Back to my 1980s

Zhao Ru brought back several canned food jars and placed them one by one at her feet.

After settling in, he asked, "How should we tidy it up? Tell me."

Zhao Hua glanced at the canned food jars on the ground and suddenly thought of Song Xueping. He had entered the family because of two cans of food.

He counted the four jars on the ground—two large and two small—and asked curiously, "Where did you find all these things?"

Zhao Ru licked her lips and said, "Oh, don't worry about it, it's fine as long as you have some."

Zhao Hua turned his head to face Zhao Ru, stared at her, and chuckled twice. In his memory, there weren't that many canned food jars at home, and even if there were, his mother had taken them all.

After glancing at her and straightening up, I noticed her eyes darting around and I knew what was going on. I continued to sort through the banknotes, thinking it was normal for a little girl to be a bit greedy.

He was somewhat relieved that his younger sister had always been so sensible. He had never known that she was also a normal girl who could be greedy. Fortunately, now that she was busy with Zhao Ru's chores, she had the means to indulge in her cravings.

Seeing that he didn't press the matter, Zhao Ru's face lit up with a hint of smugness, and she pressed on, "You still haven't said how you're going to organize it!"

"Whatever, we'll need it sooner or later anyway. I'll spend the hard stuff first, it's all in cents, one, two, or five cents, a handful isn't as good as a single dollar bill."

He usually makes change with coins, but he always manages to get more back than he gives out. Some people do the same thing and deliberately pay with coins.

Zhao Ru said "Oh," moved a little to the side of the table, counted out the coins of uniform denomination on the table until they were a dime each, and stacked them to one side. She only put the coins into the bottle when they reached ten yuan. The coins jingled as they fell into the glass bottle.

The rain outside was getting heavier, the raindrops gently tapping on the green tiles, the light bulbs on the walls emitting a warm yellow glow, and the sound of the rain pouring into the house mixed with the soft sound of coins falling into a bottle.

After counting the money in his hand, Zhao Hua rubbed his neck and looked at the table with a pained expression. Recently, all the retail money he had received was one- or two-cent bills, and one-cent bills were rare. Including what he had left over from before, he had nearly a thousand bills in total.

Compared to the large bills he had handled at the dock, counting these small, scattered banknotes was a real treat.

Do you have any rubber bands? Go find some and tie up my money with them.

Zhao Ru was still counting the money in her hand when Zhao Hua suddenly spoke up. Her hand stopped abruptly, and she looked at the money in her hand, then at the coins stacked on the table, and finally glanced at Zhao Hua before pursing her lips.

"Yes, there are some in the drawer in the main room. Have you counted them?" She got up and went out to get the rubber bands.

Zhao Hua hummed in agreement, waited a moment, took the rubber band she brought back, tied the money up, counted it again, then put the banknotes into the drawer and helped count the coins.

From the first light of dawn until complete darkness, the small mountain on the table was finally cleared away.

Zhao Ru put the last handful of coins into the jar, screwed the lid on, and asked, "How much money did you count over there?"

Zhao Hua shifted his body from side to side, took a breath, and said, "My reading is 473.6. What about yours?"

"198.73".

Zhao Hua did some mental calculations, then suddenly forgot what Zhao Ru had said, and asked again, "How much?"

"198.73!"

He removed the hundreds digit and recalculated it in his mind.

"A total of 671? Right?"

Zhao Ru had no idea if she was right or wrong; she hadn't been in school as long as Zhao Hua. She casually mumbled, "More or less." Her gaze darted back and forth between the glass bottle and the drawer.

He glanced at the several glass bottles, the last one was almost full, and there was a risk that these bottles wouldn't be enough. He made up his mind that he would give Zhao Ru all the coins from now on, since she would also sneak off to buy canned food anyway.

I glanced again at the stack of banknotes in the drawer—over six hundred! Even if the weather were perfect every year, it would take six or seven years to save that much money by farming.

He casually remarked, put all the bottles into the drawer, stood up, stretched, and looked at Zhao Ru, asking, "Have you put all the fish away?"

"It's all set. Dad has brought the fish in the bucket inside, and the fish in the water tank in the yard have been covered with a wooden board." Zhao Ru then got up.

"Okay, I'll take another look."

He glanced into the courtyard from the doorway of the main room, then walked to the bucket and looked at the fish inside. Zhao Ru followed behind him like a little tail. She was now more determined than ever to follow in her brother's footsteps.

"What are you doing? Go to sleep. We have to sell fish tomorrow, and it's raining, so we don't know if they'll sell well." He glanced at Zhao Ru, who was following behind him.

"Okay, I'm going to sleep now." Zhao Ru nodded obediently and walked towards her room.

Halfway there, she discovered that the room was already wet. She hadn't noticed anything when she was in Zhao Hua's room, and had even forgotten about the leak in her own room. She hadn't even grabbed a basin to catch the water, so she turned back to get one.

Zhao Hua looked up at the sky, but it was all gray and he couldn't see anything. He could only see raindrops sliding down the eaves. After watching for a while, he turned around, went back inside, took off his clothes, and lay down to sleep.

……

He slept soundly through the night. As dawn broke, he got up, dressed, and went outside. He saw that Zhao's parents had also gotten up early. Zhao's mother was preparing food in the kitchen, while Zhao's father stood at the door, holding his old pipe and staring outside.

Zhao Ru sat at the table in the main room, her eyes swollen and dark.

He glanced at Zhao Ru, almost laughing, and then burst out laughing, staring into her eyes, and asked with a smile, "What's wrong with you? Didn't you sleep well last night?"

Zhao Ru snorted and turned her head away, saying, "It's drizzling outside, and pouring rain inside. How can anyone sleep well?"

"Then why don't you just come to my room and sleep on the floor? It's not cold anyway, so you can make do." He finally realized what he meant, but still found it funny.

Zhao Ru turned her head and glared at him, then turned her head back and ignored him.

"Alright, alright, let's grab something to eat and get ready to go. There's a lot of fish today." Zhao Hua walked to the washbasin and washed his face.

"It's still raining today, why don't I go with you? I don't have anything else to do anyway," Zhao's father suddenly said, sitting by the door.

"Sure, you can help me carry the load. It's dozens of kilograms of fish, and it's raining. We can each carry half." He casually draped the towel over the edge of the basin, walked to the door, and glanced outside the yard.

Zhao Ru sat silently to the side until the food was heated up and she went to help bring it to the table. Only then did she ask, "Are we going to the market today? With the rain, surely no one will go to the market, right?"

Zhao Hua chewed the cornbread in his mouth, swallowed it, and said, "Go ahead, people will still go to buy groceries even when it rains. The school teachers in town, and the people who live in town, they'll go even when it rains, otherwise what will they eat? Besides, fish don't die easily when it rains, so we can buy them and keep them at home for a few more days."

Zhao Ru said "Oh," nodded, and finally a smile appeared on her face.

Zhao Hua watched from the side and realized what was going on. So he was worried that she wouldn't be able to go to the market because of the rain, and that he was worried that he wouldn't be able to take her with him if he went somewhere else. That's why he had been so unhappy.