Cannon Fodder Husband Ch.161-162

Chapter 161 – Grandma

After arriving home, Lu Xia rubbed the jade pendant in her hands. It felt smooth and warm to the touch. She hadn’t touched jade before, but the sensation reminded her of the warm jade described in books, so she guessed it must be precious.

She asked Jiang Junmo, “How do you plan to handle this?”

Jiang Junmo saw her playing with the jade pendant and thought she liked it. He pursed his lips and thought for a moment before saying, “I also have a few pieces at home. If you like it, I’ll give them all to you when we return to the capital city. For now, let’s keep this one, and we can return it to Sister-in-law later.”

Lu Xia understood his meaning immediately and rolled her eyes at him. “What do you mean? Do you think I’d take it for myself? Don’t worry, I don’t care about this jade pendant at all!”

Jiang Junmo quickly apologized, “I’m sorry, I misunderstood you, Xia Xia. Can you forgive me?”

Lu Xia saw that he was apologizing while still wearing a smile, so she knew he wasn’t really worried. She pretended to be angry and huffed, “Fine, I forgive you this time. Just don’t think of me as petty in the future. Can’t I see through your intentions? You just wanted them to have some confidence when receiving things in the future. Alright, go away, you only know how to annoy me.”

Jiang Junmo laughed when he heard her words. “Xia Xia is right. Xia Xia is so clever. I misunderstood you, Xia Xia.”

Lu Xia rolled her eyes again upon hearing this and mumbled, “Flatterer!”

Then, she suddenly remembered what Jiang Junmo said earlier, “You said you also have some at home? Were they your grandmother’s dowry?”

Jiang Junmo shook his head, “No, they were left by my mother. In my grandmother’s generation during the Republican era, they were also in business. Later, due to the war, the factory closed down. My great-grandfather sold the remaining assets and took his legitimate sons and daughters abroad. As for my grandfather’s branch, they were illegitimate and not favored, so they were given some money to stay in the country.

But my grandfather’s health wasn’t good, and he didn’t have much business acumen. After getting married, he lived off the savings. Later, when the savings were almost depleted, there was only a small courtyard in the capital and some belongings left.

Afterward, his health deteriorated further, and he passed away. After he left, my grandmother had a hard time taking care of my mother until my mother joined the army and met my father.

But unexpectedly, after she married my father and gave birth to five children, she passed away too.

After losing her only daughter, my grandmother was heartbroken and didn’t live much longer. She passed away when I was five years old, leaving the small courtyard and belongings to me.”

This was the first time Lu Xia heard him talk about his grandmother’s family. Now that she knew that there was no one left in his grandmother’s family, she couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for him.

She walked over and held his hand.

Seeing this, Jiang Junmo smiled and said, “It’s alright. I’m not sad about it. In fact, I don’t have much memory of my grandmother. But my sisters have told me that she was a good person, an elderly lady with bound feet who used to walk slowly for a long time to visit us grandchildren in the city.

She even planted fruit trees in the courtyard before, and in the autumn, she would pick the fruits and bring them to us to eat.”

Listening to him, Lu Xia held his hand even tighter, sensing the sadness in his tone.

But she didn’t know how to comfort him, as she was once an orphan and unfamiliar with the feeling of family. All she could do was be there with him.

Fortunately, Jiang Junmo quickly recovered and smiled at her, saying, “When we return to the city in the future, let’s live in that small courtyard. I’ve already talked to my family about it before, after I get married, I’ll move out. Although the small courtyard is not big, the environment is nice. It’ll be our home in the future, and you should like it.”

Lu Xia nodded, “Okay.”

*

Chapter 162 – Property in the Capital City

.

This proposal surprised Lu Xia a bit. She hadn’t expected that even before returning to the capital city, they already had a place to live, and it was a small courtyard where they could even plant fruit trees! Although it belonged to Jiang Junmo, they were already married, so she considered it partly hers as well. And it was a property in the capital city!

Other time-traveling women usually had to work hard and struggle before they could afford a place to live, but she married into a family with a house, saving her the trouble.

How wonderful!

However, speaking of this, Lu Xia suddenly remembered something. “You mentioned that there are still relatives of your grandfather’s family abroad?”

Jiang Junmo nodded, understanding her concerns. He explained, “Don’t worry, they left during the Republican era, and it doesn’t affect us. Besides, my grandfather was from a branch of the family and had already separated from them. There was no contact between them after that. It’s been so long, and no one knows about it.”

Lu Xia nodded in relief, “That’s good.”

In the following days, Jiang Junmo managed to find time again to bring some food and brown sugar to Senior Brother Xu.

This time, Senior Brother Xu accepted it directly. It seemed that they did gain some confidence in receiving things after giving away the jade pendant.

After the Lantern Festival, Lu Xia didn’t go to the educated youth spot to play cards anymore. One reason was that the educated youth spot no longer needed people, and the other was that they had resumed their studies.

It was now 1974, and they would face the college entrance examination in three years. Though they still had time, other than winter, they had to work and couldn’t focus on studying. So they needed to make good use of the winter time.

Time passed quickly, and before they knew it, the first month had passed, but it was still very cold outside. It was estimated that it wouldn’t thaw until March. So, they could rest for a while.

On a sunny day, Lu Xia and Jiang Junmo found time to visit the town.

Upon arriving in town, they split up. Jiang Junmo went to pick up a package, while Lu Xia went to “buy” food. Although Jiang Junmo strongly insisted on going together, he was rejected by Lu Xia, who claimed it was inconvenient for the sellers.

In fact, they still had plenty of food at home, but they needed to occasionally bring some to Senior Brother Xu and others. So, she decided to prepare more this time.

Lu Xia directly took out two big bags from the space, which should be enough for a long time.

One bag was half coarse grains and half fine grains, which was for Senior Brother Xu’s group. She estimated that they wouldn’t dare to ask for fine grains, but even coarse grains from her space were good for their health.

After Jiang Junmo finished picking up the package and saw the two big bags of food by Lu Xia’s side, he was stunned.

After a while, he reacted and asked, “Why did you buy so much?”

Lu Xia rolled her eyes at him. “There are more people to feed, so naturally, I bought more.”

Jiang Junmo opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end, he didn’t speak.

He just asked, “Is there enough money?”

Lu Xia nodded, “Don’t worry, it’s enough. Now we just need to figure out how to take it back to the village.”

Jiang Junmo took the packages off the bicycle and said, “Put them on the rear seat. We should be able to manage. Let’s push the bicycle back.”

Lu Xia sighed. She had forgotten that they still needed to bring the food back to the village. Now, they could only do it this way.

“Will the bicycle be damaged?” she asked.

Jiang Junmo shook his head, “Don’t worry, it won’t.”

So, Lu Xia helped him stack the two bags on the rear seat of the bicycle.

The bicycle trembled a bit, and the tire flattened halfway, but it held strong.

Lu Xia couldn’t help but marvel. The quality of bicycles in this era was really good!

<< >>