Back to my 1980s

Shuanghuai Village.

The Zhao Family Courtyard.

Zhao Hua looked at his mother in surprise: "Mother, you're home?"

For many days in a row, he had been leaving early. Normally, he would never see his mother. Every afternoon, she would go out to sew shoe soles and knit sweaters. Even if she had nothing in her hands, she would go out to chat with the middle-aged women in the village. He thought that the mornings were the same as the afternoons.

Zhao's mother hadn't seen Zhao Hua in the mornings for a long time. Holding the broom, she paused for a moment and said, "Where could I be if I'm not home?"

Zhao Hua waved his hand and went back into the house. Lately, he had been buying bricks and lime, and he needed to check how much money he had left.

However, halfway there, he suddenly remembered something, stopped, turned to look at Zhao's mother, and asked, "Mother, what about Hongguang Village?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao's mother glanced at Zhao Hua and said irritably, "Look at you, going to someone's village to see a girl, you insisted on riding a bicycle, making such a fuss. Luckily, the matchmaker persuaded Xiao Song's mother, so now her mother is too embarrassed to even leave the house, and she still has the nerve to ask questions."

"How did you know?" Zhao Hua asked curiously. "Aren't you at home every day? How do you know about things so far in the past?"

Zhao's mother laughed and said, "I'm at home every day, but someone runs errands for me."

"Who is it?" Zhao Hua asked curiously. He hadn't been to Hongguang Village in a long time, and his older brothers would never help with this errand. It was a thirty-mile round trip; who would be so kind as to do that? He hesitated and said, "That matchmaker I told you about before? Does she travel thirty miles back and forth every day...?"

Zhao's mother glanced at him sideways, but stopped beating around the bush. She smiled and said, "I found another matchmaker in our village. She told me that we can't just find one matchmaker for such a long journey."

"Huh?" Zhao Hua wasn't in a hurry to go inside. He simply sat down on the stool by the door and looked at his mother curiously, "Find two matchmakers? Will the matchmaker in their village agree? Won't they fight?"

In his memory, it seemed that one matchmaker was enough. In later generations, he had never heard of any family hiring two matchmakers.

After he sat down, Zhao's mother glanced at him and said with a smile, "You've come all this way to find a wife, giving me such a big task all at once. Finding a matchmaker isn't enough. You've already found that matchmaker over there, so you need to find one here too."

She walked to the corner of the wall, picked up a winnowing basket, and continued, "We need to find another matchmaker to connect with her. Otherwise, who will the matchmaker come to ask about our family when she comes here? We can't let her go back and know nothing. We also need someone to relay messages. Whatever her demands are, we can tell the people in our village, and then the people in our village can come and talk to me. There's someone in the middle to mediate, so we can sit down and talk things over properly, and things won't fall apart."

Zhao Hua nodded. As long as the deal went through, he didn't care how many matchmakers he had to find. He chuckled and said, "Who cares what the villagers say? I'm marrying her properly and legitimately."

Mother Zhao waved her hand and said, "That's true, but let's wait a bit longer. You're planning to build a house anyway, so let's finish building it first."

Zhao Hua said no more, stood up and said, "Okay, then you go ahead with your work. I'm going back to my room. I've been busy since early morning and haven't even had a sip of tea."

Zhao's mother glanced back at him and said, "What's there to be so busy so early in the morning? If you're thirsty, there's some porridge left on the stove. Go and have a couple of sips."

Zhao Hua went straight back inside. He was just saying it; he didn't think porridge was thirst-quenching at all.

He sat down on the bed and opened the drawer. The money he had counted earlier was tied up with rubber bands. It wasn't too difficult to count it now. The cheapest bricks cost 1.5 cents each, so 10,000 yuan would only cost 150 yuan. With the bricks he had taken down, it would be enough for three main rooms and the surrounding wall.

However, he still needed to expand the kitchen and needed about 5,000 more bricks. This time there were no cheap bricks, and Zhao Hua didn't want to bother people a second time with such a small matter. He just bought them directly and negotiated the price, which was only 175 yuan. A basket of quicklime cost 1.5 yuan, and he bought 15 baskets for 22 yuan.

Next came the wages for those people. The wages were about twelve yuan a day, and if the house was built in about half a month, it would cost less than two hundred yuan. After Zhao Hua calculated the cost of building the house, it seemed that he hadn't spent much money. He still had about four thousand yuan left over from selling fish and building the house at the same time.

However, it's still reasonable, since every family started building new houses a few years after the land was distributed, and prices are indeed not too high now.

Zhao Hua smiled as he stared at the remaining money in the drawer. Four thousand yuan! If he hadn't known that money would become less and less valuable in the future, he might have actually planned to just lie down and hold onto this four thousand yuan.

He took a deep breath. Since Jiang Yue and Xu Qian didn't object, there shouldn't be any major problems. Who doesn't like money?

After sitting quietly for more than ten minutes, Zhao Hua began to think about what the small workshop should do in the future. He had heard that spinning mills could make money, but they did not grow cotton here. He did not have the inherent conditions for that. Even if he promoted planting and made money, that would be a matter for the future. He certainly could not make much money in one or two years.

Besides, making such a fuss would be too much. The land has only just begun to be distributed, and everyone is eagerly watching how the yield and profits will be counted as achievements. If someone suddenly appears and teaches the villagers how to grow cotton, causing them to not be able to collect enough public grain, they might be invited for tea.

Not to mention cotton, even watermelons, which are commonly grown in later generations, are no good.

They could make the spicy snack that would later become a sensation, since they happen to grow soybeans here.

But nowadays kids have no idea what pocket money looks like, and they can't expect adults to buy them spicy snacks. So isn't this just making things up early to tempt the kids? Besides, the sealing conditions aren't good now, so they'll probably all spoil before they even leave the county.

The key issue is that nowadays, even traveling far requires a letter of introduction, so he can only move around in this small county town.

Zhao Hua scratched his chin. He felt like there was gold everywhere, but it was as if the gold was burning hot.

"Uncle!" Just as he was deep in thought, a little nephew pushed open the door and ran in like a gust of wind. He was his older brother's child.

"What's wrong?" Zhao Hua looked up.

"My mother and second aunt asked me to come and call you over. They said they need to talk to you about something."

My nephew arrived like a gust of wind, but as he gets closer, he becomes hesitant and speaks timidly.

Zhao Hua chuckled, took a handful of loose change from the drawer and put it in his pocket, then picked him up and carried him out, laughing as they went, "How did your mother and aunt know I was home? Did they tell me what they wanted to see me about?"

The little nephew shook his head and said, "I don't know, he just told me to come and call you."

Zhao Hua smiled, picked him up, and walked to the door. As soon as his mother saw him, she asked, "What does your sister-in-law want with you?"

Zhao Hua pulled his little nephew closer and laughed, "I don't know either, I'll go check first."