When the announcement of the afternoon dismissal sounded, Zhou Jiao filled a pot with braised pork and carried Ping An to the nursing home.
The three Xizi brothers were returning home from school with their schoolbags on their backs. They saw Zhou Jiao from afar and ran over happily.
"Aunt, why did you go to the provincial capital again? I missed you so much." Xizi took the cup and complained.
Xiao You nodded repeatedly, "Big Brother and I went to look for you twice, but the door was locked."
"Aunt, where is my uncle?" Xiao Zuo looked around and found that there was no sign of Zhang Guoqing, so he asked disappointedly.
Faced with his brothers' voices, Ping'an happily struggled to get down.
"Aunt, please let your brother come down so I can take care of the child." Xiao Zuoyou took Ping'an's hand and held it tightly with joy.
Zhou Jiao listened to the children and quickly waved her hand, "Let's go in first. Ping An is tied here and it's hard to untie him."
After entering the main room, Zhou Jiao put the child down and handed him to the three brothers, wiped the sweat off her face, and returned to the kitchen.
Zhang's mother wasn't inside. Only Huang Cuilan was there. Seeing Zhou Jiao, she said with a smile, "Xizi and the others must be so happy, right? The three brothers snuck into your house in the county town and told him their father wasn't lying. Come back and stay a few days. I'll cook your favorite dishes."
"Then I have to thank my sister-in-law. Where's mother?"
"Why thank me? We're all family. My eldest sister just dropped off some tofu yesterday, and my mother went to the village to get some fish. She said you'd like it. Wait a minute, she'll be back soon."
Zhou Jiao smiled embarrassedly and went to sit in the kitchen to light the fire.
After a while, Lin Juhua followed Zhang's mother in. Seeing Zhou Jiao, she happily pushed Zhang's mother to the main room to rest, saying that she would be the chef today and she should show off her cooking skills.
The three sisters-in-law were in the kitchen, cooking and chatting about gossip, and the topic turned to Zhoujia Village next door.
Lin Juhua suddenly slapped her head and exclaimed, "Jiaojiao, did you know that the Zhou family moved away? I've been wanting to tell you, but I forgot this afternoon."
"Jiaojiao just came back, so she definitely doesn't know. Not many people in the village know about it either."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Jiao put down the firewood and looked at Lin Juhua.
"They moved out within two days of you leaving. Old Zhou took advantage of the child's father not being at work to get the process done. The whole family left the next day after it was done. A guy named Liu from his unit secretly told him about it, and only then did the child's father know about it, but the Zhou family had already fled."
Zhou Jiao smiled and shook her head. She had no intention of keeping this family around as an eyesore, so it would be better for them to move out - this was a great joyous occasion.
"Their grandson's wife and her family are both here, and their eldest grandson works there too. How could they bear to leave? Where are they moving to? Does second brother know? Did second brother tell you any inside information?"
Lin Juhua smiled and nodded. Her husband had been investigating this matter for several days, so how could he not know?
"They didn't move far away. Originally, the household registration office didn't plan to stamp the documents, wanting to wait for the child's father to come back. Then Old Man Zhou said he had all the paperwork and would go to the provincial capital to cause trouble if they didn't. We couldn't do anything about it, fearing he would cause trouble. But the child's father said Old Man Zhou had offended his colleagues, and unless he didn't come back, there would be trouble."
Zhou Jiao smiled and didn't rush her, waiting quietly for what was to come.
"The child's father heard from Brother Liu that their move was due to the job transfer of Zhou Lidong, the eldest grandson of the Zhou family. He went to Zhou Lidong's workplace to inquire. He heard from many people that Zhou Lidong had applied for a transfer to a remote location. The factory was overjoyed and transferred him to a small factory in SX County.
I heard that the factory is far away from the county town and no one wants to go there. Three people went there this time, and Zhou Lidong was one of them. The address on the note for the Zhou family's household registration transfer was a village not far from the factory, called Sanmajia. Yes, it is Sanmajia Village! "After saying this, Lin Juhua laughed foolishly to herself.
Huang Cuilan rolled her eyes at her. "What's so strange about that? Both the Zhang family and the Wang family have their own nests. Go on."
Lin Juhua stopped laughing and continued, "The child's father asked someone. Old Man Zhou and his two elders are not working. His eldest son and his eldest grandson, except for his eldest grandson, all work in the fields. Even his youngest grandson, Zhou Linan, who is in high school, was sent home by school and has to work.
Some time ago, Zhou Lidong's wife was arguing about dividing the family property. Old Zhou gave away his two grandsons, Cheng's family, and left the youngest, Zhou Linan, to live with them.
Zhou Jiao nodded after hearing this. She planned to mention this in her reply to her father's letter. The two places were not far away, so she could know about any small changes. She didn't worry about the Zhou family causing trouble.
Old Zhou was clever, relying on his wealth to flee as far away as possible, hoping to keep his family secrets to a minimum. But how could that be possible? The entire provincial capital was abuzz with stories about their family.
Lin Juhua wasn't surprised to see Zhou Jiao cheerfully reply, and she felt a bit disappointed. How could she be so bad at chatting? Shouldn't she have continued by asking about how the Zhou family was faring? Sigh... she still preferred Ye Zi and the others; they were such good chatters.
Huang Cuilan nudged her when she finished speaking and whispered to the two of them, "Do you think Old Zhou collected so much gold from Jiaojiao's grandma? Isn't it still a lot? Otherwise, how could he dare to take so many people away from home and split up the family just like that? Oh, Juhua, are they still living together after the split?"
Hearing this, Lin Juhua clapped her thigh happily and said with a smile, "Finally, someone has asked the right question. There's an interesting thing here. How can some people be so stupid? In Zhoujia Village, they're like rats, bullied by anyone. But why do they become so arrogant when they go to other places? You say, when they're in a place they don't know, who would treat them sincerely? Don't you agree?"
Zhou Jiao knew her second sister-in-law would skip dinner if she started chatting about family matters. Her father-in-law's voice was already outside, and if she continued to talk without doing anything, the family wouldn't be able to have dinner that night.
She didn't bother interrupting him. She stood up and took the spatula. Seeing Lin Juhua wanted to help, she quickly waved her hand and let her continue.
After finishing the three dishes of fish stewed with tofu, stir-fried vegetables, and mixed wild vegetables, Zhou Jiao finally heard what Lin Juhua meant by "fun".
Zhou Jiao hadn't expected Old Man Zhou to be so generous, actually wanting to build five rooms for his eldest and second grandsons. Whether it was the brick and tile houses Zhou Lidong's wife had mentioned, or even mud houses, it would cost a fortune. It was all her family's money, every penny.
These idiots, they don't feel bad about spending other people's money! Fortunately, everyone in that place now knows about their family's scandals. So, one should not be too immoral. Look! Retribution has come. No matter where they go, the scandal that the Zhou family owes to their father and daughter will follow their descendants.
When the food was served, the children cheered happily. Each of them took a piece of pork belly and left it alone, saying that it was a gift from their aunt to show her filial piety to their grandparents.
Seeing this, Zhou Jiao softened her heart again. What sensible children!
As she watched the children slurp the meat with narrowed eyes, she knew that since Zhang Guoqing stopped hunting, Zhang's mother had been saving money on meat again. She didn't come to dinner tonight, so she probably didn't even have the tofu stewed with fish. Tonight's sweet potato rice was just a little more white rice than usual.
Zhou Jiao didn't know whether Huang Cuilan or her mother-in-law was the head of the household right now, and she didn't feel comfortable asking. She planned to ask Lin Juhua privately. If Huang Cuilan was the one running the household, she would be very unhappy. She gave her parents-in-law a lot of rice and flour every month, so why was she being treated so harshly?
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