Back to my 1980s

"Let's go."

Zhao Hua looked at Song Zhiqiang.

The crowd had mostly dispersed. He arrived at the Song family's house around nine o'clock, and after dawdling for so long, it was already past ten. They needed to go back and cook dinner; after all, they still had to eat.

"Where are you going? Dinner's almost ready," Song's father called out from behind.

Without turning his head, Song Zhiqiang took out a raincoat from behind the door, put it on, and said, "I'm going to practice driving for a while."

Mr. Song got up and walked to the two of them. He glanced outside, glared at Song Zhiqiang, and said, "Why are you practicing driving in the rain? Push the car inside quickly, or it will rust in the rain."

Zhao Hua didn't care. He had been feeling uneasy being watched by those people before, so he thought of using the excuse of teaching Song Zhiqiang to ride a bike to get away. Now that they were gone, and Song Xueping couldn't be lured out, he didn't really want to bother with anything. Hearing this, he plopped down on a stool and looked towards the kitchen, where Song's mother and Song Xueping were cooking.

His father's words still carried some weight with him. Besides, seeing that Zhao Hua had already sat down, although he was itching to try it himself, he still put on the raincoat and volunteered, "I'll go push the cart! I'll push the cart in!"

Father Song glared at him and said, "You need to wear a raincoat for such a short distance? Hurry up! It's not good for your iron equipment to get wet in the rain." He wanted to do it himself, but he had to be more reserved in front of the two younger people.

Zhao Hua ignored all of that. He was very upset. His future wife was right in front of him, but he didn't even dare to speak because of customs and etiquette.

As the smoke from the chimney drifted past, his thoughts drifted away with it, spreading outwards.

He had lunch at the Song family's house and was persuaded by Song's father to drink some wine. He felt a little unsteady on his feet and didn't dare to go back just yet. He rested at the Song family's house for a while, and villagers from the village came to visit one after another. He greeted them with a smile for a while.

Seeing that Song Xueping had finished washing the dishes and returned to the inner room from the kitchen, he glanced at the curtain, decided not to linger, and said goodbye to the Song family before returning home.

Since it was raining, Zhao's father couldn't work and was home today. As Zhao Hua pushed his bicycle inside, his father smelled the alcohol on him, glanced at him, and asked, "Have you eaten?"

Zhao Hua nodded, found a tattered rag, wiped the water stains off the bicycle, and said, "Yeah, I ate something at a friend's house."

After saying that, he felt something was off, turned to look at Zhao's father, and asked in puzzlement, "Dad, why are you staying at home today instead of playing cards?" He should never see you at all normally.

Upon hearing this, Zhao's father gave him an annoyed look and said, "Your lousy net has such a big hole in it, and your mother insisted that I stay home and help mend it. I just finished working on that, how could I have time to play cards?"

Zhao Hua glanced behind the door; the fishing net had been mended and placed there. He smiled and asked, "Where are Mother and Little Sister?"

"You need to see them for something?"

"It's nothing, I was just asking," Zhao Hua replied casually.

"Your mother just went out not long ago. Zhao Ru went back to her room, right? I just saw her."

Zhao Hua nodded. The water stains on the bicycle had been wiped dry, which would delay the rusting process.

He walked into his east wing and immediately saw a large pile of money on the table. It must have been Zhao Ru who put the money here when she saw that he hadn't returned.

Zhao Hua wondered if she had counted them yet. He walked to the table and glanced at the money mixed with banknotes and coins. She probably hadn't counted them yet, otherwise they wouldn't be mixed together. Looking at the pile of money on the table, he had a headache. There were just too many one- or two-cent coins in the town. Just looking at them made him dizzy.

Although it's all money, and the amount is considerable, the denominations are too small. There are hundreds of ten-yuan coins, which is too troublesome to count. If you make a mistake, you have to start over. He thought about it and realized that Zhao Ru must really like counting money, so he couldn't forget her for such a good thing.

He walked up to Zhao Ru's door and knocked. He glanced around but didn't see Zhao's father. He must have gone out to watch people play cards, and he probably wouldn't be able to join the game now.

There was no movement inside. Zhao Ru's room was next to Zhao's parents' room, a small room extending out from the old couple's room. It looked about the same height as the firewood shed, but nowadays there aren't many houses in the village that are particularly tall. Some houses are even deliberately built a little lower than ground level.

Zhao Hua knocked harder, and only then did he hear rustling sounds from inside the house. He chuckled and called out, "Zhao Ru, what are you doing?"

A groggy voice came from inside the room: "I'm asleep, what's wrong, brother?" A moment later, the back door opened, and Zhao Ru's eyes were bloodshot.

He smiled, turned and walked away, saying, "I have good news for you. Come with me."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ru perked up and followed Zhao Hua unsteadily. She thought that he might be asking her for a share of the money; she had just dreamt about it.

The two entered the east wing. Zhao Ru glanced at the money on the table, which was about the same as when she had put it in, basically untouched. Without being coy, she moved a stool over, sat down, and began counting the coins.

She didn't have Zhao Hua's bad habits. In the past, if she had a penny or two of pocket money, she would keep it warm before spending it. Many people didn't even have a penny or two of pocket money.

Zhao Hua gathered the banknotes together and sat down on the edge of the bed to count them.

After counting the coins for so long, Zhao Ru was much faster than before. She used to count them one by one, but now she could count two or three at a time with a flick of her wrist. Including the time it took to stack them, she finished in just a few minutes. Of course, it was also because Zhao Hua hadn't taken out his money yet, so there were only a few hundred coins at this point.

After counting, she looked at Zhao Hua, who was waiting to the side, and said, "I have 11.23 yuan here."

Zhao Hua flicked the banknotes in his hand, making a rustling sound, and said, "I have 26.17 yuan here, which makes a total of 37.4 yuan."

This time I also received a few one-cent banknotes. One-cent banknotes are so thin that they tear and crumble when folded even slightly. They're like wet napkins when they get a little sweaty, and they break easily with a gentle pull. So I used to spend them all in bulk at the supply and marketing cooperative, and they only gave me coins as change. I rarely saw one-cent banknotes. I didn't expect to suddenly receive a few now.

Zhao Hua took out a few one-cent bills, counted out a bunch of coins, making up three yuan and eighty cents, and handed them to Zhao Ru, saying, "Take those bills and spend them later. It's been raining every day now, and they'll get damp and spoil and become unusable."

Zhao Ru nodded, placing a few one-cent bills separately on top of the coins. The room was a bit damp, and she didn't even dare to put them underneath to let them be weighed down by the coins...

After Zhao Ru put her money away, Zhao Hua stacked the counted money aside and then took out the money he had earned from selling fish in the county town that day. Zhao Ru glanced at it, somewhat puzzled, but didn't say anything, suppressing her doubts as she counted the coins Zhao Hua had just taken out.

Ten minutes later, Zhao Ru counted the coins in front of her, slowly exhaled, and said, "I have 23.76 yuan here, how about yours?"

"I have 61.5 yuan here, so that's 85.26 yuan, and the total is 118.86 yuan." Zhao Hua took out a rubber band and tied the banknotes together.

The doubts in Zhao Ru's eyes disappeared. Yesterday, she caught about 200 jin of fish. After removing the whitebait that couldn't be sold, she had about 150 jin left. She took one-third of it and gave the rest to Zhao Hua.

She noticed that there were very few one-yuan bills in the money Zhao Hua took out, which seemed unusual. She assumed that Zhao Hua had spent a lot of money to buy something.

However, after calculating, even though she had forty yuan, it wasn't even half of Zhao Hua's. She suddenly realized that this made sense; it seemed that people in the county preferred to spend one-mao, two-mao, and five-mao banknotes.

She smiled broadly and stretched her arm out in front of Zhao Hua, saying, "Brother, pinch me! I feel like I'm dreaming, earning so much money every day!"

Zhao Hua paused, stopping his hand that was tying banknotes. He glanced at Zhao Ru, then at the arm blocking his view. He put his thumb and forefinger together, gently pinched a thin layer of skin on Zhao Ru's arm, and twisted it slightly. His obedient little sister had made a request, so of course he had to grant it.

Zhao Ru jumped up with a "whoosh," her arm snapping free. She pounced on Zhao Hua, her little fists pounding against his back as she yelled, "I'll teach you to pinch me! I'll teach you to pinch me!"

Zhao Hua flailed his arms and laughed, "Didn't you tell me to pinch you to see if I was dreaming? Why are you blaming me now?"

Zhao Ru then seized an opportunity to punch him on the back, saying, "Who told you to hit so hard! No way, you have to let me pinch you too!"

Zhao Hua chuckled, grabbed her two little fists, and spun her around so she was facing the door. He laughed and said, "Stop messing around. Go check how much rain is outside. If it's heavy, go to the shore now and try your luck. If it's not heavy, go catch fish tonight."

He was getting anxious. He wanted to earn enough money to build a house and propose to Song Xueping as soon as possible. Visiting her often was pointless and only caused a lot of trouble. The worst part was that they couldn't even exchange a few words; they were just looking for ways to quench their thirst.

When Zhao Ru heard that there was something important to discuss, she stopped making a fuss and struggled slightly. Zhao Hua released her hand, and she turned her head and said, "Even if we go to the shore now, I don't think we'll catch any fish. A lot of people go fishing on rainy days. Zhao Ting came to ask you if you wanted to go fishing right after lunch."

Zhao Hua asked curiously, "Why are you asking me if I'm going or not?"

Zhao Ru picked up her own reward from the table, pursed her lips, and said, "I don't know. Her father sent her to ask. They went by themselves when they found you weren't home."

"Are there a lot of people by the river now?"

As Zhao Ru walked towards the door, she said, "I don't know, but I guess there are a lot of people. I heard my mother say at noon that a lot of people went to buy nets. She took your net to someone to mend it, but no one had time to mend it. They were all busy weaving new nets."

Zhao Hua chuckled. Seeing that he didn't ask any more questions, Zhao Ru left the room. He put all the money on the table into the drawer. Last time, the account showed 730 yuan, plus 120 yuan today, for a total of 850 yuan.

He glanced out the window. He wondered how much it would cost to build a red brick house now, and whether this amount of money would be enough. No one was building red brick houses yet.

Even after 85, when people started building red brick houses, they would first build a main room or a bedroom, and then gradually add the rest. Many people poured their life savings from farming into building red brick houses.

For the villagers of Shuanghuai Village today, being able to build a red brick house for their son in their lifetime is considered to have fulfilled their greatest wish in this life.

However, Zhao Hua didn't want that much trouble. It would be best to cover everything at once, otherwise scorpions, centipedes, and rats would take turns attacking, and even a snake might crawl into the house. For elderly people in the countryside, which one doesn't have the memory of a snake crawling into their house?

Just then, Zhao Ru returned. She looked at Zhao Hua and smiled, "It's alright, about the same size as at noon, not too big or too small. When shall we go?"

Zhao Hua thought for a moment, then casually asked, "Did you send Mother to catch the cat?"

"Huh? I told Mom, and she said at noon that she would go find one after she finished repairing your net. She said one is enough, two would be a waste of food."

"What a waste of food! There are so many rats. I can hear them crawling on the roof when I sleep. I'm afraid they'll get so hungry that they'll climb onto my bed and eat me while I'm asleep."

Zhao Ru shuddered suddenly and exclaimed in horror, "No way? Rats aren't afraid of people, are they?"

Zhao Hua chuckled and said, "Haven't you heard of people getting their toes gnawed by rats while they sleep? And there are also cases of babies, even a few months old, having their faces gnawed by rats while they sleep."

"Isn't there a kid at the village entrance who's missing his little finger? He was gnawed off by a rat when he was little."

Zhao Ru's eyes widened. "Was it gnawed away by rats? I heard it was broken off by a door when you were playing as a child?"

Zhao Hua rolled his eyes and said, "I was talking about the one at the village entrance. Where did you say she went? Alright, let's get ready and go catch some fish." The visibility was too low on rainy nights, there wasn't even moonlight. It wouldn't be a big problem for him to go by himself, but if he took Zhao Ru with him, she might get lost and he wouldn't be able to find her. It wasn't worth taking that risk for a little money.

"Huh? Weren't we supposed to go tonight? It's not raining heavily right now."

"There are a lot of snakes at night, are you still going at night?"

Zhao Ru shrank her neck. She had just dreamt of not only money, but also snakes crawling all over the house. She chuckled dryly and said, "I think it's fine to go now. The rain isn't too heavy, and there's no sun today, so it's cool. It'll be cold if we go at night."

Zhao Hua nodded repeatedly. The young girl had a bright future and was able to decisively recognize her own true feelings. What is this called? This is called self-awareness. He waved his hand, and Zhao Ru hurriedly went out to prepare.

Zhao Hua changed into work clothes. Selling fish and catching fish are different; you don't need to wear nice clothes. Although his father is a carpenter and has a lot of extra income, he still has quite a few patched clothes.

Zhao Hua changed his clothes, put on a raincoat, picked up a fishing net, and headed straight for the river. He locked the door to his house and stuffed the key under a stone by the door. With so much money in the house, he couldn't leave the door unlocked.

When the two arrived at the riverbank, they found a group of people loitering on the shore. One person was casting a net while another family member followed behind, picking up fish. After casting a net, they would immediately shake the fish onto the bank, then take a few steps and immediately cast the next net.

Zhao Hua found it amusing. At this rate, how many fish on the shore would have to endure such plowing?

He smiled and looked at Zhao Ru behind him, then suddenly asked curiously, "Where did you get this raincoat? Didn't your mother wear a raincoat when she went out? Where did you get so many raincoats at home?"

Zhao Ru raised her little head and looked at Zhao Hua. After hearing what Zhao Hua said, she said, "No, Mom didn't wear any clothes when she went out. The rain wasn't heavy. She was just going to the neighbor's house, so she didn't need to wear any. This is what Dad gave me. I don't know where he found it."