"Captain, what did you say? That woman Fan Xiaojuan sued Dachuan!" Jiang Dazhen's voice was a little loud, and it hurt Mo Dashuan's eardrums.
He anticipated this and went to the Public Security Bureau to get approval for a hunting rifle. He waited until he was on an empty path outside the county town before speaking out about the incident. He was afraid that Jiang Dahai and Jiang Dazhen, the two siblings, would not be able to bear the blow and would shout it out, which would be bad if someone heard it.
"Why? What on earth does that woman want to do?" Jiang Dazhen slammed the handrail next to the cart, and her eyes turned red instantly.
Stealing collective grain is a serious crime. If you are caught, you will go to jail.
Jiang Dazhen still remembers the most difficult years. There was a member of the next village. His child was dying of illness. The family only had bran rice and flour that were hard to eat. In order to let the child have a full meal before he died, the man sneaked into the production team's grain storage area and stole a small bag of flour. He was reported by a neighbor. He was sentenced to five years in prison and sent to a farm in the northwest for labor reform.
Jiang Dazhen couldn't bear the thought that her second brother might be sent to another place for labor reform like that member of the commune.
"I'm going to Xiaoqiu Village to find that woman. How could she be so cruel? Has she ever thought about what will happen to her patriotism and her love for the Party after doing this?" Jiang Dahai gasped. Fan Xiaojuan did this to destroy this family.
"I'll go too--" Jiang Dazhen said unwillingly. Even if Jiang Dachuan stole the collective's grain, half of it went into Fan Xiaojuan's mouth. If she wanted to harm Dachuan and leave, it was impossible.
"Where are you going? It's nonsense!"
Mo Dashuan wanted to whip their confused heads with the donkey whip in his hand: "Director Cao has said that Fan Xiaojuan is to be set up as a model. You think it's not enough to put Jiang Dachuan in jail, so you want to get yourself in trouble too."
Mo Dashuan had seen Jiang Dachuan stealing the collective grain last night, but in his opinion, this was their Qingshan Village's business, Jiang Dachuan was wrong and should be punished, but not to the point of imprisonment. He originally thought that after Jiang Dachuan's leg was healed, he would double the team's losses from his work points as punishment. Now that Fan Xiaojuan had made such a fuss, all plans were disrupted.
At this time, Mo Dashuan missed his old dry tobacco very much, but his wife took away his pipe after knowing that smoking dry tobacco was not good for him. Now he could only endure the urge.
"That night, there were too many villagers who saw Dachuan stealing sweet potatoes. The people from above came to investigate, and we couldn't hide it anymore. Now, we can only say that the crime was lighter and impose a lighter fine if possible."
Mo Dashuan sighed. Although he disliked Jiang Dachuan the most among the young men in Qingshan Village, he couldn't force him to death now that he was lame. There were still two children at home.
Jiang Dazhen obviously thought the same thing as him: "Dachuan is in the hospital, Fan Xiaojuan ran away again, what should I do about my love for my country and the party?"
She turned her head and looked at her eldest brother. It seemed that she could only send the person to his house now. However, the two nephews had bad tempers and had a falling out with their family in their early years. She didn't know if they could get along well with Dani and the others.
Jiang Dazhen felt a little sorry for the patriotism and love for the party that had suddenly undergone such a huge change, but she felt even more sorry for her nieces who had been bullied by the two brothers in their early years.
Jiang Dahai sighed: "Let them live in my house these days. Anyway, my family is big now, and two nephews are not a big deal."
******
Hunting rifles were not easy to get approved. Even with the note from Director Cao, Mo Dashuan was still tortured and interrogated before he got three hunting rifles from the Public Security Bureau. As a result, the group was delayed in the county for a long time. When they drove their donkey carts back to the village, smoke from the roofs of every household had already risen, and the children who went to school should have returned home long ago.
As soon as Jiang Dahai and Jiang Dazhen got off the donkey cart, they hurried towards Jiang Dachuan's house.
"Wow - Dad - Mom -" A little boy of eight or nine years old was sitting in the open space in the yard and crying loudly, and there was another child who was a little older than him, his face full of hatred.
"Stop crying and get up quickly." The tall and thin figure reached out to pull his younger brother on the ground, but he didn't have enough strength. Not only did he fail to pull him up, he also staggered due to his brother's struggle and fell to the ground.
"What a sin! What on earth is Fan Xiaojuan thinking?"
"Who knows? Poor two children."
A group of people gathered at the gate of the yard, pointing and talking. Jiang Dahai and Jiang Dazhen finally squeezed through the crowd and walked in. They saw that the one lying on the ground crying loudly was their younger nephew Jiang Aidang, and the one who just fell was their older nephew Jiang Aiguo.
What is going on.
Jiang Dahai and Jiang Dazhen went over to help the man up and wiped the mud off their clothes.
Jiang Dazhen was more careful. When she saw the open door, several broken porcelain bowls in the main room, and some cornmeal dropped on the ground, she had already concluded that Fan Xiaojuan was so cruel that she didn't even want her son.
"Dahai, this afternoon when everyone in the village was at work, Fan Xiaojuan suddenly brought back a few of her brothers and sisters-in-law from her mother's family and emptied out all the food in the house. I didn't know what happened, but I tried to stop them, thinking that Dachuan was still in the hospital and the children were still in school. But I was pushed to the ground by that woman. By the time I called the men in the village back, everything in the house had been emptied."
The neighbor lady who had talked with Jiang Dahai in the morning said to Jiang Dahai that she had heard about Jiang Dachuan's situation. It was obvious that Fan Xiaojuan, the cruel woman, did not intend to keep this family. She moved all the food away and did not think about what to do with her two sons.
The old lady looked at Jiang Aidang who was crying hard, and sighed. "The father is lame, and the mother ran away. What should these two children do?" A trace of sympathy flashed across her skinny old face.
"This woman." Jiang Dahai was so angry that he couldn't speak. Veins bulged on his forehead and his fists were clenched tightly, as if if Fan Xiaojuan appeared in front of him, he would swing his fist as big as a casserole at her.
Jiang Aiguo, who was held in Jiang Dazhen's arms, was almost in despair.
Jiang Aiguo is already eleven years old this year, which is considered a teenager in the countryside. He is tall and thin, with dark skin. He hasn't shaved his hair for a long time, and his bangs almost cover his eyes. The clothes he wears are Jiang Dachuan's old cotton jacket, which has been washed white for a long time and has several patches on it. The fall just now also tore the clothes, revealing the hard, black cotton wool inside.
At this point, the cotton jacket is no longer warm.
Since Jiang Aiguo was born, everything he got was the best among all the children in the village, whether it was food or clothing. Even when his younger brother was born, he did not share the love he received.
From the education he received since childhood, everything in the Jiang family would belong to him and his brother in the future. Jiang Dani and the others were just thieves who stole things from his family. He could beat them or scold them as he pleased, and no one would scold him, including Jiang Dani and the others' parents and his uncle and aunt.
Jiang Aiguo could sometimes see dissatisfaction and disgust in the old lady’s eyes, but so what? As long as his grandparents were around, that woman couldn’t do anything to them.
Jiang Aiguo always thought that he would continue like this, walking along the path envied by others.
Everything changed until the birth of his cousin from his uncle's family. His mother kept complaining about his grandparents' partiality and lamenting about the changes in their family's future life. This made the young boy feel a sense of crisis and hostility towards the new cousin.
Because of his mistake, his family had a falling out with his grandparents, and all previous subsidies were cut off. All they could eat were the coarse grains distributed by the team. Because Jiang Dachuan and Fan Xiaojuan had not done heavy labor for many years, the work points they received were always the least among their generation, and there was simply not enough food at home.
From that day on, Jiang Aiguo began to experience the feeling of hunger. White flour buns and new clothes became almost childhood memories.
Whenever the family ran out of food, his mother would complain to him and his brother about how hateful the people in the old house were. In this environment, Jiang Aiguo and his brother were very hostile whenever they saw people in the Jiang family's old house. It was common for them to spit at the younger generations and throw stones at them.
But the elder sisters in the first house were no longer afraid of them, especially Jiang Erni, who would sometimes join others in beating them up when she saw them doing this, leaving Jiang Aiguo with a lot of anger and nowhere to vent.
Jiang Aiguo loved his father the most because every time the family ran out of food, his father would go out and bring back food. He didn't like his mother because she thought it was all his fault. Every time the family ran out of food, his mother would chase him around the house with a rattan stick.
Now, his father's leg is lame, and his mother is gone, taking away all the valuables in the house. Jiang Aiguo is very confused. Looking at his brother who is crying non-stop, he doesn't know what to do.
The two people in front of him, one is his uncle and the other is his aunt, but he knows that those two people don’t like him or their family. Now that something has happened to their family, they should be very happy.
"Brother - Brother -" Jiang Aidang sobbed and threw himself into Jiang Aiguo's arms, wiping his tears and snot on Jiang Aiguo's clothes.
Jiang Aiguo held his younger brother in his arms, thinking that since he was already eleven years old, he might be able to go to the fields and earn work points. Jiang Dani had been working when she was younger than him. There was no reason why he couldn't do what Jiang Dani could do.
We can’t let Ai Dang starve to death. In this world, besides his father, he only has his younger brother.
When Fan Xiaojuan left with her belongings, she was no longer his and Ai Dang's mother. Jiang Aiguo bit his lip, never sober before.
Jiang Aiguo used to like to show off his bravery and cruelty, but for the first time, his eyes showed the timidity, panic, and fear that were suitable for his age.
"Go home, pack some clothes and go home with uncle." Jiang Dahai touched the heads of his two nephews. No matter how many conflicts there are between the adults, the children are still young. If there was anything wrong in the past, they can just be taught a lesson.
Jiang Aiguo looked up in surprise, looking at the elder whom he had always been hostile to. He didn't expect to hear these words from him. Isn't he afraid that he would bully his child again?
Before he could figure it out, Jiang Dazhen and Jiang Dahai rushed into the house and packed all the things they needed to take.
Jiang Aiguo stood in the yard in a daze, and Jiang Aidang's crying slowly stopped.
"Your uncle and your aunt are both good people. Now that your family is in this state, don't cause trouble again when you live in your uncle's house. Be more obedient."
When the neighbor lady heard what Jiang Dahai said, her old face smiled like a chrysanthemum and she gave detailed instructions to the two children in the yard.
"Dahai is a good person. You should be more sensible in the future, Aiguo."
Those who spoke up were all people who lived near Jiang Dachuan's home and had had conflicts with his family in the past. Many people followed suit. They were all from the same village. Everyone knew about the first and second wives' festivals, and they were all happy for the two children to have such relatives.
These people seemed to have forgotten that he and his brother had once bullied their children, and they were all happy for them.
Jiang Aiguo hugged his brother in his arms, lowered his head, and his thick bangs covered his eyes, making it impossible to see the expression in his eyes.
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