Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 79
The brother and sister looked at each other in the rearview mirror and both smiled.
Because in high school, Jiang Bai’s meal ticket for a month was fifty pounds, and Mother Jiang only gave her thirty pounds. She knew what it felt like to be so hungry, getting dizzy and was unable to concentrate in class.
It took two hours by bus to arrive at Shuibu Town, and it was less than twelve noon when they arrived. They were lucky enough to catch the market and the boat home. The two of them hurried to the river embankment where they met Father Jiang on the boat.
Father Jiang was there to sell crayfish. There were not many crayfish left. He estimated that if they were sold for a few more days, they would be no more.
He always went to the market to sell crayfish during that period. Others saw that it was still selling for money, so they also caught crayfish but they were not as delicious as the ones he cooked. Their sales were not as good as his, but they were sold cheaply, which affected his business to some extent.
He mainly went to neighboring markets to sell, and only came to Shuibu Town every time there was a market day. At that time, there were many people, and no matter how many crayfish there were, they would be sold out.
Father Jiang was surprised to see Jiang Bai and Jiang Ning back. “Bai Zi, Ning Ning, why are you back at this time? Do you have enough money?”
Before Jiang Bai could say anything, Jiang Ning quickly said, “It’s definitely not enough. Mom gave my second brother a total of 800 yuan, and the tuition cost more than 700 yuan. The second brother also had to buy notebooks, pens, and tutoring. How can he have enough money? I went to look for my second brother in his dormitory that day. I saw the hole in the second brother’s trousers, one leg could go through.”
It was of course a lie. Jiang Bai’s room was in the boys’ area, and girls were not allowed to go there. But what she said was true.
She sighed heavily, saying, “My second brother is growing tall. He only eats dry rice and pickles all day long. It cannot keep up with his nutrition. He is suffering from growing pains. His legs are cramping every day. He can only endure it. My brother said that he would wake up from the pain every night. Whenever he wakes up, the pain would make him unable to sleep. If he did not sleep at night, he would not be energetic during the day and had fallen behind in his studies.”
“My second brother said that he is so hungry every day that he gets dizzy.”
Father Jiang didn’t understand what growing pains were at first, but after hearing Jiang Ning’s description, he immediately understood.
As the tallest boy in the village, and growing up in the 1960s and 1970s when food was most scarce, he knew very well what growing pains were. He asked Jiang Bai in surprise, “Didn’t I give you two hundred catties of meal tickets? Why is it not enough?”
Jiang Ning said, “Two hundred catties of meal stamps are nothing! Cauliflower costs 20 taels of meal stamps for a spoonful. The second brother doesn’t eat other vegetables and only eats cauliflower every day. He gets at least 6 taels of meal stamps a day. For a person his height, he has to eat at least five taels of rice for one meal without even counting the meat. A portion of braised pork in the cafeteria is eight taels. Just eating rice and cauliflower will cost at least twenty taels of food stamps a day. We have to use food stamps. Calculate it yourself. Twenty taels a day, one hundred and twenty days in a semester. Is two hundred kilograms of food stamps enough?”
“My second brother is worried every day that there will not be enough food stamps to eat, and he is worried that I will starve to death. Originally, he did not have to come back during the two-day National Day holiday. He is afraid that by the end of the semester, both of us will have nothing to eat and starve to death, so he came back to carry some food for me.”
Father Jiang felt very distressed when he heard this, and looked at Jiang Bai angrily, saying, “Why didn’t you tell me that you were so hungry?”
Jiang Bai said coldly, “What’s the use of telling you?”
Father Jiang was stunned and fell silent.
For many years before, he and Mother Jiang worked in other places and didn’t pay much attention to Jiang Bai and Jiang Ning. Later, Jiang Bai said that Father Jiang and Mother Jiang were not his parents, but just Jiang Song’s parents, and refused to call them parents.
But they were so busy at work, and the work on the construction site was so heavy that they were almost exhausted every day. They didn’t even want to move when they got home. Instead, the young and sensible Jiang Bai cooked the meals at home and waited for them.
They said they had raised Jiang Bai but it was Jiang Bai who was taking care of them.
Father Jiang said, “Just tell me and I can always send you food.”
There was no shortage of food at home.
Jiang Bai didn’t want to talk to Father Jiang at all. He just sat on the edge of the boat indifferently, looking across the lake into the distance.
Father Jiang sighed and gave Jiang Bai the two hundred yuan he had quietly saved during that period.
In the past, he did not hide private money. The family owed so much foreign debt. All the money in the family was with Mother Jiang and was controlled by her.
That was to say, during that summer vacation, he was selling crayfish. He wanted his daughter to go to school, so he saved a little every day, and quietly saved some.
What he saved before was given to Jiang Ning, and what he saved after that was given to Jiang Bai. His pocket got empty again.
He said, “Don’t be too frugal. There is nothing much at home, but there is still no shortage of food. Tell me how many food stamps you need, and I will deliver them to your bus tomorrow.”
Jiang Ning quickly said, “Of course the more, the better. Not only does my second brother want to eat, but I also want to eat more.” She deliberately made her eyelashes filled with tears and wringing her hands.
She said with a sad look “If I don’t have enough to eat, I wouldn’t grow taller. My classmates in the class call me a dwarf.”
In fact, she had grown significantly taller than during the summer vacation. The most obvious change was her rolled-up trousers.
Because her cousin was eight years older than her, she was already an adult. The old clothes she was given were much bigger for her to wear, especially the pants. She rolled them up in circles and sewed them on with needles. As she grew longer she would open one sew each time.
But with her height, when the whole family, including Mother Jiang, was all tall, she was really an underdeveloped little girl.
The reason why there was such a big height difference between her and her classmates was that in that era, in their place, students generally entered school late, but she entered school early.
She was born in a later month of the year and was two to three years younger than the classmates at least and had an age difference of up to four years. She was also in the stage of growth and development, and the height of those who were just beginning to develop and those who had already developed was different. The difference was particularly obvious.
For example, she and He Xiaofang.
That was also the reason why the server was so depressed when she was called aunt in the past. In that era, there were many senior high school graduates who were twenty or twenty-one years old. Nineteen years old was considered young. It was like peers who were a few years younger calling her aunt.
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