It took very little time to tidy up the four acres of rice field. Zhou Chenglei, Zhou Chengsen and Tian Caihua were all experts in farming. After Zhou Chengxin plowed the land, he also picked up a hoe and started to tidy up the field. The four of them plus two helpers finished the rice field at ten o'clock and applied the base fertilizer.

The water conservancy project will start releasing water tonight, and tomorrow night when the millet sprouts, it can be sown in the rice fields.

Several people carried the hoes back together.

Li Xiuxian sat on the top of the mountain for a long time. As the sun got higher, she was ready to go back. When she walked down the mountain, she saw the people in front of her walking back talking and laughing.

She didn't try to avoid them, but just walked behind them not too far away.

Ruan Tang in front said, "Sister-in-law, Xiao Xia will come to our place for dinner tonight. Cheng Sen and I have obtained our marriage certificate, but we have not even had a meal at home yet."

The day we came back was the Lantern Festival, and we had a reunion dinner at Jiangxia's home. Before we got married, we also had dinner at Jiangxia's home every day. It's almost eleven o'clock now, and Zhou's mother should have started cooking. We will most likely have lunch at Jiangxia's place today.

She will be going back to the city to work tomorrow morning, so she must treat us to dinner tonight.

Jiang Xia agreed: "Okay, I'll go over and help you after I wake up from my nap this afternoon."

Ruan Tang: "No need, Cheng Sen and I will be busy, you guys just come over and eat."

Tian Caihua: "Tell mom not to kill the chicken. I'll kill a chicken and a duck this afternoon."

Ruan Tang: "Sister-in-law doesn't want duck, I plan to have hot pot tonight."

Tian Caihua: "Hotpot is also good. We haven't had hotpot at home for a long time. I'll kill two chickens."

Jiang Xia: "No, one chicken is enough. I'll buy some mutton."

Tian Caihua: "Let's have two, one chicken, and each person will have a piece of meat. She^_^ The boys in my family have been eating a lot of meat recently, and they can never seem to be full...."

…

Li Xiuxian listened to their conversation and pursed her lips.

Dr. Ruan understands Zhou Chengsen very well and caters to his preferences.

Now the entire Zhou family has been bribed by her, including her daughter.

Li Xiuxian couldn't help but think of the time when Zhou Chengsen also said he wanted to treat her family to a meal, but she was not happy about it and ended up not treating them. As a result, she never has the chance to treat them again.

She couldn't help but wonder, if that dinner had been hosted, would she and Zhou Chengsen have reconciled at that time, and would they not have ended up like this today?

Zhou Chengsen has always attached great importance to his parents and brothers, and almost every quarrel they had after they got married was because of his parents and brothers.

Zhou Chengsen usually tolerates her very much, but when it comes to matters concerning his parents and brothers, it's like she's stepped on his tail!

Li Xiuxian thought about the second time they had a fight after they got married, which was because of a quilt.

At that time, the family was poor and the whole family earned cents in the production team. Only the couple had jobs and wages, but because the family had not been divided, everyone's earnings had to be handed over to the parents-in-law. She didn't want to hand over her wages, and Zhou Chengsen didn't force her to do so. He himself gave almost all of his monthly wages to the family, leaving only five yuan for backup.

In addition to buying cigarettes, he sometimes used the five dollars to buy things for his parents, nephews, and brothers.

She felt that it was wrong. He gave all his salary to his family, so what else should he buy for his family?

She wanted to save some money at that time. After all, who knows how much money she will get when the family is divided? How can she save money without money?

The two elders clearly favor Zhou Chenglei.

So Zhou Chengsen gave her money and tickets when he gave her a bonus, asking her to buy a new quilt for his parents, saying that their quilt was too old and not warm enough. She thought that if she just blew it up, it would become warmer, so there was no need to buy a new one. Why waste the money? So she took the old quilt of the two elders and blew it up.

The two elders were very happy to see her helping them to play with the old quilt, but Zhou Chengsen was unhappy and had a quarrel with her!

Later, they quarreled more and more often. She couldn't remember too many things. She only remembered that one time, Zhou's father had a backache. Zhou Chengsen planned to buy a plaster for his father. He happened to be going to work, so she said she would go to the town to buy it. He gave her the money, but the plaster was too expensive. She knew that the medicinal wine Zhou Chenglei sent back would arrive in a few days, so she bought a bottle of Wanhua Oil. She thought that Wanhua Oil also had that effect. After applying it for a few days, the medicinal wine Zhou Chenglei sent back from the army would arrive. Wouldn't it be okay to just endure it for a few days? Wouldn't it be good to save some money?

As a result, Zhou Chengsen had another quarrel with her!

Another time, Zhou Chenglei would send a lot of dried seafood and agricultural products to his comrades, superiors, and the like every year. Most of them were dried at home or bought from villagers. Zhou Chengsen would use his bonus at the end of each year to buy seafood for him and send it to others.

Zhou Chenglei did send money back, but the money was sent to Zhou's father, not to him and his wife. Zhou's father did give the money to Zhou Chengsen, but Zhou Chengsen didn't want it, saying it was a bonus.

This goes on year after year. Who can stand it?

So one time she took the initiative to send it, then picked up the expensive ones and sent fewer items.

Zhou Chenglei came back during the Chinese New Year. Tian Caihua didn't know how to ask about it, but then she was exposed, and Zhou Chengsen had another fight with her.

From then on, the couple often quarreled, sometimes because she didn't take good care of the children, and sometimes because of his family.

I can't remember clearly, I just remember the most intense quarrel.

Once, when Zhou Chenglei was getting married, they had already separated and were living in the town. He took out 600 yuan for Zhou Chenglei's wedding, worried that Zhou Chenglei would not have enough money for the wedding banquet after giving him 3,000 yuan as a gift.

She was not happy because six hundred yuan was all the savings he had saved after the family split up!

What does Zhou Chenglei's marriage have to do with him? If you don't have money, don't give so much gift money! No one in the whole village gives such a high gift money.

The two had another big fight.

Another time was when Zhou Chenglei was building a house and he wanted to pay for it, saying that it was his responsibility and his eldest brother would also pay.

He said that it was his family who paid for the house.

Then there was another big fight!

After so many quarrels, Zhou Chengsen became colder and colder towards her, and more and more intolerant, and would criticize her for everything.

In the end, she got drunk out of spite and had sex with Liao Ruixiang.

…

Li Xiuxian has been thinking about these things every day these days.

She also regretted that if she had not pretended that she couldn't do farm work and housework when she first got married, it would have been better. At that time, she had lost her credibility in Zhou Chengsen's heart.

She also regretted not taking Yingying to see a doctor when she had a fever. She didn't know that a high fever could cause convulsions, and that once a convulsion occurs due to a high fever, it is easy for the convulsion to recur the next time the fever occurs.

And that new quilt,...

I regret many things, but looking back now, they were not a big deal. Why was I unwilling to do them at that time?

*

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Jiang Xia, Ruan Tang and Tian Caihua, three sisters-in-law, were washing meat and vegetables and preparing the base for the hot pot at Zhou Chengsen's house, while Zhou Chengsen went to the dock to see what seafood was available.

The Zhou family has not gone out to sea yet, but their fishing boat has already gone out to sea. This year, many people in the village also went out to sea during the first month of the lunar year.

Zhou Chengsen took some tiger prawns, squids, octopuses and two black sea breams from his family’s fishing boat, and also bought some oysters, conches, white clams, sandworms and other seafood.

He walked back with his hands full of things and met Li Xiuxian.

Li Xiuxian stopped him and said, "Zhou Chengsen, I have something to tell you."

Zhou Chengsen felt that it was meaningless to say anything she said, and it was useless to listen to her. He was also afraid that Ruan Tang would know and be unhappy, so he just walked away without even pausing.

Li Xiuxian: "..." (End of this chapter)