Chapter 431 433: To give birth or not?
"I think those white-skinned people in the upper echelons are just trying to scare the common people. Look at the tractor in the construction team. It hasn't been found yet."
Xiong Laoer paused and said in a low voice, "I've seen it. We dug a pit at the bend on the north side of Guanyin Mountain. When he drives to the pit where the tractor wheel falls, and comes down to check, we hit him on the head with a stick and knock him down..."
After hearing this, Fang Tuzi thought for a while and shook his head, saying, "The wheel is stuck. There's no way for you and me to get it out! If we delay for too long and someone finds out, everything will be over."
After hearing this, Xiong Laoer also became worried, "If there is one more person, we will lose money, and if there are too many people, it will be easy to reveal our true intentions."
Fang Tuzi racked his brains for a long time, and then he remembered the scene in the movie where they robbed the enemy's things. He excitedly slapped the table and said, "What a fool! Why bother digging a hole? Why not just put a piece of wood across the middle of the road?"
After hearing this, Xiong Lao Er slapped the table happily, "Yes! You are really smart!"
Fang Tuzi looked at him proudly and said, "Tomorrow morning we will carry the wood to the bend of Guanyin Mountain and wait for Zhou Laoyao to serve!"
"Okay!" Bear Lao Er rubbed his hands, "Once we find the wood, we'll go to Old Fang's house and play a few games. It'll be perfect to go there before daybreak."
Fang Tuzi stood up and took two steps, then turned back and stared at him and whispered, "Let me make it clear first, we are only trying to steal the tractor, and we must not kill anyone, otherwise we will really get shot."
Xiong Laoer was stunned for a moment, then said, "Don't worry, I don't want to kill him. At most I'll just beat him up to vent my anger!"
Fang Tuzi patted him on the shoulder and said, "Remember what you said, we won't do anything that will put our lives at risk!"
The two went to Fang Tuzi's abandoned pigsty.
In the middle of the night, it really started to snow and sleet, and the tops of the mountains in the distance were already covered with new white clothes.
At dawn, Xiong Laoer came out of the gambling den with his hands folded, cursing, "Damn it, I lost again. If I had known I would have left after the first half, I would have won more than ten dollars!"
Fang Tuzi followed him with his neck shrunk, "You won a little in the first half, but my luck is really shit, I haven't won a single time when I sit at the table during this period!"
The second bear looked at the sky and said viciously: "Let's do something big to change our luck!"
"Yeah!" Fang Tuzi and he trotted back home on the dirt road that was rustling after being covered with icicles. They carried a piece of wood as thick as an adult's thigh and walked towards the foot of Guanyin Mountain.
When they reached the bend, the two hid behind a bush and soon were shivering with cold.
Fang Tuzi hugged his arms and almost shrunk his head into his neck. His teeth were chattering from the cold. "Fuck, why is it so cold?"
Xiong Laoer stuffed his clothes into his pants and said, "It's better to be a little colder. When it's cold, fewer people will go out, and we will be safer."
"That's true." Fang Tuzi hugged his arms tightly and pricked up his ears. He listened for a long time but didn't hear the rumbling sound of the tractor. "It's freezing! Why hasn't the damned one come yet?"
Xiong Laoer stretched his neck to look, but it was too gray to see far. "I saw Zhou Laoyao often went out on a bicycle. Could that bastard have come here on a bicycle?"
After hearing this, Fang Tuzi thought it was entirely possible. He looked at the sky and said, "If we don't hear the sound of the tractor for a while, we'll go back."
"If we wait any longer, it will be daybreak. We have no choice but to go back."
After a while, a light shone towards them like a firefly, and Zhou Huaishan's voice came to their ears. The two of them hurriedly hid behind the bushes and dared not move.
"Big brother, luckily I got two pairs of knitted gloves from the youngest brother last night, otherwise I wouldn't even be able to hold the steering wheel today."
"My face and ears are hurting from the snow and wind. Let's go to the city and buy a snow hat like the youngest one."
"Great!" The two brothers quickly reached the bend and rode past like a gust of wind.
Xiong Laoer and Fang Tuzi came out from behind the bushes, picked up the wood and walked back with stiff steps, "Let's wear something warmer tomorrow and come back."
"That's right. I don't believe he rides a bicycle all winter."
The two returned to Fang Tuzi's house and cooked some sweet potatoes to eat. Xiong Laoer slept at Fang's house until mid-afternoon before returning to Fu Niu.
Seeing his bruised face, He Hongxiu said unhappily, "Did you go out to gamble again last night? With your face so swollen, can't you just stay at home for a few days?"
Xiong Lao Er glanced at her impatiently and said, "Go, get me something to eat."
He Hongxiu knew from his expression that he had lost again, "You've been losing every time recently. If you continue like this, you'll squander all the money in the family."
"You know nothing!" Xiong Lao Er pushed her and said, "Hurry up and get me something to eat."
He Hongxiu stood firm, turned around and walked towards the gate of the courtyard, "I'm going to find the old man and tell him that you go out to play for money every day and now you don't even come home."
Xiong Laoer quickly stopped her and said, "Let me tell you, Fang Tuzi and I have found a job. We will make a lot of money when we finish it. Just tell the old man and everything will be settled."
He Hongxiu glanced at him and said, "Stop kidding me. Fang Tuzi is a bachelor and all he knows how to do is spend money. Are you talking about making big money? You're no better than stealing a cow!"
Xiong Laoer's mind raced, "Baldy Fang found me a job driving a tractor and asked me to unload the cargo. The pay is five dollars a day. If I work full time this month, I will earn more than a hundred dollars."
He Hongxiu's eyes lit up after hearing this, and she said happily: "Take me with you, and the two of us can earn three hundred a month."
"I just stuffed it in." Xiong Laoer rubbed his growling stomach, "I'm starving, hurry up and cook something for me!"
"Great!" He Hongxiu walked towards the kitchen with brisk steps.
After eating and drinking his fill, Bear No. 2 slept until dark. After playing cards, he and Baldy Fang carried some wood and waited in the bushes.
When people arrived, it was still Zhou Huaishan, but the person accompanying him was replaced by Zhou Huairong.
Fang Tuzi looked at the two Zhou brothers riding away on their bikes and said, "Second brother, the last time you saw them driving a tractor into the city, was it one person or two people?"
Xiong Lao Er said with certainty: "I can't be mistaken, it's the same person!"
Fang Tuzi blew his frozen nose and wiped it on the wood. "Let's go. We'll continue tomorrow morning."
Xiong Laoer stepped forward and picked up the wood. "That's right, we can't just sit there freezing for two days in vain!" The crazy woman at home was still waiting for him to take the hundred and fifty yuan back!
******
During the days when the truffles in the drying room were not dried, Zhou Huaian went to the mountain to dig truffles every morning and went up the mountain to chop firewood in the afternoon.
In three noon hours, the five people dug up more than 200 kilograms of truffles.
The firewood that was chopped filled up the steps behind Zhou Huaian’s house.
Early in the morning of the fourth day, Zhou Yiding went to the forest farm, while Zhou Huaian and his brother continued to go up the mountain to dig truffles.
Yang Chunyan puts dried truffles into a bamboo basket at home.
He turned over the truffles drying in the bamboo basket, walked to the stove and added two pieces of firewood into it.
Not long after dinner, Zhao Huifang and her two sisters-in-law came to Yang Chunyan's house with shoe soles and sat in the warm oven to do needlework.
Zhang Xiuxiang sat for a while and took off her coat and put it aside. "It's just right for sitting today. It was too hot the past two days."
Li Qiuyue looked at the truffles drying on the bamboo rack and said, "Chunyan, have the first batch of truffles been dried?"
Yang Chunyan nodded, "It could have been delivered this morning, but Huai'an was worried that the big ones were not completely dry, so we'll dry them for another day and deliver them tomorrow morning."
After weighing the dried truffles, she found that the loss after drying was similar to what she remembered, an average of four to five kilograms of wet goods for one kilogram of dry goods, and the larger the size, the smaller the loss.
Zhao Huifang glanced at Li Qiuyue and said, "The month is getting bigger and bigger. Have you discussed it with the third brother? Do you want to do it or not?"
Li Qiuyue put down her shoe in annoyance. "Mom and the third child both said that since I'm pregnant, they don't mind whether it's a boy or a girl. But I'm worried that I'll end up with a girl like the second Lai family. I've been struggling for a few days and still can't make up my mind."
Zhang Xiuxiang said, "What's there to worry about? Mom and the third child have already said so, so just give birth to the baby! Whether it's a son or a daughter, it's just a matter of having an extra pair of chopsticks."
Li Qiuyue touched her belly, her brows furrowed so tightly that they could kill a mosquito. "I'm afraid that the baby will be another girl, and those gossipy women in the village will laugh at me."
Yang Chunyan: "Third sister-in-law, you are really something. You know that they are all gossipy women, so why are you still afraid of what they say?"
Zhang Xiuxiang nodded, "Chunyan is right. As long as your family members don't say anything, why do you care about what those people do? Look at how Lai Po treats her daughter-in-law. Don't be ungrateful for what you have!"
"I know!" Li Qiuyue said to the others, "If it was like before, I would have given birth without thinking twice. But in this world, if they find out, they will drag me to the town like a pig for surgery!"
Zhao Huifang: "Then think it over. If you want to have surgery, do it as soon as possible and don't put it off for too long."
"I'm not saying I'm going to have the surgery. I just thought if I could find a safe place to hide for a few months, I'd take a chance, regardless of whether it's a boy or a girl. Of course it would be best if it's a boy, but if it's a girl, it would be the fate of my third child and me!"
Li Qiuyue said as she looked at Yang Chunyan, "Chunyan, the youngest and Yiding have a good relationship, you talk to the youngest, and I'll go hide in the forest farm when the time comes, and when the baby is born, I'll hang red and set off fireworks."
Yang Chunyan looked at her and asked, "Have you really made up your mind? Will you regret it no matter if it's a boy or a girl?"
She was worried that Li Qiuyue would be like those women who favored boys over girls. She would go out and hide for a few months, and then in the end, when she saw that the child she gave birth to after all the hard work was a daughter, she would take her anger out on the child.
"That's my fate. There's nothing to regret!" Li Qiuyue said with a smile, "Whether it's a son or a daughter, they are all my own flesh and blood. They're not picked up babies, and they're not my stepmother's!"
Yang Chunyan nodded readily, "Okay, since you have made up your mind, I will ask Huai'an to talk to Yiding about this when he comes back. Don't worry, there will be a place for you to hide and give birth to the child in peace."
Li Qiuyue looked at the three of them with gratitude, "Thank you! When the third child grows up, I will tell him to respect his eldest aunt, second aunt, and fourth aunt."
At this moment, what she was thinking in her heart was that the greatest blessing in her life was to marry the third brother, to have a good mother-in-law, and to have sisters-in-law like you!
Zhao Huifang smiled and said, "Forget about the filial piety, just don't accuse us of being nosy."
"If he dares, I can kill him!" Li Qiuyue said with a smile.
(End of this chapter)
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