"Mother-in-law Yang Huiying sent us chicken to eat?" Yang Niannian found it interesting. "Sister-in-law, please tell me what's going on."

Guan Ailian placed the bamboo basket next to the water press and mysteriously pulled Yang Niannian into the kitchen.

"I don't know what's wrong with Grandma Yang Huiying. Not long after you left the village, she came over with two chickens and kept apologizing since she entered the door. Grandma spit on her face, but she didn't get angry. She kept explaining that the words she said to you were nonsense and told Grandma and Father-in-law not to believe them."

"My mother-in-law was so angry that she took the chickens and drove her away. One of the chickens was a hen, which she kept for laying eggs, but she killed the big rooster."

Yang Niannian blinked, "Is there such a good thing? Could it be that Grandma Yang Huiying is possessed by evil spirits?"

"Who knows?" Guan Ailian laughed, "Anyway, everyone will have a good meal tonight. You should eat more to avoid being hungry tomorrow morning."

Although Yang Niannian never complained about the simple meals at home, Guan Ailian knew that Yang Niannian must be living a good life in Haicheng, otherwise she would not be so well-fed and never greedy.

"Okay!"

Yang Niannian responded with a smile, but in her heart she was wondering why Fang's mother came to apologize.

In that era of material scarcity, some people would even die of anger over losing two chickens. It was too abnormal for a wicked woman like Fang's mother to come to the door with two chickens to apologize.

After thinking for a while, she asked worriedly, "Sister-in-law, were you in good spirits when you delivered these two chickens?"

Mrs. Fang, please don't poison the chickens.

Guan Ailian didn't understand the meaning of Yang Niannian's words, and said truthfully, "It's fine. The other hen is still tied at the door of the toilet. It's eating maggots very badly."

Yang Niannian's stomach churned and she gave up the idea of ​​going to see the other chicken.

There are many mosquitoes near the light bulbs at night, and Ma Xiuzhu thinks that turning on the lights at night wastes electricity, so she stipulates that dinner must be eaten before dark.

Guan Ailian cooked a big pot of rice, fried half a pot of spicy chicken and half a pot of green vegetables.

Ma Xiuzhu stood in front of the stove with a shovel in her hand. Whoever had served the rice would come to her to get the dish and eat it in the yard.

She gave Lu Guozhi and Lu Qingyuan a big bowl of chicken, and Yang Niannian, Guan Ailian, and Lu Ruoling. Although she didn't give Lu Zhiyuan as much, it was still acceptable.

Because her two grandsons were small, she spanked them less, but kept giving them some instructions.

"Come back for more after you finish eating."

When it came to the granddaughter, she was only given four pieces of chicken, one of which was a chicken butt.

"I can't digest so much meat at night. Eat more vegetables."

Lu Xingxing's eyes turned red with grievance, and she pouted and said, "Grandma, you are biased. My brother has more chicken than me."

Ma Xiuzhu scooped a large shovel of vegetables into Lu Xingxing's bowl and glared at her and said unhappily.

"You are such a greedy girl. You don't work all day and just eat meat. I'll cut two pieces of my meat for you. Do you want to eat them?"

Lu Xingxing's tears fell silently into the bowl, and she turned and left the kitchen.

Lu Qingyuan felt a little sorry for his daughter, but he couldn't do anything about his mother, so he could only pick up two pieces of chicken from the bowl and give them to his daughter.

“Eat it!”

Guan Ailian's expression looked better after seeing this scene. Her sister-in-law was leaving tomorrow, and she didn't want to cause unrest in the family over such a small matter.

The mother-in-law has been partial to her for more than a day or two, and the father-in-law is pretending to be mute. She has argued with him but to no avail.

After a while, everyone was too lazy to argue about it.

Yang Niannian noticed the family's attitude but said nothing.

She had a poor appetite and only ate one bowl of rice, but the others had good appetites and ate one bowl and then returned for another, even Lu Xingxing returned her bowl.

Ma Xiuzhu glared at Lu Xingxing when she saw him serving rice. "You're going to eat all the food at home, right?"

Yang Niannian couldn't bear it any longer. "When the child was growing up, there was still so much chicken in the pot. Why didn't you let her eat it?"

Without waiting for Ma Xiuzhu to say anything, she took Lu Xingxing's bowl, scooped out a dozen pieces of chicken, and told Lu Xingxing to take the bowl and leave quickly.

Ma Xiuzhu was furious, her eyes were blazing with fire, and she almost jumped up.

"Yang Niannian, what do you want to do?"

Fearing that the two would start arguing, Lu Qingyuan and Guan Ailian hurried into the kitchen to stop the fight. Guan Ailian wanted to pull Yang Niannian out.

"Sister-in-law, it's okay for Xingxing to eat a few less pieces of chicken, just calm down."

She could see that her sister-in-law felt sorry for Xingxing, but because she was a good person, she couldn't bear to see her quarrel with her mother-in-law over Xingxing.

Yang Niannian stood there without moving or saying a word, looking straight at Ma Xiuzhu.

Ma Xiuzhu's hair stood on end. "What's the matter? Do you still want to hit me?"

Yang Niannian raised her eyebrows, "You think too much. I definitely won't hit you, and you shouldn't get angry all the time like a fighting cock."

She said lightly, "Everyone will get old one day, so you should work hard now! Anyway, I won't see you because I'm in the army for a long time."

"After you've worked for eight or ten years, you'll be in poor health, unable to move, and need someone to take care of you. Your sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren won't want to give you money or show filial piety. It'll be useless even if you cry your heart out. You've sown the seeds of your own suffering, and you'll have to pay for it."

"You're so good!" Ma Xiuzhu was so angry that her face was distorted. She pointed at Yang Niannian's nose and said, "I can still move, but you're just thinking about being unfilial. If I..."

No one knew when Lu Guozhi arrived at the kitchen door and started scolding with a stern face.

"Okay, my granddaughter is eating some chicken, why are you making a fuss? Grandchildren are all the flesh and blood of the Lu family, and no one can be partial to them in the future."

He took to heart everything his daughter-in-law said. Raising sons to provide for one's old age was the unanimous idea of ​​his generation.

In the past few years, when he was in his prime, Lu Guozhi didn't think too much. But in the past two years, as he grew older, he felt that his physical condition had obviously declined, and he thought more and more. He was most afraid that the younger generation would be unfilial.

Thinking about what my wife has done over the years, it is indeed a bit excessive.

He could no longer turn a blind eye as he had done before.

Ma Xiuzhu was angry, but seeing that neither her husband nor her son stood on her side, she could only suppress her anger.

At night, she sent her eldest son to sleep in the main room, and pestered Lu Guozhi for a quarrel, complaining that Lu Guozhi was a good-for-nothing and treated her worse as he got older.

Lu Guozhi didn't want to argue, so he suppressed his temper and had a good chat with his wife.

"How old are we, the old couple? How many more years can we be strong? Do you really want to be like my grandfather, who peed and shit on the bed and had maggots and no one cared?"

"Don't you see it yet? Nian Nian is smart and capable, and Shi Shen listens to her. If you fall out with her now, no one will pay for your treatment when you get sick in the future."

"With the few acres of land that Qingyuan cultivates, it's hard to even afford a coffin. I'll buy you a pack of rat poison. Drink it as soon as possible to get rid of the disease."

The more Ma Xiuzhu listened, the more scared she became. She tried to be tough, "I didn't pick a fight with her. Today it was because of Xingxing's matter..."

Lu Guozhi glared at her, "How old is Xingxing? She can remember everything you do now... Think about it carefully. I'm going to sleep. I still have to take them to the city to take the train tomorrow morning."

Ma Xiuzhu remained silent and tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep.

It was almost dawn when she finally fell asleep and she dreamed that she was old and no one cared for her, so Lu Guozhi dragged her around the streets begging for food.

…