nashuaworldcup Chapter 143 The Good Daughter in a Historical Novel 1
Chapter 143 The Good Daughter in a Historical Novel 1
The room that comes into view is a small room, less than a few square meters in size, with a bunk bed and a small wooden bed opposite it.
Qingmo was lying on this small wooden bed in the dead of winter. The quilt was so thin it could freeze you to death, and the cotton inside was stiff and clumped together.
Qingmo couldn't help but shiver. She was dressed very thinly. Was this family really that poor?
"Xiao Wu, receive the plot."
It is now winter of 1967. The original owner of the house is Yao Sanni, whose father is Yao Gang and mother is Hu Fenfang. The two have two sons and three daughters.
The eldest daughter, Yao Dani, is 19 years old and works as a factory worker in a textile factory, earning 23.5 yuan a month.
The second son, Yao Daqiang, is 18 years old this year. He graduated from high school a few months ago but still hasn't found a job.
The third child, Yao Sanni, is 16 years old this year. She graduated from elementary school and has been doing housework at home ever since.
The fourth child, Yao Sini, is 13 years old and is in junior high school.
The fifth child, Yao Xiaoqiang, is 13 years old and is in junior high school.
The fourth and fifth children are twins, so naturally Hu Fenfang loves them very much; the eldest child is the first daughter, so their affection is inevitably different; the second child is the first son, the eldest son in the family, so needless to say.
Only the original owner, caught in the middle, with older brothers and sisters above and younger brothers and sisters below, was the least favored.
Yao Gang is a technician at a machinery factory and earns 45 yuan a month. Hu Fenfang works at a cotton mill and earns 27.5 yuan a month.
The family of seven lives on this meager salary. Yao Gang also has to send five yuan a month to his parents in the countryside for their retirement. Hu Fenfang has to bring some gifts and money when she goes back to her parents' home for holidays. The family is struggling to make ends meet.
These days, the idea is that the more children you have, the more blessings you'll have. Whether you're rich or poor, just keep having kids. The more you have, the poorer you get, and the more kids you have.
Given Yao Gang and his wife's salaries, they wouldn't be living in such poverty if they didn't have five children.
Perhaps it was just that the original owner was struggling financially. As the least valued member of the family, no one cared about her feelings from childhood to adulthood. Her father didn't love her, her mother didn't care about her, and she was the only one in the family to graduate from elementary school.
The original owner did try to resist, but all she got in return was a beating. After the beating, Hu Fenfang looked heartbroken.
Holding the original owner, she said, "Sanni, don't blame your mother. You are all my flesh and blood. How could I not feel sorry for you? But you should also feel sorry for me. Every day after get off work, I still have to cook, take care of my younger siblings, and do laundry. You are the most sensible person in this family. Help me share the burden."
It sounds nice, like sharing the burden, but in the end, it was all her work.
When she was still shorter than the stove, the original owner helped with cooking and housework. She did everything around the house. At first, she would help out, but later she would get scolded for not doing anything.
Sometimes, the young original owner would wonder, wasn't she her parents' daughter? Why was she the only one who was different?
Hu Fenfang absolutely refused to let her go to junior high school and insisted that she stay home and do housework. The neighborhood committee also came to persuade her.
Hu Fenfang only said one sentence, "Our family is in a difficult situation. There are so many children, I can't manage them all. I can't even finish the housework every day. If Sanni doesn't help me, then who will help me with the laundry and take care of the children? Director, is that right?"
Even the neighborhood committee can't do anything about it. Every family has its own problems. It's their own daughter. If they can't help them solve their difficulties, they can't get involved.
Hu Fenfang would repeatedly manipulate the original owner of the body, saying to her, "In this family, Mom likes you the most. Mom and Dad remember everything you've done for the family, and your brothers and sisters also appreciate your kindness. When things get better in the future, I will definitely buy the best clothes and the most beautiful flowers for our Sanni."
Hu Fenfang's words and actions are never the same. Before dawn, the original owner had to get up early to prepare breakfast for the whole family. After everyone had finished eating and left, she would be left alone at home washing dishes and cleaning.
After finally finishing the work, it's lunchtime, then dinner, and the day just keeps going.
She also had to keep an eye on her younger siblings and prevent them from running around. While her other siblings were playing, she was the only one working. In her spare time, she would paste matchboxes to supplement the family income.
These days, everyone wears and patches their clothes repeatedly, especially children's clothes. The older child wears them, then the younger one, and so on. It's normal for the younger children to wear the older children's hand-me-downs.
But when it came to the original owner of this body, she couldn't even get her older sister's and second brother's old clothes; she had to pick up other people's clothes that were so tattered they couldn't be worn anymore.
The older siblings would leave their better clothes to their younger siblings, and give them the worn-out ones. They wouldn't throw away the clothes that their younger siblings had finished wearing; they would mend them and make them into socks or vests for the original owner.
Throughout the year, while not every child has new clothes, each child owns a set of clothes of their own, not clothes that are taken from others. Only the original owner of this body has never worn a new set of clothes.
Even during meals, when the family rarely had meat, Hu Fenfang would glare at her as soon as the original owner put her chopsticks into her bowl.
Not full, she thought of getting up to get more rice, but she said sarcastically, "Eat, eat, eat until you starving ghosts die, don't you even know we're about to starve?"
Over time, the original owner became more and more introverted, taciturn and less talkative. She did the most housework and ate the least at home, and her family got used to ignoring her existence.
Even a few months after his second brother graduated, he still hadn't found a job, and it was their family's turn to be sent to the countryside as part of a new wave of educated youth.
The second brother is the eldest son and the apple of the family's eye, so naturally they wouldn't let him go, but someone had to go.
The eldest sister has a job and is of marriageable age, so she won't be allowed to go. The younger brother and sister-in-law are still young, so it can't be them either. Then who can go? It can only be the original owner of this body.
Hu Fenfang volunteered to sign up the original owner for the rural assignment and gave her a subsidy of 50 yuan. However, when she sent the original owner away, Hu Fenfang only gave her 10 yuan and told her to work hard in the countryside because food was scarce in the city and to send any surplus back home.
“Sanni, go with peace of mind. Mom will not forget you, and your second brother will remember your kindness. In the future, Mom will find you a good family. You can go to the countryside and suffer for a few years. After a few years, I will retire and give you my job. I will bring you back. Don’t forget to write home, work hard to earn work points, and send some food back.”
The original owner simply nodded silently. Did she not know that Hu Fenfang was just being perfunctory? She knew, but what could she do? From beginning to end, no one had asked for her opinion.
She was always the one who was ignored, the least important, and the first to be abandoned.
When I was little, I didn't understand why they treated her like that, and I still don't understand now that I'm grown up. My heart just aches and aches, and then it becomes numb. It doesn't matter anymore. It's good that I escaped this family.
Misfortune seems to target those who are destined for hardship. The original owner of this body thought that going to the countryside wasn't so bad, but little did she know that it would change her life forever.