The sound was coming from next door.
It was Liang Mai Miao's voice.
Upon hearing the sound, Ye Yunniang and Chunyao immediately moved stools to the courtyard wall to eavesdrop.
"I saw it with my own eyes. You and Wang Jinsheng were arguing and pulling at each other at Xiangji Teahouse. You're accusing me of slander?" Old Mrs. Xu was furious as she recalled the scene she had witnessed.
"No, I haven't been there." Liang Maimiao's eyes darted away nervously.
Her reaction convinced Xu Damai, who had initially been skeptical, of her mother's words.
“Liang Maimiao, I’m giving you one last chance. Tell me, and my husband and I still have a future.” Xu Damai’s words were very clear.
“I, I,” Liang Maimiao hesitated.
"Tell me, what happened?"
Liang Maimiao shook her head. "I can't say."
Disappointed, Xu Damai said to his mother, "Mother, please go and ask the letter writer."
Granny Xu turned and walked outside.
"No, don't go, you can't go." Liang Maimiao reached out and grabbed Granny Xu's arm. "Mother, you can't go, you can't go. Da Lei and Er Lei are still young, they can't be without their mother."
“Tell me everything you’ve done, and I won’t go,” Granny Xu said clearly.
"No." Liang Maimiao shook her head.
Granny Xu forcefully pried Liang Maimiao's hands off and walked outside.
Seeing Granny Xu walk out of the house, Liang Maimiao knew that if she didn't speak up, the family would fall apart.
“I said.”
Granny Xu stood at the door, "Are you sure you want to say that?"
"I'm sure. I'll tell you everything, please don't send me away." Liang Maimiao cried.
"Let's go inside and talk."
Back inside, Liang Maimiao told Liang Hemiao about her scheme.
After listening, Granny Xu got up and walked out.
"Mother, I told you. Don't go." Liang Maimiao grabbed Granny Xu's hand again.
"Liang Maimiao, when you were helping your sister with these things, did you ever think about our family?" Granny Xu asked, looking at Liang Maimiao.
“She is my own sister, I can’t abandon her,” Liang Maimiao said repeatedly.
"You're going to make our whole family go and be buried with your sister?" Xu Damai said, disappointed in Liang Maimiao.
“Liang Hemiao is your own sister. Da Lei and Er Lei are your own sons. Haven’t you ever thought about them properly?” Xu Damai’s repeated questions made Liang Maimiao cry even louder.
"I didn't want to. But I had no choice but to go..."
"Mother, don't go and ask the doctor. I'll go." Xu Damai said, and strode outside.
"Barley, no!" Liang Maimiao rushed over to stop her.
Xu Damai pushed hard, knocking Liang Maimiao to the ground.
Seeing Liang Maimiao fall to the ground, Xu Damai wanted to reach out to help her up, but then he remembered that if Liang Hemiao's actions were exposed, his own family would be affected.
Suppressing his soft heart, Xu Damai turned and quickly walked outside.
"Damai, don't go, I was wrong. Damai, I was wrong—" At this moment, Liang Maimiao truly regretted it.
But unfortunately, it was too late.
Amid Liang Maimiao's weeping and pleas, the Xu family quickly finalized the divorce.
After learning the news, the Liang family confronted them aggressively.
The two families were talking inside their rooms, and outsiders couldn't hear what they were saying.
However, Liang Fu left feeling ashamed. He patted Xu Dalei on the shoulder, telling him to take good care of his younger brother, and then took Liang Maimiao with him.
When questioned by outsiders, the Xu and Liang families said nothing.
Xu Dalei and Xu Erlei, who were originally lively and cheerful children, became silent.
Ye Yunniang, who witnessed the entire process, was deeply moved.
"Feeling down?" Cai Damei sat down next to Ye Yunniang.
"I can't say I feel bad, I'm just a little... sigh," Ye Yunniang sighed as she finished speaking.
"How can a person change so much?"
Ye Yunniang recalled how warm-hearted and generous Liang Maimiao was when she first arrived in Wanxia Lane.
"It's getting colder and colder. Do you have time? Make thick cotton-padded coats for Shushu and the three children. Also, turn out the fur coats we bought and make fur coats for the children."
Cai Damei did not offer any words of comfort, but instead instructed Ye Yunniang to do her work.
In her opinion, Ye Yunniang's random thoughts were simply a sign of her being too idle.
With just one sentence from Cai Damei, Ye Yunniang had no time to think about Liang Maimiao. She busied herself sewing cotton-padded jackets, cotton-padded shoes, and fur coats for her four children.
The next news I heard about Liang Maimiao was that she had married someone from a neighboring mountain town, and her chances of returning to Jiangcheng for the rest of her life were slim.
There were no rumors circulating about Liang Hemiao and Wang Jinsheng. The only news was that Liang Hemiao had suffered another miscarriage and died from severe bleeding.
Ye Yunniang had heard a bit about the Wang family's situation from Chunyao; they said they sold their cloth shop and went back to their hometown to farm.
Time flies by in our busy lives, and the year is drawing to a close.
Because of the drought, the New Year's Eve dinners at each family were not as lavish as in previous years.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, families did not prepare melon seeds or peanuts for visiting relatives.
After the quiet and cold New Year, we arrived in the warm spring month of March.
It should be the season of rejuvenation, but because there has been no rain for nearly a year, everything is dry.
The riverbed outside the city was exposed.
How long will the drought last? This is the question everyone wants to ask.
No one can answer that.
In their despair, the people received some good news.
The government granaries are about to open, but the grain won't be distributed for free. They need to dredge the riverbed and build dikes…
The government issued a notice that the able-bodied should do manual labor, while the weak should cook and sew.
Most importantly, you get paid daily, ranging from 10 to 30 coins depending on the job. Payment is made daily, with no delays.
Many people from the village went.
Digging the river was tiring, but at least it meant survival and the ability to earn money for the family.
Many families in the city also went.
Ye Yunniang heard from Li Pan that several of her classmates had gone. They were hired as errand runners, but they wouldn't get paid. However, they could at least get a decent meal.
When Cai Xiaomei came to deliver the bean sprouts, she said that Zhou Dong had also gone.
"Dongzi, you've never done such heavy work before, can you handle it?" Cai Damei felt sorry for her nephew.
“He wants to go.” Cai Xiaomei also didn’t want her son to go.
Cai Xiaomei sprouted more than 40 jin of bean sprouts from 10 jin of soybeans, which Zhou Zhong carried to sell or exchange for soybeans.
The soybeans that were exchanged were used to sprout beans.
Little by little, the Zhou family made a living by growing bean sprouts.
Zhou Zhong divided the shop in two, one half selling general merchandise and the other half selling bean sprouts.
The family doesn't need Zhou Dong to earn a living through manual labor.
“I’ve tried talking to him, I’ve tried persuading him, I’ve even hit him. But he still won’t cancel and insists on digging the river.”
"Is he still blaming himself because of Zhang Cai'er?"
"No," Cai Xiaomei said, a hint of self-reproach in her voice.
"What did you do?"
"I was thinking that Dongzi is still young and shouldn't be alone forever." With some extra money at home, Cai Xiaomei started planning to find Zhou Dong another wife.
After Zhang Cai'er left, Zhou Dong wrote a letter of divorce and reported it to the authorities.
Zhou Dong can remarry.
Zhou Dong was not happy; all he wanted to do now was earn money to support his family.
Cai Xiaomei insisted on going to find a matchmaker.
When they got home, Zhou Dong told her that he had signed up to dig a river.
"If I had known, I wouldn't have said anything," Cai Xiaomei regretted.
Cai Xiaomei talked for a while, then went home.
With one less person in the family, there's even more to do.
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