At that time, only the office of the mine leader had a telephone, and it cost eight cents to send a letter. The most common way for people to contact each other was to ask acquaintances to carry the letter.
The man said a few words at the door and left. Wang Mei read the letter, but she didn’t know where she hid it, and she didn’t tell anyone. Xu Ningyu didn’t see what was written in the letter, but from that day on, the family had boiled noodles for lunch for two consecutive days. Of course, Wang Mei didn’t dare to save his egg custard and milk.
Because Xu Jianbing ate in the cafeteria at noon and came back at night, the family usually made a rich dinner, and if they bought meat on a certain day, they would definitely save it for dinner. The lunch was originally very simple, basically only one vegetarian dish, and only stir-fried green peppers and eggs every few days. Sometimes Wang Mei would save trouble and just cook noodles, but at least she would add some side dishes.
Xu Jianbing gave Wang Mei 30 yuan to buy vegetables for a month, and the rice, flour and oil were all bought in advance. At that time, pork and beef were about the same price, both 80 or 90 cents per pound, but beef was hard to buy. Eggs were five cents each, and vegetables were even cheaper. It is impossible to have a big meal of meat and fish every day with 30 yuan of food money. It is enough to have meat every two or three days. How can an ordinary working class family eat meat every day?
Xu Ningyu has no objection to cooking meat dishes for the whole family to eat together, but it is a bit too much to not put even a vegetable in the noodles. Xu Xinning is still growing up, how can she eat like this all the time, it is not nutritious at all. Besides, Wang Mei is so frugal, it is definitely not for this family.
Xu Ningyu guessed that the letter was probably sent by her family to ask for money. Wang Mei was like this in her previous life. She was also very stingy with herself, but she was very generous when sending things home.
Xu Ningyu did not object to her parents who had worked hard to raise their children for more than 20 years and appropriately subsidized her natal family, but Wang Mei did it beyond the normal range. In her previous life, she did it. She gave her nephew a down jacket worth dozens of yuan, which cost half a month’s salary, and the family ate vegetables and bean sprouts for a month.
This kind of trend cannot be tolerated. Xu Ningyu made up her mind and complained to Xu Jianbing in the evening. He used to hate people who complained, but now he had no choice but to use this method.
He scooped a large spoonful of egg custard without saying a word and put it into Xu Xinning’s bland noodles. Xu Xinning was stunned and quickly covered the bowl with her hand: “Little brother, you eat it yourself, and sister eats noodles.”
Wang Mei felt uncomfortable and muttered: “I can eat it, why can’t she? She is not a lady from a wealthy family, so she is so delicate.” The voice was neither loud nor soft, and it could not be heard outside.
Xu Xinning had never been said such harsh words by an adult. Her cheeks flushed red all of a sudden, and she was speechless holding the chopsticks. Xu Ningyu couldn’t
bear to see her sister being bullied, so she raised her head, stared at Wang Mei with her big black glass eyes, and said word by word: “Sister is growing up, you have to eat well, you are old.”
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Daily Life of the Post-80s Generation
Romance𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Return to childhood and experience the turbulent 1980s and 1990s again. The mother died early, the father remarried, the adults were unreliable, so he had to be self-reliant. But what could he do at such a young age? He star...
