The Meng Laosan in the novel, whose real name is Meng Jinniu, is from Liuzhuang, Naliang Commune, the hometown of Meng Shengli, and is the great-nephew of Meng Shengli.

Meng Shengli left home at the age of 20 to join the revolution. During that time, he sent several letters and some money home, but never received a reply from home. It was not until he returned to his hometown at the age of 45 with the baby Meng Taohua in his arms that his parents had passed away. Among his five brothers and sisters, only his eldest brother's family was left, and the rest were gone.

When Meng Shengli was at home, his name was Meng Changshuan. He was the third child. His eldest brother Meng Changshou was five years older than him and married Geng Liuju, the eldest daughter of the Geng family from the next village. Geng Liuju was a fertile and good at managing the household. She gave birth to four sons and three daughters for Meng Changshou, and raised them all. With her aggressiveness, she kept the five brick houses and a large yard of the Meng family, which was classified as rich peasants. She also had a good reputation for supporting her brothers and sisters from her natal family, but she could not tolerate her younger brother-in-law Meng Shengli who returned from outside.

When Meng Shengli returned to the village, Geng Liuju treated him politely because she knew he could receive a subsidy every month. Later, she found that Meng Shengli was too stubborn. Not only did he not hand over all the subsidy, he also refused to listen to her arrangements. He gave away the money-loser Meng Taohua and adopted his own grandson instead. So she turned against her.

Meng Shengli didn't mind and just asked to live alone. The village chief came forward to allocate a separate house, but Geng Liuju disagreed at all. She said that Meng Shengli had not taken care of his parents in their old age and ended up in the later years, so he had no right to come back to the separate house. She made full use of the woman's ability of crying, making a fuss and threatening to commit suicide, and drove Meng Shengli and his grandson out of the Meng family.

When it came to taking care of his parents in their old age and seeing them to their final resting place, Meng Shengli did feel guilty and felt he was inferior to them. Seeing that his brother also acquiesced to his sister-in-law's approach, he had no choice but to leave his hometown sadly and settle down in Linshui Village.

During every festival, Meng Shengli would take his granddaughter back home, firstly to sweep the graves of his parents, and secondly to let his granddaughter get close to her brothers and sisters so that they could rely on each other in the future. However, he was always ridiculed and looked down upon by Geng Liuju, who even refused to let him into the house. Gradually, Meng Shengli stopped going back.

The Meng Laosan mentioned in the article is the third son of Meng Laifu, the eldest son of Meng Changshou and Geng Liuju.

Meng Laifu married three wives in total. The first one was Geng Liuju's niece, who gave birth to two sons but died in childbirth. The second wife was the mother of Meng Laosan, whom Meng Laifu chose himself, but was not favored by Geng Liuju. A few days after the birth of Meng Laosan, she was forced to work in the fields by Geng Liuju, and died in less than a year. The third wife was also a relative of Geng Liuju's niece...

Geng Liuju doesn't like Meng Laosan's mother, so naturally she doesn't like Meng Laosan either. This is a miserable child. He grew up begging like a stray cat or dog. He started working for his family at the age of three or four, and worked as a laborer in the production team to earn work points at the age of twelve. Geng Liuju loves other grandchildren, but she only rolls her eyes at Meng Laosan, either beating or scolding him. But Meng Laosan, this bitter melon, actually has a foolish filial heart, and is very obedient to Geng Liuju, and listens to everything he says! Meng Tao always pays attention to Meng Laosan when she is following the plot, and has been waiting for Meng Laosan to appear.

Because in the novel, when Meng Laosan was twenty years old, Geng Liuju forced him to marry her niece's granddaughter, a widow named Geng Caiyue, who was six years older than him and had three young children. Meng Laosan was forced to obey his grandmother Geng Liuju's arrangement and marry the widow to become a father. However, two years after the marriage, the widow eloped with another man, leaving her three children for Meng Laosan to raise.

Meng Laosan was cuckolded and became a laughing stock of the whole village and even the nearby people together with the old Meng family. Meng Changshou, an honest and simple man who didn't like to stand out, scolded Geng Liuju for a long time. Geng Liuju herself felt ashamed and for the first time in her life she listened to Meng Changshou and asked Meng Laosan to take his three children to Linshui Village to settle down as descendants of Meng Shengli.

Meng Shengli has no children, and Meng Taohua is just a granddaughter who is not doing well, so the people of Linshui Village agree to let Meng Laosan settle down.

In the book, Wang Shuifeng and Shi Datou strongly opposed this matter, but village cadres such as Bao Shunfeng did not listen to them. They directly allocated a piece of dry land at the foot of the mountain that Meng Shengli had reclaimed during his lifetime to Meng Laosan and his son, and helped him build three thatched houses and a simple bamboo fence yard. From then on, Meng Laosan took on Meng Shengli's incense and swept Meng Shengli's grave every year.

After Meng Laosan came to Linshui Village, Shi Datou no longer dared to beat and scold Meng Taohua, because Meng Laosan saw him hitting Meng Taohua with stones in the field, so he took a carrying pole and beat him until his head was bleeding and two of his teeth fell out.

Later in the text, there is a scene description in which Meng Laosan appears as the background: On a Qingming Festival after Meng Taohua's death, Meng Laosan took his wife and seven or eight children to the mountain to sweep the graves. There were two graves, one large and one small, both with tombstones. They were for Meng Shengli and Meng Taohua. This should have been the decision made by Meng Laosan. He did not let Shi Datou bury Meng Taohua casually, but placed her next to her grandfather.

The wife that Meng Laosan married in Linshui Village was also a widow. Meng Tao knew her, and she is still the wife of Lin Erhu in the village, Ge Xiangqin. It seems that Lin Erhu went to build a road and died in a landslide, leaving behind his young wife and three children. Meng Laosan became a father and adopted six children. He and Ge Xiangqin had two children. He has been busy and struggling for his children all his life.

Meng Tao didn't know what Meng Taohua in the novel was thinking. Now she was the one in charge. She also knew that according to the plot, Meng Laosan would eventually settle in Linshui Village and inherit Meng Shengli's incense. So she had to be prepared. Since Meng Laosan was sincere in treating his family, she should interfere to the best of her ability so that Meng Laosan wouldn't have to live a hard life.

If you can get rid of Geng Liuju, that terrible old woman, you'd better get rid of her as soon as possible.

Seeing a group of people about to leave, Meng Tao suddenly called out, "Meng Jinniu!"

"Why."

Meng Laosan didn't know who was calling him, so he just answered subconsciously. He turned around and stared blankly at Meng Tao who was walking towards him. He was a little bit unbelieving that it was this strange and pretty girl who called out his name.

Several men also stopped and turned to look at Meng Tao.

Meng Tao walked up to Meng Lao San and asked, "You are Meng Jinniu, the grandson of Meng Changshou from Liuzhuang, Liang Commune, right?"

Meng Laosan nodded mechanically, opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.

Meng Tao continued: "I am Meng Shengli's granddaughter, Meng Taohua."

The stunned Meng Lao San seemed to have his acupuncture points opened. His dark red face suddenly broke into a huge smile, and he was so excited that he spoke incoherently: "Ah! You are Taohua? I, I, I know you! You are my cousin, and I am your cousin! Your grandfather's name is Meng Changshuan, and later he joined the army and changed his name to Meng Shengli. He is my third grandfather! He is my real third grandfather. You and I have the same great grandfather!"

She nodded and said, "I went to your house with my grandfather when I was a child. I still remember you, but you don't even remember me."

"No, I remember you. I always remember you, but... you have grown up and changed. When Third Grandpa was not there, my grandfather and several adults from the clan went to your house and did not invite us young ones to go."

"Well, my grandfather is gone, why don't you come to see me? I'm alone, and you don't even know if I'm bullied by others."

“I, I…”

Meng Laosan's smile became awkward, and slowly he couldn't smile anymore: "I'm sorry, sister, I wanted to go, but... there's too much work at home, so they don't want me to go."

"You are already an adult, you should have your own ideas. If you want to do something, just do it if you think it makes sense. Why do you have to listen to others? Can others control you for the rest of your life? Cousin, I am alone in Linshui Village, and the Tian family broke off the engagement. If you can come to see me often and let others know that I have relatives to rely on, it will not be so difficult for me."

Meng Tao's eyes turned red as she spoke, and Meng Lao San panicked: "Don't cry, sister! I will definitely visit you in Linshui Village next time!"

"What if 'they' don't let you go?"

"I'll go too! At most I'll get scolded a few times, that's fine."

Four men nearby came over and interrupted: "Old Third, this is your Third Uncle's granddaughter?"

"Your third uncle's granddaughter is so pretty."

"Yeah, she's so pretty, why did someone cancel the engagement? Who is so blind?"

Meng Laosan hurriedly introduced: "Sister, they are all from our village. Uncle San knew their grandfathers when he was a child. This one is Liu Dafu, that one is Wang Ergou, Ma Liuzi..."

Meng Tao greeted them with a smile, calling them brother. "I'm here to buy some things for the educated youth in the village today. I'm about to take the bus home. I came to eat something first. You haven't eaten yet, right? How about we eat together? Today we're reunited as siblings, and I'll treat you!"

The men quickly waved their hands to refuse. They were very hungry, but they were not greedy to eat the little girl's food.

Although Meng Lao San was honest and straightforward, he knew that he couldn't spend his cousin's money. His cousin was now alone and had a hard time. He pushed Meng Tao into the restaurant and said, "Go and eat. Go and eat quickly! We are here to send a patient away. We will be leaving soon! I will go to Linshui Village to see you in two days. If you have any work, keep it and wait for me to do it!"

Meng Tao couldn't persuade the five farmers, so when she saw them leaving in a hurry, she turned to the restaurant window and saw braised pork head, broth, noodles, big meat buns, white flour steamed buns, and black flour steamed bread on the counter. The big meat buns were more expensive, costing two taels of food coupons plus two cents each, while the white flour steamed buns cost eight cents more than the food coupons. The black flour steamed bread did not require food coupons and cost six cents each. The black flour steamed breads steamed in the restaurant were large in size, hot, soft and big.

Meng Tao thought about it, took out a kettle and a white cloth bag from her bag, and asked the waiter to put twenty black-flour steamed buns in it, and then a pot of soy milk left over from the morning sale. A full pot cost only five cents.

While the waiter was filling the soy milk, Meng Tao grabbed a handful of salted dried radishes from her bag and stuffed them into the cloth bag containing the steamed corn bread. These were stored in the space, and no extras were given, just one per person.

After paying, they picked up the things and ran. They walked quite fast and it took them more than a hundred meters to catch up with them. They shouted "Brother Taurus". As soon as Meng Laosan turned around, his arms were stuffed with things, which were still warm. Meng Tao didn't say anything, just waved at him and ran back.

She still needs to eat, so she should hurry to catch the bus after finishing her meal so as not to miss it.

The farmers from the village followed Meng Laosan to send the patients. No matter who the patients were, they helped carry them to the county for medical treatment. That was a good deed of loyalty and they should not be left hungry.

As for why they didn't buy meat buns and white flour steamed buns, Meng Tao was worried that they would think they were too expensive and would not accept them, which would then be troublesome, so it would be better to just buy ordinary black flour steamed buns, which would also fill their stomachs.

Please continue to support me. Little fairies and cute girls please cheer for the author and cast your precious votes! Please click to collect and give a five-star review! It would be even better if you give me a reward, haha! 　　 　 (End of this chapter)