Chapter 39 Chapter 39-Two-in-one Lin Changhe, why don't you...
Matchmaker Qian stood still, as if she didn't hear what Tian said, and still said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, it's good that you have sons and grandchildren, but aren't you lacking a son-in-law?" As she spoke, she took the things in Zhang Bao's hand and handed them to Qian.
Qian wanted to accept it, so she pretended to look at the old lady.
The old lady stared at her viciously, as if she would tear her apart if she took the thing.
Qian was helpless and pretended not to accept it, but Matchmaker Qian stuffed it into her hands. Qian held the things and said, "Aunt Qian, the marriage hasn't been finalized yet, and you brought these things to me, Brother Zhang. It's not appropriate." She took the things and walked towards Zhang Bao, "Brother Zhang, you should take these back."
Zhang Bao couldn't take it back, so he quickly refused: "Third sister-in-law, I brought this with me, so why would I take it back? Even if the marriage doesn't work out, it's still a token of my love for Sister Xian'er."
Matchmaker Qian smiled and said, "Dingxiang, this is Zhang Bao's sincere gift. You can take it home and keep it. The fabric was bought from the largest cloth shop in the county. It's all high-quality material. There are three colors. One color is suitable for Xian'er, and the other two colors are suitable for the two elders. When you have time, help your parents and your younger sister make the clothes."
Hearing this, Qian Dingxiang looked at Tian and said, "Mother, since Aunt Qian said so, then let's accept it." As she finished speaking, Yang came over and said, "Third sister-in-law, please greet Aunt Qian. I'll take it in."
Qian looked at Yang with a slight movement in her eyes, then handed the things over: "Thank you for your hard work, Fourth Sister-in-law."
After Yang left with her things, Qian asked the children to go into the house and fetch two stools, and asked Qian the matchmaker and Zhang Bao to sit down.
Seeing Zhang Bao coming again, Lin Xian'er stamped her feet in anger. Seeing Yang carrying something into the house, she angrily scolded, "What are you doing bringing it in? Throw it out!"
Yang said calmly, "What kind of wealth do we have? Can we afford to throw away meat and cloth?"
"If you don't want it, I'll just cook it. Out of sight, out of mind."
Lin Xian'er said unhappily, "Whatever you want!"
After hearing what was said, Yang put down the cloth and snacks, and went straight into the kitchen with the meat.
She quickly washed the meat, cut it into several pieces, put it into an iron pot with water, lit a fire and put it on the stove to cook.
There was green smoke coming out of the chimney, but Tian thought it was just boiling water and didn't pay much attention to it.
She was so angry at the incessant nagging of Qian the matchmaker that her ears were buzzing.
After Yang cooked the meat, she came out soon, served some melon seeds, and called Zhang, Feng, and the others to come and sit down.
In the yard, matchmaker Qian was eloquent. Yang's sisters-in-law felt unhappy when they thought that the old lady had always favored Miao and that Miao and the old lady were bullying them behind their backs. But the old lady was their mother-in-law after all, and if they insulted her, everyone would blame them.
Now, the unhappy old lady has come to her door herself.
Yang and Feng were laughingly praising Matchmaker Qian's words, with Qian occasionally chiming in. Matchmaker Qian looked at the situation, then at Old Man Lin, who was sitting under the eaves smoking, and called out, "Brother Lin, what do you think of this match?"
Old Man Lin looked at his sons with bruised faces and noses in the yard, then looked at Tian, who looked unhappy. He knocked his pipe heavily on the floor and said after a while, "Very good!"
Tian's expression changed drastically. She opened her mouth, perhaps wanting to ask something, but in the end, she said nothing.
Old Man Lin said, "I see you've come here many times. You really want to get married. Why don't you take the horoscope and look for a date?"
After Old Man Lin finished speaking, Matchmaker Qian slapped her thigh with joy and said with a smile, "Big Brother, we are definitely sincere in our marriage proposal. We guarantee that Xian'er will have a happy and fulfilling marriage in the future! In that case, I will take Xian'er's horoscope and leave. I will check the auspicious time and bring people back to pay the tribute."
Tian didn't say anything, and Lin Xian'er also rushed out of the house!
"Dad! I won't marry! I won't agree!"
Looking at his daughter stomping her feet and throwing a tantrum, Old Man Lin said in a deep voice, "Marriage is a matter of great importance. It's not your turn to disagree with your parents. Go back to your room!"
Lin Xian'er returned to the house crying. Matchmaker Qian looked at Tian with a smile and said, "Then please tell me Xian'er's horoscope, Sister Tian, so I can go and get this done as soon as possible."
Tian remained unmoved, and Old Man Lin had a gloomy face.
"Give it to her!"
After Qian the matchmaker got the horoscope, she happily took Zhang Bao away in a donkey cart.
The whole thing took less than half an hour. Matchmaker Qian talked for a long time but it was useless. She just asked Old Man Lin a question and the matter was finalized.
It was so fast that Qian, Yang and their sisters-in-law were all shocked.
Lin Xian'er burst into tears in the house. Tian looked at Old Man Lin and asked, "As her own father, can you just watch her marry an old widower who is more than ten years older than her?"
Old Man Lin looked at Tian coldly.
"What about an old widower? What about being a dozen years older than him? Who invited this man here?" Old Man Lin asked loudly. Tian remained silent. He snorted coldly, his eyes swept over his daughters-in-law, then fell on Tian, and cursed, "You invited this man here!"
"Back then, weren't you mothers always complaining that getting older was good and that you'd be more caring when you were older? Why aren't you caring anymore now?"
Tian looked at Old Man Lin, who was pointing the finger at her, and yelled hysterically, "Is it wrong for me to worry about those little bastards? Fine, you're the boss of this family. From now on, I'll make all the decisions for you!"
As the old lady spoke, she threw the winnowing basket to the ground, and the soybeans in the basket spilled all over the floor.
No one in the yard came forward.
*
At this time, Lin Chuntao was frying minced meat, and her three sisters were sitting around the clay pot with happy faces.
I said yesterday that I still wanted to eat it, and today Lin Chuntao bought it back. Not to mention that I can eat what I want again, the current situation feels like a dream.
Even though Lin Chuntao said she wanted to save money to build a house, she still often bought meat and eggs to eat.
When everyone was watching intently, they heard the clucking of hens outside the yard. Lin Chunxing turned around suddenly, and Lin Chunhe asked, "Did she lay an egg?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Duoer ran out.
Soon, she ran in holding an egg and yelled, "Sister, the chicken laid an egg!"
Lin Chunxing asked hurriedly, "Did you see clearly which one it was?"
Lin Duoer shook her head. She only saw an egg by the fence and had no time to see which chicken laid it.
Lin Chunxing said, "Since it's laying eggs, we won't let it out tomorrow, or we won't know it's laying eggs outside."
Lin Chuntao looked at the white egg and thought that it had finally laid. If it didn't lay any more eggs, she would kill the two chickens and cook them into noodles.
She smiled and said, "Let's make a chicken coop and get some leaves to make a nest for them. This way, they will get used to it and come back to lay eggs."
Pei Ying responded from the side: "I'll go cut some bamboo and make it later."
An egg and a bowl of noodles made everyone in the courtyard smile.
The three sisters love to eat. They haven’t eaten anything else to fill their stomachs today, so Lin Chuntao cooked a lot. Everyone ate to their heart’s content, drinking soup and eating noodles, and they were very satisfied.
Lin Chuntao looked at her three sisters slumped in their chairs and said with a smile, "We're almost out of rice and flour. Let's carry the little grain back to pound it later."
Lin Chunxing asked, "Do you want to carry it to Grandma's house to pound it?"
Lin Chuntao nodded, and when they had rested enough, Pei Ying carried the grain and went with them.
Sun smiled and said, "The stone mortar and pestle are both unused. Leave them there and ask your uncle to pound them for you later."
Before Lin Chuntao could say anything, Pei Ying said, "Grandma, I know how to pound rice. Let me do it."
Sun looked at him and smiled, "That's fine, the tools are all there."
Lin Chuntao had seen this thing in a video, and had also heard from her grandmother that when she was a child, she would pound rice for a whole morning, and it was only enough for one meal.
Lin Chuntao remembered that her grandmother was very calm when she said this. Pei Ying was pounding rice, and Lin Chunxing and Lin Chunhe would go up from time to time and take turns pounding with Pei Ying.
A bright smile appeared on the rosy little face.
Lin Chuntao looked at the rice that had been pounded for a long time but was still not cooked, and felt tired. She didn't even feel tired from farming.
She checked the control panel many times that afternoon, either to check her points balance or to browse the living area.
It's like browsing the orange software. She sees something she likes, but her salary hasn't been paid yet and she has no money to buy it, which makes her very depressed.
Before he had time to feel depressed, someone rushed into Muramasa's yard.
"Uncle, aunt, the Changhai family is fighting again!"
Lin Cunzheng stood up from his chair and asked, "Why?"
The man said, "Today, someone came to propose marriage to Xian'er and brought a rib of meat. Changhong's wife cooked it in a pot. When it was almost cooked, everyone smelled the meat and realized that it was cooked. Then the old lady beat Changhong's wife."
Sun frowned and sighed, "What do this big family do all day long?"
Lincunzheng also shook his head and said in a deep voice: "Let's go and take a look."
Sun frowned and stood up from her chair. She looked at Lin Chuntao and said, "Chuntao, you guys pound the rice. Your great-grandfather and I will go over and take a look."
Sun and the others walked out of the courtyard and headed straight towards Old Lin's house.
When they arrived, the aroma of meat wafted through the Lin family's yard. There was meat soup on the ground, and a few pieces of meat had rolled onto the floor. Sun and Lin Cunzheng felt as if they were having difficulty breathing.
Tian, Yang, Feng, Miao, and Qian's daughters-in-law were fighting on the ground. It was impossible to tell who was beating whom. Zhang was standing aside, but her hair was messy, and it was unclear whether she had been involved in the fight or had been torn while trying to stop it.
Looking at the meat, Sun was heartbroken. Then she looked at the women, Qian was still pregnant, and cursed loudly, "Are you all going to be taken away by heaven? You're spilling the meat and broth on the ground! Aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning? Are you all going to die?"
"Lin Changhe, why don't you pull your wife out? She's pregnant! If you kill her, you'll have something to cry about."
As Sun spoke, she also went forward to pull people away, but Tian grabbed Qian's hair and refused to let go.
"You bitch, if you hadn't insisted on getting those little bitches out, how could you have attracted that old widower?"
Qian was also unforgiving. She insulted Tian: "If you weren't such a money-hungry old lady, and if your Lin family wasn't determined to have no descendants, why would you have agreed to my request? You've done something wrong, and you're trying to blame it on me? No way!"
When Tian heard this, she was so angry that she clenched her fists and hit Qian's stomach. Qian groaned a few times, and her face turned pale in an instant, and blood slowly flowed out.
When Sun saw the bright red blood, she shouted, "Lin Changhe, quickly pull your mother away! Your wife is bleeding!"
After saying this, Lin Changhe ran over and grabbed Tian. Yang, Feng and the others also stopped and looked at Qian.
Sun hurriedly called out, "Changhai, hurry to my house and bring the mule cart over to take it to the county town."
Lin Chuntao watched Lin Changhai rush over and said something to Chen Dongniang as he took the mule cart away. Chen Dongniang watched him rushing around and chased after him, asking, "Who's hurt?"
Lin Changhai said nothing. Chen Dongniang looked at Lin Chuntao and said, "Chuntao, you pound the rice first. I'll go see what's going on."
Chen Dongniang came back not long after she left, but Sun and Lin Cunzheng had not returned yet.
Lin Chuntao looked at Chen Dongniang who had returned and couldn't help but ask, "Who was injured?"
Chen Dongniang said, "Your grandmother hit Qian's stomach and made her bleed."
Lin Chuntao: “…”
"I heard that your grandfather agreed to Zhang Bao's marriage proposal to Xian'er. Your fourth aunt cooked the meat Zhang Bao brought. Your grandmother was unhappy and poured the pot on your fourth aunt, and then the whole family started fighting."
"I think Qian's baby might not survive. She lost too much blood."
Lin Chuntao frowned slightly. Lin Chunxing and Lin Chunhe were also quiet. Chen Dongniang continued, "Thank goodness you sisters have separated and established your own households. If you had lost the child, the Qian family would definitely not let it go."
Lin Chuntao thought, although every evildoer will be punished by his own evildoer, this was the first time she had seen an evildoer hit a pregnant woman.
In this world, who would give up after being beaten and having a miscarriage?
But she didn't say anything else. As Chen Dongniang said, she was just glad that she and her sister had severed ties with that family and separated.
Whether that family lives or dies has nothing to do with them, the sisters.
Pounding rice is a slow job. It took until dusk to pound out the two and a half dou of rice.
Lin Chuntao borrowed a winnowing basket from Chen Dongniang, but she didn't know how to use it very well, so Chen Dongniang helped her sift the rice herself. She put the rice into a sack and the rice bran into a small bamboo basket, preparing to take it back to feed the chickens.
Just as they were about to go home, Lin Cunzheng and Sun came back.
Chen Dongniang hurriedly asked, "Dad and Mom, you're back. How's Qian?"
Sun sighed deeply, "The child was lost due to excessive bleeding, and Qian saved his life."
Chen Dongniang was still stunned when she heard this: "Come back together?"
Sun shook her head slightly. "What a coincidence today! We ran into that matchmaker Qian again after entering the city. Seeing Qian Dingxiang's situation, she called all of Qian's brothers over. The Qian family has already taken them back. The Qian family is clamoring that they won't let them go, and there might be more trouble in a few days."
Chen Dongniang asked again, "What about Lin Laosan? That's his wife, why don't he take her back to take care of her?"
Sun looked at her daughter-in-law and smiled.
"Qian said she wanted a divorce and would not come back with me. She also said she would go to the government to sue the old lady."
Sun shook her head, not wanting to say anything more. She looked at Lin Chuntao and asked, "Chuntao, is the rice pounded?"
"The pounding is done. My aunt just helped me sift it out. It's getting dark. Grandma, let's go back."
Sun asked them to stay until they had dinner before returning, but Lin Chuntao quickly refused and hurriedly went home with Lin Chunxing and the others.
On the way back, the sisters were worried. When they were almost home, Lin Chunhe finally asked, "Sister, we're not going back, are we?"
Lin Chuntao frowned slightly, "Where to go back to? Old Lin's house?"
Lin Chunhe pursed her lips, and Lin Chuntao chuckled, "We have both registered our household separately, but we can't merge them even if we split up."
After she finished speaking, Lin Chunxing and Lin Duoer also breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's good." They didn't want to go back to that home.
Lin Chuntao said: "Whatever happens to them has nothing to do with us. We just live our lives."
The sisters nodded obediently. Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "I have to taste this rice that I have been pounding all day tonight."
"Then let's have lard rice tonight?" Lin Duoer looked at Lin Chuntao expectantly. Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "But I don't want lard rice. I want egg fried rice."
When she heard the word "egg", Lin Duo'er's eyes lit up for a moment, and she said with a smile, "Then I want to eat egg fried rice too."
After returning home, Lin Chuntao quickly washed the rice and put it into an iron pot to cook.
After the rice was cooked, she fried eggs and poured the rice in to stir-fry. It was getting dark and she was too lazy to cook, so Lin Chuntao simply put some cabbage in the fried rice. After the rice was cooked, they each got a bowl and sat around the fire to eat.
It was just a bowl of egg fried rice, but they ate it with great relish.
The next day, Lin Chuntao got up a little earlier because she had to cook noodles.
Pei Ying was making a fire in the yard. She quickly cut and chopped the meat. While she was chopping the meat, she asked Pei Ying to boil water, scald the noodles, take them out and put them in a pot.
Lin Chuntao made the noodles first, then put the clay pot in and started to stir-fry the ingredients. After the ingredients were stir-fried, she put water in and brought them to a boil. She ate half a bowl herself, and then served some more and put it on the table. When Lin Chunxing and the others woke up, they would naturally know to make some and eat them.
Lin Chuntao helped pack the rest of the noodles, soup, and vegetables, and Pei Ying carried them in a bamboo basket to the county town.
When he entered the butcher shop, Zhang Dayong and Zhao Guang had just arrived. They glanced at the bamboo basket in his hand and didn't think it contained food. The three of them went about their work.
Thirteen pigs were slaughtered today, and by the time we were done, it was already daybreak.
Zhao Guang asked, "What would you like to eat for breakfast?"
Before Zhang Dayong could answer, Pei Ying said, "I forgot to mention that my wife made some noodles. I thought they tasted good, so I asked her to make a pot for us. We can put them in a bamboo basket and boil them on the stove."
Zhang Dayong and Zhao Guang's eyes lit up and they said with a smile, "Oh, why didn't you tell me earlier? I've been thinking about what to eat later. Let's go eat noodles."
The three of them went over to fiddle with the stove, and Pei Ying brought the clay pot over. It was still a little warm after such a long time.
The stove fire was strong and the soup in the earthenware pot soon boiled. Pei Ying followed Lin Chuntao's steps and put all the noodles in first. After it started to cook, he added the shredded cabbage and leeks.
After the pot boiled, he tasted it to see if it was salty enough.
"It tastes just right, you can eat it now."
Zhang Dayong and Zhao Guang brought their bowls over, looked at the bright red soup, and said with a smile, "There's a lot of chili in this, right?"
Pei Ying smiled and said, "Not much."
"Then this soup is a little red."
Pei Ying smiled and said, "You'll know after you eat it."
They each took a bowl and took a sip. It was sour and spicy. The shredded cabbage was also crispy, and you could chew some meat. Zhang Dayong frowned slightly and asked, "Is there meat in this?"
Pei Ying nodded, "Yes, pork is added."
Zhao Guang took another sip, still unsatisfied. "Old Zhang, you're right, this is really delicious. It seems to have a longer flavor than the mutton."
Zhang Dayong smiled and said, "I feel like she's good enough to set up a stall at the market. Her cooking skills are quite good."
Pei Ying smiled upon hearing this. "Although I agree, she said this is very simple. Without a unique recipe, it would be easy for others to learn it. Then the whole market would be cooking it the same way, and there would be no business."
"Isn't there a unique recipe for this?" Zhang Dayong asked with a smile.
Pei Ying replied, "That's what she said. I don't know either."
Zhao Guang said with a smile, "Brother Pei, this taste is very unique. Tell your sister-in-law that you can set up a stall here. Business will definitely be booming."
Pei Ying brought three pounds of noodles, and they each ate a big bowl. There was still some in the earthenware jar. They were waiting for Ah Si and Liu Zi, who had delivered the meat, to come back, and Pei Ying asked them to serve themselves some.
After slurping down a bowl, Ah Si asked, "Which restaurant did you buy this from? It's quite tasty. I'll buy another bowl for lunch."
Zhang Dayong laughed when he heard this: "You can't buy this. Your brother Pei brought it this morning. His wife made it."
Ah Si's face turned slightly red. He thought the shopkeeper bought it and everyone ate it. It turned out that Pei Ying brought it.
"Thank you, Brother Pei. My sister-in-law is such a great cook. If you hadn't told me, I would have thought she was a new restaurant in this market."
Pei Ying smiled and said, "You're welcome. Just eat it if you like."
Liuzi also laughed and said, "Brother Pei, your sister-in-law is such a good cook, why don't you ask her to open a restaurant?"
Pei Ying smiled and said, "She's busy with other things. Maybe she'll open it when she has time."
Zhao Guang smiled and said, "If you really open a restaurant, everyone will be in for a treat."
Helan had not come today. After they had breakfast, they quickly divided the meat and moved it to the other two meat stalls, ready to start selling it soon.
Lin Chuntao did the same as usual. She carried mushrooms out of the forest and headed for the market when it was almost dawn.
Aunt Guizhi didn't come to sell vegetables today. The vegetables in her vegetable garden were almost picked, and she bought cloth to make clothes for her daughter by hand, but she was too busy to do it, so she started making clothes first.
Most of the mushrooms Lin Chuntao picked up today were blue-headed mushrooms, with a small number of pine-hair mushrooms and soil-back mushrooms.
Qian the matchmaker came to pick up the mushrooms as promised. After all, it was agreed in advance that Lin Chuntao had left her about three pounds of green-headed mushrooms.
After weighing it, Lin Chuntao said directly: "Old lady, it's exactly three pounds, thirty-six cents."
Matchmaker Qian took out her purse and counted the money for her. As she counted, she asked Lin Chuntao, "Did you know that your stepmother's child is gone?"
Lin Chuntao pretended not to know, frowned slightly, and asked, "What's gone?"
Matchmaker Qian looked intently at Lin Chuntao, trying to find something on her face, but Lin Chuntao looked calm and composed. She said in a deep voice, "The baby in Qian's belly was aborted. You Lins are so cruel! How could you do such a heartless thing?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Chuntao glanced at the matchmaker Qian and said calmly, "Why did you tell me this, old lady? What does it have to do with me?"
Qian's expression froze. She raised her eyes to look at Lin Chuntao, only to see that Lin Chuntao's face darkened, her eyes dimmed, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly with a hint of sarcasm and mockery.
When she first saw Lin Chuntao at the Lin family, she thought Lin Chuntao was just an ordinary village girl. Later, when she bought mushrooms, Lin Chuntao looked friendly again. She thought this girl was easy to talk to and had a gentle personality.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, how could a man who could live a good life with his sister after being driven out by Tian be a soft-hearted person?
"You're such a talker, girl. I'm just saying it casually."
Lin Chuntao chuckled. "Just talking nonsense. Why didn't the old lady say that she found us a vicious stepmother? Why didn't she say that my vicious stepmother wanted to sell me and my sisters as soon as she came into the house? Of course, I was just talking nonsense. After all, if I had a good father and good elders, I wouldn't be sold by a newcomer. Old lady, you are well-informed. You must know that I have severed ties with them, right? Knowing this, why are you still talking nonsense in front of me?"
"Whether she had a miscarriage or died, it's none of my business. It's dirtying my ears!"
Seeing that Lin Chuntao spoke in a bad tone and her words were harsh, Matchmaker Qian looked as if she wanted to stand on the street and argue with her to make things clear.
The man selling mutton patties nearby and the woman in the shop behind them all pricked up their ears to listen.
Seeing this, her face changed slightly. She still had to act as a matchmaker in the future. If he continued talking, it would ruin her reputation. She angrily threw down the copper coin and left.
Lin Chuntao slowly picked up the copper coin and put it away. The woman selling meat pies nearby asked, "Miss, are you familiar with this money matchmaker?"
"Not really. She often comes to our village, so I've seen her before."
The old lady laughed and said, "Don't mess with her. She's a very unethical matchmaker."
Lin Chuntao was packing her things. Her eyes widened when she heard this. "I'm not really sure."
The old lady hesitated and said, "Just ignore her."
"Okay, thank you, Auntie."
Lin Chuntao said this as she picked up the backpack and walked towards the butcher shop.
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