Chapter 14 Chapter 14 Decided to go to Gu Changzong's house for the New Year, and it had to be quick...
Jiang Hongguo has her own worries. The child in her belly, as soon as she was conceived, would be able to experience things that happened in reality while she was sleeping. Could that be a normal child?
Aunt Liu urged her several times, but Jiang Hongguo had no one to talk to about her worries and just refused to go.
Fortunately, Aunt Liu's youngest son came back from winter vacation soon, and her daughter was born. Aunt Liu was so happy that she put Jiang Hongguo aside and did not urge her to go to the hospital. She just reminded Jiang Hongguo to start preparing New Year's goods.
Jiang Hongguo used to love eating bacon and salted fish, and braised pig's trotters and pig intestines. She looked forward to having these delicious foods during the New Year. The bacon could be stored in the spring, cut into thin slices, and stir-fried with garlic sprouts and vegetable moss, all of which were delicious. She used to swallow it just thinking about it, but now she gets a little sick of it and wants to eat something fresh. Changzong disliked it even more, so he didn't get any salted fish or bacon.
But some dishes must be prepared for the New Year. Jiang Hongguo chopped the meat in a ratio of 70% lean meat to 30% fat, added some flour, and made some meatballs.
In winter, every household's vegetable garden is full of cabbage and radish. If they can't finish eating them, they will chop up some vegetable stuffing and make radish meatballs and cabbage meatballs. In the past two years of contracting the crops to each household, the rapeseed grown at home is enough for the family to eat, so there is oil for frying New Year's goods. They first fry meatballs in a pot of hot oil. The first pot had a big bowl of meatballs. Jiang Hongguo ate more than a dozen, and Gu Changzong ate all the rest, feeling very satisfied.
"Guoguo, these meatballs are delicious. I'll buy another ten kilograms of meat tomorrow and fry them."
He probably likes fresh meat, so he would also like fresh fish balls. Jiang Hongguo asked him to buy another big grass carp: "Let's make some fish balls."
The second pot of fried radish balls and cabbage balls gave Gu Changzong an unexpected surprise. Ordinary vegetables were chopped and rolled into balls, and then fried in oil. They tasted even better than those fried ones.
The two of them studied it for a while and made lotus root balls and sweet potato balls. The sweet potato balls were sweet, so Jiang Hongguo ate a few more. Gu Changzong remembered that this was Hongguo's favorite.
Gu Changzong couldn't wait until tomorrow to go to the county town to buy some, so he took the dried fish and said he was going to catch a grass carp. In summer, there is a lot of rain, the water level in the river is high, and there are many kinds of fish. He said he would go fishing, but in the middle of winter, catching a big grass carp would arouse speculation, wouldn't it? Jiang Hongguo didn't let him go.
Gu Changzong was obedient. He would not go unless Jiang Hongguo asked him to. In fact, there was nothing to do at home. The work in the fields had stopped long ago. He chopped two piles of firewood, enough to burn until next spring, so he didn't lack anything.
Jiang Hongguo sat lazily under the eaves basking in the sun, while Gu Changzong was planing wood in the yard, saying that he would first make a crib and a walker for the children.
He learns things quickly. Before Meng Qingdai got married, he learned from a carpenter and now he can make beds for children.
Fortunately, Changzong did not go out in the afternoon, otherwise the village chief would have brought his uncle and aunt back and sent them home, and Jiang Hongguo would have been so tired to deal with it all by herself.
The purpose of this couple's visit was to ask Gu Changzong to go back, saying that his grandfather was not in good health and they hoped that Gu Changzong could go back to spend the New Year with his grandparents.
The thing that Jiang Hongguo was most worried about finally happened. It took half a year for Gu Changzong to decide whether to go back or not. During this half year, he never mentioned going back and his family didn't call him either. Jiang Hongguo just put it off day by day and tried not to think about it.
However, even if Changzong has changed now, his relatives in the city will not change, and they still have to face what they have to face.
It has been so long since my uncle and his mother came to invite me, and Jiang Hongguo feels that I should go back.
But Gu Changzong refused with an indifferent attitude: "I still remember that I drew a line between me and grandma, and my step-grandfather called me a spineless person. How could I let you come and ask me to go back? No matter what your purpose is, I will not go back. Now the place with red fruits is my home."
After hearing Chang Zong's attitude, Jiang Hongguo lowered her head quickly for fear that the smile on her face would be seen. Chang Zong refused himself to save her from having to say it.
The uncle said regretfully, "I know you have a stubborn temper. Seeing that you are doing well, I am relieved. Go back and talk to your grandparents, and they will be relieved. When you have figured it out, you can go back and reunite with them."
The eldest aunt said politely: "I didn't know Hongguo was pregnant, and I didn't bring any supplements. This is our first meeting, so you must accept the red envelope."
Jiang Hongguo pinched it and found it was about 20 to 30 pieces thick. The other party was polite, so she was polite too. It was very dark outside and there was no bus to the county town now.
Jiang Hongguo stayed overnight: "Uncle and aunt will stay at home for one night. Tomorrow morning, I will ask Changzong to drive the village tractor to take you to the county town."
Gu Changzong laid out the bedding in the empty east room and asked Jiang Hongguo, "Guoguo, why do you want to let them stay? I can send them away at night. You don't know how hypocritical these two are. Their words and actions are inconsistent. Their words and expressions don't match. They can't even pretend."
Jiang Hongguo said: "We have to pretend if they want to. Otherwise, they will scold us when they go back, saying that we came from so far away and didn't stay overnight. We won't give them a chance to scold us."
If he was not given a chance, he should go back and expose them, but Gu Changzong did not want to go back, so he did as Hong Guo said.
At night, the aunt sat on the newly made bed, touching the soft new cotton quilt. The new cotton was warm. Gu Changzong married into the country family and lived a good life.
The eldest aunt held Jiang Hongguo's hand and chatted with him. She looked around and said enviously, "You and Changzong have done a great job with your little home. Where did you get the money to buy new furniture and bedding?"
Jiang Hongguo didn't dare to answer casually. Fortunately, she thought about it in advance. She had earned a few hundred dollars by setting up the stall for two or three months. If she explained the money to the villagers, she could verify it.
Jiang Hongguo just talked about setting up a stall, but didn't say how much money it would earn, only that it was a little better than working in the city.
"Rural areas are not like the collective economy of the past, when everything was distributed by production teams. Now everyone works for themselves, and the more you work, the more you earn. There is enough rice, flour and oil to eat, and the cotton is grown and spun by ourselves. If we have a little more money, we can make two more quilts and two more sets of cotton-padded clothes. We can still afford it."
The eldest aunt envied: "You two are really capable. You live such a good life. No wonder Changzong doesn't want to go back."
Jiang Hongguo didn't believe what his aunt said. They were all trying to save face, but Jiang Hongguo felt that the purpose of his uncle and aunt's return was not that simple.
Since Changzong didn't want to go back, she didn't ask any further questions. She would send them away early tomorrow morning anyway.
Chang Zong had almost finished chatting with his uncle, and called Jiang Hongguo: "Guoguo, the hot water is ready, come and take a bath."
Jiang Hongguo was used to Gu Changzong's care and would carry her to the bedroom after taking a bath. But today some relatives were staying over at home and she felt embarrassed so she chased Changzong out before taking a bath and told him not to carry her anymore today.
Gu Changzong was even more annoyed by the sudden visit of his uncle and aunt, which greatly affected his and Hongguo's lives.
Uncle and aunt closed the kitchen door and washed their faces and feet inside. Jiang Hongguo was about to go to sleep, but Changzong picked her up and took them to the kitchen door together.
He walked so quietly that no one could hear him. The two people in the kitchen, although their voices were low, could still be heard standing at the door.
Chang Zong actually wanted to eavesdrop, which was exactly what Jiang Hongguo wanted. She also wanted to hear the real reason why these two people came to the border at the end of the year.
After listening for a long time, they found that everything they said was so unexpected. They originally thought that Gu Changzong was having a miserable time here and didn't want to go back every day, but he was trying to be competitive and wanted the two old men to bow their heads first. They always thought so.
This time, I saw that Gu Changzong had learned carpentry, cooking, and being nice to his wife. He didn't even care about his face and went to sell sesame cakes, which really brought shame to his own grandmother.
It was the same old talk over and over again, which sounded quite boring. Jiang Hongguo's eyelids were drooping, and she gestured to Changzong that she was sleepy and wanted to sleep.
Gu Changzong tiptoed again and carried her back to the room to sleep. Only then did Jiang Hongguo have a chance to count the red envelope. Thirty yuan was half a month's salary for a city dweller, not a small amount. However, she had seen money before when she and Changzong set up stalls, so she was not shocked by the amount of the red envelope.
One morning, after Jiang Hongguo got up, breakfast was on the table. Changzong even squeezed toothpaste and asked Hongguo to brush her teeth and eat breakfast. The uncle frowned when he saw this.
The eldest aunt smiled and praised: "Hongguo, Changzong really likes you. I never thought that he would become such a loving man now. His previous male chauvinism is gone at all."
Jiang Hongguo was afraid that her aunt would notice more differences in Changzong, so she was in a hurry to send them away and packed some meatballs that she had fried yesterday and asked her aunt to take them with her.
"They are all made by myself, and they taste better than those bought outside."
Last night at dinner, my aunt had already praised the bowl of meatballs and the bowl of radish and cabbage meatballs. She hadn't imagined that only two or three years after the land reform, the country people were living better off than the city people, and that setting up small stalls could make so much money?
Although she thought about it, she was not envious. Setting up a stall was too embarrassing. As long as Gu Changzong didn't go back, her stepmother's property would be given to her father-in-law, and her father-in-law's property would be left to her husband.
Changzong had been waiting for too long to borrow the tractor and was getting impatient. Jiang Hongguo asked her uncle and aunt to wait at home while she went to the village office to urge them.
When I looked over, I saw Changzong repairing a tractor. It couldn't start, but after some tinkering, Changzong actually fixed it.
Jiang Hongguo hurried home to call her uncle and aunt, but she heard their voices at the door:
"It's great that Changzong doesn't go back. He published an announcement to sever ties with his family. He didn't go back to see his grandmother for the last time. When your stepmother dies, her inheritance will belong to your father. The old man has abandoned his wife and children for so many years. Now that he is old, he finally has a conscience."
My uncle said, "Walls have ears. If you have anything to say, go home and talk."
Wasn't it my step-grandfather who was sick? Why was it my grandma?
Uncle was cautious, so Jiang Hongguo didn't dare to linger at the door or knock on it. He turned around and went back to the village office and came back with Gu Changzong.
After sending her uncle and aunt to the county town, Jiang Hongguo was very worried and left the purchase of meat and fish to Gu Changzong.
Seeing that she was absent-minded the whole time, Gu Changzong shook her worriedly: "Guoguo, are you having a nightmare again? Wake up."
Jiang Hongguo opened his eyes and saw that the sun was setting high above him. It was not yet time for lunch.
She remembered that when Changzong was repairing the tractor, she didn't go home at all. She just went back home with Changzong after he finished repairing the tractor.
Then the two of them sent their uncle and aunt to the county town, and then went to buy meat and fish. When they came back to Changzong, they chopped the meat. She went back to her room to catch up on her sleep, and then in her dream, she saw a scene she had never seen before.
Was this the child in her belly's doing? It was helping her and Changzong avoid disaster.
Jiang Hongguo touched her flat belly and decided to go to Gu Changzong's house to celebrate the New Year quickly, so she had to pack up and leave.
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