Chapter 21 : Preparing for Marriage Proposal

After putting the remaining money into her space, Su Mo counted it and found that she still had 933.27 yuan left.

She also planned to buy a bicycle, as it would be inconvenient to go to the county town in the future. However, she didn’t have a ticket, and it would cost about 40 or 50 yuan to buy a bicycle ticket at the black market, plus the money for the bicycle itself, which would take up about 200 yuan.

This matter of earning money had to be prioritized as soon as possible.

While she still had some time, Su Mo took out a history book and studied it carefully. In two days, she planned to go to the commune post office to buy a few current newspapers to familiarize herself with the current writing style.

Once she had some income, she would buy a semiconductor and keep up with national affairs every day.

The room in the educated youth center had small windows, so the light became poor in the evening. Su Mo took out a desk lamp and read for a while before putting away the book and the lamp and preparing to cook.

The educated youths took turns cooking, and today it was supposed to be the male educated youths’ turn. But their cooking was truly terrible, so Su Mo had to cook for herself in order to actually eat something edible.

The meals weren’t tasty in the first place, and they were cooked like pig food. Who could eat that?

When Su Mo and her friends first arrived, the brigade lent them 10 jin of cornmeal, 20 jin of corn grits, and 30 jin of sweet potatoes. They ate these with green vegetables every day, and only occasionally had eggs fried with green peppers, but there were more green peppers and fewer eggs.

The meal Su Mo cooked last night was the best meal they had since arriving in the countryside.

Su Mo first cooked the corn grits porridge, cutting a few pieces of sweet potato into it. She then took out some red kidney beans, which she used as seeds, from her space and added two handfuls.

These items could be produced at any time once her abilities were upgraded, so she didn’t mind using them.

She then went to the vegetable garden, picked a few eggplants and some beans, and pulled out a few cabbages, planning to stew the beans with the eggplant and stir-fry the cabbage.

—-  

Meanwhile, after Li Yue’e and Lu Xiaolan came out of the commune office building, they went to the supply and marketing cooperative together.

When they were shopping at noon, Li Yue’e saw some large bones left after the meat was removed, which were only 50 cents without the ticket. She bought some and left them at the supply and marketing cooperative, planning to take them home to stew with cabbage and potatoes.

Though there wasn’t much meat, the bones still had a meaty taste.

Such items were usually consumed internally by their supply and marketing cooperative, but since her daughter worked there and was familiar with them, they sold it to her.

When they returned to the supply and marketing cooperative, they found the other sales clerks gathered together, chatting about something.

“Hey, what’s the latest gossip? Tell us,” Lu Xiaolan said with a smile.

“I’m talking about your family,” said the older sister who had taken Lu Changzheng and the others to the collective workshop. She was speaking well of them, so she wasn’t afraid of them knowing.

“Oh? What’s going on in my family?” Lu Xiaolan’s smile seemed a bit forced.

Hongqi Commune was so small that her third brother’s marriage proposal was already known not only to the people in Lujia Village Brigade but also to some of her colleagues at the supply and marketing cooperative.

“It’s said that your brother’s girlfriend is not only beautiful but also generous. She just paid 28 yuan, no hesitation.” The older sister said, then stayed a moment to listen before leaving.

The eldest sister’s surname was Huang, and her father-in-law was the secretary of another brigade. Last year, a salesperson at the supply and marketing cooperative gave birth to a child, and she used her connections to get in, where she had been working ever since.

However, she was just a temporary worker, earning only 14 yuan a month. 28 yuan was equivalent to two months’ salary for her.

“What?” Lu Xiaolan didn’t understand.

Sister Huang went on to tell Li Yue’e about Su Mo’s custom-made quilts, then pulled Li Yue’e’s hand and smiled, “Auntie, you’re so lucky. I think your future daughter-in-law is top-notch, with great looks, clothes, and temperament. She must come from a good family in the city. Your son has good taste.”

She continued, “I heard he was going to marry a female soldier from the art troupe, but now he’s marrying an educated youth. Turns out there’s someone even better.”

The family of the Lujia Village brigade secretary was really clever, they always get the best things.

Why didn’t they get such a well-off educated youth in their team?

She even had a younger brother-in-law who was still unmarried. If he could marry someone from a big city family, she could benefit greatly in the future.

It was obvious that Su Zhiqing came from a distinguished family. She noticed the watch she wore, the quality of her clothes, and the white cloth shoes she had on.

Those white cloth shoes were not sold at the supply and marketing cooperative. She guessed they could only be found in department stores in big cities.

The way she took out the money showed she was used to handling it. The 28 yuan in her hand seemed like nothing to her.

It was a pity that such a good catch had already been taken by someone else…

Since they were going to be selected as the advanced brigade, the villagers of Lujia Village hadn’t spread the news of Su Mo falling into the water. Therefore, Sister Huang didn’t know that reason.

After hearing this, Li Yue’e silently fumed, but still smiled and said, “Oh, thank you, big sister. Xiao Su is really a good kid. The more I see her, the more I like her.”

These two annoying people hadn’t even told her anything. They were still a couple this morning, and now they were already making quilts, but she hadn’t even heard about a kiss yet.

“Fate is unpredictable. I was worried that my third son might stay single, so I tried to arrange things. But I didn’t expect them him to fall in love as soon as they met after returning. As parents, we don’t need to worry at all. My third son took care of everything himself.”

“We had said we would see each other before, but now we don’t have to. Just now, I took my things to the middleman to apologize. We country folk are honest people, and we feel that we were wrong after all, and we feel very sorry.”

“But now people are advocating freedom of love, and those of us from the older generation can’t do anything about it.”

“No wonder they say that children and grandchildren have their own blessings. As parents, sometimes it’s better for us not to get involved.”

Li Yue’e was speaking with a sense of guilt. She was actually quite eloquent and had never lost an argument with the gossipy women in the team.

“Aunt, dating can either succeed or not. If it didn’t work out, it just means you weren’t destined to be together. You even came to apologize with gifts, which is very thoughtful.” Another colleague of Lu Xiaolan comforted her.

Li Yue’e chatted with them for a while, then took her large bone, bought a pound of candy, and hurried home.

When she got home, Lu Changzheng was indeed there, in Lu Boming’s room, chatting with his grandfather.

“Third brother, come here,” Li Yue’e called from outside the door.

“Mom, what’s the matter?” Seeing that Li Yue’e didn’t look very good, Lu Changzheng thought the talk with Director Liu hadn’t gone well.

“What’s wrong with you? Didn’t you say you would propose in a few days? Why are you making quilts today?” They usually prepare the dowries only after the proposal.

“She was going to buy cotton today, but she didn’t know the market situation here. You don’t know how scarce cotton is in big cities. If you don’t prepare early, you won’t be able to buy it when the time comes. It just so happens that I remember there is a workshop in our commune. I’ll go over and ask, and if it can be made, I can order it right there,” Lu Changzheng explained, praising his wife.

“By the way, we’re going to get married soon. Mom, can you call a few good aunts tomorrow and go to the educated youth camp to propose? Once the application is approved, we’ll go get the marriage certificate.”

Li Yue’e laughed, a little angry. She was right. Everything was clearly arranged. Proposing marriage was so much easier now. In the past, there wasn’t enough time to prepare.

” Have you prepared the things?”

Lu Changzheng was stunned. “What do you need? I’ll go buy it tomorrow morning.”

“Is it just a formality, or do you want to make it more decent?” Li Yue’e asked.

“Of course, I want it to be more decent.”

“Then buy 2 kilograms of cake, 2 kilograms of fruit candy, and 2 kilograms of red dates.”

Lu Changzheng nodded.

“Shall we give the bride price as we agreed on that day? You said you would prepare 200 yuan.”

“I’ll give another two hundred, making it four hundred.”

“Give so much?” Li Yue’e almost jumped up.

Two hundred was a very good dowry in the city. Even if you were giving a daughter to an official, four hundred would be quite a lot.

Suddenly, Li Yue’e seemed to have thought of something and asked, “Is something wrong with her family and she needs money?”

“Mom, what are you thinking?” Lu Changzheng said helplessly.

The main reason was that his mother hadn’t proposed yet, and he couldn’t tell his wife that he had already bought a lot of dowry, lest his mother think negatively of it.

So, this is the difference in thinking. In the minds of young people of later generations, they can start preparing once they’ve agreed, but in the old days, there were still procedures to go through.

“Your getting married soon, but have you asked her about her family situation? Has something happened? Will it affect you?” Li Yue’e was still a bit worried. It wasn’t easy for her son to get this far, and she felt sad thinking about the scars on his body.

“It’s no big deal. It won’t affect me. She have an uncle who is a division commander in the Guangxi army.” Lu Changzheng didn’t intend to say more, wanting to avoid his mother overthinking.

When Li Yue’e heard that there was an official in the family to support them, she felt relieved as long as it wouldn’t affect her son.

“So what do her parents do?”

“Her father is a university teacher, and her mother works in a food factory.” On the way back, Su Mo had briefly told Lu Changzheng about her family situation.

A teacher, no wonder. Teachers were the most likely to get into trouble these days. Maybe he was reported by his students.

Li Yue’e actually felt a little sympathy for her future in-laws.