90s Little Struggle

Chapter 16
The two sisters wore straw hats and gossiped all the way.

No, it was Xiao Hong who listened to Xiao Fang talking about the temperament of everyone in the Zhao family.

"Grandpa Zhao doesn't like talking very much, and he's a bit patriarchal, but he won't embarrass the younger generation."

Xiao Hong thought to herself: Xiao Fang just wanted to save herself from showing her presence in front of the old man. He might not even feel sorry for his own granddaughter, let alone her cheap granddaughter.

"Grandma Zhao's temper comes and goes quickly, and she has a sharp mouth and a bean curd heart. If you say a few words about you, you just go in one ear and out the other, pretending you didn't hear it."

Xiao Hong instantly understood: Grandma Zhao is not a good stubble.

"Do you still remember? My uncle's family has two daughters and a son. The eldest sister Zhao Tingting got married last year. My cousin is one year younger than us. The year before last, she went to work as a car operator in a towel factory. Zhao Junjie will be in the third grade in the second half of the year."

"The two sons of the second uncle's family, the eldest brother Zhao Junying is now working as a carpenter with the second uncle, and the second cousin Zhao Junhao and I are classmates."

"Now my grandparents live with my third uncle..."

Of course, this is not because the old couple dotes on the third child, but because Zhao's third brother was 25 years old when he was going to get married, because the first two brothers married their wives and emptied the family.

After he took a good look at the family, the woman asked for a lot of gifts, but the family couldn't come up with any money.

Zhao Laosan took the risk, and the four brothers discussed going to the mountains to hunt, but unexpectedly encountered five wild boars. In a panic, he was hit by the wild boars and broke his right leg. He borrowed a lot of money to save his life.

After that, he could only walk with the aid of crutches.

Then no woman would want to marry him.

Xiao Hong was a little puzzled: "Tingting was only 19 years old last year, right? Why did she get married so early?"

"In the countryside, people get married early, and it's normal for girls to marry at the age of eighteen or nineteen. If the husband's family conditions are not good, there are also bachelors at 27 or [-]." Xiao Fang thought in his heart: If you are not talented this year, you will almost be killed by your stepmother. Married?
"That's right!" Xiao Hong also realized after finishing speaking, she could only sigh in her heart, it was all caused by poverty.

Anyway, she already had an idea in her heart, she should rather lack than abuse in marriage, if there is no man who makes her want to marry, it is not bad to be a single nobleman.

Of course, she is still young now, so it is too late to think about this matter in ten or eight years.

Thinking about it this way, she felt that the bizarre dream still affected her.

Otherwise, how could I think so?

They soon came to the Qiancun consignment store. After entering, Xiao Hong saw only an old glass counter with wooden boards on the side and a partition counter made of wood at the back. There were only simple salt, sauce, vinegar, And some needles and threads, and some ice packs, sparkling wine, cigarettes and matches.

There were also a few old women in blue single clothes with slanted breasts waving cattail fans and gossiping there.

When Xiao Hong saw them, she thought of her grandma.

When grandma was alive, she also liked to wear such clothes. Now that she saw it, it made her feel very kind.

Seeing her standing there in a daze, Xiao Fang didn't take it seriously. She thought Xiao Hong didn't want to come in because she disliked the shabby consignment store?
She came forward and said hello with the words here: "Grandma Yu, give me two bags of salt and two bottles of sparkling wine."

"Okay!" Grandma Yu responded with a smile, pushed aside the wooden board and walked in, took out two bags of salt and two bottles of sparkling wine: "It's a total of one yuan and two, and you will get back [-] cents for the bottles."

With an envious look and gossip, he asked, "Are you from Zhao's fourth family in Zha Village? I heard that you are good at reading? What can you do from time to time?"

As the old saying goes, ten miles are different.

Xiao Hong could understand what they said, but she would definitely not be able to say it.

Xiao Hong screamed inwardly, thinking that the fortune teller might not be too young, and wondered if she could understand the Mandarin he spoke.

Thanks to her pondering for so long, she is afraid that she will lose in the language barrier, which is really frustrating.

But now that she's here, she's still going to find out, maybe she's lucky enough to communicate with the fortune teller?

"That's when the teacher listens carefully during class!" Xiao Fang took out a piece of two from her pocket and put it on the counter before putting the things in the basket. After a few polite greetings, she called Xiao Hong to leave.

Xiao Hong asked a little sourly: "Is your study very good? Has it reached the point where even the next village can know?"

She is only familiar with Chinese, and her head hurts when she thinks of English and mathematics.

Thinking that I will be in my second year of high school in the second half of the year, I have the urge to drop out of school.

Xiao Fang said awkwardly, "That's because I am the first girl in Zha Village to go to high school."

"Nowadays everyone is not rich. Many people think that their daughters belong to other people's family after marriage. Even if their daughters have good grades, they will not support their daughters to go to high school and college. It is too expensive."

She looked at Xiao Hong with firm eyes: "Sister, we don't have a good family, we must study hard, only knowledge can change our destiny."

"From tomorrow on, let's review together, shall we?"

Xiao Hong couldn't even say the words of refusal, but nodded heavily.

She almost couldn't help but said: In the future, my sister will earn money for you to go to college.

But I told my sister yesterday that my final grades were not satisfactory, and now my sister said this, it must be to help me with tutoring.

She glanced around and asked in a low voice, "Do you know where the fortune teller in Qiancun lives?"

Xiao Fang looked at her in astonishment, as if seeing a ghost: "Why do you believe this? We are high school students?"

If it wasn't for fear of attracting attention, she would have grabbed her shoulders and shook out the mess in her head.

Xiao Hong shook her head quickly: "No, you misunderstood, I just want to give the fortune teller some money, so that she can say something nice for me in front of Grandma Zhao."

In fact, she was also a little worried in her heart, a little curious if people could figure out that something was wrong with her?
"Are you really thoughtful?" Xiao Fang looked at her in surprise: "Then did you bring any money?"

After she finished speaking, she first took out a few small bills of money from her pocket, and said angrily, "I only have one yuan and thirty cents."

"It's okay, I brought money." Xiao Hong approached her and whispered, "I brought 50 yuan?"

Xiao Fang thought she was sensible before, but now hearing what she said, she just wanted to say that if you are not in charge, you don't know that oil and salt are expensive.

The corner of her mouth twitched: "I heard that if you come to fortune-telling, you can just give three or five yuan, and don't give too much at once, lest people take you as a fool."

"Don't worry, I just bring some extra just in case."

Xiao Fang was also deeply afraid that people would see them go to a fortune-teller, and grandma would find out that it would cause trouble.

She deliberately asked the children playing outside for directions, and soon found the fortune-telling home.

It is also a stone yard, and inside are three spacious two-story wooden houses.

The yard is paved with flat stones, and there are two jujube trees. There are stone tables and benches under the jujube trees, which looks a bit unique.

The grandma, who was wearing a blue slanted jacket and had white hair combed into a bun, was sitting on the stone bench, smiling kindly: "Your guest is here, please sit down."

(End of this chapter)