After dinner, Xia Juhua gave one and a half pounds of cornmeal and one pound of corn grits to Sun Hongmei in front of the whole family, and asked her to make two steamed buns for Liu Zhiquan and his brother the next day, so that the two brothers would not have no energy to work just by drinking porridge. The remaining corn grits would be used by the three women at home to cook porridge.

As soon as Sun Hongmei returned to the house, she frowned: "Is mother on guard against me? Why does my eldest sister-in-law always let herself get the food when she cooks, but mother has to give it to me when it's my turn?" She originally wanted to secretly save a handful of food while she was cooking, and if she saved more, she could support her parents' family.

Xia Juhua handed over the food in front of the whole family, how could she hide it? After all, it was not only Liu Zhishuang who ate the cakes, but also Liu Zhiquan. If he shouted that there was not enough food, she would be embarrassed.

Because of Wang Caifeng's self-willed behavior at noon, she dared not breathe the whole night. She didn't want to be exposed in front of the whole family like Wang Caifeng.

Thinking about Wang Caifeng, Sun Hongmei became even angrier: "What a shame my sister-in-law is. I just came home and my mother-in-law hasn't even started to rub me yet, but she's already giving me a cold shoulder."

Liu Zhishuang was a little unhappy when he heard her complaining about this or that: "Why don't you have the right person in your mouth? You are always right and others are unfair to you."

Sun Hongmei didn't get the comfort she expected, and was even rejected. She started to beat him up: "What are you talking about? I was bullied every day you were out, and now you're finally back, and I can't talk to you about it?"

"What?" Liu Zhishuang felt that Sun Hongmei had changed into someone he didn't recognize. She was completely different from the sensible and indifferent girl before marriage. However, this was the wife he wanted to marry, so he had to suppress his anger and persuade her:

"When you got married, the production team distributed grain. Our family only got enough for five people, but there were six people to eat, so we had to eat sparingly. Don't be picky about food and drink. I think the porridge at your mother's house is not as thick as the one at ours." Liu Zhishuang deliberately added a joking tone to the latter part of his speech, trying to ease the atmosphere in the room.

"Okay Liu Zhishuang, do you think my family is taking advantage of yours?" Sun Hongmei hated the word "porridge" the most. She didn't expect that Liu Zhishuang would bring it up first. She was so angry that tears fell like water:

"Okay, since you look down on my family and think that the dowry they give me is too little, then I will go back to my family. When they have prepared the dowry, I will come back." He then stood up and opened the closet to pack his things.

Liu Zhishuang was stunned by Sun Hongmei's sudden crying. What did he say wrong?

Sun Hongmei's dowry was fifty kilograms of wheat plus fifty yuan, and enough cloth to make two sets of clothes. Not to mention Ping'an Village, this dowry was worth a lot in the entire Red Star Commune.

When a rural man marries a daughter of a noble family, the family that loves the daughter will let the daughter take the betrothal gift to her husband's family, so that the husband's family will know that their daughter of a noble family is loved and will not be bullied. The family that does not love the daughter of a noble family will also prepare a new bed for the daughter of a noble family for the sake of face, and also bring some food to keep the husband's family from talking.

The Sun family doesn’t love their daughter, so it’s okay that they didn’t bring any food for Sun Hongmei, but what about other things?

When Sun Hongmei married, she brought only a new set of clothes and two bags of brown sugar, not even the blanket that most families should prepare for the bride. If others brought such dowry, they would feel inferior to their husband's family, but look at Sun Hongmei!

She was fine for the first three days, but after just three days she acted as if she had suffered a great injustice. When she returned to her room she was either complaining about this or that. Liu Zhishuang's ears were never quiet.

At first, he comforted Sun Hongmei and told her to bear with it for a while, saying that no one in the family had any bad intentions and they were not targeting her. Today, he came back from a hard day's work and wanted to have a good rest after dinner, but Sun Hongmei started to criticize her sister-in-law at the dinner table. If his mother hadn't explained the situation, would he have to be upset with his brother?

Liu Zhishuang remembered that after his father died, his mother told him and his elder brother more than once that the three of them were the closest in the world and that only by supporting each other could they avoid starvation and freezing. This was how the three of them lived over the years, and even after he married his sister-in-law, they never had any conflicts.

Why are there so many contradictions when it comes to Sun Hongmei? She said she was bullied. What can Liu Zhishuang do? If he joins her in scolding his sister-in-law and his mother for being unfair, how can the family live?

So Liu Zhishuang thought he was just joking and changing the subject, but he didn't expect the joke to go wrong and Sun Hongmei didn't care whether it was embarrassing for others or not and just cried and yelled that she wanted to go back to her parents' home.

Liu Zhishuang quietly watched Sun Hongmei pack her bags and wondered in his heart, why did he think that Sun Hongmei was not a calculating person?

Sun Hongmei packed very slowly. She was waiting for Liu Zhishuang to persuade her not to pack. Then she could take the opportunity to make Liu Zhishuang submit to her and promise to listen to her in the future. Then she could consider not going back to her parents' home - Liu Zhishuang was right about one thing, the porridge at her parents' home was really not enough.

Unexpectedly, Liu Zhishuang did not move on the left, and Liu Zhishuang was silent on the right. Sun Hongmei could not help but look back and found that Liu Zhishuang was looking at her with a puzzled look. When he saw her stop, he asked: "Are you not going to clean up?"

This life is really unbearable!

Sun Hongmei let out a howl: "Liu Zhishuang, you are not a human being--" The voice was miserable and humiliating, with a hint of uneasiness, and it echoed far away in the empty night sky.

Xia Juhua had just finished making the bed when she heard Sun Hongmei crying. She was quite surprised at how she came to this conclusion. In her previous life, Sun Hongmei had always been the one giving advice to Liu Zhishuang to oppose her as a mother. Liu Zhishuang was a bit soft-hearted and listened to Sun Hongmei in everything. Their relationship was considered good for a rural couple.

Why did she call Liu Zhishuang a beast after just getting married? Did Sun Hongmei know that crying like this would not only not make Liu Zhishuang feel that he was doing something wrong, but would also cause him to resent her?

Xia Juhua didn't know that because of her series of behavior after Sun Hongmei came into the family, the memory of the two sons supporting each other through hard times was once again firmly engraved in the minds of Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang. Now neither of them can stand anyone saying anything bad about their mother.

If Sun Hongmei only complained about Wang Caifeng, Liu Zhishuang might have shared the same hatred with her. But the first person she complained about was Xia Juhua. Wouldn't Liu Zhishuang think that Sun Hongmei had become unreasonable?

Sun Hongmei behaved very well before the marriage, and even said that she and Liu Zhishuang would be filial to their mother after they got married. Is complaining every day filial? Liu Zhishuang couldn't understand.

Before Xia Juhua could figure out what was going on, Liu Zhiquan had already put on his clothes and walked out of the east room. He coughed and asked, "Mom, are you asleep? The second son and the others..."

So the eldest son is really stupid. Xia Juhua sighed silently and said unhappily: "I'm deaf. How could he fall asleep like this? He must be very smart." After saying that, she had to get off the kang and go to the yard. She stood under the window with Liu Zhiquan and looked at the west wing.

"Mom, you see, this is all Caifeng's fault, why don't you let her..." Seeing his mother come out without saying a word, Liu Zhiquan felt guilty and thought that his mother was angry with Wang Caifeng. In his heart, he really thought that the quarrel between Liu Zhishuang and his wife was caused by Wang Caifeng's self-willed decision, so he wanted to ask his mother whether to let Wang Caifeng come out again to make amends for Sun Hongmei.

After all, my brother's wife had just been married for five or six days and she was already clamoring to go back to her parents' home, which was not a good thing to say.

Xia Juhua had seen enough of Sun Hongmei going back to her parents' home in her lifetime, and was not afraid that she would never come back - the old Sun family favored boys over girls. However, if a married girl came back to her parents' home without bringing anything, they would not even give her porridge to drink. After being hungry for a few days, Sun Hongmei could run back from her parents' home by herself.

In her previous life, Sun Hongmei went back to her parents' home for the first time in a huff six months after her marriage, also because of a conflict with Wang Caifeng. At that time, Xia Juhua tried to persuade both sides but to no avail. When Liu Zhishuang finally took her back, Sun Hongmei, who had lost weight due to hunger at her parents' home, received widespread sympathy from the people of Ping'an Village.

Xia Juhua didn't know whether Sun Hongmei received any advice from an expert after returning to her parents' home. She only knew that after returning to Ping'an Village, she kept silent about why she had a conflict with Wang Caifeng. Instead, she kept saying in a veiled manner that her mother-in-law was not fair, and all the blame was put on Xia Juhua.

Wang Caifeng was afraid that people would say she was bullying her brother's wife who had just married half a year ago, so she acquiesced to Sun Hongmei's statement. With Sun Guizhi fanning the flames and Sun Hongmei's weight loss as evidence, Xia Juhua's reputation as a wicked mother-in-law was directly confirmed.

That's why Xia Juhua had been hesitating just now. Should she persuade Sun Hongmei not to go back to her parents' home, so that the master behind her would not give her advice, or should she let Sun Hongmei go back and let her suffer enough at her parents' home so that she would not dare to bring her back to her parents' home easily again?

Unexpectedly, Liu Zhiquan didn't get an answer from Xia Juhua for a long time, so he came up with a bad idea to let Wang Caifeng apologize to Sun Hongmei again. How could he prevent Xia Juhua from glaring at him?

Although there was little light in the yard, the mother and daughter stood under the window of the main room. The faint light from the oil lamp shining through the window paper allowed Liu Zhiquan to fully appreciate the glare from his mother.

This look was filled with disgust, annoyance, and disdain. Liu Zhiquan felt ashamed: "Mom, I..."

"If you can't speak, don't speak." Xia Juhua told him to shut up. It wasn't for nothing that people called him "Xia Xiaohuo" when he was young. When she yelled at him, Liu Zhiquan shuddered and fell silent.

Xia Juhua took the opportunity to listen to the movement in the west room and found that when she was talking to Liu Zhiquan, Sun Hongmei's crying became noticeably quieter, but when she stopped talking, the crying became louder again.

It turned out that Sun Hongmei was still using the same nonsense and entanglement as in her previous life. Xia Juhua made up her mind and shouted to the west room, "Old Second, come out." After a day's work, everyone wanted to rest early, so she quickly let Liu Zhishuang come out to make the decision, so as not to disturb the neighbors.

Sun Hongmei's crying suddenly increased by two degrees. Her voice was originally as harsh as fingernails scratching tin sheets, and when she cried, she didn't care about the tone, which made her sound particularly annoying.