Lao Shuantou is lying at home. He is too old to be frightened. After what happened so early in the morning, his legs are so weak that he can't get out of bed. The two sons carried him back in the morning. It's really embarrassing to look like that.
You're an adult.
He sat on the edge of the bed facing me and kept scolding him, "Look at how bear-like you are! In broad daylight, you can be so frightened by a dead person that you can't even stand up. It's really embarrassing for me!"
Since Lao Shuantou married this wife, there has never been a day without being scolded. He is used to it. He knows that just shut up and don't talk back at this time. Let her scold her and he will be relieved soon.
.
But today is obviously different from the past, probably because she is too embarrassed, Mrs. Liu never stops talking: "Three sticks can't beat you into something boring! You just know how to lie down, and our son went to the ground, you me?"
Useless."
"And what should we do with our land? If someone dies just after planting the rice seedlings, don't ruin the harvest for the whole year!"
"You're a bad gambler. If you want to die in your own field, it's bad luck!"
Speaking of this, Lao Shuantou was also a little panicked. Don't farmers just rely on this small field to live their lives? What if this dead man really ruins the feng shui of his land?
"Aunt Liu, are you at home?"
Aunt Wang's voice came from outside the door.
Mrs. Liu glared at her opponent who was lying on the bed pretending not to open his eyes, spat angrily, got up and went out to open the door.
Outside the muddy courtyard wall, Aunt Wang was holding a basket and stretching her neck to look in. When she saw Mrs. Liu who came to open the door, a warm smile immediately appeared on her face.
"Wang family, why are you here?" Mrs. Liu was a well-known shrew. Usually few people in the village would dare to visit her.
"Hey, didn't you hear about what happened in the morning? Don't mind if I don't bring some vegetables from the field." Aunt Wang's enthusiasm made Mrs. Liu feel unusual, but she brought something to the door, so it seemed like it was okay.
If you know some rules, you don't care.
I glanced at the contents of the basket and saw that they were the most common vegetables in this season. They were grown in every household and were not worth a few bucks.
Mrs. Liu knew what she was talking about, but she didn't want to hit the smiling person. If she refused to be unreasonable, she would have to see what the other person said first. If the Wang family member came to see her family's jokes, she would definitely not be able to bear it after the meeting.
"Here you go, what else do you want to bring?" With a few polite words on the surface, Mrs. Liu curled her lips and waited for the Wang family to continue.
"These are just ordinary things, nothing serious." Seeing that Mrs. Liu had not spoken to her, Aunt Wang didn't want to bother with it, so she went straight to the point and talked about her purpose directly.
"I'm not saying that. You said that our village has been going smoothly for so many years, not to mention bumper harvests every year. But after all, there have been no natural disasters and everyone has enough to eat."
She paused and glanced at Mrs. Liu. Seeing that her expression didn't change at all, as if she didn't understand what she meant, she couldn't help but secretly cursed you for being stupid, and then she smiled again and continued.
"I heard a wandering Taoist priest say before that thanks to the good feng shui of Erlizi Village, we have always been so peaceful. But now..."
Seeing Mrs. Liu frowning, Aunt Wang felt happy and said: "What do you mean by this natural disaster and man-made disaster? Isn't it caused by man? I think the gambler at the banker is a personal disaster. I just finished planting the rice seedlings.
What's the point of being in a stagnant field? Isn't it ruining the feng shui of our village?"
Mrs. Liu had mentioned this when she was scolding Lao Shuantou. Now that it was said from Aunt Wang's mouth, she felt that it was the same thing, and she couldn't help but feel angry.
"Then he died in my field!"
"That's right! What should you do if the harvest is affected? We can live with this food." Seeing that the fish was hooked, Aunt Wang was about to close the pole: "I didn't tell you, you have to find a master to do something about it.
Get rid of this bad luck."
Mrs. Liu was obviously moved. She agreed with the proposal and her tone became affectionate when she spoke.
Seeing that her goal had been achieved, Aunt Wang couldn't help but be happy, and she didn't bother to stay any longer. She said that she had something to do at home and left. Mrs. Liu was left angry and went into the house to talk to Lao Shuan.
After her sons returned home in the evening, she said to her sons and daughter-in-law at the dinner table: "Our land."
Everyone knew what she was talking about, so they stopped their chopsticks and waited for her to speak.
"You have to ask a master to remove the bad odor and then take a look at the feng shui."
"Mom, this idea of hiring a master will cost you a lot of money. I don't think that is realistic. Let's farm the land well and we will naturally have a harvest." The eldest son has been married for several years, and he and his mother have completely different personalities. They are honest.
Duty is a bit like his father.
"You know nothing! Why should we pay for this money ourselves? If we want to pay it, it must be paid by the banker! Her family is a gambler who dies in our land, so why don't we get some compensation?"
At this point, everyone finally came to their senses. Lao Shuantou knew the banker's situation and felt that this behavior was really inappropriate.
"She has a widow with two children. How much money can she have? It's better to leave her alone." It's okay if I don't say it. Once I say it, Mrs. Liu is like a lit firecracker. She slaps the bowl on the table and goes crazy.
"You old man, are you afraid that you have fallen in love with the widow a long time ago? This is starting to make you feel distressed?!"
The whole family listened to these irrelevant words coming out of the mother's mouth, and they didn't dare to say a word for a while. Lao Shuan was holding a bowl in his hands and didn't dare to speak.
In the end, everyone could only acquiesce to Mrs. Liu's idea. Anyway, their wife's reputation as a shrew over the years has long been hanging on her head.
Here Zhuang Keqing had just boiled the brown rice borrowed from Aunt Liu's house next door into thick porridge and brought it to her mother Qin Manzhi's bed.
My younger brother is already asleep, but probably because he hasn't eaten enough, his little mouth is always clicking and humming.
When the little one finally fell asleep, Zhuang Keqing helped his mother up and let her sit on the bed and drink porridge.
"Ke'er, I've worked hard on you these days." Qin Manzhi's hair was withered and yellow, and he looked tired, but his eyebrows were gentle. Even after these years of hard work, he could still see some of his youthful beauty.
"Mom, it's not hard." Seeing the other person drinking the thick porridge in one mouthful, Zhuang Keqing was thinking about when would be the best time to tell her that.
"Ke'er, you have something on your mind." Qin Manzhi put down the rough porcelain bowl in his hand and raised his hand to touch his daughter's head.
"There is something. I am thinking about when to tell you." Zhuang Keqing is not an indecisive person. Since her mother asked, she answered. Besides, the matter must be resolved quickly.
"you say."
"Dad is dead. He lost his footing and drowned in a paddy field." It was a sentence with no emotional ups and downs at all.
Zhuang Keqing saw large tears welling up in her mother's gentle eyes and quickly sliding down her thin cheeks. She reached out to wipe them, but they were blocked.
"That's fine." Then Qin Manzhi said something she never thought of.
Judging from her mother's previous attitude towards her gambling father, Zhuang Keqing thought that her mother might have an emotional breakdown, cry profusely, or even seek death impulsively, but she never expected that her mother would actually be relieved and calm. The only difference was in her appearance.
There is no hatred in my heart.
Seeing her daughter's surprise and confusion, Qin Manzhi wiped away her tears and said, "When we got married, your father was hard-working, hard-working, and filial. The family hadn't been separated yet, and it was easy to get along with my mother-in-law. Our family was very happy."
She recalled the past with a nostalgic tone.
"But after several years, there was no movement in my stomach. The whole village was gossiping. He also suffered a lot of grievances. He became obsessed with it and became addicted to gambling. After that, the gambling became bigger and bigger, and his brothers and parents suffered from it.
It’s no longer possible, let’s separate the family.”
Looking lovingly into her daughter's eyes, Qin Manzhi continued: "After he finally got you, he was very happy and stopped gambling. But when you were born a girl, he couldn't stand it and started gambling again."
Zhuang Keqing never wanted to hear about the gambler's father again. In her opinion, the man should stop his losses in time after he started gambling. But she also understood the limitations of this era. There were many things that women could not do if they wanted to.
She also understood her mother, but she didn't know how her mother, who had always been submissive, could suddenly realize this.
"Actually, I figured it out when he came back last time." Qin Manzhi's eyes were a little vacant: "I had you before, but I didn't take good care of you, and now I have a younger brother." She turned to look at the person lying on the bed.
The little baby had a smile on his lips.
"If he is allowed to continue, maybe we, mother and son, will not survive."
"We have to live for ourselves." She looked at her daughter again, her tone revealing a firmness she had not seen before.
The girl's eyes are bright, showing her longing for a new life.
Qin Manzhi smiled, very gently, but only she knew that if Zhuang Da hadn't accidentally slipped and drowned this time, then she might not have known what terrible thing she was going to do.