Section 5: Special Times

When dusk fell, Lu Li and Gou Li rushed all the way into the small courtyard from outside, uncle, aunt, two sisters, and grandfather had already eaten, on the low table on the ground, there were dishes and chopsticks, dinner was Wowotou, fried potatoes with tomato sauce saved last autumn.

"What did you do? So late! Bad luck! Yu Fang took out a few nests from the pot and went to the door to serve the vegetables, "Wash your hands!" Eating without washing your hands? ”

The daughter of the Wu family came out after the two little ones, grabbed one with one hand, and escorted it to the water basin, "Bow your head!" He said to the dog, "Don't run, wait." ”

Boys' face washing is jokingly called 'cat face washing' by adults, and the emphasis is on holding water in your hands and pulling it on your face, which is not serious at all. The younger brother rubbed and scratched the younger brother hard. Luli's small body was shaken, his neck was scratching his sister's nails hotly and painfully, and his mouth was humming vigorously. "Look at your neck, how does it look like an axle? It's all iron-colored! ”

After washing his face, he grabbed his hand again, put soap on it, and washed it all the way to red, white, and white, and then he said, "Go ahead." ”

Luli sat down on the small bench, picked up a nest head, the dog immediately washed his face, and sat down too, and the two of them picked up chopsticks and spoons, and gnawed on them; These two children get together all day long, eat at this house today, eat at that house tomorrow, parents on both sides have become a habit, and if they don't come back when the meal is opened, they know that they must have eaten at the opposite door, and they will not worry.

Yu Fang lit a cigarette, took a puff beautifully, and reprimanded loudly sideways, "Eat potatoes!" If you lack morality, you know how to spoon tomatoes, you are not stupid! ”

Wu Baokun took a few puffs of cigarettes, snuffed out the cigarette butts, got up and went out, "Baochai, why are you going?" ”

Bao Chai is the nickname of his uncle. It turned out that after the founding of New China, a movie called "March 3rd" was staged, which is a story about the Bai people turning over and becoming masters under the leadership of the party. In fact, this character has nothing to do with him except for the similarity of his name, but his family and neighbors in the alley thought it was funny, so they gave him this nickname.

"Go to Courtyard Four."

"You know that you have something else to do with your erhu?"

Wu Baokun can play the erhu, and his skills are quite good, every day after dinner, he and his neighbors in the hutong fiddle with a few musical instruments, which is his favorite; In addition to him, there are also the fathers of Li Xin and Liu Kang, who are also one of Lu Li's friends, one plays the accordion and the other plays the dulcimer.

He ignored his wife's complaints, opened the door, turned around and said, "Xiaoxiao, don't let your aunt do it after eating and washing the dishes." ”

"What about the child's meal, are you urging?" Yu Fang glared at her husband's back, and looked back at the dog who was snoring and snoring, "You slow down, look at what you eat, it's like a chicken's eye." Why are you eating so fast? Look at Tiny? ”

At noon, the two of them only cared about playing crazy, and they didn't eat seriously for lunch, and they were so hungry at this time, and soon, the nest head quickly filled the temple of the five organs, and the potatoes and tomatoes on an enamel plate also entered their own and small bellies respectively; Lu wiped the vegetable juice and dough residue from the corners of his mouth with his hands, picked up the empty plate with his hands and feet, and turned out, "Why are you going?" ”

"Brush!"

"Leave it there, I'll go later."

"Uncle, uncle...... Tell me about it,"

"Don't listen to him, leave it there, I'll do it later."

"Yu Fang, let him go." Wu Jihou said, "It's so big, why don't you do anything?" Tiny, go wash the dishes! ”

With her father-in-law's words, Yu Fang couldn't stop her, she knew that because of the death of her daughter, her father-in-law turned his thoughts into hatred for Lu Xuedong and this widow, and he never had a good face for several years, and even when the child first arrived at his home, he never hugged his infant grandson.

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The living conditions of Wu Baokun's family are very good, although his aunt has no job, but there are not many children; My uncle was a police officer, and his salary was 46 yuan and 6 jiao per month, which was the same as that of a third-class worker in the factory.

At that time, state workers like Wu Baokun (who were not senior cadres, their salaries were high) were not as good as factory workers, and the reason was very simple: the organ was 100% Qingshui Yamen, and there was absolutely no gray, black, and white income outside of normal income, and they only relied on a salary that would never change the amount issued by the state every month, so there were many people who tried their best to ask to be transferred to the enterprise to work, just to get an additional salary of 4 yuan per month (in fact, it is a bonus, but it can't be called that). , because the surname of the bonus is capitalist material stimulus) and some very little overtime pay.

As far as enterprise workers are concerned, in addition to wages and additional wages, there are also overtime wages (according to the normal 200% pay, usually not allowed to work overtime, even if some people work overtime, it is also a voluntary contribution), transportation subsidies of 2-6 yuan, which is determined according to the distance between the family and the unit, and the nearest public transportation should be more than four stops.

Taking Wu Baokun as an example, in addition to his salary, his monthly income also includes a compensation fee, which is 0.2-0.8 yuan per month; The haircut fee is 2-2.5 yuan per month; **Subsidy, 5 yuan per month; Night shift fee: 0.4 yuan per time, movie fee: 0.5 yuan per month, coal fire fee, 16 yuan per quarter, and non-staple food allowance 5 yuan per month.

There are also some labor protection supplies, such as gloves, work clothes, soap, etc., which are all examples; Luli was most pleased that he could take a bath at his uncle's police station - which was also a perk - and the police officers in the station were free, and the family members could wash once for 5 cents, which was much cheaper than in the public bath.

In addition to his uncle's salary, his grandfather Wu Jihou's salary was the bulk of his income - his monthly salary was more than 100 yuan, which was about the same level as an eighth-level worker in the factory, which was extremely high at that time. There is a reason for this: after the liberation, public-private partnerships were implemented, and the wages of some people who remained before the liberation were all reported by individuals -- that is, they were able to pay as much as they wanted. In fact, such a salary level is not a lie on the part of Wu Jihou, who received sixteen oceans in his salary in the early days of liberation.

Wu Jihou before the liberation, once in the Tian (Tianjin) City of the famous landlord, the big hooligan leader Yuan Moumou served, what exactly Lu Li did not know, but I heard that Wu Jihou played a good hand, that is, stud, there are those who like to play cards in the alley, often take cigarettes as a bet, and he about to fight, but the card is sent down, everyone knows great!

Wu Jihou's greatest strength is that others should never want to see any clues from his face! Regardless of whether the card is good or bad, he has never had a little bit of joy and anger on his horse face, Luli heard his uncle say when he was a child, grandfather's performance, so that others can not figure out their heads at all, so that others even if they have a good hand, but in the mentality of wanting to win and afraid of losing, most of them hastily fold the cards, dare not follow.

Listening to Wu Baokun, the most, Wu Jihou won thirty-five cigarettes from Lao Han (that is, Gouli's father)! And that's with five cigarettes as the upper limit of betting! Later, according to Wu Jihou himself, he opened the hole cards in advance for the sake of each other's neighbors, and he won Lao Han's 10 and 9 gourds with a deck of A and 6 gourds.

The hole cards were opened, and Lao Han was furious! Don't want to think that you are sure to win or lose to your opponent? Shouting for a while, only saying that the other party was playing 'hand lottery' (cheating, out of a thousand meanings), the two sides almost turned their faces on the spot, or under the persuasion of others, the matter was stopped.

Although Wu Jihou often plays and wins, he doesn't smoke, and the cigarettes he wins are cheaper than Wu Baokun and Yu Fang.

Luli listened with great joy, "That'...... That and that...... Come? ”

"Later, your mother was not happy."

"Huh?"

"yes, your mother is so unhappy!" Wu Baokun lovingly rubbed the head of this child who had never seen his biological mother, "Your mother and your grandfather had a quarrel, saying that they drank too much and played cards too thinly!" How many years have I lived here, just for a few cigarettes, I have made my face red and my neck thick, and even my neighbors can't do it! Is it worth it? He sighed and added, "Since then, your grandfather has never played cards with his neighbors again." ”

Luli's little heart was full of pride: Mom is so good! What a powerful thing to say! Looking at Grandpa's usual cold person, didn't he also give his mother a few words obediently obedient?

"You're quite like your grandfather at this point, you can do it! Your grandfather is the same, he said that if he doesn't play cards, he won't play cards, and after that, no matter how others look for him, he won't play cards anymore! ”