Chapter 22 First Confrontation
On this day, the weather was sunny and comfortable. The Qinghe Production Team had a rare half-day off. Everyone gathered in the threshing ground, bringing benches and melon seeds, ready to watch the excitement that was about to happen.
That’s right, today is the day when Qinghe Production Team selects scorers.
Pei Xingzhi and Meng Wanqiu were also sitting in the crowd, with Meng Yanchun and Dong Hanyun next to Pei Xingzhi, and Meng Wanqiu's mother Li Lanxiang holding her grandson Zhuangzhuang next to her.
It was quite unfortunate that the Jiang family sat directly behind the Meng family, also sitting in a row. This was the first time Jiang Xiuxiu had seen Meng Wanqiu since her rebirth. After Meng Wanqiu married Pei Xingzhi, she hadn't been fond of visiting the village, and Jiang Xiuxiu wasn't there either, commuting to town every day. The two had never met before.
Jiang Xiuxiu has never taken her eyes off Meng Wanqiu since she appeared in front of her. Today, Meng Wanqiu was wearing a pink shirt and black bell-bottom pants. Her hair was tied in two braids, but her hair was very long and hung down to her lower abdomen.
She has jet-black hair, bright and clear eyes, and pink-white skin. Under the sunlight, she looks even more beautiful, like a dream. From the moment she arrived at the threshing ground in late autumn, there were always vague glances looking at her.
Pei Xingzhi's eyes darkened. He held Meng Wanqiu's hand, placed it on his knee, and tilted his head to whisper in Meng Wanqiu's ear.
When Jiang Xiuxiu saw this, her eyes were almost burning with anger. Although she had already decided to give up Pei Xingzhi, when she thought of Pei Xingzhi's previous ruthlessness towards her and his current intimacy with Meng Wanqiu, she could not suppress the anger in her heart.
Jiang's mother noticed this and patted Jiang Xiuxiu's hand, signaling her to pay attention.
But thinking about how the Meng family had previously shown no respect to her family, she intentionally or unintentionally said to Meng's mother in front of her: "Ah, Lanxiang, I finally saw your Xiaowan go out. She is so beautiful. She takes after you and Old Meng."
Mother Meng hugged her grandson tightly in her arms and curled her lips, "No way, your Xiuxiu is so beautiful. Everyone in the surrounding villages knows her."
A flicker of pride flashed in Jiang's mother's eyes. Her daughter, Jiang Xiuxiu, was indeed beautiful, a fact universally acknowledged. She was delicate and pretty, diligent and frugal. While Meng Wanqiu wasn't ugly, in the eyes of the older generation, she was still too flamboyant, not the ideal look for a traditional daughter-in-law. Only someone like her own Xiuxiu, with soft features and a delicate complexion, could be admired.
"Hey, when does your Xiaowan plan to go back to work? That Mrs. Zhou has come to my house several times, wanting her daughter-in-law to take over her job. My old Jiang is very kind and has always kept the position for your Xiuxiu. Your Xiaowan should not waste Lao Jiang's good intentions."
At this moment, Meng's mother hadn't spoken yet. Dong Hanyun glanced at Jiang's mother and said, "Look at what you're saying, Aunt Jiang. My family never asked Captain Jiang to take care of this matter from the beginning to the end. It was always your family's wishful thinking. How could you waste Captain Jiang's good intentions?"
Meng Yanchun put his arm around his wife's shoulders and said, "Yes, Aunt Jiang, your family is really causing trouble for my family. We don't need the little girl's income from working at night. She was just staying at home well, but your family insisted on finding work for her."
If someone knows that the other person's good intentions have caused them trouble, they will not say it directly, but will thank them in a tactful way, or even swallow the bitter fruit themselves.
Meng Yanchun is a natural black-skinned person. He never speaks tactfully and says whatever he wants, which has led to the current situation.
Jiang's mother wanted the Meng family to thank her, but Meng Yanchun directly accused her of meddling in other people's business. Not only did she bring trouble to the Meng family, but she also had the nerve to ask for credit here. I'm lucky I didn't scold you directly.
Pei Xingzhi silently raised the corners of his lips.
Meng Wanqiu chuckled, turned around and glanced at the Jiang family, paying special attention to Jiang Xiuxiu. This was also the first time she met Jiang Xiuxiu.
We have to thank Jiang Xiuxiu. If it weren't for her family forcing and bribing Pei Xingzhi to marry her, Pei Xingzhi wouldn't have been desperate and turned to her Meng family.
Meng Wanqiu and Jiang Xiuxiu looked at each other for a second. Jiang Xiuxiu noticed the gratitude in Meng Wanqiu's eyes, and the anger in her heart couldn't help but rise.
What does this woman mean?
Thank her, huh, thank her for giving Meng Wanqiu a man?
Or is he mocking her, Jiang Xiuxiu, for losing to her, Meng Wanqiu?
No matter what it meant, Jiang Xiuxiu had made up her mind that she would never let Meng Wanqiu have an easy time in the future.
Jiang's mother was so angry at what Meng Yanchun and his wife said that her face turned red. She couldn't believe that there were such shameless people in the world.
At this time, Meng Wanqiu suddenly took out three White Rabbit milk candies from her waist bag, cut each piece into two halves, and stuffed them into the mouths of Meng's mother, Zhuangzhuang, her eldest brother and sister-in-law, Pei Xingzhi, and herself respectively.
Why do they have to stuff it in their mouths? Because if Meng Wanqiu doesn't stuff it into their mouths, they won't eat it, and usually they will refuse it again and again.
However, today is different. The Meng family intends to show off in front of the Jiang family.
A gurgling sound was heard, and the Meng family members silently curled their lips.
"Grandma, I want some candy too."
The speaker was Jiang Bo, the son of Jiang Ersao. He was the only grandchild of the Jiang family and was extremely favored. He was treated like a star at home and was spoiled by the Jiang family. He developed a rude and overbearing character.
Now Jiang Bo smelled the sweet aroma of milk, and it was candy he had never eaten before, so he asked Jiang's mother for it out of habit.
Jiang's mother blushed and comforted her grandson in her arms, "Be good, Xiaobo, we don't want theirs. I'll buy you a lot of fruit candies when we get home."
Jiang Bo refused and started throwing a tantrum in front of his mother. When her mother held his waist, he slid down with half of his belly exposed. Mother Jiang was unable to react in time and Jiang Bo fell to the ground, rolling on the ground and crying.
"No, no, I'm going to get some food now, go buy it for me, quickly..."
Sitting in Meng Mu's arms, Zhuang Zhuang covered his ears in annoyance, his fair and tender face wrinkled into a ball. He said with a sudden inspiration, "Grandma, he's so noisy."
Puff——
The Meng family members all laughed.
Seeing that everyone around was looking at her, Jiang Ersao couldn't hold back her expression and said to Meng Wanqiu, "Xiao Wan, look, Xiao Bo is crying. As his aunt, give him one quickly, otherwise he will hurt his throat from crying."
Jiang Xiuxiu walked aside in annoyance, feeling that her second sister-in-law and her own mother were bringing shame to her and had no idea how to teach her children.
Meng Wanqiu: "I'm sorry, I only have three, no more."
Jiang Ersao refused to give up. "Then how about this? The threshing ground is not far from your home. I can go home with you to get it."
Dong Hanyun couldn't sit still any longer and taunted, "Yo Yo, Feng Mei, are you shameless enough to go to my house to get it? Why don't you ask my Xiao Wan to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy it for you? If there's nothing, then there's nothing. If you want to eat it, let your man buy it himself. Don't always stare at other people's things."
"Feng Mei is so shameless."
"Hey, you got married late, so you don't know what's going on with these two families, right?"
"What's the matter? Tell me quickly."
The villagers have always known that the Jiang and Meng families have a bad relationship, but this bad relationship has been going on since the generation of Meng Aiguo's father, Meng Changhe.
During the famine and war, all of Meng Changhe's family members died, so he went out to work as a farmhand. He came back five or six years later and brought back a beautiful girl, who is now Grandma Meng.
At that time, Grandpa Meng Meng Changhe was not with Grandma Meng from the beginning. The outside story was that Grandma Meng was the daughter of his farmhand family and came to Qinghe Village to seek refuge.
Grandpa Jiang was also a young man in the village at that time. When he suddenly saw Grandma Meng, a young lady with fair skin and beautiful looks, he was naturally moved and wanted to marry Grandma Meng.
Naturally, it didn't work out, and he was beaten by Grandpa Meng. From then on, the two families had a grudge against each other.
By the time of Meng's father's generation, Jiang He's elder brother Jiang Hai, who is now a leader in the commune, also fell in love with Meng's mother Li Lanxiang. However, Meng's mother liked Meng's father who had just returned from the army, and the feud between the two families deepened again.
As it turned out, Jiang's second sister-in-law Feng Mei also fell in love with Meng Yanchun. She even asked Feng's parents to come and propose marriage. However, who knew that Meng Yanchun and Dong Hanyun were childhood sweethearts and had already been engaged, so Feng Mei's little idea was naturally in vain.
But who would have thought that Jiang Wu actually fell in love with Feng Mei later on. Even though Jiang's father and mother disagreed, he still insisted on marrying Feng Mei. There was nothing the parents could do to win over their child, so Jiang Wu successfully married Feng Mei into his family.
However, Feng Mei has always been very secretive about her past love for Meng Yanchun and never allows others to talk about it. She would get angry if anyone mentioned it.
Noticing the gazes of the people around her and the whispers in her ears, Jiang Ersao's face flushed red and she said angrily, "Look at what you said. How could I be staring at someone else's things? Dong Hanyun, if you keep talking nonsense, I'll tear your mouth apart."
Meng Yanchun was displeased when he heard this. He stood up and blocked his wife's way, looking at Feng Mei coldly, "Whose mouth do you want to tear apart?"
The words Feng Mei hadn't finished saying were stuck in her throat. Meng Yanchun's eyes were like the cold wind of winter, so sharp that they could hurt one's heart.
"Okay, take Xiaobo away." Jiang's mother couldn't bear to listen any longer. If she continued, the entire Jiang family would become a laughing stock.
Feng Mei said nothing, picked up her crying son and left. When she passed by Dong Hanyun, she showed a resentful look.
Dong Hanyun raised the corners of her lips and glared back fearlessly.
Jiang's mother wanted to mock the Meng family, but ended up losing face. She couldn't help but regret her impulsiveness.
Seeing the Meng family sitting together neatly, while their family members were walking away or dispersing, Jiang's mother felt a little uncomfortable.
At this time, members of the village committee of Qinghe Production Team came to the threshing ground, including team leader Jiang He, deputy team leader Liu Chenggen, village party secretary Meng Aiguo and accountant Lao Wu.
"Ahem, good afternoon everyone, ahem, we are gathered here today, why, ahem, for..."
"Oh, it's to select a scorekeeper. Lao Liu, please come down quickly. Your coughing is annoying me."
"Hahaha, Uncle Liu, please go downstairs quickly, don't make Aunt Liu angry."
"Haha, Liu Juhua is still as talkative as ever."
The first person to speak was none other than Liu Chenggen's wife, Aunt Liu, who loved to gossip. She felt annoyed when she saw her old man coughing three or four times in every sentence. She always asked him to smoke less, but it was like a death order.
"Okay, Old Liu, stop talking and let Old Wu start directly." Meng Aiguo couldn't stand Liu Chenggen coughing for a long time after saying a word. Since everyone in the village knew about it, he stopped talking nonsense and let Old Wu host it.
Old Wu nodded and walked to the middle. "Well, let me announce the names of those who have signed up to be scorekeepers. Those whose names are called will come up."
"Jiang Xiuxiu."
"Liu Meili."
"Ding Heng."
…
When Jiang's mother heard Jiang Xiuxiu's name being called out first, she felt very proud. Thinking that her daughter was going to be a scorekeeper and Li Lanxiang's daughter was going to feed pigs with Zhou Pozi, she could hardly suppress her proud mood.
"Alas, Lanxiang, I'm not saying anything bad about you, but you can't raise your daughter like your family does. She doesn't do any work, she's lazy and greedy, and no one likes her."
The Meng family glanced at Jiang's mother and tacitly ignored her.
Jiang's mother's face froze, and she gritted her teeth. "What can I do if I don't want to go? The busy farming season is coming soon. Every household will be busy by then, and your Meng Wanqiu has to go no matter what..."
"The last one is Meng Wanqiu."
"What, what?" Jiang's mother was shocked by the name that Old Wu said before she could finish her words. Her face instantly turned colorful and looked very strange.
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