Chapter 4

Because of the repair of clothes, Liu Xiuyun’s attitude towards her sister-in-law Dong Jiahui has improved a lot.

So far, Dong Jiahui has another job in her mother’s house, which was all kinds of sewing and mending.

It’s strange to say that the same things are sewn up. The things sewn by Dong Jiahui are more neat and elegant than people’s work. They couldn’t tell which part was better. Anyway, it makes people feel comfortable.

One day, Dong Jiahui’s third sister-in-law, Zhao Lijuan wore an altered Lenin suit out to work, attracting the attention of many of the village’s big wives and young girls.

“Hey, Lijuan, this dress on your body was newly made, ah?”

“The material doesn’t look new, but I haven’t seen you wear it before.”

“The style is very good. You wore it like a girl from the city.”

“Well, it looks like from the people of the city, but there is one thing missing, and that is a pair of leather shoes.”

No matter what age, in addition to gossip, women get together to talk about clothes, shoes, and other dress-up topics.

“You are right, the clothes are made from my old clothes. My family’s Jiahui was good at sewing. No matter what clothes and fabrics came into her hands, they were never wasted and always turned into something good.”

The people looked at Zhao Lijuan’s proud expression when she talked about her sister-in-law Dong Jiahui. They were surprised. Everyone knows Dong Jiahui. This month she was the gossip of every family. Not only because she couldn’t give birth to a child, she was driven back to her mother’s house by the Lu family and became an abandoned woman, but also because she couldn’t think of jumping into the TongZhou river for half a month ago.

During this period, Dong Jiahui did not go out of their house, and a girl like her who has been married once is not strictly a member of Dayu village, and she doesn’t have to work with everyone. Therefore, they haven’t seen Dong Jiahui these days.

This matter soon spread to the village. The Dong family suddenly became a place for everyone in the village to appear. Everyone wanted to see what kind of skills Dong Jiahui had. It was said that she could make a dress by sewing alone without a sewing machine.

At this time, a dozen miles away from Dayu Village, in the Shanghe Village, Zhang Qiao’er is holding her six-month-old granddaughter Ying Bao and feeding her rice paste.

Zhang Qiao’er today changed her frugal nature, but she was willing to add half an egg yolk to the rice paste, and also a drop of sesame oil.

She gave her granddaughter Yingbao spoonfuls of delicious food. Her round eyes looked too bright on her thin face. She was happy to eat. She pedalled her calf and patted her two small hands on Zhang Qiaoer.

The happier Yingbao was, the more angry Zhang Qiaoer was. She thought of the educated youth, her daughter-in-law who left her child to return to the city. She wanted to move a bench and sit at the door of her house and scold for three days and nights.

“Mom, Ying Bao is happily eating.”

Zhao Meixiang sat on the bench next to the table and rubbed straw rope. These ropes are used everywhere by farmers. They bundle firewood, straw and sacks. In short, they are very useful, but they are not strong.

She heard that the supply and marketing cooperatives sell a kind of nylon rope. That kind of rope is very strong. Even if it is tied to wood and furniture, it will not break. However, the nylon rope can only be bought with an industrial ticket, and the price is not cheap. It is not available to ordinary families.

If only I could buy a few meters of nylon rope back, so I don’t have to rub the straw rope. I have to rub it every two days. The palm of her hand has worn out a cocoon. How ugly it is for a girl to have a cocoon in her hand.

“She’s a toothless baby. Her mother ran away. She’ll be a childless child. Who else can really love her?”

A motherless child is a grass. Zhang Qiaoer used to despise the educated youth’s daughter-in-law. She was also the mother of her grandchildren. Unexpectedly, this woman has a big heart. Shanghe village could not keep her, nor could they keep her. In order to return to the city, she divorced Donglin and left her two children, Heidan and Ying Bao. She heard that in order to have it signed and sealed, she also hooked up with Secretary Rao in the town. She simply didn’t have a conscience!

(TN: “A motherless child is a grass” refers to a child who is as pitiful, helpless, and pitiful as the weeds outside.)

Zhang Qiao’er really regrets that she found such a daughter-in-law, but it was this b*tch who cried out to marry Donglin!

“Mom, what about Heidan and Yingbao’s future? My big brother is not at home; my sister-in-law also left. Are you going to take them all the time?”

Zhang Qiaoer had four children, two men and two women, the eldest daughter Zhao Hongxia, the eldest son Zhao Donglin, the youngest son Zhao Donghe and the youngest daughter Zhao Meixiang.

The eldest daughter, Zhao Hongxia, got married eight years ago, and later Zhao Donglin and Zhao Donghe also got married, one after another, and now Zhao Meixiang is the only child left in the family who is not married.

Zhao Donglin went to the army as a soldier at the age of seventeen. During these twelve years, with his perseverance and courage, not afraid of difficulties and sacrifices, he has been promoted from an ordinary soldier to a company commander. His monthly salary is more than 70 yuan. He is the only capable person in the later generation of the village. The whole family enjoys happiness with him. It is really an honor for one person to join the army.

This day was originally excellent. The officer’s son, an educated youth as a wife, gave birth to a son and a daughter and made up a word of “good life”, but it was still not enough for the heart of that person. Wang Mei, that little b*tch, had a good life, but, she wanted to go back to the city no matter what. Zhang Qiaoer can not figure it out, was living in the city that good? Was it good enough to abandon her husband and children, and don’t you care about your face anymore?

Zhang Qiao’er really can’t figure out ah, their Zhao family’s life was already the village’s top family, such a life still can’t keep Wang Mei’s heart?

“Ah, ah ah.”

When Zhang Qiaoer was thinking, she had eaten the rice cereal in her mouth, did not wait until the next bite. She opened her mouth and yelled. Zhang Qiaoer came back and looked down. He almost burst into tears when she looked at Yingbao’s bright eyes.

She held back her heartache and returned the words her daughter had spoken.

“What sister-in-law? Don’t call her sister-in-law in the future. She has no relationship with our family in the future.”

Zhao Meixiang rubbed the grass rope and did not speak. In fact, her sister-in-law, Wang Mei, was not so disgusted, probably because her first impression of Wang Mei was too good. Even if she did such a thing, she couldn’t afford to hate her.

Zhang Qiaoer said that she also felt it was meaningless and directly turned to another topic.

“Certainly, I must take care of this child. If you have nothing to do, you should help more. Over the years, your eldest brother comes back with money every month, and your eldest brother earns a share of what we eat. You help him take care of the children, and when you get married, I’ll buy you a decent dowry with the money sent back by your eldest brother.”

For Zhang Qiaoer’s four children, both the palm and the back of the hand are made of flesh. No matter which finger is long, which finger is short, they should help each other to move forward.

(TN: both the palm and the back of the hand are made of flesh (idiom) – they are equally important.)

Zhao Meixiang was still a young girl. She blushes when she hears the word “marry”. Mom is really right. She says she can’t marry a dowry before she finds her partner.

Besides, even if her mother doesn’t explain so deliberately, she, as their little aunt, will certainly help take care of her nephew and niece.

Although Wang Mei, her sister-in-law, has a bad temper and doesn’t care who she gets along with, it can’t be denied that her nephews and nieces followed the look of their mother, especially Yingbao. She looks very much like Wang Mei, with white skin and big eyes.