Struggle Life in the 1970s

He slammed the door with a loud bang. Chu's mother in the room was careless and the silver needle deviated a little, leaving a blood drop on her finger.

She quickly put down what she was holding, ran to the door, put her face against the crack, and saw Chu Guangyao's painful look at this moment.

"Yao'er! Why do you suddenly have a stomachache? Did you not digest your lunch?" Mother Chu asked anxiously.

Chu Guangyao's eyes were red and his face was full of tears because he had just cried. He looked a little scary. He raised his head with great effort so that his mother could see him clearly. "Mom, please accompany me to the village doctor. I'm in so much pain."

After seeing his appearance, Chu's mother felt so distressed that she bled. She hurriedly went to the house to get the key, but hesitated at the door. "No, you can't open the door. Your father told us to wait for him to come back."

She was torn between her conscience and her desires, and finally gritted her teeth and said, "Yao'er, go to Aunt Wang's house and see if she is home. Ask her to go with you first. Your father should be back soon. I will come to see you when he comes back."

After saying that, she looked at Chu Guangyao with great pity and wanted to reach out to wipe the sweat off his face, but she was helpless because of the door frame.

Chu Guangyao nodded with difficulty, hunched over and turned around slowly. He hunched his back and his steps were trembling, as if he was in so much pain that it was difficult for him to even walk. Sure enough, after he took five or six steps, he fell down with a loud bang.

"Yao'er!" Chu's mother's eyes were bloodshot. She could no longer suppress the worry in her heart. She quickly opened the iron lock and ran to his side. Then she squatted down and tried to help him up. However, she saw the person who had just fallen quickly got up from the ground. His two arms passed through Chu's mother's armpits, and then he hugged Chu's mother tightly in his arms.

"Yao'er?" The panic on Chu's mother's face had not yet dissipated. After she reacted, she began to struggle, but it was of no avail.

"Sister! The door is open, hurry up and pack your things and go." He shouted through the open door. Soon, Chu Ye came out and walked under the eaves.

"Yao'er! Let your mother go. Your father will be angry when he comes back and sees that Si Ya has run away!" After struggling in vain, Chu's mother began to persuade Chu Guangyao.

Chu Guangyao didn't listen. He watched Chu Ye walking towards them. Her black grape-like eyes stared at him steadily, with some confusion in her eyes.

"Si Ya, Si Ya! Don't go. Your parents are doing this for your own good. Think about it, your parents only have you and a few children, would they hurt you?" Seeing that Chu Guangyao could not be persuaded, Chu's mother turned around and began to persuade Chu Ye.

Chu Ye was extremely disappointed with her mother. She had longed for maternal love. Although she knew from childhood that her mother liked her younger brother more, she did not hate her mother because her mother always told them how she was laughed at by the villagers before she had a younger brother. She even did not refute the idea that her mother had instilled in her in her previous life that she should be nice to her younger brother.

But when she received the news that her mother was seriously ill, she panicked. She took all her money and rushed back, determined to take care of her mother no matter what.

But this was fake news to trick her into going home. The moment she learned the truth, her heart died completely, and she had to admit that her parents really didn't love her.

She moved closer to Chu's mother, took out all the change in her bag, counted the money needed to go back to school, and put the remaining 182 yuan in Chu's mother's hand.

"I received a letter from home saying that you were seriously ill, so I took all the money I had saved over the years, thinking that even if I had to go to the city or the province, I would cure you. Now that I can't use the money anymore, I'll leave it to you as my pension for you two." She paused and continued, "I will never come back again."

Mother Chu's hands were shaking badly. She looked at Chu Ye's emotionless eyes and slowly lowered her head. Chu Guangyao also knew the reason why his sister came back in a hurry at this time. He felt extremely sad. He looked at Chu Ye's back as she walked out of the door. She was so thin but her back was straight, as if nothing could crush her.

Chu Ye didn't even give him a look before leaving. He gradually realized in his heart that he was a member of the Chu family. As the only boy in the family, it was his unshirkable responsibility to support his parents. However, it was these parents who doted on him that broke his fourth sister's heart. As long as he was in this family, he and his parents would always be bound together.

He understood that his fourth sister would never come back, and this meeting might be the last time he saw her in this life.

He couldn't help shouting to the empty place, "Sister! I didn't mean to let the people from the factory come to my house, please believe me! I'm sorry, sister, you will always be my sister."

A breeze blew past in a deserted place, and the grass on the roadside shook its head slightly. After a long time, he let go of Mother Chu in his arms.

The imagined scene of scolding and hurriedly looking for someone did not happen. Chu's mother collapsed on the ground exhausted, with change scattered all over the floor.

Chu Ye had originally prepared to walk all the way to the town, but he didn't expect that when he had just walked one-third of the way, he met a kind-hearted man on the road who was driving a ox cart to the town to pick up his family.

The kind-hearted man saw Chu Ye, a little girl, walking on the mountain road, so he was worried about her and gave her a ride. When they arrived in the town, Chu Ye forced a dollar into the man's pocket, and the man had no choice but to accept it.

The sun had already set in the west, and the golden sunlight was shining on the earth. Chu Ye hurried to the town, but was told that the last bus to the city had just left. She dejectedly found an empty space and sat on the curb, her heart full of confusion.

The vendors on both sides of the street were packing up their things and going home. Some shops turned on the lights in their houses at the right time, and the bright yellow light that lit up instantly looked like the blinking of stars in the sky.

She bent her knees, wrapped her arms around herself tiredly, and buried her head between her knees. She wanted to sit here for a while, and she missed Mu Jiajun a little.

"Little sister?" A female voice sounded puzzled, followed by the sound of light footsteps stopping in front of her.

Chu Ye looked up and saw a fashionable woman with wavy hair looking down at her, "Third sister?" Chu Ye murmured.

"Hey, why are you here alone? I was wondering why this face looked so familiar from a distance, and it turns out to be you. Why are you sitting here? Come on, go home with me." Chu Hua was wearing a white shirt and gray trousers, and her eyebrows seemed to have been painted. She looked very energetic.

She held a small bag of pork head in one hand. With the other hand, she pulled Chu Ye up from the ground and asked Chu Ye to turn around and brush off the dust for her. "Why are you still in town so late? Are you going home?" Chu Hua asked rudely as she pulled Chu Ye home.

"No, I left home in the afternoon. I was preparing to take the bus back to school, but I was late and missed the opportunity." Chu Ye lowered his head, his tone full of disappointment.

"What's wrong with you? You look as droopy as a seedling without water in the field? Have you been bullied?"

"No, how could I let anyone bully me? I, your sister, am very powerful." She didn't intend to say such things.

"Okay, since you don't want to talk about it, I won't ask. You can't leave tonight anyway, so why don't you come to my place? You and Gao Xing haven't seen each other for a long time, right? I bought some pork head, so you're in for a treat today." Chu Hua said happily, with an unnoticeable indulgence in her tone.

She has been working as a salesperson for almost three years. She can clearly sense the emotions of customers and promptly recommend items that suit their needs and are within their desired price range. That's why she has always had a very good reputation in the department store. Because of this, she was the first to realize that Chu Ye had something on her mind, but since she didn't want to say it, she wouldn't force her to answer. After all, everyone has such moments.

Chu Hua in front never stopped talking the whole time, from talking about pork head to being happy to go to school, to meeting a difficult customer at work today, to her third brother-in-law making her angry again recently. Although she was complaining, Chu Ye could hear the concern in her words.

Chu Hua was so full of energy at this moment, completely different from the look she had three years ago when she was holding her belly during the Chinese New Year, fearing that she would give birth to a daughter.

At the end of the winter three years ago, Chu Hua insisted on moving to the staff residence of her brother-in-law's factory despite the opposition of her parents-in-law. She brought her niece Gao Xing, and the family of three lived in a house of only 15 square meters.

Later, Chu Hua went out and signed up for a job at the department store recruitment office. Because of this, she had an argument with her third brother-in-law. She was already upset and coupled with the unintentional pushing and shoving between the two, she ended up losing the baby in her belly.

The third brother-in-law originally thought that because of this incident, his sister would give up her job and go home, but he didn't expect that this incident would exacerbate Chu Hua's desire to make money on her own. She insisted on attending the interview despite her recent miscarriage, and finally won recognition with her fluent eloquence and became a member of the department store. Even last year, she won the "Best Employee Award", and her salary was much higher than others.

Originally, her third sister's husband did not approve of her going to work and was always giving her the cold shoulder. Later, her third sister's sales skills gradually emerged. Not only did her salary become higher than her third sister's husband's, but even the neighbors begged her to leave things for them at the counter and wait for them to buy them.

Everyone praised my brother-in-law for marrying a good wife. Now he didn't dare to be mean to my sister anymore and started to try to please her with all kinds of words. So tonight, my brother-in-law got off work early and had already prepared dinner for my sister to come home.

Chu Ye looked at the food on the table and couldn't help but give a thumbs up to his brother-in-law, "Brother-in-law, your cooking skills are really good."

"Hey, little sister, try it quickly. It not only looks good, but also tastes good." Brother-in-law Gao Fei smiled innocently, and was proud of cooking. After he finished speaking, he quickly put a chopstick into Chu Hua's bowl, "Wife, you should try it quickly too."

Chu Hua also smiled. Gao Xing, who was standing by, didn't wait for her father to pick up the dishes. She took the pig's head first. She wanted to put it in her own bowl, but then she saw the beautiful aunt who was on the table today. She hesitated for a moment and changed the direction of her chopsticks. "Aunt, this meat is my favorite. Try it."

"Okay, try the meat that we happily picked for your aunt." Chu Ye's heart softened when he heard it. The emptiness in his heart was filled by the soft and cute voice of the little girl.

Unlike the ragged little girl she met in her previous life, in this life, because Chu Hua had awakened her thoughts, she did not give birth to one child after another. Now Gao Xing is the only child in the family, and she puts all her energy on Gao Xing.

In addition, because of Chu Hua's job, not only does she keep herself neat and tidy, she also dresses Gao Xing up beautifully. She looks pretty and cute in a pink dress, and her round black eyes are somewhat similar to Chu Ye's.

At night, after learning that the aunt was a teacher, the child pestered her to tell her a story. So that night, the two of them, one big and one small, lay on the same bed and fell asleep with the stories they were still listening to.

The next morning, Chu Ye packed her things and said goodbye to the couple. Chu Hua wanted to keep her for a few more days, but Chu Ye refused on the grounds that he had to go back to school for something.

Gao Xing hugged her thighs reluctantly, and her little pearls were about to fall off. Chu Ye quickly coaxed her and said that he would bring her a gift next time they met. Finally, after the little girl agreed with a pout, Chu Ye successfully got on the bus back to the city.

When she arrived in the city and took a bus back to school, it was the second day of the National Day holiday. All the teachers and students in the school had gone home for the holiday, but an old man at the gate guard was still at his post. He worked on this position all year round, and he had to guard the campus even when others left. Fortunately, his home was in the town, so it was convenient for him to commute and he didn't feel tired.

Seeing Chu Ye appear at the school gate, the old man asked a few questions with concern. Chu Ye was unwilling to explain too much and just said that he had gone home to check.

The old man didn't ask any more questions and let the person in. Chu Ye took a shower feeling quite tired. After soaking his clothes and shoes in a basin of water, he climbed onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep without caring about anything.

When she woke up again, she washed her clothes and brushed her shoes and went to town for dinner. When she finished her meal, the sky gradually darkened. She walked slowly back to school with her hands behind her back. The evening breeze brought a few rays of setting sun and spread on her face.

When approaching the school gate, the first thing that caught my ears was the sound of quarreling, "Uncle, my dear uncle, you have obviously seen me, I just want to know if Teacher Chu is in school?" It was a clear and gentle male voice, and the tone was quite helpless.

"No, I can't tell you this. Why are you, a grown man, asking for information about a young girl? You must have bad intentions." The old man said in a firm tone and started to drive him away.

Chu Ye recognized the owner of the voice. Her heart was pounding. She took a few quick steps and then the scene at the school gate came into view. It was the old man and Mu Jiajun.

And it was Mu Jiajun who was in a mess.

(End of this chapter)