Chapter 58 Emptying the Enemy's House and Marrying the Bully 14
In the fields of the team.
Xu Xuejuan pulled at the weeds angrily, thinking, "Damn Ning Yan, she didn't come to work again today."
She refused to believe that Ning Yan could stay away forever.
To her disappointment, Ning Yan did not appear in the fields until the autumn harvest.
Moreover, the scenario she imagined—that Ning Yan would be abused by her domineering husband every day—did not happen. On the contrary, she lived a very comfortable life. Fan Dahu's family treated her very well, and she didn't even have to do anything every day. The most tiring thing for her was sitting at the dining table eating...
Jealousy can cause the host to break apart.
Three months is enough time to change many people and many things.
The newly arrived educated youth have also changed drastically.
Xu Xuejuan's skin visibly darkened by three shades, became rough, and she looked at least three years older.
The others were equally impressive.
Therefore, Xu Xuejuan became increasingly jealous of Ning Yan.
On what grounds?
Why is she so high and mighty at home, never having to do anything?
After finally losing her family, she was forced to go to the countryside and was about to suffer, but then she found such a good man who didn't have to do anything, all he had to do was survive?!
Why should I?!
Thud! With a scythe, Xu Xuejuan felt a sharp pain in her calf. "Ah, my leg!"
The other educated youths next to her were also dumbfounded. We said we came to harvest rice, not to ask you to harvest yourself!
Judging from the fact that Xu Xuejuan's leg was bleeding profusely, the injury was quite serious.
At this point, Xu Xuejuan's wish not to do any work was finally fulfilled.
The brigade leader sent two educated youths to take Xu Xuejuan to the brigade's barefoot doctor's house for treatment.
Xu Xuejuan wanted to go to the county hospital, but the Xu family's situation was very bad. During the three months she was sent to the countryside, her family only sent money to her and her brother once, and it was only twenty yuan.
The resettlement allowance given for going to the countryside was long gone, spent on preparing supplies for the trip, and the twenty yuan sent from home was also long gone.
What will she take to the county hospital?
After examining her injury, the barefoot doctor shook his head. "This wound is too severe; it will definitely leave a scar. Fortunately, it's on her leg, so no one can see it."
Women of that era, even when wearing skirts, mostly wore long skirts, at least reaching halfway down their calves, so that scars could be covered.
Xu Xuejuan cried uncontrollably. After paying the medical bills, she was sent back to the educated youth settlement to rest.
...
At noon, when her family members returned from work, Ning Yan learned about Xu Xuejuan's "ordeal" and laughed gleefully for a while.
Today's lunch was cooked by the second son's family. During the autumn harvest, Fan Dahu brings meat home every night. For lunch, there was a dish of sauerkraut and vermicelli stewed with pork belly, and even the stir-fried potato shreds had shredded meat in them.
"Sister-in-law, do you and that Xu Xuejuan not get along?"
Ning Yan gets along well with her sisters-in-law, but she rarely talks about family matters.
Therefore, her family only knew that her family was capitalist and that her family members had been sent to the countryside, but they did not know that the people who reported her were from the Xu family.
Ning Yan looked at her fourth sister-in-law and asked, "Why would you ask that?"
"Your smile never stopped when you heard that she had chopped herself up."
Ning Yan laughed and said, "No, I've just never seen anyone so stupid."
She couldn't let her family know that she had a grudge against the Xu siblings. If her family made it too obvious, she would be the prime suspect if something happened to those two in the future.
The family burst into laughter. They had never seen anyone so foolish as to cut themselves while cutting rice and injure themselves so badly.
After laughing and finishing their meal, the strong men in the family rested at home for a while before heading back to the fields.
Autumn is the harvest season, and we're busy for almost half a month. Once that's over, winter will come.
But this winter was not peaceful.
Various new policies have been introduced.
Each household is only allowed one-tenth of an acre of private land, with the rest belonging to the public. Each household may raise a maximum of two poultry.
There is only one pig.
Several households in the team were made examples of, their chickens and ducks were killed, and the vegetables in their private plots were pulled up by the commune staff.
Li Xiuhua sighed and complained a lot.
"Fortunately, the eldest son divided the family property in advance, otherwise, there wouldn't be enough food for such a large family to get through the winter."
Every household here prepares several thousand kilograms of cabbage and radishes for the winter.
How many vegetables can be grown on a small plot of land?
Their family didn't suffer much loss, but the other families in the team will have a tough winter.
Fan Cheng grabbed a handful of dried sweet potato leaves, rubbed them into a fine powder, wrapped the powder in strips of paper cut from old newspaper, and rolled up a cigarette.
"You absolutely mustn't tell anyone about this."
Li Xiuhua: "I'm not stupid."
"The weather has been bad this year. The temperature dropped quickly in October, so the hunting teams will definitely have to set off very early this year."
Li Xiuhua started sighing again. Hunting every year was a real hardship for the men in her family, but they couldn't not go, otherwise they wouldn't get any meat in the winter.
All five members of her family had to go, so she had to quickly gather up the old leather pants and coats from previous years to air them out, and also collect the hunting tools.
The old couple were talking about hunting in one room, while in another room, a couple who had already gotten into bed and were preparing to rest were also talking about it. "The grain tax has been paid, and the team will be distributing the grain in the next few days. After the grain is distributed, there won't be much else to do, so we'll go hunting in the mountains. Every able-bodied man in every family has to go into the mountains, or else they'll lose their right to get meat."
"Can that woman go?"
Fan Dahu: "What are you thinking? What can a woman do? You don't mean you want to go, do you?"
Ning Yan really wanted to see what the commotion was like, so she obediently nodded.
"Oh, my silly wife, are you out of your mind! Even men who go in there aren't guaranteed to come back unscathed. You should just stay home and behave yourself!"
Ning Yan: "Then pretend I didn't ask. But my second sister-in-law said they're going into the mountains tomorrow to look for wild chestnuts and walnuts, so I can go, right?"
Fan Dahu turned to look at Ning Yan, "We have plenty of food at home, why are you making that stuff? Aren't you afraid of getting tired this time? Don't tell me you can't handle the hardship?"
Since they separated, Ning Yan has done absolutely nothing except occasionally washing their clothes and tidying up her own room.
When the young couple were together, the sentence she said most often was: "Oh, I can't stand that kind of suffering."
“I didn’t go up the mountain to pick wild fruits; I went to have fun.”
Fan Dahu was speechless. "Alright, let's go have some fun, but you absolutely mustn't go into the deep mountains. You can only play for half a day and then you can't go any further."
Ning Yan chuckled happily, "I know what I'm doing. You go do what you need to do, and don't go out when it's cold in winter."
I've given you double monthly passes, everyone! Please, please give me one. This book isn't doing so well right now, and it looks like it's going to flop like the last one. If you're not busy, could you spare a few seconds to give me a pass or leave a comment? I would be extremely grateful!
(End of this chapter)
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