Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 123

Everyone in the Jiang family was good-looking, and Great-uncle Jiang’s eldest son was no exception. He had never done any farm work since he was a child and had inherited the fair skin typical of the Jiang family. When he was young, no one would have imagined that he would do something like never returning to the village again.

When he didn’t come back, Great-uncle Jiang and Great-aunt didn’t say anything and continued to focus on raising their youngest son.

Their youngest son was only six years older than Jiang Song. He had just graduated from college and was assigned to a job far from Wucheng, in a town on the outskirts of the provincial capital. Later, that town was incorporated into the provincial capital, and he became a teacher at a primary school there. Although the couple did not receive a house, they relied on their savings to buy one. Who would have thought that their place would eventually become part of the provincial capital? Afterward, they also became residents of the provincial capital and settled there.

It seemed that the Jiang family was consistent in this regard. Whether it was the two sons born to Uncle Jiang or the three children born to Father Jiang, except for Jiang Bai, who was willing to stay in his hometown and accompany his parents, the remaining children all settled farther away. As long as they studied and passed their exams, they would just move on.

The younger son was a filial person and took his parents to live in the city. However, the old couple was not used to city life, so they returned to the village.

Perhaps Great-uncle Jiang and Great-aunt had been through too much when they were young. Although she was only fifty years old, she looked like she was in her sixties. Her hair was already half white, tied in two braids. She smiled before speaking, and her foreign dialect, which was still quite different from the local accent even after more than 20 or 30 years, added to her charm. She greeted Grandpa Jiang warmly, “Brother, are you here to make money?”

Grandpa Jiang’s physical condition didn’t look much better than Great-uncle and Great-aunt’s. He said, “I’m here to ask Jincai if he wants the job of patrolling the mountains. I can’t do it anymore. If he wants it, I’ll hold onto the ranger job for him.”

In their small community, they still retained the tradition from the 1960s and 1970s that allowed parents’ jobs to be passed on to their children.

If Grandpa Jiang had a family member who was willing to take over, the job would most likely be given priority to the family member he chose.

Great-aunt Jiang didn’t expect such a good opportunity to come their way. She smiled and said, “Yes, yes, how could we let go of such a great job?”

When Great-uncle was young, he had to carry charcoal and dig coal in a charcoal cave to support his two sons through college. The work was exhausting, heavy, and dangerous. After raising their two sons, they could finally take a break and farm a few acres of land.

They no longer had to do the backbreaking work of digging coal, but they also had no source of income.

When Grandpa Jiang offered the ranger job to Great-uncle, Great-aunt was overjoyed and shouted, “Brother, come in quickly.”

“Sit down, and I’ll make you a cup of tea.” She also called out to Great-uncle, “Make money, make money.”

Great-uncle was watering vegetables in the field behind their house.

He resembled Grandpa Jiang in many ways but was much smaller in appearance.

After listening to Grandpa Jiang’s words, he was still a bit unsure. “Brother, are you really giving me this job?”

Grandpa Jiang said, “I asked Daping and Guoping, but they’re not willing to do it. If you’re willing, I’ll pass it on to you.” The great-aunt brought over a cup of tea and added, “If you’re willing, how could he not accept such a good offer?”

Great-uncle Jiang was willing, so Grandpa Jiang took him to the brigade headquarters to complete the handover.

His reasons were also very valid. “In the years that I have been a ranger, whenever it was inconvenient for me, my brother would patrol the mountains in my place. He is very familiar with the work of a ranger and knows exactly which mountains need to be patrolled. He can take over my job as soon as I leave.”

Although many people had come to the brigade headquarters to inquire about the ranger position, they were not relatives of the brigade secretary, so he didn’t prioritize them. Seeing that Grandpa Jiang had someone ready to take over, the brigade secretary naturally gave priority to him. Great-uncle Jiang was eager to step in immediately, and the two of them quickly completed the handover. Since it was the end of the year, the brigade secretary simply called the accountant over to pay Grandpa Jiang’s salary for that year.

Grandpa Jiang held the salary he received from the brigade and looked up at the mountains that seemed so close at hand, filled with sadness and confusion.

He was worried about his eldest granddaughter’s shop. When they visited it the other day, the street was deserted. He was very concerned about whether the clothes in her shop would sell.

What if none of the clothes sell?

After Grandpa Jiang and Great-uncle finished the handover, they loaded the quilts, bedding, pots, and pans onto a cart and went down the mountain. By the time Mother Jiang found out, Great-uncle and Great-aunt were already living in the hut on the mountain.

Mother Jiang was so angry that she almost scratched Father Jiang’s face. “You didn’t even mention such a big thing to me. Do you think I’m part of the Jiang family or not? I’ve given you two sons and have worked like a cow and horse for so many years, but you still treat me as an outsider, right? You didn’t even discuss such a big matter with me.”

The fact that they made such a decision without consulting her at all infuriated Mother Jiang. “Mountain patrol is such a good job. How many people are lining up for it? The old man says he won’t do it, so he transferred it to someone else without even mentioning it to me?”

She waved her arm upward in frustration and said, “Since you don’t consider me part of the Jiang family, don’t come to me for help in the future.”

Thinking of how Grandpa Jiang had gone to Wucheng alone without telling her and had quit his job without consulting them, she couldn’t help but sarcastically remark, “The old man is getting more confused as he gets older. Does he really think that Jiang Ning will support him in his old age? When the time comes, he won’t be able to ask his son to take care of him. He quit his job without telling us and ran off to Wucheng. If he ends up starving in Wucheng, he shouldn’t come back to us.”

She was extremely angry. She was furious that she had worked so hard for the Jiang family for so many years, giving birth to two sons, only to be treated as an outsider. No one had informed her about such a major event. She only found out after the ranger on the mountain had already been replaced.

If she hadn’t gone to the mountain herself and confirmed that the Great-aunt and Great-uncle living in the hut were indeed her relatives, she wouldn’t have believed it was true. It was like a bolt from the blue.