Chapter 18 Schistosomiasis
Early in the morning on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Shu family got up early.
Zhao Wanqiu cooked corn porridge for her three children, boiled an egg for each of them, and added a cup of hot milk.
Although corn porridge is rough, it is hot after all and can fill your stomach. When eaten with fragrant eggs, it makes you feel warm all over.
Jin Yue carried a green schoolbag with the necessary certification materials and documents, and said goodbye to Teacher Shi Shu and Ms. Zhao: "Mom and Dad, I'm leaving."
"Go home for lunch at noon, ah."
"Okay."
Her fluffy hair was combed neatly into two thin braids hanging on her shoulders, and tied with a red hairband she wore as a child. She looked like a middle school student.
I feel more and more now, it feels so good to be young!
The current epidemic prevention station is a county (district) level unit, but unlike the district hospital, it does not undertake basic diagnosis and treatment work and has a weak presence. Only during the patriotic health campaign and the fight against the four pests will people remember, "Oh, there is such a unit."
Each district health and epidemic prevention station has set up workstations in several subordinate streets. Shu Jinyue reported to the Xinqiao Street Office Epidemic Prevention Station where Liuye Hutong is located.
Walk out of Liuye Hutong, turn left and walk less than a hundred meters, cross the road to the opposite side, and you will find Xinqiao Sub-district Office. Of course, its current official name is Street Reform Committee. It was called People's Commune ten years ago. It has been changed for four or five years, but people are still accustomed to calling it Street Office or Residents Committee.
Don’t think that Xinqiao Street is unknown now. When Jin Yue was working as a ghost, he heard Teacher Shu mention that in the future, due to urban expansion, bungalows will be converted into high-rise buildings, and the population density will increase sharply. Xinqiao Street will be divided into two street offices again, namely Beixinqiao and Nanxinqiao.
Now, the Xinqiao Sub-district Office is in charge of eight nearby alleys, which is considered a very large street in the city. The office occupies an entire three-story building and a large courtyard. I don’t know about other cities in the country, but I only remember that in Shucheng, the street epidemic prevention stations are currently under the jurisdiction of the street offices. Although they are part of the health system, they do not completely belong to the health system and are still under the jurisdiction of the street offices.
She took her documents to the department of the street office that manages personnel files to register, and then she was arranged to see Director Zhu, who is in charge of health and epidemic prevention.
The epidemic prevention station has three offices in the street office, and a workroom similar to an external window. Jin Yue found Zhu Daqiang wearing a white coat and a hat in the workroom.
He was a middle-aged gay man in his forties, half bald on top of his head, thin and small, with an appearance that had nothing to do with big or strong.
"Hello, Director Zhu. I'm here to report. My name is..."
"Shu Jinyue, right? I've already notified you of the station meeting yesterday. Please wait for me."
Zhu Daqiang handed the squeaking and dying mouse in the cage to his colleague who was waiting to collect samples. The epidemic prevention station has the task of monitoring infectious diseases such as plague every week, and what Yao Qingqing said was really right.
However, Jin Yue was not afraid of mice. She had eaten field mice when she was the hungriest in the countryside. There was a sixteen-year-old boy who was so hungry that he roasted one and invited a few other female educated youth to "share the blessing" with him.
At first she didn't know it was rat meat and ate it with gusto. Later when she found out, she didn't dare to eat it anymore, but she could never forget the wonderful taste of the barbecued meat.
So, looking at those squeaking little mice, I felt a sense of familiarity.
Seeing that she remained calm, Zhu Daqiang breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that although this girl looked young, she was quite courageous. To be honest, when he found out yesterday that a little girl was assigned to him, he was very unhappy.
After signing, washing hands with soap, and taking off work clothes, Zhu Daqiang took Jin Yue to see a few rooms.
"At present, there are only three comrades in Xinqiao Station, namely me, Liu Jinbu and you." This is because the Xinqiao Street has a large population, while other streets have only two people, and some streets even have only one person.
"We use the one on the right as our office, which is convenient for people to come and do business. The one in the middle is for storing documents and the one on the left is for storing various medicines."
Jin Yue looked and took notes, and when he opened the door to go in, she glanced at the catalog of various medicines posted on the wall. Not only did she need to know what was in them, but she also had to remember their specific locations, storage conditions, and methods of use, in case she was the only one at work and was asked questions by the public and had no idea what they were.
The so-called office only had two old tables and two kettles.
"Liu Jinbu has taken a leave these few days. You can sit in his seat first. I will go to the street office to ask for a table for you in a few days." Zhu Daqiang pointed to the seat by the window, sat down and drank water from the enamel pot.
Jin Yue remembered what Teacher Shu taught him, and quickly fetched water to wipe the desk and chair, washed the rag and hung it on the windowsill, then sat down to organize his things.
"Your family is from Liuye Hutong. I remember there are quite a few families with the surname Shu here. Your father is..."
"Shulinong."
Zhu Daqiang slapped his forehead, "Oh, you are from Teacher Shu's family! Your father used to work at Xinqiao Primary School, right? He taught my three sons. I remember he taught Chinese and had beautiful handwriting. Everyone asked him to make blackboard newspapers."
Jin Yue smiled and said, "See, this is the advantage of working near your home. Everybody you meet will be an acquaintance."
"Is your father still writing? I'm still thinking about who to ask to write the Spring Festival couplets."
Helping neighbors write Spring Festival couplets is one of Mr. Shu's hobbies. For this purpose, he often pays for red paper and pens and ink out of his own pocket. Zhao Wanqiu has been doing this for most of her life, but he just can't change it.
"Write. How many copies do you need? What style do you want? I'll bring them to you tomorrow."
Therefore, with the help of Teacher Shu, who was a living Lei Feng, Jin Yue's distance with her direct leader was instantly shortened a lot, and Zhu Daqiang saw that she was very friendly.
"We don't have much work at the station. We have to do health supervision from Monday to Wednesday, do health education on Thursday, and do daily work on Friday and Saturday."
The current Health Supervision Institute has not yet been divided out separately and is still under the jurisdiction of the Health and Epidemic Prevention Station. This is indeed a more important task at present.
"But as a woman, it's too tiring for you to go out. Liu Jinbu and I will be the ones to supervise the health. You just stay at the station." Zhu Daqiang finished drinking a jar of water and looked at the watch on his wrist. "Oh, it's half past ten. I asked my son to line up at the grain station. I'll go there first. You keep an eye on it. If you have any questions, come to the grain station to find me. It's on the corner."
Jin Yue stood up to see him off.
Of course, Zhu Daqiang never came back since he went out, and Jin Yue was happy that his leader was not around. He walked around the office compound, familiarized himself with the environment, and read a book for a while.
When it’s time to get off work, I lock the door, go home, and eat.
It’s so cool!
For lunch, Zhao Wanqiu steamed a pot of mixed flour steamed bread, fried some shredded potatoes, and ate some pickles, and kept urging Jin Yue to eat more.
"I would like to eat more, but we have mixed noodles one meal and corn porridge the next. When can we eat fine grains, mom?"
"You want to eat fine grains, but I want to eat meat!"
Jin Yue curled her lips. She knew that there was a shortage of food at home, but her stomach couldn't stand eating coarse grains all the time. The most important thing at the moment was to take care of her body.
"New Year's Day is coming soon. There should be farmers coming to the ghost market to sell food. I'll go over to take a look in the evening." Teacher Shu feels sorry for the children. The second child, Wenyun and Jinyue all had dinner at home in the evening. It's time to change to something better.
"Okay, Dad, just go. I'll pay for your food when I get my salary." She is now at level 16, which is 37 yuan a month.
"We were just about to tell you this. You don't have to pay for the food. You still have to pay back your elder and second brothers. Young women have high expenses. You can manage your salary yourself." After Teacher Shu finished speaking, he repeatedly warned, "Don't tell them."
Jin Yue wanted to say that he still had money, but he also knew that this was his parents' wish. If he didn't even give them this opportunity, they would have nowhere to put their guilt.
Anyway, there is a long time to come, so we can just subsidize them slowly in the future.
***
The workload at the station was not heavy, and it was near the end of the year, so Jin Yue just did some housework for a few days. On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, he even carried home two bars of soap, two kilograms of apples and a kilogram of cooking oil!
At this time of year every year, everyone in the compound would eagerly look to see which family had workers, what benefits they had received, which family had cadres, and what they had more than the workers, as if this was the dignity of a family, and everyone wanted to be the first.
Of course, the first place must be Uncle Zhao. He is a third-level welder and a scarce talent in the factory. He has four apprentices, and his apprentices have several more apprentices.
But no one expected that Shu Jinyue, who had only worked for four days, would actually receive benefits, and they were all hard currency!
Aunt Li was full of sourness: "What kind of unit is Jinyue? I hope the leaders made a mistake." "If you don't return the extra things you received, you are undermining the foundation of socialism."
Zhao Wanqiu rolled her eyes at her and said, "My family is getting more successful now, and she deserves it."
The person involved, Mo Yu, Shu Jinyue: “…” I also suspect that my boss might have remembered my joining date wrongly.
However, Zhu Daqiang and Liu Jinbu's salaries were indeed much higher than hers, and they encouraged her to work hard so that she could also receive the same amount next year.
This year, the Shu family was in great glory. All four children got jobs and received good New Year benefits. During the entire Spring Festival, the smiles on Teacher Shu and Zhao Wanqiu's faces never faded.
Everyone spent New Year's Eve together. On the second day, Shu Wenyan and Liu Huifang went back to their parents' home. On the third day, some of Shu's regular students came to pay New Year's greetings. On the fourth day, the restaurant started working. On the fifth day, Shu Wenyun had to be on duty. On the sixth day, Jin Yue also started working.
Jin Yue calls the classes before and after the Spring Festival the best window period for slacking off. Apart from cleaning and chatting about what happened during the Spring Festival, there is nothing much to do.
In the morning, I went to the alleys in the jurisdiction with the people from the street office to clean up the sanitation, mainly sweeping up firecracker shells and the like. There was one person from each compound, and there were dozens of people in one alley, so it wasn't tiring.
Jin Yue was very thin, so Zhu Daqiang and Liu Jinbu took good care of her, letting her just do a few strokes, and they were the ones who rushed to do the heavy work.
It was just after the Spring Festival, there were no classes in school, and not many factories and mines were open for work. There was no need to go down for health supervision. The afternoon was the quietest time in the station, and the two old men would spend most of the day holding a newspaper and sipping tea.
"On the second day of the Chinese New Year, I went back to my father-in-law's house with my wife. My brother-in-law brought a bottle of Moutai. My goodness, the whole family wanted to praise him to the sky. Wow..." Liu Jinbu is a gay man in his thirties, white and plump. When he smiles, his eyes narrow into slits.
But Jin Yue knew that he was different from himself who had just changed his career path. He was a graduate of a formal professional education, a five-year preventive medicine program, and a well-deserved top student in the 1960s.
As for why she is willing to stay at the grassroots level, she has not figured it out yet.
"He is just a section chief in the Health Bureau. He is so capable, huh."
Zhu Daqiang was used to it. Visiting relatives was a time when everyone showed off their special abilities, especially between sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, which was even more subtle.
Jin Yue was listening with great interest when Secretary Liu suddenly came over and asked, "Jin Yue, how is your father doing recently?"
Jin Yue was confused, and Zhu Daqiang and Liu Jinbu winked at her.
"If your father is in a good mood, I will ask Liu Dong to go and wish him a happy new year tomorrow. Liu Dong is always thinking about him, but what happened back then... Tsk, as a junior, he should take the initiative to go and apologize, don't you think?"
Jin Yue understood more. Did Secretary Liu still want to curry favor with their family?
"By the way, how is your sister doing recently? Liu Dong said he wanted to go see her, but he was afraid she would be angry."
Before she could say that Shu Wenyun was about to find a partner, Officer Liu hurriedly asked, "Did you go to Deputy Director Yang's house to pay New Year's greetings these two days? Is the old lady feeling better?"
If he hadn't said it, Jin Yue would have almost forgotten about it. Before reporting here, she went to check her pulse. Old Mrs. Yang recovered quite quickly because it was not a terminal illness.
She now always keeps in mind the boss's reminder and tries not to have anything to do with the Yang family, but she doesn't dare to really offend them, after all, they are very powerful now.
"Don't you know how to pay New Year's greetings? Oh my little ancestor, your father is so stupid, why don't you brothers and sisters understand? If I had such a good opportunity, I would..."
"Ahem, Lao Liu, is everything alright in your department?" Zhu Daqiang interrupted him, "Xiao Shu, go to the medicine room and look for that thing, hurry up."
Jin Yue was trying hard to hold back his laughter.
She felt that what her elder brother said was right. Standing at a different height, the scenery she saw was also different. In the past, Secretary Liu was superior to the Shu family, but now it is just like that.
Jin Yue had just walked to the door of the medicine room when he suddenly heard a commotion at the gate, and people from various offices stuck their heads out to look.
"Are you making trouble again? It's the first month of the year, how can we have a good time?" The person who spoke was Sister Qiao from the Finance Department next door.
Jin Yue pricked up his little ears, as if this was not the first time someone came to "make trouble".
"Grandma Hu is also pitiful. Her life is already hard enough, and now she has to deal with such a heartless nephew."
"The key is that this nephew and grandson are not even related by blood. Do you think this is annoying?"
Jin Yue listened for a while and asked, "Sister Qiao, are you talking about Grandma Hu from Huaishu Hutong?"
"That's exactly her." Sister Qiao had just finished speaking when a noise came from the door towards the office. Jin Yue then saw a tall and strong young man holding a staggering white-haired old lady with one hand and holding the arm of Director Niu of the Street Office who had just returned from a meeting outside with the other hand.
"Director Niu needs to give us an explanation. Why can't I enter my aunt's house? Is there any law?"
Grandma Hu is the old lady that Shu Wenming kindly sold tomatoes to last time. She is an elderly widow living in Huaishu Hutong. Jin Yue has known this old lady ever since she could remember. She walked unsteadily on her small feet, and almost all the primary school students in Liuye Hutong and Huaishu Hutong had written essays about "helping an old lady cross the street". Whether the plot was fictional or real, the protagonist was Grandma Hu.
Her story has been circulating in the neighborhood: When she was young, Grandma Hu was the eldest daughter of a large landlord. Her family was in the medicinal materials business and was a wealthy family that moved here from Bozhou, Anhui Province. Almost half of the houses in Huaishu Hutong belong to them, and half of the medicinal materials shops in Shucheng City are owned by the surname Hu.
Unfortunately, this noble young lady was a little love-sick. She fell in love with a clerk in her own pharmacy and insisted on marrying him. Mr. Hu couldn't persuade his only daughter, so he had to compromise and recruited the clerk to be his son-in-law. He not only taught him how to do business, but also gave him all the channels for purchasing and selling medicinal materials.
At the beginning, the couple was very happy for a while, but unfortunately, Grandma Hu had not given birth to a son or daughter for several years, so the son-in-law secretly kept a mistress outside. Until the woman brought her son to the door of the Hu family, Mr. Hu was so angry that he had a stroke.
Grandma Hu has a strong temper and is demanding a divorce.
Unfortunately, the divorce did not go through and the world fell into chaos. The son-in-law was beaten to death by bandits on his way to Bozhou to buy medicinal herbs. The woman he kept ran away with her child, and the illegitimate child was instigated by someone to cry at the gate of the Hu family.
When doing business, one should pay attention to doing good deeds. The Hu family couldn't bear to see the child starve to death, so they raised him for a few years and announced to the public that he was Grandma Hu's nephew. They not only provided him with food and drink, but also paid for his schooling and helped him find a wife.
The Hu family continued to raise the family until after liberation. They had always been law-abiding and were not affected much. They even took the initiative to turn several of their ancestral pharmacies into public-private joint-venture herbal medicine stores.
This would have been a good thing, but the "nephew" saw that "his" things had become public property, and his original "family property" was almost gone. He became desperate and reported everything to Grandma Hu, making her so angry that she fell seriously ill.
If things had ended there, it would have been fine. Unfortunately, this ungrateful man is just as worthless as his father who was a son-in-law. He has never given up for many years. In 1966, he wrote letters of denunciation everywhere. In order to gain merit, those young soldiers and generals rushed to Grandma Hu's house to dig deep into the ground, causing chaos in the whole family.
Fortunately, the Hu family had several old acquaintances who came forward to speak a few fair words for them. In addition, as Grandma Hu was old, she was not forced to move to the countryside, and the courtyard house she lived in was left to her.
In this way, the old lady looked after the courtyard house and rented out the vacant rooms to poor workers nearby, and she could barely make ends meet.
"God has eyes. Her ungrateful nephew died of illness two years ago. I thought Grandma Hu could rest for two years, but a nephew showed up again and said he wanted to take care of her. In fact, he was just looking forward to her house."
Sister Qiao was indignant. "If a ungrateful person is raised, he will be a bad breed. If I had that much money, I would raise a cat or a dog instead of him."
Grandma Hu's tenants were just like her. They couldn't stand the ungrateful boy bullying the elderly and kept trying to stop him from entering the courtyard. After being stopped so many times, they often went to the neighborhood committee to make trouble.
Director Niu naturally knew the whole story, but since it hadn't reached the point of breaking the law or committing a crime, he had been mainly trying to persuade him and there was nothing he could do about it.
Jin Yue had been living in the countryside in his previous life and had no idea about this. Now it seems that the person who reported his second brother a few days ago was probably this grandson!
Anyone who helps Grandma Hu with good intentions is his imaginary enemy.
So, Granny Hu was at her wit's end because of his unreasonable behavior, and she couldn't bear to lose face, so she wanted to leave, but he wouldn't let her and pulled her hard.
The old lady with bound feet staggered when he pulled her, and she fell directly onto the bluestone slab, unable to get up for a long time.
Although everyone was indignant, they did not dare to provoke this leper directly, and they all watched the fun from a distance. But Jin Yue couldn't bear it. She remembered that when she was in elementary school, Grandma Hu gave her two eggs!
She took out a tin box of chocolates from her green schoolbag. Inside was a few silver needles. Both the box and the needles had been sterilized. She picked out a thin one, pinched it between two fingers, and while Hu Laizi was holding on to Director Niu, she gently stabbed it into his elbow.
Hu Laizi didn't care whether Grandma Hu lived or died, he just focused on pulling Director Niu, and he didn't feel the prick, but just vaguely felt his arm go numb and he cried out "ouch".
Jin Yue took the opportunity to help Grandma Hu up, "Are you okay?"
Grandma Hu's eyesight was not good, and she could not see the person clearly. "It's okay. Whose child are you?"
"My father is Shu Linong."
"Oh, it's from Shu Xiaozi's family. Thank you, my daughter."
"Ouch, my hand, it hurts..." Hu Laizi held his right elbow and cried out, but no one paid any attention to him.
Everyone thought he was pretending and must be up to some new trick.
Hu Laizi felt really painful, as if he was bitten by a poisonous snake. The venomous snake also crawled up along his elbow, making half of his body numb.
Seeing that everyone was "not helping", Hu Laizi could only limp out of the door, cursing and saying some harsh words, saying that he should go to the hospital first to make sure he was not really bitten by a snake.
Director Niu breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to the door. "I'm sorry to have embarrassed Chief Xu. I'll have someone send down the materials you asked for."
Xu Duan smiled faintly, "No hurry."
Director Niu thought to himself, how could he not be anxious? The fact that the section chief of the city's Materials Bureau came to his door in person to ask for materials made him wonder if there was some secret in the materials that he had not noticed. Thinking of this, he began to recall, "Is the data in it correct?" Does the logical relationship match? The authenticity can be verified, right?
Xu Duan looked at the dispersing crowd, seemingly thinking about something.
Director Niu thought he was curious, so he explained, "Chief Xu should have heard about this old man's story just now. It's really pitiful..." blah blah.
"New here?"
"Um?"
Xu Duan raised his chin towards the back of the pigtailed girl, "This young comrade is quite kind-hearted."
"Oh, this one seems to be new. I haven't seen her much. She seems to be from the epidemic prevention station." He had some impression of her. A few days ago, he saw several colleagues coming to her for medical treatment. They said that she cured someone's disease... Oh, right!
Isn’t this the educated youth that Deputy Director Yang went to see last time? He said he looked familiar. It turned out to be the “little miracle doctor”!
How could he throw someone that Deputy Director Yang valued into the corner and leave him to sit on the bench? It really isn't right. Now there's another person, Section Chief Xu, who also speaks highly of her. The young comrade has a bright future.
The clerk brought the materials quickly, and Xu Duan asked someone around him to take them and left, leaving Director Niu thinking in the wind, worrying about the materials for a while, and thinking about the arrangements for Shu Jinyue the next.
"Don't worry, Director. There will be no problem with the materials. Even if there is a problem, what can we do? He is just a section chief, a section-level cadre like you. But the county magistrate is not as good as the current one. You have the final say on the affairs of Xinqiao Street."
Director Niu slapped him on the head, "Bullshit, is this a matter of rank? He is the Municipal Material Bureau, in charge of the entire city's material system, you know nothing!"
From the raw materials and products flowing in and out of factories and mines to the quotas of a bicycle or a sewing machine, everything was in the hands of others. Without Xu Duan's signature, it would be useless even if someone came.
The young clerk didn't expect that his flattery would hit the horse's hoof, so he could only shut up.
On the other side, Shu Jinyue led Grandma Hu to the office and poured her a glass of warm water. "How about I take Grandma to the hospital?"
"I'm fine." The old lady stood up and tried to take two slow steps. "I can go back by myself. No need to send me off."
Jin Yue didn't force it. She quietly took the man's pulse when she was helping him just now, and there was indeed nothing wrong.
By the way, Grandma Hu’s real age has always been an unsolved mystery. Teacher Shu knew her name when he was a child. Now that Shu Jinyue is an adult, the stories of the Hu family are still circulating in the market.
"I heard from Sister Zhang from the household registration department that according to the age the old lady registered when liberation came, she is already 98 years old this year."
Zhu Daqiang took a sip of tea and said, "Looking at his mental state, it doesn't seem like it."
"I think so too. Maybe they made a mistake. The people who were in charge of registration at that time might have been illiterate." Liu Jinbu stood up, tightened his belt, and pulled up his pants. "I'm going to the toilet. You guys go first after get off work. Don't lock the door, okay."
So, I spent another day slacking off.
Everyone talked about Grandma Hu's matter for several days, until the tenth day of the first lunar month, when everyone stopped discussing Grandma Hu and turned their attention to Hu Laizi.
"Have you heard that Hu Laizi has been running to the hospital like crazy these days?"
"What?"
"He said his hands were numb and he went to the hospital but couldn't get better. Yesterday he got so angry that he had a fight with the doctor. He was arrested by the police, who said he was disturbing public order."
"Oh my, he's so brave that he actually hit the doctor. Well done to him. Grandma Hu will be able to have some peace for a few days from now on."
"Jinyue, you are not at the street office. Hu Laizi said that his hands started to hurt and feel numb since that day. Did you see anyone touch him? Could he be trying to scam someone?"
"Maybe Mr. Hu couldn't stand him bullying Grandma Hu. His ungrateful son-in-law grandfather was taught by the old man himself."
When it comes to ghosts and gods, everyone is curious but dares not discuss it in depth, but they all feel that it must be retribution. After all, there is no such thing as pain without reason, and there is no way you can find out the problem when you feel pain.
However, from that day on, everyone noticed that Grandma Hu seemed to gradually like going out. In the past, she would stay at home, not talking or seeing anyone for a long time, and even her reactions seemed to have become slow. Recently, when the sun was mid-rise in the sky, she would come to the courtyard of the street office, leaning on a cane and trembling, to bask in the sun.
She doesn't like to talk to people, but she will respond when others greet her. When everyone gets off work, she will walk home on crutches.
Since it was convenient for her to go home, he would just send her to her doorstep. After a few visits, the two gradually became familiar with each other, and the old and the young supported each other and chatted all the way.
***
After the beginning of spring, Shu Jinyue encountered two more things that made him happy.
First, Aunt Huang's prolapse condition has improved under her own treatment. Although the combination of acupuncture and herbal medicine is not as fast as direct surgery, according to her own description, now as long as she does not strain to defecate, the prolapse will basically not come out again.
Jin Yue asked her to try not to squat or do physical work, and Huang Mei even stopped her from doing housework.
Another happy thing was that Jin Yue passed the exam organized by the district epidemic prevention station with high scores, which was something the whole family did not expect.
"Shu Jinyue, you really didn't cheat?" Shu Wenming squeezed the pimples on his face in front of a small mirror. "I remember that you didn't study very well before. You didn't even get into high school."
At least he got into high school, he just didn't want to go to school.
Jin Yue knew, of course, that she was a poor student before, and the kind that could not catch up no matter how hard she tried, and was obviously stupid. She was able to pass the exams now simply thanks to Apia's memory.
She doesn't have much understanding of culture, but she has a good memory and is like a walking textbook library.
"Okay, second brother, you might as well worry about your own personal problems instead of spending your time on this."
Shu Wenming squeezed a pimple on the tip of his nose and grimaced in pain, "Marriage is meaningless. If I eat well, the whole family will not be hungry."
Teacher Shu and Zhao Wanqiu looked at each other and sighed quietly. He also felt guilty towards his son. Not only was he unable to provide him with a house, but he didn't even have a formal job, so it would not be easy for him to find a partner.
"By the way, when Xiao Li came to visit me last time, he said that his family has a cousin in the countryside who has not yet been engaged. There are many strong laborers in the family. She is pretty and lively. Do you want to meet her?"
Shu Wenming put the small mirror into his chest pocket and said, "Tell me, what's wrong with you?"
"It's not a serious flaw, it's just that I never went to school."
"Not even a day?"
"Yeah, but life is not like living by books. As long as you have a good character and are hardworking, that's enough."
Shu Wenming curled his lips, "If you can't even write your own name, you are illiterate. What's the point of growing up to be a fairy?"
Teacher Shu sighed and wanted to say something to him, but was afraid to hurt his fragile self-esteem. "You will be thirty in April..."
This is a real older young man, commonly known as an old bachelor. He has many injuries all over his body, so what on earth does he want to own a bicycle?
Jin Yue was helpless. "Second brother, don't rush to refuse. When I get my salary, we can go on a spring outing. It's a good opportunity to invite this girl along. It's not a formal blind date. Just treat it as making friends. Let's meet first and talk about it if it's not suitable."
Seeing that he was about to refuse, Jin Yue quickly added: "I'll pay for your spring outing."
"Hey, that's more like it."
When Jin Yue first started working, she missed the last payday, and the Spring Festival was in between, so she would have to wait more than 50 days for the next payday. Her wallet has been thirsting for money for a long time. She had everything planned out. After receiving her salary, she would first buy some meat for her family to replenish their nutrition, buy herself a can of Seagull shampoo, and then buy a pair of leather shoes for Teacher Shu and Ms. Zhao Wanqiu.
They are all retired and have never worn leather shoes.
Jin Yue went to the department store with Yao Qingqing a few days ago and saw that good top-grain leather shoes cost twenty-eight yuan a pair, which she could not afford. Last night she secretly went to the ghost market and saw that even ordinary ones cost eighteen or nineteen yuan, and they might not have the size she wanted.
Specified sizes are more expensive and require waiting.
With this calculation, thirty-seven yuan is not enough to buy two pairs of leather shoes... I still have to find another way to make money!
"By the way, do you still have the chocolate like last time?" Shu Wenming came over and asked in a mean way.
Last time, Xu Duan packed a very heavy bag for her. When she came back and counted the pieces, there were actually twenty-three pieces. Jin Yue shared a few pieces with her family and ate two pieces secretly under the covers at night. If she remembers correctly, there are still ten pieces left.
"What are you looking at? I'm not asking for it for nothing." He put his arm around Shu Jinyue's shoulders and whispered, "Last time I brought it to work for dinner, someone saw it and kept asking me for more, saying they could buy it with money or exchange it with us for something else."
"Who is it?"
"It's Xu Wenli, the greediest and fattest girl in our unit."
Shu Jinyue: “…” You deserve to be single for the rest of your life.
"Don't worry, her family is rich, and her father works in the Material Bureau. She can get you whatever you want. This kind of chocolate is not available because it is a foreign product, and it happens to be from the Soviet Union."
Thinking of the sweet, silky feeling that melts in the mouth, how could Jin Yue be willing to give it to others? She couldn't sleep when she thought about her experiences in her previous life. At night, she would hide under the quilt and secretly suck a small piece the size of a fingernail, and then she would sleep well.
"Didn't you go to the department store to look at leather shoes a few days ago? They were very expensive, weren't they? It doesn't matter. Her father has connections and can get her some cheap ones."
Jin Yue's eyes lit up, "Okay, ask her if she can get two pairs of shoes in the size my parents wear. If she can, I'll switch."
Of course, a piece of chocolate definitely cannot be exchanged for a pair of leather shoes. If it is not enough, she will make up the difference. She is reluctant to exchange too much.
Seeing her look like a kitten protecting its food, Shu Wenming said "huh" and went out.
The next day at noon, Shu Wenming went to the street office to find her and said that he had agreed with Xu Wenli that two pieces of chocolate could be exchanged for a pair of leather shoes. There was no need to pay the difference, and any size would be fine.
"It can be exchanged for two dollars?" Jin Yue rubbed her ears. Did she hear it right?
"Yes, you heard it right."
Shu Jinyue felt that Xu Wenli was probably a fool.
Chocolate is delicious, but does she know how much a pair of leather shoes costs? Ordinary cadres can’t even afford to buy a pair in a year! Even his immediate superior, Comrade Zhu Daqiang, would only wear his leather shoes on the day he went to the district for meetings, and his shoes were patched over and over again.
"That greedy girl said four dollars for a pair at first. She was so beautiful, but I cut her off." He had an expression that said, "Look how powerful I am."
Although they had never met, Shu Jinyue had already formed a picture of Xu Wenli in his mind: a typical fool from a landlord's family. However, my second brother is too cunning. He knows what kind of person my colleague is like, but he still wants to bargain with her for a low price.
"Brother, I doubt that you are eating chocolate in front of her on purpose, right?"
Shu Wenming remained calm and said, "That's right. Otherwise, how could I let this greedy girl fall for it?"
It turned out that he had known for a long time that Jin Yue wanted to buy leather shoes for his parents, but he himself had no money. Although he wanted to, he was unable to do so. However, he was good at cheating.
"Let me tell you, that greedy girl is efficient at work, but her mouth is too..."
"Okay, okay, second brother, if you still want to find a wife, I'll give you a suggestion. Don't give people nicknames like "big greedy girl" or "little straw bag". Respect them. Got it?"
Shu Wenming had an embarrassed look on his face, but he was the typical guy who could eat a two-pound discus before dying - he was just being stubborn.
"Who told you I'm getting married? Andersen, Turgenev and Leonardo da Vinci didn't get married either, but it didn't affect their fame around the world."
Well, Shu Jinyue found that there was really nothing to talk about with this second brother. However, he has another advantage: his brain works very quickly. When he first starts working at the vegetable market, he no longer needs to use an abacus. No matter how much people buy, he can calculate it in his mind at the first time.
People like this, if they don’t want to be math teachers, they should be big bosses.
"Second brother, how about we work together?"
His eyes rolled around, and at first glance he looked like a stinky cat who only wanted to do bad things. Shu Wenming wrinkled his nose and said, "Let's talk about how to cooperate first."
"You have brains and I have money. How about we go to the ghost market some other day?" Jin Yue's idea was very simple. If she wanted to eat nutritiously and grow taller, she had to have money.
If my second brother wants to find a partner, he needs to have a house.
Hehe, they are the two who are most short of money in the whole family. If these two people work together, they can definitely join forces like the protagonist in the novel and kill all enemies.
Sure enough, Shu Wenming was also tempted. "Okay, let's go tomorrow night. I warn you, don't think about cheating me."
After saying that, he hurried back to the vegetable station to work. Jin Yue sat in the workshop for a while, wearing a white coat. Zhu Daqiang went to the district for a meeting today, and Liu Jinbu had a stomachache last night and went home to take medicine.
She was sitting there when she heard someone ask, "Comrade, is this an epidemic prevention station?"
Jin Yue was short, and even shorter when sitting on the stool. Afraid that people outside wouldn't see him, he stood up immediately and said, "Yes, we are from the Xinqiao Street Epidemic Prevention Station in Dongchuan District. What can I do for you?"
The fellow looked at her, then looked at the sign, "Where is your father?"
Jin Yue was depressed, "I am a staff member of the epidemic prevention station."
"It doesn't look like it. Can you really cure diseases?"
Maybe because Jin Yue had a good attitude and didn’t think he was being long-winded, she quickly explained, “My son has a strange disease that can’t be cured in ordinary hospitals. The barefoot doctor in our production team asked us to go to the city and find an epidemic prevention station. He said it’s an infectious disease and we have to find you to treat it.”
Jin Yue’s heart skipped a beat. Infectious disease? !
"Where is the patient?" Jin Yue put on a mask and asked him to bring the person into the workroom. The current district-level epidemic prevention stations have endemic and chronic disease departments, which specifically target infectious diseases, parasitic diseases, endemic diseases and chronic diseases. Some cities even have direct tuberculosis/endemic disease prevention and control centers.
He was a young man in his early twenties, with dark yellow skin, lifeless eyes, dry and chapped lips. He could hardly walk and was pulled here on a flatbed truck. Now my first impression is that she is too thin.
The two legs on the flatbed cart were like two chopsticks, and the face was so thin that it was sunken, leaving only two deep, big eyes staring at the ceiling.
"My son used to be such an energetic young man. He was the strongest in our production team and could always get ten work points. But since he got this infectious disease, he has become very thin and now he is almost unrecognizable."
Jin Yue closed the door of the workshop to prevent anyone else from coming in, and walked to the young man, measured his blood pressure, and listened to his breathing sounds and heart rate with a stethoscope. Except for the slightly fast heart rate, everything else was normal.
Of course, when she auscultated the young man, she discovered that he had a very big belly and obvious swelling in the liver area, but because he was wearing thick clothes in winter, she almost didn't notice it.
"Did the doctor you saw before tell you what the disease was?"
"Schistosome disease."
"Schistosomiasis?"
"Oh, yes, yes, that's it. I can't read, and I can't explain it clearly, but that's what I mean. He was still a healthy young man last year, but the hospital asked us to prepare for his death. How are my wife and I going to live?"
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