Chapter 6: The Mu Family’s Situation

Since it was neither the New Year nor a festival, there was no rush to sew the clothes. After sizing it up, Liu Shuangcui put everything away in their room.

Although the Mu family doted on their children, they would not leave valuable items in a child’s room.

The shoes, however, were not put away. Mu Mian tried them on immediately, and they fit perfectly. She looked like the most stylish kid in the entire brigade.

But Mu Mian herself was reluctant to wear them outside just yet. She carefully stored them away, deciding to save them for a special occasion—perhaps when her father took her to the commune or county town.

After putting everything away, Liu Shuangcui hurried out the door.

Right now, she was the only one in the Mu family earning work points.

Before, Mu Zhuo had also worked, but in February last year, shortly after the New Year, he was recruited into the army. He passed the selection and was sent south with the troops.

At that time, around thirty young men from their brigade had signed up, but Mu Zhuo was the only one who got in.

His family was bursting with pride. Mu Fugui bragged about it for days, talking about how honorable it was to be a soldier.

He could not stop praising his son for being outstanding. While others were eliminated for various reasons, his son met all the requirements!

With Mu Zhuo gone, the family had one less person earning work points. But their financial situation only improved.

At first, his army allowance was not much—just over twenty yuan per month.

But every month, he would send half of it home, saying that he barely spent anything in the military.

He did not send money every month, only every few months, but each time, the remittance slip would show thirty or forty yuan.

Mu Fugui himself earned thirty-one yuan and fifty cents per month. This was an amount that had slowly increased over the years—he had started at just a little over ten yuan.

However, since his job was not a skilled trade, his salary had reached its limit with no further room for raises.

In contrast, some senior workers in factories could make seventy to eighty yuan per month, and in big cities, some earned over a hundred.

But envy would not change reality. Those people had education and qualifications. They earned their salaries through skill, and everyone had to live within their means. If one lacked the ability, they could not expect to hold onto a high-paying job.

Mu Fugui and his wife both had only a primary school education. To be exact, they had not even completed primary school. They only recognized basic characters—enough for daily life.

Mu Fugui’s job at the slaughterhouse was obtained purely through physical strength.

For people in the brigade, having even one family member employed in the city was already considered a stroke of great fortune.

Though Liu Shuangcui did not have an urban job, she earned plenty of work points in the fields. She was strong—stronger than some of the men—and often managed to earn full work points.

Mu Mian belatedly realized that in her family, she was the only one who was just eating without contributing!

Her grandmother was only slowed down by age. It was said that when she was younger, she was incredibly capable.

Even now, she couldn’t stay idle at all. As soon as she finished turning over the soil in the small plot, she immediately took out vegetable seeds to plant.

While helping to scatter the seeds, Mu Mian let out a sigh. Thinking about her mere dime of savings, she truly felt anxious about having an empty pocket.

But making money in these times wasn’t easy. In the countryside, people farmed all year round, yet how much money their work points could be exchanged for depended entirely on the brigade’s earnings.

Some brigades were poor, so work points had little value.

Others were better off, and after exchanging for grain, families with extra work points could trade them for some money.

Their family hadn’t had extra work points since last year because only Comrade Liu Shuangcui was working in the fields. However, it seemed they didn’t really need to exchange work points for money, as her father and older brother both earned wages.

These wages were considered high in the countryside, but in the city, they were nothing.

Thinking about how chaotic the cities would become in a couple of years, Mu Mian sighed again.

The city had its advantages, but so did the countryside.

Zhao Meihua glanced at her granddaughter. “What are you sighing for at such a young age? Be careful, or you’ll sigh away your good fortune!”

Mu Mian quickly changed her expression and grinned. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Then I’ll breathe it back in!”

Zhao Meihua was amused by her granddaughter’s exaggerated expression. She laughed for a few seconds before asking, “What? Want to go out and run around?”

Mu Mian shook her head and casually replied, “No, I was just wondering why cucumbers don’t grow faster.”

Her tone was similar to that of a child eagerly looking forward to the New Year.

Zhao Meihua scoffed, “You eat for a whole year and only grow a tiny bit taller yourself.”

Mu Mian looked down at herself. “I’ve grown more than a tiny bit, right?”

She was definitely one of the taller ones among her peers!

Just as Mu Mian was thinking about other kids her age, a shout came from the entrance. “Sister Mianmian! Want to go dig for bugs?”

Before the words even finished, Mu Mian saw Xu Lele and her fourth uncle Mu Xingwang’s youngest son—Gutou, whose real name was Mu Shi, and two other children appear at the door.

In the distance, another child was huffing and puffing, running toward them while shouting, “You guys didn’t even wait for me!!”

His voice was loud.

Mu Mian recognized him instantly from her memories. He was her youngest uncle Mu Xinglong’s eldest son—nicknamed Xiao Chengzi, whose full name was Mu Cheng. He was only six years old this year.

Old Lady Zhou and Old Man Mu had five children in total. The eldest was Mu Fugui, while the second and third were daughters who had married into other communes.

They only saw them during festivals or when something happened. Otherwise, months could pass without meeting.

The youngest two, Mu Xingwang and Mu Xinglong, were identical twins.

Although the old man passed away and the old lady took charge of dividing the family, Mu Fugui and his two brothers still had a good relationship, and the younger generation often played together.

Especially Xiao Chengzi, who always followed Gutou around.

Since Mu Xinglong married late, Xiao Chengzi had no older siblings. He did have younger sisters, though. On the very day Mu Mian was kidnapped, his mother had given birth to twin girls. They were only two days old and still too fragile to be exposed to the wind.

Compared to Mu Xinglong, Mu Xingwang had married much earlier and had the most children among the siblings. He and his wife had a child every three or four years.

Gutou was the youngest, with two older sisters and an older brother.

If they counted their cousins from their aunts’ families, the younger generation of the Mu family had over a dozen children.

It was truly a big family.

—

Right now, Mu Mian wasn’t too interested in playing with little kids, but there wasn’t much to do at home either. There weren’t even any toys.

So she told Xu Lele and the others to wait while she went to find an old bottle and a small shovel.

She figured that feeding the family’s hens well and getting them to lay more eggs was also a way to contribute.

Old Lady Zhao reminded the kids, “Just dig along the field ridges. Don’t go up the mountain!”

Gutou grinned at her. “Don’t worry, Grandma! We definitely won’t go. My mom said if I do, she’ll spank me when I get back.”

As they talked, Xiao Chengzi finally arrived. He hugged his grandmother’s leg and complained, “Grandma! My brother didn’t wait for me! I told him I just needed to poop, and he ran off without me!”

Gutou stuck out his tongue. “Well, you take too long to poop.”

Old Lady Zhao had clearly dealt with this kind of situation many times. She didn’t even glance at the two boys and casually said, “Then next time, don’t wait for him either.”

Xiao Chengzi felt like he had received his grandmother’s full support. He puffed out his little chest, determined to run off the next time his brother was in the middle of pooping.

Gutou ignored his silly younger cousin and turned to Mu Mian, who was still searching for something in the corner. “Sister Mian, hurry up!”

This kid was always impatient and hated waiting.

Mu Mian didn’t look up. “I can’t find my bottle.”

She used to use that bottle to store bugs, but she had no memory of where she left it.

Old Lady Zhao glanced over. “It’s probably near the chicken coop.”

Mu Mian immediately got up and ran to the backyard. The family’s three hens were all kept there.

Whenever they needed to dry vegetables, they also did it in the backyard. When her father rebuilt the house last year, he specifically set up a private backyard.

Otherwise, if they did everything in the front yard, anyone who walked in would see.

Gutou grumbled, “Sister Mian has a bad memory.”

Xu Lele protested, “Sister Mianmian is great! It’s just because she had a fever yesterday!”

Whenever she talked to Sister Mianmian before, Sister Mianmian always remembered everything clearly. She definitely didn’t have a bad memory.

As the two kids bickered, Mu Mian finally found her things and came back. She held a bottle in one hand and a small shovel in the other. “Let’s go!”

Gutou dashed off ahead.

This time, Xiao Chengzi didn’t chase after his cousin. Instead, he ran up to Mu Mian, tilting his head curiously. “Sister, my dad said you almost beat a kidnapper to death yesterday! How did you do it? Can you teach me?”

Learning that would be so impressive!!

Upon hearing this, Gutou, who had been running ahead, stopped and turned around to join them.

Apart from Xu Lele, the other two kids were also incredibly curious.

Xu Lele knew the answer to this question, so she eagerly started explaining, leaving the other kids in awe.

Xiao Chengzi scratched his head, “So we just hit them with a stick?”

Gutou glanced down at his younger cousin and scoffed, “Fool! Of course not. We’re too weak.”

Children didn’t have a clear understanding of strength, but they knew that when they went out, Sister Mian always carried a much bigger bundle of firewood than they could even lift, let alone carry on their backs.

Taking advantage of a pause in Xu Lele’s words, Mu Mian took the opportunity to teach the kids some basic anti-kidnapping awareness. “The key isn’t to fight the kidnappers. They’re adults, and most kids can’t win in a fight. The most important thing is to recognize them and avoid being taken in the first place.”

Xiao Chengzi looked puzzled, his eyes filled with innocent confusion. “Then what do kidnappers look like?”

Mu Mian replied, “They look like regular people. You can’t tell just by looking at them, but they might…”

For a moment, the only sound in the field was Mu Mian’s voice. She didn’t go into too much detail, just shared some of the most common tricks kidnappers used.

Even so, the kids were completely dumbfounded.

Xiao Chengzi clung tightly to his cousin. “Waaah! Kidnappers are so scary!!”

Gutou also nodded blankly.

Xu Lele’s face was filled with anger. “Kidnappers are the worst!!”

The other two kids had similar expressions.

After digging for worms for two hours, only Mu Mian managed to collect half a bottle, while the others had barely two or three worms at the bottom of their containers.

It was getting late, so the kids decided to head home. Along the way, they ran into other children and soon started chattering excitedly about what they had learned.

When Mu Mian got home, her grandmother wasn’t there.

She didn’t bother looking for her. As expected, her grandmother was probably at her uncle’s house. Her aunt had just given birth and was still in confinement, so as the mother-in-law, her grandmother had to help take care of things.

Besides, she had no choice. Mu Mian’s aunt, Zheng Xialan, had no family of her own to rely on.

She used to have a widowed mother, but after her mother passed away, her uncle’s family tried to sell her to an old widower.

So, at nineteen, Zheng Xialan ran away from the mountains by herself. She even fell on a slippery slope during a rainy day and nearly froze to death. Fortunately, she was rescued by Mu Xinglong.

Mu Xinglong was five years older than Zheng Xialan. The reason he got married much later than his elder brother wasn’t because the family couldn’t afford to marry off two sons at the same time.

Zhao Meihua treated all her children equally. If the fourth son was getting married, she would naturally arrange for the fifth son as well.

Mu Xingwang, the older brother, had an easy time with his marriage since he was marrying someone from the same brigade.

However, Mu Xinglong’s match was introduced by a matchmaker, so they didn’t know much about the girl’s family.

Everything seemed to be going well until the bride’s family backed out at the last minute when they found a suitor with better financial status.

Whether it was his pride or heartbreak, Mu Xinglong didn’t seek another marriage for three or four years after that.

It wasn’t until he rescued Zheng Xialan that the thought of marriage resurfaced in his mind.

Zheng Xialan had suffered a lot during her childhood, and her health was frail. It took over three years of marriage before she finally gave birth to Xiao Chengzi.

This time, she had twins, and the pregnancy had been especially difficult.