CHAPTER 60: CHAPTER 059 FRIGHTENED OUT OF HIS WITS

——————

Having resolved the unpleasant situation with the Lin Family’s coercive buying and selling, Lin Zhaodi felt wonderful.

Mainly because she believed that without spending a cent, she managed to deal with that brute Lin Aiguo, a real asshole. Although her son took all the money from the house, which annoyed her greatly, her beloved son came first. Thinking deeper, since that money was ultimately for her beloved son, she felt better by letting go of her anger.

Her wildly imaginative mind now felt utterly fulfilled in life. She had driven away the most detestable person, come into a windfall, and with her son having so much money, surely he wouldn’t have a hard time. Perhaps he could even make more money and return home grandly with a daughter-in-law and a golden grandson!

The more she thought about it, the more delightful Lin Zhaodi felt. As for Zhang Zhiguo, who completely ignored her, she didn’t waste any energy trying to fathom him. After seeing her daughters leave and the onlookers disperse, Zhang Zhiguo had surprisingly even walked his old uncle’s family out. Left bored at home, feeling both proud and thrilled, she quickly stepped out the door to gossip with her neighbors.

As a result, when Zhang Zhiguo returned, he found there wasn’t a soul in the house, and not even a scrap of food was left on the cold stove!

Fortunately, there was ready-made food at the uncle’s house. Today, Lin Aiguo had come looking for trouble since ten in the morning and kept it going until nearly four in the afternoon. The Zhang Family hadn’t eaten anything all day, but thanks to Zhiming’s diligent house, in just over twenty minutes, they cooked up a pot of dough lumps. Everyone was famished and ate boisterously.

Having not experienced the care of his elders for a long time, Zhang Zhiguo felt deeply touched.

However, upon returning home and finding nobody around, he felt completely disappointed in someone, and whether she was there or not actually didn’t matter anymore!

Zhang Zhiguo also took advantage of her absence to thoroughly search the inner room and finally found the remaining money in the house—only thirty yuan!

Ah, with so little money and all the broken items in the house, who knew how much it would cost to replace everything, and with New Year’s just three months away, who knew if that money could even last until then? And yet Lin Zhaodi actually had the mood to go outside and chat?

She must be sick in the head, and severely so.

At this moment, Zhang Zhiguo truly understood that he could no longer neglect the household matters. As for where Lin Zhaodi had gone, Zhang Zhiguo said he didn’t see and didn’t care.

After thinking it over, he couldn’t simply take all the money from the house. So, he put ten yuan back in its place and tucked twenty yuan into his pocket before leaving home.

Zhang Zhiguo felt that if the money stayed at home, he would never have a say in how it’s used. Over the years, he couldn’t carry the burdens or lift a hand, and he hadn’t as much strength as Lin Zhaodi, let alone compared to Zhang Shanni. Therefore, knowing full well that an argument would erupt after Lin Zhaodi found out he took the money, Zhang Zhiguo decided it was best to avoid and talk about it later.

After some thought, he buried the money in a small hole in the family’s storeroom.

The Zhang Family’s old house had many rooms, a testament to Zhang Honghan’s backbone and hard work. It allowed Zhang Zhiguo to live comfortably for over forty years, and it was after this incident that he truly grew up mentally.

With a hard-working younger daughter like Zhang Shanni, Lin Zhaodi was just a lazy woman at home. Previously, Zhang Shanni managed the house and daily life activities; Lin Zhaodi only cared about her own bed and completely ignored all other household chores.

Zhang Family has three main halls, and also east and west wing rooms, added with a storage poultry pen behind the main building, and a kitchen connected to the firewood room, altogether, Zhang Family seems spacious and open. It’s just that since all the elderly in the family had passed away, and Lin Zhaodi is lazy and careless, the houses in the courtyard have gradually deteriorated.

A single chilly room, marks the beginning of the family’s decline... Zhang Zhiguo sighed with a low mood, realizing that he himself was to blame. For the first time, he hated himself, his own weakness and incompetence.

Meanwhile, Zhang Dongliang and Lin Aimei, whom Lin Zhaodi worried about, after leaving Qingyun Town, then arrived in the county town. Unfamiliar with life’s journey, the two of them were filled with joy and novelty towards the bustling city, first randomly finding a foothold in a small farmhouse on the outskirts of the county town.

After more than two hours on the bus, they were exhaustingly tired, after a good night’s sleep, the couple found a vacant house to rent with the help of their host, the rent of five yuan per month almost scared the newlyweds to death.

But after asking around in the county town, that’s the cheapest house around the outskirts they could find.

The cheapest house, of course, couldn’t be very large, just a single room, for sleeping inside, cooking outside, and there was also a table for eating and drinking tea, the whole space was no more than twenty square meters!

Compared with the country, such a single room for living is not even as big as Zhang Dongliang’s own room!

In the yard of this empty house, there are also four other households, plus them, making a total of five households, sharing a common entrance to the courtyard, with a small plot of land under each window reserved for growing some seasonal vegetables to save on buying them.

Zhang Dongliang, who had never managed a household by himself, had no idea about the cost of living, whereas Lin Aimei had never been beyond Qingshan Team, with the furthest place being Qingshan Town, and even then she only had the chance to go there when accompanying her mother to shop, she was nearly twenty and could count her visits to Qingshan Town on one hand.

Zhang Dongliang had no skills, Lin Aimei, although looking good, was still a village girl with no vision for the future, and their life in the county town was like blind people feeling their way, growing through setbacks and adjustments.

Hence, it took the two of them a full three months trapped in the county town before they found a way to survive. And the expense for three months had used up nearly a hundred yuan!

Their fast-spending cash made Zhang Zhiguo and Lin Aimei feel a strong sense of crisis.

The only consolation was that Lin Aimei, because she had a picky brother, cooked very well, and after working as a cook in a restaurant for a month and a half, she started to earn some income.

And with her clever mind, after detecting the approximate income of her boss’s family, she hit upon the idea of opening her own small shop.

But regrettably, it was just about time for the New Year, Zhang Dongliang had never been away from home so long, he wanted to go back but was afraid his parents were still angry, among those, Lin Aiguo’s foul temper was enough to scare him witless...

Eventually, Zhang Dongliang and Lin Aimei decided not to return this year, as they had just got on their feet in the county town, Zhang Dongliang got nowhere despite his efforts, and his income was even less than Lin Aimei’s, which made his male pride rise fiercely, to think about returning home so downcast, his intuition told him he couldn’t bear such a loss of face!

Lin Aimei, from the little things Zhang Dongliang did, detected his intentions, and eventually, she tried to persuade him, the couple started a small snack stand in a crowded place—

No matter what, the young couple finally adapted to their new life in the county town, and this was a good start.

As for their future, it can only be said that everyone has their own destiny, one choice leads to ongoing consequences...