Chapter 12 "Small Leaf Birthmark"
"Zhao Zhao, you have to pay attention to the child and don't rely on your mother-in-law for everything. There are so many children in the Gu family, and Cheng Huai's mother has limited energy. The child is yours, you can't leave everything to others. That's not what your mother taught you." Lin's mother advised earnestly.
She knew what her daughter had been up to in recent years, and she felt it was hard for her daughter, so she didn't have the heart to say much. As time went by, a few years passed. Mother Lin was worried that her grandchildren would become estranged from her daughter when they grew up, so she would give her some advice every time she saw them.
"I know, I..." Lin Zhao wanted to explain, but was interrupted by the eldest and second sons who broke into the room.
"Grandma!!" Erzai shouted enthusiastically like a little sun.
Then, the eldest child said with the same joy, "Grandma."
Mother Lin smiled and waved to her two grandchildren, "Hey, grandma's eldest and second sons, come and show me if you have grown taller."
The eldest and second cubs stood in front of their grandmother, standing as straight as young poplars.
The second child had a proud expression, "Grandma, look at me first. I ate a big bowl of dumplings yesterday, eight in total. I must have grown taller."
"Did you eat dumplings yesterday?" Lin's mother was surprised.
"Well, my mother made it. It's full of meat and very delicious." Erzai showed off again.
Lin's mother was even more shocked, "Your mother did it?"
"My mother still needs to make clothes for us." The eldest son also said.
"Zhao Zhao, have you figured it out?" Lin's mother looked at Lin Zhao suddenly, her tone somewhat excited.
Lin Zhao nodded without further explanation, "Yes, I've figured it out. I gave birth to all four of them with great difficulty, I can't just ignore them."
The corners of the mouths of the two children, Dazai and Erzai, were curved into fishing hooks.
"You're right to think so." Mother Lin's eyes were filled with relief, "You've grown up."
In the past few years, she and Zhaozhao's father always felt regretful, thinking... that they were too hasty to agree to their daughter's marriage so easily. Zhao Zhao is still a child who hasn't grown up yet. She got married, had children, but the man she married is not around. Life is not going well, and her temper has become bad...
Her father always advised her that everything would be fine once she grew up, and it was true.
This is not.
My daughter suddenly became sensible.
"I'll go back and tell your dad. I'm sure he'll be happy too."
Lin's mother and father were a young couple. They had never had a quarrel for decades, and they had never been separated. They had a very good relationship and always cared about each other.
Lin Zhao was used to it.
but.
Seeing the joy on her mother's face, she added, "I will go back often in the future."
"Okay." Lin's mother responded with full energy.
As soon as she finished speaking, Lin Shisheng came in.
"Second brother." Lin Zhao said in a light tone.
"Zhao Zhao, tell the eldest and second sons to go to the Gu family's old house less often in the future." Lin Shisheng said.
Lin Zhao was puzzled.
"What's wrong?" Lin's mother's face turned cold, and her sharp eyes fell on Lin Shisheng's face, and asked him: "Has anyone in the Gu family given our eldest and second sons a bad look?"
"I didn't show them a bad look, but the eldest and second cubs were almost hurt by their aunt." Lin Shisheng thought of the scene he had encountered before and his expression looked unhappy.
"What?" Mother Lin hurriedly checked her eldest and second sons, fearing that her two grandsons had suffered something when she was not paying attention.
The eldest cub hurriedly said, "Grandma, the second cub and I are fine. When the youngest aunt's firewood was about to fall on us, the second uncle appeared and helped us kick the firewood away."
Erzai nodded vigorously beside him.
Mother Lin was relieved, but she was very angry. She stood up and was about to go to the Gu family's old house.
He was stopped by Lin Shisheng.
"Mom, I've taught someone a lesson."
Lin's mother paused and asked, "How did you teach him a lesson?"
Erzai's eyes were as bright as lights, and he proudly recounted the scene where their second uncle helped them vent their anger.
He is a child with strong language talent, clear thinking and good memory. He uses performance to tell the previous scenes.
Lin Zhao watched her second son acting one moment as his aunt, the next as himself and his eldest son, and the next as his second uncle, yet he remained calm and composed despite being busy.
Perfectly recreated that scene.
The visuals are very strong.
It makes people feel like they are at the scene.
Her expression relaxed slightly.
I felt that the eldest and second cubs had big hearts. Even though they were almost hurt, the two kids had forgotten about it in less than half an hour.
"Thank you, second brother, for protecting the eldest and second cubs." Lin Zhao smiled and thanked Lin Shisheng.
Lin Shisheng was slightly startled, and said in surprise: "You are so polite to my second brother?"
He raised his eyebrows and smiled, "Is this still my sister?"
There was a flash of helplessness in Lin Zhao's eyes.
She had been spoiled by her family and had never even said thank you. No wonder her second brother found it strange.
"Brother, are you and mother hungry?"
Seeing that she was trying to change the subject, Lin Shisheng didn't expose her intentionally, and said jokingly, "You want to treat me and my mother to a meal?"
"Would you like some dumplings?" Lin Zhao asked directly.
The Lin family did not eat commercial grain and relied entirely on the crops in the fields. Fortunately, Lin Shisheng was good at fishing and hunting, so they could occasionally taste meat, which was better than other families.
Hunting and fishing depend on luck. The Lin family hasn't eaten meat for more than a month.
Not to mention delicate foods like dumplings.
"Okay." Lin Shisheng was rude to his own sister.
Just as he finished speaking, Lin's mother slapped him on the back, causing him to grimace in pain.
"Mom." The young man, who already has two children, said in a resentful tone.
His funny look made the older and younger cubs laugh out loud. The twins didn't understand what was going on, but they also giggled.
"What are you doing? Is your family short of food or drink? Why do you come to Zhaozhao to beg for money?" Lin's mother scolded with a stern face.
When she looked at her daughter, her expression softened again, "Mother and your second brother came here after dinner. We just came to see you because we were worried. We will be back soon."
She touched her grandson's thin face and said, "If you take good care of my grandchildren, I will be satisfied."
Lin Zhao put her arm around the eldest cub's shoulders and said seriously, "I was confused these past few years and didn't know how to love my four cubs. Now I've woken up and I'm treating them well."
The eldest boy turned his head and looked into his mother's gentle eyes, his eyes slightly curved, "Well, my mother treats us very well, grandma, don't worry."
"Mom, I want to tidy up the vegetable garden in the backyard. You and my second brother can help me." Lin Zhao said bluntly.
Lin Shisheng has been protecting his sister since he was young. He does whatever Zhao Zhao says. He is a complete sister-con.
Without thinking, he said, "Just tell me how you want me to do it, and I'll do it."
"Let's go to the backyard and talk."
Several people came to the backyard.
Lin Zhao glanced at the messy backyard and said disdainfully, "The backyard is so messy. Second brother, help me build a fence around the vegetable garden. The fence should be made of bamboo strips and the height should be the same. I don't care about the shape, but it must be neat and..."
"It makes people feel relaxed and happy, right?" Lin Shisheng continued.
"I understand. It's the same as ours. Don't worry, leave it to me."
His daughter Zhaozhao has always been a little girl with high demands on life since she was young.
Lin Zhao made another request to her mother, "Mom, please help me grow some other vegetables. We don't have enough seeds, and my eldest sons are tired of eating Chinese cabbage."
"?"
The eldest boy was full of questions.
But he didn't expose his mother.
"Spoiled." Lin's mother said to Lin Zhao, but she did not reject her daughter. "I'll go to the Gu family's old house to see if there are any vegetable seeds."
She straightened her clothes, shook off the dust from her feet, and walked towards the Gu family's old house.
The second child hurried to follow.
Lin Shisheng went to get the bamboo strips.
Lin Zhao looked at the twins, a boy and a girl, who were sitting in the yard digging the soil. The two little babies, who could hardly speak clearly, seemed to be debating about something, which was very interesting.
"Big boy, look after your brothers and sisters. Mom will go to cook. Your grandma and uncle are coming to visit us. Let them stay and eat dumplings today."
"Okay." The eldest cub said happily, "Mom, I will take good care of the third and fourth cubs, you go and get busy."
He is happy eating dumplings, and he is even happier eating dumplings with his grandma and uncle.
"Having a son as obedient as you really makes me worry less," Lin Zhao said with emotion.
She walked toward the front yard.
The older cub who stayed behind was almost coaxed into a placenta by his mother.
Lin Zhao had just arrived at the front yard when she heard a familiar voice coming from outside.
Someone outside shouted, the barber is coming.
She hurriedly shouted at the top of her voice, "Big boy."
Hearing their mother's call, the eldest cub hurried over, leading the dirty twins, a boy and a girl.
"mother?"
Lin Zhao stuffed two cents into the eldest son's pocket and said, "The barber is here. You and the second son, get your hair cut."
"Shave your head," she reminded.
The eldest stayed where he was.
Lin Zhao coaxed, "It's cooler to be bald. Besides, your hair and Erzi's grow fast, it will grow out soon."
The eldest child thought what his mother said made sense, "Okay."
So he took his younger brother and sister and left home.
After walking a few steps, they ran into the second child who was following Lin Shisheng. The first child hurriedly called out, "Second child, mother wants us to get a haircut, do you want to go?"
"I'm not going. I want to help my second uncle." said Erzai.
"Mom said it's cool to get a haircut. If you don't go, I will." The eldest boy said as he led his younger brothers and sisters towards the village entrance.
Seeing this, Erzai changed his mind instantly, "I'll go too. We are brothers, and we should do everything together."
Lin Shisheng smiled and shook his head.
Tiechui came running from a distance, "Big cub, second cub, what are you going to do?"
"Let's go get a haircut, do you want to come?" Erzai said.
"go."
The brothers went together.
Lin Zhao was busy in the kitchen. Her mother was about to come back from getting vegetable seeds and called out Zhao Zhao. She originally wanted to tell her what vegetable seeds she had gotten, but when she peeked inside the kitchen door, she saw that her daughter had kneaded a lot of flour, all of which was fine grain. Her face changed suddenly.
Rush in.
"Zhao Zhao, what are you doing? Why are you mixing so much flour, all white flour? Are you having trouble living?"
When I got closer, I saw that the noodles in the Hua Kai Fu Gui enamel basin were beyond saving, and I felt so heartbroken.
"Yes." Lin Zhao smiled.
Mother Lin said angrily, "Who else lives like you? With so much flour, Da Zi and his children can eat noodles for a month."
"We still have noodles, don't worry, your grandson won't starve." Lin Zhao said calmly, "You and my second brother came to visit me, and I didn't even cook a meal for you. What's this?"
Mother Lin was unmoved and still angry, "I've never seen you so reserved before."
Lin Zhao still smiled and said, "I am no longer the same as I was before."
Mother Lin had never been to school and didn't know much about anything. She said earnestly, "Zhao Zhao, it's not easy for your son-in-law to earn money. Spend it sparingly."
"We still have the older kids to take care of. When they grow up, they have to go to school and get married, right?"
"If you don't think and plan now, you will cry later."
"We have the eldest sons as their father." Lin Zhao disagreed. She was a casual person and never fought over internal conflicts. To her, living well in the present was more important than anything else.
Lin's mother wanted to hit her, "My son-in-law is capable of earning a living, but he married a daughter-in-law who is so ugly that her fingers are too wide to be seen."
"I was raised by my mother." Lin Zhao was not afraid. Her mother had never said a harsh word to her since she was a child.
Mother Lin choked and was so angry that she didn't want to pay attention to her and went to the backyard.
Lin Shisheng, who had gotten the bamboo strips, saw his mother's angry back, poked his head into the kitchen, and asked in a low voice, "Zhao Zhao, how did you make mother angry again?"
Lin Zhao covered the dough and began to mix the stuffing. The small enamel bowl was full of meat. "Mother complained that the gaps between my fingers were too wide."
When Lin Shisheng saw so much meat, his Adam's apple rolled like beads and he felt a little greedy.
He agreed with Lin's mother, "You have a lot of room between your fingers. You actually cooked all the meat. It would be great to keep it for a meal every few days."
Lin Zhao raised her eyes to look at him, "Stop talking nonsense, just tell me if you want to eat or not?"
"What you said is true. Who doesn't want to eat meat?" The Lin family was short of food and hadn't made dumplings in two years.
"Wait until my second brother finishes his work, and I'll let you eat all the dumplings you want." Lin Zhao took two steps forward and said to Lin Shisheng, "Open your hands."
Lin Shisheng stretched out his arms and opened his hands.
Lin Zhao put two rock candies in the pot and said with a smile, "To sweeten my second brother's mouth."
"Rock sugar?" Lin Shisheng's eyes were full of surprise. He had seen rock sugar before, but he had never seen such white and transparent rock sugar, as if it did not have a trace of impurities.
"Is it rock candy? It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen."
Without waiting for Lin Zhao to answer, he threw the candy into his mouth, tasted the sweetness, and a smile flashed in his eyes.
"It's rock sugar." Lin Zhao continued to work, "Second brother, is an hour enough to build a fence for the vegetable garden? I'll calculate the time to make dumplings."
"Enough, enough." Lin Shisheng looked casual and confident. That little bit of work was nothing for someone who usually did hard labor.
"knew."
Lin Shisheng went to work in the backyard. As he had guessed, he listened to Lin's mother's nagging for a long time. She was always saying that Lin Zhao had too many gaps between her fingers and didn't know how to live.
He said, "Zhao Zhao hurt his head, so it's okay to fix it."
"Mother brought eggs and fish to Zhao Zhao, didn't she also want to nourish her body..."
While tidying up the vegetable garden, Lin's mother said, "Is that for her to heal herself? She wants us to heal her. Your sister is good to you. You must remember this and protect her more."
Lin Shisheng had expected the topic to return to this point. "That's for sure. I only have one sister, so of course I will protect her."
"Remember your words."
Yesterday, the aroma coming from the Gu family made the neighbors next door unable to eat. Today, at dinner time, the aroma of meat wafted in the air again.
The Wang family's children were crying because of greed. Wang Chunhua saw her grandchildren crying pitifully, so she gritted her teeth and boiled two eggs and let the children share them. Only then did she coax them into silence.
The neighbor's child on the other side couldn't be comforted for a long time. The boy's crying could almost shake the roof off.
The Lin family was eating a bowl of dumplings each.
Hearing the ghosts howling next door, Lin's mother frowned, looked at Lin Zhao and asked, "Has it always been like this over there?"
"I didn't cry before, but it just started in the past two days. I'll have plenty of opportunities to cry in the future." Lin Zhao didn't care.
There was no way she could have cared about her neighbors and not opened fire.
"You didn't hit them enough. Your brothers wouldn't dare to do this when they were young," said Lin's mother.
Lin Shisheng was eating dumplings one by one with great relish. He paused when he heard this. "How dare we mess with mother's fist, which is as big as a sandbag?"
It is no exaggeration to say that the three brothers of the Lin family grew up under the violent suppression of their mother.
Lin Zhao had three brothers. No, to be precise, she had four brothers.
Her third and fourth brothers were twins, and the younger twin brother was stolen when he was born.
The Lin family only knew that the child had a small leaf-shaped birthmark on his ear, and knew nothing else.
(End of this chapter)
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