We don't know how Grandma Yun is doing, but Grandpa Yun is feeling unwell all over, as if he has lice biting him. Whenever Liu comes to cause trouble, his wife gives him a hard time.
She had injured her body when she gave birth to Xia Jie'er. The doctor said that she should avoid getting upset or angry. But if she didn't get angry and lashed out, she would definitely get upset. If she didn't want to get upset, she had to get angry. Old Master Yun also expressed his helplessness.
It's all Liu's fault. Why did she have to come to someone else's front door to wail? Was her spacious, open house not enough for her to cry in? Or was she penniless and felt it was bad luck to cry in her own home? What a troublemaker!
Standing outside, Liu, perhaps sensing the disgust of the third branch of the family, cried even louder.
“My dear ancestors, you don’t know yet, your great-grandchildren Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu have been kidnapped. Those people are vicious and cruel, they don’t even blink when they cut people with knives. Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu are crying so hard, their hearts are breaking. We don’t even know if they are alive or dead.”
“Those brothers who are still brothers even if their bones are broken, they have the ability to save people, but they don’t help at all. They just stand at the village entrance watching the show. If Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu are gone, will they be able to sleep peacefully? Aren’t they afraid of your wrath at night?”
“Although our eldest son’s family sometimes makes mistakes, everyone makes mistakes. How can they force me and Yun Da to put our fingerprints on a letter severing ties just because of a small mistake? They are trying to drive us to our death. The eldest son’s family will be without descendants.”
"..."
Liu continued to cry and shout, attracting the villagers to come over. Hearing only one side of the story and seeing that it was a holiday, the villagers couldn't help but feel sorry for them and began to subtly blame the third branch of the family for going too far.
So people are truly capricious. Besides, they don't know the pain until they cut themselves with a knife. They seem to have forgotten how indignant they were when Liu sold Yun Ruochun, how jubilant they were when Song Wang sent Liu to her wedding sedan chair, and how disgusted and hateful they were when Liu was sentenced to three hundred strings of cash and fled back to the village to ask for the money.
It hasn't been long since then, but they've not only forgotten what kind of person Liu is, but they also don't care about her character. They only listen to her side of the story and then blame others. Only Old Lady Fan speaks up for the third branch of the family.
Grandma Yun flung open the door, walked back to the table, and, holding the Laba porridge, exclaimed, "Father-in-law, it's a good thing you left early, or you would have been driven to your death by anger. Of course, that shameless gossip said she wouldn't even come to our doorstep to beg for food, but now, she's practically begging for it."
Liu quickly pinched herself, trying to cry louder to drown out Old Lady Yun's voice.
But having barely eaten a full meal and with hardly any oil or fat, how could she possibly compete with Old Lady Yun, who ate and drank well every day? After shouting twice, she felt like she was about to faint.
Old Lady Yun's voice trembled with a sob, "My poor Chun-jie, we couldn't bear to marry her off, so her beastly aunt sold her off, and to someone old enough to be her father! Isn't that going to kill her?"
"They sold people and used the money to build houses, eat the best food, and use the best things, but they didn't even think about their ancestors. You must go find them tonight and catch up with them."
"..."
Once Old Lady Yun started crying and talking, it went on and on without stopping. Liu tried to interrupt several times but couldn't. After crying so much, she was exhausted and hungry. Zhang's Laba porridge was delicious. Finally, she couldn't bear it anymore, so she picked two vegetables from the front door and had Lian help her home.
The villagers pointed and whispered about Liu and her family again. Old Lady Yun didn't respond to them. She just gave a polite greeting to Old Lady Fan, who had spoken up for them, and then closed the door.
Once the door is closed, half the trouble disappears.
Unlike the third wife, who was unharmed except for losing two vegetables, the second wife suffered a terrible fate.
It turned out that the eldest branch of the family had already discussed this morning and decided to split into two groups to take advantage of the 28th day of the lunar month. The women, including Liu, went to the gate of the third branch to shout, while the men, including Yun Da, went to the second branch to mourn.
In this village, crying is nothing unusual. After all, everyone knows what kind of person each person is, and as long as they dare to disregard their reputation, they're not afraid of making a big scene.
But things are different in the city. People in the city pay more attention to their family background, especially since it's almost Chinese New Year and relatives are visiting each other. How could Yun Da be here making a scene?
Moreover, Yun Er was chosen to marry into the family, and with his in-laws in charge, how could he possibly touch money? So they hurriedly sent Yun Da away.
But a cat that has stolen fish will not easily let go of a fish again. It led Yun Dazhuang and the others into the house and roared out the whole funeral service, scaring Yun Er's mother-in-law so much that she fainted.
In the end, the Yun family couldn't afford to offend them, so they gave them twenty strings of copper coins and sent them away. Yun Da even took two pieces of cured meat with him when he left.
Looking at his heavy harvest, he felt a pang of bitterness. His family had worked themselves to the bone and barely earned a few copper coins, while others were giving away twenty strings of cash in one go. This world was truly unfair.
"Second son, third son, next year I'll let you go into business with your second uncle. It'll be quick to make money and pay off debts."
"Okay, no matter how difficult it is, we must save Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu."
Yun Da weighed the copper coins in his hand. "Let's talk about it later. Let's return these twenty strings of cash first to prevent the interest from snowballing. With your second uncle as a powerful figure, we can enjoy the shade in the future."
Looking at the two pieces of cured meat, Yun Da thought that he would bring Liu Shi over after the New Year. The third branch of the family was determined not to associate with them, so why should they bother to be nice to them? They might as well focus their efforts on the second branch. Even if they were to bring something, they could bring a few more.
Yunling had no idea what the eldest son's family was planning. All she knew was that after the ancestral worship meal, it was time to clean up. Zhang first poured hot water into a small wooden basin, then added cold water, repeatedly testing the water temperature with her hand. Only after she felt it was suitable did she put Yunling in.
After getting into the water, Yunling lay comfortably. She had gone from being uncomfortable at first to being able to handle it with ease. In the apocalypse, water resources were extremely scarce, and finding clean water free from radiation pollution was practically impossible.
That's why the replay of the Olympic diving and swimming competitions in the basement made everyone in the room excited. Now that she thinks about it, Yunling can't help but open her arms and try to do a backstroke. This little splashing motion made Zhang laugh.
"Ling-jie, are you trying to learn how to swim?"
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