novelraw Chapter 391 - 5: The Old Chu Family’s Farce
Chapter 391 - 5: The Old Chu Family’s Farce
The plans of Chu Manduo and his wife are temporarily a mystery to everyone, but the eldest, Chu Mandun, is truly anxious.
How could he not be worried?
Today, it’s up to him and his wife to, ahem, find some meat.
So, halfway through the afternoon work, Chu Mandun handed the hoe over to his wife and whispered, "I’m going to take a look in the mountains. If the team leader asks, just say I went to the latrine."
The eldest sister-in-law was used to it—there wasn’t a single diligent soul in the Old Chu Family, and slacking off was a common occurrence. Otherwise, how could a grown man earn only seven or eight work points a day?
In this village, other strong laborers earned at least ten, or even twelve points.
Though the gap seems small, earning four or five fewer points a day adds up to 15 cents less a day, amounting to a few dozen yuan less a year! The Old Chu Family, with all eleven laborers including the youngest sister-in-law, barely brought in 800 yuan a year. Who in the village wouldn’t laugh at them?
After all, in these times, everyone in the village is willing to work hard. As long as there’s money to earn, who wouldn’t work their heart out? But their family was known throughout the area for being slackers...
Chu Mandun didn’t return once he found an excuse to squat in the latrine, while Chu River was at home directing his nieces and nephews to open Old Mrs. Chu’s cupboard and pull out a small basket of eggs.
Counting them, there were exactly 35!
Just think about it, before the old hen at home was killed, she could lay two eggs a day. Isn’t it a case of a lazy man raising a diligent chicken?
They were sold to the supply and marketing cooperative at two cents apiece, and Old Mrs. Chu would save up forty to sell in a month. The rest they’d have, with each family member getting one every five days, except for Chu River who never got one.
A few nieces and nephews gathered around, staring at the basket of eggs as if it were a rare treasure.
...
The eldest nephew was now at an age where other kids could earn three to five points a day. But he, like his parents, was lazy and refused to work. Now, upon seeing food, his eyes lit up as he wiped his snot with his sleeve:
"Aunt, shall we eat the eggs?"
Chu River nodded: "Yes. Each person gets one, and the rest are mine."
The nieces and nephews didn’t mind.
With Aunt around, they ate meat yesterday and today eggs. All they had to do was think about what to eat tomorrow, and life was sweet enough.
The second nephew was more thoughtful: "Aunt, how do you want to eat them? Do we boil them all?"
Chu River’s throat moved—
"Just eating boiled eggs would be too dry! Any other ideas, everyone?"
The eldest niece timidly said: "Aunt, there’s some brown sugar hidden in my mom’s room. She secretly ate brown sugar egg stew when she gave birth to my little sister."
This niece was only a few years old, just as small and skinny as she was, completely different from the sturdiness of her nephew. Chu River appreciatively nodded at her:
"Bring it out. Today, you’ll get two eggs."
The eldest niece’s eyes lit up, and she immediately ran to her mother’s room without hesitation.
Never mind any beating she might get for eating it, as a girl, she’d get hit a couple of times for no reason anyway. At least this way, she’d have something to fill her belly.
She had never tasted what brown sugar was like!
Suddenly this seemed to spur everyone into action, and the little nephew, nose running: "Aunt, I, I, I have malted milk!"
Chu River nodded approvingly: "Bring it out, let’s each have a bowl."
So the little nephew straddled the doorstep and stumbled back into his own house.
...
Out of the 35 eggs, each niece and nephew got two, and Chu River ate the rest.
There were boiled eggs, scrambled eggs with onions, brown sugar egg stew, tomato egg drop soup, and even simple egg pancakes.
All these were made by the resourceful eldest niece.
Chu River only knew how to eat.
To reward the eldest niece for her hard work, an extra egg was given to her.
The eldest niece happily polished off a brown sugar egg stew and washed the bowl twice to drink the water, finding her life complete.
The remaining two eggs were stashed without hesitation in the crevice next to the pigsty—she had it all planned out, knowing she’d sure get a beating when mom returned. After she got hit, she’d cry it out and sneak back to eat the eggs.
This was her way of surviving in the Old Chu Family.
As for the other five, with two eggs each, with oil and salt added, it wasn’t like the usual cooking with just a bit of cloth dabbed with oil across the pan. How could it smell this good normally?
Now that they were satisfied, who cared about the beatings from their parents?
Usually, they didn’t want a beating because they wouldn’t eat well or full after one.
But now it was different!
Under the sun, they all sat on the benches, and life boiled down to two words—
Contentment!
...
When the Chu Family returned, what they saw were eggshells scattered everywhere, half-empty oil cans, missing red tomatoes from the vegetable patch, and the second sister-in-law exclaimed, noticing her treasured brown sugar was gone.