Chapter 46 Meeting Ziyi's friend for the first time
Ziyi took Yike through many twists and turns, and Yike heard the whirring sound of a train, and a green carriage clanged past. After turning a few more streets, I saw a row of particularly short bungalows.
Ziyi took Yike to knock on a rusty iron door. The door opened a crack, and a little head popped out with a pair of big eyes rolling around. A noisy voice came out from the crack in the door. The little boy should know Ziyi, and when he saw Ziyi, he opened the door and let Ziyi in.
As soon as I entered the door, I saw five or six children in the yard. Some were about fifteen or sixteen years old, some were about twelve or thirteen years old. The youngest girl looked only four or five years old. She was very thin, with big round eyes, and was very smart and cute. There was another boy who was about the same age as the little girl, probably twins.
When the children saw the two adults coming in, their chattering seemed to have been paused, and the courtyard suddenly became quiet. When they saw Ziyi clearly, the pause button was canceled, and all the children gathered around, shouting "Brother, brother, you are here."
The youngest girl held onto Ziyi's legs and climbed up.
Hey! Treating Ziyi like a tree to climb, Ziyi reached out and picked up the little girl, asking, "Is your father home?"
"at home!"
"At home!"
"Dad is home."
"I'll go call Dad."
The younger children were talking at once, and the older ones ran to call for help.
"Come! Let me introduce you. This is Yike's sister-in-law, your brother's wife. Go and call her, and you will have candy if you call her." Ziyi pulled Yike to his side and introduced her seriously.
Yike finally understood why Ziyi bought so many White Rabbit milk candies just now.
"sister in law!"
"sister in law!"
"Sister-in-law Yike!"
Now when they heard that there was candy to eat, the children all gathered around and started shouting again.
The girl didn't want Ziyi to hold her anymore. She came over, held Yike's hand and called her "sister-in-law". Her sweet and soft voice was so sweet that it went straight to Yike's heart. Quickly take out the candies and distribute them, each person holding a candy. The children then go to play games very contentedly.
At this time, a middle-aged man walked out from the main room. He looked to be in his thirties, with an ordinary appearance. He was the type who would not make any waves or attract any attention when he walked into a crowd.
"Good boy, you finally decided to come out of the mountains and stop staying here to accompany your bride." The man strode over and punched Ziyi on the left shoulder.
Ziyi stretched out his hand and clenched his fist, saying with a smile: "Brother Tang, you are joking. I brought my wife out." Ziyi moved sideways to let Yike behind him, "This is my wife. Yike, this is Brother Tang."
"Hello, Brother Tang!" Yi Ke called out obediently.
"Okay, okay! I'm sorry, sister-in-law. Ziyi and I are used to joking around like this. Don't be offended. Come, everyone go into the main room and sit down." Brother Tang said embarrassedly.
"It's okay! We brothers shouldn't say such polite words." Ziyi and Yike walked into the main room.
A woman in the main room pulled out a bench next to the table, wiped it with a cloth, and said with a smile: "Brother Ziyi is here. This is your sister-in-law, she is so pretty. You and your sister-in-law can sit here. I will go and boil some sugar and water."
"Sister-in-law, don't be polite. Save the sugar for the children to sweeten their mouths. Don't waste it." Yi Ke hurriedly stopped the woman who was about to go to the kitchen to work. In this era, sugar is a precious thing. If you are not a particularly important guest, you cannot enjoy this treatment.
"Yes, sister-in-law, you should sit down and have a rest. Don't go to boil sugar or water." Ziyi also hurriedly stopped her. Sugar is such a precious thing, how can I afford to drink it?
"If they don't want to drink, just pour them a bowl of warm water to warm themselves up." Brother Tang said, "We are brothers, it's too polite to be polite to each other."
"Yes, big brother is right. How are you doing recently? Last time I heard a lot of people say that they had no food to eat and people were starving to death. Is it really that serious?" Ziyi asked.
"Who says it's not true? The higher-ups have transferred some food from other places, but it's just a drop in the bucket. It can't solve the problem. The gap is too big and can't be filled. We are the worst hit area here and it can't be filled." Brother Tang finally whispered to them, "I heard that other provinces and cities are also short of food and people all over the country are starving."
"The spring plowing is late again this year, and the grain production will be reduced, making life even more difficult in the future. Isn't Brother Tang at home? Has he found some new way?" Ziyi said.
Yi Ke found out later that this older brother was called Tang Guoping, 32 years old, and had two older sisters. One married a worker in their factory, and one married the director of the Revolutionary Committee. His two younger sisters were also married, also to workers. One worked at a grain and oil station, and one worked at a food station. The sisters also have jobs. The eldest sister works as a clerk in the commune, the second sister is a doctor in the hospital, and the two younger sisters are salespersons in the commune's supply and marketing cooperative and a department store in the provincial capital respectively. Only Brother Tang and Sister-in-law Tang are unemployed. Brother Tang is unwilling to go to work, so he just tinkers in the black market. Mrs. Tang has a rural household registration and worked as a contract worker in a factory at first. Later, she had more children and had to take care of them, so she stopped working. So Brother Tang often went to the black market to sell some food, bills and the like to make life better for his family.
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