Chapter 11

Si Cheng scored 76 out of 100 on the test. Compared with seven or eight students in the class who scored above 90, this result was totally unsatisfactory.

But the English teacher specially praised her.

She said that she has taken her studies much more seriously in the new semester. She failed the final exam last semester, but she got 76 points in this quiz, which is a great improvement.

I hope Si Cheng can keep up the good work, and I hope everyone can learn from him.

For a time, Si Cheng became a popular figure in the management.

After morning self-study, someone came to Si Cheng to borrow extracurricular reading materials. Si Cheng remembered that the other person had good academic performance, so he generously lent it to her.

After Si Cheng gave her the book, he carried his schoolbag and the woven bag she had bought, and ran out of the classroom towards the bus station.

She said she would never use paper bags made of wine to pack her luggage again.

The woven bags at this time were cheap, durable, large in capacity and very convenient.

Si Cheng ran so hard that the soles of his shoes were almost smoking, and finally he caught the 7:10 bus.

If she missed this bus, she would have to wait for the next one at 8:10, and she didn’t want to waste time.

I usually get home around ten o’clock.

This time, Si Cheng had more time, so when she took the bus home, she got off at the post office stop, hurried to a nearby internet cafe, spent one dollar to play for an hour, registered a Penguin account and an email address, then went to the Pink website to register an account. After writing down the Penguin account and email address, she browsed a few websites casually, left before the time was up, and returned to submit the two short stories she had prepared.

One article was submitted to “Fireworks” magazine, and the other to “Boys and Girls”. Her mailing address, remittance account number, new contact information (Penguin ID), and email address were included in the manuscripts.

After finishing all these, she walked home and arrived home around ten o’clock.

Si’s mother was taking care of the chickens and ducks at the doorstep, while Si An was being watched while doing his homework.

Seeing Si Cheng coming back, Si An rushed over and said, “Sister, you’re back!”

“Um.”

Si’s mother curled her lips and said, “Keep your voice down, your dad is still sleeping. Be careful not to wake him up, or you will be punished with cracked chestnuts.”

Si An: “Hey, sis, take me out to play!”

Mother Si frowned: “Have you finished your homework? If not, why are you going out to play?”

Si Cheng said quickly: “An An, I’ll go upstairs to put my things away and help you with your homework. After you finish your homework, I’ll take you to the bookstore to play in the afternoon.”

Si An was afraid of his mother and also worried about his father who had not yet gotten up, so he had no choice but to return and continue doing his homework absent-mindedly.

When Si Cheng came downstairs, her mother sat beside her and started ordering her to do this and that.

While directing Si Cheng to work, Si’s mother complained to her.

Every time Si’s mother came to Si Cheng to complain, she kept saying the same few words.

All she did was complain about grandma, blaming her for favoring uncle. When she married Uncle Si, he only gave her a mud house, a TV, a bicycle, a sewing machine, 800 yuan as a dowry, and two new red clothes, and then sent her away.

When my uncle got married, I spent 20,000 yuan to build a house for him, and gave 10,000 yuan as a dowry to my aunt.

When she calculated all her money back then, she didn’t even have 3,000 yuan.

It cost 30,000 yuan to marry my sister-in-law.

Every time this is mentioned, Si Cheng gets a headache.

Not to mention, Mr. and Mrs. Si got married in the late 1980s, and in the countryside, a TV, a bicycle, a sewing machine and 800 yuan were already the top-notch dowry.

My uncle got married around 2000. He bought a single-story house with a dowry of 810,000 yuan, which was also the best in the village.

Don’t just look at the money.

It depends on the environment at that time.

Si Cheng understood his mother’s resentment, but he did not agree with her resentment.

This is a social reason, not a question of whether grandma is partial or not.

In another ten years, you will have to buy a house worth 300,000 or 400,000 yuan when you get married, and prepare a car worth tens of thousands of yuan. A dowry of 60,000 or 80,000 yuan is not a problem, and the wedding banquet will cost at least 20,000 yuan.

Do I have to spend 30,000 yuan to find a wife for my younger brother?

After complaining about this, she started complaining that she was so tired every day that she couldn’t even straighten her back, and that her grandmother was in the countryside and refused to come to the city to help her with the work.

I want to stay in the countryside to farm, raise chickens, ducks and pigs, subsidize my uncle and aunt, and help them take care of my son.

Si Cheng felt a headache after hearing this.

Her parents went out to work when she was three years old and never sent money back throughout the year.

No spare money.

Si’s mother can’t get along with others, she always quarrels with them, and they keep moving to other places.

Later, I almost got into a fight with someone at the factory because of an argument, so in 1995 I returned to my hometown and went to the city to do business.

In the first two years, Mr. and Mrs. Si were in the exploratory stage and made basically no money. They also lost all the capital they had saved from working.

It was my grandfather who paid two thousand yuan for the cost of setting up the night snack stall.

My grandmother told me that after my parents got married, my father tried all kinds of ways to make money, but he was young and inexperienced, and didn’t have the ability to withstand strong pressure, so he lost money no matter what he did.

Growing taro, raising ducks and pigeons.

During those three years, my grandparents paid for the compensation, a total of about four to five thousand yuan, which was used to pay for the money that was intended for my uncle’s wedding.

My parents had no other choice but to go out to work and earn money.

Before Si Cheng went to junior high school and her younger brother was brought to the city in 1999, all the expenses of the siblings, except for tuition, were paid by their grandparents.

Around 1995, the economic environment in rural areas improved, and color TVs began to enter the village. Villagers who went out to work earned money to repair houses for their families, which led to an increase in my uncle’s wedding costs.

For the thing my uncle was talking about, my mother’s family wanted her to provide a house and a dowry of 10,000 yuan, and my grandmother had no choice but to pay.

If we delay any longer, my uncle will get too old.

Can I blame my grandparents for this?

No way.

With the money my grandparents gave my parents, we could have built a house at that time.

If my parents had been so unsuccessful in everything they did, the money in my grandparents’ hands would have been used to build a house for my uncle’s wedding.

But we can’t blame Si’s mother for being resentful. Just looking at the amount of money, she didn’t get enough advantage.

She felt that she was outshined by her sisters-in-law and looked down upon by her mother-in-law.

Especially since her grandparents are in the village. She used to help her uncle and aunt with work, and now she helps them take care of the children. She is so tired in the city that she is shaking and there is no one to help her.

Compared to my third aunt’s family, who have the help of her parents-in-law, and the couple who also set up a night snack stall to earn hard-earned money, their lives are much easier.

But at the same time, because Si’s mother always wanted to take advantage of the two elders, and she didn’t know what was good for her, she was picky and always looking for trouble, which led to grandma not liking her.

Mother Si knew this.

Therefore, the relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law has always been bad.

When grandma came to the city to visit her eldest grandson, she would hardly even drink water from Si’s mother. After saying hello to Si’s mother, she would go to Third Aunt’s place.

When the third aunt got married, the dowry she gave was two thousand yuan, more than twice the betrothal gift given to Si’s mother. They got married two years ago.

This has always been a thorn in Si’s mother’s heart.

At one point, Si’s mother felt that all of grandma’s private money was given to the third aunt.

Otherwise, if Si Sangu’s family’s business was not as good as hers, how could they have the money to buy a commercial house in the city, decorate it luxuriously, and still have 10,000 yuan to lend to Si’s father to buy this self-built house that she didn’t like in any way.