Chapter 4 Big Purchase
Jiang Ruzhen rode her family's old bicycle, which was over twenty years old, with great effort to the entrance of the department store, and she was exhausted.
Perhaps he had enjoyed a few years of comfort and ease with his youngest son in his previous life, because suddenly even riding a bicycle felt like a chore.
Jiang Ruzhen gave a self-deprecating bitter smile, locked her car, went into the mall, found the largest gold shop, and exchanged her pair of gold earrings for cash.
Don't underestimate this mere 350 yuan; in this day and age, it can buy a lot of things.
The most important thing is that having an excuse to buy things for the house will not arouse suspicion from the children.
She had even prepared a reason. When the children asked where the money came from, she would say it was a dowry left to her by their maternal grandmother, which she had never been willing to sell.
With the money, Jiang Ruzhen thought of her impoverished home and her hardworking and frugal children, and she felt inspired to make purchases.
She went straight to the wardrobe counter, looked around for a long time, and shook her head and sighed deeply at the simplicity of this era.
At that time, northerners' clothing and appearance were still stuck in the past, and they did not follow the latest trends like those in the south.
Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice, so she could only buy each of her three sons a drab gray Zhongshan suit and two white short-sleeved polyester shirts for changing.
I also bought my daughter two light blue polyester shirts and two uncut skirts.
I guess I'll have to wait until I take her to school, when we're in the big city of Beijing, to buy her some pretty dresses.
After buying clothes, I bought a pair of leather shoes and a pair of cloth shoes for each of my two eldest sons, and a pair of Warrior sneakers and a pair of plastic sandals for each of my youngest daughter and son.
Afterwards, she went to the cosmetics counter and bought five boxes of Friendship brand face cream, because a girl's face needs to be well taken care of.
She planned to replace the face cream she used for her daughter with the expensive brand-name creams that Qin Lanlan used in her spatial dimension after she returned.
As for the sons, let them be a little rough around the edges; they'll be fine with face cream.
Besides face cream, she also bought some shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, kitchen seasonings, and other daily necessities.
Before going home, she went to the market and bought less rice, flour, oil, vegetables, and meat as a cover.
This trip cost about 120 yuan. Jiang Ruzhen sighed with emotion, "Prices are really cheap these days."
After returning home, Shen Shuxin took the basket from Jiang Ruzhen and was horrified when she saw what was inside.
"Xin Xin, why didn't you go shopping?"
Jiang Ruzhen patted Shen Shuxin's shoulder and asked her what was wrong. Startled awake, Shen Shuxin quickly pulled Jiang Ruzhen into the house like a thief.
She cautiously reminded her, "Mom, why did you buy so much stuff? Aren't you afraid the Qin family will find out and come to rob us again?"
ah?
Upon hearing this, Jiang Ruzhen remembered that her family was still being exploited by the Qin family.
Whenever she and her two sons earn a little money, they want to improve their lives.
Li Fen and Qin Liang would find out, and then the two of them would come over. Li Fen would cry and shout, while Qin Liang would smash and snatch things.
She caused chaos for her family, and wouldn't stop until she had taken all the money they had earned.
For the past ten years or so, her family has been terrified of being disturbed. Now that they think about it, it must have been Qin Lanlan, that ungrateful wretch, who notified her own mother and brother to come and cause trouble from time to time.
She used to be tolerant of the Qin family because she felt guilty, but now that she knows the truth, she's afraid they won't come!
Perfect, she packed everything up at once.
"Don't be afraid, Qin Lanlan has been tied up. Today it's just our family having a reunion dinner, no one will cause trouble."
Shen Shuxin frowned, understanding the meaning behind Jiang Ruzhen's words.
"Mom, are you saying that every time someone from the Qin family came to visit, it was Third Sister who tipped them off?"
Jiang Ruzhen nodded with a dark expression. "She's an ungrateful wretch. I treated her with all my heart, and no matter how much her mother and brother abused her, she still sided with her own family."
"Fine, I won't support her anymore; she can go back to the Qin family."
Upon hearing this, Shen Shuxin's pupils dilated, and she gripped Jiang Ruzhen's arm tightly.
"Mom, are you serious? You really want to kick Qin Lanlan out?"
"Yes, it's more real than real gold. I have something else to tell you when your brother and younger brother come back."
"What's wrong?"
"A major event that concerns the fate and future of our family."
Shen Shuxin felt a little dizzy; everything that had happened that afternoon seemed unusual.
Is there anything more serious than a mother's change of attitude?
Ignoring her daughter's shocked expression, Jiang Ruzhen stuffed the clothes and shoes she had bought for her into her arms and told her to go back to her room to try them on.
She then brought her three sons' clothes, shoes, face cream, and other items to their room and placed them on the cabinet.
Then he took the remaining two bottles of face cream into his room, changed the cream inside, and delivered them to his daughter.
Immediately afterwards, she rolled up her sleeves and began to cook dinner.
When Shen Shuxin came to her senses and came in to help, she found that the kitchen was already full of elaborate dishes.
Pan-fried lamb chops, sweet and sour pork, braised pork knuckle, stir-fried beef with celery, stir-fried lamb with scallions, fried meatballs, braised mixed fish, and seaweed and egg soup, etc.
The table was laden with more than ten kinds of meat and vegetables, making her mouth water.
"Mom, you've struck it rich!"
"Yes, from now on, Mom will never let you go hungry again."
Jiang Ruzhen called to her beloved daughter to help set the dishes on the table, and then they heard the voices of several young men outside.
"Big brother! Second brother, can you smell it? There's a meaty smell."
"Yeah, I smell it too. It seems to be coming from our house. Oh no, big brother, could it be those two bastards from the Qin family coming to bully Mom again?"
"Go in and take a look quickly."
As soon as the curtain was lifted, three young men ran in one after another.
When they saw the table laden with dishes, they were so astonished that their eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
For a moment, all three of them were stunned and stood there dumbfounded.
Jiang Ruzhen quickly got up to greet them, hugging and kissing each of the three young men.
"My children, I've missed you so much... Waaaaah..."
Jiang Ruzhen didn't want to cry, but seeing her three lively sons, she couldn't hold back her tears.
These sons lost their father at a young age and suffered a lot following her around.
The houses originally allocated by the factory were taken back, and they simply couldn't make a living in the city.
She brought her children to the fishing village to make a living, and the eldest child, who was ten years old, followed her around doing odd jobs.
He helped her with tasks like butchering fish and shrimp, mending fishing nets, and even carrying heavy loads when unloading cargo from fishing boats. At a young age, he was forced to experience the harsh realities of life.
But he bravely supported her family without complaint or regret. She cherished such a good boy.
But for Qin Lanlan, who was going to university in a big city, so that she wouldn't be looked down upon and could live a better life, he secretly went out to sea with the fishermen to fish, just to earn an extra ten or so yuan.
Unexpectedly, half a month later he encountered a storm at sea. Lacking experience, he was almost swept into the sea and drowned. When he was rescued, his leg was broken. Less than three days later, he committed suicide by poisoning himself.
While she was in pain at the time, she had resented her eldest brother's weakness, but now she knows that he did not commit suicide at all, but was poisoned to death by his adopted daughter.
"Eldest son, let Mom take a good look at you."
Jiang Ruzhen looked Shen Zhuoli up and down, and was relieved to see that he had no new wounds.
It seems that Shen Zhuoli was still learning accounting from Old Xu at the brigade and had not yet given up on going out fishing.
"Mom, is there some happy occasion at home today? Why are you making so many fancy dishes?"
Feeling a little embarrassed by his mother's gaze, Shen Zhuoli quickly changed the subject and asked her a question.
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