Chapter 36: Have the courage to turn over the table
Time flies, and the spring breeze of reform promotes the process of history for another year.
In the autumn of 1982, Lin Dongzhe and Zhuang Xiaoting were both admitted to No. 1 Middle School. For this reason, Song Ying worshiped all the gods she could worship, whether they were Buddhas or Taoists, and she finally got her wish.
Qin Hao and Zhuang Tunan have entered the high school graduating class, and their studies have become more arduous. According to the documents issued by Zhuang Chaoying from the Education Bureau, next fall, after Qin Hao's term, the academic system of junior high and high schools will be changed to
In three years, if this class fails to enter college, they will have to go to high school for another year, and the content will change drastically.
Fortunately, Qin Hao and Zhuang Tunan's academic performance has always been among the best. To be precise, Qin Hao's performance has always been very stable and he is always the first in his grade. Zhuang Tunan is not so stable, hovering in the top twenty of his grade, and his performance is very good.
It was good to be in the top five, but my performance was poor and I fell outside the 30th place.
Every time Zhuang Tunan's monthly exam results come out, Huang Ling is more nervous than her son. Zhuang Chaoying has rich education experience and knows that this is a normal phenomenon, so she can only comfort her wife. No. 1 Middle School is a key point in the province, and she can basically do it in the top 30.
Don't worry too much about getting into a good university.
In winter, something big happened in the alley of the cotton spinning factory. Li Yiming opened a small shop at the entrance of the alley, and the neighbors came to watch the excitement.
Song Ying and Huang Ling were surprised when they saw that a telephone was installed in the small shop. You must know that installing a telephone in 1982 was very expensive. The installation fee alone cost 3,600 yuan, and an ordinary worker's monthly salary was only 60 yuan.
It would take sixty months without food or water, and it would cost the post office 700 yuan to wire the phone, so it would cost more than 4,000 yuan.
"It seems like you can make a lot of money by setting up a stall." Song Ying said with emotion. Before, she said she didn't envy self-employed people for making a lot of money, but now she was slapped in the face.
Huang Ling was also speechless: "Aunt Li never mentioned Yiming's stall before. Yesterday she said in the workshop that self-employed people may not be inferior to the iron rice bowl. Now she is completely proud."
Zhuang Chaoying lowered his voice and said: "It costs 10 cents to answer the phone, and six minutes per minute for outgoing calls into the city. Long distance is more expensive. His house is in a good location and there is a lot of traffic at the alley. I can make back the money in a year and a half."
"Answer the phone, make a call, and buy some oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar by the way. This business will definitely make money, Yiming is smart." Lin Wufeng was sincerely happy for Li Yiming.
Lin Dongzhe pulled Qin Hao and squeezed into the snack area of the snack shop, looking at Qin Hao eagerly: "Brother Hao, I want to eat Skittles."
Skittles are also called sticky candies. They are long and slender and cost ten pieces per cent. They are actually not very tasty and are sticky to the teeth. However, for foodie Lin Dongzhe, he likes as long as it is candy.
"You look like Skittles to me."
It's not that Qin Hao is stingy, it's mainly that this guy has become a little obese after eating sugar for a long time. If he continues like this, the Cotton Mill Dance King will disappear from the world, so recently Qin Hao and Song Ying teamed up to control his sugar.
Seeing that coquettishness didn't work, Lin Dongzhe could only turn his head and look at Song Ying and Lin Wufeng, who both ignored his pitiful eyes.
Zhuang Xiaoting couldn't bear it, took out a piece of white rabbit 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 blushed and ran away. Girls develop earlier than boys, both mentally and physically.
"Why is Zhuang Xiaoting running away? It's inexplicable." Lin Dongzhe muttered while slurping White Rabbit toffee in his mouth.
Qin Hao was amused for a while. Lin Dongzhe rarely learned the English word "goddess" from a magazine and wanted to show off. Unfortunately, Zhuang Xiaoting also read that magazine, which was a story about love.
Li Yiming's family at the end of the alley was full of joy, but Wang Yong's family at the end of the alley was in a state of unrest.
Wang Yong's sister came back. The policy of sending people to the mountains and countryside was implemented. Those who did not have jobs in the city had to go to the countryside to become educated youth. Wang Yong took over his father's work and stayed in Suzhou, while his sister Wang Fang went to Xinjiang.
, one can imagine the difficult conditions in Xinjiang in the 1970s and 1980s.
Wang Fang married an educated youth in Shanghai in Xinjiang and gave birth to a daughter, Zhou Qing. In the past two years, she "escaped" from Xinjiang after hearing that the policy had been loosened. As a result, Wang Fang's husband's family's conditions were not good, and the whole family
The children were squeezed into an old house of 20 square meters, and Wang Fang's family of three was really unable to live in it.
Moreover, Wang Fang's husband's family did not welcome them. After all, three more people meant three more mouths. In this era of scarcity, everyone had to take care of their own family first.
So Wang Fang's husband had no choice but to stay in Shanghai as a "black householder", while Wang Fang returned to Suzhou to join her parents.
As a result, Wang Yong not only yelled harsh words at the younger sister, but also threw their luggage out and scolded them so unpleasantly.
What a "little Xinjiang", "barbarian" and "country bumpkin". The Wang family did not dare to offend their son, so they could only stand in the yard and watch their son scold their daughter.
The riot continued until night, and Wang Fang wanted to stay. She even used a knife and cut her wrist. It was about to kill someone. The neighbors rushed to call for help, because Wang Fang was not a cotton spinning factory employee, and the cotton spinning factory was not good.
I had no choice but to call the Educated Youth Affairs Office.
In front of the leaders of the Educated Youth Office and the Street Office, Wang Yong's attitude softened slightly, but he still did not agree to let Wang Fang and Zhou Qing stay, so they stayed like this until the evening.
Song Ying and Huang Ling saw that Zhou Qing was pitiful, so they asked Zhuang Tunan and Qin Hao to bring 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 ribs noodles are delicious." Lin Dongzhe said while swallowing his saliva.
Zhou Qing then started to eat hungrily, and while he was eating, Wu Shanshan also brought two boiled eggs from home.
No one spoke at all, and the only sound in the alley was the sound of Zhou Qing wolfing down the noodles.
On the way back, Zhuang Tunan suddenly said: "Why would a good family become like this?"
Qin Hao paused: "In your opinion, as long as Wang Yong is more generous and takes in Wang Fang and Zhou Qing, we can live a harmonious and beautiful life like this?"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "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 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 only need to study hard and you can get everything. So in your opinion, everything in this world is so beautiful.
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"The fact is that Aunt Huang works three shifts and works eight hours a day. Except for half an hour for eating, she spends the other seven and a half hours spinning continuously. The looms are non-stop, and she needs to operate dozens of machines by herself. The roar from the machine made her eardrums hurt, so she could only grit her teeth and persist. For at least an hour every day when she got home from get off work, it was hard for her to hear what others were saying."
"Aunt Huang's salary is only more than 60 yuan a month, and occasionally she can earn more than 70 yuan for overtime work. More than half of it goes into your stomach. You eat nearly 40 kilograms of grain a month, but your ration is only 15 kilograms.
Jin, the rest of the food stamps were bought by Aunt Huang."
"Zhuang Tunan, your family is a dual-income family, and life is pretty easy. Wang Yong is the only one who works in the cotton mill. It is already the limit to support a family. Wang Fang has no job when she comes back. She also has a child. If she lives in
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 problem of whether Wang Yong and his family can survive if Wang Fang and Zhou Qing stay."
"No matter how harsh Wang Yong's scolding was, no neighbor would stop him, because without understanding the truth of the matter, those who advise others to be generous will easily be struck by lightning."
Zhuang Tunan wanted to interrupt several times during the process, but Qin Hao's questions had torn his worldview into holes.
Qin Hao ignored Zhuang Tunan who was standing in the small courtyard, took the bowl to the kitchen and washed it before going to watch TV.
After a long time, Huang Ling saw that Zhuang Tunan had not come back for a long time. She was about to go out to look for him, but she saw her son standing blankly in the yard.
"Tunan, what's wrong?"
Zhuang Tunan asked in a low voice: "Mom, how much does a pound of cabbage cost?"
"One penny per pound, what's wrong?" Huang Ling was a little confused.
"Mom, if you want to buy something in the future, let me go."
"Ah? Oh."
Huang Ling thought Zhuang Tunan didn't have enough pocket money and wanted to earn some money for running errands, but she didn't take it seriously.
Autumn is turning to winter, and the New Year is approaching. The roar of firecrackers in the alleys suppresses the noise, and the Spring Festival of 1983 has arrived as promised.
Song Ying gave Qin Hao a five-dollar red envelope: "Haozi, I wish you good luck in the new year and academic progress."
"Thank you Aunt Song, and I wish you will always be young and beautiful." Qin Hao took the red envelope with a smile.
Lin Wufeng whispered to Song Ying: "Haozi is already the first in the grade. If you still let him improve, how can other students survive?"
"Yeah, just keep it, keep it." Song Ying lowered her psychological expectations.
As for Lin Dongzhe, he also received a five-yuan red envelope, and Song Ying's New Year congratulations to him were.
"Eat less and stop growing sideways."
As a result, Lin Dongzhe took the red envelope and took Zhuang Xiaoting to Li Yiming's small shop to buy snacks.
On New Year's Eve, after the New Year's Eve dinner, the four members of the Zhuang family gathered at Song Ying's house. Even Zhuang Tunan, who has always been hardworking, was no exception. Because CCTV had warmed up before, there would be a live broadcast of a literary evening tonight, and you can also call and order it.
It is said that the most requested programs will be broadcast on TV, and the format of the program is very novel.
This Spring Festival Gala was indeed unique. Zhao Zhongxiang gave the opening speech, and crosstalk master Mr. Hou Baolin also appeared on the TV screen. Unfortunately, there was no crosstalk performance.
Li Guyi's singing reached thousands of households through television, so that early the next morning, men and women in the streets and alleys were humming: Your figure, your singing...
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 received the quota to return to the city, and his sister Zhuang Hualin would soon take Xiang Pengfei back to Suzhou.
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Huang Ling waited quietly for Zhuang Chaoying's next words. Being stared at by Huang Ling, Zhuang Chaoying felt guilty, but she could only bite the bullet and speak.
"What my parents want is for Pengfei to come live in our house and have a companion with Tunan..."
Before she finished speaking, Huang Ling sneered: "I just 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 smile: "Only the eldest uncle is an uncle, and the second uncle is not an uncle?"
"Can't we live in Qimei's house?"
"The second child's three rooms can't accommodate six people, but our two rooms can accommodate four people? Don't forget that Xiao Ting has been living in a cubicle for so many years."
Zhuang Chaoying knew she was in the wrong: "Go to sleep first. My parents and Hualin will come over on Sunday, and we will discuss it later."
Huang Ling turned her back and tears started falling down, but she still gritted her teeth to hold back from crying. She knew that her weakness could not win back her husband's sympathy, and would also affect her children's rest.
When she came back from get off work the next day, Huang Ling was so upset that she could only talk to Song Ying. Song Ying felt very bad.
"Is Teacher Zhuang crazy? Tunan is about to face the college entrance examination. At this juncture, if his nephew moves in, what if it affects Tunan's grades?"
Huang Ling's tears only came down at this time: "He has always been like this. In his heart, I, Tunan, and Xiaoting together are not as important as his parents, siblings, and a hair."
"Then...Sister Ling, what are you going to do?"
"For Tunan and Xiaoting, I will not compromise even if it means divorce."
After Song Ying heard this, she immediately decided that the whole family would not go anywhere on Sunday, but would stay at home and support Huang Ling at any time.
"Haozi, tomorrow is all up to you."
Song Ying finally figured out that Qin Hao had much more fighting experience than her, and she still had to look to Qin Hao at the critical moment.
"Don't worry, Aunt Huang usually takes care of me like this. If Uncle Zhuang goes too far, I won't save him face."
Song Ying's expression was stagnant: "Ahem, um... why don't you save some face for Teacher Zhuang?"
Having seen the full power of Qin Hao, Song Ying was really afraid of making Zhuang Chaoying anxious. It would be bad if the couple got divorced.
"Aunt Song, when we meet on a narrow road, the brave will win. If you are soft-hearted before the battle begins, you will definitely lose." Qin Hao said seriously.
Song Ying was speechless: "Why is it even related to the art of war?"
"It's hard for an upright official to deal with household chores, so the more household chores are involved, the more courage you have to lift the table, otherwise it will just end up being messy. I have experience in this. Don't worry, Aunt Song." Qin Hao said, patting his chest.
When Song Ying thought about what happened to Qin Jianjun and his wife, she felt somewhat regretful about letting Qin Hao get involved, but it was absolutely unacceptable for her to watch Huang Ling being bullied.
Huang Ling next door is still having a cold war with Zhuang Chaoying. She hasn't said a word to her husband in the past two days.
On the other side, the banker and his wife are also discussing how to deal with the boss and his wife tomorrow.