Chapter 4: Shooting Yourself in the Foot
The wind from the north in December was as cold as a knife, whistling outside the closed windows. There were so many people on the train that there was almost no place to step, so it wasn't cold. Leek pancakes, onions and garlic, sweat odor, foot odor, and even some people brought chickens and ducks on the train. Each smell was an unbearable torture for An Zhixia, not to mention the mixture of them.
She buried herself deep in her brother's clothes, which had a slight scent of soap, and breathed slowly, listening attentively to the simple, sincere, and slightly silly aspirations of these people.
It takes two days and two nights to get from Kyoto to Jinzhou in Jiangxi Province. After the initial excitement, everyone got up early in the morning and was drowsy because of the rattling sound of the train.
An Zhixia leaned against the car window, reached into her bag, and put the things her father had given her into the supermarket.
It was a roll of banknotes wrapped in a yellowed striped handkerchief with frayed edges. It contained fifty-three yuan, two catties of sugar coupons, three and a half catties of meat coupons, forty catties of national grain coupons, one catty of oil coupons, ten industrial coupons, three feet of cloth coupons, two catties of cotton coupons, and five catties of pastry coupons.
She frowned slightly and leaned close to An Zhiqiu's ear, and spoke this matter in a voice that only the two of them could hear.
An Zhiqiu was stunned for a moment, and whispered to her in a worried tone, "Zhixia, don't tell me you've softened your heart for such a small thing?"
She shook her head repeatedly to make her position clear. "No, we both had city hukou before, and we were also provided with food and coupons every month, but how much did we actually get? Wasn't it always the woman surnamed Kang who took us out and ate delicious food at home? So, this is what we deserve."
He looked at the girl's chapped, skinny face, rubbed her hair lovingly, and a hint of relief flashed across his eyes: "Yes, this is what we deserve." He used the cover of winter clothes to stuff a bulging package into her arms.
An Zhixia touched it curiously and weighed it, and was surprised to find that it was a pack of very considerable banknotes. The unique touch of the coins and banknotes with patterns on them was truly pleasing.
With these, she can easily take out ordinary items from the supermarket.
"This..." she asked with a curved eyebrow.
He had been holding back words for half the morning and finally spat them out like pouring out beans.
It turned out that the night before, An Zhiqiu had rented a bicycle and stored his clothes at the train station. In the morning, he disguised himself and rode his bicycle back to An's house under the pretext of going to the toilet.
The An family had many children. In addition to the two siblings and the siblings that Kang Xiaohua brought with her when she remarried, An's father had two more sons and a daughter in the past seven years. But in order to get things done and avoid trouble, Kang Xiaohua drove all the children to her mother's home in the countryside. There was no one at home at that time. The neighbors around had just gotten up and were busy washing and rushing to the toilet, so how could they care about other things?
"Your brother knows a lot of people, and unlocking a lock is just a piece of wire," An Zhiqiu told this story to his sister to cheer her up, and to vent the frustration he had endured for the past seven or eight years. "Kang Xiaohua is really good at hiding things. Fortunately, the house is small, otherwise I wouldn't be able to find everything in an hour."
In a house of about ten square meters, Kang Xiaohua has ten places to put money and bills: pillow core, bedding, rat holes under the bed, under the bed board, on top of the table drawer, in the pickle jar...
"Oh, in order to prevent people from saying that we were being harsh, she usually pretended that her family was very poor. On the surface, she ate coarse food and her clothes were patched up with patches, but secretly she hid all the money and secretly cooked for her own children.
Fortunately, she is a stingy person who only takes in money and never spends it, and even her family is very cautious, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get so much now.”
He was in a hurry at the time, so he just took a quick look and stuffed the money into his bag without counting it carefully, but he knew it was a considerable fortune.
Thinking about Kang Xiaohua's face when she found out the money was gone, An Zhiqiu couldn't help but laugh, "I guess she even wanted to kill us."
An Zhixia was a little worried, "Brother, what if she reports the case?"
"Silly girl, she not only pretends in front of outsiders, but also in front of her man. Apart from herself, I'm afraid even the big-mouthed brother and sister don't know how much money she has.
Besides, she has been pretending to be even more outrageous these past two days, borrowing money everywhere for our trip to the countryside. Now she says she lost several thousand yuan, and all kinds of bills. Who would believe it? It would only reveal her true identity as a stepmother. Even if she finds us and gets to the bottom of it, she will not get any good results.
It's like shooting yourself in the foot. "
She nodded seriously, "Kang Xiaohua said that the brother and sister will be able to work at the beginning of the year. She either threw money at them or used Mom's case to ask for benefits from the factory. Otherwise, how could she really tolerate us finishing high school? Brother, these notes are her way of buying out all the benefits from us."
"Little girl, do you think your brother didn't hear you hitting me?" Pinching her nose, An Zhiqiu said with a smile, "We lost our mother when we were ten years old, and our father was busy with work, but I, your brother, at least graduated from high school and have a correct outlook on life, the world, and values. How could I go astray?"
"Don't think I don't know that you were playing tricks when you coughed just now. I do have some telepathy with you." He whispered in the girl's ear.
An Zhixia chuckled twice, feeling a little warm in her heart. It felt good to have a brother in this strange world who would fight for her and protect her from the wind and rain.
It was noon time and everyone took out their food. Those who were better off had fried small yellow croaker, braised pork, and white rice, while those who were not so well-off had cornmeal pancakes. Kang Xiaohua directly prepared for them five hard black dough balls as big as a baby's fist.
The train arrived at the next station. The brother and sister generously bought five steaming white flour meat buns, four twisted dough sticks, six tea eggs and a pot of millet porridge through the window and ate them with satisfaction.
In front of everyone, An Zhixia took two blue cold medicine pills and swallowed them with millet porridge.
Leaning on her brother's shoulder again, she moved the things in her bag to the supermarket, closed her eyes and sorted out the money and other things bit by bit.
My goodness, Kang Xiaohua lived a very thrifty life. He really did what An Zhiqiu said and saved most of their wages. Together with the pension from the original owner's mother, he actually had more than 3,000 yuan, far more than most people's savings. Of course, there were also many coupons, such as food coupons, meat coupons, non-staple food coupons, industrial coupons, etc., and there were also two sewing plane tickets, two bicycle tickets, three watch tickets, and a radio ticket, which were extremely popular.
This should be the money Kang Xiaohua saved for his sons to get married. Tsk, tsk, she also felt a little sorry that she couldn't see someone swallowing his anger. After all, the original owner's memory was like bitter water, which made her, an intruder, grit her teeth in hatred.
Except for the first meal, the brother and sister kept a low profile and bought the cheapest three-grain steamed buns and pickles, and occasionally spent money to buy tea eggs and fried dough twists for snacks. With her capable brother protecting her, An Zhixia just acted like a quiet and delicate patient, squinting her eyes and patrolling the supermarket over and over again, her excited mood gradually returning to calm.
(End of this chapter)
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