When Tao Zui went to school in early August, Tao Changyi went to see him off directly. His family didn't go. Anyway, it wasn't any other place, just the county town. He would come back every Saturday night. He brought enough food, vegetables, and money, so there was nothing to worry about.
With my eldest brother starting school and my second brother Taoran entering fifth grade, all my older brothers have moved up a grade this new semester.
Tao Qing, the third brother, is in second grade, while Tao An has started preschool.
"My dear Jiu'er, do you want to go to school? How about Grandma sends you to the after-school program?"
Xiao Jiu didn't want her grandma to waste that money, so she shook her head vigorously.
"Little Jiu doesn't need to go to school. Little Jiu follows Grandma to braid her hair, cut grass to feed the sheep and rabbits."
We used to have only a few rabbits, but now we have dozens. My father sold about thirty last month, and we still have about twenty left. We plan to sell them when they grow a little bigger.
There are shops in the city that specialize in buying rabbits to make delicious food.
What's so great about preschool? It's just a bunch of little kids who haven't even grown all their hair yet, crying and whining all the time. They're so annoying, she doesn't want to go and add to their troubles.
There are so many children on this street, but she can't play with any of them. And places like the preschool are basically for boys.
No family would be willing to spend money to send a girl there; they all felt it was a waste of money.
The idea of valuing sons over daughters is really deeply ingrained. She is powerless to change anything, but she can stay away from them.
Not everyone can treat her as kindly as Grandma Tao.
"Grandma, I see there's nothing much going on at home. Can I go out for a walk? My eldest sister gave me a few addresses and wants me to go and check on my sisters who were sent away. She wants me to find out how they are doing so that we can prepare in advance and bring them back when she is able to."
Why are Tang Cuihua and Tang Zhaodi working so hard? It's because they want to keep their promise and bring back their sisters, whom they personally sent away. However, they are struggling to survive themselves and can only think about the future. They hope that their third sister, who has time, can go and look for them. It's better than being left clueless when famine strikes.
This was Tang Cuihua's plan. She intended to take advantage of the famine year to bring her younger sister home, because only in this way could she minimize the losses and bring them back in a legitimate way. If it weren't for the famine year, how could those families have released them so easily? After all, they had given money back then.
Pandi is already twelve years old this year, a young lady. Logically, her grandmother should be able to rest assured, but she was worried about the safety of a young lady wandering the streets alone, so she asked.
"Are your sisters all in the villages around here?"
"Yes, Grandma, they're all around Donghua Town. Look, this is a note left by my eldest sister. The fourth brother is in Dongliuzhuang, the fifth brother is in Niujia Village, the sixth brother is in Qilihe Village, the seventh brother is in Nanwa Village, and the eighth brother is in Zhaozhuang."
When it came time to talk about Lao Jiu, he subconsciously glanced at Xiao Jiu, but swallowed his words and didn't say them.
Actually, not all of these villages belong to Donghua Town; there are other towns as well. The road isn't exactly short, and it's not a good idea to let a young girl search for them all by herself.
"Panpan, don't worry. Wait for your uncle to come back. Isn't your uncle the one who goes around the streets and alleys a lot? When he comes back, ask him to help you get a plan. It would be best if you went with your uncle to inquire. That way it's safer. Otherwise, you're just a young girl. If it's a short trip, it's fine, but if it's a long trip, you won't be able to get back in time. If something happens to you, how am I supposed to explain it to your sister?"
"Finding your sister isn't something that can be done in a short time. You're currently staying at our house. Now that your sister is back, how will you settle her in? You need to plan ahead. Don't panic. Now that you're at the Tao family's house, your grandfather and uncle will do their best to help you and make sure all eight of you sisters are reunited."
The third sister was moved to tears. She even knelt down and kowtowed to her grandmother. Although Xiao Jiu didn't say anything, she was actually feeling very bad inside.
Actually, it doesn't matter whether the eldest sister's household registration is transferred or not. With their current situation, it's easy for news to spread back to Taoyuan Village no matter which village they go to. It's better for them to settle down in the village in the future. Anyway, Cao Amei has already been driven away. Once Tang Youtian has a son, he can completely do without these daughters. The eldest sister is so self-reliant that she doesn't even want to get married. In the future, won't she be able to support her younger sister?
However, these are all just her wishful thinking. As for what the eldest sister thinks, it will have to be decided by the three sisters in the end.
She's not so indifferent as to ignore it; it's just that she's young and can't speak up yet.
If the eldest sister really brings the people back, she will definitely make sure they have enough to eat and drink. There was a famine for three years, how many people would have died?
In Tang Cuihua's dream, the description of the other eight sisters was very general. She didn't even know how they survived the most important three years of famine. However, she did remind the Tao family, who had already begun drying goods to prepare for the famine.
Perhaps she rushed to bring people out during the famine year because she was afraid that these families would be so heartless as to sell her sisters again?
Selling one's children during famine years was not an isolated case, but a very common problem.
If this is sold, then we may never see each other again in this lifetime.
The period from June to October is when resources are most abundant. In addition to saving food from every spare moment, Grandma would take her and her third sister to dig for wild vegetables, cut grass, and collect firewood whenever she had free time.
After bringing the wild vegetables home, I washed them, blanched them, and then dried them directly in the sun.
These days, when she goes out, she often finds mushrooms. Some she actually finds, while others are mushrooms she happens to pick up after she moves them out of the warehouse.
The grass we cut and brought home was for feeding the sheep and rabbits.
Although the older brothers carried back several baskets of firewood after school, no one thought it was too much. Even Grandpa often went out to chop and split firewood.
By mid-August, there were hardly any cicadas left. Since the older brothers started school, no one has been collecting cicada shells anymore. However, the three generations of the family, who cut grass and dug wild vegetables during the day, would occasionally bring home a basket of cicada shells. There were so many of these things; they were crawling everywhere, and some were even stuck to corn stalks.
Their family has accumulated nearly a hundred pounds of cicada shells, all packed in sacks. They haven't tried to find anyone to buy them, but year after year, they've amassed over a hundred pounds. As their father says, "Let's just keep these; they might hold out in a famine."
So in the end, all these shells were transported to the old house for preservation, along with several kilograms of dried vegetables accumulated from last year and the first half of this year.
To Xiao Jiu's surprise, the Zhou family seemed to be collecting dried vegetables as well. When the shop wasn't busy, the Zhou brothers would go out to dig for wild vegetables. Since they didn't raise any livestock, they didn't need to cut pig feed, and all they dug were edible wild vegetables. They didn't eat them directly after bringing them home; instead, they blanched them and then air-dried them in the yard before collecting them.
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