Chapter 133

The reason was very simple, a girl in the village had a boyfriend. Although the girl's grade was not high and she had to call Lin Tao "cousin", she was already ten years old this year, so it was normal for her to have a boyfriend. But her boyfriend was not a young man in the village, but a senior from her previous school, who was currently a junior high school teacher.

The rule in the village is that you cannot marry someone from outside the village, regardless of whether you are a man or a woman.

After the Tao Rong incident, there was another one in the village, except when the opponent was a soldier.

"It would be fine if the other party was a man of blood, like Cheng Xi, the tribe would agree, but her boyfriend is just a teacher, what use is he? If the Japanese come again, can he carry the wood warehouse or kill the Japanese? He is a good-for-nothing scholar, we will never agree to let a girl from our tribe marry such a man."

The girl had planned to elope tonight, but was discovered and tied up with a hemp rope: "It's a new society now, advocating free love. Why don't you agree? You are all a bunch of stubborn people. Why don't we even have the qualifications to pursue love? Why can't we marry someone outside the village? I will leave even if you tie me up. If you force me to do something, the worst that can happen is death!"

People in the village know from birth that they can only marry people in the village when they grow up. Many people have accepted this rule since childhood, so when they grow up, even if they don’t have much feelings for each other, they accept it silently. But there are also people like her and Tao Rong, who know what they want and have the courage to fight.

Lin Tao looked at the little girl and couldn't help but think of her mother.

In order to be with her father, her mother should have been as brave as this little girl. Thinking of her mother, Lin Tao couldn't help but look at her father, but found that his eyes were red. It seemed that he also thought of his deceased wife through this little girl.

Lin Tao did not agree with the village's rules. She didn't know if it would be of any use if she spoke up, but at this moment, she had no choice but to stand up and speak up.

"Great Uncle, can you please listen to me?" Lin Tao said.

The clan leader glanced at her and actually guessed that Lin Tao must be here to persuade him, but he had already made up his mind to listen to whatever Lin Tao said: "Go ahead."

Lin Tao nodded and said, "Dabogong, I want to refute your point first. I don't really agree with what you said just now that scholars are useless. I won't talk about the distant past, let's just talk about the movement on May 4, 1919, which was initiated by a group of students, or the scholars you mentioned. In fact, patriotism is not divided among people. Carrying wooden warehouses to fight is patriotism, and writing articles to awaken compatriots is also patriotism. Dabogong, what do you think?"

"There is one more thing. Now our motherland is getting better and better. We have driven the devils away. But if we don't want to be bullied, we have to stand firm. There are 400 million compatriots in our country. If we really want to fight, how can they beat us? But we lack weapons, advanced weapons. How can we make these weapons? It still has to be scholars who make them. Only when scholars make weapons can the soldiers use advanced weapons to fight the enemy, right? If everyone stops studying, who will study these things?"

"There is one more thing. I am speaking from my mother's perspective. After all, my mother has also experienced this. Dabogong, I hope that one day, this rule of the tribe can be changed. You see, the girls in our tribe are pretty and capable, and the boys are handsome. Even if we don't force them to marry people in the village, it's not difficult to find a partner. The scenery of our village is so beautiful, why should we hide it? Let's go out and let people from outside come in. Maybe it will be better than it is now."

After listening to Lin Tao's words, the clan leader didn't say much.

Lin Tao was prepared for this kind of result. This rule had been in place for many years, and she had never thought that it would change immediately because of her words.

But she believes that as time goes by, this backward custom will definitely be abandoned.

Either now or in the future.

Grandma also advised her: "I know you are thinking about your mother. This is also a knot in my heart. But this kind of thing can't be changed all at once. Let's talk about it later. But don't worry, I can see that your great uncle was moved by your words. Sanni, as long as you insist a little longer, maybe he will agree to this matter."

"Yes, grandma, I know." Lin Tao nodded.

At night, Lin Tao and Li Chengxi lay in bed, unable to fall asleep. Yueyue was carried to sleep by her grandmother, who really couldn't bear to leave her and wanted to sleep with her for the whole night.

Yueyue readily agreed. This child has been family-friendly since she was young. Even though she has never seen many of her relatives, perhaps because blood is thicker than water, Yueyue is very close to everyone.

"Chengxi." Lin Tao turned over and faced Li Chengxi.

Li Chengxi: "What's wrong?"

Lin Tao shook her head: "I was just thinking, if it were me, would I be so brave and do everything to be with you?"

"Do you still need to think about this? I'm sure you will." Li Chengxi said very firmly.

Although this was her answer in her heart, Lin Tao couldn't help but laugh. "Are you so confident?"

"I still have this confidence." Li Chengxi's voice was hoarse. They had been together for so many years, if they didn't even have this confidence, then all their time would have been in vain.

Tomorrow is the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, and they are leaving. Grandma and her family are reluctant to let them go, and have prepared a lot of things for them. Yueyue said that lichens are delicious, so Lin Tao's aunt and her family went out to pick up a lot of lichens the day before, and also brought them a lot of glutinous rice cakes, and made Miao clothes and headdresses for Yueyue.

Lichen is something that grows on the ground after rain. In Xiangcheng, it is called "earth fungus" because it looks similar to fungus. But it tastes better than fungus, soft and tender. Yueyue, the little greedy cat, likes it very much.

When they went back, it was Uncle Liu who came to pick them up.

On the way back, Uncle Liu told them about what happened at Lin Hui's house: "Lin Hui came the day you left. Lin Hui is really... I don't know how to describe it. She is so shameless. She even let her mother give her the things her sister-in-law sent her. She used them to save face. Her sister-in-law also quarreled with their family about this. Other families celebrated the New Year in harmony, but their family quarreled so much."

Lin Tao had never thought that this was possible. Thinking of Lin Hui, she found it increasingly difficult to understand Lin Hui. However, this vain behavior was her style.

She didn't really care about Lin Hui's family, but she was worried about whether Zhou Meifang had suffered any loss.

Uncle Liu said, "No, the Zhou family found out about it and went to the Lin family to make a scene. Lin Qiang has two older brothers, so they are not so easy to bully. I heard that they forced Lin Qiang to either sever ties with the Lin family or get a divorce."

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"Now your brother is gone and said he won't take care of your grandma anymore. What should we do now? Your grandma will have to go to the hospital again in a while. Your dad and I don't know anything and we have to be busy with the spring farming work." Zhang Hongying and Lin Changshan have been worried in recent days.

In fact, they were quite satisfied with their daughter-in-law Zhou Meifang. Her parents both had jobs and her family was well off. After being married for so many years, she never asked for anything from them.

Thinking about it carefully, I regretted making such a fuss. The main reason was that no one cared about Mrs. Lin anymore, and the old couple didn't know what to do.

Lin Hui suggested, "What's the big deal? Why don't we just send the milk to Second Uncle's house? Grandma is not your mother alone. Second Uncle is also your son. Now that Grandma is sick, why shouldn't he take care of her? They are not without money, and they can take care of her. Once they come back, we can send the milk over there."

Lin Changshan and Zhang Hongying looked at each other, feeling somewhat moved, but knowing that they were not right. When the family was divided, it was agreed that each brother would raise one child. At that time, his father was in poor health and looked like he was about to die, but they did not take care of him. Now that the old lady was sick, they wanted Lin Changhai to come again...

As soon as he finished speaking, the old lady Lin inside made a noise. She knocked over the urinal and cursed, "You have no conscience. Chop off your brain. I was so good to you in the past, but you didn't even serve me. You even wanted to send me over. I tell you, I'm going to die here. I'm not going anywhere. Lin Hui, you come and serve me. You owe me this!"

Lin Tao walked in and smelled the stench of urine. She frowned and said, "Grandma, I'm doing this for your own good."

"Get out! If you say that again, I'll beat you to death." Old Mrs. Lin threw the urinal, but unexpectedly it landed right on Lin Hui, spilling feces and urine all over her.

After dinner, Yueyue went out to play with some children from the village. But she refused to go blasting cow dung this time, because she still had the scar of cow dung on her hands.

The three children of the Shen family are still there. When Shen Jiayi saw Lin Tao again, she felt jealous when she saw her wearing beautiful new clothes and her hair was tied up so beautifully.

She held the cannon in her hand and suddenly wanted to throw it towards Yueyue.

At this moment, Shen Jiaping came over and called Yueyue: "Yueyue."

"Brother Jiaping!" Yueyue was very happy to see Shen Jiaping and quickly ran towards him.

Shen Jiayi was so frightened that she was slow to move and didn't have time to throw the cannon in her hand. It exploded in her hand and she screamed in pain.

Yueyue looked back in surprise and found that Shen Jiayi was blown up by the cannon. She thought she was really stupid. She smiled and followed Shen Jiaping forward: "Brother Jiaping, the phonograph you gave me last time is really amazing. Even my father praised you."

"If you like it, I'll make you something special next time. I've been studying how to make a recorder recently, and I'll give it to you when it's ready," said Shen Jiaping.

They walked to the peach tree at the entrance of the village, sat down on a rock, and looked at the bright and flawless moon in the sky.

Yueyue swung her feet, held her chin with her hands, and said innocently: "Brother Jiaping, the moon is so beautiful. Do you think people can go to the moon? How far is the moon from us? Can I pick the moon?"

Shen Jiaping looked at her and said, "The moon is very close, right next to me."

"Ah?" Yueyue was stunned by Shen Jiaping's words. She widened her eyes, thought for a moment, and then made an expression of sudden enlightenment, "I know, Brother Jiaping, you must think the moon is very close to us, right? Dad said that the moon looks close, but it is actually very far away from us. Even if we move a ladder, we can't reach the moon."

"No." Shen Jiaping shook his head and said to Yueyue's confused eyes, "Aren't you Xiaoyueliang?"

Yueyue suddenly realized that the little moon that Brother Jiaping was talking about was herself!

Yueyue smiled and narrowed her eyes, revealing a row of white teeth, and nodded: "Yes, I am the little moon."

"I'll take you to catch the moon." Shen Jiaping jumped down from the rock.

Yueyue also jumped down and asked excitedly, "Can we catch the moon? How do we catch it? Can we catch it?"

"I can catch it." Shen Jiaping took Yueyue to a small pond and put his hand into the pond. Then the moon was reflected in the water, as if it was in his palm and was caught by him.

Shen Jiaping asked Yueyue: "I caught the moon. Does it look good?"

Yueyue's eyes were sparkling, reflecting the purest moon of the night. She nodded vigorously: "Beautiful, beautiful!"

Although he didn't really catch the moon, Yueyue still thinks Jiaping is amazing. He can do everything. He can make a phonograph, a tape recorder, and even catch the moon...

Happy times are always short-lived. The home visit leave is about to end, and it is time for them to set off on their journey back to the island.

Yueyue was reluctant to leave Xiangcheng. The night before she left, she hugged Lin Tao's arms, buried her head in her arms, and said in a low voice: "Mom, but I can't bear to leave this place. I can't bear to leave A Tai, the Miao village, my aunt, Nini, Goudan, and my brother Jiaping..."

The little girl was in a bad mood and it was easy to coax her. Tell her that brother Qingming and brother Hongxing missed her too and were waiting for her to come back and play with her on the island.

When Yueyue heard this, her face wrinkled into a bun, and she felt very distressed. On one side were Brother Qingming and Brother Hongxing, and on the other side were the relatives and good friends here.

Finally, she could only sigh and say, "Mom, let's come here again in the future, okay?"

"Okay, Mom will definitely bring you here." Lin Tao promised.

Home is the best place; when you drink water, you remember its source.

Although she had suffered a lot of injustice here, she always missed her hometown.

Two days before returning to the island, Lin Tao went to the county town to visit her high school teacher, Mr. Liu.

Teacher Liu has returned to school to teach. He was very happy to see Lin Tao. He said that in all these years, Lin Tao was the only student who insisted on sending him things. What Lin Tao sent him was not only material things, but also a kind of spiritual comfort.

As a teacher, he couldn't express the pain he felt when he saw his students come to his house to criticize him. Even if it was someone else, he wouldn't feel that bad. But those children were his former students, and they called him a "stinking ninth" and a "black five categories".

But Lin Tao undoubtedly gave him hope, at least it made him understand that not all of his students were like that, and that he was not such a failure as a teacher, and was not useless. This made him willing to come to school and continue teaching and educating people after he became ordinary.

Teacher Liu also told Lin Tao: "According to my guess, the college entrance examination may be resumed in two years. If it weren't for sports, you would definitely be admitted to a good school. You should study hard in the next two years and take the exam when the time comes."

Lin Tao kept Teacher Liu's words in mind and started reviewing after returning to the island. Although it had been eight or nine years since she graduated, she was not completely separated from learning because of her job, which was teaching. In fact, teaching made her more solid in some knowledge and her learning ability was stronger, so reviewing was not difficult for her.

In contrast, those educated youth who went to the countryside had to work and earn work points during the day and could only find time to study at night. Lin Tao felt that compared with them, her study conditions were already very superior.

She also told Xu Yuting about this matter, but she didn't say who told her. She just made her own calculations based on the increasingly open policies.

In fact, Xu Yuting went to university and studied abroad in the Soviet Union. However, she studied fine arts at the time. In recent years, she has become more and more interested in fashion design. Since she bought a sewing machine, she has been using it from time to time and has said that she will study fashion design if she has the chance in the future.

So when Lin Tao knew about this, she would definitely tell her.

After Xu Yuting learned about this, she also said that she would study hard and take the college entrance examination when the time comes.

Chen Shuifen was not good at studying, so resuming the college entrance examination had nothing to do with her. She came back a few days later than Lin Tao and Xu Yuting. When she came back, Xu Yuting asked her if her mother-in-law was really sick or if she had lied to them to ask for money.

Chen Shuifen sighed and said, "She always lied to us before, saying she was feeling unwell and wanted money again, but I didn't expect she was really sick this time. Her biased youngest son is really heartless. When we got back, she was lying on the bed covered in feces and urine. I don't know how long it had been since she was cleaned up. She refused to change her clothes or take a bath. Her body was smelly and her butt was rotten. I don't know if she was afraid that if we didn't come, she wouldn't be able to die in a dignified way. She held on for a breath and died that night after we got home. After all, she was Lao Zheng's biological mother. He and I gave the old woman a bath, which gave her a dignified death and didn't make her die so ugly."

She would not forget the things the old woman had done, and she would not do anything else. Giving her a bath and giving her a decent life before she died was already enough for her. Zheng Youde did not ask her to do anything, and Zheng Youde was very grateful to Chen Shuifen for doing this.

As for Zheng Youde's younger brother and his family, they were thinking about the few things left by the old woman. They heard that the old woman had a gold ring. After the old woman died, they searched the house but could not find the ring.

"When we went back, she burst into tears when she saw me. She held my hand and said that the second son had no conscience and that we should treat her better. She said that she was wrong in the past and asked me not to hate her." Chen Shuifen was a little angry when she talked about this. "Now she regrets it. What did she do before? She only cared about her youngest son. Now she is getting retribution."

"When I think about those things in the past, I really don't want to care about her, but seeing how she looked, I feel sorry for her. Tell me, how can some people be so heartless? The old woman was not good to us, but she was really good to her youngest son's family. How could they just watch her like this, with maggots almost growing on her body, and not even help her clean up? After all, she is his mother. When he was born, he pooped and peed. Wasn't it his mother who cleaned up for him? People say it's better to have sons, but I think it's better to have daughters. Sons have no conscience." After saying this, Chen Shuifen couldn't help but start worrying about her own old age.

She glanced at Zheng Hongxing standing aside, and asked Lin Tao and Xu Yuting with some concern: "Teacher Lin, Teacher Xu, do you think Hongxing and Xiangyang will not treat me like this in the future? Am I usually too harsh on Hongxing? It seems that I am better to Xiangyang and worse to Hongxing? No, no, I have to change this habit in the future. What if this child remembers my grudge and treats me like this when I am old? What should I do..."

Since Chen Shuifen had this worry, she started to be careful and tried her best to control her emotions and not get angry with Zheng Hongxing easily.

But after Zheng Hongxing tore her pants for the third time this month and didn't do her homework, and after the teacher repeatedly stressed to her, Chen Shuifen began to grit her teeth: "Hongxing, didn't mom tell you? Stop fighting. Look, your pants have been torn three times this month. If they get torn again, are you going to go to school naked next time? Also, why don't you do your homework? What did mom tell you? You should study hard and learn more from your brother. Of course, you know that mom doesn't like your brother just because he has good grades. I have always treated you two brothers equally."

Zheng Hongxing looked at her mother, gritting her teeth and smiling with a fake smile, and shuddered. She couldn't help but say, "Mom, do you know who you look like?"

Chen Shuifen: "Who does he look like?"

Zheng Hongxing picked his nose and said, "It looks like the black bear monster in Journey to the West."

Chen Shuifen: ...Damn it, she couldn't bear it anymore. No matter how Zheng Hongxing treated her when she was old, she had to beat that damn boy a few more times while she could, otherwise he would be really lawless!

Chen Shuifen picked up a rolling pin and hit Zheng Hongxing: "You little bastard, I'm going to skin you alive today! I'll make you fight, I'll make you skip homework, I'll make you call me a black bear demon!"

When Zheng Hongxing saw his mother getting mad, he ran away, howling as he ran: "Mom, didn't you say you wouldn't hit me? Mom, it's not okay to hit people on New Year's Day—"

Chen Shuifen gritted her teeth and said, "The fifteenth day of the first lunar month has passed, and the New Year is over. I'm going to give you a break today and make sure you're not being lawless!"