Chapter 65
The production captain of Sunjiazhuang blushed. Sun Hongmei's father didn't dare to argue anymore, but Captain Xia insisted on asking for the amount, so he had to admit that each bride received a different amount of gifts, and the most was 50 yuan for Sun Hongmei.
"Haha, Captain Sun, do you think the betrothal money should be returned to the other party?" Captain Xia twisted his mouth and did not ask the Sun family, but asked Captain Sun, whose face was blushing and almost burning.
Captain Sun could say that he would stop seeing through the Four Olds, but would he still secretly give the betrothal gifts to the rural areas? If he dared to say it, not only would he not be able to become a production captain, but he and his family would not be able to live in Sun's village.
Looking at the members around him who all lowered their heads, Captain Sun spat out two words through his teeth: "It's time to quit."
After getting the 120 yuan betrothal gift that Sun Hongmei's father mentioned, he still had to ask what the 300 yuan was. Sun Hongmei's father, who was being bullied, had to confess that there was indeed 260 yuan given to him by Liu Sizhuang, and the rest was really their own family's dividend money this year - they got a lot of money unexpectedly this year, so he distributed the production team's dividend to his two sons early, so that they could have a good New Year.
Captain Xia stepped hard and stomped Sun Hongmei's father to death: "Comrade Red Team, I dare not lie, this is really the amount of money."
Captain Xia, who came with a purpose, gave him several slaps in a row: "Search the houses of his two sons and daughter as well."
The two sons of the Sun family who were not spared, who were not necessarily grateful to their father when they received the money, now wish their father would die immediately. Is it so fun to confiscate a house? They can dig out anything hidden in a rat hole.
Fortunately, Sun Hongmei's father did favor his sons, but the time had not come for him to divide all his savings among his sons. The money that his two sons stole from their rooms was within the scope of the Red Team's recognition.
However, the Red Team unexpectedly found 60 yuan in Sun Hongmei's house in the firewood room, and handed it directly to Captain Xia: "Captain, this woman is quite rich."
"Where did you steal this money from?" Captain Xia immediately identified Sun Hongmei and took his feet off her father's back, focusing his main attention on Sun Hongmei.
Sun Hongmei hated these Red Squad. She remembered how Xia Juhua dealt with them when she was still at Liu's house. She tried to act calm and said, "I earned it myself."
"You made it yourself?" Captain Xia swung the banknotes and said, "You are quite good at making money. Tell us so that we can make some money too. Or is it that we can't learn your way of making money?"
Many married people present could hear the teasing in Captain Xia's words, and their eyes turned to Sun Hongmei with mixed feelings. Sun Hongmei had never expected that the sixty yuan she had carefully hidden would be discovered by the Red Team, and that they would also say that she had done something dirty.
In anger, she blurted out, "That was the money my man gave me."
"I know it was your man who gave you the money." Captain Xia smiled with a hint of arrogance: "I just don't know which man it was."
"Of course it's Liu Zhishuang."
"Liu Zhishuang?" Captain Xia asked the people around him, "Why does this name sound so familiar to me? I seem to have heard of it somewhere before."
"Captain, it seems that the second son of Xia Juhua from Ping'an Village is called Liu Zhishuang."
When Captain Xia heard someone mention Xia Juhua again, he had a very bad memory. He glared at the person who said it and said, "Didn't he say he was divorced? Why did he give money to this woman? Did he get divorced because of this woman?"
Captain Sun couldn't bear to hear it any more. He didn't care about Sun Hongmei's reputation, but Xia Juhua's name was now well known in the entire Red Star Commune. He hurriedly said to Captain Xia, "Captain Xia, Liu Zhishuang divorced this Sun Hongmei."
"What?" Captain Xia looked at Sun Hongmei curiously, and said with a twisted mouth: "If I were her, I would have to divorce her too. Why would she give you money after she divorced you?"
"This..." Could Sun Hongmei say that the money was not given by Liu Zhishuang, but that she took it back when Liu Zhishuang was not paying attention when she was about to divorce?
After she returned to her parents' home, her life was not easy. Her parents said they would find another family for her, but the ones they introduced were either old bachelors in their forties or widowers with several children whose wives had died. None of them could compare to Liu Zhishuang. Even the lives of those people were full of leaks, nothing compared to the Liu family.
This made Sun Hongmei think of the days she spent with Liu Zhishuang from time to time. She had dreamed of returning to Ping'an Manor and living with Liu Zhishuang. She thought that since she had brought back all the money, Liu Zhishuang would come to Sun's Manor to find her, so that she could find a way to get Liu Zhishuang to agree to take her back to Ping'an Manor. But except for the time when she was going through the divorce procedure, Liu Zhishuang seemed to not care about the 60 yuan and never came to see her once.
Sun Hongmei couldn't bring herself to go find Liu Zhishuang on her own initiative - her parents were too cruel during the divorce, and she had said too harsh words. If she showed up in Ping'anzhuang again, she would probably not be able to enter the Liu family easily.
This time is different from before marriage, when she had her aunt Sun Guizhi to help her plan, and even if she couldn't get close to Liu Zhishuang for the time being, she could still live in Sun Guizhi's house and wait for an opportunity. Now Sun Guizhi herself is still in the Red Team's study class, and she can't get close to Liu Zhishuang if she goes to Ping'an Village, so where should she live?
And judging from the attitude of the Red Team today, they clearly knew that her uncle had given the money to her parents. Do I need to ask how they knew that? Her aunt must have hated her parents for pushing her cousins to the Red Team, so she reported it. Even if her aunt left the class and returned to Ping An Manor, she would probably not care about her and Liu Zhishuang anymore.
Sun Hongmei couldn't answer, so Captain Xia had plenty of patience to get the answer. He sent someone to Ping'an Village to find Liu Zhishuang and let him confront Sun Hongmei. While waiting for someone, the Red Team felt that they had nothing to do, so they asked Sun Hongmei's mother and sister-in-law to cook for them. The reason was that because of the old Sun family's affairs, they ran from the commune to Sunjia Village early in the morning and didn't even have time to eat. Don't the old Sun family think that they are too hard and should be comforted?
Liu Zhishuang did not come to Sunjiazhuang alone, he came with Liu Liqun. Captain Xia led the Red Team members and had just finished eating the fine food at Sunjiazhuang. He was in a good mood and took the initiative to say hello to Liu Liqun.
While Liu Liqun was chatting with Captain Xia, Liu Zhishuang looked around the courtyard of his grandson's house. He had been to this courtyard several times before, and although it was not cleaned very well at that time, he still knew where to put things.
Now, bedding and clothes were scattered all over the floor, food bags were toppled here and there, and there was a pile of fresh chicken feathers on the side. All the people in the old Sun family were watched by the two Red Teams, squatting in the corner of the east wall, and the production team leader of Sunjiazhuang stood not far from them. He had nothing to say to the Red Team, and he had nothing to say to the old Sun family either.
Liu Zhishuang didn't have much to say to the Sun family. Even though Sun Hongmei kept looking at him with pleading eyes, he pretended not to see it - Xia Juhua's warnings over the past few days were not in vain, and Liu Zhishuang had long understood that he and Sun Hongmei were not the same kind of people.
Sun Hongmei took away all his money, and broke the remaining affection between the two. You have to know how much time and effort Liu Zhishuang spent in order to cover up the fact that his money was taken away.
But in the end, her mother gently poked through the window paper, which made the proud Liu Zhishuang hate Sun Hongmei to death. Seeing her current fate, Liu Zhishuang refrained from mocking her, which was already very kind.
"Liu Zhishuang, is your mother doing well?" Captain Xia saw Liu Zhishuang looking at the mess in the yard and took the initiative to greet Xia Juhua. Liu Zhishuang was shocked and said, "Thank you, Captain Xia. My mother leads us in making mats every day. She is doing well."
"If I were your mother, I would definitely not be in a good mood." Captain Xia took out a handful of banknotes from his pocket and said, "How can I be in a good mood when my son gives money to his divorced daughter-in-law without my knowledge?"
Liu Zhishuang looked at the money in Captain Xia's hand and was sure that it was his annual dividend and the money he earned from carrying the food bag: "Captain Xia, this money was not given by me to Sun Hongmei. She took it secretly from me when we were getting divorced, while her parents came to our house to make trouble."
"When we went to the commune to get a divorce, I asked her where the money went, but she insisted that she didn't know and said she didn't take it. Many people in the commune saw it at the time, and you can find out if you ask everyone. Captain Sun of the Sunjiazhuang Production Team advised me that getting a divorce is better than anything else, so I endured it at the time."
Captain Xia tutted his mouth and said, "Your mother can't bear anything. Why don't you report to the Red Team and let them go to Sun's house to ask for money on your behalf?"
Liu Zhishuang finally lowered his head: "I was thinking about how I, a big boss, was actually schemed against by a woman. How could I have the nerve to trouble the comrades in the Red Team?"
Several members of the Red Team burst into laughter. Not only Liu Zhishuang, but even the captain of the Sunjiazhuang production team was shocked. At that time, the captain of the Sunjiazhuang production team only wanted to finish the Sun family's affairs as soon as possible and stay away from this family, so he advised Liu Zhishuang to take a step back.
Unexpectedly, Liu Zhishuang withdrew, but the old Sun family was not at peace and called the Red Team, so he still couldn't escape.
Liu Liqun stepped forward and confronted Liu Zhishuang: "You little bastard, why didn't you tell the team about such a big thing? How much money do we farmers earn in a year? You didn't feel any pain when someone took away so much money. It must be that your mother loves her son and wants you to have some money. Such a large sum of money was taken away by someone, and she couldn't even tell him. How upset she must be!"
劉志雙的眼圈紅了：“劉隊長，我一開始沒好意思跟我娘說，越到後來越不知道咋跟我娘開口。”
“咋開口，那是你親娘人還能笑話你？”劉力群想不明白，明明看上去挺精明的一個小夥子，咋竟辦糊塗事！不過還是得把錢先要到手裏，他轉身面對夏隊長的時候，臉上的怒氣收斂了許多：
“多虧了夏隊長，才讓真相大白，要不這個混小子還得糊弄他娘一輩子。”
聽說夏菊花這些日子可能過得憋屈，夏隊長覺得圓滿了：“劉隊長說的對，你自己要不回來還可以向大隊彙報，大隊解決不了也有我們紅小隊。以後碰到問題，要相信組織。”說着，把手裏的紙幣往劉志雙眼前一遞。
劉志雙有些不敢相信這錢能如此輕易的回來，不由看向劉力群，希望他能給自己點兒意見。劉力群已經主動把錢接到手裏：“夏隊長，這錢還是先交給我吧，我回去直接交給夏隊長，省得這混小子再讓人給騙了。”
心情仍然很愉快的夏隊長，又變戲法似的從兜裏掏出五張十塊錢紙幣來：“聽說你們那個夏隊長，娶兒媳婦的時候還出了彩禮錢？那可是封建流毒，應該受到嚴肅的批判。”
“唉，”劉力群沖着夏隊長嘆了口氣：“夏隊長，你一向做基層工作，能不了解咱們老農民的情況？前兩年夏隊長還不是生産隊長，一個婦女拉扯兩孩子過日子，想娶上兒媳婦，可不是人家女方家提什麽條件都得答應。誰讓現在農村娶個媳婦太難了呢。”
孫紅梅很想跳起來說，劉力群在撒謊，那五十塊錢彩禮分明是夏菊花自己按着大兒媳婦的标準，給她爹娘的，憑啥最後成了她爹娘主動要的？
可她不敢站起來，因為孫隊長就那麽一直盯着她，自從劉志雙來後就沒把視線轉到別處。孫紅梅想起來了，在她離婚的時候，她爹娘的确提出留下她的彩禮，也真的把錢留下了。
說不清楚了。孫紅梅心裏只的這麽一個念頭，可能她爹娘跟她的想法差不多，個個都後悔當初為啥死活非得留下這五十塊錢，現在倒給自己添了條罪名。
夏隊長到底還是把彩禮錢給了劉力群，卻要求劉力群回平安莊後，好好教育夏菊花，并讓她寫出深刻的檢查。這個要求讓劉力群面露難色：“夏隊長，夏菊花她就不認字。”
“不認字她編出帶字的席來？”夏隊長不信。
劉力群苦笑了一下：“剛解放的時候，各村不是都辦過掃盲班嗎，她就是那時候認下了幾個字。別的字都忘了，只記得幾個吉利話的字，還是以前看多了記住的。”
夏隊長無話可說，揮揮手讓劉力群快帶着劉志雙離開，他自己則帶着紅小隊，押着被繩子捆着的孫紅梅爹娘和孫紅梅，回公社關他們的學習班去了。
沒被一起帶走的孫家兄弟兩個等人都走了，在小聲咒罵紅小隊時，也相互疑惑過，紅小隊咋突然跑到他們家來找茬。
兩人更多的是埋怨爹娘不說早點兒把錢給他們分了，那樣他們說不定就能找個更好的地方藏起來，而不是四百多塊錢劉家的還劉家，被紅小隊抄走的抄走。
四百多塊錢呀，下地幹活四年也存不下四百塊錢的時代，就從自己的眼前被人拿走，光想想就讓人心疼。
“還有紅梅那個死丫頭，手裏有錢還在家裏白吃白喝。”孫紅梅的大嫂終于找到話縫，把自己對小姑子的不滿發洩出來。
她二嫂跟着撇嘴翻白眼：“當初還說她嫁的好，又是彩禮又是糧食。現在呢，糧食早讓人拉走了，彩禮也讓紅小隊給還回去了。還被紅小隊懷疑錢來的不幹淨，以後我可不敢有這麽丢人的小姑子！”
“對，她要是再想吃飯，就自己出錢。”孫紅梅的大嫂一錘定音。
幾個人誰也沒想想，一向吃肉不吐骨頭的紅小隊，為什麽痛快的把劉家的錢都還了原主。
就連劉志雙回去一路都是蒙的：“劉隊長，紅小隊咋突然跑到孫家莊替我要錢去了？我也沒向他們報告過呀。”
劉力群深深看了他一眼，往地上吐了口吐沫：“志雙，今天叔就說你兩句。你咋能啥事都瞞着你娘呢。這要是早讓你娘知道，是不是早把錢要回來了？你就這麽不信你娘？”人家把一個生産隊都帶得紅火得讓人眼紅，還解決不了家裏這點兒小事兒？
劉志雙紅頭脹臉的說：“劉隊長，我不是不信我娘，是怕她跟着擔心。”
“她從別人嘴裏知道就不擔心了？”劉力群氣的又給了劉志雙後背一巴掌：“從你嘴裏聽到，和從別人那知道，哪個讓你娘更丢人？自己的兒子都不信她，生産隊的社員能信她，以後她還咋給人派工，咋站到人前說話？”
劉志雙說不出話來了，一路沉默的跟着劉力群回到平安莊。
從兩人被叫去孫家莊後，夏菊花的心一直提着——從本心上來說，她很不願意再跟老孫家的任何人打任何交道，更不知劉志雙這一去是福是禍。
再不省心再讨厭的兒子，也是自己身上掉下來的肉，做爹娘的哪兒能說不管就真不管。
直到見到劉力群和劉志雙兩人的身影，夏菊花才算松了一口氣。因為家裏又是炒花生又是漏粉，夏菊花沒敢把劉力群往家裏讓，直接把人請到了生産隊。
“劉隊長，麻煩你跟着又跑一回，等明天來我們生産隊吃殺豬菜呀。”夏菊花對劉力群這位退役老兵，是打心裏尊重的。
劉力群以為夏菊花還不知情，同為人爹娘的，打心裏替夏菊花不值——剛才他可沒忽略夏菊花見到兩人，松了一口氣的樣子。
“別忙活了，我回大隊還有事兒呢。志雙這兒呢也是年輕好臉兒，你罵兩句讓他知道自己哪兒錯了就行了，，以後改了就好。”劉力群出于對夏菊花的同情，覺得她罵劉志雙兩句是應該的。
夏菊花還不知道怎麽回事兒呢，劉力群就讓她罵劉志雙，自然要把目光轉向小兒子。嗯，除了蔫了點兒，身上衣裳是幹淨的，不象跟人打過架的樣子。難道？
“劉志雙，你是不是又答應那個孫紅梅，要跟她複婚了？我告訴你，你要跟她複婚我不攔着，不過咱們先把家給分了。”想到這種可能，夏菊花都覺得透不過氣來，說話的聲音都是顫的。
劉力群兩人誰也沒想到夏菊花反應這麽激烈，劉志雙吓的趕緊說：“娘，我不跟她複婚，你放心我啥時候都不跟她複婚。”說完祈求的看向劉力群。
劉力群發現是自己沒把話說明白讓夏菊花誤會了，有些內疚的從兜裏掏出錢來遞給她：“今天我們去孫家莊，是紅小隊向我們了解當初老孫家收彩禮的情況，還有孫紅梅卷走志雙的錢，也被紅小隊的同志找到了，一并都還回來了。”
紅小隊什麽時候這麽大方了？夏菊花看着劉力群手裏的錢，沒接。劉力群再次把錢往夏菊花面前遞了遞：“你也太慣孩子了，還沒分家呢咋能讓他們自己手裏拿這麽多錢。”
夏菊花苦笑了一下：“當時我想着他們都成家了，也許有心疼媳婦孩子，單另想買點兒東西。都跟我伸手的話，一個大男人怎麽好意思。就讓他們把自己掙的錢各人拿一半。誰承想……”
別人的家事，劉力群這個大隊民兵隊長也不好過多插言，看了劉志雙一眼，就自己起身走了。夏菊花好一會兒才緩過神來，把劉力群放在桌子上的錢往劉志雙眼前推了一下：“你自己拿着吧。”
“娘，”劉志雙聽出夏菊花剛才說要跟自己分家的決心，忐忑的說：“娘，我以後啥事兒也不瞞着你了，你別生我的氣了行不行？這錢娘你拿着，以後我掙的錢都由娘管。”
夏菊花還是搖頭，堅持讓劉志雙自己把錢收起來。劉志雙無法，最後收起孫紅梅拿走的六十塊錢，剩下的五十塊錢死活也不肯收。
這是在生産隊不是自己家，說不定什麽時候就有人進來。夏菊花無法，只好先收到兜裏，娘兩個再無話可說。
好一會兒，劉志雙才找到一個話題：“娘，你說紅小隊咋突然去孫家莊了呢？”
紅小隊想做的事兒，夏菊花哪兒知道為什麽，只好搖頭。娘兩個又沒話說了。
自己是什麽時候跟娘起的隔閡，劉志雙想不起來，只想得起自己帶着粉條去黑市那天，娘一遍一遍囑咐自己的情景。他很懷念那時娘對他的關心，更希望以後還得到同樣的關懷。
“娘，我回去幫我哥漏粉兒去了。”劉志雙覺得，自己幹正事兒的時候，好象娘會更關心他一點兒，所以不顧自己走了二十幾裏路，馬上就要回去漏粉。
"You should go home and rest for a while. You've walked such a long way." Xia Juhua said this naturally, which made Liu Zhishuang's heart blossom with joy. He jumped out of the production team like a child. I don't know if he heard what Xia Juhua said next: There are many days of work ahead.