The most surprising thing about this Spring Festival was that Tang Cuihua got a formal job.
Although there will be no salary for the next year, at least they will provide meals. As long as they provide meals, I can get through any hardship.
After the New Year's Eve dinner, Grandpa and Grandma chatted with everyone for a while before going inside to rest.
Having not seen her parents and brothers for a long time, Xiao Jiu had a lot to talk about. She and her sisters sat in the yard, lit a fire, and roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and other things from time to time. Their mouths were covered in black marks from eating, and they laughed and joked with each other.
"Jiu'er, thank you, big sister."
Xiao Jiu patted Tang Cuihua's hand.
"We didn't think that much when we rescued them. Even if they don't repay our kindness, we won't take it to heart."
You could say they were lucky to have met someone who knew how to be grateful and also had the ability.
Sister, I know you're not afraid of hardship, but you also need to be wary of backstabbers, especially when it comes to permanent positions. Just say you're a temporary worker when the time comes.
I'll go back to the city and look for books on nursing. I'll ask my fifth sister to look for some too, so we can read more books and get more practical experience.
I believe you can pass the exam, sister. If it doesn't work in one year, we'll try again in two. Let's be on the safe side.
The company will recommend you to attend night school. In short, take any opportunity to climb the ladder; the higher you climb, the more secure your position will be.
"What if I go to the county hospital for an exchange program someday? Maybe I'll get a permanent position!"
This wasn't just something I made up; medical staff were scarce in that era, even into the 1980s.
As long as you have good skills, you won't have to worry about finding a job. Although my older sister didn't receive formal school training, it doesn't mean that it's impossible for her to find a job.
The next year will be all about hands-on practice, which will be much more useful than what you learn from books.
Having achieved practical results, and then thoroughly understanding the relevant information by reading related books, Tang Cuihua, with her intelligence, should be able to pass the exam.
Of the sisters in the family, the fourth, seventh, and eighth sisters are still not settled.
Xiao Jiu didn't pin her hopes for her fourth sister's future on Niu Feng. Relying on others is never as good as relying on yourself, so she also needed to have a reliable job.
However, all three of them are disabled, and it would be difficult to place them in the factory. The best solution would be to stay in the countryside and find them some side jobs. But in those days, the production team did not allow you to do side jobs on your own. So we had to find a way to set up a side job in the production team and place the three sisters there.
The sisters need to discuss and decide what to do next.
They stayed up until dawn, set off firecrackers, and Cuihua and her sisters had just returned home with some wine when they sensed something was wrong.
There were signs that the house had been ransacked. The group immediately checked the place thoroughly, then said with cold faces.
"Fortunately, we didn't have much food or supplies on display. Most of it was taken, and the fourth brother kept a small portion. But all of what was on display was taken. The remaining oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and four or five pounds of grain in the kitchen were also taken. Luckily, the door to the sleeping room was locked, otherwise our bedding and clothes would have been stolen too."
"Who is it that's so disrespectful?" Seventh Sister huffed and puffed as she checked the place three times. "Three or four eggs are missing too."
Eighth Sister ground her back teeth. "And the sesame candy that wasn't finished hanging on the roof beam is also gone. Eldest Sister, we can't just let this go."
Cuihua and Xiaojiu checked the entrance and found no signs of forced entry. They did find some shoe prints and traces of a ladder wiping the wall in the corner.
"It seems this family is starving. They knew we were all there today, so they came at the last minute to look for something."
We couldn't really guess who it was. There are plenty of lazybones in the village, especially now, when every household is struggling.
"Observe for the next few days and see who keeps looking into the house. Listen carefully to their words; once they've had their way with the house, they'll want to go again."
"Aren't Fifth Sister and Sixth Sister coming back tomorrow? We can play another game and see which bastard is so greedy that he dares to come and steal things."
If your home is burgled during the Lunar New Year, you're likely to have bad luck for the next year. Who wouldn't be angry in that situation?
So the sisters went outside along the outer wall of their house and searched around, but unfortunately they didn't find any clues.
But from then on, they developed a habit: after cooking, they would put away everything that needed to be put away and lock away anything that couldn't be put away, so as not to give anyone a chance to steal.
The cellar door was locked, and there were signs of heavy objects hitting it. It wasn't broken open, so nothing was stolen.
The following are all common winter vegetables such as cabbage, radish, sweet potato, and potato. If they can even be thinking about these, it can only mean that this family is really poor.
But... if they could even find the location of the cellar, could it be the work of the remaining branches of the Zhou family?
On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, people offer incense, then cook dumplings. After eating, they go outside and see people standing in front of every household.
Everyone, looking pale and forcing smiles, greeted each other and offered New Year's wishes.
Every now and then, the children would startle everyone by the firecrackers they found.
It was under these circumstances that the Tang sisters created the illusion that they were going to the city together to pick up someone.
He even said he wouldn't be back that night, and locked the door in front of everyone.
"Hurry up, the fourth sister is waiting up ahead. If you dawdle any longer, she'll get angry."
In fact, Tang Cuihong had already secretly hidden at home. Xiao Jiu had already told Zhao Lingli that she wanted to go to the city with her sisters.
In reality, he was sleeping soundly in the bedroom with Cuihong.
Cuihong can't hear anything, but Xiaojiu has sharp ears. Both sisters have special abilities, so they work together as a team.
There are many people coming and going during the day, so even if these two were bold, they wouldn't come.
So the two sisters slept until noon. Xiao Jiu got up first, washed up, and before her fourth sister got up, she cooked a pot of spicy hot pot outside the space, combining various meatballs, processed meat, and vegetables with sesame sauce hot pot base. She also added duck blood and pig blood. It was very rich in ingredients and tasted amazing.
Although these foods would be considered extremely unhealthy in later generations, they were a rare delicacy in a time of scarcity.
Sure enough, as soon as the pot was brought out, Fourth Sister, who was sleeping over there, smelled it, followed the scent, got dressed, and ran out.
Seeing that Xiao Jiu was already sitting at the table with the bowls and chopsticks prepared, she stared at her with wide eyes: "You made this?"
Xiao Jiu nodded with a grin, "That's right, plenty, sis, sit down and eat."
The whole pot, with Sichuan noodles, meat, meatballs, blood cubes, and vegetables, is bright red and tempting, with a rich and fragrant flavor. One sip and you'll feel an unforgettable aftertaste, unconsciously swallowing your saliva.
Tang Cuihong didn't stand on ceremony with Xiao Jiu. She knew that this girl also had some special abilities and was the same kind of person as herself. Since she had done her job well, why should she be polite?
He immediately picked up the bowl, took a bite of meat with his chopsticks, and was instantly captivated by the spicy, numbing, salty, and fragrant flavor.
This spicy and refreshing flavor was something she had never tasted before, and the aftertaste was especially fragrant, similar to the taste of sesame oil.
When she couldn't describe the feeling, Xiao Jiu handed her a bottle of sesame paste, scooped it out, stirred it, spooned it into her bowl, added a spoonful of chili oil, stirred it again, and dipped a piece of meat in the broth. The moment she put it in her mouth, her entire sense of taste was activated, and she looked at Xiao Jiu with shining eyes.
"Is it delicious?" Seeing Fourth Sister nod vigorously, Xiao Jiu was also happy.
"This isn't enough! If we go to Sichuan and Chongqing, it'll be even spicier and more exciting!"
She had only cut a quarter of the large hot pot base into it, and hadn't even dared to put it all in, yet she could already feel her tongue burning.
When it comes to eating spicy food, people from the Central Plains really can't handle it. Back when she traveled to Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, she developed severe internal heat and mouth ulcers just three days after landing.
Strongly flavored food is delicious, but her constitution isn't suited to it, so she suffers a lot.
After that, she could only go and eat braised beef noodles, which weren't spicy. She ate them for three days in a row before her symptoms improved.
However, she couldn't share such an embarrassing incident with her fourth sister, so she could only test her sister's tolerance for spiciness with food.
Judging from how much she drinks, her fourth sister's taste is not much different from hers; she can just barely tolerate the current level of spiciness.
Any spicier, and it would probably be unpalatable.
The two sisters ate until their bellies were round, so they figured they wouldn't need to cook dinner and could just eat a couple of steamed buns.
After finishing her meal, Fourth Sister remembered something and ran to the kitchen. Little Jiu went over and shook her head at her with a grin.
"I didn't start a fire, don't worry. This food is what I stored before. If you want something hot tonight, I still have some here."
Tang Cuihong breathed a sigh of relief, fearing that all her efforts would be in vain. After all, in those days, people cooked with firewood, and if smoke was coming out of someone's chimney, someone was home.
In the afternoon, with nothing to do, Xiao Jiu taught her fourth sister to recognize characters and practice pronunciation. It was difficult when she was learning; she had to touch her vocal cords and feel their pulsation.
Over the years, she has been searching for books on sign language, but unfortunately, she hasn't found any. Otherwise, she could have tried to teach her whole family sign language.
She herself did not understand sign language, so the only way to help her fourth sister was to find her a way to make a living.
However, the environment did not meet this requirement. After the famine came ten years of turmoil, and things had to calm down.
Just because you have a cheat code doesn't mean you can be reckless and provoke the nature of humanity in this era.
Their family has no connections; they can only rely on themselves.
Although today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, neither family has many relatives to visit.
The older sisters went to the city, while the older brothers took their parents to the countryside to watch a play, which allowed them to patiently wait for the fish to take the bait.
The two sisters put away their books after the sun stopped shining; they couldn't concentrate on studying when their hands and feet were freezing.
It's quite cold here in the first month of the lunar calendar; temperatures can drop to minus ten degrees Celsius.
Although these adobe houses do have some insulation, the beams are too high and there's no heated brick bed inside, so they can't retain any heat at all.
If you stay inside for a long time, you'll still feel cold from the inside out.
Only the room in the Tao family where the grandparents lived had a heated kang (a traditional brick bed); the other rooms were as cold as iceboxes.
During the day, they would stay out in the sun to warm themselves and would never go home. At night, the villagers would go to places with bonfires to chat and go home to sleep.
In the days before radios and other forms of entertainment, this was how we passed the long winter nights.
After it finally got dark, the two sisters ate a few hot buns and drank a bowl of hot water before waiting for the fish to bite.
I don't know if it's because they heard during the day that the sisters went to the city and wouldn't be back until night.
As soon as it got dark, there was some commotion at the base of the wall last night. Before long, a dark figure sat on the wall.
The shadowy figure hissed down, "Hurry up, we'll be back soon!" After the person sat down against the wall, Fourth Sister, who was hiding in the shadows, was about to pull away the ladder below when Xiao Jiu stopped her and gestured with her eyes for her to wait.
When the two men came down and sneaked towards the kitchen, the two people hiding in the main room finally saw who they were.
Zhou Dashan has two sons, the elder son Gou Dan and the younger son Gou Sheng. We don't know their real names or what they used to be called.
After Zhou Dashan was shot and his wife ran away, these two thugs went around wandering the streets and alleys, and they've been to the police station countless times.
He's done plenty of petty theft, but he's been lucky and only ever gotten involved in small cases; otherwise, he wouldn't be so smug now.
Five years ago, when the Zhou family had their accident, the eldest was fifteen and the youngest was eight. Five years have passed, the eldest is now twenty and the youngest is thirteen.
They're all grown men, yet they don't work properly and only think of crooked ways. Xiao Jiu gave Tang Cuihong a look.
The next moment, Tang Cuihong released Dahei's two sons and one daughter, along with three large black dogs.
Upon seeing strangers, the three large dogs, with remarkable intelligence, pounced on them.
While the two brothers were screaming in pain, Xiao Jiu and Tang Cuihong quietly put away their tools of the crime.
Then he found a suitable spot where he wouldn't be seen and secretly cheered on the three big black dogs.
The two brothers were shocked to find that their house, which had been empty yesterday, was now not only home but also had a dog. They immediately realized they had been tricked.
They tried to open the door to leave, but found that both the front and back doors were locked from the outside.
If the people outside don't open the door, the people inside can't get out at all.
This further proved that they had stolen the goods, and the three dogs bit them viciously.
My legs, waist, and arms were covered in blood by now if I hadn't been wearing thick clothes.
Even so, they could feel the sharp teeth piercing through their clothes and into their skin, causing them to jump around in pain and scream repeatedly.
Gousheng ran fast, and Gou Dan, perhaps because he was weak, was actually pinned to the ground and torn apart by the two big black dogs.
A piece of scalp was torn off his head.
But neither of the two sisters standing nearby said anything to stop them, because these two were the scourge of the village.
Neither the Tao nor the Tang families will show any mercy to the descendants of the third branch of the Zhou family.
They were already being very lenient by not killing them at this time.
"You two stinking women, aren't you going to come over here and help drag your stinking dog away? Ahhh, my hair!"
"You son of a bitch, wait till I get my hands off you, I'll kill you all! Ah, my hand, bro, save me, bro!"
These two are hopeless; even in this state, their mouths still smell so foul.
Thinking of this, she looked at her fourth sister, who had a blank expression, and pulled her into the house.
A moment later, Xiao Jiu brought a basin of salted water and splashed it on the two brothers.
"You can shout as loud as you want, but no one will come. Everyone in the village went to the township to watch the play today. Who will be back before eight or nine o'clock?"
Fourth Sister whistled, and the three dogs ran towards the main room at the same time. When they came out again, the dogs had disappeared.
She grabbed one dog in each hand, dragging the two soaking wet, dead dogs along, and threw them forcefully over the wall...
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