The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 260 Heading to Shenzhen
When Jiang Cheng and his group returned from Nanjing, they naturally brought gifts for Jiang Juan.

Some commemorative medals and pastries, and a pair of shoes that were considered fashionable in that era.

The night I came back, I made dumplings and ate them directly, which was considered as a way to make up for the New Year's dumplings after returning home.

"Juanzi, I have something to tell you. When you go back to your hometown, tell your mother about it. When we went back before the New Year, some change was missing from my cloth bag. It should be one of your brothers who took it. It doesn't matter whether it's money or not, but you can't develop bad habits."

At the dinner table, Zhou Lingying ate her dumplings one by one, and told Jiang Juan about what happened last time. Zhou Lingying looked pretty and gentle, but she still didn't eat like a little girl.

"Aunt, your money was also stolen. It should be Jiang Lin who took it. The money you and uncle gave me before the New Year was also stolen by Jiang Lin~." Jiang Juan said in shock.

Jiang Juan had never thought that her brother would dare to steal her aunt's money. No matter how good their relationship was, they were not blood relatives. It was not like parents and children, where even if they made a mistake, they would help cover it up because of their relationship.

The uncle-nephew relationship is certainly close, but it is not close, after all, they are not children.

Jiang Juan's mother told her grandparents that her uncle and aunt had no sons. She heard several times in her hometown that her younger brother would take care of them in their old age.

If Jiang Juan didn't live with her uncle and aunt, she might think so. But she has been with her uncle Jiang Cheng for more than two years, and she can feel that her uncle is not obsessed with having a son, but her aunt is always obsessed.

Uncle Jiang Cheng didn't show any preference for boys over girls. He even doted on his daughters. He would hug and kiss his daughters every day. She had never seen anyone in the countryside dote on his sons so much.

Jiang Juan didn't originally want to tell her brother Jiang Lin about stealing her money. After all, after her grandfather Jiang Changhe gave her five yuan as an extra payment, the money was barely enough for her to use, so she just thought of it as her brother taking away the money she had saved.

Now that her aunt said that her money was taken away in her hometown, Jiang Juan couldn't help but tell her that her money was stolen by her younger brother Jiang Lin.

"Jiang Lin was a pretty good kid when he was young, how come he ended up with such a problem?" Jiang Cheng said with a frown after hearing this.

Jiang Cheng still remembers that when he just came back from the army and was dating Zhou Lingying, he often took his nephews and nieces out for a walk. At that time, he thought Jiang Juan was not very good, because she was dark and missing two teeth, but his two nephews were quite well-behaved.

Now the situation is completely reversed. The niece Jiang Juan has grown into a beautiful lady, but the two nephews have a kind of indescribable feeling. Anyway, they are not likable. This may be because the two nephews do not take good care of his daughters, and do not have the care and courtesy of a brother.

Jiang Juan was different. She would take them out to play when she had time and help Zhou Lingying change the baby's diapers.

"Uncle, Jiang Lin will go to junior high school in September this year. Will you bring him to the city to study?" Jiang Juan asked. She wanted to ask this question and was also asking it on behalf of her mother.

During the Chinese New Year, Jiang Juan's mother asked her to come and ask tentatively. In fact, it can't just be said that he was brought to the city to study, but Jiang Lin's grades in the town's primary school were not very good.

If Jiang Lin's mother and grandparents had not forced him to study, and people in the countryside also knew that if boys did not continue their studies after elementary school, they would probably have to work in the fields.

So Jiang Lin's results were just barely acceptable. They were not good, but they were not very bad either.

"Why should I bring him to the city? I don't think it's necessary for him to go to junior high school with his grades. He might as well grow vegetables in the countryside. But if he wants to go to junior high school, let him go to the county. It's not useless to read more books." Jiang Cheng responded.

Bringing my nephew to the city to study is just a joke.

One is the housing problem. Since houses cannot be bought and sold, there is no place for my nephew to live. He will not live in the same room with his daughter, just like many people who have insufficient space in their homes and use wooden boards to separate the rooms.

The two nephews were registered in the countryside and did not meet the requirements for attending junior high school in the city. Jiang Cheng used his connections to get Jiang Juan to study in the city. Not only did he use his connections, but the school also looked at Jiang Juan's grades before letting her in.

With poor grades and a rural household registration, no one would dare to accept him even if he had connections. A rural person with poor grades is telling everyone that he is a relative, which will have a very bad impact.

Jiang Juan is in junior high school in the city. Even though she has a rural household registration, because of her good grades, people can at least use her good grades as an excuse to take care of her. This can also block some other people who also come to ask for favors to enter the school. Without the threshold of grades, once the door is opened, it cannot be closed.

After hearing what Jiang Cheng said, Jiang Juan no longer felt conflicted.

It was natural for Jiang Juan to feel disgusted when her brother took her money. But because he was her biological brother, she still hoped that he would live well. She was worried that her brother would come to the city to live with her and study, and she was also worried that her uncle would not take care of him and whether he would live well in the future.

Fortunately, the decision-making power was not in Jiang Juan's hands. After hearing her uncle's answer, she had no choice but to accept it whether he gave in or not.

But when Jiang Juan heard that her uncle didn't want her brother, she felt a little relieved. Jiang Lin took her money, and stole it. If he really asked her for some "small change", she would actually give it to him.

Jiang Juan now really wants to see the end of this semester, when everyone goes to higher education, and see how her uncle will look when he disagrees with her brother coming to the city to study. She will then see if her brother Jiang Lin will think that she is usurping things that her uncle originally gave him.

Because Jiang Juan moved to the city with her uncle, someone instilled in Jiang Lin the idea that Jiang Juan was enjoying his treatment.

During the two years in his hometown, Jiang Lin and Jiang Juan did not have the feeling of siblings when talking to each other. He rarely called her sister anymore, and always called her "you" and "your".

On that day, Jiang Juan enjoyed eating dumplings very much.

At night, around nine o'clock, everyone who needed to sleep had gone to bed.

"Yingying, the dumplings you made today taste great. Make another one." Jiang Cheng said while hugging Zhou Lingying from behind on the bed.

"No, can you please be more careful when you speak to other people next time? Besides, Zhaozhao is already six years old." Zhou Lingying said a little angrily.

"What did I say? Don't accuse me wrongly." Jiang Cheng said with a playful smile.

"How can you say that I'm good at making dumplings in front of Juanzi and my daughter? If they find out, how will we put our faces down?" Zhou Lingying turned over and said to Jiang Cheng facing her.

Jiang Cheng hugged Zhou Lingying and kissed her, feeling a little embarrassed. These dumplings can only be said to be delicious and beautiful, but cannot be described as "excellently made".

But Jiang Cheng felt that Zhou Lingying was making a big deal out of nothing, as this statement became obscene only in later generations.

In this era, the "日" in "锄禾日当午" is a serious term. Damn it, who would have known that 锄禾 and 当午 later became the names of a man and a woman? If we really follow some of the dirty interpretations of later generations, many poems will be difficult to teach.

"You're just overthinking it. What's wrong with saying that I'm good at making dumplings? It's also good to make them quickly. My neighbors used to invite me to eat dumplings during Chinese New Year. What do you mean by that?" Jiang Cheng defended.

"You're just pretending. How could I have been deceived by someone like you? We had no wedding banquet and no dowry. You slept with me right after we got the marriage certificate." Zhou Lingying said, but her hands were on Jiang Cheng's chest.

"We had a good meal in our hometown at that time. As for the bride price, how much do you want? There is so much money in the box, you can just take it yourself. I take care of your parents every year. Just a little more is more than the bride price they give. What's more, I touched you all over before we got the marriage certificate. How can you marry someone else if you don't get the marriage certificate and sleep with me?" Jiang Cheng said.

In fact, between husband and wife, apart from that thing, it is also good to hug each other and chat.

But now thinking about it, Zhou Lingying was really easy to deceive and coax. In just a few days, she was embraced by Jiang Cheng.

In this era, even if they hold hands, let alone hug each other, the marriage is considered stable. Moreover, before getting the marriage certificate, Jiang Cheng put his hand inside the other person's clothes.

Zhou Lingying was just joking about the betrothal gifts and wedding banquets. Jiang Cheng used the housing as an excuse to deceive the neighborhood office and neighbors, saying that they had been married for a long time and were only given two rooms, so there was no need to hold a wedding banquet.

When Jiang Cheng and I came to the city from our hometown, we invited my sister Jiang Yan to have dinner at home, so that was considered a banquet.

As for the betrothal gift, Zhou Lingying didn't know until she returned to Nanjing during the Spring Festival that Jiang Cheng had taken so much care of her family over the years. And if she needed money, she could take it anytime, so how could she care about the betrothal gift?

"Jiang Cheng, you're so nice." Zhou Lingying said with her face leaning on Jiang Cheng's shoulder.

"Zhou Lingying, you are also very good." Jiang Cheng responded.

She raised children and took care of almost all the housework. She served you meals, washed your face and feet, and brought you water. Even when washing her face, Zhou Lingying would wash Jiang Cheng's face before washing herself.

In the past, apart from liking to show off and gossip with other women, Zhou Lingying could be considered a good wife and mother.

The two of them lay on the bed, chatting about the past few years and the interesting things that happened in their neighbors' homes.

After chatting for a long time, Zhou Lingying finally made a dumpling for Jiang Cheng. She made the dumpling skins and Jiang Cheng made the dumpling fillings. This was the only filling he made all year round, and he never got tired of making dumplings.

~~
I stayed at home for several days. Two months had passed since I resigned. The gossip headlines in the yard and nearby were still about Jiang Cheng losing his job as a driver.

The main reason is that Jiang Cheng is unemployed, so he is different from others. He has done a lot of "glorious" things over the years, and there is a lot to talk about.

For example, people could no longer buy cheap sheep bones, and they could only save up cloth coupons to buy new clothes. Local specialties were also no longer available.

At first, there were indeed some people who gloated over Jiang Cheng's misfortune, thinking that since Jiang Cheng had lost his job, his good days were over and he no longer needed to be so respectful and fawning in front of their family.

But two months later, everyone found out that Jiang Cheng had lost his job. Although they didn't have to please him, they didn't get any benefits either. Apart from teasing him in private, what else could they do?

In recent years, the people in the courtyard have been polite to Zhou Lingying, but in fact, they just want to get something from her. If they have no selfish motives, they can communicate with Zhou Lingying on an equal footing.

Just like Chen Li's family, who had a falling out with Zhou Lingying. If they didn't want Zhou Lingying's things, they would be able to be tough when facing Zhou Lingying.

Over the years, everyone has become accustomed to Zhou Lingying's kindness to everyone. They are so accustomed to it that they feel that they are also spending money to buy things from Zhou Lingying, and don't feel that they owe her anything.

Now it's gone, and you can't buy anything even if you have money. Everyone feels that the Jiang Cheng family has taken good care of the people in the courtyard over the years. The most obvious point is that Zhang Qing in the backyard can directly buy things from the Jiang family and resell them for a profit. This is really taking care of everyone.

Jiang Cheng and Zhou Lingying had no idea what everyone thought of them. After the Chinese New Year, it was almost late February when they returned from Nanjing.

I stayed at home for a few more days. If you read newspapers regularly, you should have seen the news that Bao'an County became SZ City.

But it has not become a special economic zone yet. When it becomes one, there will be more domestic individuals doing business there.

Now we are only opening up to the outside world and allowing overseas capital to enter, and internal reforms are only in the pilot stage.

In other words, the first batch of people who come to do business in Shenzhen now are only those with overseas identities and capital. Domestic people who want to do business and grab the market have to wait in the second stage.

Moreover, without the first batch of overseas merchants to drive the flow of people, even if Chinese people want to do business, they have nowhere to set up stalls. If they set up stalls in front of state-owned factories, they will be driven away directly.

Jiang Cheng was also about to leave for Shenzhen. If he didn't leave, it would be difficult for him to find a reason to get foreign exchange back for Zhou Lingying.

Zhou Lingying's uncle and brother Zhou Fanyi wanted to get foreign exchange for their father-in-law, and Jiang Cheng planned to let Zhou Lingying take charge of it in the future. Just write a registered letter and mail it.

One hundred US dollars per piece is not much if you send it in two envelopes.

Ordinary long-distance mail costs about 8 cents for a stamp, and registered mail costs 20 cents. To send a registered letter, you have to go to the post office, pay the money directly, and they will put a 20 cents stamp on it, and then stamp it with the word "registered".

It's just that it's not easy to get money over there. The largest denomination of banknotes in China is 10 yuan. 10,000 yuan needs a big bundle. It's hard to explain the reason if you remit it, and it's not safe to mail it.

So it is very likely that someone there arranged to come to Changcheng by train. It is impossible for Zhou Lingying to take her daughter to Nanjing frequently.

Jiang Cheng set out in early March, not by train, but to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative Transport Team 3. Although he had resigned, as an experienced driver in the unit, he was once a celebrity in the unit, a master who could disassemble, assemble and upgrade cars with his bare hands, so it was easy for him to enter and exit the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

He went directly to Song Wei to help him drive to Guangzhou. On the way, he had to go to the reclamation farm, which would not supply Jiang Cheng with goods during the Chinese New Year. In addition, it was winter and there were no vegetables or grains to purchase.

Every year, Jiang Cheng's cooperation with the reclamation farm will be interrupted for about three months during the Chinese New Year. Now it is March, and Jiang Cheng has to go over to discuss this year's cooperation arrangements.

(End of this chapter)