Chapter 43 - 043 Zhong Juying’s house
The dinner was very sumptuous, with mushroom egg soup, stir-fried mushrooms with shredded pork, Malan head stir-fried shredded pork, braised crucian carp, and shepherd’s purse Granny Zhao blanched and soaked in water, preparing to make dumplings with it the next day. Tian Sisi had just acted spoiled and said she wanted to eat shepherd’s purse and pork dumplings, and Granny Zhao, who doted on her granddaughter, agreed without a second thought.
During dinner, Tian Sisi specifically asked about Zhong Juying, "Grandpa, Granny, Daddy, Mama, that Zhong Juying looks so pitiful. In this cold weather, she is wearing pants with a hole in them, and her shoes are so thin, her big toes are sticking out. I feel cold just looking at her."
Granny Zhao, hearing her granddaughter mention Zhong Juying, couldn’t remember who she was for a moment, until Zhu Aiqing reminded her, "It’s Zhong Shigen and Zhao Manxiu’s young daughter. Their family is rich peasant, but they live a tough life, often struggling from meal to meal, unable to produce even a cotton-padded jacket."
"Zhao Manxiu? The same Zhao Manxiu from our village? Isn’t she quite capable? How could she be living so poorly?" Now Granny Zhao somewhat remembered; it turned out that she and Zhao Manxiu were related—Zhao Manxiu’s mother was her third cousin once removed, which, by relation, would make Zhao Manxiu call her ’aunt by marriage.’
Zhu Aiqing, being the head of the women’s brigade in the village, knew all too well the ins and outs of each household. She sighed and spoke of the family’s situation, "By rights, this family should not be living so miserably. Though they are rich peasants, both Zhong Shigen and Zhao Manxiu are hardworking. They only have three children; the eldest daughter got married last year to a widower in the neighboring village, the second son is the same age as Shouhua, and the youngest is Zhong Juying."
"A few years ago, Zhong Shigen got tuberculosis for some reason. Not only could he not earn work points, but he also had to take medicine every day. Eventually, they couldn’t afford the medicine anymore. Zhao Manxiu heard some folk remedy—making ’urine eggs’ (chicken eggs boiled in young boys’ urine believed to cure lung and back ailments) for Zhong Shigen to eat daily. All the eggs their hens laid went to him. It seems to have worked somewhat; Zhong Shigen didn’t get worse, but he can’t do heavy labor, so the family depends on Zhao Manxiu and the son to scrape by, living in dire straits."
Zhu Aiqing said this while wiping away tears for Zhao Yueban. She didn’t know that her cousin’s daughter was living such a harsh life. She had been close friends with Zhao Manxiu’s mother when they were young, and felt terrible for not knowing the suffering of her cousin’s daughter—she felt she had let down her cousin!
Tian Sisi was delighted inside, finding an excuse in her Granny’s relation, she said then and there, "Granny, don’t cry, how about I give some of my old clothes and shoes that I don’t wear anymore to Zhong Juying?"