Chapter 144 Zhuang Tunan
"I've become a child!" Gao Jialin opened his eyes again and was speechless when he looked at the young face in the mirror. It was a good thing to experience a new life, but wasn't he a little too young? He closed his eyes again and digested his new identity. Zhuang Tunan was now 11 years old and in the sixth grade of elementary school. He would take the middle school entrance exam in another semester and a half. He had good grades and should be able to get into a key middle school in the city.
My father, Zhuang Chaoying, was a teacher at the middle school affiliated to the Second Cotton Mill in Suzhou. He was a foolishly filial person. It would have been fine if you wanted to be filial to your parents by yourself, but he insisted on dragging the whole family along. My mother, Huang Ling, often quarreled with him over this.
My mother, Huang Ling, came from a relatively well-off family. Her parents had a high social status and were well educated.
The name Zhuang Tunan was given by my grandfather. It comes from "Zhuangzi - Xiaoyaoyou": "If the wind is not strong enough, it will not be able to carry a large wing. Therefore, at 90,000 miles, the wind is below. Then I will cultivate the wind, carry the blue sky on my back, and no one will stop it. Then I will Tunan."
Tunan means great ambition and future, which is also the expectation that his grandfather has for him.
Huang Ling's parents were affected to a certain extent during the movement, which delayed her studies and marriage. She went to work in a cotton mill after graduating from junior high school. Marrying into a Zhuang family was considered marrying down, but it was considered marrying up in that era.
This also cultivated her cautious and tolerant character. When encountering things, she dared not express her dissatisfaction directly, and most of the time she endured it silently. She did not fight or compete in work and life, and performed well, which won her many commendations from the factory.
Now the factory is distributing houses, and these commendations have given her a lot of points. She has a good chance of being allocated a new house, so that their family of four will no longer have to squeeze in such a cramped little house.
Zhuang Tunan looked around the house in front of him. The space of only about ten square meters was packed full. His parents and his younger sister Zhuang Xiaoting slept on a slightly larger bed, and he slept on a small bed.
There is a desk on the head of the small bed. Zhuang Chaoying corrects homework and prepares lesson plans. He and Zhuang Xiaoting both use this desk to do their homework. Sometimes when they arrive at the same time, one of them has to lie on a stool to do his homework.
Various awards are posted on several walls, including Huang Ling's Model Worker award, as well as awards won by Zhuang Tunan and Zhuang Xiaoting in school. This has become the most proud thing for their family.
The rest of the house was rather shabby, with not many decent furniture and few new clothes in the closet. The brother and sister's clothes were slightly better, while Zhuang Chaoying and Huang Ling's clothes looked like they had been worn for many years.
Alas, Zhuang Tunan sighed. Logically speaking, their life should not be so hard. Both of them have formal jobs, and they work in a good unit like a cotton mill. Their combined monthly salary is more than 100 yuan. It doesn’t cost much to go to school, and they don’t have to worry about housing. They are fully capable of living a better life.
But who can blame Zhuang Chaoying for having so many troublesome family members? His father is patriarchal and loves his youngest son, so when he went to the countryside, he sent his daughter Zhuang Hualin to Guizhou. Until now, she has no way to come back and can only get married and settle down there.
After Zhuang Chaoying started working, she handed over all her salary and had no savings at all. Even after she got married, they owed a lot of debts from the wedding and asked Zhuang Chaoying to continue handing over her salary. They felt at ease using Zhuang Chaoying's salary to save money for their youngest son's wedding.
During the Chinese New Year and the birthdays of the two old guys, they have to prepare gifts to send to them, which is another considerable expense.
Huang Ling was so angry that she took the opportunity of having a child to slowly ask for some of the money back. Now Zhuang Chaoying receives 70 yuan a month, and gives 25 yuan to his parents, leaving only 45 yuan for his own use. In fact, the family is still mainly supported by Huang Ling's salary.
So other dual-income families live a happy life and their children have food and drink, but when it comes to the brother and sister Zhuang Tunan and Zhuang Xiaoting, they are miserable. When they see other classmates eating snacks and playing with toys, they can only envy them secretly and have no way to ask their family for anything.
Other grandparents love their grandchildren, but those two old Dengs are different. They only express their love for Zhuang Tunan over and over again. At most, they let him sit at the table when they eat together. They never give him pocket money or gifts, without even thinking about it.
Zhuang Xiaoting was even more pitiful. They didn't even feel sorry for their own daughter, let alone their granddaughter? When she went to her grandparents' house, she had no status at all and didn't even get a good look from them.
Besides favoring boys over girls, maybe it was because when Zhuang Xiaoting was born, Huang Ling used the excuse of raising the child to take back part of the money Zhuang Chaoying had handed over? That's why Lao Deng always said she was a money-loser.
Fuck, such biological father and grandparents are really the best. After looking through Zhuang Tunan’s memories for a while, he was so angry that he wanted to teach these guys a lesson right away.
Seeing him standing there in a daze, Zhuang Xiaoting was a little curious, "Brother, why haven't you done your homework yet?"
"Oh, I'll do it right away." Zhuang Tunan opened his homework book and was speechless when he saw the topic he had to write today:
1. Within the specified time, Factory A plans to produce 120 machines, and Factory B plans to produce 135 machines. It is known that Factory B produces 3 more machines per month than Factory A: Factory A completes the task two months ahead of schedule, and Factory B completes the task three months ahead of schedule. How many machines are produced per month by Factory A and Factory B? 2. The volume of a cone is 18 cubic meters, and the base area is 3 square meters. How high is it? You use this to test me, a 985 PhD? Zhuang Tunan wrote down the answer quickly without thinking, and finished the homework in a short while.
He was just about to go out and take a look at what Suzhou city was like in 1976, and see how it was different from when he came here in the last life to eat fried eel paste and crab roe dumplings.
As soon as I lifted the door curtain, I saw Zhuang Chaoying and Huang Ling walking towards me one after another. Zhuang Chaoying had a smile on his face, but Huang Ling had a droopy face and looked very unhappy.
Zhuang Chaoying saw him and asked, "Tunan, have you finished your homework?"
"It's over." Zhuang Tunan's response was a bit stiff.
Zhuang Chaoying didn't notice it, "Then don't rush out to play, go home first, I have something to tell you."
Zhuang Tunan had no choice but to turn around and go back into the house. Zhuang Chaoying followed him and said cheerfully, "Grandma's birthday is tomorrow. Let's go and celebrate her birthday together. Tunan, Xiaoting, are you happy?"
"I'm not happy!" Zhuang Tunan stated his attitude directly, "I don't want to go, or you can just not take me with you."
Zhuang Chaoying's face immediately drooped. "Grandma only has one birthday party every year. You are the eldest grandson, how can you not go?"
(End of this chapter)
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