Chapter 141: Gossipmongering
They say not to overthink things, but with the facts right before our eyes, how can we not think about it? The fact that Lu Changgui's family was wiped out by a handful of rat poison was a topic of much discussion among the Lujiazui members, and it did serve as a temporary wake-up call for them. Especially those wives who had been working as daughters-in-law for ten years and had become powerful and powerful, now calling the shots at home, were trembling with fear, fearing that if they offended someone, they would have another Chen Xiuping in their family. A handful of rat poison would literally wipe out their descendants, leaving them with nothing left to grow.
A week passed in a flash, and by Sunday it was time for everyone to have a holiday, and the harvest of spring corn in the field was almost finished.
Early in the morning, Wen Wan also went to the field with a sickle.
She did the same work as Lu Donglin, cutting straw with a sickle.
This didn't require her to crawl around in the cornfield, or worry about getting her face cut by leaves, but she'd experienced the pain of sharpening her sickle when she was harvesting wheat. The most annoying thing was the live chilies lurking on the corn leaves.
Wen Wan was caught after just a while.
She didn't notice where she rubbed it, but she suddenly felt a burning pain on the back of her hand. She took a deep breath and saw the bumps on the back of her hand.
Lu Dongping came out carrying corn on his back and frowned at her. He paused for a moment and asked, "What's wrong?"
Wen Wan raised her hand to show him: "It looks like something bit me."
Lu Dongping rummaged through the straws in front of her and found a small green caterpillar-like thing from the leaves of the straw he had just touched.
"Live chili, this thing hurts a lot when you touch it, be careful." As he said that, he reached out and folded the leaf over, directly squeezed the small green worm into pieces, and gently spread the green flesh on the back of his hand: "This will stop hurting soon." Of course, it's not that the flesh of the live chili can really relieve the pain, but it's a psychological effect.
Wen Wan nodded and looked at the full backpack pressing on him: "Go ahead, I won't be in the way." It looked like he was feeling uncomfortable carrying so many things on his back.
Lu Dongping nodded and whispered to her, "Don't rush, just cut slowly." After that, he walked away with the rake in hand.
Wen Wan laughed. This guy always knew how to teach her how to slack off.
As soon as Lu Dongping left, someone on the side teased her: "Oh, this couple is so affectionate. Lu Dongping is so affectionate that his eyes are always on his daughter-in-law."
The person who said this was Liu Chaoxing's wife Zhou Meiying. She was breaking corn on the embankment. From there, she could see the scene below very clearly.
Without Wen Wan saying anything, Zhang Hongying took over the conversation: "Aren't all newlyweds like this? Isn't your Daquan just as fond of Xiujuan? They've been married for a few years, and he's still reluctant to let her go for a walk around the fields."
These days, the word "intimate" is not a good word when used in public. It is considered indecent and immoral, even for a married couple.
Zhang Hongying didn't remember when her family had offended Liu Chaoxing's family. She just thought she was joking and she just reciprocated.
Mentioning Hu Xiujuan, Zhou Meiying lost her joking mood. "Rarely, rare is not enough to make a living. You also said that you have been married for several years. Give her a job to look after the warehouse. She is only busy for an hour or so in the morning and evening during the busy farming season. What else can she do at other times? It was fine before, but after having this child, she has become even lazier. Since the confinement period, she has not been in the kitchen. Daquan washes all the clothes. Even the baby's diapers are piled there waiting for Daquan to come back after work. She is still restless all day long, making complaints at the slightest provocation, saying that it is hard to take care of the child at home."
"Now that they've been liberated, they're all so outrageous. In the past, which wife would dare to act like a demon at home?"
Zhang Hongying didn't know what to say, so she just said, "Young people don't know much, so you just need to teach them slowly."
Zhou Meiying snorted in frustration and continued to work. In the field below, Lu Donglin and Lu Chun'e were also breaking corn, sweating profusely from exhaustion.
Wang Mingfang, who worked with them, said to the siblings, "You're young, but you're very ambitious. What do you think? There's a big difference between eight points of work and six points of work, right? Look how smart your sister-in-law is. She's an adult, but she knows how to be lazy and earn six points of work, and you two half-grown kids are trying to do this."
Lu Donglin snorted, "My sister-in-law is weak. She has to substitute teach during the week and work on Sundays. Liu Daquan's wife never works in the fields all year round. Why don't you say anything?"
"Hey, we were talking about your sister-in-law, why are you bringing up Liu Daquan's wife again?"
Lu Chun'e took over the conversation: "My sister-in-law is not familiar with you. She has not drunk your rice or eaten your food. What are you talking about her doing? How much work she wants to do is our family's business. What does it have to do with you? If you have that much strength, you might as well go and join the laborers to carry corn and get the ten-day work instead of trying to sow discord here."
Wang Mingfang was immediately upset after being slapped in the face by the two sisters for speaking out of turn. She glanced at the siblings with a forced smile and said, "It was just a few idle words, but look how protective you two are. You treat others like treasures, but they treat you like nothing. Look at them, they're dressed neatly for work, a different outfit every day, and you two brats, you can barely cover your butts. Did anyone remember to give you one or two pieces of clothing? You have so many ancestors to serve you, but you don't get any credit at all, and you don't know what you're so proud of."
If he had just been gossiping with them before, now it was clearly an attempt to sow discord.
Lu Donglin was always smart. He didn't hear the provocation, but he knew it wasn't a good thing. He tossed the corn he had broken off into the basket behind Wang Mingfang. "None of your business! Instead of chewing your own shit, clean up your own shit. Uncle Mingqing is already an adult, and with a mother as talkative as you, he's probably going to be a bachelor for the rest of his life!"
Wang Mingfang raised her hand and wanted to hit him, and spat at him: "You little bastard, you're the one who's going to be single for the rest of your life!" If Lu Donglin had said this before, she would have jumped up in anger, after all, Lu Mingqing really didn't have a partner, but now she was not angry.
Lu Mingqing's marriage was already settled. He was with a girl from the deep mountains of Maoerling. He would wait until the autumn harvest was over, and when he had some free time, he could send a hundred kilograms of grain over there and bring her back. She was much cheaper than the precious girl Lu Mingjiang's family had brought back.
People can talk about ten times the amount of money a daughter-in-law spends, but they don't know what to brag about every day.
Lu Donglin was about to argue with her again, but Lu Chun'e pulled him back and said in a neither loud nor soft voice: "Just do your job well. Didn't you say you are a man? Why are you, a man, whining with a woman?"
Lu Donglin shut up angrily. What he said made some sense. A good man would not fight with an evil woman!
As they were working, a fork in the road came up, and Lu Chun'e said, "The most annoying one is Wang Mingfang. She's so senior to me, but she's such a bad mouth. She gossips about other people all day long, causing unrest in other people's homes. I don't know what good she can gain."
Lu Donglin snorted, "She's got a brain disease. She just can't stand seeing others do well. I'm not exaggerating, but with that big mouth of hers and Lu Mingqing's cowardly attitude, she'll never find a good wife in her lifetime. She's sour grapes, blabbering all the time like she has diarrhea."
As soon as he finished speaking, he was slapped on the head. Lu Dongping was standing behind him: "Why are you talking here instead of working properly? You are talking dirty."
"Talking about that nagging woman Wang Mingfang." After Lu Dongping placed the backpack on the embankment and supported it with a rake, he turned around and joined hands with Lu Dongping to lift the full bamboo basket leaning against the embankment and pour it into his backpack.
"You work all day and you're not tired, but you keep on complaining and making up things to say."
The basket was emptied into the backpack. The backpack was almost full, so the food piled on the ground was picked up and put into the backpack.
Lu Dongping scolded him while working: "You do your thing and let her say her thing. Why should a little kid like you care about a woman of her age? You keep talking dirty. If someone hears it, it will be all your fault." It's because they are of lower generation!
Lu Donglin was not convinced: "If she had said anything else, I wouldn't bother to pay attention to her. Who made her want to talk about my sister-in-law? My sister-in-law is far away from her. I don't usually provoke her, but she is still chewing it so enthusiastically. That mouth of hers really makes me want to give her a couple of slaps."
Lu Dongping's hand paused slightly: "What did she say?"
"She said my sister-in-law was cunning and dishonest. We were doing eighty percent of the work, but my sister-in-law, a grown-up, only did six. She also said that my sister-in-law wore new clothes every day but didn't give us any. Well, what belongs to my sister-in-law is my sister-in-law's. It has nothing to do with us, let alone her. What I am like has nothing to do with her."
Lu Dongping glanced casually at something not far away, then looked away: "Okay, stop repeating this over and over again. Just know in your heart that it's not a good thing."
At noon, the sun was still blazing. After work, Lu Chun'e and Zhang Hongying, one feeding the pigs and the other cooking, Wen Wan immediately went inside to fetch some water and wipe herself clean. She was drenched in sweat. After washing, she changed her clothes, took off her sweaty clothes and placed them on a chair. Then, she changed into a skirt suitable for rolling on the bed and collapsed onto the bed, feeling utterly slumped.
Lu Dongping went to the wheat field to dump the corn, and came back with an empty basket. He put the basket on the eaves, scooped some cold water and wiped it, and then he felt better.
After finishing, he didn't go back to the house directly. Instead, he sat on a bench on the eaves and looked at Zhang Hongying who was chopping pig grass. He asked, "Mom, I remember you should still have cloth coupons, right?"
Zhang Hongying's hand trembled, and the cast iron pig grass knife in her hand almost cut the wrong place. "How many cloth coupons can I have? When you held the wedding, didn't you give them to Wanwan to buy bedding to save face?"
Lu Dongping spoke slowly, "The bedding is only about this big, a little over four feet of cloth. Wanwan made the quilt and the sheets herself. We haven't had any new ones in the past few years. I calculated, you should still have some cloth or tickets, right?"
Zhang Hongying didn't say anything or move. She just sat there looking at him, wanting to see what else he would say.
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