Back to the 60s: The Struggle Career of a Charmed Wife-Chapter 385 - 0: Lion’s Mouth Opens 1_1

Working as a servant in the Lu family means housing and food are taken care of and there is a monthly salary to supplement their own family. Even if it amounts to two or three dollars a month, it’s better off than having a son farming for a living in their hometown, pulling at the yellow soil daily. Therefore, it’s considered an honor for families to have their daughters work as servants in the Lu family, a chance to learn to conform to certain etiquettes and standards.

Better to marry a maid of a wealthy family, than a girl from a poor family.

This means, even the maids of wealthy families are more worldly than the poor farm girls, and when they reach marriageable age, there are typically many suitors, assuring their parents they would find a good match and even collect a decent dowry.

The mother of Feng Qingxue, Fengying, and her aunt Fengmei, both worked as servants in the Lu family.

Only Wang Fengqiao, who was weak and sickly since childhood, did not work as a maid in the Lu family. However, she often visited the Lu family, and her name too was given by the old lady of the Lu family; just like Daya, the head maid of the Lu family, she was named after her older sister.

Due to Wang Zhengguo’s face, Fengmei, who was Feng Qingxue’s aunt, along with Fengying, the mother of Feng Qingxue, followed the old lady of the Lu family and learned a lot. Later when Wang Zhengguo’s brothers got married, except for the youngest, they all married maids from the Lu family. The private savings they had accumulated over several years of service was considerable, and they were each rewarded substantially when they were married off.

Wang Zhengguo secretly helped Lu Jiang’s father. Apart from the youngest brother Wang Zhengjun, two other brothers and sisters-in-law were aware but never revealed it. Why? Because they had all benefited from the Lu family.

Although Wang Zhengguo’s brothers did not work as servants in the Lu family, Wang Zhengguo taught them the principles of being educated and human.

Wang Zhengjun was able to go to school and broaden his horizons because of the financial assistance he received from Wang Zhengguo. Now, he is a clerk at the Mining Bureau, his son married the daughter of a department-level official. Life was good until his wife’s siblings came and made a scene, embarrassing him. This, coupled with a grain shortage, led him to Wang Zhengguo in the early morning, demanding a few hundred kilograms of grain.

Wang Zhengguo stared with wide-eyed disbelief at his youngest brother and finally cleaned his ears, "Little brother, what did you say? I am getting old and my hearing is not so good, can you repeat that?"

"I need you to get me a few hundred kilograms of grain. I will pay for it; isn’t coarse grain sold at seven cents per kilogram?" As Wang Zhengjun was about to reach into his pocket to pay, not hearing any refusal from Wang Zhengguo, he slowly pulled out his wallet, took a Big Solidarity note, and handed it over to Wang Zhengguo, "Is this enough?"

Wang Zhengguo was both amused and annoyed. He had saved face for him, even taking his siblings to a wedding banquet to avoid holding grudges and causing trouble for the Wanglou Brigade. Does he think he is being taken advantage of?

"It’s definitely not enough. Little brother, when did coarse grain cost only seven cents per kilogram? It’s seven cents per two kilograms, which is seven and two tenths cents for ten kilograms, and seven dollars and two cents for a hundred kilograms," said Wang Zhengguo earnestly, not reaching out to take the old Big Solidarity note. "How many hundreds kilograms of grain do you want? Is it one hundred kilograms or nine hundred kilograms? They’re all ’hundreds.’ Moreover, do you have a grain loan certificate from your unit? Do you have a grain ticket? Even though I’m the captain of the Wanglou Brigade and also the party secretary, the grain store is collective property, and I can’t make the decision alone. As our leaders have said, the more senior the cadre, the less they should take even the slightest advantage of the collective. You’re also a cadre, and an urban cadre at that, you must set an example." novelbuddy-cσ๓

Although he slaughtered pigs and caught fish for his personal gain, when the meat and fish were distributed, he and his wife didn’t take a single shred of meat or a single fishbone more than their share. Six liang of meat, four jin of fish, all was distributed with exactitude under everyone’s scrutiny.

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