Chapter 30 A Piece of Old Yuan
Chen Hongying and Liu Zhaodi were severely scolded by their husbands. Miao Xiuju was also lukewarm towards them for the next few days. They both knew that Miao Xiuju was teaching them a lesson.
They didn't dare to say anything and just worked carefully at home, fearing that Miao Xiuju would say something unpleasant again.
Although the Gu family lives in poverty and the mother-in-law is abusive and harsh, she is generally fair and just. It seems that she is not too partial to anyone and does not torture her daughter-in-law like other mothers-in-law.
As for the man, he doesn't beat his wife and has no bad habits. He is also hardworking and frugal. This makes him a good family in the countryside.
What's more, their lives are getting better and better. If they really break up, where can they find such a good family? Moreover, each of them has two or three children, so divorce is of course impossible. If they don't divorce, they will have to bow their heads and live a good life.
If she gets angry about this, she won't know how to teach herself a lesson.
Didn’t you even talk about splitting up the family this time?
Shen Hongying had actually considered splitting up the family, but after Miao Xiuju brought it up, she felt a little uneasy. Mainly because the conditions weren't right for a split right now. After all, splitting up isn't something you can just do. Where would you live after you split up? You can't just keep living in this small courtyard with the whole family, right? What difference would that make from living together?
The Gu family has many sons, and each of them has a piece of residential land. However, because the family is poor, they have never built a house. So they simply turned the residential land into private plots and grew some coarse grains to supplement the family income.
If the family really splits up, they have to find a way to build a house first. After building the house, the harvest from the private plot will be gone.
If you calculate it this way, it costs money to build a house, and the harvest from the private plot will be reduced, so it's a waste of money both inside and out.
In short, after careful consideration, Shen Hongying felt that it was not the time to live alone yet, and the family had to stay together. After this winter, she had to find a way to accumulate adobe bricks for building a house before she could talk about dividing the family.
Since Shen Hongying had such plans, Liu Zhaodi certainly did not dare to split the family.
She only had three daughters, and it was uncertain whether she would have a son in the future. If she was bullied after the family split up, who would she rely on? If she didn't have a son, she would have to look to her uncles and brothers to inherit a son. A woman without a son was weak, and Liu Zhaodi felt insecure just thinking about it.
So the two daughters-in-law who did not dare to separate had no choice but to bow their heads and please their parents-in-law.
Miao Xiujiu also wanted to laugh when she saw the miserable looks of her two daughters-in-law.
She knows exactly what these two daughters-in-law are thinking, but she can't figure it out, and they keep causing trouble for her every day. Aren't they asking for trouble?
After this lesson, she would give them a good beating so that they would remember it firmly. She would see if they dared to lie to her again!
So she put on airs, deliberately giving the two daughters-in-law a cold shoulder, which really tortured them. In the end, the two daughters-in-law were almost like slaves to her, even helping her empty the chamber pot in the morning, not to mention chores like heating the kang and sweeping the floor, which they would rush to do for her. They almost treated her like the Queen Mother, and only then did Miao Xiuju manage to smile.
Compared to these competitions between adults, children don’t understand. As usual, Fubao and Gu Shengtian followed Gu Niudan and Gu Yuejin to wander around in the mountains. They would shoot birds today and pick up some eggs tomorrow. Surprisingly, they always had some small gains. The children could enjoy fresh food from time to time, and their lives were pretty good.
On this day, a vendor came to the street. He was selling popcorn with a black popcorn machine, which was a big black round barrel. He put the raw corn kernels in and let them simmer for a while. Then he heard a bang, and the original corn kernels exploded into plump popcorn. The street was filled with an enticing sweet smell.
When the children in the production team saw this, they were all delighted and ran home to ask for popcorn.
It is said that life was hard for everyone these days, and no family was willing to use good corn kernels to make popcorn for their children. But the Chinese New Year was coming soon, and there had to be something sweet for the New Year. Although candies could not be bought at the market, popcorn could be exchanged for corn kernels. So every family in the production team generously gave out corn kernels and made popcorn for their children. For a moment, all the children on the street were happy.
The Gu family had really good luck this year, making small fortunes one after another and living a smooth life. Miao Xiujiu was so generous that she even took out five pounds of corn kernels and asked someone to make popcorn. She made several pots at once, brought them back in sacks and put them in her house so that the children could eat them slowly during the New Year.
Fubao and Gu Shengtian, each with a bag full of popcorn in their pockets, were walking on the street, watching the fun and excitement. At this time, the children were playing games like "Eagle Catches Chicken", "Hide and Seek", and "Bouncing House".
Fubao used to work at Old Nie's house and rarely went out to play. Now he was very excited to see this and just watched from the side.
Xiuni took Fubao and played tag with several girls from the production team. Fubao was a little confused at first, but later he got the hang of it and had a lot of fun.
It happened that at this time, Shengyin from Nie Laosan's family passed by the street and saw this scene.
Shengyin was sent by her mother to deliver a hoe to the Sun family in the front street. A few days ago, her own hoe broke, so she borrowed one and had to return it today. But as she passed by the street, she happened to see Fubao having fun.
Fubao had two pigtails with a small red velvet flower on them, which made her face look even fairer and prettier. She was wearing a crimson coat with a pocket full of sweet popcorn. She was playing hide-and-seek with several other little girls from the production brigade. When someone shouted "start," she ran away as fast as she could, her pigtails bobbing happily as she ran.
Shengyin felt sad and uncomfortable when he saw this scene.
She remembered that when Fubao was still a child of the Nie family, she was the one who went out to play, and Fubao was the one who did the housework.
It's hard to describe the feeling. If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have been so hasty to drive Fubao away. I should have kept her and waited until the Nie family improved before driving her out and preventing her from enjoying the benefits of the Nie family.
As she was thinking this, she saw Fubao looking for a place to hide next to the old willow tree in the big pit in front of the production team.
Seeing this scene, her heart suddenly beat faster.
Whenever anyone in the production brigade built a house, they would raise the homestead with soil to a height of seven or eight meters to lay the foundation. However, in those places where no houses were built or no soil was raised, a large pit seven or eight meters deep was formed. The large pit in front of the production brigade is quite old. When it is windy, leaves will float into it, and when it rains, rainwater will drain into it.
In order to improve drainage, a drainage well was built in the early years. The water on the streets of the production brigade would flow into the big pit through the drainage well. In summer, this big pit would become a big pond.
She remembered that in her previous life, a child in the production team fell into the well next to the big pit, fainted, and was not discovered. He suffocated to death in the well.
She bit her lip, hardened her heart, walked to the well, and came to Fubao.
"Fubao, is there popcorn in your pocket?" Shengyin asked Fubao with a deliberate smile.
Fubao was concentrating on finding a place to hide, but was surprised when he suddenly saw the raw silver.
Seeing Shengyin asking, she nodded: "Yes, popcorn, Shengyin, do you want to try it?"
She was wary of Shengyin in her heart. She always felt that Shengyin was not an ordinary girl and didn't know what was in her mind.
But looking at Shengyin, he was now dressed in dirty clothes and holding a hoe in his hand, and it was obvious that he was helping with the daily work at home.
She thought back to the days when she worked for the Nie family, and realized that Shengyin's life was not easy, so she felt a little sympathy.
Shengyin licked his lips and said, "I want to try it. Give me some."
Fubao lowered her head and took out popcorn from her pocket. She really wanted to give Shengyin a taste.
In the past, when Shengyin ate delicious food, she would watch him with envy and couldn't help swallowing her saliva, but Shengyin didn't let her eat, and she felt very uncomfortable.
Now she had food to eat, but Shengyin had none to eat, yet she couldn't bear not to give her food.
But at this moment, a vicious light flashed in Shengyin's eyes. He raised his hand and pushed Fubao fiercely.
"Ah--" Fubao cried out and subconsciously grabbed Shengyin's arm.
When Shengyin saw that she was grabbing him, he became anxious and pushed Fubao with all his might.
Fubao struggled for a few times, but was pushed hard by Shengyin, and his feet became unstable and he fell into a big pit.
Shengyin originally wanted to throw Fubao into the well and then hit him hard with a hoe to make him unconscious, so that Fubao would become the child who was suffocated to death in the previous life. However, he didn't expect that Fubao would fall into the puddle during his struggle.
Okay, falling into the puddle can be considered as teaching her a lesson, Shengyin thought.
She leaned over to look into the big pit, but as she was looking, she stumbled and fell into the well.
Poor Fubao rolled into the big pit and got dizzy. Fortunately, the snow melted after the winter snow, and the soil under the pit was not hard. Apart from a little pain in her butt, nothing else was serious.
She climbed up with the help of her hands, but not only were her hands covered in mud, but her hands were also scratched by something.
He frowned and saw that the soil where his hand was resting was soft, as if there was something hard there?
She rummaged through it for a few times and found that it was actually a large silver dollar with Old Yuan's head on it.
Fubao picked it up and knew that this old Yuan head was quite old and must have been buried in the soil for many years. It might be valuable.
Suddenly, he no longer felt the pain. He quickly wiped the mud off Old Yuan's head, put it in his pocket, and carefully climbed out of the pit.
After climbing up, she remembered the splash sound she heard before, so she looked into the well and saw Shengyin falling headfirst into it. It seemed that his head was broken and he had fainted.
Fubao hesitated for a moment, holding the old Yuan head in his pocket, wondering whether he should call someone to rescue her?
But when she saw the hoe next to her, she suddenly became annoyed.
What does Shengyin mean? This is going to kill her!
So cruel.
If Shengyin had just stolen her popcorn, she wouldn't have been so angry, but wanting to take her life was too vicious.
Fubao decided to ignore her for now and let her suffer. No one would die anyway, and with the hoe there, she would be discovered soon.
So Fubao pinched his old Yuan head and ran back home.
She wanted Miao Xiujiu to see the old Yuan head she had picked up.
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