“Eat, eat, eat! Does the meat next door smell so good?”
Lian Guihua put down her chopsticks.
Seeing their elderly mother get angry, the two brothers could only lower their heads and eat their roasted potatoes with a sense of grievance.
The potatoes were dried, and there wasn’t even a bowl of soup on the table. After taking two big bites, the two boys choked and their eyes rolled back.
Yu Bin quickly poured hot water for the two boys, and only after they caught their breath did he scold them.
“You eat potatoes every day, what happened to the allowance I give you every month?”
He received a deputy battalion-level allowance, with a monthly salary of 102 yuan.
Yu Bin handed over almost all of it to his family, but this woman made them eat roasted potatoes, boiled potatoes, and braised potatoes every day!
I can tolerate it myself, but my two children are still young, how can they eat this every day?
My neighbor, Battalion Commander Li, gets the same allowance as me, so how come his lazy wife can come up with so many tricks?
Yu Bin was angry, so his tone was naturally unpleasant.
“Lian Guihua, give me your savings book. I’ll manage the money from now on.”
When Lian Guihua heard the man ask for the bankbook, she was startled and exclaimed, “Buy it! Tomorrow I’ll buy you all the pork belly you can eat to your heart’s content, you won’t even have time to live anymore!”
Yu Bin wasn’t going to let this slide today.
“Where’s the bankbook?!”
“There are four people in the family to eat. The two sons eat white flour steamed buns every day. They can only make do with something in the evening. There is also money to buy cloth to make clothes and money to see a doctor when they have a headache or fever. In your hometown, the monthly living expenses are 15 yuan. Where do you get the money to save?”
Yu Bin had considered it; even after deducting the fifteen yuan living expenses from his hometown, he would still have eighty-seven yuan left!
It seems she won’t shed a tear until she sees the coffin; without saying a word, she went inside, packed up Lian Guihua’s things, and threw them in the living room.
“You’re not going to talk, huh? Get lost!”
At this moment, Yu Bin’s face was as black as Bao Gong’s, which frightened Lian Guihua so much that she didn’t dare to breathe.
Despite her usual fierce demeanor, Lian Guihua dared not lie to her quiet, reserved husband.
She could only tell the story through tears and sobs.
“My mom called me last month and said that my younger brother was getting married and was short of money for the dowry. So I made up the difference. My mom said that the money was a loan and that she would definitely pay us back after selling the grain at the end of the year.”
After listening to Lian Guihua’s explanation, Yu Bin took a deep breath.
“How much?”
“Five, more than five hundred…”
Upon hearing that several months’ salary would be given away at once, Yu Bin couldn’t hold back and immediately kicked over the dining table.
“Damn it, I risk my life out there, and all the money goes into your brother’s pocket. My son can only eat potatoes. Do you even deserve to be called a mother?”
Lian Guihua covered her face and defended herself.
“My younger brother is twenty-five. If he doesn’t get married soon, he’ll be an old bachelor. How can I face my parents? Besides, kids don’t need to eat so much meat. Potatoes are good. They’re filling and easy to digest. They love them.”
The sounds from inside the house were heard by the two young men in the courtyard, and they both spoke in unison…
“We don’t like potatoes, we love the peach shortbread from the aunt next door, and the meat from their house!”
Yu Bin was now completely enraged and threw Lian Guihua’s belongings out of the yard.
“Don’t wait until tomorrow, come on, I’ll buy you a train ticket home today. I’ve had the worst luck in eight lifetimes to marry a thief like you…”
It was noisy in the neighboring yard.
Li Wenzhu, meanwhile, took Xu Zhizhi and slipped out of the house after turning off the lights.
They were going to visit Li’s parents and Li Wenzhu’s twin sister, Li Xinran.
Xu Zhizhi put the things she had prepared in the afternoon into the basket that Li Wenzhu had taken out: three old cotton-padded jackets, a pound of milk powder, a pound of brown sugar, half of the sausage and cured meat, as well as biscuits and pears.
Knowing that she would be hibernating for the winter soon, she took out three pairs of old Beijing cotton shoes, cotton, and coarse cotton cloth from her space.
I don’t know which big shot stored the things in the space, but they are very suitable for use in this era.
“What did you pack? It’s so heavy!” Li Wenzhu swayed the bamboo on her back; the weight inside was comparable to that of Xu Zhizhi’s duffel bag.
So all that luggage she had was for her parents?
What a wonderful daughter-in-law!
They packed everything, and even heated up the meat sauce buns they had made that night and wrapped them inside their cotton coats. Under the moonlight, the two of them took a shortcut.
In recent years, the intellectuals who were sent to the farms have gradually returned to the cities.
The wooden house that was originally intended for them to stay in was now empty except for the Li family. Reaching the door, Li Wenzhu gently knocked.
“Mom and Dad, Xinran, I am Wenzhu.”
Li Xinran was about to lock the door when she heard the sound of wind mixed with her younger brother’s indistinct voice. She quickly opened the door and saw her brother carrying a large basket on his back, with a pretty woman standing next to him.
Knowing that his younger brother was bringing them supplies, he quickly let them in.
“Your parents have been asking about you lately, saying that your mission was both urgent and long-lasting, and they wonder how it’s going!”
The wooden houses on the farm were originally built specifically for the people who were sent down to the countryside, and they were built in a very crude and unsightly manner.
The house was divided into three rooms. The main room was quite spacious and had two bedrooms separated by curtains. The two rooms on the right were the kitchen and a room for storing hay and other miscellaneous items. Although there wasn’t much furniture, the house was neat and tidy.
As soon as the three entered the house, they saw Li’s father carrying a kerosene lamp out of the room. In the flickering light, Xu Zhizhi couldn’t see the expression on Li’s father’s face. She dragged Li Wenzhu forward a couple of steps.
Seeing the two of them freeze in place, Li’s father stared blankly at his son, scrutinizing him for a long time before finally uttering a single sentence.
“You’ve lost weight. Was this mission dangerous?”
Li Wenzhu took off the basket from her back and shook her head, “It’s alright, it just took a long time to get there!”
Being close by, Xu Zhizhi could clearly see Li’s father’s face. He didn’t look much like Li Wenzhu, but he looked exactly like Li Xinran, who opened the door.
He was wearing a dusty old cotton-padded coat, the cotton wadding inside of which was all lumpy and didn’t look warm at all.
The noise startled Li Ma, who had just finished resting next door, and she came out wearing her clothes.
The dim kerosene lamp cast a warm yellow light on the cold wooden house, and the family’s shadows overlapped. When Li Ma saw her son, whom she hadn’t seen for months, her eyes immediately reddened, and she covered her mouth, nodding repeatedly.
“It’s good that you’re back! It’s good that you’re back.”
At this moment, Li Xinran poured two glasses of hot milk and handed the extra glass to her younger brother.
“Bamboo pole, is this your wife?”