◎Second update◎
Damian Village
The next day, Song Chunhua learned that her daughter Baozhen was pregnant. Liang Baozhen went to the post office to make a phone call. On the phone, her mother's voice changed with excitement. She kept telling her to be careful and take care of herself. If it weren't for the expensive phone bill, she would have kept her daughter talking for half an hour.
Among my four children, only Baoying gave birth to Mengmeng. That was several years ago. Now there is another baby in the family. How can I not be happy?
After hanging up the phone, Song Chunhua, who had been in a depressed mood for some time, wiped away the gloom of the past and ran home in small steps.
"Lao Liang, Lao Liang! Bao Jun! Bao Ying!" She started shouting from the gate. She had a smile on her face, and she was excited thinking that she was going to be a grandmother again. "Bao Zhen... Hey, Jianguo is back?"
Song Jianguo was holding Meng Meng in the yard. When he saw his mother-in-law coming home, he went up to her and said, "Mom."
Song Jianguo, who worked at the soda factory, came back to the village for the first time. When the villagers were all going to work, he sneaked into the Liang family yard with a large load of noodles. He came back with a few bottles of soda and gave Liang Baoying ten yuan.
He now earns 20 yuan a month, half of which he gives to Liang Baoying, and the rest to his mother. Song's mother originally wanted him to pay two-thirds. After all, the 1,000 yuan he spent on the job had eaten up all the family savings. But Song Jianguo had no choice. He couldn't just not support his wife and children, right?
After much persuasion, the standards were lowered.
This time, he also brought a few bottles of fruit-flavored soda for his daughter Mengmeng. These were the soda factory's best-selling flavors, which were simply not available in the village.
"Dad, I missed you so much." Meng Meng tied her hair into two small braids and hugged her dad tightly with both hands. She was so happy to finally see her dad that her little tiger teeth showed when she smiled.
"Hey, come and try the soda. It tastes really good and very sweet." The soda in the soda factory is packaged in glass bottles and sold for 1.5 cents a bottle. After drinking it, you can take the glass bottle back and get a 5 cent refund.
Meng Meng held the soda bottle in both hands and drank the orange-flavored soda in small sips. She felt the sweetness in her mouth. She drank two sips and passed it to Liang Baoying, "Mom, drink it."
Liang Baoying has been silent for a while now, and she rarely smiles. Seeing that her daughter is still thinking about her, she rubs her head and says, "Mom doesn't drink, she only drinks in her dreams."
"Well~ No, mommy wants to drink." Mengmeng raised her hand high and insisted that mommy drink too.
Liang Baoying had no choice but to take it and take a sip. The soda sold in the city tasted really good, much better than the one she had bought at the commune supply and marketing cooperative before, and very sweet.
"Dad drinks too."
Mengmeng took the soda bottle and handed it to her father. After her parents finished drinking, there was still half a bottle left. Then she started drinking it.
Song Jianguo looked at Liang Baoying's sad face, and his heart tightened. He immediately reported the good news to her, "Baoying, I'm about to be promoted to a regular employee. Our workshop director said that I performed well. If there is a quota for regularization next month or the month after, it will be given to me."
"Really?" Liang Baoying had prepared herself mentally for the divorce, but even so, she could not avoid being affected by rumors. Sometimes when she was walking in the village, she seemed to hear people talking about her, saying that a divorced woman with a child would have a hard life in the future.
A few days ago, a mother and son from the next village came to visit and said they wanted to meet Liang Baoying. The man was a widower with three children. His wife died of illness a few years ago. When he heard that the eldest daughter of the Liang family was divorced and that she was not bad looking, he came excitedly.
The man had a mean look on his face. As soon as he entered the room, he looked Liang Baoying up and down, staring at her with lustful eyes. Song Chunhua was a tough person and directly rejected the two of them. In the end, the mother and son sprayed dirt at the door, saying that no one wanted a divorced woman, and it was good enough that their family was willing to marry her.
Song Jianguo didn't know about these things. Liang Baoying was having a hard time and kept them all to herself.
"Really! Baoying, don't worry, when I get a permanent job and a stable job, I will take you back home as soon as possible. I will find you a job in the soda factory, and you can get your household registration settled down in the future. Then we can live happily together as a family!"
"Okay!" Liang Baoying felt sweet in her heart when she heard Song Jianguo say these words, as if it was sweeter than the soda just now.
After only a few months back in the city, Song Jianguo looked much more energetic. He was wearing a blue work suit and a liberation cap. Most importantly, his eyes were shining, just like when he had just gone to the countryside as an educated youth. Liang Baoying smiled slightly. It was great. Her man seemed to have returned to that time, a man full of vigor and vitality. She was moved at first sight.
After talking for a while, Song Chunhua came back. She still had some complaints about her eldest son-in-law. She didn't treat him well when she saw him. She asked him about his work and urged him to pick someone up. Then she turned around and informed her third daughter of the good news.
"Baozhen is pregnant?" Liang Baoying smiled immediately after hearing the news. This was the happiest time she had smiled in recent months. Finally, something good happened. "How long has she been pregnant? How is her health?"
"More than a month. I just went to the hospital for a check-up yesterday to confirm it." Song Chunhua took a look at the three chickens she raised at home. They were all old hens, very fat, and they had dozens of eggs. Ever since Liang Baojun said he had found a job in town, the family had kept the eggs for themselves or occasionally sent some to the girls in the city. They had not used them to exchange for things.
"Send Baojun to the city in a few days and catch a chicken for his sister and bring back twenty eggs."
Liang Baoying finally had hope. She stopped thinking about trivial things all day and prepared to make some small clothes for her future nephew. At the same time, she hoped that Song Jianguo would settle down in work as soon as possible so that the family could be reunited soon.
Song Jianguo quietly left the Liang family through a small path. He didn't dare to come back, fearing that their fake divorce would be exposed. He usually sent money to Liang Baoying through the post office. This time, he hadn't seen his wife and children for several months and missed them very much, so he went there very carefully.
When they got home, Song's mother was resting after dinner, and everyone else was out.
The Song family had many people, and the family was squeezed into a tube-shaped building, which was not spacious. Song Jianguo went to the countryside to visit his wife and daughter, and came back, and he was even more eager to bring them back to the city.
"Mom, I'm thinking that after a few months when I get a permanent job and my job is more or less stable, I'll bring Baoying and Mengmeng to the city."
Song's mother Qin Yuxiu sighed and said to her son, "Jianguo, your family used connections and other tricks to get you back to the city. They paid 1,000 yuan for a job. Think about it yourself. Have you drained your family's savings? Look at how many people live in your home now. If you bring your wife and children back, how will everyone live?"
"Mom, but Baoying and Mengmeng have a hard time in the village..."
Qin Yuxiu smiled and held her son's hand. "Mom knows you're thinking about them, but now is not the right time. The job our family has found for you doesn't work well. If we add two more people to our family, we'll have to starve all day, right? Liang Baoying is from the countryside, and Mengmeng is also from mom's household registration. We both don't have food credits, and our family has to buy expensive food. How can we afford it?"
If you really want to take the job, you should first secure a stable job and wait until life gets better. Otherwise, if you take the job, everyone will suffer."
"Okay, Mom, I will definitely work hard!"
After Song Jianguo left the house, Qin Yuxiu turned around and went downstairs, knocking on the door of the neighbor on the second floor. "Juan'er, have you found a suitable partner for our Jianguo?"
——
In October, a piece of breaking news swept across the country along with the autumn wind.
An article was published on the front page of People's Daily, announcing that the college entrance examination, which had been suspended for ten years, would be resumed and this year's college entrance examination would be held in a month.
This news was like a stone dropped into the water, causing thousands of ripples.
Whether it was a state-owned factory, a supply and marketing cooperative, a cinema, a commune or a production team, wherever there were people, there was discussion.
Among them, the ones who reacted the most were naturally the educated youth who had been working in the countryside for many years.
Except for a small number of educated youth who relied on their family connections to find jobs and were accepted by units and returned to the city smoothly, the vast majority of educated youth were still working in the fields. Now the resumption of the college entrance examination has provided them with a way to overcome all difficulties and return to the city.
When the news reached the big courtyard, the Xu family was having dinner. An old hen that Liang Baojun had brought was already stewed on the table. They killed the chicken and used half of it to make chicken soup with just a few slices of ginger. No other ingredients were added, but the dish was still very delicious.
Liang Baozhen has been pregnant for more than two months, but she is not yet pregnant. She is wearing a thin autumn outfit and you can't tell that she is pregnant. The family is thinking about naming the unborn child. "What should we call it?"
"We don't know yet whether it's a boy or a girl?" Xu Shengya was very serious. Boys and girls have different names.
"Then take one each and keep it as a backup. You'll know when the baby is born."
Zhou Yun stood up and looked through the Xu family genealogy. This was something left by his parents-in-law. It was not discovered because it was hidden deep in the ground during the Four Olds Campaign. However, the genealogy was already yellowed, with curled edges and mottled with age.
Zhou Yun's grandchildren haven't had any children yet, and she can't remember what generation Xu Shengjie's descendants should be.
Flipping through the pages, Zhou Yun found Ming, Sheng... The next one should be the name for Xu Shengjie's child, "It's time to get taller."
"high?"
Several people at the table spoke at the same time.
"Happy?"
"Grow taller?" Xu Shengwei shook his head. "No, tall should be the second word in the middle."
Xu Shengya thought of many words, but always felt that this word was not a nice name for a girl, but she didn't dare to say it because it was written in the family tree. She could only quietly approach her sister-in-law and complain in a low voice.
Liang Baozhen smiled. She also felt that it was a difficult name to choose. It was fine for a boy, but not so nice for a girl.
"It's still a long time to wait for the baby to be born. You can think about it slowly later." Xu Shengjie looked at his wife with a tangled face. He stopped eating and held the chopsticks in a daze. He picked up a piece of chicken for her and said, "Eat first. If it's really a girl, you don't need a high-ranking official."
Not that particular.
"The college entrance examination has been resumed! The college entrance examination has been resumed!"
Suddenly someone ran into the yard, shouting these words loudly, and soon disappeared like the wind.
Master Wei came in with a newspaper and announced loudly, "Comrades, the college entrance examination has been resumed and will begin next month. Anyone in our hospital who wants to take the exam can sign up now!"
Everyone who was eating in the house became interested. Although they didn't necessarily want to participate, they were curious, especially those who had children. They would definitely participate in the future.
Liang Baozhen looked at the calendar on the wall. It was already October, and the college entrance examination was really announced to be resumed today as the book said.
"I've thought of it!" While others were talking about the college entrance examination, only Xu Shengwei was still thinking about the names of his future nephews or nieces.
"What's your name?" Xu Shengya tried to flatter her second brother.
"Call Xu Gaokao!"
Everyone in the Xu family (except Xu Shengwei):?
The author has something to say:
Baby with progress bar 2/10: Uncle, do you think this makes sense? ⊙▽⊙
Thanks to the cutie who irrigated the nutrient solution: Shan 1 bottle; Da Pan who wants to retire and reads articles every day 44 bottles;
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
