"Xuemei, my sister will come back to work tomorrow. These are oranges from my own orange tree, and I brought you a few pounds. Thank you for taking care of me during this time," Zhang Meiping said gratefully.
"Sister Meiping, have you sold all the oranges yet? It's already the beginning of the twelfth lunar month." Xuemei said.
Zhang Meiping married into a family in Orange Village. Her husband's surname is Li, and they now have a boy who is over three years old.
"They are almost sold out. These are some that my family left on the tree. If they are well preserved, we can eat them during the Chinese New Year." Zhang Meiping said with a smile.
"Okay, thank you Sister Meiping, but I can't take it for free. You guys work hard to take care of the orange trees." Xuemei weighed the oranges, which were probably more than five pounds. Xuemei took out fifty cents and handed it to Zhang Aiping.
"Xuemei, I gave this to you specially to thank you, why are you giving me money back?" Zhang Aiping refused.
"Sister Meiping, I have received your kindness. You have several kilograms here, and I am taking advantage of you by giving you fifty cents. Now the supply and marketing cooperatives sell them for ten cents per kilogram, and it will be even more expensive in a while. Sister Meiping, please keep it well and think of it as buying candy for my nephew." Xuemei stuffed the money into Zhang Meiping's pocket and persuaded her.
…
"Sister Zhang, why did you come to work today? Didn't you say you were going to have a full confinement this time?" Xuemei said to Zhang Aiping, who was dressed like a ball with only a pair of eyes showing.
"Stop talking. If you sit down any longer, you might as well get sick from anger. Don't you know my mother-in-law? I really don't know what to say to her. I sent her back the day before yesterday." Zhang Aiping said tiredly.
Xuemei thought about it for a moment, but still didn't ask.
After a while, Zhang Aiping said, "Xuemei, I have to tell you what happened these past few days. I can't tell my brother-in-law about her mother at home. If I keep it in, I'm really going to go crazy."
Zhang Aiping sighed and continued, "You don't know that my mother-in-law really gets less particular and more partial as she gets older. A few days ago, I noticed something was wrong with the number of eggs at home. There should be 17 or 18 left, but there were only five or six in the egg basket. I asked her, and she said she didn't know.
At dinner that night, in front of your brother-in-law, she got angry and wanted to go home, saying that she couldn't stay at my house any longer. She also said that she had to look at my expression before she could eat at my house. Your brother-in-law scolded me that night.
The morning before yesterday, I noticed something was wrong with the food at home. I thought my mother-in-law had been cooking more than usual. When I went to get something from my two daughters' rooms, I discovered she had hidden ten eggs and over ten pounds of grain in her backpack. She'd even hidden the basket under the bed. If I hadn't happened to bend over and picked it up, I would have been completely unaware.
That night, when your brother-in-law came home, I pulled him into the room and showed him the backpack. He was furious. She had plenty of food and drink at my house, and I gave her the best food first. She said she was here to help with my confinement, so she only made sure to prepare three meals a day, and my two daughters washed her diapers.
This damn old woman was throwing a tantrum at first, saying how well we were living, and what was wrong with her taking some things back to her eldest son's family? The next morning, I asked your brother-in-law to take her home with the things she stole, and to ask his eldest brother if he had starved his mother and was stealing things from his own son.
"I had originally planned to give her five yuan and bring her some gifts when she came home if she took good care of me during the confinement period. But now that things have gotten this far, I'll just give her some gifts for the New Year." Zhang Aiping grew increasingly angry as she spoke.
"Sister Zhang, your brother-in-law will just stand by you. You should not worry about these things now. Take good care of your health and leave the rest to your brother-in-law?" Xuemei comforted.
"Is your brother-in-law hoping that he's truly come to his senses this time? I've told you before that this old woman only cares about her eldest son's family and her daughter, but your brother-in-law didn't believe it.
You don't know that this old woman is a two-faced person. She says outside that she is good to my two daughters and that boys and girls are all her grandchildren, but in my house, she orders my two daughters to do this and that every day.
You knew it the last time you came to see me, but she's even more vicious. Yesterday, I found bruises on my two daughters' thighs and arms. I realized then that the vicious woman had been twisting them with her feet and hands at night."
Liu Aiping started to cry as she spoke, wiped her tears and continued, "Although your brother-in-law and I value boys more, the girl is also our child. How can we not feel distressed? Your brother-in-law's face turned red with anger when he saw this."
Xuemei didn't know how to comfort her, so she could only change the subject: "Sister Zhang, stop crying. Crying too much is bad for your health. By the way, what will happen to the children when you come to work?"
"He is sleeping in the lounge next door. Your brother-in-law moved his crib here. I'll know if he wakes up and cries." As soon as Zhang Aiping finished speaking, she heard the child crying. Zhang Aiping wiped her eyes with her hands and hurried over.
Xuemei breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Zhang Aiping leave. If the child hadn't been crying, Xuemei really didn't know how to comfort Zhang Aiping. After all, she couldn't say anything about other people's family affairs, and she was afraid of offending others no matter how much she said.
What Xuemei didn't know was that Zhang Aiping's mother-in-law had also planned to marry her to her eldest grandson, but was immediately stopped by Zhang Aiping and her husband.
Zhang Aiping thought it was ridiculous. How could someone who hadn't even graduated from elementary school and whose job was a temporary brickworker at a brick factory, even with the help of her husband, dare to covet a girl who had graduated from high school and had a formal job, not to mention that her relatives were all capable people?
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