Liu Yuelan clenched the hem of her clothes, her knuckles turning white.
But she knew she couldn't rush things.
This cannot be done impulsively; if it fails, you will suffer the consequences.
We must remain calm and make a thorough plan.
We must succeed on the first try, strike a fatal blow, so that Su Chenwei can never recover!
She took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and turned to go back into the house.
He sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), head down, pondering a solution.
She went through the scenario in her mind over and over again.
How should I start the conversation?
Who should I report this to?
Where is the evidence?
What if someone turns around and bites back?
But after a whole afternoon, I couldn't come up with any ideas.
She lay limp on the bed, too lazy to move, her eyelids heavy.
But my mind just wouldn't stop.
The sun was slowly setting in the west, and the afterglow shone through the window paper.
The clouds on the horizon were dyed a fiery red.
The villagers who had gone to work returned one after another, each dragging their heavy steps.
Zhu Xiuqin was so exhausted that she felt like her body was falling apart. She threw the hoe against the wall.
It made a loud "clang" sound, startling several sparrows.
My legs were so sore that I could barely lift them.
She shuffled slowly into the house, too exhausted to even complain.
This life is simply unbearable!
Earning work points is incredibly difficult; you can work yourself to the bone all day and only get a few points.
The children at home are waiting for their meals, and the elderly are waiting for their medicine.
But my pockets were empty; I had nothing.
Zhu Xiuqin leaned against the door frame, panting, staring at the blood-red sunset with despair in her eyes.
I shouldn't have agreed to let Shen Cunpu join the army!
The thought popped into my head.
She should have stood firm and stopped the village from recruiting young people into the army.
But he listened to the cadre's words, saying that "one person joining the army brings honor to the whole family."
Now things are even worse; my son is thousands of miles away, and I hear very little from him.
But she was the only old woman left in the family, struggling to make ends meet.
Now things are really messed up; she can't count on her two daughters-in-law, and all the heavy work falls on this old woman's shoulders...
Isn't this a terrible thing to do?
The eldest daughter-in-law became sickly and listless after only a few years of marriage. She lay on the kang (a heated brick bed) all day, groaning and moaning, and would only eat a bite if someone brought her food to her mouth.
Although the youngest daughter-in-law, Su Chenwei, is physically agile, she never takes the initiative to do chores. She spends all day reading a book, saying that she wants to learn to read on her own.
She had to do everything herself, from hoeing the fields and carrying water to feeding the pigs and cooking.
Her back had long been unable to straighten, and her knees ached terribly on rainy days, but who could share her burden?
My mind, which had been foggy just moments before, instantly cleared up.
A gust of cold wind blew in through the window crack and hit her forehead, making her suddenly remember something.
wrong!
wrong!
My heart skipped a beat, as if someone had gripped it tightly.
One thing kept replaying in her mind.
The money she hid!
That thousand yuan was her dowry money saved up when she was young, painstakingly saved penny by penny.
They couldn't even bear to spend money on new clothes for the New Year.
She always valued this money more than her own life, calling it her "coffin money," because the person who would bury her in the future would need it to buy a simple coffin.
She had hidden the thousand yuan of her dowry under the kang mat.
What...it seems to have disappeared?
I remember it clearly. That evening, when neither of her two daughters-in-law were in the yard, she quietly lifted the old kang mat in the northeast corner.
They stuffed the money, wrapped in red cloth, into the crack between the bricks and then weighed it down with the mat.
Just to be on the safe side, she also sprinkled some stove ash around the edge of the mat.
If anyone has touched it, it will be noticed immediately.
The thought sent a chill down her spine, and she reached out to touch it.
His fingers trembled as he tentatively reached under the edge of the mat and forcefully lifted it.
The mat was completely lifted, revealing the gray brick underneath.
Her eyes widened, and she pried open the crack in the brickwork to reach inside.
But my fingertips only touched the cold brick surface and a few grains of sand.
But no matter how many times I turned it over, there was nothing under the mat!
She refused to believe it and completely moved the entire mat away.
They even cleaned every single brick seam next to them, and didn't even spare the mud seams under the edge of the kang (heated brick bed).
No matter how hard they searched, the money wrapped in red cloth simply vanished into thin air.
There were no footprints, no signs of disturbance, and not even the ashes from the stove were disturbed.
Where's the money?
Where did that thousand yuan go?
Her breathing became more and more rapid, and it felt like a stone was pressing on her chest, making it hard to breathe.
That thousand yuan was the culmination of her hard work, which she had secretly kept hidden for over thirty years.
Normally, I don't even dare to glance at it, for fear of being noticed.
But now, it's just gone like that?
Who went into her house?
Who moved her kang mat?
Zhu Xiuqin's lips trembled, and she collapsed onto the kang (a heated brick bed), her face turning pale.
Tears welled up in her eyes, but she clenched her teeth tightly, refusing to let herself cry.
She wasn't distressed about the money itself, but rather afraid that if she lost it, her life would be over.
If she has no money, who will take care of her in her final days?
Who will buy her a coffin?
He was hastily buried in a mass grave after his death, without even a tombstone...
Suddenly.
A scream shattered the tranquility of dusk.
"Good heavens! My money is gone!"
The sound was so shrill it seemed to be ripped out of the throat.
"Which heartless thief stole my life-saving money?!"
Zhu Xiuqin burst into tears, slapping her thighs and rolling on the ground.
She disregarded her image and shame; she felt as if the sky had fallen and the earth had caved in.
This life has lost its last shred of hope.
Zhu Xiuqin cried her eyes out and rushed out of the house.
Her cloth shoes were askew, and her hair was disheveled and spread over her shoulders.
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