The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 213 Li Meihong Wants to Reconcile
October 16, 1972.

Jiang Cheng drove into Sijiucheng, where he ate noodles with soybean paste and noodles with gravy.

In the old city, I naturally bought a lot of roast duck from Quanjude and roast duck from Bianyifang. Although they are both roast duck, one is a hanging oven roast duck and the other is a stewed oven roast duck, and the eating and characteristics are different.

In addition to food, Jiang Cheng bought a lot of commemorative medals of the Chairman and Tiananmen Square. He stayed in the city for most of the day and then left.

After leaving Sijiu City, Jiang Cheng also tried his best to hurry back. The last time he came back from Hong Kong was before the National Day, and it has been 20 days in a flash. Jiang Cheng doesn't know the situation of those people in Hong Kong.

Zhang Hao, A Guang and Ali have hands and feet, so even if Jiang Cheng went to Hong Kong for more than a month, at most he would be evicted when the rent expired. But Shen Li was young, and in Hong Kong in the 1970s, she could work before she was 16, but she had no one to rely on, so it was normal for her to be deducted from her wages.

Moreover, a little girl without anyone to take care of her would be easily bullied in Hong Kong, and even her aunt and uncle's family would come to her house to bully her.

On October 20, Jiang Cheng rushed back to Changcheng. This trip to the north took 18 days, even though he got up early every day to travel.

Of course, the time spent waking up early was actually wasted by Jiang Cheng in other places later. There are not many cities in the north that can be called the land of fish and rice. At least there are not as many fish as in the south. Freshwater fish sell well in the north.

In order to sell fish and buy vegetables, Jiang Cheng basically spent the time he saved on the road. Otherwise, a normal driver would only take about half a month to go to Dalian.

In the north, in late October, it is time for residents to store cabbage and radish in cellars. And the vegetables there are basically frosted, and cabbage and radish will be sweeter and more delicious after frost.

In the south, people only need to wear a coat when going out, which is still warm. When Jiang Cheng entered Anhui Province, he could no longer wear a coat.

During the 18 days when Jiang Cheng was away, Zhou Lingying was not bored. In order to earn a few more cents a day, those female educated youths would work even though the fields had not been irrigated a few days ago. Without water in the fields, they could not catch eels in the fields at night.

But they still look for eels in the ditches near the rice fields or in some small mud ponds. However, it is now late October, and unless they go to fish in eel holes, they can't catch any eels.

All the female educated youth in the commune had stopped catching yellow eels. All the female educated youth, whether familiar with Zhou Lingying or not, participated in catching yellow eels. After more than 20 days, each of them earned more than 15 yuan.

There were people coming to Zhou Lingying every one or two days. Those who had saved money would buy cloth from her and borrow her sewing machine. How could Zhou Lingying be bored? It was just that when she chatted with these female educated youth friends, there was already a slight generation gap.

The generation gap between married women and unmarried women means that there are at least some topics that cannot be discussed. For example, regarding childbirth, Zhou Lingying has been pregnant for more than three months. It was nothing before, but now if you look closely, you can already see the belly.

Those who could still live in the dormitory for female educated youth were basically young and unmarried. After all, as long as the female educated youth of that age were normal, it was impossible for them to say that they were unwilling to find a partner.

But the female educated youth who found a partner and got married basically did not live in the dormitory of the educated youth team. So the female educated youth who came to Zhou Lingying were embarrassed to talk about matters between men and women, let alone having children.

"Chen Li, let me ask you a question. How heavy was your son when he was born?"

"Five pounds and three ounces, not bad."

At the Jiang family, Zhou Lingying asked Chen Li how heavy her son was. Now that the weather was cooler, Chen Li borrowed Zhou Lingying's sewing machine to mend some things.

The reason why she asked how much Chen Li's son weighed was because Zhou Lingying was aiming to give birth to a son. In this era, a baby weighing more than five pounds is considered good, and a baby weighing six pounds is considered a "fat boy." Zhou Lingying also knew that when people give birth, their babies should weigh between five and six pounds, but she asked this question because she had never seen a birth. What she couldn't understand was how a five- or six-pound thing could be excreted from the place where she urinated.

After all, her man only has a few pieces, so she is quite "nervous".

Zhou Lingying touched her slightly swollen belly, thought about it and decided not to continue asking. Even though they were both women, she couldn't ask such a private question. She would rather talk about this with her man than with anyone else.

"Lingying, um~um~can you please stop holding a grudge against my mother-in-law about what happened before?" Chen Li stopped sewing and asked Zhou Lingying hesitantly.

"Chen Li, do you want to speak for your mother-in-law?" Zhou Lingying didn't expect Chen Li to suddenly talk about this, so she frowned and asked.

In fact, Chen Li didn't intend to speak for her mother-in-law Li Meihong. It was just that her parents-in-law and husband had given in in the past two days and wanted her to mediate.

When Zhou Lingying first came here, because of her identity as an educated youth, everyone gossiped about this for a long time. They said that with this identity, she couldn't even find a job to supplement her family income in the city, and that marrying an educated youth would be a complete burden for a working city person.

But the problem is that her man Jiang Cheng dotes on her. He can get whatever she wants to eat, and Jiang Cheng gives her money, dozens of dollars at a time.

This led to many women in the courtyard complaining about Zhou Lingying, saying that their husbands were not good at treating their wives. Mothers-in-law would naturally stand on their sons' side, and it was normal for them to say bad things about Zhou Lingying behind her back.

In the final analysis, when Li Meihong went behind Zhao Yuxia's back to say that Zhou Lingying didn't know how to live, it was probably because of Chen Li. If it weren't for her daughter-in-law Chen Li comparing Zhou Lingying's life with her own at home, Li Meihong might not have thought of "teaching" Zhou Lingying a lesson.

What happened later, Chen Li's husband and parents-in-law were so stubborn that they thought that a little girl just had a husband who was a driver. What's wrong with being a driver? It's great to be able to drive a car. Even if it's great, it has nothing to do with their family.

Zhu Lan in the backyard was a salesperson at the supply and marketing cooperative and a neighbor of everyone. She was very capable of getting some scarce supplies from the company. But she couldn't take care of the people in the yard. It was rare for her to sell the eggs she bought from the company to everyone.

The only thing is that Zhu Lan's family is better off, so when neighbors are short of money, it is easier to ask her to borrow some money. But the borrowed money must be repaid, it is not free.

So Li Meihong was very tough at the beginning. Jiang Cheng was a driver, so what? It was rare for a driver to bully her family. Is it possible to beat someone without breaking the law? The police will not arrest him.

Now Chen Li's family really can't stand up anymore. After the last feces-throwing incident, Zhou Lingying and her family lived separately. Living in the same yard, and they were all people from the front yard, they couldn't avoid seeing it, but they all pretended not to see it.

The problem is that not long after that incident, Jiang Cheng's parents returned to their hometown. At first, everyone thought that Jiang Cheng's parents might live in the city and not go back.

Without Jiang Cheng's parents around, Zhou Lingying seemed to become lawless.

Jiang Cheng didn't ask about the neighbors' affairs. He would only respond when the neighbors greeted him and took the initiative to chat with him. He was not at home for many days a month, and Zhou Lingying was responsible for everything at home.

Then the issue of taking care of the neighbors in the yard often occurred. Although Chen Li had a good relationship with Zhou Lingying, she was still "sanctioned" by Zhou Lingying.

At least some things other neighbors could buy more of, but Chen Li only allowed her to buy a small amount, enough for her and her children to eat and use, and then she would not sell anything else.

(End of this chapter)