Chapter 9 Little Rabbit
Mrs. Liu’s job is not an ordinary job, but a waitress in a state-owned hotel.
State-owned hotels these days are really lucrative jobs, and many people are trying their best to get a job there. If Mrs. Liu hadn't gotten too old, she would have had no intention of retiring.
High salary, financial independence, easy work, high social status, and frequent income are all visible benefits, but Qin Laidie sees further - her elder sister is in urgent need of a job that can divert her attention.
Her mental state was on the verge of collapse after being infertile for a long time. If she stayed at home and continued to look at the faces of her in-laws, her health would never improve.
If the body doesn't get better, it will only be harder to get pregnant, and the vicious cycle will repeat itself over and over again. Eventually, the spirit can no longer hold on, and the person will return to the same situation as in the previous life.
"Girl, you are everywhere."
"Didn't grandma say before that if you rely on the mountain, the mountain will fall and people will run away? As long as my elder sister has a salary, she won't have to rely on anyone anymore. We can stay in the Liu family or not. If not, we can leave." The elder sister's brother-in-law looked quite honest, but last life, he immediately sent her to a mental hospital when she went crazy. She has always been brooding over it.
"My medicine costs money anyway. What your brother-in-law means is that I might as well sell my job for money." These days, there are many people who secretly sell their jobs and city hukou. Anything that is scarce is a resource.
"Your brother-in-law is worried about me and doesn't want me to be too tired. Going out to work doesn't allow me to take good care of my body like staying at home. Prepare..."
"Grandma, big sister, please think about it carefully. Is big sister's predicament really caused by not having children?" Lai Di couldn't bear to listen any longer and interrupted directly.
The grandfather and grandson were stunned. Yes, was the root cause really because they had no children? Her situation was faced by most girls who married into a wealthy family. Even if she gave birth to eight or ten sons, her husband's family would still look down on her.
It's nothing more than a reproductive machine that is more capable of giving birth. Parents-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law are the real family.
"Ai Lan, tell me the truth. Is Liu Jiawei good to you?"
"She's pretty good. She always says nice things about me in front of his parents. She gives a portion of her salary to the household every month and gives the rest to me. She secretly cooks brown sugar eggs for me when I'm on my period. She takes me to buy new clothes when she gets a bonus, and she bought me a bunch of tonic medicine last month..." Moreover, she never complained despite being infertile for so many years, and she even planned to sell her job to buy medicine for her.
Qin Guihua nodded. She had seen how the couple got along in the past. Liu Jiawei was indeed an honest and considerate husband. "Okay, you can take over this job. The family can live well. If they don't want to split up, it would be good to divide the salary between you two."
Being away from so many eyes was also good for her mental state.
Lai Di breathed a sigh of relief, and even Pan Di, who was just focusing on eating, nodded.
Because Ailan came back, Qin Guihua took out two eggs for lunch for the first time. She picked a handful of green garlic sprouts from her private plot and stewed them. She also steamed a pot of steaming sorghum buns. Although they were coarse grains, they were filling, and paired with the fragrant scrambled eggs, the three sisters ate with their mouths full of oil.
After the meal, Lai Di insisted on taking the elder sister's pulse and looking at her tongue. After a thorough examination, the conclusion she came to was the same as that of dozens of doctors Ai Lan had seen before, that it was all due to mental depression and blocked liver meridians. She asked about the medicines she was taking or had taken in the past, and they were all suitable for the symptoms. It seemed that this disease could only be cured by herself.
"By the way, I just heard Pan Di say something about her 'third brother-in-law'. Does our Lai Di have good news?"
Qin Lai Di really couldn't bear to be shy, so she simply stopped pretending and told her everything that happened a few days ago.
This is really the style of my grandmother. Ailan smacked her lips and said, "How is Comrade Xiaohe? Is he nice to you? What does he do for a living?"
Pan Di rushed to answer, and at the same time tried to improve the impression of her third brother-in-law whom she had never met before, "My third brother-in-law gave me 60 yuan as a betrothal gift, and also gave me 15 yuan for living expenses. He said that he is busy with work now, and when he is done with work, he will come to hold the wedding and take me to the city to live a good life!"
It was so detailed, as if she had heard it with her own ears.
Qin Ailan was also happy, "That's great, it's not a big deal to find someone from another province. The transportation will be convenient and I can go back to my parents' home anytime." But she didn't dare to ask for a dowry. When she got married, the Liu family didn't give any dowry, and she still feels guilty towards her grandmother now.
The grandparents and grandchildren chatted for a long time, and as the sun was setting, Ailan reluctantly went back to her husband's home.
*
Like Qin Ailan, the men, women, and children in the village were also curious about when Xiao He would come back. Every time Lai Di went to work, the aunties would ask, "Has Xiao He written to you recently?"
"When will Xiao He come to pick you up?"
If it weren't for the marriage certificate still under her pillow, Qin Lai Di would have suspected that she had a fake marriage. Compared with other people's speculations that He Liansheng didn't want her anymore and regretted it, she believed in the character of old He. Since they had a certificate, he would be responsible for her. There was no news for so long, it must be because he was busy with work, and they would hardly see each other for a long time in the future.
Because she remembered that when the two of them depended on each other in their last life, Lao He had talked about this mission. He was still one step too late when he reached the border, and the equipment had already been shipped out of the country. Later, after a series of procedures such as reporting and approval, he spent another half a month chasing them out, all the way to Mongolia in the north, disguising himself as a Mongolian, and lurking there for almost a year before he successfully destroyed the enemy's plan to dismantle our equipment. It took him another two months, disguising himself many times and changing routes, to return home in a circuitous way.
Although this mission took a long time, he completed it very well.
Qin Lai Di, of course, would not say a word. She always used "busy work" as an excuse to avoid everyone's well-intentioned or gloating inquiries. Her other problem now was the glutenous meat.
Ever since she had that meal of eggs, Lai Di's mouth has been open and she dreams of eating meat. Because of her illness in her previous life, her husband forbade her to eat this and that, which made her really greedy. Holding the five dollars that her elder sister secretly stuffed into her before she left, Lai Di made a bold decision - to go to the black market again.
The scale of the current black market is not very large, and not everything is available. Pork is of course the most sought-after item.
Look, the pork belly that cost 65 cents a pound was gone in the blink of an eye while she was still hesitating. Only a little bit of tenderloin and hind leg was left. The price was only 60 cents, but there was basically no fat in it. Lai Di didn't want to eat the lean meat that would get stuck in her teeth. She only wanted to eat the fatty pork belly!
I walked around empty-handed and saw a man selling rabbits.
Of course it wasn't a wild rabbit, but a domesticated rabbit, which looked a bit listless and listless. "Do you want one, little comrade? If you do, I'll give it to you for 1.5 yuan."
Lai Di noticed that the rabbit did not look very well and always felt that it was sick. She did not dare to take the sick animal back home casually. After all, she had to come into contact with so many piglets every day. If it brought in any infectious disease, she would be in big trouble.
As if he could see her hesitation, the rabbit seller said, "Don't worry, it's not a disease. It's just that it's been in the sun for too long and has lost its energy. If you don't believe me, just watch."
As he spoke, he plucked a handful of grass from not far away and shook it in front of the rabbit's nose. The little rabbit immediately pricked up its ears, chased the grass, making a "coo coo coo" sound, and jumped with its legs very vigorously.
Qin Lai Di quickly calculated the price-performance ratio in her mind. Pork now costs 50 cents a pound and requires a ticket. Even if she could snatch one on the black market that doesn't require a ticket, it would still cost 65 cents. This rabbit weighs at least 4 pounds, with about 3 pounds of net meat. One dollar and fifty cents is definitely not a bad price... After some bargaining, she finally got it for one dollar and twenty-five cents, paying the full price.
The eldest master tied up the rabbit's hands and feet, put it in her backpack, and covered it with a layer of branches to block out the sun and prevent it from being seen.
*
However, Lai Di still didn't get to eat the rabbit meat she was looking forward to. After returning home, Pan Di touched the rabbit for a long time and suddenly shouted, "Grandma, sister, is this a female rabbit?"
Qin Lai Di only wants to eat spicy rabbit cubes, old rabbit heads, and braised rabbit meat. She doesn’t care whether it’s male or female. “Female ones are just as delicious.”
But Pan Di said with a straight face, "You can't eat it."
"What?"
"It seems... it has little rabbits."
Qin Lai Di paused, then hurried to feel the baby's belly. There was indeed something in it, and she didn't know how long it had been pregnant. She guessed that the rabbit owner hadn't noticed, otherwise he wouldn't have sold it to her so cheaply. After all, rabbits have a very short gestation period. They can give birth to baby rabbits in just one month, and they can continue to carry them immediately after giving birth. The reproduction speed is very fast. Who would be willing to sell this "cash cow"?
No matter how hungry Lai Di was, she had to let it go reluctantly and even built a small nest for it in the corner of the yard.
Fortunately, it accepted all the vegetable leaves from the private plot, the grass from the mountains, and even the pigweed, and ate them with relish.
＊＊＊
Wulitun has a very advantageous geographical location, facing south and surrounded by mountains. In front of it is a winding river that is like a jade belt, and the water is clear to the bottom. A group of children are bathing in the river, naked and not shy, and they even say hello to Sister Lai Di.
Qin Lai Di walked up the mountain along the path, and when she saw suitable pigweed (rabbit grass), she cut it into the basket on her back. The grass had small purple flowers, the one with pink flowers was sour grass, and the one with a layer of green-gray on the leaves was gray grass... She had actually cut half of the basket by the time she reached halfway up the mountain.
It was quite heavy, so she put the backpack down, rested for a while, and then started searching carefully nearby.
The mountains of Dragon Kingdom are a treasure trove, with not only mushrooms, wild vegetables, and pigweed, but also herbs.
She used to be a doctor in Lenghe Town. Due to limited transportation conditions, some medicinal materials could not be transported in time. When they were waiting to be used, she would follow the old pharmacist to the mountains to pick them. After picking so many times, the appearance of those Chinese medicines was engraved in her mind. Their respective morphological characteristics, growth habits, nature and taste were still clear in her mind even after many years.
In just a short while, she had found several species of honeysuckle, coptis chinensis, eucommia bark, chicken blood vine and bupleurum nearby, all of which are very commonly used medicinal herbs and suitable for harvesting in summer and autumn.
Carrying a basket weighing nearly 50 kilograms on my back, I would not think much about it even if I saw medicinal herbs. After all, these herbs are very common and easy to grow artificially, so the purchase price is not high. In the past, some members wanted to get rich from this, but in the end they found that it was not worth the effort and they were too lazy to pick them.
The pig grass was carried to the brigade headquarters for weighing, and counted as five work points. Together with her "regular work" that day, Qin Lai Di earned a total of fifteen work points.
"Oh, Lai Di is as hardworking as two men." The widow Liu next door was very jealous, "But what's the use? Girls still have to find a good family. If you marry the wrong man, you will end up in the wrong industry, unlike our Baozhu..."
Qin Lai Di raised her eyelids. It turned out that the Zhao family had come to their house to discuss the marriage. Look how proud she was.
Ignore her.
Widow Liu was quite disappointed. This little hot pepper had not been as hot as before since she fell into the water. She had originally planned to give her a good scolding, and it would be best if she could make her get mad and then have their Baozhu come out to show how gentle and considerate she was.
Lai Di didn't care about Widow Liu who was twisting her waist. She took out the herbs and spread them out in the yard. Some leaves that were not suitable for medicinal use needed to be trimmed, and some roots that had mud and sand needed to be cleaned. She was busy until the sun set and Pan Di had even returned from school.
"Sister, why are you picking herbs?"
"Save it for food."
Pan Di twitched her lips. She didn't curse herself to get sick. "I can't finish it." It was at least several dozen kilograms. And she had a feeling that her cunning third sister would continue picking. Today was just the beginning.
Qin Lai Di smiled. She planned to make some pills that were easy to carry and store during her free time. She would take them for herself when she had a headache or fever, but she also wanted to prepare them for her elder sister. Her illness would not be cured overnight, and she would have to take care of herself slowly in the future. It would be convenient for her to take the pills with her to work.
Just as I was thinking about it, the light suddenly dimmed and a man in green military uniform came to the door.
The man had a square face, dark skin, and his rolled-up sleeves revealed his muscular arms, which could be described as strong and powerful.
Even if it turns to ashes, it still smells like chicken.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
