ushernet Chapter 24 Friends from the Past 1
Chapter 24 Friends from the Past 1
The small mountain village was quiet in the dead of night.
Jiang Ping, who had just received the memories, felt somewhat helpless. This time it was another era, and she had to play the role of a mother and grandmother.
The original owner's name was Zhou Dongping. She was 45 years old this year and was from Dazao Village, Hong'an Commune. She had a son and a daughter who were both married.
Zhou Dongping's family home is in the neighboring mountain village. Her parents are still alive, and the family members don't like to talk much, only visiting each other during festivals or when the original owner needs help.
As for the parents-in-law, because they had five sons and couldn't afford to raise them, they gave the original owner's husband away for adoption. Now their relationship is similar to that of ordinary relatives, and they call each other "uncle" and "aunt" when they meet.
The original owner's man was originally named Chen Laosan. At the age of five, he was adopted by his uncle, whose wife and children had passed away. The uncle renamed him Chen Shu, and the father and son depended on each other for more than ten years.
After watching Chen Shu marry and have children, and when his granddaughter Chen Jing was five years old and his grandson Chen Yuan was two years old, the adoptive father felt he had no regrets and passed away.
In the original owner's memories, Chen Shu's adoptive father was a good person and raised Chen Shu very well. Unfortunately, good people don't live long, and ten years later, Chen Shu also died unexpectedly.
Outsiders are unaware of the inside story, but the Chen father and son actually left behind a considerable fortune, enough for the original owner to support his children.
However, Chen Shu did get into trouble while trying to save public property, so the commune eventually decided to give Zhou Dongping's family a job in the county in addition to the compensation.
She worked as a kitchen helper in a state-run restaurant in the county, a job the original owner had no complaints about. After her initial sadness, she pulled herself together and went to report for duty, transferring her and her child's household registration as well.
Of course, it wasn't that no one wanted to steal the job opportunity or simply marry Widow Zhou. Unfortunately, at that time, Zhou Dongping's older brother, younger sister, and younger brother would take turns coming to keep the original owner company after finishing work early every day. The original owner also said that she would not remarry, which made outsiders back down.
For the next few years, Zhou Dongping lived in the county with her children, renting an old house near her workplace. Her family would sometimes bring her some food, vegetables, and firewood to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the widow and her children.
When Chen Jing and Chen Yuan are on school break, they also go to stay in Gaoshan Village and help with the farm work so that their mother doesn't have to worry about them.
When her daughter Chen Jing graduated from high school, the original owner transferred her job to Chen Jing, but also agreed that her salary would be handed over to the family. In her spare time, she would also make matchboxes and go fishing at home.
My son Chen Yuan has three more years until graduation, and I'm thinking I can look around some more. I might as well spend money to hire a temporary worker later.
As Chen Yuan was about to graduate, she and Chen Yuan often secretly went fishing in the suburbs, and others just thought that the two had gone back to their hometown village.
Once, when the two had just arrived at the place, they saw what looked like a person floating on the river. When they got closer, they realized it was a child who looked too weak to struggle.
The original owner was by the water with a bamboo pole. Chen Yuan took off his coat and went into the water. After rescuing the person, he was happy to get a job at a scrap metal recycling station. There was a small row of single rooms at the recycling station that served as employee dormitories, where employees could bring their own small stoves to cook.
Both children had jobs, and each month they handed over their wages to the original owner to save. Seeing that Chen Yuan was able to stand on his own, the original owner couldn't stay idle and returned to live in Dazao Village.
She got so engrossed in gossiping in the village that her emotions surged, and she suddenly died in bed. Her children were all successful, and she had no unfulfilled wishes. She only said that she wanted to take care of her children and her family, and then she left.
The original owner was truly a carefree person.
After reviewing her memories and taking stock of her possessions, Zhou Dongping laid out new gray bedding on the hard bed, then sat cross-legged and ate two pickled mustard green buns before falling asleep again.
*
In mid-May, as the weather was about to get hot, the villagers were busy with their work.
The original owner had no burdens and usually just lazed around and worked with a few old girlfriends. It's the same for her after she transmigrated.
As they worked, they gathered together and continued talking about the gossip they hadn't finished yesterday. The topic got more and more off-topic, eventually leading to Chen Fubao from the Chen family next door to Zhou Dongping.
Chen Cui kept making gestures and winking at everyone, and her words were always a bombshell.
"My little Zhuzi was dozing off at the pig feed yard yesterday, and Chen Fubao and Xiao Gu from the cowshed didn't know anyone was there, so they held him for ages."
Not to be outdone, the others began dumping their goods out.
"My daughter came home from school the day before yesterday and saw them together in the grove of trees, but they were holding hands."
"Do you think these two can work out? Chen Fubao's family dotes on her; maybe she'll get her wish in just a few days."
"If you ask me, Chen Fubao definitely only had his eye on Gu from the cowshed."
"You don't even need to tell me. Chen Hua from the brigade leader's family also had his eye on her, but Xiao Gu wasn't interested."
"Even if Xiao Gu is willing, the captain can't agree."
"Anyway, this Xiao Gu is just like... you know, a troublemaker."
"Beauty is a curse"
"Dongping, you're so cultured, hehe."
……
Zhou Dongping listened with great interest, even offering her own humorous commentary. This was quite different from reading the data provided by the system; it was rather amusing.
They talked about Chen Fubao, then about Xiao Gu in the cowshed, and finally about Chen Laizi's new wife, whose speech was strange.
Chen Laizi, a villager, is over thirty years old. His first wife died in childbirth, and his second wife is a young woman from another village. Judging from her appearance and figure, no one knows what stroke of luck Chen Laizi had.
Seeing the team leader approach, she gestured for the group who were dawdling to pretend to work, and everyone immediately realized what was happening and dispersed.
Captain Chen Aiguo was quite helpless about this. These people had no family burdens, did not care about other people's opinions, and just liked to get together and chat.
Even his own mother would secretly listen to their gossip, but they never spread rumors or caused trouble. Chen Aiguo couldn't do anything about them, and when he saw them start working seriously, he turned around and walked away.
After waking up from her afternoon nap, Zhou Dongping didn't go back to work. Following the original owner's habit, she asked for leave to visit her two children in the county.
Yeah, riding a bicycle on bad roads is really uncomfortable; it feels like your butt doesn't belong to you anymore.
She arrived at her son-in-law's house first. The original owner and Chen Jing's mother-in-law, Wu Fang, were also friends. Seeing her old friend arrive, Wu Fang, who was at home taking care of her child, was all smiles and quickly sent Bai Zhenzhen over to call her grandmother.
He took the small basket from Zhou Dongping and poured out a bunch of dried mushrooms and dried bamboo shoots. Then he put some pork bones and Master Bai's secret chili sauce into the empty basket.
Zhou Dongping hugged her granddaughter and kissed her sweetly, then grabbed a handful of peanuts and distributed them to the other children in the Bai family.
As for little Bai Zhenzhen, she had a candy from her grandmother in her mouth, her arms were wrapped around her grandmother, and her eyes were curved as if she was thinking about something wonderful.
After listening to Wu Fang recount several days' worth of gossip in one breath, and sharing a handful of caramel-flavored melon seeds that Zhou Dongping had taken out, Zhou Dongping finally said goodbye to the reluctant little Bai Zhenzhen and left.
As for the bag of red dates and canned wild fruits that I brought for Chen Jing, it has already been placed in her room.
Seeing that it was still early, she pushed her bicycle and walked to the scrap metal recycling station.
The father and son were sitting in a small room at the entrance of the purchasing station, both dozing off at the same time. Zhou Dongping had excellent eyesight and noticed that there seemed to be drool around their mouths.
The two woke up when they heard a sound. When they opened their eyes, they found that their mother had come. Chen Yuan was overjoyed, and Chen He clapped his hands to welcome his grandmother.