Chapter 5 The Gloomy Little Poor Boy of the 70s
"I'm all better now."
Zhou Huai changed into new clothes, which made him look much better than a village child. He was fair-skinned and beautiful. Although he was thin, he always kept himself clean and tidy. His previous tattered clothes made him look even more pitiful, but now he had a more noble air about him.
Shen Ci nodded in satisfaction. Sure enough, the success of a fashion statement depends on one's appearance.
He didn't have many personal belongings. He had wrapped all his things in a bundle made of a bed sheet, and you could tell from the way the bundle was hanging down that there wasn't much inside.
Just standing there, he stood out from the oddballs in the Zhou family. No wonder he was the only one in the whole village to get into university; he was quite a character!
"Okay, let's go once we're all packed."
Dressed up in new clothes, Zhou Huai stood with Shen Ci. Both mother and son looked radiant and even more like biological mother and son. Looking at them from this angle, the two even looked somewhat alike.
"Don't leave!"
"You little brat, have you forgotten who your real father is?! Are you so shameless that you insist on going with this wild woman?"
Zhou Dayou stood in front of him, preventing Shen Ci from taking the person away. He had already thought it through. His son was growing up and was about to become a qualified young laborer. It would be a huge loss for him to be taken away at this time.
However, judging from Shen Ci's current appearance, she seems to be quite wealthy. If she wants to take her son away, she will have to pay money, and a lot of money at that!
Old Man Zhou and Old Woman Zhou blocked the entrance, shouting, "Everyone, please be the judge!"
"Someone please go and fetch the team leader! This is an attempt to snatch the child! How can a mother who has ignored her child for over a decade suddenly come and try to take the child away? How can we feel at ease?"
Kind-faced but malicious, with a Buddha's mouth but a snake's heart, this trait was perfectly embodied in Zhou Huai's grandparents.
"The captain is here!"
The commotion at the Zhou family's house was so big that someone had already notified the brigade leader, who arrived late.
"Captain, you have to stand up for us! This child is a member of the Zhou family, our eldest grandson. How can he be taken away by a woman? Besides, this woman hasn't come back for over ten years. Who knows what she's up to outside?"
Old Mrs. Zhou and Old Mr. Zhou took the initiative and started complaining, thinking that since the brigade leader was also a villager, he would definitely help them.
The captain looked at the situation and said, "You're Shen Ci? You've changed so much, I didn't even recognize you."
Most people in Zhoujia Village are surnamed Zhou. The village is formed by clan settlement. They are numerous and powerful, so it's not a good time to fight them head-on. Although Zhou Zheng is good at fighting, he can't fight against the big fish.
Even a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake, and Shen Ci softened his expression.
"Hello, Captain! It's amazing you still remember me!"
The captain nodded. Shen Ci has really made it big! Now that she's made it big, she wants to take her son away. That's a good thing, since the boy isn't doing too well in the Zhou family anyway.
“I’ve heard about what happened to you. Shen Ci wanted to take the child away, but you refused.”
I understand the situations on both sides. Zhou Huai is a promising child, and he's about to be admitted to high school. Old Zhou's family, are you willing to pay for your child's education?
Everyone in the village knows that Zhou Huai's stepmother doesn't like him and has no intention of letting him continue his studies. Just a couple of days ago, she was still talking about how Zhou Huai could earn ten work points by working in the fields!
Zhou Dayou's eyes darted away; lying in front of the brigade leader would be hard to cover up later.
"Alright, I know what you're thinking."
But we did raise the child, so we didn't treat him unfairly. Tell me, what do you want in exchange for him going with his mother?
The captain thought that they just wanted some benefits. Even though Shen Ci, the mother, had become successful, she still came back to take her child away. She must have feelings for the child. Giving her some benefits would be the most peaceful way to handle it.
"She can take the child away, but we can't just give her the child for free."
"A half-grown boy can eat his father out of house and home." How many meals has Zhou Huai eaten in all these years at home?
Not to mention the effort and time involved, we don't want much, just a fixed price!
"Take this child away for 1000 yuan! We have no objections!"
Zhou Dayou made an outrageous demand, holding up one finger. Upon hearing this, the neighbors who were watching the spectacle couldn't help but gasp in astonishment.
That's 1,000 yuan! They'd never seen so much money before. Zhou Dayou just said it outright, as casually as if he were giving them an egg.
Zhou Huai is only fifteen years old and has lived in the Zhou family for 15 years. Let alone spending 1,000 yuan, he could have bought more than a dozen servants to serve him in the past.
The cost of raising a child to age 15 in the village over 70 years is negligible. At most, a family in the village would have a surplus of work points throughout the year, which would amount to a few dozen yuan, and for most families, it would just be enough food to eat.
As for food, Zhou Huai helped with chores at home from the time he could walk, earning his own work points. He earned little, and being young, he ate little.
You could say he raised himself.
In other aspects, the Zhou family invested almost nothing in him. He didn't even have a new set of clothes a year, and all he wore were his father's hand-me-downs, patched and mended more than a dozen times.
As for Zhou Huai's school fees, outsiders don't know, but the villagers know very well. They say that whenever the child has free time, he will go around looking for work to do, helping others or going to the city to earn a penny or two to save up for his tuition.
The Zhou family asked for 1,000 yuan right off the bat. The team leader clicked his tongue in annoyance. "That's too greedy. At least ask for a smaller amount."
Shen Ci was astonished by the Zhou family's shamelessness, and Zhou Huai, who had been silent behind her, couldn't hold back any longer.
With so much money, what if she doesn't want to take me with her?
“I started helping with household chores when I was six years old: cooking, washing clothes, fetching water, sweeping, feeding chickens and pigs, and eating no more than two bowls of rice a day.”
From the day I was born until now, the only egg I've ever eaten was given to me by someone who couldn't bear to see me suffer. I've saved up all my tuition fees myself; you've never given me a single penny.
I started working in the fields when I was 12 and earned five work points. By the time I was fourteen, I could earn ten work points!
Every year, the grain we earn from work points is collected by you. When have you ever spent any money on me?
"If we calculate it that way, you should actually pay me back!"
For the first time, he, who was usually so unassuming and uncompetitive, experienced such a significant emotional fluctuation. Some suffering is something you can't bear without telling others, and everyone knows that Zhou Huai's life at home is not easy, but no one expected it to be this bad.
"No, you guys are really too heartless."
You've treated such a perfectly good child like this, and you still have the nerve to ask for 1000 yuan?
"Pah! My family's conditions are considered pretty good in the village, right?"
My son is the same age as Zhou Huai, and if you calculate it, he hasn't spent 100 yuan in 15 years!
"Asking for 1,000 yuan right off the bat, that's shameless."
At first, everyone thought it was only right to give some compensation, after all, the Zhou family had raised the child for so many years, at least providing food and drink and preventing the child from starving or freezing to death.
Now, it seems they were too kind-hearted and didn't even dare to think about 1,000 yuan.
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