To say that Cuihua is where she is today, she has to thank her brother-in-law Niu Feng.
Niu Feng is a very honest person; he wouldn't dare bring an unreliable person home.
Niu Feng knew what kind of person Zhai Sanhe was, but Cuihua didn't make a blind judgment.
Instead, they decided to be together after careful consideration and finding that the two were compatible in all aspects.
In this day and age, marriage is simple; some couples decide to spend their lives together after only a few meetings.
At least Zhai Sanhe spent more than half a year investigating Cuihua.
Therefore, their marriage was not based on age, but was a well-considered decision.
Now that she's married, her second and sixth sons are in Luoyang, her third son only comes home for two days a month, her fourth son married into the neighboring Xishi, and her fifth son is still studying in Beijing. The ones who can come home often are the seventh son, who works in the countryside, and the eighth son, who studies in the town.
Since the two younger sisters were unmarried and still quite young, Zhai Sanhe would usually come over for a meal during the day and return to the county town in the evening.
After the fourth and ninth siblings left home, their family's quality of life declined significantly.
Fortunately, they still had the rice, flour, oil, non-staple foods, and some dried seafood they left behind as a backup.
Cuihua could only get some extra nutrition when she was at her parents' home.
Although Zhai Sanhe received a monthly salary of fifty-six yuan, each government official was only provided with 27 jin of grain per month.
Cuihua earns 25 yuan a month, and with the rural grain ration, she only gets about seven or eight liang (350-400 grams) a day. A strong laborer only gets about one jin (500 grams) a day!
So if the couple wants to eat their fill, they have to switch to whole grains; they rely entirely on the subsidies provided by Xiaojiu for refined grains.
Cuihua never brought dried seafood to their home in the county town; they only occasionally got to eat it when Zhai Sanhe came over.
She would never use her family's resources to support her own family, even though she was in charge of the household; she simply couldn't do that kind of thing.
Cuihua didn't dare bring the canned meat that Xiaojiu had left behind to Zhai Sanhe.
He served in the army and ate military rations, especially canned food, which was considered top-quality. We can't let him notice anything amiss.
Their daily diet consists of coarse grains, vegetables grown in the yard, leftover pickled vegetables from a little wine, and pickled vegetables they make themselves.
We might eat meat once a week, whether it's eggs, salted meat, cured meat, or canned food, we can always have it at least once a week.
The small wine shop supplies plenty of salt, mainly for making salted fish and other salted seafood. Otherwise, the preservation time is too short.
Of course, some are sun-dried, but sun-dried salted fish loses moisture and doesn't taste as good as pickled salted fish.
Fortunately, Cuihua knew that eating this kind of pickled food all the time was bad for her health, so she limited it to once a week, which was exactly what she expected.
The situation at the Tao family's place is similar to this place, except that the old couple eats more refined grains. As they get older, they can no longer eat some coarse grains. Every time Lao Ba steams buns, he steams a separate portion of white flour buns for the two of them.
Xiao Jiu emptied the island's granaries, which were divided into 50/50 coarse and fine grains, because they were allocated according to people and their social class.
The so-called "researchers" inside eat relatively well, while those guarding outside probably eat coarse grains.
So before Jiu'er left, she gave her not only coarse grains but also fine grains, not saying much, but insisting that she would have no problem going home for the New Year.
After all, the food wasn't just thanks to her contribution; the other sisters also contributed to the family.
On the contrary, those with rural household registration did not receive their production team's ration of grain every month, but at the end of the year along with the work points.
As for the daily food supply, we'll have to figure out how to get it ourselves.
Since being abducted last time and emptying the cave and the granary on the island, she no longer needs to touch the food in her own space.
Besides these, there were also the grains that Father had stored away. The coarse grains had long been used up, but there were still thousands of pounds of fine grains that he hadn't touched.
All that grain was enough for their family to survive the entire 1960s.
——
"Cuihua, you see, we used to be from the same village. Your uncle just took a few packets of medicine from here. Why don't you go and talk to your boss and let it go? It's just a few cents, right?"
"Cuihua, look, we're all in the same team. Could you pack an extra portion of the medicine your nephew brought for us? We can use this medicine again next time he coughs, so we won't have to bother you."
"Cuihua, your aunt has trouble walking, so I didn't let her come. She has a fever and a cough. Do you know what medicine she needs? Just pack some up and bring it back for her!"
“Cuihua…”
She hears similar things every day, but she encounters them at least every week. Even if she knew them, they wouldn't make things so difficult for her. As for the people from Xihe Village, they are definitely close to her and are trying to get on her good side. She can't possibly spend her own money to maintain these relationships, so she can only try her best to reason with them.
If they listen, all the better. If they don't, she'll find a way to borrow money from them before they even ask. If they refuse, they'll be too ashamed to ask her for anything more.
Over time, everyone realized that she couldn't gain anything from this, so no one came to her anymore or bothered her.
Of course, she'll help with anything within her capabilities, like finding a hospital bed, giving her money, or asking her to bring medicine. She'll help with these minor troubles whenever she can.
When she encountered the villagers of Taoyuan Village again, she not only had no way to avoid them, but was also forced to listen to the gossip of their uncles and elders.
They even praised her for being lucky, saying she not only found a good job but also married a good man.
As for how a good man is defined, she didn't know, because she nodded when asked if she had a boyfriend.
"They've only been married a short time,"
What does your partner do? Which village are they from?
"He's from a rural area near Los Angeles, and he works as a temporary worker at the county's public security bureau."
I didn't expect that even after she said that, these people would still try to get information out of her colleagues.
I initially thought she was bragging. How could she possibly find a temporary worker in a small county town? She had always claimed she wanted to find a son-in-law who would live with her family.
Who would choose someone with such good financial standing?
It turned out that I didn't know until I asked around. I found out that the person had indeed lied, but not that they had said it, but that they hadn't told the truth.
Not only was she married, but her husband was also a permanent employee of the county's Public Security Bureau. Even she herself was not a temporary worker as she claimed.
What they found most unacceptable was that the outstanding man Tang Cuihua had found was actually a live-in son-in-law!
I even heard that the other party took the initiative to come to my door!
This immediately broke their guard, and when they met again, they all looked at Tang Cuihua with incredibly complicated expressions.
Especially those girls who grew up with Tang Cuihua and later married into nearby villages, when they came to the health center for treatment and encountered Tang Cuihua, seeing her working, they sometimes doubted whether the person in front of them was the same village girl they remembered.
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