Grandma Lin froze for a moment, then pursed her lips. "You and Taozi have been gone for so long, I'm worried about you. I'll go back with you."
I was really worried. How could I not come to town to see them for such a long time, even once?
"Grandma, we've run out of vegetables in our garden. Could you pick some and cook them for us?" Zhao Xiaolian is a vegetable killer; any vegetables she grows either become stunted or die.
Today, Lin Xiazhu is openly asking her grandmother for vegetables. Back then, her second branch of the family often went to her grandmother's vegetable garden to steal vegetables, and the important task of stealing vegetables was always the responsibility of the head of the family, Lin Shan.
Now that her father is gone, she really doesn't want to steal, so she just asks her grandmother for it.
When it comes to vegetables, Old Mrs. Lin gets furious. After the family divided the property, she chose to grow vegetables on a private plot far away from her second son's house, but what's the use?
The second son's reach is so long that even if she planted vegetables in town, he could still reach over and pick them.
"I'm not saying this to be mean, but your mother is really outrageous. She's thirty years old and still can't even grow vegetables. No wonder your family is getting poorer and poorer." Old Mrs. Lin rolled her eyes, clearly unhappy. She just didn't want the second wife to take advantage of her anymore.
"Grandma, if you give me the vegetables today, I'll learn how to grow them from you later, and I promise I won't have to pick vegetables from your place anymore," Lin Xiazhu said confidently.
Grandma Lin looked on with suspicion. Xiao Zhu was usually quiet and didn't seem very bright. Today, she seemed like a different person. Although she was still quiet, her eyes and temperament were different from before.
With his second son gone, was his eldest daughter forced to mature prematurely?
In just a few days, he's already acting like he's in charge, whereas before he was so timid and hesitant.
Thinking about it, Old Mrs. Lin glanced at Lin Xiazhu a few more times.
Lin Xiazhu had long noticed that Old Lady Lin kept glancing at her, but she kept her eyes straight ahead, pretending not to have noticed anything.
"Grandma, we don't have any vegetables at home for lunch. Could you pick a bunch of bok choy for us?" Lin Xiazhu repeated.
People these days should be grateful to have rice to eat. Twenty or thirty years ago, we didn't even have enough to eat. People nowadays really don't know how to be content.
"I'll give you vegetables, but do you have oil at home to cook them?" Old Mrs. Lin asked, displeased.
"Oh right, Grandma, you reminded me that we're out of oil. Can you lend us some?" Lin Xiazhu said casually.
"I just remembered I have something to do at home, so I won't go to your house for now." Old Mrs. Lin turned and ran away, saving the vegetables and oil in her house.
This is perfect. Lin Xiazhu doesn't want Old Lady Lin around. She hasn't figured out how to deal with Zhao Xiaolian at home yet, and it would be even more difficult if Old Lady Lin came back with her.
Lin Xiazhu returned to the old house at the end of the village. As soon as she closed the gate, her second sister ran out of the kitchen, shouting in a loud voice, "Sister, you're finally back! Mom might have gone crazy." She lowered her voice to say the last sentence.
The second sister, Lin Chacha, is six years old this year. She can cook, chop firewood, and plant rice seedlings. The third sister, Lin Xiaoxue, is four years old this year. She follows her second sister around every day, sucking her thumb.
"Who told you she's crazy?" If Lin Xiazhu can't call her mother, then she's not her mother; she's Yan Xin, her love rival.
“I heard from my aunt and grandma that Aunt Huang in our village lost her husband a long time ago and went crazy within a few days. She was driven crazy by the shock of missing men.”
Lin Chacha was barefoot, wearing old clothes that her cousin didn't want, which were too big for her. She stared wide-eyed, her little face serious with a deep sense of bitterness and resentment.
This second sister was exceptionally capable from a young age. She was quick and nimble, and could learn anything in no time. In an era of scarcity and widespread malnutrition, she could walk at ten months old and gossip with the village aunts and grandmothers by the age of one.
"Don't listen to their nonsense. How could our mother be crazy?" If anyone is going crazy, it's Yan Xin. Yan Xin won't go crazy for Lin Shanlai; she'll only go crazy for this poor and harsh environment.
"Then why does she scream every now and then in the middle of the night?" Sometimes it's "Oh, there's a cockroach!" Sometimes it's "Oh, there's a rat!" Sometimes it's "Oh, there's a ghost!"
Why are you being so dramatic? It's perfectly normal to have these little animals at home. Just swat cockroaches, kill rats, and kill the bigger ones to eat. Why are you so afraid?
Ghosts? What's there to be afraid of? Can't you just sleep?
"Is the food ready? If it is, bring it up. I'll go check." Lin Xiazhu put Lin Taozi on a low stool and asked her fourth sister to watch over her before going to the room where Yan Xin was hiding.
After knocking on the door a few times with no response, Lin Xiazhu grew impatient and said, "Come out quickly, do you want me to break the lock again?"
Yan Xin, who had been huddled in the corner of the bed, heard the sound and remembered the little girl from that night. A glimmer of light appeared in her pale, dim eyes, and she stumbled to open the door.
Their eyes met, and they stared at each other for a long time. Lin Xiazhu remained still, feeling that Yan Xin seemed to have discovered something, and decided to listen to what she had to say first.
Yan Xin took a long time to recognize him before tentatively speaking, "You, you are Lin Xiazhu?"
Did you just recognize me?
"Mmm," Lin Xiazhu replied with only one word.
"You, you, you, you..." Yan Xin's face was filled with the words 'outrageous'.
"If I said it was an accident, would you believe me?" Lin Xiazhu said, indicating that she was innocent and that she hadn't actually done anything.
"This absolutely cannot be an accident. Tell me, why are you doing this to me?" Yan Xin, facing Zhao Xiaolian's sallow face and dry, yellow hair, was so angry that she was on the verge of collapse.
"Mom, Mom, what's wrong?" Lin Chacha rushed over like a cannonball and hugged Yan Xin's waist, crying and singing, "Mom, you mustn't do anything rash! Grandma said that the dead can't be brought back to life, and the living must look forward. If you leave, what will happen to me, my sisters and I?"
Lin Xiazhu's lips twitched. Her second sister always had admirable skills that she couldn't even begin to match.
"What are you doing? Get away, get away, don't touch me, who's your mother?" Yan Xin's scalp tingled, her face turned even paler, and she desperately tried to push the child clinging to her body away.
After observing for a moment, Lin Xiazhu saw Yan Xin rolling her eyes and about to faint, so she stepped forward and pulled Lin Chacha away, saying, "Stop howling, take your sisters to eat, I'll talk to her."
"What if Mom starts crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide? Can you handle it all by yourself, eldest sister?" Lin Chacha slapped her thigh and stomped her foot with one hand, while blowing her nose and flicking snot on the ground with the other.
"It's not as serious as you think. Go eat, leave this to me, and stop making a fuss." Lin Xiazhu pushed her second sister away with a headache, and only came back after seeing her carry Lin Taozi to eat.
"Let's go inside and talk." She knew Yan Xin had many questions for her, but she couldn't guarantee she could answer them all.
Yan Xin glared at her with hatred, and entered the room first with a belly full of anger. Yan Xin sat down on the edge of the bed, and when she saw Lin Xiazhu come in, she erupted like a volcano, "What did you mean by those words you said before you died? You were already prepared to curse me, weren't you?"
Otherwise, how could she have transmigrated along with Lin Xiazhu after her death?
The dilapidated house had no soundproofing at all. Based on the chatter and discussions of the people outside, combined with what Lin Xiazhu said before she died, Yan Xin had figured out where she was.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
