Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Isn't your flattery very clever? ...

After leaving the village primary school, Shen Moer went to her private plot carrying a bamboo basket containing two high school textbooks.

Because starting today, everyone except the strong laborers will go to work voluntarily, and food was just distributed yesterday, so every household will not have to worry about food for the time being. So, apart from the women, most of the elderly in the village are resting at home.

When Chen Moer passed by Aunt Chen's house, she saw a group of old ladies in the village, each waving a large palm-leaf fan in their hands, sitting under a big tree by the roadside and chatting.

Seeing Shen Moer, Aunt Chen waved her palm-leaf fan and asked with concern: "Moer, are you feeling better today? You took the food home yesterday, so you should be able to have enough to eat, right?"

"Yeah, I'm full."

Shen Moer smiled embarrassedly: "Thanks to Aunt Chen, Aunt Cai, Aunt Lu, Aunt Wang, Aunt Yang, and Aunt Zhang for your help, otherwise it would not be so easy to get my family's food back. Thank you so much!"

Even though they were just joining in the fun, after being thanked so solemnly by Chen Moer one by one, the aunties suddenly felt that they had done a good deed when they saw injustice. They were so proud that their chins were involuntarily raised a few points, and they couldn't help but pull Chen Moer aside to chat for a while.

When the aunties heard Shen Moer say that she was going to her private plot, they all expressed enthusiastically that they wanted to go and take a look together.

The father and daughter almost starved to death even in a good year, even though their food was stolen. But in fact, if it were another family, they would not starve to such an extent, no matter they went up the mountains and rivers or scraped food from their own private plots.

Sure enough, a group of people rushed to the Shen family's private plot and saw that the field was simply terrible. A few clumps of water spinach were cut down to only a few roots, a few cowpeas had sparse leaves and even sparser beans, and as for a few rows of sweet potatoes, those buried in the ground could not be seen, and the leaves growing outside were basically plucked out.

The aunties sighed in grief, saying that the father and daughter were so hungry that they ate up all the food in the fields.

Besides, he is too honest.

If it were someone else, even if they had plucked all the pumpkins from their own fields, they would be starving to death, so how could they resist reaching out to their neighbors' fields? But along the way, other people's private plots were all growing neatly. A pumpkin from Zhou Laoguo's family next door grew in their field and became an old pumpkin, but it was still intact.

"This Shen Laoqi, he rarely worked in the fields when his mother was alive. After his mother died, there was no one to teach him, so he really has no ability to farm."

Well, the old ladies rolled up their sleeves and got busy. They took farm tools from the nearest Aunt Yang's house, and then loosened the soil, watered the plants, and each pulled out amaranth seedlings, pumpkin seedlings, carrot seedlings from their own private plots... and planted them in Shen Moer's field in a hurry.

They were all used to working, and their movements were very skillful. In the time it took Chen Moer to carry two buckets of water, the private plot had changed drastically.

Shen Moer didn't expect that the aunts could be so enthusiastic. If she were a princess, she would definitely reward her subordinates for being diligent and competent.

But in this strange world, firstly, she had nothing, and secondly, the other person was not from the palace. Helping her tidy up the vegetable garden was purely the so-called proletarian friendship... Shen Moer felt fresh, but after thinking about it, she could only remember this kindness first and thank him later.

To be honest, these rural old ladies are really annoying when they are annoying. They like to gossip and meddle in other people's affairs. But when they are enthusiastic, they are really enthusiastic. Look, Chen Moer didn't say anything. After they helped to clean up their private plots, they pulled Chen Moer and ran to the team leader's house in a large group.

The team leader had gone to work, but his mother and wife were at home. The old ladies started talking at once and spoke up for Shen Moer and her daughter at the team leader's house, pointing at the skinny Shen Moer and scolding the other branches of the Shen family for being black-hearted.

So when Zhou Mancang got home from work, his mother and wife urged him to fight for the house on behalf of Shen Laoqi and his daughter.

His wife Xu Hongmei was educated and had only a junior high school education. She spoke righteously: "The people's production team is for the people. The proletariat should unite and not oppress. Shen Lao Da and his gang bullied Shen Lao Qi because he was honest and had no one to help him. If the production team doesn't care, who will?"

Zhou Mancang was speechless: "Why haven't I heard you say this before?"

Xu Hongmei: "Well, the father and daughter didn't say anything before, so we can't get involved, right?"

The old lady also chimed in: "That's right. Actually, I felt sorry for Mo'er at first, but Old Seven Shen kept silent, so we didn't bother to meddle in her affairs. Now it's different. I heard that if you don't give him justice, he will be hanged at the gate of your brigade. In order to avoid any loss of life, you have to intervene in this matter!"

Zhou Mancang was actually a little skeptical when he heard that Shen Laoqi had changed his temper overnight and was ready to fight for his only daughter. So yesterday in the threshing ground, he asked the brothers to negotiate first, with the idea of ​​delaying the matter for a while.

Maybe if I wait for two days, Shen Laoqi's anger will dissipate and everything will be the same again?

But now the fire not only burned him, but also burned his family. Moreover, Zhou Mancang knew very well that even though the people who were talking were his mother and wife, there were a group of old women behind them.

Of course, what the old lady said was not wrong. If someone really died, then he, as the captain, would have a heavy responsibility.

Originally thinking that less trouble is worse than more, Zhou Mancang now sat on a low stool, took a puff of cigarette, and said, "Okay, I'll mediate for them in the afternoon."

Shen Moer took a walk outside and not only harvested a brand new private plot of land, but also harvested vegetables generously given by the aunties, including cowpeas, water spinach, young pumpkins, and even a golden melon.

There was not a drop of cooking oil in the house, and there were no other seasonings except salt. Chen Moer washed a handful of water spinach, lit a fire and made some vegetable soup. She didn't do anything else. For lunch, the father and daughter had a snack with the vegetable soup.

The dim sum was made by the chef who was the best at making pastries in the palace, so it tasted naturally good, but it was a pity that it was gone after the meal.

Fortunately, the food that was stolen was recovered, and with the food distributed by the brigade this time, the family will not have to worry about food for the time being.

Of course, it would be difficult for the father and daughter to adapt all of a sudden since they are used to a life of fine food. But they have to adapt slowly, because after all, they have to live in this world from now on.

In the evening, before it gets dark, every household has dinner.

After finishing her meal, Shen Moer moved a broken chair to the door and sat there, enjoying the refreshing evening breeze. She swiftly took apart a torn cotton-padded jacket, pulled out the cotton wool that had become even more compacted by the rain, bit by bit, tore it until it was fluffy, and threw it into the bamboo basket at her feet.

Now, the father and daughter are very poor, and all they have is this hardened cotton, which they can still use if they clean it up and expose it to the sun.

After a day of hard work, Shen Shaoyuan sat against the wall, looked at his precious daughter, then looked at her again, and couldn't help but sigh.

His little Mo'er was a daughter of a noble family who was more favored than the princesses in Daliang. She learned needlework from the best embroiderer in Daliang, not to embroider her wedding dress like other ladies did, but just to embroider a purse for her father - now this skill can only be used to mend rags.

Shen Shaoyuan couldn't help feeling a little sad again.

So when Zhou Mancang came over, he saw this scene: a skinny little girl was holding a patched cotton jacket and taking out the cotton, and the equally skinny Shen Laoqi next to her was so sad that he was about to cry when he saw his daughter.

Zhou Mancang could actually understand Shen Shaoyuan's feelings. If it were him, he would cry too, as he had only one daughter and raised her to be like this, and she almost starved to death.

To be honest, Zhou Mancang was a bit forced to take charge of this matter before, but now he really wants to help this poor father and daughter.

When the Shen family gathered together in the brigade office, Zhou Mancang unconsciously spoke up for the poor father and daughter in his mind.

"Before the old man passed away, the family property was divided. Each of you brothers had two rooms. The village cadres and elders were invited to witness it. You cannot deny it. As for how you brothers exchanged houses later, as long as you both agreed, we naturally have no right to interfere."

Zhou Mancang continued, "Now Lao Qi wants to exchange the house back. I just asked you about it. You didn't sign any documents or make up the difference when you exchanged the house. You said it was a loan from the beginning. So it's reasonable for Lao Qi to exchange it back now."

The eldest brother of Shen is called Shen Shengli. His dark face is full of ravines and there are deep Sichuan-shaped wrinkles between his eyebrows. He frowned and said, "Captain, this is a matter between us brothers. There is no need for the team to get involved. We can just discuss it ourselves."

His family has the largest population, and of the two rooms owned by Shen Laoqi, his family occupies one and a half.

If he were really replaced by Shen Laoqi, his second and third sons and their families would have to sleep on the street.

Shen Shengli is very regretful now. If he had known this would happen, he would never have brought his whole family to the Houshangen Brigade for a wedding banquet.

If he had been in the village yesterday, when the grain robbery incident broke out, he would have forced the third brother's family to apologize to the seventh brother and would not have let the fire spread to the house.

"Seventh brother, you too, although we are not born of the same mother, we are brothers. Your mother died early and your father is old, so your brothers have helped you a lot since you were young, right? It is wrong for the third brother's family to take your family's food. I will talk to him and ask him to apologize to you and your niece. What do you think?"

Shen Shengli thought he knew his half brother very well. He had the same soft personality as his stepmother and didn't have any ulterior motives.

He has been like this since he was young. He can be coaxed into taking out all the good things with just a few nice words. He is fooled around by several nephews of the same age.

The two rooms were coaxed here in the same way.

This time, he was probably forced into a corner by the third brother's family, but Shen Shengli thought that he should find an excuse to delay it first, and when the seventh brother's anger subsided, the matter would be over.

Before he finished speaking, Shen Shaoyuan waved his hand and said, "The food issue was resolved yesterday, so let's not talk about it. Today we are talking about the house. Boss, please stop talking about other people. I'm afraid that if you keep talking about it, I'll fool you again."

He didn't care what Shen Shengli's expression was when he heard this, and said to Zhou Mancang, "I'm not very smart, but I figured it out. The people's production team is for the people, so if there is any problem, we should go to the organization. Captain, that's the thing. I believe in the organization, and I believe in you even more. We, father and daughter, are counting on you to give us justice."

Shen Shengli: “…”

What's wrong with you? Isn't your flattery very effective? !