Chapter 40

Gu Qijiao did not say any more useless words to comfort Tong Dixin. She just hoped that her parents would show up soon and save her from the sufferings of this world.

“Chop as much firewood as you can. It doesn’t matter if it’s not enough for food. I’ll try to send you food in the evening. I’ll also try to find out more about Shen Guidong for you.”

“Goodbye, don’t send me food. If someone finds out, you’ll get into trouble. And food is scarce… But if you can help me find out about him, then help me.”

As she spoke, Tong Dixin suddenly reached into her pocket, took out a small stack of money and put it in Gu Qijiao’s hand.

Gu Qijiao quickly refused: “I don’t want your money, you can take it yourself!”

“I can’t keep them. I used to leave them in the dormitory, but now I don’t dare to do that. I don’t know when the brigade will come to check my things.

I will be paraded through the streets and there may be a body search. If I keep it on me, it may be confiscated. I might as well give it to you as a thank you for helping me.”

Having said that, Gu Qijiao finally packed up the money.

She will go to the city and study in the future, and will need to spend a lot of money, so there is no need for her to be pretentious.

After all, she was helping Tong Dixin, delivering meals to her, and asking about her man’s news, all of which were risky.

Gu Qijiao doesn’t have to accept the money, but if she really accepts it, there’s nothing wrong with it.

After receiving the money from Tong Dixin, Gu Qijiao continued to cut grass for her pigs.

She didn’t dare to get too close to Tong Dixin, for fear of being seen and gossiped about, so she walked a few hundred meters away from Tong Dixin.

It was quickly approaching noon. Gu Qijiao saw that there was almost no pig grass in the basket. She couldn’t carry any more, so she used a wooden stick to hold the pig grass in the basket tightly and went down the mountain with her sickle.

Tong Dixin was still chopping wood. Although she was much faster with Gu Qijiao’s guidance, judging from the amount of firewood piled around her, it was still a bit difficult for her to make a living by chopping wood.

During the reform period, there were only two meals a day, two steamed corn breads in the morning and a bowl of porridge in the evening. If the task was not completed, there would be nothing to eat in the evening.

Gu Qijiao didn’t say hello to Tong Dixin and went straight down the mountain.

She returned home and counted the stack of money that Tong Dixin had given her, and found that there was actually more than seven hundred yuan.

You have to know that in the countryside, the work points an adult man earns in a year can only be exchanged for a hundred yuan at most.

In other words, Tong Dixin gave Gu Qijiao all at once the amount of money that a laborer would take seven years to earn.

The girl took out so much money as soon as she said she would. Gu Qijiao became even more certain that Tong Dixin came from an extraordinary family.

She put all the money in the drawer of her desk, together with the money and bills sent by Zheng Yunsheng’s parents.

Then Gu Qijiao went to the kitchen and started making steamed buns with the dough she had kneaded in the morning.

This steamed bun is not a big white steamed bun. It is made of a mixture of corn flour, bean flour and sweet potato flour. It is a real mixed flour steamed bun.

Big white steamed buns are generally unaffordable. The big white steamed buns that Gu Qijiao ate a few days ago were because she had just gotten married, so her mother made some for her.

The amount of wheat flour and rice a family could get each year was very limited. No family could afford to eat pure rice and flour, so they had to mix them with other grains.

Zheng Yunsheng had also finished work by now. He walked into the village with Xu Jianan. As soon as they entered the village, the aunts and grandmothers began to ask about Zheng Yunsheng’s family.

“Yunsheng, you are usually very low-key, but I didn’t expect your family is so well off.”

“That’s right. Gu Qijiao boasted to us today that she was lucky to marry an educated youth and that her parents were factory managers and accountants and they were very satisfied with her!”

Zheng Yunsheng didn’t say anything, just listened quietly, but she was happy in her heart. She said in front of everyone that she was lucky to marry him.