"What are you complaining about about those old sesame seeds and rotten millet stuff?
What are you showing off? It’s as if those things weren’t lost from your hands.
You haven't even drank yet, and you're already drunk?" Zhou Guilan heard her husband's words, but rolled her eyes disapprovingly.
"If you really want to talk about the bad things about your family, I won't be able to finish them in three days and three nights. Just shut up."
The Xu family was considered a prominent family in Shijiagou, a silver mine.
There are dozens of acres of land, a large orchard, and a mountain. The family also runs a flour mill and raises large livestock.
You can't be considered a big landowner, but it's definitely enough for a small landowner.
Xu Chenghou has no brothers, only a sister, and everything in the family belongs to him.
The atmosphere in the silver mine is not good. When men have some free time in the winter, they either drink and make money or smoke.
When Xu Chenghou was young, he didn't smoke, but he was extremely obsessed with making money.
I often go out to make money, and I go there for ten and a half days. I lose all my money before I come back.
Gradually, the family fortune also made him lose a lot.
Xu Chenghou’s first daughter-in-law’s surname was Jiang. It was difficult for women in the old society to survive, especially the new daughter-in-law, who was made things difficult for her in her husband’s family.
Xu Chenghou's parents are old feudal antiques. The most common saying they say is "the daughter-in-law who is beaten is the one who kneads the dough."
If a daughter-in-law is disobedient, she deserves a beating. No matter what she does is right or wrong, she is still being beaten.
The daughter of the Jiang family was married to the Xu family for two years, but she was tortured to death.
The Jiang family filed a lawsuit, and the Xu family spent a lot of money to settle the lawsuit. From then on, it completely declined.
Later, Xu Chenghou spent a lot of money to marry Zhou Guilan. Perhaps because of the example of his previous wife, the Xu family did not dare to fight to death.
Even so, Zhou Guilan suffered a lot in the years after she got married.
It was finally better after giving birth to Xu Shixian.
In 1948, Xu Chenghou's parents died, and the Xu family fell into disgrace. Even so, they were still determined to be middle peasants.
In addition, Xu Chenghou has always been out of tune, so he has become a target of key attacks and is very marginalized in the silver mine.
It was Zhou Guilan's mother's suggestion that she moved to Fusong.
Not long after the Xu family moved here, the commune was established.
There was a commune, driven by the production team, and he was away from the environment of the silver mine. Xu Chenghou slowly improved and gradually became famous in the Daying commune.
Unfortunately, because Xu Shixian became a demon, the Xu family was severely suppressed.
Finally, I had no choice but to move to a remote place like a big house.
Zhou Guilan doesn't like to mention things about her hometown. Whenever she mentions it, she remembers how her mother-in-law used to tease her. Looking back on those days now, it's like a nightmare.
"Fortunately, our family has moved out. If we had still stayed in our hometown, would we have been able to live like this?
You have already been ruined, and several children may also starve to death.
Why are you talking about that? I'll give you some free time. Don't mention your mother in front of me from now on, I don't like to hear it."
Zhou Guilan has been married to the Xu family for more than 30 years. From the beginning, she was a submissive and frustrated little daughter-in-law, and now she is the head of the family. This also perfectly proves the saying that after many years of marriage, a daughter-in-law can become a mother-in-law.
"Okay, today is the Chinese New Year. Let's not talk about those boring things. Let's sit down and eat with chopsticks."
Zhou Guilan calmed down and stopped thinking about the bad things in the past. Instead, she greeted the children to eat with a smile.
"Come, Yingzi, let's eat some fish and some spareribs."
Zhou Guilan was afraid that Su Anying was stupid and that she was too strong to eat the vegetables, so she picked some vegetables that were far away and put them in Su Anying's bowl.
"Xiao Yan'er, if you can't reach that end, ask the fourth child to pinch it for you.
My family doesn’t need outsiders, they can eat whatever they want.”
She had been trained by her mother-in-law and knew how difficult it was to be a daughter-in-law, so Zhou Guilan never made things difficult for her daughter-in-law and was very kind to her.
In her own words, I cannot let my daughter-in-law suffer again.
With a table full of delicious food, it’s too late to eat, so who can talk?
Anyway, the children in Beikang were eager to stuff meat into their mouths, and they were devouring it with great enthusiasm.
Over at Nan Kang, Xu Chenghou was scolded by his wife, but he didn't get angry. He just smiled and asked his son to pour wine, and led his five sons to drink happily.
It’s been a busy year, and only during the New Year can we relax and unwind.
Xu Chenghou no longer pretended to be a father, and chatted with his sons while eating, drinking, and being very harmonious.
After all, the children on the other side of Beikang were still young and their stomachs had limited capacity. After eating for a while, they felt their stomachs were full and started to think about it.
I happened to catch a glimpse of the table at Nankang. Grandpa, father, uncles, and uncles didn't know what to drink.
Looking at grandpa's happy face, he took a sip of the contents of the cup and narrowed his eyes with an expression of enjoyment on his face.
Xu Haibo rolled his eyes, put down his chopsticks, got off the ground, and ran to Grandpa Nan Kang.
"Sir, what are you drinking? It looks delicious. Can you give me a sip?"
The children were all curious, thinking that there must be something delicious in grandpa’s cup, and they were very greedy.
"You bastard, that's wine. It's spicy. Are you greedy for anything?"
When Xu Shian heard this, his face suddenly dropped and he scolded his son.
Xu Haibo was a little afraid of his father, but he was still thinking about the contents of his grandfather's wine glass, so he hid in his grandfather's arms.
"Master, what is wine? Is it delicious? Give me a taste?"
The little guy raised his head and looked at his grandpa longingly.
Even though Xu Chenghou was very strict with his sons, he liked his grandson very much and was very doting on his children.
As soon as he heard that his eldest grandson wanted to try some wine, the old man dipped his chopsticks into the wine glass and put it into Xu Haibo's mouth.
"Try it, is it spicy?"
How can a child bear the taste of wine?
Even though it was only a drop, the bitter and spicy taste still made Xu Haibo's face wrinkle up quickly.
"Wow" made the child cry. "What is this? It's spicy but also bitter."
I was just a little crybaby at first, and would cry for a while even if nothing happened, let alone this time.
Xu Shian's face turned dark with anger, "I told you it didn't taste good, but you had to taste it, and you cried after tasting it.
Go, go find your mother, don't be annoying here."
Not many men have the patience to comfort children, especially when faced with a crying child, which can definitely make a person collapse.
The child cried, and Wei Mingrong sat there and continued eating, as if nothing was wrong.
Anyway, the crybaby in her family cries all day long, and the more she is coaxed, the more she cries, and then stops after a while without paying any attention to her.
But Zhou Guilan couldn't bear her grandson crying so much, so she hurriedly went to the ground, filled the pot with a bowl of water and came back.
"Xiaobo, come on, let's see what grandma has here. Your father's water doesn't taste good, but the water in grandma's hand is delicious. Come and try it."
The water for steaming pear dumplings should be light red, because it is mixed with grape cake and mountain red skin, so the color is much darker.
The soup is purple-red and really feels like juice.
Children are easily attracted by novel things.
Xu Haibo saw the juice in grandma's hand and saw that the color was very bright. He immediately liked it and took a sip.
Well, this tastes good, much better than that wine or something.