Chapter 32
From that day on, Lu Che went to the provincial capital to pick up goods every time he had a holiday. He only made two or three trips a month, but the profit was considerable. He made about 20 yuan each time, and 60 yuan a month.
In addition, he also did not neglect other side jobs, such as collecting firewood, repairing tractors, delivering vegetables, and rushing to the market. Although these jobs are not done every day, Jiang Yao really feels sorry for her hardworking man because he still has to squeeze out time to complete these tasks under the high-intensity farm work every day.
After dinner and a shower in the evening, the couple sat on the bed, one knitting a sweater and the other reading a mechanical book given by the mother-in-law. Although they no longer had extreme happiness, they felt very warm.
"I calculated that the side job you did this month added up to a hundred yuan, which is equivalent to several months' salary of a worker in a state-owned factory. Why don't we take a break and not work so much? For example, picking firewood requires us to get up earlier than the chickens every time. We don't earn much and we have to hand over half of it." Jiang Yao suggested.
"No." Lu Che said without looking up, "Now more and more factories are asking me to deliver tomatoes and cucumbers. I can't refuse to do it just because the money is small. That's not fair. Besides, I often hand in the money for collecting firewood to the production team. This can cover up my tracks. Otherwise, how can I find an excuse to go to the county town every now and then?"
"That seems to be the case." Jiang Yao said, "But I'm worried that you're working too hard. On the other hand, apart from going to the market to set up a stall with you, I spend the rest of my time at home doing handicrafts. I feel a little embarrassed about having so little time."
"Silly girl, I didn't marry you to make you work." Lu Che raised his eyes from the book, reached out and touched Jiang Yao's head, and said, "It's hard for you to be pregnant, so do as little work as possible."
Jiang Yao listened and burst out laughing.
Living in this era, the treatment of pregnant women is certainly not comparable to that of later generations, but to say that pregnancy is hard for them, it is not true, at least not yet.
Other people's daughters-in-law are still working in the fields until the moment they give birth. She stays at home all day, away from the sun and rain, and does as much manual work as she can. No one ever asks anything of her.
In the first few days after she found out she was pregnant, she felt nauseous and wanted to vomit when she woke up in the morning. But now she is fine, eats well and sleeps well, and she can eat meat regularly and eggs every day. She is even worried that she will get fat.
"What are you laughing at?" Lu Che asked.
Jiang Yao: "If this is hard work for me, how do you think pregnant women who do farm work and eat sweet potato rice and vegetables every day feel?"
Lu Che said as a matter of course: "Others are others, we are us, you are my Lu Che's wife, can others be the same as you?"
"Tsk tsk tsk...are you showing off so soon?" Jiang Yao leaned into his arms and whispered, "I'm not kidding. I really don't want you to work so hard."
Lu Che hugged her and said, "As long as I see our little tin can slowly being filled up, I won't feel tired. Besides, this little bit of hardship is nothing compared to the hardship of not having ultimate happiness."
"..." He talks about "ultimate happiness" every other sentence. I'm afraid he will keep talking about this joke of hers until he grows old.
However, he was quite pitiful, at his age, he had to eat vegetarian food just after eating meat. She nuzzled him and said, "Just bear with it for a while. After three months, you can have sex properly."
"Yeah." Lu Che suddenly became energetic again, "I can endure it for another month and then I can get out."
Seeing his expectant look, Jiang Yao had to give him a "vaccination" in advance, "Don't be too happy too soon. Even if you can do it, you have to take it easy. It's impossible for you to do it as you please like before. The frequency must be strictly controlled."
Lu Che didn't stop after hearing this and said, "Something is better than nothing." He was afraid that he would get hurt after holding it in for so long.
Jiang Yao: “…”
The next day, Zhu Xia and the others were on vacation, so they came to Lu's house to play with Jiang Yao.
Ever since Jiang Yao married Lu Che and invited the three of them to the wedding, they no longer avoided the Lu family, especially Lu Che.
In addition, Jiang Yao is now the daughter-in-law of the Lu family, and the Lu family is her home. There is nothing wrong with these little sisters visiting her home to play.
Because Zhu Xia told Lu Che at work yesterday that they would come to see her today, Jiang Yao got up in the morning to prepare some food to entertain them.
In fact, it would be best to serve fruits as a treat, but there is not much fruit in this season. Jiang Yao originally planned to make some cold cucumber and cold tomato salad, but she was worried about exposing her "secret treasury", so in the end she could only make some cold seaweed salad.
Lu Che looked at the green kelp dish and said, "Wife, boil some eggs to entertain them."
"Eggs? Isn't that too extravagant?" It's not that Jiang Yao couldn't bear to give them up, but the current environment is like this. Not many families would be generous enough to treat others to eggs.
"No, it's just three eggs. I can't let you lose face in front of your friends."
Since Boss Lu insisted on giving her face, she didn't hesitate and directly boiled four eggs, one for each person.
The old lady and Lu Qing were in the main room. Jiang Yao was worried that they would feel uncomfortable, so she took them directly to her old room.
"Yaoyao, even though there are two of you now, wouldn't it be too full to eat four eggs at once?" Zhu Xia asked with concern when she saw the eggs on the table.
Jiang Yao poured tea for them and said, "We can have one each, so we won't get too full."
"One for each person?" Zhou Qiong waved her hands after realizing what was happening. "No, we came here today just to chat with you. The seaweed salad is already very good. How can we eat your egg?"
"That's right. Let your Lu Che know about this and he'll think we are bandits. He won't let us come next time." Wen Qian joked.
"He asked me to cook these eggs for you." Jiang Yao said with a smile, "It's okay, you guys can eat them. We have a lot of chickens. Lu Che can get 20 eggs for helping others repair a tractor. After handing it over to the collective, there are still 10 eggs left."
After saying that, Jiang Yao stuffed an egg into everyone's hand, then picked up the last egg and cracked and peeled it on the table.
Zhu Xia and the others looked at each other and cracked the eggs without any courtesy.
"Yaoyao, why are the eggs in your home so fragrant?" Zhu Xia gave a thumbs up while eating.
"Come on, free eggs are so delicious." Wen Qian teased her.
"Yes, the eggs that fall from the sky are especially delicious." Zhu Xia was not annoyed and continued to joke.
"Yaoyao, I really envy you now." Zhou Qiong said, "Before, I was worried that you would have a hard time if you married into the countryside, but now you can eat eggs as much as you want, and I was still struggling over whether to buy eggs or not."
"Yes, it seems like returning to the city is a long way off. Sometimes I think about just marrying a country guy." Wen Qian said dejectedly.
"You two should wake up." Zhu Xia said, "It's about who you marry, not where you marry. Yaoyao is living a good life because she married Lu Che. Look at Du Yuejiao, she married someone in the city and is the director of the Revolutionary Committee. Has she ever treated us to eggs? She doesn't even have sweet potato rice or vegetables to fill us up."
"That's right." Wen Qian propped up her chin in distress. "I've been in the countryside for three years. I'm twenty-one this year. If I keep going on like this, I'll really become an old maid. When can I go back to the city?"
"I'm one year older than you!" Zhou Qiong said, "My parents wrote to me and told me that if I met a suitable man in the countryside, I would marry him. I thought about it for a few nights and compromised with myself. If I could find a man like Lu Che who could let me eat meat regularly, I would marry him."
"Are you marrying a man or a piece of pork now?" Zhu Xia scolded with a smile.
Jiang Yao was originally chatting and laughing with them, but she realized something was wrong. How did they know that she had meat to eat often?
Every time Lu Che went to the county town to buy meat, he would bring it back wrapped tightly, so no one would know. What went wrong?
With doubts in her mind, Jiang Yao began to change the topic purposefully, and finally found the crux of the problem.
Although Lu's residence is a large courtyard with high walls, no matter how high the walls are, they cannot contain the fragrance.
Nowadays, it is good enough to have a meal of meat during the New Year and other festivals. People who eat sweet potatoes and vegetables every day are very sensitive to the smell of meat, especially the meat cooked by Jiang Yao. The meat nearby becomes especially fragrant every time they smell it.
Word spread quickly, and soon the news that the Lu family ate meat every day spread throughout Qingyuan.
Jiang Yao secretly thought that this was not good. This had just begun. In a few days, when things fermented, it would be easy for people with ulterior motives to use it as a pretext, especially those who could not bear to see the Lu family or Lu Che getting along well.
After seeing Zhu Xia and the others off, Jiang Yao returned to her room and looked at the calendar, only to find that today was November 14th.
She found paper and pen, wrote a letter to Jiang Zhen, and then went out.
She walked around the village from one end to the other and finally arrived at Aunt Zhang's house.
Aunt Zhang is a famous military family member in Qingyuan Village. Her husband died on the battlefield and became a martyr. Even so, she sent her three sons to the army one after another and now lives alone.
She is a quiet person and won't gossip with the women in the village, but she is helpful. She goes to the county town three times a month to send letters to her three sons. If people in the village ask her to help bring something, she is willing to do so.
Perhaps the more she was a military dependent, the stricter she was with herself, fearing that she would bring shame to her husband and son if she was not careful. Every time she brought something back for a fellow villager, she would take it directly to the field, hand it over to the client in front of everyone, and let the client count it on the spot, so as to avoid any mistakes later.
Jiang Yao knocked on the door for a long time and finally waited for her to open the door.
When Aunt Zhang saw Jiang Yao, she was obviously stunned. "Aren't you Lu Che's wife, an educated youth from the provincial capital?"
"Yes, it's me." Jiang Yao handed over the envelope with a smile, "Aunt Zhang, it's like this, I heard that you go to the county post office on the 15th of every month to send a letter to your son. I have a letter here that is written to my brother. Can you help me mail it?"
Aunt Zhang looked at the address on the envelope and found that it was sent to the army. She happily took it and said, "No problem, I promise to send it to you."
"Then thank you, Aunt Zhang." Jiang Yao climbed up the pole and said, "The packages and letters my brother sends me every month should have arrived. If they have, could you bring them back for me?"
In order to avoid Aunt Zhang's refusal, she added, "It's inconvenient for me to go out while I'm pregnant. Every time my Lu Che comes back from collecting firewood, the post office is not open yet. He's been very tired from work recently, and I don't want him to make a special trip."
Aunt Zhang's husband had a harder time as a soldier. She could understand Jiang Yao's feelings for her husband, so she agreed without saying anything. "No problem. I still have to help a few other villagers carry things. I will bring them to the fields when the time comes. I will give your package and letter to Lu Che."
"Okay, thank you so much."
Jiang Yao thanked him again and again before turning around and going back to the Lu family.
When Lu Che came back at noon, Jiang Yao told him about this. He asked in confusion, "If you were caught eating meat, shouldn't you try to hide the fact that you ate meat? What do you mean by asking Aunt Zhang to help you mail the letter and pick up the package?"
"People have very sensitive noses. Do you think you can hide it?" Jiang Yao said unhappily, "I'm pregnant now. If I keep eating vegetables and eggs, I'll easily become malnourished. So the key right now is to rationalize the fact that I eat meat."
"How...rationalize it?" Lu Che asked.
"You'll know tomorrow!" Jiang Yao kept it a secret, "Tell me quickly, in this case, what time does Aunt Zhang go to the fields?"
"About nine o'clock."
"Okay, I'll go to the field and wait for her at half past eight tomorrow."
Lu Che didn't know what she was up to, but he had already experienced his wife's intelligence and was very confident in her.
The next day, Lu Che went out to work early.
There is only half a month left before the harvest of the last crop of rice this year. The weather has been good in the past few months, and the harvest of the last crop of rice is expected to be better than the first crop. Recently, everyone has been working very hard and there are a lot of people working.
At half past eight, Jiang Yao appeared at the edge of the rice field on time.
"Lu Che, did your wife bring you food?" Someone saw Jiang Yao and shouted to Lu Che.
"It's only a little after eight o'clock. Why are you having breakfast? She must have something to ask Lu Che." Another person also shouted.
Lu Che looked up when he heard the voice and saw Jiang Yao standing in front of the steps at the edge of the field, looking like she was about to come down. He immediately shouted to her, "Wife, stay still. Don't come down. The ground is slippery."
As he said this, he hurriedly ran to the edge of the field.
The villagers around him looked at his nervous look and couldn't help but say sourly: "Looking at him like that, I thought his wife was pregnant with golden beans."
"Isn't it Jindouzi? Other people's wives eat meat every day when they are pregnant. Did your wife eat meat when she was pregnant?"
"Heh... this meat is expensive and requires tickets. If he eats it every day, the money must have been dug out from the cellar of his old Lu family."
"Don't say that. Mr. Lu handed over all his property at that time."
"That's what I said, but how do I know if it's true?"
"That's right. Jiang Yao stays at home all day without working. Lu Che does all the work for three people. Not to mention meat, there's not even enough rice to eat. If you say there's no ghost here, I definitely don't believe it."
“…”
These people raised their voices on purpose, so even though Lu Che ran farther and farther away, he could still hear their words clearly.
Jiang Yao’s worries turned out to be correct, and his heart sank.
Soon, Lu Che walked up to Jiang Yao and said, "Don't come down. Go to the shaded area and wait. Aunt Zhang should be back soon."
"Okay." Jiang Yao bent down, leaned close to Lu Che's ear, and whispered, "I heard everything they said, but don't worry, I will block them tightly in a moment."
"Yeah." Lu Che curled his lips, "I believe you can do it."
Jiang Yao sat in the shade of the tree and waited for half an hour. Aunt Zhang really came with bags and bags. She shouted towards the field, "I've brought the things back. Come up and claim them."
Several women who had asked Aunt Zhang to bring things to them washed their feet and went to the fields. Some of them also took the opportunity to sneak up and rest for a while.
Aunt Zhang was quite surprised when she saw Jiang Yao, "Why are you here? Just let Lu Che take her back."
"It's okay, I just want to go out for a walk, and my brother always sends me delicious food. If I can cook, I will cook later. It will be too late when Lu Che gets home from work." Jiang Yao said.
"I see." Aunt Zhang said as she began to sort out the things she brought back. "I'll take out your things first and then unpack them a little bit later."
Jiang Yao: "Okay, actually I trust you very much Aunt Zhang, but I also know that this is the rule, I will take it down later."
When the other women came to the field, Jiang Yao had already opened the package. In addition to the daily mountain products, there was even half a ham. She knew that ham was a specialty there, but now was different from the later times, and it was not easy to get such a small half.
What's more, for Jiang Yao, this ham is like "someone handing you a pillow when you are sleepy."
"Wow, Lu Che's wife, who sent you this pork leg?" Everyone looked at the ham, drooling, and couldn't help asking.
Jiang Yao smiled and said, "My brother is a soldier on the border. This pork leg is called ham, and it is a specialty over there. He often sends it to me."
In fact, this was the first time Jiang Zhen sent it to her, but others didn’t know, so she could make it up however she wanted.
"Your brother is so good to you. He often sends you ham. Is he of a high rank?" Someone started gossiping.
"It's OK." Jiang Yao pretended to be modest and said, "He's just a battalion commander, but he hasn't found a wife yet. He usually gives me a lot of subsidies. In addition to these food, he also sends me 30 yuan every month."
"Thirty dollars?"
At this moment, the women who were watching the scene were so shocked that their eyes almost popped out of their heads.
"My God, thirty yuan! A factory worker may not even earn that much per month. You can earn this much money every month without having to work. You are so lucky."
"I feel very happy too." Jiang Yao said, and she touched her belly, lowered her head and said to Xiao Lu across her belly: "Baby, you must be filial to your uncle in the future. The meat you eat now is earned by your uncle at the cost of his life."
Lu Che, who had just come out of the fields, felt relieved after hearing these words.
In the eyes of others, he is now a cowardly man who relies on his brother-in-law, but he has become accustomed to other people's unfriendly looks. As long as his wife can eat meat safely, he doesn't care.
After hearing this, Aunt Zhang immediately said to Jiang Yao, "Hurry up and open the letter and count the money inside. Don't let it go later and you won't be able to explain why it's missing."
"Okay, no problem."
In full view of everyone, Jiang Yao tore open the envelope and took out a piece of letter paper, three Great Unity notes and some tickets from it.
She counted very slowly, making sure everyone could see clearly the thirty yuan and the bills she had.
"Aunt Zhang, everything is here, thank you!"
After Jiang Yao finished this grand performance, all the rumors about her eating meat were dispelled.
After everyone left, Jiang Yao began to pack up and prepare to go home.
"Let me do it." She was about to pick up the package, but Lu Che, who had been acting as a background for a long time, snatched it away.
Jiang Yao: "No need, it's not heavy, I can carry it back myself."
"That small piece of ham looks heavy. It's not far away anyway. I'll carry it back for you first and then come back to work."
Lu Che insisted, so Jiang Yao let him do it. Moreover, she had just performed a good play and needed praise from Boss Lu.
When they left the rice field shoulder to shoulder, the women scattered in various corners began to talk again.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk... That's really exaggerated. That small piece of ham only weighs a few pounds. Do we have to send it back for such a short distance?"
"That's right. If others don't know, they would think Jiang Yao is a porcelain doll."
"I don't know if she's a porcelain doll, but if I had a wife like this who could let me eat meat every day, let alone help carry a package, I would even hug her every day."
"Who said it wasn't true? Lu Che is such a lucky bastard. He has such a poor background, but he can actually marry a wife like Jiang Yao."
"It's not that she's lucky, it's that she has a good body and a pretty face. If I had money, I would also find a man like this to serve me."
“…”
After this morning, Lu Che's image as a gigolo has been deeply rooted in people's minds. Although it is a bit miserable, no one doubts why the Lu family can eat meat every day.
The weather was getting colder day by day, and Jiang Yao got up later and later. But on this day, she got up very early because she went to bed too early last night, so when Lu Che got up early to deliver the vegetables, she also woke up.
"Buy some meat later. I want to eat meat buns today." Jiang Yao curled up in bed and said softly.
Lu Che replied as he put on his clothes: "Okay, it's not dawn yet, you can sleep a little longer."
Jiang Yao hummed and closed her eyes. She couldn't fall asleep at first, but when she woke up, it was completely bright outside.
It's at least eight o'clock now. The flour for making buns needs time to ferment. If I want to eat them at noon, I have to get up immediately.
She quickly washed up and headed straight to the kitchen.
There were two pieces of meat hanging in the kitchen, one was pork belly and the other was lean meat. Needless to say, the extra lean meat was bought by Lu Che for her to make soup.
But she didn't have time to process the meat now, she had to knead the flour first.
Half a pound of pork belly could not make many buns, so Jiang Yao rubbed a pound of flour and finished it in a short while. When she covered the flour with cloth, there was a knock on the gate of the yard.
She walked out and opened the door, only to see a man in military uniform standing outside. Judging from the epaulettes on his shoulders, he was of a high rank.
"Hello! Who are you looking for?" Jiang Yao asked.
The man's serious face relaxed a little and said, "You are my brother's sister, right?"
Sister-in-law? Jiang Yao was stunned for a moment, then finally reacted and said happily, "You are my brother-in-law, right?"
As she spoke, she shouted towards the main room: "Sister, brother-in-law is back. Yangyang, Xinxin, your father is back."
As soon as he finished speaking, an adult and two children rushed out from the main room.
Zhou Jin originally had the expression of an old cadre, but the moment he saw his wife and children, his eyes immediately softened.
Yangyang and Xinxin hugged their father's thighs, one on each side. Lu Qing walked half a meter away from Zhou Jin and stopped, "You... are back!"
Although her voice was still soft, it could not hide her excitement, and her eyes were slightly hot.
Zhou Jin looked at her deeply and said, "I'm back."
Jiang Yao stood aside, not wanting to disturb the reunion of the four of them, and said, "I'll go to the field to find Lu Che and bring him back."
When they got to the field, Lu Che was very happy to hear that Zhou Jin had returned. He asked Lu Dazhou for a few hours' leave and went back with Jiang Yao.
"My brother-in-law helped our family a lot in the past. My sister has been separated from him for many years because of our family. We must ensure that they eat well before they return to the army." Jiang Yao said.
"Okay." Lu Che replied with a smile: "I'll leave this important task to you. Just tell me what you need to buy."
"Am I being polite to you?" Jiang Yao said, "My sister said that my brother-in-law is more than ten years older than her, but I couldn't tell at all when I saw him just now. My brother-in-law is handsome, has been exercising for many years and has a good figure. People would believe him if he said he was thirty years old."
As soon as she finished speaking, she felt a burning gaze coming from the side.
The author has something to say:
In my wife's eyes, I am the only one who is handsome and has a good figure. - Lu Che, the No. 1 gigolo in Qingyuan
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