But she wasn't sure if Xu Hongmei was just love-struck; sometimes, even knowledge can't cure a love-struck person.
"Zhao Zhiqing, your letter." Zhao Guohua had just parted ways with Xu Hongmei and returned to the cowshed when Xu Dawei arrived, handed him a letter, and left.
Zhao Guohua immediately opened the letter, quickly read it, and then beamed with joy.
That's great! His parents got him a job in the city, so he can go back home!
"Little Zhao, what's making you so happy?" asked the old man Zhou Huageng with a smile.
Zhao Guohua said, "I..." Thinking that he was about to return to the city, he realized that he was not from the same social class as these bad elements in the cowshed, and he had to draw a clear line with them to avoid affecting his return to the city.
"You old geezer, do I need to talk to you? Get back to work, you guys can do all this work from now on, I'm not doing it anymore."
The smile on Zhou Huageng's face faded. "Little Zhao, you..."
Although Xiao Zhao had been slacking off and dumping all the work on them before, and he would often run into the grove, his attitude wasn't this bad. How come he suddenly seems like a different person?
"Old Zhou, what's wrong with him?" asked another old man, He Linfeng.
Zhou Huageng shook his head, "I don't know, never mind, let's get to work."
"good……"
Two old men were shoveling cow dung while chatting idly.
"Old He, is your wife's leg any better?"
“She’s still the same. It’s getting cold, and her chronic leg pain is flaring up badly. The conditions here are also bad, and she can’t sleep all night because of the pain. If it weren’t for her son and daughter reporting her, she wouldn’t have to suffer like this.” He Linfeng said this with great sorrow in his heart.
He and his wife were both literature professors, respected throughout their lives, but in their old age they were betrayed by their own children.
Those unfilial children, for the sake of their own future, reported them and then published a notice in the newspaper severing ties with them. The unfilial children are living a wealthy life in the city, while the old couple are living a life worse than that of animals.
He didn't even know if his wife would make it through the winter.
Zhou Huageng patted him on the shoulder, "You'll get better."
His words of comfort seemed pale and powerless; even he himself didn't believe them.
Can they really get better?
He and his wife weren't much better off than Old He and his wife. They were both soldiers who had made many merits when they were young. They only had one daughter, who was also in a cultural troupe and married a military officer.
However, the Zhou family lived too splendidly, which aroused envy and led to their being plotted against. In order to avoid being implicated, their daughter and son-in-law severed ties with them.
To show his stance, the son-in-law broke his wife's leg. Although the leg was reattached, it wasn't properly cared for, and his wife is now lame.
They were soldiers who defended their country, never bowing their backs in their entire lives, yet they suffered such humiliation in their old age...
"Can it really get better?" He Linfeng sighed.
Zhou Huageng opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.
Zhao Guohua made himself a cup of brown sugar water, and as he drank it, he went out of the house. Seeing the two old men chatting, he immediately scolded, "What are you chatting about? Do you really think this is your home, and that you're living a life of luxury? You've all been labeled as 'black nine categories' bad elements, and you still dare to slack off? Get to work, or I'll report you to the brigade leader!"
The two elderly people dared not say anything more and buried themselves in their work.
Inside the house, two old women were in tears.
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