At lunchtime, the older siblings ate quickly, clearly starving, but they still maintained basic manners. The eldest siblings kept putting food on their parents' plates, and the youngest brother stuffed his mouth full while repeatedly saying how delicious it was.
Tao An is only a little over five years old this year. She can't do much work in the fields, but she can help deliver water and pick up the wheat that has fallen on the ground. She can do this kind of work, but her grandmother can't bear to let her bask in the sun, so she lets her stay at home to take care of these little animals.
After the meal, my sister went to wash up. My father, feeling sorry for my elderly mother, didn't waste a moment and took the mung bean water, which had cooled down and been chilled in the well for a while before being put into a thermos (to keep it cool), and went to the field.
Mother told everyone to rest as soon as possible, get up at 3:30, and gather in the fields at 4:00.
It was an adobe house with tiled roof, and in the summer, it was cool as soon as you entered. Ah Jiu was tired and fell asleep with her sisters not long after.
When she woke up, she was alone at home again. She sat up and stared blankly for a while, then took a small basket of blueberries from the storeroom, washed them, and slowly ate them under the grapevine. The sweet and soft texture made her close her eyes comfortably.
"Oh, this life is so enjoyable."
Every year during the wheat harvest season, Grandma would pickle salted duck eggs and preserved eggs. After a good lunch, Grandma would prepare noodles for dinner.
I cooked a big pot of mung bean soup this morning, which filled four thermos flasks. I won't need to cook any more this afternoon, since there are still watermelons in the field, enough to eat and drink.
Knowing that they would be eating noodles that night, Ajiu started preparing the vegetables early in the morning. She squeezed out the seedlings that had been sown earlier, picking out the larger ones to leave room for the smaller ones to continue growing. She gathered a large basin of vegetables, cut a bunch of chives, and pulled up a small basin of catnip, which are essential items for people from the Central Plains to eat with noodles.
The dough for rolling noodles needs to be kneaded to be firm enough to produce chewy, non-sticky noodles. Given her current size, she probably can't do that yet, so she simply won't cause her grandmother any trouble.
The tomatoes and peppers were still there in the morning, but we've eaten most of the other dishes.
She went to the backyard and pulled some sweet potato vines to give to the mother and daughter sheep, threw the grass that her grandmother and the others had brought back to the rabbits, gave the poultry water, chopped up the vegetable leaves she had repaired in her space, mixed them with bran, and fed them to them.
She was so busy that she barely had time to breathe when suddenly a pig-like scream came from the backyard, which startled Ah Jiu.
Through the crack in the door, she saw that something had happened at her neighbor's house in the back row. A man rushed in with a kitchen knife, grabbed a woman, and dragged her out. As he dragged her, he kicked her repeatedly. You could tell how ruthless he was from the speed at which he kicked her.
The crying and shouting came from Grandma Zhang, who followed her out.
"Oh my God! Help! Help! Someone's trying to murder me! Everyone, come quick!"
It turned out that the person who rushed in with the knife was none other than Zhang's son-in-law. It was the busy time of wheat harvest, so why were the couple running to the wife's parents' house?
You came back, so why did you have to be stabbed?
Ajiu, who was bored at home, brought a small stool from the backyard, opened the back door latch, and peeked out through a crack.
Most of those who stayed at home to cook were elderly people and children. When they saw the other party holding a knife, no one dared to step forward, but someone had already run to call the police.
"Young man, don't be impulsive. That's a knife. You're dragging your wife. Can't you sit down and talk things out? You could get sent to jail for this. You've only been married for six months."
“Zhang Li, tell everyone, why am I treating you like this? You always take things from your parents' house, and I've always given you what I could. But you're still not satisfied. You take advantage of having many brothers to bully honest people, don't you? That basket of eggs was saved up by my mother for almost half a month, meant for my sister's postpartum period. You brought it to your parents' house without even asking. If I hadn't come after you, would I have heard your mother urging you to divorce me so you could marry someone better than me?”
"So that's why you're not in a hurry to have a child, and you won't let me touch you. So that's what you two were planning. What, you've emptied my house, and now that you can't squeeze any more money out of me, you're starting to look for other clients? Have you no shame, old woman? Is this how you raised your daughter? The fact that you could come up with such a vicious method proves that you cheated the Zhang family in the same way back then."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Liniang became so angry that she was about to go and fight Niu Dadan, but before she could get close, Niu Dadan kicked her away.
The men were all working in the fields. If Zhang Li hadn't taken away the eggs meant for his sister, Niu Dadan wouldn't have chased them for miles.
It's fortunate that he came, otherwise I don't know how badly he would have been tricked by this mother and daughter!
After much persuasion from the elderly neighbors, Niu Dadan threw away the knife and squatted down to the side, covering his head.
"What a tragedy! How could I have married such a fickle woman? I should have listened to my mother. What good is looks? Can looks feed us? In six months, we've only slept together a handful of times. I'm her husband! Every time we're together, she demands something in return. She won't open the door without something, which has made my mother faint several times. She's always throwing her weight around at home. Tell me, what did I marry her for? She doesn't have children, doesn't cook, doesn't do any housework. All she does is gossip and spread rumors..."
The man was on the verge of tears, while the woman, after being pulled away, not only showed no remorse, but also continued to shout and curse Niu Dandan, calling him a poor man who couldn't stand being chased for miles with just a basket of eggs, and saying that his family deserved to be poor their whole lives, and that his sister deserved to be looked down upon by her husband's family.
The man had initially spared her after being persuaded by others, wanting to calm down and take her home to continue their life together. However, the woman, emboldened by her own injustice, launched into a tirade of filth. Bloodshed was imminent in the man's sudden surge of murderous intent as he looked up. No one saw how Niu Dadan snatched the knife from Zhang Laotai's hand, which she was about to take home. The knife, with its final strike aimed at the old woman's shoulder, was then aimed at Zhang Li's hand…
In an instant, the whole street behind them was in chaos. When Grandma came back, she ran over too. By then, Niu Dadan had already been taken away by the police. When he was taken away, he was still smiling at the Zhang family.
"Zhang Li, you just wait! Even if I become a ghost, I won't let you go. I'll haunt you for the rest of my life. You'd better not mess with my family, or I'll show you what true revenge is!"
Zhang Li's hand was broken. Judging from the appearance, the county hospital was not capable of performing such a delicate surgery.
Although Niu Dadan made the mother and daughter pay a heavy price, he himself was also taken away by the police. In this case, he would be sentenced to at least a few years. He seemed to be an honest and law-abiding farmer, but he ruined his life because he married the wrong wife.
This really proves the old saying: "Marrying a wife who is not virtuous will ruin three generations!"
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