Chapter 164: Cold Heart
At this moment, those who can move, from children of three or two years old to old men and women in their seventies and eighties, those who can go to the fields to clear the land are doing so, and those who cannot go to the fields are rubbing corn in the wheat fields, thinking about getting this stuff out quickly, drying it while the weather is good, and paying what should be paid to the government. Even if the remaining amount cannot be distributed to households for the time being, they will have an idea of it after comparing it with the previous two years.
No one knew that a couple was fighting at home in broad daylight.
Li Laiying cried and made a scene, threatening to fight Lu Dongcai to death, shouting that she didn't want to live anymore. She reached out and grabbed Lu Dongcai's face twice, leaving several red marks on his face that burned with pain. Lu Dongcai slapped her and then stood there, letting her make a scene. When her face started to hurt, he said, "If you don't want to live anymore, go die. If you want to die, go back to your Li family and don't dirty our Lu family's land." He then pushed her away, knocking her to the ground, and walked out the door.
The water in the kitchen had been boiling for a long time. He endured the pain on his face and got a large wooden basin from the main room. He picked up a bucket of cold water and poured it into it, then scooped up boiling water to add more water.
There were two pots full of boiling water. He boiled more water. While boiling the water, he was still thinking that today was such a good day, with no wind at all and it was so warm. He had to get everyone up and clean up. But at this moment, he had no energy at all.
When he was talking about his partner, he had envisioned his future life. He had never thought about becoming rich and famous, but it was not like what he was doing now. In his twenty years of life, this was the first time he had fought with someone, and the first time he had felt a chill in his heart.
I went to Gao Xiulan's room and found the soap that she usually didn't want to use. I smeared it on the sheets and quilt covers, then turned over the cotton wool hanging on the rope and knocked it with a mallet.
He didn't plan to use the straw for bedding anymore. He would have to get some wheat straw, dry it in the sun, and then use it as bedding. He didn't know if there would still be lice, but he couldn't think of any other way.
Gao Xiulan, who was in the wheat field, had no idea that the two people in the house had started fighting. She had been at home for such a long time, and everyone knew that she was taking care of her daughter-in-law and the children. But as soon as she showed up with the child on her back, she had endless things to say to the women in the team, whether they were close or distant, good or bad, she could talk about them all.
Zhang Hongying helped her bring a stool. After greeting the people around her and picking up the corn cobs to sit down, Zhang Hongying leaned over and gently removed the small blanket covering the child: "Oh, you didn't sleep on the first day of the new year. Your eyes are so bright and shiny that it hurts to look at them."
Gao Xiulan sighed as she pricked the stick with an awl, "Exactly. Who wouldn't be hurt by this? But she just happened to meet a mother like that."
After hearing what she said, the women around her slowed down their movements and pricked up their ears, waiting for what she would say next, but she didn't say anything more.
If she didn't say anything, someone would ask, "Dongcai's mother, the child has been brought out. It must be a month old, right? The child is a month old, so the mother should be out in the open. Why hasn't anyone appeared?"
Gao Xiulan said, "Dongcai feels bad for his wife and wants her to stay home for a few more days. She just came out of confinement after childbirth, so she needs to clean herself up."
Wang Mingfang laughed and said, "Xiu Lanzi, you are an old woman. Any girl who marries you must have been very lucky in her previous life."
Family disgrace should not be made public, and Gao Xiulan had no way to express her pain.
Not wanting to continue this topic, I asked her, "I heard from heaven that your family has decided on Ming and Qing. When will you hold the wedding?"
"Oh, what kind of banquet should we have? Her family needs 100 kilograms of grain, but we don't have enough grain this year. We have to ask your Lu Minghai to write a note to borrow 100 kilograms. If we invite this family to have a banquet, we have to invite others. If there are too many people, it will waste food anyway. Let's not go through all that trouble. I'll go back and ask the matchmaker to deliver the grain and bring the guests over."
Gao Xiulan couldn't comment on other people's affairs, so she just nodded and said, "That's fine. As long as Mingqing likes it and the girl is a good person, anything is fine."
"That's exactly the truth. With the conditions at home and only a hundred kilograms of grain, life will be difficult again next year."
Several women were chattering away, their hands busy all the time.
Before I had finished rubbing a basket of corn, Chuyi started to hum and make a noise.
Gao Xiulan had no choice but to stop and untie the belt.
Zhang Hongying stood up and took the child down from her hand: "Do you need to pee?" As she spoke, she put her hand under the child's buttocks and felt: "You are so precious. You haven't peed yourself for half a day." As she spoke, she took the child to the side to pee without waiting for Gao Xiulan to get up.
On the first day of the new year, it was time to pee, and I finished without much trouble. His dark eyes looked at me, his mouth smacking with desire. After the confinement period, he was still not very fat, a little dark and red, but he had grown up, his skin was firming up, no longer wrinkled like when he was first born, and he was very attractive.
With Zhang Hongying holding the baby, Gao Xiulan quickly mixed some malted milk into the drink, then brought the baby over and fed him little by little.
Wang Mingfang watched from the side and said, "Hey, Xiulanzi, you're feeding the baby. Why don't you send the baby back to Dongcai's wife to feed her? The watery stuff you mixed in with the baby is not as good as the milk you drink."
Gao Xiulan said calmly: "She is not that lucky, her mother has no milk."
Wang Mingfang was stunned for a moment: "Dongcai's wife doesn't look like someone who is too thin to produce milk. Xiulanzi, I'm not saying anything bad about you, but a woman should be fed something delicate after giving birth. It will be fine once the milk comes out. Don't be reluctant. If there is milk, the baby will be hungry and you can just lift up her clothes to feed her. If there is no milk, it will be troublesome. The baby will get hungry quickly. Unless you take care of her, you won't be able to do anything. Look, it's such a short distance to get to the wheat field, and you have to carry boiled water and diapers."
The chattering was so noisy that it made people want to quarrel. Zhang Hongying, who knew the truth, was a little overwhelmed. But Gao Xiulan was able to remain calm. While feeding the child, she said, "How many years have we known each other? Tell me, am I, Gao Xiulan, a stingy person? Ever since I became pregnant, I've been nauseous and haven't let her work. She cooks and feeds pigs at home, and the couple does all the laundry. We've never counted on her. When she was about to give birth, she ate white flour dumplings and poached eggs. After she was born, she had two meals a day: one meal of fine grains and a bowl of poached eggs boiled in brown sugar water. You can't blame me, Gao Xiulan, for not wanting to give her milk if she doesn't produce it herself."
She didn't want to be called a wicked mother-in-law. Two of her three sons were married, and one was still in school. She couldn't remain single in the future. So, anything could be ruined, but her reputation couldn't.
Wang Mingfang was speechless. This was indeed the case. The adults were unlucky and the children were unlucky. If it were her, she would not be willing to give up those good things.
After feeding Chuyi, Gao Xiulan wiped her mouth and stopped carrying her. She simply laid her flat on her lap and rubbed the corn while teasing her.
After drinking, Chuyi seemed to be in good spirits. The child, who was just one month old, actually knew that adults were talking to her. She stared at her intently, grinned from time to time, and occasionally made "oh oh" sounds in response.
A group of people worked together, talked, laughed and played with the children. Time passed quickly and it was afternoon in a blink of an eye. The children ate all the food they brought. Later they couldn't bear it anymore and kept crying.
To be honest, when Gao Xiulan was raising Lu Dongcai and the other children, she never took as much trouble as she did raising Chuyi. After all, they were raised with her own milk. Apart from anything else, she could just feed them when they were hungry.
When I was about to go back, I saw Lu Donglin, Zhou Jianmin, Zhou Dongmei and others running towards me from the edge of the field not far away.
Gao Xiulan stood up and sat down again, calling Lu Donglin: "Come here, help your aunt."
"What's going on?"
Gao Xiulan took the key from around her neck and gave it to him. "Go back and see if your brother Dongcai is in the room. If not, open the door. There's rice noodles in the iron box next to the bed in the room where I live. Help me scoop some more. I'm hungry on New Year's Day, and it's too early to go back now. I can still work for a while." Li Laiying hadn't worked for most of the past six months, and she hadn't worked for a month either. She might have to pay the team back at the end of the year to make up for it. It was a shame. That was still a small matter. If they gave the people their rations, there would be no work points left. With so many mouths to feed at home, each one more hungry than the other, how would they survive next year?
The only thing we can do is to do as much as we can.
Zhang Hongying said, "Sister-in-law, why did you give him the key? Why did you also need the rice noodles? You told him to take the child back. Dongcai didn't go to work today. If he's not at home at this time, he's in the private plot. Even if he's not here, Laiying is still here. She's such a grown-up, how can she not take care of a child? Even if she can't, she has to learn. This is a lump of flesh that fell from her body. She can't justify it anyway."
Anyway, she felt that Gao Xiulan was being a bit too assertive when it came to the child. Why? She was already a mother-in-law, a generation apart. Why shouldn't Li Laiying ask about the child she gave birth to? Then, after Gao Xiulan and her husband had worked so hard to raise the child, wouldn't they have to call her "mother" in the future?
Just because you want a son, you can ignore your daughter?
There were some things Zhang Hongying couldn't bring herself to say, only to whisper them in her heart. She felt that Li Laiying shouldn't be as ruthless as Chuyi. If she had a son, who knew what he would become. It was hard to tell. Someone I used to think was so nice could change so quickly.
Lu Donglin nodded: "That's right, I'll take the baby back to find Brother Dongcai. Aunt, you've been holding the baby all day, you must be tired!" He didn't dare to enter anyone's house, even his own uncle's. There were so many people in the family. What if something was missing? He couldn't tell. He had been through it once before, and he was not made of cowhide and didn't feel pain.
"Can you hold me?" Gao Xiulan was a little worried.
"If you can't carry me, I can carry you on my back. Come on, just tie it up on my body."
It was still possible for a teenager to carry such a small child on his back, so Gao Xiulan really tied him up and put him on his back and asked him to take the teacup and kettle back with him.
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