It takes nearly two hours to get from the village to the county by ox cart. He Zhuzhu and her friends went there by pulling a cart, so the speed must have been much slower. If they encountered a long queue for selling grain, it would be normal that they have not returned yet.
Wang Shuning saw that Mingming and Goudan were very quiet, and guessed that they were worried. In addition, he didn't know when He Zhuzhu would come back, so he said to them during dinner: "How about sleeping with sister tonight?"
He Guoyue blinked. They had never slept with anyone other than their mother and grandmother. "Sister Shu Ning's bed is not as big as my mother's. It seems that there is not enough room for her."
He Guoyue's grandmother had slept on that bed before, so she naturally knew how big it was.
Wang Shuning didn't mind. He Zhuzhu wouldn't stay away all night. He could just wait for her to come back and take the two children back home. "It's enough to squeeze in."
Goudan and Mingming washed themselves specially and looked at the bed covered with a floral quilt. It looked so soft, different from the one they slept on.
Wang Shuning's quilt was brought from home and was a new quilt from last year. However, the quilt that Goudan and the others slept on was an old quilt that had been used for more than ten years. Its warmth-retaining function had been greatly weakened and it was naturally not soft enough.
Because there were two more children, Wang Shuning was afraid that the quilt was not big enough and would leak air, so he took out his thin quilt from summer and covered them with it.
Mingming lay in bed and dared not move. She could not fall asleep in a short time. After a while, she whispered, "Sister Shu Ning."
Wang Shuning opened his eyes, "What's wrong?"
Mingming turned his head and looked at Wang Shuning, "Are all of Sister Shuning's brothers and sisters in school?"
Wang Shuning's hands under the quilt moved slightly, "They are all in school, they all graduated from high school, why are you asking this?"
Mingming whispered, "My mother said that she would send my brother and I to school together in September next year."
Wang Shuning: “Primary school tuition is very high?”
Mingming: "My mom said I only need to pay for the textbooks."
"Then what are you worried about?" He Zhuzhu should be able to afford it as she only needs to pay for the books.
Mingming said in a depressed tone: "My brother and I both go to school, so we can't help the family by cutting grass for pigs and earning work points. It will be very hard for mom to be alone."
Children in the village grow up early. Six years old is the best time for them to play around, but now they have to worry about their families. "Have you ever thought that your mother is so frugal just to allow you and Goudan to go to school?"
"But I can't take the college entrance examination now. Sister Shuning has to go to the countryside to farm after graduating from high school. Is there any point in going to school? I'm still a girl." Mingming was puzzled. Since they were all farming, it shouldn't matter whether they went to school or not. They just couldn't read.
And there are girls in the village who don’t go to school.
Wang Shuning didn't expect He Guoyue to say that. He Zhuzhu didn't favor boys over girls. How could she think that she didn't need to go to school just because she was a girl?
"Sister Shuning is also a girl, and she also goes to school. I also have an older sister who also graduated from high school. It doesn't matter if you can't go to college, but you can't be illiterate. Reading can broaden your horizons. Otherwise, when you go to town to eat, you won't even be able to read the menu."
"In the city, if you don't graduate from junior high school, it's hard to find a job. Think about it, aren't accountants and scorekeepers in the village the easiest jobs? But if they can't read, they can't do it. It's precisely because of the poor conditions at home that we have to study hard. Your mother must think so too."
Obviously didn't say anything.
I could hear a clear breathing sound next to my ears. It was made by Goudan. This kid would definitely snore when he sleeps when he grows up.
Then Wang Shuning and He Guoyue talked for a long time, from school to how people in the city live, until the other one couldn't stand the sleepiness and fell asleep.
In the middle of the night, someone knocked on the door, "Ning Zhiqing." It was Aunt Zhu who came back.
Wang Shuning put on his clothes and opened the door. "Mingming and Goudan fell asleep."
He Zhuzhu breathed a sigh of relief. She had just returned home and found that the two children were not in bed. She was worried, wondering if they were in Wang Shuning's room. That's why she knocked on the door in the middle of the night, "Thank you, your bed is not big, I'll take the children back."
Wang Shuning agreed.
The quilt was particularly cold without anyone sleeping in it. The two children woke up as soon as they lay down. When they saw He Zhuzhu, they came to their senses and said, "Mom, you're back."
"Mom is back, go to sleep." He Zhuzhu stroked the two children's heads.
The next morning, Wang Shuning went to the county carrying a bamboo basket.
There are no buses from the town to the county, nor are there any ox carts that run on time.
But some people would do some private work to transport people to make money. Wang Shuning saw two ox carts at the market with people standing next to them, presumably they were waiting.
The old man in the fur hat saw Wang Shuning hanging around and asked, "Girl, are you going to the county?"
Wang Shuning admitted, "Yes, how much per person?"
The old man raised his five fingers and said, "Five points, one more person, wait a moment."
Wang Shuning agreed, and after a while, the missing people arrived.
After everyone paid their money, they sat on the cart and the old man drove the cart forward.
When we arrived at the county, the old man stopped the ox cart and said, "It's five o'clock in the afternoon. The ox cart is still waiting here. Don't be late."
Everyone answered: "Okay."
Then the old man drove away on the ox cart. It seemed that he was not specifically engaged in the business of transporting people. It seemed that he had something to do in the county and wanted to pick up passengers by the way.
Wang Shuning carried a bamboo basket and asked people where the largest market in the county was. She wandered around the market for nearly two hours before she found out the location of the black market.
There are several black markets in Chaoyang County. Wang Shuning went to the nearest one. The alleys here were very wide, like a road.
Compared to the market, the quality of people's clothing in the black market varies greatly, and some of them look like respectable people with jobs.
Wang Shuning found a gap and opened the bamboo basket. Like other merchants, he took out a little sample of each item and placed it on the ground for people to see.
There were a lot of people in the black market. After a few minutes, a customer came to the door and asked, "How much do you want for brown sugar? Do you want money or tickets?"
Wang Shuning replied: "Money and tickets are fine. If you can give me tickets and the price can be a little lower, I will take any ticket."
The woman was surprised. She wanted all kinds of tickets. This girl didn't look like a ticket dealer.
Generally, people who sell things only ask for one or two types of tickets. People like this who ask for all kinds of tickets usually have a way to sell the tickets they have.
"Do you have five pounds of brown sugar? Give me ten apples too." The woman saw that the apples were bright red and felt that they should be sweet.
"Five pounds." Wang Shuning took out brown sugar and apples from the bamboo basket. After weighing them and confirming that there was no problem, the other party was ready to pay.
The woman took out a small stack of bills from her pocket, held them between her fingers, picked out seven or eight and handed them to Wang Shuning, "You know the price, right? Can you calculate it?"
For common tickets like soap tickets, grain tickets, oil tickets, and meat tickets, the price error between purchases and sales is very small. Wang Shuning took out a piece of conversion paper from her bosom for comparison. This was what she got at the market. There were too many types of tickets and she couldn't remember the prices at once.
Seeing that she wanted to take the paper to look at, the woman couldn't help but laugh, "You are still a newbie, haven't you been working in this business for long?"
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