A century of poverty

Chapter 104 Embarrassing

Spring and summer passed, and autumn arrived. Hei Xingan and Su Zhiwei arranged the wedding for their eldest daughter, Su Lihua. The groom was a chauffeur who drove for his boss.

I was holding the child. Zhang Guozhi, Wang Liqiu, Su Zhiqian, Su Zhichun and others were arranged to escort the bride and waited upstairs at Su Zhiwei's house.

Su Lirong walked over and said, "Auntie, Guangxi is carrying my sister's shoes when she got on the bus. Keep an eye on them; there's two hundred yuan in there, so take it."

Su Zhichun: "We're not after that two hundred yuan!"

Su Lirong: "Yes, it wasn't for nothing. Guangxi is the one who's in the second car, right after my sister."

Su Zhichun replied happily, "I know!"

After we finished preparing the meal, Su Zhichun, Zhang Guozhi, and I rode in the same car back to Qiaotou Village.

Su Zhichun and I sat in the same seat.

I called out, "Sister."

Su Zhichun: "Hmm?"

I said, "After you go back to work after the National Day holiday, please help me register the child's household registration. I won't go to the village anymore."

Su Zhichun: "Okay."

I added, "The household registration book lists 'Su Zhangyuan' as the given name, which is used for school. Su Long is the nickname, and it's not on the household registration book."

Su Zhichun: "Ah!"

A month later, I was selling goods. Su Zhichun came in: "Fourth brother's wife, the household registration book is back." He handed it to me, and I took it and placed it on the counter. After the customers left, I opened the household registration book to look: Zhang Qinglian in the head of household column, and on the next page, the eldest son "Zhang Long". I was puzzled; why were there only two people on the household registration book? I was the head of household.

Why is Zhang Long listed as the name of the child instead of Su Zhangyuan?

She created a problem for me; the child's name is a big deal and cannot be taken lightly. I have to change the name before the child starts school.

It was January again, and Dad came back from the interior. After getting off the train at the train station, he came to my house and said, "In times of chaos, grain is plentiful; in times of prosperity, gold is abundant. Did you pay back the money your second brother earned from raising crabs?"

I said, "I've returned it."

Dad: "I make a little money selling wood strips, let's turn them into gold! But there's a problem, there are fakes of this stuff, it would be terrible to buy a fake."

I asked, "Where can I buy the real thing?"

Dad said, "Banks! Everything in banks is real!"

Me: "We don't know anyone at the bank."

After thinking for a moment, he said, "By the way, I heard that the 'Agricultural Reclamation Building' has partnered with banks to open a counter selling gold. Let's go there and take a look."

How much should we pay for it?

My father asked, "How much do you have?" I replied, "Ten thousand."

Dad said, "I'll buy the one that costs eight thousand yuan."

The next day, my son and I, carrying cash, went to the gold counter at the Nongken Building. There, gold jewelry was on display in abundance.

I picked out a necklace with a zodiac pendant and a few rings.

Dad picked out a few rings and kept them safe at home.

We wore them. Zhiqiang and I wore the same style of ring, and I wore a pendant necklace.

Su Lei came over and saw: "The couple has struck it rich, with matching large rings, gold bars, and ingot necklaces."

Zhiqiang: "My brother-in-law really knows his stuff; he recognized the name right away."

I said, "Who is he? He travels all over the country. It's been half a month or twenty days since I last saw him?"

Su Lei: "Twenty-five days. Went to Dalian!"

For the past six months, he has been frequently away on business trips, sometimes for twenty days or even a month at a time, and then he would only be back for three to five days before leaving again.

Su Zhichun resigned from her position as village accountant to go into business with Su Lei. They took over the original "labor supplies" store and went together.

Business was built through connections.

We changed the furniture, moving the pair of sofas from our wedding to the floor of the main room.

Su Lei, dressed in a green police uniform with epaulets, carried an electric baton and swaggered around.

High-heeled hammer shoes, a delicate South Korean blouse, and a long-winded voice befitting a Guangzhou boss.

At a family gathering, I sat next to Su Jifu on the sofa, feeling like I could stand shoulder to shoulder with my uncle and father-in-law.

Su Zhichun also wore a South Korean imported dress, had an afro hairstyle, and wore the most fashionable and eye-catching designer high heels.

Restaurants and hot pot restaurants offer the best food and drinks in Jinhai.

The shop even had a stove, so they could cook whatever they wanted to eat. Su Lei ate so much that she developed a large belly. Gradually, her eldest and second eldest sisters started going there at noon, and later they would also occasionally call their father over.

Every time my father-in-law came back from eating, he had a grim expression. He would say strange things to us, such as "He's not afraid of anything on his own," "He's practicing asceticism," and "Sparrows follow night owls," expressing his dissatisfaction with us.

Once, after returning from a meal at their house, my father-in-law looked listless. A short while later, I went to check on him and found his underwear, underpants, and trousers, all covered in feces, lying behind the ventilation door.

I silently washed and dried it for him, folded it neatly, and put it back on his kang (heated brick bed).

My care for my father-in-law was ignored. In return, it brought me the wrath of others and my father-in-law's dissatisfaction.

One day, my father-in-law found a pair of socks that exposed his big toes and put them on. Leaning against the shop's luggage, he saw someone come in to buy something and exclaimed, "Lianbao! Look at Grandpa's big toes!"

As he spoke, he deliberately lifted his leg and swung it, scratching his toes.

Lian Bao turned around and saw his strange behavior. She shouted, "I'm not looking! You have plenty of good socks to wear, why do you want me to look at those!"

After Lianbao left, I calmly said to my father-in-law, "Dad, you can't do this. Aren't you making fun of me? Lianbao is a grandson of the family. People don't know what's going on, but if they don't believe it, they'll think we're treating you badly."

The father-in-law angrily put on his shoes and stood up. He shouted, "It's because you didn't mend my socks! You didn't wash my clothes, so what if I embarrass you!"

Seeing my father-in-law getting angry, I didn't dare to say a word.

From then on, my father-in-law acted as if possessed, often doing and saying things that were incomprehensible to others.

Once, on his birthday, we prepared a feast and invited everyone to celebrate with him. This included his third uncle, his great-uncle, and his eldest aunt.

After dinner, we played mahjong. After dinner, everyone dispersed, and my aunt was also leaving.

My great-aunt is over seventy years old and is my father-in-law's only older sister, born before him.

Her father-in-law urged her to stay, saying, "Don't leave, stay here for a couple of days."

To please my father-in-law, I went along with his suggestion and urged him to stay: "Yes, Auntie, you're busy at home, why don't you stay here with my dad for a couple of days!"

The eldest aunt said, "I don't have much work to do, so I'm just staying wherever I am. I'm just worried about Xiaoxing. If I don't get home by tomorrow, he'll come looking for me again."

Father-in-law: "They've come looking for us, and now they've even made him stay here for two days."

My great-aunt said, "Then I won't leave, I'll stay for a few days!"