Chapter 203 made me want to cry even more.
Shen Xuewei's idea was good. After the villagers finished watching TV at Chen's house that evening and went home, Second Grandmother stayed behind.
She grabbed her grandmother's hand and started wailing:
"Youyan, you have no idea what my daughter-in-law is like. She acts like a princess, and you can't even say a few words to her..."
Shen Xuewei thought to herself: I don't know what bad luck our family has had to bring such a daughter-in-law into the family. We can't even say anything about her...
"I don't know what bad luck our family has had to bring such a daughter-in-law into the family. We can't even say a word about her..."
Shen Xuewei had heard her second maternal grandmother's words so many times that she could recite them by heart.
Grandma Xi looked constipated and said dryly, "Hehe...you are all family after all. She is still young, teach her slowly, she will be fine in the future."
Grandma slapped her thigh, "I tried to teach her properly but she wouldn't listen. She even got angry and started cursing at me. I asked Adong to teach her a lesson, but Adong couldn't bring himself to do it..."
At this point, Shen Xuewei finally couldn't help but interject, "Second Grandmother, hitting people is wrong."
My second maternal grandmother said matter-of-factly, "It's normal for the men in the family to discipline disobedient women. When I was young, your second maternal grandfather did the same thing to me..."
Shen Xuewei's words caught in her throat, and she couldn't say them.
My second maternal grandmother complained for almost an hour at the Chen family home before finally leaving.
As soon as she left, Shen Xuewei hurriedly closed the door.
She and her grandmother sat by the fire pit, glanced at each other, and sighed at the same time.
Shen Xuewei asked in a low voice, "Grandma, did Second Grandpa hit people?"
As she grew up, she became more composed and mature, and her maternal grandmother no longer avoided discussing certain matters with her.
"Fight, of course we'll fight!"
“Your second maternal grandfather was lazy. He used to love drinking, and when he drank, he would beat people. You couldn’t stop him.”
"You consider yourself a maternal grandfather and a second maternal grandfather, so why did you separate the family so early? It's because he used to beat your second maternal grandmother. I tried to stop him, but he was drunk and beat me up too..."
She gently patted Shen Xuewei's hand, "Weiwei, remember this: you can't marry someone who drinks heavily and likes to hit people. You have to marry someone with a good temperament and who cares about the family..."
Shen Xuewei then asked, "Grandma, my aunt's ex-husband hit her before, why didn't you want her to get a divorce?"
Grandma Xi sighed, "Sigh, back then I was thinking, your aunt is not young anymore, and she can't have children. What if she gets divorced, and the next one is even worse than this one..."
"Now that they're divorced, look at your aunt, she still hasn't found anyone. She's busy all day long, I don't know what she's doing in the county. A girl should always have someone to rely on."
"After your grandfather and I are gone, she'll still have someone to take care of her..."
After listening to Grandma Xi's long-winded rambling, Shen Xuewei began to doze off.
Grandma Xi stopped talking. Shen Xuewei was about to go upstairs to sleep when Grandma Xi called her back.
"Weiwei, didn't you say your throat was a little sore? Take a throat lozenge first, then go back to sleep."
Shen Xuewei was a little unhappy, "Grandma, didn't I already eat loquat syrup? I don't need to eat this anymore..."
“Why not? You’re not better yet, are you? Your voice is like this… Listen to Grandma, take one.”
She put a throat lozenge into Shen Xuewei's mouth, and Shen Xuewei frowned, turned around and went upstairs, intending to spit it out secretly.
Grandma Xi, however, anticipated her thoughts and warned, "No vomiting. Stay here by the fire and wait until you've finished eating before you go upstairs."
Under her supervision, Shen Xuewei waited until the throat lozenge in her mouth had melted before opening her mouth for her inspection.
Only after Grandma Xi finished her examination did she gently pat her back and say, "Go on upstairs."
As soon as those three words were uttered, Shen Xuewei fled upstairs as if she were escaping.
I went to the bathroom on the second floor before going back to my room to sleep.
When I woke up the next day, the warm sun was shining on the earth, a rare treat.
Shen Xuewei remembered the promise she had made to Wu Yuhong a few days ago, so she told her family about it.
“Grandpa and Grandma, Yuhong said she’s going to town to sell her hair today, and I want to go with her.”
The elderly couple had no objection to someone going with her.
Grandpa Chen took out a wad of cash from his pocket, counted some out, and gave it to Shen Xuewei.
"Go to town and buy a pack of cigarettes for Grandma on your way back. Buy the Hongtashan brand that she usually smokes, and also buy me some tobacco... The rest of the money is your pocket money, keep it safe."
"Thank you, Grandpa."
After thanking her, Shen Xuewei looked at Grandma Xi.
"Grandma, is there anything you need me to bring?"
Grandma Xi thought for a moment, "Could you bring back two bags of vegetable seeds for me, just the two kinds that we grow the most in our garden? Also, remember to dye my hair when you get back, your grandpa isn't very good at it."
As she gets older, she has more and more gray hair.
When she had fewer gray hairs, Shen Xuewei would help her pluck them out.
However, there were more and more, and Shen Xuewei couldn't keep up with them all, and Grandma Xi didn't want to be pulled bald.
Later, Chen Fanglan bought black hair dye for her, and she would have Shen Xuewei dye her hair every few months.
Grandpa Chen was stung, but remembering his previous masterpiece, he remained silent.
...It wasn't him who wanted to dye it; she asked him to do it for her, and now she's blaming him.
Shen Xuewei nodded, "Okay, Grandma, I'll remember. I'm going to find Yuhong now."
She skipped out the door, and Grandma Xi chased after her, calling out, "Come back! It's cold outside, wear another layer underneath..."
Feeling that she was dressed just right, Shen Xuewei ran very fast and rushed to the Wu family in a flash.
Grandma Xi stood at the door, displeased, "This Weiwei, tell her to wear another layer of clothing, she's running so fast..."
Wu Yuhong carried a cloth bag, told her family, and then pulled Shen Xuewei to the roadside to wait for a car.
The two sat on a roadside stone and talked. Shen Xuewei looked at her waist-length black hair with a hint of regret in her eyes.
"Yu Hong, you've finally managed to grow your hair this long, are you really going to sell it?"
Wu Yuhong tucked a small blade of grass beside her. "Yes, I guess I should just sell it. I'm a little reluctant, but my mom has been nagging me about it so many times. She says I should get it cut short, and since I'm going to get it cut anyway, I might as well sell it to someone who buys hair..."
As they were talking, a minivan heading to town passed by. The two men waved, and the van stopped by the roadside.
The two hurriedly squeezed onto the bus and headed towards the town.
Half an hour later, Wu Yuhong looked in the mirror at her hair, which looked like it had been chewed by a dog, and almost cried as she took the hundred yuan from the person who collected her hair.
"Weiwei... is so ugly!"
Looking at her thinned hair, Shen Xuewei comforted her, "It's not ugly, it will grow back soon."
The person collecting hair, while combing the hair he had taken from Wu Yuhong, casually remarked:
"It's not ugly at all! Look, I even let it grow so long for you."
Wu Yuhong felt even more like crying as she listened.
Such an ugly hairstyle, it would have been better to just have him cut it off right across the neck.
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