Four people walked down the dirt bank, led by Aunt Yu, the wife of Captain Bao. She also came with her twelve-year-old daughter Dongmei to do laundry. Captain Bao's family had more than a dozen elderly and children, and they always had to carry the laundry on a pole.

The two behind were Luo Lihua and an aunt named Liang from the village, each carrying a bamboo basket.

Everyone greeted each other and saw the pile of sheets and quilts Meng Tao had piled up on the rocks. Several people exclaimed, "Why did you wash so many at once?!"

Meng Tao smiled and said, "Last time when guests came to stay, we had to clean and tidy up after they left. There were seven or eight people, and each of them had a bed, which was a lot."

Aunt Liang smacked her lips and said, "It's a good thing your house is spacious and you have educated youth living here, so we can use their quilts. If we had so many guests suddenly come to our house, we really wouldn't be able to accommodate them."

"No, we don't need the educated youth's quilts. I prepared a few quilts myself. The guests knew that my family was not well off, so they also brought a few quilts. This is enough," Meng Tao explained.

"Wow, there are even guests who bring their own bedding. Your guests are so nice." Aunt Liang said with a smile.

"Taohua, let me help you wash." Luo Lihua came over and shared a big stone with Meng Tao.

Meng Tao did not refuse and said with a smile: "Then I will invite you to my house for dinner tonight."

There are indeed too many clothes. No matter how strong you are, washing them by yourself will cause backache and aches, and it will also take time.

The river water is not cold. This place is quite strange. No matter how strong the north wind blows or how heavy the snow falls in winter, the river water feels warm to the touch. You can even see steam rising on the surface of the river early in the morning. If you are brave enough, you can actually go swimming in the river.

Luo Lihua was not polite: "Okay, your radio is great, I like the songs on it the most."

Bao Dongmei and her mother occupied another large rock not far away. She turned around and shouted to Meng Tao, "Sister Taohua, I'll help you wash it later. Will you treat me to dinner tonight?"

"Please! You must."

Aunt Yu laughed and scolded her daughter: "Luckily this happened in our village. Your sister Taohua is not an outsider. You wouldn't do this outside. It would make people laugh!"

Several women were chatting and laughing while pounding the clothes. This was how clothes were washed in the countryside in those days. Most people wore coarse cotton clothes which were thick, rough and not easy to rub by hand, so a clothes beater was a must. Every family had one. They would take the clothes to the river, rub soap on them, and then beat them on stones. They would then rinse them twice in clean water and the washing process was completed.

When they were halfway through washing, a group of people came down from the bank making a lot of noise. They were Tian Xianglan, her four daughters, and Zhao Liulian.

Tian Xianglan and Zhao Liulian were arguing as they walked, one with a rough voice and the other with a sharp voice, it was hard not to hear them.

If it was a quarrel between aunts and sisters-in-law from other families, Aunt Yu and Aunt Liang would still be interested in watching, but when it came to the Tian family, they all showed expressions of disgust.

When Tian Xianglan saw Meng Tao was also by the river, she stopped arguing with Zhao Liulian and went straight to Meng Tao: "You bastard! You beat my brother on New Year's Day. Isn't it enough that you have harmed our Tian family?"

Meng Tao was not used to scolding people, and of course she didn't want to be scolded, especially when the Tian family mother and daughter always called her a "cheap bastard". She got angry and grabbed the clothes beater and hit them: "Today is the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, I will beat you up too!"

The pinewood washing stick hit Tian Xianglan's shoulder accurately, causing her pain at most, but she didn't hurt anyone. However, Tian Xianglan lay down on the ground and shouted, "Murder! God saw it, everyone saw it, Meng Taohua killed someone!"

When the children saw their mother fall, they all gathered around and cried and screamed. Zhao Liulian rolled her eyes and shouted, "Help! Someone is killing someone!"

Meng Tao sneered: Did she come to the river to scam people? Fine, let her scam as much as she wants.

Hearing this, Tian Xianglan jumped up and said, "Aunt Yu, you saw it too. It was Meng Taohua who beat me! With such a thick stick, I got internal injuries. She has to pay for it!"

Aunt Yu: "We all saw it. You were the one who rushed over and hit Taohua first! She didn't fight back, so she was just waiting to die? That was a pinewood clothes beater, how heavy could it be? You only have internal injuries. If you want to extort money, you have to pick up a stone and hit yourself until you bleed!"

Tian Xianglan refused to accept the decision and looked at Aunt Liang again: "Aunt Liang, please testify for me that it was Meng Taohua who hit me first!"

Aunt Liang is Liang Tiezhu's cousin, but she hates to have nothing to do with the Tian family. Besides, Tian Xianglan married into the Liang family and was deserted by her relatives and friends, and she couldn't even get a place to live. There was a reason for that. Aunt Liang said, "Don't call me aunt, I'm blind and I can't see anything! The Liang family is unlucky for eight generations. How could they marry such a scoundrel and a vicious daughter-in-law like you? When you first entered the family, you didn't take your parents-in-law seriously. You scolded chickens and beat dogs all day long. What's the purpose of such an evil woman? You are so cruel and a loser. It's good that Tiezhu ran away!"

Tian Xianglan looked at Luo Lihua again, who was facing the river and concentrating on washing, leaving only the back of her head exposed. Even Zhao Liulian stopped making noise and obediently carried her bamboo basket to the downstream, five or six steps away from Meng Tao and the others, where she occupied a stone and started washing clothes.

Tian Xianglan could only swallow her anger, and got up with a dusty face and went to Zhao Liulian. If Aunt Yu had not been here, she would definitely not let it go. Aunt Yu was the wife of Captain Bao, and she did not dare to offend her.

Before leaving, he glared at Meng Tao fiercely.

Meng Tao said, "If you keep staring at me, I'll dig out your eyes! If you dare to call me a bastard again, I'll pull out your tendons and skin you alive!"

Tian Xianglan: “…”

She wanted to curse back, but Aunt Yu was staring at her.

Everyone was busy with their own things and no longer talked or laughed. The riverside was quiet for a while, with only the sound of clothes beating.

Unexpectedly, there was another commotion downstream. Tian Xianglan and her two older daughters, together with Zhao Liulian, suddenly jumped into the river one after another, gathered in a circle, dived into the water and quickly stood up again, flapping their wings and screaming here and there... It was as if they were possessed and went crazy.

Aunt Yu and her daughter, Aunt Liang, and Luo Lihua were all stunned and dumbfounded.

Meng Tao vaguely knew what was going on.

When Aunt Yu and the others came down just now, she put both buckets of fish into the space. There were still some cabbage residues left in the bamboo basket, so she threw it into the river. It might have attracted some big fish to lurk on the downstream shore, or to swim past there, and was seen by Tian Xianglan and the others, who wanted to catch them.

Luo Lihua also understood now, and turned to Aunt Liang and Aunt Yu and said, "They are catching fish!"

Aunt Liang was so angry that she yelled, "What a waste of time! The fish in the river are so easy to catch, who would go out to earn money to buy meat? Tian Xianglan is going crazy on her own, don't let her lead the kids astray!"

Aunt Yu was too lazy to say anything and just washed her clothes. After all, everyone in Linshui Village, both adults and children, knew how to swim, and it was the dry season, so the water was not flowing fast and no one would drown.

Tian Xianglan and Zhao Liulian took the two girls to struggle in the water for a while but caught nothing. Finally, they came ashore crying and shouting. They went back home without even washing their clothes.

My cotton clothes are all soaked. If I don’t go home to change clothes, I’ll freeze to death.

(End of this chapter)