In the west wing of the Miao family's courtyard, Li Yanzi and Miao Wang were arguing fiercely.
"I don't agree! What you're saying is all for your sister! Yes, she's your biological sister who has taken care of you since you were a child, so you have to contribute manpower and effort to deliver food. What did I say? It's not enough, right? You're even targeting my son! Why don't you move our entire home to your sister?!"
Miao Wang lowered his head and spoke in a weak tone: "I am just discussing this with you. Don't say such harsh words. What do you mean by scheming... This is obviously a good thing for both parties. If you marry someone else's daughter, you will have to pay five or six taels of betrothal money. Is this easy to save? If you marry my sister's family, you will definitely not have to pay this money."
Ever since Shen Qing and his mother separated from the old Shen family, the two brothers have been worried about the future of the Miao family. After all, the future of the Miao family still depends on Qing Ge'er's future man - Qing Ge'er must get married, how can there be a young man in the world who doesn't get married?
According to Miao Xing's idea, it would be best if she could marry into their Shiqu Village. Firstly, everyone would know each other well. Secondly, if Shen Qing was unhappy in the future, she could go to their house and make a complaint. Since they were from the same village, there wouldn't be a chance for the Lantang Village chief to take sides.
But Shen Qing had said that if she wanted to get married, she would definitely bring her mother with her. Shiqu Village was originally a wealthy village, and it was not difficult to find a wife. Girls and boys from other villages were very willing to marry in Shiqu Village. There were many men of similar age to choose from. Why did they choose Shen Qing, who was not outstanding in appearance, had a good reputation for being tough, and had a mother with him?
Not to mention bringing my mother along, even if I don’t bring her along, no one would be willing to marry me!
After searching the village for a while, there was really no one to choose from. Miao Wang was just worrying about it when his wife Li Yanzi talked to him about the marriage of their eldest son Miao Yu.
Miao Wang suddenly realized that his son was also old enough to get married, and thought that this would be a great match! If Qing Ge'er married someone else and took Miao with him, her position in Qing Ge'er's husband's family would inevitably be awkward, and she would have to look at the eyes of the man's parents. But if his son married Qing Ge'er, Miao would live back in his own home, and the whole family would be relatives, how wonderful!
But he thought it was good, but his wife didn't think so at all! Li Yanzi didn't expect that her husband would have such thoughts after she mentioned her son's marriage. She wanted to slap herself twice!
She and Miao had a good relationship. Miao's personality was such that she couldn't offend anyone. But my aunt was a guest of honor at her parents' home. When she came back to visit her, I, as a daughter-in-law, had to serve her warmly. One or two days was fine, but who would be willing to live with my aunt for a long time and be an inch inferior to her?
Not to mention how she and Miao will get along in the future, Miao's retirement will also fall on her son. Others may not feel sorry for taking care of an extra old man, but she, as a mother, feels sorry!
As for Qing'er, he would be a very good nephew, but Li Yanzi would never want him to be her husband!
Shen Qing is four years older than her son, not good-looking, and fierce. As a mother, who wouldn't want to marry a pretty and gentle woman for her child? The most important thing is that Shen Qing is a boy, and her pregnancy mole is dark. Her stature is also the most difficult to raise!
This peasant woman has her own set of standards for choosing a daughter-in-law and husband. The old people often say that those with big butts are easier to give birth to, which is not without reason. It is just that it is not about easy pregnancy, but easy childbirth - people with big butts tend to have wide pelvises, which makes it a little easier to give birth, and the probability of dystocia is lower. With the current level of medical care, it is really a journey of hell for a woman and her son to give birth. Which village has not had dystocia? Li Yanzi wants to choose someone who is easy to give birth to and avoid a bad ending. What's wrong with that!
However, Shen Qing had broad shoulders and narrow hips, a very standard inverted triangle figure. In any aspect, Shen Qing was not Li Yanzi's ideal son-in-law.
"There's no way I'll agree to that. Don't even think about it! Xiaoyu is only fifteen years old. It's not too late for him to get married at twenty. Can't I save five or six taels of silver in five years? I'm putting it this way. Forget about Qing Ge'er. I will only marry a girl for my son. No other brothers will do!"
Li Yanzi glared at Miao Wang angrily: "What kind of families marry boys? They have too many brothers in the family and are really poor, so the eldest son marries a girl and the younger brother marries a boy. They think that even if they can't have children, they still have nephews to support them in their old age. Xiaoyu is my only child, and you dare to ask him to marry a boy! You are willing to subsidize your sister even if you have no descendants!"
Miao Wang was annoyed by her scolding and threw the things in his hand onto the bed: "How can you talk like that? What do you mean by no descendants? Is there any aunt like you who curses Qing'er like that?"
"What did I say? I'm telling the truth! What's the matter? Are you anxious? You want to fight me? Come on, come on, hit me here!..."
The noise of the quarrel was getting louder and louder. Across the courtyard, Miao Xing and his wife in the east room also looked embarrassed. Logically, the brother and sister-in-law should go and persuade the neighbors to stop quarreling. However, Liu Yue'e glanced at her husband and knew that Miao Xing was also happy for Miao Yu to marry Qing Ge'er.
Liu Yue'e was even more thankful: as the head of the family, she might not have such thoughts. In fact, the one who was most suitable for Qing'er was her eldest son Miao Ren, who was a little older than Qing'er. However, Miao Ren had already been engaged in the spring, and the engagement had already been completed. He only had to wait until next winter for the new bride to come. Miao Xing was too proud to let his son break off the engagement and marry someone else.
The youngest son Miao Shan was only nine years old, so there was no way he could be paired with Qingger, so the relationship fell to the fifteen-year-old Miao Yu.
But she also understood Li Yanzi very well. If Miao Ren hadn't proposed marriage, she would have turned against her own man rather than let her son marry Qing Ge'er!
Everyone has selfish motives. She and Li Yanzi can pity Miao and Shen Qing, sympathize with them and help them, but there must be a limit. If they want to harm their own interests, especially the interests of their children, that is absolutely not acceptable! At this time, she could only secretly wish that Li Yanzi could refuse successfully.
But they didn't expect that the first thing they did was to bring about the next. While the people in the yard were still arguing about Shen Qing and her son, they heard someone outside the yard reporting: "Miao family, Chunlei has returned with her brother, and they've also brought a lot of things with them in their car."
Hearing this, Liu Yue'e's heart suddenly hung in the air: driving a car? With a lot of stuff? Her first reaction was, could it be that Miao couldn't make ends meet anymore, so she took all her belongings and moved back home without asking for permission?
The quarrel in the west wing also fell silent for a moment. Li Yanzi opened the door with a swish and asked with a sullen face, "Where are we?"
"Just passed the village entrance." The lady who came to report the news looked at Li Yanzi and Miao Wang inquiringly. She was a gossiper and liked to pry into other people's affairs, otherwise she wouldn't be so keen on reporting news to others: "What's going on? Are you having a conflict? I heard such a loud noise from your house from a long distance away."
Li Yanzi forced a smile: "It's okay, every family has some quarrels, it's just a small matter." Her first reaction was similar to Liu Yue'e's, but she was more afraid that Miao Wang, Miao Shi, and Shen Qing had already made an agreement, but kept it a secret from her, and now they were coming to get married. Li Yanzi tucked her hair, even if it was a tough battle, she had to win! "Let me take a look, why is the eldest sister here at this time?"
Shen Qing drove Miao into the village. Many people greeted them and asked about Miao's recent situation: Miao was born and raised in this village, and many people watched her grow up. When they encountered such a bad thing before, the people of Shiqu Village naturally protected their own girl and scolded the old Shen family.
"I've never seen such a shameless person. I think the atmosphere in Lantang Village is not good. Zhao Youdang is unfair in everything he says and does. In the future, I'd better try not to get married to anyone from Lantang Village!"
"That's right. They are not as good as our village, yet they dare to bully the girls from our village like this."
"How are you living now? Is it difficult? Why don't you move back to our village? Your two brothers can't just ignore you."
Li Yanzi came over and heard this. She wanted to scold the person who said this: "It's easy for you to talk without any pain in your waist! You open and close your lips, don't you know how much trouble you cause others?"
Fortunately, she heard Miao refuse: "Life is not bad. I rented a house there for a year and will not come back to live. My mother's house is not spacious. My eldest nephew will get married next year and they can't live there by themselves. Look, I brought some things to visit my mother. Life was not good before. I haven't bought anything for her for many years. I can't bear it."
The villagers looked at Miao with sympathy: "It's not your fault. What can you do if you marry into a family like that? Your mother can't find fault with you. It's good enough that you are doing well now. You are really filial by taking these old things."
Seeing what Miao and Shen Qing brought, the people of Shiqu Village really believed that Miao was living a good life: I have never seen a married girl give such a big pig leg to her parents! There were also two pieces of cloth, no one knew what material it was, it felt like satin, plus two pounds of taro cake, if the married girl came home to visit, these two pounds of taro cake alone would be a decent gift.
This confused Li Yanzi. What was going on? He was not going to move back home, was he really just coming back to visit? He rushed out of the door in a rage, and his son was a little confused.
Even after returning home, eating the caozi cake and touching the smooth material with her hands, Li Yanzi still didn't come to her senses: Miao and Qing'er seemed to be living better than her own family, nothing like what the brothers Miao Xing and Miao Wang had learned when they came back!
Look at what Miao was wearing. Although it was old clothes, the material was good and there were no patches on it. She also brought so many gifts. Qing Ge'er was still wearing old clothes, but he had a pair of new shoes on his feet. They didn't look like they were made at home, but bought from a store.
Mrs. Miao was the happiest. She touched the cloth that Miao had chosen for her, and then touched Miao's hand. She was so excited that tears were about to fall: "My poor eldest sister, now you have finally made it... It was all my fault. I was incompetent and blind to choose such a family for you."
Who did Miao take her tears from? Of course, she took it from her mother. The two of them had similar personalities. Whenever Old Lady Miao cried, Miao would also choke up. When the mother and daughter met, they would finally cry.
After crying for a while, Miao wiped her eyes and said, "It's not my fault, mother. The Shen family was already a good family at that time."
Although not as wealthy as Shiqu Village, even now, the Shen family is considered to be one of the most affluent families in Lantang Village, and they are not particularly poor families: there are five large and solid main rooms, and the two side rooms are also spacious and three rooms each, all of which are solid houses covered with blue bricks and gray tiles, and they do not leak at all on rainy days. This makes more than half of the families in the village inferior, who would not be envious?
Even if Shen Qing had a hard life in the old Shen family, he could still have his own room. With ten acres of land, the family could raise two or three pigs and ten chickens every year. How do farmers judge whether a family is well-off? Isn't it based on these?
Besides, to be honest, when Shen Zhigao was young, he was one of the most handsome and tall men in the nearby villages. Miao had secretly taken a look at him before getting married and was satisfied with him.
If his conditions weren't really good, why would Widow Li choose him among so many people in the village to poach him?
Who has eyes ahead and behind to know that the future will turn out like this?
Miao didn't want to talk about these sad things anymore, so she took out another piece of light green fabric and gave it to Liu Yue'e and Li Yanzi to change the subject: "Thank you, sister-in-law and sister-in-law, for taking care of mother's daily life over the years. I, as a daughter, can't help, so you two have worked hard. You can use this piece of fabric to make a jacket, or sew something for the child. I'll have to trouble you to make a coat for me with this piece of fabric."
"Oh, thank you Chunlei," Liu Yue'e was not as worried as Li Yanzi, she was genuinely happy, this piece of material didn't feel like something that ordinary farmers could wear, if she had to spend her own money she wouldn't be willing to buy it. At her age she didn't need to wear something so bright, but she had a little daughter of twelve or thirteen, so she could make a set for her. "I'll take care of your clothes."
This piece of material is big, so I can make a set of clothes for Old Mrs. Miao. If I cut it carefully, there will be a lot left. I can use it to make a shoe upper or sew a purse!
Miao Xing and Miao Wang were not like them. They were blinded by a few gifts and pieces of fabric. Their brows were tightly knitted: "Where did you get the money to buy so many things?"
How much money did Miao and Shen Qing have at home? Others didn't know, but they went to Lantang Village to ask for it, so how could they not know? They were already living a tight life, so where did they get the money to buy pork legs and ingredients?
Shen Qing hurriedly told the story of hunting a wild boar in the mountains: "It was a coincidence that I got this pig. I dragged it back and sold it in the village that day. I didn't buy this pig leg either. It's the hind leg of the wild boar I shot." He didn't mention exchanging it for food, he only talked about selling it for money. A pig could be sold for about two or three taels of silver, so of course he could afford these.
"I thought the meat looked lean, and I thought you were cheated by the butcher." Liu Yue'e was shocked and circled around the pig leg. These days, people are short of oil and water, and the fatter the meat, the better it is. But there is very little fat in wild boar. "It turns out to be a wild boar leg. I haven't tasted what wild boar tastes like. Qing Ge'er is really capable!"
"What?!" After all, he was her uncle. Liu Yue'e's attention was on the pig's leg, while Miao Xing and Miao Wang's attention was on Shen Qing: "How dare you kill a wild boar! Are you going to die?"
Shen Qing was also helpless: "I wanted to hide at first, but this wild boar kept chasing me and I couldn't get rid of it, so I had to force myself." This was the truth. If the wild boar hadn't been chasing Shen Qing, Shen Qing would have definitely run down the mountain and back to the village, and there would have been no subsequent events.
"I told you that you can't be a woodcutter!" Miao Xing slapped his thigh, "You told me that there were no wild animals where you were going and it was very safe, but it's only been a short time and you've already encountered a wild boar! You are really poor, and you spent all this money on this wild boar. You two are really willing to spend it."
"I've changed a lot of them. I also saved some money from chopping firewood before, so I can still afford this little bit of money. It's been many years since I last showed my filial piety to my grandma." Shen Qing smiled and said, "These fabrics are all old. Rich people hang them in their houses as curtains. Now I take them down and sell them at a discount. They're very cheap."
Even if it was old, the country folk would not dislike it. Instead, they thought Shen Qing was really good at living and had gotten a great bargain. Liu Yue'e asked, "Where did you buy it? Next time you come across such a good bargain, call your aunt along."
Miao Xing shook his head and said, "I'm just afraid that you'll become more and more daring after you get the quick money. It's better for you to go to that mountain less often in the future."
How can I live without going up the mountain? Are you going to support me? Liu Yue'e rolled her eyes in her heart, took a knife, cut a piece of meat from the pig's leg, and changed the subject: "You guys sit and talk with me, I'll make dinner, Chunlei and Qing'er can stay to eat with us tonight, our family hasn't been together for a long time."
Li Yanzi moved her feet. Normally, she should go to the kitchen with her sister-in-law. They cooked together every day. But she was worried about something and stayed in the house for fear of missing something. As expected, after everyone chatted for a while, Miao said, "I have another thing to ask of you when I come back."
Here it comes! Li Yanzi's heart sank, and she felt a sense of relief. Her back was tense, and she kept thinking of polite and tactful refusal in her mind, just waiting for Miao to finish her words before entering battle mode.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
