When Zhou Jialiang saw the old man on the tractor, his buttocks tightened involuntarily, and he quickly hid behind Zhou Huaian to reduce his presence. Zhou Jiaming did the same. At this moment, he wished he had the ability to become invisible so that he could hide properly and not be discovered by the old man.
When Zhou Huairong and his brothers saw that Zhou Huaian had brought the child back safely, they all breathed a sigh of relief and jumped off the tractor holding a piece of yellow broom.
Seeing Zhou Jiaming wearing Zhou Huaian's clothes, Zhou Xiaoqian and Zhou Jialiang's shoes and pants were wet, and they looked at them with grim faces.
"Why are you hiding behind your dad? You dare to go out and cast the net, and you're still afraid of getting beaten!"
Zhou Huaian dragged the two of them out and said, "Apologize to your old man!"
Seeing this, Zhou Jiaming and his brother quickly begged for mercy, "Old man, we won't dare to do it again next time."
"I've told you so many times, your memory has been eaten by a dog..." Zhou Huairong pulled Zhou Jiaming and his brother over, and swung the yellow broom stick with a whistling sound, hitting them on the buttocks several times in a row.
Hitting people with a thin stick will only hurt the skin but not the bones, and it will cause a burning pain on the body!
"Ah~ Woo... Woo..." Zhou Jiaming and his brother jumped up, holding their buttocks, crying and begging for mercy, "Old man, I won't dare to do it again next time..."
The yellow broom stick in his hand was as thick as his little finger, but moderately soft and hard. It had a bit of elasticity when swung, and felt very skin-friendly when hitting the body.
The pain is right next to the bone.
Zhou Jiaming looked at his younger sisters standing timidly by his side and regretted being reborn as a boy. In other families, it was the girls who got beaten, but in his family, they were the ones who suffered whenever they got into trouble.
Over there, Zhou Huaijun's yellow broom stick just hit Zhou Jiakang once, and that guy fled behind Zhou Huaian, circling around him, shouting as he ran, "Help, help!"
"I just hit you once and you shouted for help!" Zhou Huaijun was so angry that he grabbed him and hit him a few more times, making him jump on his feet.
"Someone was beaten to death, Dad. My old man was going to beat me to death." Zhou Jiakang cried and hugged Zhou Huaian's legs.
I regretted it so much. Wouldn't it be better to stay at home, eat sunflower seeds and peanuts, read baby books, and wait for people to rent books and make money? I went fishing to join in the fun, but I didn't catch any fish, and I got beaten up for it!
Zhou Huaian didn't expect this guy to be so shameless. He felt that beating him a few times was enough. "Second brother, the kids are all soaked. Let them go back first and change their clothes. It won't be too late to clean up later."
When the kids heard the last sentence, they cried even more sadly when they thought about being beaten when they got home.
Dad must have said that on purpose because he was angry that they laughed at him getting beaten.
Zhou San's father, who was watching the card game in the sunbathing area, heard the child crying and came over, "Huairong, why are you beating the child during the New Year?"
"You little bastard, you stole your father's fishing net and went to the river to catch fish..."
Before Dad Zhou San said anything, someone who was watching the fun started talking. "You dare to cast a net by the river before your hair even grows out. You deserve to be beaten. If it hurts, you will remember it next time."
"He's only a little bit older, but he's so bold. He needs to be taught a lesson."
"You are too bold. The water in the river is so deep and there are big fish. What if you catch a big fish and drag the net and yourself into the river?"
"That's right. One was just rushed away two years ago. If I don't give him a good beating, he'll have to go again in the future to learn his lesson."
Zhou Jiaming and the others were speechless. Are there any elders as unkind as you? Instead of helping to persuade them, you added fuel to the fire. Didn't I give you a spanking?
Zhou Huairong looked at the listless people and said, "Okay, hurry up and go home to change your clothes."
The kids climbed onto the tractor in a hurry as if they had been pardoned. Once they were on, they sat down obediently, leaning against the car body with their necks shrunk like doves.
Zhou Yiding drove into the drying dam, turned the car around, sped back to Zhou Huaian's house, and went straight into the yard.
Yang Chunyan and the others who heard the noise ran out and saw the clothes on Zhou Jiaming's body. "Did he fall into the river?"
Zhou Huaian: "Jiaming fell into the river... Fortunately, the water was not fast, and a few kids pulled him back."
Zhao Huifang didn't even dare to think after hearing this. She was so angry that she stepped forward and slapped Zhou Jiaming on the butt a few times, "You debt collector, do you want to piss me off to death?"
"..." Zhou Jiaming was speechless and didn't dare to say that he fell into the water because he was frightened by his father.
Seeing that the faces of the three elder ones were all blue from the cold, Zhou's mother hurriedly said, "Huifang, Xiuxiang, take them to change their clothes first, and come over to drink the ginger soup. We will deal with them later."
Zhao Huifang nodded and glanced at the two of them with a dark face, "Go change your clothes first, I'll settle the score with you later!"
Zhou Jiakang looked at Zhang Xiuxiang who was dragging Zhou Xiaoqian away, and went over to pull Zhou's mother to beg for mercy, "Grandma, we won't go next time!"
"I tell you every day not to go to the river. What if you fall into the river and get washed away?" Thinking that the three older ones had all gone into the water this time, Zhou's mother felt scared and slapped him angrily.
Pointing at the children, he said, "One or two of you, if you are not punished for three days, you will tear off the roof. You deserve to be beaten. Go and kneel down at the door of the main hall."
Zhou Jiakang and a few others went to the door of the main hall and knelt in a row dejectedly.
Zhou's mother pulled a chair and sat down, and began to mutter, "What did I tell you? You can't go to the riverside or the cave..."
Zhou Jiakang turned his head and looked at her tearfully, "Grandma, we were wrong. We will never go there again. I just saw my brother fall into the water. I was so scared that my legs went limp. Wow..."
"Grandma, I'm scared too!" Zhou Xiaoru was terrified just thinking about it. "I saw Sister Qian and Brother Jialiang almost fall into the river, and my heart almost jumped out of my chest."
Zhou Xiaowen looked scared and said, "Grandma, we won't go there anymore."
"You know you're scared now!" Zhou's mother glared at the three of them. "I've told you several times not to go to the river. It's no joke if you fall into the water. Now you know you're scared, right?"
Zhou Jiakang nodded repeatedly, "No, there's nothing good to eat if we go again."
Mother Zhou saw that they all knew they were wrong, and she couldn't bear to see them kneeling during the New Year. "Stand up! If you don't obey me, you will not be my grandson or granddaughter, and I will not be your grandmother!"
Zhou Jiakang and the others threw themselves into her arms, twisting their bodies like candies, "Grandma, you are my grandma."
Yang Chunyan cooked ginger soup for the children in the kitchen. She brought it out and saw that they were all crowded in Zhou's mother's arms. She smiled and said, "Come and have a bowl of ginger soup, so that you won't catch a cold during the New Year and won't even have anything delicious to eat."
Zhou's mother patted a few people on the buttocks and said, "Go drink ginger soup."
At this time, Zhou Jiaming's brother and Zhou Xiaoqian also came. Judging from the appearance of the three of them, they might have been beaten again. They picked up the bowls obediently, drank all the ginger soup in one breath, put down the bowls and stood there with their heads down.
Zhao Huifang pointed at them with a gloomy stepmother's face and said, "You are so idle every day, go to the back mountain to cut grass for the pigs."
Zhou Jiaming sighed in his heart. He just got beaten up and was punished to cut grass on New Year's Day. How could he survive this year?
"You guys go cut the grass too." Zhang Xiuxiang glanced at Zhou Xiaoqian and her brother calmly, "All this year's rewards will be confiscated and used to compensate Dad for his fishing nets."
Zhao Huifang looked at Zhou Jiaming and his brother, "You two don't have any rewards, so use this year's New Year's money to compensate your father. When you have enough money for the fishing net, I will give you the New Year's money!"
Zhou Jiaming and his brothers lost their New Year's money, Zhou Xiaoqian and the others lost their rewards, and the brothers and sisters suddenly felt like eggplants hit by white frost. They all wilted completely, went to the backyard listlessly, picked up their backpacks, and walked towards the back mountain.
After Zhou's mother and the others went up the mountain, they smiled and said to Zhang Xiuxiang, "Ieyasu is the most eloquent guy. As soon as he was asked to kneel down, he started begging for mercy and saying nice things."
Zhang Xiuxiang thought about it and laughed, "He is the most cunning one. Every time before I pick up the stick, he screams in pain and begs for mercy."
Li Qiuyue: "My Xiaolin is the same. Xiaoru is just like a boy. If you say you want to hit her, she will stiffen her neck and look at you with tears falling down. Her old man feels distressed when he sees her and can't bear to hit her at all."
Zhang Xiuxiang: "Huaijun also spoils the child, and I am always the bad guy."
The mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law were busy chattering away. When the sun went down, the dishes in the steamer were ready. The cured meat in the pot and the old duck and mushroom soup in the sand pot gave off bursts of fragrance.
Yang Chunyan took the shiny sweet and sour pork out of the steamer, turned it upside down on a plate, and sprinkled two spoonfuls of sugar on it. Zhang Xiuxiang and Li Qiuyue served the good cured meat on a plate and put it on the table, mixed the spicy chicken and stir-fried vegetables, and served them on plates one after another.
The first dishes served were various cured meats, smoked rabbit, badger pork, pepper and sesame chicken, and cold-mixed shredded vegetables. Next came old duck and mushroom soup, carp with fermented black beans, sweet braised pork, fried glutinous rice cake, and the last dish was stir-fried rapeseed moss.
Zhou Jiaming and his friends, who used to chatter non-stop, now all sat obediently at the low square table, waiting for their elders to call for dinner.
Zhou Huaian filled the glasses for the elders and his brother. The old man picked up his chopsticks and smiled at the delicious food on the table. "Take the chopsticks and pick up the ones you like!"
"Okay!"
The meal ended around ten o'clock. Zhou's father and the old man turned on the radio, leaned back in rattan chairs, drank tea and listened to the broadcast leisurely.
Yang Chunyan, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law started to clean up and sweep the yard.
Zhou Huaian scooped up some broth and mixed it with a large bowl of rice for the dogs. He also took some meaty bones that he had specially cut off for Lai Fu and Wang Cai and carried them to their dog bowls. "It's New Year's Day, you guys should have a good meal too."
"Woof woof woof!" The two puppies wagged their tails happily and lay in front of the dog bowls and started eating happily.
When Zhou Huaian came back and saw Zhou Jiaming and the others listlessly sitting there listening to the radio, he took out a few boxes of firecrackers, firework sticks, and small flowers from the room and put them on the table, "Take them outside to play."
The agency store only had firecrackers and crackers, but no fireworks sticks. He and Zhou Yiding drove a tractor to the town and found many kinds of firecrackers, including sky rockets, sky rockets, small fireworks, and more than a dozen varieties. They each bought several dozen dollars' worth of them. He was afraid that his mother would nag him, so he cheated her out of ten dollars.
"Wow! Fireworks sticks and cannons!" Zhou Jiaming and his friends immediately revived on the spot. They happily took a box each. Sister Zhou Xiaoqian took the firework sticks. "Thank you, Dad!"
Zhou Jiakang smiled brightly at Zhou Huaian. If he had a tail, he would wag it like Wangcai Laifu, "Daddy is the best."
Zhou Huaian rubbed his head and said, "Fire it towards the rapeseed field!"
"Yeah!" Several children took a thin incense stick, lit it, and ran out of the yard happily.
Zhou Huaishan took out the poker cards and said, "Youngest, let's play the upgrade game."
"Okay!" The four brothers sat at one table, and after a while, Yang Chunyan and her four sisters-in-law sat at another table, and everyone played cards while staying up all night. (End of this chapter)
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