allonlinenovel Chapter 333 She knew that nothing could be hidden from her mother
Chapter 333 She knew that nothing could be hidden from her mother
In order to support the government's achievements and celebrate the New Year's Eve, Zhou Rong took his family to a restaurant for dinner after get off work.
The meal cost more than ten yuan, and the children were amazed by the food.
Zhou Qinghong said, "Aunt, the food here is too expensive. Give me the money in the future and I'll go buy some groceries and cook for you. I guarantee you'll save more than half."
Zhou Jiaguang: "We strongly support you buying groceries and cooking, but we know the prices of vegetables in the market. If you falsely report the prices, I will ask my parents to remove you from the Zhou family's household registration."
Zhou Qinghong: "...You just look down on me! What makes you say I would inflate the price?!"
Zhou Jiaguang: "I was just making an analogy. Why are you so anxious? Explanation is just covering up."
Zhou Qinghong: “…”
Nini: "No one has ever been able to cheat money from my mother. If you don't want to sell yourself to her, you'd better stop thinking about it."
Zhou Qinghong and Zhou Rong: "......"
Zhou Rong: "We don't eat out every day. From now on, our family will still follow the previous standard. We will eat porridge in the morning and evening, and rice at noon. I will buy any vegetables that the family needs. You just need to do your own work according to the division of labor."
Zhou Qinghong: "Okay."
Cotton production has decreased in the past two years, and each person is only supplied with 7 feet of cloth coupons each year, which is not enough for an adult to make a set of winter clothes.
Sometimes I needed to buy quilt lining or quilt coverings, or give gifts. When relatives from the countryside came, I had to buy cloth to make clothes for them, but the cloth coupons I had were never enough.
Many families pick two pairs of their parents' pants, modify them according to their children's body shape, and then dye them to make the old pants look "new".
Zhou's mother was used to being frugal, and since cloth coupons were hard to come by in the past two years, she modified Zhou's father's old clothes and trousers and gave them to Zhou Jiaguang to wear.
Zhou Jiaguang and the eldest child wore small clothes, as well as Zhou Rong's old clothes. Zhou's mother would also help modify them and give them to the second child, Nini, and Zhou Qinghong.
Taking into account that children still have time to grow, sleeves and trouser legs are usually made slightly longer and need to be folded up when wearing them so as not to affect their work and walking.
Children also care about their reputation and like to show off when they get good things. Zhou Rong didn't want others to think that her family had an especially good life, so she didn't take any cloth out of the space in the past two years.
When Zhou's mother wanted to help the children alter their clothes and pants, she strongly agreed. She even asked someone for advice on dyeing and bought the dye.
The store sells dyes of various colors, and indigo is the most popular. After Zhou Rong bought the dye, he taught his mother how to use it.
It's the end of the year, and Zhou Rong's unit has to hold various large and small meetings every day, leaving him with no time to take care of his family.
Zhou's mother's embroidery tutoring class also had to contribute to "repaying the debt". Although the Soviet Union did not value embroidery highly, everyone still tried their best to complete each piece of embroidery and contribute their own little to the country.
The embroidery class has been working overtime for some time, with almost no breaks, and has just delivered a batch of embroidery pieces such as animals and landscape paintings.
The Chinese New Year is coming soon. Taking into account everyone's hard work, the leaders of the Cultural Bureau distributed New Year's goods such as ten kilograms of rice, a piece of bacon, a piece of salted fish, and a kilogram of sugar to the members of the embroidery class, and gave everyone a few days off in advance.
Since they were going to have the New Year's Eve dinner together anyway, Zhou's mother simply stayed at Zhou Rong's house and helped with the cleaning and New Year's shopping with the children.
Zhou's mother followed the dyeing method taught by Zhou Rong. She first lit the stove to a high fire, then put a washbasin half filled with water on it, poured in two bags of indigo dye, and after boiling, put the clothes and pants to be dyed in, using tongs to turn them over from time to time so that the color could be dyed evenly.
Nini stood by the stove and asked quietly, "Grandma, don't you have new clothes to wear for the New Year this year?"
Zhou's mother answered while turning up her pants: "I heard from your mother that several neighbors got married this year, and she gave some cloth as gifts. The cloth coupons are all used up. When the cloth coupons are issued next year, if you don't want to give favors, I will make new clothes for you."
Nini said disappointedly, "There will definitely be weddings next year. I don't think we will get new clothes."
Erwa: "Didn't you make a flowery cotton jacket last year? At that time you complained that it was too big for yours, saying it was uncomfortable to roll up the sleeves. It's just right for you this year, so why do you need new clothes?"
Nini: "How can it be called Chinese New Year if you don't wear new clothes?! Besides, didn't you make a new dress last year?"
Erwa: "As long as I have clothes to wear, it doesn't matter whether they are new or old. Once grandma dyes the clothes and pants, we will have new clothes, and that's all."
Nini pouted and ignored Erwa. In her eyes, boys were all rough guys who didn't care about food and clothing. She was a girl, so naturally she had to dress up beautifully.
How can old clothes be as beautiful as new ones?!
Seeing that Nini was unhappy, Zhou's mother smiled and said, "In the countryside, we always say that if the eldest child's clothes are too small, the second child will wear them; if the second child's clothes are too small, the third child will wear them. As the saying goes, three years new, three years old, and three years of mending.
In previous years, there were surplus cloth coupons, and your mother bought you new clothes. The situation in the past two years has been special, with natural disasters and debt repayments. We all have to overcome it, and once we get through the difficulties, everything will be fine.
Moreover, the clothes we wear now have no patches, which is better than many people. We should be content with what we have, and only then can we be happy. "
Nini: "Grandma, I understand what you said. The teacher taught us to be frugal every day, but I don't know why, I just can't be happy without new clothes during the Chinese New Year."
Zhou's mother went to the room and found one of Nini's coats. She said, "I'll dye this coat for you. It will look just like new clothes. You can wear it over your coat and say it's new. Who will know?
Your mother told me to remind you not to take off your smock behind our backs, or we'll be caught."
Like other little girls, Nini likes to show off her new clothes everywhere.
She also liked to take off her overalls when adults were not around and deliberately wear her flowery cotton jacket on the outside, making other children envious.
After hearing what Zhou's mother said, Nini lowered her head and picked her fingers in embarrassment. She knew that nothing could be hidden from her mother...
After boiling the clothes and pants for about 20 minutes, Zhou's mother took them out of the basin, spread them on the ground, and after the clothes and pants cooled down, she rinsed them with clean water.
After the clothes and pants were dried, they looked no different from new clothes at first glance, and Nini's mood improved...
People in Jiangcheng love to chatter, especially in the alleys.
During the coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer, as long as it is not raining, people will move a small stool and sit in the alley to listen to the sky.
For those who are good at chattering, their hands may be idle, but their mouths will definitely not be idle. Even if there is no one to chat with, they can still talk to themselves and put on a talk show.
Jia Deyang is recognized by everyone as a master of the art of singing. Wherever he is, the scene will never be quiet.
He liked to talk about his experiences during his travels, and everyone liked to listen. Every time he talked, there were always people around him.
Because of his status as a capitalist, he had not lived comfortably in the past few years. He could only feel superior when he was having fun.
Today, just as he started to brag about everything as usual, a good-looking woman who looked to be around 30 years old appeared in front of him, holding the hand of a boy of five or six years old.
He said excitedly: "Boss Jia, I finally found you!"