Li Anguo returned home from the old man's yard and saw his thin wife cooking for him.
The two daughters obediently helped their mother prepare food. When they saw Li Anguo coming back, they ran over happily.
Li Anguo felt warm in his heart. He led his two daughters to the room. Seeing that his bag had not been opened, he squatted down, opened it and took out two rag dolls.
“Come on, Xueping, Xueqin, one for each!” Li Anguo handed the doll to his two daughters.
“Doll!”
"It's so beautiful!"
"Is this for us?" The voices of the two girls were full of surprise.
“Of course it’s for you.” Li Anguo felt his daughter’s joy and was very happy.
He only remembered to buy it when he saw Li Juan had such a toy when he returned home. In the past, I would mostly ask my wife Chen Lirong to make some sandbags and other toys for my daughter.
Li Anguo felt a completely different family atmosphere at his eldest brother's house from his own. His daughter did not need to work more, and his son did not necessarily receive super treatment.
Same.
Li Anguo was angry and helpless when he thought that his daughter was already so old, without a decent toy, and would be looked down upon by others because of the traditional ideas in the village.
"What are you spending that money for?" The wife looked over and said, "This one is quite expensive, isn't it?"
Under such an environment, Li Anguo and his wife had a tacit understanding to save money as much as possible. , in order to collect enough money to pay the fine - in order to give birth to a child, even though Chen Lirong was not in good health.
So when she saw Li Anguo buying toys for his two children, Chen Lirong subconsciously said something.
"It's okay, it costs nothing." He took out the jade given by Li Long and said, "I have yours too."
"This is... jade? How much does it cost?" Chen Lirong I was surprised and happy, and then complained.
“I also brought some food.” Li Anguo took out things one by one, “It’s easy to make money in Northern Xinjiang, but the things are less and simpler. I’ll take you to the market in a few days and buy some good things. Something for the Chinese New Year. "
Chen Lirong didn't ask her husband how much money he made. She put the jade away with a smile and continued to prepare dinner - originally there was no custom of eating dinner in the village.
The staple food for dinner is mixed flour pancakes, fried cabbage, and sweet potato paste - each family in the village here has less land, and they have to pay the public grain. If you want to eat enough, you have to grow sweet potatoes to produce such a yield. Very large crop.
You can't starve to death, but you can't get well-off. This is why people in the village later went out to work one after another.
The food Li Anguo has eaten at Ma Hao in the past few months has been much better, but he still eats it with gusto.
While eating, someone outside shouted: "Anguo, Anguo is back?"
Li Anguo put down his chopsticks and walked out.
The expression is a little helpless.
He heard that the person outside was his neighbor Li Erniu - a distant relative, they were so far apart that they were out of town.
Li Erniu is about the same age as him, and they played together when they were young. However, this man is a bit naughty, so although they are neighbors, Li Anguo doesn't like this guy very much.
The door to the room is open - it is not usually closed. After all, it is equally cold inside and outside the house. Li Anguo looked at Li Erniu holding his youngest son across the wall and asked with a smile:
"Anguo is back? What? Is Northern Xinjiang fun? Can you eat enough?"
"Look at me. I have gained ten kilograms in four months. Do you think I can eat enough?" Li Anguo said, "My eldest brother's life is much better than here. He eats meat every day."
"Eat meat every day? You are just talking nonsense! Even workers in the city cannot eat meat every day." Li Erniu definitely didn't believe it, "But you look like you are fat? It's not because you are hungry and swollen. Right? Then we need to treat it quickly..."
"No need for treatment, we weighed it, seventy kilograms - you will never reach this weight in your life, right?" Li Anguo joked, "Hey, wipe your son's nose quickly, the mucus is flowing down again, but Disgusting!”
“What’s the matter? "Which child doesn't have runny nose these days?" Li Erniu wiped his son's nose with his sleeve nonchalantly. Feeling that the yellow runny nose on his sleeve didn't look good, he rubbed his sleeve against the wall, and then smiled at Li Erniu. An Guo said, “Have you earned enough money to fine you? If you don’t give birth to a son, it will be difficult for you to have one in the future, and the fine will only get heavier!”
“Why don’t you give birth to a son? Our two daughters are so weird," Li Anguo said casually.
At this time, the two girls Xue Ping and Xue Qin came out holding rag dolls, leaning on both sides of Li Anguo, looking at Li Erniu's son Dali with a little disgust.
"Dad, I want that rag doll too!" Dali saw the rag dolls in the hands of the two girls and immediately became unhappy, "I want it too! Get me one quickly, I want it too..."
Looking at this naughty and somewhat arrogant boy, Li Anguo curled his lips, so what if there is a boy? Does this look like it can work?
He planned to turn around and go back to eat, but unexpectedly Li Erniu spoke:
"An Guo, is this the rag doll you got back? Don't you have two? Come on, I'll give them to you. You give me fifty cents. My son wants to play with it.”
“I won’t sell it. I bought it for my daughter. If you want to buy it, go to the department store and buy it for ten cents.” ”
Li Anguo refused directly. He was joking. You want to buy my rag doll for fifty cents? Do you want to eat shit?
He suddenly felt that what Li Long often said was quite relieved to say it now.
"My daughter is someone else's, so what's the good thing? My surname will no longer be Li. After all, my Dali family will still call you uncle, so you can give me one for Dali. It's almost the Chinese New Year, so I'll let Dali give it to you." If you knock one, it will be treated as pressure. How about the money? If you don’t have a son in the future, I will be considered a junior, so I will definitely be better than your daughter!”
When I heard that the dolls cost ten yuan, Li Er’s eyes dropped. He turned around and said immediately.
"Go away! My daughter is not that mean!" Li Anguo hated others making fun of his daughter. At this moment, he made up his mind to go to Northern Xinjiang after the New Year.
You might as well move there with your family!
When this idea came up, Li Anguo himself was shocked.
What should I do if I really want to leave?
Then persuade mom and dad to go together!
I really can’t stay in this place. I can’t get rich. I can’t live a good life. I have two daughters and I’m still being discriminated against. Besides, I’ve made so much money in a few months. With the current output of the land, Li Anguo I really can't stand it.
Walk!
Li Erniu was still chattering there, but Li Anguo thought he was farting and took his two daughters back to the house.
Li Dali couldn't stop crying when he saw that the doll was gone. Li Erniu hurriedly coaxed him. This son was a precious child and he had to be pampered. Then there was a lot of dancing there, and it wasn't until Li Erniu said that he wanted to boil an egg for him that Li Dali stopped crying.
Xue Ping and Xue Qin were very worried that their father would take their doll back to Dali. Fortunately, their father did not do this, which made them feel very warm.
The two children have become somewhat sensible and know that they are girls, not boys. In such an environment, they are not "dominant".
Although I don’t know why, there is definitely resentment in my heart.
At night, when his two daughters were sleeping with their dolls in their arms, Li Anguo told his wife about this matter in bed.
"Go to Northern Xinjiang? Then...is that possible?" Chen Lirong has no opinion. She is a typical traditional rural woman of this era, and her husband's decision is his decision. But Northern Xinjiang is really too far away. In the eyes of the villagers, it is a bitter and cold place. Can they live there?
"Do you know? How much land has the eldest brother's family been allocated this year?"
"How much? Three acres? Five acres? I heard there is a lot of land there." Chen Lirong guessed that his family The four members of the family were divided into six parts of an acre of land and planted more than an acre of wheat, and the rest were planted with sweet potatoes and some cabbage.
"Including Xiaolong's, there are more than 20 acres of land in total!" Li Anguo said a figure that made his wife stunned.
"How could there be so many? Or is it a wasteland?"
"How could it be a wasteland? When we went there, they had finished their autumn harvest and were planting wheat, and the wheat was growing really well. "Li Anguo tried hard to persuade his wife to follow him willingly, "The eldest brother has two children, a daughter and a son. ..."
"I know that." "But there are many girls in the village who only have one or two girls. They don't think that girls are outsiders at all." Li Anguo emphasized, "Girls are just like boys. , go to school together, we won’t favor one over the other, I think..."
Chen Lirong's eyes changed a little.
She is not afraid of hardship, but in the current environment, she is really afraid that she will not be able to give birth to a son again.
The spit will make her unable to hold her head up.
Now that she heard that there was no prejudice there, her eyes shone brightly.
“Really?”
"That's true!" Li Anguo said with certainty, "I want to persuade my parents tomorrow to move back to Northern Xinjiang around the Chinese New Year. If my parents pass, it will be easier for us to go there."
< br>"How did we settle down in the past?" Chen Lirong said a very The key information, "It's impossible to allocate land to people casually, right?"
"This...I'll ask my elder brother then." Li Anguo didn't think it was difficult to settle down. During the month, I felt that my eldest brother was quite authoritative in the village.
As for where they lived in the past, my father and mother lived in my eldest brother’s house, and my wife and children lived in Lao Ma Hao. When Xiaolong's house is built, his household registration matter should be settled by then, right?
Even if it can't be solved, it's okay to live here first and then think of a solution.
Even Lao Mahao is better than my own yard - that's a brick house!
Not only Li Anguo thinks so, but Chen Xingbang also thinks so.
His mobility was much stronger than that of Li Anguo. The next day, Chen Xingbang brought his things to see his father-in-law and put forward his own ideas.
"You said, you are going to Northern Xinjiang? Will you take Xia and the children over after things are stable?" Li Qingxia was also shocked, "You don't want anything here?"
" What do you want?" Chen Xingbang said with a sarcastic tone, "I have been married for many years, and I have built a yard over the years. How much land does it matter? It’s not as much as what I can earn by working in Northern Xinjiang for a whole autumn - just let my father plant the land and let him take care of the yard. I don’t believe in working hard in Northern Xinjiang. Can’t you save a yard every year? I think I can buy a stable house in Beijiang with the money I have now.”
"Then you want to settle in your eldest brother's village?" Li Qingxia asked again.
"No." Chen Xingbang's answer surprised Li Qingxia, "I plan to start a small business. Look over there, everything is lacking. I think there are many opportunities. It's not like there are too many people here. , they compete in everything, and the things they produce cannot be sold for money, and the things they produce are also Few. Let’s just talk about weaving baskets. You can make several baskets in a day just by doing it. How can we have so many people here?”
What Chen Xingbang said is true. Northern Xinjiang is vast and sparsely populated. It is relatively rich, and as long as you work hard, it will definitely be no problem to make money for food and clothing. It is not a big deal if you have some sense to take advantage of the current policy opportunities and become a small rich man.
But it’s very difficult here in my hometown. There are too many people with the same skills, too much competition, coupled with insufficient resources and too few per capita, leading to serious involution, making it impossible to get rich even if you want.
"Okay, just think about it." Thinking that Chen Xingbang didn't plan to settle down and the boss Li Jianguo would have no trouble, Li Qingxia nodded and asked again:
"Then when do you plan to go there?"
"It's spring, it's spring, it's easy to talk about anything."
"What did you plan?"
"That must be it. I'll go over and find a job first, and then I'll take Xia and the kids over after I'm settled."
Chen Xingbang's idea is quite safe, and Li Qingxia thinks there's nothing wrong with it.
He was thinking about whether he should go there with his wife and his son-in-law.
He was still thinking that Chen Xingbang was already persuading:
"Dad, you and mom can come with me when the time comes. My eldest brother has been saying that you should go over there. It’s so nice to stay here. To be honest, it’s better for you to live here than us. You should know it well after you’ve been there in the summer. Why don’t we have so much trouble? Sick, I just came back yesterday, and this morning someone came over to borrow money, making me angry..."
Li Qingxia suddenly felt the same way:
"Who said it wasn't me? Within a few days after I came back, some people came over and asked me to borrow money. They also said that Northern Xinjiang is a place of bitter cold and a place where prisoners are sent to labor camps... It’s really not a thing!”
Weng and son-in-law immediately had a common topic.
More than an hour later, Chen Xingbang left his father-in-law’s home with satisfaction, because his father-in-law agreed to consider going to Northern Xinjiang with him.
Li Anguo came to his father the next day.
He raised a similar topic to Chen Xingbang, but he was more radical.
"You said, you want to take your wife and baby to your elder brother's place? You don't want it here?"
"No, what do you want? What's the point? I gave birth to two daughters, and they are looked down upon here. What's wrong with daughters? How about having sons? Lao Jingui has three sons, but not now No one cares yet? "
Lao Jingui is an old man in the village. He is almost seventy years old. He is one generation younger than Li Anguo, so he must be called Grandpa Li Qingxia. He has three sons. His wife passed away early and all three sons have already married and are living separately. When Lao Jingui was in good health, he was fine, but now he is in poor health. No one is raising his three sons. He takes turns asking his wife to bring food to him. No one takes care of him. He just lies in his house this winter, eating cold rice leftovers. Yes, you may not be able to survive it.
Li Qingxia was sad. Although Lao Jingui is actually not a good person, and his wife's early death has a lot to do with his temper, this man is about to die, and some things are really hard to say.
"He still owes me fifteen yuan." Li Qingxia shook his head, "I guess it's not enough."
Li Anguo was not surprised. The old man likes to show off a bit. When he came back from northern Xinjiang, he would buy and buy when he had some money. Others would naturally ask him to borrow money, and he was too embarrassed to refuse. In the past, Xiaolong's temper was a bit like that of the old man, but now Xiaolong is much more mature.
"Then where did you live in the past?"
"You lived at my eldest brother's house, and I lived at Lao Ma." Li Anguo had already thought about it, "Isn't Xiaolong going to build a new house? Then he will move to the new house. , there is a lot of room in the house in Lao Ma. It’s best for my family to settle down in the village first. If we can’t settle down, then we’ll have to think of other options.”
Li Anguo is determined to make a desperate move, so he is very calm now. Very serious too. In fact, he has already seen that the life of his wife and children in the village is not very good. My wife is not in good health. Since she gave birth to two daughters, she is often criticized by others, so she simply does not go out often. In today's weather, inactivity and emotional reasons can make your health worse.
The children are a little better, but they are also bullied by other naughty children. They don't know the reason, but they can feel some malice.
It might be better to change the environment.
Of course, if he moved to Northern Xinjiang, Li Anguo believed that he could make his wife and children live a better life, at least with enough food. The environment there was unfamiliar, and no one would point fingers. Li Juan and Li Qiang flashed in his mind. Comparing his two children, he felt that his two children were at least several kilograms thinner than their cousins!
Obviously not at a healthy level.
If there is no comparison, it would be fine. If I were forty or fifty years old, I might not have this idea, but now that I am only thirty, I still have a lot of time to work hard.
At the same time, Li Junfeng was a little surprised by the proposal of his cousin Junshan who came over.
"You mean, you plan to go to Northern Xinjiang after a while? Me? I want to rest for a while." Li Junfeng, who returned home, spent the past two days extremely comfortable. He brought back a lot of money and all the original debts were paid off. Everyone praised him for his big hands and his wife and children. Although the food and drink were not as good as in northern Xinjiang, it was better because of his habits. Moreover, he went to the market the next day as soon as he came back. We weighed the meat, bought noodles, and improved the food at home when we came back.
Prices here are much better than in Northern Xinjiang, and Li Junfeng feels that his money can last a long time!
He suddenly lost the motivation to make money.
Let’s talk about it after the flowers are almost ready!
I just didn’t expect Li Junshan to plan to go to Northern Xinjiang again so soon.
"Then I'll ask Uncle An Guo." Li Junshan had no objection to his cousin's decision.
"Then why are you thinking of going again? You made a lot of money this time, more than me!" Li Junfeng was a little puzzled.
“I’ll do the math. I’ll build a house, buy a set of furniture, and buy a bicycle, and I’ll have almost enough money.” In addition to dealing with people who came to inquire about Northern Xinjiang, Li Junshan spent the past two days at home. I'm thinking about what I can do with my money.
After thinking about it, he found out a little sadly that he had a lot of money, but he had to do it reluctantly to start a family.
He didn’t want to force it, he wanted to earn more. He is still young, and even if he goes to make money again, he hopes that his life will be better in the future.
Not to mention being rich and wealthy, at least it must be better than the average level in the village.
The life in Lao Ma's house has subtly changed him. He feels that such a life is actually good.
He thought about it. (End of this chapter)