As soon as Xia Juhua said that the main purpose of staying for dinner was to entertain the coachman, Wang Caixia felt that her relationship with her had become much closer. She turned around to look at the coachman (the local name for people who drive cars), and was no longer polite to Xia Juhua. Instead, she helped her to greet everyone and go into the main room.
After pouring water for the man and asking about the harvest at home, the conversation started. When Xia Juhua heard that the coachman's surname was also Xia, she smiled and talked to him about her family background. Then she let Wang Caixia and the coachman sit down first, and she came out to discuss what to eat for lunch with Wang Caifeng.
"Kill one." Xia Juhua said with some distress: "Kill the three-year-old Luhua chicken. I'll catch a few more chicks in the spring so that you don't have to worry about your confinement."
"Mom, one chicken is enough for me during the confinement period." Wang Caifeng was moved when she heard her mother-in-law was planning meals for her during the confinement period. She said, "We'll raise all the chickens to lay eggs when we catch them."
"Oh, by the way, after stewing the chicken, fry some eggs, chop the cabbage hearts and make some cold dishes, and stir-fry some shredded potatoes. That should be enough." Since there are guests coming, there must be at least four dishes.
"What about the meal?" Wang Caifeng felt distressed when she heard this, but the person sitting in the room was her cousin. Although she couldn't say it, she experienced the pain and happiness at the same time.
When Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang came back at noon, the dishes were already on the table. Wang Caixia and Che Laobaner were also sitting at the table with Xia Juhua. In front of Liu Baoguo's bowl were chicken wings that Xia Juhua had picked for him. He stared at them with his two little black eyes without blinking, and kept blowing air on the chicken wings in front of the bowl, hoping that they would cool down quickly so that he could eat them.
When Sun Hongmei saw Wang Caixia sitting there, her face wanted to droop a little. Liu Zhishuang glanced at her in time, and forcibly pulled the corners of her mouth back to the horizontal line. He forced a smile and greeted Wang Caixia: "Sister, you are here. I haven't seen you for a long time. Is everything going well at home?"
Wang Caixia was a salesperson and had long since mastered the skill of reading people and talking to them. She smiled at Sun Hongmei more intimately than at her own cousin: "It's been a long time since we last met, but Hongmei is still so capable."
Liu Zhishuang had a very good impression of Wang Caixia because of the experience of buying meat. He smiled and said, "Sister, please don't praise her. She can't stand being praised. Once she is praised, she forgets her own last name."
It sounded like a joke, but why did Xia Juhua think it made sense? She even scolded Liu Zhishuang in front of the guests: "You are talking nonsense again. Why don't you go wash your hands?"
Wang Caixia and Mr. Che took a look at the three people and found that they washed their hands naturally and skillfully. They were not pretending to be clean in front of the guests. Their evaluation of Xia Juhua's family went up a level.
When there are guests, everyone in the family, except Liu Baoguo, a child less than two years old, can point to whatever they want to eat, and in the family tacitly eats shredded potatoes and mixed cabbage, and saves the stewed chicken and scrambled eggs for everyone.
On the way back, the boss of this car said to Wang Caixia: "Your cousin married well. Not only is the mother-in-law capable, but she also recognizes her as a relative." Usually, when the daughter-in-law's cousin comes to visit, it's good enough to just fry an egg for her.
Wang Caixia wanted to flatter Xia Juhua and replied with a smile: "I am not a relative of mine. I stewed the chicken for your sake."
The coachman shook his head and said, "I'm just a driver. How can I deserve someone to stew chicken for me? It's good enough that I can have a full meal. They still treat you, their relative, as a guest from their mother's family."
After saying this, both of them laughed, and in their hearts they were thinking that next time they came back to pick up the fried peanuts, they would bring something for Xia Juhua to make up for this meal.
The women who weave mats in Ping'an Village have been eager to give something to thank Xia Juhua these past two days.
Why not thank them? The supply and marketing cooperative raised the price of a mat by 50 cents, and the production team gave them two more work points every day, which meant they earned 20 cents more a day, which was not much less than what they earned during the spring planting and autumn harvest.
In the spring planting and autumn harvest, the work was so hard, but now I can earn money just by working in the field, but it is all brought by the new tricks of Xia Juhua. If you still don't think Xia Juhua is good, do you have a conscience?
If it does not conflict with their own interests, most people will not go against their conscience and pretend not to see the benefits brought to them by others. The women weaving mats in the yard are like this. Now they are praising Xia Juhua, but Xia Juhua herself is almost unrecognizable.
They had to get to know each other even if they didn't know each other. Every woman who came to Xia Juhua for advice felt embarrassed to ask a question without complimenting her first. Xia Juhua had no choice but to accept this way of getting along.
Xia Juhua felt uncomfortable, and the women were also nervous at first. After all, when Xia Juhua first came to weave reed mats, many people wanted to see her make a fool of herself, and they also agreed with Li Changwang's family. What if Xia Juhua was a vengeful person, deliberately made a mistake when teaching the pattern, or got impatient after asking once, and she couldn't learn it herself?
So we had to praise Xia Juhua, praise her a lot, praise her so much that she felt embarrassed to keep her secrets, praise her so much that she would not care about the mat she was weaving, praise her so much that she would stay in the yard and not go home, so that everyone could ask for advice at any time.
As they talked, everyone realized that although Xia Juhua didn't talk much and always paused before speaking, as if she was thinking in her heart whether what she said was appropriate, she was really open-minded and spoke every word.
After that, she doesn't say anything else and just keeps her head down to do her own work. If you don't understand, you can ask her again and she will patiently answer you. If you really don't understand, she will let you watch how she made it up and it doesn't matter how long it takes.
Suddenly, Xia Juhua became the most popular person in the courtyard. An Baoling was impressed and said:
"Sister-in-law, I thought that when they asked me to tell you to weave more slowly last time, you would be reluctant to teach them. After all, no one is willing to teach this skill to others for free."
An Baoling was right. Apart from the women's subtle exclusion of Xia Juhua a few days ago, when it comes to crafts, apart from her own daughter-in-law, no one else taught others as selflessly as Xia Juhua. As the old saying goes, having many skills is never a burden. Now everything is collectively owned. If we count back 20 years, anyone with a little skill would hide it like a family heirloom to prevent others from learning it.
Xia Juhua smiled nonchalantly: "I can only make a few mats by myself. Only when we work together can we complete the orders of the supply and marketing cooperative. Besides, the production team gives me two extra hours every day, so I don't lose anything."
Whether it is a loss or not, everyone has a scale in their hearts. Otherwise, these old ladies would have caused a big fuss in the production team if they saw Xia Juhua eight earning work points a day no matter how much or how little she earned.
An Baoling looked at Li Changwang's family walking towards where they were sitting, raised her voice intentionally, and said with a smile: "Why not? You don't care about working eight hours a day." If my sister-in-law stayed at home to fry peanuts, she would at least fry more than 200 kilograms a day and earn two or three yuan. How much does it cost to work eight hours a day?
When Li Changwang heard An Baoling's words, she felt a little embarrassed. It was not for any other reason, but because she felt that An Baoling was talking to her. Because when Liu Erzhuang announced in the yard that Xia Juhua would teach new tricks, so she had to be recorded as eight hours a day, Li Changwang had quickly raised questions.
After seeing the tricks Xia Juhua came up with and hearing that Xia Juhua had taken another job roasting peanuts for the supply and marketing cooperative, Li Changwang felt extremely regretful and was too embarrassed to ask Xia Juhua for advice alone for the past two days.
However, when weaving words on the mat, the extra or missing reed bark is very obvious. People who have learned from Xia Juhua can never explain it clearly - those women know how to weave, but why they weave in that way and how to hide the reed bark so tightly that it will not be during exposed use, but there is always that little difference.
The person from Li Changwang's family who was asking the question was not very patient. She got annoyed after asking less than three times and said, "I don't understand it myself. You should ask Xia Xiaohuo." Then she ignored her.
In order not to delay the progress, Li Changwang's family made a great determination to come to Xia Juhua. How could they not feel embarrassed after hearing what An Baoling said? In the past two days, many people came to Xia Juhua to ask questions. Xia Juhua did not look up to see who came over. While making up the mat, she asked: "What's the matter? What don't you understand?"
An Baoling chuckled and lowered her head to weave her own reed mat, not looking at Li Changwang's family. Li Changwang's family just felt that her ears were erected high and were waiting to see her give in to Xia Juhua.
Just give in. Li Changwang thought that he was flexible and spoke out his doubts. Xia Juhua thought about it and didn't notice that Li Changwang's expression kept changing - she thought Xia Juhua was trying to embarrass her and didn't want to tell her easily.
Just when he was about to mock Xia Juhua and say "I won't ask you anymore", Xia Juhua spoke again, explaining the problems of Li Changwang's family in great detail, and even let her see how she handled the connection between the two reeds. Li Changwang's family blushed and turned pale after listening to it.
As soon as she left, An Baoling couldn't help but laugh: "Sister-in-law, I admire you even more."
Seeing Xia Juhua looking at her in confusion, An Baoling suppressed her laughter and whispered, "You haven't seen Li Changwang's complexion. It's almost dyeable. The red and green ones look beautiful."
Xia Juhua also laughed. She found that An Baoling had always been a person who said what she thought in her two lives. She was able to maintain this kind of personality. It should be because Liu Sanzhuang did not let her suffer too much injustice. Liu Sanzhuang was also a capable person to be able to protect his wife to this extent under the Sun family.
Seeing that Xia Juhua was just smiling and not saying anything, An Baoling knew that she was the type who didn't like to talk about people behind their backs, so she lowered her head and concentrated on weaving the mats.
Unexpectedly, after a while, Li Changwang's family came over again and brought their own mats over. Xia Juhua was so angry that the people around her glared at her - the supply and marketing cooperative ordered a large mat to be spread on the kang, not a small mat that could be woven casually and took up a lot of space.
If Li Changwang's family came over, the space for others would be insufficient, so they had to make room for her. Now, who in the yard didn't want to be closer to Xia Juhua to ask questions more conveniently? Of course, they didn't want to let Li Changwang's family succeed, so they glared at her.
Li Changwang's family is thick-skinned. He acted as if he didn't see anyone glaring at him. He looked around and begged for mercy with a smile on his face: "I'm a slow learner. Stay closer to Xia Xiao and ask more questions. Ask more questions."
"Changwang family, why do I hear that you don't want to ask about Liu's wife, but want to cause trouble?" Those who were forced to move were Li Changman's family. They were uncles and sisters-in-law of Li Changwang's family. The two families had never been on good terms. What they hated most was that Li Changwang's family always gossiped and found fault with her. They immediately pointed out her faults:
"If you want to learn a skill from someone, it's fine if you don't get anything in return. We'll all learn in vain. But shouldn't you be more polite? You call someone by his nickname right away. Do you want to learn something?"
Li Changwang thought that if he could get closer to Xia Juhua, he could be sweeter and talk to her from time to time. This would make their relationship closer, and Xia Juhua would no longer care about the fact that he had questioned the fact that she was given too many work points. If he asked questions again, Xia Juhua might not even hesitate.
Li Changwang's family thought that An Baoling might not want others to be better than her and Xia Juhua, and might even say something to them. But who knew that An Baoling didn't say anything, but Li Changman's family stood up and glared at them in anger:
"I'm just used to it and can't get over it. Mrs. Liu didn't say anything, so you keep saying that. It's no use for you to meddle in other people's business."
"Who do you say is the dog?" Li Changman's family was not a pushover either. He threw the reed leaves on the ground, stood up and rushed towards Li Changwang's family.
Xia Juhua helplessly put down the reed leaf in her hand and said to the two people: "What are you two arguing about? Erzhuang will hear you and come over to scold you. It's not nice to be scolded at such an old age, is it?"
Her voice was not loud and did not sound very powerful, but it immediately made Li Changman's family and Li Changwang's family shut up. They both looked at Xia Juhua who was picking up the reed leaves again, and sat down without saying a word.
"Hurry up and start editing. If you don't understand, please ask me. I will go back after I finish editing this one." Xia Juhua saw that everyone in the yard was looking at them, so she said one more sentence and stopped talking. Everyone actually obeyed and started working.
An Baoling felt that her sister-in-law was always more effective than Liu Erzhuang in saying ten things. She gave Xia Juhua a thumbs up. Xia Juhua glared at her with amusement, which made An Baoling feel that her sister-in-law was closer to her than anyone else.
How could she not be close to her? She was her own sister-in-law. An Baoling thought happily, until she saw Sun Guizhi standing at the edge of the yard, her happiness faded a lot.
"Sister-in-law." An Baoling called out but didn't look up. She reminded Xia Juhua softly, "Sun Guizhi told mother and second brother these two days that she also wanted to learn how to weave mats. I don't know if second brother can handle it, so you should be careful."
"Why is she the one who gets the advantage wherever there is a bargain?" Xia Juhua made a rare complaint, which was overheard by Li Changwang's family. They asked loudly, "Who, who wants to take advantage of Sister Liu? Sister, tell me. I don't believe it. We are making mats well and increasing the income of the production team. Why should we let someone who has nothing to do with us take advantage of us?"
When she yelled, the women weaving mats in the yard all raised their heads again, and Sun Guizhi was stared at by everyone. Being stared at by one person was not a big deal, but being stared at by more than a dozen people, and staring at them with caution, was something that even someone as shameless as Sun Guizhi could not handle.
"What are you looking at?" Sun Guizhi wanted to see if she could get away with it by learning how to weave mats. Unexpectedly, she was called out by Li Changwang's family. She got angry and shouted at the people in the yard, "I'm just weaving mats, and you're afraid of being watched?"
"I'm not afraid of people watching me." Li Changwang's family replied in a weird tone: "But I'm afraid someone will try to sabotage me."
In this day and age, "making trouble" is not a good word. Sun Guizhi got anxious when she heard it: "Don't spit shit all over your mouth. Who wants to make trouble?"
Li Changwang's family was afraid that Sun Guizhi was not anxious. If she was not anxious, why would she continue to curse others in a sarcastic manner and show that she was in the same group with Xia Juhua? Seeing that Sun Guizhi was really anxious, Li Changwang's family was amused:
"You've been acting like a landlord's daughter, never working in the fields, and suddenly you've come to the yard. If you don't want to cause trouble, what do you want to do?"
Xia Juhua wanted to tell Li Changwang's family that what you said was too strong, and there was no connection between the two things. However, she was so ruthless to Sun Guizhi and her nephew in her previous life that she didn't say it in the end. She just wove the mat in her hands silently, as if Sun Guizhi didn't exist.
Unfortunately, Xia Juhua wanted to stay out of it, but others insisted on dragging her into it, and she had no choice.
Sun Guizhi was the one who wanted to drag Xia Juhua into this. After hearing Li Changwang's family splashing dirty water on her, and sitting so close to Xia Juhua, she believed that Xia Juhua had said something to Li Changwang's family, which made this woman who loved to talk about his wife go crazy on her. Sun Guizhi yelled at Xia Juhua:
"Xia Juhua, what's the point of hiding behind someone? If you have the ability, tell me yourself."
The people in the yard looked at Sun Guizhi like an idiot, and they all thought to themselves, how can you talk to Xia Juhua?
Xia Juhua herself thought so too, so she kept moving her hands without even raising her eyes. No one paid attention to her curses, which reminded Sun Guizhi of the day when she was embarrassed in the commune. Xia Juhua also pretended to be fine when she went into the hotel, but when she came out, she embarrassed herself.
Today she did it again, and Sun Guizhi felt that she couldn't let her succeed - Xia Juhua was slow to speak, and if she scolded her first until she couldn't raise her head, she would have the upper hand. So Sun Guizhi slapped her thigh and pointed at Xia Juhua and said:
"Don't think you're great just because your two sons are married. If your two sons are married, they will know that you are so mean to your sisters-in-law behind their backs, and they will use them to seduce each other. What's the matter? You don't dare to say anything. Even if you don't say anything, everyone knows what kind of person you are. Stop pretending in front of me!"
Just as she was about to start scolding, Xia Juhua suddenly stood up, walked straight to Sun Guizhi, and said, "My two sons are married, and one of them was married to our family by someone else's trickery. I just think my son is capable, so what?"
"You——" Sun Guizhi choked, but everyone who heard it laughed. Everyone is a gossip lover. Who hasn't heard that Xia Juhua didn't agree with Liu Zhishuang marrying Sun Guizhi's niece at first? Now Sun Guizhi dared to talk about Xia Juhua's daughter-in-law. She deserved to be blocked and speechless!
Li Changwang's family would not miss the opportunity to kick someone when he was down. They said with a smile, "Sun Guizhi, you are not as old as us, but your memory is not as good as ours. I remember that you and your mother-in-law went to Liu Saozi's house to make trouble a few days ago. Why are you here to cause trouble for Liu Saozi again? Why didn't you ask your mother-in-law to come along this time? Did your mother-in-law know that you were not right and didn't want to come along?"
Li Changman's family felt that they couldn't let one person from Li Changwang's family win Xia Juhua's favor alone, so they quickly said, "Her mother-in-law is not in the right, so she, a brother's wife, is in the right to find trouble with her eldest sister-in-law? Sister Liu is here teaching everyone how to weave mats, and Sun Guizhi doesn't weave mats, so why did she yell at Sister Liu as soon as she came?"
"Then why does she teach you how to weave mats and not others?" Sun Guizhi finally told Xia Juhua her purpose for finding her, but she offended all the women weaving mats in the yard. Without Xia Juhua saying anything, they pointed at Sun Guizhi and said she was a worthless person like an enemy:
"You have never woven mats before, so how can Mrs. Liu teach you?"
"You think you are the boss. If you want to learn, others have to teach you. Do you have to ask Mrs. Liu to teach you?"
"Don't even think about asking Sister Liu to beg her. Even if she begs Sister Liu in a nice way, I will still try my best to prevent Sister Liu from teaching her. It's time to let her go."
Xia Juhua was not without emotion when she heard everyone defending her: at this time in her previous life, there were already rumors in Pingan Village that she had made things difficult for her two daughters-in-law and was not a good mother-in-law, and most of the people in front of her were blaming Xia Juhua. But now these people were doing their utmost to defend her, and they even went against Sun Guizhi directly.
If I hadn't taught them new ways to weave mats, would they still speak for me like this? This thought only flashed through Xia Juhua's mind, and she knew that the person she should face most now was Sun Guizhi.
Sun Hongmei at home was now suppressed and dared not hang out with Sun Guizhi much. This woman couldn't get the upper hand, so she jumped out in a hurry.
If she wants to dance Summer Chrysanthemum, does she have to watch her dance?
Xia Juhua felt that she shouldn't let Sun Guizhi have such an illusion, so she spoke up: "I can teach whoever I want to teach, what's your business?"
Sun Guizhi pointed at Xia Juhua and was speechless. She found that she was often speechless when facing Xia Juhua. This was not right. Xia Juhua was so slow to speak and would back down whenever possible. How could she be speechless?
Sun Guizhi was unwilling to continue being speechless, so she said firmly: "If you can teach these people, you have to teach those who want to learn. Members have to help each other." Sun Guizhi felt that her last sentence was very powerful, and a sense of pride appeared on her face.
Xia Juhua glanced at Sun Guizhi and said, "You said that members should help each other, but what did you help me with? Did you help me by distorting the truth and cursing others in front of the whole commune, or did you help me by instigating my mother-in-law to come to our house and make trouble?"
Yes, Sun Guizhi, apart from causing trouble for Xia Juhua, when did she ever help her? Not to mention Xia Juhua, even Li Daya and An Baoling, who lived in the same courtyard with Sun Guizhi, only helped Sun Guizhi with work, but she never helped her two sisters-in-law.
More instructions fell on Sun Guizhi, and no matter how thick-skinned she was, she could no longer hold back. Before leaving the yard, Sun Guizhi said something tough: "Don't be complacent. I'm waiting to see how badly you'll end up."
Xia Juhua did not refrain from retorting as she did in the past. Instead, she said calmly: "If you don't go home and instigate the old man to make trouble again, then wait." If you have the ability, do it yourself.
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