Chapter 164 164
In fact, Jiang's mother worked very hard. It was so cold, she was sitting in the fire bucket and kneading meatballs. Aren't her hands cold? They
were so cold that her fingers were frozen red.
When Jiang Xi was a child, there was no fire bucket. She was a small person, not much taller than the table. Her frozen fingertips seemed to be numb. In winter, the adults' clothes were too heavy for her to wash. When the clothes were put into the water, she couldn't even lift them out. When Aunt Jiang saw it, she would help her wash them.
She was like an outsider, silently watching Jiang Bai cleaning the room. She knew that Jiang Bai recognized this family from the bottom of his heart. In his heart, he was a member of this family and had the responsibility to build it well.
To him, his parents were just partial to his elder brother, but they did not drive him out of this family. This family always accepted him.
But no matter in the past life or this life, she was not a part of this family. She was always excluded from this family. They believed from the bottom of their hearts that she belonged to someone else's family.
I don't know if it was the butterfly effect, but in this life, Jiang's father made much more money than in the previous life at this time, built a house earlier, and built a house higher and bigger than in the previous life. Even the location has changed.
In the previous life, there was no Jiang Hehua. The Jiang family's homestead was just a little below the old house, and there was a ready-made waterproof platform. If a house was to be built for Jiang Bai in the future, it could be built on the original address of the house, or on the mud house where the great-grandmother lived in her old age, which was later used as a pigsty. In this way, the two brothers could live close to each other. Even if the original pigsty was demolished and a new bungalow was built for Jiang's father and mother to live in when they got old, the two brothers could live with Jiang's father and mother, making it convenient to take care of them.
She looked at this house that was different from her previous life. It was as if there was a big hole in her heart. The snow-white walls and floor tiles were like a ridiculous snow cave in her eyes. The whiter the house in reality was, the bigger and more desolate the snow cave in her heart was. It was as if a big hand was desperately pulling her into the boundless and freezing snow cave. She struggled desperately at the entrance of the cave.
This made her panic. She wanted to go out and pull Grandpa Jiang away from here. She wanted to leave here immediately.
Grandpa Jiang had already visited the new house. With his hands behind his back, he stepped on the snowy road and went up to the platform.
There are two old people missing from the high platform at the entrance of the village. The old people who were listening to the storytelling on the platform said that one of them died in the second half of the year and the other died last month. They are both gone.
Grandpa Jiang seems to be used to it.
After he turned 40, the familiar people in his life began to leave one after another. He also got used to seeing off his old friends and colleagues one by one. Grandpa Jiang also had the psychological expectation that one day it would be his turn.
He just wanted to come back every year to see the old guys who were still there. Maybe after just one year of not seeing them, several familiar old guys would be gone forever.
Grandpa Jiang would be silent for a while, sigh for a while, and ask: "He looked healthy, why did he pass away so early?"
Not long after, the old men on the platform began to brag happily one by one. The one who boasted the most was of course Grandpa Jiang, who had two grandchildren who were college students, and one who was admitted to Beijing University!
He didn't go home for the New Year last year, which made him very depressed!
Jiang's mother was still shouting downstairs: "Hey, hey! Hey, hey! You're back now, why don't you help with some work? Do you think you're the eldest daughter? Your brother knows how to sweep the house with a broom, but you're sitting upstairs embroidering flowers, and you haven't moved even after being called for a long time."
Jiang Xi walked down the stairs slowly, and at the entrance of the stairs, she saw Jiang Bai who was cleaning hard.
Jiang Bai didn't know that the house he was cleaning hard now was not actually his home.
This house belonged to Jiang Song, and it was left to Jiang Song by Jiang's father and mother, their eldest son who they missed so much and hoped would come back when he was old.
After they got married, neither she nor Jiang Bai had the qualifications to live here.
Jiang Song also promised that when he got old, he would go back to his hometown village to retire.
Jiang Xi even felt that Jiang Song was sincere when he said this, and he really meant it.
He said a lot of sincere words, but he always let people down, let down those who trusted him and loved him, family, friendship, love, one by one.
In the end, those who were hurt by him left him one by one.
When Jiang Xi came down, he saw Jiang's mother cutting meat slices, sprinkling starch on both sides of the meat slices, covering them with white gauze, and beating them with a mallet. The lean meat mixed with sweet potato starch was beaten as thin as cicada wings. When eating hot pot in winter, it was put into the boiling pot and dipped, and it was very tender.
Seeing Jiang Xiao coming down, she pointed with her chin at the chopped meat and lotus root beside her and complained, "You are eighteen years old and a grown-up girl, but how come you have no work to do? Your brother knows how to sweep the floor, but you are sitting in Xiulou and don't come down. You really think of yourself as a guest."
She muttered, "Your father and I came back late. We just got home last night. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and there are so many things to do. Fortunately, your aunt asked Ahao to bring rice, flour and rice cakes in the morning. The meat was also sent by your aunt, otherwise we would have no meat for the New Year."
Seeing Jiang Xiao's slow movements, Jiang's mother was so angry that she shouted, "Hurry up!"
Jiang Xiao said, "I'll wash my hands."
Jiang's mother was pounding the meat while she was sitting aside making meatballs.
There was no extra words between the mother and daughter, only the dull banging sound of Jiang's mother hitting the meat slices on the gauze with the mallet in her hand.
As Jiang's mother hit the meat slices, she kept nagging, "I don't know what you will do in the future. You are so lazy. Who would dare to marry you? You see, every young girl is eager to work when she comes home. It's okay for you at home now, but if you are still like this in your husband's family, you will be criticized and scolded. You must not be lazy in your husband's family, do you know?"
She worked very skillfully and soon beat a piece of meat slices on the gauze. She tore them off the gauze one by one and spread them flat in the clean bamboo sieve.
She used her understanding of this world and the way women survive in this world to teach Jiang.
Jiang Xi rubbed the lotus root meatballs in his hand and asked Jiang's mother: "Mom, were you also beaten by grandma every day when you were a child?"
In the few memories of Jiang Xi's childhood, grandma was a very gentle person who never spoke loudly.
Jiang's mother was stunned for a moment, and she didn't know what she was thinking. Her eyes turned red and she shook her head and said: "I am the eldest sister in the family, who dares to beat me?" When she said this, her tone was a little proud.
Jiang Xi asked in some confusion: "Then why do you always beat me?"
Jiang's mother glared: "You asked for it, you deserve it!"
Jiang Xi responded to her with silence.
Jiang's mother also fell silent, and recalled her childhood.
Her childhood memories were all of her grandmother scolding Grandma Jiang, from the beginning of the village to the end of the village, scolding her for being lazy and greedy. Even when she was pregnant, she would scold her for eating a handful of beans for several hours, because Grandma Jiang was also a woman with bound feet, and could not do heavy work, so she could only do some sewing, mending, sweeping and cleaning at home.
Her grandmother was the wife her grandfather married later. She was Grandpa Jiang's stepmother and Grandma Jiang's stepmother. She herself had no children, but only adopted a baby girl who was washed down by mountain water and lay in a wooden basin. She gave all the delicious food to the baby girl, and not to her and her brothers and sisters. She never beat or scolded the son born to her husband and his first wife, that is, Grandma Jiang's father, but she often scolded Grandma Jiang with all kinds of ugly words.
Mother Jiang grew up watching Grandma Jiang being insulted and abused. Her grandmother scolded Grandma Jiang for not being able to work outside, so she worked very hard, doing everything at home and outside, hoping to make Grandma Jiang's life easier. Grandma Jiang gave birth to seven children in total. She had bound feet and could not take care of the children, so the younger brothers and sisters were all raised by Mother Jiang, who carried one on her back and held two in her arms.
Even so, her grandmother still scolded Grandma Jiang every day. On the third day after giving birth, she drove Grandma Jiang out to herd cattle, which required wading through the cold mountain stream. The day before giving birth, she also asked Grandma Jiang to fetch water. Mother Jiang couldn't stand it, so she took over the burden on Grandma Jiang's shoulders and grunted as she carried two full buckets of water that only men could carry.
Grandma Jiang couldn't do the dike work, so when she was fourteen or fifteen, she followed the adults in the village to do the dike work. She thought that as long as she could do all the work that Grandma Jiang couldn't do outside, her grandmother wouldn't scold her.
How did her reputation for being capable when she was young spread? That's how it spread.
Jiang's mother may not have realized that her personality now is not like Grandma Jiang at all, but exactly like her step-grandmother whom she disliked when she was a child.
Jiang's mother didn't realize this, she just thought of her mother and her eyes were red.
She said: "Your grandma is very smart and capable. No matter what the pattern is, she can embroider it after just one look. The tiger-head shoes and bellybands you wore when you were little were all embroidered by your grandma." When talking about Grandma Jiang, Jiang's mother's tone was full of admiration: "Your grandma suffered from a pair of bound feet and could not walk. Your grandpa was the captain of the team at that time, and it was your grandma who helped your grandpa to settle a lot of bills."
Jiang Liu also remembered that the pillowcases, pillowcases and quilt covers that Jiang's mother brought as a dowry when she got married were all embroidered with many auspicious patterns, which looked very beautiful.
Now she recalls the pillowcases and bedsheets embroidered with various patterns by Jiang Ma, as well as the tiger-head shoes and small clothes they wore when they were young, and she feels that Jiang Ma must have been loved by Jiang Wai-nan. It is obvious that she wasted a lot of energy and energy on so many embroidery works. If she did not love Jiang Ma, she would not have embroidered so many exquisite and complicated auspicious patterns.
Jiang Wai-nan was slender and weak, while Jiang Ma was strong and healthy. Jiang Wai-nan had a three-inch golden lotus and a pair of thirty-nine-footed big feet. Jiang Wai-nan was very weak and sick all year round. Jiang Ma had been treated like a cow since she was young.
Jiang Ma described herself in her own words, "I am a cow reincarnated, and I will be treated like a cow and a horse all my life."
In addition to having a face that looks like Jiang Wai-nan, Jiang Ma's personality also grew up in the opposite direction of Jiang Wai-nan.
Jiang's mother was still talking about how Jiang's grandmother was oppressed and insulted by her grandmother when she was young, but Jiang Xi was lost in her own thoughts.
The women here are like being trapped in a vicious circle, going round and round. They dare not resist the unfairness of fate and the men who oppress them, so they wield knives to oppress women who are weaker than them.
Jiang's grandmother did this to Jiang's grandmother, and Jiang's mother did the same to her.