In this era, the average life span of a person is very short. It is very common for people to start working at the age of seventeen or eighteen. However, in most cases, people do not join the work until they are eighteen years old.
When entering a factory, most of them have to do physical work. In this era of positive workers, everyone is proud of hard work.
However, if you are too young, you will definitely not be able to work as well as adults, so most factories, unless there are special circumstances, generally recruit adult workers.
Zhou Chen has just turned seventeen now, so he stayed at home and Li Suhua didn't say anything.
The man left, his eldest son and daughter left, and now they were the only ones left at home. In addition, Zhou Chen had been reading seriously during this period. Naturally, Li Suhua would not say anything. Instead, he felt that his old problem was really serious.
You are sensible.
Optical film is really too backward. When it rains, Zhou Chen doesn't want to go out at all. The road and the mud really have nowhere to go.
Xiao Guoqing and Sun Qianchao came to visit Zhou Chen a few more times, but they both went to work in the lumber factory some time ago and did not come back during this time.
In this era, entertainment activities are scarce, and the optical film is a poor place, so there is no place for entertainment.
Zhou Chen observed for more than a month and found that people in this era are really hard-working. Except for children, adults seem to have endless things to do and are busy every day. Unlike a few decades later, all kinds of otakus and otakus will
countless.
Although I have been slowly adapting to it after staying there for more than a month, there are still some things I cannot adapt to.
The most important thing is to eat.
Materials were really scarce during this period. Anyway, Zhou Chen had only eaten meat once in more than a month, and it was leftover from the Chinese New Year.
Usually it's cornmeal, steamed buns, and some fried sauerkraut and pickles. Sometimes I eat it twice a day, but it's still the same.
After more than a month, Zhou Chen felt like his mouth had become like a bird. Sometimes when he saw a mouse, he had the urge to eat it.
This was the first time in all his years that he had found eating so difficult.
Even when he was in the Ode to Joy world and in the orphanage, his food was countless times better than here.
"Mom, I'm going out for a walk."
Zhou Chen walked out of the room and said to Li Suhua who was knitting a sweater on the kang.
"Go, go, come back early, don't mess around outside."
Li Suhua didn't even raise her head. Recently, she was very pleased with her youngest son's sensible behavior. He stopped playing around and stayed at home reading all day long.
"I know, Mom, I'm leaving."
The phototype may not be big, but it is definitely not small. It is estimated that hundreds of families live here now, and illegal construction has begun to appear.
There is no way. Nowadays, every family does not have several children. When there are more children, they naturally need a place to live. But the place is so big. If you can’t live in it, you can only build more around the house. Even if it is an adobe house, it is better than having no place to live.
Be good.
After walking, we arrived at Taiping Hutong.
If the light lettering is relatively chaotic, then Taiping Hutong is even more chaotic. The houses are one on the left and one on the right, and you have to turn every few meters.
Even though Zhou Chen has a good memory, he was a little confused when he came here for the first time and couldn't find Zheng Juan's home at all.
After going around in a circle, Zhou Chen left helplessly. He came here today just to inquire and didn't want to ask anyone.
Zheng Juan was not found in Taiping Hutong, so Zhou Chen planned to go to the cinema to try.
Winter hasn't passed yet, Zheng Juan and her family are probably selling candied haws, and the cinema has a good flow of people, but they probably won't make much money.
The movie theater is an iconic place, so Zhou Chen found the movie theater without any difficulty.
There was more than one person setting up a stall in front of the cinema, but Zhou Chen quickly located his target.
It was a cart, and there were many bright red candied haws on the cart. Of course, the candied haws now are not as diverse as they would be a few decades ago. They are just the simplest hawthorn balls strung together, and they look very average.
There were two people standing behind the cart, an old-looking woman and a very young woman.
"Hello, would you like to buy candied haws on a stick?"
Zheng Juan asked with a smile on her face when she saw someone coming to her stall.
Zhou Chen looked at the young woman in front of him, with her special frosted voice, and could almost confirm that she was his target, Zheng Juan.
Zheng Juan was wearing a shabby cotton-padded jacket, her face was dry and red from the wind, she had a little black mole on her lips, and she had two braids in her hair. She had no sense of beauty at all.
But if you take a closer look, you will find that her facial features are exquisite and her eyes are big and bright, giving people a soft and frail feeling.
"How much does it cost?"
"Two cents."
Zhou Chen was stunned after hearing this. After living for so many years, although he had seen one-cent and two-cent coins, he had never used them.
A bunch of candied haws cost two cents, and a hundred bunches are only two yuan. But it’s hard to say whether you can sell a hundred bunches in a day, not to mention the cost.
The key is that in this era, money is not actually the most rare thing, but those food stamps, meat stamps, industrial coupons, etc. are even more rare.
People without household registration or jobs cannot get these tickets at all.
It can be seen from this that Zheng Juan's family of three is really having a hard time, otherwise they would not have followed Tu Zhiqiang in the TV series, and they would not even be willing to leave even when they knew that Tu Zhiqiang had a problem.
"Bring me a bunch."
"OK."
Zheng Juan quickly brought a bunch of candied haws to Zhou Chen and took two cents from Zhou Chen's hand.
Zhou Chen took the candied haws of apples and didn't stay any longer. He smiled at Zheng Juan and left.
He has found Zheng Juan, and there will be many opportunities to contact her in the future. There is no need to be so anxious. The top priority now is work. It is getting late, and he has to go back and prepare.
Zheng Juan did not disappoint him. Although her current appearance was not very good, it was because she was not dressed up. I believe that after dressing up, she would look completely different.
People admire beauty, and if there is a beautiful one, they will definitely not choose an ugly one.
The candied haws on a stick is not delicious, but Zhou Chen doesn't eat well these days, so the candied haws on a stick barely gives him a different taste in his mouth.
The next day, around the same time, Zhou Chen came to the cinema again.
"Bring me a bunch of candied haws."
Zheng Juan raised her head and was a little surprised to see Zhou Chen's familiar face, but she still quickly took a bunch of candied haws.
Zhou Chen paid the money, smiled at Zheng Juan, and left again.
The third day...
The fourth day...
day five;
"A bunch of candied haws, thank you."
It appeared for five consecutive days at almost the same time, making it difficult for people to remember.
This time Zheng Juan did not take the candied haws on a stick immediately, but looked at Zhou Chen and asked: "Do you like eating candied haws on a stick?"
This was not the first conversation between Zhou Chen and Zheng Juan, but it was the first time they talked about something unrelated to business.
Zhou Chen asked: "What's wrong? If you don't like to eat it, can't you buy it?"
Zheng Juan shook her head: "No, just eating too much candied haws, which is bad for your teeth."
Zhou Chen suddenly laughed. This Zheng Juan was really interesting. She was selling candied haws, but she said that eating too much candied haws was bad for your teeth.
What a simple and kind-hearted girl.
"It's okay. My teeth are good and I will come again in the future. Let's go now."
Zhou Chen picked up the candied haws and waved his hand to Zheng Juan: "By the way, my name is Zhou Bingkun, and I live in Guangzipian."
After saying that, he turned around and left, while Zheng Juan watched silently until Zhou Chen's figure disappeared.
"Juan'er, this young man seems to like you."
Aunt Zheng, who was standing nearby and had been silent all this time, suddenly said to her daughter Zheng Juan.
Zheng Juan suddenly said shyly: "Mom, don't talk nonsense. Who can think highly of me?"
Aunt Zheng sighed: "Juan'er, don't say that. You are so beautiful and sensible, but it is my lack of ability that drags you down."
In fact, Zheng Juan could also go to the countryside, but she couldn't worry about her elderly mother and blind brother, so she avoided going to the countryside.
But because of this, she could no longer find a job and had no household registration, which made her life extremely difficult. She could only set up a stall with her mother.
To be continued...