2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 10 Cruise Ship Memories (Please continue reading)

"Shuda" means "uncle," and it's how it's called in this area.

In southern Anhui, accents can vary from place to place, and even within a single county, there can be several different accents. Different villages within the same town may even have different names for each other.

Just like Tan Jincheng, he doesn't call his two uncles and aunts "Uncle Da" but "Second Uncle Da" and "Third Uncle Da"; "Second Aunt" and "Third Aunt" instead.

As for why Zhang Qingfeng calls his aunt "elder sister," that's a legacy issue.

Tan Jincheng's maternal grandfather's eldest brother passed away early, leaving the family extremely poor. Before he even got married, he had to support two nephews.

In this situation, what woman would want to marry him?

My maternal grandfather was 13 years older than my maternal grandmother. My maternal grandmother's family were opera singers. During that special period, a change occurred, and they were willing to marry my maternal grandmother to my maternal grandfather.

But the prerequisite is that the food must be provided by the maternal grandfather's family.

And so, my grandmother, who was not very old at the time, often played and did farm work with her "elder nephew," who was not much younger than her.

Over time, the two nephews came to call their elder sister; however, the two brothers held their parents in very high esteem.

For more than 50 years, Zhang Qingfeng, the eldest uncle, has only left the county town a few times to repair the river embankment; he has always lived off the few acres of land his family owned.

During the off-season, they would do odd jobs at nearby construction sites and precast concrete plants to earn some money to supplement their family income.

My childhood and even my youth were very difficult, but thankfully all of that is in the past, and everyone's conditions are slowly improving.

Only my maternal grandparents were at home; my two younger cousins, who live with them, had gone off to play somewhere.

As for my aunt and my cousin's son, they live at the end of the village, which is the beginning of the village.

I expect she'll come over when we eat later.

Tan Jincheng greeted his maternal grandparents, and there was inevitably another round of pleasantries. His maternal grandmother would occasionally utter words like "you've gotten stronger" and "you've gotten darker."

Tan Jincheng had a very good relationship with his grandmother and actually admired the old lady very much.

After my brother passed away, my maternal grandfather took on the responsibility of raising his nephew. While this was admirable in that era, it was essentially in line with the mainstream values ​​of the time.

My maternal grandmother, on the other hand, was different. Many women who were unwilling to marry my maternal grandfather were actually afraid that they would have to raise two nephews as soon as they entered the family, which would be too much of a burden.

Although my grandmother was forced to accept this decision due to family reasons, she had no regrets after the marriage and never argued with her two nephews or their wives.

An elderly woman who had never been to school bore responsibilities she shouldn't have had for decades, and maintained an optimistic attitude towards life until old age.

Such quality is extremely rare.

Around noon, my aunt came over, and my younger siblings who had been playing outside also returned. They were all quite happy to see their older cousin.

I haven't seen my older cousin for over a year. I heard he went to work on a ship and even went abroad. That's quite a surprise.

At the dinner table, everyone surrounded Tan Jincheng, asking all sorts of questions: "Cousin, is it fun abroad? What's it like on the ship?"

“Yes, cousin, tell us about it.”

"Uncle, how much money did you earn working on the ship?"

The curious little faces made Tan Jincheng feel as if he were in another world; the son of his older cousin, who was asking him how much money he had earned, got married to his college classmate in 2022.

Tan Jincheng couldn't help but laugh at the thought that his uncle's child had to call someone more than 10 years younger than him "aunt."

Not only his younger siblings, but also Tan Jincheng's parents, uncles, and aunts looked at him with some curiosity.

That's true. Since I got home, I haven't told my parents about what I've seen and heard during the past year of working overseas.

Since that's the case, let's chat: "What fun things are there abroad? What would you like to hear about?"

"Cousin, did you see a shark at sea?" "Of course I've seen sharks. I even saw someone catch one."

"Didn't the textbook say that you can't catch sharks? Cousin, are you lying?"

"But some countries will secretly catch them, and we just happened to see it. When you grow up, don't be like people from those countries, and don't do illegal things."

"Cousin, how many countries have you been to? What kind of people have you met?"

"Hehe, speaking of this, your cousin is really something. I've been to more than 10 countries and I've seen people with both white and black skin."

"Is work on the ship busy? How's the food? You're so tanned, do you often have to work under the sun?"

It was Zhang Suzhi who asked this question. These little brats kept asking strange and unusual questions, which were not what she wanted to know, so she couldn't help but ask as well.

"I got tanned because of the strong purple lines at sea. Sometimes it's unavoidable to move cargo and stuff. It's okay if you're busy, there's no such thing as a job that isn't busy; Dad's job is sometimes very busy too."

"As for food, Mom doesn't need to worry about that. We're not a cargo ship; we're a cruise ship, which is like a five-star hotel at sea."

"It's a hotel, there are guests, so the food will definitely be good. Look how strong I've become."

After saying that, Tan Jincheng even showed off his biceps, a childish gesture that amused Zhang Suzhi.

"What do you mean by a five-star hotel, Uncle?"

"It's a five-star hotel. Just think of it as the best hotel. It's a really beautiful building with delicious food and fun things to do. Your uncle will show you around sometime."

"Wasn't it supposed to be a boat? How did it turn into a house?"

"Houses on the sea".

"Oh, Uncle, you're not lying to us, are you?"

"Haha, take a guess."

Of course, some of these topics are true and some are false, but Tan Jincheng doesn't explain.

If he didn't possess the soul of a middle-aged man, Tan Jincheng wouldn't be able to exchange answers with his younger cousins ​​so easily.

In fact, Tan Jincheng's current age is not much older than most of his younger cousins ​​who live at home.

The eldest cousin is only six years younger than Tan Jincheng, the eldest cousin's nephew is only ten years younger than Tan Jincheng, and the youngest uncle's child has not yet been born.

However, having lived in the countryside for a long time and with his parents mostly working away from home, the child had little experience and was easily fooled by the worldly-wise Tan Jincheng.

The meal took a long time; adults and children alike listened to Tan Jincheng recount his experiences at sea, such as the wonders he had witnessed.

When the ship stopped in other countries, what kind of people did they see, and who were the passengers on board?

After lunch, the adults were busy cleaning up the dishes, while Tan Jincheng, like a king of the kids, invited them into the house and began distributing gifts.

This is their favorite part.

When Tan Jincheng returned home this time, he brought back many gifts, big and small, which were all inexpensive items, but still quite rare in the countryside.

In his previous life, Tan Jincheng was a young and playful businessman who always liked to bring back gifts that his younger siblings had never seen before whenever he returned to his hometown. This was an annual tradition.

Watching his younger siblings scrambling for gifts, Tan Jincheng smiled; it felt like he was back in his past life, being the eldest felt pretty good, haha!

In the afternoon, Tan Lihua helped his father-in-law with some farm work, while Zhang Suzhi, who hadn't been home for a long time, chatted with the old lady.

Unable to sit still, Tan Jincheng took his younger siblings out to play again. Having finally come back, they had to let loose and reminisce about their childhood.

I'm exhausted, so I'm sending this message. The first round of updates will be on Sunday, so please, brothers, don't skip the book updates and just waste a few minutes reading one!
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(End of this chapter)