After rejecting the two children's kindness, Yin Xiaoman forced himself to swallow half of the black dough ball, but he couldn't eat any more.
She told Dabao to look after his younger sister and went to the kitchen.
The first thing she did after entering the door was to open the rice jar. Looking at the coarse corn grits that barely covered the bottom of the jar, she couldn't help rubbing her forehead.
When Shen Qingyun secretly gave money to the original owner, he was seen by his sister-in-law Liu Chunxia who was passing by.
After Shen Qingyun returned to the army, she began to ask Yin Xiaoman for money with various excuses such as "The family doesn't want to keep idle people, and the three of us in the family don't earn work points and eat for free..."
Yin Xiaoman has been spoiled since childhood. Her parents have never scolded her since she was a child. How could they possibly argue with such a shrew?
This happened once or twice, and soon, not only did Liu Chunxia take away the dozen or so yuan left after the funeral, but she also took away most of the thirty yuan betrothal money.
As the saying goes, even a rabbit bites when it is anxious.
When the last few dollars were snatched away, Yin Xiaoman also got angry.
When Liu Chunxia once again started to hint at her giving money, she simply proposed to separate.
Shen's father, Shen Mancheng, is a well-known honest man in the village. Apart from working in the fields, he doesn't care about other things.
Shen's mother, Zhang Jinfeng, had suffered from poor health during the years of disaster. She could not get angry or do any work, so naturally her words carried no weight at home.
Therefore, the Shen family is a weird one in the village. The parents-in-law are both there, but the eldest daughter-in-law is the head of the family.
Because Shen Qingyun had not sent a penny home for several months since he got married, Liu Chunxia had always suspected that her brother-in-law was secretly using the money to support their family.
When she thought that from then on not only would she no longer have that subsidy, but she would also have to support her brother-in-law's wife and children, she began to complain a lot towards Yin Xiaoman.
Now that she had taken the initiative to propose separation, Liu Chunxia immediately agreed.
After agreeing, he sat down and began to calculate with Yin Xiaoman how much rice and food the three of them had eaten in the past six months...
In the end, not only did Yin Xiaoman not get anything from the family division, he also owed his family a lot of food.
As for the money Shen Qingyun had sent home, and the money she had extorted over the past six months—
Sorry, there is no evidence and she doesn't admit it.
Where had Yin Xiaoman ever seen such a shameless person in her life?
I almost went crazy.
She started packing up her things on the spot, even moving away from the west room that was assigned to her. She took her two children and moved back to the old house left by her parents.
Finally, the father-in-law Shen Mancheng couldn't stand it anymore, so he scolded his eldest son Shen Qingsong and forced him to carry half a bag of noodles, a dozen ears of corn, and half a basket of sweet potatoes with him.
But now, looking at this empty kitchen, it’s obvious that even the food that was delivered has been almost eaten.
Yin Xiaoman shook his head in disgust.
He has little ability, but has a bad temper.
If you can’t even fill your stomach, what else do you want?
Without saying a word, she picked up the backpack in the corner and walked out of the yard.
But before he had taken a few steps, he heard a series of footsteps coming from the other side of the house.
Before she could turn around, the two children, the older and the younger, ran up to her quickly and looked at her with horror.
Erniu simply grabbed the corner of her clothes tightly.
Yin Xiaoman sighed.
She knew that the two children were frightened, afraid that she would not want them either and run away alone.
She squatted down and touched Erniu's face.
The little girl was so nervous that her eyelashes were trembling slightly, but she forced herself to stay still and let her touch her.
Yin Xiaoman felt a pang of pain in her heart, and said to her softly, "I'll go find something to eat and will be back soon. Don't be afraid, Erniu, you and your brother should wait for mother at home obediently."
After hearing this, Erniu's body obviously softened a little, but she didn't dare to nod. Instead, she turned and looked at her brother.
Dabao reached out to grab Yin Xiaoman's backpack.
After she dodged him, the little guy anxiously pounded his chest with his fists, trying hard to show that he was an adult and could do anything as long as she stayed at home.
But Yin Xiaoman was not moved by his expression.
"I don't understand, speak." She said coldly.
Dabao was so anxious that his face turned red, and he pushed his sister's shoulder hard.
Erniu quickly looked up and explained for him: "Brother said, he..."
"Let him speak for himself."
Yin Xiaoman interrupted the little girl without any hesitation and glanced at Dabao: "You can't even speak clearly, why should I believe you?"
Dabao's hand froze in mid-air.
His mouth moved for a long time, but still no word came out.
His eyes turned red from holding it in.
Yin Xiaoman didn't even look at him again and turned away.
She learned from the original owner's memory that the child was not born dumb.
If we have to say that he is sick, it should be more like the aphasia suffered by the son of Old Li, who used to deliver food to the imperial kitchen.
According to the young palace maids, the child got the disease because the roof of the house suddenly collapsed in the middle of the night and buried the child under the rubble.
After being dug out, the child suddenly couldn't speak.
The doctor said he was frightened.
Following the doctor's instructions, ever since the child fell ill, Old Li took him wherever he went and talked to him whenever he had time.
Yin Xiaoman vaguely remembered that one year before she left the palace, the child was already able to speak long sentences slowly.
She didn’t know how Dabao got this disease?
How did Shen Qingyun and his previous wife raise their children?
But she could see that Dabao was in better condition than that child.
Just now during the meal, Yin Xiaoman secretly observed that this little guy would occasionally utter one or two words when communicating with his sister.
Especially when he is relaxed or anxious, a phrase will pop out from time to time.
According to the original owner's memory, at this time next year, Dabao will slip and fall into a trap when he goes to the mountains to hunt wild animals, and then freeze to death.
He lay in the trap for a day and a night. During this time, the original owner and the villagers passed by the area several times while searching the mountain, and he had every opportunity to ask for help.
But no sound was made from beginning to end.
That means that by this time next year, the child will be completely unable to speak and will become a true mute.
"Oh my god, I, I..."
As soon as Yin Xiaoman opened the gate, his arm was tightly grabbed by someone behind him, and then he heard Dabao stammering.
The voice is not loud, but the words are extremely clear.
Yin Xiaoman's heart suddenly relaxed.
The first smile appeared on her face since she came into this world.
She turned around and held Dabao's cold little hand tightly. She did not try to hide her happiness. She looked at the two children with a smile and said, "Go, Dabao and Erniu, go with mom."
At the same time, the six members of the Shen family were still having breakfast.
They each held a large bowl in their hands, which was filled with corn grits porridge so clear that one could see the bottom of the bowl at a glance.
In the middle of the table was a winnowing basket filled with steamed sweet potatoes, just enough for each person.
Apart from that, there was only a dish of old pickled vegetables that were extremely salty and had salt crystals on them.
But even such meals are only provided twice a day in the Shen family.
As the year draws to a close, there is not much work to do in the fields. People who have been busy all year no longer need to go to the fields and no longer need to put in any great effort.
Therefore, the Shen family delayed the breakfast time and advanced the dinner time, so that they only had to eat two meals a day.
At other times, if you are extremely hungry, just drink a jar of water to fill your stomach and feel full.
Speaking of which, the Shen family is not considered poor in the village, and should be one of the rare wealthy families.
There is no such thing as not being able to afford food.
Their family has basically no burden.
Except for Zhang Jinfeng who stayed at home to do housework due to poor health, everyone else went to work.
Even the two boys in the old family would go to help the village cut grass and collect manure in exchange for work points.
In addition, since Shen Qingyun joined the army, except for these few months, he has sent money home every month without fail.
So if their family wants to eat better, it’s not difficult.
But Liu Chunxia is a rare stingy person.
Once the money is in her hands, it is basically impossible to take it out.
Even though her eldest child is only eight years old this year and her youngest is just five years old, she has already prepared enough money for both sons to get married.
Chen Mancheng finished the last mouthful of porridge in the bowl and picked up the sweet potatoes in the winnowing basket.
He glanced at his two grandsons with eager faces, silently broke the sweet potato into two halves and stuffed them into their hands.
"Dad, don't give them to them, eat it yourself."
Seeing him like this, Shen Qingsong suddenly became anxious. He put down the bowl and was about to stop him, but was glared back by Chen Manyeng.
"Eat quickly, and then send some dried sweet potatoes to Xiaoman and the others. It looks like it's going to snow today! I wonder if they have anything to eat."
Chen Mancheng squinted his eyes, looked at the sky outside the window which was slowly getting darker, and sighed.
"Hey, I'll send some more firewood over. It's snowing and we can't live without firewood."
Shen Qingsong agreed, quickly poured the remaining porridge into his mouth, wiped his mouth and was about to stand up.
However, Liu Chunxia slammed the chopsticks onto the table.
"There are less than two bags of dried sweet potatoes left. What will we eat if we give them to her? We will all tie our belts around our necks and starve to death."
Hearing her say this, Shen Mancheng's face suddenly darkened.
"Go and deliver it! Use the food rations of your mother and I! We haven't finished eating the food I distributed this year!"
He ignored Liu Chunxia and instead scolded his son coldly.
After hearing what her father-in-law said, Liu Chunxia immediately quit.
She slapped her thigh and immediately howled, "Dad, what do you mean? What's the matter? Only the second boy is related to you, and Qingsong was picked up from the wild?
If it’s paid from your and mother’s rations, what will you and mother eat? If they run out of money later, won’t they have to take it from our food supply?
You are deliberately trying to starve our family to death!
If you don't feel sorry for us, at least feel sorry for your grandchildren! They are also your Shen family!
Even if he is partial, he can't be so biased. You can ask around the village and find out which old man would think about sending food to his daughter-in-law who was separated from her every day? ”
“You…” As she spoke more and more harshly, Shen Mancheng trembled with anger.
He stood up from the stool, pointed at Liu Chunxia, his lips trembling but he could not utter a word.
Liu Chunxia had experienced such situations too many times. She looked at Shen Mancheng without any fear, with undisguised provocation in her eyes.
Her man Shen Qingsong stood between the two of them with an embarrassed look on his face, rubbing his hands, as if he didn't know what to do.
This was exactly the scene that Yin Xiaoman saw when she walked in, holding a child in each hand and followed by two girls.
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