Liu Cui'e stopped pretending and cursed, "Don't pretend with me, you damn bitch! If you spend your whole life guarding Guosheng's grave, I won't say a word. Now that you're getting married, you have to return the pension to our family!"
"What's wrong with you being here for six years? The money you took was exchanged for my son's life! If you don't pay me, you have to be here for my son forever! If I don't ask for your permission, you will never get married!"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Chunxue let out a loud "Puh!" and shouted at the top of her voice, "Comrades and cadres! There's a feudal remnant here. I didn't say it, she said it herself. If you don't come forward, I'll take her to the police station for you!"
"It's been twenty years since we separated. Back then, who even remembered your last name was Liu? She wouldn't even let us touch the Zhong family's rice jar. She cursed me every day for being unlucky and saying I'd killed her son. Now he's been dead for six years. If I find another partner, will she come to take advantage of his money?"
"You said that if you died, Zhong Guosheng might jump out from under the grave and strangle you one day."
"Can you please have some shame?"
The crowd was noisy and had begun to whisper.
"This old lady is so shameless..."
"Does being a widow mean you should never marry? Does that also mean you should never go out, talk, or eat?"
"How did Zhang Chunxue manage to survive these past few years? Everyone knows how hard it must have been to raise three sons and a daughter!"
Gao Xiuli had been standing at the back without saying anything, but now she felt embarrassed. However, she didn't want to disobey her mother-in-law, so she could only laugh dryly and shrink back.
Huang Xiaolan was different. She was dressed up like a proper person, with her nose in the air and an unyielding demeanor. She took a big step forward and said in a cold voice, "Even if you split up, if Second Brother is still alive, he still has to take care of him until he dies, right?"
"Mom is old, and you daughters-in-law should take turns to take care of her. Second brother died, and you are his daughter-in-law, so you have to take care of him in his old age! This is the rule!"
Zhang Chunxue sneered directly: "Huang Xiaolan, that's what you want to say, right?"
"Are you saying that now that my husband is dead, I don't even have the right to live anymore? I have to continue to serve his domineering brothers, sisters-in-law, parents, and parents? Have they ever supported me? When did a daughter-in-law have the obligation to support her parents-in-law?"
"You speak so righteously, but why don't you go out and work for your husband? Why don't you work in the fields and carry manure for your husband? Why don't you serve tea and water to your mother-in-law and scrub her dirty feet?"
She spitted again, "You still want me to take care of her in her old age? Who in our village doesn't know how she treated me and Zhong Guosheng back then?"
"She loves her eldest son dearly, likes her youngest son, and takes her youngest daughter to heart. But Zhong Guosheng, the second son, was not loved by his father or mother. Now that he's dead, you're asking for a pension?"
"Where do you get the face?"
"If she had said something nice to me or given me a warm meal during the first few years after I married into the Zhong family, I, Zhang Chunxue, wouldn't have fallen out with them!"
"That's fine, Xiaoxiao finally got into high school, but this old hag who separated from us a long time ago still wants to sell my daughter for the bride price!"
She stepped forward and pointed at Liu Cui'e lying on the ground: "When you were doing this, did you ever think about whether you were doing it right by Zhong Guosheng?"
When the crowd heard this, they all gasped. Even Song Xingzhi subconsciously moved his feet and looked unhappy.
Zhang Chunxue wasn't afraid either, and her words grew more assertive as she spoke. "You don't even like your second son, Zhong Guosheng. You call him a coward and a wimp every day, saying he's wasting your little bit of 'old Zhong family pride'. You even dislike his three sons! Now, I haven't even said I want to remarry, and you're jumping out like that!"
"I just want to ask you one thing, who do you think you are? What gives you the right?"
She glanced at the group of cadres and raised her voice: "Are you going to do anything about it? I say this is the remnants of feudalism entering the village. Not only have they entered the village, they've even come on stage to perform!"
The crowd laughed out loud.
The captain couldn't stand it any longer and waved his hand at Liu Cui'e, "Have you had enough of this? Your second son is dead. It's not easy for Chunxue, a woman, to support the whole family. How can it be impossible for her to find a companion to live with now? This is too unreasonable!"
Liu Cui'e refused to accept the situation and stiffened her neck. "She married into our Zhong family and is now a member of our Zhong family. If I say she can't remarry, then she can't! This is our ancestral rule!"
The captain was so furious when he heard this "ancestral rule" that his beard nearly exploded. He was about to yell when Zhong Aiguo spoke first, interrupting him: "Your second son and Chunxue have long been separated and live in separate households. Their household registration has been removed. How dare you still say she's a member of your Zhong family? If you really make this matter known to the village, it will be a living example of feudal ideology."
"We cadres hold meetings every day until midnight to break the four old ways and promote the new. And you, an old lady, are always running around in front of others, using the rules of our ancestors as a pretext. Why don't you just go home, light incense, pray, and wear sackcloth and mourning clothes?"
"It's 1979 now. This isn't the era of your childhood when marriages were arranged by matchmakers!"
"It's not easy for Haruyuki to have survived until now, raising four children all by herself. If she wants to live a good life again, the village really can't have someone like you standing in her way!"
Liu Cui'e was so angry that her face turned red and her teeth were chattering: "I, I don't believe that you cadres really won't protect her!"
Before she finished scolding, someone else came running in from the village entrance.
"Mom—what are you doing!"
The shout scared the crowd so much that they stopped and turned around to see that it was Zhong Guoqiang who had arrived.
He wiped the sweat off his face as he ran. He saw his mother arguing with the brigade officer, the blood almost boiling off her face. He rushed forward, almost stopping suddenly and slipping on the ground.
"Guosheng has been dead for so many years, why are you still caring about Chunxue's affairs!" Zhong Guoqiang kept winking at Liu Cui'e.
This kind of thing can be discussed behind closed doors, why do you have to make a scene in front of so many people!
The most important thing is, why is he arguing with the leaders of the brigade? Do you want him to have a hard time in the brigade in the future?
She clapped her hands and said, "Alright, the eldest son of the Zhong family has arrived, and you guys have almost finished your show. Now those who should leave should leave, and those who should shut up should shut up."
She turned and smiled at the captain: "Don't worry, when I really get married again, I will definitely invite you to sit at the main table."
Liu Cui'e didn't see the look in her eldest son's eyes, but instead heard Zhang Chunxue's words, and immediately exploded: "You still want to remarry? Don't you see that you are already a grandmother! Who would want you!"
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