Daily life of female supporting actresses in the 1970s

Jiang Yanqiu asked Zhao Lanlan to make men's cloth shoes for her, because the openings of women's shoes were wide and mud and other debris could easily fall in.

Men's shoes generally have black uppers, but Zhao Lanlan specially embroidered small flowers, grass and bamboo leaves on them with military green thread.

After the shoes were made, Jiang Yanqiu took out the bundle of wool that Wang Haiyang had helped her with and asked her to help knit a sweater.

The bundle of wool yarn that Wang Haiyang bought for Jiang Yanqiu weighed a total of 15 kilograms, all wool yarn.

The dyeing at the supply and marketing cooperative is fine and the price is 20 yuan per catty. This one is unevenly dyed, and I don’t know how much Wang Haiyang paid for it.

Zhao Lanlan looked at the wool and said, "It's a waste to knit the wool like this. I know how to dye it. How about I help you dye it and then knit it."

Jiang Yanqiu asked without hesitation: "Will it fade?"

Zhao Lanlan rolled her eyes at her and said, "If I fade, wouldn't it be redundant for me to suggest you dye your hair a certain color?"

Ok.

Jiang Yanqiu asked Qin Yiheng to help buy the materials that Zhao Lanlan mentioned, but due to limited conditions, she could only produce two colors: dark green and maroon.

After the wool is dyed and dried, it is almost as good as new.

If I sell it, I can probably get twenty yuan per pound.

I have to say that there is a reason why Gu Qingqing and Zhao Lanlan became good friends in the original book.

Because wool yarn is easy to dehydrate and pill, Jiang Yanqiu didn't let her knit woolen trousers, but only knitted sweaters.

Two waistcoats, two sweetheart-neck sweaters, two hats, and two scarves. One of each style and color, and the buttons were made by Zhao Lanlan out of deer antlers.

They are all made of coarse wool. The four pieces used almost eight kilograms of wool, and the hat and scarf used almost ten kilograms.

Xu Yan asked for maroon wool and knitted a hat and a scarf.

There were about four pounds left, so Jiang Yanqiu gave it to Zhao Lanlan as a reward. She helped with dyeing, weaving, and even made three pairs of cloth shoes. Her contribution was not small.

Zhao Lanlan knitted herself a scarf and a hat with maroon fabric.

With the remaining yarn, plus the knitted gloves that Gu Qingqing had given her in the past few months, she knitted a piece of clothing, a pair of pants, and finally two pairs of socks.

You can tell from the size that it is men's.

Jiang Yanqiu originally wanted to persuade her to be nicer to herself, but Xu Yan shook her head at Jiang Yanqiu and stopped her from speaking.

Zhao Lanlan doesn't knit sweaters all the time. She sets aside some time every day to knit, and then arranges some time to read.

After more than half a month of rest, and after heavy snow and big smoke bubbles, the sky finally cleared up.

The village also notified everyone to prepare to cut reed stalks tomorrow, and then distribute the food after the reed stalks were cut.

After the food is distributed, those who want to take leave to visit their families can go back.

Jiang Yanqiu prepared all the work the night before, but when she woke up the next day, she was shocked.

There was a small package under her back door!

Jiang Yanqiu opened it and saw a letter on the top, and inside were several sets of children's clothes made of old cloth and a silver longevity lock.

When I opened the envelope, there were two bills for milk powder and a stack of money inside, the largest denomination was fifty cents and the smallest was one cent.

Although she was terrified, Jiang Yanqiu still opened the letter and read it.

The contents of the letter surprised her:

"Hello, Yanqiu! I hope you don't mind me calling you that.

Although we have never met, we actually knew each other a long time ago.

When you jumped into the river to commit suicide, we almost went to hell together.

To be honest, I'm not as brave as you. At that critical moment, I chickened out. I didn't want to deprive an unborn child of the right to live.

I think I am not even afraid of death, so why should I be afraid of living!

If I die, wouldn't that be what those who framed me wished for?

I was afraid that you would regret it like I did, so I went against your wishes and used all my strength to pull you back from the brink of death.

When I saved you, I didn't have any other selfish thoughts in mind. I just couldn't bear to see such a young and beautiful life disappear.

But now, I am really at my wit's end and in dire straits.

So I made a confusing decision.

Today, you found a baby where you were cutting reeds. That baby was my newborn baby!

I wanted to live with my children forever, but things didn't go as planned. Given my current situation, I'm afraid neither of us can survive this freezing winter.

I shamelessly ask you to take him in for a while. I'm afraid he won't survive the winter with me.

If this child is adopted by kind-hearted people in the village, please go and check on him when you have time. Make sure he is not bullied and does not go hungry or cold.

I will take him away when my conditions improve, or when the child is able to endure the hardships with me after these two winters.

I know you have the ability to take care of the child, and now you are the only one I can rely on, so I beg you to help take care of the child.

I know it's a bit selfish, but I'm really at my wit's end.

Just think of it as repaying the favor I gave you, okay?

I will definitely pay you back double the money you spent during this period.

If I am able to turn things around in the future, I will definitely repay you double and let my children respect you.

A mother filled with despair yet holding a glimmer of hope bows to you in gratitude."

The words above are written so neatly and beautifully that you can tell at a glance that they were written by a woman.

Jiang Yanqiu held the letter and looked at the wall, wondering in her heart: How could a desperate woman who had just given birth climb over this two-meter-high wall?

No matter what, the other party must have really saved me, otherwise he would not have rashly handed the child to me.

He also left money, tickets and a longevity lock. Whoever gave the longevity lock to would have their family help take care of it for a period of time.

If they were not really desperate, who would be willing to give their child to someone else to raise?

However, she still had some doubts about the other party's words to save her life.

No one knows who saved her. If the other person was really desperate, why didn't he come to rescue her for so long?

Judging from the fact that the other party saved me and was familiar with my residence, he should be a villager.

As he was her savior, she had to help him, but why did he suddenly send the child over?

For a moment, Jiang Yanqiu thought that the family in the village could not afford to raise the child, so they pretended to be her unknown savior and asked her to help raise the child.

But with that neat and beautiful handwriting, it's not impossible for someone to do something like this.

Regardless of whether the child is her savior or not, if she really finds a child tomorrow, she will adopt the child first and wait until the child's parents are found. She will just consider it a good deed.

The next day, everyone except Lin Shaoyang was told to go cut reed stalks. His injuries hadn't fully healed yet, and it took a hundred days for a broken bone to heal, so he couldn't move.

More than half of the people in the village who come to work have disappeared, and there are even fewer women.

Everyone brought their lunch with them to work. The reed stalks were frozen hard and could be broken with a simple chop using an axe. It didn't take much effort at all; it was just too cold.

The chopped reed stalks were piled there, and someone was responsible for bundling them up and pulling them to the field beside the road with a sled. When the weather was good, people from the paper mill would come to take them away.

Jiang Yanqiu was a little nervous the whole morning. She was worried that the child would get sick from the cold, and she was also a little afraid that the child would actually show up.

I also want to see who is abnormal and who has the greatest motive for committing the crime.

She was afraid that everyone would notice that she was too nervous, so she could only cut reeds desperately to divert attention.