Chapter 10: Unquestioning Filial Piety 10
Author: 打字机N号
Early the following day, many older people who could not work in the field and some women who quickly finished their daily work came to Jiang Liu’s house with their teenage children. They came to find him to learn the weaving technique.
Because Jiang Liu’s house was too small to squeeze dozens of people, the teaching location was set at the communal sunbathing deck. Everyone took their small bench and held the thatch provided free of charge by the team, ready to do the big job.
Miao Caifeng and Wang Xuemei were also among the crowd who had no other choice but to accept others’ pointing fingers.
Miao Caifeng was still better. She was very calm even while being the centre of the discussion. Who makes her the mother of Jiang Liu? No matter what she did, others will not say too much in the face of filial piety.
Compared to Miao Caifeng, Wang Xuemei’s attitude was somewhat unyielding. But she can only earn money by doing some manual work. Therefore, she could do nothing but bite her teeth.
She wanted to make money to buy a more beautiful scarf. During winter, she will appear in front of Xu Xiuxiu with that scarf, day and night, to avenge her hatred.
“Auntie Wang, why did you bring that small girl? How old is she this year?”
Ready to start the lesson, Jiang Liu suddenly saw a small girl around three to four years old sitting with her mother. It seemed that the mother brought her over to learn the technique together.
That girl’s age was still too young. Many regarded weaving labour as light work. In fact, long-term weaving will impose a significant burden on the fingers. Jiang Liu’s finger already formed a thick layer of calluses even though he had only been weaving for a few months. Children’s hands are tender and delicate. If they were to learn this, he was afraid that their hand would be bloodied and scarred.
Jiang Liu can accept teenage children to learn this craft. In this era, the countrymen only had a few ways to earn a living. Parents may feel distressed and feel that their children will suffer from learning such skills in the future. However, if they can learn these skills, the children of this era will eat and drink in the future.
“Even if she does not directly learn it, I still wish to let her look at it. When she is a few years older, she will catch up with the technique quicker.”
Auntie Wang smiled as she watched the people around her showing their disapproval. She quickly added.
“Furthermore, this child is still small. There is no one to take care of her at home. Just ignore her. I will leave her playing at the side. ”
After this episode, everything went smoothly. The country folks more or less know how to weave, especially the womenfolk. They mostly made straw shoes and mats at home.
The technique taught by Jiang Liu was an improvement to the primary weaving method. Those who are a little bright, with a little direction, can completely master the technique. As for those who are too stupid, how can Jiang Liu lecture them? He could only let them explore the method and let them ponder about it rather than urging them to finish it.
On the first day, Jiang Liu only taught some novel methods of weaving. He also taught them how to weave different colours together. He planned to deliver a batch of wedding goods to the department store. It will be the end of the year in the next few months. Many couples usually get married at the beginning of the year. Due to the shortage of supplies this year, especially at the end of the year, many of the necessary wedding goods will be sold out. By taking this opportunity, they can stabilize their sales channel.
Because many people were coming today, Jiang Liu requested Big Guan to let his wife, Xu Xiuxiu, return from the field to teach the crowd.
This way, Jiang Liu’s couple became the only young people who no longer needed to work in the field. Even if they did not do those kinds of work anymore, their work points are still better than others.
It’s just that, at this moment, everyone was ready to make big money, so they didn’t care about it. On the contrary, they feel that Jiang Liu has contributed so much. They even thought that the work points given to Jiang Liu were inadequate for the work that he had done for others.
To avoid suspicion, most young wives and children followed Xu Xiuxiu, while the elderly followed Jiang Liu.
Miao Caifeng also had some foundation. She followed her son and was able to learn the technique very quickly. Although she felt embarrassed for worshipping her son as a teacher, Miao Caifeng was also a determined old lady. She had always been putting her mind on making money. It didn’t take her too long. After half a day, she was able to produce a beautiful hemp pattern.
However, Wang Xuemei’s progress was not as fast as Miao Caifeng’s.
Wang Xuemei’s family condition had been better than others. Her father worked as a primary school principal, while her eldest brother was placed in the mine. Since the deputy director of the commune agency was her uncle, she had never done any dirty work since she was a child. She can eat meat every day. Before marrying, the most tiring job Wang Xuemei ever did was to help her mother cook the rice. In the country, she could also be considered a pampered young lady.
After marrying, there was a pair of oxen-like big brothers and sisters-in-law standing in front of her. So Wang Xuemei ended up being lazy and wily. Except for the lack of power on the family table, her days were not much different from before her marriage.
After the separation, she needed to do more work. However, most of it was still done by her mother-in-law. She only needs to help the pig team pick some ragweed, cook it as the pig feed, and wash the family’s clothes. That is basically her daily responsibility.
As for thatch weaving, Wang Xuemei has never learned any of it. When others started picking up the technique, she still fought with the essential knots. But she was also stupid. Obviously, other people could move their hands like clouds and water, but she was still so awkward with her hand. The good thatch directly turned into a mess. Some of the knots also seemed impossible to untangle.
In the beginning, Wang Xuemei was still patient. But after so long, she couldn’t stand as the bruise began to appear on her soft palm. Blood started to ooze from the cut on her fingertips as she began to cry.
“Jiang Hai’s wife, if you can’t learn, stop. Anyway, your husband is already making so much money every month. Why do you need to suffer doing this kind of thing?”
The people around Wang Xuemei started to persuade her kindly instead of telling her the truth. This is the first time they see such a stupid woman. They feared that even if she studied for a long time, she would only get bloodied hands. If she could not learn, why need to waste time on it?
However, those thoughts will surely offend the other party, so that woman can only indirectly say it to Wang Xuemei.
“What do you mean that I could not learn? Isn’t this just a piece of grass?”
Wang Xuemei’s mouth turned down as she glared at the person who kindly reminded her.
“The only reason I could not learn it all is that that person does not know how to teach well. She fears that if I had learned the craft, I would be even better than her.”
How could she admit that she was stupid? Wang Xuemei’s only excuse was that Xu Xiuxiu had been targeting her because she didn’t want her to excel in this.
When the words came out, all the people around her looked at Wang Xuemei with a gaze as if they were looking at an idiot. Xu Xiuxiu did not teach them one by one. Instead, she sat in the middle and let others observe her as she demonstrated the weaving technique.
With the same teaching mode, other people who watched her could learn the technique more or less. But this Wang Xuemei could not even remember any. Can this still blame the teacher for teaching them badly?
They were afraid that there was a pit in her head.
“I will repeat it one more time. There might be some details that you have not seen.”
Xu Xiuxiu did not argue with Wang Xuemei. She just smiled warmly and then took some thatches. This time she gave a demonstration while explaining it ten times slower than the usual speed.
Everyone can’t take care of Wang Xuemei’s idiocy. They quickly looked at Xu Xiuxiu, afraid of missing the details.
Even though Wang Xuemei no longer had any patience, she still looked at the demonstration without blinking her eyes.
But some people don’t have the talent for this delicate work. Even after Xu Xiuxiu repeatedly taught her several times, Wang Xuemei still couldn’t learn it.
“It is not like I can’t learn. Some people are being deliberate just because they can’t stand me.”
Wang Xuemei’s snorted as she threw the ruined material by her and walked away without looking back.
When Miao Caifeng brought over a batch of raw materials in the afternoon, Wang Xuemei did not forget to complain. Because of the money, Wang Xuemei could not afford to let go of this opportunity. She wanted to borrow Miao Caifeng’s power. She wanted Miao Caifeng to use her title as a mother to force the couple to teach her one by one until she learned all the techniques.
“I have already figured out the technique. I will teach you first.”
Miao Caifeng heard her daughter-in-law complain that Xu Xiuxiu had been against her. That she was not willing to teach her well. But considering that this little daughter-in-law always liked to sow discord with the predecessor, Miao Caifeng decided to demonstrate it to her a few times.
As a result, it was inevitable that Wang Xuemei ruined all material Miao Caifeng brought back from the team.
You should know that this is not free teaching material. Instead, Jiang Liu felt they would master the technique as soon as possible by cultivating the method. As for people who had already learned the process, Jiang Liu already instructed them to prepare the sale of goods.
Miao Caifeng had spent several cents on buying the material. Now it was all ruined by her good daughter-in-law.
“You still could not learn?”
Miao Caifeng patted her chest in pain. It is no wonder no one was willing to teach her. She was too stupid.
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*********
The course progressed very smoothly. After a week, Jiang Liu finally rushed out the first batch of goods. He borrowed the oxcart from the team and sent the goods to the department store. After the acceptance, they finally received their first payment.
“Wang Xin-jia, two pieces, seven coins.”
“Miao Zhen-jia, one piece, four coins.”
…
According to the price of the goods handed over by the previous group, Jiang Liu first deducted the teaching fees before distributing the rest to everyone.
These people were livelier than those pigs in the pen. It was because everyone realized that they could really make money using these skills. In the future, this will bring them endless returns.
The highest earner among the team member managed to score 18 coins. Of course, it was not earned by a person. There were a total of seven people in the family who worked on handicraft. Few people also managed to make more than one item. In the countryside, many people were versatile in their living skills.
The happiest people were those widows on the team. It was challenging for them to secure their finance, especially when they could not partake in labour work. However, due to Jiang Liu’s selflessness, these women finally see hope in their life. They were also the ones who worked the hardest in that team. Especially if there were older people and children at home, they would work on the handicraft whenever they had spare time. They wanted to earn more money and send their children to school.
Of course, the one who earned the most was Jiang Liu. He and his wife, Xu Xiuxiu, were initially skilled workers. They are the most experienced weaver, and even after others made some money, they could still score additional money from the tuition fees.
That evening, the couple sat down as they counted the money they had. After their family was separated, they managed to save two hundred and seventy yuan.
“Let’s go to the hospital and return the money we owe.”
Xu Xiuxiu looked at the pile of banknotes in front of her. Her smile reached her eyebrows.
“Ok.”
“Let’s buy some pork again and eat well.”
With this much money, Xu Xiuxiu is willing to spend it. Her man had been working hard all this time, and she wanted to make up for his body.
“Yeah.”
Jiang Liu nodded again. He didn’t know if it was because of the dim oil lamp that created this awkward atmosphere. He felt that Xiuxiu was especially beautiful tonight.
“Wife, it’s already dark. Let’s clean this up. It’s time to sleep.”
Jiang Liu was a little bit eager to move. After a few months, he had thoroughly understood his wife. She was no longer the stereotype that was locked in the memory of the original, especially during this time. The change was also apparent in the eyes of Jiang Liu.
“Hmm.”
Xu Xiuxiu understood the hidden meaning behind Jiang Liu’s words. Her cheeks were fluttering red. She put the money into the box and locked it before extinguishing the side’s oil lamp.
Everything was a matter of course.
*****
The following day, Jiang Liu yawned as he walked out of the room. He stretched his waist lazily while grinning widely.
How could he feel that it was a waste of money before? It was actually a wonderful thing.
He laughed and smiled. But this wonderful thing can only be done with his wife.
Jiang Liu stretched his bones as he thought of making a hearty breakfast today. His wife was still too thin. If she is a bit chubby, it may feel even better.
Thinking of this, Jiang Liu turned his eyes to the only hen given to them when the family was separated. The hen in the chicken ring seemed to feel the threat incoming and started to scream and run to hide. As it ran away, an egg fell out of its ass.
Forget it. He should keep this hen for the eggs.
Besides, he remembered that old people always said an egg-laying hen was poisonous. If he wanted to make up Xu Xiuxiu’s body, it would be better to have a rooster instead.
Jiang Liu licked his mouth as he thought about the delicious taste of the big rooster he had eaten before. Jiang Liu’s stomach got even hungrier.
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