Chapter 185

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

Song Qiushui said with a worried face: "Anyway, hurry up and send me off. I summed it up: I can't do work, and I'm number one at being stubborn."

Chai Mi laughed happily and didn't feel so tired anymore.

In this era, the mountains were green and the waters clear; although Liaoxi had long been said to have nine years of drought out of ten, and it was the height of summer with over ten days without rain, the weather was scorching. By ten or eleven in the morning, going out made one's face burn from the sun.

Heatstroke and colds were everywhere.

However, since the vegetation was still relatively well protected, Chai Mi pulled Song Qiushui to run under the nearby pine trees to cool off.

There was no fertilizer left, so working more was useless; they just waited for Chai Youqing to drive Old Qingniu over to lie down on the ground.

These pine trees were planted many years ago when many young people went down to the countryside, and by now they had all grown lush and leafy.

Under the pine trees were many stones like marble, looking very white, though without much pattern, just plain marble.

That was why the marble factory back then went bankrupt.

Chai Mi and Song Qiushui sat on the large stones, enjoying the cool breeze; the mountain wind blew gently, and they felt quite comfortable and at ease.

"Chai Mi, what are your plans for the future? When do you plan to find a husband's family? Tell me when the time comes, and we can discuss it. Find a husband's family from our village, so that if you don't get along with your mother-in-law in the future, there will still be someone to look out for you." Song Qiushui began to enjoy imagining the future: "My mom said there isn't a single good mother-in-law; they're either trash or old hags, not a good one among them. I just hope that if I have some dog-shit luck in the future, I can find a family where both parents are dead and there are no sisters..."

"Liu Zhanggui is suitable; his parents are both dead..." Chai Mi said, pouting her lips.

"Be serious." Song Qiushui said, dissatisfied.

After all, Liu Zhanggui was almost sixty; in this era, there was obviously no precedent for a young girl marrying a sixty-year-old man.

"There doesn't seem to be one nearby. The only bachelor whose parents are both dead and who has no siblings is Outsider Li." Chai Mi suggested: "Outsider Li is the son-in-law taken in by the Old Ni family in the Shang Taizi group; later his wife died, and now he's alone. He's not too old, only in his thirties, and he has skills; he can play the trumpet, he's a person with a trade."

"You can forget it!" Song Qiushui pushed Chai Mi: "Outsider Li isn't even as tall as Wu Dalong!!!"

"Then there isn't one." Chai Mi spread her hands: "You want the condition of both parents being dead; you can only create some conditions yourself after you marry. Otherwise, it's too hard."

Song Qiushui rested her chin on both hands and sighed helplessly: "Then I'll lower my conditions a bit..."

"You're being redundant." Chai Mi analyzed: "You basically won't be able to marry out. You should take in a son-in-law instead. Look, you're the only daughter in your family; later when your family has money, a group of young men will fight to be live-in sons-in-law, and then you can just pick whoever you want."

"Hey, what do you know. What's so good about a live-in son-in-law? Can a capable man be a live-in son-in-law?" Song Qiushui said helplessly: "I want to find a capable man."

"Chai Dajun would do."

"Mm, I won't look for him." Song Qiushui said decisively: "I've figured it out recently; with my reputation and looks as Sanjiacun's village belle, there are plenty of people I can marry. Anyway, I'm not in a hurry; I'll take it slow when the time comes. What about you?"

"Me?" Chai Mi had no time to consider personal emotional matters for the moment: "I think I should earn some money. I can't compare with you; your family has money and few children. My family has big expenses; three children, all needing money. Xiu'er is about to start school, and the third child still needs milk powder. If I don't earn money, who can I count on? My father..."

Chai Mi sighed: "If my father could earn money, he would have earned it in the first twenty years. Even if he doesn't work for my grandparents, he can't make big money. He's that kind of person; he just likes to stay home and guard the fields while bragging, always feeling that farming is especially hard, etc. Anyway, in the end, he has no money. If you ask him, he becomes capable; whatever houses and courtyards are his. He just compares himself with his past self; as long as he's stronger than his past self, it's fine. Look at so many people in the village who go out to work and earn money, but he can't; he can't endure that hardship. He pretends to be able to endure hardship, but actually he can't."

Chai Mi saw through her father completely, so she felt that the matter of earning money still had to be done by herself.

Counting on her parents, she probably didn't have that fate anymore.

"Then why don't you go out to work? Go to the south?" Song Qiushui asked.

After all, working away was a way out for this generation, especially going to the south. There indeed were more job positions and higher earnings; even working as a waiter in a restaurant, in this era there was an income of two or three thousand yuan.

But in this small village in the north, a special-grade teacher's monthly salary was still less than two thousand.

The huge gap was obvious.

Chai Mi had once thought about becoming a teacher; after all, she was also a junior high graduate, and in the north of this era, a junior high graduate could be an elementary school teacher.

However, Chai Mi thought the income was a bit low and gave up that idea.

Although the teaching profession was very high-class and could educate people, it was not very suitable for Chai Mi.

"That's what I'm thinking for now." Chai Mi stretched out her legs and lay comfortably on the large stone: "After I'm busy for a while, I'll get a small cart with a canopy. Then I'll go to the town market to set up a stall and sell something. Usually, I also want to set up a greenhouse to grow some vegetables and such."

Song Qiushui was stunned: "Set up a stall to sell vegetables? Are you sick... whose family lacks vegetables?"

"Who said sell vegetables? I can't fry fried dough sticks, sell shaobing, or sell jianbing guozi?" Chai Mi said: "There are many chicken farmers here; many large trucks from out of town come to collect eggs, and they all need to eat, right? If I set up a stall to sell food, it should be fine."

"Then you might as well just open a restaurant..." Song Qiushui said incomprehensively: "Whether it's people coming to collect eggs or businessmen, they don't go to restaurants."

Chai Mi gave Song Qiushui a look: "If I had money to open a restaurant, what would I be saying... If I could afford to open a restaurant now, we wouldn't be talking about me going out to work..."

"Alright." Song Qiushui spread her hands: "I don't have money either. I'm worse off than you; I'm still dragging along hunger..."

Song Qiushui looked at Chai Mi with slanted eyes: "I owe my Second Uncle over ten thousand... which lifetime will I be able to pay it off clearly!!!"

"Don't think about it; you never intended to pay it back at all." Chai Mi was made to laugh by Song Qiushui: "Your Second Uncle having you as a niece is enough. Fortunately, his family is big and prosperous; otherwise, you would have run up a tab at the pawnshop yourself."

Song Qiushui hehehe laughed: "Da Lao Song has money, this grandson... pah! My Second Uncle's small shop earns at least over ten thousand a year; I once saw his purchase invoices. He's so damn black-hearted, you don't know; his popsicles cost seven cents and sell for two mao; ice cream costs thirteen cents and sells for five mao. A case of beer, twenty-four bottles, costs five mao a bottle and sells for one yuan two. He doubles his money."

Chai Mi wasn't envious of that; after all, in this era, businesses that doubled profits were everywhere.

A small shop was actually already considered very low profit.

Those selling televisions, over four hundred per unit, sold for three or four thousand...

Marrying a wife didn't even take three or four thousand...

"You haven't been to the south; there, shampoo is sold by the catty, four or five yuan a catty, and they sell you a bottle for over ten yuan. Jeans cost seven or eight yuan a pair and sell for several dozen. They're marked up tenfold."

"Ah? That profitable?" Song Qiushui widened her eyes: "Then let's both go sell jeans..."

"No shop, can't afford to open one." Chai Mi indeed didn't have that much money.

The two chatted for a while, and then Chai Youqing drove the cow over to lie down.

Chai Xiu followed behind under the big sun.

"Your family's Xiu'er is an honest person. It's so hot, yet she still follows your father..." Song Qiushui sighed with emotion.

"My dad has a lot of business; he insists the cow will trample crops at the field edge, so someone must lead the cow. I'm too lazy to care; he can't do the work alone. If I don't go with him, I'm too lazy to bother with him. Can't do it, just go home."

Chai Mi looked at Chai Xiu and called out: "Xiu'er, come over."

Chai Xiu obediently walked over: "What is it, Sister?"

"Why are you wearing sandals to work the fields?" Chai Mi frowned.

"Ah..." Chai Xiu froze for a moment: "It's hot."

"That won't do either, sandals make it easy to bump your feet." Chai Mi instructed: "Stop working, go to Qiu Shui's house to eat. She said yesterday she'd arrange a meal for the two of us."

"Come on, let you sisters see the cooking of Sanjiacun's most beautiful chef." Song Qiushui said proudly: "I'm not blowing hot air. My cooking — my mom ate it and bawled her eyes out, saying it was delicious."

Chai Mi gasped: "Hey, Qiu Shui, wake up. Is it possible you cooked it so badly it was hard to eat, and that made your poor mother cry? Would your dad join your poor mother, hugging their heads and weeping bitterly..."

"Er..." Song Qiushui thought for a bit, it seemed it really was true.

A few days ago Song Qiushui cooked a meal. After the meal was done, Song Qingshan and his wife hugged their heads and wept bitterly.

Ask and they'd say the food was cooked too deliciously.

Song Qiushui actually believed it...

"What if it really is delicious?"

"Do you believe it?"

Song Qiushui became hesitant. She seemed to really not believe it much anymore.

But her pride wouldn't let her not believe: "Anyway I don't care. I just cook deliciously."

"Alright, you've rested enough. Let's go." Chai Mi said it and went.

She got up and first told Chai Youqing that today at noon they'd eat at Song Qiushui's house. Also told Chai Youqing the food made this morning was plenty, there was a lot left over, enough for him to eat at noon.

Then she said: "Fertilizer isn't enough. You watch and handle the field work. If it doesn't work, go buy some more fertilizer in half a day. Anyway it hasn't rained recently, no rush."

Chai Youqing said he knew, then drove the ox and continued working the field.

Chai Mi didn't dawdle either. She turned and went down the mountain together with Song Qiushui and Chai Xiu.

The road down the mountain was fast, much faster than when they came up.

Chai Mi and the others returned to Chai Mi's house first. Chai Mi washed up, then also took a cold shower.

Too hot. Felt like her whole body was covered in sticky sweat.

After the cold shower, she felt comfortable a lot more.

Then Chai Mi changed into a floral short-sleeve, put on a pair of black pants, wore a pair of sandals. Only then did she follow Song Qiushui to her house.

Entered Song Qiushui's front door. Song Qiushui waved a big hand: "Mom, I'm back."

Meng Shi inside the house hurried out to welcome her, afraid she'd be a step too late and not see her precious daughter.

"Aiya, Qiu Shui... you're finally back. I missed you so much. Just now I was still muttering. I said Qiu Shui don't go out looking around, or some other family's young man might abduct you."

Chai Mi laughed and said: "That can't happen. Young men meeting Qiu Shui's boyfriend standards aren't many..."

"Ah... she still has standards?" Meng Shi froze. Always had a feeling of cabbage being arching by a pig: "What standards does she have?"

"Has a car, has a house, parents both deceased..."

"Er..." Meng Shi was a bit stunned: "Then... seems I don't need to worry. Parents both deceased — I can't do that. Besides, there aren't several such people. Whose parents with nothing wrong, age and condition, would both die young together? Can't find one in the whole Yingzi."

Then Meng Shi instructed Song Qiushui: "Daughter, when you go out don't talk like that. It's quite taboo. You talk like that, if you run into a man with a bad temper, it's easy to get beaten on you. Say it at home, that's fine. But don't go out spouting nonsense. Let others hear it, they'll laugh at you. They'll say you're a mean and vicious person."

Song Qiushui pouted: "If I get married later and someone hits me, I won't stand for it! At that time mother-in-law and sister-in-law torment me in a bunch, I'd have to die young. So I must find one without a father-in-law and mother-in-law. If no such conditions exist, I'll create the conditions."

Chai Mi giggled laughing: "Learn from the foot-basin chicken in animation. Throw everyone over sixty into the big ditch."

Meng Shi also said helplessly: "Qiu Shui just knows how to spout nonsense."

Then she asked concernedly: "Qiu Shui, tired? Quickly go in the room and rest a bit. This — last night catching fish, daytime still getting up early. A person can't not be exhausted. Go in the room and rest a bit."

Song Qiushui indeed felt a little tired, so she went into the room to rest.

Chai Mi also followed inside.

Have to say Song Qiushui's own room, built about the same as a pigsty...

Chai Mi frowned without speaking.

The Kang head piled with quilts and mattress pads. Obviously Song Qiushui woke up and ran off directly. Didn't fold the bedding at all.

To one side also placed all kinds of clothes piled a big heap. The ground densely packed with ten-odd pairs of shoes placed. All kinds of styles. Socks thrown all over the room everywhere...

On the cabinet next to it, filled full of snacks. What ham sausages, peanuts, potato chips — everything there.

That Kang head side also placed small plastic bags. Inside there were several kinds of cold medicine.

Chai Xiu came in a bit late. She scratched her head looking at Chai Mi: "Sister... this room has no place to put feet."

Chai Mi rubbed Chai Xiu's head: "Just you talk too much. No place to put feet, you just get on the Kang."

So Chai Xiu obediently got on the Kang.

Chai Mi helplessly shook her head and asked: "Tidy up?"

Song Qiushui thought a bit and also felt it was a bit chaotic. So she simply organized things a bit.

Tidied for half a day. Finally there was place to put feet.

Chai Mi sat on a chair to the side. Leaned her back against it. Felt very comfortable: "Aiya, Qiu Shui! You really know how to enjoy life. Look at you, not even twenty yet, and you've already got a massage chair. Your life is truly complete."