Chapter 296

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

"Eldest Sister, what's this?" Chai Xiu suddenly pointed at a millstone by the roadside and asked.

"Don't go making conversation out of nothing." Chai Mi said impatiently, "You look at everything every day, don't you know that's a millstone?"

Chai Xiu knew it was a millstone; the question was that this millstone still had someone using it...

In Sanjiacun, there weren't really any people using millstones anymore; grain was generally crushed electrically, and some went outside to have it done.

Chai Xiu had seen them, but had never seen anyone using one.

Right now, this millstone actually had someone pushing it there.

The person pushing it was precisely Yao Lianhua's husband, Zhang Guoxiang.

"Brother-in-law, hello." Chai Mi greeted him.

It must be said, this Zhang Guoxiang was truly good-looking.

Men, this kind of creature, Chai Mi actually looked at them every day...

Cough cough.

Actually, Chai Mi calling them creatures was also normal; after all, her interest in men wasn't that great.

People's appearances naturally each have their own merits.

Sanjiacun also had many young men who looked decent, but compared to this Zhang Guoxiang, they fell far short.

Zhang Guoxiang had a fairly clean face, also quite good-looking; he had a beard but it wasn't long, his head was big but not too long, and his height was also average.

But that temperament of his was truly something ordinary people didn't possess. There was a kind of scholarly elegance.

This feeling was quite rare.

You have to know, temperament — you can't fake it; it's not something you can manifest just by reading a lot of books or meeting countless people.

The problem is...

Zhang Guoxiang's education level was very low, but the scholarly elegance on him was very high.

This point was especially scarce.

It was a feeling very hard to describe; Chai Mi just felt Zhang Guoxiang was a bit like Lu Yi from later generations.

To put it bluntly, the big mountains buried Zhang Guoxiang's face; otherwise he truly had the talent to be a star.

Of course, poor people can't become stars.

After all, someone like Zhang Guoxiang didn't even have money for schooling, let alone money to walk out of the big mountains, so he fundamentally couldn't become a star.

"Chai Mi's here. Xiu'er's here too... Have you eaten lunch? I'll finish pushing this bit of buckwheat, and tonight I'll make you two steamed buckwheat dumplings." Zhang Guoxiang spoke with eighteen parts scholarly elegance; his voice was gentle, making people feel very comfortable.

Chai Mi sometimes felt... this cousin of hers, Yao Lianhua, really picked up a bargain.

Of course, considering Juren Zhangzi Village's actual living conditions, Yao Lianhua actually didn't count as picking up a bargain.

The previous text also explained: Juren Zhangzi Village was poor in a refreshingly unworldly way; although it was already the 1990s, it basically maintained the Qing Dynasty's living standards...

Basically lagging behind the outside world by a hundred or eighty years of era gap.

Even compared to Sanjiacun where Chai Mi was, there was a generational gap.

So, the men here, being able to marry a wife and continue the family line, was truly extremely difficult.

Poverty was one reason; another reason was the villagers here, even the possibility of letting their children study was minuscule. There was no elementary school in the big mountains; to study required climbing mountains and crossing ridges over ten li of road. Going out to study became the main reason.

Unable to let the next generation become literate, the next generation would still be this kind of life, so this also affected many people's prejudice against this place.

To put it bluntly, people from outside villages would feel that marrying their daughters here, they couldn't see any hope.

When people can't see hope, that's when they're most terrified.

Yao Lianhua could marry Zhang Guoxiang mainly because she fancied his good looks, good temper, and steady, down-to-earth nature. And the two were also childhood sweethearts who knew each other inside out, so Yao Lianhua had no psychological burden.

To simply describe Zhang Guoxiang: aside from his family being a bit poor, everything else was advantages.

And regarding poverty, Yao Lianhua had lived in Juren Zhangzi for over twenty years, poor the whole time.

However poor, could it be poorer than her own family?

And the two were childhood sweethearts who knew each other inside out, so Yao Lianhua married for love.

"Thanks, Brother-in-law. Brother-in-law is still just like back then, handsome as hell." Chai Mi laughed and teased.

Although Zhang Guoxiang was already twenty-six or seven, he was still spirited as ever, and dressed appropriately.

Mainly, Zhang Guoxiang's body proportions, his pleasant brows and eyes — although he wore only an ordinary coarse cloth shirt, gray cloth pants, and a pair of cloth-soled shoes the countryside made themselves — worn on Zhang Guoxiang, they were just damn handsome.

Zhang Guoxiang smiled, turned his head to look at Yao Lianhua: "All old now... mainly because your cooking is delicious, eating well makes me look a bit younger."

Yao Lianhua glared at him: "Just you with your smooth talk, hurry up and work properly."

Although she said that, her face was full of joy; it could be seen this couple's feelings were still extremely good.

The millstone was actually not far in front of Yao Lianhua's house; afterward, walk up a few steps, turn a corner, and you'd arrive at Yao Lianhua's doorway.

Neat and tidy courtyard walls; the courtyard was a bit smaller than Chai Mi's family's, but also counted as sufficiently spacious.

Outside the main gate were two plots of land.

The left side planted vegetables, connecting to the courtyard's east side, was the vegetable garden.

The right side planted some corn, but due to drought, the corn didn't grow too well.

Although they were crops at the doorway, because the mountain area lacked water even more, leading to people's drinking water being very difficult, the crops, though at the doorway, had no way to be watered.

Chai Mi and Chai Xiu followed Yao Lianhua into the courtyard.

On the courtyard's west side was a shed with a structure like a cowshed, but the cow was already gone.

Actually, Chai Mi also knew about this matter; that cow was borrowed by her own maternal uncle.

Mm-hmm, it was indeed borrowed.

At that time, Chai Mi's maternal uncle needed to marry a wife for his son, and to show his family had some money, to let the bride's family see...

So, he borrowed a cow from Yao Lianhua's family.

Of course, later this cow was never returned at all.

The problem was, it was even sold by Chai Mi's maternal uncle.

It just became an especially muddled account, completely impossible to clarify.

By rights, Chai Mi's maternal uncle should have returned the money from selling the cow to Yao Lianhua, but as everyone knows, Chai Mi's maternal uncle's family was also so poor they couldn't even lift the pot lid. The family had Chai Mi's maternal grandmother and maternal grandfather, a pair of paralyzed people, unable to work, still needing medicine and such, the family was in dire straits.

On top of that, marrying a wife for the son cost a lot of money, and they were still dragging through the famine, no money.

Otherwise it wouldn't have come to the point where when Su Wan returned to her mother's family, Chai Mi's maternal uncle and aunt were both forced to move into the cowshed to live; if they had even a bit of money, they'd at least have built a lean-to, one that didn't leak wind or rain, they wouldn't have had to go live in the cowshed.

But, there really wasn't any.

Speaking of this matter, Chai Mi's maternal uncle definitely acted extremely unscrupulously, but for the sake of marrying a wife for his son, he just acted unscrupulously.

As a relative, Yao Lianhua was also helpless.

So, this cowshed became empty.

Originally, for people in the mountain gullies, raising cattle basically had no cost. The cattle were just pastured directly; although there was talk of closing mountains for afforestation, but this side was so poor they couldn't even lift the pot lid, the common people just went out to herd cattle, and no one cared.

Besides, getting in and out here is this difficult, basically no one comes to meddle in idle affairs.

It's not even enough for wages.

"Big Uncle still hasn't returned the cow..."

"No way, Big Uncle has no money to return it either... besides the cow's been sold." Yao Lianhua was also helpless; after all, he's her own maternal uncle, it's just hard to handle.

"Come inside, take a look at your little niece."

As they spoke, Chai Mi and Chai Xiu followed inside the house.

The main room is also three bays, but it has glass, doors, and windows.

For this mountain gully, this house counts as pretty good.

At least, like a house, it's fit for people to live in.

The floor is paved with red bricks, relatively speaking that's not bad either.

Much better than Chai Mi's second aunt's house with that pure natural earthen floor.

And it's paved in a mosaic pattern, looks quite nice too.

Moreover, since they also knew guests were coming, the house was swept clean and tidy.

Can't say it's spotless, but it's pretty clean, looks like it was tidied up in advance.

Chai Mi entered the house; at the kitchen stove in the outer room there was a man currently tending the fire, looks like he should be Zhang Guoxiang's older brother.

He's an old bachelor, over thirty, already no possibility of marrying a wife ever again, usually just helps Zhang Guoxiang do some work and such, nothing else.

In the inner room an old woman saw Chai Mi and the others enter from the doorway into the house, and didn't get off the kang. She waited until Yao Lianhua entered, then said in a low voice: "Asleep, hasn't really woken up the whole time."

The room was actually a bit hot. Although this place is deep in the big mountains, warm in winter and cool in summer, but for the sake of the postpartum confinement, the family fired the kang head scorching hot; although the window was open, it was still a bit hot inside.

A little baby was wrapped in a small quilt sound asleep, not the slightest intention of waking.

Chai Mi looked at the child with delicate fair skin, couldn't help wanting to reach out and pinch his little face.

That little face was pink and chubby, thief-cute.

"Eldest Sister, still your food is good. Just one month, and you've raised my nephew white-white fat-fat." Chai Mi said with a smile.

This little guy really is quite cute, and quite chubby, fair and plump.

Same full-month celebration, but compared to when Chai Mi's little sister Chai Xin had her full-month, he's stronger by far too much.

When Chai Xin had her full-month, she just opened her eyes. Because Su Wan had poor diet during pregnancy, plus overwork, Chai Xin was born skinny and shriveled, and very dark.

Chai Mi once privately said Chai Xin grew like a skinny monkey.

By the time Chai Xin had her full-month, she had merely opened up a bit, skin not so dark, face not so many wrinkles, that's all. Far from pretty and cute, really a long way off.

Even now Chai Xin is nearly three months old, still not very good-looking. Of course, Chai Xin's advantage is she's durable, tough.

Not a bit of illness, vitality tenacious to a terrifying degree.

The first few days Chai Mi went to set up a stall, tired to the point of aching waist and sore back, whole body uncomfortable. And because Chai Mi chopped dumpling filling at midnight, the rest of the family didn't sleep very well either. And Chai Mi also got up early, so this was actually the whole family suffering along.

Su Wan slept badly, Chai Xiu also didn't sleep well.

Visibly to the naked eye, Chai Xiu has even thinned down a bit.

Earlier, because Chai Mi got those two pigs, plus some leftover dishes from the full-month banquet, Chai Xiu ate herself fat. But recently she's slimmed back down.

But, Chai Xin had zero reaction.

No matter how loud Chai Mi got up at midnight to work, Chai Xin never woke, sleep quality super good, quite the feel of a Sleep Lord.

But even so, Chai Xin's weight is probably only seven or eight catties right now, not even as big as Yao Lianhua's little son at full-month.

"This little guy must be ten-odd catties. Look at those arms so fat they've got folds."

"Nine catties six taels, measured this morning." Yao Lianhua was also very happy.

Yao Lianhua had already not gone home for two or three hours; although the son was sleeping fragrantly, Yao Lianhua felt the son was hungry.

Then she went and abruptly woke the son up, to let him eat a bit.

Chai Mi and Chai Xiu turned away, just happening to take the chance to size up Yao Lianhua's home.

The house was built after Yao Lianhua got married, just finished two or three years ago. The outside was renovated... that is, cement was used to plug the stone cracks, so looking from outside the house looks not bad.

Inside it's just mud-plastered, then white paper pasted on.

This kind of wall-plastering method, in this era is very common.

Every household plasters walls.

Chai Mi's house also had walls papered with newspaper, and old newspaper at that.

In this era, goods were generally scarce and prices high, and since no one was very well-off, a household that could paper its walls with big white paper was already considered pretty good.

Inside the house there were also two wardrobes made of plastic-laminated boards, neither truly red nor truly purple. This kind of wardrobe looked fairly nice, but wasn't very practical.

They were purely for face.

The plastic laminate was especially thin, a very, very thin layer. The advantage was that the outside was painted in colorful paints that farm households didn't possess, making them look especially good-looking.

Of course, actually Chai Mi didn't like the bright reds and purples; they weren't as good as solid wood. But in this era this stuff was popular, cheap, easy to sell, and had high profit, so merchants were willing to sell this kind of goods.

Actually many things, in later generations, return to simplicity. Previously popular purple clay or ceramic teapots later turned into iron, aluminum, glass, plastic ones, and finally returned to purple clay or ceramic. Kang beds are the same — for the sake of beauty people started sleeping on beds, sleeping on tatami, and finally slept back on the kang.

The principle is actually very simple.

When goods are empty, people pursue material things, and even more pursue beauty. Once material things are sufficient, they begin to pursue practical logic.

The thermos wasn't new, but it was wiped quite clean. The teacups were also wiped very bright.

After Yao Lianhua took the child, her mother-in-law went out.

Yao Lianhua's father-in-law, who was firing the kang outside, also went out with her, clearly not wanting to disturb Yao Lianhua and Chai Mi, these cousins', chat.

Yao Lianhua fed the child, coaxed him a few times, and the child fell asleep again.

"Your family's second son really can sleep; he eats his fill and sleeps, sleeps his fill and eats — if he doesn't get fat, who will?"

"This guy is just like that; kids are all greedy for sleep. Sometimes he falls asleep while eating, carefree just like his dad."

As Yao Lianhua was saying this, Zhang Guoxiang lifted the door curtain and came in from outside, without any awkward expression on his face, smiling as he said: "Carefree, living isn't tiring."

Yao Lianhua pursed her lips, pushing Zhang Guoxiang out: "You go stir-fry some melon seeds and peanuts or the like, get some sugar for Xiu'er to eat."

Wedding candy had been bought; Zhang Guoxiang went to another room, took some out and put them on the kang, then grabbed a big handful and gave them to Chai Xiu.

Seeing Chai Mi didn't oppose, Chai Xiu peeled open a piece of candy and popped it in her mouth to eat.

Afterwards Zhang Guoxiang went to the outer room's ground to build a fire and roast chestnuts.

"Chai Mi ah, brother-in-law will roast you some chestnuts. These are wild from the mountains; though a bit small, the flavor's not bad, and they're nutritious. Eat some to supplement — look at you, you've gotten so thin..."