Little Sister Takes Charge

  After dinner at the Yang's, Lin Fanghua took Lin Zhenhua back to their own home. During Lin Zhenhua's time in the army, Lin Fanghua had been living with the Yangs, occupying Yang Xin's younger brother Yang Tao's bed, while Yang Tao lived with the Lins. Now that Lin Zhenhua was back, Lin Fanghua naturally wanted to return to her own home, and Lin Zhenhua was also considered an adult now, able to start his own family.

  Lin Zhenhua's brother and sister's home was in the last row of the Hanhua Machinery Factory residential area, with two bungalows, each with over ten square meters. In the middle, a door was opened, and the two rooms could be connected. The outside of the house, like other people's homes, also had a small kitchen and a storage room for firewood. The kitchen and storage room were all made of steel pipes, angle irons, oil felt, and other materials from the workshop, which is called "relying on the factory to eat". Every household was like this, it can't be considered a mistake.

  Yang Tao has packed up his things and is waiting for Lin Zhenhua to come and take over. Lin Fanghua told Lin Zhenhua that Yang Tao is now 14 years old, in the second year of junior high school in the county, with average grades, but he is very honest and has inherited his father's tradition.

  "Yang Tao, sorry about that, I had you kicked out." Lin Zhenhua walked up to Yang Tao and extended his hand for a handshake.

  Yang Tao was slightly surprised, his face a bit red, perhaps because he had never received such adult courtesy before, or maybe he didn't expect Lin Zhenhua to greet him like that. When Lin Zhenhua went to join the army, Yang Tao was only 12 years old, still just a little kid, and of course, he still is a little kid now.

  "Xiao Hua...ge, the door lock is on the table, I'm leaving." Yang Tao said in a low voice, he had always called Lin Zhenhua "Xiao Hua" directly, but now seeing Lin Zhenhua looking somewhat like an adult, he was momentarily embarrassed and added a "ge" to the end of "Xiao Hua".

  "Don't be in a hurry, this is for you." Lin Zhenhua handed Yang Tao a bullet shell as a gift.

  "Thanks, Little Hua." Yang Tao's mouth was quick this time. The shell casing was a rare item. Some of his classmates' families were armed units, and they could usually get a few civilian training shells that had been used for training, but they were all 56-style rifles. Lin Zhenhua gave him some pistol casings and even anti-aircraft machine gun casings. Taking them to school would be enough to make everyone jealous to death.

  After seeing off Yang Tao, Lin Fanghua took Lin Zhenhua into the house and began to sort out his luggage. The luggage that Lin Zhenhua brought back was not much, only a few clothes and a quilt, as well as some tea sets and water bottles used by the troops. Lin Fanghua asked Lin Zhenhua to take off his clothes and change into the ones at home, then put all the other clothes he brought back together with the ones he took off in a large basin, and went to the outdoor faucet. In this era, every household did not have a bathroom, the toilet was public, and water was also used at the public faucet outside.

  Lin Zhenhua took advantage of this time to carefully observe his own home. By later standards, this home could almost be considered empty and bare.

  There was a big bed in one room, where the parents used to sleep. In another room there were two small beds, where Lin Zhenhua and Lin Fanghua slept. After the parents passed away, Lin Zhenhua occupied the big bed by himself, while Lin Fanghua lived in the other room, sleeping on one of the small beds, with the other small bed being used to store miscellaneous items.

  In his parents' room, there was a simple wardrobe with some of their clothes inside. Among them, his father's clothes were now just right for Lin Zhenhua to wear, while the ones he used to wear seemed a bit small, as he had grown quite a bit in the two years since joining the army.

  In the room, there was also a dining table, a desk for doing homework, a cupboard, two camphor wood chests and several stools. Some books were piled on the desk, Lin Zhenhua took a glance and found that they were all textbooks or Mao's selected works and other study materials, except for one book, Hao Ran's "Golden Road", which was almost worn out.

  There are two household appliances: a transistor radio that makes a hissing sound and a flashlight.

  There were some certificates posted on the wall, Lin Zhenhua carefully looked at them for half a day and found that only one belonged to him, which was an award he got when he participated in the sports meeting in junior high school. The rest were all his sister Lin Fanghua's. Lin Zhenhua read through all the projects and times on the certificates, then analyzed them with the mind of a Huaqing University graduate student, and found the rules behind them. Lin Fanghua had won awards for being an excellent student and having perfect attendance in elementary school, but after entering junior high school, she only got awards for perfect attendance and never again for being an excellent student. From this, it can be seen that Lin Fanghua was a well-behaved girl at school, never late, never absent, not even asking for leave, but her academic performance was average, so she had no chance of becoming an excellent student. As for Lin Zhenhua himself, he had always been a problem child and couldn't even get perfect attendance awards.

  Lin Fanghua put Lin Zhenhua's clothes in the washing powder and came back from the faucet, saw Lin Zhenhua studying the certificate, and couldn't help but ask: "Brother, what are you doing?"

  Lin Zhenhua asked: "Xiao Fang, what grade are you in now?"

  School has started and I'm already in high school now.

  "How was your grade?"

  "It's so-so." Lin Fanghua's answer was just as Lin Zhenhua had analyzed.

  "What does 'in general' mean? What rank is it in class?"

  "What's the big deal, it's just in between, when I was in junior high school, there were more than 30 students in my class." Lin Fanghua replied nonchalantly.

  More than thirty? Still in the class. Lin Zhenhua felt a bit depressed, he was admitted to Huqing University with the first place in the county at that time, and now he can only rank more than thirty in the class after rebirth as his sister.

  "En, it's alright, wait till I settle down and I'll give you a good supplementary lesson." Lin Zhenhua promised.

  "Are you going to tutor me?" Lin Fanghua looked at Lin Zhenhua like a monster, laughing and saying, "Brother, your junior high school graduation certificate was even obtained through connections made by Uncle Su from the factory's armed forces department. Are you still going to tutor me?"

  "Haha, this and that, after three days, you'll be looking at me with new eyes." Lin Zhenhua said, "Although my brother didn't study well back then, he has been tempered in the great crucible of the Liberation Army. Now teaching a high school student like you shouldn't be a problem."

  "Go ahead and brag, you didn't even study English back then, and now we still have to learn it. How are you, do you know what that means?" Lin Fanghua said disdainfully, this brother and sister had also not been stingy with their arguments in the past, Lin Fanghua was not afraid of her older brother.

  "Alright, and you." Lin Zhenhua casually threw out a sentence, joking around. Someone who had even taken the IELTS before was playing with this kindergarten-level dialogue, wasn't it just a giveaway?

  "Huh, your English pronunciation is really accurate, even better than our teacher's. Where did you learn it?" Lin Fanghua was impressed.

  "I'm a scout, I don't speak foreign languages, how can I capture prisoners?" Lin Zhenhua started talking nonsense.

  Lin Fanghua wasn't stupid: "Aren't you fighting against the Vietnamese devils? Why do you want to learn English?"

  "Vietnamese devils were also ruled by American devils in the past, so they can also speak English." Lin Zhenhua continued to bluff.

  "Hmm, I suppose you know English. But what about math? And physics and chemistry, have you studied them?" asked Lin Fanghua.

  "Don't worry, if your teacher can come up with the questions, I can definitely do them." Lin Zhenhua said, "When I was in the army, our platoon leader was a university student, and I learned a lot of knowledge from him."

  "That's great." Lin Fanghua was half-believing and half-doubting, but this brother had already given her quite a few surprises today. She would rather believe that what Lin Zhenhua said was true. "Many of our classmates have older brothers or sisters who can help with tutoring. If you can help me with my studies, I'll strive to be in the top 20 of the class."

  "Unbelievable? Is this all you're capable of?" Lin Zhenhua was on the verge of tears, ranking among the top 20 in the class, don't be too humiliating.

  "How many names did you say?"

  "In a year's time, strive to be among the top three in the whole grade." Lin Zhenhua said conservatively.

  "Go ahead and talk nonsense." This time, Lin Fanghua directly chose to deny it. If you say that this brother learned something in the army, she believes it, but if you say that he can teach her to be among the top three in the whole grade, isn't this boasting a bit too much?

  "I mean what I say," said Lin Zhenhua. "By the way, isn't Yang Xin also in high school? Why don't I teach you two together, and then one of you will be first and the other second?"

  "Yang Xin didn't attend high school. She entered the factory as a temporary worker right after graduating from junior high, and now she's been working for two months already." Lin Fanghua said.

  "Why?"

  "She didn't do well in school, and it's useless even if she goes to high school." Lin Fanghua said, "Actually, I also wanted to work in the factory as a temporary worker, but there are no more quotas. Uncle Yang told me to finish two years of high school first, and after graduation, I can take over my parents' quota and become a formal worker."

  "Why not read for three years in high school?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

  "Are you cursing me to be left behind?" Lin Fanghua said with a scowl.

  That's right, at that time high school was only two years, Lin Zhenhua remembered, there were really too many mindset changes needed.

  "Brother, how much money do you have now?" Lin Fanghua turned to a more practical question.

  "There's over 200 yuan, what's wrong?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

  "There's so much money!" Lin Fanghua exclaimed with joy.

  "Uh, my demobilization pay and some money I earned in Changsha."

  "You can still make money?" Lin Fanghua said in surprise.

  Lin Zhenhua vaguely mentioned what happened in Tanzhou, but he attributed all the credit to that nonexistent old right-wing professor, saying that he had heard the professor say such things before, so he was able to solve other people's technical difficulties.

  "Brother, you're too awesome," said Lin Fanghua. "I've also saved 30 yuan, let's put it together later."

  "Where did you get the money?"

  "Isn't the factory giving us 15 yuan each as consolation money every month? You went to be a soldier and it stopped. I get 15 yuan every month, pay 10 yuan to Wei Auntie for food expenses, and use the remaining 5 yuan for miscellaneous expenses. In these two years, I've saved 30 yuan." said Lin Fanghua.

  "Save your money and keep it for spending." Lin Zhenhua said with a grin, "I'm back, I'll take care of you."

  "Brother, your money will be managed by me." Lin Fanghua said, counting on her fingers like a little housekeeper: "After you start working, you have 37 yuan per month, and after being converted to regular employment, you'll have 43 yuan. I also have 15 yuan in consolation money, adding up to 52 yuan. For the two of us to eat, we need 30 yuan per month, miscellaneous expenses won't exceed 10 yuan, and we must save 12 yuan each month."

  This time it was Lin Zhenhua's turn to stare at his sister as if she were a ghost: "No way, little sister, how old are you?"

  "Sixteen."

  "I thought you were sixty."

  "Pfft, pfft, pfft!" Lin Fanghua said, "Before you joined the army, our two people's consolation money was 30 yuan. You took it to buy cigarettes and smoke, every month's money wasn't enough to use, and we still had to ask Aunt Wei's family for subsidies. This time before you came back, Aunt Wei said that she would let me take care of your money. If you don't agree, she will tell the factory to give her your salary and she will be responsible for taking care of it. What do you say? Do you want me to take care of it or Aunt Wei?"

  Lin Zhenhua knew that in this era, the relationship between people was so pure that it was admirable. Everyone knew that they were siblings without parents, and Lin Zhenhua used to be a troublemaker who didn't let people worry about him, so everyone worried whether their lives could go on. It seemed that if Lin Zhenhua hadn't changed his ways, Wei Sufen would really have gone to the factory to demand control of his salary, and the factory would have strongly supported her. Probably, Lin Zhenhua wouldn't even have been able to find a place to file a lawsuit.

  "Alright, my money is in your charge." Lin Zhenhua repeatedly agreed, he took out his own money from his pocket, counted out 20 big notes and handed them to Lin Fanghua: "Here you are, 200 yuan, I'll keep the rest for petty expenses. Just got back, there must be many things to do. The money is all yours now, you're in charge of managing the household."

  "So much money?" Lin Fanghua had never seen 200 yuan in her life, she hastily stuffed the money into her bosom and turned to run outside: "I'm going to the bank to deposit the money right now, brother, don't tell anyone else that our family has money."

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