Chapter 5

Dong Jiahui’s family has been very busy lately. Since people have seen and confirmed Dong Jiahui’s sewing talents. From time to time, people would bring something to ask her for help.

May it be sewing and mending, or making clothes, or embroidering a pattern or something, they would come to her but of course, everyone asked her to help and was embarrassed to come empty-handed. They would bring two eggs laid by their hens, or vegetables and fruits from their own vegetable garden. For those who were more polite, they would bring fish, shrimp, snails and eels. Anyway, the food of the Dong family is better than before.

As for why they give things instead of money, no one has spare money these days. Besides, in the era of lack of food and drink, food is equivalent to money. Money can’t buy it, such as wild mushrooms, wild eggs and duck eggs in the mountains, and occasionally a few small sparrows fight for sumptuous meals.

Dong Jiahui did not expect that she would rely on this craft handed down to her by her grandmother to support herself after crossing over. If her grandmother knew what happened to her, she wondered if she would be heartbroken or relieved.

She guessed that her Grandma fled to her hometown in the countryside in the 1960s. Chuxian is a little far away from here. She has to take the train to get there. She thought, when it was convenient, she would go back to her hometown to look for her grandmother. Even if she couldn’t recognize her, it was good to go as a relative.

“Guixiang ah.”

Chen Guixiang was mixing chicken food that day, and the third aunt of the village head Dongsan’s house pushed the door in.

“Oh, it’s the third aunt.”

Dong San’s family was not in the same production team as theirs. When they were divided into cooperation groups, 30 families had a production team. Their family was the first production team and the three Dong families were the second production team.

“I have a good thing here, about Jiahui.”

Chen Guixiang knows what she meant. She looked at the room where the girl in the West lived, invited her third aunt to the room to talk, poured her a cup of tea with brown sugar, and took some wild fruits up the mountain for her to eat.

Aunt Dong said smilingly, “I recently met a lot of people and they asked me about Jiahui, I know you always want to find a good home for Jiahui. When I went to town and met an old sister I used to know, she told me about a family. This child’s father is a statistician at the grain station. The child lost his first wife. The family has been trying to find another wife. I thought Jiahui is good. She doesn’t look bad. She’s young and still has skills. It’s not a problem if she can’t have children, he already had three children. “

Chen Guixiang frowned. This condition is not uncommon. Most of the matchmakers who came to the Dong family were widowers, and they all had children on their first marriages. Otherwise, for her daughter’s reputation for not being able to bear children, it is unlikely that a young man will come to their door to propose marriage.

The three years of marriage without pregnancy is not a big deal. There is no shortage of marriages in the village a few years before conceiving a child, but the Lu family used this as a reason to make a big deal out of it, Dong Jiahui can only eat this loss.

Although Chen Guixiang was not very satisfied with what the third aunt mentioned, she still asked a few questions carefully. What if it was a good one?

“How old is this person? Where does he work? How is his first wife? What is the age of his children?”

The third Aunt almost couldn’t stand it after Chen Guixiang asked a few questions. She sighed and told what she knew.

“Thirty years old, surnamed Chen, year tiger, his former wife was sick and died. My older sister has a bit of a relationship with his family. This is also a casual conversation. The Chen family asked me to come back. They expressed their attitude. As long as Jiahui agreed, they were willing to give a bride price of 100 yuan.”

Chen Guixiang looked at the third aunt with a smile on her face and knew that the Chen family must have promised a considerable amount of money to thank the matchmaker. Otherwise, given the nature of the third aunt, it is unlikely that she would have come specifically to talk to them as the matchmaker.

She calculated in her heart that she was thirty-seven this year, more than a year older than Jiahui.

Of course, age is not a hard condition. If it is really good, a little older does not hurt, but this matter can not be easily answered, but still needs to be visited carefully.

“The third aunt, you know Jiahui’s situation. I won’t be able to give an answer for a while. Why don’t you go back today and wait for me to mention it to Jiahui.”

Aunt Dong didn’t expect to come today. She drank the brown sugar tea in her bowl, wiped her mouth and got up, “OK, I’ll wait for your news.”

When her eldest son’s wife came back from the field, Chen Guixiang told her about it in private. The reason why she told Zhou Yindi is that Zhou Yindi’s second brother works in the town and is the accountant of the supply and marketing cooperative. The supply and marketing cooperative is in front of the grain station. It’s more convenient to inquire about the Chen family.

“Mom, I see. I’ll go back early tomorrow.”

Zhou Yindi immediately responded to what her mother in law said. She has always been sincerely concerned with her sister-in-law, Jiahui. She also hopes that she can find a satisfactory husband to love her in her next life and stop suffering.

Chen Guixiang nodded and said, “Don’t go back empty-handed, bring back the ten or so eggs you have saved at home.”

Zhou Yindi hurriedly shook her head, “Mom, no, keep the eggs for the family to eat, I’ll go back to the town on the way and give my nephew some snacks.”

For example, biscuits, fruit candy and so on, are decent and easy to take back, and the price is not expensive.

Chen Guixiang patted her arm, obviously disagreeing with her daughter-in-law’s words.

“Take it with you, what you buy is yours, what’s from the family is for the family.”

The next morning, Chen Guixiang went into her daughter’s room after sending her daughter-in-law Zhou Yindi away and saw Dong Jiahui sewing one stitch at a time.

The day before yesterday, someone had sent her a piece of cloth and asked Jiahui to make her a dress, the Lenin suit that is popular nowadays, and the reward was two catties of rice and three catties of sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are not rare, but rice is very rare, Two catties of rice are enough for the whole family to eat a pot of white rice.

“It’s a pity we don’t have a sewing machine at home. It will be quicker if you do it with a sewing machine.”

Several daughters-in-law got married early. At that time, every family had difficult conditions and had no spare money to buy this valuable thing. In addition, sewing machines need money to buy, but also need industrial tickets, which are not affordable for ordinary farmers.

“It’s okay, I’m not doing anything else anyway, just sewing a few clothes, it’s not a big deal.”

Dong Jiahui’s temperament does not want to take advantage. Her current status is now as an abandoned woman who has returned to her mother’s home, and she is embarrassed to eat free food without being productive.

The rural areas of this era are concerned about married daughters splashing out water. Let alone that she is also the daughter of the Dong family, in the eyes of others, her current identity is indeed criticized.

The parents and brother do not care. She doesn’t know what her sister-in-law will think. She can try her best to contribute to her family and eat more confidently at dinner.

Chen Guixiang sat down and stroked her daughter’s hair, Dong Jiahui’s thoughts she could understand as a mother, if not for the eyes of others, she would be happy to keep her daughter around for life.

But she and her husband will grow old one day. They can’t let their daughter live alone in this world. They still need to find her a good home.

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“Donglin, you have to think clearly. Your efforts for more than ten years have been in vain. Let me tell you, this time you have a good chance to rise. You are the battalion commander. Now that you retired from the army, you can be said to have fallen short of success.”

Now the soldier is much in demand, even the President said that he was not fond of red makeups but armed people^[1]TN: “Not fond of red makeups but armed people.” It was Mao Zedong’s praise of the female militia, who worked hard to defend the home and the country and had no time to dress up.. It’s not easy for children like them to come out of the countryside step by step. How much pain, sweat and injury they have suffered!

Zhao Donglin, a tall and sturdy man with a Chinese face, was smoking a cigarette quietly. His brows were firm and bold, like those of a heroic man.

“I’ve thought it over. That’s it. You have to give up in life sometimes. Something happened at home and my leg was hurt before. Even if I stay, I may not be able to go far. “

Nobody in the army said anything about his divorce from Wang Mei, In addition to feeling a little ashamed, he didn’t want his comrades in arms to worry.

“Hey, I’m just feeling sorry. We’ve been comrades in arms for so many years. We really can’t bear to be apart.”

Zhao Donglin exhaled a mouthful of smoke in the night and flicked the ash with the corner of his mouth. While holding a cigarette, he looked into the distant night sky. The stars were all over the sky, just like thousands of sorrows in his heart.

A few months ago, he received a letter from Wang Mei. He loved and respected this wife because she was his own wife.

That year, when he went home to visit his relatives, he met Wang Me, who jumped in the queue in the countryside. She struggled to carry a bag of wheat, walking and sweating. He went to help her carry the bag of wheat and sent it to the village rice mill for processing.

“Thank you. Are you a soldier? What’s your name?”

She smiled brightly and looked at him sideways. Her eyes were shining with a smile, which cast a ripple in his heart.

He doesn’t remember how they got together, but he got married to Wang Mei that spring festival and had their son, Heidan, the next year.

In the past few years, they had been together for more than two months, and Wang Mei said in her letter that she did not want to live this kind of widowhood, nor did she want to live such a poor life. She was eager to leave the countryside, eager to leave him and the Zhao family to start a new life.

Zhao Donglin wrote back and tried to redeem himself, but Wang Mei was very determined, saying that a job was waiting for her in the city and urging him to hurry up and sign all the divorce papers.

“Donglin, don’t let me hate you, I’ve waited too long for this day, going to the countryside was a mistake, marrying you was also a mistake, I can’t let the wrong life that I am leading continue, this is the last time I ask you. Please let me live for myself.”

Her words made him heartbroken, not to mention heartache, but also disheartened. It seemed that he had known Wang Mei for the first time and understood her determination.

Zhao Donglin signed the divorce document and forced a twist. Now the marriage seems like a children’s play.

Perhaps, as Wang Mei said, they were wrong from the beginning.

Zhao Donglin closed his eyes and thought, that’s it. In fact, he has been very tired for so many years.