Volume 1: Reborn in the 1980s, selling lunch boxes with my mother Chapter 9 I'm here to take my dad home
The next morning, Jiang Tian followed Zhou Linhai, ready to catch the earliest bus to the city where her father worked.
It is really difficult to travel far away at this time.
There was only one bus running every day in their village, and it looked like it was about to be scrapped. The doors were broken, and the door was fastened with a buckle using wire.
Because there was only one bus a day, there were a lot of people on the bus. Zhou Linhai was a nice guy, and he was a village official. He greeted the driver and squeezed out a seat the size of a small bench next to the passenger seat for Jiang Tian to sit on.
He stood by holding onto the roof of the car, looking like Pangu, standing tall and upright.
His body was swaying with the shaking of the bus, and he looked very exhausted.
Jiang Tian felt bad, so after sitting for a while, she wanted to stand up and let Zhou Linhai sit down and rest for a while.
As soon as she lifted her butt, an aunt next to her quickly stuffed the bag under her butt and shouted to the back: "Third brother, come and sit, someone wants to get off!"
Jiang Tian was so scared that she quickly sat down again, picked up the bag and returned it to the owner, saying that she just stood up to move around and was not going to get off the car.
The aunt rolled her eyes at her and snatched the bag away unhappily.
After more than an hour of bumpy ride on the rural bus, we finally arrived at the county passenger transport center.
When getting off the bus, Zhou Linhai's feet were numb from standing. He held on to the telephone pole and shook his ankles for a long time. Then he took Jiang Tian to the ticket office to buy tickets.
When I got there, I found that the bus to Mao City had already left.
"There's a ticket for tomorrow. Do you want to buy it? If not, take the next one." The ticket seller urged impatiently.
“Buy, buy, buy!”
Zhou Linhai quickly took out a handful of bills from his pocket, paid the money, and came out holding two train tickets.
Jiang Tian was afraid of getting lost, so she followed him the whole time and secretly memorized the amount of money he had just spent on the ticket. She thought that after the funeral of her wife and her father was over, the family would definitely hold a dinner to thank all the uncles and aunts who helped.
When the time comes, I have to return the money to Uncle Lin Hai.
After all, no one is rich these days.
Zhou Linhai was willing to take the time to accompany her to Mao City, which was already a huge favor.
We can't let people put more money into it, right?
The only bus to Mao City does not leave until 9:30 tomorrow morning, which means they .
Originally Zhou Linhai had relatives in the county town, but thinking that he was bringing Jiang Tian out this time to handle her father's funeral, many families these days were superstitious about this, so after thinking about it, he reluctantly took Jiang Tian to a hotel near the bus station.
Unexpectedly, when it came time to pay, Jiang Tian got there first.
"Uncle Lin Hai, please accompany me to pick up my dad. It's already troublesome enough for you. How can I ask you to pay more?"
Jiang Tian rushed to give the money.
We booked two rooms.
After all, there are differences between men and women. She is already twelve years old, and it is not good for her to sleep in the same room with an uncle who is not related to her by blood.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Linhai sighed and nodded, looking at her with relief.
Jiang Tian was completely confused by his look.
After placing the luggage in the hotel room and locking the door, Zhou Linhai took Jiang Tian to a paper-making shop in the county town that sold funeral supplies and bought some yellow paper, incense, candles and paper money.
According to the custom in my hometown, after a person dies, yellow paper and incense and candles must be burned to the "Four Gods" every day for the first seven days after death.
Every evening, paper money is burned at nearby intersections.
The older generation said that this was because they were afraid that the new ghosts would be bullied by the ghost messengers and some old ghosts, so they paid money to buy their way through.
Jiang Tian had long forgotten these customs, but fortunately she was still young, so Zhou Linhai did not doubt them and just explained the rules to her carefully.
Jiang Tian thanked Zhou Linhai gratefully and tried hard to remember these "old rules".
In the evening, Zhou Linhai took her with him, took a bag filled with yellow paper, incense, candles and paper money, and chose a crossroads with few people, and accompanied her to burn incense, candles and paper money to buy passage.
I hope Jiang Leping has a smooth journey home.
Sure enough, everything went smoothly the next day.
Zhou Linhai took her to Mao City by bus. After getting off the bus, she asked for directions and took a bus to the Public Security Bureau.
After arriving there, the police officer saw that the deceased's family member was actually a little girl in her teens, and heard that her grandmother also passed away on the same day she received the call. The police officer in charge of the case sighed heavily.
Then we signed, went through the formalities, and went to the hospital morgue to take away Jiang Leping's body.
At that time, cremation was not yet compulsory. The hospital did have a long-term cooperative vehicle that could help transport the body back home, but the charge was very expensive.
The police officer in charge of the case secretly rolled his eyes at the person trying to sell his business and pulled Zhou Linhai aside.
After a while, Zhou Linhai brought over two packs of cigarettes, stuffed them into the man's hand, exchanged a few words of greeting, and said that Jiang Tian's family was in great difficulty and they really couldn't afford to hire a car. Finally, with the help of the police, they spent less than one-fifth of the money and hired a tractor willing to do this kind of work.
The two men bought funeral clothes and a coffin in Mao City, wrapped Jiang Leping, and hired people to carry him onto a car.
Before leaving, Jiang Tian bowed solemnly to the police officers in charge of the case.
Most people are unwilling to take on this trouble, but this policeman is a kind-hearted person.
Also coming to see him off were the coal mine boss where Jiang Leping worked and several of his co-workers.
Maybe the coal boss was shocked when he heard that Jiang Leping's biological mother had also died. He thought that his mother died suddenly because she couldn't bear the great blow after hearing the news of her son's death. In this life, the death compensation that Jiang Tian received was as much as 20,000 yuan!
This amount of money was definitely a huge sum in the 1980s.
After returning to the county, Jiang Tian asked Zhou Linhai to accompany her to the bank, divided the money into 5,000 portions, and converted all of them into fixed deposits.
She certainly knows that there are business opportunities everywhere in this era, but now is not a good time to do business.
At least we have to get rid of Jiang Lesheng's poisonous snake first.
Zhou Linhai breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she had deposited all the compensation money into the bank, and even praised her a few words.
If Jiang Tian really took such a large sum of money back to the village, it might attract the attention of thieves, which would be a troublesome matter.
I didn't expect that Jiang Tian, this girl who usually looks quiet, is actually more steady than some adults in doing things, and she also knows the principle of not showing off wealth.
Knowing that there are many petty thieves in the countryside, I simply deposited my money in a bank in the county town.
When the time comes, she will hide the passbook in her bag . It is such a thin passbook. Unless the Jiang family makes a fuss about it themselves, who will know how much money the mine has compensated her family?
really!
After coming out of the bank, Jiang Tian pursed her lips and pulled Zhou Linhai's sleeve.
"Uncle Lin Hai, you know the situation . Now we are left with a house full of orphans and widows."
"My second uncle will definitely go to the county town to continue his studies when he comes back. There will be no man at home by then. If someone gets coveted by the money, losing the money is not a big deal. But if something happens to someone..."
Zhou Linhai couldn't help himself this time and looked Jiang Tian up and down several times.
He had always heard that Jiang Lesheng and Jiang Cheng were smart and good at studying, but he didn't expect that Jiang Tian was not stupid either?
Thinking of his good-for-nothing little son, Zhou Linhai couldn't help but feel moved.
