Li Chu was stunned. What was going on? Had things really been changed?
Shouldn't the uniforms be changed next year? Why are they already collecting statistics this year?
Take military ranks for example. They've been discussed for several years, but we haven't heard anything about them being finalized yet.
Uncle Shen was initially determined to push this matter to be implemented, but due to various reasons, he did not succeed even after retiring completely last year.
I don't know if this will actually be implemented.
After dinner, Li Chu drove home. Wang Yueyue had no classes today and had taken the child to Uncle Wang's place.
As soon as he entered the living room, Li Qin from next door came over.
"Xiao Chu, Mu Hongjun came over today."
Li Chu, who was holding a kettle and about to pour water, stopped when he heard this.
What's he doing here?
"Looking for me, or more accurately, wanting to find you through me."
"He wants you to persuade me to talk to his youngest daughter, right?"
Li Qin was taken aback: "Do you know why?"
"I know, isn't it his youngest daughter who came back from studying abroad and wanted to talk to me about how to treat Old Master Mu's illness?"
“I won’t try to persuade you; you can do whatever you want.” Li Qin first explained her point of view, and then asked, “Logically speaking, this request isn’t too unreasonable. I heard from Mu Hongjun that when you went to give Old Master Mu a check-up a couple of days ago, you didn’t even acknowledge his youngest daughter. What were you thinking?”
"Why should I pay attention to her? There's no law that says I have to respond when someone talks to me, right?"
Li Qin was both amused and exasperated by her younger brother's words.
"Yes, you're right. But in my memory, you're not the kind of person who would just ignore someone. Is it because of what happened back then?"
“Sister, how many years has it been? If I really cared about that, I wouldn’t have intervened when his father was seriously ill,” Li Chu said, shaking his head.
"Then what's the reason? There can't be no reason, right?"
"First, Mu Hongjun's daughter studied Western medicine, so talking to her about traditional Chinese medicine would be like casting pearls before swine; second, I've never seen anyone so arrogant when asking for advice; third, his daughter wants me to publish the treatment method, which is just wishful thinking."
Li Qin was speechless. Like father, like daughter; both father and daughter had something wrong with their heads.
"So, Mu Hongjun's father's illness is quite serious?"
"Putting aside the severity, the disease his father had was something that Western medicine had been studying for decades without understanding, or even finding the cause, let alone any good treatment methods."
"Oh, I see." Li Qin nodded in understanding.
"Sister, was your husband home when Mu Hongjun came to see you?"
“He’s not here. He went to someone else’s house to play chess. Even if he were here, so what? Your brother-in-law doesn’t know Mu Hongjun. I didn’t even let him in the door. I just stood at the door and said a few words to him.”
After saying that, Li Qin thought for a moment and then asked, "Xiao Chu, do you think Old Mu will stand up for his granddaughter in this matter?"
"Sister, you're overthinking it. If Old Mu were willing to step in, would Mu Hongjun need to shamelessly come to you?"
Old Master Mu probably knew nothing about this, otherwise he would have definitely made his granddaughter give up the idea.
"Okay, as long as you understand. How about Yueyue and the child go back to stay for a few days?"
"They didn't say how many days you'd stay, maybe a week at most, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing, it's just that the kids have been here with me every morning lately, and I felt a little empty today since I didn't see them," Li Qin said, smacking her lips.
"Hey, now that we're only allowed to have one child, wouldn't it be great to have a few more kids in the family? It would save us from having to fight over who gets to see the baby like we do now."
Li Chu was powerless to change this. At that time, probably no one expected that the population would experience negative growth decades later.
Not only that, but the number of marriages has been decreasing year by year.
Back then, young people simply couldn't afford to get married.
Decades from now, things will be very different. Nowadays, let alone college students, even a vocational school graduate can earn enough to be independent and raise children with ease.
But what about the future? A vocational school graduate? Ha!
College students? The vast majority of them are unemployed after graduation.
Graduate students? Many people's monthly salary doesn't even reflect the hard work and effort they put into their studies.
Not to mention the skyrocketing housing prices, the ever-increasing cost of living, and the dowry that is a nightmare for many young men of marriageable age.
In his previous life, Li Chu was puzzled by the issue of betrothal gifts, and now he was even more puzzled.
Because in all these years, in normal family marriages, he has never seen a woman's side take the initiative to propose how much dowry she should give.
Yes, there are, but those are all cases of selling daughters, the real kind of selling.
Just like Qin Huairu, she was essentially sold to the Jia family by her own family, and she only went back home once every three to five years after her marriage.
It should be noted that it only takes a little over an hour to get from her home to her parents' home by bicycle.
In normal families, the bride price should be given voluntarily by the groom's family, based on their own financial situation and the degree of importance the groom places on the bride.
Sword Comes
As for the dowry, that depends on how much the daughter is valued by her parents.
If you have an older brother and a younger brother, then I'm sorry, but a dowry including a quilt is considered generous, since you need coupons to buy cloth and cotton.
However, it's unclear when this situation changed, but it turned into actively demanding things.
Li Chu felt that he could see for himself when this mindset changed.
Is it because there are more men than women? This leads many people to believe that women don't have to worry about getting married?
"Xiao Chu, I heard from Qiu Nan that you two are planning to go to the grasslands in July?"
"Yes, the report has been submitted. We happened to be sending a batch of supplies to the medical team at that time, so we took this opportunity to go and take a look around."
"Won't bringing Yueyue and the child along cause any negative consequences?"
"There will definitely be an impact, but it's not a big problem. I've already reported it to my superiors, and headquarters has approved it."
"That's fine then. Just make sure you know what's appropriate."
"I understand, sis. I'll have to trouble you to feed the dogs for me then."
"That's no big deal. By the way, speaking of dogs, I remembered that you asked me to inquire about leasing a piece of land for you."
"Hmm? There's news?"
"It's over in Mentougou. A staff member from the subdistrict office told you about this. There's a piece of land near her family's village that's not suitable for farming. They've designated it as a farm, but it's a bit far from the village, so nobody wants it. It's been sitting there empty. You can go take a look."
"Sister, write down the specific address for me, and I'll go take a look when I have time."
"Okay, I've written the address down in my notebook. I'll copy it down for you later."
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