Struggle Life in the 1970s

Mingzhu also found the lover who suits her.

Originally, she just followed her family's arrangement and met the man that day. The man's surname was Zhao. He looked like an honest man and was too dumb to say nice things, but he fell in love with Mingzhu at first sight.

Mingzhu originally looked down on his appearance and only met him to please her family. Unexpectedly, the man always took Mingzhu into consideration. He often washed his hands and cooked for her, fearing that she would not eat well, and then took the bus to send her to school. Not only that, he also quietly contracted Mingzhu's clothes and cosmetics. Whenever the department store had new goods, he would appear in front of Mingzhu's table first.

Because he often brought meals over, Chu Ye also benefited from it.

It was Sunday, and the sky was overcast early in the morning. Mingzhu got up early and walked around the dormitory, looking anxious.

Soon, there was a strong wind outside the house, the branches were bent, and the wind mixed with rain hit the windows hard. Then, bean-sized raindrops fell from the sky, one after another, and soon the drizzle turned into heavy rain, and water splashed on the ground.

Mingzhu could no longer sit still and looked at the heavy rain outside the window with worry. Chu Ye naturally knew the reason. According to usual practice, this was the time for the man surnamed Zhao to bring food to Mingzhu.

Mingzhu walked to the door several times, touched the door handle with her hand and then retracted it. Chu Ye touched his nose and understood the deeper meaning behind it.

The last time, Mr. Zhao came to bring her food and bought her a blue skirt embroidered with large flowers. He said it was just bought from the department store and was a new high-end product.

He didn't mention the price, but Chu Ye had followed Mu Jiajun for a long time and had seen a lot of good fabrics, so she naturally realized that this skirt would not be cheap. However, this was only one aspect. The most important thing was that this skirt really did not meet Mingzhu's aesthetic standards.

The embroidery on the skirt looked intricate and complex, with flowers densely packed from the waist downwards. Especially under the light, the flowers subtly changed colours, which looked particularly eye-catching.

Because of this, Mingzhu got angry at him and asked the man surnamed Zhao if he thought she was only worthy of wearing such colorful clothes. The man was speechless, but he was an honest person to begin with, so he retreated step by step in the face of Mingzhu's questioning. Finally, he took the clothes back as if begging for mercy, saying that he would take it back and exchange it for a better one for Mingzhu.

Mingzhu had been talking about the skirt incident for almost a week, and kept complaining to Chu Ye that the man named Zhao had poor taste and didn't know how to buy things.

Chu Ye laughed secretly in his heart after hearing this. When the incident with Zhou Wenlong happened, Mingzhu was only sad for one day, and was fine the next day. But now, the gift he gave her was just not to her liking, but she kept talking about it for a week, looking like she was moved but stubborn.

At this moment, Chu Ye felt a headache watching Mingzhu walking around in the dormitory. She took out her umbrella silently and asked, "Mingzhu, I feel so bored right now. Can you accompany me to the school gate for a walk?"

Mingzhu paused, looking at Chu Ye with sparkling eyes. After a while, she pouted and took out her umbrella. "It's raining so hard, but you still have to go out. You really have a lot of things to do. I'm the only one who is willing to accompany you at this time."

"Yes, yes, Miss Qiao is simply the best roommate in the world." Chu Ye did not expose her stubbornness, and the two of them walked to the school gate in the heavy rain.

It was raining heavily at the moment, and the wind made the umbrella tilt. When the two men reached the school gate, their shoes were already soaked. Now they stood under a tree, watching the cars passing through the town, and none of them stopped.

There were so many raindrops that everything in front of me was white. The weeds at my feet were blown this and that by the wind. Raindrops passed through the layers of leaves and hit the umbrella, making "patter" sounds.

Mingzhu was rarely patient at this moment. She held an umbrella and looked in the direction the car was coming from. She almost fell off the curb several times, but was pulled back by Chu Ye every time.

Soon, a clear whistle broke the endless sound of rain, and a green car came from far away through the rain curtain and stopped steadily in front of the school gate. Then the car door opened, and a man in blue shirt and gray pants got out. He hugged the things in his arms tightly and ran to the guard room with his head down.

"Hey! Zhao Huaiyuan, here!" Mingzhu was very excited when she saw people getting off the bus. Then she saw that idiot walking towards the school without even looking at the school, and she shouted angrily.

Perhaps because they were far away, Zhao Huaiyuan did not hear anything and kept walking. Mingzhu shouted again, and he stood there in a daze, looking towards the source of the voice. However, when he raised his head, his glasses were wet by the rain and he could not see clearly.

Mingzhu stomped her feet in anger and ran over there with an umbrella. When she got closer, she held the umbrella over their heads, and with a disdainful tone, she patted the raindrops on the man's clothes with her hands and pulled him under the tree.

"Are you an idiot? I called you several times and you only heard me until my voice was almost hoarse! You didn't even look to the side when you got off the bus!" Mingzhu said with dissatisfaction.

The man smiled awkwardly. He was not annoyed when he heard this. He quietly let Mingzhu's somewhat rough movements slap him on the body. When he saw Chu Ye on the side, he smiled honestly, nodded and greeted him.

Chu Ye also smiled and nodded. Mingzhu was still chattering, but the man smiled and took out the insulated lunch box from his arms and handed it to her. Then he took out a thin paper box, "Mingzhu, don't be angry. It's all my fault. I didn't hear you calling me. This is the skirt I changed into at the department store. Do you like it?"

Zhao Huaiyuan is actually not ugly. After graduating from high school, he followed his family's arrangement and went to work at the grain station. The salary was high and the work was not much. Due to his good family conditions, he did not suffer much from childhood to adulthood. He has fair skin and delicate flesh, a slightly plump figure, and wears silver-rimmed glasses. He looks like a white-faced kid who is easy to bully.

He was liked by many female colleagues in the factory, but he didn't agree to any of them until he met Qiao Mingzhu. It was love at first sight and he couldn't stop. Mingzhu took the things with a pouty mouth, and didn't open them to look at the clothes. She still complained, "It's raining so hard and you don't know how to hide. You still come to deliver food, and make my shoes wet."

Zhao Huaiyuan looked down and saw Mingzhu's soaked shoes. His eyes ached and he apologized repeatedly, "It's all my fault. I was thinking that you didn't eat well at school, so I made some delicious food for you. I'm sorry for making you worry about me."

He then said carefully, "Then I'll buy you a pair of shoes next time, okay? Don't be angry with me."

Mingzhu snorted coldly. She was not angry at all. She was just used to being harsh with her words. However, at this moment, no matter how tough she was, her face still turned red and she turned away embarrassedly.

Chu Ye felt that even though it was raining and chilly, pink bubbles appeared around her. She quickly made an excuse to go back to the dormitory.

Mingzhu handed her the lunch box, and Zhao Huaiyuan also spoke up, "Teacher Chu, just like before, there are two portions in it. Eat it first if you are hungry, and save some for Mingzhu."

Chu Ye nodded quickly and ran away like the wind.

The wind and rain outside came and went quickly. After Chu Ye finished his meal and rested for a while, the rain outside became much lighter and the originally gloomy sky gradually turned white.

Mingzhu came back from outside at this time. She folded her umbrella and looked no different from usual, but Chu Ye noticed that her cheeks were flushed, like cooked shrimps.

"Oh my, this Zhao guy is so mean! He even made Mingzhu so angry that her face turned red!" Chu Ye handed over the lunch box and teased with a smile.

Mingzhu took out the chopsticks, and understood her implication. She glared at him fiercely, but it had no deterrent effect. "What are you doing! You are the only one allowed to be with that Mu guy, can't I find a good one too?"

"How dare I? Tell me quickly, have you agreed to him?" Chu Ye approached curiously.

Mingzhu hesitated for a moment, then felt that this gesture was too hypocritical. Her face froze, and she pretended to be calm, "That was all his suggestion. I saw that he was sincere, so I agreed to it. Humph, if he treats me badly in the future, I will kick him out immediately!"

Chu Ye listened and knew that they had succeeded, and he felt happy for Mingzhu from the bottom of his heart.

On the other side, the Chu family.

Chu Ye hasn't been back for several years. Although Chu's father didn't show it on his face, he still felt a little bit reproachful in his heart.

Originally, his daughter was admitted to a technical secondary school, and then became a teacher through internship, and had a stable job in the government. It seemed that life at home would get better in the future, but it seemed as if his daughter had been raised in vain and she didn't even come home.

The villagers used to envy the Chu family for having a good child, but gradually they saw something and started to laugh at the Chu family's parents behind their backs, saying that their behavior was unkind and hurt the child's feelings, and that's why they ignored the old couple.

When Chu's father heard this, he was furious. What do they know? What he did was not fair? Whose daughter didn't go through this?

He had good intentions and asked a matchmaker to find someone who worked in the town, thinking that the two of them would live a happy life after the marriage. But the little bastard grew up and became cunning and even started to have problems with his own parents!
What was wrong with what he did? Didn't he just want Si Ya to live a good life? But now he is in a difficult position.

The wife in the family is also spineless. She can't even do something like staying at home to look after the children. He was so angry that he didn't eat for two days.

Now, Si Ya ran away. The family provided food and shelter for her, raised her up, and taught her to read and learn so that she could make money. But she didn't come back? How could this be possible? What girl wouldn't go home?
Besides, Guangyao has a girlfriend now, so as his elder sister, she should come back to see him, right?
Thinking of this, he picked up the pen again and wrote on the letter expressing his hope for his daughter to come home. One letter after another flew from the hands of the parents here to the hands of his daughter over there.

I received more and more letters from my daughter and read them more and more. I found that they were all the same words. In the end, I was too lazy to even open the envelopes. I just piled them there and treated them as waste paper.

Another half semester passed, and just after the Chinese New Year this winter, Mu Jiajun came to see me.

He was one of the first batch of candidates after the resumption of the college entrance examination in 1977. This batch of students entered school in the spring of 1978. Now, four years have passed and it is time for them to graduate.

Mu Jiajun came here for only one thing, "My mentor has secured a place for me to continue my studies in the United States. But I want to marry you, and I want to stay in the country to take care of you."

(End of this chapter)