brigade headquarters of Zhoujia Village was located north of Zhao Yunxiang's home, about ten minutes' walk along the road in front of her house. Zhou Zhigang usually went to the brigade headquarters for meetings in the evenings and would never have walked to the east end of the village.
How could it be my uncle? It was so late, even if my uncle had something to talk about, he would have gone to the village chief, Zhou Hongming, to discuss village affairs. Zhao Yunxiang clearly remembered that Zhou Hongming's home was in the north of the village, not far from the brigade headquarters.
Zhao Yunxiang was just about to take a closer look when she saw the man turn a corner and disappeared from her sight.
In the countryside, people usually stay home after dark and rarely go out to visit friends and family. If Zhao Yunxiang hadn't overslept today and was in a hurry to do something tomorrow, she wouldn't have chosen this time to visit Aunt Qiuju's house.
The Zhou family didn't have any relatives in the east of the village, so Zhou Zhigang shouldn't have gone to the east in the dark of night.
Could it be that Uncle was out looking for someone to meet secretly?
Unexpectedly, the pink bra she saw a few days ago emerged in Zhao Yunxiang's mind.
Forget it, forget it, just don’t meddle in other people’s business!
Zhao Yunxiang shook her head, putting her curiosity aside. Zhou Zhigang's affairs had nothing to do with her. She had plenty of her own affairs to attend to! How could she have the time to meddle in other people's affairs?
It's true that Zhao Yunxiang's premonition was quite accurate. At this time, Zhou Zhigang, dodging all the way, arrived at the educated youth center at the east end of the village.
Fortunately, it was dark enough tonight, and Zhou Zhigang didn't meet anyone along the way.
Standing under the rear window of the educated youth center, Zhou Zhigang stretched his neck and looked around. Hey! Lucky for him, no one was passing by.
Zhou Zhigang plucked up his courage, walked forward and knocked on a window glass.
"Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock."
The familiar knocks of one long and three short ones woke the young woman in the room. She ran to the window and pulled open the floral curtains.
With the light in the room, the female educated youth looked out through the window glass and sure enough, it was Zhou Zhigang looking for her.
After lowering the curtains, the female educated youth looked at the army green coat that was about 70% new and a smile of satisfaction appeared on the corner of her mouth.
She quickly untied the ponytail on her head and braided it into two braids, then slowly walked towards the gate of the educated youth center.
"Lily, are you going to your aunt's house again?" A male educated youth happened to go out to pour foot washing water. Seeing the female educated youth dressed for going out, he couldn't help but ask a question.
"Yeah." The female educated youth responded without even looking at the male educated youth. She walked away in a pair of thick-heeled leather shoes.
The male educated youth looked at the female educated youth's back with envy, took the empty basin in his hand, and went back to his room with his head down.
The educated youth camp in Zhoujia Village was well-known in several nearby towns. Instead of sharing a room with others, each youth received a private room. This reduced the possibility of friction among the educated youth living together and allowed them to maintain their privacy as much as possible.
The female educated youth was Liu Moli, who was very pretty and considered one of the most beautiful women in Zhoujia Village. The male educated youth was He Xiaogang, who came from the same city as Liu Moli.
Liu Moli came a year earlier than He Xiaogang and has been in Zhoujia Village for four years.
He Xiaogang had heard from other educated youth at the educated youth site that Liu Moli had a cousin who was married in Zhoujia Village. With a local villager taking care of her, Liu Moli's life in Zhoujia Village was much better than that of the other educated youth.
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