At this time, you can still allocate your time freely on weekends because you have to work six days a week and can only rest for one day.
Therefore, every household takes advantage of this day to tidy up their homes. Housewives shop, clean, and mend, while men buy coal, make coal briquettes, and repair the house. With the end of the year approaching, they try every means to bring things into the house.
If it snows, government staff are required to work on the streets voluntarily, working overtime without complaint.
Therefore, the people at that time were very simple and honest, and there were many selfless people. Although there were some bad apples, the skill levels of each household were not much different. As long as you were not particularly lazy, you could still make a living.
However, if you have many children, especially teenagers, and also have relatives in your hometown who need financial support, even the best family will be burdened.
The first time I slept alone with my second sister, the two of them talked a lot and before we knew it, it was 10 o'clock, which is quite late in this day and age.
Just as the two were drifting off to sleep, they suddenly heard the sound of a glass being smashed on the floor next door. The sensitive Xiao Jiu immediately sat up.
Tang Cuiju seemed not to hear, and appeared to be dozing off.
After listening for a while and hearing no more sounds from next door, Xiao Jiu had just lain down when another heavy sound made her feel as if someone had fallen off the bed and onto the floor, accompanied by very low, hoarse cries for help and struggles.
Realizing something was wrong, she started getting dressed while calling for help.
"Second sister, hurry up, wake up! Something seems to have happened next door. You said there's a single woman living there, right? Have you seen her today?"
When Tang Cuiju sat up groggily, Xiao Jiu had already turned on the light, and her consciousness gradually returned with the dim light.
He shook his head, looking at Xiao Jiu with a blank expression.
"No, I've never seen it, but our work hours are different, so it's normal that we didn't notice."
However, Xiao Jiu was convinced that she hadn't misheard.
"Let's go, let's hurry over there, I'm sure I just heard the sound of her hammock."
The room next door was originally the main room of the house. Although the wall where my second sister slept was solid, the two rooms were not far apart. She was also very sharp-eared and had the heart of a doctor, so she would rather mishear than miss something.
By the time Tang Cuiju started getting dressed, Xiao Jiu had already rushed next door and was banging on the door.
The loud banging on the door and shouting quickly alerted a middle-aged, elderly man in the east room.
The people in the other rooms were also awakened by her shouts and knocking. As the lights in each room came on, the bespectacled retired cadre was the first to come over, wearing a coat.
"Honey, what's wrong?"
"Uncle, something's not right. I heard her cup fall to the ground next door, and a little while later, it seemed like she fell off the bed too. Look, the door is locked from the inside. I've been calling for ages, but no one's responded. Could something have happened?"
Upon hearing Xiao Jiu's words, the man's expression changed. "Oh dear,"
As she spoke, she went over and knocked on the door: "Little sister, little sister, can you hear us? Little sister?"
At this moment, the young people from the east and west wing rooms also came over, one of them carrying a long knife.
“Brother, just shouting won’t do. Use a knife to pry open the bolt. Come on, let me try. Everyone watch, I’m doing this to save people.”
If people weren't relatively poor in those days and afraid of damaging doors and windows, several men might have broken down the door and gone straight in.
Who would have thought that, just as she was thinking that, she heard Old Master Weng calling out tremblingly from behind.
"What are you still fiddling with? Just ram the door. If it breaks, it's my responsibility as an old man. Be careful, or something really bad might happen."
If something happens to someone in their house, the elderly couple won't get away with it either.
So when he heard a few people huddled together saying that something might have happened to the people inside, he panicked.
As soon as the landlord finished speaking, several men rushed towards the wooden door at the same time, and the door opened in one go.
Fortunately, the door bolt was not strong enough; it was just knocked off, and the door itself was not seriously damaged.
After the men slammed the door, they all turned and walked out, while the women hurriedly ran inside.
"Oh my god, Sister Cao Li, Sister Cao Li, wake up! Oh dear, she's so hot! She's fainted from the fever! Quick, cart, grandpa, bring your cart over here right away, we need to get her to the hospital right away."
Several women worked together to lift the middle-aged woman named Cao Li onto the bed, dressed her in thick clothes, rolled up the mattress and blankets on her bed, and wrapped her up completely. They then called over a few men to lift her onto a cart, and together they hurriedly took her to the hospital.
When Xiao Jiu tried to follow, the old lady stopped her.
"You shouldn't go. She's just a child; don't let her catch a cold. Let's go together and help her tidy up the house."
Grandpa Weng looked at Xiao Jiu gratefully, "Girl, thank goodness you have sharp ears! If she had been burning all night and was still lying on the ground, no one might have found her the next day. Would she have survived? You not only saved her life, but you also saved us!"
A perfectly good house can become a haunted house if someone dies there.
This is different from someone dying in someone else's ancestral home. In the ancestral home, it's a family member who dies, but this is an outsider. They are two different things.
Considering that her second sister had already gone, Xiao Jiu didn't insist on going with her, but the other people from the other rooms went along.
Cao Li's condition is not good. Her thermal underwear is soaked, her hair is wet, and the quilt is damp. She must have sweated a lot!
Because everyone was in a hurry to get her to the hospital, they didn't have time to take her pulse, and they didn't know the specifics of her condition.
"Grandma Weng, what does Comrade Cao do for a living?" Since her second sister called him "sister," she couldn't very well call him "auntie."
"It seems she works in the water resources department and is an official. Her son is already in high school, and she only comes home once every two weeks."
They didn't live here before; they lived on the east side. Later, they were transferred to different jobs, so they came here to rent a house.
Her workplace provided her with a dormitory, but since it was a temporary assignment for a few years and she wanted to take care of her child, she didn't stay at the workplace.
She took a housing allowance from her work unit and moved in with me. Her husband is a soldier, and the couple had been living apart for many years.
"Oh dear, if it weren't for you, she'd be dead right here."
Xiao Jiu became even more curious: "They only have this one child?"
"Comrade Cao only had one child. His wife was in her second marriage. Her first wife had three children, so it was also a large family. However, she didn't live with them. Her husband's family took care of her. It was obvious that the couple's relationship was weak, and it was more like they were just living together."
Grandma Weng then sighed. When Xiao Jiu saw the broom, she quickly came over and swept the shards from the cup into the dustpan and poured them into the trash can by the door.
I took a look around the house, and it was as simple as it could possibly be, as it was only a temporary place to stay.
Because the room was large, there was a table in the middle and beds on both sides. The bed next to hers was probably for her son, and a curtain was drawn to give the boy enough privacy.
After that, there was a wardrobe and some daily necessities. There was also a bicycle parked at the door, as well as some cooking utensils.
Judging from the cleanliness of the food, she probably doesn't cook much, only cooking two meals when her son comes home, and usually eats at the cafeteria.
Grandpa Weng also came over with a hammer, and after a series of clanging and banging, the broken door bolt was repaired.
The grandfather and grandchildren left the house and closed the door behind them. Not feeling sleepy, they sat by the door, found a broken basin, threw some firewood in it, and listened to Grandpa and Grandma Weng talk about the situation of the tenants while warming themselves by the fire.
"The older man in the east room lives in the next city, and his wife and children live in the countryside there. He is a technician who works with our machinery factory. He often comes here on business trips. He probably doesn't like living in the factory, so he rented a room here. He's a very nice guy."
Xiao Jiu nodded immediately, "Yes, that uncle got up quickly too; he came over as soon as he heard the noise."
"Of the three rooms in the east wing, the first one on the left was occupied by female workers from the cotton mill,"
Xiao Jiu looked surprised. "A cotton mill? That's not exactly close to here!"
"Yeah, so she takes the bus to and from get off work every day. She's a permanent employee, and she's also quite assertive. She didn't want to marry the man her parents wanted her to marry, so she had a falling out with her family and moved out on her own. Maybe she looked at many places and thought my place was cheap and far from her parents' home?"
Xiao Jiu gasped in amazement: "This woman is amazing! She doesn't look that old, but she has such courage!"
"She has a baby face, but she's very feisty. Don't let her small stature fool you; she's very capable and a key member of her factory. She's already 23 this year, and she looks down on most people. I heard she earns 40 or 50 yuan a month. She works very hard and often works overtime."
"The guy in the middle is a tall young man who is currently an apprentice at a grinding wheel factory. Although he is an apprentice, his family is well-off, otherwise he would not have moved out to live independently. Oh, he and his neighbor don't cook at home; they eat in the canteen."
"The one on the far right also just graduated from school and works as a ticket seller at the bus company. She happens to be working on our route. She took over her mother's shift. Because of this, she seems to have offended her sister-in-law, so she moved out. She has a good relationship with the one from the cotton mill and they often go shopping together. She has a nice personality and is about eighteen or nineteen years old."
"The first room on the left of the west wing belongs to the cannery owner. She's in her thirties, a widow. Her husband used to work at the flour mill, but he died of illness, and his brother took his job."
Because she gave birth to two daughters, her in-laws didn't want her and kicked them out. Fortunately, she had a job, and her family was from the city. Her children usually lived with their maternal grandparents, and they would come over on weekends. She would give her family some living expenses every month, so her sister-in-law and brother's wife didn't say anything. She was also a poor woman.
The people in the middle and on the right are two young men in their early twenties. One is a worker at a food factory, and the other is a driver. Both have moved out because of strained relationships with their families, and both are in relatively good financial condition.
After hearing this, Xiao Jiu couldn't help but give the two elders a thumbs up.
"No wonder you're not worried. Just look at the jobs these people have, so many people would envy them. What's more, they're all of good character. The men all turned around very politely just now, and the women were all very helpful. Not one of them made any excuses. You guys are really good at judging people."
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