Chapter 377: Chapter 377
Before long, it was the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, and the factory had closed for the holiday. On the day the holiday began, they settled the salaries; fifteen yuan was the base wage, and they gave him an extra five yuan for overtime, ten jin of food stamps, and one jin of meat tickets. This was because he had worked a lot of overtime before the end of the year, earning these benefits. To work overtime, he would get off work at six, hurry home to cook, have dinner, and come back to work by seven-thirty, not finishing until ten at night.
Delivering vegetables to others was done hurriedly after dinner, rushing with the bamboo basket on his back. He was pressed for time, running to and from on a half-hour journey in just fifteen minutes. That’s how he saved time, and how he made money.
He hadn’t told anyone where he lived, so as soon as he got the money, he immediately climbed over the side wall and left, not giving anyone outside the chance to stop him. Get full chapters from noveⅼfire.net
From the fifty-eight yuan he had last time to the sixteen days that had elapsed in between, he had accumulated a total of ninety yuan and ten jin of local food stamps.
The factory had given out twenty yuan and ten jin of food stamps today, making a total of one hundred and ten yuan and twenty jin of food stamps. He had taken the one jin of meat tickets and directly exchanged them for some meat to take home, considering it a gift for the New Year.
Because he arrived late, there wasn’t much fat meat left at the meat stand, so he could only scoop up some lean meat. However, he spent one yuan to buy five jin of fat intestines, which he would clean well at home and make into a dish with meat.
It was not to say that he had foresight, as waiting outside their factory were not only his father and mother but also his two brothers. They had come because it was said to be the last day before the New Year when wages and benefits would be distributed. They feared he wouldn’t be able to handle it alone, so they all came to help. However, they waited until the factory closed and didn’t see Long Gang. They only found out after asking that he had left early.
The members of the Long Family, who had been counting on Long Gang’s money and tickets for the New Year, were completely dumbfounded. Regardless of their standing around the factory cursing and shouting, Long Gang couldn’t hear them. After all, rather than giving the meat to his ungrateful family to eat, he’d rather give it to the old man who cooked breakfast for him every day. In life, you need to exchange goodwill for goodwill; mindlessly giving without receiving care and sincerity in return is not worth it. It was better to cut ties cleanly right there.
This year, I must have a good New Year. Since arriving here, it had been two or three months, yet he hadn’t had a single meal with white rice or wheat flour.
Fortunately, the uncle’s house had a millstone. He took out two or three jin of wheat and paddy from the space and used the uncle’s millstone to grind the wheat into flour and turn the grains into shiny white rice grains. On the 29th of December, they steamed two baskets of buns filled with cabbage, glass noodles, and tofu. On the evening of the 30th, they made dumplings with radish and meat filling using wheat flour, and on Chinese New Year’s Day, they fried a couple of dishes and had some rice wine with white rice. Both grandfather and grandson were so happy they cried.
The grandfather cried because he had celebrated the New Year alone for many years. This year he had Long Gang with him, which made him feel very content and happy.
Long Gang cried because he finally got to eat wheat flour and rice. It was moving, and he was grateful that he hadn’t gone back to that house. Otherwise, he certainly would have had endless chores and no food to eat. Even as a man, he couldn’t escape the miserable fate of being exploited.
Fuelled by alcohol, Long Gang confided to the old man why he had moved out, how he had ended up , and voiced his desire to venture out. He no longer wanted to stay here because he didn’t want to face those selfish people at home.
The old man could drink better than him, so he was still clear-headed. After hearing Long Gang’s words, he suddenly asked him, "Young man, do you want to join the army?"