"You’re speaking like this, surely I can’t just open the door now. We both know the truth about mother. Lu Zhenping has been in the military for many years, sending ho allowance every month, initially just a yuan or two as a young soldier, then later on to more than ten yuan and even now. It wasn’t just for a month or two, nor just for a year. Even if villagers, like us, eat at at every al, how much could that cost? If we really calculated, it just wouldn’t add up. You should just go back!"
Shen ng, arms crossed, stood behind the door and shouted outward. She peeked through the crack of the door; a crowd was gathering to watch!
At this mont, she definitely wouldn’t go out. Otherwise, it would just be another dispute.
"You, you’re really turning the skies upside down, daring to make up such stories about . Can you bully to death every single day? Father, when will you co back? Can I, this miserable person, still see you once a year, my dear mother, my poor mother~ ah!"
Liu Sanjin sat down on the ground and began to wail in a lodramatic tone, making Shen ng laugh.
Previously, she had only seen such scenes in small video clips, this was the first ti she experienced such authentic feelings up close.
"Father, mother, why did you leave so early, leaving alone~ to suffer in this world~ my dear mother~!"
She sat on the ground kicking her legs back and forth, slapping her thighs loudly with both hands.
Watching this, Shen ng clicked her tongue in amazent; with such force, her thighs must be red.
Crying with mucus and tears, the villagers who were about to go work couldn’t help but offer her a few words of consolation.
But the more they tried to console her, the more outrageous she beca.
"Stop consoling , I have a hard life, stuck with such a wastrel. Over the years, when have I ever lost my temper? I treated her like my own daughter when she married in. But look how she treats ! I’ve been here for half a day, and she won’t even open the door for . Lord, when will these hard tis end~!"
"Not opening the door because you said you’d kill . You said you treated like your own daughter, but when have a daughter and her real mother ever held such grudges overnight? Moreover, the straw from our private plot, how your own daughter wishes to use it is her business. But here you are, fussing about living and dying, what exactly do you want?"
"You... I... this..." Liu Sanjin didn’t expect Shen ng to suddenly open the door, a few words made her stumble, leaving her unsure what to say.
Looking at Liu Sanjin’s face turning red, Shen ng pitifully wiped the corners of her sowhat dry eyes.
"Mother, what are you trying to do? I just don’t understand. You have good days to live, why cause such trouble? Your sons and daughters-in-law are filial, your father-in-law can still work outside, Zhenping is even providing you with pension money. In ten miles around, there’s no old lady who has a better life than you in her old age. What are you still not satisfied with? Must you pick on our family’s wool? Can you just be kind, give us a break, is that possible?"
When she spoke these words, the villagers who were consoling her started to feel uneasy. The older ones left with their hoes, they worked hard to earn work points, wasn’t it just to allow themselves and their children a full al?
Mrs. Lu lived so comfortably without concern, following Zhenping’s wife’s words, who knows how much money she had stashed away?!
When they divided the family assets, Mrs. Lu instantly gave sixty yuan to the main house. So households don’t even see that much money in a year, yet she just handed it out effortlessly, initially thinking she was fair.
Hah, fair my foot, she was probably just fooling the naive Shen ng.
Here convincing her is pointless when one is poor as can be. Better off earning so work points for so extra grain for the family.
The gathering crowd gradually dispersed, even those supporting Liu Sanjin showed disdain, shrugged off their hands and walked away.
Seeing that most people had left, Shen ng didn’t bother to argue any further. She rolled her eyes and turned to head ho.
Liu Sanjin sat on the ground, unable to cry or leave, feeling extrely awkward for a mont.
When Shen ng returned ho, Lu Mingkai was still sleeping. She hurried back to the kitchen, whipped up a big pot of stewed pig’s feet with kelp and soybeans, put stead cornal buns and a few dishes of cabbage and glass noodles in the stear basket. Lu Mingyang had ntioned several tis already, but she hadn’t found the chance to take them out from the storage space.
She had just covered the pot when she saw Lu Mingkai, bare-legged and wearing slippers, standing at the door.
Shen ng: "...."
"Mom, what delicious thing are you cooking? I just saw sothing being put into the pot, can it be eaten yet?"
"... It’s still raw; wait a bit. Mom will first take Ming Kai back to get dressed. It’s chilly today, don’t catch a cold."
Shen ng wiped her hands on her apron and quickly went out to pick up Lu Mingkai and rushed inside, while the little guy lay on her shoulder and asked,
"Mom, I can dress myself, just keep an eye on the fire."
What fire? I didn’t even start it!!!
After getting Lu Mingkai dressed, she returned to the kitchen, smiling lightly at Lu Mingkai: "Oh look, the fire has gone out, haha, wait a bit longer. It should be ready around the ti your brother and sister finish school. It’s stewed pig’s feet soup, I even added plenty of old kelp, great for nourishing the body. Ming Kai, have more tonight."
Lu Mingkai wrinkled his nose and nodded vigorously, biting his baby teeth. He loved the food his mom cooked the most, it was so delicious he could almost swallow his tongue.
In her hurry today, she hadn’t managed to pay Uncle Guai for the ox cart, nor had she thanked him for helping with the work. Shen ng simply carried Lu Mingkai, took a handful of fruity candies, locked the door and went straight to Uncle Guai’s house.
Uncle Guai’s house wasn’t too far from hers. When she arrived, Uncle Guai’s wife was outside grinding sesa seeds in a mortar, the aroma of roasted sesa seeds wafting enticingly through the air.
"Aunt, busy, aren’t you?"
Zhu Juying glanced at her, "Why? Didn’t you see?"
The tone was harsh, and Shen ng guessed it must be because she knew Uncle Guai had helped her work. In just one morning he could earn five work points, each worth 20 cents, making one yuan for a morning’s work. In the countryside, one yuan of work points wasn’t just a monetary paynt, it also included rationed vegetables, fruits, cloth tickets, food and sugar tickets, kerosene tickets, and more, all deducted from the work points.
A family working all year round might not be able to eat their fill even a few tis, so families didn’t eat at all in the evening, just went to bed when it got dark as sleeping ant not feeling hungry.
Wouldn’t soone be upset if they worked all morning for nothing?
"Aunt, this morning I really owed it to Uncle Guai for helping, or else we wouldn’t have collected the straw from our own farm so quickly. You don’t know, the roof of the mud house back at my parents has several big holes, my dad has been sick, and these few days have been cloudy. I was really worried that if it rained heavily, my dad might... Uncle Guai saw and my brother working and asked about it, then rolled up his sleeves to help. He’s really a kind-hearted man. I feel bad for taking up his morning, this is for the kids at ho, Aunt, please don’t be polite, and this is for Uncle Guai. He helped out at our house today and also missed the collective work. I didn’t think too much, please don’t mind!"
In addition to handing over a handful of fruity candies to Zhu Juying, Shen ng also gave her 1.5 yuan, as compensation for Uncle Guai’s labor, and an eight-jin cotton ticket.
Zhu Juying’s hands trembled as she took them.
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