After breakfast, a woman from Xihe Village in Zhao Family Village suddenly came to find Zhao Lingli carrying some things.
The aunt didn't mince words and directly asked Zhao Lingli.
Do you still remember the Zhao family from Zhao Family Village?
Zhao Lingli certainly remembered that Tang Cuimei had saved their child a few years ago.
If it weren't for their help, the eighth and seventh brothers wouldn't have been able to get home so easily.
"The Zhao family is good. The old man is a veteran Party member, the eldest son is the township head, and the youngest son is the village head."
Zhao Xiaobo is the youngest son of the eldest son's family. He has two older brothers who are both married.
The eldest son will be 25 after the New Year. His wife passed away in childbirth two years ago, leaving behind a premature baby girl.
Now that the child is old enough to be left alone, I want to find him another wife.
His eldest son drives a truck at a printing factory in the county town. He's a permanent employee, earning forty yuan a month, and he has a city household registration.
You know that truck drivers can earn extra money, so they might take home more than forty yuan a month.
Given his family's circumstances, it's not like they couldn't find a suitable second-marriage wife, but the Zhao family places more emphasis on character.
I've had contact with your goddaughters before.
They originally had their eye on Cuihua, but unexpectedly, Cuihua turned out to be a live-in son-in-law, and they were already engaged.
So I wanted to ask the second and third children if they were interested.
When Zhao Lingli heard the condition of a second-time husband seeking a first-time husband, promising to become his stepmother immediately, she rejected it without hesitation.
The daughter-in-law didn't expect Zhao Lingli to be so agreeable, and couldn't help but say a few more words.
“Lingli, your goddaughters are all getting on in years. Although it’s their first marriage, the Zhao family’s financial situation speaks for itself.”
Zhao Lingli shook her head, "Alright, Xia, stop talking. I know you mean well."
However, Cuihua had previously instructed that the women should be found to have simple populations.
The Zhao family is well-off, but for us, it's a step up.
Besides, these kids are still children themselves. How can we just walk into their house and start raising their children? Forget it!
No matter what the aunt said next, Zhao Lingli didn't budge. She even asked the aunt to take the pound of pastries she had brought with her when she left.
Why accept gifts if the deal didn't go through?
As soon as she left, Zhao Lingli immediately told Cuihua and the others about it.
Cuihua laughed upon hearing this: "Thank you, godmother, for refusing on our behalf. This is indeed not a good marriage for us."
Moreover, I feel that her family isn't interested in any of us, but rather in Cui Mei.
It's just that Cui Mei is a college student, so she's resorting to trying to establish a connection with our family as a second-best option.
It was all for Zhao Xiaobo's sake.
Although Zhao Xiaobo also got into university, it was a very low-ranking one, incomparable to the top-tier university that Cuimei attended.
Zhao Lingli wholeheartedly agreed, "Since we've decided to find someone with a simple family background, let's stick to that original intention. Actually, it's quite good that there aren't any messy relatives involved."
Zhao Lingli herself is a beneficiary, so she hopes that her daughters will also find such families.
So far, at least the ones that Cuihua and Cuihong have found are in line with the wishes of the sisters.
The reason Cuihua didn't seek out families with deep-rooted connections was because she felt the next few years would be quite chaotic, and she needed to be prepared for that in advance.
Life is what you make of it, not what external factors can determine.
No matter how good other people's conditions are, they are theirs and have nothing to do with you.
She never thought of relying on others to develop her future.
Once you get used to being self-reliant, you learn to rely on yourself for everything.
They even unanimously believed that relying on mountains would lead to their collapse, relying on trees would cause them to sway, and relying on people would cause them to run away; only by relying on oneself could one last.
What Xiao Jiu admires most about her older sister is this: she truly deserves to be called someone who has dreamed of being reborn; she is incredibly clear-headed.
They are not love-struck; they are pragmatic and have even made worst-case plans. If a man becomes unreliable, they will not hesitate to leave their father and keep their child.
This perfectly fulfilled their initial goal of establishing their own business.
On Sunday afternoon, her older sister Cuihong rode her bicycle to take her to the bus station. As usual, her ticket was for the 4 o'clock bus, but she arrived at the station a little after 2 o'clock.
After seeing her fourth sister off, she went to the post office and the scrap metal collection station as usual. This time, she rode her bike to a more distant collection station and found a lot of useful old books and newspapers.
Apart from that, no other valuable treasures were found.
I arrived back at the station just in time for the return bus. As usual, I was dizzy the whole way, and because I still felt unwell, I was the last one to get off.
I didn't run into the senior I met last time either. By the time I got back to school, it was already dark, and my roommates had already gone into the classroom.
Xiao Jiu packed up and rushed to the classroom just before the seven o'clock bell rang. Panting, her roommates all looked at her when they saw her pale face.
"It's okay, I'm just carsick. I'll feel better after resting for a while."
I didn't eat anything in the afternoon because I was afraid I would throw up on the bus. After attending one class in the evening self-study session, I felt incredibly hungry.
Thank goodness I had bread on me; after eating two pieces, my stomach felt much better.
But it was her act of taking out bread that attracted the attention of her classmates. Although it was break time, the aroma of the bread made the students around Xiaojiu drool.
Xiao Jiu looked embarrassed: "That's all, I only brought two pieces. How about I treat you to some candy?"
The candies are very small, mini candies, about the size of a little fingernail, but the wrappers are very pretty, colorful, and many people collect them and fold them neatly.
She grabbed a handful and gave a piece to each classmate, with some left over.
This person, who was used to keeping a low profile, suddenly made a public appearance in the class, and everyone guessed that she came from a well-off family.
Xiao Jiu didn't bother to respond. She had never gone hungry since she was a child. Even though the food was often poor, her family never let her go hungry.
Therefore, it's understandable that you might occasionally forget to hide it.
Time flew by and it was 1961, which happened to be a Sunday. But Xiao Jiu didn't go back. He mainly wanted to celebrate the New Year and sell some more things.
I had already told them in advance that I wouldn't be coming back for the Gregorian New Year when I went home last time, and this Saturday happens to be the last day of 1960.
She first went to the post office and scrap yard to hoard some useful stamps, old books and newspapers.
She also sent tomatoes and strawberries to Ye Zhen, who frequently brought her delicious food.
After dark, she rode her bike to various residential compounds. In the current situation of scarcity, both vegetables and fruits were in high demand.
She ultimately couldn't bear to sell meat and grains, partly because they were too big a target; she was already doing well to get rid of some vegetables and fruits.
She sells a bunch of vegetables (leafy greens) for two cents, and fruits are sold individually, starting at one cent and capped at one dollar.
Potatoes and sweet potatoes weren't sold this time, and cabbages were sold individually, with large, medium, and small cabbages costing 30 cents, 20 cents, and 10 cents respectively. After one night, the income was 36 yuan.
The stamps, old books, and old newspapers I spent during the day cost about the same amount, so it was break-even, neither a profit nor a loss.
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