The kitchen was tidied up, and Zhao Tianlei sent the two young ones off to wash their faces and go to bed.
Only a few adults were left, gathered in the main room.
"Wife, I plan to take Xiao He and Da Li out tomorrow to look around."
Yun Xiaoxiao, of course, had no objections, "I also plan to take Lanhua and my little sister to the shop to look around."
"Alright, let them get familiar with the surroundings..."
Yun Xiaoxiao thought of something else, "If you see someone selling vegetables, buy some more to bring back."
Worried that the stored vegetables wouldn’t be enough.
Now that there were more people around.
"Buy vegetables? Don’t we have so many already?"
"We have to eat these vegetables all winter. If we don’t store more, we’ll run out during winter."
"Here in the Capital City, it’s not like our hometown, where you can just pick vegetables from the field. Here, the ground freezes over in winter, and you can’t grow vegetables. I’ve heard there are greenhouse vegetables, but the ones from the greenhouses are a bit more expensive..."
"So that’s how it is."
Zhao Tianhe then started talking about some things that had happened recently at home.
"The grain distributed by the brigade was hauled back for you by your uncle, and the rice I got for you was milled by your uncle."
Zhao Tianhe mentioned Fang Chaoyang, "Chaoyang wanted to come as well, but his Grandma Fang fell sick after the autumn harvest and couldn’t leave for a while."
Grandma Fang, being of age, had fallen ill after the harvest. She had been to the health clinic in the town and had taken some medicine, but she still hadn’t recovered.
"Grandma Fang is ill?"
Mentioning this, Zhao Tianhe had even more to say, "Ill. Chaoyang’s uncle and his younger uncle’s family, neither wants to pay for the medical expenses, and they blame Chaoyang, saying that one raises sons to provide for old age, but this is how they treat their own mother—heartless. I really want to see what will become of them in the future?"
Zhang Lanhua didn’t speak, just listened quietly.
"If the health clinic can’t treat her, maybe she could go to the county hospital for a check-up?"
The town’s health clinic could only prescribe some generic medications.
To properly treat some illnesses, it was necessary to go to a larger hospital.
"Afraid Grandma Fang is too stingy to spend the money," sighed Zhao Tianlei.
Elderly people often don’t like spending money.
If they’re unwilling to spend, then they can only wait for death at home.
"Isn’t it always ? The autumn harvest isn’t even a few days past, and two elders in our brigade have passed away."
This year’s great harvest meant that the grains distributed could almost fully satiate the families.
"By the way, sister-in-law, thankfully you were growing the seedlings. This year’s rice harvest was a big success, a third more than last year’s yield, though the other brigades had quite a bit less."
"Enough to keep the brigade members fed."
After discussing a bit more, everyone went back to their respective rooms.
Zhao Tianlei called Da Li aside and asked, "Da Li, I know you’ve just got married and you’re starting to be intimate. When the time comes, you could rent a place to live."
Da Li did indeed want to hold his wife while sleeping.
"You know the score. My Da Bao is already in primary school, and who knows where your child is?"
They had all been too poor before. If an older brother got married, there’d hardly be any money left for the younger ones to get married, so it got delayed.
"Third Brother, I’ll ask my wife."
Now that he was married, it wasn’t like he was single anymore, not like Xiao He.
Zhao Tianlei was aware that since Da Li was married and had his own little family, things couldn’t be like before.
When he returned to his room, he started discussing the matter with Yun Xiaoxiao.