Everyone found Guoshu's wife amused when they heard this, and they all looked at Zhang Meili. Zhang Meili rolled her eyes at everyone, "Why are you looking at me? It was so long ago, I've forgotten about it myself. That woman is also a bully who only cares about the weak and the strong. It's only her husband who is a coward. If it were me, I would catch her and beat her every day until she's scared. She's just spoiled."
Huang Cuilan smiled and shook her head: "He is not a coward. If he were, he would be the only one in his family who has clothes that are not patched."
Everyone looked at each other, and they really didn't notice. Zhang Meihao quickly asked her sister-in-law to continue.
"I hadn't noticed it before, but your eldest brother asked me to see what she had and what she had divided up. He told me what all the brothers had gotten, and every time his wife threw a tantrum and made trouble at home or with others, he never showed up. Everyone said he was honest, so they let it go for his sake.
Every time Guo Shu's family got into an argument, he remained silent, his head bowed, and squatted. But if someone offered him a gift, he'd take it without his wife having to take it. If someone didn't apologize and felt they were in the right, he'd just squat and watch his wife argue without getting up, just squatting there with his head bowed, not going back, as if to show his support. He was honest, not stupid. He wasn't there, but everyone knew that his wife was ignored by the entire village, and would run away when she threw a tantrum.
Later I thought about it and realized it was true. One time, while working in the fields, his wife grabbed hold of him over a single word and wouldn't let go. She lay on the ground, saying she didn't want to live anymore. Guo Shu, who was quite a distance away, ran over but didn't try to help her up. She just crouched down, holding her head, and kept saying, "It's all my fault, it's all my fault." I was stunned.
Normally, wouldn't he have taken his wife home or just gone about his business? Why did things seem to escalate the moment he showed up? With just one sentence, it was like the couple's family was being torn apart.
From then on, I would stay away from them whenever I saw them. They were so disgusting. Several times when I went to the river to wash clothes, his wife would come over and I would wash them like crazy, afraid she would come up and cause trouble. I wasn't afraid of her, I just found it troublesome."
Zhou Jiao asked her curiously, "Then she must be even more proud, since no one can control her."
Zhang's mother looked at her with amusement and said nothing. Lin Juhua looked at her and said, "There's only one person who can deal with her, your Xiaowu. She's afraid of Xiaowu. She used to be afraid of her elder sister, but now she's not afraid of him anymore. She'll lie at the entrance of the village and shout that the cadres' family is bullying people. It's so unfair. My elder sister doesn't bother to pay attention to her, as it would bring bad reputation to her."
Why was she afraid of Xiaowu? One time, Xiaowu came back from hunting and ran into her. He didn't know what had happened, so she grabbed Xiaowu and wouldn't let him go, throwing him a tantrum and demanding meat. Xiaowu simply pulled her off and threw her far away. When Guoshu came, Xiaowu said that if she continued to act like a tantrum and demand his meat, he would control his man for her. This useless jerk was making his wife snatch food from him. If she yelled again, he would come to Guoshu, and he would beat her up as many times as she yelled.
His wife didn't believe it and started shouting loudly. Xiao Wu really punched her. As a result, Guo Shu's wife immediately stopped shouting. Xiao Wu said, Guo Shu, if you keep watching your wife making trouble for the whole village, do you believe I will kick you and your family out? After saying that, she ignored them and came back. We only found out later.
Otherwise, you see, every family in the village is afraid of her. Guo Shu's wife barges in regardless of whether others are willing to entertain her or not, but our courtyard gate is not locked, so why don't we see her coming? She is afraid of Xiao Wu. She is really afraid that Xiao Wu will beat her husband. If you meet her in the future, don't pay attention to her. Everyone knows that she has dirty hands.
Zhou Jiao couldn't help but laugh. She thought Huang Zhaodi was such a jerk. "If a person is mean, he is invincible. They didn't even think of leaving a way out for their child. Who would dare to date their child or marry into their family in the future?"
Zhang's mother heard this and said, "Nowadays, the children in the village won't play with their son. A dragon begets a dragon, a phoenix begets a phoenix, and a mouse's son will dig holes. Those children are just like their mother. Whenever they fail to grab someone else's wild fruit, they just roll around on the ground and throw a tantrum. Marrying this daughter-in-law will at least ruin three generations of their family."
While listening to their conversation, Zhou Jiao was still thinking that she should hurry up to collect things after the full moon. Fortunately, except for the strict management of food and meat, other things in the countryside are relatively relaxed.
While the market is still going on, we need to prepare well. It will be even more difficult next year when we have to manage all the bills. Food is hard to find, so we can prepare taro, potatoes, vermicelli, and eggs. The few pounds of food my son gets every month with the bills won't be enough. When spring comes, we won't be able to feed the pigs, so we need to raise more chickens so they can lay eggs.
After the full moon, I can go up the mountain to see what else I can gather in the winter. I'll also collect some of the packages that the village is mailing this time, so I'll store them away. Mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, pine nuts, and melon seeds are especially good things. Once the coupons are in place, they'll be harder to buy. Don't worry, I'll write them down later.
"Mom, is it easy to order chicks for next spring? Should we order them before the New Year?" Zhou Jiao asked without understanding.
"There are people hatching eggs in the village. If you have a few, you can buy them without ordering. If you have a lot, you can wait until the New Year to find someone to order at the big market and have them delivered in the spring. We all go shopping during the New Year; the market has everything."
"Well, mother, you have already harvested the crops in the fields. Why do you still need to go to work? What are you doing?"
"Now we're weeding, plowing, and clearing the roots. Otherwise, we won't be able to plant next spring. Once we clear the grass here, it'll start growing over there. There's so much work to do. We won't work when it snows, and we'll leave the work for others. This year's work points are enough for our family. We work so hard all year and only earn enough to eat. This year, the rain is good, and the harvest is good, so we can share some of it."
"How can anyone work when it's snowing? What for? Everyone's freezing, and the ground is frozen solid, right?"
"During heavy snow, we have to collect manure for use in the spring and plow the fields. That's when the work is the hardest and the work points are high. Villagers with large populations and limited labor cannot rest, otherwise there will be no food to share next year and not enough to eat.
Our family has a lot of labor, so we usually wait for the snow to fall and do light work that requires less work points. The pig farm has no holidays year-round, so the work points are high. When there's less work in the fields, we still have to make ropes, and we do it year-round. We need ropes from the team, and we need ropes at home. There's no need to worry about having too much rope; we'll need it all the time.
My family will also be making ropes in a few days. Farm work never stops, so everyone wants to go to the city. Our basic food ration is only 300 kilograms per person per year. Any more depends on whether the production brigade has surplus grain, otherwise we can't even make up for it with money.
"My family had to trade fine grains for coarse grains just to have enough to eat. In the city, each person gets 40 kilograms (approximately 100 pounds) of food per month, and a child gets 22 kilograms (approximately 100 pounds) of food per month, plus wages and banknotes. At year-end, we farmers even exchange our cloth coupons for work points. So, if you look at the children in the village, few haven't had their cloth sacked. All we get all year is a simple meal of white rice and dumplings at the end of the year." Zhang's mother spoke of the city with deep envy.
"It's really not easy. I feel like I haven't seen you stop. You are so busy. In April and May and September and October, we were so busy that we lost all our skin. We are all so thin that we can't get it back. The village is full of dark people. Only people in our family are not afraid of the sun. Otherwise, you can't find anyone at night without a kerosene lamp." Zhou Jiao sighed.
Zhang Meili laughed heartily. "Go to the market during the New Year and look at the crowds. That's what you call fun. There are people from the city, there are people from the village. There are so many people that they all look like they are all black with white in between. It's really fun."
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