“Although I’m out of luck, you, Lao San, are a full-time employee in the county, so you have plenty of opportunities. Don’t rush into a decision. Before you go to meet any potential partners, ask your godmother for advice.”
After Tang Cuihua got engaged, Tang Cuilian also started going on blind dates. Before the Gregorian calendar year, she met a furniture factory worker, a true craftsman. He had many siblings and was the eldest son in his family. He was twenty-five or twenty-six years old, but because of the many burdens he had to support from his family, he had not yet found a suitable partner.
Tang Cuilian felt it wasn't a good match before they even met, but the matchmaker in the workshop insisted that she go, and she couldn't refuse, so she went.
After meeting him, Tang Cuilian understood even more clearly why this man, despite being quite old, was still unable to find a partner.
He's average-looking and less than 1.7 meters tall. So what if he can earn 40 or 50 yuan a month?
If it weren't for his father being a carpenter, and him learning from him since childhood, and later when the country needed to develop and recruited craftsmen from the countryside, he would have easily entered the furniture factory, starting as an apprentice and temporary worker, and it took him five years to become a permanent employee. Now, he has been working in the factory for ten years.
For ten years, his salary has never reached him. Every month, his mother comes to collect it herself, giving him only a few dollars for living expenses. She even embezzles most of his grain rations.
His salary was not low, he had an urban household registration, and he was provided with grain rations, but when Tang Cuilian saw him, he was so thin that his face was unrecognizable.
Upon inquiry, it was learned that he had three younger brothers and three younger sisters. His father had died a few years ago, leaving only his widowed mother to raise his six younger brothers and sisters.
Because of the famine, he wanted to find a daughter-in-law with an urban household registration and a job to come back and share the burden with him.
He was satisfied with Tang Cuilian's job and was also pleased with her appearance when they met. Although she was thin, she was well-endowed in the right places, better than any he had seen before. So he immediately took a liking to her and became much more enthusiastic, answering almost every question she asked.
In just a few words, the matchmaker explained her family situation in detail. Cuilian, on the other hand, didn't mention anything except her job. However, the matchmaker mentioned that her family consisted of nine sisters, with the eldest sister now in charge and already engaged, having taken in a son-in-law who had moved in with her. The matchmaker then asked Cuilian for more details.
Cuilian looked down on him completely, so why would she say such things to him? Especially when he kept saying "my mother said" in every other sentence, Cuilian's patience was completely exhausted.
"Comrade Chen Jianjun, I think that's enough for today. You and I aren't really a good match. That's all for now. I have other things to do, so I'll be leaving now."
The place the two agreed to meet was just a small park on the side of the street. It was a safe place with lots of people. After Cuilian finished speaking, she stood up and was about to leave. Chen Jianjun didn't know what had happened. How could they have been chatting so well, and suddenly she said it wasn't suitable?
When he reached out to pull Tang Cuilian, Cuilian frowned and glared at him.
"What are you doing? Let me tell you, don't pull me like that. Everyone is starving right now. You have to support seven people in your family, and I have to support eight people in mine, one more than you. That's why I said we're not a good match."
"What? You're going to support eight people all by yourself?"
Chen Jianjun, who hadn't heard Tang Cuilian say that, was immediately frightened.
"That's right. I bought this house with the combined savings of my whole family back then. Now that I'm working, I have to support them."
You're the same. Your father passed away, and you're the eldest brother in the family. It's not enough for you to support your mother all by yourself; you also have to support your younger siblings.
If the two of us teamed up, how many people would we have to support? Come on, I want to live a couple more years!
Chen Jianjun was stunned for a moment, "Wait, didn't your sister already get engaged and find a son-in-law to live with her family? Why do you still have to support her?"
"Isn't a son-in-law who lives with his wife's family the one who supports her? Yeah, if you include my future brother-in-law, wouldn't I have to support nine people?"
Thinking about the future, Cuilian couldn't help but swallow hard. Upon hearing this, Chen Jianjun quickly packed his bag and hurriedly told her that he would never see her again.
The next day, when they met with the matchmaker from the factory again, both sides tacitly agreed not to bring up the matter again.
After Tang Cuilian finished speaking, she couldn't help but shake her head: "Our factory has many cases like this, not to mention other factories."
Xiao Jiu chimed in, "I know that. Isn't it because they have many siblings? The price of a city entry quota is the promise to support their siblings in the future?"
In the early days of the People's Republic of China, industry was underdeveloped and the urban population was not saturated. When a large number of workers were needed, the urban population was insufficient to meet the demand, which led to a large influx of migrant workers into the cities.
Only a small minority of these people were promoted to permanent positions based on their own abilities; the majority remained temporary workers.
Even temporary workers sometimes bring their families to compete for resources.
This caused chaos in the unions of various factories, with endless troubles to deal with every day.
Strictly speaking, Tao Changyi and Zhao Lingli were lucky to be born at a good time, as it's not easy to get into a winery these days.
Fewer people got married during difficult times, and even those who wanted to have children knew to find ways to prevent pregnancy.
This Chen Jianjun is quite an oddball; he actually wants to find a wife to share his burden.
What were you thinking?
With his brains like that, even if the difficult times are over, he might not be able to find a wife.
Of course, if someone is really stupid enough to do it, then just pretend they didn't say that.
In comparison, isn't the fourth sister actually happier?
Niu Feng has already written two letters to Fourth Sister, although he hasn't replied to either one yet.
But at least from this perspective, it seems that he is very serious about dating his fourth sister.
Moreover, in addition to sending a letter, he also sent a package containing some of the better pastries and snacks available in the provincial capital.
Even the eldest sister said that the fourth brother's boyfriend was more reliable than any of the others they had met.
Even Huang Xin is no match for him.
Since their engagement, she and Huang Xin have only met twice, and those were when they bumped into each other on their way to work.
Huang Xin never bought her any gifts, and of course, Cuihua didn't give him any special treatment either.
Whenever she cooks something delicious at home, her first thought is to give it to her grandparents in the backyard, or to her godparents and sister in the city. She never thinks of giving it to her fiancé.
She even joked with her girlfriends, "If I marry Huang Xin and things don't go well, don't complain when I come back for a treat every now and then."
It seems she's already prepared to go home and freeload at any time.
As we all know, his family has debts to pay and doesn't have extra money to maintain the current relationship. But even if they don't have money, they should at least show some other kind of support, even if it's just saying a word, making a small trinket, or even wildflowers and vegetables from the mountains. They don't need to pay for them, right?
It meant something, but it didn't. The engagement was just an engagement; nothing really changed.
Cuiju even felt that Huang Xin was somewhat unwilling, like a duck being forced into a position.
It doesn't matter anymore, so naturally I don't care about these details.
The sisters felt indignant on Cuihua's behalf, but Cuihua seemed much more composed.
"Alright, don't think I'm being wronged. This is fine. Two people who didn't even know each other got engaged in a hurry."
He was in mourning, and he was quite assertive in the military. Suddenly becoming a live-in son-in-law, he needs time to adjust.
Everyone understands the logic and knows that being a live-in son-in-law is not easy, but being a daughter-in-law is just as difficult for a woman who marries into the man's family.
If it weren't for the extremely offensive and gossipy women in the village, who would be willing to get married?
Seeing her older sister's indifferent attitude, she even felt that her sister had long been prepared to leave her father and keep her son.
"Is my fifth sister coming back for Chinese New Year?"
The older sister shook her head. "She already wrote to say she's not coming back. She said she found a job covering shifts for someone, it pays one yuan a day, and includes room and board, plus she can learn from their experience."
"Fifth Sister hasn't come back for a long time. What about Sixth Sister? Is she coming back?"
The older sister continued to sigh, "She's even more amazing. She went to someone else's house to help cook during the Spring Festival and even found a job at a state-owned restaurant. Although it doesn't pay much, at least it provides food and lodging. It's not easy for either of them; they're both working hard for this family."
It was only then that Xiao Jiu learned that her fifth and sixth sisters were sending money back every few days, and now the two of them had sent more than two hundred yuan in total.
“I told them not to work so hard, not to work so hard, that we have enough money and food at home.”
But none of them listened; they all felt there was no point in going home.
They only felt tired of each other for the first few days, and then they grew to loathe each other. It was better to go out and make money.
They also said there are more opportunities in big cities, and that they could easily earn more in a day doing odd jobs outside than by toiling in the fields.
Tang Cuimei is a doctor, and Tang Cuixiang is a cook. Both of them have skills and foresight, so they could really do well. It's just a mystery how they managed to get letters of introduction to stabilize their situation in an era when everything required such letters.
Tang Cuimei is in the capital, while Tang Cuixiang is a little closer, in K City in the same province. Could it be that the two sisters wrote to each other in advance to keep in touch?
They've only been in school for a year and a half, and the two of them have already sent back two hundred yuan. It seems they're not just earning extra money; it's possible that both older sisters have been involved in the black market.
Now, Cui Mei and Cui Xiang provide money to support the family, Cui Hong and she provide supplies, the eldest and second eldest sisters work hard and earn work points, the third sister supplies food every month, and all wages are paid in full. This family is now steadily moving in the direction they have been hoping for.
Why didn't the seventh and eighth sisters go to school?
When Xiao Jiu couldn't help but bring up the issue again, both of them shook their heads at the same time.
"Jiu'er, we are disabled. Even if we get into school in the future, we may not be treated fairly."
If I'm assigned to work in a place far from home, I'd rather not go.
We didn't slack off; we were the two of us who cultivated both of our private plots. When we couldn't manage the fields, we would also earn work points.
We took turns cooking for the family, delivering meals to my grandparents, and doing laundry and cleaning.
After the seventh sister finished speaking, the eighth sister continued.
"Seventh Sister didn't mention the most important point: neither of us is cut out for studying, so let's save some money, shall we?"
Upon hearing this, Seventh Sister immediately chimed in, "Yes, that's the most important thing. We both get dizzy just looking at books, so let's just give up!"
With you, fifth sister, and sixth sister, the family is already well-off. As long as you study hard, we can benefit from it too.
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