People who eat melon are in 70 - Chapter 3

The door of the room was locked. Jiang Youtao found a piece of wire and poked it into the keyhole. After turning it left and right a few times, the lock opened.

There were always a few naughty and mischievous children in the orphanage who didn’t know their limits or even had malicious intentions. Jiang Youtao had developed this skill of unlocking locks after being teased and locked in the toilet and empty huts many times, and missing meals and going hungry countless times.

For an old-fashioned lock like this, she didn’t even need ten seconds to open it.

Jiang Youtao pushed the door open and entered the room, looking at the room carefully. The bedroom of Jiang Anguo and his wife had the best orientation in the house, covering an area of 15 square meters and with a small balcony.

The room was full of fashionable furniture and ornaments.

There was an artificial leather sofa, a large mahogany carved wardrobe with a dressing mirror, a desk with floral tablecloths and glass, and a dark brown chest of drawers.

In this era, these furniture were worth a lot of money. Jiang Youtao walked straight to the wardrobe and found an old cotton jacket according to the original owner’s memory.

After marrying Jiang Anguo, Li Xiuqin upgraded her clothes. She replaced all her patched clothes with new ones without patches. This cotton-padded jacket is the worst one in her wardrobe.

The original owner once found this jacket while cleaning the house. Before she even touched it, Li Xiuqin saw it and scolded the original owner severely.

Something must be wrong when things are abnormal. The original owner was simple and didn’t think much, but Jiang Youtao was not. She had a hunch that this old cotton-padded jacket was something else.

After patting and pinching the old cotton-padded jacket, Jiang Youtao took out a bulging peony handkerchief from the interlayer of the cotton-padded jacket.

When she opened the handkerchief, there was a big stack of solidarity inside. Judging from the thickness, there must be at least one thousand yuan.

Jiang Youtao counted out the eight hundred yuan pension that belonged to the original owner’s mother and put it into the system backpack that came with the system. As for the remaining money, she didn’t even look at it and put it all back to its original place.

From the legal and ethical point of view, the pension should be inherited by the parents, spouse and children. However, Jiang Anguo did not give a penny to the original owner’s grandparents after receiving the money.

The original owner’s grandparents did not ask Jiang Anguo for it. This was the money for their daughter’s life. How could they bear to spend it? Besides, there was still a granddaughter. The money should be spent on her.

But the money was not used on the original owner. In recent years, the original owner relied on the state to provide food and a monthly scholarship subsidy of seven yuan for food and school, and pocket money was made by pasting paper shells on weekdays.

Even so, she was robbed by Jiang Jiabao from time to time.

The original owner was naturally not stupid. She hid it well and no one could find it. Later, Jiang Jiabao got a trick from somewhere and violently robbed her as soon as she got the scholarship.

The original owner could not save money and did not eat well. Although her family was not short of money or food, she was often hungry. The girl who was sixteen and seventeen years old still had a flat chest..

She was 1.65 meters tall and probably weighed less than 80 kilograms.

This pension stained with the blood of the original owner’s mother made Jiang Youtao feel particularly heavy.

After standing for a while, she closed the wardrobe door and took out an iron box from the chest of drawers. Li Xiuqin had put the Jiang family’s grain and oil books and various tickets in it.

In addition to the colorful tickets, there was also a stack of money that Li Xiuqin had not had time to put into her old cotton-padded jacket, about a hundred yuan, which was the money that the Youth League Office subsidized the original owner to go to the countryside to join the production team. There was also a stamp of the Youth League Office next to it, the receipt for the subsidy and the certificate of honor for the educated youth going to the countryside.

Looking at the date on the receipt, it has been four days since the receipt was received. The original owner was notified to go to the countryside three days ago. Li Xiuqin never revealed the existence of this subsidy.

Jiang Youtao has never seen anything in the past two days.

After restoring everything to the original state, Jiang Youtao went straight to the kitchen. When passing by Jiang Jiabao’s room, she suddenly remembered that the original owner had a peace locket that the original owner’s mother asked for when she was a child to bless the original owner with peace. The original owner has worn it for more than ten years. It is her only thought of her mother.

Jiang Jiabao has taken a fancy to a female classmate in their class. The other party’s father is the deputy director of a department store. The female classmate’s birthday is next Monday. He wants to please her, but he can’t stand out from the suitors because he doesn’t have a special gift. So he set his sights on the original owner and coerced and bribed her to snatch the original owner’s peace locket.

The day after tomorrow is Monday, and the peace locket has not been given away yet. Jiang Youtao turned around and entered Jiang Jiabao’s room.

After the peace locket was snatched away, the original owner went to Jiang Anguo to cry and was dismissed. Jiang Anguo told her to be more generous, saying that the peace locket was just a worthless thing and could not be exchanged for anything worthy.

Jiang Jiabao took it, so there was no need to cry. This was undoubtedly the last straw that broke the camel’s back for the original owner. In grief and anger, she jumped into the Huangpu River.

The room where Jiang Jiabao lived was much better than the original owner’s. The room where the original owner lived was narrow and small, with almost no windows. The sun could not shine into it all year round. Because there was no ventilation, the room was always filled with a musty smell.

This room is much better. Not only is it facing the sun, but it is also large. The eight-square-meter room is very bright. Standing by the open windowsill, you can still feel the breeze blowing in from outside.

This was originally the original owner’s room. The wardrobe and desk in this room were made by the original owner’s grandfather and her uncle.

The carved wooden bed was the original owner’s mother’s dowry. Li Xiuqin thought it was unlucky but was reluctant to throw it away, so she gave it to her son to sleep on, and even called it: Yang Qi righteousness evil.

If Li Xiuqin hadn’t been there, Jiang Youtao would have given her a big slap. She was so shameless.

The peace buckle that the original owner valued so much was placed on the desk by Jiang Jiabao. Jiang Youtao took it and left.

When she reached the door of the room, she turned back and put the wardrobe, desk and the carved bed into the system backpack that came with the melon-eating system.

Jiang Youtao felt that Jiang Anguo’s family was not worthy of the original owner’s mother’s dowry.

All the things in the wardrobe were thrown on the ground. I don’t know who used these things, and Jiang Youtao disdained to use them.

Coming out of Jiang Jiabao’s room, there were two satin quilts on the stool in the corner of the living room. These were the tickets that Li Xiuqin had saved for a long time, and she went to the department store to buy them after adjusting with colleagues and neighbors.

This quilt was prepared for Jiang Jiabao’s wedding. In her heart, her son is always the best and most outstanding. With such an outstanding son, wouldn’t it be easy for him to pursue the daughter of the deputy director?

Jiang Youtao put the two quilts into the system backpack without hesitation. She is now penniless. The cotton in the quilt in the original owner’s room is tangled and knotted. It is really not warm to go to the north. In the past few years, the original owner had never used her share of cloth coupons and cotton coupons, so now was the perfect time to make up for it all at once.

After collecting the quilt, Jiang Youtao thought of the new cotton-padded jackets hanging in Jiang Anguo’s room. She walked in leisurely and collected a cotton-padded jacket and two sets of newly made clothes into the system backpack.

Li Xiuqin’s niece was getting married at the end of the month. The family she was marrying into was quite well-off, so Li Xiuqin decided to flatter her. Not only did she make two sets of new clothes for her, she also made a cotton-padded jacket. Jiang Jiabao even had a quarrel with her about this.

Now it was all Jiang Youtao’s good fortune.

After collecting the clothes, she thought about it again and again, then she went to the table to get a pen to write, and wrote on a piece of paper that she had taken away the original owner’s mother’s pension, and put it back into the handkerchief of the torn cotton-padded jacket.

She was humming a song while putting it there. She could foresee how Jiang Anguo and Li Xiuqin would look when they saw the note. They would probably have a stroke out of anger!

Jiang Youtao went to the kitchen happily. The door was open. She walked in and opened the cupboard that locked the rice and flour. With a flick of her wrist, she locked all the things in the cupboard and put them into her backpack. Seeing that it was getting late, she walked out of the factory.

She met many people along the way. Jiang Youtao said that she was going to find Li Xiuqin, but in fact she was going to the original owner’s grandparents’ house.

Grandma’s house was in Pudong. In this era, there is a saying that “I would rather have a bed in Puxi than a room in Pudong.” Nowadays, compared with the prosperous Puxi, Pudong is considered a rural area.

Jiang Youtao took the tram at the factory gate and then went to the ferry station to take a boat to Pudong.

There were many people on the ferry. Everyone was sitting, standing or holding the car. They didn’t know each other, but as long as one person started, they could chat enthusiastically in a dialect that Jiang Youtao heard and felt was strange and familiar.

Jiang Youtao held the railing and looked far away on both sides. Puxi has densely populated with high-rise buildings, while Pudong has a series of farmland and low houses.

Before the reform and opening up, it was very difficult to change from an agricultural to a non-agricultural worker. It was not easy for the original owner’s mother, Ying Yuexia, to get the opportunity to work in the Puxi Cannery. Therefore, she worked very hard after entering the factory, and won the title of model worker every year. In less than two years, she became a team leader.

At that time, Jiang Anguo was just an ordinary worker who had just entered the factory.

After marrying Ying Yuexia, Jiang Anguo gradually became a team leader with the help of his wife. But he was mediocre in ability, and he had no hope of promotion in the position of team leader for six years. Instead, Ying Yuexia was promoted step by step and became the boss of his immediate boss.

After Ying Yuexia died in the line of duty, his position that had never been promoted was promoted twice to the workshop director. That was the compensation given by the factory to the family members, and Jiang Anguo became the biggest beneficiary.

The three major joys of middle-aged men, promotion, wealth, and death of a wife, were all verified in Jiang Anguo.

He relied on his wife to reach his current social status, but he did not treat the only flesh and blood left by the other party well, even though the original owner had half of his blood.

But it doesn’t matter. After a trip to the Revolutionary Committee, he will be stripped of his skin. Director Peng is indeed reasonable, but beating his subordinates is unreasonable.

It would be good if Jiang Anguo really had no problems. If he really did something illegal in these years, I’m afraid he would even have trouble keeping his position as workshop director.

Thinking of this, Jiang Youtao felt a little relieved, and it was also one of the wishes of the original owner.

The ship stopped, Jiang Youtao collected her thoughts, and followed the crowd out of the ferry terminal.

There were some tricycles delivering goods and people at the entrance of the ferry terminal. Jiang Youtao took a look, found an empty hidden alley nearby, brought out the original owner’s mother’s dowry from the space in the system backpack, and then walked quickly to one of the tricycles to explain the situation.

The tricycle driver followed Jiang Youtao to see the goods and found two more tricycles. After negotiating the price, Jiang Youtao sat on one of them and followed them to the village where the original owner’s grandmother’s home was.

The original owner’s grandmother’s home was not close to the ferry station. It took 40 minutes to walk, and it took half an hour to take a tricycle with goods. The dirt road was not easy to walk on, and it was bumpy. After unloading the goods at the door and paying the freight, the tricycle driver walked away together, and Jiang Youtao walked into the yard of the original owner’s grandmother’s home.

Compared with Puxi, where housing space is tight, the self-built houses in Pudong are much larger, with separate doors and large courtyards. A small vegetable garden has been opened in the courtyard to grow some seasonable vegetables.

Hao Juxiang was washing clothes by the well in the courtyard. When she noticed someone coming, she looked up and stood up from the stool. Her seven-inch golden lotus feet quickly moved to Jiang Youtao, loving and happy with a hint of uncertainty: “Youtao? Is it Youtao?”

The residual emotions of the original owner made Jiang Youtao’s eyes sore. She strode forward and held the old lady’s skinny hand: “It’s me, it’s me. Grandma, I came to see you. How have you been recently?”

“Good, good, good, very strong, can eat and sleep.” Hao Juxiang was very happy. She took Jiang Youtao’s hand and went into the house, and was busy making sugar water for Jiang Youtao.

In this era of sugar and oil shortage, the old lady’s expression of love for her granddaughter is a cup of sweet sugar water.

Jiang Youtao is an orphan who has never experienced the heavy love from her elders. She drank all the sugar water while holding back the sweetness.

Hao Juxiang sat on the side, took Jiang Youtao’s hand with a loving face and asked: “Haven’t you eaten yet? Stay for dinner later, and grandma will make you something delicious.”

Under Jiang Anguo’s day-to-day PUA, the original owner rarely visited her grandmother’s house, sometimes not once a year.

Hao Juxiang really missed her granddaughter, so she took the ferry to see her. But a round trip was too expensive and laborious, and Hao Juxiang could only go a few times a year.

“Grandma, I’m not hungry, sit down, let’s talk.” Jiang Youtao stopped Hao Juxiang who was about to go out to cook for her.

“Grandma, I’m going to take the train to the northeast tonight to go to the countryside. Time is running out, and I want to talk to you more.”

The relaxed smile on Hao Juxiang’s face froze instantly, and she asked anxiously: “What’s the matter? Why do you have to go to the countryside? What does your father do? Is your stepmother playing tricks again? You are an only child , how could it be your turn?”

After a series of questions, Jiang Youtao answered them one by one in order: “Originally, Jiang Jiabao was supposed to go to the countryside, but my dad said that Jiang Jiabao was the only child of his biological father Zhang’s family, and he couldn’t let others say that his stepfather was not good, so he signed me up and asked me to go to the countryside instead of him.”

“I was only informed the night before yesterday. The list has been submitted, and the subsidy and honor certificate have been issued. I have to leave tonight, so I came to see you and grandpa Xiao, and uncle”

Hao Juxiang was furious when she heard this, and was about to rush out, but Jiang Youtao stopped her in a hurry: “Grandma, calm down, I didn’t suffer any loss. I also signed up for Jiang Jiabao to go to the countryside yesterday. The director of the Youth League Office accepted my gift and promised to send him to the Northwest. The list has also been released, and Jiang Jiabao can’t regret it.”

Jiang Youtao gave a pack of Red Peony cigarettes and a bottle of Maotai liquor that she had obtained from the system. Director Zhang immediately patted his chest and said that he would definitely arrange for Jiang Jiabao to go to the most desolate Northwest.

Not only that, he also promised to give Jiang Jiabao a silk banner, which he would send to the Jiang family with great fanfare tomorrow, completely cutting off Jiang Anguo and Li Xiuqin’s way of getting Jiang Jiabao back.

“I don’t know why my father was taken away by the Revolutionary Committee for investigation, and I don’t know when he will be released. You can’t find him even if you look for him. “

Jiang Youtao did not intend to reveal the role she played in Jiang Anguo’s entry into the Revolutionary Committee. She was afraid that a simple girl who was bullied by her stepmother and stepbrother all day long would scare the old lady by suddenly doing such things.

However, this matter was no secret in the cannery. By the time Hao Juxiang and the others find out about it in the future, she would have already fled far away. She could not control what they thought after they knew the truth.

Thinking of this, Jiang Youtao changed her tone and became relaxed. She pulled Hao Juxiang out of the yard and said, “Grandma, I asked someone to send back my mother’s dowry. You can ask someone to help move it into the house later.”

“This…” Hao Juxiang hadn’t reacted to what her granddaughter said yet, and was shocked by the furniture in front of her. After a while, her eyebrows were slightly wet. How much would it cost to transport these furniture from the factory from Puxi to here? Just thinking about it made Hao Juxiang feel distressed, but thinking of her unlucky daughter, she touched her eyes and said, “Well, it won’t cost others a bargain. When your uncle comes back, ask him to chop it for firewood. Wait two years, when you get married, let your grandfather and your uncle make a set for you.”