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
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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!
Chapter 163 – Cutting Ties
On their way back home, Jiang Junmo pushed the bike while Lu Xia carried the package, and they returned home in this difficult manner. Fortunately, it was mealtime when they came back, so they didn’t encounter many people on the road, and nobody noticed them.
After arriving home and storing the food, Jiang Junmo suddenly remembered, “By the way, I saw a letter for you at the post office today, and I brought it back.”
“Oh? There’s a letter for me?” Could it be a reply from the Lu family?
Lu Xia was surprised because she thought the Lu family wouldn’t reply so quickly. She expected they would at least inquire about the situation before writing back. However, now that they had sent a letter, she couldn’t wait to see what it said inside.
She took the letter and opened it.
Indeed, the letter was from the Lu family, written by Lu Qiu.
In the letter, Mother Lu directly stated that they would consider her as if she didn’t exist in their family from now on, asking her not to write back home anymore because they felt embarrassed by her.
Since she willingly married into the countryside, she should live there as a dutiful wife and mother, and never return to her parents’ home as if it didn’t exist.
They wouldn’t even allow her to step inside their home if she ever returned!
The contents of this letter were concise, and Lu Xia was surprised that Mother Lu didn’t even bother to scold her. Instead, she straightforwardly cut off all ties with her. Was this their way of expressing anger without resorting to further insults?
However, what surprised her even more was that there was another letter secretly written by Lu Qiu.
In the letter, Lu Xia learned the reason why they replied so quickly.
As it turned out, one of the educated youths who had gone to the countryside with Lu Xia returned to the city during the New Year’s holiday. The person lived in a neighboring community near their residence.