Chapter 83 I'm afraid of being slandered

In the afternoon, Song Chunxue lay on the kang (a heated brick bed), unable to fall asleep for a long time.

Listening to Hongying and Xiujuan's soft snoring, her heart felt as still as water.

Although she had cursed everyone she should and shouldn't have, she still felt uneasy.

In her past life, she was very good to the eldest brother, but they eventually became estranged. Now that she's made such a scene, he'll definitely hate her for the rest of his life.

If it were an ordinary enemy, one would hate them without a second thought, but he was the son one had given birth to and raised with all one's heart and soul for twenty years.

However, she wasn't particularly upset. After all, forty years had passed, why would she want to dwell on it?

She just felt that she never knew when these hard and tiring days would end.

She toils in the fields all day long, and when she gets home, she's kept awake by her rebellious son. What is she after?

She suddenly felt very tired.

However, thinking about how her death was more miserable than her life, Song Chunxue felt a little scared.

Yes, that's right, she did it to change her fate.

She cannot suffer the same fate as in her previous life, becoming a lonely ghost whom everyone can bully.

While making up for her regrets, she needs to treat herself well.

In late July, it was still very hot, just as autumn began, but the sunlight was much more golden than before.

The tall trees are still dense at dawn, and the distant mountains are even more sunny.

The azure sky contrasted with the golden hills, adding a touch of melancholy to the autumn scene.

The poplar leaves outside the courtyard rustled softly, and before she knew it, Song Chunxue had fallen asleep.

In the following days, Jiang Yeming and Chen Feng were unusually well-behaved, as if they had moved away.

If she hadn't accidentally caught a glimpse of the eldest brother getting an IV drip at the door, she would have really thought he had gone to live in the kiln with Chen Feng.

After that day, she stopped caring about the boss's affairs and continued to be busy as always.

However, she learned her lesson and stopped working herself to exhaustion; she would rest when she was tired and eat when she was hungry.

After pulling up the sesame, pull up the sorghum; after pulling up the sorghum, pull up the wheat.

The wheat has been drying in the field long enough; it's time to take it to the threshing floor and thresh it.

If it were any later, and we caught up with digging potatoes and harvesting corn, and then there was buckwheat to pull, we wouldn't have time to thresh the grain, because it would get cold by the time the buckwheat was pulled.

She used to stay until winter to thresh grain, which resulted in her hands and feet getting frostbite, making the whole winter unpleasant.

Starting this year, she plans to thresh the wheat earlier.

In the morning, she went to the mountains with her fourth brother to haul wheat, and in the afternoon, her fourth brother went to herd sheep.

Autumn weather is dry and hot. If wheat is harvested in the afternoon, the grains are easily popped open when they are bumped, resulting in a lot of waste.

Pulling wheat is strenuous and takes a lot of effort, especially for the donkey.

Too far and too steep to pull carts, the bundled wheat was carried back on the backs of donkeys. They had to make four trips a morning, and the two donkeys were so tired that they would lie down in their pen in the afternoon and not get up.

Song Chunxue thought the donkeys were working too hard, so she gave them some of the wheat bran used to feed the chickens and some of the residue from pressing sesame oil, so that the donkeys wouldn't throw a tantrum and refuse to carry the load tomorrow.

After harvesting wheat for four consecutive days, Song Chunxue planned to rest for half a day in the afternoon.

She can't be treated like an ox.

Although they don't work in the fields, they still have a lot of chores to do at home.

She made dough in the morning and planned to make fried pancakes in the afternoon.

After waking up, Jiang Hongying smelled the aroma of sesame oil coming from the kitchen and excitedly ran there.

"Mom, are you making fried dough sticks? Why didn't you call me?"

She looked at the several steaming hot fried dough cakes lying in the porcelain basin next to her, and reached out to take one.

"Shh, don't say that word, quickly add some firewood." Song Chunxue glanced at her, "Watch out, don't talk nonsense."

"Okay, okay, I won't say anymore."

Jiang Hongying stuck out her tongue and obediently grabbed a handful of straw and added it to the stove.

I don't know where the saying came from, but it's said that you can't say the word "oil" when you're scooping up fried dough sticks, otherwise the oil will be used up quickly and fly away.

Song Chunxue hadn't taken it too seriously before, but now that she'd died once, she knew that when a person dies, they just don't have a physical body anymore, and many of the things the old man said were true.

Therefore, she will pay attention to many of the taboos left by the old man in the future.

It's better to believe it exists than to believe it doesn't.

"Mother, I think I hear people talking outside." Jiang Hongying said, getting up and walking outside, taking big bites of a fried dough stick.

As soon as she stepped into the courtyard, she heard who it was.

She turned and went back to the kitchen. "Li Dazui is here. He's chatting with the boss. Luckily, he can't come in right now. I don't need to guess what he's here for. The incident with Chen Feng's father the other day has kept him up for several days. It's been five or six days already."

"Let him stay outside, we'll get on with our business." Song Chunxue deftly scooped out the dough, slid it into the oil, and then took out the cooked ones.

"Okay, I'll knead the dough. You can't manage it all by yourself."

"No need, just take the cooked ones out, and don't turn the fire up too high."

About half an hour later, the fried dough was ready. Song Chunxue put the remaining oil in a porcelain basin, which she could use for cooking later.

Scooping out fried dough sticks uses a lot of oil; at least one and a half bowls of oil will be used up.

Xiujuan woke up, and Jiang Hongying carried her to the kitchen.

"Isn't Mother going to the fields?"

"No, I'll rest for a day." Song Chunxue closed the kitchen door and went to the north room. "Has Li Dazui not left yet?"

“He didn’t leave. He was chatting with the boss outside. I heard that Chen Feng seemed to have an upset stomach. The boss brought some medicine to help with the pregnancy at noon and brewed it. They’re home today too.”

What a coincidence.

"Where's the fourth brother?"

"He just drove the sheep up the mountain. He's been coming back late these past few days. I heard there are a few shepherds about his age behind the mountain who left a long time ago."

Song Chunxue chuckled, "So, he's found a playmate? No wonder Sanwa said the sheep looked thinner lately; it turns out they weren't being herded properly."

Previously, Sanwa rarely herded sheep with others because there were too many sheep and they wouldn't have enough to eat.

“Sanwa is very dedicated to everything he does. Lately, I’ve seen him come back from school and write an essay very seriously, without fail,” Jiang Hongying sighed. “If his mother is willing to let him study, he must be really determined not to disappoint you.”

Just as Song Chunxue was about to say something, she saw Li Dazui standing at the gate.

"Aunt Song didn't go to the fields today, she came out to chat. I heard you scolded Chen Guangcai away, that's really impressive."

Song Chunxue brought a bowl of fried dough cakes to the outside of the courtyard and placed it on a stone stool under the big willow tree.

"Try our fried dough cakes."

Li Dazui glanced at it and said, "I heard you're reluctant to make these things, and you don't even make fried dough sticks during the New Year. What's so special about today?"

"I used to be silly and saved all the good food for the kids. Now I've figured it out, so I just make it whenever I want to eat it."

Song Chunxue watched as Jiang Hongying led Xiujuan over, stretched out her arm, and Xiujuan laughed so hard that she drooled, and threw herself into her arms.

“You come to my house, I’m not afraid of what people will say, but I’m afraid of rumors.” Song Chunxue said rather bluntly, “Your cousin Li Guangzheng used to scare people, threatening me with that piece of land under the big field. Later, he went too far, demanding food and drink. I was afraid that he could make up a lie and have the whole village slander me. He was really stupid back then.”

“Li Guang is a disgrace to our Li family. We looked down on you because you always associated with him. We only found out after you drove him away that he shamelessly asked for food and drink. You should have kicked him out long ago.”

"Besides, don't worry, no one will gossip about us. They're all waiting for me to go back and relay the message." At this point, Li Dazui said, "I heard that Li Guangzheng went to Cheng Laosi's house in the city a few days ago and was kicked out."