Aunt Gu and her husband were both very hardworking. When they were young, they worked day and night. When they reached middle age, they finally found wives for their two sons, married off their two daughters in a grand manner, and built two large tiled houses.
The larger tiled house is where Aunt Gu and her family currently live, along with their eldest son and his family. The smaller house was allocated to the second son's family. For an elderly person, being able to give a house to a son when the family splits up is considered quite generous. Many families, when splitting up, simply give their children a little money and a few chickens, leaving them to buy everything else themselves.
According to the custom in rural Yuyuan County, if a family has several sons, they will separate the family after all the sons get married. This is to avoid having too many daughters-in-law, each with their own thoughts, which will cause unrest in the family.
The same thing happened to Aunt Gu's family. After both sons married, Aunt Gu divided the family property between them. According to the custom of dividing the family property in Zhaojiagou, it was agreed that the two elderly people would be taken care of by the eldest son in their old age, and the savings of Aunt Gu and Zhao the bamboo craftsman would also belong to the eldest son's family after a hundred years.
When dividing up a family in rural areas, many elderly people will choose to live with their eldest son's family. In fact, there is nothing wrong with Aunt Gu's choice.
The mistake was that Aunt Gu and her husband were not stingy. Before they even died, they had already spent all their savings on supporting their eldest son's family.
Aunt Gu thought that the money they had would belong to their eldest son in the future anyway, so there was no difference between giving it to him before his death and giving it to him now.
Aunt Gu misjudged the public's feelings. In rural areas, sons and daughters-in-law who support their parents are willing to be subservient to their parents, often for the small amount of money their parents have. If the elderly have money, and the eldest son's family treats them poorly, they might even change their minds and move in with the second or third sons. For the sake of the elderly's wealth, even if they dislike it, a daughter-in-law will be filial to them.
When the family split up, Aunt Gu and Zhao the bamboo craftsman were still relatively young, in their forties and still full of energy. Aunt Gu chose to live with her eldest son's family, much to the delight of her eldest daughter-in-law, Zheng Qiulian. Zhao the bamboo craftsman and Aunt Gu not only had money, but also earned a small fortune and could help raise their children.
Zheng Qiulian was a good fertile woman and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. The eldest daughter, Zhao Xiaoyue, the second son, Zhao Xiaolei, the third son, Zhao Xiaohui, the fourth daughter, Zhao Xiaocao, and the youngest son, Zhao Xiaojun, all five children were raised with the help of Aunt Gu.
With more children, household expenses inevitably increase. Without the help of Aunt Gu and Zhao the bamboo craftsman, Zhao Hongsheng and Zheng Qiulian would be busy all year round, barely able to put food on the table. As the children get older, the costs increase. Zhao Hongsheng is relatively open-minded, ensuring all five children have at least attended junior high school. This means that Zhao Hongsheng's family expenses are significantly higher than those of other families in the village who don't send their children to school.
Seeing the hardships her eldest son's family endured, Aunt Gu couldn't bear it. Adults could endure hunger, but children couldn't. Over the years, Aunt Gu and Zhao the bamboo craftsman had chipped in their savings to ensure their grandchildren had enough to eat and wore clothes that weren't too shabby at school.
In recent years, Aunt Gu and Zhao the bamboo craftsman have aged. Aunt Gu is no longer able to work in the fields and can only help with housework. Zhao the bamboo craftsman's eyesight is also poor, and he can no longer do delicate bamboo work. As a result, fewer people in the surrounding area have asked him to do work. A few years ago, the land in Zhaojiagou was "distributed to households," and every household relied on labor for their livelihood. Aunt Gu and Zhao the bamboo craftsman no longer have the ability to earn money and are essentially dependent on their eldest brother's family for support.
As a result, daughter-in-law Zheng Qiulian became a little arrogant.
People are like this. They always see how much they have lost and how much they have suffered, but they cannot see how much they have gained or how much they have profited. Zheng Qiulian is like this.
Aunt Gu and her husband were old and could no longer work, and they had no savings, so they spent the rest of their lives living off the elderly in their eldest son's house. Zheng Qiulian felt that her family was losing out by providing for the elderly.
Seeing that Aunt Gu and her husband were healthy and pain-free, who knew how much longer they could live? From now on, their family would have to pay a lot for Aunt Gu and her husband. What made Zheng Qiulian even more unhappy was that Aunt Gu often gave money to her parents' home. Back when Tiezhu's mother was still alive, Aunt Gu often brought rice and vegetables from home to Tiezhu's mother. In the years after Gu Tiezhu was imprisoned, Tiezhu's mother and her two children lived on village relief, and Aunt Gu often brought things to her parents' home.
At that time, Aunt Gu was still able to work, and Zhao the bamboo craftsman could often earn ten yuan a month. Even if Zheng Qiulian was unhappy, she couldn't stop him.
As the eldest daughter-in-law who has to take care of the elderly, Zheng Qiulian dare not openly dislike the two elders. She can only wait for Aunt Gu to do something "unreasonable" and then make her displeasure clear.
For example, now that Aunt Gu and Zhao the bamboo craftsman can't make any money, they even invite Gu Tiezhu and his son to their home to eat and drink for free. Zheng Qiulian is getting a little restless.
Zheng Qiulian felt an indescribable disdain for Gutiezhu. A labor camp inmate who hadn't earned much money in all those years since his release. Even Tiezhu's mother's funeral had been handled by her family. Now he was living and eating for free, right after his return. Did they think they were wealthy? Furthermore, just a few days earlier, Zheng Qiulian's promising daughter-in-law had vanished because of Gutiezhu.
With a lot of anger in her heart, Zheng Qiulian got up early in the morning to make breakfast, and she started chopping on the chopping board with a loud clacking sound.
Today's breakfast was sweet potato porridge with a few large pieces of sweet potatoes. Zheng Qiulian imagined them to be Gutiezhu's face, and she wanted to chop them into pieces.
Before the Lunar New Year, Zheng Qiulian arranged a bride for her eldest son, Zhao Xiaolei, a girl from the next village. Zhao Xiaolei was very pleased with her appearance. Most importantly, she had a round butt, a sign of good fertility, which Zheng Qiulian was also very pleased with.
Originally, the girl had her eyes on the tall and honest Zhao Xiaolei, but she didn't expect that when her parents heard that Zhao Xiaolei's family was related to the "tree thief" Gutiezhu's family, they refused to agree to the marriage.
When the matchmaker came back, Zheng Qiulian blushed so much she almost crawled into the ground. The girl's parents said Gutiezhu was a well-known "reform-through-labor prisoner," and their family had been clean for generations, so they didn't want to be related to a "reform-through-labor prisoner."
Listen! Listen! Because of a relative like Gutiezhu, her son's marriage was delayed. Who knows if Xiaohui and Xiaojun will still remember their "bad relative" Gutiezhu when they find a wife? If this happens again, how could Zheng Qiulian not be furious? Although her mother-in-law, Aunt Gu, and Gutiezhu were aunt and nephew, legitimate relatives who could still be connected even if their relationship was broken, Zheng Qiulian couldn't bear the fact that Gutiezhu had hindered her son's marriage.
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