Chapter 55: The Past of the Zong Family. You want to go into the mountains?
After dinner, Qiu Xuan found the rabbit skin.
The rabbit skin has been dried, and she has combed the hair with a wooden comb. Now it feels smooth and tender to the touch.
She thought that since she had nothing to do today, she might as well make a hand warmer. It looked easy to make. Just wrap cotton in a few pieces of cloth and sew rabbit fur on the inside.
Qiu Xuan returned to the room and spread the fine cloth that had been prepared long ago on the table. The fine cloth was left over from when her grandmother made clothes. There was a green patch and a purple patch. Qiu Xuan felt that the purple color matched the rabbit fur better.
She strung the needle and thread and sewed the cloth into a cloth bag shape bit by bit. She was not very good at needlework and it took her half an hour to make just one simple cloth bag.
In the yard, Huaixue was showing off her new little tiger to Zong Xiao.
The little tiger was taken out by her mother-in-law just after she had stuffed cotton into the hole and sewed it up before she had time to adjust it.
Huaixue held it up for Zong Xiao to see. "Second Uncle, look at my little tiger. Isn't it really cute?"
"It looks good." Zong Xiao didn't pick up his wet hands to take a look.
Huaixue poked her head out to look around the yard and asked, "Uncle, where is my aunt?"
Zong Xiao pointed in the direction of the house, "She's inside. Go in and find her."
Huaixue now wanted to show off the little tiger to everyone. When she heard this, she immediately left Zong Xiao and trotted into the house.
The door was left a crack, and Huaixue pushed it open gently.
She had just stepped one foot in when she suddenly remembered that she didn't knock on the door this time!
Huaixue instantly wilted. With a pout, she walked over to Qiu Xuan holding the little tiger and whispered, "Auntie."
When Qiu Xuan saw her come in, she put down her needlework and asked, "What happened to our Huaixue? Come sit next to auntie. Hey, whose big tiger is this?"
"Grandma told me to knock on the door, but I forgot again." Huaixue handed the cloth tiger to Qiuyu and said with her little face tilted up, "This is the little tiger Grandma made for me. It's new and it's even better looking than Dazhuang's."
Qiu Xuan rubbed her head and said coaxingly, "It's okay, it's nothing. Come and let your aunt take a closer look at your big tiger."
My grandmother is very good at needlework and used to make money with this skill. But now she is old and her eyesight is not very good, so she doesn't do embroidery much anymore.
However, she would make whatever her granddaughter wanted, and she would make it look lifelike.
Qiu Xuan looked at the red cloth and yellow threaded tiger, then at the cloth bag she had spent half a day sewing. The two looked so different...
"Aunt, did you make this?" Huaixue looked at the cloth bag on the table, picked it up casually, and even gestured on her body, "Aunt, this cloth bag is so big, what are you going to put in it?"
What are you pretending for...Qiu Xuan wanted to say that this was the prototype of a hand warmer, it just hadn't been sewn yet.
If it is sewn well, it shouldn't look too ugly.
It wasn't too ugly, but it was also a bit embarrassing to show off. Qiu Yun struggled internally, but finally gave up and figured it out alone.
She packed up her things and put them all into the bamboo basket. "Let's go to that courtyard to find your grandma."
Qiu Xuan thought that with the guidance of her clan mother, making this hand warmer should not be difficult.
As she expected, under the step-by-step guidance of her grandmother, she really made the hand warmer, and the size was just right for Liu Yueyang.
The purple fine cloth with white and gray fur edges makes it look noble no matter how you look at it.
Liu Yueyang couldn't let it go as soon as he received it, and held it in his arms for fear of getting it dirty.
If such a good thing were taken to the town, it would cost at least dozens of copper coins, but Qiu Yun gave it to her just because she asked.
Liu Yueyang felt warm in her heart. She felt that she had not married the wrong person. Everyone in this clan was a good person.
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"Sister-in-law, are you at home?" A hoarse voice came from outside the yard.
The smiling face of the clan mother turned cold in an instant.
She got off the kang and said to the people in the room, "Mom, go out and take a look. It's cold outside. You guys don't need to come out."
Outside the door, Zong Lao Er was standing in front of the door holding a piece of pork.
Although he taught his wife and grandson a lesson that day, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was wrong. So today he bought some pork to apologize.
He was thinking simply, after all, he was Zong Xiao's uncle, so how could he not let this go?
But when the gate opened and he saw the cold face of his sister-in-law, his heart sank to the bottom.
"Sister-in-law." He touched his nose and said embarrassedly.
The clan mother waved her hand at him and said to him, "Go away. There will be no more contact between our two families."
"Sister-in-law, what do you mean by no longer interacting with each other?" Zong Lao Er held out his hand to block the door, as if he wanted to explain things to her. "We are a family, how can we not interact with each other?"
The clan mother had indeed always treated them as a family, but the things that had happened over the years had really chilled her heart.
"What's there to interact with? Your wife is trying to sow discord between us. What's the matter? Does she want to drive the brothers apart, like you and your elder brother?" The clan mother spoke without mercy, leaving him no room to save the situation.
"And Huaixue, you know how pitiful that child is, and you let your wife gossip about her, saying that no one wants her. Don't confess to me, I can't get over this." The clan mother looked at him deeply and sighed, "Let's just leave it at that. We'll just be ordinary neighbors from now on."
After saying that, the clan mother didn't give him a chance and slammed the door shut.
A door separated the two people and completely severed the feelings of the fathers of the Zong family.
Zong Lao Er knew that he was embarrassed, so he stood outside the door for another incense stick of time. Seeing that no one opened the door, he sighed, turned around and left.
The two of them were talking quite loudly, and everyone in the room could hear most of it.
Qiu Xuan had only been married for half a year and still didn't know anything about the clan's past. Liu Yueyang was even more of a nobody; she hadn't even been married for half a month and knew nothing.
The two looked at each other and decided to ask the clan mother after she came into the house.
But when they saw the ugly face of the clan mother, they gave up the idea immediately.
Why bother rubbing salt into your mother-in-law's heart?
That night, the door creaked in the cold wind.
Qiu Xuan sat cross-legged on the kang and cut the fine cloth with scissors.
She had just made a hand warmer today, and now that she was really in the mood, she thought she might as well work harder and make another one.
Zong Xiao pushed the door open and saw that she was still embroidering, so he stuffed the filled hot water bottle next to her legs.
Qiu Xuan looked up at him and said with a smile, "I gave that hand warmer to Yueyang as soon as I finished it. You weren't there at the time and didn't see it, but it's really beautiful."
Zong Xiao took off his shoes and socks and got on the kang. He spread the quilt next to Qiu Xuan and sat down cross-legged.
He had something on his mind and didn't know how to start.
Qiu Xuan didn't notice his abnormality and continued to speak, "By the way, my second uncle went to that courtyard to visit my mother today. My mother didn't let him in and said that the two families should just be ordinary neighbors from now on."
Qiu Xuan knew that the reason her mother-in-law said this was definitely not because of what happened a few days ago.
"Mom said that we lived like this all those years and there is no need to change it now. What does mom mean? What happened between the two families in the past?" Qiu Xuan tied the knot and looked up.
The room was only lit by candlelight, making the surroundings even darker.
Qiu Xuan only felt that Zong Xiao's eyes moved.
"My father and second uncle." Zong Xiao paused, as if recalling the past. "My father's generation had three brothers. You know this. Haven't you also met the second and third aunts?"
"My grandparents passed away early, and my father, as the eldest, has always been there to help my two younger brothers. I thought we could live like this forever, but who knew that my second uncle would insist on splitting up the family business after marrying my second aunt? He said he couldn't let his wife suffer any injustice or be bullied by his eldest sister-in-law."
Zong Xiao also heard these things when his parents quarreled in the past. He was so young at that time and didn't understand.
Qiu Xuan frowned and put aside the needle and thread in her hands as she listened carefully.
Zong Xiao: "After the family split up, everyone lived behind closed doors. Later, Dad got injured and the family had no income. Mom wanted to borrow some money from Second Uncle and his family to buy medicine for the emergency."
Qiu Xuan knew without listening that the second branch definitely did not lend it to them.
"Second Aunt doesn't agree, and Second Uncle... I guess he doesn't want to either." Zong Xiao knew his Second Uncle well. He was a good guy on the outside. He let Second Aunt say all the bad things, but in reality, didn't he think the same thing? He was in charge of the family's money. If he wanted to lend it to his brother, how could he not provide it?
"Later, my father passed away, and so did my eldest brother and his wife." Zong Xiao spoke calmly about the past, as if the pain had long since healed. "I'm the only one in the family who's older, but after all, I'm just a child and can't earn much."
That was the second time that the grandmother went to ask for a loan, but the second and third wives still refused.
When the Zong family was in the most difficult time, these brothers did not help at all and wanted to stay away from them. It was not until later that Zong Xiao became a hunter and started hunting in the mountains. He was able to make money and his family's life gradually improved. Only then did the two families become relatives again.
"Since they have done this, why should we still be relatives?" Qiu Xuan was angry. If such a thing happened to her, she would definitely not associate with them again.
Zong Xiao raised his hand and rubbed her head, saying softly, "Mom thought that he was Dad's brother after all. But now, Mom has finally seen it clearly."
The Zong family has had a difficult time these past few years. There are four of us in the family, a young son and a newborn daughter...
Qiu Xuan didn't dare to think about how the Zong family had gotten to where they are today, where they could rebuild their house and find wives for their two sons.
Zong Xiao finished telling her the story, and seeing that she was still angry, he began to coax her, "It's all in the past. From now on, we will just live our own lives and don't worry about them."
Qiu Xuan nodded and said angrily, "Yes, let's work hard to make money, lots of money, and then build a house with green bricks and tiles, and make them envious."
If you don't despise the poor and love the rich, then you will be out of reach of me in the future.
I have money, but I won’t lend it to you.
The more Qiu Xuan thought about it, the more she felt that making money was important. She was now eager to go down the mountain tomorrow and continue selling her noodles.
Don't underestimate this stall, you can make several taels of silver in a month.
Seeing that she was in the mood to make money, Zong Xiao took the opportunity to tell her about going into the mountains the day after tomorrow.
Qiu Xuan was stunned and turned to look at him, "What did you say? You are going into the mountains the day after tomorrow."
The two sat opposite each other, looking at each other in silence.
The weather changed again today, and the wind at night was much stronger than in the past few days.
This is still in the village. If you go into the mountains, it will be extremely cold.
"There are hunters in the village who want to go into the mountains together to try their luck. I thought that since the New Year is still a long time away, we might as well go together. If we catch something, we can sell it for some money." Zong Xiao saw that she was unhappy and reached out to pull her sleeve.
Zong Xiao spoke tentatively, "Didn't you just say you wanted to make more money?"
Qiu Xuan's eyes were red. She wanted to make more money, not to let him go into the mountains to make money. The mountains were so dangerous, and he had just come down from the mountains not long ago.
"You've already made your decision, why are you telling me what to do?" Qiu Yu turned away, not looking at him, and murmured, "We're going into the mountains the day after tomorrow. If you don't mention it today, are you thinking of talking about it the day after tomorrow?"
Zong Xiao really thought so at that time...
Qiu Xuan picked up her needle and thread and continued sewing the fine cloth with her head lowered. She said angrily, "I don't care about you. If you want to go into the mountains, then go. As long as mother agrees, it's fine."
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