Hearing Jia Dongxu's words, Jia Zhangshi and Qin Huairu exchanged a glance and fell silent. They knew that continuing to argue was pointless. The family couldn't break up just yet.
Now that there's a way out, take it quick, lest you find yourself in an awkward situation later. She turned her face away and stopped talking, but the seeds of conflict between the Jia family mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had already been sown.
The others didn't take the Jia family's affairs seriously. They'd rather spend that time pickling more vegetables.
Even Wei Hua joined the ranks of those pickling vegetables. Although there was space, the appearance still had to be maintained, because everyone spent the winter this way.
Wei Hua bought extra radishes and greens. He made a small portion of them into pickles, and stored the other small portion in his spatial storage.
Wei Hua washed the vegetables and hung them to dry. After the vegetables were dry, he put them in a pickling jar, then spread a layer of salt on top, followed by a layer of pickled vegetables, and so on.
Wei Hua wasn't the only one making pickled vegetables; for about three or four months of the winter, everyone relied mainly on pickled vegetables. Getting fresh vegetables in the freezing winter was quite a challenge.
It's not that you can't store things in a cellar, but sometimes they spoil. People prefer to store them in a pickle jar rather than in a cellar.
Everyone was pickling vegetables over the weekend, including the Jia family. However, the Jia family's pickling this year was a bit unusual. While others pickled cabbage, the Jia family pickled tree leaves and some aquatic plants.
Yi Zhonghai was clearly a pro; his movements were so smooth that he attracted everyone in the courtyard.
Yi Zhonghai knew why these people had come to watch the spectacle. His own family was barely surviving, and he had no interest in dealing with others. He'd rather use that time to gather more seaweed or wild vegetables.
After all the vegetables were pickled, Yi Zhonghai deliberately placed two stones on top. Then, one person carried the pickling jar into the room with great effort.
In the past, Yi Zhonghai might not have cared about this jar of pickled vegetables, but it was the Jia family's food for the winter. If something went wrong with the pickled vegetables, he wouldn't even have any vegetables to eat that winter.
Just as Yi Zhonghai finished moving the pickled vegetables, Jia Dongxu carried a large pot into the room. Seeing the colorful contents of the pot, Yi Zhonghai quickly ladled himself a bowl.
Yi Zhonghai wasn't sure whether to call it wild vegetable soup or a Northeastern stew. Anyway, it contained everything imaginable: wild vegetables, some edible tree leaves, and a small amount of grain. Today, he also added some aquatic plants and a few snails.
Even though it tasted bitter, Yi Zhonghai had no right to refuse. Even the entire Jia family had no choice but to eat it along with them.
After finishing his meal, Jia Dongxu took a rake and left the courtyard. The weather wasn't too cold yet, so he took the rake to gather some more water plants so his family could have a few more meals with them.
Yi Zhonghai wasn't idle either; he left the courtyard house with a basket on his back. To avoid starvation, they had to rely on their own efforts. These days, anything edible and safe was considered good food for the Jia family.
Even Jia Zhangshi wasn't idle. She took an awl and started sewing shoe soles on the bed. Even though her legs were paralyzed, Jia Zhangshi had no right to rest. Only Qin Huairu and her two children were resting in bed.
Xiao Dang has only just learned to walk and can't do anything yet. Bang Geng is only six years old this year and can't do anything either. What's more, Bang Geng's leg hasn't healed yet, so he can only lie in bed and look at the ceiling.
Living like this, it's impossible not to feel resentment. But given the current situation, even if the Jia family has grievances, they can only keep them to themselves.
They say being born is easy, living is easy, but making a living is not easy. By evening, the Jia family was still eating a bitter tree leaf soup.
They finally got their paychecks, but before they could even enjoy the money, they had to use it to pay off debts. The Jia family not only had to pay off the hospital's debts, but also Wei Hua's. Yi Zhonghai not only had to give money to Huang Xiaojuan, but also to his cousin.
Jia Dongxu was penniless, and Yi Zhonghai had less than five yuan left. In the past, five yuan would have been barely enough. But now, grain prices were outrageously high, and with so little money, Yi Zhonghai couldn't do much; he could probably only buy other things.
Even with that limited quota, they still needed to supplement it with quite a bit of leaves or aquatic plants this month. Just thinking about that bitter taste made the Jia family feel nauseous.
The first to cause a scene was Banggeng, who wasn't very sensible. He saw others eating cornbread every day, and occasionally even having a mixed grain of rice. But at his own family, let alone cornbread, they couldn't even get enough to eat for their fill of wild vegetable porridge.
If his leg hadn't been still healing, Banggeng might have already gone out to find a solution on his own.
"Dad, I don't want to eat wild vegetable porridge. I want to eat steamed buns, I want to eat white flour steamed buns. I never want to eat this damn wild vegetable porridge again."
"Why can everyone else eat well while I have to eat this? I don't want to be your son anymore. I want to eat white flour buns like everyone else."
Hearing his son's words, Jia Dongxu felt particularly helpless. It wasn't just Bangbang who wanted to eat white flour steamed buns; even Jia Dongxu himself didn't know how long it had been since he'd had one.
"Good boy! Dad will bring you some steamed buns made from two kinds of flour tomorrow. Things aren't going well for us right now, so please bear with it for a while. Things will get better in two months."
"No, I won't. I want to eat white flour steamed buns now. I don't want to eat mixed flour steamed buns. Mixed flour steamed buns don't taste good at all."
Bang Geng finished speaking and immediately started crying on the bed. But no one from the Jia family went to comfort him, because even the steamed buns made from the mixed flour were saved by Jia Dongxu from the steel rolling mill.
Fortunately, Banggeng was just a child, and he cried himself to sleep. But the Jia family fell into deep thought. At that moment, everyone missed their old life immensely; Jia Dongxu's salary back then wasn't high, but it certainly wasn't low either.
In addition, Yi Zhonghai had been subsidizing the Jia family. Even when the Jia family was poor, they mostly ate a mixture of wheat flour and cornmeal. They did eat cornmeal, but not much, and occasionally they could have a little bit of the snowflake flour that was only available to the wounded. At this moment, everyone missed the Jia family's previous life.
“Zhonghai, why don’t you try to find a way to get some flour? I’ve been eating wild vegetable soup for almost a month now, and if I keep eating it, I’m afraid my body will break down.”
Upon hearing Jia Zhangshi's words, everyone in the Jia family looked at Yi Zhonghai.
"Looking at me won't do any good. You know what the situation is like. My meals aren't much better than yours. I'm eating wild vegetable soup every day too."
"I'm just a temporary worker right now, and my salary isn't even as high as Dongxu's. Why don't you ask Dongxu to think of a way to bring back some good stuff?"
Upon hearing Yi Zhonghai's words, Qin Huairu and her two children took a liking to Jia Dongxu.
"Looking at me is no use. If it were before, I might have been able to get some good stuff back, but now everyone values food more than life itself. It's almost impossible to get food now."
“We’ve offended everyone in the courtyard, so they’re not going to give us any grain. Our family’s situation can’t afford any more problems. You all mustn’t cause me any trouble these next two months, or I can’t help you if something does happen.”
"Once we pay off the hospital bills, our situation will be a little better, and then we won't have to eat this damn wild vegetable soup every day."
After speaking, Jia Dongxu kept looking at his mother. His meaning was quite clear, as if he were telling Jia Zhangshi, "Don't cause any more trouble, or I really won't be able to save you."
Feeling uneasy under her son's gaze, Jia Zhangshi involuntarily turned her eyes to Yi Zhonghai.
“Zhonghai, can’t you go and ask the deaf old lady for help? Didn’t this yard used to belong to her? She should still have a lot of valuable things. If we could get a few of those things, our family would be much better off.”
Upon hearing Jia Zhangshi's words, Yi Zhonghai immediately rolled his eyes at her.
"Stop daydreaming. Last time alone, I spent over 1,000 yuan on the deaf old lady. Besides that time, I also spent quite a bit of money. All the money added up is at least two thousand yuan, and all of it was spent on your family. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be in so much debt."
Hearing Yi Zhonghai say that, Jia Zhangshi was somewhat displeased.
“Yi Zhonghai, what do you mean by spending money on us? This money is all compensation you gave to Sha Zhu. Sha Zhu’s upbringing expenses were not spent on us. That was your own voluntary support for the Jia family.”
Upon hearing Jia Zhangshi's words, Yi Zhonghai immediately turned his head away. Seeing that Yi Zhonghai had turned away, Jia Zhangshi didn't continue the topic. Continuing to discuss it would truly hurt feelings; matters within the Jia family were always about mutual compromise.
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