Struggle Life in the 1970s

After finishing talking about Zhao Xuesong, Chu's mother couldn't help but feel lucky. She couldn't help but grumble, "There is no such thing as a free lunch in the world. I thought the matchmaker was sincere at the time, but she didn't expect to introduce a murderer to our family as a son-in-law."

After listening to this, Father Chu nodded in agreement and continued, "Fortunately, I didn't agree to their blind date at that time, otherwise I don't know how the villagers would laugh at our family now." After saying that, he turned to look at Chu Ye, "Fortunately, you told us in advance, so our family avoided this disaster, but what should we do in the future?"

Chu Ye knew what he meant by asking. It was simply about whether the Bodhisattva had said how the family could become better.

She thought for a moment, then pretended to hesitate and said, "The Bodhisattva only told me these two things and then left. He said that revealing too much would bring disaster to our family."

Although she spoke cryptically, the old couple understood her. It was simply this: the secret cannot be revealed.

Although today's society has cracked down on all kinds of feudal superstitions, there are still some things that people would rather believe than not believe.

What's more, everything Chu Ye said at the beginning came true one by one, which made them trust Chu Ye even more.

Seeing Chu Ye's answer, the old couple knew that they should not ask too many questions about such matters, and finally said nothing more.

Since mid-June, the weather has been getting hotter day by day, but farmers are busy because it is the wheat harvest season.

People were waving sickles and working in the fields. Chu Ye was no exception. Although she wore a straw hat while working, after more than half a month, her originally fair face was still tanned red, and her arms and calves that were exposed also turned several shades darker.

But she doesn't care. Working in the summer, getting tanned is inevitable. After this period of time, her skin will naturally become whiter.

In addition, she still went up the mountain to pick wild plants in her spare time every day. Whenever Brother Jianwen was going to town, he would call her. In a month, she earned nearly ten yuan in bits and pieces.

However, she couldn’t sell things every time she went there. If there were things that couldn’t be sold, she would either give them directly to Brother Jianwen or give them to Mu Jiajun.

Although Mu Jia Junmei kept making excuses, Chu Ye also had her own reasons.

Teaching her was like giving her a second life. Besides, Mu Jiajun had given whatever food he had to her and Sister Deng. It was really insignificant for her to give him some wild plants and fruits.

By the first Friday of July, Chu Guangyao also went home. This time, his final exams were over and his summer vacation was officially about to begin.

It was during this period of time that rumors about Chu Ye began to spread in the village.

After all, many people knew that she went to the town to take the exam. When she came back from the exam, people in the village were gossiping about it. Now it is already July and the results have not been released yet, which has attracted many people to inquire about the news.

Look, by the field, there were a few workers sitting and taking a break. They were originally chatting about family matters, but somehow the topic turned to Chu Ye.

"Has your daughter Si Ya had any blind dates recently? I have someone here, how about arranging for them to meet?" Next to Chu's mother was Aunt Li from the same village, and she asked curiously.

As soon as these words were spoken, the originally noisy crowd was immediately attracted. No gossip could be more interesting than watching young people fall in love.

Seeing everyone's eyes focused on her, Chu's mother was shocked. If half a year ago, someone said they wanted to introduce a partner to Chu Ye, she would have agreed without hesitation.

But things are different now. Not only did Chu Ye predict those things before, but she also went to take the technical secondary school entrance examination and promised the old couple after returning home that she would pass.

That night, Chu's father told her that Si Ya would have a great future, and when she graduated and got a job, she would marry someone better, and our family would also benefit from it.

Because of this, she temporarily gave up the idea of ​​letting Chu Ye go on a blind date. Thinking of this, she looked up and said with some pride, "Our Si Ya is not in a hurry. She went to the town to take an exam some time ago and is still waiting for the results."

"Why wait more than a month for the results? All the students in this town are back from vacation." Someone else said, "Don't think I'm being harsh. Your daughter hasn't been to school for more than half a year. So what if she's taking the exam?"

"The results haven't come out yet, I'm afraid I didn't pass the exam at all."

Originally, Aunt Li was a little embarrassed by what Chu's mother said, but now seeing that no one was optimistic about Chu Ye's admission, she couldn't help feeling proud.

She pretended to be generous and said, "Whether your Si Ya can pass the exam is still uncertain, but the candidate I have is very good. His grandfather is the Party Secretary of Hedong Village. You know his family background very well, and he will definitely not treat Si Ya unfairly."

"Besides, didn't your San Ya get married there a few years ago? It's just right for the two sisters to have a companion."

Hearing this, Mother Chu felt a little hesitant and felt that what Aunt Li said made some sense.

After all, after the exam, Chu Ye vowed that there was no problem, but he never talked about it again after that.

Now that she thought about it carefully, she felt that what these people said made sense. Although she also saw Chu Ye working hard to go to the educated youth compound every day, the adults didn't know how he was doing in his studies.

Seeing that Mother Chu's expression had softened, someone tried to persuade her, "Even if Si Ya really passes the exam, won't she still have to get married after graduation? What if she's not picky and finds someone from another place? Wouldn't that mean you gave birth to a daughter in vain?" "That's right! You must keep at least one or two of your four daughters by your side, otherwise, when you get old, can you still rely on your sons? I tell you, sons are not as comfortable as daughters."

The more these people talked, the more it touched Chu's mother's heart. Originally, she had only heard Chu's father tell her that when Chu Ye got a job and could make money, he could help Chu Guangyao and the family.

Now, after listening to what they say, I feel that it is not good for this girl to be too capable. Otherwise, what will happen if no one takes care of her parents when they are old?
She thought about it again and again, and finally turned to ask Aunt Li, "Tell me more about the boy you introduced."

Chu Ye was unaware of all this. She and her brother Jianwen came to the town again.

Sister Nianci is almost six months pregnant now, and Aunt Wang’s family takes it very seriously. This time, Brother Jianwen came to buy nutritional supplements again.

But what I bought this time was different, this time I bought seafood. The reason was that Sister Nianci said some time ago that she missed the delicious food from her hometown. She grew up by the sea and her favorites were shrimp and fish. However, they were not near the sea, and she had never heard of anyone eating seafood.

Sister Nianci also knew about it, so she mentioned it once that day and never mentioned it again. However, Jianwen kept it in mind and came to the town to buy seafood the next day. However, he went to the department store and the black market, but didn't see any seafood.

Finally, he went to find the salesperson at the department store, made a request to him, and eventually paid a higher price to get the department store staff to transfer the goods from the south. Today, Jianwen came to pick up the goods.

When Jianwen came out, he was holding two packages wrapped in yellow paper, one package was dried shrimps and the other was dried fish.

After all, the distance is too far. If it is fresh seafood, it would have gone bad by the time it reaches them, so Jianwen just ordered dried food. He didn’t know whether Nianci would like it.

Chu Ye's eyes widened. She was also quite curious about these things. After looking at them for a while, she asked, "How much do these things cost?"

Jianwen put his things away, turned his head to look at Chu Ye, and slowly stretched out two fingers, as if to say "yeah."

Chu Ye's eyes widened in disbelief. She recalled what she had just seen. There were only six dried shrimps and three dried fish in it? How could it be so expensive?

Jianwen naturally noticed her reaction. He scratched his head in embarrassment, "It's sun-dried, so the price will be higher. Plus, this is expedited delivery, so I charge more."

After explaining, he added, "No matter what, we can't let Nianci suffer. Pregnancy is hard for her. She has been feeling uncomfortable for the past few months. Only this month can she eat more."

Chu Ye recalled the sister Nianci she had seen during this period. She was indeed in much better spirits than before. Seeing that Brother Jianwen was so concerned about her, she was also happy. She only hoped that Sister Nianci could get rid of the tragedy of her previous life.

When he returned home, it was almost noon. Chu Ye prepared dinner and waited for his family to come back. After dinner, Chu's mother quietly came into the room and wanted to talk to Chu Ye about the blind date.

As soon as she told the story, Chu Ye immediately guessed what was going on.

No matter in the past or present life, Chu's mother has always been a person with an unsteady stance. She will be good to her daughter as long as it does not affect her son. Once her own son appears, she will put everyone else aside.

At the same time, in this family, she was like a puppet of Chu's father. She could not refute anything his said and blindly believed that whatever his father said must be right.

The same goes for other people's opinions. As long as there is the slightest sign of trouble, Chu's mother will immediately change her mind.

Chu Ye lowered his head and concealed the indifference in his eyes.

She had already exhausted all her hopes for the woman who gave birth to her and raised her. She did not expect any maternal love from Chu's mother. She only hoped to escape from this small mountain village when she was able and never come back.

It has to be admitted that those gossipers did say some things correctly, but she definitely couldn't let Chu's mother know about this.

So she comforted Chu's mother in a soft voice, and assured her that she would not forget her roots even if she went to study and work, and successfully coaxed Chu's mother away.

Then she took the exercise book from the table and turned to a page where the subjects and scores were clearly written.

This was the score she estimated based on her memory after she returned home from the exam, except that she put a question mark after the English subject.

After all, English is not her strong point. However, after the conversation between her and Mu Jiajun after the test, she realized that English was not a subject that held her back.

At the bottom of the paper, Chu Ye drew a line and wrote a string of numbers under the line: 600 points.

This score was enough for her to be admitted to a technical secondary school. All that was left was to wait for the admission letter.

(End of this chapter)