Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

Chapter 233

Zhou Chunwen munched on sunflower seeds and drank tea, enjoying a comfortable and pleasant life. He would occasionally chime in with a few words, teasing Zhao Da'e, and he was in a great mood.

“I’ll go to the market another day to buy some New Year’s goods. My mom doesn’t have much money left, she’s worried.” Zhou Chunwen suddenly said, “She’s probably busy saving money, we had dumplings for breakfast this morning and we didn’t even have any soy sauce left.”

"The dumplings this morning were really just so-so." Zhao Da'e took a sip of hot tea to warm himself up. "Sister, it's almost noon. Let's not worry about whether others are eating or not, are we going to eat?"

"The only edible thing in your room is sunflower seeds. Otherwise, why would I roast sunflower seeds?" Zhou Chunwen said with a helpless expression.

After a while, Zhou Chunwen said with some difficulty, "Big Goose, I feel like I might go out to work after the New Year."

Zhao Da'e was stunned: "You're going out to work? Who would want you?!"

Zhou Chunwen shook her head; she didn't know either.

However, judging from the family's recent situation, they need to get Zhou Tianfu married, but they don't have enough money for the wedding, so the whole family has to find a way.

“My uncle’s flower baskets are pretty good. We can sell them at the market and make some money,” Zhao Da’e suggested.

“Oh dear, that thing is fine as a free gift, but who would spend money to buy it? Even if someone did, there wouldn’t be many.” Zhou Chunwen refused directly: “There are plenty of people who can weave flower baskets, but none of them have become rich. No way.”

Zhou Chunwen suddenly stared at Zhao Da'e and asked, "Da'e, your Zhao family has been here from the south for hundreds of years, right? Don't you have any family heirlooms or anything? Didn't your ancestors leave behind any treasures or anything? We don't need much, just a few chests of gold and silver jewelry, and we'll be living the high life from now on!"

Zhao Da'e was completely bewildered by Zhou Chunwen's words: "Big sister, what are you dreaming about in broad daylight? If our Zhao family ancestors were rich, would they have come all the way to Northeast China? What are you thinking? They must have been so poor they couldn't survive, and that's why they left their homes. A few chests of gold and silver jewelry... No way. Even if you dug up all the ancestral graves of our Zhao family behind the mountain, you still wouldn't find anything. None of my ancestors were officials, so there's no way we could have been rich."

As for family heirlooms, look at our Zhao family, so many people! There are twelve households in the main branch, and a few others have gone to the forest to try their luck. Each family is worse off than the last; their family heirloom is having sons. They've had so many, they're barely surviving. A family heirloom? If you're talking about a family heirloom… it seems…”

Zhao Da'e suddenly remembered something.

"There really is. But it's silver dollars... but I can't say. If I do, it'll be gone. The most important thing is, that thing... umm... let's change the subject."

Zhao Da'e suddenly remembered that in his previous life, when the old house was being demolished, some silver dollars were found in the cracks in the walls.

Those were war-torn times, and the Zhao family fled to seek refuge.

He didn't return until several years later.

He was probably afraid his money would be stolen on the street, so he hid the silver dollars inside the wall while it was being built. But Zhao Da'e didn't know how many there were.

Moreover, not only does he not know how many there are, Zhao Da'e also doesn't know their exact location.

In my past life, it was Zhao Laosan who demolished the house.

At the time, Zhang Cuilan was making a huge fuss, insisting on building a new house, so the family divided the property and started building the house. When they were demolishing the house, they did find some money.

However, Zhao Laosan denied all such matters. Even Zhao Tingxu denied it. When pressed further, he became evasive and hesitant.

However, judging from his life trajectory in his previous life, after Zhao Tiegang demolished his old house, he not only built a new house but also enclosed it with a courtyard wall. He then immediately built a side room and bought two donkeys.

Most importantly, later on, Zhang Cuilan's three brothers-in-law got married one after another.

This is very strange.

However, Zhao Da'e wasn't really concerned about that little bit of money; at most, it would just be a few silver dollars.

Surely our ancestors buried tens of thousands of silver dollars.

I've never heard of my ancestors being wealthy.

"Big sister, make something to eat. I'm hungry, how about you make an egg pancake?" Zhao Da'e suggested.

"No eggs, no noodles. What am I supposed to use to make you an egg pancake?" Zhou Chunwen asked, puzzled.

Zhao Da'e sighed, "Forget it, I'll go buy a few bags of instant noodles. Xiao Liuzi recently got some instant noodles, and damn it, they're eight cents a bag. That bastard is really greedy. Last time I bought loose ones at the market, they only cost a little over two cents, less than three cents. He actually sells them for eight cents a bag, he has a really bad conscience."

“They have to make a little profit, right? Besides, you bought it loose, so it's naturally cheaper. His should have a packaging factory or something, so it's normal for it to be more expensive.” Zhou Chunwen was too lazy to cook, mainly because even a skilled cook can't cook without rice; the warehouse was practically empty. So, they could only eat instant noodles. “Bring me two bags of spicy strips. I ate a bag last time; that stuff was really delicious.”

"Give me a break! Lady, spicy snacks are unhygienic and bad for your health..."

"Tch...you ate quite a lot."

Zhao Da'e came out of the storeroom and found a bunch of people still inside the east room of the old house. Zhao Da'e frowned in displeasure and was about to leave when she saw Zhao Tiesheng walking towards her.

"Hey goose, want some food? I'll cook you something," Zhao Tiesheng said.

Zhao Da'e laughed: "Haha. Never mind, never mind."

Zhao Tiesheng was in a good mood; after all, she was his father, and seeing his daughter hadn't eaten, he naturally felt a little sorry for her. However, Zhao Da'e really didn't dare eat the food Zhao Tiesheng had cooked. Zhao Tiesheng's cooking was notoriously bad, and besides, there was nothing else to eat at home.

"You haven't eaten either, have you? I'll go buy some instant noodles and cook something. That'll have to do."

Zhao Tiesheng didn't object, so Zhao Da'e went out and walked for a while before arriving at Xiao Liuzi's place. He bought a few packs of instant noodles and a few packs of pickled vegetables.

I also bought a few more sausages and spicy strips.

Although they are all junk food, they are rare items in this day and age, and are hard to come by normally.

Afterwards, Zhao Da'e went home, and Zhou Chunwen helped cook instant noodles and also cooked pickled vegetables. When they were cooked, Zhao Da'e shared some with Zhao Tiesheng, and then ate with Zhou Chunwen.

After eating, Zhao Da'e felt much better. In the cold winter, if you don't eat, your body won't have enough energy, and you'll feel even colder.

The other people in the old house all went to Zhao Tiezhu's house to eat when it was time to eat.

Zhao Tiezhu's wife and son Zhao Yongtao complained bitterly. They had basically done no work all morning for no reason, and they still had to eat, but the food they prepared was not very good.

Wait until the afternoon.

Zhao Da'e said to Zhao Tiesheng, "Dad, I sold this tree. The money came from the village. Now it belongs to someone else. We sold it for eight hundred yuan. It was an IOU... If you like working, you should cut some branches after the tree falls so you can use them for firewood. But you're climbing the tree and helping someone else lay it down. Isn't that a bit excessive? Will people say anything good about you?"

This work isn't mine, nor is it ours. We'll sell it. They can do it or not, it's up to them. We can just wait it out if no one wants to do it, and see who can't afford to wait. They're getting funeral money from others, and they won't even lift a finger, expecting others to help them plant the trees—they're dreaming.

Zhao Tiesheng sighed: "Sigh. We all have elderly people in our families. It's good to be understanding of each other."

"That depends on the person. If you fall and get hurt, I'll have to pay for it," Zhao Da'e said, dissatisfied. "It's not that I won't help with anything. Climbing trees is too dangerous. Just say you have a cold, and don't do that. It's so high, nobody goes up there. What if you fall? Really..."

Zhao Tiesheng didn't say anything more, but went to the east room of the old house.

Zhao Da'e didn't really want to say anything more.

In the afternoon, everyone had lunch at Zhao Tiezhu's house before slowly heading to Zhao Dage's backyard to put out the trees.

Although Zhao Tiezhu also shares the surname Zhao, he belongs to a collateral branch of the family, and there are few members of his main family. On the contrary, there are many members of Zhao D'e's main family.

The term "family lineage" here refers to those within five degrees of kinship. And the scope is actually quite small. It specifically refers to the generation of Zhao Da'e's great-grandfather, the blood brothers. This branch alone comprises forty or fifty households. Even closer relatives refer to the blood brothers of Zhao Da'e's grandfather's generation, which includes seven families. These seven families comprise only a dozen or so households.

Zhao Tingming was the eldest. The second brother went to Northeast China (Guandong) and returned. Everyone called the second brother "Guandong Guest." The third brother died young. The fourth brother was Zhao Tingjun, the father of Zhao Tiezong, who had argued with Zhao Da'e this morning. He had been paralyzed for a long time and probably didn't have many years left. The fifth brother joined the army and then disappeared. No one knew whether he was alive or dead. When they asked the higher-ups, they were told he was missing. Moreover, the fifth brother had no descendants, only a cenotaph. The sixth brother was the family Zhao Da'e went to borrow buckwheat from a couple of days ago.

Zhao Tingxu is the seventh son.

The work was done in Zhao Da'e's backyard. Zhao Da'e knew he probably couldn't persuade Zhao Tiesheng otherwise. Since Zhao Tiesheng wasn't afraid of falling, he continued working.

Zhao Da'e boiled some water and placed a teapot inside the shed next door; that was all. Anyone who felt cold could go in for a cup of hot tea; if they weren't cold, they could stay put.

The placement of the trees went relatively smoothly. At least, no one fell into the well in the afternoon.

However, because the morning's work had indeed taken up time, and out of concern for damaging Zhao Tingxu's house, the afternoon's work wasn't done quickly. Winter days are particularly short, and it gets dark around 4 PM, plus we hadn't started working very early at noon, so in the blink of an eye, we'd only managed to fell one tree. By the time it got dark, the second tree was still untouched.

Zhao Da'e didn't care about any of that. She and Zhou Chunwen used a small cart to cut down some branches that she thought were usable, especially the thicker ones, and loaded them onto the cart, then delivered them to Zhou Chunwen's house. They made three trips back and forth.

When they arrived at their aunt's house, Zhao Da'e threw down her cotton glove and rubbed her lower back, saying, "My back hurts..."

Zhou Chunwen rolled her eyes at Zhao Da'e: "Da'e, I personally think you're a bit too fat now, you don't even have a waist."

"Hiss..." Zhao Da'e was annoyed.

Although she was very young, she was extremely dissatisfied with Zhou Chunwen's "vicious" remarks. What girl likes being told she has no waist? Did I eat your rice...?

After a moment, Zhao Da'e calmed down.

Fine, I'll just eat their rice after all.

Let them say it; it won't kill them.

Zhou Chunwen piled the firewood on the firewood pile outside, and then followed Zhao Da'e into the yard.

Zhou Chunwen whispered, "Big Goose, believe it or not, your second sister has been acting strangely these past two days. After Laidai took her medicine a couple of days ago, she hasn't been feeling well. She keeps saying that your aunt won't let her do any work, which is why she's like this."

"She's definitely not feeling well. Who the hell likes to work?! And this is ridiculous? Saying that Pierre wouldn't let her work, causing her to go out and get attacked by wolves?" Zhao Da'e was incredulous. "Alright, then we'll watch my second sister work today. So she won't go off to the mountains to play around again."

Zhou Chunwen nodded as well.

This wasn't Zhou Chunwen causing trouble; Zhou Chunhong genuinely told Cheng Jinxi that it was because they all disliked her, saying she stuttered, that she had no work to do. She also wanted to contribute to the family, but then she went up the mountain and was attacked by wolves… In conclusion, she blamed Cheng Jinxi for not letting her do any work…

Although Zhou Chunhong's method was strange and unexpected, Zhao Da'e was too lazy to work.

Upon entering the room, I saw Zhou Chunhong lying on the kang (a heated brick bed) recovering from her injuries…

Actually, it shouldn't be called recuperating; she was lying on the kang (a heated brick bed) reading a book.

Zhao Da'e frowned: "Second Sister, can you read?"

Zhou Chunhong was stunned for a moment: "No...no...no...I can't read."

"Then why are you reading? You can't understand it!" Zhao Da'e found it a bit amusing. It was somewhat comical to see someone who couldn't read reading.

Of course, this wasn't because Zhao Da'e thought Zhou Chunhong was illiterate and was mocking her; rather, it was because Zhou Chunhong was genuinely funny.

Zhou Chunhong went to school, but she repeated a grade after the second grade of elementary school.

While her classmates were in sixth grade, Zhou Chunhong was still in first grade.

He stopped going to school later.

Anyway, it won't happen...

At that time, education was not yet widespread. Not to mention nine-year compulsory education, even primary school was not yet widespread.

It was all voluntary.

If a family has the means, children go to school; if not, many rural children don't go to school.

Moreover, tuition fees were actually quite high in this era. After all, the allocated funds were limited, and all school expenses relied on tuition fees. Classrooms, blackboards, and even chalk had to be used sparingly.

Many families favor sons over daughters, which leads to many girls not going to school.

Of course, the boys didn't study hard either. Not many could even get into junior high. As for getting into senior high, that was even more difficult.

In towns like Zhao Da'e's, out of three to five hundred junior high school students, no more than five or six can go on to high school each year.

In the entire Kashi County, only a little over two hundred people were admitted to high school each year. This is incomparable to later generations.

In this era, studying is truly like a thousand troops crossing a single-plank bridge.

Zhou Chunhong was already somewhat slow-witted, and her severe stutter made her rather insecure and introverted. Illiteracy wasn't a major issue in this era; many people were illiterate.

The village organizes some literacy classes, but not many people go. Being illiterate doesn't really have a big impact, since most people spend their entire lives in this village anyway, and if they don't go out, they won't see the outside world.

In this small world where everyone is illiterate, there isn't much distinction between superiority and inferiority.

Zhou Chunhong thought for a moment and closed the book: "I...I...I...I was...reading...a...picture book."