Zhang Di walked into the room and put down his schoolbag. When he saw Meng Tao and Jin Niu, he greeted them happily: "Sister Tao Hua, Brother Jin Niu, you are finally here!"

As he spoke, he looked around. Meng Tao knew what he was looking for and said with a smile, "Don't look for it anymore. Xiao Wangcai isn't here yet. Go wash your hands and have dinner."

Brother Zhang was very disappointed, as he was hoping that Xiao Wangcai would come along.

Taurus also called out to his little brother to eat quickly and said that he would save the chicken leg for him.

Zhang Di shook his head and said, "I promised Dad and Mom that I would keep the chicken legs for Sister Taohua and Brother Jinniu today. I won't eat them, so I'll give them to you guys."

Zhang's mother and father: "..."

This unfortunate child speaks out loud.

Zhang Fu kicked Zhang Di and said, "Go wash your hands now."

Zhang Di then ran out, and soon came back, holding his bowl and chopsticks, and sat down next to Meng Tao with a smile. Perhaps he was too hungry, so he took two big mouthfuls of rice before eating the vegetables. Jinniu gave him the chicken leg from his bowl, and Zhang Di didn't refuse, he grabbed it and started to eat it, and after two bites, he looked carefully: "Hey, this... why is it a chicken leg?"

Meng Tao was amused by him. Zhang Fu raised his hand to give his silly brother a slap, but Jinniu stopped him. Zhang Di saw that Zhang's father and mother were also staring at him with bulging eyes, but he had already eaten the chicken leg and couldn't go back. He suddenly had an idea and brought up an interesting topic to divert everyone's attention from the chicken leg:

"Mom, Dad, and Brother, do you know why I came back so late? I went to see what was going on. The new family that moved into the alley behind us quarreled every day, and they quarreled again today. Many people ran to see what was going on.

"Sister Taohua, Brother Jinniu, have you ever seen people fighting? When women fight with each other, they grab each other's hair and pull their clothes. When men fight with women, they slap each other in the face. After slapping one side of the face, they slap the other side. Pa pa pa pa... It's so much fun!"

Zhang's mother was so angry that she hit her youngest son with chopsticks: "You don't learn good things, but only learn bad things!"

Zhang's father also scolded him: "Don't go there again next time! I heard that the Tian family just bought an old house in the back alley. They quarrel all day long. It's a mess. I don't know where they came from. They don't look like a decent family."

Meng Tao's mind was moved: His surname is Tian, ​​and he just bought the old house? It can't be such a coincidence, right?

After lunch, Aunt Zhang was going to work at the bedding factory. Before leaving, she showed Meng Tao the rest rooms and arranged for Meng Tao to live in the inner room of the west room, while Jinniu and Zhang Fu lived in the east room. Aunt Zhang had already made preparations, and the quilts and sheets were all new.

The clothing factory has been very busy lately, with overtime work. Mother Zhang is taking over now and won't get off work until night, so she won't come over at night. Father Zhang will stay here, and after dinner, Zhang Fu will take him and brother Zhang back to their home at the factory on a tricycle.

Meng Tao and Jinniu brought a sack containing four smoked rabbits, four pheasants, six bundles of dried wild vegetables, a small cloth bag of dried mushrooms and black fungus, two boxes of cakes and biscuits, and a bag of candy. These were from the provincial capital. Shen Yu and Meng Zhehan treated her as a child and would bring a bunch of snacks every time she came back.

Aunt Zhang complained that Meng Tao and Jin Niu were too polite, saying that it was a waste of time and money to bring so many things.

Meng Tao agreed with a smile, and helped Zhang Ma put the things into the cupboard one by one. Zhang Ma said that these were all good things and could not be taken back to the home in the factory. Zhang Fu's eldest aunt and second uncle lived nearby, and adults and children came to the house every few days to check on the things. It was absolutely not possible not to share the good things with them. If they were not satisfied with the sharing, they would quarrel... It happened that the new yard Zhang Fu bought was far away from there, so he simply didn't let them see it.

Aunt Zhang kept on talking, and Meng Tao just listened. Every family has its own problems. She thought that Zhang Fujia's family was simple and would have less troubles, but that was not the case.

When Zhang Ma married Zhang Ba, Zhang Grandpa and Zhang Grandma were no longer around. Zhang Ba was the eldest brother. Grandpa and Zhang Grandma entrusted their three younger siblings to him before they died. It became a habit for him to take care of his younger siblings. He would always respond to their requests and share the good things with them. There was a reason why the couple gave birth to Zhang Brother ten years after they gave birth to Zhang Fu.

After my eldest sister-in-law and second uncle got married, they had a child almost every year. Life was naturally difficult with so many children. When I was hungry, I often ran to their house. Zhang's father treated my younger brothers and sisters well, and was even better to my nephews and nieces. He would take out whatever was at home and eat it together until it was finished.

The youngest uncle supported his third uncle until he finished high school, and he could have taken the college entrance examination, but his grades were not good enough to pass the entrance examination, so they had to borrow money and buy him a job privately so that he could make a living. However, the couple was burdened with debt, and the monthly salary was not enough to cover their expenses, and they had no spare money or food at all.

When talking about Zhang Fu's childhood, Zhang's mother's eyes became red: other families with working couples raising two or three children were all well fed, but she had only one child, and it seemed as if he had never been full. She couldn't even save some delicious food for her son, so Zhang Fu still can't gain weight.

It was not until after Zhang's younger brother was born and a few other things happened that Zhang's father gradually became indifferent to his brothers and sisters. Last year, Zhang's father fell and injured himself, and his brothers and sisters only came to visit him once or twice, and then never showed up again, which made Zhang's father feel even colder.

However, whenever his brothers and sisters-in-law came to him for help, Zhang's father could not help but intervene. For example, his third brother wanted to get married and had no house, but Zhang Fu made money through "speculation" and bought a big yard. Zhang's father had some ideas. The reason was that his third brother was an older young man, already in his thirties, and it was not easy for a woman to marry him. He was afraid that it would fail again. As the eldest brother and his wife, how could they watch their younger brother go without getting married?

Zhang's mother tried to stop him, saying that her son was already 20 years old and it was time for him to get married. This courtyard house was the new house that her son was going to get married in. If Zhang's father dared to touch it, the mother and son would separate from him and live separately! Only then did Zhang's father give up the idea.

After Zhang's mother finished complaining to Meng Tao about the troubles at home, she saw that she was going to be late for work, so she hurried out. She did not forget to take Zhang Di with her and dropped him off at school on the way.

The two women were talking in the inner room, while the men were sitting in the hall chatting.

After Zhang Ma left, Zhang Fu took Meng Tao to his room to see the "treasures" he had found.

I have to say, this guy is really lucky. He found a lot of things during this period: half a drawer full of small yellow croakers and silver ingots. Under the silver ingots were a few stacks of brand new banknotes, which were printed in the early 1950s when the People's Republic of China was just founded. The face value was tens of thousands of yuan. It's a pity that they can't be used now, but if they are kept for a few decades, maybe they can be speculated on as old banknotes and make money.

Half of the drawer was filled with scattered gold and silver jewelry, all of which were hairpins, necklaces, bracelets, rings, and also some jadeite beads with very good water content.

Meng Tao picked up a few pieces of jewelry and looked at them, and found that they all had the same mark. This was the custom of large families in the old days, and they would leave a mark when making jewelry. So she joked that these did not look like they were found in the garbage, but rather like Zhang Fu had dug up the treasure of some wealthy landlord.

(End of this chapter)