In the end, it was only after Li Xiaoqin kept apologizing that Shen Chunshu calmed down.
But from then on, Shen Chunshu didn't say a word to Shen Qiushu.
After the Shen family started working, the two brothers no longer worked together.
At this time, the Shen family had a more urgent matter than worrying about Chen Xiashu, which was that the Shen family was running out of food.
The little rations that were left were wasted by Old Lady Wang, and now there was nothing left to eat.
Fortunately, the weather is gradually getting warmer and some wild vegetables are sprouting in the fields.
When work was over during the day, everyone went home one after another, but the Shen family was digging wild vegetables all over the ground, otherwise they would have nothing to eat when they got home.
Old Man Shen felt that this was not a solution. After all, eating only wild vegetables was not enough!
After dark in the evening, he went to Liu Changshan's house with the help of Boss Shen.
Liu Changshan thought that the father and son came to ask him about Chen Xiashu.
So before Old Man Shen could speak, Liu Changshan spoke first: "I have asked about your second son's affairs for you. He won't be sentenced to death, but he will probably be sentenced to a few years in prison."
Old man Shen didn't say anything, just nodded silently.
When he asked Chen Xiashu to take charge of the matter, he had thought of this result.
As for letting the second brother take the blame, he did not regret it.
As the head of the Shen family, Old Man Shen believed that he must not go in, otherwise the Shen family would immediately fall apart.
The second son has no children and is not smart enough. He is the only dispensable person in the whole family, so he has to do this job.
Old man Shen looked at Liu Changshan and said, "I came here today for another reason. I want to get some food in advance. I'm not afraid of you laughing at me. There is not a single grain left at home."
"These past few days we have been eating wild vegetables dug from the fields. If this continues, someone in our family will starve to death."
At this point, Old Man Shen sighed, then said with red eyes: "It's all because of poverty. If it weren't for poverty, I wouldn't have to..."
Liu Changshan didn't say anything, but took a few puffs of his pipe.
Then he looked up and said to Old Man Shen: "Although it is not time to distribute food yet, some families are running out of food."
"Let's divide the remaining food tomorrow afternoon!"
Now grain is distributed mainly once after the autumn harvest and again in the early spring of the following year.
Some villages, in order to save trouble, only distributed the year's food rations after the autumn harvest.
But in the past, some people in Dongliang Village would eat as much rations as they could after they were distributed. When they ran out of food, they would come to the production team to make trouble, and some people even starved to death as a result.
So later, Dongliang Village distributed grain in two batches.
Old man Shen kept thanking me and wiping tears from his hands.
Thinking of the Shen family's current situation, Liu Changshan couldn't help but feel some sympathy.
He advised Old Man Shen: "A big tree has many branches. Your sons are all grown up now. If you can divide the family property, you should let them divide it!"
With a whole family mixed together, if you do more and he does less, there will be a lot of things to do every day.
Isn’t it good that the old couple chooses to live with one son and asks the other two sons to give them some food rations?
But Old Man Shen shook his head: "I have also thought about the situation you mentioned, especially now that the second son is in prison."
"But after thinking about it, I still feel that it's not a good idea. Even though the three brothers have all started families, none of them are motivated. Without me watching over them, who knows what might happen."
"What's more, the two children of the old family haven't married yet. If we don't work together, when will they be able to start a family?"
Old man Shen scolded all three of his sons with just one sentence.
Chen Chunshu was sitting next to his father and was scolded by his father for being incompetent, feeling very embarrassed.
Seeing that Old Man Shen was still so stubborn, Liu Changshan didn't say anything more. After all, it was other people's lives that mattered to him and it had nothing to do with him.
The next morning, Liu Changshan asked everyone to leave work early, and then organized people to go to the village office to start distributing food.
It was not until dark that the messy village office gradually deserted.
The food distributed this time was all corn kernels. At night, the Shen family gathered around the fire in the stove and began to grind cornmeal in a stone trough.
There was a stone mill in the village, but there were so many people queuing up that the Shen family couldn't wait any longer, so they had to make it themselves at home.
For the evening meal, the Shen family, who had been stuffing themselves with wild vegetables for several days, finally had a bite of real food.
Days passed, but there was still no conclusion to Chen Xiashu's case.
Li Xiang became thinner day by day due to worry.
She ate little to begin with and was thin, but now she looked even thinner than before.
Until one day in the field, when Li Xiang wanted to straighten her back and take a rest, she felt dizzy and then her eyes went dark and she lost consciousness.
The people working next to her quickly put down their work and gathered around.
Finally, the two women said something to Liu Changshan and carried her back to the Shen family.
Before leaving, one of them said to Old Man Shen: "Uncle Shen, the second son's wife is too weak. She needs to eat something to replenish herself, otherwise she will die."
Old man Shen understood it as soon as he heard it. This was a hint that his family had treated his second son's wife harshly, which led to her fainting from hunger in the field.
He quickly explained: "At home, I also advised her to eat more, but she just couldn't get over it!"
"Because of the second child's matter, I can't eat anything. I can't sleep for half the night and just cry. Hey, what can I do?"
When the man heard it, he thought it made some sense.
After all, which woman can bear it when her husband is in jail?
Then he comforted Old Man Shen for a few more words and left.
Old man Shen pricked up his ears and listened as the two people left the yard. He then glared hatefully at Li Xiang who was lying on the kang.
"You can't give birth to a son, you can't take care of your own man, and now you can't even do any work. What's the point of having you?"
The more Old Man Shen looks at his second son’s wife, the more annoyed he becomes.
If it weren't for her, the second child might not be living like this.
I don’t know if I was blinded by greed and let her stay in the Shen family for so many years?
If I had known this would happen, I should have kicked her out early and found a better wife for the second son.
But I can only keep this thought in my heart.
When Li Xiang woke up slowly, she found that her father-in-law was looking at her with a bad look.
She looked around and found that she was on the kang at home, and immediately panicked.
Now that her husband is in jail, Li Xiang has been worried that she will be kicked out of the Shen family.
So I eat less and less, but do more and more work.
Plus he was worried about Chen Xiashu, so he fainted on the ground.
"Dad, I'm not lazy. I'll get up and go to work right now." After saying that, Li Xiang struggled to get up.
Old man Shen gritted his teeth and said viciously, "What do you mean by work? If you want to go to work now, do you want the whole village to stab me in the back?"
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