The hot weather matches the tense atmosphere outside.
At noon in midsummer, the scorching sun mercilessly baked everything on the earth. The dirt roads in the countryside were scorched and hot, and the grass on both sides of the road drooped its leaves under the scorching sun. The ground seemed to be covered by a huge steamer, making it hard to breathe.
This is a rare Sunday.
Zhengguo returned from the provincial capital early in the morning and brought the things he brought back to Qian Shulan as usual.
Qian Shulan cooked for him. After the meal, Qian Shulan took Xiaomin into the house to learn how to read.
Xiao Min is already four years old. There is a saying that goes, education should start from childhood, not just prenatal education. Four years old is the time when children learn things the fastest.
She wants Xiao Min to win at the starting line, maybe Xiao Min can even become one of the first batch of college students.
After Zhengguo finished his meal, he didn't want to disturb them, so he went straight to find Xu Lizhen.
I heard that she also came back from the county town today.
Although Xu Lizhen took over Wang Danna's job in the county town and the grain and oil relationship was temporarily transferred to the county town, she and her nephew's household registration was still in the Wangjia Village Production Team. The nephew needed to make up the work points here before he could get the grain.
So Xu Lizhen went to the fields to weed early in the morning.
Xu Youlin also helped her with the work like a little adult.
Since he was too small to hold a hoe, he used a small shovel to dig bit by bit.
When Zhengguo arrived, he saw two people working one after the other and hurried over.
He was holding the watermelon that Qian Shulan asked him to bring.
Standing at the edge of the field, I called out to them, "Come over here and have some watermelon to quench your thirst."
When Xu Lizhen saw him coming, she immediately smiled.
Xu Youlin's eyes lit up and he quickly dropped the small shovel in his hand and ran over.
The three of them arrived under the tree.
Jungkook picked some leaves and spread them on the ground. Then he used a spoon to split the watermelon in half and let Seo Woo-rim eat half alone.
He ate the other half with Xu Lizhen.
Watching him scoop a spoonful and put it to her mouth, Xu Lizhen looked around shyly.
Seeing that everyone was far away, she let go of her reserve.
When she was done, Jungkook scooped a spoonful for himself.
Xu Youlin was about to cry when he saw that they were only concerned with eating, "Uncle Zhengguo, where is my spoon?"
Zhengguo slapped his forehead as if he had just remembered, "What if there is only one spoon?"
Xu Youlin looked down at the half watermelon in his arms, then looked at the spoon in his hand, and was a little dumbfounded.
He was about to grab the watermelon with his hands, but Xu Lizhen grabbed his little hand and said, "Are you dirty?" She winked at Zhengguo and said, "Give him the spoon, we can eat it later."
Zhengguo shook his head and said, "Youlin, go to Grandma Qian's house and get a spoon."
The place where they were sitting now was right behind Qian Shulan's house, very close.
Xu Youlin thought about it, put the watermelon in his arms on the leaves, and then got up from the ground.
Xu Lizhen was a little worried that he would get lost, so she kept watching his back.
Zhengguo thought she was like an old mother. In the countryside, no matter boys or girls, they were all raised roughly. How could anyone be so protective of their children? "He is already nine years old and in the second grade of elementary school. You should try to let go."
Xu Lizhen heard what he said and glared at him, "You must have done it on purpose." She didn't believe he had forgotten. There were clearly three people, how could he have only remembered to take one.
Zhengguo quickly glanced around, pulled her to sit down again, and took out a small notebook from his pocket and handed it to her, "I'm already twenty years old, let's get married."
When Xu Lizhen heard about marriage, her face quickly turned red. She pursed her lips and took it shyly. It turned out to be his account book.
Zhengguo had become a regular employee two years ago, and was later promoted two levels. His current monthly salary is 48.7 yuan.
This notebook records that he has saved more than a thousand yuan in the past four years.
Jungkook smiled and said, “When we get married, you will be in charge of our family’s finances.”
Xu Lizhen was very happy and said modestly, "You said so."
Jungkook nodded seriously, “As long as you listen to me, I’ll give you all my money.”
Xu Lizhen frowned. Why did this sound so awkward? She was about to ask when Zhengguo's face suddenly appeared in front of her. She subconsciously took a step back.
Suddenly he remembered that there was a tree behind him and stopped again.
She soon felt a warm breath on her face, and her lips were immediately blocked. Her mouth was half open, and she wanted to speak, but his tongue took the opportunity to slip in.
"Uncle Zhengguo, what are you doing?"
The scream woke Xu Lizhen up instantly. She pushed Zhengguo away and turned her back. Zhengguo let go of his hands that were holding on to the tree, with a look of gritted teeth on his face. This brat came at the perfect time!
He turned his head and returned to his cheerful and sunny state. "Did you get the spoon?"
Xu Youlin raised the small spoon, without bothering to ask the previous question, and directly picked up half a watermelon on the ground.
Zhengguo rolled his eyes and said, "Youlin, can you give the watermelon to uncle?"
Xu Youlin thought about it for a long time with some pain in his heart, and finally handed it over, "You eat it!"
Seeing him being so polite, Zhengguo was not satisfied, but became more demanding, "Give it all to uncle, please!"
"Not good!" Xu Youlin hugged the watermelon back and looked at him warily. Uncle Zhengguo was really too greedy.
Zhengguo looked at him with a wronged look, "But I brought this watermelon."
Xu Youlin remembered this when he was reminded of it. He looked at his aunt and found that her face was flushed and she kept her head down as if she didn't dare to look at anyone.
Unable to get help, Xu Youlin had to pout and hand over the watermelon.
Seeing that he clearly wanted to eat but was willing to give up, Zhengguo pointed to a tree about fifty meters away from them and said, "Go eat over there. I'm jealous of you eating."
Xu Youlin was stunned, holding the watermelon in his arms, as if he didn't believe it, "I'm going to eat over there, and you won't snatch it from me?"
Jungkook nodded seriously, “Yes.”
After getting a positive answer, Xu Youlin ran over there. As if he was afraid that he would snatch it away, he sat down with his back to them.
Seeing her nephew walking away, Xu Lizhen raised her head and glared at him, "Why are you so..."
His mouth was blocked again, and Jungkook seemed to be tasting the most delicious candy in the world and couldn't get enough of it.
He touched her cheek with one hand, and the slippery touch made his heart sway.
After the kiss, both of them blushed. Xu Lizhen glared at him awkwardly, "It would be bad if someone saw us."
Jungkook sat back down, his posture restored.
He coughed lightly, "I have a house in the county, but it's a little too old. My grandma helped me build a mud and thatched house before. Do you want a brick house?"
Thinking of the chaos in the county town, Xu Lizhen said hurriedly, "No need, a mud and thatched house will be fine, it won't be conspicuous."
Zhengguo sighed and didn't tell her that the provincial capital was even more chaotic than the county town.
The two of them discussed what to buy for the wedding.
After a long while, Xu Youlin came running over holding the watermelon that he had eaten clean.
Looking at the half watermelon ladle, Xu Lizhen looked at his round belly and frowned, "You must be full, right?"
Xu Youlin shook his head and said, "No, this watermelon is delicious."
Xu Lizhen sighed heavily. In the city, watermelon is a popular product that only comes once a month, and you have to line up early in the morning. She has no time at all because she has to go to work.
Xu Youlin rarely eats fruit.
Zhengguo put the notebook into his shoulder bag, stood up and picked up Xu Lizhen's hoe, "I'll help you hoe, we can go back earlier!"
Xu Lizhen shook her head. "No need! I only need to make up for Youlin's work points now. One day of work on the weekend is enough. Let's go back. We still need to discuss the purchase of things."
Zhengguo thought about it and felt that marriage was more important. Seeing that he was no longer weeding, Xu Youlin quickly ran back to the field to get his small shovel back.
Zhengguo ran to find the scorekeepers and asked them to come over to record the work points.
When she arrived at the Qian family and heard them say they were going to get married, Qian Shulan was naturally happy too.
Qian Shulan is very good at buying things for weddings. She has helped to review Zhengkang and Xiaomei's things.
Qian Shulan smiled and said, "I can't get other things, but I can get clothes, shoes and cotton."
Qian Shulan had been in contact with Xiang Hongjun and Liu Guangji over the years. During the famine, she had even asked Qian Weihan to help her pass on some food to them.
At first, she exchanged the coupons for national food coupons and sent them over. The coupons were for 100 kilograms, but when they got them, there was not even 2 kilograms left. Qian Shulan was almost mad to death.
I had no choice but to ask someone to go over there specifically. Although I had to give them a little kickback, at least they wouldn't be so cruel.
The food she brought saved the lives of the Xiang and Liu families, and they would send her things from time to time.
Sometimes she would also send some high-quality fine cotton cloth, which she would only give to the younger ones in the family, even to Qian Weihan’s youngest son.
As for adults, they don't have any. If it's a piece of inferior cotton cloth or work cloth, the family can glue it all together.
"Thank you, grandma!"
Zhengguo really admired his grandmother. There was nothing more difficult to get for a wedding than cloth coupons, shoe coupons and cotton coupons.
His colleagues had to ask for help from others in order to collect these things, but he saved a lot of trouble because he had a good grandmother.
Apart from these three items, Jung Guk and Seo Li Zhen have tickets for everything else.
Zhengguo took Xu Lizhen to the county town to buy things that day, and of course Xu Youlin went with them.
Fortunately, Zhengguo doesn't have to be bald like Zhengkang, without even a decent piece of clothing. He can have thirty-six legs.
The trees in their Wangjia Village production team have grown up.
In order to make the trees mature faster, they dug four or five years old from the Changshan Mountain and planted them on the other side of the canal. Even during the famine, Qian Shulan never forgot to water the trees.
It has been about eleven or twelve years now, and now many young people of the right age in the production team can be approved to get married.
Jungkook came at a good time.
Qian Shulan asked Qian Weihan to transport the cut down trees to the furniture factory to help process them into furniture.
This furniture factory reopened as early as last year.
The business volume is just much less than before. The advantage is that we don’t have to wait in line for one or two months like before.
Zhengguo and Xu Lizhen went to the county town to decorate their new house. Sun Daqin felt very disappointed when she heard about it.
She brought Zhengkang's son Fengchan over and let Fengchan sit in the stroller to play.
After she sat down, she complained to Qian Shulan, "Zhengguo is too opinionated. He didn't even discuss such an important matter as marriage with me."
Qian Shulan glanced at Fengchan who was having a great time, then turned to look at her, "He asked you, do you have time?"
Sun Daqin's face froze, and she felt a little uncomfortable. "I can find it if I find time."
Qian Shulan looked at her forehead. Her career value, which was originally 9, dropped back to 8 points because she had not worked for a year.
She rubbed her brows and said, "You know that the child has been worry-free since he was young." She frowned and looked at Fengchan, "Have you always been taking care of this child?"
Sun Daqin waved her hands, "How can that be possible? They said they would take her back when she was four years old!" She felt extremely disappointed and looked at Fengchan reluctantly, "I have been taking care of this child all along. I can't bear to take her away when she grows up a little bit."
Qian Shulan's mouth twitched. In another three years, wouldn't this eight-point career value drop back to six or seven points
She is so unlucky! Why is it so difficult to improve Sun Daqin's career value
Li Chunhua and Zhou Xuemei both scored 10 points, but Sun Daqin declined instead of rising!
Qian Shulan thought for a moment and said, "It's a bit boring to take care of the kids every day. Why don't you learn some skills?"
Sun Daqin was stunned for a moment, "What kind of skills can I learn?"
This question confused Qian Shulan. Yes, what can Sun Daqin learn!
The year before last, Sun Daqin had already obtained her certificate of completion.
But the famine was over, and the factory was downsizing, so many temporary workers were laid off. It was impossible for the factory to recruit workers in recent years.
So Sun Daqin was destined to never find a job.
And she also has to take care of Zhengkang's children. So, what should she let Sun Daqin learn
How about growing greenhouse vegetables with Zhou Xuemei? But she can't farm with her kids
Qian Shulan thought for a long time and finally came up with an idea, "You can learn to keep accounts from me. You can read anyway!"
Sun Daqin thought of her mother-in-law's strictness and wanted to back out, "Mom, why should I learn this?"
Seeing that she was not motivated, Qian Shulan glared at her and said, "When you learn it, I will let you be an accountant in the chicken farm. You can earn ten work points a day, which is better than you earning nothing now!"
Sun Daqin was frightened by the glare from her mother-in-law. She trembled, shrank her neck, and hurriedly responded.
Seeing that she agreed, Qian Shulan started teaching immediately.
Textbooks are also ready-made, and both Little Donkey and Xiaohe’s books can be used.
Sun Daqin came to report every day with a hard time.
Qian Shulan found out after teaching for a while that Sun Daqin was just not serious before. Her brain was much better than Li Chunhua's. She taught many formulas once and Sun Daqin could understand them. Unlike Li Chunhua, she could not remember them no matter how hard she tried.
After teaching, Qian Shulan would assign homework to Sun Daqin.
Sun Daqin completed the task very well. Although there were some mistakes, after she explained it to her, Sun Daqin understood and corrected the mistakes immediately.
The author has something to say: It’s the last day of July. I’ve been working hard for a month. Isn’t that hardworking