Chapter 65
When the news of Lin Yao's pregnancy spread, relatives and friends came to congratulate her with gifts.
In the years of famine, every household was extremely short of money. Forget about sending canned snacks like in previous years. Even if they were sent, the Gu family couldn't accept them.
Uncle Zhang sent mountain products, such as fungus, wild mushrooms, wild chestnuts, and dried wild vegetables. In addition to mountain products, Uncle Zhang also brought a wind-dried pheasant. Xu's mother was in the city taking care of Gu Chunmei, and she asked Xu Xiangqian, who was busy to the point of exhaustion, to send a piece of soft cotton cloth and a pair of tiger-head baby shoes.
The tiger-head shoes are lifelike and vivid. The uppers are made of cotton wool, sewn on stitch by stitch. The colorful silk threads on them are dense and solid. Holding them in your hands is like a work of art.
Lin Yao took it in her hand and looked at it again and again, and Zhang Cuilan also smiled, "You are still very skillful, Aunt Xu. Tiger-head shoes are not easy to make. You have to hold the needle in your hand and bow your head for an entire afternoon. Your neck is very uncomfortable. Aunt Xu made two pairs, one for the baby in Chunmei's belly, and one for ours. The old saying goes that tiger-head shoes can ward off evil spirits and can be worn by boys and girls."
Lin Yao nodded, and stroked the tiger whiskers on the tiger-head shoes lovingly. She put the heirloom in the empty shoe box, hugged her belly, strolled around the room twice, sat on the kang, and her eyelids began to droop.
Zhang Cuilan hurried over, made a quilt for her daughter-in-law, and let her go to bed to rest.
Lin Yao wanted to help the family, but just as she picked up the broom, Gu Shidong came over and stopped her from doing anything. She wanted to go to the kitchen to wash dishes, but Gu Mancang was leaning on a piece of wood in the yard, making a sound. He came over with a nervous look on his face to persuade his daughter-in-law to come out, fearing that something might happen to her.
Lin Yao couldn't do anything. When she went out for a walk, Dongzi, the brat, followed her. When she met a big yellow dog raised in the village on the way, the brat would run over and slap it twice to make it go away. Didn't he see my sister-in-law was taking a walk outside?
Now, dozens of families in Gujiaao, from old men and women in their seventies and eighties to children of three or four years old, have all been called by Dongzi. Even the seven or eight-year-old daughter of the old branch secretary was curious and secretly came to ask Lin Yao.
"Sister-in-law, when can I have a baby?"
Lin Yao, who was drinking maltose, was almost choked and asked her why she asked that.
The secretary's daughter, however, had an innocent look on her face. "Brother Dongzi said this when he was fishing in the river just now, 'If you have a baby, she will be the treasure of the family. She won't have to work and will eat well all day. Some old aunts in the village can't have babies because they can't get married. I don't want to be an old aunt, but I also want to be a treasure and not have to work. Brother Dongzi is amazing. He can swim in the river and fish in such cold weather. My dad can't do that.'
" "..."
Lin Yao took a deep breath, calmed down, took out a piece of milk candy from his pocket, coaxed the little girl home with a smile, and turned around to complain to Comrade Cuilan.
Zhang Cuilan was furious when she heard this, and Gu Mancang's simple face also darkened. The old Gu family has always been strict and kind, but this time the old couple were both angry.
Dongzi Yidun planned to run away. The river beach at the foot of Gujiaao Mountain was five or six acres. When it rained in summer, the river beach was full of messy reeds and water plants. The water on the river beach was clear and the fish were fat. The greedy children in the village drooled on the shore, but few went down to catch fish.
It was because the water below the river was deep and dangerous. I heard that the shallowest part of the water was two or three meters deep. A strong man in the village was less than two meters tall. If he ventured into the water, he might get his legs and feet caught by the water plants and lose his life.
Therefore, the elders in the village did not allow children to go fishing in the river. Especially in the cold winter, although the water in the river was warmer than usual, if you went swimming and came ashore in the north wind, you would be frozen into a fool.
In such a cold day, the bastard went to the river to swim without saying a word. If something happened, the couple Gu Mancang would lose half their lives.
In the evening, Gu Shidong sneaked back home and saw his parents with sullen faces. His mother was holding a thorny twig in her hand and sweeping around. His sister-in-law was not in the yard either.
Mom, what's going on?
The little brat instinctively sensed something was wrong and wanted to run away, covering his butt.
Before he even went out, he ran into a tall and straight man. The man was wearing a military coat with his sleeves casually rolled up to his elbows. He was holding a big basket in his hands. He didn't seem to be afraid of the cold in the cold weather.
When the short Dongzi raised his head, he met a pair of dark and deep black eyes. The man looked down at him and glanced at him indifferently.
Gu Shidong shuddered. How could it be his elder brother?
It was really a bad year.
Just like that, the kid who failed to escape was taken home by Deputy Director Gu.
Gu Shidong was spanked hard by his old father.
The spanking made the boy's butt bruise. He started to cry for his father, mother and sister-in-law, but he had no strength left and could only sob.
Lin Yao felt so distressed that his eyes were spinning. He took out the medicine bottle and asked Gu Shian to apply medicine to the boy.
The boy whimpered and wiped his tears, and asked his brother, "Brother, will my sister-in-law still love me in the future?"
Gu Shian pressed the boy's butt slowly, and Gu Shidong cried out in pain.
"Why do you ask that?"
"The aunts in the village all said that mothers like obedient and well-behaved children. I am disobedient and naughty..."
Gu Shian chuckled and raised his eyebrows. This boy knows him well.
That night, Gu Mancang had a rare heart-to-heart talk with his old son.
Zhang Cuilan originally wanted to let Deputy Director Gu take action, but unfortunately the eldest son Lei Lifeng was accustomed to being hungry and his handsome face was too serious. It was better to let him train the undisciplined new recruits and educate his younger brother with love.
——It is estimated that after a few words, his big slap was raised.
Gu Shidong went to the river to swim in winter, one to catch fish to eat, and the other to establish prestige among his peers. The ten-year-old brats in the village were all very tough. If you want to be their leader, you have to show some real skills.
What is real ability? First, you have a strong fist and you are invincible in the whole village. Second, you have a big courage and you dare to do things that others dare not do. This is commonly known as being brave and cool.
After being beaten, Gu Shidong finally realized that being brave and competitive is not a real man. It is called being brave but not wise. It is not worth losing your life for the sake of showing off your face. The idiot in the village knows to take a detour when he sees the river beach.
Gu Shidong scratched his head and felt that he was not as good as the idiot. He felt a little embarrassed.
On the 28th day of the first lunar month, Gujiaao snowed again. After a winter, most of the beehive coal in the house was burned down.
Gu Shian stayed at home for one night. Lin Yao took advantage of the fact that she was pregnant and took advantage of others.
Deputy Director Gu looked at the expectant mother who was gloating over the misfortune, and could only grit his teeth and go outside to get some cold water to wash his face.
When he came back after extinguishing the fire on his body, Lin Yao had already fallen asleep with the quilt in her arms.
Gu Shian smiled helplessly and pinched Lin Yao's cheeks.
"You are such a heartless little thing."
Lin Yao said "hmm", turned over and went back to sleep.
"..."
The weather cleared up after the snow. Gu Mancang swept up the accumulated coal dust, put them in baskets, added two shovels of loess, mixed them like yellow mud, leveled a piece of land in the yard, and learned from the village masons to make mud bricks, making coal balls one by one, and put them outside in the sun for a few days. When they were hard, they could be burned.
After the beginning of spring, Gujiaao was sometimes hot and sometimes cold. When the weather was fine, the mountain breeze blew on the face with the warmth of spring. When the weather was bad, the wind was colder than winter.
In any case, winter was over. After a drizzling spring rain in mid-March, wild vegetables all over the mountains quietly emerged. Within a few days, fresh bamboo shoots also grew in the bamboo forest behind the old Gu family.
This winter was spent in poverty. The land in Gujiaao was fertile, and last year was another bumper year. Although most of the grain was transported to the north, the villagers of Gujiaao also kept some grain at home. The lack of grain in the city did not have much impact on the countryside.
People in the city eat commercial food, while people in the countryside eat food grown at home. This has been the case in previous years. It is just a matter of more or less food.
Besides, there are many things to eat in the countryside. Unlike people in the city, they do not eat finely ground rice and flour. When rural people are hungry, they can eat wheat bran, rice bran, bean cakes, corn grits, sweet potato vines, etc., which are used to feed livestock.
This winter, the villagers of Gujiaao are not full, but they have something to eat.
No matter whether it is wheat bran or rice bran, as long as it can save lives, it is fine. The shepherd
's purse and amaranth in the back mountain are plump and tender. Women in the village carry baskets and go to the back mountain to dig wild vegetables.
The daughters-in-law in the city who had nothing to eat also put aside their pride and rode their bicycles to the mountains in the suburbs to pick wild vegetables.
There were many family members of cadres among them. Compared with face, having a full stomach was the most important thing.
Sun Jialiang's family had the support of his uncle who was the director of the grain station, so there was no shortage of food at home.
The town was so small that the family members of the cadres in the family compound all went to the suburbs to pick wild vegetables. If they did not go, they would not only look out of place, but also easily be criticized and given a chance to be talked about.
Sun's mother was very smart and naturally understood the reason, but she had been a wife for half her life, lived in a courtyard house, and had much better food and clothing than the average person. It was like a vulgar peasant woman, carrying a basket to pick wild vegetables in the fields.
Sun's mother had a headache when she thought about it, so the eldest daughter of the Sun family gave her mother some advice.
Anyway, it would be fine if someone in the family went to dig wild vegetables.
It didn't matter who it was, because there was already a ready-made country daughter-in
-law at home. The granddaughter of the grandson family was a little hesitant, "That's true, but she's pregnant." The eldest daughter of the grandson family, dressed appropriately, sat on the black leather sofa at home and sneered.
"Mom, what are you talking about? What's the big deal about those young daughters-in-law in the countryside being pregnant? There are children who have given birth in the fields. We provide her with good food and drink, so what's wrong with her working for the family?"
The eldest daughter of the grandson family was arrogant, and she had the capital to be proud. As the first child in the family, she was much more favored than the second sister of the grandson family, and her father-in-law was the mayor of the town. Marrying well and being favored was a confidence.
Compared to her, Lin Hongna is a real country bumpkin.
Since she is a country bumpkin, she should know her limits.
The eldest daughter of the Sun family thought that she was very kind not to tell Lin Hongna what her younger brother said when he was drunk.
It is not bad to have a country bumpkin as a nanny at home. The younger brother is having a good time outside, and his parents are old, so someone has to clean the house and wash the sheets. Lin Hongna is
very good at these tasks, and the clothes that the eldest daughter of the Sun family has changed are thrown to her to wear.
Look, Lin Hongna is bending over to mop the floor, and the khaki sweater on her body is the one that the eldest daughter of the Sun family discarded and gave to her. It’s not that
Lin Hongna didn’t hear what the mother and daughter of the Sun family said, but what can she do if she heard it?
This pair of scumbags is not easy to mess with, but Lin Hongna is not a lazy person.
She asked Lin Hongwu to come and ask him to secretly investigate the private life of Sun's eldest brother-in-law.
She remembered clearly that Sun's eldest brother-in-law was gentle on the surface, but he was actually having affairs outside. After the Sun family became rich, Sun's eldest brother-in-law also made a lot of money and opened a chain of restaurants in the provincial capital.
Sun's eldest daughter dressed up brightly every day, and did nothing but go to the restaurant to stare at her man. She was afraid that Sun's eldest brother-in-law would be seduced by a scumbag. Pretty girls kept going after him and had to be on guard.
Even so, she couldn't prevent it. Sun's eldest brother-in-law kept several mistresses outside.
One of them got pregnant and came to the abdication. The eldest daughter of the Sun family grabbed the mistress and beat her, saying dirty words, like a real shrew.
After mopping the floor, Lin Hongna went to the town with her bag on her back, using the excuse of going out to buy groceries. The sound of the mother and daughter of the Sun family talking and laughing came from the house. She showed a mocking smile at the corner of her mouth. She was reborn. You little bitch, fight with me, you will cry one day!
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