Chapter 35 Bringing My Wife Home

Chug tug tug.
The sound of a walk-behind tractor entering the village.

Standing in the truck bed, fighting the bumps brought by the hand tractor, Lu Yang glanced at the village entrance in front of him, trying to find the figure he wanted in the crowd.

Yes, today the entrance of Shanghuai Village and in front of the brigade headquarters is as lively as a market.

There were crowds of people, shoulder to shoulder, firecrackers blasting, gongs and drums beating, ugh, there were no gongs and drums beating.

My father-in-law had this idea.

I also consulted Lu Yang.

But Lu Yang immediately rejected it sternly.

The three of them were returning home in glory, not to show off.

Since the phone call from Shencheng a few months ago, Lu Yang, Lu Youren, and Lu Dajun, the three members of the Lu family, have made a name for themselves in Greater Shencheng and made a fortune.

This kind of rumor is very popular in Shanghuai Village.

At first, the villagers were skeptical, but as the three men called more and more frequently, Lu Youren's pregnant wife also received a sum of money for pregnancy sent by her husband who lived thousands of miles away. Since moving back to her parents' home, she has been living a comfortable life.

It makes people so envious.

A few days ago, there was a conflict between the Lu and Ma families in the village. The rascal named Ma Sanli had his legs broken and was admitted to the county hospital. The two boys from the Lu family were also arrested. A week passed, and just when everyone thought that the two boys from the Lu family were finished and would inevitably go to jail.

Another call came back from Shanghai, and the 2000 yuan settlement fee was really given. It was agreed that after the mediation, the person would be brought back today.

The villagers would surely come to see the novelty, and they would all stretch their necks.

"Oh, they are really different after going on a long trip. Look at their clothes. The material is very special. It's a bit like Jackie Chan in the movie. Yes, that Jackie Chan, the thing he wears, the jacket, that's what it's called, right?"

"Tsk, Yin Laojiu, you silly old man, why are you looking at the clothes? Look at the gold watches on their hands. The brilliance is so dazzling that it hurts my eyes. Can they really be made of pure gold?"

"Boy, how much is that worth?"

The country folk were ignorant and when they saw several people wearing gold watches, they really thought they were made of pure gold, not knowing that there was a word called gold-plated.

"I'm so envious!"

"We have only been out for a few months. I wonder if we can get rich like them if we go out and try our luck."

"Yes, but unfortunately we still have land to farm and we need strong laborers. I can't go. If I really leave, my wife and children will starve to death."

"What are you afraid of? Wealth can be found in danger."

"Please, what good is there for me, a married man, to talk to you, a bachelor? If you want to go, just go. It's better to die outside, so as not to hang around in the village. Even the young girls and wives will have to stay away from you."

"Okay, just wait for me. When I get rich, I'll bring back three beautiful wives."

"Hahahaha, come and see, someone here is daydreaming again."

Laughing, scolding, bragging and chatting are all ways of covering up one's envy in a humorous way. In the countryside in the 1980s and 1990s, this method was very familiar to everyone.

What, you really want to go out and explore the world?

Stop joking.

What about the land at home? What about the money? How about the travel expenses? I can't just go out and beg, right?

When it comes to begging, everyone is very familiar with it. After all, there was a famine in the past, and people were so hungry that they had to eat tree bark. Sometimes the whole village would go out to beg together. It's not like they haven't done it before. Now that the land has been distributed to each household and production quotas have been determined, people will no longer starve to death if they work hard. It would be a bit shameful to go out to beg again.

On the tractor. Lu Yang looked for a long time and finally found his white moonlight in the crowd.

Yin Mingyue was wearing a flowery cotton jacket today, with white dots and big red flowers that looked like daisies. It was a little old-fashioned, but because it was a new jacket and she was graceful, she stood out among the group of country girls.

Meet Lu Yang's eyes.

Yin Mingyue smiled sweetly, revealing her shallow dimples like crescent moons, and her two big watery eyes, allowing Lu Yang to understand her thoughts at once.

Get excited.

So he said loudly: "Dad, I saw Master's wife and Yue'er. Why don't you stop at the entrance of the village? I will go back with them."

"Hey."

The word "Dad" really touched the father-in-law's heart.

No problem.

You have to listen to your son-in-law.

With a puff of thick smoke, the tractor slowly stopped in front of the brigade headquarters at the entrance of the village.

Lu Yang couldn't wait any longer, so he turned over and jumped out of the car.

He turned around and asked the army who was keeping his luggage to get him two packs of cigarettes. He got Daqianmen cigarettes, which could barely be considered a specialty of Shanghai at that time. This kind of cigarettes costs 3.5 yuan a pack and is sold in many big cities across the country, but it is difficult to smoke it in a remote area like Zhao County. Lu Yang came back this time and thought that he could not come empty-handed. In case he encountered a situation like this, he could use these cigarettes.

So I bought ten more of them.

After Dajun, the eldest cousin, and the two younger brothers who had just come out got off the car, Lu Yang took the two packs of cigarettes from Dajun, tore open their packaging, took out the whole box of cigarettes and threw them to them one by one. "Go, spread out to the villagers. It's rare that the villagers come to join in the fun. Don't say that we have forgotten the etiquette after going on a long journey. Let the villagers also share in our brothers' joy."

Cigarettes are not expensive.

But the difficult part is the smoke from Shanghai, thousands of miles away.

In addition, it is a matter of the times. In rural areas of this era, at least nine out of ten smokers are still smoking welding tobacco. Those who have the conditions can use a tobacco pot, and those who don’t can just rub it with their hands. They can pinch off a small bit of tobacco that costs a few cents per ounce, find any kind of paper, roll it up, and light it up, and they can still smoke it happily.

Of course, it’s not that no one smokes packaged cigarettes, but they are the cheapest packaged cigarettes locally, the kind without filters. Before they even take two puffs, their saliva is already wet. For those that are obviously big brands, have only appeared on TV, and have filters, their eyes light up.

I took it and smelled it again and again.

Even old ladies who don't smoke will take the initiative to ask for a cigarette, carefully hide it in their pockets, and prepare to take it back for their men to try.

At this time, Lu Yang had already arrived in front of Yin Mingyue.

The two young men looked at each other, and in an instant, it seemed as if a thread had been drawn.

Finally, Lu Yang picked him up by the waist and said, "Let's go home."

To the extent that he even ignored his mother-in-law who was standing next to him.

???

Ma Xiulan: Oh my God! When did this brat become so bold?
She looked around in panic, fearing that someone had seen this scene between her daughter and son-in-law and would be accused of being immoral.

Fortunately, fortunately, no one noticed.

They were all surrounding Lu Youren, Lu Dajun, and the other two boys from the Lu family asking for cigarettes.

(End of this chapter)