At noon, Xiao Jiu steamed a pot of their Henan specialty noodles. These noodles were made using a noodle machine in the staff dormitory. Because they used to serve staff meals here for a while, they had all sorts of equipment. Later, they stopped serving them due to the pandemic, but they didn't throw them away. They never expected that one day they would be useful to her.
I bought this electric noodle maker for almost a thousand yuan. It's really convenient to use, and the noodles taste much better than steamed noodles.
Stir-fried green beans with pork was the main dish, bean sprouts were the side dish, five pounds of noodles were steamed, and a small pot of seaweed and egg soup was also prepared. Before serving, a handful of chopped cilantro was sprinkled on top.
As soon as Tang Cuiju got home, she could smell the aroma of the food from afar.
"Oh, I knew you'd cook something delicious as soon as you got home."
I steamed five pounds of noodles, and put more than three pounds in my storage space to eat when I get hungry at school.
The remaining pound or so was just enough for the two sisters. Xiao Jiu also made a cucumber salad with preserved eggs and opened a can of beef.
"Did you send a telegram to my fifth sister?"
Cuiju brought in the soup. "Don't worry, I sent a telegram as soon as I got there, and also sent a letter home."
"Huh, canned meat too? Where did that come from?"
The canned fish that Xiaojiu gave to the Weng family elders was poured into their lunchboxes without letting them see the packaging.
She didn't want to cause herself any trouble by dumping her own food on the plate, since the Japanese characters were recognized by everyone in Japan.
"Xing asked me to bring this back. It's a perk from his unit. He couldn't bear to eat it himself, so he asked me to bring it back so he could try it."
Cuiju casually asked them about what they had seen and heard during their trip, but Xiaojiu dared not tell the truth and just made it up.
After going out for two hours in the morning, Cuiju didn't plan to rest at noon and went back to work after lunch.
Xiao Jiu washed and cleaned the house, then checked the rice, flour, oil, vegetables, and pickles in the house. She made a token purchase, knowing that her older sister and Yuan Yuan would provide some of the staple foods, so she didn't prepare too much.
Unexpectedly, before she even left the house, Ye Zhenke arrived. Xiao Jiu was quite surprised to see her.
"Sister Zhen? It's been a while since we last saw each other. Why did you suddenly think of my family?"
"I ran into Sister Ju at noon. She said you had just come back from outside, so I rushed over to see you."
Ye Zhen carried two bottles of canned yellow peaches. After Xiao Jiu took them, she poured her a glass of water.
"Are you going to school?" Xiao Jiu scratched her head sheepishly.
"Yes, I've been on leave for many days, which has caused a lot of delays. I just wanted to go back to school this afternoon. It's okay, just tell me if you need anything. It doesn't matter whether I go early or late."
Ye Zhen wasn't one to mince words, and immediately brought up Cao Lianhua, who had previously tricked her because of Tang Cuiju's household registration.
"Fifteen years ago, Uncle Wang and Aunt Cao came to my house and said they wanted to ask you for a favor. They didn't tell me exactly what it was, only that you should go to their house when you had time. I thought I'd come over and tell you."
Xiao Jiu refused without hesitation: "Sister Zhen, I won't lie to you. My sister's household registration wasn't settled based on the conditions she initially mentioned. Later, they tried every means to make things difficult for us. In order to get my sister's household registration transferred, our family borrowed a lot of money from Peter to pay Paul. In total, it cost us two or three thousand yuan."
Five hundred yuan, one hundred jin of fine grains, and seventy jin of pork—according to the market prices in 1961, three thousand yuan would be considered a small sum.
Of course, the details of this particular bottle of wine were not elaborated, and I believe the Wang family would be too ashamed to say it, but its value was not exaggerated.
She kept it a secret from the Ye family before because she didn't want the two families to have a falling out over this matter. Now that the Wang family still has the nerve to come looking for her, Xiao Jiu naturally won't be polite.
When Ye Zhen heard that in order to register Tang Cuiju's household registration, the Tang and Tao families had pooled their resources and borrowed three thousand yuan, her eyes widened immediately.
"My God, I knew it was troublesome to change from rural to urban status, and at first I thought they were being kind, but I never expected there to be this kind of thing."
"You silly kid, why didn't you say so from the beginning? Three thousand yuan! Is this job worth that much?"
Xiao Jiu gave a helpless bitter smile, "The money from the beginning has already been spent, and they won't give a refund. I don't want to disappoint my sister, and thankfully my dad still has some savings, which helped us through this difficult time. But this also means that my sisters will have to carry debts for many years. So I think the Wang family is quite unreliable, and I don't want to have anything to do with them again."
"I'm sorry, Xiao Jiu, I didn't know. If I had known, I definitely would have gone to find them."
Seeing Ye Zhen's guilty expression, Xiao Jiu quickly comforted her: "Sister Zhen, what does this have to do with you? I'm telling you this not to make you feel guilty, but to explain why I don't want to contact them anymore. Just keep it to yourself and don't tell your family. It's unreasonable for us to cause any more trouble between you and the Wang family. Just go back and tell them that I said I can't help them."
Xiao Jiu didn't have anything good to give her, but before leaving, he slipped Ye Zhen two boxes of pickled vegetables.
"It's nothing special, just some homemade pickled vegetables. Take it home and try it. If you like it, tell my sister, and I'll bring you more!"
Ye Zhen couldn't refuse, "Then let me give the lunchbox to Sister Ju when I have time, and I'll take you to school. We can ride our bikes then!"
With Ye Zhen's enthusiastic help, Xiao Jiu returned to school. As soon as she turned around, Ye Zhen's smile disappeared, and her gaze became serious. She lowered her eyes and pondered for a while, deciding that she should not go to work first, but go home and talk to her parents about the matter.
She believed that Xiao Jiu wouldn't lie, and judging from the attitude of the Wang couple that day, their eyes were darting around, and they didn't dare to explain things clearly to them.
I never expected that her kindness in helping the Tang family would bring them such a big trouble. Three thousand yuan! How could these two have the nerve to ask for it?
They managed to scrape together the money, but what if they couldn't?
We initially agreed on 600 yuan. What if we buy a temporary worker instead? Wouldn't that be ripping people off?
That's outrageous!
No, I need to have a serious talk with my parents about what's wrong with that couple, and tell them to stay away from people like that in the future.
Who knows if they might plot against their family again?
At this moment, Ye Zhen had no idea how much trouble her actions were about to solve for her family.
Xiao Jiu already knew the gatekeeper, so he was easily let in. To thank him, Xiao Jiu even gave him a red apple.
She went back to her dorm first, bringing back not only her bedding but also her books, so she needed to go back to her dorm to organize them.
The dormitory supervisor breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her return.
"There are rumors that you're not going to continue your studies, but I thought that was impossible. It's only the last semester left, how could you not come back? Have you taken care of everything at home?"
The reason I asked for leave was because of family matters, so it's not wrong for the teacher to ask that question.
"Don't worry, teacher, it's all taken care of. You're right, it's the last semester, I definitely can't give up."
The teacher helped open the dormitory door. Xiao Jiu saw that the weather outside was nice, even though it would get dark soon. She figured she could enjoy the sunshine for a while longer.
I carried out the bedding, packed up the books, took a deep breath, and walked towards the classroom.
Because next, I'll be facing another hellish period of studying.
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