Back to my 1980s

Xu Qian chattered excitedly to Jiang Yue, telling her how fun it was to watch the ferry break through the waves.

Seeing this, Zhao Hua smiled, waved goodbye to Jiang Yue gently, and was about to turn and leave. He and the two girls in front of him were not from the same world.

His father was a carpenter, and his grandfather was a retired accountant after the brigade was converted into a village.

Judging from their clothes, the two girls in front of me should be the children of some local official. The distinction between agricultural and non-agricultural household registration is a seemingly insurmountable gap in the eyes of the world today.

Just like when Xu Qian was in danger, she would hide behind him, and when the danger was over and he became indifferent, she would turn around and leave. He never cared about the trouble she had caused for him, a small farmer.

Zhao Hua didn't care about these things and never took them to heart. But knowing that there was a gap between him and the other person, why should he bother trying to bridge that gap?

Seeing Zhao Hua turn around, Jiang Yue took half a step forward and waved her hand. However, Xu Qian did not notice Zhao Hua's movement, which blocked Jiang Yue from sharing the interesting things she saw on the ferry.

Jiang Yue couldn't break free for a moment, and seeing that Zhao Hua was already walking towards the market exit, she had no choice but to give up.

Zhao Hua returned to the alley, where his mother was already waiting for them by the cart. He placed the bucket of water he was carrying on the cart and asked, "Haven't Father and Zhao Ru returned yet?"

When Zhao's mother saw him return, she smiled broadly and said, "Not yet. It seems they're not selling fish as fast as I am."

Zhao Hua nodded upon hearing this, walked to the alley entrance, glanced around a few times, and, not seeing the thugs lying in wait, straightened his back and turned to his mother with a smile, "Mom, would you like to buy some more groceries on your way back?"

The smile on Zhao's mother's face faded, and she frowned slightly, saying, "What vegetables are you buying? We have so many small fish at home, we can't even finish them all, why do we need to buy more vegetables?"

Zhao Hua chuckled and said, "I'm tired of eating fish every day. Since I made so much money selling fish today, why don't we buy some meat to take home and eat?"

Seeing that Zhao's mother hesitated, Zhao Hua pressed on, "Since we're already here, why not buy some meat to take home? Zhao Ru is craving it! Just think of it as trading the fish for meat; a few fish can get you a piece of meat, what a bargain!"

Zhao's mother glanced at Zhao Hua and scolded, "If you want to eat, just say so! Why drag your sister into it? You're so greedy for money. I didn't bring any money with me today, so I used the money from selling fish to buy it. Anyway, it's your turn to eat."

Zhao Hua nodded, not minding. Ever since his family didn't make him hand over the money from selling fish the first time, he hadn't handed it over again. However, he kept his money in a drawer, so his family could just take it if they needed it urgently.

If he could start over, he would only want to make money, but he would value the people around him more, and money would become secondary. However, it seems that Zhao's parents never thought of using his money.

Watching Zhao's mother return to the market, Zhao Hua smiled and pulled his raincoat tighter around himself.

He waited for half an hour, but Zhao's mother still hadn't returned. Zhao Hua's heart pounded. He thought to himself that even if those thugs saw him with Zhao's mother, they would probably only retaliate against him personally, rather than going to great lengths to deal with Zhao's mother indirectly.

Despite thinking this, he still took out the folding knife that he had been keeping in the drawer and walked out of the alley to take a look. Just as he stepped out of the alley, he saw Zhao's mother, father, and Zhao Ru's group returning.

He scratched his forehead, retreated into the alley, put the knife back, and pushed out the cart parked in the alley. Just as he reached the exit, he heard Zhao Ru's laughter.

When Zhao Ru saw Zhao Hua push the cart out, she snatched the basket and bucket from Zhao's father's hands, took a few steps forward and threw them onto the cart, then walked over to her friend.

Zhao Hua glanced at it and asked, "Didn't Mother go to buy meat? Why did she take so long? Where's the meat?"

Zhao Ru smiled broadly and said, "I've bought them and put them in the bucket. After buying the meat, Mom helped me sell some fish."

Zhao Hua nodded, pushed the cart, and went back to Shuanghuai Village with the group. Seeing that Zhao Ru was chatting happily with her friends all the way, he wanted to get on the cart, so he threw it to Zhao Ru to push.

As they approached the village entrance, they came across a haystack. Zhao Hua handed the cart to Zhao Ru, walked around to the back of the haystack, and started to relieve himself. He had left home early in the morning and hadn't even been able to go to the market to smoke, so he had been holding it in until now.

After he fastened his belt and returned to the main road, Zhao's parents went ahead and were quite a distance away. Zhao Ru and several girls leaned against the cart and waited for him.

Zhao Hua's face darkened. That brat! She didn't even take a few steps forward. She was so close; the sound of her relieving herself should have been heard.

He took the cart with a huff, pulled out a handful of coins from his pocket, and counted out 50 cents for each of the three men and one woman. At this point, this was the only way he could think of to avoid the awkward situation. Then he pushed the cart toward Shuanghuai Village.

After the two arrived home, Zhao's mother was cutting meat in the kitchen, while Zhao Hua pushed the cart into the yard. There was a pile of money on the table in the main room, which he guessed Zhao's parents had left there before going about their own business.

He and Zhao Ru went inside and gathered the money on the table into the inner room, piling it on the bedside table.

Zhao Ru closed the door, turned on the light, moved the stool she had left in the room last time, and stared at the money on the table.

Zhao Hua stretched and sat on the bed, saying, "First, count out the money you have on you. Same rules as before: you count the coins, and I'll count the bills."

Zhao Ru nodded repeatedly, took out money, and said, "Where should I put it after I count it? The jar is almost full."

Zhao Hua waved his hand, glanced at Zhao Ru, and said, "Just put them in the drawer after you've counted them. We should have new bottles soon."

Zhao Ru shrank back and silently picked up the coins she had taken out from the corner of the table and started counting them.

Under the dim light, Zhao Ru focused intently on picking up coins one by one, making a soft "clinking" sound.

He picked up the banknotes from the pile of money in front of Zhao Ru and began to count them. After a moment, he put the banknotes aside and waited for Zhao Ru to finish counting the coins.

After Zhao Ru finished counting, he said softly, "I have 37 yuan here, how much do you have?"

Zhao Ru gathered the money and pushed it aside, saying, "I have 18.53 yuan here."

"Okay, here's 55.53 yuan. I'll give you 5.53 yuan. I'll keep the change for you. I'll leave you 50 yuan so we can calculate it later." He walked to Zhao Ru's side, counted out 5.53 yuan from the pile of coins she had neatly arranged, and handed it to her.

Zhao Ru held the coins in both hands, giving Zhao Hua a resentful look. More than three hundred coins, weighing six or seven ounces, were being carried by her like this; a few banknotes would have been enough.

Zhao Hua ignored her gaze; he was worried about having too many coins. After Zhao Ru put the coins in her pocket, the two of them started counting the remaining money.

The two counted for more than ten minutes until Zhao Hua finished counting the last banknote, sighed, and glanced at Zhao Ru, who had not yet finished counting her coins.

He took out the rubber bands he had left over from last time from the drawer, divided the banknotes into bundles of fifty yuan each, and threw them aside. After a while, Zhao Ru finally finished counting the coins on the table.

After counting, she lowered her head and rested it on Zhao Hua's arm, saying, "46.59."

Zhao Hua chuckled and said, "My amount is 127.3." He started adding them up little by little, saying, "Adding the five yuan from you, I made 229 yuan on this trip."

Zhao Ru sat up abruptly, exclaiming in a low voice, "So many?"