Chapter 439 Hongjia Village 4
Hongwu and his three sons were picking up stones on the mountain, because Tang Jianguo had told them when he came last time to prepare some bigger stones for building a chicken coop next year. So he and the villagers would come to pick up stones whenever they had free time.
Xiaoyue hurried all the way to the top of the mountain and shouted from afar: "Dad, Dad, the benefactor is here, and mother wants you to go back."
Hongwu was bending over to put a brick-sized stone into his backpack when he heard the shout and stood up and asked, "Why did your mother ask me to go back?"
"My benefactor is here. My benefactor is here." Xiaoyue said while panting.
When Hongwu heard this, he immediately emptied the stones from his backpack, put on the empty backpack and walked back. He also said to his sons who were picking up stones, "Old man, carry the stones over and empty them, then bring your brothers back."
"Okay!" a young man answered loudly.
Hongwu was trotting back home. Other villagers saw him and asked, "Hongwu, why are you running so fast?"
"My benefactor has come, and I have to go back to greet him." Hongwu replied.
"Is he the boss of the young man who calls people to deliver food and collect mountain products? The one who will raise chickens here next year?" the villager asked again.
"Yes." Hongwu's voice came back from afar.
"Why are you running so fast? You can't run anymore." The villager who asked the question said loudly.
"We should go back and take a look. We heard that they are a very kind couple. The young man Tang who collects mountain products was asked by the couple to come here." Villager A said.
"If we didn't believe in Hongwu, we wouldn't come here to pick up these cold stones in the middle of winter. What if people don't come here to raise chickens next year? Our work will be in vain." Villager B said.
"Let's go back and check, and confirm if we're really going to raise chickens next year?" said Villager C.
So the villagers who picked up the stones dumped them in a pile and went back with Hongwu's sons.
Hongwu trotted back home, put down the backpack outside the door, and shouted as soon as he entered the door: "Benefactor, benefactor is here."
Then he saw Yi Ke sitting at the table feeding walnut kernels to his young son.
"Benefactor, you are here. Where is the male benefactor? Isn't he here yet?" Hongwu walked fast and left his daughter Xiaoyue behind, so he didn't ask how many people came.
"Brother Hongwu, my name is Yike. My husband is here too. His name is Ziyi. You can just call us by our names. Don't call us benefactor. It sounds too distant." Yike corrected him.
"Okay, then I'll call you sister-in-law. I'm older than Ziyi, so I'll take the initiative to be the eldest brother." Hongwu said.
"Okay, Ziyi, please stay at your village chief's house. Your cousin Hong Xing is back too. If it weren't for her leading the way, we wouldn't be able to find the place." Yike said.
Hong Wu stood up straight suddenly, "Cousin, is my cousin still alive?"
"Yes, she is still alive and working for me. Why did you all think she was dead? Any explanation?" Yi Ke was extremely curious. He had just been talking to Yu Rui and had not found a chance to ask about this. Now that he had found the opportunity, he quickly asked.
Yu Rui brought hot water to Hong Wu, who gulped down a few mouthfuls, then sat on a stool, waved Hong Yang over, and said, "Go talk to your aunt, and ask her to come over to help your mother cook, and ask Aunt Xing and Uncle to come over for lunch." Hong Yang went out happily, and he said to Yi Ke, "This matter is about my uncle, Hong Xing's father. Doesn't he go to the commune for a meeting once a month? In the first half of the year, during one of the meetings, he ran into the secretary of Hong Xing's husband's brigade who was also attending a meeting at the commune. He casually asked if my cousin was doing well. I didn't know until I asked, and I was shocked. My cousin and her husband were kicked out of the house by their parents with their children, and we don't know whether they are alive or dead."
Xiaoyue also came back at this time. Yu Rui said to Yike, "Yike, I'm going to cook. You talk to your brother."
Yike really wanted to listen to the whole thing, so he nodded and agreed. Yu Rui grabbed a few walnut kernels for Xiaoyue, and the mother and daughter went to the kitchen.
Hongwu continued, "My uncle went to that village to investigate and found out that my cousin was living a miserable life in that family. It turned out that the family thought that my cousin's family lived in the mountains and it was impossible for them to visit her. They thought that she had no one to lean on, so the whole family bullied her. My uncle regretted not visiting that family before. He was afraid that the family would think that the poor family was going to visit her to get money, so he never went to visit her."
Yike didn't know what to complain about in his heart. Is this captain stupid?
Hongwu was still talking about how his idiot uncle finally got smart for once and didn't go to that family's house to confront them. He said, "My uncle came back to the village in tears, and he looked like he had aged a dozen years in an instant. The villagers were shocked to see my uncle like that. After asking, they found out that his daughter's family had starved to death. My uncle thought that my cousin's family had been driven out of the house without a single grain of food, so they must have starved to death."
"I know this. It was their brigade secretary who secretly gave them some food and money, and also issued them certificates. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to hold on until they met me and were recruited for work." Yike repeated what he had heard at the beginning.
"That secretary is a good person. I'll tell my uncle about it later and thank him." Hongwu said.
"If you want to express your gratitude, just invite the brigade secretary to dinner at the commune. It's best not to tell the family that Hong Xing's family is still alive to avoid trouble." Yi Ke suggested.
"Yes, this matter cannot be discussed. You don't know how cruel that family is." Hongwu said angrily, "When my uncle returned to the village and told the story of my cousin, the whole village was very angry."
Hongwu told Yi Ke about the subsequent developments in detail:
The people of Hongjia Village are from the same clan. They all have the same ancestor and are very close relatives. Bullying Hong Xing is the same as bullying them because they have no one in their natal family.
So all the men in Hongjia Village took action, one man from each family. Later, Hong Xing's mother said that it couldn't be just the men, as she heard that the mother-in-law in that family was a powerful one, so she sent six more women, all of whom were good at fighting and had good tongues.
So, when Hong Xing's in-laws suddenly saw a large group of relatives of the timid mountain daughter-in-law, they were scared and panicked.
They couldn't win by reasoning, scolding, or beating. The key point was that the people that the family sent to find the secretary and the team leader for help could not be found. They said they had gone out to attend a meeting.
The truth is that both of them felt that this family deserved to be punished and that the poor mountain wife's family should teach her a lesson.
That day, Hong Xing's mother-in-law was slapped in the face by Hong Xing's mother until her face was swollen like a pig's head. The other sisters-in-law were also beaten by the women who followed them, leaving their bodies covered in purple and painful dirt. They specifically hit the shameful parts of their bodies that could not be seen by others.
The men in that family did not escape the fate of being beaten, especially the two heads of the family, Hong Xing's father-in-law and mother-in-law. It was said that they had to lie in bed for half a month before they could go out to work.
The fight was so fierce that no one in their village came to help. The main reason was that everyone felt that there were several lives at stake and they were just being beaten up rather than killed. They all thought that the family deserved it!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
