Zhou Huaian didn't expect him to come. Looking at He Dakuan, who seemed to have aged ten years in just two years, he felt a little complicated when thinking of their previous friendship:
"It's a new society now. Who dares to leave the whole family alone? Look at the Ge family in the village. They have six daughters. The eldest is looking for a son-in-law, and the other five are all married. Who in the village is as comfortable as they are now?"
Xu Erchun looked at him, feeling very disappointed. "That's right, Dakuan, I'm not saying anything bad about you, but you should have told her, what's wrong with me being a daughter? I'll use the money I earn to find a son-in-law for her.
Look at our sister-in-law Wang. Her child is already so grown up, but she married a tall and handsome son-in-law who has never been married! Only you can stand He Xiaoying. If it were me, I would have asked her to get out long ago. Why are you keeping this kind of traitorous woman for the New Year?"
"I know this won't work!" He Dakuan said in agony, "but the child is less than one year old and she's a girl. I'm afraid that after I divorce He Xiaoying, if I find a new wife who's as vicious as Zou Cuifen, what will happen to the child?"
Looking at his former good buddies, and thinking about how they all lived better than him after they got married, he sometimes even wondered if his current situation was retribution for abandoning Tintin the Cat in the mountains last time.
Xu Erchun was at a loss, "What are you going to do in the future? You and your wife live under the same roof, you can't be on guard against your wife like a thief every day, right?"
He thinks that a couple should be of one mind and share the joys and sorrows, only then can they live a good life. Like him and his wife, with one quilt but two minds, what's the point of living?
It’s better to be single!
He Dakuan smiled bitterly and said, "I can only make do with this now. I have to be on guard against her and not give her money. When the child goes to elementary school, if she still behaves like this, we will divorce and live our own lives."
After hearing this, Xu Erchun thought of his own little girl. If he and Yang Hui were like this, he would divorce her, find another one, and leave the child to another woman. He would really be worried.
Zhou Huaian also felt that He Dakuan's concerns were correct. It was impossible for a young man full of vigor and vitality not to find another woman after divorce. If he found someone with a vicious heart, the child would suffer.
"Erchun, Dakuan is right. When the child grows up to six or seven years old, she will know how to find food and clothes when she is hungry or cold, and she will know how to complain to someone when she is wronged."
"I understand." Xu Erchun looked at He Dakuan, "Since we are here, why don't you ask the youngest brother about growing mugwort?"
He Dakuan looked at Zhou Huaian and said with a red face: "Youngest, I've been to your mountain land and dug some mugwort from the mountain. I'm just worried that no one will harvest it after I plant it, and it will be a waste of my time.
All the money in the family was taken away by He Xiaoying to the He family. It is impossible to get it back. You know my house. If I don’t make some money to renovate it, my house will be the worst in the village in the future.”
"If it takes too long, I can't guarantee it, but it should be fine in the next few years." Zhou Huaian paused, "The medicine shop also buys mugwort on weekdays. Even if no one comes to buy it at a high price during the Dragon Boat Festival, it is more cost-effective to harvest three times a year after planting it, which is better than growing potatoes and sweet potatoes."
"Thank you, youngest!" He Dakuan mustered up his courage, took out a box from his pocket and handed it over, "These are the bullets I borrowed from you before. I'm sorry that I owed you for so long."
"It's okay. I won't wait for it." Zhou Huaian took it politely.
He felt that no matter what He Dakuan did, he and Yiding would never be able to be together without any barriers like before, so it was fine for them to be polite to each other.
"Then I'll go back first." He Dakuan said dryly, turned and left.
He also understood that no matter what, he, Zhou Laoya and Zhou Yiding could never go back to the way they were before.
Seeing him walk away, Xu Erchun sighed, "No wonder the old saying goes, a virtuous wife brings less trouble to her husband. Dakuan's life is over if he marries a woman like this." After thinking about it, he said, "He asked me to help ask, but he didn't say he would come over."
"It's okay! Let's go watch TV." Zhou Huaian went back with him and saw that everyone in the yard was staring at the TV, but Yang Chunyan and her son were gone.
Thinking that she never liked watching TV, he went into the house, put the bullets in the drawer, closed the door and went to the backyard.
As soon as I walked to the back door, I heard Yang Chunyan saying, "Little rascal, don't stay in there. If you catch a cold, you'll have to drink bitter medicine."
"Jiuer, take a bath." Little Jiuer sat naked in the big wooden tub, patting the water in the tub with her hands and laughing happily.
Zhou Huaian stepped forward and picked him up, "You're being naughty and you're going to be spanked!" He then gently patted his butt twice.
Little Jiu'er pouted, "Jiu'er, take a bath, don't be naughty!"
"Okay, you're not naughty!" Yang Chunyan wrapped Xiao Jiu'er in a towel and said to Zhou Huaian, "Hold him and sit down. I'll wipe his hair with a dry towel."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian sat on the recliner. "Da Kuan came just now and returned the bullets he borrowed two years ago. He said that his wife... Fortunately, Third Sister-in-law is not like her, otherwise Third Brother's life would be miserable."
"If they continue like this, the children will suffer in the end." After hearing this, Yang Chunyan felt that He Xiaoying was what people in later generations called a "brother-supporting demon". She could not understand what was going on in these people's brains.
"Of course not!" Zhou Huaian leaned forward and kissed her, "My wife is still the best!"
"My mom!" Xiao Jiuer hugged Yang Chunyan's arm and turned to glare at him, "Bad! Bad! Dad is bad!"
Zhou Huaian also came forward and glared at him, then rubbed him, "Little thing, your mother is my wife!"
"My mom, my mom!" Xiao Jiuer hugged Yang Chunyan's arm tightly.
Yang Chunyan picked him up with a smile, "Okay, your mother, let's go to bed."
"Go to sleep!" Xiao Jiuer hugged her neck, "Don't let daddy sleep!"
"I want to sleep!" Zhou Huaian teased him with a smile, and the father and son walked back noisily.
"I'm going to sleep first. Tell my third brother to deliver the tofu pudding to my younger sister tomorrow, and two pieces of fish to Brother Huang and Master Li as well."
"Don't worry, I know what to do!" Zhou Huaian patted Xiao Jiuer's butt, sat next to the old man, picked up the tobacco leaves and helped wrap them up.
The old man who was leaning on the rattan chair and watching with great interest saw that it was him, looked around and asked, "Did Chunyan take Jiuer to bed?"
"Well! She said that children should go to bed early!" Zhou Huaian held the tobacco leaf and blew on it twice, then carefully unfolded the leaf and slowly wrapped it up.
After the TV show ended, Zhou Huaian said goodbye to the reluctant audience and told his mother about going to the forest farm tomorrow, asking her to help take care of the children for the next two days.
Zhou's mother nodded, "Go! Be careful and don't go to the old forest."
Zhou Huaian agreed readily, went to the backyard to pack up the things he would need for tomorrow morning, returned to the house, wiped the gun, put the bullets in the bag, and then went back to bed.
The next morning, Yang Chunyan got up, packed her things, and kissed her sleeping son reluctantly. Then the two of them went out, carrying their belongings and dry food.
After walking through the grove and turning onto the main road, we saw Zhou Yiding coming towards us carrying a basket on his back. After the three of them met up, they walked up the path along the field and headed straight up the mountain.
Autumn is a good time to collect herbs. There are violets, fragrant peonies and stinking peonies on the mountain roads. The big ones have all been picked, leaving only some immature ones.
When the sun just climbed over the mountain, they had already entered the woods, and the sound of birds chirping happily could be heard everywhere.
Zhou Yiding picked up the water bottle and took a sip, then pointed to the big rock in front of him and said, "I can't do it anymore. I'm so tired. Let's take a rest before we go on."
Yang Chunyan nodded, put the backpack under a big tree, and sat down leaning against the tree.
Zhou Huaian sat on a big rock and nudged Zhou Yiding with a smile, "You kid, don't be too aggressive at night. You need to conserve your energy. You can't get old before your time!"
"Get away from me! Do you think I'm the same as you?" Zhou Yiding rolled his eyes at him and yawned. "That bastard Wang Chunming got up in the middle of the night to beat his wife, howling like a ghost, and kept me awake."
Then he looked at Zhou Huaian again, "I heard from them that Zhou Huaixing paid 300 yuan to Wang Chunming, and Xiong Laosan paid 400 yuan, saying that the two had been hooking up for several years.
I suspect that Wang Chunming might have a problem with that, otherwise why would he not divorce even though he knew that he was cheating on her?"
"Mind your own business and make more money! As long as those bitches don't come to stare at me, it will be fine." Zhou Huaian took out a pear and began to peel it slowly.
"That's right!" Zhou Yiding also picked up one. "My husband has completed one year of work and doesn't want to leave. He said that his monthly salary at the forest farm is not enough to cover our family's expenses. If he quits, the truffles in the forest will belong to others after he leaves the mountain."
Zhou Huaian cut half of the pear for Yang Chunyan, came back and sat down and said, "Old people are like this, they are reluctant to give away anything, let alone sell so many truffles in one season."
"He just couldn't bear to part with the truffles in the forest." Zhou Yiding opened his mouth and took a big bite. "This pear is really delicious. Let me ask my brother to help me graft a few."
"Okay, I'll tell him when he comes to help me prune the branches of the fruit trees."
After the three of them finished eating the pears, they were almost done with rest, so they stood up, put on their backpacks, and continued to walk up the mountain. After the sun rose, the forest became hotter and hotter, and the cicadas were calling at the top of their lungs in the trees.
Yang Chunyan took off her straw hat and kept fanning herself. Zhou Huaian said, if they had known it would be so hot, they would have taken the road along the ditch where there is flowing water and it would be cooler.
At noon, the three of them sat under a hill and ate dry food. When Yang Chunyan went to relieve herself, she found a lot of Achyranthes bidentata on the shady side of the slope. Now was the season for digging, so after eating rice balls, she called the other two to go to the back of the hill.
Achyranthes bidentata, a perennial herb of the genus Achyranthes bidentata in the Amaranthaceae family, has its rhizome as its medicinal part.
Its leaves are broad and thick, and at first glance look somewhat similar to Amaranth. The young leaves are often used as feed for pigs, cows, and chickens. Some people also call it mountain Amaranth.
The square stems are mostly green or purple-red in color, and the swellings at the tubercles look like cow knees, so it is called Niu Xi. (End of this chapter)
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