When she returned to the yard, Zhang Hulan smelled the aroma of meat. She also discovered that there was a low house made of earthen bricks at the west end.
She asked in surprise: "Brother, you built it in one day?"
Zhang Hujun said: "Several elderly people in the village saw me and my second son building a shed, and they all came to help. The shed is already built, but the stove is not ready yet. It should be ready tomorrow."
Zhang Hulan thought it was a great idea as she no longer had to share the kitchen with the second wife.
Zhang Hujun stuffed a dozen copper coins into Zhang Hulan's pocket, which were the leftovers from buying meat.
Zhang Hulan said, "Why give it to me? Just keep it for now. You'll need to buy it again in a couple of days anyway."
Wang said unhappily, "Are you really planning on eating meat every three days? Are you not going to save money?"
"Mom, let's eat our stomach first. There's an old saying, 'eat, eat, eat, it will come naturally after you eat.'"
Wang glared at Zhang Hulan unhappily, then asked, "How was your outing today? Did you find anything to eat?"
"I found it. There are also kudzu roots in those mountains, but not much. But I found two other edible things. I asked Zhao Cheng to give them to the head of the village. Tomorrow the head of the village will let everyone look for it in the mountains as well."
Wang said, "It's OK as long as you can find food, otherwise it will be difficult to get the one ounce of silver you earn a day."
Zhang Hulan rubbed her stomach and asked, "Mom, how long do we have left to eat? I'm hungry."
Li's voice came from the kitchen, "It will be ready soon. The rice is ready, and the meat is stewing in the pot. We will eat it soon."
Zhang Hulan ran into the kitchen and chuckled to Li: "Hey, thank you for your hard work, sister-in-law."
Li smiled and said, "Why is it so hard? We are all thanks to you. We can eat meat again tonight."
Zhang Hulan saw that it was Zhang Xiaobing who was lighting the fire in front of the stove, and then she remembered that she had not seen the couple from the second room.
Zhang Hulan was surprised and asked, "Eh? Little soldier, why are you making a fire? Where are your parents? If you help us make a fire, won't your mother scold you?"
When it came to the second couple, Wang became extremely angry, and Li also had an expression that was beyond words.
Zhang Hulan asked, "Are they going to Xiang's house again?"
Li whispered, "The second son's wife took half of the food that was distributed last night to her parents' home."
Zhang Hulan was speechless. "It's up to them. It's their food anyway. They can give it to whoever they want. But if they run out of food in the future, I won't give them a grain of rice."
"By the way, he didn't touch our food, did he?"
Li's Zhang Dahua said, "No, Xiaojun and I were watching the whole time. My uncle wanted to go into the house to check on the food outside, but the door was locked and he couldn't get in."
Zhang Hulan smiled and said, "Not bad, not bad. You have to keep an eye on the food outside, or it will all be wasted by that wasteful thing."
When Zhang Xiaobing heard what Zhang Hulan said, he lowered his head to reduce his presence, not wanting Zhang Hulan to notice him.
But Zhang Hulan just happened to find him.
"Xiaobing, why didn't you go to your grandmother's house with your parents?"
Zhang Hulan then said with a look of sudden realization: "Oh... I see, you knew we were going to have meat tonight, so you didn't go?"
Zhang Xiaobing buried his head even lower.
Li poked Zhang Hulan and called out to Zhang Xiaobing, "Xiaobing..."
Zhang Xiaobing looked up at Li and saw Li winking at him. He then looked at Zhang Hulan and called out, "Aunt..."
Zhang Hulan laughed out loud: "Great! A man who can bend and stretch will be able to do great things in the future."
Zhang Xiaobing asked: "What does it mean to be able to bend and stretch?"
Zhang Hulan said, "How can you bend like this? Even in your current situation, you may not want to call me aunt, but you still do it in order to eat meat. How can you bend like this..."
Zhang Hulan thought for a moment and said, "For example, yesterday, when you saw your mother being bullied by me, you stood up to help her. This can also be considered as a kind of kindness."
Zhang Xiaobing stared at Zhang Hulan in a daze, then asked in a low voice: "Aunt, aren't you angry with me?"
"Why should I be mad at you?"
Zhang Xiaobing said, "I pushed you yesterday."
Zhang Hulan smiled and said, "You are still a child, why should I be angry with you? Besides, you are helping your mother. If you see your mother being bullied and do nothing, then I will look down on you."
Zhang Xiaobing's eyes sparkled: "Aunt, am I right?"
"Yes, you are right." Zhang Hulan said with a smile: "It is our duty to protect and respect our parents. But we cannot be blindly filial, understand?"
"What is foolish filial piety?"
"Foolish filial piety means that you believe whatever your parents say. As long as it is said by your parents, you believe it regardless of whether it is right or wrong, and you do everything according to your parents' wishes. This is foolish filial piety.
You need to have your own thoughts and judgments, and think for yourself whether what they say makes sense; it is wrong to do everything according to their wishes. "
Zhang Xiaobing didn't quite understand what was said, but he got the general meaning. In a word, you can't just listen to your parents.
Zhang Xiaobing felt that children should listen to their parents, but he also felt that what Zhang Hulan said made sense.
"Aunt, you are amazing. You understand so many things."
"Oh, so this is even about horses?"
Zhang Hulan said with a smile: "Since you took a picture of my horse, I will reward you with an extra piece of meat tonight."
Zhang Xiaobing grinned and said, "Thank you, auntie!"
Wang heard the conversation between the aunt and nephew and smiled. She was also worried that Zhang Hulan would have an opinion if Zhang Xiaobing stayed for dinner.
Although Wang Shi now disliked Zhang Hubing and his wife, Zhang Xiaobing was her grandson. As a grandmother, how could she not love her grandson? Of course, she had to give her grandson meat.
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