Seeing the puzzled look on her daughter’s face, He’s mother took bowls from the cabinet and poured water for her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. She said helplessly, “It’s a long story, and it’s a bit complicated. Have some water first. I’ll explain everything to you in a moment.”
He Yingying had no interest in drinking water at all.
“I’ll drink it later, Mom. Just tell us what happened first.”
Qiao Heping was the same. He waved his hand and said he didn’t want any water either. Clearly, just like He Yingying, he had been stunned by those words about stocking up on grain. At this moment, all he wanted was to hear the rest of the story as quickly as possible.
After all, this was not a small matter.
Seeing how anxious her daughter and son-in-law were, He’s mother closed the door before finally speaking.
“Actually, even if you two hadn’t come today, your father and I were planning to go to your place. Since you came here yourselves, that saves us the trip.
“As for stocking up on grain, it was actually the brigade leader who gave us a hint. From what he said, the next few years probably won’t be good. The harvest will definitely be affected, and we might even have trouble getting enough food to eat.
“That’s why he reminded everyone to find a way to stock up on as much grain as they could while they still had the chance.”
“How does the brigade leader know that the next few years won’t be good?” Qiao Heping asked. “Where did he hear this? Does he have any evidence?”
He’s mother shook her head.
“I don’t know where he heard it. But according to the brigade leader, the spring drought this year lasted much longer than in previous years, and the water level in the reservoir has also dropped.
“It’s already August. Most of summer has passed, yet we’ve only had a few light drizzles. It really does look like we might be heading into a drought.
“The brigade leader also said that several provinces around us haven’t had much rain either. They’re all suffering from drought.
“He swore to us that there would definitely be a severe drought across the entire country this year, and that the next few years wouldn’t be good either.
“Then he told those who could afford it to stock up on more grain at home. Otherwise, if a disaster really happened, there would certainly be famine.”
He Yingying frowned.
“But didn’t the newspapers say that crop yields had already reached ten thousand jin per mu? If there’s that much grain, how could there still be a famine?”
At that, He’s mother couldn’t help sighing.
“You can’t believe everything the newspapers say. If even a third of it is true, that would be pretty good.
“The brigade leader is actually worried sick over this. The commune is now demanding that everyone push for extremely high production and strive for yields of ten thousand jin of grain per mu!
“How could that possibly happen?
“Even if you gave the fields plenty of water and fertilizer, you still couldn’t get ten thousand jin per mu. A thousand jin would already be an incredible harvest if the weather were favorable and Heaven was kind to us.
“Ten thousand jin per mu has never happened before. And this year there’s been even less rain, so the harvest is already poor. We can’t even get a thousand jin!
“But despite that, when the other brigades reported their yields, they all claimed ten thousand jin per mu. Our village reported only a few hundred jin, and because of that, the brigade leader was criticized repeatedly at the commune.
“Fortunately, most people in our village are surnamed He, so we’re fairly united. Everyone knows that the brigade leader deliberately didn’t inflate the numbers because he was looking out for us. He didn’t want everyone to end up starving.
“When people from the commune came to question us, the entire village stood together and backed him up.
“Otherwise, the brigade leader would have been removed from his position and replaced. He might even have been subjected to public criticism and struggle sessions.”
He Family Village was one of the few villages in the surrounding area where almost everyone shared the same surname.
Nearly ninety percent of the villagers were surnamed He.
The village had always placed great importance on clan ties. Whenever someone in the village committed some offense, the clan elders would take them to the ancestral hall and deal with the matter there.
The brigade leader, who was also the clan head, therefore held tremendous prestige in the village. When he called for something, practically everyone responded.
During the earlier years of war and unrest, the village had even stockpiled explosives, guns, and ammunition.
No matter how chaotic the times became, people from the surrounding villages rarely dared to cause trouble in He Family Village.
Whenever something happened, the entire village would mobilize.
He Family Village was a tough bunch.
Otherwise, they would never have been able to withstand the pressure from the commune.
Qiao Heping and He Yingying both frowned deeply as they listened.
They truly had no idea about any of this in the city.
They had occasionally seen reports in the newspapers claiming that yields had reached ten thousand jin per mu, and had assumed that the country had developed some new agricultural technology that dramatically increased production.
Who would have thought those figures were simply being exaggerated or falsely reported?
“Then why can’t our village just report inflated figures like the other villages?” He Yingying asked.
He’s mother waved her hand.
“I never got around to explaining this to you. The cooperatives here have now been turned into People’s Communes. Everyone is a commune member, and everyone has to fulfill the production targets handed down from above.
“If you report an inflated yield, you still have to actually hand over that amount of grain to the commune. Then the commune has to hand it over to the level above.
“One of the neighboring villages reported a yield of ten thousand jin per mu. This year, they basically worked for nothing. They even had to use part of last year’s stored grain to make up the amount they were required to hand over.”
“Then are many people in the village listening to the brigade leader and stocking up on grain?” Qiao Heping asked.
“About seventy percent of the villagers listened to him. They’re planning to go out and buy more grain in the coming days.
“As long as you have money, there will always be someone willing to sell.
“Most people don’t really believe we’ll have droughts for several years in a row. After all, nothing like that has happened for so many years.
“But grain can be stored. It won’t go completely bad. At worst, it might attract insects or become moldy, but it can still be eaten.
“So it isn’t really a waste.
“If the drought the brigade leader predicted doesn’t happen, we won’t lose much. But if it really does happen, that grain could save our lives!
“Everyone understands that, so in the end, most people decided to listen to the brigade leader.”
Qiao Heping and He Yingying exchanged a glance.
Their expressions were solemn.
This really wasn’t a small matter.
They could only hope the brigade leader was wrong.
Otherwise, if he was right, the next few years would truly be difficult.
And it wouldn’t only affect the countryside.
The cities would be affected too.
After all, the grain allocated to urban residents every month was supplied by the countryside. If there were problems with grain production in rural areas, food supplies in the cities would inevitably become scarce as well.
“Thank you for telling us all this, Mom,” Qiao Heping said gratefully to his mother-in-law. “When we get home, I’ll discuss stocking up on grain with my parents. We’ll also try to find out whether the Water Conservancy Bureau or Meteorological Bureau has any specific information.”
After hearing this, their original plan to go to the mountains behind the village to pick fruit naturally had to be put aside.
Qiao Heping bent down and picked up his precious daughter.
“We won’t pick fruit today. We can bring Jia Jia next time, okay? Daddy promises I’m not lying to you. We’ll come back in a few days.”
“Okay! We’ll come next time!” Qiao Jia Jia nodded from her father’s arms.
Qiao Jia Jia wasn’t really a three-year-old child, so she naturally understood what they had just been talking about.
She knew what had happened.
There were more important and less important things, and urgent matters had to come first.
Compared with stocking up on grain, picking fruit was something they could do anytime, so naturally it could be put aside.
In fact, Qiao Jia Jia had already been worried about this matter before.
She had even been thinking about how she could subtly remind her parents and grandparents.
Although she wasn’t a professional historian, she knew something about the Three Years of Difficulty.
She didn’t know the exact dates, but she knew that it began in 1959 and lasted for three years.
Her family lived in the city, but they would definitely be affected during those difficult years.
She remembered reading in history books that during this period, even people in the cities often went hungry. Some people were so starved that their faces became swollen from malnutrition.
Famine affected the entire country.
She had originally been worrying about how she could find a way to warn her family.
In fact, she had still been thinking about it just a few days ago.
If she couldn’t come up with another method, she had planned to use the simplest and most direct approach—leaving little notes around the house as warnings.
She hadn’t even started learning to write yet, so her family would never guess that the handwriting on those notes came from her.
Now, however, she didn’t need to worry anymore.
She had no idea how the brigade leader of He Family Village had learned that the next three years would be difficult, but whatever the reason, his warning had conveniently solved one of her biggest problems.
So Qiao Jia Jia no longer felt the need to investigate how the brigade leader had come to know about it.
“You just got here, and now you’re leaving?” He’s mother asked anxiously when she saw her daughter and son-in-law preparing to go. “Why don’t you stay a little longer? Have lunch here!
“There’s no need to rush about the grain. Waiting a little longer won’t make a difference.”
He Yingying took her mother’s hand.
“We’ll definitely come again in a few days. But right now, we have this matter weighing on our minds. Even if we stayed for lunch, we wouldn’t be able to eat peacefully.
“It’s better for us to go home early, discuss it with my in-laws, and make a decision as soon as possible.
“And if we really are going to stock up on grain, we’ll need to trouble the family for help. Buying grain in the city requires grain coupons, after all, so it’s not as convenient as buying it in the countryside.”
Hearing this, He’s mother immediately said, “What trouble? Don’t worry. When the time comes, I’ll have your eldest and second brothers take care of everything for you.
“You and Heping have brought so many things here over the past few years. Since they’ve benefited from you, helping you with something like this is only right.”
“Okay. Then Heping and I will head back first. We won’t wait for Dad or Big Brother and Second Brother to finish work. We’ll come back in a few days to see them.”
He Yingying spoke decisively.
Qiao Heping had already gone outside to get the bicycle.
“Wait! Take these cucumbers and green beans with you. Oh, and there’s a winter melon here too. Take that as well.”
Seeing that her daughter and son-in-law were leaving, He’s mother hurriedly stuffed vegetables into their hands as she spoke.
“If you weren’t in such a hurry, I would have gone to the fields and picked some eggplants and Chinese cabbage for you too.
“But take these for now. Next time you come, I’ll send some more back with you.”
This time, He Yingying and Qiao Heping didn’t waste time refusing.
They simply took all the vegetables He’s mother had stuffed into their hands.
The family of three had left at eight in the morning and arrived at He Family Village at nine.
Their bottoms had barely warmed the chairs before they were leaving again less than twenty minutes later.
By the time they returned home, it was only a little after ten.
Qiao Zhufang and Qiao Qiusheng naturally weren’t home.
Although they were already an old married couple, they still had a sweet relationship.
When they had nothing to do on Sundays, they would sometimes go out together to watch a movie.
As the largest state-owned factory in the entire provincial capital, the steel factory had its own cinema.
Factory employees received discounted movie tickets, as did their family members.
Sometimes, if the ticket seller recognized someone, they might even let them in without a ticket.
The movie had started at ten, so it was still too early for Qiao Qiusheng and Qiao Zhufang to return.
They would probably be gone for at least two hours.
Besides, Qiao Heping and He Yingying had only returned early because of this unexpected situation.
They had originally planned to stay in He Family Village for lunch.
Qiao Zhufang and Qiao Qiusheng didn’t know their son and daughter-in-law had returned early, so after finishing the movie, they might very well go out to eat at a restaurant.
If they waited for them to return, it would probably be at least one o’clock.
The family of three stared at one another.
They looked at each other helplessly.
If they had known this would happen, they might as well have stayed in He Family Village and eaten lunch there before coming back.
“How about we go see a movie too?” Qiao Heping suggested. “After the movie, we can find a good state-owned restaurant and have lunch. Maybe we’ll even run into Mom and Dad.”
He Yingying rubbed her forehead helplessly.
“Fine.”
The family of three had only been home for a few minutes before heading out again.
The cinema wasn’t far from home, so they didn’t bother taking the bicycle.
They walked there together.
Halfway there, Qiao Jia Jia suddenly stopped.
She tilted her little face up toward her father.
“Daddy, can you give me some money? I want to buy an ice cream.”
Although Qiao Jia Jia was only three, her family usually gave her a little pocket money.
It was just that the little dress she was wearing today had no pockets, so she hadn’t brought any money with her.
The weather was a little hot.
As soon as they reached the corner, she spotted an ice cream box sitting on the counter of a state-owned store.
She thought for a few seconds before immediately turning to her father for money.
During summers in this era, aside from watermelon, ice cream was her favorite treat.
And honestly, the ice cream from this era wasn’t much worse than that of later generations.
There weren’t many additives, and it genuinely tasted good.
Qiao Jia Jia’s big eyes blinked expectantly.
Her daughter was simply too adorable.
Qiao Heping wanted nothing more than to immediately agree and buy her an ice cream.
But he still had some common sense left.
After hesitating for a few seconds, he spread his hands helplessly.
“Your mother made the rules. You’re allowed no more than three ice creams a week. I can’t make that decision.”
Qiao Jia Jia pouted.
Then she turned toward her mother, the final boss of the family, and launched her attack.
She gently tugged on her mother’s hand and pleaded pitifully.
“Mommy, I can eat one less next week. Please?”
When serious matters came up, Qiao Jia Jia was extremely mature.
But in other situations, after being spoiled like the family’s precious little darling for three years, she was still very much like a real three-year-old.
She was incredibly good at acting cute!
She was only three years old!
She absolutely could not be any older.
He Yingying quickly turned her head away.
She didn’t dare look at her daughter, because she knew she would give in if she did.
“No, Jia Jia. Ice cream is too cold. If you eat too much, you’ll get an upset stomach. How about we buy you a bottle of soda instead? You can drink it before we continue walking.”
“Okay… fine!”
Soda it was.
Since she knew she wasn’t getting ice cream today, Qiao Jia Jia quickly compromised and shifted her efforts toward negotiating for a few extra sips of soda.
That little episode swept away the gloomy atmosphere caused by the grain shortage.
Qiao Heping and He Yingying were also amused by their daughter, and their moods became much lighter.
When they reached the cinema, they really did run into Qiao Qiusheng and Qiao Zhufang.
But they didn’t immediately tell them everything.
There was no need to rush.
They could simply wait until after the movie.
“Stock up on grain?” Qiao Qiusheng said after hearing the news. His first reaction was immediate. “Forget it for now. There are people everywhere. Don’t ask me about it here. We’ll talk about it properly when we get home.”
Qiao Zhufang had been talking to someone passing by and hadn’t heard the conversation between the father and son.
Seeing their serious expressions, she asked in confusion,
“What happened? Is something wrong?
“Oh, right, Yingying. Didn’t you go to He Family Village? This morning you said you were going to eat lunch there before coming back. Why are you back so early?
“And why are you here at the cinema?”
“Something came up, so we came back early.”
After saying that, He Yingying leaned close to her mother-in-law’s ear and briefly explained what had happened.
Since this was no small matter, the family didn’t even bother eating outside.
They went straight home.
“Now that we’re home, tell me everything about this in detail.”
As soon as they got home, Qiao Qiusheng closed the door first.
Only then did he ask his son about the matter of stocking up on grain.
Qiao Heping explained everything from beginning to end.
“Dad, what do you think? Should our family stock up on some grain too?
“It’s better to be safe than sorry. If things really turn out the way the brigade leader said and we have droughts for several years in a row, then famine will definitely follow.”
Qiao Qiusheng was silent for a while before finally saying,
“Don’t make a decision yet.
“Take some time and go to He Family Village again. Ask the brigade leader about it and see if you can find out anything else.
“I’ll go and talk to people at the Water Conservancy Bureau and the Meteorological Bureau and see what the situation is really like.”
Although he said they should not rush into a decision, Qiao Qiusheng’s heart had already begun to waver.
He had experienced famine himself.
At the time, he had been seven or eight years old and was already old enough to remember everything clearly.
He remembered that the famine had also been caused by years of severe drought.
People ate clay and chewed tree bark.
Anything that could possibly be eaten was found and consumed.
Wherever groups of refugees passed, not even a blade of grass remained.
It was also because of that period of fleeing from famine that he had been sold as a child husband.
The deepest impression that period had left on Qiao Qiusheng was hunger.
He had been so hungry that the feeling had been carved into his very bones.
Because he had experienced such hardship, Qiao Qiusheng had always tried desperately to seize every opportunity to survive.
He had worked hard and struggled so that he would never fall back into the same situation.
He had once sworn that he would never let his wife or children go hungry.
The pain of hunger was too terrible.
Experiencing it once himself was more than enough.
So by this point, Qiao Qiusheng had already made up his mind.
No matter what they found out, he would choose to stock up on grain.
At the very least, it would give him peace of mind.
Father and son went their separate ways to investigate.
The information they obtained was largely the same.
The Water Conservancy Bureau and Meteorological Bureau could only say that there were signs that a drought might occur this year.
They could not determine with certainty whether droughts would continue for the next several years.
And that was the truth.
If people could accurately predict such disasters, there wouldn’t have been so many major disasters throughout history.
As for the brigade leader of He Family Village, no matter how Qiao Heping questioned him, he insisted that his prediction was based on his own judgment.
As for any more concrete evidence, he said he had none.
Could He the brigade leader tell Qiao Heping the truth?
Absolutely not.
And even if he did, Qiao Heping might not believe him.
Because the truth was that the prediction that the next three years would bring consecutive droughts and famine had come from his six-year-old daughter.
If he told anyone that, who would believe him?
At first, even the brigade leader himself hadn’t believed her.
After all, his daughter was only six years old.
What could a six-year-old child possibly know?
How could a child know about something as serious as a nationwide drought?
But the truth was that his daughter had dreamed it.
It had started at the beginning of the year.
At first, his daughter told him she had dreamed that there would be a drought that year.
The brigade leader hadn’t taken it seriously.
Droughts happened every few years anyway. It wasn’t anything unusual.
Then his daughter told him she had dreamed that the current cooperative would later be renamed the “People’s Commune,” and that the name would be used all across the country.
And sure enough, it happened.
Just the previous month, on July 1, the People’s Communes had been established.
At that point, the brigade leader had become somewhat convinced and somewhat doubtful.
Then his daughter told him she had dreamed of people shouting slogans about being bold enough to achieve enormous yields and producing more than ten thousand jin per mu.
Before long, that really happened.
It even appeared in the newspapers.
After that, the commune began assigning production targets to them.
His daughter was only six years old.
Although she was somewhat smarter than other children her age, she had always remained under the watchful eyes of her parents.
How could she possibly have obtained information that even adults couldn’t find out?
So the only possible explanation was that she had truly dreamed all of it.
After the previous incidents had come true, when his daughter later told him that there would be severe droughts for several years and famine would break out everywhere, the brigade leader immediately believed her.
After all, there were already signs of drought that year.
That was the reason he had urged everyone to stock up on grain.
Of course, he could never tell anyone that his daughter had dreamed it.
Otherwise, people would think he was making up stories.
So he could only claim that he had reached the conclusion himself.
No matter who asked, that was the answer he gave.
As for what was really going on with the brigade leader’s daughter?
The truth was actually very simple.
The brigade leader’s daughter, He Zhen, was a transmigrator.
She had been reincarnated into the 1950s from birth after coming from the modern era, and she had already genuinely lived in this era for six years.
She knew her parents in this life very well.
They would never regard her as some kind of monster or demon and burn her to death.
That was why she dared to boldly use the excuse of having dreams to reveal bits of future history.
In the end, her father had finally chosen to believe her.
He had even encouraged the entire village to stock up on grain.
All her effort and all the excuses she had painstakingly come up with to “dream” about the future had not been wasted.
The Three Years of Difficulty were truly devastating.
Life was already hard enough in this era.
If they could avoid going hungry, then they should do everything possible to avoid it.
He Zhen also did not stop her father from spreading the warning and allowing the entire village to stock up on grain.
After all, her father was the brigade leader, and almost everyone in this part of He Family Village was related to one another.
They all shared the same surname.
Simply because of the responsibility that came with his position, her father could never stand by and watch his fellow villagers starve to death.
Besides, He Zhen knew just how terrifying those three difficult years had been.
If only her own family could eat their fill while everyone else went hungry, then as soon as the other villagers noticed something was wrong, they would swarm her family and tear them apart.
Their grain would certainly be seized as well.
When people are close to starving to death, they really are capable of anything.
So it was better to let her father take a little risk and make up a plausible reason, allowing the entire village to stock up on grain together.
Even with the wildest imagination, Qiao Jia Jia would never have guessed that the brigade leader’s daughter was also a transmigrator.
Besides, she didn’t even know the brigade leader, let alone his daughter.
At this moment, her attention was focused on her own family’s grain reserves.
The Qiao family acted quickly and decisively.
Once they decided to stock up on grain, they moved immediately.
According to the brigade leader, the next three years would all be difficult, so naturally they needed to store a substantial amount.
The Qiao family had quite a bit of savings—more than 6,000 yuan.
In an era when thirty or forty yuan was enough for a family to live on for an entire month, everyone in the Qiao household together earned more than 200 yuan in wages each month.
Even if they spent generously, saving more than 100 yuan a month was easy.
At this time, grain was still relatively cheap.
Take rice paddy grain, for example.
The purchasing station paid six yuan for fifty kilograms of paddy rice.
That worked out to only about 0.12 yuan per kilogram.
Of course, buying grain privately was impossible at that price.
After all, people in the cities needed grain coupons to buy grain.
Naturally, when people in the countryside sold grain privately, they charged a higher price.
On the black market, paddy rice cost around 0.30 yuan per kilogram.
That was more than twice the price offered by the purchasing station.
Precisely because of this, many rural farmers preferred to secretly sell their grain privately rather than deliver it to the purchasing station.
They could make a little more money that way.
The Qiao family spent nearly 400 yuan at once to stock up on grain.
They bought more than a thousand jin in total.
Naturally, it wasn’t all paddy rice.
They bought various kinds of grain, including both coarse and fine grains.
The important thing was that everything they bought could be stored for a long time.
It wouldn’t be a problem to keep it for at least three years.
More than a thousand jin sounded like a lot, but when spread over the family, it wasn’t actually that much.
According to the brigade leader, the next three years would be plagued by drought and eventually famine.
Three years meant thirty-six months.
Spread over thirty-six months, their thousand-plus jin of grain meant the family would have less than forty kilograms of extra grain each month.
Divided among five people, that meant each person would have only about eight extra kilograms of grain per month.
That was sixteen jin per person.
Just enough to eat.
Still, buying more than a thousand jin of grain in one go was already a major undertaking.
Although they had purchased it from several different places, the total amount was still quite large.
If they continued buying more, it would probably attract attention.
So the Qiao family had no choice but to stop for the time being.
If they got another opportunity later, they could slowly buy small amounts here and there.
Of the more than one thousand jin of grain they had stored, one-third was kept in their current home.
The remaining two-thirds was stored in the cellar of the old family house in He Family Village, where they had lived before moving to the provincial capital.
He Yingying’s parents would keep an eye on it for them.
Besides stocking up for themselves, the Qiao family also quietly notified some close friends and encouraged them to store some grain as well.
It was always better to be prepared.
Because the Qiao family acted so quickly, they managed to finish stocking up within just a few days.
After that, they no longer had to worry as much.
They could finally focus on preparing for Jia Jia’s first day of kindergarten.
Qiao Jia Jia attended the factory-run kindergarten.
The steel factory employed tens of thousands of people, so there were quite a lot of children around her age who were starting kindergarten that year.
Most of the children’s parents knew one another too.
After all, they all worked at the same factory and had seen each other more than once.
When they saw their coworkers bringing their own children to register for kindergarten, they exchanged glances and smiled.
No matter what era it was, children almost always cried on their first day of school.
At the kindergarten entrance, the parents had barely left before the crying had already become deafening.
Fortunately, the teachers were very experienced.
They took each arriving child into the classroom one by one and prepared to comfort them.
Today was Qiao Jia Jia’s first day of school.
Although it was only kindergarten, in the eyes of the adults in the family, it was already a very important milestone.
Qiao Qiusheng, Qiao Heping, and He Yingying had all requested leave from the factory specifically so they could accompany Jia Jia for her first day.
Four adults from one family escorting a single child to kindergarten was quite an unusual sight.
Most other children had no more than two parents or family members accompanying them.
Seeing that their precious Jia Jia would soon be taken away by the teacher, the whole family was reluctant to let her go.
Their granddaughter was so well-behaved.
What if some naughty child bullied her at kindergarten?
The thought alone made Qiao Zhufang unable to stop giving her granddaughter instructions.
“If anyone bullies you, don’t put up with it. Make sure you tell the teacher. Whatever happens, tell your teacher.”
He Yingying also reminded her, “I put some snacks in your little bag. Eat them if you get hungry. You can share them with the other children too. Mommy packed plenty.
“There’s also a military-green water bottle in your bag. It has warm boiled water inside. If you get thirsty after eating your snacks, remember to drink some water.”
Qiao Qiusheng, as her grandfather, added, “Grandpa and Grandma will come to pick you up at noon. Then we’ll go home for lunch. We’re making sweet-and-sour ribs today.”
Grandpa Qiao Qiusheng was an excellent cook.
Qiao Jia Jia’s favorite dish was the sweet-and-sour ribs he made.
Of the four adults, only Qiao Heping had yet to say anything.
He stepped forward, picked up his daughter, and said with a smile,
“Dad found you a bodyguard.
“Your Uncle Dalong’s son, Xiaojun, is also registering for kindergarten today. I already spoke to the kindergarten director in advance.
“You two were assigned to the same class.
“He’s a big kid and pretty good at fighting. Last time, he even knocked down a boy two years older than him who tried to bully him.
“From now on, let your big brother Xiaojun protect you. If anyone bullies you, just have your big brother Xiaojun beat them up!”
He Yingying discreetly pinched her husband around the waist.
Through gritted teeth, she said, “It’s Jia Jia’s first day of school, and you’re already teaching her to fight. You really are hopeless.”
Qiao Heping felt rather wronged.
He put his daughter down and raised his hands in surrender.
“I’m only thinking about our daughter! Isn’t it better to bully others than to be bullied?
“Besides, I trust our Jia Jia. She definitely won’t ask Xiaojun to beat someone up for no reason. If she really does, then that person must have bullied her first!”
Listening to her parents, Qiao Jia Jia suddenly felt that she wasn’t going to kindergarten at all.
It felt more like she was heading into the lair of some terrifying monster.
“You’re here early too?”
The person speaking was Qiao Heping’s good friend, He Dalong, one of the three close friends who had originally come from the village to the provincial capital with him.
He was holding the hand of his younger son, He Xiaojun.
He Dalong reminded his son,
“This is your little sister Jia Jia. She visited our home before. You remember her, right?
“You’re in the same class. As her big brother, you have to take good care of her and protect her.”
He Xiaojun was one year older than Qiao Jia Jia.
He was four years old this year, but he was already as tall as a six-year-old.
Like all little boys, He Xiaojun was somewhat mischievous.
Still, he listened quite well to his father.
And he liked little Jia Jia very much, especially since she was so pretty.
He patted his chest like a little grown-up and declared,
“I’ll protect you from now on. I definitely won’t let anyone hit you.”
Then he came over and took Qiao Jia Jia’s hand, wanting to walk into the kindergarten with her.
Qiao Jia Jia knew He Xiaojun too.
Her father had taken her to visit the He family before.
Although He Xiaojun was a little mischievous, he wasn’t a troublesome child.
Qiao Jia Jia didn’t dislike him.
So she followed him into the kindergarten.
As she walked in, she waved at her family.
“Goodbye, Daddy, Mommy, Grandpa, Grandma! I’m going to school!”
Seeing this, He Xiaojun copied her.
“Goodbye, Dad! I’m going to school!”
This wasn’t He Dalong’s first time taking a child to kindergarten.
His older son was already in elementary school, so he didn’t have the same emotional attachment to seeing a child off to school.
After watching his younger son go inside, he turned around and headed to the factory for work.
The four adults from the Qiao family were different.
They genuinely felt a sense of sadness at having to part with Jia Jia.
This was the first time Jia Jia had ever been away from home since she was born.
She had never been separated from the adults before.
Qiao Qiusheng, Qiao Heping, and He Yingying stood there until Jia Jia’s figure disappeared completely from sight.
Even then, they remained there for a while before finally turning around and heading to the factory to continue working.
And while they were at work, they couldn’t help thinking about Jia Jia.
There was only one child in the family.
All four adults truly doted on their precious Jia Jia from the bottom of their hearts.
They had never allowed her to suffer even the slightest hardship or grievance.
Now that she had suddenly left their side and been sent to kindergarten, how could they possibly not worry about her?
Qiao Zhufang had quit her job at the factory after Jia Jia was born.
From then on, she had stayed home every day to take care of Jia Jia.
Not a single day had passed without her feeling happy.
But when she returned home that day, she suddenly realized that without her precious granddaughter, the house had become strangely quiet.
The only sound came from the radio playing a program.
There was even a faint echo in the room, making the silence seem even more obvious.
Qiao Zhufang sighed.
It seemed that she needed to find herself another job.
Otherwise, staying home alone every day would be terribly boring.
She would spend most of the day without even seeing her precious granddaughter.
Everyone in the family had different thoughts.
At first, the adults weren’t used to Jia Jia having to go to school every day.
But after some time passed, they gradually managed to get used to it.
The person who became unaccustomed to things was now Qiao Jia Jia.
After attending kindergarten for several days, she discovered that as a student in the younger kindergarten class, nearly all her classmates were around three or four years old.
Their daily routine was basically just playing.
As long as they listened to the teacher, didn’t cry, and didn’t fight, they were considered good students.
As for studying…
What was that?
What did studying have to do with a group of three- and four-year-old children in the youngest kindergarten class?
Once Qiao Jia Jia understood this, she became a little bored.
Still, she treasured this second chance at life.
Besides, she had never attended kindergarten in her previous life.
So even though kindergarten life now seemed somewhat childish, she had no intention of skipping grades.
In her previous life, she had skipped grades all the way through school and entered university at fifteen.
She had been regarded as a genius by the orphanage director and her teachers.
But it had been exhausting.
In this life, she had already decided that she would grow up slowly and enjoy herself.
Why bother skipping grades?
Aside from the boredom, Qiao Jia Jia’s kindergarten life was actually quite happy.
She was pretty.
Not only did the teachers like her, but the other children in her class liked her too.
They would come looking for her to play and wanted to become her friends.
She also received all kinds of little snacks every day.
Whatever food the parents brought for their children often ended up being shared with her.
Qiao Jia Jia wasn’t cold-hearted.
And when little children weren’t being naughty, they really could be quite adorable.
They were all so eager to please her that she couldn’t bring herself to ignore her little classmates.
So after spending more time around the children, Qiao Jia Jia quickly became genuinely integrated into kindergarten life.
Her daily routine was simply playing and having fun.
Before long, there was hardly any difference between her and a real child.
Of course, after returning home, she still studied foreign languages with her grandfather and father.
She had already learned almost all the Russian she needed.
Now she was studying German.
But even that was easy for her.
After all, she was only three.
Her father and grandfather weren’t going to give her homework.
They simply let her learn at her own pace.
“Hit it more gently! We only need a hole about the size of an egg here for the water pipe!
“Raise this part of the counter a little higher. Give it a slight slope so the water can flow out.”
Qiao Qiusheng was outside directing the workers they had hired.
Qiao Zhufang was accompanying him nearby.
Time quickly moved into the middle of September.
Qiao Jia Jia had already been attending kindergarten for more than half a month.
Today happened to be Sunday, so she didn’t have to go to kindergarten.
She stayed curled up in bed until ten in the morning before finally getting up.
She was nestled in her mother’s arms while He Yingying combed her hair.
Qiao Jia Jia asked curiously in her clear little voice,
“What are they doing outside? Why do I hear the sound of someone smashing the wall?”
“We’re planning to partition off a small shower room in the bathroom,” He Yingying explained.
“That way, we won’t have to go to the public shower room in the middle of the building anymore.
“Our family is on the first floor, so it’s convenient to do this. There’s empty land and a wall right outside our bathroom, so we can simply run the water pipe through the wall.”
Each household in the apartment building had only a kitchen and a toilet.
There were no private bathrooms.
Whenever people wanted to take a bath, they either went to the workers’ bathhouse at the factory or used the public shower room in the apartment building, carrying their own hot water there.
For convenience, people generally didn’t go to the factory bathhouse during the summer.
Most simply carried water to the public shower room and washed there.
The main reason was that the walk was somewhat far.
By the time they finished bathing and walked home, they would often be sweating again.
But the Qiao family never used the public shower room in the building.
The main reason was that Qiao Zhufang was particular about cleanliness.
She felt that the shower room was shared by both men and women and wasn’t clean enough.
So every time, she would rather walk a little farther to the workers’ bathhouse.
Alternatively, she would bring an enamel basin into their own bathroom and wash herself there.
But neither option was particularly convenient.
If they weren’t careful, water would accumulate on the bathroom floor, making it troublesome to clean up.
Qiao Zhufang had wanted to build a small shower room in the bathroom for a long time.
They only needed to make a hole in the corner of the wall and install a water pipe so the water could drain outside.
The construction itself wasn’t complicated.
But various things had kept delaying it.
Last month, they had already contacted the workers and gathered all the necessary materials and cement.
Then the grain-stockpiling situation came up, so the project was delayed until now.
Qiao Jia Jia thought having a private shower room at home was actually quite nice.
At least it would make things much easier during the summer.
So she nodded.
“I’m going to take a look at our new shower room later.”
“Mm, there’s no rush.”
After finishing her daughter’s hair and tying it into two pretty little braids, He Yingying brought over a little dress and a pair of newly made handmade sandals.
“Come, try on this dress. And these sandals too. They’re made of cowhide. Your dad specifically found a craftsman to make them for you.
“The leather is soft, so they won’t rub your feet at all.”
Qiao Jia Jia immediately threw herself into her mother’s arms and wriggled around.
Then she wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist.
“Why do I have to change clothes again? Are we going somewhere today?”
Her daughter was so tiny that He Yingying easily picked her up.
She kissed her soft, cuddly daughter several times before laughing and saying,
“Today we’re taking you to your maternal grandparents’ home again.
“Last time, we only stayed for a few minutes before coming back. Then we got busy, and your father and I went there again ourselves, but we still haven’t had a chance to take you back.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to go there to pick fruit?
“Your father even said yesterday that he couldn’t break his promise and absolutely had to take you.
“Also, your cousin Rou Rou is already seven by traditional age this year. She’s going to start elementary school, so I’m bringing her some paper and pens as a gift.
“I’ll also give her a little shoulder bag to carry her books.
“I promised her before that when she started school, her aunt would definitely give her a present.”