Chapter 44
"Aunt Zhen, is that your third child?" asked Gouzi's mother.
Zhang Cuihua stretched her head to look around. This stature, this appearance, this temperament! Who else could it be but Meng Hua? She and her mother were cut from the same mold.
No wonder the ugly girl in her family misses him so much and calls Meng Hua brother even when she goes to sleep.
After all, it's just Xiaoyu's nature to have high standards!
Meng Hua was somewhat embarrassed, but his mother was standing at the entrance of the village to greet him, which made the returning wanderer feel the warmth of home.
The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and he happily enjoyed his mother's embrace under the jealous eyes of his brothers.
All the children in the village came to the Meng family to visit the college student. Zhen Zhen was a good person and sent them away by giving each of them two pieces of candy.
Meng Hua had been on the train for two days and had seldom gone to the toilet, so he was covered in dust and dirt. He came home, took a shower, drank some water, and ate some pork liver noodles made by Jiao Huilan, and only then did he come back to life.
After eating the noodles, Zhen Zhen cut a plate of chilled watermelon.
Watermelons are not yet widely available on the market and are extremely expensive, costing several yuan per watermelon. Even Zhen Zhen had to grit her teeth before buying one.
There is no other way. Who will call my son home? I have to prepare some delicious food for him to eat.
Meng Hua ate the sweet and juicy watermelon, feeling very happy. He felt that he and his mother were running towards each other, and their mother-son relationship was like a fairy tale.
He opened his package and took out a lot of good stuff.
There are 16-color crayons for the children, essential oil shampoo soap for the sister-in-law, and diamond hair wax for the eldest and second brothers.
Apart from other things, this Diamond Hair Wax is not cheap, a box costs two yuan, and it is not easy to buy. It is not easy for Meng Hua to get the hair wax.
Meng Hua only brought fifty yuan with him when he went to school. Although the university provided subsidies, books were not cheap these days, and there were many things to buy for university, so his money was definitely not enough.
Zhen Zhen sent it to him again a few years ago and asked him to return it. She thought that with Meng Hua's intelligence, he must be thinking of ways to make money. So, he must have made a lot of money.
Meng Hua took out a box from under her bag, inside of which was a silver Swiss Plum watch.
The watch has an exquisite dial and a thin strap. It was a very new style in that era and the price was not expensive, at least several hundred yuan.
Being able to buy a Plum brand watch these days is like buying rare leather from the Pony family in later generations. How can ordinary people wear such a thing?
Unexpectedly, the youngest son brought back one and put the watch on her wrist.
Zhen Zhen has been controlling her weight since she came here and she doesn't work in the fields, so her wrists have become white and slender. To put it in one word, it's like a fashionable person wearing a fashionable watch. She is so fashionable!
"It looks really beautiful when worn by mother," said Jiao Huilan.
"My brother-in-law has such good taste." Tao Aihong flattered him.
Zhen Zhen adjusted her watch strap. Not bad, not bad. This watch was fashionable and suited her very well. Through the filter of money, she experienced for the first time what overflowing maternal love meant.
Looking at Meng Hua again, he is so amazing. His eyebrows are so handsome! His nose is so handsome! His lips are so handsome! His face shape is even more handsome!
Money is really not important. What is important is the true love and the mother's deep love for her son.
She wiped away the unnecessary tears from her eyes and performed a motherly love for her son on the spot.
"Silly child, this thing is so expensive. You must have worked hard in school to save this much money, right? As a parent, we only hope that our children can be healthy and safe, and succeed in life. Why would we care about such a cheap gift? You, child, don't understand your mother at all!"
Meng Hua was particularly moved when he saw his mother saying no but showing joy on her face.
Poor parents in the world!
Even though mother usually saves money for the sake of her three brothers and always eats cold vegetables, cucumbers and tomatoes, she is still a woman and women all love beauty. It seems that I need to buy her more jewelry in the future.
Meng Daguo was a little depressed. What he gave to his mother was a worthless old cotton jacket, but his third brother bought a watch worth hundreds of dollars. This made him feel like a piece of shit and not worthy of being treated well.
Meng Eryong felt similarly. His third brother's gift this time was purely disrupting the market. How many years would it take him to catch up?
Meng Daguo took Meng Hua to see the sewing machine.
When Meng Hua came back this time, he had a feeling that no matter how long he was away, Batou Village would not change much.
The houses, cattle, sheep and people here will remain the same no matter how many years pass.
But his mother is different. Her thinking is progressive and she brings some new changes to this family from time to time.
The college student from the Meng family came back, and Mrs. Meng was very happy. She specially called the whole family together for a meal.
It's not easy for every household these days, and Zhen Zhen can't eat and drink for free, so he brought a string of sausages, a fried duck, a plate of three kinds of brined vegetables, and some dried vegetables.
Meng Zhaodi cooperated with her more and more tacitly, and soon the ingredients she brought were served on the table, making everyone in the main room drool!
Meng Li also came back. Her and Jiao Huilan's due date was both in November, but Meng Li's belly was bigger than Jiao Huilan's.
Meng Li touched her round belly and said with a smile: "Auntie, you won't believe it, I'm pregnant with twins."
Zhen Zhen was stunned, "Is this true? Are you really pregnant with twins?"
Meng Li didn't believe it at first, but her mother-in-law told her that her belly was big and wrote a note asking her to go to the hospital for a check-up. She and Jiang Dongping were still confused when they came out of the hospital.
Twins are rare these days.
Meng Li had always doubted her inability to have children, and thought that having a child would be a slap in the face to Zhou Changsheng. But who knew that she would get two children at once!
I am happy but also a little worried.
She and Zhou Changsheng had just bought a house, and they had a lot of social interactions after they got married. In the future, they would have to spend money on hospitalization and childbirth. It would be a big burden to suddenly raise two children.
Zhen Zhen comforted her, "Raising them together is good. It saves money. You only need to buy one for each of the milk powder, rice cereal, and toys. The two children can keep each other company, so you don't need to play with them. Although it's a bit hard at first, it's much easier later on than raising them separately."
Meng Li also thought this was reasonable. She actually didn't want to have too many children. If possible, she would be satisfied with having a boy.
But nowadays every family has only one child. Having one child really makes you get bullied, and no one helps you when you get into a fight.
The two children are the same age, live in the same room, go to the same class, and are convenient to pick up and drop off. It is indeed less troublesome than having them separately.
However, Meng Li's belly was too big, and she was worried that she would get stretch marks, so she was always a little anxious.
Zhen Zhen comforted her, "I heard that applying some skin oil or cream on the belly can moisturize the skin and reduce the number of wrinkles. I don't know if there is any special for pregnant women. You can go to the hospital to ask. But don't scratch your belly if it itches. The more you scratch, the worse it will be."
Meng Li took note of it, and Jiao Huilan also listened silently.
My mother-in-law gave her two bars of soap with essential oils. After taking a bath, she felt her skin was less dry. I hope she doesn’t get wrinkles.
Zhen Zhen felt a little emotional. It seemed that no matter what era, women always loved beauty and raising children was always difficult.
Fortunately, the house Meng Li bought is close to the school, making it convenient to send her children to school.
At this time Meng Li began to thank her aunt.
There is a kindergarten in the house she lives in now, but it is two blocks away, making it inconvenient for her to take her children to school.
It's easy in other seasons, but it's freezing cold in winter. The two children have to wear layer upon layer of clothes, and I have to take care of them, feed them, comb their hair, wash their faces, etc., and then send them to school. It's really a big burden.
The kindergarten in the new house is right next to my home. No matter how fast or slow it is, it only takes half a minute to run from home to the kindergarten.
How convenient it is to send children here!
Meng Li felt fortunate when she thought about it.
When she heard that her aunt was teaching Meng Zhaodi to read, she admired her aunt's foresight even more. She brought some paper and pen for Meng Zhaodi when she came back this time, encouraging her to study hard. Meng Zhaodi held the brand new stationery very cherishingly and promised her aunt that she would be like Uncle Meng Hua!
So it can be said that Old Lady Meng is also a smart person. She knows how to use Meng Hua as a role model to inspire the younger generations of the family.
It seemed like just a meal, but at the dinner table, when the children saw the different Meng Hua, how could they not be touched?
Maybe the seeds of dreams have been planted. Although this influence is small, it should not be underestimated!
No matter how old a college student is, he or she still has to work when he or she returns home.
After planting the rice seedlings, Meng Daguo and Meng Eryong didn't have to go to the fields, so Zhen Zhen asked them to take Meng Hua with them to catch some lobsters and eels.
Daya was going with the bucket of water, and Erya was already one and a half years old. She knew that her father was taking her sister out to play, so she wanted to follow.
The third child is one year old and is no longer easy to fool. Although he cannot speak yet, he often points outside, meaning that he wants to go out and play.
There is a lot of wild fun in the countryside, with frogs and crickets everywhere, and all kinds of insects are so novel!
Zhen Zhen handed the three children to the men and asked them to take care of the children as well!
Meng Eryong and Meng Hua were angry but dared not say anything. Meng Daguo took the children and tools and left, smiling:
"Mom, I'm strong enough to take the kids fishing, too. Just wait and see!"
Ever since Zhen Zhen praised him last year, he has had a habit of showing off his muscles every summer. However, Meng Daguo's muscular body is invincible in the whole village. Everyone who sees him has to praise him. Even the nosy women in the village often go to Meng's house.
She would always take a sneak peek at Meng Daguo when he took off his shirt to cool off. His face would turn red from time to time, which really opened Zhen Zhen's eyes!
No wonder girls in later generations all clamored to go to the cornfield with the rough men. When she saw her eldest son's strong wheat-colored body, she finally understood the reason.
Jiao Huilan knew that the young wives were secretly looking at her man. She felt a little jealous but was too embarrassed to say it out loud. She often sat there scrubbing the basin with a loofah in her hand and sulked.
When Meng Daguo came back, he brought back a bucket of eels, a bucket of lobsters, two chopstick-length knife fish, and a net bag of small fish. It was quite a good harvest.
Zhen Zhen kept the eel in a bucket, intending to wait until it spit out all the mud before putting it into the pot.
Scrub the lobster clean and take out a pack of hot pot base from the space. Add some mashed garlic to make the soup base, and the cooked lobster will be quite good.
After all, not many people eat lobsters and crabs these days. They are so big that they have no rivals, and the meat is so tender and fragrant that it makes people drool!
Make some saury soup, use a net to filter out the fish bones, and add some green leaves and spinach noodles to make dinner for the three kids.
Small fish are even easier to prepare. After squeezing them dry, wrap them in egg noodles and fry them in a pan until they are golden and crispy. Then sprinkle some salt on them and the original flavor will be very fragrant!
Add this to the halogen mix, and who wouldn’t be happy eating it, adults or children?
Meng Hua eats the food at home at school. No matter how good the food in the school cafeteria is, it will become boring if you eat too much.
After he came back, his sister-in-law cooked for him herself and let him taste the flavor of home. He ate until his stomach was full before putting down his chopsticks.
Jiao Huilan has been free recently, so she roasted two sacks of melon seeds, hoping to contribute a little to the family.
Last time, her mother-in-law invented salty melon seeds, which were very popular.
She also thought it tasted better than the original flavor, so this time she fried more than half of it salty and a small half of it original.
Since this year, Zhen Zhen has been riding his bike to the county town to sell melon seeds from time to time. The frequency is not as high as when Meng Hua was around, but he has never stopped. He has earned several hundred yuan, which is more than enough for food and drink at home.
When Meng Hua saw her pushing the cart, he took a bag of things and said he wanted to go to the county town with her to sell melon seeds.
Zhen Zhen has accumulated a group of regular customers in the cinema. Some of them often come here to wait, and each time they secretly buy a large bag, fearing that they will not be able to taste the same flavor next time.
Salty melon seeds were very popular. She sold out two baskets of seeds in just over an hour and earned a full 80 yuan.
When she counted the money, her eyes were smiling and she looked like a miser.
Meng Hua thought it was funny, "Mom, I love money, so I'll definitely follow your lead."
Zhen Zhen tapped him on the forehead, "You little brat, this is called financial intelligence. Some people have high IQs, some have high EQs. I don't need to emphasize that I have high IQs and EQs. The main thing is that I have good financial intelligence, otherwise I wouldn't have given birth to a smart son like you."
You still have to flatter. After a few times of flattery, you get an imported watch. Isn't this a good deal?
Meng Hua was speechless after hearing this. His mother just took advantage of what was already given to her. Didn't she think that his hard work and ambition were inherited from her genes? Didn't he have any credit at all?
Meng Hua laughed, took out a bag of things and said he wanted to sell them. Zhen Zhen then took him to find Zhao Meilan's man, who was happy when he saw her.
"Sister, what good things did you bring this time?"
He wanted to ask if there was any toilet paper left, but when he saw there were outsiders around, he didn't say a word.
Zhen Zhen was a little cautious and did not introduce Meng Hua.
"I brought back some supplies from another place, and I want to ask if you would accept them."
Meng Hua opened the bag and found brand-name goods such as soap, tooth powder, pens, and many women's scarves inside. They were very fashionable and had such patterns that were not available in the county and were the most popular among women.
Zhao Meilan's husband can't put it down. His wife likes scarves, and married men can also know the value of things by learning from her.
He asked happily, "Where did you get so many good things?"
Meng Hua did not answer. After he went to the capital, he found that some things were sold cheaply in the capital but ridiculously expensive in the county town, so he brought back some things with the price difference to sell.
Women's money is the easiest to make, and silk scarves are expensive and don't take up much space, so he brought back a big bag to test the waters, hoping to earn enough to cover his living expenses for the next year.
The government provides subsidies, but the money is not enough for him. He was busy with his studies last semester and only had some time on weekends. He earned a few hundred yuan and bought a watch for his mother. This time he wants to earn more money for backup.
Zhao Meilan's husband kept saying that he was smart and that everything he brought back was easy to sell, especially the scarves, and he could sell as many as he could.
"Brother, I'll take all these things. Name your price."
Meng Hua didn't know the market price, so Zhen Zhen opened an offer for him. The price of the scarf for Zhao Meilan's man was two yuan.
Although scarves don't take up much space, there are actually 200 of them arranged. Zhao Meilan's husband has made a lot of money following Zhen Zhen. Not to mention other things, he made several hundred yuan from selling pork during the Chinese New Year. It is not a problem for him to take out 400 yuan.
Zhao Meilan's husband bought all the goods, and Meng Hua put the four hundred and fifty yuan directly into his pocket.
Zhen Zhen felt that this guy made more money than her.
From the capital to the county town, you should earn at least three hundred, right?
Three hundred yuan is enough for a rural family to earn in three years. Even a working class family in Beijing would need more than a year to earn that much. But the three boys earned that much in just a few days.
After earning money, Zhen Zhen did not forget the little ones at home and bought ten packets of milk powder for backup, as well as peach cakes, Gatorade, and White Rabbit milk candies.
As the summer heat was approaching, she also bought some green beans and red beans, two large watermelons, and a bag of candied haws.
In fact, these are the only things they have, but other children can’t even have enough to eat, let alone watermelons and candied haws. They haven’t had any snacks all year round. When they see that the Meng family’s children eat so well, they are so jealous.
Meng Laidi was jealous. She didn't understand how she was worse than Meng Zhaodi. She secretly resented her aunt and thought she was biased.
She saw Meng Zhaodi coming back from the Meng family. Not only was she well-fed, but she was also holding a book in her hands, and her pockets were bulging, probably with snacks given to her by her aunt.
"Are you feeling proud? You say I'm scheming, but you're the one taking advantage of me!" Meng Laidi said angrily.
Meng Zhaodi frowned, "I worked hard."
"So you are scheming! You only know how to show off. You just know that your aunt's daughter was adopted by someone else, and you want to take advantage of her!"
Meng Zhaodi really didn't think so, she just wanted to make a living.
She was really scared of being hungry.
But in such a big family, who would care about a hungry daughter?
Meng Zhaodi ignored her and Meng Laidi closed the door angrily. The more she thought about it, the more disgusting she felt Meng Zhaodi was.
We must not let Meng Zhaodi take such a big advantage!
She ran to the next village and found the family after some asking.
She had heard from her great-grandmother that the child was given to a family with the surname Su and named Su Xiu.
Su Xiu is also sixteen years old. She is fair, pretty, tall and slender.
Meng Laidi has never seen anyone as beautiful as her in her life. She is many times more beautiful than her.
She was envious and jealous, so she ran up to Su Xiu and hugged her arms, calling out affectionately:
"You are my aunt, right?"
Su Xiu ignored her and said, "You got the wrong person."
"I didn't recognize the wrong person. You are my aunt! My grandma said that everyone in your village knows that you were adopted. You must know it too. Not long after your parents adopted you, they gave birth to a son and a daughter. The Su family treated you badly. My aunt is your biological mother. Her family is rich now. They bought a bicycle and a sewing machine, eat meat every day, and wear Dacron! Don't you want to go back and live with your biological mother?"
Meng Laidi felt that as long as Su Xiu went back, Meng Zhaodi would no longer be able to stay there.
Su Xiu ignored her completely, cut the grass for the pigs, and left with the basket on her back without looking back.
Meng Laidi curled his lips, feeling frustrated. How come Su Xiu had no reaction at all when she heard that her aunt was rich?
Cicadas chirp, the breeze blows gently, and the shadows of the trees sway.
The weather was getting hotter and hotter. Zhen Zhen was lying on a rocking chair, fanning herself with a palm-leaf fan, and chatting with Zhang Cuihua and Gou Zi's mother under a tree.
Daya was playing with a hairy garlic, while Erya and Sanwa were watering and cutting the garlic, providing a one-stop plastic surgery service. Soon, the garlic was tortured to such an extent that its parents could not recognize it anymore.
Cheng Su ran over, "Auntie Zhen!"
She made egg rolls for Zhen Zhen and brought a plate of halved chicken feet. Zhen Zhen was so enticed by her halved chicken feet that he sat up and ate all of them, three each with Zhang Cuihua and Gou Zi's mother.
Cheng Su's face was full of smiles. He carried a small stool and moved towards Zhen Zhen like a little hamster.
Don't mention it, in the past six months, Zhen Zhen has been feeding her food all the time, peach cakes, halved pig's trotters, melon seeds, and sauerkraut cakes have been served one after another. Cheng Su often eats here in the cafeteria, and Zhen Zhen calls her here for a snack.
After half a year, the girl's cheeks became rosy and she didn't look like the heroine in the sad novel who would get sick if the wind blew.
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