PCJ – Chapter 81 Connections

Zhang Jiaohua finally achieved what he had been longing for: buying a television. On this matter, the opinions of the whole family were unanimous. More and more families in the village were starting to bring televisions into their homes. Given Zhang Jiaohua’s special circumstances, having a television at home would make him feel less lonely.

“It’s good to buy a television. When we go to Guangdong, our child will have company at home,” Liu Qiaoye said, indicating that she and Zhang Yuping seemed to have already decided to go to work in Guangdong after the New Year. Naturally, they couldn’t take the child with them. After all, they were going to work to earn money, not for a vacation. People who went to work in Guangdong during this era lived in very poor conditions and couldn’t possibly bring a child along.

“My parents also agreed. After we go to Guangdong, they will take care of our child,” Zhang Yuping nodded.

But upon hearing this, Zhang Jiaohua objected, “Why do you have to go to work in Guangdong? Can’t we make money here at home? This time, I earned over two thousand yuan.”

“How can things like this happen frequently? When everyone else goes to Guangdong to earn money and comes back, our family will become poor. At home, our parents don’t have any way to make money,” Liu Qiaoye also couldn’t bear to leave their child behind.

“Why don’t we have any opportunities? We can raise pigs. Let the sows give birth to piglets. The television says that in the countryside, one can become a professional and earn even more than those who go to work in Guangdong. We can also plant fruit trees and sell the fruit in the city.” Although there was no television at home, Zhang Jiaohua could hear the sound from other people’s televisions with his ears.

“But these things require skills. Dad doesn’t have much education and doesn’t understand technology. If we invest the little money we have at home in these things, I’m afraid we’ll end up losing every penny. Let’s go to Guangdong to work, learn some skills, and come back to take care of our child in the future,” Zhang Yuping comforted while patting their child’s head.

These issues couldn’t be solved by adults, and naturally Zhang Jiaohua couldn’t solve them either. The tide of going to work was like a raging flood, and how could a seven-year-old child like Zhang Jiaohua resist it? He could only compromise, “Then you go to work, but I won’t go live with Grandpa and Grandma. I can cook, do laundry, and live by myself. I’ll take care of the fields at home. When I earn money in the future, you won’t need to go to work anymore.”

Hearing these words from their child, Liu Qiaoye felt a surge of emotion, tears streaming down her face. Zhang Yuping also felt a lump in his throat.

There was no other way! Why was Meizi Village so poor?

Poverty breeds innovation! Although the family stayed together, living comfortably without worrying about food and clothing, there were still joys in poverty. But Zhang Jiaohua would grow up, and in the future, he would have various needs. His parents couldn’t let him live worse than others.

The mountain wind blew through the front yard’s Chinese toon tree, making a whooshing sound, as if a voice was telling the joys and sorrows of the mountain village. The stream at the foot of Meizi mountain murmured softly on quiet nights, as if children were sobbing sadly.

Zuan Shanbao lay crouched at the doorstep, occasionally flicking its ears. Whenever it heard a noise from outside, it would lift its head slightly and bark a few times before dozing off again.

The next day, Zhang Jiaohua’s family went to Gezhuping Town. Zhang Yuping carried a load of bamboo baskets. After buying the television, they had to carry it back since there were no scheduled buses to Meizi Village.

The television was too heavy, so after buying it, they could only return home. Therefore, before buying the television, they had to get everything they wanted to buy. Liu Qiaoye wanted to make some new clothes for their child and buy him shoes. After the New Year, they would go to work in Guangdong. They would only come back once a year. Before leaving, they had to prepare clothes for their child for all four seasons of the year, or else he wouldn’t have clothes to wear when they left.

Zhang Jiaohua wasn’t interested in any of these. He just wanted to keep his parents at home. Perhaps when his parents went to work, they could bring back new toys and trendy clothes for him during the New Year. But he would still face the night alone, like a child without parents.

Gezhuping Town was not very big, but for Zhang Jiaohua, it was like a city. City people dressed brightly, women wearing relatively transparent clothes, revealing the contours of their bras underneath. The skirts were relatively short, exposing fair, long legs. For people from the countryside, this was very avant-garde. Although it was novel for brats, it didn’t have much appeal.

The market was bustling, with various shouts of vendors. Meat, which was hard to come by in the countryside, was hanging at several stalls in the market. One of the biggest differences between the countryside and the city, as concluded by rural kids, was that city people ate meat every day. For any child from the countryside, eating meat every day was almost impossible, especially in this era. But for city kids, everything was within reach.

At the entrance of the market, some farmers came with loads to sell their produce. This sight caught Zhang Jiaohua’s attention, as he thought he had found a way to get rich.

“Dad, look, we can also bring vegetables to the town to sell,” the brat simplified things.

“We have to travel a long distance, and we have to travel at night to arrive in the morning to sell vegetables. Townspeople come to buy vegetables early in the morning because they have to work during the day,” Zhang Yuping chuckled.

What the brat didn’t know was that after vegetables were picked, there was no proper way to handle them. Without convenient transportation, by the time they arrived in town, they would all have wilted. Even if they bought a bicycle, after the vegetables were jostled, who would buy them? Villages near towns had better conditions. There was another thing that brats couldn’t see: vegetable prices were ridiculously low. Some villagers brought a load of vegetables and couldn’t sell them all.

“What about that?” Zhang Jiaohua pointed to a remote corner of the market, where there were some hunted game and various wild meats laid out directly on the ground. These kinds of prey could be seen in Meizi Mountain. Zhang Jiaohua thought he could hunt them too.

Zhang Yuping hadn’t spoken yet when a group of people wearing large hats suddenly rushed out from both ends of the alley, sandwiching those unlucky guys who were selling game in the alley.

Zhang Jiaohua felt a bit frustrated. He finally found a way to make money, but it turned out to be a dead end.

Zhang Yuping naturally understood Zhang Jiaohua’s thoughts. He sighed deeply, stroked his child’s small head, and thought hard about finding a way to get rich. It’s just that Meizi Village was too remote. Even Gezhuping Town was a very backward small town. If they wanted better development, they had to leave the mountains.