Back To The 80s-Chapter 107 - 106: Take Away (Seeking Recommendation Tickets)_1
Chen Gang seemed to understand Jiujiu’s thoughts, holding Jiujiu’s hand and said, "Jiujiu, go with this lady. I’m here for mom."
Jiujiu kept silent, torn in her mind. Seeing this, Chen Family beckoned, "Jiujiu, come here..."
Jiujiu slowly walked to Chen Family, tears fell, "Mom, what do I do if I can’t see you anymore?"
Chen Family touched Jiujiu’s face with trembling hands, crying, "Jiujiu, I’m sorry. I can’t bear to see you suffer anymore... Be good, let your sixth brother help you pack."
Jiujiu cried while holding Chen Family’s hand. She was truly terrified, every day filled with fear and dread.
Chen Gang packed Jiujiu’s belongings with teary eyes. It was just a few patched-up pieces of clothing. He bundled them up.
Li Xianglan followed closely behind, fearing that Jiujiu might take anything.
Chen Gang led Jiujiu, alongside their party, to the entrance of the village. Many villagers both young and old came out to bid farewell. A woman gave Gu Xiaobei an egg, "Girl, please take good care of Jiujiu; she has had a tough life."
With tears welling up in her eyes, Jiujiu asked while holding Chen Gang’s hand, "Brother, will I see you again?"
Chen Gang gently touched her head, "Yes, we will be studying in the same school. We can see each other every day."
Wang Ping, a neighbor, made her way through the crowd. She squatted down and hugged Jiujiu, "Child, heaven has finally opened its eyes." She then took out two crumpled bills from her pocket, one for one cent and the other for two cents, and handed them to Jiujiu, "Jiujiu, buy some candy."
She then turned to Gu Xiaobei, "Young lady, Jiujiu is a poor child. It’s not that the villagers didn’t care for her, it’s just that everyone here is struggling. When you take Jiujiu with you, please treat her well. She’s suffered a lot over these past years..."
There were always several children in the village, but with the population being larger than the land could sustain, it was hard enough to feed their own let alone others.
Gu Xiaobei’s eyes welled up with tears, while Li Xianglan stood outside the crowd, nursing her child and glaring at the scene. At least the freeloader was finally leaving.
Looking at it all, Chen Qiumei just shook her head. Gu Xiaobei, who was always so shrewd, acted rashly today.
They arrived with four people, but left with five. On the road, Li Fengmei couldn’t hold back any longer, "Today, you were too impulsive."
"What happened?" Gu Xiaobei was somewhat unclear about why Li Fengmei said this.
"With the family-planning policy being so strict, now that you’ve adopted Jiujiu, are you planning not to have kids of your own? Zhanguo is a cadre, do you want to deprive him of offspring?"
"What?" Gu Xiaobei was taken aback. She hadn’t thought it through and was unfamiliar with adoption rules.
"What do I do now?" she asked quietly, glancing at Jiujiu trailing behind her.
"You should just return Jiujiu. Nowadays, there are too many unfortunate children like Jiujiu. Can you take care of them all? If you want to blame anyone, it’s that this girl had bad luck." Li Fengmei whispered, trying not to let Jiujiu hear.
Gu Xiaobei hesitated. She was reluctant to send Jiujiu back, but not having children was out of the question. She wondered if Zhanguo would be upset if he knew about this.
On the journey home, her mind was filled with various thoughts: about Jiujiu, about her childhood in her past life, about Zhanguo’s possible reaction, and about her future children. It felt as if her heart was roasting on a fire.
When they arrived home, it was already late in the afternoon. Gu Xiaobei set aside all her thoughts and boiled some water to bathe Jiujiu.
Water was scarce in the mountains, and they had to fetched water from a far-off place, so the villagers all saved water and rarely took baths.
Jiujiu was very dirty. Gu Xiaobei had to change the water three times before she was clean. Gu Xiaobei found that a clean Jiujiu was quite pretty. Rounded eyes, fluttering long eyelashes, small pointy chin, she would surely grow up to be a beauty. She only suffered severe malnutrition now, her skin was rough, yellow, and dull, just like her hair.
After changing into clean clothes, Jiujiu stood timidly by the table, not daring to move. Gu Xiaobei’s heart ached, and she said gently to Jiujiu, "This is your home now. The little bed in the back is your bed. You can do anything you want."
Jiujiu looked at the clean bed, a big smile appeared on her face, "Aunty, this new blanket is for me to use?"
"Yes, Jiujiu. What’s your real name for school?" Gu Xiaobei suddenly thought of the schooling issue and asked Jiujiu.
"I don’t have a real name. Everyone calls me Jiujiu because I’m the ninth child in my family." Jiujiu’s smile faded.
"What about your other siblings?" Gu Xiaobei was curious.
"My eldest sister married and moved to X Province and hasn’t returned for many years. My second brother is also in X Province, but he never came back after he formed his family. My third brother and my dad were hauling stones on the mountain when they were killed in a blast. My fifth sister ran off with a youth, whereabouts unknown. My seventh and eighth brothers were twins, they died of smallpox when they were just over a year old." Jiujiu said calmly.
Gu Xiaobei was shocked, this was indeed a family burdened by countless misfortunes.
Considering that Jiujiu hadn’t eaten much at noon, Gu Xiaobei gave her washed peach and some Shandong pancakes brought by Li Fengmei. She tore off a few pieces and handed them to Jiujiu, "Jiujiu, eat these first to hold you over. We’ll be cooking dinner soon. We’ll have scrambled eggs tonight, okay?"
Upon hearing about scrambled eggs, Jiujiu nodded vigorously, she had forgotten the taste of an egg. Her family’s two hens laid eggs that Li Xianglan used to feed her children. If there was any left, Li Xianglan used it to make egg soup.
After waiting for Jiujiu to finish eating, Gu Xiaobei took her for a walk in the courtyard to familiarize her with the surroundings, then they went to the garden to pick some vegetables.
At the door of the home, they bumped into Wang Ping playing with Nini.
"Whose child is this?" Wang Ping asked curiously.
Because Jiujiu was just beside her, Gu Xiaobei smiled and said, "This child is now part of our family."
Wang Ping didn’t pry further, Gu Xiaobei asked Jiujiu who was by her side, "Do you want to play with Nini for a while? I’ll go cook."
"No need, Auntie, I can help wash the vegetables." Jiujiu shook her head.
Wang Ping complimented, "This girl is really sensible."
Gu Xiaobei understood that the sensitive and self-conscious Jiujiu was unfamiliar with the new environment and didn’t want to interact with strangers. Plus, she feared to become a burden to Gu Xiaobei’s life, so she tried her best to perform well.
When Zhanguo came home in the evening and pushed open the door to see Jiujiu sitting at the table, he paused.
Jiujiu also saw Zhanguo, and quickly jumped off the stool, hiding behind Gu Xiaobei. Gu Xiaobei crouched down to expose Jiujiu, "This is Auntie’s husband, you can call him Uncle. Even though he might look intimidating, he’s a very nice man."
Jiujiu then cautiously said, "Uncle."
Zhanguo responded with a softened "Hmm". He raised an eyebrow at Gu Xiaobei, thinking, weren’t you supposed to go buy potatoes? How come there’s an extra child here?
