Chapter 132

At first, Lin Hui denied it: "Sister-in-law, what you said is too harsh. You can just send wine and snacks to my parents. There are only so many things on the market. Why can't I buy this?"

"You can buy it, but the words 'Machinery Factory' are clearly written on it. This is the New Year's goods distributed by our factory. How can you buy things distributed by our machinery factory? Lin Hui, a person can't be so shameless, can he?" Zhou Meifang was so angry that she laughed when she heard Lin Hui's words.

Zhang Hongying felt that Zhou Meifang was making a big deal out of nothing: "Meifang, look at what you said, we are all family, what's yours and mine, aren't they all family? Ah Hui finally came home, as her sister-in-law, you can't be like this."

"What's wrong with me? I'm going to make it clear today. What's wrong with me? If I really cared about you, I wouldn't come here empty-handed. You don't want to take anything, but you want to save face. How can such a good thing happen? When I gave Nai a bag of salted fish, she was so angry that she had a stroke. Didn't you ask me and Lin Qiang to go to the hospital? Lin Hui didn't even come back to see me. Now she comes here empty-handed and wants to show off with the things we gave her. If you want to get used to Lin Hui like this, then go and don't take my things. What family? Who wants to be a family with her?"

She originally thought that her mother-in-law was trying to take advantage of this, but she didn't expect that she would actually use the gifts they gave to Lin Hui to show off. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.

As she spoke, Zhou Meifang was so angry that she tried to snatch the bag of seafood that Lin Tao had given her from Zhang Hongying.

Zhang Hongying did not let go immediately and was pulled back a few steps.

Seeing this, Lin Hui was so angry that she threw the things on the ground. The bottle of wine was smashed into pieces, leaving only a pile of glass shards: "Zhou Meifang, you are going too far, aren't you? Do you still want to hit my mother? It's just a piece of broken stuff, isn't it? What's the big deal? Besides, it was given to my mother, so it belongs to my mother. What's wrong with my mother giving it to me?"

Now that her fig leaf has been torn off, she might as well just throw away the jar.

Zhou Meifang: "Lin Hui, you are so shameless."

Lin Hui: "Who are you calling shameless?"

The two sisters-in-law started to pull each other. Lin Hui had done a lot of work in recent years and had more strength. She pushed Zhou Meifang to the ground, and the bag of dried seafood fell all over the floor.

Zhou Meifang glanced at Lin Qiang who was standing silently beside her, turned around and ran back angrily.

Lin Qiang was ashamed and said, "Mom, you are such a fool! Look how angry Fangmei is. I don't care about this matter anymore!"

Zhou Meifang's noise attracted even more people to watch the excitement. They pointed at Lin Hui and Zhang Hongying and said, "They said how she became generous. She has been married for so many years and she has never come back to visit. But she came empty-handed and used the gifts given by her sister-in-law to show off. She is really shameless."

"You said a man is a battalion commander, and you thought he was so powerful, but in the end, he can't even take out this little money."

"You may not know this, but Old Lady Lin has already said that the 200 yuan betrothal gift from the Shen family was sent back by Zhang Hongying to support Lin Hui. What good marriage is that? A virgin girl becomes someone's stepmother, and even the betrothal gift is taken away. Isn't this a waste of money?"

"Lin Tao is really lucky. She married a good man. I heard that her husband is now a brigade commander, with thousands of people under him."

These words made Lin Hui lose face. She hung her head and wished she could crawl into a hole in the ground.

She hated Zhou Meifang for being stingy. She just took those things for show, not for real. Why did she expose her in front of so many people? She felt that Zhou Meifang didn't like her at first. When she got married, she fell in love with a skirt of Zhou Meifang and asked Zhou Meifang to give it to her, but Zhou Meifang refused. Her grandmother even said that her brother had found a good guest.

As a result, her brother was a coward who didn't even dare to take care of his own cousin. If it were her, she would have beaten Zhou Meifang.

"Mom, why are you so stingy, sister-in-law? You just took it for a while, I won't take it away. And it's not that I don't take anything, it's just that Guobin has some problems in the army, so I'm like this. When these children have a bright future, I will definitely be filial to you." Lin Hui said, "Our Jiahao will definitely have a bright future, and Jiayi is also a big star. As long as you give me a little bit of support now, I will have endless blessings in the future."

At this point, she could only keep telling herself that such a day was coming soon. It was already 1975, and reform and opening up would only take a few years. Then she would finally get her reward after all the hardship she had endured.

Then, we’ll see who dares to look down on her!

Zhou Meifang returned home and told her parents about this. Both Zhou's parents were reasonable people, but they could not bear to see their daughter suffer. Zhou Meifang had two older brothers. When they saw their sister coming back crying, they inquired about the situation. Then they teamed up to beat up Lin Qiang, the coward who watched his cousin being bullied and did not even help. Then they took up their business and rushed directly to Taohua Village to ask the Lin family what they were going to do.

The Zhou family is not one to be bullied. Since the Lin family dared to bully their daughter, the Zhou family made trouble for the Lin family and made it difficult for them to have a good New Year.

This was a big event in Taohua Village. It was New Year's Day and everyone came to watch the excitement.

Some said that the Zhou family was too powerful, some said that the Lin family was ungrateful, and they said all kinds of things. Of course, the one who said the most was Lin Hui, who was really a troublemaker.

But the Lin family got what they deserved. The funniest thing was that Old Lady Lin always said that Lin Hui was lucky and wanted to rely on Lin Hui to enjoy a good life in the future. Now look at her lying on the bed unable to move, it's really sad.

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Before these things happened, Lin Tao and his family had already gone to the Miao village.

The road to the Miao village was quite long and cars could not drive there, so they had to take a ox cart. Lin Changhai went to find Uncle Liu who drove the ox cart and asked him to take them to the Miao village. They gave him money for the fare, a total of five yuan for two trips.

They were generous and Uncle Liu was also willing to do this business, so he started waiting early.

This was Yueyue's first time riding in a bullock cart, and she found it very interesting. Uncle Liu was concerned about Lin Tao carrying a child, so he drove slowly because the road was not easy to travel on, and if he drove too fast, it would easily be bumpy.

If grandma had known that Lin Tao and the others were coming, she would have sent someone to pick them up at the gate of the Miao village.

She is Lin Tao's cousin. Lin Tao remembers that when she got married, this cousin also came and they met each other at that time. Now, several years have passed and the cousin has also gotten married. Standing next to her is her husband, Lin Tao's brother-in-law. He is quite tall and wears Miao costumes and jewelry made of Miao silver on his head.

They stayed in the Miao village for four nights in total. It was the first time for Yueyue to see the stilt houses and Miao costumes. Her grandmother had already prepared a set of clothes for her and also made a pair of Miao silver headdresses in the style of duck-billed clips, which made crisp clinking sounds when clipped on the hair.

Yueyue was very happy and cleaned it up like a treasure.

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, they stayed at their grandmother's house. On the third day, they went to see the men in the Miao village making glutinous rice cakes.

Ciba is a specialty of Xiangcheng. It is made of glutinous rice. The glutinous rice is first soaked overnight and then steamed in a steamer. The steamed glutinous rice grains are distinct and taste very fragrant. Although glutinous rice is difficult to digest, it tastes more fragrant than rice.

Yueyue ate a glutinous rice dumpling, which was delicious. While eating, she watched the uncles making glutinous rice cakes. She wanted to eat another one, but Lin Tao would not let her because it was difficult for children to digest too much glutinous rice.

Put the steamed glutinous rice into a large stone mortar, and then two people each take a cylindrical object like a hoe and hit it into the mortar again and again.

As the mortar was hammered more and more times, the glutinous rice in the stone mortar was hammered into a very tough dough. The hammered dough was taken out of the mortar, placed on the table, and the women began to make glutinous rice cakes.

There are red bean paste glutinous rice cakes, mung bean glutinous rice cakes, and plain glutinous rice cakes with nothing inside.

"Cousin-in-law, you try it too." Cousin-in-law handed the tool to Li Chengxi and asked him to try it too.

Li Chengxi took it over and followed suit, doing a pretty good job.

Lin Tao was helping to make glutinous rice cakes with the women. Yueyue couldn't stay idle either. After eating the glutinous rice balls in her hand, she also came to help. Lin Tao took her to wash her hands and let her follow. It didn't matter whether it was done well or not, as long as it tasted the same when eaten.

The glutinous rice cakes in Xiangcheng are all made into round shapes, which look rather ordinary. Yueyue thought that they were not pretty, and after thinking for a while she said, "I want to make a glutinous rice cake in the shape of a little rabbit."

Lin Tao thought she was just joking, but she didn't expect Yueyue to be so good at hands-on work. After a short while, she had molded the glutinous rice cake into the shape of a little rabbit. She also got a small bowl of sesame seeds, and put a sesame seed on the left and a sesame seed on the right to form the little rabbit's eyes. The little rabbit was finally molded into a realistic shape.

When everyone saw the bunny glutinous rice cakes made by Yueyue, they were all very surprised: "Yueyue, how come you are so amazing that you can even make bunny cakes."

Yueyue raised her little face and said proudly: "I learned it from my mom. The little rabbit red bean paste buns my mom made are so delicious."

"That's right. A daughter takes after her mother. You take after your mother. You are clever and beautiful."

The rule in the Miao village for many years is that daughters are not allowed to marry outside the family, so everyone in the Miao village is basically related to each other and it forms a big family.

Lin Tao's return this time was also approved by the old clan leader, Lin Tao's great uncle, and everyone was particularly enthusiastic about Lin Tao's family. Yueyue saw that the children in the village all carried a delicate and small backpack with eight bells tied to it, which jingled when they walked, which was particularly pleasant.

Yueyue was jealous. When Lin Tao's grandmother, Yueyue's great-grandmother, found out about it, she asked people to go to the mountain to cut bamboo and cut it into strips. That night, she made a small backpack for Yueyue and strung twelve bells on it with thread.

The next day, when Yueyue saw the small backpack, she jumped for joy, hugged A Tai, and said softly, "A Tai, Yueyue likes you the most."

She is really good at coaxing people with her mouth. After only two days in the Miao village, no one dislikes Yueyue. They all dote on Yueyue. Even children younger than Yueyue protect her wherever they go, for fear that Yueyue might fall accidentally.

"Cousin, please be careful when you walk. There are many rocks here!"

A Tai's family is of high grade. The boy who is one year younger than Yue Yue is called Yue Yue's cousin, Lin Tao's cousin grandmother, Li Chengxi's cousin grandfather, Lin Changhai's A Tai, and grandma □□.

This title almost confused Lin Tao. Yueyue didn't like people calling her cousin at first, but later the little boy got used to following her and calling her "cousin", and she was quite happy to hear it.

The old man is over seventy years old this year, but he is still in good health. Knowing that Li Chengxi was a soldier, he told him about the battle against the Japanese invaders.

The Japanese invaders had already reached Xiangcheng in 1938, and the tragic event of burning Changsha occurred in the same year. Everyone fled to the countryside, and the Japanese invaders also went to the countryside to fight.

The men of Xiangcheng were brave. When the Japanese came, they fought them. They used the guns and muskets they had taken from hunting in the mountains to fight the Japanese. They had to protect their territory and not let the Japanese occupy it. They took advantage of the fact that Xiangcheng had many mountains and cooperated with the guerrillas to fight guerrilla warfare against the Japanese.

"My leg was broken at that time. I was hit hard by the Japanese. But I led them to the minefield and blew them to pieces. Dozens of them were killed. It was worth it. At that time, all the men in our village who were over 16 years old carried wooden boxes to fight the Japanese. We couldn't let the Japanese occupy our territory."

Those who have lived through those years in this village, the older ones, have all experienced guerrilla warfare. What are they afraid of? They should tie their heads to their belts. If the country is gone, will they still have a home?

Lin Tao teased Li Chengxi: "I heard from my grandmother that when Dabogong got older, he was reluctant to talk to young people. I didn't expect that he likes you so much."

Li Chengxi suddenly became excited when talking about Dabogong: "Dabogong is a man worthy of admiration, and everyone in the village is worthy of admiration."

Li Chengxi and Yueyue obviously enjoyed this trip to the Miao village very much. It was also the first time for Li Chengxi to eat betel nut, but one should not eat too much of it. He mainly wanted to try the taste. After returning, he told Lin Tao that his cheeks hurt from chewing betel nut today, and he wondered how those young people in the village managed to chew it all day long.

On the fifth day of the New Year, the village was in an uproar.