Daily Life in the 70s-Chapter 123 Ideas

Yang PeiMin nodded and didn’t look any further.

Returning to the Yang Family, she only then learned that her sister-in-law was pregnant. The news hadn’t come out because it was still early days.

Her sister-in-law had always taken care of everything inside and outside the house, never shying away from hard work. Zhang Minghua felt grateful for her sister-in-law’s efforts and, knowing the good news, had specially slaughtered an old hen and had it stewing early, asking Yang Peijun to call over Yang PeiMin to eat.

As Yang PeiMin entered the house, Yang Peijun explained the reason.

So as soon as she walked in, she congratulated the sister-in-law, who was wiping the table.

Jiang Erni still couldn’t stop her busy hands, even though she was pregnant.

But rural wives were not so delicate; many were working in the fields right up to childbirth.

When she stood up and saw Yang PeiMin, she wiped her hands and smiled a bit shyly, "Little sister-in-law is back."

Yang PeiMin set down her things and asked, "How many months along?"

"Two months," Jiang Erni replied with a shy smile. She hoped this child would be a son.

"Don’t they say to be extra careful during the first three months? Sister-in-law, you should sit. Are we about to eat, right? I can wipe the table," Yang PeiMin said, reaching for the cloth in Jiang Erni’s hand.

Jiang Erni deftly dodged, "Minmin, you sit down. It’s nothing, really, I feel strong and haven’t had any reactions, much better than the previous two."

While they were talking, Zhang Minghua got up, smiling before she even spoke, "Minmin is back, come let Mom have a look, have you gained weight?"

Yang PeiMin grinned and leaned in, "I’ve put on weight, you can see my face has gotten rounder."

Zhang Minghua looked at her face and then joked, "It seems my eyes must be failing because I can’t tell."

Li Hong came in and also gave Yang PeiMin a smile, "The little sister-in-law seems to have lived quite comfortably. It hasn’t been many days, but she has a healthy glow. The Shen family must have plenty of meat to eat, right?"

Yang PeiMin glanced at her. Was she resentful about her coming back to eat meat? "Speaking of which, lately the chickens at home have been laying a lot of eggs; I’ve not been short of eggs, that could be the reason."

Meanwhile, Zhang Minghua had opened the cloth bag Yang PeiMin had brought, "If you’re going to visit, just come, why bring things? Even if the chickens are laying well, you don’t need to bring so much, do you? And sugar and other things, you’re also bringing back five yuan each month to your family... What exactly did your in-laws say?"

She brought this up in front of her daughter-in-law to prevent her daughter-in-law from harboring any complaints about her daughter’s frequent visits. Although she hadn’t detected the underlying meaning in Li Hong’s words just now, by saying this, she unintentionally hit the mark.

Li Hong turned to look at what was in Zhang Minghua’s hands and then fell silent.

Yang PeiMin sighed inwardly, feeling relieved that Chen Guizhi had reminded her. When returning to her parents’ home, she really had to consider her brother and sister-in-law’s opinions, even though it was Zhang Dahai who was in charge now, she still needed to think about the future.

Yang PeiMin sat down beside her, "Father and Mother-in-law didn’t have any objections; they actually proposed it themselves. Mom, you can rest assured, now I’m also earning a salary, and we’ve taken over the meat and vegetable supply for the household. My in-laws probably think they should compensate me for letting your third sister and her three daughters live and eat here, so they suggested I should also take care of my parents’ home. So you can accept these things without worry, Mom."

Zhang Minghua nodded, but her face still looked as though she had something more to say.

Yang PeiMin knew she was still somewhat worried about herself.

She quickly changed the subject, "How about my dad?"

"Your dad’s over with the educated youth, lots of them are trying to think of ways to get back to the city, the ones who got into university, those called back to the cities, those who went back because of severe sickness at home, most of them left. The remaining few have no enthusiasm at all, and even when they go out to work, they’re just killing time. There’s an unreliable one who managed to lose nearly half of the team’s ducks today, your dad is really anxious and stressed. He sent your two older brothers and a few others to look for the ducks."

"... They’ll be going back in a few days anyway, there’s not much they can do... Just have to see how many they can find, and hope none got killed by animals." Zhang Minghua showed a pained expression over the lost ducks, knowing that from the team’s allocation, there was also a share for her own family.

While they were talking, Zhang Dahai and his two sons returned.

Zhang Minghua quickly asked, "How many did you find?"

Sitting on the kang, reaching for water, Yang Peiguo replied, "Don’t even start, we found only forty-three, and there are still about ten missing, and a few of those were retrieved from Erzhu’s house in the village end."

"What’s that about?" Zhang Minghua slapped off some dust they brought back on the kang. Erzhu’s family didn’t have many people either and didn’t like to go to work, spending days doing who knew what, yet surprisingly, he seemed to be living quite well. His parents had died early, and he had split from his family, yet he still managed to get married the year before last.

He’d even managed a bigger bride price than men living in spacious homes with both parents alive.

"That Erzhu, the bastard has been scheming and making deals these past years. Those ducks were picked up by him, and he was just about to send them off to the middle school. He and his wife were discussing it in the courtyard, but we happened to overhear them."

"He’s been secretly up to this? No wonder he’s been living so well these past few years, with no parents to look after and even getting a wife." Yang Peijun smacked his lips.

"So, what happened then? He’s not from our production team, so it’s only right to have their team leader come and resolve this."

Yang Peiguo shook his head, "What else could happen? He saw us coming to look and wisely returned the ducks, even said he didn’t know they belonged to someone, and vehemently denied he was going to trade them. It’s no use bringing his team leader over; their team leader is his uncle anyway, so of course, he sides with him."

"We did check his house and only found six ducks. We took those back, and it’s not good to make a big fuss over this."

Yang Peijun was still indignant, "But the things he did before, there’s got to be traces. Speculating and profiteering is a serious crime, can’t we report him?"

Yang Peiguo still shook his head, "Times have changed now, even if we did report, with his team leader uncle there, they’d turn a blind eye."

Yang Peijun was stunned for a while, then glanced at Yang Dahai, asking tentatively, "Then, could we maybe also..."

But before he could finish, Yang Dahai cut him off angrily, "Our Yang family has always been honest and upright. Speculating and profiteering are not acceptable. If you sneak off to do it, I’ll break your legs!"

Yang Peijun quickly stood straight, "Dad, I don’t have such thoughts. I was just thinking maybe we could raise a few more chickens to lay more eggs, to exchange for cash at the grain bureau..."

Yang PeiMin silently praised Yang Peijun for his cleverness.

Yang Dahai snorted through his nose, giving him a cold look.

Dinner came soon after.

The three daughters-in-law had prepared the food: a chicken stewed with potatoes, which looked plentiful but not so much given the number of people. They had also specially sliced some chicken breast to make a soup for Jiang Erni.

Apart from that, Yang PeiMin had brought over some eggs to make a fried chives dish, and the remaining three dishes were vegetarian.