Chapter 22:
Accompanied by the faint sobbing of the woman from the Second Son’s Family, Zhou Shi was extremely satisfied outside!
Continued,
“Wah wah wah, why don’t us old couple just die?”
“Oh heavens! Why don’t you strike a lightning bolt to kill us!”
Old Li Tou’s thoughts were disrupted, he got scared and jolted suddenly, grabbed the pipe and stood up with a stumble!
“Oh heavens! Us couple have suffered! Strike us dead!”
Old Li Tou was so angry he kept tutting…
“Cough cough cough!”
Choking and coughing nonstop, lungs almost coughing out, eyes bulging in fury.
This death-wishing old woman, if she wants to die she can go ahead, why drag him along?
If he doesn’t control her, she speaks without thinking and spews filth, uttering wild words…
Bah! Die what die? He hasn’t enjoyed the blessings from his family’s Gui Wa yet!
Second Brother was slick-tongued as a child, otherwise how could he coax the young woman from the cloth shop in town to agree to be his wife?
Chen Shi, back when she was a young woman, had previously followed her mother to visit relatives in the countryside, and was met by Zhou Shi on the way back to Tongtian Village.
Heard her home was merchant family, so he got ideas, but unfortunately, with their family background, they couldn’t catch her eye…
It was Li Lei who used some tricks, went to town a few times, and made moves on Chen Shi…
Unfortunately no news for several good years! He thought it was hopeless, but now it seems Second Brother might be promising too!
But how can a capable man let a woman ride on his head and shit?
Second Brother went to find trouble with Chen Shi, and he didn’t stop him…
Even glad that Second Brother Li Lei finally manned up…
Not that he looks down on Oldest Brother, Third Child.
Oldest Brother is honest but no brains, but he’s a farmer! Farming is still top-notch at home.
Third Child though diligent and honest, what future in hunting?
Barely getting by, and only now can provide some financial support for home…
Later on, hard to say…
Glanced at chubby Luo Zhi’er, last time that doctor said what was it, said she injured her body and henceforth hard to get pregnant.
And his that skinny daughter, probably can’t get up anymore…
Old Li Tou has sharp eyes, already analyzed his several sons thoroughly…
He is a face-loving person, if they say they are biased, it’s also from the old couple’s foresight on their future development…
“Mom and your dad rose early and stayed late to raise you all grown, at this age, haven’t enjoyed a half day’s blessing from you.”
“Still have to bustle about for you bunch of useless descendants, racking our brains and laboring.”
Zhou Shi pinched her nose and flung a booger! Started lamenting her life’s hardships, the more she spoke the sadder, tears and snot a handful.
As if afraid others couldn’t hear!
Like suffering huge grievance, shouting loudly! Howling!
Like wanting to flip the roof off…
“His mom, howl softer for me!”
Old Li Tou helplessly pressed his throbbing temple, afraid she with loose mouth says wrong things.
Old woman keeps saying enjoy blessings one after another, can’t let the children feel raising this brood was just for their own enjoyment!
Children’s prospects are prospects, can’t show it too much…
The most promising in this family might be Gui Wa, just relying on us old couple, how to support the youngest?
“His father, tell me what did we raise them for?”
“Cough cough cough!” Anxiously coughing again, face red neck thick, holding breath! Throat dry from smoking a lifetime.
Could only hoarsely yell at her, couldn’t match her piercing shrill penetrating voice… “Shut, shut your mouth!”
“His father, other matters I listen to you, but today’s matter I won’t listen to you…”
“Speaking of it we married three daughters-in-law, but us old couple bustle a day, come home not even a hot meal…”
Old Li Tou sighed!
He empathized with Zhou Shi on this!
He has no fate to enjoy this blessing, from young, before family division it was Second Sister-in-law Zhao Xiaomei cooking, after division this Zhou Shi cooking is dawdling, eating like pig feed every day…
Now old, with several daughters-in-law, still like this…
Oldest Brother previously protected by Zhou Shi, Second Brother in town, that young woman from ancient times didn’t do much housework, occasionally comes back once he can’t say anything…
Only the third brother can be ordered around, but the meals he used to make were not even as good as Zhou Shi’s…
Zhou Shi is no fool and knows the resentment in Old Li Tou’s heart!
She quickly changed the topic to divert the resentment he had accumulated in his heart for many years!
“This is my fault as your mother-in-law. I always think of helping you whenever I can.”
“I didn’t teach you well how to be a good daughter-in-law! Look around Zhao Li Village—who’s daughter-in-law is like this?”
A head poked out from the corner of the yard, and beside it another one. That woman was holding a rice bowl, and the two were whispering with heads lowered!
Talking about something.
“People at this age enjoy the blessings from their children. Look at Village Chief Li Zhengxin’s home at the village entrance, Zhao Anian’s home—you lot?”
“What evil did us old couple do in our previous life?”
These words struck Old Li Tou’s heart again. He had faced the yellow earth and tilled all his life with his back to the sky, and in old age, it was still like this…
When would it end?
He urgently needed one of his sons to bring honor to the family and prove that his life had not been in vain…
“Encountered you debt-collecting ghosts! Every day dealing with these troublemakers!!! Lazy bones!!! Freeloaders!!! Heartbroken!”
Rolling on the ground!
Thrashing about again!
The chickens in the chicken coop couldn’t stand her noise, and the rooster flapped out…
With a whoosh, it landed on her and shat…
Zhou Shi angrily shoved the chicken away. The rooster let out a miserable cry and fell to the side, a stench assaulting them…
Li Gui looked at the snot on the corner of his clothes and nearly vomited!
Then another clump was flung onto the door—this from his mother!
Looking at her rolling on the ground, she crushed the chicken shit scattered on the ground flat…
Disheveled like a ghost, with chicken feathers in her hair, chicken shit smeared on her face, saliva flying everywhere—like a madwoman too awful to look at straight.
That wailing, heart-wrenching, shrill howl, paired with the rooster’s chirping, really made people anxious and irritated…
“Oh heavens! I was only gone half a day—how come even the chickens are helping them bully this old woman of mine!”
The sharp, piercing voice kept entering his ears, making him extremely irritated and utterly displeased.
The morning scenes flashed before his eyes—if he really became an official later, wouldn’t this bunch skin him alive?
He made up his mind: once he became an official, he would stay far away from them!!!
He couldn’t stay a moment longer, turned around and went back to the room—anyway, his parents were handling today’s matter!
He needed to get back to school as soon as possible…
“I even thought the oldest brother’s wife, you were a good one!!! Turns out you’re deeply hidden, a venomous woman too!”
The voice circled around the Li family yard with her gaze…
“You heartless things, each scheming villains, look at your vile behavior!”
“What? Now you’re hiding and keeping quiet, sneaky and slippery. If you dare have those thoughts, scheming for us old couple’s coffin money, what were you doing earlier?”
“Now I see why you were so happy to send us old couple out to earn silver—so you could eat well and drink spicy at home.”
The people in the yard corner wondered: “Is there such a thing?”
“Doesn’t seem like it. That Xiao Zhou Shi is usually praised to the skies by Old Zhou Woman. Last time she even boasted that the second wife brought her new cloth…”
“Oh my, that was years ago, and she’s still bringing it up?”
“If it’s true, tsk tsk! That’s really too outrageous…”
“Our village doesn’t tolerate such young wives!!!”
Upon returning, Zhou Shi smelled the aroma in the yard and was certain of it! She hadn’t even asked yet!
Zhou Shi thought the few branches were quiet now, and the little hooves were under her control like before…
“Still daring to gang up and abuse your clueless brothers and sisters! Our youngest is out there working himself to death for you, earning face, earning a future…”
“Letting you chip in some silver for your brother to study—no blood sucked, all for your own future. Why can’t you stand to see others do well?”
“Exactly, Mom, the sisters-in-law are being especially bad, ungrateful. Now with oldest brother, second brother, and third brother spoiling them, that’s why they’re so lawless…”
Li Zhenzhu chimed in!
Adding fuel to the fire! So they’d dare slander her next time…
The several brothers—still dare openly defend them?
The Dongli Kingdom’s emperor rules the world with filial piety; no matter the matter, first slap on an unfilial label without distinguishing right or wrong.
This is Zhou Shi’s usual style, to keep the villagers from blaming us two elders!
With the reputation of unfilial, the young ones from the few branches won’t be able to hold their heads up outside!
Luo Zhi’er, who was nearby rolling up her sleeve to work, heard her ears buzzing!
She smiled helplessly. This Zhou Shi really was like a piece of rolling-pin meat, a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, always having a reason no matter what…
Compared to her, when it came to arguing, she Li Xi’er was also a rogue…
However… what did she mean by teaming up?
Troublemaker?
Lazy Bones?
Could it be that she was the one she mentioned who ate idle rice?
Damn it! Busy all day and coming back to get scolded, too much!
She forcefully scraped the bamboo shoot shell with the sharp knife tip, absent-mindedly scraping another line, until she sliced the bamboo shoot shell along with the bamboo heart and chopped it into tiny bits!
Damn it!
She fetched the hammer to smash it flat, casually turning it into fine crumbs…
If it were before… her eyes darkened, she would pinch her to death!
Li Sanmao knew his wife hadn’t gotten involved in anything today, yet she was still getting scolded by his mother.
Because of the work, his wife tucked her dangling jet-black forehead hair behind her ear, giving her a unique flavor!
He silently glanced at the flesh on her waist, it jiggled three times, and he watched wide-eyed as the bamboo shoot shells on the ground were crushed into foam…
This… he didn’t know if it was his illusion, but his wife’s strength these past few days was exceptionally great!
He remembered before coming back just now, when she helped Old Lady Zhao carry the water bucket, she thought he was too slow and carried a bucket of water in one hand, running super fast…
And just now in his fat wife’s round black eyes, was that a flash of amusement?
Or… something else?
Why did he feel a chill, something wasn’t right…
Old Man Li’s face grew even darker. Why was this old lady’s scolding so eerily unsettling.
So frustrating!
But it hit him right in the heart.
Sigh! It was all because of silver silver, his brows furrowed tightly, furrowed brow lines one after another on his forehead, he lowered his head in contemplation…
He forcefully took a puff from the tobacco pouch. To be honest, he was a bit tempted…
If Second Brother Lei Wa’s proposed business succeeded, would his Old Li Family still worry about silver?
Gui’er going to school, several grandsons going to school, including Zhenzhu’s future dowry, his family renovating the house, wedding gifts and such, once he had silver, would his several rooms not get along?
Would the village still dare to look down on his Old Li Family? Wait…
Should he take a gamble?
White smoke continuously scorched his wrinkled face…
The smoke swirled around him again and again…
Speaking of which, Chen Shi’s maternal family did some cloth business in the town.
The shop wasn’t big, but it was still a small merchant with a shop in the town…
To Old Man Li and Zhou Shi, it was impressive, so they naturally looked up to Chen Shi and waited on her whenever she came back…
He hoped her maternal family could help his Li Family find a way to earn silver in the town…
And the business Li Lei proposed was actually selling spices…
Today Old Man Li was taken by Li Lei to the Wang Family rouge shop, a very famous shop in the town selling cosmetics. They had looked outside.
Shock appeared in his turbid old eyes!
That cosmetics shop’s renovation was truly magnificent, two stories up and down.
Inside, the customers were mostly women from the town, the people going in were all wearing brocade, the shop was bustling with endless streams, vying to buy the items inside.
He didn’t know what those things were, anyway they were items women liked, no matter how much silver, it was no issue.
Looking at that booming scene, it was definitely making a lot of silver…
The spice he mentioned was imported from foreign lands by the steward here.
This shop would sell it in the future too, and it was sure to be favored by the women in the town once put on sale!
Wasn’t this picking up silver? For ordinary people, they wouldn’t even let them know about this.
When Li Lei was in the town helping at his brother-in-law’s place with delivery, he happened to get acquainted with a relative of the Wang Family rouge shop’s steward, called Fan Xiao Ze.
It was only later that they told him about this…
If he had this idea, he could mediate in the middle, allocate him some spices, and let him sell them privately!
Xiao Zhou Shi looked down on it, his old couple ran their legs off, was it really for her?
Eating the best and drinking the spicy? What good food was that corn grits?
Stubbornly standing at the Eldest Son’s Family doorway, coldly watching Zhou Shi sneer,
“Hehe! Mom, what you’re saying is really interesting, for us? Really?”
“Just one scoop of corn grits, the one you ladled before leaving, the rest is locked in your room, what do you mean eating the good stuff and drinking the spicy?”
“We don’t need you to run your legs off, we have our own hands and feet, we absolutely won’t eat corn grits every day, do you want us to live separately?”
“What? You little hussy, have you been planning that for a long time?”
What Zhou Shi asked was also what Old Li Tou had in mind, his heart skipped a beat, he looked deeply at Xiao Zhou Shi…
Luo Zhi’er pondered darkly in her heart, a twist in the road, it seemed that for the family division matter, someone was even more impatient than her…
Then she would wait and see…
Xiao Zhou Shi dropped the earlier tangent and said,
“Mom, we’ve long known that your daughter Zhenzhu is the apple of your eye!”
“Your Li Gui is the real precious son of the Li family… what are the other kids?”
Zhou Shi’s heart paused, hearing the tone of those words, could it be that these little hussies had colluded together?
This was trouble, this was what she least wanted to see, weren’t the conflicts she usually stirred up enough…
This troublemaker, wasn’t this making her other three sons have opinions about them?
In the Second Son’s Family room, Li Lei watched Chen Shi packing things.
To outsiders, the Second Son’s Family was quiet, but those in the know guessed they were also listening…
“Shut your mouth!”
“I dote on Zhenzhu and Gui’er, isn’t it for your own good, you shallow-minded things!”
“When Zhenzhu and Gui’er do well in the future, you’ll enjoy the benefits for free too, how long can us old folks live? Won’t it all benefit you in the end? And you’re already getting restless?”
“Hehe, enjoy the benefits for free? We’ve paid a price!”
“Isn’t that what should be?”
Zhou Shi quibbled!
“Hmph! Forget it! Can’t reason with you! Let me tell you, I, surnamed Zhou, am a grasshopper fate, Mom, then what are you? I just ask you, what is your surname?”
Old Lady Zhou rolled on the ground, turning her head to the side, her face flushing red then pale…
“You call her an outsider on the left, little hussy on the right, aren’t we both from the Old Zhou Family!”
Zhou Shi was so angry she leaped up like a toad and started hopping!
The shrill and piercing scolding voice increased by a decibel, continuously echoing over the empty fields, the village,
“Zhou Hanjuan this little hussy now has hardened wings, grown bold, treating your in-laws like nothing, looking down on me?”
“I come from the same Zhou family as you, so what? I am your mother-in-law!”
“Have you forgotten that previous embarrassing scandal? Do you know what you’re doing? My good intentions are fed to the dogs!”
Xiao Zhou Shi bit her lip, unusually blushing…
“Mom, you had a part in this too!”
“What? Heavens! This vicious little woman is going to rebel…”
Why couldn’t she control herself?
Beating her chest and stamping her feet, preparing to roll on the ground again!
“Mom, the ground is cold, if you get sick no one will care for you, maybe they’ll even clap and cheer, you should take care of your own body…”
Zhenzhu advised soothingly! Hurriedly helping her up, disgustedly avoiding the chicken shit stains…
Because she noticed that on the ground where her mom was preparing to fall, there was a sharp stone slanting out of the soil.
It wasn’t that she pitied her own mother, but if mom had an accident, she wouldn’t have good days either…
“Zhenzhu ah, Mom’s poor daughter, still Zhenzhu is the considerate one for Mom.”
“The one that came from her own belly is different, no matter how good the others are to her, there’s always a layer of belly in between!”
Wanting to hug her daughter, Zhenzhu cleverly dodged…
Noticed slightly by Zhou Shi, Zhenzhu didn’t feel embarrassed…
Zhou Shi knew, she was naturally clean…
“Look at these sisters-in-law of yours, so unfilial! They’re trying to force your mom to death.”
“Especially this Zhou woman, her mind is so wicked it’s breeding worms!”
“Isn’t that right… Mom, you’re just noticing now!”
Zhenzhu responded a bit impatiently… Is this old lady up to it or not?
Zhou Shi’s words stopped, her eyes turned, and she saw Li Sanmao’s hunting rope hanging on the branches.
Beating her abacus, she planned to take it down and go to the crooked-neck tree on the back mountain to hang herself…
“May you die a horrible death, you thing! You’re trying to force me to death… just as you wish!”
She knew Zhenzhu wouldn’t let her hang herself. Old Li Tou wouldn’t allow it, so no one in the home dared. Someone would stop it…
“You wait! Old Woman will do just as you wish!”
She just needed to spread the news that damaged Mother-in-law’s reputation…
Sure enough…
“Mother, why do this?”
Zhenzhu pulled her!
“Mother…”
Li Daqiang hurried over and took away the rope!
Old Li Tou was speechless. This old woman had used this trick back when he was young…
“I knew you were faking it!”
Xiao Zhou Shi seemed to see through her trick…
“Good! Good! Since that’s the case, today I’ll properly discipline you and make you understand what respect and filial piety mean!”
Furious, she grabbed the broom by the door and rained blows down on her.
“Beat you to death! Beat you to death!”
This broom was made by Li Daqiang with bamboo strips a few days ago. It was thin for summer wear and hurt a lot when hitting the body.
Li Daqiang hurriedly protected his wife Xiao Zhou Shi. Several people ran around the yard hitting and chasing.
She put full force into the hits. Li Daqiang’s back took several heavy blows…
“Ouch, Mother, it hurts! It hurts! You’re hitting your son! Stop hitting!!!”
“Stop hitting? Isn’t it because you’re useless and spoiled this little hussy? That’s why she got so arrogant…”
“Get away!”
“Let me or not? Not letting, huh?”
She rained several blows right on Li Daqiang’s head!
From afar, she looked like a ruffled, skinny-legged, fat-bodied hen.
At this moment, she was provoked and pecking at people…
“Beat to death you troublemaking devil thing!”
After a flurry of blows, Li Daqiang shrank back, holding his arm and dodging everywhere.
“Mother, stop hitting!”
Xiao Zhou Shi’s forehead naturally got several marks from the bamboo strips…
Around her eyes, on her forehead, several blood welts quickly appeared…
Combined with the scabs that had just formed that morning, plus her anger-reddened eyes, she looked especially scary…
Li Daqiang felt heartbroken but could only worry helplessly and couldn’t attend to her.
It hurt too much!
Li Zhenzhu watched and felt extremely relieved, her mouth slightly curling up as she clapped and cheered!
“Serves you right! Cheap slut! Beat to death you little whore!”
Xiao Zhou Shi had been intimate with Li Daqiang before marriage. Oldest Brother Yunliang was conceived early!
Her reputation wasn’t good in her family. Her mother had privately told her this. Li Zhenzhu was respectful to her face but called her this inwardly…
Zhou Shi used this to control Xiao Zhou Shi, who had been obedient for years!
Regarding Zhou Shi beating Xiao Zhou Shi, Luo Zhi’er ignored it, but she recalled the scene that morning when Xiao Zhou Shi hit Liuliu…
Indeed, as expected from the Old Zhou Family! Even the habit of using a broom was similar…
“Wife, what are you thinking?”
“Nothing, do your work and don’t meddle!”
“Oh.”
