Quick Wear: Men Farming and Women Weaving

Qin Jingru walked around the street casually. She had no plan to go back casually. She planned to go to the black market to exchange some money. After tossing around in the space for a while, she changed into a ragged set of clothes and wrapped her head with a piece of rag. She looked like a girl from Northeast China. She was not tall to begin with, and her voice could not be changed. She changed into a slightly older sister and painted her skin dark with makeup. She prepared to take a backpack filled with thirty eggs, five bags of five-jin rice, and three bags of half-jin brown sugar. She went to test the water first to see if it was safe.

I once saw an auntie go to a black market. There was a narrow street in the alley with entrances and exits on both sides. There were people watching the entrances and exits, ready to report any situation at any time.

I paid five cents to get in. It was dark inside, people were coming and going, all doing business quietly. I found a spot on the Internet, set up a stall, put the backpack on top, and took out the rice bags one by one. Before I was done, people crowded in. The person who came asked about the price. A five-jin bag of rice was 6 cents per jin, an egg was 1 cents, and brown sugar was 20 yuan per bag. If you don't have money, you can exchange it with tickets. The person worked nearby and didn't need money, so he picked two of each item, and wanted more than eggs. The people behind hurried forward, picked the things they had and left quickly.

After a while, all the things were sold out. Seeing that I had more than thirty yuan in my hand, I didn't buy anything else and walked towards the exit with the empty basket on my back.

When he reappeared on the street, he thought of the person he met yesterday. Li Huaide knew that he was the deputy director of the steel plant, Li, and now he was the director of the canteen department and had the power of the purchasing department. In this era of turmoil, nothing happened. Whether he was laid off or started a business, he would be a successful person, which was enough to prove his intelligence. He was a better candidate, better than the fool and ugly man in the courtyard. Before he left yesterday, he told her the location of his home.

I went to the address in Maoer Hutong in the East District. The gate was locked. It seemed that he had gone to work and the whole yard belonged to him. There were people around the gate, so I couldn't stay there for long. I had to go to the steel factory to look for him. After walking for half an hour, I arrived at the steel factory, but he had already gone to the workshop. The security guard asked me to help find Li Huaide.

Zhao Hongjun watched the pretty girl in front of him looking for the canteen director, and gossip kept flashing through his mind. He didn't dare to delay the director's work, so he asked the person next to him to take over and go find the canteen director himself.

"Director Li, there is a very beautiful girl outside looking for you," Zhao Hongjun said enthusiastically in front of Li Huaide in the office.

Li Huaide thought to himself, maybe it was her who came. He hurried out of the office and saw Chuchu standing at the door of the security room, holding the package. She must have nowhere else to go, so she came here.

"Why are you standing here in the sun?" Li Huaide looked at Qin Jingru with heartache, but he couldn't hold her hand here.

"I... I have nowhere to go. I had an argument with my cousin last night. I can't go back like this if the blind date didn't work out. I want to find a job here and then tell my family," Qin Jingru said in a low voice, and then spoke again embarrassedly.

Li Dehuai thought that since you ran in by yourself, he couldn't let you leave.

"There are no vacancies right now and we are short of staff. Why don't you stay at my place for a few days? There are a lot of vacant rooms. I'll tell you when I have news." Li Huaide thought about getting him home first.

Those who did not refuse went back to the yard with him, lived in the empty room next to his, and told him that they would clean the yard for him.

In the afternoon, Li Dehuai came back early from get off work and the state-owned restaurant packed up a lot of food for him.

Seeing the neat and clean courtyard, he felt distressed and called out at the door of the room. Qin Jingru poked her head out of the kitchen and called out, "I'm here." Li Huaide walked into the kitchen and saw that the stove had been unused for years and was covered in dust. Now it was much cleaner, and the kitchen utensils were empty, so he thought about buying everything outside next time.

"I bought some food, let's go to the main room to eat." Li Huaide took her hand and walked to the main room next to the kitchen, sat at the dining table and opened four lunch boxes. There were two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes, plus ten white flour steamed bread.

The next few days passed like this. After the kitchen was properly heated, I cooked my own meals and waited for him to come back to eat together. We were used to eating together, and the only thing missing was someone to take the initiative to expose the relationship.

I am worried about my parents and brother in the countryside, so I have been packing some food, including 50 kilograms of coarse grains, to take back with me these days.

Li Huaide came home from get off work in a good mood, opened the door and greeted her. The dinner was simple, with one meat and two vegetables, egg soup and white flour steamed buns as the staple food.

After dinner, Qin Jingru came to him and told him that she wanted to go back to see her parents tomorrow and bring them some food. Li Huaide was very nervous, afraid that she would never come back. He impulsively grabbed her hand and hugged her, saying, "I will go with you. Can you give me a chance?" He was so nervous.

Qin Jingru knew that he was waiting for an opportunity and was willing to give him one.

He received a nod of agreement and couldn't wait to meet the other party's parents to get the marriage certificate. He said that he would go shopping tomorrow and take a leave to meet his parents the day after tomorrow. With a hot face, he kissed Qin Jingru like a young man.

When the day after tomorrow came, Li Huaide bought a lot of food and some meat and filled the cart. An ox cart was pulled out from somewhere. The old man driving the cart was unfamiliar to Li Huaide. He greeted the old man and then moved all the things on board. Qin Jingru was surprised and asked him where the ox cart came from.

It turned out that this old man was a relative of Li Huaide, but the relationship was rather distant. They had dealt with each other before and knew that Li Huaide had an ox cart at home, so he asked him to come over to help with a delivery that day.

The little girl was pulled into the oxcart, and the space inside was basically full, so she could only sit on the side. Because today was to meet the parents of both parties, and it was also equivalent to an engagement, she started to pack and dress before dawn, fearing that the little girl's parents would not agree. She was ten years older than her. The oxcart was shaking all the way and it was very uncomfortable to sit on it. The road was all bumpy dirt roads. After driving the oxcart for more than ten miles, we finally arrived at Qinjia Village.

The neighbors in the village who knew Qin Jingru were all surprised to see her return. Many people nearby were gossiping and looking at the man on the ox cart. They thought that Qin Jingru had returned from a blind date and brought the man to her parents, so they quickly called Qin Old Man to meet her.

"Uncle Qin, Jingru is back, hurry back!" A quick-footed young man ran to the farmland and shouted. Aunt Wang, who was standing nearby, heard that her daughter had returned and stopped working in the field. She quickly got up and ran back.

When I got back to the gate of the yard, I saw the ox cart parked there. My daughter and the man were moving things. Looking at the bags of things, which were worth a lot of money, I knew that my daughter had a successful blind date in the city and brought the person back.

By noon, all the family members and relatives had come to the house. More than 20 people were crowded inside. The young people were driven away, leaving only the uncle's family. In the evening, a large pot of thick porridge was cooked with the things the man brought, several meat dishes were cooked, and a lot of multi-grain steamed buns were made. Uncle Qin kept asking about the man's family, relatives and work while chatting at the wine table. He was very satisfied when he learned that the man was the director of the canteen. After discussing with Old Man Qin, they decided to get married and went back to the street office to get the certificate tomorrow.

Uncle Qin then asked how Qin Huairu was doing.

Qin Jingru couldn't say what her cousin did. After all, they were sisters. If it got out, the reputation of the girls and aunts in the family and the married aunts would be affected. She could only say on behalf of her cousin that she was living a good life, but her mother-in-law was difficult to get along with. Uncle Qin felt relieved after hearing this. The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is generally the same in rural areas.

The man offered a dowry of 150 yuan, a bicycle, a sewing machine, and a radio. The Qin family said that they had nothing to give as a dowry, and that it was a famine year, so they took all the gifts back. Qin Jingru decided to keep the gift money and the bicycle and sewing machine so that her brothers could get married.

The days of marriage with Li Huaide were very happy. The man did not let her do heavy work, but always did everything first. The Qin family survived the disaster because of his help. Qin Jingru did not go out to work because of her pregnancy and childbirth. When she occasionally met Qin Huairu, she just greeted her for face. They never reconciled after a quarrel. Both parties consciously did not bring the quarrel to Qinjia Village.

Qin Huairu saw that her cousin lived a good life and married the canteen director, but she lived like this, having an affair with Sha Zhu, and having affairs with the men in the factory. She was intimate with Xu Damao in the warehouse for a steamed bun. Once she met Director Li and deliberately puffed out her chest and posed in front of him, but he didn't even look at her and walked away, standing there awkwardly. She had long regretted marrying into the Jia family. It was better to marry Sha Zhu than Jia Dongxu. Her mother-in-law was selfish, greedy, and didn't care about others at all.