Chapter 52
Neighborhood relations are very important these days. If you don't have good relations with your neighbors, they will report you and do bad things to you behind your back. Even if you can avoid them, it will still ruin your mood.
Nothing else matters in life, being happy is the most important.
Meng Li was very lucky to have neighbors like Cao's parents.
Zhen Zhen went into the house and took out a shirt. This was made by Jiao Huilan to cater to the current popular style, and Zhen Zhen made some minor improvements.
Clothes these days cannot be too special and should be convenient for work. Zhen Zhen changed the buttons on the collar into two straps. The collar can be tied with a bow or like a red scarf, it all depends on personal preference.
The collars have also changed a little bit. Some are made into wavy shapes, some are made larger than usual, and the sleeves are made looser than usual shirts.
At first glance, this dress doesn't look much different from ordinary clothes, but when you put it on, you look much more energetic and fashionable.
What made Meng Li even happier was that the dress could be put on right away without having to measure the size.
"Auntie, did you make this?" Meng Li touched the fabric of the shirt.
Young people all love beauty, but there are only a few kinds of fabrics these days, and half of the people on the street wear the same clothes.
The material is not out of the ordinary, and the style is quite standard, with only the details showing some ingenuity, which makes it hard to find fault with, yet it is more fashionable than others.
Zhen Zhen smiled and shook his head, "Hui Lan did it, and I made some suggestions."
"No way! It was clearly the pattern drawn by my mother. The beautiful parts were all her idea," Jiao Huilan said honestly.
Meng Li really envied this mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. The other mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were incompatible and wanted to tear each other apart. Her two sisters-in-law had a decent relationship with her mother, but friction was inevitable in life.
Her sister-in-law would sometimes complain to her, saying that her mother did not know how to take care of children and that she was not as good at taking care of Chaowa and Maohai as she was at taking care of Sanwa. She also said that her mother was stingy and was reluctant to spend money on her grandson.
It is quite difficult for Meng Li to act as a peacemaker.
She understood her sisters-in-law, but she also understood her mother. Her mother was a typical rural woman who had not seen much of the world except for farming. Even she, who had seen a little of the world, was not as capable as her aunt in raising children, not to mention her mother.
Her aunt is not only capable of taking care of children, but is also a first-rate housekeeper.
She envied her aunt's harmonious relationship with her mother-in-law, but she also understood that it all needed to be managed. If her aunt was not good to her daughter-in-law, how could her daughter-in-law be so filial to her? Even Tao Aihong, the troublemaker, was silent after entering the house, which showed that her aunt was capable.
"Auntie, this skirt..." Meng Li didn't quite understand what they meant.
Zhen Zhen smiled and said straight to the point: "Your sister-in-law is learning tailoring and wants to give you a piece of clothing for you to wear back home. If anyone is willing to take it, you can either pay for the fabric and labor to make it, or buy the finished clothing. We provide the fabric for the finished clothing, but the price is a bit higher."
These days, there are many people who secretly work as a side job.
The mother of Meng Li's junior high school classmate often made tofu at home. Her colleague's mother would make some money by sewing quilts for others, and making clothes was not too unusual. Meng Li was used to it.
However, making finished clothes requires a lot of cloth, and cloth coupons are hard to come by now, so Meng Li asked:
“Isn’t this fabric hard to buy?”
The clothing business is just a trial run.
Zhen Zhen is delighted with Jiao Huilan's growth and hopes that Jiao Huilan can find confidence from this incident.
She would go to the black market to buy fabrics and seek help from Zhao Meilan, but the source of fabrics was unstable and she could not guarantee that there would be ready-made clothes to sell at any time, so she did not make any firm promises and decided to do the processing for her.
"I will find a way to get the fabric. If there is no fabric, I will make some money from the processing fee." Zhen Zhen said.
Meng Li agreed immediately, "If my colleague wants it, I will come back and tell you. You pack the clothes for me, and no one should find out."
After leaving the Meng family, Meng Li secretly asked Zhen Zhen why he suddenly wanted to sell clothes.
Zhen Zhen said frankly that she wanted to help Jiao Huilan regain her confidence.
Meng Li had already noticed the changes in her sister-in-law. Jiao Huilan used to be timid and submissive, like a bullied daughter-in-law, but now there is always a relaxed smile on her lips and her eyes are gentle, which are the expressions of people who have a good life.
If you can do tailoring, that would be considered a skill.
As the saying goes, if a person has a skill, he will never have to worry about having no food at home.
Having a skill means a lucrative job, so Meng Li was naturally willing to help.
She once again sighed about her aunt's kindness. What other mother-in-law is so devoted to her daughter-in-law? She even arranged her daughter-in-law's career.
Her sister-in-law is really lucky to have such a mother-in-law.
Zhen Zhen went to the line again and gave two shirts to Zhao Meilan. Zhao Meilan opened them doubtfully and found that the two shirts were exactly the same, except that one was small and the other was slightly larger.
"Sister, what's going on?"
Zhen Zhen explained: "The shirts are the same, but I make ready-made clothes, so there is no such thing as measuring the size. The small one is for people with smaller bodies. If you can't wear the small one, you can try the large one, which is suitable for most people."
Nowadays, most people don’t have enough to eat and are thin, and few people worry about losing weight.
Zhen Zhen only made small and medium sizes, but they were both made slightly looser to facilitate work, so that most people could fit into them.
This shirt is quite unique. Zhao Meilan has never seen such a style before.
There was no pork to sell after the Chinese New Year, and she hadn't had any serious work for a long time. Now Zhen Zhen was bringing her business again, so how could she not be happy?
Zhao Meilan's eyes were almost wrinkled. "Sister, this is the first time I've seen clothes like this."
Zhen Zhen smiled and said, "My niece brought it from another place. This style is popular there."
"That's right. In our small county, there are only a few styles of clothes. They can't compare to the fashionable clothes in big cities." The more Zhao Meilan looked at it, the more she liked it.
Everything is better abroad, and the moon is rounder abroad.
Sometimes people think that things outside are good, not necessarily because they yearn for those things, but just yearn for a life that they cannot have.
"Take them and try them out. If they sell, I'll bring you more. If they don't, I'll give you these two pieces of clothing."
Zhao Meilan likes doing business with her because she is straightforward and honest.
"Sister, it will definitely sell well. I believe you."
She admitted that her man was right. This Sister Zhen was not an ordinary person. Her business was booming. She even sold clothes during the off-season for pork. She was really smart.
Zhen Zhen gave her the clothes and then went shopping in the counter to see if there was anything she could buy.
As the weather got warmer and her clothes became thinner, her Plum blossom watch was exposed.
How could Zhao Meilan have never eaten pork but never seen a pig run?
She recognized at a glance that the watch was of unusual price and stared at it for several seconds with a hint of envy in her eyes.
She and her man made a lot of money, but she was never willing to buy expensive things. Her man was good in every way except that he was too pragmatic. It was absolutely impossible for her man to give her a watch.
"Sister, was this watch given to you by a man?" Zhao Meilan asked secretly.
Zhen Zhen thought about it and realized that her son was also a man, so she nodded honestly.
Zhao Meilan was actually a little disappointed. She originally thought that Sister Zhen was a widow and wanted to introduce her to her widower cousin.
Her cousin has a good job and has only one daughter at home, so he has no burden. Although he is not as good-looking as Sister Zhen, he is five years younger than Sister Zhen.
It's not too bad for Sister Zhen to find a young man, right?
Zhao Meilan had been thinking about this for a long time. Who would have thought that Sister Zhen actually had a man and was so generous. Her cousin could not compare with this.
Zhen Zhen bought San Ya a few packets of milk powder. San Ya hasn't been drinking milk much recently, and Zhen Zhen didn't force him. The child is almost two years old, and there's nothing wrong with letting nature take its course.
Daya and Erya would drink a bottle if forced, but if not forced they would not drink at all.
Zhen Zhen just followed their lead. She didn't like drinking and was saving money.
The child really grew up quickly. In the blink of an eye, all three carrot heads were running all over the ground.
As soon as Zhen Zhen got home, Daya hugged her tightly. She giggled and said:
"Grandma, give me your good stuff!"
Arya also hugged her grandmother's thighs, "Hand over your delicious food!"
The third child had no legs to hug, so he hugged his elder sister and second sister, saying in a baby voice: "Fuck, it's delicious!"
Zhen Zhen shook his legs like he was shaking shredded radishes, and shook the three little brats onto the ground. The three little brats kept rushing up, so Zhen Zhen had no choice but to drag them into the house, open the cupboard door, and put all the food in.
This time she bought two bottles of Lolita, two packs of peach cakes, and two boxes of cookies.
Although I bought a lot of food, it was never enough.
"Grandma, don't lock it, leave some gap." said Daya.
Zhen Zhen snorted: "If I didn't lock the door, you guys would have eaten all the food in the day. Do you think you're stupid?"
I'm not afraid of eating it, but I'm afraid that the food is too sweet and it will be bad for the child's teeth. My daughter has cavities, and dentistry is not well developed these days, so we can only endure the toothache, and the child will suffer a lot.
There is no toothache medicine in Zhen Zhen's space, so she can only control her child's eating of sweets.
After the sow gave birth, Zhen Zhen had been supplementing her with protein, using soybeans, bean cakes, and rapeseed cakes in turn. Fish bones, chicken bones and the like that were eaten at home would also be ground into powder and mixed into the pig feed to feed the sow.
She served her according to the standard of postpartum meals. Tao Aihong was so hungry after seeing the pig food several times that she curled her lips and said:
“I don’t know when I could eat so well.”
Zhen Zhen's efforts were not in vain. Other sows would be listless for a long time after giving birth, but after Zhen Zhen replenished the sows' bodies, the sows' energy recovered quickly, they were not so anxious about taking care of the piglets, and they soon gained weight again.
It eats well and has good milk, and the piglets are different every day.
However, if we count the days, it is time for the piglets to be weaned. Recently, Zhen Zhen has been working hard on the pig food, combining meat and vegetables, and the taste is great. I hope the piglets can have less worries.
The villagers all love to come to the Meng family to see the piglets, and they also want to learn from the Meng family and invest in the pigs.
But there is no other way. They are not as willing as the Meng family, nor do they have the conditions. The food they eat is not as good as the Meng family's pigs. Naturally, their pigs are not as strong as the Meng family's pigs.
Not to mention the pigs, the babies are also well raised!
It's true that one thing can lead to everything.
Only then did everyone realize that the unremarkable Zhen Guizhi actually managed the household so well.
Gouzi's mother brought Zhen Zhen some pickled vegetable stems and pickled beans that she had made. Zhen Zhen really admired the craftsmanship of the farmers. Whatever they made was delicious. She rolled up two steamed buns and added some fried dough sticks into them, which could be considered an authentic local dish.
It was naturally not easy for Mrs. Meng when the first and second babies were brought back for weaning. There were many children in the family and she had to take care of this and that. However, refusing Meng Li was not an option.
My daughter gave birth to two babies at once, and weaning is not an easy task, so it is reasonable to send her back to stay for half a month.
Dabao and Erbao cried all the time in the first few days. Mrs. Meng took care of them day and night and lost a lot of weight.
The weather was hot, Mrs. Meng looked unhappy, and she always felt dizzy while holding the child.
Zhen Zhen thought she had hypoglycemia, so he gave her half a packet of brown sugar and asked her to drink it with water.
Mrs. Meng was afraid that she would drop the child, so she didn't give anyone the brown sugar when she got home. She drank it for a few days, and her black eye problem was finally much better.
She was very grateful to this sister-in-law.
Zhen Zhen was not surprised. People these days don't have enough to eat. Rural women like Mrs. Meng are the best at saving food for their children. If she isn't jealous, who would be?
She urged Mrs. Meng to take care of herself, "If you are not in good health, others will have to take care of you. Isn't that a good intention but a bad result?"
Mrs. Meng also knew, "You are right. Only if you take good care of yourself can you help them take care of the children."
More than half a month later, Dabao and Erbao were finally successfully weaned, and Mrs. Meng asked someone to give Meng Li a message.
After Meng Li came back, she didn't dare to get too close to the child. She went to her aunt first to report the good news.
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