It's not to blame Liu Xiuyun for being fussy, because everyone's life is too difficult.
In the past decade or so, the campaign of "learning from Dazhai in agriculture" has been carried out in rural areas across the country. There is a big pot of rice in the countryside, and every farmer is a member of the commune and has to participate in labor to earn work points.
How work points are counted is determined by each production team. One working day is counted as ten work points, and the work points approved by each person are different for different genders and ages.
This is an era when a lot of waste is waiting to be built. The land is barren, the productivity is low, and the population is large. The brigades have to hand in the work after collecting the grain. After the handover, the remaining grain can be distributed according to the work points approved by each member.
A young daughter-in-law like Liu Xiuyun can’t do heavy and tiring work. She gets six or seven work points a day, and one work point costs six cents. This is because Dayu Village relies on mountains to draw water. In addition to food, there are also some mountain products, fish, shrimp, and water chestnuts that can be taken away every year. The reason for the supply and marketing cooperatives to exchange money.
The most important point is that the ration money will be deducted from the work points at the end of the year, and the rest will belong to each person. Therefore, every household is in a tight budget. Let alone eating eggs and meat, they are already full. It's not easy.
The three reed chickens in the family eat three eggs a day, and the conditions of the Dong family are not bad, so they don’t sell the eggs for money. Except for the confinement wife and young children, the family can occasionally eat eggs and beat teeth for sacrifice.
But the Dong family has more than a dozen mouths, and three eggs a day is definitely not enough. Liu Xiuyun remembers that the last time she ate eggs was a month ago.
She also knew that in the past few days since her sister-in-law was rescued from jumping into the river, her mother-in-law secretly prepared a lot of food for Dong Jiahui, such as eggs, white noodles, and brown sugar, which almost caught up with the confinement treatment.
Even though Liu Xiuyun had thoughts in her heart, she was not stupid, she couldn't show it in front of the whole family, at most she went back to the room to chat with her husband, so she didn't look much different from usual.
Speaking of which, the three daughter-in-laws of the Dong family are not bad in character and appearance. The eldest daughter-in-law Zhou Yindi and the third daughter-in-law Zhao Lijuan were older sisters when they were in their natal family, and they were very temperamental and knew how to give in. As for Liu Xiuyun, she was neither big nor young in her natal family. Yes, the child in the middle is most likely to be neglected by her parents. In addition, the conditions of her mother’s family are not very good. She lived a hard life when she was a child.
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After Dong Jiahui recovered, she helped with housework at home every day, such as washing clothes, cooking, feeding chickens, and tidying vegetable fields.
This day the second nephew came home with a bruised nose and a swollen face. There was a big tear in his clothes, and all the cotton inside fell out. Liu Xiuyun was very angry when he saw it. After many months, he was ruined like this by a hammer!
With a dark face, she took a rolling pin from the kitchen and chased the hammer to beat him.
"You brat, you were born to collect debts. If you don't beat me up for a day, your skin will itch, right? See if I don't break your legs!"
Hammer is seven years old, the age at which people hate dogs. How could he stand obediently and wait for his mother to beat him up? He ran faster than a rabbit on two legs, and ran out from the far door in a blink of an eye. Mom made a face.
Liu Xiuyun patted her chest and panted, pointed at the hammer and said vehemently, "Stinky boy, wait for me, if you are capable, don't come back today, and let your father beat you when you come back."
"The cut is too big, I'm afraid it won't look good when you sew it up."
If there is a hole in the clothes, you can find another piece of cloth to make a patch. If you pull such a big hole, it is not a straight line, which is equivalent to tearing a small piece of cloth.
The sisters-in-law looked at the clothes they took off with a hammer and said that it was difficult, but no matter how difficult it was, they had to be sewn. It's just a pity that it is not easy to get a piece of cloth for this new dress these days.
Not to mention that each person only has a cloth ticket of one foot and five feet per year. This cloth ticket is only enough for adults to sew a set of underwear, and there is still some leftover for children to sew a set of clothes. , wearing short sleeves in summer and cotton-padded jackets in winter, what can one foot five feet of cloth do
In addition to cloth tickets, buying cloth also costs money. The Dong family only made a new cotton padded jacket for each of the six children this year, and none of the adults in the family was willing to add clothes.
I thought that spring would start soon after the new year, and the cotton clothes should be put away after two or three months at most. As long as the clothes are not damaged or damaged, I can continue to wear them next year.
Even if there are those who are too small to wear, they can be passed on to the younger brothers and sisters below, and there is no waste at all.
The original plan was good, but the new clothes were about to be patched in no time, so it was no wonder that Liu Xiuyun's face turned dark with anger.
When Liu Xiuyun was frowning and was at a loss, Dong Jiahui walked over with a smile.
"Second sister-in-law, why don't you let me try."
"you?"
Liu Xiuyun looked at Dong Jiahui suspiciously, and looked at the two sisters-in-law.
"Can you make it up?"
Liu Xiuyun couldn't believe it. When she married into the Dong family, Dong Jiahui was still a young girl with a shy temperament and not very talkative. Until Dong Jiahui married into the Lu family at the age of eighteen, she never showed her talent in needlework.
"It shouldn't be a problem. If my sister-in-law believes in me, let me try."
Liu Xiuyun handed the clothes to Dong Jiahui suspiciously. After handing them over, she was worried, and said, "If you can't do it, don't try to be brave. At worst, I'll spend money to find a tailor in town."
Don't spoil your clothes.
"I know, sister-in-law, don't worry."
Dong Jiahui was not angry when she heard Liu Xiuyun's implication, since she spoke with full confidence.
Her grandmother is from Suzhou. It is said that she used to be a well-known family in Suzhou. Her family was in trouble and she fled to the countryside to marry her grandfather. Grandma has excellent Suzhou embroidery skills. She taught Dong Jiahui this skill. , although her craftsmanship is not as good as that of grandma, but it is definitely no problem to mend clothes.
Dong Jiahui took the hammer's clothes and went back to the room. This room was originally a utility room where sundries were piled up at home. After Dong Jiahui came back, Chen Guixiang asked her family to clean it up, and made a bed board for her to build a small bed.
This kind of room is incomparable with the place she used to live in. Her parents are both Kochi, the family is considered upper middle class, and she is the only child in the family.
But people have to learn to adapt to the environment no matter what kind of environment they are in. The living environment in this era is like this. It is a great happiness to have a bed to sleep in and a place to shelter from the wind and rain.
Threading the needles was fast and exquisite, and it took only about ten minutes. When Dong Jiahui came out with the clothes, everyone was shocked.
"Huh? I really can't tell, Jiahui, when did you have this skill?"
The hole was not only sewn shut, but there was no trace of it. If I didn't know where the hole was in advance, I might not be able to find it if I searched carefully.
"It's not a craft, I just figured it out when I was free."
Dong Jiahui changed the topic lightly, but fortunately, the Dong family didn't think much about it, they all thought it was something she learned after marrying into the Lu family.
"This skill is more than enough for a tailor."
Craftsmen are very popular these days. There are tailors at the cloth counters of supply and marketing cooperatives. They can help make clothes, and they can also help people sew and mend. According to everyone, it is the effect of sending this dress to a tailor to mend. It's not necessarily better than Dong Jiahui's.
"Jiahui, your sewing skills have improved very quickly. I remember that you couldn't mend socks if you were asked to mend them."
The third sister-in-law Zhao Lijuan spoke quickly, and she knew something was wrong when she said this, so she hurriedly looked at Dong Jiahui's expression, for fear of irritating her.
Sewing and mending is delicate work, and it depends on practice makes perfect. Before Dong Jiahui got married, every button was not neatly sewed. Now that the craftsmanship is so good, why is it so fast
"It's okay, it's over, and I'm not sad at all."
Seeing everyone's cautious eyes, Dong Jiahui smiled and expressed her attitude, but everyone didn't believe that she was really not sad, they just thought she was forcing a smile.
Chen Guixiang turned her eyes away, she wanted to cry when she thought of the suffering her daughter had suffered in Lu's house.
"Okay, since the clothes have been mended, let's have dinner."
Tucking the corners of her eyes, Chen Guixiang greeted everyone to eat, a simple corn noodle soup, the noodle soup was made with pickles, it was very salty and appetizing, even the youngest Xiaoman ate a small bowl.
"Where's the hammer? It's getting dark and you haven't come back yet?"
After Dong Aimin drank two large bowls of pimple soup, he realized that his eldest son, Hammer, was not at home.
"Whatever he does, you're still afraid that he'll be hungry with his strength?"
Because the clothes were mended, most of Liu Xiuyun's anger has subsided, but Hammer has always been naughty, and he has done a lot of wrong things, even his own mother doesn't have much patience.
"I left a bowl of soup in the kitchen, let me know when he comes back."
Chen Guixiang knocked on the table and explained that every meal in the family is counted, how many people eat, how much each person eats, to ensure that no one is hungry, even if the hammer is not at home during the meal, he can't miss a bite Food, these days, no one has any food left over, so where can we go to fill our stomachs if we don’t come back to eat