Chapter 193

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

"Catching a wild boar works too," Song Qiushui suggested.

Chai Mi scratched her head: "Don't joke, do you think I'm Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, catching whatever I want? I can barely catch a few fish. By the way, after watching the shadow play tonight, let's go catch a few fish together, and I'll bring them to my grandmother tomorrow. Otherwise, showing up empty-handed isn't quite right."

"Just give money. When the time comes, pile up two hundred for your grandmother and see if your aunt and uncle are happy?" Song Qiushui was very experienced in social exchanges: "Giving anything is not as good as giving money; money is the most practical."

Chai Mi was made to laugh by Song Qiushui: "If I had money, would I need you to teach me! Do you think I'm you? You're a little rich lady, I'm a poor girl... I have a sick mother at home who can't do heavy work, two little sisters below who are crying for food, and in between, a father whose head isn't quite right..."

Song Qiushui also laughed.

The two chatted for a while and agreed to go to the small shop together around six or seven o'clock to get something to eat, then go watch the shadow play.

"Oh, right. This afternoon not long after you left, I was sleeping, and your... childhood friend Zhou Fang came to my house to ask about you," Song Qiushui suddenly said: "I saw him driving a truck, seemingly collecting eggs from house to house."

"Ask about me? Collect eggs?" Chai Mi was completely baffled: "What is there to ask about me? Why is he collecting eggs? Doing business?!"

There were indeed many professional chicken farmers near Sanjiacun, and large trucks collecting eggs often passed through nearby.

Sanjiacun had three pillar industries: egg chicken farming, vegetables and flower greenhouses, and handmade purple clay teapots.

The most profitable of these was egg chicken farming.

You have to know, in this era, supplies were very scarce. Ordinary people had not yet achieved meat at every meal and eggs at every meal.

This was a process of moving from subsistence to eating well.

All supplies became tight as Reform and Opening-up progressed.

It could be said that all industries were pigs standing on the windfall, all able to fly.

Many people in Sanjiacun had already put their minds to work, and some had already become wealthy.

Especially in the last two years, more and more people were raising egg chickens. Vaguely, Sanjiacun had become a concentrated wholesale place for eggs nearby. Large trucks coming and going in the village also increased.

Trucks from other places often came to buy eggs, then shipped them to the Capital City or Shencheng.

Ke County's location was actually right between the Capital City and Shencheng. Since the highway was built, this place became a major transportation route out of the pass.

From Ke County to the Capital City was less than two hundred li.

The truck only needed a little over an hour to arrive. And the Capital City was developing day by day, prosperous economically, which indeed made Ke County's egg chicken industry, close to the Capital City, even more prosperous.

Song Qiushui made a sound: "Maybe. I'm not familiar with him, and I didn't ask. Anyway, he said himself that he had nothing to do recently, so collecting eggs was just doing business. He asked me if you were having financial difficulties and why your mother went back to her mother's family."

Chai Mi frowned tightly: How did this guy know my mother went back to her mother's family? In memory, Chai Mi had never mentioned this to Zhou Fang.

"Tell him to stop poking around and do some proper business. What is he poking around for? He doesn't even understand his own life, yet he pokers into others'. He's just got too much free time."

The two were chatting when suddenly they heard crackling noises from the old house.

From the sound, it should have been bowls and plates smashing on the ground.

Then they heard Chai Zhongxiao's hysterical voice: This life is unbearable.

Chai Mi pulled Song Qiushui into the room, poured her a cup of water, took out the plums just picked from the neighbor's house, and handed them to Song Qiushui: "Eat. That tree at the neighbor's house, I picked them by climbing over the wall earlier. Their plum tree grew into my house, so I just picked a few. Not saying anything else, the taste is good, sour and sweet."

Song Qiushui wiped her hands and ate directly, saying while eating with an air of watching the excitement without thinking it a big deal: "Your Old Chai is really anxious. I think those few of them can't go on living."

Chai Mi didn't think there was anything: "A group of people eating the mountain empty. Without my mom and dad helping with work, they would have starved to death long ago. My grandfather does nothing all day and is very black-hearted. His eldest son is good, giving him two grandsons. He just wants to leave his little property to Chai You De. That's nothing, just say it out loud. Even if it's unfair, I guess my dad and mom could agree. But this old fart is acting like Li Yuan. Chai You De is nothing, yet he still expects my dad and mom to help with work. Not gaining anything, and ending up with a body full of complaints. You see, my dad hasn't been over much recently. Last night we broke his glass, and the first person he suspected was me."

Although Chai Mi knew Wang Huirong's suspicion was correct, the matter wasn't quite like that.

If this time the glass wasn't broken by Chai Mi, Wang Huirong would still suspect Chai Mi did it.

"People like that, stay away from them," Song Qiushui said while eating plums: "What did your Old Aunt and your Old Aunt come back for? Just to pass by my house door and tell my dad, you have a hurdle this year?"

Chai Mi laughed angrily: "Don't mention that. I don't have a hurdle this year. I just remember two years ago Sun Yuguang looked at incense for my Lao Taye. I was young then, I just remember that guy would come every few days and our family would start burning paper, burning a whole sack at a time. Every midnight, like the house was on fire. Later I found out my grandfather believed him. Sun Yuguang told fortunes for my Lao Taye back then, saying my Lao Taye had a hurdle today, a hurdle tomorrow, calculating sixty or seventy hurdles in a year..."

"Hahahaha, then your Lao Taye's fate is quite bumpy." Song Qiushui was also amused.

"My Old Uncle apparently told my dad before I was born that I was a son. If he hadn't calculated wrong, my dad would have forced my mom to abort me then," Chai Xiu said softly from the side.

Chai Mi pursed her lips and sighed.

Sun Yuguang had indeed told fortunes before Chai Xiu was born, and it was exactly his wrong calculation that resolved a crisis.

At that time, since Chai Mi was already over ten years old, for her father Chai Youqing who wanted a son wholeheartedly, if Chai Mi's mother could give birth to a son, it would be best.

However, when Chai Mi's mother Su Wan was pregnant, she liked to eat spicy food.

The local saying was always "sour for a boy, spicy for a girl."

The whole Chai family felt Su Wan was carrying a daughter and asked Su Wan to have an abortion.

Su Wan was almost ready to compromise, but then Sun Yuguang's divination said: it's a son.

This resolved the matter.

Although Sun Yuguang's calculations were not accurate, the Old Chai family believed them.

This thing just couldn't be done...

Chai Mi was actually not superstitious and never believed in that stuff.

As someone who had opened her eyes to see this world, she only believed man could conquer heaven, and absolutely did not believe in fate.

However, Chai Mi didn't know how Chai Xiu knew this matter, but it was still better not to say it.

"Honestly read your Eastern Mongolia folk stories, get familiar with the history of this place. Don't let it be that later, in high school, when the teacher mentions the Great Han ethnicity's northern expedition, you're happy, and this place is exactly the land being northern-expeditioned," Chai Mi said with a smile: "They inside the pass call us Tartars, we call them Southern Barbarians. Although now the world is in great harmony, knowing history is always good."

"Oh." Chai Xiu nodded: "I feel the Mongols were very powerful before. Sister, I just saw a story. Why is there no northern melon..."

Song Qiushui also became interested: "This question, I remember there indeed are winter melons, watermelons, southern melons, but indeed no northern melon. Then Xiu'er, you say, why is there no northern melon?"

"Because the Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty didn't like southerners calling northern melons behind their backs, nor allowed them to plant it. Because they said Mongols are northern fools, abbreviated as northern melon. So they didn't allow it to be called northern melon. Northern melon is golden silk twisted melon... that is, winter melon. Southerners call it southern melon, northerners call it golden silk twisted melon, we locals call it winter melon. Actually, it's the same thing. So, northern melon is winter melon." Chai Xiu explained seriously.

However, Chai Mi and Song Qiushui obviously didn't care much, just said like coaxing a child: "Then we won't eat winter melon from now on. So as not to be sorry for Xiu'er's scientific and cultural knowledge..."

The temperature outside was very high. It was already past two o'clock now. The sun was scorching hot, but it was still relatively cool inside the room.

"This ghost weather, it's really hot." Song Qiushui was preparing to go home: "I'm going back, your house is hot."

Chai Mi's house was small and had no rear window, so it was relatively hotter.

Chai Mi saw Song Qiushui off and also felt the house was too hot.

The house she and Chai Xiu lived in was indeed a bit small, and the roof frame was rather low and squat, so it was indeed quite hot.

"Sister, why do you seem angry? Sister Qiu Shui is right, our house is indeed hot," Chai Xiu said inopportunely.

Chai Mi took a palm-leaf fan from the side and fanned herself.

"This weather is hot."

What Chai Mi said was right; the weather had already reached thirty-five or thirty-six degrees. The house was unbearably hot, and in this era there was no air conditioning, and even electric fans were high-end items.

Occasionally some households had installed ceiling fans, but those things didn't do much good; it was still hot when it should be hot.

In Liaoxi, if it was too hot to bear, people would run up to the roof to sleep at night. That would be a bit cooler.

After a while, Chai Mi handed the fan to Chai Xiu: "Fan me, I want to sleep."

Chai Xiu was obedient; she found a suitable spot to fan, which kept herself cool and also let her sister Chai Mi cool down a bit.

Although Chai Mi said she wanted to take a nap, with the weather so hot she really couldn't sleep well; she was just a bit tired, wanted to rest, and could relax her mind and think about some problems.

The house at home was indeed too small.

In the village these past years, many families had already built new houses. Most were single-story houses, locally called BJ... ping.

This term was rather special, so it could only be written separately.

It was a very old type of single-story house, which later began to be gradually improved. Like the kind Chai Mi's Third Uncle Chai You De built two years ago.

Chai Mi's house was mostly built of stone and clay, with basically no cement or sand; the walls had limited load-bearing capacity, so the roof frame naturally wasn't too high, resulting in extremely limited length, width, and height of the house, and for safety's sake the windows were designed very small, which led to poor ventilation in the house; once summer arrived, it was unbearably hot.

Actually, there was no question of being used to the heat or not; it was simply the result of having no money to build a new house and having to endure it.

Chai Mi pondered in her heart that she still had to find a way to earn more money; only then could she have room to imagine, otherwise everything was just fantasy.

But Chai Xiu was fanning beside her, and Chai Mi wasn't very hot at the moment; instead she felt quite leisurely.

And this rare leisure was precisely given by her own family, which felt very comfortable.

Unlike Chai Mi's comfort, Chai Zhongxiao was now furious to the extreme.

He shouted hysterically that life wasn't worth living anymore, then directly smashed the teacup and teapot that someone was drinking tea from.

Chai You De looked dazed: My dad's temper is too big; you say you're angry so you're angry, but why smash my teapot and teacup?

Later, when his wife Che Lianyun came home, she would make trouble with him again.

But Chai You De didn't dare to talk back to Chai Zhongxiao; in Chai You De's eyes, his father Chai Zhongxiao was not to be provoked, for he was the Head of Household.

Moreover, Chai You De still hoped Chai Zhongxiao and Wang Huirong would support him, so naturally he wouldn't touch Chai Zhongxiao's bad luck at this time.

Why was Chai Zhongxiao flying into a rage? It was nothing but the trouble caused by not having eaten...

Chai You De's idling need not be mentioned; Wang Huirong went out to buy things and didn't bring anything back, but that was fine; however, Chai Chunfang went to Chai Mi's house and was directly turned away at the door.

Chai Youqing ran away directly, causing the remaining few people to just stare at each other, completely unable to vent through the chimney.

Although this venting fire was very small.

Theoretically, one only needed to hang a scale weight with a rope to vent it a bit.

But no one did it.

Chai Zhongxiao, as Head of Household, disdained to do work; Chai You De shirked, saying his leg hurt and he couldn't do it; Wang Huirong's legs and feet were inconvenient, so she couldn't either; Chai Chunfang was afraid her father would cheat her and didn't dare go; as for Sun Yuguang, at this moment he was "possessed by a spirit," saying Chai Zhongxiao had a hurdle in his fate.

Sun Yuguang muttered: Chai Zhongxiao has offended petty people this year, everything goes wrong, and he is destined to not have enough to eat.

Chai Zhongxiao didn't believe in evil, and told Wang Huirong to light the stove in Chai You De's house.

As a result, smoke came out of Chai You De's house even more severely...

The thick black smoke billowed out, and nothing could be done about it.

It even made Chai You De's young son Chai Erwei cry...

Chai Erwei cried at the top of his lungs, wailing miserably.

Chai Zhongxiao immediately believed what Sun Yuguang said: that he had offended petty people this year.

(Offending petty people: local spirit-medium dialect, meaning someone is causing trouble behind one's back.)

So Chai Zhongxiao exploded and smashed the teacup and teapot.

The misfortune among misfortune was...

This year the Chai Family Laozhai couldn't light a fire to boil water, so the teapot and teacup were empty and didn't scald anyone.

Seeing Chai Zhongxiao like this, Wang Huirong immediately hid behind the house, holding Chai Erwei and crying, saying she didn't want to live anymore...

Chai You De leaned against the window frame without glass, wailing loudly, saying his life was bitter...

Chai Chunfang felt quite unwell, thinking: Our Mother's Family has truly offended petty people this year; everything is going wrong.