Chapter 32

“Brother, my little basket is full,” said Er Bao. His little basket, made by Lin’s father, was not very big. He and Yi Bao each had one.

They were designed to make it easy for children to pick up leftovers during busy farming seasons and to gather wild vegetables.

Right now, Er Bao’s basket was filled with snails and rice stalks mixed together, looking messy but still a full harvest for him.

“I’m full too, let’s take them home,” Yi Bao said, holding his own basket and calling his brother to go home together.

Many kids like them had full baskets. When their baskets were full, they would take them home, empty them, and then come back to pick more.

Yi Bao and Er Bao were picking together with Lin Haiwen in the rice fields where Lin’s parents were.

“Haiwen, Er Bao and I are going home for a bit,” Yi Bao said to Lin Haiwen.

“Okay,” Lin Haiwen replied without lifting his head. His basket wasn’t full yet. He was ten years old and his basket was much bigger than the two brothers’, so it wasn’t as easy to fill.

The two brothers walked towards the shore carrying their small baskets, passing by many rice fields. Someone teased, “Er Bao, did your mother not come to work this afternoon?”

“My mother has something to do,” Er Bao replied casually. In his mind, it was normal for his mother not to come to work.

“Your mother is just a lazy woman who never works. Your father earns money and she just spends it all,” a woman said sarcastically.

“My mother is not lazy at all. She makes clothes and cooks for us. My mother is great,” Yi Bao said. Although he was shy in front of his mother, he wasn’t a pushover in front of strangers.

“Yi Bao, didn’t your father send a letter this morning? Does he send your mother 20 yuan every month?” another person asked.

Yi Bao didn’t know how much money his father sent his mother every month, nor did he know how much 20 yuan was. So, he asked, “How much is 20 yuan?”

“20 yuan is a lot of money. You can buy a lot of meat with it,” someone explained.

Yi Bao shook his head, “We don’t have 20 yuan.” He often heard his mother say that his father only sent this much money every month, and it was already good if they could afford meat soup.

Besides, the meat his mother bought was never a lot, so they definitely didn’t have a lot of money.

“Look at how well Guodong’s wife eats. I thought Guodong sent a lot of money every month,” someone remarked.

“Yeah.”

“Guodong’s wife is so unreliable, how could Guodong possibly give her a lot of money?”

“Just because he didn’t give her 20 yuan, even if he gives her 10 yuan a month, she can still live comfortably. Look at Ning Zhiqing, he looks so blessed…”

Not far away, people at the Lin family’s old mansion also heard this. Although they didn’t know how much money Guodong was giving his wife for sure, they knew that before Guodong got married, he used to give his family 20 yuan every month.

So when they heard Yibao saying there wasn’t 20 yuan, they thought Yibao was clever. Money is not openly discussed.

“What does a child know?”

“Yeah, can Guodong’s wife really tell these things to the two children?”

“My dad gave my mom money to buy a bicycle,” Erbao added, “My mom went to buy a bicycle.”

Just now, those who were saying Guodong wouldn’t give Ning Shu 20 yuan were embarrassed.

Compared to a bicycle, what is 20 yuan?

“Erbao, did your mom really go to buy a bicycle this afternoon?”

“Erbao, did your dad really buy your mom a bicycle?”

“Erbao, how much money did your dad send your mom this time?”

Yibao pulled Erbao, “Hurry home and pour out the snails and rice stalks, or they’ll be picked up by someone else.”

“I got it.” Erbao, upon hearing that the snails and rice stalks might be picked up by someone else, didn’t care about talking to these people.

Those people were busy in the fields and couldn’t go after the two brothers, so they could only watch them leave.

However, after Yi Bao and Er Bao left, the news spread like wildfire in the fields.

“Did Ning Zhiqing really go to buy a bicycle?”

“Is Guodong crazy? What’s the point of a lazy woman who doesn’t work buying a bicycle?”

“Erbao must be lying. How could such a young child know how much money it takes to buy a bicycle?”

“Let’s wait for them to come back and ask.”

“Guodong’s wife is so lucky, she doesn’t need to work, has money to spend, and even has a bicycle. No wonder the young educated youths all want to marry village men who have capabilities just like Lin Guodong.”

This reminded everyone of the fight between the two female educated youths at noon over Lin Zhenxing, the son of the brigade leader.

“But not every educated youth has the luck of Ning Zhiqing, and not every man is as promising as Guodong.”

So, everyone began to talk about the fight between the two female educated youths over Lin Zhenxing at noon.

In the county town,

Ning Shu paid the money, got the lock, took the receipt, and pushed her bicycle out of the department store.

The ultimate goal of life: own a house, a car, have money, and have children.

In fact, before crossing over, she had dreamt of this. To buy her favorite car, live in her favorite house, earn money that would last a lifetime, and then have a test-tube baby to take care of. As for men… with financial freedom, who cares about men?

And now, she had a house (a red brick house in the countryside), a car (a bicycle), children (three), money (less than 20,000 on the app, less than 300 in reality).

In this day and age, red brick houses are rarer than future commercial houses, bicycles are limited edition, and there will be so many cars in the future that there won’t be enough space to park them. She had three children now, the only thing lacking was money.

Actually, apart from not being used to the lack of electronic products, life here was more comfortable than in the previous life. It’s probably because in the previous life, she was too lonely.

“Sanbao, we’re going to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some things, what do you want to eat?” Ning Shu rode her bicycle with a basket on her back. There’s no other way, Sanbao was only 11 months old, so she couldn’t sit on the bicycle by herself.

Sanbao stood in the basket, grabbing onto its edges with her small hands, only her head peeking out. Seeing the scenery on both sides moving backward, Sanbao was extremely happy, “Mom… eat…”

“Are you hungry?” Ning Shu asked.

“Hungry.” Sanbao responded vigorously, not at all like someone with an empty stomach.

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“What else do you want to eat?”

“Want to eat rice.”

“What else?”

“Want to eat meat.”

“Anything else?”

“Want to eat… eat…”

Sanbao stared blankly, her little head beginning to think.

Arriving at the supply and marketing cooperative, Ning Shu parked her bicycle and as soon as she entered, she saw Li Fei.

“Ning sister…” Li Fei was chatting with someone, “Ning sister is here…” The ten kilograms of tangerines Ning Shu had given her to give to someone else came to Li Fei’s mind upon seeing Ning Shu.

“I’m here to buy some vegetable seeds.” The backyard of her house still hadn’t been planted, partly because she didn’t have seeds and didn’t want to ask others, she didn’t like to bother others with things she could solve herself.

Secondly, the seeds in the countryside were either cabbage or radish, and she could exchange these vegetables with others later, so she wanted to plant something different.

Li Fei asked, “What vegetable seeds do you want to buy?”

“Do you have spinach and asparagus seeds?” Always cabbage and radishes, it was time for a change. In fact, Ning Shu had another plan. When spring comes next year, she wants to plant shepherd’s purse.

There’s no other way, shepherd’s purse is valuable. With half an acre of backyard land, she can harvest four to five hundred catties of shepherd’s purse. By September next year, it could be worth five thousand yuan.

But it was just a thought, shepherd’s purse seeds had to be collected by herself, she couldn’t buy them outside.

Li Fei said, “Wait a moment, let me ask.” Her counter didn’t have them.

In this era, the supply and marketing cooperative didn’t specialize in fixed items, you could say it was a kind of miscellaneous store, providing comprehensive services to the people.

Soon, Li Fei brought over two packets of seeds from the other side, one packet each of spinach and asparagus, “Just five cents each.”

“Okay.” Ning Shu took out five cents.

Just then, Li Fei exclaimed, “Ning sister, there’s a child in your basket.”

Sanbao stood for a while and got tired, so she sat down again. Now hearing her mother talking to someone, she stretched out her little head from the basket again.

So, Li Fei saw two little hands reaching out from Ning Shu’s basket, followed by a little head. It was like watching a play, extremely interesting.

She had felt the basket on Ning Shu’s back was a bit heavy just now, thinking it might be fruit.

Ning Shu took the basket off, “He’s my youngest, I actually forgot about him… Sanbao, call her aunty.”

Sanbao stood in the basket, holding onto it, her pair of bright and shiny black eyes curiously looking at Li Fei. Although she didn’t know her, Sanbao was very obedient, “Aunty…”

“Oh… what a good child.” Li Fei found Sanbao interesting, “This child is really well-behaved.”

“Indeed, very well-behaved.” Ning Shu liked it when others praised her children. She was different from many people; she wasn’t modest. She believed that children needed praise, praising them was encouragement, it was their motivation to move forward.

Of course, not being modest didn’t mean exaggerated praise, it was just not denying the child’s excellence.

“Well-behaved…” Sanbao seemed to understand the words of aunty and mother, showing a clear smile.

“This child is really interesting. Is his name Sanbao? Sanbao, do you want to eat candy?” Li Fei squatted down, teasing Sanbao.

“Eat, tummy hungry.” Sanbao even rubbed his little belly.