Shuixiu touched Jiaojiao's hair and looked at her lovingly.
"Jiaojiao, I know you miss daddy too!"
Jiaojiao smiled with pursed lips.
Shuixiu looked at Jiaojiao's face carefully and said with a smile, "You look like your father! People say that daughters are smart because they resemble their fathers! Your father was the smartest person in the village. Look, you are smarter than him!"
"Your father is tall, handsome, clean, and very open-minded. When he first wanted to marry me, many people were not optimistic. They said that my fate was too strong and that I would kill all my family members except for me."
At this point, she smiled bitterly and said, "It's true that my family died for me. My parents starved to death in order to save food for me and my brother. My brother was beaten to death while trying to protect me, and he also died in the end. They really died because of me..."
"But your father doesn't believe this. He says he has a tough life too. When he was little, he killed his grandfather. When he grew up, he killed his parents. Let's see who's tougher between us!"
When he said this, everyone was speechless. Who doesn't have an elderly person die in their family?
However, what made Shuixiu happy was that it wasn't Old Lady Feng and Lianhua who said these words. They never said a word of disdain towards Shuixiu from beginning to end.
The two got married successfully and lived a happy life.
Who could have expected that everything was going well, but one day Feng Yuming went out and never came back!
"I still remember what he said to me before he left that morning..."
She had been a bit sleepy during that time, and Feng Yuming had quietly gotten up before she woke up in the morning. Although she was sleepy, she still tried to open her eyes.
Feng Yuming smiled and said to her, "I'm going to sell the wild ginseng I dug up in the mountains yesterday and buy some cotton to make you a new cotton-padded jacket!"
Shuixiu's eyes instantly became wet. Her clothes were tattered when she fled, and the only two she had that looked decent were given to her by Lianhua. When she got married, Old Lady Feng made Feng Yuming one new dress and four for her.
The other seasons were fine, but winter was unbearable. The cotton-padded jacket she'd brought from home had long since been traded for wild vegetables along the way. The only jacket she had was her mother's. It looked fine on the outside, but the cotton inside was clumped together, letting in drafts.
She wore a coat over her cotton-padded jacket, and although it looked okay on the surface, she shivered with cold every day.
Old Feng was too busy to notice these little things. Lotus was too careless to notice either. Shuixiu was too embarrassed to speak up, so she just had to endure the winter.
Unexpectedly, Feng Yuming found out.
"This winter, I'll make sure you wear a thick new cotton-padded jacket!"
He left her with a smile on his face and full of hope on that late autumn morning.
Once he left, he never came back!
After the accident, Shuixiu told Mrs. Feng that Feng Yuming had gone to buy cotton to make her a new cotton-padded jacket, and the villagers who had come to help were all there.
Old Lady Feng sighed for a long while: "This is his fate. No matter where he is now, whether he is... dead or alive, it is his fate and has nothing to do with others!"
Just these words made Shuixiu burst into tears. After Feng Yuming disappeared, she really wondered if she was just too unlucky. She felt like everything was her fault! It shouldn't have been Feng Yuming who got into trouble, it was her! Why did she need a new cotton-padded jacket? She shouldn't have let Feng Yuming go out!
After searching for Feng Yuming for another ten days, they couldn't find him anywhere, and the police had no clue either. The matter gradually fell into obscurity.
As time went by, people gradually stopped talking about Feng Yuming. Even though he was once the most popular young man in the village, the object of many girls' secret affections, and the best friend of all the boys.
But time is the most ruthless.
At first, perhaps people were worried that mentioning him would upset Feng's family, but as time went on, everyone really forgot about him.
"I really hope that one day, before going to bed, he will go out like usual, wrapped in cold air, and knock on the door, asking me to open it for him!"
Shuixiu looked at the Daqing Mountain in the distance with longing in her eyes.
Jiaojiao had once told her father about his fate, and the hexagram showed that Feng Yuming was not dead, but his return was far away.
Shuixiu suddenly looked at Jiaojiao and said, "How about you tell your father's fortune again?"
After she finished speaking, she took Jiaojiao's hand and wrote the word "回" on her palm.
Jiaojiao frowned slightly. Could her father's disappearance have something to do with her? Big mouth frame small mouth, where on earth is he trapped?
Zhoujia Village.
Zhou Xinghong’s uncle’s home.
The family sat in the main hall, discussing matters. Zhou's eldest uncle's daughter had already married, not far from home, in Wangjia Village, to the captain's youngest son. She was five months pregnant and moved very cautiously. She was currently sitting on a high stool in the main hall, listening to Zhou Pengcheng speak.
"That's what I think! I can earn work points while studying, and I can support myself! Uncle, aunt, elder sister, second sister, and younger sister, I can support myself in the future! You don't have to worry about me anymore, I will earn money for college in the future. Anyway, I heard from the teacher that there won't be any college entrance examinations in the next few years! Isn't it enough for me to earn money in these years?"
Uncle Zhou nodded: "Okay! You are a man now, you can't rely on your sisters anymore! Since you have made up your mind, do as you say!"
The aunt hesitated and whispered, "Do you want... Jiaojiao to calculate it for you?"
Zhou Taohong, the daughter of the Zhou family, shook her head. "According to my father-in-law, Jiaojiao has already let this matter go. He specifically told me yesterday that Pengcheng must not relax. When the college entrance examination is held again, the best university in the country will be no problem for Pengcheng!"
"Really?" Zhou Xinghong grabbed Zhou Taohong's hand. "Did your father-in-law really say that?"
Zhou Taohong nodded. "My father-in-law also said that it would take a little while. But he said we're not afraid, because our family is not one that can't endure it."
Yes, the Zhou family is doing quite well financially now. Zhou Xinghong is capable, managing dozens of peach trees herself. Whenever she has some free time, she'll carry a backpack and head up the mountain to dig for Chinese medicinal herbs.
However, there was also a worrying thing: Zhou Xinghong still hadn't gotten married. The boy from the Cao family used to come quite often. But maybe it was because they waited too long; they hadn't seen him much in half a year. Hey, they were so close to getting married, why did this happen?
Uncle Zhou didn't dare to ask, so he stood up and went out to smoke his pipe, and gave his wife a wink before leaving.
His aunt was even more anxious than he was. She had asked several times before, but each time, Zhou Xinghong remained silent. She had no idea what was going on with the two children.
"Pengcheng, go and grind some flour with Meihong." The aunt sent the two children away and signaled Taohong to help her.
As soon as Zhou Xinghong saw this, she knew that she couldn't escape being beaten again.
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