met free Chapter 1074: Have the Courage to Overturn the Table
Chapter 1074: Have the Courage to Overturn the Table
Chapter 1074: Have the Courage to Overturn the Table
Time flies, and the spring breeze of reform has pushed the progress of history forward for another year.
In the autumn of 1982, Lin Dongzhe and Zhuang Xiaoting were both admitted to No. Middle School. For this reason, Song Ying prayed to all the gods, whether Buddhist or Taoist, and finally got what she wanted.
Qin Hao and Zhuang Tunan are in the graduating class of high school, and their academic workload is even more demanding. According to a document issued by Zhuang Chaoying from the Education Bureau, next fall, after Qin Hao's class, the academic system for both junior and senior high schools will be changed to three years. If the students of this class fail to get into college, they will have to spend another year in senior high school, and the content of the course will also undergo drastic changes.
Fortunately, Qin Hao and Zhuang Tunan's academic performance has always been among the best. To be precise, Qin Hao's performance has been very stable and he has always been the first in the grade. Zhuang Tunan is not so stable. He hovers in the top 20 in the grade. If he performs well, he can be in the top five, but if he performs poorly, he will fall outside the top 30.
Every time Zhuang Tunan's monthly exam results came out, Huang Ling was more nervous than her son. Zhuang Chaoying had rich experience in education and knew that this was normal. He could only comfort his wife, saying that No. 1 Middle School was a provincial key school and the top 30 students could basically get into good universities, so there was no need to worry too much.
In winter, a big event happened in the lane of the cotton mill families. Li Yiming opened a small shop at the entrance of the lane, and neighbors all came to see the excitement.
Song Ying and Huang Ling were surprised to see that a telephone was installed in the store. You have to know that installing a telephone was very expensive in 1982. The installation fee alone was yuan. An ordinary worker only earned yuan a month, and it would take months without eating or drinking. In addition, it would cost yuan for the telephone to ask the post office to install the line. The total cost was more than yuan.
"It seems that you can make a lot of money by setting up stalls." Song Ying said with emotion. She had previously said that she did not envy the self-employed who made a lot of money, but now she has been slapped in the face.
Huang Ling was also amazed: "Aunt Li never mentioned Yiming's stall before, but she said in the workshop yesterday that self-employed people may not be inferior to stable jobs. Now she is completely proud of herself."
Zhuang Chaoying lowered his voice and said, "An incoming call costs ten cents, and a call within the city costs six cents per minute. Long-distance calls are even more expensive. His house is in a good location, and there is a lot of traffic at the alley. He can make back the money in a year or two."
"Answering the phone, making calls, and buying some oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, this business is bound to make money. Yiming is smart." Lin Wufeng was sincerely happy for Li Yiming.
Lin Dongzhe pulled Qin Hao to the snack area of the store and looked at Qin Hao eagerly: "Brother Hao, I want to eat rainbow candy."
Rainbow candy is also called sticky candy. It is long and thin, and ten pieces cost one cent. It is actually not very delicious and sticks to the teeth, but for foodie Lin Dongzhe, he likes any candy.
"You look like Skittles to me."
It’s not that Qin Hao is stingy, it’s mainly because this guy has been eating sugar for a long time and has become a little fat. If he continues like this, the Cotton Mill Dance King will disappear from the world, so Qin Hao and Song Ying have recently teamed up to control his sugar intake.
Seeing that acting coquettishly didn't work, Lin Dongzhe could only turn to look at Song Ying and Lin Wufeng, but the latter two simply ignored his pitiful look.
Zhuang Xiaoting couldn't bear it, so she took out a piece of White Rabbit chocolate from her pocket and handed it to Lin Dongzhe reluctantly.
"Zhuang Xiaoting, you are my goddess!"
"Lin Dongzhe, what are you talking about?"
Zhuang Xiaoting ran away with a red face. Girls develop earlier than boys both psychologically and physically.
"Why is Zhuang Xiaoting running away? It's so weird." Lin Dongzhe muttered while sucking on a White Rabbit candy.
Qin Hao found it hilarious. Lin Dongzhe had rarely learned the English word "goddess" from a magazine and wanted to show off. Unfortunately, Zhuang Xiaoting had also read that magazine. It was a story about love.
Li Yiming's family at the head of the alley was in great joy, but Wang Yong's family at the end of the alley was in chaos.
Wang Yong's sister came back. When the policy of going to the countryside to receive re-education through labor was introduced, anyone who was unemployed in the city had to go to the countryside as an educated youth. Wang Yong took over his father's job and stayed in Suzhou, while his sister Wang Fang went to Xinjiang. One can imagine how difficult the conditions in Xinjiang were in the 1970s and 1980s.
Wang Fang married an educated youth from Shanghai in Xinjiang and gave birth to a daughter, Zhou Qing. In the past two years, she heard that the policy had been relaxed, so she "escaped back" from Xinjiang. As a result, Wang Fang's husband's family conditions were not good, and the whole family was squeezed into an old house of 20 square meters. With Wang Fang's family of three added, there was really no room for them.
Moreover, Wang Fang’s husband’s family did not welcome them. After all, three more people meant three more mouths to feed, and in this age of material scarcity, everyone had to take care of their own family first.
So Wang Fang’s husband had to stay in Shanghai as an “illegal resident”, while Wang Fang returned to Suzhou to live with her parents.
As a result, Wang Yong not only spoke harshly to the sister, he also threw their luggage out and cursed her terribly.
What "little Xinjiang", "barbarian", "country bumpkin"? The old couple of the Wang family did not dare to offend their son. They could only stand in the yard and watch their son scold their daughter.
The quarrel lasted until the evening. Wang Fang insisted on staying and even pulled out a knife, cutting her wrist. It looked like someone was about to die, so the neighbors rushed to call for help. However, as Wang Fang was not an employee of the cotton mill, the mill was not in a position to intervene, so they had to call the Youth League Office.
In front of the leaders of the Youth League Office and the Street Office, Wang Yong's attitude softened a little, but he still disagreed to let Wang Fang and Zhou Qing stay, so they stayed like this until the evening.
Song Ying and Huang Ling felt sorry for Zhou Qing, so they asked Zhuang Tunan and Qin Hao to give her some food.
The little girl's face was full of confusion and panic. Faced with the sudden kindness, she was stunned for a moment.
"Eat it, this pork rib noodles is delicious." Lin Dongzhe said while swallowing his saliva.
Zhou Qing then began to eat voraciously. While he was eating, Wu Shanshan brought over two boiled eggs from home.
No one spoke, and the only sound in the alley was the sound of Zhou Qing wolfing down noodles.
On the way back, Zhuang Tunan suddenly said, "Why did a good family end up like this?"
Qin Hao paused and said, "In your opinion, if Wang Yong is more generous and takes Wang Fang and Zhou Qing in, can the whole family live happily together?"
"Isn't it?" Zhuang Tunan looked confused.
Qin Hao was speechless for a while: "Do you know how much a pound of cabbage costs? A bottle of soy sauce, a bag of salt, how much food does a person eat in a month?"
"You don't know all this. Zhuang Tunan, you have been protected so well by Aunt Huang since you were a child. You don't have to do anything. You just need to study hard to get everything. So in your eyes, everything in this world is so beautiful."
"The fact is that Aunt Huang works three shifts, eight hours a day. Except for half an hour for lunch, she works non-stop for the remaining seven and a half hours. The loom never stops. She has to operate dozens of machines by herself. The roar of the machines hurts her eardrums, but she can only grit her teeth and persevere. Every day after work, she can hardly hear what others say for at least an hour when she gets home."
"Auntie Huang's monthly salary is only over 60 yuan, and occasionally over 70 yuan for overtime work. More than half of that goes into your stomach. You eat nearly 40 kilograms of food a month, but your ration is only 15 kilograms. The rest of the food coupons were bought by Auntie Huang."
"Zhuang Tunan, your family has two working parents, so life is relatively easy. Wang Yong is the only one working in the cotton mill, and it is already the limit for him to support the whole family. Wang Fang has no job when she comes back, and she has a child. If she stays, all the expenses will have to be borne by Wang Yong."
"This is not a problem that can be solved by eating less. It is a question of whether Wang Fang and Zhou Qing can stay and whether Wang Yong and his family can survive."
"No matter how harshly Wang Yong cursed, no neighbor would try to stop him, because without knowing the truth, those who try to persuade others to be magnanimous are likely to be struck by lightning."
Zhuang Tunan wanted to interrupt several times, but Qin Hao's questions had already torn his worldview into pieces.
Qin Hao ignored Zhuang Tunan who was standing in the yard. He took the dishes to the kitchen, washed them, and went to watch TV.
After a long time, Huang Ling saw that Zhuang Tunan had not come back for a long time, and was about to go out to look for him, but she saw her son standing in the yard in a daze.
"Tunan, what's going on?"
Zhuang Tunan asked in a low voice: "Mom, how much is a pound of cabbage?"
"One cent per pound? What's wrong?" Huang Ling was a little confused.
"Mom, if you need to buy anything in the future, let me go."
"Huh? Oh."
Huang Ling thought that Zhuang Tunan didn't have enough pocket money and wanted to earn some money for running errands, so she didn't take it to heart.
As autumn turns to winter and the New Year approaches, the roar of firecrackers in the alleys drowns out the noise, and the Spring Festival of 1983 arrives as scheduled.
Song Ying gave Qin Hao a red envelope with five yuan in it: "Haozi, I wish you good luck in the new year and academic progress."
"Thank you, Aunt Song. I wish you to stay forever young and beautiful." Qin Hao took the red envelope with a smile.
Lin Wufeng whispered to Song Ying, "Haozi is already number one in the grade. If you let him improve, how can other students survive?"
"Yes, just keep it up." Song Ying lowered her psychological expectations.
As for Lin Dongzhe, he also received a red envelope of five yuan, and Song Ying's New Year wishes to him were.
"Eat less and stop growing sideways."
As a result, Lin Dongzhe took the red envelope and turned around and took Zhuang Xiaoting to Li Yiming's store to buy snacks.
On New Year's Eve, after eating the New Year's Eve dinner, the four members of the Zhuang family gathered at Song Ying's house. Even the always hardworking Zhuang Tunan was no exception, because CCTV had warmed up before that there would be a live broadcast of a cultural evening party tonight, and people could also call to request programs. It is said that the most requested programs will be broadcast on TV. The program format is very novel.
This year's Spring Festival Gala was indeed unique. Zhao Zhongxiang delivered the opening speech and the crosstalk master Mr. Hou Baolin also appeared on the TV screen. Unfortunately, there was no crosstalk performance.
Li Guyi's singing voice was broadcast to thousands of households through television, so that the next morning, men and women in the streets and alleys were humming: your figure, your singing voice...
Unfortunately, Huang Ling's good mood only lasted less than a week. One night, Zhuang Chaoying came back and told Huang Ling that Xiang Pengfei had waited for a chance to return to the city, and his sister Zhuang Hualin would soon take Xiang Pengfei back to Suzhou.
Huang Ling quietly waited for Zhuang Chaoying's next words. Being stared at by Huang Ling like that, Zhuang Chaoying couldn't help feeling guilty, but he could only speak against his will.
"My parents want Pengfei to live with us so that he and Tunan can have a companion..."
Before she finished her words, Huang Ling sneered: "I said it's not that simple."
"What are you talking about?" Zhuang Chaoying said angrily, "Pengfei is my nephew, so what if I take care of him?"
Huang Ling said with a fake smile: "Only the eldest uncle is an uncle, so the second uncle is not an uncle?"
"There's no room for Gan Mei at home."
"The second brother's three rooms can't accommodate six people, but our two rooms can accommodate four people? Don't forget that Xiaoting has been living in the compartment for so many years."
Zhuang Chaoying knew he was in the wrong: "Let's go to sleep first. My parents and Hualin will come over on Sunday, and we'll discuss it later."
Huang Ling turned her back and tears immediately fell, but she gritted her teeth and held back her tears. She knew that her weakness could not win her husband's sympathy and would also affect the children's rest.
When Huang Ling came home from get off work the next day, she was so depressed that she had to talk to Song Ying. Song Ying felt very uncomfortable after listening to her words.
"Is Teacher Zhuang crazy? Tunan is going to take the college entrance exam soon. If we let his nephew move in at this critical moment, what if it affects Tunan's grades?"
Huang Ling's tears fell at this time: "He has always been like this. In his heart, me, Tunan, and Xiaoting combined are not as important as a hair of his parents and siblings."
"Then... Sister Ling, what are you going to do?"
"For Tunan and Xiaoting, I will not compromise even if it means divorce."
Upon hearing this, Song Ying immediately decided that the whole family would not go anywhere on Sunday and would stay at home to support Huang Ling at any time.
"Haozi, tomorrow it all depends on you."
Song Ying realized that Qin Hao had much more experience in struggle than she did, so she still had to rely on Qin Hao at the critical moment.
"Don't worry, Aunt Huang usually takes care of me so much. If Uncle Zhuang goes too far, I won't give him face."
Song Ying's expression froze: "Ahem, well...why don't we give Teacher Zhuang some face?"
Having seen the full power of Qin Hao, Song Ying was really afraid of making Zhuang Chaoying angry. It would be bad if the couple got divorced.
"Aunt Song, when two brave men meet in a narrow road, the brave one wins. If you show mercy before the battle even starts, you will definitely lose." Qin Hao said seriously.
Song Ying was shocked: "Why is it related to the art of war?"
"It is difficult for an honest judge to settle family affairs, so the more family affairs there are, the more courage one must have to overturn the table, otherwise it will be a mess and difficult to sort out. I have experience in this regard, so Aunt Song, don't worry." Qin Hao patted his chest and said.
When Song Ying thought about the fate of Qin Jianjun and his wife, she felt somewhat regretful for letting Qin Hao get involved, but she absolutely could not let her watch Huang Ling being bullied.
Huang Ling next door is still in a cold war with Zhuang Chaoying. She hasn't spoken a word to her husband in the past two days.
On the other side, the old couple of the banker were discussing how to deal with the eldest couple tomorrow.
It is destined to be a sleepless night.