??Chapter 464: 464. Shengzi_1
Chapter 464: 464. Shengzi_1
Such a gossip-laden sentence quickly drew everyone’s attention, and imdiately soone expressed their opinion.
“Where’s she from? She looks pretty young, what was she thinking?”
“Oh my, she wasn’t bought, was she?”
“Bought what? The girl is from Shannan, and she just wants to marry him!”
“Impossible! Old Zheng is hitting 40 this year. If he really had the charm to woo soone, why did his first two wives insist on divorcing him no matter what?”
Old Zheng was a well-known bachelor in their village. He got married for the first ti when he was around twenty but barely half a year passed and his new wife was done with him. She said he was a loser and wanted a divorce.
Back then, divorce wasn’t common, and the two hadn’t even registered their marriage officially; she packed her bags and headed straight to the south to find work.
After a couple of years, the village matchmaker introduced him to another woman—a widow, thinking that since they were both dirt poor, neither would despise the other for lacking ambition…
But after another two years, the widow was done too.
She had set her sights on soone better and remarried to an even more remote place—Songshu Town.
Now, lo and behold, a girl from Shannan, barely in her early twenties, was dead set on setting her sights on Old Zheng. Why was this?
The crowd was buzzing with chatter, their voices truly thunderous. You didn’t even have to enter the courtyard to hear them; it was audible from the road.
By the ti Qiaoqiao slowly made her way there, she had nearly heard the whole backstory.
Qiaoqiao, who had entered the courtyard without knowing what was going on: …
The viewers in the middle of eating lon in the live stream: …
[Co on, old lady! You were going to say sothing!]
[Yeah! What’s the reason? Why did you stop at the half-way mark?]
[My goodness, if you’re not selling waterlons, at least let us finish this piece of gossip!]
[Hurry, hurry! Ask why!]
The elderly n and won in the courtyard, on the other hand, were very enthusiastic when they saw Qiaoqiao:
“Qiaoqiao’s co?”
“Look how hot it is, your face is all red… go drink so water.”
“Qiaoqiao, why are you still carrying a tripod to your grandpa’s place?”
“Oh my, are you shooting a video?”
“A video? Shoot one of , Wang Nainai, just sothing simple and hardworking…”
“Wang Juhua! Hardworking? All you do is talk. Do you work as much as I do?”
“Work is done with hands, not with your mouth. You’re just not efficient and assu others get distracted as easily as you…”
Seeing the two old ladies start to bicker again, the comnts section in the live stream really began to heat up!
[Fight! Fight!]
[Although it’s immoral… it seems like it would really be interesting if they started fighting…]
[Wow, is this the working environnt in the countryside?]
[No secrets in the village, seems like there’s plenty of gossip—]
[At this mont, I am the paca in the lon field]
Too bad, besides Zhang Yanping, who was alternately watching Taotao Bao and occasionally glancing at the comnts, no one bothered to read the barrage.
Song Youde, used to various spectacles, instead asked Qiaoqiao, “What are you filming?”
Qiaoqiao pointed to the half-woven mat in his hand:
“The wine-making process was at a standstill, so I had to wait, hence I ca to live stream weaving mats.”
“Alright, then you film it—”
Song Youde pointed to the wall: “Just put it over there, right? Anyway, as long as you can capture it, it’s fine. You go take a break.”
“Oh.”
Qiaoqiao neatly placed the stand to one side, then went off to drink water by herself.
anwhile, the barrage of comnts in the live broadcast room began to roll in excitedly. Thankfully, the crowd in the yard did not disappoint this anticipation—
The grandmother Wang who had just brought up the topic said:
“…Shannan was really poor back then, the young people nowadays have no idea, in the past many people loved to go there to buy brides.”
As she spoke, she suddenly exclaid, “Aiyo,” and glanced warily and nervously in Qiaoqiao’s direction, “I’m not being fild saying this, am I?”
“What’s there to fear? My daughter-in-law makes those ‘Tremolo’ videos, and I’ve seen them. Before posting, they have to clip it on the phone and add so music, there’s no sound at all.”
“Oh oh oh.” Grandma Wang lowered her voice again, adding an air of mystery, “Ai, our village doesn’t have that, you have to be really lacking to spend money to buy soone… our Yunqiao Village, I’m not bragging, is truly good.”
“That’s true, that’s true…”
When it ca to their hotown, everyone was full of praise once again.
But, what Grandma Wang was saying was also true.
Back in the day, getting married didn’t require a house or a car, just a young man willing to work hard, a family easy to get along with…
Their Yunqiao Village really was quite good.
Even that lazy man no one looked up to, he wouldn’t have stooped to such levels.
Grandma Wang sighed:
“However, it’s not like there were no requirents back then. I rember when my eldest son was looking to take a bride, the matchmaker brought the girl’s family over for a look-see.”
“Back then, the custom was to bring them to the granary to check if the grain pile was high—Aiyo, you all know my family was really poor back then, clinking with emptiness, all held together by bits and pieces cobbled together by relatives.”
“Sohow, they didn’t look down on us, it was just after a famine… we just had to make do.”
Qiaoqiao, who had finished drinking water and was now sitting in the corridor, listened obediently and asked, “Why did they need to look at the grain pile?”
“Because back then you couldn’t buy things with money; they gave out too few coupons, grain was the real hard currency.” Song Youde exclaid, the village was isolated with news, and he still had a stack of unused coupons even now.
“Having grain or not was the standard to asure whether a man could support a family.”
Oh. Qiaoqiao understood.
The barrage also understood.
[Learned sothing new!]
[This live stream is worth it!]
[I just asked my mom, she says our place used to have this custom too.]
[Sa here, my mom said she got duped badly—back then my Grandpa was in charge, the house had piles of grain, but they just wouldn’t let anyone eat it, they lived on savings]
At this mont, those who were weaving straw mats outside started to laugh:
“Wang Juhua, back then you could even borrow three sacks. That Zheng you were just ntioning—”
Zheng was only in his forties, quite junior compared to those present, but since the whole village called him that, everyone just followed along haphazardly.
“I rember when he first took a bride, his family couldn’t produce a single grain of rice. He went roundabout to borrow a ‘shengzi’ from his aunt.”
“When the matchmaker brought the girl’s family to the granary and saw not even a mouse could live off of it, their faces went dark.”
Qiaoqiao turned into a walking question mark again: “What’s a ‘shengzi’?”
Song Youde gestured: “Back when tis were poor, the entire commune had just one set of scales, and every ti you needed it, you had to look for the village head… so each household had a wooden or clay container.”
“Square, rectangular, round… they had all kinds, but essentially, when filled up, it was a ‘sheng,’ so it was called a ‘shengzi’—by today’s standards, a full ‘shengzi’ would be about four catties of grain.”
Holy moly!
The barrage of comnts was astonished.
[So there was such a thing?]
[Why haven’t I read about this in period dramas?]
[Each place is different…]
[A commune with just one set of scales… I can now imagine just how poor they were]
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