From childhood to adulthood, Zhou Zhiqiang was the most mischievous, and the number of times he'd been beaten couldn't be counted on one's fingers. But Zhou Zhiqiang didn't see it that way. He felt that he was simply born poorly, the second child, and therefore didn't enjoy the old man's favor like his eldest brother, Zhou Zhigang.
Look at the third child, Zhou Zhixin, whose treatment is even worse than his. From childhood to adulthood, the third child had the worst food, but did the most work of the whole family.
Unfortunately, Zhou Zhiqiang's little sense of superiority disappeared when he grew up.
After growing up and starting a family, Zhou Zhiqiang was the worst off among the three brothers. The eldest brother, Zhou Zhigang, worked as an accountant in the village. He was responsible for keeping the villagers' work records and calculating the annual grain distribution.
Everyone knows the rules of the Huaxia Dynasty. The pen in Zhou Zhigang's hand represents power! Who can tell if the pen slips and makes one more or one less stroke?
In Zhoujia Village, apart from the village chief Zhou Hongming, Zhou Zhigang is considered the most important person.
What about Zhou Zhiqiang? After two years of carpentry training, he refused to continue. He became a small farmer in Zhoujia Village, working with the production team every day, but he could not earn more than two yuan a year.
Zhou Chunping had been irritated with his second son ever since he refused to learn carpentry. The carpenter was a renowned master, skilled in his craft and a strict person. As the saying goes, strict teachers produce excellent students, and all his apprentices were renowned craftsmen in the area.
Zhou Chunping had to work hard to convince the master to accept Zhou Zhiqiang as his apprentice, but Zhou Zhiqiang, dissatisfied with the master's harshness and the lack of comfort in eating and other things at home, refused to learn any more.
Zhou Chunping was furious and beat Zhou Zhiqiang severely, demanding that he go back and apologize to his master. Unfortunately, Wu Jinfeng stood by and defended him, insisting that the child's life was his own and he had the choice to make it.
From then on, Zhou Chunping got angry whenever he saw Zhou Zhiqiang. Even after Zhou Zhiqiang got married and started a family, Zhou Chunping never cared about Zhou Zhiqiang's face when something happened. If he was unhappy, he would hit him and scold him.
Zhou Zhiqiang has been dissatisfied with such a father for a long time.
"No work? If you don't have any work, why don't you fix the bench at home?" Zhou Chunping cursed with bulging eyes, "Young people should have a job to do so they can live a good life when they are old. You are so lazy, you almost shit out of your mouth."
Zhou Zhiqiang learned carpentry for a few years and can do things like making cabinets, nailing benches, etc.
Unfortunately, Zhou Zhiqiang is very lazy. He would rather sleep all day than reinforce the wobbly stools at home.
As the old man's scolding became increasingly outrageous, Wu Jinfeng quickly changed the subject and asked, "Erbao! Where's Dahua? Why doesn't she come out when your father calls her?"
In Wu Jinfeng's heart, her son is hers, but her daughter-in-law belongs to someone else. Instead of Zhou Zhiqiang being scolded, it would be better to let Gu Dahua come out to bear the old man's anger.
Zhou Chunping then remembered his purpose and said to Zhou Zhiqiang with a stern face, "Ask your wife and Miaomiao to come out for a moment. I have something to ask them."
"Dahua took Miaomiao to Hejian Village. Her grandmother sent a letter last night saying she wasn't feeling well." Zhou Zhiqiang pretended to be surprised and asked, "Dad, did you need something from them? If I had known, I would have chased them out. Maybe I could have caught up with them."
"This guy is asking for death. He didn't even tell me before going back to his parents' home." Wu Jinfeng pulled a long face and muttered.
In the Zhou family, the daughters-in-law had to report to Wu Jinfeng before returning to their parents' home, and only leave after Wu Jinfeng's approval. Today, Gu Dahua actually acted on her own, which made Wu Jinfeng feel very embarrassed.
"Mom, Dahua said that if you knew her mother's health was not good, you would definitely let her take a lot of things back. Our family has not had an easy time these years. It's all thanks to you and Dad. Save as much as you can. She and Miaomiao left empty-handed." Zhou Zhiqiang hurried to please Wu Jinfeng.
Sure enough, after listening to Zhou Zhiqiang's words, Wu Jinfeng felt that her son understood her heart as a mother.
Isn't it? The Zhou family, with more than a dozen people, big and small, depend on the old man's monthly salary and the money in her hands to make a living!
At this time, Wu Jinfeng selectively forgot that the money in her hands was not earned by herself, but given to her by her most hated third daughter-in-law, and was the salary left by her third son Zhou Zhixin who saved money every month in the army.
In rural areas, relatives can't be stingy with their interactions. For example, if Gu Dahua explicitly told Wu Jinfeng that she wanted to go back to her parents' home to visit a patient, Wu Jinfeng, as her mother-in-law, would inevitably prepare a lot of gifts for her daughter-in-law to take back to her parents' home. If Wu Jinfeng didn't give anything, it would be a loss of face.
What Zhou Zhiqiang meant was that Gu Dahua did not tell Wu Jinfeng about her mother's illness, so Wu Jinfeng pretended not to know and saved as much money as possible.
"Hmph!" Zhou Chunping glanced at Zhou Zhiqiang, said hatefully, and walked into the room with his hands behind his back.
The second brother has been cunning and slippery since he was a child. It is good enough if 30% of what he says is true. Only his brainless old wife would believe his sweet words.
Is the mother-in-law sick? If Gu Dahua knew last night that her mother was sick, why didn't she say she was going back to her parents' home this morning, but instead stood there smiling and watching the fun?
Gu Dahua must have seen her third daughter-in-law's brother coming and was afraid that he would come after her, so she scared her away! But it was a good thing. Gu Dahua took Miaomiao to her grandmother's house in Hejian Village to hide for a few days. Maybe the rumors in the village would dissipate.
Zhou Chunping sighed, turned around, and walked back to the room. No matter how reluctant he was, he had to pay for Zhou Yuanyuan's medicine today. Regardless of the villagers' complaints, even for the sake of his father-in-law, Zhao Qingshan, he had to do the job properly.
Zhao Qingshan is not someone you can easily mess with!
Looking at Zhou Chunping's slightly hunched back, Zhou Zhiqiang's eyes flashed with a hint of ruthlessness. But in the blink of an eye, Zhou Zhiqiang returned to his smiling face and spoke sweet words to Wu Jinfeng, making her smile from ear to ear.
Zhou Zhiqiang hated Zhou Chunping. He felt that it was Zhou Chunping's fault that he had nothing to show for it until now.
When they were young, their family lived well in Daxing City. They had a big house and their parents both had jobs.
More than half a year after his third brother was born, Zhou Chunping insisted on moving his family to the countryside of Zhoujia Village.
Let’s just move! Zhou Zhiqiang had no objection, but the problem was that after the family moved in, Zhou Chunping was stupid enough to change the family’s urban household registration to a rural household registration.
In those days, urban hukou meant a stable job, with the government guaranteeing them a job. Those with rural hukou could only be farmers, spending their lives toiling in the fields.
Zhou Zhiqiang was supposed to be a man wearing work clothes and eating commercial grain, but his father turned him into a mud-legged peasant digging for food in the fields. How could he feel good about that?
If the whole family had become peasants, Zhou Zhiqiang wouldn't have hated Zhou Chunping so much. After all, when bad luck strikes, no one knows what will happen. As for the Zhou family, they've shared hardships and difficulties, so it's nothing special.
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