Chapter 2
Jiao Huilan felt a little nervous. Could it be that her mother-in-law wanted to sell Daya just to make her fatter?
"Daguo, what happened to mom?"
"How would I know? Eat quickly! We still have to go to work! Without work points, we won't get any food this year. It's another year of wasted work."
Even though Jiao Huilan was five months pregnant, she did not dare to act rashly. She cleaned up the dishes, picked up the hoe, and left two cakes for her mother-in-law before leaving, fearing that her mother-in-law would fall asleep and be hungry when she woke up.
Her mother-in-law never works in the fields, and she's used to it. If she doesn't want to work, then she doesn't have to work! She'll be satisfied if you scold her less.
After everyone had left, Zhen Zhen heaved a sigh of relief. Even though the way this time travel was opened was a little wrong, at least she wasn't required to work in the fields. If she was asked to wash clothes, cook, and work in the fields again, she might as well just kill herself.
Only then did she take a good look at the house.
There are four rooms in the house, which sounds quite wealthy and impressive, but unfortunately they are all mud and thatched houses.
One kitchen was filled with hay and firewood. The eldest son and his daughter lived in one of the remaining three rooms, the second and third sons lived in one, and the original owner's room was the largest for the whole family.
The yard is not small, with a roof and a ground, and it is quite bright. Unfortunately, people these days can't even afford to eat, so naturally they have no mood to take care of the yard. Now the yard is bare and the walls are overgrown with weeds.
There wasn't a single decent piece of furniture in the house, except for a half-worn cupboard in the kitchen, which had been made by a carpenter when the original owner's husband was still alive.
After the steel smelting boom a few years ago, there were not many cookware left except for a large iron pot for cooking.
Zhen Zhen went into the kitchen and opened the rice jar. It was empty, no exaggeration, not a single grain of rice was left.
Which time-traveling heroine is more miserable than her? The more I think about it, the worse I feel. I wish I could call back the dead Zhen Guizhi!
Zhen Zhen would not treat herself badly. She took out a big meat bun from the space and was about to put it into her mouth when she caught a glimpse of a dark shadow emerging from the window. Daya was lying on the windowsill, looking at her eagerly.
Daya was a little afraid of Zhen Zhen. She had a timid look in her eyes and didn't look very smart.
Zhen Zhen sighed and waved at her resignedly, "Come here!"
The little girl was very scared, her mouth was about to cry, but she didn't dare to disobey her grandmother's order, so she walked in obediently, rolled up her sleeves, and pointed her hand towards Zhen Zhen.
"Grandma, if you're unhappy, hit me!"
Zhen Zhen: “…”
Are these mother and daughter here specifically to defeat her?
Zhen Zhen sighed and tried hard to gain favor with his granddaughter.
"Why would I hit you? I'm not the kind of person who takes out her anger on a child. Think about it! I wouldn't hit you every time I get angry, right?"
Daya thought back carefully to the past. Was there ever a time when her grandmother didn't take her out on her when she was in a bad mood? That was really not the case.
“They’ve all been beaten!”
Children don't lie. The original owner must have beaten his granddaughter often, which is why the little girl is so scared. Zhen Zhen pressed his brows in pain. The original owner really had the heart to do that. The little girl was only 3 years old!
She didn't know how to coax a child, so she could only imitate the original owner's tone and say:
"Just come over here when I told you to. Why are you talking so much nonsense?"
Her tone was very fierce, and the little girl was very scared, so she walked closer obediently.
The bun was already cold, so Zhen Zhen broke off half of it and stuffed it into her mouth. The fluffy white flour folds and the perfectly fat and lean pork filling filled her mouth with a greasy and fragrant taste. The little girl's eyes lit up and she wanted to swallow her tongue!
Why hasn't she eaten something so delicious before?
"Grandma, this sacred tree?"
"Meat buns."
"Where did the meat buns come from?"
"It fell from the sky," Zhen Zhen ate the remaining half of the bun in small bites, "Haven't you heard of a saying? Meat buns often fall from the sky! This famous saying should be memorized in your heart, understand?"
"Understand!"
"I'm going to ask you a question. What would you do if meat buns fell from the sky?"
The meat buns are so delicious! Daya didn’t eat enough, so she tilted her head and thought, “I’ll open my mouth and wait.”
"Very good, you are worthy of being my granddaughter."
After sending the girl away, Zhen Zhen considered taking some rice out of the space. Although he couldn't completely put himself in the role of Zhen Guizhi, he was occupying the original owner's body after all, and he couldn't let this family starve to death.
Besides, she has to eat well too. It’s okay if she dresses like a wicked mother-in-law. At least we come here with space, so we have to eat and drink enough.
Of course, the rice cannot be taken out openly, and everyone knows how much rice there is in the house.
Although the rice Zhen Zhen bought was the cheapest local rice in later generations, it did not contain any sand or impurities and was much whiter than today's rice.
If you take it out like this, it will definitely be exposed.
After Zhen Zhen returned to the house, he took a gold earring from the original owner and hid it in the space. The quality of this gold earring was not as good as the gold of later generations. It had no weight and looked like a sewing thimble.
With the original owner's personality, it was none of her business if the family didn't have enough food to eat. Besides, she could sell her granddaughter or daughter if she didn't have enough food to eat. How could she sell her jewelry?
Zhen Zhen would not sell the original owner's things, he just wanted to find an excuse to take out the rice, flour and pork.
She changed into a brand new dacron shirt and went out. As she reached the entrance of the village, she heard a group of women pointing and talking behind her.
"She's going to the city again?"
"It's only been a short time since Daguo's father died, and she's already showing up? I told you long ago that she has someone else in the city, just wait and see! In less than three months, she'll definitely run after that wild man."
"She is such a shameless woman. She doesn't work in the fields and asks her daughter-in-law to serve her at home. She can't even afford to eat, but she still dresses up to seduce people in the city!"
Zhen Zhen couldn't be angry, the original owner was indeed that kind of person.
Meng's father had been a soldier for many years and was a leader in the army before he died for his country. He sent a considerable amount of money back home every month.
The original owner followed the principle that if she had to suffer, she would let her children suffer, so she never spent extra money on her children. She was only a little generous to her youngest son, and spent all the money she saved on herself.
She spent every penny she had and lived a more luxurious life than the women in the city. She often went to the supply and marketing cooperative in the county to buy things, and the villagers always talked about her behind her back.
It can be said that the original owner had a pretty good life, but after her husband died she lost the subsidy, there were many children in the family, and the harvest in Batou Village was getting worse year by year, so the team could not distribute food every year, so she could not make ends meet.
The gossiper is the Meng family’s eastern neighbor, Zhang Cuihua, the daughter-in-law of the Song family. Zhang Cuihua is about the same age as Zhen Guizhi.
In the early years, Zhang Cuihua fell in love with Meng Daguo's father before Zhen Guizhi. She tried every trick in the book, including trying to get close to him, chatting him up, getting close to him, and even doing farm work at the Meng family's house... She tried everything, but Daguo's father just didn't fall in love with her. Instead, he fell in love with Zhen Guizhi, who was disliked by everyone in the village.
What a coincidence, the two families are neighbors, which makes Zhang Cuihua very angry!
How is she inferior to this naughty girl? She is more diligent and considerate than Zhen, and she can cook, do housework, and serve men all at once!
What can a girl named Zhen do? Isn't she just prettier and has a little more flesh on her chest than she does?
Zhang Cuihua refused to accept the result, and she has been jealous of the original owner ever since then. Fortunately, the original owner was not someone who could be easily bullied, and she scolded Zhang Cuihua every time. Poor Father Meng only took a vacation once a year when he was alive, but he was often mentioned by these two women. He must have sneezed every day.
Four years ago, Miss Zhang Cuihua fell in love with Meng Daguo and privately told Zhen Guizhi that she wanted to marry her to her as a daughter-in-law. However, Zhen Guizhi was very proud and spread the news to everyone in the village. Her words implied that she looked down on Miss Zhang Cuihua.
Zhang Cuihua had no choice but to marry her daughter off in a hurry, and from then on she hated Zhen Guizhi even more.
The original owner's behavior towards others could not be described as kind.
It is true that there is a grudge between me and Zhang Cuihua, but it is inappropriate to involve the younger generation.
Zhen Zhen is determined to clear the original owner's bad reputation, but that doesn't mean she will allow herself to be manipulated.
Zhen Zhen said: "Zhang Cuihua, what are you talking about! If you have the guts, say it to my face!"
"What did I say? Was what I said a lie? You can't even afford to eat at home, yet you're still running to the city. Is there someone you love in the city or something?"
"I just want to go to the city to borrow some rice from my second brother because I can't afford to eat at home. How dare you make up stories about me like this! If you think that you can ride on my head just because my man is dead, you are wrong! My three sons are not vegetarians!"
The original owner's insults were like a repetition of wheels, and Zhen Zhen intercepted the more offensive quotes and told them to Zhang Cuihua in their original form.
Sure enough, Zhang Cuihua frightened immediately.
"Having a third son is amazing! Who do you think doesn't have a son?"
"Third son is nothing special, but if you want to cause trouble or fight, I'm not afraid of you!"
Zhang Cuihua was a little weak after all. She had two daughters and one son, and the youngest son was only in his teens. However, Zhen Guizhi had three sons at home, and each of them was tall and strong. If they had a fight, she would definitely lose.
Zhang Cuihua left angrily.
After successfully repelling the enemy using Zhen Guizhi's quotations, Zhen Zhen continued to move forward.
Nowadays, the dirt road is full of potholes and there are mud-brick houses everywhere. There are all kinds of feces on the road from time to time, and Zhen Zhen really has no intention of collecting them.
She just pretended to be there and walked around outside for a few laps to get familiar with the surrounding terrain.
It is no wonder that the harvest in Batou Village is poor every year. The village is backed by mountains on both sides, there are few good farmlands, and the soil is not suitable for farming. The villagers have been poor for generations.
The poverty of Batou Village is well-known in the county. People outside say that if you want to marry, don't marry in Batou Village! No girl would marry here. It's hard for the novel author to put the hero and heroine in such a poor village.
Going up the mountain, among the piles of fallen leaves, Zhen Zhen unexpectedly found something familiar, it was wild chestnuts!
Chestnuts fell from the trees and hid among the leaves, some still covered with thorns, some already completely shed.
This thing is just like rushing into the sea, you'll get addicted once you pick it up. Zhen Zhen picked up several handfuls with his clothes in his pocket, and his pocket was full.
The original owner was a lazy glutton, sleeping in bed all day and lacking exercise. Zhen Zhen was tired after crawling not far, so he headed home.
I didn’t have to go to work, take care of my mother-in-law, or work in the fields. I slept for two hours before getting up to get some things out of the space.
The rice and flour were in bags of 50 kilograms. She didn't pour all of it into the rice jar. She only scooped out about 5 kilograms of rice and 10 kilograms of flour with a scoop.
There was a lot of gravel under the rice jar. She mixed all the gravel into the rice, went to the kitchen to grab a handful of broken grass husks and threw them in. After filling the rice jar, she put the lid on.
There are ready-made kitchen knives in the space. These are the knives Zhen Zhen uses herself. She also bought a few at the farmers' market, but she never used them and they were not very easy to use.
I used a knife to cut off two palm-sized pieces of meat and put them on a kitchen plate. I also took out a few common Chinese cabbages to save for cooking in the evening.
Zhen Zhen’s cooking skills were average, and since the original owner didn’t like to work, she just didn’t rush to serve the Meng family.
Jin Wu fell to the west. When Jiao Huilan came back carrying the hoe, she saw her daughter sitting on a stool at the kitchen door from a distance, staring at something.
"Daya, what are you doing?"
"Watch the meat and don't let the cat take it away!" Daya said crisply.
"Meat? Where does the meat come from? You are just a kid, what nonsense!"
It's strange, after not seeing her for just one day, the girl looked much better.
Jiao Huilan put down the hoe and didn't take it to heart.
The economy has been bad in the past two years, and it was considered good to have a meal of meat during the Chinese New Year. Now the rice jar at home is empty, how can I dare to hope for meat! I dare not even dream about it, for fear of being woken by hunger!
Jiao Huilan was tired after a day's work and was pregnant, but luckily she was used to doing farm work so she didn't feel very tired. She walked to the water tank and rubbed it several times before she rubbed the dirt between her fingers dry.
"Daya, mom is not here during the day, have you eaten the cake?"
Daya shook her head, "I didn't eat cakes, I ate meat buns!"
Jiao Huilan felt something was wrong. Could it be that her daughter was so hungry that she had gone mad? She had started to talk nonsense!
"Where did you get the meat buns? Don't talk nonsense, kid! Meat buns! There's only the last bit of rice bran left at home. We're really going to have to starve from tomorrow."
As she was talking, Zhen Zhen came out of the kitchen with a stern face and handed her two pieces of meat.
"Old man, take this meat and make some pickled mustard greens to nourish your body. Be careful not to hurt the baby in your belly."
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