Chapter 353: Exchange Marriage
Chapter 353 Exchange Marriage
Jiang Mengyu quickly greeted, "Auntie, hello, I am Xiao Hua’s classmate. Xiao Hua mentioned that the scenery in your mountains is beautiful, and since our school is on winter vacation, I came here to spend a few days."
She put down the rice she was carrying on her shoulder: "While passing through the market, I bought two bags of rice and a leg of wild boar meat as a gift, Auntie, please don’t disdain it."
The two bags of rice together weighed one hundred jin, and the leg of wild boar meat was about ten jin or so; such generous gifts, who would disdain them?
Mother Xiao Hua smiled cheerfully: "Ah, since you’re here, why bring such heavy gifts."
Jiang Mengyu laughed, this gift was indeed "heavy".
However, one hundred jin of rice, buying it with food tickets would cost only fourteen yuan.
As for the leg of wild boar meat, it was sold in the market for one yuan and forty-five cents per jin, this leg about thirty jin, so it was worth about thirty to fifty yuan.
Mother Xiao Hua poured homemade black tea for them to drink.
Xiao Hua drank it in one gulp, wiped her mouth and asked: "Where are Father and brother? Ah Xiu and Ah Xi are also on holiday, why aren’t they at home?"
Mother Xiao Hua said, "Your Father and brother went up the mountain, they should be back soon. Ah Xiu and Ah Xi went out to gather wild vegetables, they will be back soon too."
Sure enough, not long after, a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl and an eight or nine-year-old boy came back together. Upon seeing Xiao Hua, they happily called her "big sister."
Xiao Hua handed out candies she bought from the market to each of them.
Jiang Mengyu quickly took out apples, and also gave each person one.
The two children seemed very happy, the boy named Xiao Xi exclaimed in surprise: "This is an apple, I have seen it in books, I recognize it!" Saying that, he took a bite from the apple without even washing it, let alone peeling it.
"Apples taste so good."
Jiang Mengyu was somewhat shocked in her heart, an apple, they had only seen it in books?
She took out more apples from her bag, gave one to Mother Xiao Hua, and handed one to Xiao Hua, "You eat one too."
It seems, this village is quite poor.
Jiang Mengyu took out one apple after another and placed them on the Table of Eight Immortals.
After a while, Father Xiao Hua and Brother Xiao Hua, Xiao Li, also returned, each carrying a piece of timber back. They piled it next to the stilt house. It seemed they were planning to construct a new house.
Houses in the mountains are built by cutting timber themselves, and the roofs are covered with fir bark. Generally, after preparing the material, they hire masons to lay the foundation and carpenters to build the house, thus in the mountains, the major cost for building a house is the labor.
The Xiao Family was constructing a new house, presumably, Brother Xiao Hua’s good news wasn’t far off, was it?
Indeed, during dinner, Father Xiao Hua spoke.
"Xiao Hua, your brother has found a match and plans to get married before the New Year. Our family already doesn’t have much money, and you have reached high school, maybe stop schooling next year."
Even, he didn’t shy away from Jiang Mengyu, an outsider.
Jiang Mengyu had thought they would first build the house then get married, but it turned out they planned to marry and then build the house.
Xiao Hua was unhappy: "Dad, I only have one last semester to graduate, just let me finish this semester—"
Father Xiao Hua firmly said: "No, our family doesn’t have money to support your education anymore."
Xiao Hua quickly said: "I don’t need family support, I’ll find a way to borrow money for school, and I will repay it myself later."
But Brother Xiao Hua wasn’t patient enough to explain in detail, cutting off Xiao Hua’s words: "Hua, to tell you the truth, not only do they like me, but they also have taken a liking to you! So, after building a nice house next year, we’ll get married together."
Xiao Hua was shocked: "Brother, you mean, our family and their family are exchanging marriages?"